Must Try Local Dishes in Cameron Highlands
Part of the Cameron Highlands travel guide — see every topic in All Cameron Highlands Guides.
The Cameron Highlands eats differently from the rest of Malaysia for one reason: it is cold. Evening temperatures of fifteen degrees make hot communal food genuinely appealing, and steamboat — a bubbling pot on the table into which you cook your own ingredients — has become the region's signature meal. Alongside it sit two other threads: South Indian food from the Tamil communities who have worked the tea estates since the 1930s, and colonial-era scones and cream teas.
Steamboat
The highlands' defining meal. A pot of broth — often divided, with a clear stock on one side and a spicy tom yam on the other — is set over a burner in the middle of the table, and you cook your own from a spread of meat, seafood, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms, noodles and the local vegetables, which are the point: the Cameron Highlands grows the cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms and greens that go into it. Restaurants across Tanah Rata and Brinchang do it, typically 35–60 ringgit a head for a buffet.
Indian food
The tea estates were worked from the 1930s by Tamil labourers brought from South India, and their descendants form a substantial part of the population. The result is that Tanah Rata has a run of excellent, inexpensive South Indian restaurants doing banana-leaf rice, thosai, roti canai, fish head curry and thali sets at 10–20 ringgit. Several have been on the same street for decades. It is the best-value eating in the highlands and considerably better than the tourist-oriented restaurants around it.
Scones, tea and strawberries
The colonial inheritance. Cream teas with scones and jam are served at the Smokehouse and several of the old bungalow hotels, at 30–60 ringgit for a set — more about the setting than the baking. The tea estates' own cafes serve BOH and Bharat tea with the plantation view, which is the better version and much cheaper. Strawberry everything — jam, ice cream, milkshakes, chocolate-dipped, cake — is sold everywhere, at prices that reflect the novelty rather than the fruit.
The market and the everyday
The Kea Farm market above Brinchang and the Brinchang night market at weekends sell the region's produce alongside street food: grilled corn, sweet potato, honey, jams, fresh strawberries and the vegetables the highlands grows. Local Chinese coffee shops in Tanah Rata and Brinchang do standard Malaysian breakfasts. Fresh mushroom dishes appear widely, since mushroom farming is a highlands industry. And a hot drink at fifteen degrees, after a week in lowland Malaysia, is a genuine pleasure rather than a habit.
Must Try Local Dishes at a glance
| Signature meal | Steamboat — RM 35–60 a head, buffet style |
|---|---|
| Best value | South Indian restaurants in Tanah Rata, RM 10–20 |
| Why Indian | Tamil estate communities since the 1930s |
| Colonial survival | Cream teas and scones, RM 30–60 a set |
| Local produce | Cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, strawberries, honey |
| Markets | Kea Farm roadside strip; Brinchang night market at weekends |