Kuala Lumpur Day 1

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from Malaysia. Unlike the neighboring countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, Malaysian foods are not as distinctive. Malaysian cuisine consists mostly of Malay, Indian and Chinese foods. Malay foods are supposed to be indigenous to Malaysia and Indonesia, but it seems that the Indonesian versions of Malay foods have stronger flavor. Aside from food, much of the tourism in Malaysia depends upon beach resorts, which I am not into. So Malaysia has never been on the top of my list. But I decided to give it a shot because I found a good airfare.

Via Singapore, I arrived at Kuala Lumpur a little bit after noon. It's hot and humid... traveling between the airport and hotel, I'm already soaked in sweat. As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I took a shower and rested a bit. Then, I left the hotel for a street food tasting tour. It's early evening but still very hot...

The tour was just for me. From the meeting point, we headed to the famous street for street foods, called Alor Street. The street was getting packed. First I thought I smelled rotten veggies but I soon realized that's the smell of durian....

This is Malaysian bacon (left) and sheeted meat (right). Sweet and salty but more sweet. 

Fried jackfruit - It's somewhat like fried banana. But this is definitely jackfruit. 

Karipap - Curry Empanada

It looks identical to a South American empanada. The texture of the dough was exactly like an empanada. But the filling is made with curry powder based seasoning. It does taste more Asian.

Nasi Lemak - One of the national dishes in Malaysia

This is the simplest version of Nasi Lemak without any protein. Some of the lemaks come with chicken, dried fish, peanuts, etc. The rice is cooked with coconut milk and the sauce on top of the rice is sambal. I asked for spicy sambal but it wasn't that spicy compared to Thai and Indonesian hot sauces.




Almost every country in Southeast Asia has satay. Malaysian satay seems a little sweeter. The guide advised me that I should eat all the pieces of meat on the skewer in one bite (instead of eating piece by piece)

This is a Malaysian style lemonade. There are two types of lemon in Malaysia, key lime and calamansi. Calamansi is a lot less acidic than key lime and this juice is made with calamansi. I saw calamansi a lot in Vietnam. 

The last stop of the tour is at an Indian open air restaurant. This is roti served with dal and sambal. Most Indians living in Malaysia are Tamil from South India. However, the spice level is not even close to that of South India... The Sambal was more sweet than spicy.

Malaysia consists of different ethnicities, Malay, Indian and Chinese, and different religions, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian. It is amazing that such different people coexist in a country without any major conflicts. The guide told me that Malaysians respect people from different backgrounds and I did see that. People are very kind and polite. The foods represents their melting-pot culture. There's no distinctively unique flavor/style in Malaysian cuisine but a mixed culture created dishes to accommodate all the nations.