Three Food Faces – Kuala Lumpur

It’s been many years since I last visited Malaysia, but the clarity of my food-related memories was bound to bring me back. I’ve yet to find another country where the strength of multiple food influences results in such distinct ‘types’ of cuisine that are yet each totally local.

But here, there are clearly three dominant food cultures that create an incredible array of Malaysian food, something that provides a wonderful variety before you even need to consider consuming anything else to have a change. Local food can, in the main, be divided into a trio of distinct groups: Malay; Chinese; Indian. That is not to say, however, that each has not been influenced by the others. We took a trip off the beaten track with Food Tour Malaysia to get a view of all three.

Malay

Native to the Malay Peninsula, Malays make up the largest ethnic group in Malaysia. Rice is generally considered to be the centrepiece of a meal, with everything else being an accompaniment. Nasi Lemak, which competes as one of Malaysia’s national foods, is a fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut and pandan leaf. Traditionally served with sambal, boiled egg, crispy anchovies and peanuts, Nasi Lemak is eaten throughout the day and with varied accompaniments.

Our tour also saw us sampling Mee Goreng at the Malay inspired stop, a spicy fried noodle dish made with thin yellow noodles and another classic and prevalent Malay dish.

Otak Otak (a fish cake with chilli, grilled inside a palm leaf), beef and chicken satay, and Sup Kambing (a rich spiced goat soup made with celery) were also all served at this stop. All were delicious, but I could have gone on eating the Mee Goreng all night if I hadn’t known how much was still to come!

Chinese

I think a fuller Chinese meal is required here to really enjoy what’s on offer, but the Chinese stop on our tour gave us a little taster of some of what’s to come when we go. A plate piled high with lobak (rolls of five-spice flavoured pork wrapped in bean curd) and Fu Chuck (fried tofu skin), alongside beansprout stuffed spring rolls, each dunked in a mix of thick soy and chilli sauce before consumption, provided a delicious snack with a cold beer.

Hokkien Mee, thick noodles fried with thick, dark soy sauce and prawns, fish cake, cabbage and all sorts else, was a very unusual dish that didn’t quite hit the mark for all diners. Personally I found it very pleasant, just not as good as the previous noodles.

Indian

Our Indian stop was at something of a Kuala Lumpur institution, Kayu, and I have to admit that this was my favourite!

We kicked off with Nasi Kandar, steamed white rice with a medley of curries. I will 100% be tracking this down to eat it again. The heavily spiced, but not overly spicy, dish, originally from Penang, was food heaven for me.

The idea of Cham had not been a pleasant one for me, but I stand corrected! Ordered for me, this hot mix of coffee and milk tea is actually delightful and I’ll be having it again too. It went beautifully with the Indian food, both sweet and savoury.

Before the sweet feast started, our Nasi Kandar and Cham were also served alongside the famous roti canai, buttery roti served, in this instance, with dipping bowls of dal and a fish curry sauce. I personally favoured the Thosai, a crepe-like pancake made with fermented rice flour and served with the same dipping sauces as the roti, but with the addition of some delicious coconut chutneys.

The roti theme continued through to dessert, where we ate both roti kayu (stuffed with the prevalent and surprisingly delicious local coconut jam) and the spectacle that is roti tissue! Roti tissue arrived at the table in towering form, and is an extremely thinly stretched (and therefore crispy) roti coated in salted butter, sugar and condensed milk. I referred to it as the crack cocaine of desserts – I just couldn’t stop eating it despite being full to bursting.

I am super happy to have many more days to continue this food exploration, enjoying again the things I loved from this tour and finding plenty more to enjoy along the way too!

Feijoada and all the Sides

Feijoada is just the kind of soul food I expected to find in Brazil, and what better place to try it than overlooking Ipanema Beach at sundown as the masses depart following a Sunday of sand, sea and surf.

Sitting on the terrace of the (deservedly) popular Bar Astor, I was glad that I’d made the stop that day. Feijoada is one of four dishes on the menu that are only available from Friday to Sunday, and it was this I’d come to try. I’d been tempted by the descriptions I’d read of this black bean and pork stew, though to call it that somehow undersells just how delicious it is, particularly here where it comes with a griddled pork chop in addition to the more traditional accompaniments. I mean, what this dish really needs is a little bit more meat!

Hiding under the chop were the traditionally served collared greens, heavily laced with almost caramelised garlic. The orange too is something you expect to find with this dish, and the freshness it adds makes it a must. Fluffy white rice topped with spring onion, a small bowl of toasted manioc flour, and a vinaigrette salsa complete the set of accompaniments, and that’s all before you get to the main event.

The stew may not look much, but trust me – it’s fantastic (albeit the stuff of vegetarians’ nightmares). Black beans slow cooked with what once would have been offcuts of pork, this dish was packed with smoked pork, short ribs, sliced chouriço sausage (akin to chorizo) and who knows what other chunks of melt in the mouth meat. Spicing varies, but bay, black pepper, salt and garlic are a must. Some of the beans are mashed to thicken the stew, and the resulting dish is rich, earthy and utterly wonderful.

Though I was far off able to finish the vast amount of food I was served, I was delighted to refresh my palette with the sharp lemon of the complimentary sorbet. Thoughts of any other dessert would have caused my waistband to burst!

Saffron Rice

You may be wondering why I haven’t titled this blog post ‘Paella’. The answer is simple: saffron and rice do not (necessarily) a paella make! My favourite saffron rice dish so far on a visit to Tenerife used a rice that wasn’t of the required round grain. It was also much more soup-like, and hadn’t been cooked in a paella pan. All that said, it was divine!

Consumed alongside a steaming vat of seafood in white wine and garlic, this particular rice dish was packed full of prawns, squid and peppers. Eaten at the seafront Restaurante Las Aguas, the dish was rich with saffron and its enjoyability was no doubt improved further by the sound of the waves.

I’ve eaten two other dishes so far this trip which were of the more recognised paella variety, one an extremely tasty seafood paella (though it could have skipped the limpets for my taste!) and the other an adequate but unremarkable chicken one. The latter was given more interest by the inclusion of butter beans and runner beans, which gave a different texture and flavour dimension.

I adore the availability of such delicious and cheap rice dishes, the only problem is finding enough stomach space to eat other things too! More to follow on my non-rice Canarian food experiences in Tenerife in a future post.

A Taste of Holiday

Vietnam and Thailand feel like a distant memory but it’s amazing how food can take you back. After a long, sunny (but freezing cold) bike ride around London, we popped out of a street right opposite a Vietnamese restaurant that my companion had been wanting to try for an age. The idea of noodle soup warming our cold bodies was just too much to resist!

Deptford is a part of London on the up, and Eat Vietnam (whilst not imaginatively named) is one of many little gems in the area. Our delicious bowls of Bun Ga Hue, a hot and spicy vermicelli soup with chicken, warmed both body and soul. The fragrant, lemongrass scented broth and abundant herbs took me straight back to the streets of Hanoi.

Having started my holiday food reminiscence, I decided that I should continue with a little creation of my own for dinner. Yum Som-O is one of my favourite Thai dishes. A spicy pomelo based salad, it’s fresh and delicious. I won’t even pretend that I created a dish that could bear the same name, but I did make a pomelo salad with a Thai dressing!

Getting to the flesh of a pomelo (a large citrus fruit with a flavour somewhere between an orange and a grapefruit) requires a little patience. Even once you’ve pulled away the thick, styrofoam textured peel you need to take the flesh out of each individual segment to really enjoy it at its best. But the effort is worth it and what you’re left with is a bowl of firm, juicy fruit.

I made a simple dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic and chilli, mixing it through the pomelo with a few herbs and some shredded chicken. Topped with crushed toasted peanuts and served with steamed rice, I have to confess that I was delighted with the delicious (and January health-kick friendly) result.

I will make this again!

Riverside Dining

In case I’ve not mentioned it (much!) before, my favourite place to be in Bangkok is by the river. In fact, this applies to my home city of London too, and pretty much to every city I’ve ever been to. If it’s not a river, any body of water will do. There’s just something I love about watching the inevitable activity that comes with water, and Bangkok has this in spades.

We’re back in Thailand for a couple of days before we head home and if we’ve not been by the pool (the water theme continues) then we’ve been by the Chao Phraya. Two locations in particular have enticed us, an old favourite and a new find.

The old favourite is Be My Guest, a riverside restaurant that we return to every trip, regardless of whether we’re staying at the Millennium Hilton (next to which it sits) or not. Neither this nor the new find is flashy. We’re talking friendly, characterful places here, selling the equivalent of street food at reasonably elevated prices to match their riverside locations. I’ve eaten much more expensively while I’ve been away but this was my favourite meal, watching the darkening sky reflected in the CAT building that my husband loves.

The menu at Be My Guest contains plenty of simple Thai favourites, plus a few dishes to test the more adventurous. We started with an appetiser of shrimp cakes while we enjoyed our first beer. I’ve never eaten anything quite like these donut shaped nibbles anywhere else, but they’re a good start for an evening on the Chang!

When we were ready to move on to food proper, it had to include the Wing Bean Salad. I’ve never seen one of these beans whole, and I have no idea if you can buy them back home, but I adore the variety of textures and the delicately balanced flavour of this gently spiced (by Thai standards) salad.

I was meant to order the red curry to avoid the strong Thai Basil that my husband dislikes but I got distracted and ordered the green curry instead. As predicted, it was indeed full of Thai Basil, and in my opinion was all the more delicious for that. Soft, plump prawns and chunks of small green aubergine in a heavily spiced, creamy coconut soup. Mmmmm. I have yet to find a green curry outside Thailand that comes close to this.

I went off-menu for the last dish because I had a craving! Chicken with garlic and pepper is one of my favourite Thai stir fries and the staff were very happy to make it for me. It totally lived up to my expectations and the husband loved it too, vegetables and all!

We crossed the Chao Phraya back towards our hotel before finding our newest riverside haunt, and also returned to it the next day for lunch. Jack’s Bar is a haphazard bar-come-restaurant that sits, in part, directly over the water. It’s busy with a mix of Thais and foreigners of all ages, and the staff are smiley and fun.

Lunch was an extended affair over a few beers, giving me time to just watch the river. The number and variety of boats that pass by is a constant source of amazement for me, and the occasional wetland bird floating by atop a piece of water hyacinth adds to the interest.

Thai fishcakes, flavoured with red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves, followed by fried rice and a puffy omelette is the simple lunch I remember from my working days living in the city. I love this food as much as anything more fancy and will miss it when we head home.