Some believe that satay was invented by Chinese immigrants who sold the skewered barbecue meat on the street. Their argument is that the word satay means “triple stacked” (三疊) in Amoy dialect, and indeed, satay is often made with three flat lozenges of meat.
It is also possible that it was invented by Malay or Javanese street vendors influenced by the Arabian kebab. The explanation draws on the fact that satay only became popular after the early 19th century, also the time of the arrival of a major influx of Arab immigrants in the region. The satay meats popularly used by Indonesians and Malaysians, mutton and beef, are also traditionally favoured by Arabs and are not as popular in China as are pork and chicken.
Malaysia
Known as sate in Malay (and pronounced similar to the English), it can be found throughout every state in Malaysia. Besides restaurants that serve satays, one can find hawkers selling satay in food courts and Pasar malam. While the popular kinds of satay are usually beef and chicken satays, different regions of Malaysia have developed their own unique variations of satay.
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This is a chinese owned satay stall situated in Glutton Square along Jalan Shahbandar. It is non-halal, it served only pork satay (sate). On busy days you will see 3 people manning the stall, the owner, his wife and his father. On other days, it’s just the owner and his dad.
Sometimes during festivities, the owner gets orders of hundreds of sticks per order, so if you don’t mind waiting you can come back later to pick up your food. Here you can see the owner busy grilling the satay over the open fire. (Pardon the smoke screen, no nice angle and the road was also very busy).
Another view of my order of 15 satays getting prepared. They still use the convential method of charcoal fire instead of the electric ones, cause of the smell once the satay is cooked differ with the methods of cooking.
Their stall isn’t very big, just a simple street side stall, a charcoal oven, some tables behind the stall for putting their raw satay and ketupats. This is one of the trays where they placed the raw skewered meat before they are taken to the fire. The oil that you see coming out from the satays are actually spices mixture (which includes ginger, thats why its yellow).
To complete the satay combo, you can never do without the ketupat (a type of rice dumpling that is wrapped in a woven palm pouch which is then boiled). Some other stalls have the option of adding shredded onions or cucumber in addition to the satay and ketupat. The owner has the last 3 pieces of ketupat in his basket. Business must be really good that day.
This is satay gravy. Its also called the spicy peanut sauce dip or peanut gravy. Its main ingredients are crushed peanuts, chilli powder, lemon grass, onions and garlic. This particular stall gravy is thick. Some other stalls have gravy that are so liquid that you can drink them with a straw. Thick gravy means when you dip your satay in it, the crushed peanuts is coated to your satay sticks and the taste is simply heavenly.
A simple fare of satay dish consist all the protein, carbohydrates and vitamins you need (not forgetting the sinful cholesterol levels that comes with it).
