Last Tuesday i went to Malaysia for a few days. Predominantly to eat, but also to have a look around. Aside from the tour on the first day I was there, most of the exploring I did was in the biggest mall I have ever been in, and it wasn’t even the biggest there. I did wind up eating a little bit of street food, but for the most part I ate food from stalls in the malls, or from the few food courts I went to. There is a lot of Malaysia I didn’t see, hell there is a lot of Kuala Lumpur I didn’t see. That being said, I wasn’t bored. There is a lot to do, even in a couple of built up blocks.
But you’re here for the food.
On the first night I got in, I was tired and decided to eat dinner at the hotel. The menu was split into a few different sections, including Malaysian, Asian and Western. On the first night I had Hivana and Pad Kway Teow from the restaurant. It was really good. Hivana is marinated raw fish, and a few other things in a pile. The Pad Kway Teow was also pretty good.
The next morning I had my first free breakfast buffet in the hotel. This was pretty awesome. I had this everyday, but I am only going to mention it here. It was the most diverse buffet I have ever seen. It had food to cater to almost everyone, and a fleet of fantastic staff who would replace things as soon as they required it. Every morning I had congee, like porridge except occasionally more savoury, with shallots, soy sauce, and a few other bits and pieces. This was followed by a plateful of the plethora of other food. Puffs, dahl curry, rendang, samosas, beef sausages, turkey strips, hokkien chicken noodles, chocolate croissants, doughnuts, the list was pretty big. I finished this off with fruit, mostly melons but occasionally pawpaws and a few other things.
After breakfast on the first day was the food tour. I found it very quickly i love tours with a tour guide, especially this sort. Geoff, the tour guide, led us through Little India to start with. The other two people on the tour, Vicky and Lana, took more photos than I did as we walked. And it was about half an hour before our first food stop. This was at a small tent with a tiny, mobile kitchen in it, that Geoff told us was their version of a hipster cafe. We had tea in a bag, which was really good, and nasi lemak. Much to Geoff’s surprise I have eaten this before (there is a Malaysian restaurant in Buranda, that does genuinely do authentic Malaysian food, it’s really good). We had another drink, before continuing our trek through Little India, and more lessons on the history of Little India. We walked through a walkway full of flowers, garlands being made for all sorts of purposes, before being led to a fruit shop and told all about the different types of things used in traditional cooking, I had never seen pandan leaves before. Then we wound up at a small, open kitchen that makes street food for tea time, mid afternoon. As we were part of a tour we got to eat some when we were there. It was pretty good, and fantastic to have just cooked. This was followed by a visit to a kitchen in a place where all of the vendors were once using street carts, but had to move somewhere (there was a reason for this but I have forgotten). As Geoff had known this guy before hand, he had become part of the tour. The food here was some chicken cooked in a special sauce, and then seven different curries poured over some rice. Most people only got two or three, but as we were on the tour we got all seven. from there we wandered through more of Little India, to an Ashram, and then from the serenity of the outside of the Ashram we went to the train station, to head to China town. We wandered off the ordinary path briefly and found a lane that is slowly being turned into a collection of interesting food places. The one that we went to was a little ice cream place that had two flavours. Pandan ice cream and chocolate ice cream. We all got pandan. It was fantastic. After spending some time in the alley looking at the art, which was also incredible, we wandered through the china town markets, past the watch sellers, and all of the other stalls, turning down a dark alley we wound up at a noodle place, where they made the noodles in the building next door. They looked like ramen noodles but tasted incredible. This was where we parted ways and I went back to my hotel.
There was a lot more food, but none of it was anything I hadn’t eaten before. Some of it was just a better version, such as the roti and the beef rendang, some of it was an interesting version, such as the gelati I had (I am not sure how they managed it, but the plaza I got it from was this fantastically dodgy place and the gelati tasted like no one gave a shit when they made it).
I also did manage to have some durian pancakes before I left. I had them after I checked out of the hotel. I hunted down the vending machine cafe and got a can of coffee and sat down to eat my durian pancakes. The pancakes looked like they were past their used by date, the good thing about durian is that this does not alter the flavour. Maybe I should be careful, I thought as I ate the first one. Maybe I should only eat two, as I finished off the fourth one of six. They went. And then I went to Torikin for some yaki tori for some hatsu before I left.
My favourite part of the whole trip though was when I was five Malaysian ringgits short of a meal, and their card machine wasn’t working. I asked could I race to the hotel and get it and the guy very pleasantly said yes. I raced back to my room, got five ringgits and then raced back down to give him the money. I don’t think he expected to see me again and the look of surprise on his face was great. He waved to me every time he saw me after that.
I would also like to say that the cleaning lady in the hotel was amazing. Every time I saw here, she asked how I was doing and if I’d called home and was everything ok there. We would chat for a minute or two every time we saw each other. Not about anything specific, she was just making sure I was ok. It was great.
Eat well, I am glad to be home.
Bren's Food Adventures 