Old Town White Coffee

I dropped by for a cuppa down at Plaza Low Yat (Lot LG-31, LG-32, Lower Ground, Plaza Low Yat, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, tel : 03-2143 1722) and realised that this white coffee wasn't impressive at all. I had asked for the "kao" option which was thicker than the usual brew and while it did taste thicker than the regular coffee, it wasn't fragrant at all. In fact, the thick option from Yat Kun were probably better. I guess this branding was another chain store gimmick trying to brew something out of nothing much.

A couple on the fast track of chow in KL

I'm not big on fast food (not those I've had anyway) and I avoid them unless I get a craving or when alternative options are worse. But I guess there are some times when I do go out and look for some. Especially when I'm out of the country. Here's a 2 piece original chicken from KFC and a Coney Dog from A&W. There isn't A&W back home anymore and the Coney Dog had been some kind of old favourite when I was younger. Nostalgia demanded the duty of a serving.

The original chicken here did not taste as oil soaked and were larger pieces than the shriveled and over-fried looking ones back home. The skin was also crispier. We had a takeaway which stood up pretty well after a few hours when I ate them on the coach back home. The slogan from old man Sanders had always been 11 secret herbs and spices in their birds. The 12th "secret" it seemed, was that KFC in Malaysia uses fresh chicken. Not frozen and hence the difference in taste of the meat. I found them pretty enjoyable.

I recalled the declining years of A&W back home. The dogs were sloppy. There wasn't any effort to heat up the buns, the chili was watery and there were barely any onions. In short, pretty sad. Things were different here. Surprisingly firm and meaty was the mass produced sausage with a decent chili and onions wedged in a heated hot dog bun. The floats were there because of nostalgia. An attempt on my part to resurrect some fragments of childhood. I don't even like floats these days.

Restoran Sai Woo, Jln Alor, Kuala Lumpur

Here's some of the stuff we had for dinner at Restoran Sai Woo down somewhere in the middle of Jln Alor. I've eaten here a couple of times in some of my previous trips down into KL when I stayed along Bt Bintang. This particular place seemed quite popular for their barbequed seafood amidst the stretch of roadside hawkers and has always been crowded as far as I've encountered.


One of the appeal for me was the oyster omelete which is done in a style that is quite different from how it is back home. The omelete and flour are basically spread thin over the pan to fry and ends up like some sort of crispy crepe with egg, topped with chopped garlic. The oysters which do not have any unpleasant taste (quite fresh from every single time I ordered them) are then placed separately on top. I chanced upon them some years back and have had them on a few occasions. I actually don't know if it's just this stall or if all the others in Malaysia or at least KL make theirs in a similar manner.


In my previous trips, I've tried their stir fried beef kailan, seafood porridge and frog porridge. This time round, it was just this grilled stingray and some satay from a stall nearby. The satay was quite ordinary. I didn't feel that the peanut gravy was viscous enough. Again, it's a comparison from what I've had in various bbq seafood outlets back home. The grilled stingray back home has the sambal spread across and then grilled but the one here simply grills them plain (with salt) and provided the sambal on the side. The difference in serving style gives one the option to eat it un-spiced which was actually pretty good. You could taste the quality of the meat unadulterated by strong tasting condiments. Not to mention that the seafood here is quite fresh as well. There was also a takeaway squid which we were given the impression that it would be grilled, but found out that it was merely stir fried.

Prices here seems to have gone up. I remember them being much cheaper.

Nando's, Sungei Wang, Kuala Lumpur

I've been looking forward to re-visiting Nando's and this trip was planned from the onset that we would have their chickens at least once. So here we were down at the outlet at Sungei Wang (Sg. Wang Lot C 026, Sungei Wang Plaza, Jln Sultan Ismail, 50250 K.L., tel : 03- 2148 5555) where all the held back anticipation was set loose on the fiery Peri Peri butterflied chicken plates.


Looking back, I should have gone for the lip numbing extra hot option, but it wasn't a lost cause altogether since the peri peri sauces were always available for anyone who needed the extra sourish spicy kick. I thought that the chicken could do with a little bit more char grill to get that aroma out on the meat though. Chicken was followed by the chicken liver with that roll which came out crispy warm on the outside, soft on the inside. Needless to say, it made a good dipping platform for all the extra hot spicy gravy which the grilled livers were slathered in.

Rotis down at Jalan Galloway

I don't have the address of this 24 hour stall. It was located behind some police headquarters. But it was definitely worth the effort to trek down to the end of Jalan Galloway (Kuala Lumpur City 50150), a little street just beside Swiss Garden Hotel. These guys served freshly made roti canai (known as roti prata back home), ayam goreng and teh tarik amongst other things. I thought I saw a little painted sign on the stall which said Cafe Safari. Ignore the tacky name.

roti plaster

What was enjoyable about the roti canai (the counterparts of roti plaster and roti pisang as well) ws that it wasn't as heavy. The roti pisang featured cooked sliced bananas which was piping hot and readily melting in the mouth. It was also my first time having a banana prata with chicken curry and dahl. Unexpectedly good. After a couple of these washed down with teh tarik, I felt like I was ready for more. 4 of those rotis and a two cups teas amounted to a princely sum of RM$7. Was good tea (RM$1) that they brewed. Artfully pulled, so to speak. We liked it enough that we came back for more in the following morning for a takeaway of breakfast which included the mentioned rotis, thosai and fried chicken. Of course, washed down with more of those teh tarik.

roti pisang

Ramadan buffet dinner at Tarbush

The intention was to have dinner at this Lebanese place Tarbush (No. LG 16, Starhill Gallery, Jln Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, tel : (603) 2144 6393) and going a la carte. But as it was at the fasting period for the Muslims, the only option that was available for dinner was buffet styled.

The spread in the buffet included an array of dips with flatbread, tabouleh , rice & pasta, meat pastries and various meats. The food was quite good despite the fact that the non meat items were quite heavily lemon-ed. The braised lamb shoulders were tender and the tandoori chicken a tad burnt. The odd thing about the dips was that the hummus was so creamy and tasted so much of sesame that it was almost a tahini. Later on, I found out that it was indeed a mixture. The baba ghanoush had texture like the hummus. And a stewed cauliflower dish contained mostly ground mutton. Meat options pretty much ruled the table. From the dessert section, there was a really good rose scented creamy milk pudding (mahalabia?) which I couldn't get enough of despite being quite stuffed.

The variety of the spread wasn't very extensive but they were mostly quite good. It seemed that there's quality over quantity here. The only reason we might not be back was that there's quite a variety of middle eastern places to be found in KL city. One would be spoilt for choice.