How to order food in Malay

Why should you bother? Everyone speaks English right, no la – wrong attitude. Whilst English is of course a pre requisite for tourism focused jobs in major cities, if you choose to visit more rural areas, such as the interior of Sarawak or Sabah, then you may even struggle to order the exact chicken rice dish you want.

More to the point, on a recent trip to Malaysa i discovered that the look on a locals face when a “orang putih” – a white person, politely orders their food in Malay is priceless. Not only does it show a great deal of respect to at least try and speak Malay, but surprising people is always good fun!

Jump to:

• How is ordering food in Malaysia different than the west?
• The basics of ordering food
• Popular foods
• Your first order
• Table of key words

How is ordering food in Malaysia different than the west?

Simple, all Malaysian people are rude when they order food. Of course that’s not correct at all. However, when we translate common phrases from Malay in to English, specifically when asking for something like food, the direct translation will appear to be very rude. Don’t think in to this too much, it is absolutely fine to speak as a local speaks to another local when ordering food.

Give me a Big Mac!

For example, a key word to take away is “bagi” –  which translates to “give”. It is perfectly acceptable to say “bagi big mac”, as the majority of Malaysian people would do. I know what you’re thinking, I tried to imagine myself walking in to McDonalds back home and saying “give big mac”, and wondering how exactly that would turn out. In Malaysia, this is perfectly acceptable – in fact it is normal. Most of us try to eat more than big macs when travelling so let’s look at some more useful foodie phrases to help us read menus and order some real food.

The basics of ordering food

As mentioned, “bagi” is “give”. To be more specific about who you are ordering something for we can add the person we are referring to. “saya” is “I” – so together, “bagi saya” translates to “give me”. Now let’s add more and construct the politest possible phrase we can use when ordering something. “tolong” translates to “help”. So, if we say “tolong bagi saya” – we are saying “please give me”. This is the absolute politest way we can order food in Malaysia. In some places, it will even be considered as too formal. However, being too polite is better than being too rude, therefore this is perfect to use both at a market on the side of a road in interior Sabah, or at a restaurant in the Pavillion in Kuala Lumpur.

Popular foods

So they say, rice is life. As the staple of an Asian diet, the word for rice – “nasi”, will probably be the staple of your food lingo. If you’re not in the mood for rice and it’s a noodle day, the word you want is “mee”, which is “noodles”. The fish and chips, sushi, and beef pho of Malaysia is nasi lemak. “lemak” translates to “grease”. “nasi lemak” then, is “greasy rice” – slightly confusing as the rice in this dish is actually cooked in coconut milk. To clear up this utterly confusing national dish, nasi lemak contains coconut rice, roasted peanuts, anchovies, hard boiled or fried egg, and sambal – sambal is a spicy sauce. Nasi lemak can be served meat free as above, or it can be ordered with meat, usually chicken or fish.

By learning the words for a few other basic foods which are frequently served with rice or noodle dishes, we can then begin to understand the top half of most menus in Malaysia. “ayam” is “chicken”, “daging” is beef, and “ikan” is “fish”. Other common words to include are “sup”, which as you might guess is “soup” – used on a menu, for example, to list “mee sup”, or “noodle soup”. Lastly, and how everything seems to be cooked in Malaysia, from chicken to bananas, is the word for “fried”, which is “goreng”.

Your first order

If you learn a few of the words above, you will be amazed at just how much of a menu you will now be able to understand. The next step, make an order. You might not be feeling too confident, but just give it a go! If you want to be safe, point at the dish on the menu as you order, or ask the server to repeat the order back to you to check you’re not ordering something completely different.

Talk backwards

An important thing to remember when making your first order and forming a sentence using all the words discussed – is to talk backwards. What I mean is, if you want “fried chicken”, don’t try to directly translate and say goreng ayam, that is wrong, instead you would say “ayam goreng”. You will soon notice a pattern the more you practice and form your own sentences.

Some examples, let’s say we want to order a nasi lemak with chicken. We would say, “tolong bagi saya nasi lemak ayam” –  which translates to “please give me nasi lemak with chicken”. Or, say on a menu we see “nasi goreng daging” – this translates to “fried rice with beef”. Note how the word goreng is after the word for rice, this indicates in the name of the dish that the rice is fried, it is not telling us that the beef is fried.

Table of key words

Below is a table of the key words above and how to pronounce them:

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