KL Feast: I ate, and ate, and ate some more!

August 5, 2009 | 26 Comments

I went to Kuala Lumpur, alone. A breathe of new air, seeking of new adventures, finding old friends, could do no harm. On that lonely night, travelling across the dreaded causeway was a breeze, I found myself to be earlier of schedule, bus schedule that was, by one and a half hours. So what I did? I ate. This was supposed to be a feasting journey, and my first meal started with Fillet O’ fish from our good old MacDonald.

The journey towards KL was much faster than I anticipated, so I arrived there 4am in the morning, and found a place which was open and had roti prata; I ate again. This was, the start of my feasting week.

And it was all very exciting indeed. I did it the typical tourist way; monorails, Lrt, cabs and of course walking about. Conversing in “English” with flabbergasted hand signs, I managed to find my way around, somehow.

To whoever who says that the only good food in Malaysia is their street food. I’m sorry, but I don’t agree. The whole dining scene in Malaysia is so vibrant! There’s plenty of creative concepts everywhere, I was so amazed by it that most of the time I was walking around checking out ideas which I’ve never seen before.

And I didn’t mention about the shopping yet. Unfortunately, it was the Malaysian annual sale when I went, everywhere was screaming the four letter word, S-A-L-E! It was almost like a scene out of “Confession of a shopaholic“; every store I walked past, the mannequin seems to be waving and beckoning me to step inside the shop. Among the malls that I went to, KLCC, Pavilion and Sunway shopping mall; the spacious Pavilion stood out with a good mix of the luxury and other mid-level brands.

When I ate with my uncle’s family, we mostly had Chinese food, everything was freaking cheap there (1SGD to RM2.45). So I ate, and ate, and ate some more.

My short four days stay had a typical routine, I’ll wake up to have breakfast from places like Oldtown & it’s competitors like OldBoy. Kaya toast, nasi lemak, soft boiled eggs, and a cup of kopi-o.

And then we will go shopping, until our legs are tired and the stomach started to growl. Then we’ll have lunch, the la-mien was from Chinese restaurant Dragon-i; a Malaysian version of our Crystal Jade. Their sister restaurant, Canton-i recently opened in Ion, Singapore too! Since I NEVER ate at Crystal Jade before, there’s no way I could compare the two, but the food was pretty decent for the price, considering a restaurant setting.

After lunch, we continue to shop, and shop, and shop. I love the tai-tai life, and how can there be no high tea? We had cakes, ice cream, every afternoon. Then we continue to shop, until dinner.

One of the highlight of the trip that I was looking forward to, was meeting the KL Bloggers. I’ve always enjoyed reading their food adventures across the straits. I managed to meet up with Sugar Bean, Kampungboycitygirl, and ivyaiwei for dinner.

And our pursuit of good local street food brought us to Jalan Alor – a long stretch of road where there’s so many stalls to eat from! Our mini food-tour started with the very delicious BBQ chicken wings, siew yoke mee (roasted pork noodle), and fried bee hoon.

Us: Hello, twelve chicken wings (for four of us) please.
Staff: Stunned for a moment. Are you sure about it?

The chicken wings, were freaking awesome, so was the siew yoke mee, althought I would prefer the roast pork to be sliced bigger! We headed to our second stop for BBQ Stingrays and squids. Their interpretation of the stingray was quite unlike our local version (which was closer to JB); it was dried with no wet chilli gravy on top. It was fascinating to hear from the rest about the difference in the rojak too.

Adjacent to Jalan Alor, is Changkat Bukit Bintang which reminded me of Holland Village; another stretch of road for the night owls, very hip & happening, with lots of restaurants, a complete opposite to the street food from Jalan Alor, but they complimented each other perfectly.

It was such a coincidence when we bumped into thenomadGourmand on the street.We chatted like old time friends by the road, and she decided to join us for desserts. But first, she knew that Masak-masak, awhiffoflemongrass, fatboybakes and gang were in the same area too. So we dropped by and say hi!

After some deliberation, our group ended at in Le Bouchon, a fine-dining restaurant for some sweets. It was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time when the complimentary breads seemed to be more than what we ordered for desserts.The creme brulee was pretty decent, while the tiramisu was disappointing. The latter didn’t have any texture, it was more like just mousse with totally no alcohol and coffee flavour.

* * *

This is more or less, the summary of my short trip to KL. Four days were too short, I didn’t want to come back at all. It was a paradise, eating, shopping, eating, shopping. I want to go back again! And there will be three more places, which I’ll like to highlight and show separately in the next post.

Comments

26 Responses to “KL Feast: I ate, and ate, and ate some more!”

YX
August 5th, 2009 @ 9:12 am

hope you enjoyed ya trip! nice post! (:

*i commented! hehe.
thenomadGourmand
August 5th, 2009 @ 9:29 am

hehe!! great meeting ya!! I might come dwn Sg fr the 8th to join u guys!!
Foodies Queen
August 5th, 2009 @ 10:36 am

wow…wow….wow
Foodies Queen
August 5th, 2009 @ 10:37 am

I wished I have the time to go KL too. Haha…..
SistaFood
August 5th, 2009 @ 11:54 am

Waa..I’m so jealous..haha
i also want taitai life
Lyrical Lemongrass
August 5th, 2009 @ 12:11 pm

Lovely meeting ya, even if it was for a brief moment only.
sgfoodlover
August 5th, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

hello! Nice posts as usual and really like your layout once again. Cheers!
ai wei
August 5th, 2009 @ 3:18 pm

nice write up. it was such a great meeting and the so not expected bump into others food bloggers that night
ladyironchef
August 5th, 2009 @ 5:02 pm

yx: So rare to see u comment although i know u are always here

thenomadgourmand: You coming to Singapore this weekend? I sent you an email, reply me there yeah

Foodies Queen: Time to find some time and go and feast!

Sistafood: I’m more jealous of your Europe trip haha

Lyrical lemongrass: Hello there! Yeah there will definitely be chances to meet up in the future

sgfoodlover: Thanks! Drop by often!

aiwei: yeah it was! so fun to have our food tour along Jalan Alor, see u soon okay, come to Singapore I’ll bring you around
lynn
August 5th, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

oh i can finally comment using google chrome~ this post is making me wanna go KL~
kampungboycitygal
August 5th, 2009 @ 5:23 pm

hey nice meeting u 2! its funny that theres this whole gender confusion thing goin on.
Shirin Loh
August 5th, 2009 @ 10:08 pm

mmm. KL looks good! (For shopping and eating! ) xx
Yyn
August 5th, 2009 @ 11:06 pm

i love the 1st upview pic! nice!
Woo~ im so jealous! I love to go KL my must have is Old Town ipoh hor fan, their Nanyang coffee and i tried the Siew Yoke Mee @their chinatown. Is the Yellow Bun the Nai Huang Bao? (egg yolk steamed bun) looks Meltilicious! *slurpz*
ladyironchef
August 5th, 2009 @ 11:13 pm

lynn: really? chrome can comment now? HAHA a lot people keep telling me chrome and safari can’t comment. Use IE or firefox next time if u can’t comment

kampungboycitygal: hahahaha yeah nice meeting u too!

Shirin: yes, endless shopping and eating. But i enjoyed the eating part more since i din buy much from there

Yyn: it’s a shot within KLCC! They say Oldtown wasn’t as good as before, but i din try, we went to their competitor, Oldboy instead. lol! Yes it’s nai huang bao ) very nice
Yyn
August 5th, 2009 @ 11:20 pm

Serious! from KLCC? Shucks, how come i missed this view when im walking through KLCC?! Haha, cool, next time will lok out form it, love such shots! Yumz, the Nai Huang Bao is from the oldboy or i-dragon? Gotta try it out when i go KL the next time =P huge fan of it
Sheryl Tan
August 6th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm

Are the chicken wings from Wong Ah Wah, Jalan Alor? aw..I miss it v much!
ladyironchef
August 6th, 2009 @ 12:49 pm

Yyn: YEP! maybe you didn’t look upwards? cos i was trying to see where the twin tower is, so i keep looking up. lol! Nai Huang bao is from Dragon-I, oldboy doesn’t serve dim sum! haha. You can try the nai wang bao from Peach garden in Singapore

Sheryl: It’s from Jalan Alor, but i can’t remember if it’s Wong Ah Wah. My friends brought me to their favourite stall. heh
elaine
August 6th, 2009 @ 11:40 pm

the icecream looks super good! .. very alike the haagen dazs size & style haha =D
ladyironchef
August 7th, 2009 @ 12:22 am

elaine: You are right, it is Haagen dazs ice cream! HAHA
Yyn
August 7th, 2009 @ 1:15 am

Cool! Will try to locate Dragon-I if im in KL, so far i always buy the more convenient 1 from “Baoz” -the franchise stall in s’pore that sells Baos and Dim Sums (raffles city shopping centre, Tampines Centuary Square & Jurong point has their outlets) goes for $1.50. May not be as good as those in restaurants but it is good enough to satisfy my craving thks for ur recommendation, will be sure to order the Nai Hwang Bao if i go Peach Garden ^^
Tesia
August 7th, 2009 @ 10:52 pm

Envy envy. Who did you go with? I want to go too!
ladyironchef
August 7th, 2009 @ 11:06 pm

Yyn: you are welcome!

Tesia: Hello there! needed a break and some time off, so i went alone! it was quite exciting to travel alone, but it wasn’t that lonely since i stay with my uncle, and i meet up with the kl bloggers. Go! a lot of nice food there
Shayna
August 8th, 2009 @ 10:05 pm

I wanna go to KL too! I’ve never been there before, what a malaysian I am. haha..
Did you try secret recipe??
ladyironchef
August 9th, 2009 @ 8:00 am

shayna: LOL! u never been there before? must go! nope i din try secret recipe this time, i know their cakes are freaking cheap there :p
vonvonx
August 17th, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

one word – WOW!!
ladyironchef
August 17th, 2009 @ 10:14 pm

vonvonx: when’s yr turn?