Wednesday 17 December 2008

Malaysia, Truly Asia!!!

I am not proud of taking this long to post these pictures, especially since I am closer to the anniversary of my maiden voyage to KL than the voyage itself, in late February this year. :P

This delay is particularly unforgivable as I had the honour of meeting someone I consider blogger royalty - the charming Lyrical Lemongrass who so kindly took the time out to come to my hotel with her usual makan kakis to pick me up and give me exactly the kind of meal I was looking for - roadside hawker fare that places taste over hygiene! :) (Thanks, babe! I owe you one!!!)

Hawkers on Peel Road, Kuala Lumpur



In no particular order: Mixed satays, pork noodles, BBQ chicken wings, sugarcane juice,
stir-fried noodles, popiah, minced beef noodles

There were only 4 of us, but as you can see, this was enough for 6! My only regret was that I couldn't stay hungry longer! :(

Nonetheless, if I couldn't fit more food into my belly, I remained thirsty, and so after dropping off the friendly folks from her Makan Club, Lyrical Lemongrass and I headed for Palate Palette, a quaint little bar where we waited for Bald Eagle.. :)

What we drank - too bad it was so long ago I don't remember their fancy names!

This being my first time to KL and my first trip to Malaysia in possibly a decade, Lyrical Lemongrass and Bald Eagle really made me feel completely at ease, that it was sad having to say goodbye even though we're not at all far from each other... :(

To backtrack from my meeting with these wonderful folks, a couple of pictures in chronological order...

The comfy coach I took from Singapore to KL

Saw this on my way out of the coach:

fortunately I was travelling alone :)

The inescapable Petronas Towers by night:


On Day Two of my stay, after waking up too late for breakfast at my hotel, I wandered across the street into a traditional Malay restaurant that has permanently raised my expectations of buffets and Malay food in general!

Gateway to rempah heaven!

Laksa Utara - nothing like the nonya laksa as I know it!

A trolley offering some curries that I shouldn't be finding exotic, but did...

Spread of other traditional Malay dishes

Surprisingly, fewer than 5 tables were occupied when I was there, which I have difficulty explaining off. The buffet cost 38 ringgit (SGD 16) before taxes, was in a central location and by its variety and quality alone, offered something for all preferences...

I'm bad at buffets since I always tend to discover the better things too late, but as I was led to my table, I did not fail to see the dessert spread, for which I tried my best to save some stomach space:


Little wonder why weight loss is such an uphill task!!!