Sweet, Sour, Salty, Spicy, Savory, Souvenirs
Loving food and loving Malaysia.
We are back in Kuala Lumpur. We are happy. We are eating. I could end my happy story there — but here are a few more photos and details.
One of my favorite souvenirs while traveling is creating a photo journal of what we do, where we go, what we see, and what and where we eat. I usually post these on Instagram with descriptions and locations. The photos and descriptions help us to keep a visual journal of each day. (Note: These photos from this story have not yet been posted on Instagram.)
In the photo, Gerad Carrier waits for me to take another food photo before he eats his spicy curried mee. Malaysian Hokkien Mee is an egg-based wheat noodle. These noodles were braised with chicken, prawns, and a spicy curry sauce. Delicious.
We had been told to look for Jalan Alor in the Bukit Timah area of Kuala Lumpur. It is a quiet city street during the day but at night the street becomes filled with tables and chairs at the various food stalls along the street. We can’t believe how busy the area is at night. When we lived here many years ago, this was just a quiet back lane with not much on it.
On our first night at Jalan Alor, we had a simple meal of kangkong blachan, char kway teoh noodles, and an omelet. I didn’t bother to get a photo of the omelet. I was too busy digging into the kangkung blachan, my favorite vegetable dish. Kangkung is a leafy green vegetable often called “water spinach” since it grows in wet swampy environments. Blachan is a spicy shrimp paste.
Char kway teow noodle is a flat rice noodle. It is stir-fried with garlic, dark soy sauce, chili paste, prawns, and bean sprouts. Oh happiness. Delicious.
Walking down the street we could see many options: Oysters, Grilled Fish, Fried Seafood, Satay, BBQ Chickenwings.
Although we are eating in food stalls along the street, we know that the food is fresh and is being freshly cooked for us.
Are you ready for a sweet dessert? How about some ice kacang, often referred to as ABC. It includes shaved ice with various toppings including peanuts, corn, fresh fruit, grass jelly, and sometimes with ice cream on top. It usually has evaporated milk or coconut milk and red rose syrup or a little palm sugar syrup drizzled over the top.
Returning to Malaysia to visit and eat delicious food helps to refresh my memories of happy times in the past and helps to create new memories.
We have a trip planned for tomorrow to take the train to Kajang to eat satay. We will see if the satay is still as good there as it used to be. I used to go there for lunch when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer 50 years ago. Here is the background story: Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, My Favorite City
Other Souvenir Stories:
What Travel Souvenirs Don’t Come in Cheap Plastic? by Scott-Ryan Abt — I don’t collect bottle caps, but I wonder how many different ones I could have collected over time in my travels.
The Most Personal of Souvenirs by Matthew David —This is not my kind of souvenir but I love that he was in Chiang Mai and I love his souvenir design and meaning.
The Best Travel Souvenirs Are My Memories by Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages — I agree that the memories are the best souvenirs, but mine are photo journals with captions on the photos, rather than written journals as Jillian has.