On our first morning, we had dosa for breakfast. These huge Indian flatbreads kind of resemble a crispy crepe made with fermented dough. I love them for their crispy texture and great sourdough-y flavor. My favorites, like the one below, have a potato-vegetable mix tucked inside.
Broadly speaking, food in Kuala Lumpur can be broadly divided into Malay, Chinese, Indian, Western, and fusion (just kidding – it’s all fusion to some extent. That’s what’s so great about it.) The pictures below are from a restaurant famous for its pork ribs. They were fantastic! Crispy, tender, and redolent of five spice. The vegetables we ordered with them were also delicious.
This is truly a city of dumplings. These ‘winged’ gyoza were amazing. Cucumber salad is also becoming one of my favorite side dishes to order from the Chinese restaurants.
There are several Nepalese restaurants near our apartment. Their momos (dumplings) were handmade, and so, so good! We saw a young man making them on our way out of the restaurant. His skill was truly grandmother-level.
We also ordered set meals from the Nepalese restaurant. Proceeding clockwise from the rice, this is pickled radish, yogurt, very plainly cooked okra, a vegetable curry, and a somewhat puzzling sauce/soup.
I’ll end today with a wonderfully comforting plate. There is a food court just by our apartment that mostly serves people working in the nearby Maybank building, although all are welcome. We were scooped up by a darling Malay woman who showed us the ropes, including shooing us to an open table (turns out tables are famously difficult to get at this food court!) This is a plate of rice, steamed mixed vegetables, two dishes of tempeh cooked with vegetables and sauce, and a piece of fried tempeh. After making sure I knew what I was getting into, she let me have some sambal, which is like a savory, chunky hot sauce. Spicy, but it makes the meal!
Of course, this is only a small fraction of what we’ve eaten so far. Other favorites include the “Maggi goreng” I’ve been making and a hojicha latte decorated with a foam bear! I’ll write about those in a future post.