Wandering in KL

March 6, 2011

After a whole day of listening to lectures and presentations of other countries who participated in the seminar (I was one of three sent by our office to represent the Philippines) we decided to go out and see downtown Kuala Lumpur and see something else apart from the view of the Petronas Towers from my room.

We first went to the nearby Pavillion Mall which is like our Greenbelt, only with more high end shops, brand name conscious shoppers would have a field day in this mall. The cheapskate that we are, or should I say, that I am, we were just contented looking at the things we cannot buy.

My colleagues and our friend Deepika from New Delhi

Issey Miyake Tree?

The Fountain with Hibiscus design (in front of Pavillion Mall)

Sticky: Traditional hand made candy

Street sign: Jalan is Malay for road (Interesting, in Waray, road is called Dalan)

It was a good thing that my grade school classmate Lalin works in KL so we decide to meet her so that she can show us around and so that I can also give my pasalubong (present), Fudgee Bar and Hany Milk Chocolate imported from the Philippines.

 She decided to take us to Jalan Alor, a street near the mall shopper's paradise of Bukit Bintang. According to my research it was formerly known as the red light district of Kuala Lumpur (bummer..hehehe) the area has since undergone a number of facelifts and is now filled with gastronomic delights (Hmm, wasn't there gastronomic delights before? Forget it).

Street food KL Style

Tau Foo: Stall selling Gelatin

There are no billboards in this area, just smaller signs in Chinese and a lot of outdoor restaurants, stalls selling barbecued meat, fish balls (Manong, how much per tusok?) fruit shake etc.

I went to KL to eat Ginisang (sauteed) Kangkong!

Sauteed Baby Kailan (Chinese Broccoli)

Squid with Bagoong (shrimp pate)

My favorite, Bak kut teh

We decided to eat in one of the restaurants and the food was good specially the soup, Bak Kut Teh which according to Wikipedia: The name literally translates as "meat bone tea", and, at its simplest, consists of meaty pork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic) for hours. However, additional ingredients may include offal, varieties of mushroom, choy sum, and pieces of dried tofu or fried tofu puffs. Additional Chinese herbs may include yu zhu (rhizome of Solomon's Seal) and ju zhi (buckthorn fruit), which give the soup a sweeter, slightly stronger flavor. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking, with varying amounts depending on the variant. Garnishings include chopped coriander or green onions and a sprinkling of fried shallots.

The soup had a distinct taste due to the herbs and spices but you will not get umay or sick of eating it. It was definitely perfect for my cough and cold. (Quarantine alert!)

Calamansi Juice

After dinner, we walked around Bukit Bintang, watched a reggae band performing on the street, took more pictures and went back to our hotel as it was already late in the evening (there were still a lot of people and malls close at 11:00pm)

That was our second day in Malaysia. This is the Wandering Lion, signing off. :)