Having once visited Malaysia, I recognised Malaysian food was tasty, and, owing to the multicultural nature of the population, multi-faceted. But, until yesterday, I didn’t realize how exciting and entertaining Malaysian food preparation could be.

Yesterday I was hopeful to be one of the travel writers and other travel industry professionals received by Tourism Malaysia to delight in a dinner presentation in Vancouver that showcased Malaysian cuisine. It was a lead-in to the Malaysia Truly Asian Kitchen 2008 participation at “EAT! Vancouver,” the largest food show in Canada, to be held at BC Place Stadium from tomorrow through Sunday (May 23 to 25, 2008).

In addition to feeding on nasi lemak, chicken satay, roti canai, char koay teow, mamak mi goreng and several other delicacies (the names of which I didn’t place down because I was too focused on devouring them), we were fascinated by the performances of two top chefs who had jetted in from Kuala Lumpur.

First, Chef Mior Sazali gave a spectacular demonstration of teh tarik — tea pulling — pouring spicy Malaysian tea with incredible skill and agility. He never spilled a drop, even when pouring behind his back, standing on one foot. Chef Mior has been winning teh tarik competitions since 1994.

Muhamad B. Arshad, better known as Chef Matt, the Flying Chef, then ostentated his talents in tossing roti canai bread dough. Evidently they have dough tossing competitions in Kuala Lumpur, and Chef Matt frequently wins them, twirling roti dough as high as seven feet into the air, and catching it gracefully. We later loved tasting roti canai, but I don’t reckon it was made from dough that Chef Matt had cast aside. The traditional Malaysian flatbread is made from ghee, stout, egg, flour and water that is mixed, kneaded, flattened, oiled, and folded repeatedly before baking.

Malaysians are passionate about food, and their cross-cultural cuisine features flavors from China, India, Thailand and Portugal.