“Banjir!” is an exclamation one often hears in a Malaysian eatery, especially at breakfast places that serve Indian roti canai or nasi kandar. “Banjir” is the Malay word for “flood”, to be communicated to the server whenever one is requesting for the dish to be drenched in copious amounts of sauce.
Malaysians absolutely love their sauces, and many dishes come with their own specific ones — an assertive chilli-spiked sauce can that awaken a docile dish from its slumber, or a cooling sauce that gently tempers the aggression of a fiery curry. A good sauce seeks to provide balance to the dish it accompanies, and to maximise a diner’s enjoyment in its consumption.
Multicultural Malaysia provides rich pickings when one considers the variety of sauces available in its myriad of culinary traditions. Here are some popular sauces that one can enjoy as one traverses its multi-varied dining landscape.
Satay Peanut Sauce
Perhaps the best-known Malaysian food export to the world: satay consists of luscious skewers of marinated chicken or beef, carefully barbecued over open flames till slightly charred and intoxicatingly aromatic. Once cooked, they are served with a thick, richly-spiced peanut sauce, fragrant with chillies, turmeric, lemongrass, and galangal.
Here, the contrast between the slightly sweet, caramelised meats and the spicy peanut sauce elevates the dish to a whole new level of deliciousness. The crushed peanuts in the sauce provide a nutty richness and an additional textural dimension that complements the smooth, boneless meats perfectly — the proverbial match made in heaven.
Where to enjoy Satay Peanut Sauce:
Congkak - Bukit Bintang (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
De. Wan 1958 – Taman U Thant (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Jawi House (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Coconut Milk-Palm Sugar (Santan-Gula Melaka) Sauce for Serabai
Serabai is a Malay crumpet, also known as “apom berkuah” in Nyonya cuisine. Of Malay-Indonesian origin, the batter is made from rice flour and yeast, and then left to ferment overnight. Gently cooked in a brass mould till golden-brown at the bottom but spongey-soft and moist on top, the serabai itself is fairly neutral in flavour and needs its accompanying santan (coconut milk)–gula melaka (palm sugar) sauce for its trademark sweet, rich flavour.
Nyonya “apom berkuah” literally translates to “apom with sauce”. The dessert goes one step further by using “pengat pisang” — slivers of ripe bananas cooked in coconut milk and palm sugar — as its accompanying sauce. Either way, these little crumpets make for an utterly tasty and addictive snack.
Where to enjoy Santan-Gula Melaka Sauce:
Serabai Istimewa (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Jawi House (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Sambal for Nasi Lemak and BBQ Seafood & Meats
No discussion of sauces in Malaysia is ever complete without a mention of the omnipresent sambal — the mother of all Malaysian sauces. This red-hued, incendiary chilli sauce is the go-to condiment for anything — from nasi lemak (the Malaysian national dish of rice enriched with coconut milk) to barbecued seafood or meats.
First introduced by Indian traders to Southeast Asia around the early 16th-century, this New World crop’s entry into the local culinary universe completely revolutionised the daily diet here, so much so that it’s become practically indispensable. Sambal belacan — pounded chillies accentuated by fermented shrimp paste — are used liberally to spike accompanying sauces or dips for any number of Malay dishes, as well as to dress the multi-varietal Malay “kerabu” salad.
Where to enjoy Sambal:
Rasa Rasa (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Ali Nasi Lemak Daun Pisang (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Tanglin - Bukit Damansara (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Indian Yoghurt Mint Sauce
The Indian yoghurt mint sauce is often utilised to provide a cooling contrast to the oftentimes spicy food items it accompanies: deep-fried samosas with spicy potato or meat fillings, tandoori-baked chicken or kebabs, or even as dips for pappadam crisps.
The creamy, dairy-based content of yoghurt is extremely effective in soothing the fiery burn of chillies, whilst the mint provides an uplifting burst of freshness amidst the consumption of heavily-spiced dishes.
Where to enjoy Indian Yoghurt Mint Sauce:
Roti by d'Tandoor (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Sardaarji (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Passage Thru India (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Worcestershire Sauce with Cut Red Chillies
Trust the Anglophile Peranakan Chinese to adopt a Western sauce and spike it with chillies. It is an indispensable condiment to be served alongside deep-fried “choon phneah” (large, meat-and-vegetable-filled spring rolls) or “inchi kabin” (spice-marinated, deep-fried chicken).
The Nyonyas call the sauce “ang moh tau eu”, literally translated as “White Man’s Soy Sauce”. Worcestershire sauce can be bought in bottles, manufactured by British companies such as Lea & Perrins, but true-blue Nyonyas prefer to brew their own — boiling soy sauce and vinegared water with a combination of herbs and spices: star anise, cinnamon bark, cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns, mustard, chilli paste, and minced shallots.
Homemade Worcestershire sauce tends to have a mellower, gentler taste compared to the commercial variety. Cut red chillies, or explosively-hot chili padi, are added to satisfy the Peranakan’s predilection for spicy food. Worcestershire sauce is also often spooned into Nyonya consommé soups or baked macaroni casseroles for added flavour.
Where to enjoy Worcestershire Sauce with Cut Red Chillies:
Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery (One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Bibik’s Kitchen (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Ivy’s Nyonya Cuisine (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Winn’s Café (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Flower Mulan (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Chilli Oil for Curry Noodles
Penang-style curry mee comprises a bowl of noodles, shrimps, cuttlefish strips, and pig’s blood pudding, doused with coconut milk-based soup. One needs to add a spoonful of the aromatic chilli oil to complete the taste profile of the dish.
The chilli oil consists of dried and fresh chillies, shallots, garlic, and dried shrimps, blended into a paste and sautéed till aromatic. Usually, each bowl of curry mee served will have a soup spoon, containing the chilli oil, perched atop the noodles — to be stirred in by the diner. The chilli oil provides a dramatic boost of flavours to the bowl of noodles that lifts it out of the ordinary.
Where to enjoy Chilli Oil for Curry Noodles:
Duck Blood Curry Mee (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Hot Bowl White Curry Mee (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Taman Bukit Curry Mee (Bib Gourmand, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Air Itam Sister Curry Mee (Selected, MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025)
Malaysians of various creeds all have their own use for sauces — the indigenous Malays have a predilection for barbecuing seafood and meats, and serving these with a selection of raw herbs and vegetables, called “ulam”. Here, the various accompanying sauces function as dips, condiments, or direct flavouring agents.
The Chinese-Malaysians have a long culinary tradition where, oftentimes, the same amount of attention is paid to the preparation of the sauces as it is for the food they accompany: for example, the unctuous sauce gleaned from slow-cooking of goose-webs is made more concentrated, then served with the cooked viand as an extension of its intrinsic flavours.
The Indian-Malaysians tap into their own millennia-old culinary tradition, adorning their colourful thali or banana leaf meals with various sauces which either complement, or else delightfully contrast with, the various dishes they are served with.
A typical Malaysian culinary spread is often described as “rojak” — first used as a name for that delightful local fruit-and-vegetable salad, but now a slang word for an eclectic mix of languages or traditions. Just as Malaysians of various races blend together harmoniously in their common love for food, so, too, does the rojak sauce — an addictive concoction of Chinese dark soy sauce, Malay belacan, and Indian jaggery and chillies — enfold all in its delicious embrace, transcending identification with any particular race or culture.
What's sauce for the goose is indeed sauce for the gander.
