Malt Vinegar ...... with fried food ,,, yummy

Malt Vinegar .... not into the Malaysian scene

It is not about our soya sauce, chilly sauce, sambal belacan, curry sauce etc etc .. ..... but an equivalent and it is very British in tradition .... Malt Vinegar; ....and indeed a very surprising phenomena that it is not a popular or rather unknown sauce amongst the locals on the  Malaysian scene. Yes, the topic is about a  condiment .... but what is it? 

A condiment is an edible substance, (such as a simple sauce) which is used to be added to some foods to impart a particular flavor, enhance its flavor. In our local Malaysian context, examples would be ...soya sauce, ketchup, cut chillies in soya sauce, sambal belachan etc etc

a close view of the typical English Fish and Chips

Malt Vinegar and lots of salt....... goes well with "Fish and Chips" (kind of a a British classic.... in terms of food) ....... the English loves it .... and I too love the dish; I have even got to acquire the habit of eating it with Malt Vinegar ..... it taste good

It has been reported, normally in the British context or from the perspective of the English culture........ saying that if you've ever been to a place with fish and chips on the menu, malt vinegar is a good condiment to know and love.

Besides being a versatile condiment in the British fried food world, malt vinegar makes a great gastrique or simple salad dressing mixed with olive oil and fresh herbs.

........... but the point is ....... what does all these mean in the Malaysian context? .... I have asked around a number of people; and by and large they don't seem to be aware of the stuff .."malt vinegar" ...... someone even asked me back "What are its health benefits?"

Fish and Chips, I agree is a British tradition & the use of malt vinegar is a classic (even, Malt vinegar is a British thing)...... but the point is why have we not pick up this flavour or habit?

(But before moving on, it will be interesting to read an article on the roots of fish and chips ... and it looks like it may not be that British after all  -BBC News - The unlikely origin of fish and chips (click here, to read more) ..... ).

The British influence onto our local scene has been very substantive .... finding its way into many dimensions ...... not forgetting that British traders have been around the region as far back as the 17th century .... in the subsequent period to even colonise the region 

...... but again to say .... I find it very fascinating, if malt vinegar is such a tradition, as to be almost "an English or British thing" ....... how come such a eating habit never found its way here?

The English... even put malt vinegar ... on fired eggs, fried chicken.... and lots other fried food ..... I have tasted food in such a way, and have to say it is yummy with malt vinegar.

We have had , and still do, been sending ourselves  to study in the UK  in large numbers and our tourism traffic to UK is in no way a small number ..... but still it seems that the habit of fried food with malt vinegar is still not around .....

Our restaurants, including fish and chips joints, don't really , may be at very very few places, offer this stuff to go with your food ... it is not  in thing here .... and its availability at supermarkets are in no way wide spread.

Perhaps, our restaurants ... have to take note of this ..... we do get quite large numbers of British tourists ... and there may be a need for them to also offer malt vinegar with their food - for the sake of better customer satisfaction ................. not to forget that french fries with malt vinegar is yummy (take my word for that).

We didn't really pick up malt vinegar into our array of condiments for our food .... is one aspect ... but the point, which I don't have an answer to is ........ British were so long in the region... their influences ..... they brought the HP sauce (again a very British thing) ..... but malt vinegar which is extremely British, never made its presence here in any big way.  

Otherwise ..... we might have had included malt vinegar into our array of condiments.

And in ending, I wonder how well the Chinese dish below goes with Malt Vinegar?

A Chinese dish .... fried fish .... I can't imagine applying Malt Vinegar as it sauce instead of say some spicy sauce.