Kelantan, located in Peninsular Malaysia’s northeast, is known as the “Land of Lightning.” The state is famed for its vast rice fields, rustic fishing villages, and casuarina-lined beaches. Kelantanese cuisine is simply delicious as it uses a variety of flavourful spices and assorted herbs.
Nasi Tumpang
Nasi Tumpang, or as it’s called in Kelantan dialect, Nasi Tupe, is one of the most famous traditional dishes that originated in the state of Kelantan. This rice is layered with different dishes such as omelette, serunding, shrimp or fish, sweet sambal sauce, and cucumber. It is then wrapped tightly with fragrant cone-shaped banana leaves.
Interestingly, in the past, Nasi Tumpang was a staple food for farmers and seafarers in Kelantan to bring to work. It’s packed in a cone shape so that it takes up as little space as possible and is easy to carry. Now you can enjoy this dish for breakfast.
Nasi Kerabu
Most people will know about Nasi Kerabu, another favourite dish from the state of Kelantan. It’s a traditional dish that uses shredded herbs as a side dish. Kerabu (herb salad) is a mixture of finely chopped local herbs and raw vegetables such as long beans, cabbage, four-angled beans, cucumber, polygonum, wild pepper leaves, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, torch ginger and turmeric leaves. The blue colour of the rice comes from the petals of bunga telang (butterfly pea flower), which is used as a natural food colouring. In Kelantan, most people eat nasi kerabu with ayam percik, fried fish, grilled chicken, grilled meat, salted fish, pepper solok, keropok, budu, and chilli sambal.
Nasi Kak Wok
Nasi Kak Wok is quite famous among the locals who like this simple dish very much. This dish consists of white rice, diced chicken fried in turmeric, thick goulash sauce and chilli sauce.
For those who do not know, the name of this dish was chosen in conjunction with the name of the late Mek Wook Hassan, who created this dish, and to this day it’s continued for generations according to his recipe. Today, Nasi Kak Wok can be found as far away as Kuala Lumpur.
Nasi Ulam
Nasi Ulam is a unique combination of Malay cuisine with Indonesian and Thai cuisine. The cuisine consists of cold cooked rice mixed with finely chopped fresh herbs such as daun kaduk (wild pepper leaves), bunga kantan (torch ginger), pucuk gajus (cashew leaf sprouts), onions, and raw green vegetables. Kerisik and other spices are also added. Sometimes fried fish is also mixed in.
Kuih Akok
Kuih Akok is a traditional kuih of the Kelantan people. It’s very popular and often in great demand. There are oval akok cakes, flower akok, also known as Cambodian Akok, and bahulu Akok, which follow the shape. The ingredients for this akok are duck eggs, coconut milk, and sugar.
Roti Titab
When visiting Kelantan, you must try the Roti Titab. Made from simple ingredients such as bread, butter, kaya, and an egg, Roti Titab is absolutely delicious for breakfast.
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