Wander in Malaysia: Falling in Love with Breakfast
While most visitors to Malaysia fall in love with its rich heritage and natural wonders, I find myself falling for something a little different — their breakfast.
Sense of Wander: ★★★★☆
At Restoran Madinah in Malacca, roti telur is served with dal placed on top.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Like its culture, Malaysia’s food scene is a blend of Malay, Indian, and Chinese influences. Nowhere is this more vivid than in cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang, where flavours mingle in ways that feel both familiar and entirely their own.
You’d think that a pescatarian like me might struggle here, in a country known for its meat-heavy staples — rendang, a rich beef stew; nasi lemak, often served with fried chicken or beef; satay skewers grilled over open flames; and the ever-popular Hainanese chicken rice. That was my assumption, too. But Malaysia surprised me. It has turned out to be, quite unexpectedly, my food haven — and here’s why.
At Restoran Nasi Kandar Line Clear in Penang, the abang — tasked with preparing dishes and serving meals — attends to customers placing their orders.
To begin with, I was struck by how easy it is to find Indian food, especially in cities like Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Malacca. South Indian restaurants are everywhere — enough to make daily visits possible. I’ll share my recommendations in a future piece. For now, I want to focus on a smaller, often overlooked subject: breakfast.
Back home, I rarely ate breakfast. I typically stuck to two meals a day — lunch and dinner — and ate when I felt hungry rather than by the clock. I’d always associated three meals a day with industrial‑era discipline — a product of factory schedules and fixed routines. But when I travel, I make an exception. Long days on foot — often clocking nine to ten kilometres — demand energy, and I begin each morning with something hearty.
In Malaysia, breakfast is often synonymous with roti canai. This Indian-influenced flatbread, served with dhal, curry, or sambal, is a local favourite. My go-to is roti telur, where an egg is whisked directly into the batter. It reminded me of Taiwan’s danbing — egg crepes — but roti canai, with its fresh, fluffy texture, outshone the thin and often frozen crepes back home.
For breakfast at Kassim Nasi Kandar in Penang, I had roti canai and telur padang, a thick omelette.
Roti kaya is a sweet Malaysian breakfast dish in which roti is spread with kaya, a coconut jam, and butter.
Still, as someone who tries to limit gluten, I found myself falling for something else: thosa — or dosa — a classic South Indian fermented rice pancake. It is widely available at mamak stalls, eateries unique to the region that serve food influenced by Indian Muslim and Pakistani traditions.
I soon discovered that most mamak stalls served dosa, my all-time favourite (as I mentioned in Little India: Where All Your Senses Awaken, where I shared how I ate dosa every day while in Singapore). So each morning in Malaysia, I made it my ritual to seek out a nearby mamak spot for breakfast. Thankfully, they were never far — and some stay open 24 hours.
These places are often filled with locals rather than tourists. You might not find them topping lists with five-star reviews, but don’t let appearances fool you. They offer a chance for you to slip into the rhythms of local Malaysian life — even if it means ordering in broken Malay, with a little help from Google Translate.
After trying thosa telur at a few places around Malaysia, the ones at Heritage One Station in Kuala Lumpur are by far the best. Not only is the thosa super crispy, but the egg filling inside is wonderfully hearty.
My breakfast was usually simple: a dosa (about 3 Ringgit) and a hot cup of teh tarik. Later, I discovered teh halia — ginger milk tea — which quickly became my preference. I always asked for less sugar, as the default portion felt overwhelmingly sweet.
Teh halia isn’t available everywhere, though, so I had to settle for the classic teh tarik. Most mamak stalls serve food of similar quality, which is why I tended to return to the same one throughout my stay — especially in Kuala Lumpur, where there was only one within a short walk of our hotel.
I did notice something curious: the thosa telur (egg dosa) in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca used a whole egg, while in Penang, the egg was barely a film over the batter. I’m not sure whether that reflects regional preferences or simply differences between individual chefs.
Aside from dosa, one breakfast stands out — the one I had at Nasi Kandar Line Clear. I first passed by their restaurant in George Town, Penang, drawn by a long queue of locals. The sight of enormous fish heads — perhaps steeped in curry — laid out on metal plates has stayed with me ever since.
To my surprise, the next day at the Penang International Airport, I spotted a Line Clear outlet tucked into a corner near the departure hall. Though roti and dosa were listed on the menu, neither was available. So I joined the line and did what everyone else did — pointed at the dishes and let the abang fill my plate. The result? A sumptuous breakfast of white rice with fish curry, fish roe, and stir-fried turmeric cabbage. I was lucky to also have the best teh halia of my trip. I was so full that I skipped lunch that day.
And so I left Malaysia, carrying with me a palette of flavours that still linger on my tongue — gentle reminders of mornings that began with dosa and tea, in places where the day starts slow and savoury.
Early morning hours at the Heritage One Station Restaurant, located in the same building as the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station.
Tips for wanderers — here’s a list of breakfast spots I visited — all highly recommended.
Kuala Lumpur: Heritage One Station Restaurant
Penang: Restoran Nasi Kandar Line Clear, Nasi Kandar Pelita, Macalister, Restoran Kapitan, Kassim Nasi Kandar
Malacca: Restoran Madinah