GEORGE TOWN, May 11 — Malaysian food is often a result of cross cultures and the way different ethnic groups prepare the same kind of food in their own unique way.

Take the Penang pasembur which is basically known as “Indian rojak” elsewhere in Malaysia.

Yet, here, it is vastly different from those found outside of this state.

In Penang, when we refer to rojak we mean the one made with fruits and a thick, black sweet sauce while the pasembur has deep-fried fritters, julienned vegetables and a thick, rich orange-coloured spicy sauce. Both are tea time snacks.

The Penang pasembur is an Indian Muslim dish that is often served along with the mamak mee goreng (Indian Muslim fried yellow noodles) as a sort of appetiser.

Many mee goreng stalls offer pasembur too due to the similar sauce that they use in both dishes.

Of course, due to the popularity of the dish as a snack or even as a meal on its own, there are also specialty pasembur stalls in various food courts and hawker complexes.

These stalls can easily be spotted because they are the ones where trays of deep fried prawn fritters, deep fried thin crispy fritters, deep fried bean curd and every deep fried food imaginable are stacked up for customers to pick and choose.

These are the industrious pasembur stalls who cleverly prepare more choices for their customers.

A normal plate of pasembur will have a layer of cucumber strips, turnip (mangkuang) strips and blanched bean sprouts on the bottom.

On top of the mixed vegetables, bite-sized deep fried bean curd, crispy fritters, prawn fritters, boiled potatoes and a hard boiled egg are arranged to create a small pile of mostly golden morsels of food.

Spoonfuls of the thick, rich gravy are then poured on top of the mixture.

The gravy is a concoction made with sweet potatoes, chillies, a tiny bit of tamarind extract and most importantly, finely ground roasted peanuts but the flavour varies between stalls as some use different ingredients or have their own added “special” ingredient.

Despite all the variations, the gravy is usually sweet, thick and spicy, and has the fragrance of the crunchy ground peanuts.

There is also a Chinese-style pasembur that is called cheh-hoo which in Hokkien literally means “raw fish.”

The gravy, though also made from almost the same ingredients, is lighter and not as spicy with more of a reddish tint to it.

Although it is called cheh-hoo, the Chinese version of the pasembur does not contain any actual raw fish but it has boiled cuttlefish on top of the usual prawn fritters, boiled potatoes, egg and julienned vegetables.

Here are 10 pasembur stalls to try out in Penang:

1)  Jalan Mount Erskine hawker centre
GPS: 5.451019,100.301936
Time: 12pm-5pm

2) Genting coffee shop, Lorong Delima 6
GPS: 5.38291,100.303878
Time: 12pm – 4pm

3) Cecil Street Market food court, Cecil Street
GPS: 5.407597,100.328758
Time: 12pm – 5pm

4) Batu Lanchang market food court, Lintang Batu Lanchang
GPS: 5.391452,100.30627
Time: 12pm – 5pm

5) Stall at Union Street
GPS: 5.418742,100.342898
Time: 12pm – 6pm

6) Jalan Kurau, Perai
GPS: 5.38445,100.392664
Time: 12pm – 5pm

7) Gurney Drive hawker centre
GPS: 5.440211,100.308663
Time: 5pm – 11pm

8) Kompleks Makanan Medan Renong, Jalan Tun Syed Sheh Barakbah
GPS: 5.4227,100.340637
Time: 5pm – 11pm

9) Padang Brown hawker centre, Jalan Perak
GPS: 5.414507,100.316548
Time: 2pm – 11pm

10) Edgecumbe Road Pasembur, Kompleks Makanan Persiaran Gurney
GPS: 5.434288,100.314977
Time: 9am – 7pm