Malaysia Food Tour
Dear Family and Friends, meet Fadly:
Fadly was kind enough to take us around Kampung Baru, the oldest remaining village in Kuala Lumpur, for a belly-and-brain-stuffing extravaganza! When we booked this experience, we thought we would be in a group of people, trying different foods in a market, but wow, did we underestimate the value of that evening!
We met Fadly at 5:00pm in a train terminal. He kindly welcomed us, and made us feel as if we were reuniting with an old friend. To our surprise, that evening would be a private tour with just the two of us and Fadly as our guide. Our first stop was only steps away from the terminal, where Fadly instructed us to sit down on some plastic stools, and relax while he helped the owners of a small outdoor food stall carry giant pots from the nearest building to the stall. Throughout the entire tour, it was nice to see how Fadly interacted with the local business owners. He seemed to have a personal, friendly relationship with each of the 2 dozen plus people we met along the way. Apparently, Fadly has been giving these tours to visitors for years, and his relationships only made our tour more memorable!
Without any further delay, here is what we ate:
Calamansi Juice
This is basically a limeaid, and is soooo delicious! Since going on this tour, we've found these small limes in the grocery store, and made our own version with honey substituted for the sugar. Here is a recipe for reference!
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| This is not our picture, we are borrowing it from another website! :) |
Nasi impit
Nasi Impit is rice that is compressed when it is cooked, so it resembles little cubes once cooked! It is smothered in a chili peanut sauce and fried onion, and is commonly served alongside satay! Here is a recipe for this!
Satay
Cole and I have consumed a lot of Satay in our lives, but we were surprised to know that Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia all claim to have invented this delicious dish! The concept is simple: place meat on a skewer, marinate, grill, smother in peanut sauce and enjoy! We learned that Satay was created out of necessity. Because refrigeration was (and still is to a certain extent) rare, meat would need to be marinated so the meat would not spoil before being cooked. Kinda gross, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? We tried three different kinds of satay: beef tong (our favorite), beef tripe, and chicken. Here is a chicken recipe!
Ramly Burger
If you thought burgers in the U.S. were unhealthy, we gotta tell you, Malaysian burgers are heart-attacks waiting to happen! Fadly loving referred to them as good "hangover food." Fun fact about Fadly: he is a practicing Muslim, and has never experienced a hangover! What makes these burgers distinctly different from burgers in the U.S. is their sweet sauce, and that they wrap the burger patty in a fried egg! Here is a recipe!
Roti Pisang
I (Michelle) could eat this all day, everyday! Basically, this is a flaky pancake with fresh banana cooked inside. We sadly didn't get a picture before I devoured it, but below is a picture from a website, and here is a link to the recipe!
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| Not our picture! |
Honestly, I don't know
Despite my best efforts, I was not able to find any information about this dish online (probably because it was so weird)! This dish is made up of coconut sugar sauce, and sticky rice stuffed into SQUID! It is a sweet Malaysian dessert, and I must say, I was not a fan... That is all! ;)
Coconut Sticky Rice
Now, this is my jam! Yummy coconut sticky rice, with a toasted coconut garnish! Yum! You can find the recipe here!
Klepon
This was also soooo good! Basically, this is a gummy ball of rice, with a tiny bit of crunchy palm sugar inside, and covered in shredded coconut! And yes, there is a theme of me loving coconut! :) Here is the recipe!
We were also taken to the meat market and farmer's market! Our guide told us to "ignore the ratatouilles," which was hard to do when there were rats as big as cats hanging out here... :$
Durian
This is my favorite description of durian: "“its odor is best described as…turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.” We knew about durian fruit, and were dreading this part of the experience a bit, but we did it! The texture of durian is super soft and stringy. Because this was a good quality durian, the taste wasn't too bad (like sweet onion), but it is safe to say that we will not be purchasing it for ourselves anytime soon! ;)
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| This is what the outside of Durian looks like |
When we were eating this dish, I knew it would be the culprit if we woke up with food poisoning. It was actually really tasty, but it was room temperature meat, and it was not in a clean environment at all (I will spare you the creepy crawly details). I am happy to report that we didn't get sick, so it was all good! If you are interested (like I said, it was really good, and you will have control over the cleanliness) here is the recipe!
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| Not our picture! :) |
Nasi Kerabu Kelantan
Although we were so full at this point in the tour, our last dish was blue herb rice salad! This was really good, but to be honest, we were only able to eat a couple bites. Here is the recipe!
All in all, we had a wonderful time, and it is always good when you wake up, and you are not sick! There is always a chance, after all!! ;)
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