Food Trends in Malaysia for the year 2017

Food is an ever-growing industry with new chefs and new restaurants popping up at each corner. Just like fashion and style, food has its fair share of trending topics. From new inspirations to new ingredients : here are some of the latest food trends of 2017.

Samyang Noodles : Spicy Korean Noodles

How can we even thing of writing about food trends without mentioning the infamous Samyang Spicy Korean Noodles. The Spicy Korean Noodle challenge became an instant hit in 2015. It gained a following on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. With quite possibly everyone doing this internet challenge. The challenge was to finish one packet of the spicy noodles as fast as you can without taking a drink of water.

Needless to say : many people failed, while some passed. Ever since then, the noodles have been coming out with more variations : curry noodles, cheese noodles and even a cold version. But the craziest one to come out earlier this year was definitely the Nuclear Spicy Korean Noodles (up to 8,000 Scoville units). It is now the spiciest ramen noodles in the world.

Nasi Lemak Inspired Foods

As Malaysians, we take pride in our national dish : nasi lemak. It is our pride and joy. It is the true classical authentic Malaysian food. And because of our growing love for it, we have managed to find new ways of incorporating it.

Firstly, you have the Nasi Lemak KitKat. Yes, a chocolate bar flavoured with nasi lemak. This was late last year when KitKat opened a pop up store in Mid Valley MegaMall. I tried it myself, it was delicious! It was more of the coconut flavours with a kick of spicy at the end. A great combination if you ask me.

Secondly, the Nasi Lemak burger. Making the sambal into a sauce and incorporating a beautiful “telur mata”(sunny-side up egg) into the burger. It sounds like it shouldn’t work : but it does. 

Avocado Everything

The insta-famous Avocado. Avocados gained so much hype back in January because of all the Instagrammers. They were consistently posting about their avocado toast. Then came about avocado themed foods like avocado paste, avocado pasta, avocado burgers. And what shook the world is when an avocado-themed restaurant actually opened up in both New York City and Amsterdam.

Where they serve avocados as the buns to their burgers, avocados are the topping to their meats and so much more. Who knew that the humble avocado could gain so much fame? Sadly, they're so limited here in Malaysia. Either than or they are extremely pricy.

Raw Food

In the past two years, veganism and a plant-based diet has been gaining a huge following. People are opting their meats for more plant-friendly foods. If you didn’t know, the vegan lifestyle consists of a diet where no animal products are consumed.

This includes milk, cheese, yogurt and a bunch of other foods. Since the rise of some famous vegan youtubers and vegan bodybuilders, a lot of people have been converting to a vegan-based lifestyle. And what comes with an increase of vegans in the population is more vegan-based foods. Lots of restaurants have a vegan menu or are establishing a more vegan-friendly ambiance.