31 May 2012

Kuala Lumpur Tour ~ Day 6


It's our last full day of the trip so we inflate our spare stomachs and get into some serious eating: Kedai Yut Kee, Nasi Ayam Chee Meng, Nasi Kandar and some Malay for dinner at Pasar Malam Kampung Baru.





We generally like to eat what we find at random however we just had to visit the famous Kedai Makanan Yut Kee.



It's a beautiful old coffee shop, apparently it's been around since 1928. We're lucky to get a table.



Yut kee menu, part thereof.



Yut Kee has a number of famous specialties but it's the roti babi that lured us here: bread stuffed with pork. It's like a piroshki. You know it tastes good.



Ancient fridge.



Kopi.



Kaya toast. Look at that lovely, thick, hand-made kaya jam.



Kaya toast soldiers.



Shawn has to try French toast, nice in a greasy breakfast way, but we wish we saved our stomach room for the famous chicken chop instead.



Good times at Yut Kee.



Roadside newstand. We take a walk as there's one more dish to try at Yut Kee and it's not ready for another half an hour.



We meet some friendly local kuchings.



We meet a mother and some kittens.



Mum bangs on the door "where's my makan?!?!?!" A tops old auntie opens the door to find four pasty tourists looking at her, as well as a hungry pussycat. She tells us it's not her pussycat but she feeds her anyway. Yay sister.



Random roadside food shack.



Back at Yut Kee the specialty is ready and being served out the front of the shop...



Freshly baked stuffed roast pork, mmmm...



Served to go with apple sauce. Yut Kee was one of our favourite spots, for more info read this most excellent article by our blogging heroes, Eating Asia. There's another nice article on Travelfish.



Stuffed, we head back home on the monorail for some R&R.



Feeling flacid? You need Power Root!



We head up to Jalan Bukit Bintang with the idea of sneaking in a quick Indian curry. We find a good looking curry joint but the guy at the door does the hard-sell on us so we march straight out and head next door.



Instead we try Nasi Ayam Chee Meng, a local chain of halal Hainanese chicken rice joints with a 40 year history in KL. The joint is packed and we're lucky to get a table.



Chooken HQ.



This version of chicken rice is quite saucy and different to other chicken rices we've had, we like.  There's absolutely nothing like chicken rice when it's 33 degrees Celsius outside. It's a dish that may not make sense to some folks back home in Sydney's temperate climate. But in the tropics this dish just works: it's clean, light and easy on the system.



The side-soup for the chicken rice had soft boiled peanuts in it, a nice touch.



We order a salad-y looking dish at random which turns out to be som-tum, Thai green papaya salad, or at least something very much like it. It goes down perfectly in the heat. We saw lots of Thai dishes on Malaysian menus in KL, explaining why in Australia we see Malaysian restaurants that do Thai dishes as well.



This quick restaurant visit turned out to be a weird life changing moment. We were so knocked around by the heat that we've vowed to lose weight before out next visit to the tropics. It's a work in progress...



We walk to Pudu Prison to see remnants of the world's longest mural. We were going to do a whole lap of the prison but the area was deserted and eerie. A storm started brewing, quite surreal.





It's our last full day of the trip. We've been careful not to overeat so far but now we have to take every chance we can get. We've been dying for some Indian food so this this nasi kandar joint looks too good to miss.



Three choices on rice from the bain-marie of love...



The food is excellent. The folks that run the joint are Indian but the food seemed like Malay crossed with Chinese, or at least our choices did. The food is fresh and lively. We go for squid, green beans and veggie curry.



Ice lime tea and a mystery pink drink. The pink drink is super sweet and tastes like musk lollies. Yum.  [[edit - reader Eve tells us the pink drink is called 'Bandung', a mix of rose syrup cordial and evaporated milk, see wikipedia ]]


On a budget? Suffer from Agoraphobia? Get a capsule for only 28 ringgit, about $10.



Random roadside hawker stall, Pudu. If only we had the stomach room...



At night we hit Pasar Malan Kampung Baru, a Malay Saturday night market., a great spot for hunting down Malay food.



This satay lady pulled a crowd, we so wish we stopped to try some.



Colourful nasi campur setup.



Mr Nasi Campur Kuching on restaurant security detail.



Saturday night fever kuching.



Sweet drinkies.



Smiling jumbo hotdog stand.



The happiest mee goreng chef in town.



The queue at this ayam goreng (deep fried chicken) stall is twenty-folks deep, but our hero Davatronics dives in. The chicken is amazing. A crispy shell of batter with mariande flavours right through the flesh. Shawn declares it the best fried chicken he's ever tasted. We ate it while watching local kids play soccer in community area, a nice travel moment.



There's a fried chicken production line going. Hubby is throwing chicken pieces into these bubbling cauldrons of oil. Davatronics says biggest seller is the deep fried carcass - we guess they pull most of the limbs and meat off and fry the rest and sell it cheap.



Fruit stall.



Soup stall.



As well as makeshift market area there's a couple of streets of restaurants.









We decided to dine at the first joint we found, a big open air grilled fish place.



The ikan baka, grilled fish, chef at work.



As well as grilled fish there's a massive selection of goodies served in the traditional buffet style.



We all went for grilled stingray. Stingray is such an easy-eating option, fleshy with a neutral flavour.



Nasi campur Shawny: water spinach, fried tempeh, spicy sambal tempeh, mystery fish and bamboo at the top.



Miss Ecomincal Bihun's nasi campur: spicy chicken, spicy tempeh and bamboo flower.



Alison goes for okrah, steamed tiny ball eggplants, mystery greens, stewed greens and spicy tempeh.



This huge feast cost 40 ringett, about $13, amazing.



Thanks Mr Ikan Bakar man!



A lovely ramshackle old Malay house with the Petronas Towers not so far away. We're not easily impressed with tourist attractions but the Petronas Towers really are stunning.



This Malay joint is jumping, but man, we're stuffed. Well we do find a little for some Mado Turkish icecream on the way home...

We love Malaysia.

6 comments:

  1. mmmmmmm yum!!!!!! Well done guys!!
    Btw the mystery pink drink is called Bandung...it's made from rose syrup cordial with evaporated milk. A childhood favourite...i still drink it from time to time. =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bandung - thanks so much! It's even on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandung_(drink)

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  2. Hey guys, where exactly is the Kedai Makanan Yut Kee?
    Heading to Malaysia on Saturday! Wooooo! Your blog is going to be part of the inspiration of my glutonous rampage! Rooaarr!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Google tells me Kedai Makanan Yut Kee is at 35, Jalan Dang Wangi (Campbell Road),
      50100 Kuala Lumpur. - You might want to do your own googling to double check :-)

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  3. Majulah Street Foodies!!

    I love this blog - and, your series of posts on Malaysia has been remarkably informative and very entertaining. I get to Bolehland (Malaysia), every 12 months, or so - and most of your photos had my tummy rumbling.

    The Yut Kee in KL has been around for just a few less years than the equally famous (some would say, infamous) Coliseum Cafe in Jalan T.A.R (try it out on your next visit).

    If it isn't out of place, how come you didn't get to Penang, with its wonderful food etc?

    Again, thank you for your Blog.

    Trev of Canberra

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Trev, Coliseum Cafe sounds great, will try it out next time. We didn't hit Penang on this trip as we only had a few days and wanted to take it easy, we've been before and will definitely go again :-)

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).