Americans Eat DURIAN! + 10 More Malaysian Foods 🇲🇾

Welcome to our very special episode all about food in Malaysia! Having traveled the entirety of East Malaysia from Kilometer Zero all the way to the Tip of Borneo and down to Tawau, we have eaten all sorts of incredible, unusual, and exotic dishes, including one that we found repulsive. And we’ll show you all of it in this video!

I hope you’re hungry, because when it comes to exciting food, Malaysia has it all!

Check out our Borneo Motorcycle Tour link! ➜
https://www.2upandoverloaded.com/borneotour.html

Transcript

Marisa: In this very special episode of Two Up and Overloaded, we're going to be delving into the cuisine of Malaysia.

Woman: Hello! 

Marisa: Hello!

And specifically, we're going to focus on the half of Malaysia that few people ever get to experience: East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. This episode is going to be full of some of our best culinary experiences, as well as some of our worst. 

I like jackfruit, so there is hope. 

Tim: Right? It's not as strong. 

Marisa: Actually, really... 

Tim: Marisa is the fan. 

Marisa: No. 

As two Americans who grew up on hamburgers and pizza, Malaysia offers us an exciting opportunity to have all-new gastronomic adventures outside of anything that we've ever had before. So stay tuned as we explore this rich and diverse country by tasting its blend of cultures through its mouthwatering spices, exotic fruits, and totally unique flavors. 

Tim: Who would have thought there'd be a gastronomic adventure like a new Six Flag theme park ride? It takes guts to go on this ride. Stay away from Splash Mountain. 

Marisa: Gastronomic adventure! 

Tim: Whoo! No hands! Whoo!

Intro: Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are Tim, and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front. And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and we pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll go! Through rain and through sleet and through mud and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll see! We’ve been to a country or two. Or three! Oh, all the fun we’ve had! To have you along, would make us real glad. So give us a like, and hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride.

[This episode is dedicated to our Hit the Road Patrons.] [Join for as little as $1 a month! See link in the description below.]

[Food #1 – Seafood]

Tim: So the first thing that Marisa is a huge fan of, and I think everybody who's been watching realized I’m not, is there's a lot of seafood. We are on an island... so it makes sense, but there's a lot of gross seafood. 

Marisa: Uh, excuse me, a lot of incredible seafood. In fact, Malaysia is known all throughout the world for its seafood. Both sides of Malaysia have incredible seafood, but particularly the island of Borneo has such great coastal waters that are so untouched. The seafood that you can get there is so fresh and just unlike anything I've ever had before. I had squid. I had crabs. I had... 

Tim: Don't ever say that. 

Marisa: You're right. I ate crabs. They have octopus, they have eel, they have all sorts of things, but shrimp is everywhere. And you know what else is everywhere? Anchovies! 

Tim: Anchovies. Because I'm always like, "tidak... ikan." How do you say "fish"? 

Marisa: Yeah good. Nailed it. 

Tim: That means "no fish." 

Marisa: It does. 

Tim: It's like sinful to say I don't like fish. 

Marisa: It's also like incomprehensible, it's like that doesn't make sense. 

Tim: Yeah. But Marisa was eating octopus tentacles. Oh, it's just... 

Marisa: So good. 

Tim: Yeah, that's delicious, that is very good.

Marisa: So my first time having soft shell crab in my life was when we were going to Kilometer Zero with our friend Lee. 

Okay, so we are on the coast of Malaysia and they have all sorts of different seafood here, and this particular restaurant is famous for its crab. I am not used to eating crab. I think I've had it once in my life and I think I was a child. I don't know how to eat it, so thankfully we have our friend Lee here, so he's going to help us out figure out how to eat this crab. 

Tim: There's no "us." 

Marisa: Tim is not going to partake because he is not a seafood eater. 

Tim: Well, I don't mind crab quite honestly, but like Joe's Crab Shack crab, like King Crab, Alaskan crab. 

Marisa: They have larger crabs... 

Tim: Not going to happen. 

Marisa: The one I'm going to have is a small crab. So... take a look here. So if I just break off the leg I can eat it? Okay, all right.

Oh yeah. That is so good. There's nothing crabby about it, it just tastes like fried chicken. 

That was delicious, and it was a lot easier to eat than the hard shell crab that I had over in Kudat. 

I'm sorry to all the vegetarians out there. 

Tim: And all the crab eaters too. 

Marisa: I'm sorry to everybody. This is not how you eat crab, but it's really good.

And I ate stingray. 

Today, we have another very awesome breakfast, and I'm going to be eating something that I've never eaten before, stingray! Check it out!

Tim: Are there bones? No. 

Marisa: I think this is a bone, and then this part is not. 

Ibu: You just eat like this, this part of the... Ah, correct! Yeah. 

Marisa: Oh, there are bones. 

Ibu: The middle is the bone. 

Marisa: Mm hmm. It's cooked in a very wonderful sauce, sweet and spicy, tastes really, really soft. I like it, but there are bones all over the place. You got to be careful.

[Food #2 – Mi Goreng & Nasi Goreng]

Tim: My go-to dish was usually nasi goreng or mi goreng, which is just fried rice or just fried noodles. Nasi goreng ayam, which is chicken or beef.

Food tastes better when it's flattened. Flat food. 

Marisa: Flat food! 

Tim: I'm a flat food fan, most of you do too. 

Marisa: I don't do this. 

Tim: No, most of them. 

Marisa: Oh yeah. 

Tim: Comment below if you flatten your food. Who eats mounds of food? No one. 

Marisa: This is like Malaysia's comfort food, and you can find it everywhere. If you're feeling like, hm, I don't know what to order, you just order nasi goreng or mi goreng, and you know it's going to be good.

Uh, these noodles are really good, but they're really spicy. And it's already like I've had three bites and I'm already starting to cry. Poor Tim. 

Tim: No, I think they're fine. 

Marisa: Yeah.

[Food #3 – Ramly Burgers]

Tim: I have a good, uh, a good addiction, we'll say, because most addictions are pretty good, with burgers, and I order burgers everywhere we go. 

Marisa: So here in Malaysia, of course, we had to try this thing that everyone was raving about called Ramly burgers.

Does it have as much sauce on it as is on your face? 

Tim: Mostly it's on my face. 

Marisa: Uh, a lot of sauce. I think we could have done a better job of asking for our burgers without that much sauce, but the burger itself is pretty tasty. 

Tim: You see the patty? It's under there somewhere. 

Marisa: Wow, that's a lot of sauce. 

Tim: Hell yeah. 

Marisa: But hey, that looks like a good patty. 

Tim: We'll see. Oh yeah, look at that thick patty there, buddy.

It's really good. 

Marisa: Yeah? 

Tim: Mm hmm. 

Marisa: Ramly burgers are a cultural phenomenon in Malaysia. It was started in 1980 by a man named Dato' Ramly Mokni, who noticed that it was almost impossible to find a halal burger. So he started producing quality beef patties seasoned with a blend of spices and herbs from his food stall in Kuala Lumpur, and from there, the business grew. Now Ramly burger patties can be found all across the country and are an important part of Malaysia's culinary landscape.

If I had to compare the Ramly burger to an American burger, I still would prefer the American burger if it's a homemade one because they're usually really fat, and American beef is just amazing. But if I had to compare it to just your typical McDonald's or Burger King fast food burger patty, I would say the Ramly burger is equally good and very, very tasty. 

Tim: Yeah, equally good is an insult. 

Marisa: Okay, better, better. No, who doesn't like a McDonald's burger? 

Tim: That's true. But I mean at least the Ramly burger is made with real beef, where McDonald's is styrofoam and children's tears.

[Food #4 – Soto Ayam]

Marisa: The next food item is Soto Ayam, which is chicken soup for the Malaysian soul. It is amazing, and I always am just getting Soto Ayam. Even though it's a hot day, I'm like, you know what, this soup is so good. It just feels so hearty. It always comes with noodles, and especially the few times that I've been sick, this has just comforted me and made me feel much better immediately. 

Tim: Absolutely. It's always good. 

Marisa: It's always good.

[Food #5 – Steamboat] 

Both: Steamboat! 

Tim: It sounds really cool.

Marisa: It is really cool. 

Tim: It is really cool. It's where they make you do your own labor to cook your own food. No chefs, it's just a bunch of raw food. They light a little propane gas, and they say, "Go to town." 

Marisa: This is like a Korean barbecue or shabu shabu. It's basically a grill-it-yourself-at-your-own-table type of experience. 

Tim: It's Benihana's without the fancy chef. You are the fancy chef, and we were not very good at it.

Marisa: No, but it didn't much matter because the meats that they put out at this Steamboat place that we went to in Kuching with our friend Andi, they were so good. They were marinated in this spicy sweet sauce, each one a little bit different, and so many different types of meats and seafood that you could choose from that it didn't really matter if you were very good at cooking it up or not. 

Tim: It was good though. And it almost seemed like it was all you can eat. No one was taking tabs of the amount of food you were bringing over to boat on the steam. 

Marisa: There's also a broth section in the middle, so you can make your own soup using the meats. 

Tim: Really good.

[Food #6 – Rambutan]

Marisa: The next food on our list is my new favorite fruit, rambutan. 

This is what I want. Rambutan! 

Tim: It's the one that I say looks like space monkey junk, it looks like it's just out of this world. Yeah, it means "hairy" in Malay. 

Marisa: Yeah, it literally means "hairy thing" in Malay, which is a good description because it does look like it has weirdo hairs. But I mean the color is so cool. 

Tim: Yeah, it's very alien-esque, like this does come from a faraway planet. 

Marisa: It is so good though. 

I'm going to have my favorite breakfast. This is my favorite fruit in the whole wide world, my new favorite fruit, and it is called rambutan. If you just dig in your nail and pull it apart... It's white inside. And then inside of the white part is a giant pit. It can be kind of messy to eat, but it is so delicious. I think they're related to lychee, but it's so much better. I absolutely love rambutan, so if you ever come to the tropics or this part of the world, see if you can find them. 

It can be kind of messy when you eat it because it's super juicy, but it's amazing. So delicious. 

Tim: Even I like it. 

Marisa: Yes! And Tim doesn't like... 

Tim: I don't like things. 

Marisa: No... 

Tim: I don't like hairy things, I'll tell you that much. 

Marisa: He doesn't like that many fruits. 

Tim: Or vegetables. I pretty much like hamburgers, pizza, and fried rice and noodles. Anytime Marisa's at the hotel or whatever, and I see rambutan, I buy her like a bouquet of rambutan because I know she'll love it. You just got to shake the ants off. There's always ants on it. 

Marisa: Yes, be careful. 

Tim: Yes.

[Food #7 – Roti Canai]

Marisa: Oh, that looks so nice. I love roti, roti kosong. This is the "empty bread." 

The next food item is roti, to be specific, roti o. Yes, roti o or roti canai. This is actually a South Indian bread that was brought over by the Indian immigrants here and has become a favorite dish of Malaysia. 

Tim: We love it, and not only is it really good, but the sauce you dip it into can either make or break it. Our good friend Andi in Kuching made a delicious, delicious sauce, and he taught me how to make roti. 

Marisa: Yes! Tim became the roti chef. 

Tim: I did. I was, and it was amazing. People were lining up for blocks watching me fail at flipping this little stupid thing over and over and over again. 

Andi: Hello. Hi!

Tim: This is the hardest part. I don't know about to pre-wash the hands before you put them in plastic gloves. 

All right, and then bam? 

Andi: Yes. No... Okay.

Tim: Oil? How much? 

Andi: A lot. Yeah. Okay.

Tim: Not good. 

Andi: Good. 

Tim: Same same? 

Andi: Yeah.

No. 

Tim: No?

Andi: Like this. Hand, yeah.

Tim: Close? 

Andi: Yeah, good, yeah.

Marisa: Oh my gosh.

Tim: I don't get the... It does the same thing every time.

I've already messed it up. I don't know how. One more time. 

Andi: No problem.

Yeah. 

Marisa: Whoa, you did it! 

Tim: I did get it finally at some point, but it's a talent that I did not have and still currently don't. But there was a moment where I accidentally did it right a couple of times.

Marisa: Tim is doing such a good job. He can make roti canai o! It's amazing!

Tim: But it was a really fun process to flatten out this dough, put oil on it. You try to stretch it out as much as you can, and then you make like a little Cinnabon, if you will, out of it. And then you flatten that, roll it again, and that's where you get all these layers. So if you're a fan of the Great British Baking Show, you want crispy layers for the air to get in between. 

Marisa: Lamination. 

Tim: Lamination, thank you.

Marisa: There’s the one that Tim did. 

Tim: Oh, you don't got to point it out.

And then the last thing you do, though, you make this really beautiful round bread, and then the last step of what you do is you take this perfectly looking tortilla-looking thing, and then you go... and you just squish it. You squish it all up until it's like... Putting so much effort into making it look pretty to, at the very end, just be like, how you like my haircut? Then be like, ahhh! Perfect. 

But it tasted good. It had layers. 

Marisa: Oh, so good. 

Tim: Yes.

All right, so this is the one I made.

I think Andi’s are better. Yeah. Yours are more [good].

Marisa: All right, I'm trying Tim's roti here. It's an interesting shape.

Mmm! Good job, Tim. 

So thank you, Andi, so much for teaching Tim how to make roti and for making roti all the other times we ate there. 

Tim: It was absolutely delicious. 

[Food #8 – Laksa Sarawak]

Marisa: Next on the list of amazing, incredible food is laksa Sarawak, or laksa in general, but especially laksa Sarawak, because it was absolutely delicious. 

Good morning, today I'm going to be eating something that is considered by Anthony Bourdain to be the breakfast of the gods. It is called Sarawak laksa. Check it out.

This was actually the first time I ever had laksa Sarawak, and we caught it all on camera. 

It's made with a coconut broth that is spicy. So, this is the special Sarawak version that is not like the rest of Malaysia. Let's give it a try.

Oh, it's good. It's spicy, but it's really good. It's almost like a coconut creamy Thai curry that has shrimp, very thin rice noodles, bean sprouts, and other vegetables in it. 

Now, laksa is a very popular kind of coconut curry soup dish that is all over Malaysia, but in this particular region of Borneo called Sarawak, there is a type of laksa that is beyond every other type of laksa out there, in my opinion, and that is called laksa Sarawak.

It is spiced so well, and I don't know if it's like a chicken base or something, but you just taste those spices and they envelop your mouth. It's like spiciness as well as clove and cardamom and cinnamon and types of gingers I've never heard of. In fact, the ingredient list on this laksa dish is like many dozens of ingredients. Most of them I struggle with knowing what they are, and so it's a very difficult thing to make. If you can find a place that is making it from scratch, wow, it is your lucky day. 

Tim: Absolutely. So look out for laksa Sarawak because it's delicious.

[Food #9 Satay and Food #10 Nasi Lemak]

Marisa: Next is satay and nasi lemak. 

Okay, so here at this night market, you can just go around from stall to stall. You give them your table number, what you want to order, they come to your table, and they bring you your food. And then you pay for it right there, and then someone comes around and asks for what you want to drink as well. So you can just go from stall to stall to stall and get all sorts of different stuff, a whole variety of things, and they'll bring it all to your table. It's really an awesome concept. And there's so much variety.

I mean, I knew what satay was before I came out here. It's just meat on a skewer that's been barbecued up with an awesome sauce that it's been marinated in, as well as another awesome sauce on the side that's usually a peanut-based sauce for dipping. 

So Jason has gotten us some Malaysian satay to try out since we've only had the Indonesian version, and those are like the skewered meat grilled with a special sauce. So that'll be really cool. And then I got this, uh, what is it, the national dish? Yeah, nasi lemak. Nasi lemak. It's the national dish of Malaysia, and it is a rice dish made with coconut milk. So I'm very excited for that because I love coconut, I love rice. I got it with chicken, so it's all good things that I like, and we will see what it is.

Tim: And I got a burger and fries.

A lot of times, satay will be like a big old chunk of meat and all smudged together. It's on a stick, and you got to pull it out like a pin in a grenade. Sometimes, pulling the meat off the stick just hurts even thinking about it. 

Marisa: Aw, it hurts you? 

Tim: No, just thinking about it. I don't like... 

Marisa: Just thinking about it hurts you. 

Tim: It's just teeth on wood and pulling, and like, you know. 

Marisa: Okay... 

Tim: Yeah, I'm weird. But yeah. 

Marisa: You can also use the fork and kind of work it down. 

Tim: There's another way of doing it as well. 

Jason: Sometimes the Malay one is a little spicy.

Tim: Oh, that's tender. Mmm.

Marisa: And while we were trying satay with our friend Jason in Kuching, we also tried for the first time Malaysia's national dish, nasi lemak. 

All right, I'm going to try the nasi lemak, the national dish of Malaysia. Rice cooked in coconut milk.

Oh, it's got a nice sweet taste to it. Very subtle, very light. I love it. 

This is basically white rice that has been cooked in coconut milk as well as pandan leaf to give it an extra soft, silky, sweet flavor. 

Tim: Nailed that. 

Marisa: Thank you. I should be like a judge on a cooking show. 

Tim: You should. Soft, silky, sweet, savory. All the S words.

Marisa: Thank you!

Tim: The king of all the fruits, of what the Malay say, is durian. Durian looks like something you'd shoot out of a medieval cannon to just decimate enemy troops. So it's this spiky thing. By all means, it's a natural warning to be like, "Don't touch me." And then, if you're curious enough to break it open, it smells like rancid, just foul, disgusting, spoiled meat. 

Marisa: It smells so strongly that when you pass someone who is selling it on the side of the road, and you're passing on your motorcycle, you can smell it long before you ever get to that part of the road and long after you've passed it. 

Tim: That's the second nature's warning system of "Don't digest me." And then, if you make it through both barriers and try to grab one of the seeds, it just kind of deteriorates like rotten flesh. 

Marisa: And we haven't even gotten to the burping part yet. 

Tim: Oh my gosh.

Marisa: So, the first time that we had an opportunity to eat durian... 

Tim: We said, "No thank you."

Marisa: It's only in season for a short period of time in the year. Many Malaysians go crazy for it during this time. You see it everywhere. You also see signs that prohibit it inside buildings because it is so stinky. But we had the chance to eat some when we were visiting Mahua Falls in Sabah, and we actually passed it up because it was so smelly. 

Tim: Unless you want to, do you want to taste it? Because I don't. It's only 10 ringgit. 

Marisa: I don't want to spend 10 ringgit to taste it. 

Tim: I just want to smell it. They can't smell it, but it's like rotten chicken feet. Yeah, it's not a good smell. Here.

Marisa: Oh, I smell it!

Tim: Can you imagine eating that? 

Marisa: Wow, that's very, very strong. 

Tim: You want to spend 10 Ringgit? Probably not. You'll throw up. 

Marisa: Maybe if we have another opportunity to taste it. 

Tim: When we don't have to ride for a couple days? 

Marisa: Yeah. Thank you very much. 

Tim: Thank you.

Marisa: But when we got back to Kuching again, we had another opportunity to try durian, and we decided, you know what, you have to. What are people raving about anyway? People love it so much. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. 

Tim: We had a good guy that picked out a really good one, and he cut it open, and we tried it. 

Man: This one good. 

Tim: Good? All right, we just want to try a little. Yeah. We want to try right now, and then no more.

Marisa: You were first. 

Tim: I was first. You have to put on gloves. It's a really strange sensation to have to put on gloves before you eat food. 

Marisa: Okay, so we are about to try durian, which I have been avoiding for months and months and months. But I mean, we can't leave here without trying it. 

Tim: We could. The world would be a better place. 

Marisa: It is a very, very stinky fruit. You see signs all over...

Tim: If you have to put on gloves before you eat something, you're probably in for a real treat.

You touch it, and you try to pull it up. The skin comes off. 

That is sharp. Ouch! 

Marisa: Really? 

Tim: Yeah. 

Marisa: Everything about it is saying don't eat it. 

Tim: Yeah. Can, uh, what do I do? 

And then I put it in my mouth, and it wasn't nearly as bad as it smells. 

So just, just this? That? 

It wasn't good, but it wasn't like, "Oh my God, this is absolutely disgusting." 

It's actually not... It doesn't taste like how we've smelled awful, awful ones to be. 

Marisa: Really? 

Tim: So, I'll take a big... It looks like spoiled chicken, right? Not bad. It's, yeah, it's [good]. I mean, it doesn't taste like making me want to vomit, which I totally thought it would be. 

Marisa: Oh!

Yeah, and so after you did that, I thought, ooh, maybe there's hope. Maybe this is not so bad and it just smells really bad. 

Tim: Just grab it with your whole hand. 

Marisa: Oh, it's like a whole seed. 

Tim: Yeah.

Right? It's not as strong? 

Marisa: Actually, really... 

Tim: Marisa's a fan. 

Marisa: No.

Unfortunately though, I think at that moment in time, I had put a mental block just from the smell. The moment I started eating it, I could feel my body trying to get rid of it and I just couldn't eat anymore. I tried it again and just my brain was like, "Nope, nope, you cannot eat this."

Tim: Marisa all of a sudden it was like, "No, no, no!" And I was like, "Okay, you don't have to have any more."

Marisa: I really wanted to, you know, just try a bunch of it. But yeah. 

Tim: They do say you need to try it three times. 

Marisa: Maybe one day we will have tried it three times and then we can test that theory.

You were burping up durian for like 5 hours after that. 

Tim: It wasn't the initial consumption because that wasn't all that bad. I didn't want more, but I was like, well, that's not going to kill me. And then this is where a gastronomic adventure begins at the very end of our video. But man, it was like this acidy, like acid reflux burping, and it smelled how it smells when you're driving by it on the motorcycle. Like every time, as I burped it up. It was definitely... that was bad.

Marisa: Well, thankfully the rest of Malaysia's cuisine has been incredible. There were so many other amazing foods in Malaysia to eat. Every time we eat, every meal of the day is an incredible experience, and we are just loving all of the flavors of Malaysia. When we first came to East Malaysia, everyone was talking about, oh, you have to visit this place because of the food, you have to visit that place because of the food. People were going to night markets as an entire destination. I realized, wow, this is a food-loving culture and they did not disappoint. Malaysian food is some of the best cuisine in the world and we are so happy to have been able to experience it.

Next time, we are bringing you the best of the best in Borneo, our top 10 experiences to be had on this magical island that feels lost in time.

That will all be in the next episode.

Tim: So if you want to try some of this amazing food with us, if you want to dive into durian yourself and try the soft shell crab or the Soto Ayam, we'd love to personally invite you to this wonderful part of the world on our Borneo Adventure tour. 

Marisa: We are going to be visiting Mount Kinabalu and diving underneath the waters of the Sulu Sea, and we're going to be taking motorcycles all along these incredible roads and seeing waterfalls and jungle and orangutans and proboscis monkeys and even fireflies. But best of all, we're going to be eating some of this amazing food.

Tim: Out of the three tours that we have for 2025, there is only one tour left in March, and we would love to have you along for the ride. Please do check it out at 2upandOverloaded.com/BorneoTour, and we would love to have you along for the ride.

Marisa: So thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you liked it. If you did, please give us a big thumbs up and hit the subscribe button below. And we'll be seeing you next time. 

Tim: Stay safe, everybody. 

Marisa: Bye! 

Tim: Peace.

Marisa: The next food item that we're going to... No. Should I ever say that? 

Tim: The next food item?

Marisa: I'm going to take that as a no. 

Tim: Well, it's the only thing you said.