Kuala Lumpur

June 28-30 & July 8-9, 2015

Our travels in Vietnam were bookended with a bit of time in Kuala Lumpur, a city we previously visited in 2010. This time round we had friends in residence, and they guided us to drinks by a 33rd floor pool on our arrival, followed by banana leaf curries for dinner. If memory serves, the dinner venue was Devi's Corner. Their full menu included a range of mock meats and vege curries, but sadly these were unavailable when we turned up late on a Sunday night. It's a good thing their basic vege plate is so impressive! We were treated to mountains of rice, as much dahl as we could handle, chilli pickles, milky cucumber chunks and an irresistible pink fry-up that we think was bitter melon (though it wasn't actually bitter at all, more sweet and silky like eggplant). While many other diners ate their meals adeptly with their hands, we were grateful for the cutlery available at the table. I was also pleased by the lime barley drink recommended by my friend, almost like a tangy bubble tea with its chewy grains.

In a third episode of lucky accommodation location, we were within walking distance of Blue Boy, a food court that caught our fancy those five years ago. I couldn't stomach fried food so early in the day but Michael and Clamps gave it a good go. Between them they put away a nasi lemak, fried noodle, kopi o ais, and a bowl of assorted battered veges - it all lived up to Michael's fond memories. Only one staff member was proficient in English during Blue Boy's quiet morning rotation; his assistance, accompanied by a bit of pointing, served us just fine given the all-vegetarian options. (Note that there is egg and dairy here though!)

After exploring the Islamic Arts Museum (see a few light, airy photos in the slideshow at the end of this post), we wandered Chinatown seeking lunch. Plan A failed but the Happy Cow website on my local friend's data-enabled phone turned up a fine Plan B in Wan Fo Yuan. It was a little smoky and claustrophobic but provided a revolving tabletop of fine mock meats, which we'd picked from pastel-coloured albums of over-exposed photos. We disagreed whether the pepper fish, claypot or spicy beans, eggplant and okra were best... that is, until the satay sticks came out. Friends, they were THE BEST.

We hit Brickfields for our second dinner, seeking a veg*n Indian meal. I didn't realise we'd been to Gopala before, and was overwhelmed all over again by the 150 items on their menu. Michael and Clamps ordered up big, sampling roti canai, mushroom "65" (more pink batter!) and two kinds of fried rice. My paneer butter masala was specially recommended by the staff but only so-so, in spite of some nice spices. I was way more into their orange lassi.

We circled back on veg Indian food for the final night of our holiday, recognising Sangeetha from the street. With another long menu, we couldn't help ordering large - Milo ice, lime mint cooler and a fiery ginger lemon cool, palak paneer, breads, and a spectacular triumvirate of mushroom masala dosa, chilli gobi fry and veg manchurian. It left no room for even looking at their neon-hued sweets cabinet.

Already nostalgic for cơm chay, Clamps sussed out a serve-yourself food court buffet for breakfast before check-out (though we don't know its name, it was located at street level next to the Ocean 77 Hotel on Petaling St). It was an omnivorous spread so Michael and Clamps picked through the options cautiously, nevertheless creating sizable plates of food.

Instead, I settled on a couple of fried sweets from a nearby market stall.

Our final KL shout-out must go to Be Lohas, an organic health-centred vegetarian cafe located in the airport (level 2, KLIA 2 - outside security). Twice we fueled up there while waiting to board a plane. Their mini hot dogs and soy cheese toast fingers were as delightful as their larger meals were satisfying - Clamps was very nearly defeated by his claypot with noodles! While their dishes had a distinctly macrobiotic edge, they weren't short on flavour - my avocado smoothie was the first one to taste more of the fruit than of sugar and Michael gushed about his spicy soy milk laksa. I stretched out my Ramadan-special nasi lemak for some time, browsing between the brown rice, crunchy coleslaw, and curried yuba, before finishing with fruit tea and a couple of dates.

Though we didn't spend as long exploring Kuala Lumpur as we did in Vietnam we enjoyed the city's distinctly different approach to veg*n eating. The thick sauces and curry noodles even suit the Melbourne winter we've returned to.

April 8, 2010: Kuala Lumpur III

On our final full day in Malaysia, Michael and I took a cooking class!  After eating so much great food round town, I was itching to learn how to make some of it for myself.  And we could not have learned in a more pleasant environment.  Our class at LaZaT had just four students that morning, meaning lots of opportunities to observe up close, ask questions and get one-on-one advice on our techniques.  The kitchens had a lovely open design, our dirty pans were whisked away for someone else to clean and, most important of all, our teachers Ana and Saadiah were ten kinds of terrific.

LaZaT classes are not generally vegetarian but they were kind enough to adapt the day's recipes for Michael and I, having an alternative prepared for each of the meats that the other students cooked with.

Our first dish of the day was wontons.  This had Michael and I a little nervous for different reasons.  I'm not much of a deep-fryer (though I've no problem eating the outcome), while Michael prefers to avoid fiddly tasks like wrapper-folding.

It could not be denied, though, that Saadiah's chicken and prawn wontons looked rather good.  So we gave it a shot, using firm tofu for the bulk of the filling.

Saadiah rightly noticed Michael's fine chopping skills, and he actually did a pretty good job of the folding too.  I managed the hot oil well enough, ultimately frying the most wontons of all.

The tofu filling was flavoured with spring onions, garlic, fresh water chestnut, soy sauce and sesame oil.  I'd never seen a fresh water chestnut before - it tastes so different to the canned ones!  Their distinctiveness got a bit lost in this filling but I'd love to find and try cooking with them again.

Our second course was san chou bau, which Saadiah demonstrated using soaked bean curd skin instead of the usual crab meat.

With the bean curd skin already soaked, this was a super speedy dish.  I reckon it'd make a brilliant weeknight dinner in summer.

Rather than moving on to the main dish we next prepared our dessert, bubur cha cha.  It's a rich pudding of noodles (the coloured strips, like the ones in cendol), sago, yam and sweet potato cooked in sweetened coconut milk that's infused with a pandan leaf.

Like rice pudding, this is the kind of dessert that I would not have loved a few years ago and consequently I don't tend cook such things at home.  More recently these starchy puddings have crept up on me.  In fact when the time came, I think I was the only person round the table to gobble down my entire bowlful!

Our main course was char koay teow.  Instead of the fish cake and prawns used by the others, Michael and I were supplied with mock chicken pieces.  Nice!

Though it's a simple fried-noodle dish, we learned a few new things here too:

• the wok should be shifted on and off the high heat regularly to ensure nothing burns
• cracking an egg with one hand!
• pouring the egg into the centre of the wok and piling the noodles on top while it sets
• that clever wrist manoeuvre that tosses the noodles around in the pan (well, we observed it several times, both of us struggling to replicate the movement ourselves)

It's another delicious dish that I'd love to make more often at home.

With the char koay teow cooked, we had plenty of time to chat over the fruits of our (and the LaZaT assistants') labours.

Of course this meant that we weren't hungry for quite some hours afterwards.  Late in the afternoon we did at least dig into these curious fruits, which we'd picked up at the Petaling markets the previous day.

Nothing about this fruit was what I expected - beneath the red skin the flesh was most similar to an apple, though the flavour reminded me of carambola/starfruit.

Eventually we did develop sufficient appetite for dinner and walked on over to Pure Mind vegetarian restaurant.

Compared to most of our other meals in Malaysia, Pure Mind was a little more expensive (with mains running from RM12-25 ~ $4.10-8.60) but it probably also had the most refined setting.

I chose the deep-fried gluten balls in a pineapple basket (RM15 ~ $5.20).  For me, this was all about that pineapple - it's rare that I eat it so fresh and sweet.

Michael went for the mah po tau fu (RM12 ~ $4.10), which was both delicious and gratifyingly similar to our home-cooked version.

We walked back to our hotel - content with our meal, our day, our entire holiday - but also ready to return home.  I was looking forward to some more familiar home cooking in my kitchen (and an Aussie cafe breakfast!), while also inspired to bring back some of the flavours and styles I'd been tasting for the first time.

April 7, 2010: Kuala Lumpur II

On Wednesday morning we decided to see a little more of KL via the hop-on hop-off bus. At RM38 (~$12.90) for a 24-hour ticket, it's priced very much for the tourists without being outrageously expensive.  (However, if you're only planning a couple of stops in your day, other forms of public transport are a lot cheaper.)  We made our first stop on Bintang Walk, a densely packed strip of shopping malls.  None of the merchandise took our fancy but the air-conditioning was a relief from the unrelenting sticky air outside and of course, Michael is always up for a coffee.

We checked out one of the kopitiams.  At this one the wait staff didn't seem to speak English, yet it was still easy to order - we were presented with single-use paper menus where we marked what we wanted.  Michael's Iced Blended White Coffee was cold, it was coffee and it was RM5.90 (~$2.00) so it was perfect.

Keen for something refreshing and game for something new, I tried an Iced Cucumber Sour Plum (RM3.50 ~ $1.20).  It was certainly cooling and definitely refreshing in its way but frankly, it was not my kinda drink.  Oh well.

Kaya toast (RM2.20 ~ $0.70) is my kinda snack though - especially when the toast is crispy with a little butter on the outside.

Mall-trekking further, we gradually made our way to our lunch destination, an all-vegetarian food court called Blue Boy.  When we got to what seemed like the right address, we hit the apartment block pictured above.  It didn't look promising or welcoming.  But thank the Supreme Master we bothered to venture round the side, because there it was!

Hot, dazed and relieved, we wandered in and found ourselves a table.

Before we'd even had time to assess the options or the procedure we were greeted by a friendly staff member, enquiring what we'd like to eat.  I hadn't a clue!

Michael, however, knew he was after some char kway teow and our host had it sorted in minutes. This was a tangy, noodle-y treat - rich with tofu, tamarind, soy sauce and just a hint of chilli.  If anything, the heat could have been turned up a little higher, but at RM4 (~ $1.40) you couldn't really complain.

To me he asked, "Can I make a recommendation?  Have the curry noodle.  Can you take chilli?"  I meekly replied that I could take a little chilli and went with his tip.  Naturally he was right on the money - the curry noodle soup (RM4 ~ $1.40) was tremendous, with a lip-smacking medley of veges, tofu puffs and mock meat slices amongst the noodles and broth.  The chilli, I could handle.  Just.

With a few spare tables dotted around, we didn't feel rushed.  Michael finished my curry noodles and I prodded the unusual-looking lime in my iced tea (RM2 ~ $0.70).  All it took was the first motion of gathering our bags and another staff member was upon us, sorting out payment at the table.  Too easy!  Well, it was once we'd found the place.

After a little more wandering, we returned to the bus and travelled onwards to Chinatown and the Petaling market.

The market is best known for its fake designer gear and pirated DVDs, which the stall holders showed off to anyone within earshot.

We resisted the merchandise, concentrating on the fruit...


... and the cendol!

These king-sized cups of cendol supplied some much-needed fluid, as well as the novelty of canned corn amongst the beans and noodles.  

Eventually I was utterly wandered out.  Unable to drag myself to the nearest park, we ended up just sitting and resting on a small patch of grass by the side of the road.  Once the clock ticked past 5pm we agreed that we could legitimately eat an early dinner at a nearby vegetarian restaurant, Fatt Yan.

This turned out to be another Supreme Master establishment, and we were treated to another friendly and chatty staff member on the floor.  Like our host at lunch, he knew what we needed to order better than we did, lining us up with spicy chicken rice and Mongolian rice (RM5.50 ~ $1.90 each).  This was exactly what I wanted to eat at that moment, filling and a little spicy without being excessively rich. As we finished our meal we heard a little of our host's past travels to Australia and he even brought out one of the 'Chinese lemons' that had been used in my honey-lemon drink - it was just like the limes in my lunchtime iced tea.

Exhausted and well fed, we returned once again to the bus.  Following its loopy path slowly back to our hotel, we glimpsed some of the attractions we'd be missing out on - the National Museum, the Bird Park, Titiwangsa - all of them quiet or closed this late in the day.

April 6, 2010: Kuala Lumpur

Our second day in KL started early. Very early. Before we left Australia, I'd booked us in for a half-day birding tour with Lee from Endemic Guides. This meant a hotel pick-up well before dawn and a speedy breakfast of last night's Indian dessert purchases. KL is a sprawling, developed city, so we had to drive the best part of two hours to get to our site for the day - Bukit Rengit and Krau Forest Reserve to the east of the city. My main aim for the day was to get a good look at a hornbill and, within 10 seconds of getting out of the car, an oriental pied hornbill landed right in front of us. Amazing.



What followed was a stunning morning of birding, with around 40 new species for me. Some of the highlights were:

Greater racket-tailed drongo



White-throated kingfisher



White-rumped shama



Blue-throated and blue-tailed bee-eaters




Crested serpent-eagle

The three most impressive birds of the day also happen to be three birds that I couldn't find public domain images (all the above bird images are via wikimedia commons, the others are Cindy's) for, so you'll have to click through if you want to see a 10cm woodpecker, a striking black and red broadbill or the smallest raptor in the world.

By the time we'd flushed some black magpies from the roadside forest, our birding time had run out (at this stage the heat was really starting to hit us, so it was probably just as well) and it was back in the car to return to the city. I know few of our readers are likely to feel the urge to go birding in Malaysia, but just in case, I'd highly recommend Endemic Guides - Lee was an outstanding birder who got us some terrific views of a range of brilliant birds.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was a bit after 2 and we were both exhausted from the combination of the early start and the sapping heat, so we lamed out and ordered some over-priced room service for lunch. Then it was time for a pay-tv marathon and an afternoon nap - really living the dream.

For dinner we ventured out to try to find Pink Lotus, which unfortunately seems to have gone out of business. Luckily, the Brickfields area has a few other options, and after a brief stroll we settled on Gopala, where we were ushered into the air-conditioned section. Unfortunately I'd left the memory card out of the camera, so we have no visual record of this excellent meal.

Gopala has a massive Indian menu (more than 250 items!), with mock-meat alongside regular vego Indian options and some concessions to Western tastes (hot dogs, burgers etc). Cindy had been desperate for a Roti Canai for the whole trip, and this was finally a place where we could be certain there was nothing fishy hiding in the curry. Her roti canai set (RM4.50, $1.50) came with two fantastic roti breads, a spicy dal, a faux-chicken curry and some sambal.

I went with a mock-mutton rendang (RM8, $2.70), which was a rich and tender stew, with chilli, ginger and galangal soaking into the impressively muttony mock-meat pieces. With a lassi each, the whole meal came to RM20 - less than $7. I would have loved to go back to Gopala if we'd had more time in Malaysia - the menu had so many options and the food that we ate was outstanding. Consider it highly recommended - even without any pictures.