Malaysia Festival 2009, Darling Habour

Curry Chee Cheong Fun $8.50

Sunday seemed to be a day of festivals. Before the trek out to Cabramatta for the Moon Festival and mooncake eating competition, Minh, Simon, Suze and I started the day at the Malaysia Festival in Darling Harbour.

We arrived well before the crowds. A 10am start meant most stalls were still unpacking, but it did give us time to inspect the offerings at leisure, and we managed to get most of our food before the queues began.


Midday crowds


Cendol drink $5.00


Cracking eggs onto fried radish cake


Popiah $6.00

Breakfast came in the form of popiah, a fresh spring roll made with crunchy raw vegetables, hoisin sauce and a wheat flour skin - often a raw spring roll sheet.


Making Apam Balik, a Malaysian pancake filled with nuts and creamed corn


Pushing the batter up the edges of the pan


Folding over the cooked pancake


Apam Balik (Mun Chang Kuih) $7.00 for 2

We continued with Apam Balik a crisp Malaysian pancake that holds a filling of crushed peanuts, sugar and creamed corn. The inclusion of creamed corn in dessert took me some time to get used to, but the saltiness of the corn works well with the crunch of peanuts and sugar crystals. Sweet and crumbly goodness...


Banana fritters $1.50 for three

These banana fritters were an unusual sight. We bit into the deep-fried dumplings to find banana cake, as though bits of cake had been battered and deep-fried. These were a little greasy.


Pisang Goreng $5.00
Fried banana fritters with ice cream

Much more satisfying was the pisang goreng. Fresh banana was coated in the lightest of batters and deep-fried, a thin shell of caramelised sugar adding a toffee decadance.


Our Malaysian banquet:
Char Koay Teow fried flat noodle $7.00
Char Koay Kak fried radish cake $7.00
and Ang Ku Kueh red turtle cake $5 for three
and another Apam Balik pancake at the top

We assembled our own Malaysian banquet on the grass beneath the sun. The Char Koay Teow was missing the smokey flavour of an intense wok heat, but I quite liked the spicy heat of the Char Koay Kak fried radish cake.

Ang Ku Kueh are steamed desserts, shaped like turtles as it was traditionally believed that eating turtles would make for a similarly long life. The steamed glutinous rice four dumplings hold balls of salted bean paste.


Roti canai from Mamak $5.00

And to finish? Fluffy rounds of roti canai from Mamak.


Fabrics at the Cultural Display stall


Fabrics at the Cultural Display stall

This year's Malaysia Festival was held on Sunday 27 September 2009 in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour.


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Malaysia Festival 2006

Malaysian -- Kopitiam, Ultimo (Dec08), (Apr07) and (Apr06)
Malaysian -- Makan at Alice's, Thornleigh (Feb08) and (Jun07)
Malaysian -- Malay Chinese, Sydney (26 Apr 07) and (3 Apr 07)
Malaysian-- Mamak, Haymarket (Jul09), (Nov07) and (Oct07)
Malaysian -- Mc Lucksa, Haymarket
Malaysian -- The Malaya, Sydney
Malaysian -- Tan's Malaysian, Ultimo
Malaysian -- Temasek, Parramatta (Jan09) and (May08)