Eat
Plan the trip around the food.
Malaysia eats at every hour and at every price: hawker centres and kopitiams, nasi kandar counters and banana leaf rice, satay grills and roti canai at dawn, seafood villages an hour from the towers. Start with the food events, then learn the formats worth travelling for.
The formats worth knowing
Hawker centres. The country's defining meal: a hall of specialist stalls around shared tables, each doing one dish properly, char kway teow, chicken rice, roti canai, laksa, satay from the grill at the edge. Order from three stalls, share everything, pay at each stall. The best centres work from breakfast to past midnight.
Nasi kandar. Penang's great contribution: rice flooded with a mix of curries (ask for banjir, flooded), with fried chicken, okra and papadam, eaten at all hours in the mamak restaurants of George Town and every city since. Point at what the room is eating.
Kopitiam. The traditional coffee shop: kaya toast, half-boiled eggs, white coffee in Ipoh's case, and noodles from the stall at the front. Breakfast here is a ritual, and the marble tables fill from seven in the morning.
Banana leaf rice. The South Indian feast served on the leaf: rice, three vegetables, curries poured at the table, rasam and papadam, eaten with the right hand if you can manage it. Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur and Little India in George Town are the strongholds.
Pasar malam. The night markets that rotate through every town's streets on set evenings: satay smoke, apam balik pancakes, fried everything, durian in season, and the cheapest dinner in the country eaten standing up.
The districts worth the trip
George Town, Penang: the food capital, nasi kandar, char kway teow and assam laksa within a few heritage streets. Kuala Lumpur: Jalan Alor's grill stalls after dark, Brickfields for banana leaf and Indian sweets, Kampung Baru for Malay cooking under the towers. Ipoh: white coffee, bean sprout chicken and the old town coffee shops. Melaka: Nyonya cooking and the Jonker Street night market. Kuching: Sarawak laksa and kolo mee for breakfast. Kota Kinabalu: the night market seafood grills along the waterfront.