The word ‘mamak’ means ‘uncle’ in Tamil which is often used to show respect to those who are older than us. Back in the old days, children were referring “kedai mamak” as “the uncle’s restaurant” to indicate that (as they wanted to describe that) the restaurant belongs to an Indian Muslim uncle. Therefore, the norm of addressing Indian Muslims as Mamak was being practiced until this day.

Mamak has their own traditional food and believe it or not, most Malaysians eat their traditional food almost everyday without realising it! One of the most famous Mamak cuisine in Malaysia are Nasi Kandar, Roti Canai and Teh Tarik.

(Saleh et al., 2021, p. 9)

Based on the excerpt above, we can agree that Traditional Food defines our identity and our uniqueness in any ethnic. 

Instruction:

Instructions:
1. Add bread flour, egg, unsalted butter and condensed milk in a bowl. Whisk the mixture.
2. Add water
3. Start kneading the dough for 10 minutes, rest for 10 minutes and knead for another 5 minutes.
4. Cut the kneaded dough into 10 equal pieces.
5. Each pieces were rolled into balls.
6. Coat each ball with unsalted butter. 
7. Place the balls in a buttered container and leave it for a night. 
8. Spread unsalted butter on a platform that you wish to knead the dough. 
9. Press the balls to flatten it.
10. Stretch the dough until you can see through. 
11. Scrape and push the upper and lower end to the middle.
12. Roll the dough from one end to another. Leave it for 10 minutes
13. Press the dough into a 10-15 cm disk and fry it on pan.

Instruction:
1. Add tea bags in a cup and add 3/4 boiled water.
2. Add condensed milk and stir the drink.
3. Pull the tea from one cup to another. However, if you are not confident, just stir the tea.

Instructions:
1. Wash the rice thoroughly.
2. Add coconut milk, turmeric powder, pandan leaves and salt in a pan and boil them. After finish boiling it, pour it in a pot of washed rice.
3. Cook the rice for 25 minutes.
4. Boil the eggs until it is hard-boiled. Cut it in half and serve it with the rice.

Instruction:
1. Add water gradually into the flour until the dough is not too thick and not too soggy.
2. Make a small-ball-sized of the dough and press your thumb in the middle of the ball. Wadai Kipeng is prepared. Next step is preparing the sweet gravy.
3. Melt the caramelised palm sugar with plain water. Let it blend and melt then turn off the stove. Filter the sugar while pouring it in a container.
4. In another pot, add coconut milk, pandan leaves, a pinch of salt and the sugar.
5. Keep on stirring for about five minutes and add Wadai Kipeng in it. Continue to stir. 
6. If you think the Wadai Kipeng is cooked, turn off the stove.

Instructions:
1. Coconut milk, rice and salt are cooked first just like making nasi lemak.
2. Then, this hot rice is wrapped like a ‘Lepat’ using banana shoot leaves.
3. Take 5-6 packets of wrapped rice and stacked and re-wrapped with old banana leaves. Then it is tied with string and steamed for 5-6 hours before serving.
4. Plate your Burasak and serve right away with other Hari Raya side dishes.

Instructions:

The Mandailing ethnic shared their traditional food in Tanah Melayu. The traditional food of the Mandailing ethnic that I will cover is Pucuk Ubi Tumbuk and Kuih Jongkong.

Instructions:
1. Roughly chop the leaves and then put in a food processor and chop into small pieces. Put the turkey berries in the food processor and chop into fine pieces. Alternatively, you can do it the traditional way by using a pestle to pound the leaves and pea eggplants into fine pieces. Squeeze out the liquid and discard.
2. Put all the ingredients to grind in a food processor and process into a paste. Add a bit of water to help it goes as needed.
3. Preheat a skillet or pot. Add cooking oil. Saute the ground spices until aromatic, about 3 minutes. Add the lemongrass, chopped torch ginger buds, and anchovies and continue to saute for another 2 minutes. Add water and bring to a boil.
4. Add cassava leaves and pea eggplant, and seasoning and cook until they are soft. Stir in coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Don’t bring to a hard boil or the coconut milk will “break”. Have a taste and adjust to your preference.

Instructions:
1. Clean and run banana leaves over flames to soften it. Cut into 8’’ x 6’’ rectangles.

2. Make pandan extract by blending pandan leaves and water. Strain and discard fibres.

3. Mix rice flour, air kapur, tapioca flour, pandan extract, pinch of salt and a few drops of green food colouring into a pot and whisk to combine. Cook it over medium heat and keep stirring until it thickens.
4. When it starts to thicken, it will look a bit lumpy. Keep stirring it with a bit of hot water until it becomes smooth again. The custard is ready when it gets glossy and starts popping up.

5.Take a piece of banana leaf and scoop a big spoonful of custard onto it and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top.
6. Pick up leaf and fold one side to form a pouch. Tilt it one side and put in about 3 tablespoons of coconut milk into the pouch.

7. Seal pouch on both sides and secure with a toothpick.

8. Repeat process until you have used up all of the custard.
9. Steam for 10 minutes and let it cool down for a bit. Serve it warm or chilled.

Even though the Chetty ethnic are basically descendants of the Indian ethnic, they do not look like Indians at all! Most of the Chettys have fair skin colour, which means that their skin is not too dark compared to the Indians. In fact, people from other cultures might see them as Malays because their looks are like the Southeast Asian which have fairer skin tone. 

Like I mentioned before, Chetty ethnic share the same culture as Malays thus, their traditional foods are also quite similar with the Malays’ traditional food. The traditional food of the Chetty ethnic that I will cover is Haram Jadah.

Instructions:
1.  Chop aubergine, radish, bitter gourd, yardlong beans, cucumber and shallot not too small and not too big.
2. Cut the chilies in half and take out all of its seeds. 
3. Saute the chilies, chilie paste, turmeric, lemongrass and shallot in a pot.
4. Add aubergine in the pot and mix well with the paste.
5. Add plain water.
6. Leave the aubergine to fully cooked and can start adding other vegetables (bitter gourg, etc)
7. Add a little bit of salt.
8. Serve the dish in hot or warm.