Friday, March 10, 2006

Catchup Chronicles #8: Malaysia

I wish I had started this blog about four years ago, when I really started to give my passport and frequent flier accounts a workout, going to new places around the world. Well, in an effort to try to make up for some of that, I've dug up some old photos that I've taken, and will post them here in sections from time to time (especially when I don't see any upcoming travel for a while). This episode: Malaysia.

A fish head leftover from eating off Jalan Alor in KL

Jalan Alor is the key food street to hit in Kuala Lumpur, where one can get the great Ramly burger, Penang kway teow (which I did get a chance to eat when I was last in Penang too...but I don't have photos here), and char siew from the no-signboard place on the neighboring street (theirs is so unique that I like to call it, "pork-flavored candy with a greasy aftertaste"). Pictured here is a Chinese place on Jalan Alor - or actually, the leftover fish head from a typically greasy meal in Malaysia.

The bottom right one on the leaf was the pla-ra like dipping sauce

Here was some food from the Mangrove Village restaurant on Langkawi island, up north near the Thai border. The place was interesting as there were troughs of fresh seafood for you to pick from. Moreover, the food showed a bit of influence from Thailand - particularly the fresh vegetables dipped in pla-ra-like salty spicy fermenting fish paste. (Damn, that thing packed some heat.) Another memorable dish included the deep fried battered green vegetables, whose preparation method somewhat defeated the purpose of the healthy vegetables to begin with. Ha ha...they tasted like potato chips, and they sure were good (but are not pictured here, unfortunately). We ordered seconds on the basis that they were "healthy."

Laksa

Finally, here is a bowl of laksa from Johor Bahru, the border town near Singapore. I am not a big fan of laksa (a Peranakan bowl of noodles in a spicy gravy) as the seasonings strike me as disturbingly odd, but for some reason I remember this bowl being particularly tasty and creamy. Apparently the state of Johor has its own variation of it, seeing as it uses coconut milk in the broth.

1 comment:

Piyo said...

The fish looks sad :p