Apart from local Malays, Chinese and Indians are the most populous ethnic groups in Malaysia. As early as BC, Indians crossed the ocean and moved to Malaysia, where they established a kingdom. After the end of British colonial rule, India, as the most populous colony of the empire that never sets, a large number of Indians were transported here as laborers, policemen and soldiers.
Later, although Malaysia and India became independent one after another and a large number of Indians returned to the motherland, they were mainly Aryan Indians of high caste. More low-caste Tamil Indians stay in Malaysia because they have no travel expenses or accommodation in their motherland, and they are mainly concentrated in Singapore, Malacca and Penang, the core cities of the British Strait colonies.
Coincidentally, these three cities are also the main settlements of Chinese workers who went to Nanyang. Curry and sweet and sour sauce began to live in harmony for a hundred years. In Penang, this Indian city, known as "Little India", is adjacent to China City, where Chinese live in compact communities. The city is full of jagged teeth, blending with each other and reaching a tacit understanding.
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A fascination with sauces
/yellow curry, red curry, green curry, white curry/
Lebuh queen is a main road in Georgetown, the capital of Penang. On one side of the road, there are Chinese medicine shops, tea rooms and clubs. On the other side are temples, clothing stores and stalls in India.
Well, this is a general term for Tamil Muslims in Malaysia, which is similar to the Han people's repeated names for Hui Muslims. Well, a stall is a stall where "good" people drive by the roadside.
The pattern of stalls is very similar to that of small counties in seven or eight counties, or self-selected fast food restaurants in the urban-rural fringe. All kinds of food are packed in stainless steel pot and placed on a large open-air stage for diners to choose.
Indian young people are never tired of this kind of stall. They are just as interested as white people in bars and China people sitting in teahouses. A pancake, fried rice and a cup of milk tea can make you chat happily all night.
When I went, it was a Malaysian Football League game, similar to our Super League. Indian boys gathered around the small TV set hanging on the wall, eating and shouting, so they were very happy.
Well, most foods, whether vegetables, meat or seafood, are soaked in thick sauce. The main colors are red and yellow. Compared with the sparse appearance, it is easy to cause bad associations. Indians who can speak Chinese are very proud of these sauces. They introduce these sauces as many treasures: including red curry, yellow curry, white curry, green curry and even vegetarian curry.
However, friends in China who have lived there all their lives say that they still don't know the classification and differences of these Indian sauces.
I tasted the yellow one, which was a little spicy and not irritating. I can't say it tastes bad, but it looks terrible. According to the judgment of China people, the "color" of food is enough to make the whole Indian food collapse.
Indians are different from us. They love sauces beyond imagination. I personally saw an Indian girl pack food to take away, and asked the waiter to scoop a little from the sauce of each dish, mix it and put it in a plastic bag to take away, and was willing to spend two Malaysian ringgit more for it.
So far, I am curious about how to eat this mixed sauce. Make soup? Bibimbap dipped in cake?
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An obsession with spices.
/Pancakes, fried rice/
On the streets of Little India, there is a strong fragrance all year round. When I first walked in with my three-year-old son, he almost choked up and began to cry.
Indians in the street are also easy to identify. They usually wear exaggerated gold jewelry and smell of spices. Women also wear fine soft saris and have red auspicious moles on their foreheads.
We often feel that the popularity of traditional clothing in China is not as good as that of Japanese kimono, and it has not formed a profound clothing culture like kimono. But if you go to the streets of Little India, the Indian people's love for traditional costumes and local spices will kill the Japanese in minutes.
I transferred to an Indian supermarket, and set aside a special area for selling spices in the merchandise sales area, which is comparable to the fresh vegetable area of China supermarket.
But I have to say that a small amount of food and spices in Malay are used quite well. Indian pancakes are the first choice, divided into single and double layers. The single layer is crisp and thin, the double layer is light yellow and crisp, and the inner layer is soft and white, slightly sweet. You don't need any dip and side dishes. You can chew them carefully. You can eat a cake with spices. The spice may be fennel, which is much more delicious than our sesame cake.
It is also true that Indians eat with their hands, they eat with their right hands, and they clean up excreta with their left hands. But in fact, Indian pancakes are more responsible for tableware, rolling up fried rice and sauces that are difficult to catch, which can satisfy hunger and have multi-layered flavor.
Many local Malays also like to eat this kind of pancake, dipped in a small anchovy hot sauce called sambal, which is full of tropical island customs.
Indian fried rice is similar to pancakes, using turmeric powder and saffron. The whole dish is yellow and delicious, and then decorated with coriander and mint leaves. The flavor and color of Yangzhou fried rice are not lost.
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Love of full-time dancing.
/teh tarik, jiaozi, Banana Leaf Rice/
President Lee Kuan Yew is from China, but he has always respected Indians. When talking about Indians eating with their hands, he said: India is a nation that respects food very much. They feel the texture, hardness and temperature of food with their hands.
There is a demand for national unity in this statement, but it is true that Indians love to eat. Different from China, it is difficult for people to find all kinds of meals and ingredients, and Indians prefer to integrate performance art into food.
On the street stalls, the most beautiful scenery is not the food itself, but the Indian brothers wearing vests and gauze skirts perform teh tarik, throw cakes, stir-fry rice, stir-fry noodles and sing Indian songs.
Well, Indians dance when they disagree. They can make the process of cooking food look like dancing.
Teh tarik is actually milk tea. South Asia is rich in high-quality black tea. After cooking, add the milk and pour the milk together in two cups. The longer it is pulled, the more bubbles there are, and Indians think it tastes better.
Many booths in Penang will be equipped with professional young performers "teh tarik Shi", whose hands are dazzling and extremely beautiful.
Jiaozi cake is a popular Indian flying cake in domestic food festivals. In fact, the taste is not much different from ordinary Indian pancakes, but Indians are singing and throwing cakes at the eaves enthusiastically, which is not negotiable.
Banana leaf rice is a master of Indian dietary behavior art. Banana leaves actually have no special fragrance, but they are only used as tableware. Rice, pancakes, curry, vegetables, chicken, fish, squid, shrimp, mutton and crabs are all placed on it, which are rich in color and exude original ecological customs against the green leaves.
Skilled Indian brother can drag soft leaves with one hand to serve. From the kitchen to the dining table, the food will not be scattered, and his footwork is light, just like a martial arts master.
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Fanwai
Indians seem to have a very different routine from China, and China people are used to going to bed early and getting up early. At 5: 30 in the morning, the teahouse opened one after another and closed at 3: 00 in the afternoon. But Indians always seem to sleep until the early hours of the morning, but they keep restaurants open until late at night.
Basically, these two ethnic groups have supported Penang to become a magical city that never sleeps.
Tell me about the point that makes you lick the screen?