Uncle Roger's Tribute to Anthony Bourdain and Malaysian Food
Falling in Love with the East
When I first fell deeply and hopelessly in love with the East, it was like this. Watching delicate fingers open a nasi lemak. Nasi lemak is what Uncle Roger ate every day in my childhood for breakfast. It's a sexy little package of rice and sambal. This is the first time Uncle Roger has heard anyone say it's sexy, which is why Uncle Roger is a big fan of Anthony Bourdain. Rest in peace. Remember this, niece and nephew.
Anthony Bourdain's Food Show
This food show came out in the early 2000s. Back then, anytime a white guy traveled to Asia to make a food show, they always ate weird things like snake, scorpion, and brain. Uncle Roger wants to tell those people that we don't eat that anymore. We eat bat now. Anyway, today we're going to see when Anthony Bourdain traveled to Uncle Roger's home country, Malaysia. Penang, little known in the West, is an island located off the northwest coast of Malaysia on the Malacca Straits. The general consensus throughout Malaysia is that this is the food capital of the entire region. Correct. Malaysia already has the best food in the world, and Penang has the best food in Malaysia. So if you love food, you have to visit Penang. Anthony made a good choice.
Meeting David Mgi
I'm meeting up with my old friend David Mgi, who previously showed me around Kuala Lumpur. That's right. Every Uber in Malaysia looks like this. We've arranged to meet at the enormous CF market, where many of Penang's former street vendors have been assembled in one place. This is what a food court should be and could be. What? What? What? No. No. Don't compare our hawker center like this to a food court. This is way better. A hawker center is like a food court on crack. Listen. And if you've ever been to a food court, it's always so depressing. It's always in some basement of some mall. No window, no fresh air. Sure, they serve food. But go into any food court, there's no smell of food, there's no atmosphere, nothing. But go anywhere in Asia, go to any hawker store like this, they're going to be bright lights, smell of food, sound of cooking. Don't compare this to a food court. A food court is like a concentration camp for food.
Exploring Penang's Food
I've been to Malaysia a number of times, and the steady drumbeat from a sizable number of people is this is where the food is. Okay, it's good here, but Penang is where we have to go. Why here? And I guess that's because everything, the entire social landscape and climate, puts the culinary experience first. Look at how skilled they are. Just look at them. We settle on pork mee. Traditional Hokkien Chinese noodles. Nice. Nice comfort food, Penang style. Pork mee is also known as wanton mee in Malaysia. This is another one of Uncle Roger's favorites. Delicious savory sauce, wanton, springy noodles, just enough vegetables so your mom thinks it's healthy. Good memories from childhood. That's what Uncle Roger ate after school. This noodle is actually similar to ramen noodle because it has an alkaline component in it, making it springy and giving it a good texture. That's why Uncle Roger always prefers Asian noodle to pasta because pasta, Italian people try to copy our noodle but they forgot the alkaline solution, that's why the pasta texture is not as nice. Come on, Italian people, come cancel me. Awesome, totally perfect wanton noodles. And we always serve chili like this, straight in a spoon. So you don't need an extra sauce dish. No need to do so many dishes. This is exactly and totally what I needed right now. So, the contents of your spoon will take you right back where you belong. I'm watching how you do this. Mix together. Mix together. Nice. Into it. A little bit on the side and ease your way into it. Oh, yeah. You just Oh, this is like Uncle Roger is hungry already. This is making me happy. What is this '90s rave music?
Laksa
Every time I come to Malaysia, there's one thing I've got to have. Laksa. Laksa. It's everything I love in one bowl. Everything I love in one bowl. This bowl better have MSG and my ex-wife's obituary. I want to share this with you. The joy of a simple bowl of noodles and spicy stuff. Laksa. I've only had the poaching stuff in Borneo. I've never had this. And all the smartass foodies say this is this is the Wow. Laksa is a Malaysian soup noodle dish. There are so many different variations of laksa. Anthony is in Penang right now. So in Penang, the special version of laksa is called asam laksa. Asam means sour in Malay. The broth is more sour, more fishy, sweet, salty, everything. All the flavors attack you like how Uncle Roger attacked Jamie Oliver. Woo. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty awesome. Now, I would be criminally remiss if I didn't tell you what was in this bloody magnificent dish. Okay, tell us. For the record, there's this and also some of this and this. Also lots and lots of this. What? Not to rub it in, but you just cannot have too much of this. Oh no. What the hell? Did I mention these? No, that too. And that's all it is. Anthony, you have to fire your food researcher. You need to name the ingredients. Do your research. A food show without research is just going on vacation. Hia. Okay, niece and nephew. Let Uncle Roger help. So for the record, that's rice noodle. There's this and also some like laksa leaf and mint, cucumber, onion. Also mackerel broth, fish paste, tamarind broth, prawn paste, chili, and that special ingredient that is torch ginger flower. In Malay we call it bunga kantan. This is a very specific ingredient. I've never eaten this before outside of Southeast Asia. It has a very delicious floral taste. That's why outside of Malaysia, you cannot get asam laksa dish this good because it's missing this important flower. And that's all it is. See, niece and nephew, that's why if you like food, you have to travel to Uncle Roger's country, Malaysia, because so many ingredients we don't export. You can't get it outside of this country. Not to rub it in, but you just cannot have too much of this. Oh no. Got to have it. See, the broth goes in the bowl and comes back out and goes back in because we want to mix everything together. Give you some broth. Give you some fish meat in the broth. Everything is mixing. And that is why in Asia, you can't survive if you have a food allergy. No way you can separate out all the allergens. They're all mixing together. In Asia, if you have an allergy, you just die. Simple. You call it contamination. Uncle Roger calls it flavor. Wow. This is her with a more sour component. Strong fish stock. Correct. Almost like a southern French fish stock made from mackerel. I think mackerel. Correct. Some tabin. Some fish bone also. M. Uncle Roger can smell it. Spicy stuff. The crumbs in a bowl. You would really like this. This is not fair. Uncle Roger is reviewing this late at night here in LA. Now I'm hungry. Where can I get this? I need to kidnap this laksa uncle. Bring him over here and see. He even dresses like me. Imagine a world, another uncle who dresses like me. Also, Malaysia is just a whole country of Uncle Rogers.
New Lane
If you're in Penang, then you might swing by New Lane. New Lane. Another famous street food wonderland. Famous for food. This is exactly where I've wanted to be since I set foot in Penang. Beautiful night market. Fried oyster. That's it's a wonderland. Another classic food that frogs. Wow. Here we call it water chicken. Correct. Correct. Anytime you want to eat something weird, just call it chicken. Then it's not so weird. Remember at the beginning of the video, Uncle Roger said I ate bat. That's because the guy tricked me. He said cave chicken. Hia meat. Curry meat. S. All the best of the night. Tonight's order is for me. Chocolate chiao. Chocolate don. Nice. Chiao here. Okay. We're going to order from the lady over there. M chiao is food Penang is most known for. It's our version of patai and tai. Niece and nephew. Uncle Roger loves you but chiao is better. Been frying chak for over 20 years. It's a husband and wife team and they took over from their parents. Literally meaning stir-fried rice cake strips. There are many versions. Well, first of all, what are the ingredients of a classical jungle? Okay, you start off with lad. Lad, correct. Pork fat. Really important. Pork. So haram but so delicious. Bit of prawns. Prawn. Good. Noodles. So the noodles. Noodle is rice noodle. Flat one. Bean sprouts. Bean sprout. Correct. Chili brown. Garlic chili. Good. And then the special the really special ingredient is the sauce. Sauce. Correct. Plain old soy sauce. Every stall has its own secret recipe. That's right. And they're not going to tell you what the recipe is. Usually chell sauce. We have soy sauce, duck soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, caramel sauce, and of course MSG. But everybody has their own secret recipe. And by the way, Uncle Roger doesn't know why I'm reviewing this master chocolate auntie. Uncle Roger is just a food YouTuber talking. This woman is a pro. They're like Justin Bieber reviewing Mozart. They cook at home. That murky mystery sauce. Yep. M. Look at that. You know, it's so dark. And the banana leaf. But the secret of a good chocolate is the heat of the frying pan. You would never be able to do a really good cho at home. You're talking about walk. Some of these frying pans are generations old. They're so thick. They're so well seasoned. It's not an actual ingredient, but it's it's an important ingredient. The walk. What's it called? Walk. Hey. See walk. Oh, this auntie I think she's my long-lost sister. Essentially the taste of the walk itself and a new walk will burn. Whereas this one with that same heat doesn't it just caramelizes. That's why Uncle Roger wants to pass down my walk through generations. That's why my kid is going to get on their wedding day my old walk. That way it's better than any diamond ring. Right. I mean this is deep roots cooking here. And did you like this little extra touch? Little banana leaf. Yeah. Because you know why? That also adds to the taste. When the very hot noodles hit it, it cooks it slightly and sends its aroma through the noodles and it also adds to it as well. That's right. That's right. Correct. There's a lot of pretty food on this street. Brightly colored, altering textures. This is not the most attractive looking dish in the world. A good one. Reminds me it's pretty brown and murky looking. Food doesn't need to be pretty. Okay. Don't judge a book by its cover. Don't judge a noodle by its color. You want you want pretty food, just go eat at some stupid Michelin star place. The chef that they they use sauce to make little dots on the plate. Who wants to eat dots? I'm trying to eat food, not your art and craft. Ha. It's delicious. But it's delicious. This is just so sort of comforting. And we'd grow up eating this in this country. See, you're dressed like me also. This is a typical example of how Malaysians don't care about where we eat that, right? As long as the food is good. I mean, we sit by the roadside. Mhm. By drains, you know, stray dogs and cats wandering around. Petrol fumes. Yeah. Um mixed with the chili and lard. Not a problem for me. It's not a problem for us. True. This auntie knows what she's talking about. Our food is so good. You're going to eat on the side of the street. Noise, pollution, traffic. Nobody cares. You just enjoy. We like that atmosphere. We like that noise. Go to any fancy white people restaurant. It's too stressful. It's too quiet. It's so serious. Too many white tablecloths. Every table looks like a ghost. I don't know. I I think I've crossed a line somewhere because this is exactly the environment I like to eat. We love our food, don't we? Also, I'm a big fan of sitting on these things. The classic plastic chair, stackable, very space efficient. All you need is a chair. Fancy restaurant. Oh, their chair has like arms and a seat back. Hia. Who's that for? People with weak spines. Is [Laughter] it Uncle Roger is very sad that I'll never get to meet Anthony Bourdain? Uncle Roger likes to think if we met in real life we would get along because Anthony loved authenticity, humble food, and talking about Jamie Oliver just like me. Rest in peace, Uncle Tony.