Wining and Dining in Malaysia

Okay, not really wining, but here are some words for you that relate to drinking and eating.

makan - to eat_______makanan - food
minum - to drink_____minuman - drinks
lapar - hungry_______haus (house) - thirsty
kenyang - full_______ air (eye-ear) - water
sedap - delicious

Saya lapar. - I am hungry.
Saya sudah makan. Saya kenyang. - I already ate. I am full.
Makanan ini sedap. - This food is delicious.

Sorry the list is so short but if you have specific food words you want to know I would be glad to add to the list.

For now, I will just relay to you some interesting things worth knowing about eating and drinking here in Malaysia. For instance, if you are out at a restaurant and ask for air (water), they will be very confused because everything to drink here is technically water - pineapple water, watermelon water, lemon water, etc. This may not seem important but when you try to order a bottle of water on a hot day and are told that the restaurant has none, while you are actually looking directly at a refrigerated case full of water, you will understand just how key this bit of information is. You need to order air kosong (empty water)!

Also, here in Malaysia, tea (teh) and coffee (kopi) come standard with heaps of sugar (gula) and milk (susu). So if you want either expect a sweet and rich drink. If you don't want all the extras you must order either teh O (tea empty) or kopi O (coffee empty). However, even though the phrase indicates that there is nothing in your tea or coffee, there will still be plenty of sugar. This I suppose is because Malaysians do not consider sugar as something extra but essential. You must therefore, take the extra step and say teh 0 tanpa gula (teh empty without sugar).

And finally, when out to eat in Malaysia you must be prepared to have your waiter or waitress (pelayan) sit down at your table while you decide what to eat. For those of us not used to this, it is a little stressful to have your waiter literally wait on you, especially when you are trying to decipher a completely indecipherable menu. In our case, it usually leads to a hurried and unthinking 'I will have that' decision, which to be fair is probably as good as any other we would make since we are still entirely lost when it comes to Malaysian food. And though, we have dined with Malaysians before and observed them taking a full 15 minutes to decide as the waiter sits down at the table and fields a million questions, we still find this whole process a little discomforting.

So that is my language/cultural lesson for the week. Tune in next week for an informative review of how to discuss the weather in Malay - it's hot, it's really hot, it's extremely hot, man, it's hot and wow, that sun is hot. StB