Meat, Grills & Lauk

How Many Calories in Lala Masak?

Lala Masak is stir-fried clams cooked with garlic, cili padi or ginger, oyster sauce and a generous pour of oil at your average hawker stall.

250kcal / 1 hawker plate (approx 400g shell-on clams, ~150g edible serving)
A standard hawker plate of Lala Masak comes in at around 250 calories for the edible portion, which is roughly 150g of clam meat and sauce from a 400g shell-on serving. The clam meat itself is actually quite lean at about 74 calories per 100g cooked, but the cooking oil alone accounts for around 136 calories, so the shells are doing you a favour by keeping portion sizes honest. Protein sits at 18g, which is decent for a seafood side dish.

Nutrition facts

Per 1 hawker plate (approx 400g shell-on clams, ~150g edible serving) (150g)AmountPer 100g
Calories250 kcal167 kcal
Protein18 g12 g
Carbs8 g5 g
Fat15 g10 g

Where the calories come from

Lala clam meat (cooked, ~100g yield from 400g shell-on)100g
74 kcal
Cooking oil (hawker stir fry, ~1.2 tbsp)15g
136 kcal
Sauce (oyster sauce, soy sauce, cili padi/ginger, garlic, spring onion)50g
40 kcal

The real talk

Lala are small saltwater clams and this dish is a Malaysian hawker staple. You order a plate, you get a heap of shells, you dig out the little nuggets of clam meat and you mop up the sauce with whatever carbs you ordered alongside. The clam meat itself is genuinely low calorie and high protein, very similar to other shellfish. The 250 calories here is a ballpark estimate, honestly, because reliable nutrition data for hawker-cooked lala is thin. Different stalls use wildly different amounts of oil and sauce, so treat this as a reasonable middle-ground guess rather than a precise number.

What actually swings the calories up or down is the oil. The hawker version uses around 1.2 tablespoons of oil in the wok, which contributes about 136 of those 250 calories. Kam Heong lala, which adds dried prawns, curry leaves and more sauce, runs closer to 300 calories. Sambal lala pushes to around 320 because sambal paste is oil-heavy by nature. The halia version with ginger and spring onion is the lightest at about 220 calories because the sauce is simpler and the oil tends to be more restrained. If you are eating lala as a side to white rice, the lala itself is not your problem. Watch the rice portion and whatever sauce you pour over it.

Lala Masak variants, ranked by calories

VariantCaloriesNotes
Lala masak halia (ginger and spring onion)220 kcalLighter sauce, less chili oil, ginger and spring onion base; roughly matches babe.com.my recipe data
Lala masak cili padi (bird's eye chili)250 kcalStandard hawker version with cili padi, garlic, oyster sauce; moderate oil
Kam heong lala (dried shrimp, curry leaves, chili)300 kcalRicher sauce with dried prawns and curry leaves adds more calories; Huang Kitchen reports 224-277 kcal in home portions
Sambal lala (with sambal paste)320 kcalSambal paste is oil-heavy; adds ~70 kcal vs plain stir-fry version

How to eat it lighter

Common questions

How many calories in Lala Masak?
A hawker plate of Lala Masak is around 250 calories for the edible portion (roughly 150g of clam meat and sauce from a 400g shell-on plate). The clam meat is only about 74 calories per 100g cooked; the cooking oil is what pushes it up to 250.
What exactly is Lala Masak?
Lala is a type of small saltwater clam common at Malaysian seafood stalls. Masak just means cooked. You get a plate of clams stir-fried with garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce and usually either cili padi or ginger. You crack them open at the table and eat the little piece of clam meat inside.
Is Lala Masak a good choice if I am trying to lose weight?
The clam meat itself is great: high protein, low fat, low calorie. The issue is the stir-fry oil used at the hawker stall. If you can go for the masak halia version or ask for less oil, it sits around 220 calories and 18g protein, which is a solid side dish. Just do not drown your rice in the leftover sauce.

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See all Meat, Grills & Lauk calories, ranked →

Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical hawker or kopitiam serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

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