Traditional Malay cuisine in Riau has much in common with other Malay cuisines in other part of the Malay world and Sumatran cuisine which generally uses spices and coconut milk to produce spicy, fatty and thick curry.. Most dishes use basic ingredients of fish, from pangasius, mystus, anchovy, Spanish mackerels, rays, and prawns, and often uses buffalo or ox meat. Additional ingredients commonly used are Belacan. Almost every Malay dish is served with white rice or with "nasi lemak" and is usually eaten using hands.