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I'm going to South America

I'll be using a different blog during my time there, so check it out at dpistrang.blogspot.com

So check me out there!

posted by DMP @ 9:19 AM 1 comments

Here are a few pictures, although I will be posting more food pictures elsewhere soon. There is a picture of popiah, a picture of some lamb and beef satay, and the third picture is wonton mee (noodles and a small soup) along with a fresh starfruit juice. YUM

posted by DMP @ 1:31 PM 0 comments

Last Night in Malaysia

It's 9:22 PM now, and I think I may have eaten my last meal in Malaysia....but that remains to be seen.

After bubble tea, I took the monorail to Central Station, then caught a taxi to the Islamic Art Museum. The museum was super nice with great explanations of all the artwork, some of it quite old! They also had a section with models of mosques from around the world which was pretty cool. After this I walked through the Lake Gardens until I arrived at the Bird Gardens, which are apparantly the biggest in the world. There were lots of tropical birds from all over the world....overall it was not worth the money, but it was an okay place....it was basically a bird zoo.

After this, I took a taxi to the Times Square building where I went on a short shopping spree at the big supermarket there. Then I walked around a bit more, eventually heading back to the street near my hostel for dinner #1. I ate at a place called Restoran Fu Xi, where I ordered wonton mee (which I thought was a soup), but it ended up being a plate of noodles in a tasty brown sauce, topped with some sauteed greens and sliced roast pork. This was served with a small bowl of wonton soup. Everything was excellent, and the green plates and chopsticks were perfectly color coordinated with my starfruit juice!

Two hours later, I ended up going back to the same place with Gabriella, where she ordered wonton mee and I had a curry mee, which had noodles and lots of random seafood (fish balls, fish cake, clams) in a curry broth. Pretty good, but not as good as the chicken curry mee from yesterday.

Now I'm back at the hostel, and I'm gonna try to get some sleep before my longgggg flight. It's been a great 6 weeks in Asia, but I am excited to go home.

OVER AND OUT :)

posted by DMP @ 5:19 AM 1 comments

Last Day in Malaysia

It's Sunday evening now, my flight leaves for the US in just 13 hours.....between now and then my major plans are to eat and sleep. I am at the point where I am done caring what time of day these things happen, since soon my time zones will reverse completely anyway (right now I am 13 hours ahead of Massachusetts).

Back to last night: After using the internet, I came back to the hostel and met Andreas, a guy from Germany who is on his way around the world. Eventually, I went to get dinner with Andreas, Gabriella, Axel, David and Simon, although I didn't eat anything. We went to an Indian place where the Swedes had eaten before. All but Gabriella ordered dosa, which were not as good as the ones in India, but everyone seemed to like them. The highlight of the meal were the "large" mango juices ordered by David and Simon, which turned out to be HUGE (the biggest juice glasses I have ever seen). They dwarfed my small lemon iced tea. I didn't eat anything except the shrimp that Gabriella picked out of her noodle dish. I was saving room for food in Chinatown.

After dinner, Axel, David and Simon left for Singapore, and Gabriella, Andreas and I headed off toward Chinatown in the rain. Luckily it wasn't raining too hard, and once we were in Chinatown, the main street (Petaling St.) is covered to protect shoppers from rain and sun. We shopped for quite a while, although I took some important food breaks. I bought a nice pair of sunglasses for 16 ringgit (about 4 dollars) and then, on my way back from the bathroom, came across a small stand selling tau fu fah. I got a small plastic container to go, and I ate it while standing next to lots of burned DVD venders. Tau fu fah is warm, soft tofu served with a sweet syrup....a healthy dessert. After this, I headed to a stand I had heard about from Robyn that had chicken and rice in a clay pot. I went to the stand and ordered a single portion (which was huge). The clay pot contained lots of rice, chicken and chinese sausage in a dark brown sauce. The chicken tasted like it was infused with ginger, and the chinese sausage added a wonderful sweetness. Some of the rice and pieces of ginger stuck to the bottom of the pot, and when I scraped it out it was crispy and delicious. This meal cost a bit more than 1 dollar.

After this, the three of us did a bit more shopping, then we headed back to our neighborhood at about midnight. After chilling at the hostel for a few minutes, we headed back out at 12:30 AM to try to find some starfruit juice. We chose the restaurant where I had had the pork buns the day before, since they told us they had starfruit juice. In the end, however, they didn't (which was annoying) but Andreas had already ordered some steamed buns, so we stayed there and Gabriella ordered an apple juice. I decided that I really had had plenty to eat already (see previous post and you will probably agree). We headed back at 1 AM and the streets were still packed with people eating.....this country rules. I ended up going to sleep at about 2 AM.

SUNDAY

I woke up at 10:25, unsure if I still had plans for dim sum. I called Robyn, and sure enough the plan was to meet at 11:30 and Xin Restaurant in the Concorde Hotel. I hopped on the monorail at 11, got there early, shortly after Robyn and her husband David showed up. We had a great dim sum meal, although service was a bit slow. Can I remember everything we had? Maybe...rice with ginger and saltwater fish was tasty and different, har gau were great (maybe the best I've ever had). Peanut and pork translucent dumplings, egg congee, fried meat dumplings and stuffed bean curd skin were all good. Pork buns were nice but nothing too special. Long rice noodles with scallops were really tasty, served with both sweet soy sauce and a chili/shrimp paste. Fried carrot cake had a a great chili flavor, it was different than the normal turnip cake I've had in the US. Fried taro puff was great, and veggie dumplings were fine. There may have been a few other things before our dessert course. We initially tried two desserts: coconut pudding and custard mochi. The coconut pudding was light and airy and had a delicate flavor. The mochi was also very delicate, and definitely the BEST Chinese dessert I have ever had. I think I got a good picture of it, which I will post soon. I considered buying a bunch of them to bring back to the US, but I think that would have been a bit overkill, so I'm glad I didn't.

I showed David and Robyn some pictures from Kerala, it sounds like they might go early next year. It was very nice meeting them and eating with them, I hope they visit me someday wherever I live, I will definitely take them to all the best eating spots wherever I am.

After dim sum, I took the monorail back to my neighborhood and went on a walk to a block I hadn't been to before. I found a small Taiwanese restaurant than Robyn had mentioned, and ordered a jasmine bubble tea. This was definitely the best bubble tea I've ever had: boba were perfect texture, not too soft, not too hard and the perfect sweetness. The jasmine tea was also perfect. Man oh man. Did I mention that I love this country? I think I should check out Taiwan sometime soon too...

I am going to end this post now, since Gabriella is back from shopping and I'm going to get dinner #2 with her. Only a few meals left before I leave the country! Ahh. I wonder if they have the cans of jasmine tea on Malaysia Airlines? I'll ask....

posted by DMP @ 3:47 AM 0 comments

Malaysia Day 4

Now that I have less than two days left in Malaysia, I am oficially starting to eat like a maniac. It's good that I am inside an internet cafe right now, since this will prevent me from eating for at least 30 minutes.

Back to last night first....after using internet, Axel, David, Simon, Gabriella and I explored the Golden Triangle area of KL and ended up finding a movie theater in the very new and fancy Times Square Building. This place is possibly the biggest and nicest mall I have ever seen....it had several levels of shops, although it seemed like many levels weren't full at all. The building also has several open atriums, and we surprised to find that one of them contained a large rollercoaster! This mall is nuts. We walked around a bit, since it took a while to find the movie theater, and at about 7:45, bought the last 5 tickets for the 9:30 showing of Harry Potter. Then it was time to find food. Sadly we didn't have the energy or time to venture too far from the movie theater, but fortunately food courts in Malaysia are about 1000 times better than food courts in the USA.

The found our way to the elevator, which we took to the food court (on the 10th floor!!). All of us got different things to eat...Simon had a delicious Thai Green Curry, better than most green curries I've had in the U.S. I went to a stall that had yong dau fu (sorry bout the spelling here). I wasn't sure what to do, but the woman at the counter was helpful and helped me figure it out. I chose out some thick rice noodles, some spinach-like vegetable, fish balls and tofu, and she cooked them in a delicious chicken broth. The soup was sprinkled with crispy fried garlic and was very tasty. After this, I went to the juice stand to buy juices for David and myself. They were through making fresh juices (this place is more alive during the day I think) so I randomly picked two juices from the coolers. The pink guava juice was okay but had a funky flavor I didn't care for, but David liked it. The bandung juice was new to all of us, and had an interesting (almost bubble-gum like) taste. Here is a picture of bandung juice I copied from the web (mine looked just like it)



Just before the movie, I bought some popcorn. They were all out of the "light and sweet" popcorn and only had caramel corn. I bought a small one, and it was light and quite good. The Swedes, who hadn't seen much caramel corn before, were disappointed not to have salty popcorn and didn't like the sweet popcorn very much.

Harry Potter was entertaining, but they left out practically the whole book! The previews were good....Narnia, King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha. Lots of high-tech commercials for random things like cars and cameras and new technology. The theater was super nice and new, stadium seating, and the film was in English with subtitles in both Malaysian and Chinese. After the movie I was pretty darn tired, and al of us went home and went to sleep.

SATURDAY:

Today is when I started going a bit crazy with food. I slept till almost 10 AM, showered, then went out by myself in search of breakfast. I went to the same place I went on day one, and this time got more yong tau foo. I chose out my items and thought that I would receive one dish that contained them all. However, the items I chose were apparantly sufficient for two different dishes (pan mee and yong tau foo). The pan mee contained fresh yellow noodles stir fried with ground pork, shitake mushrooms, scallions and sweet soy sauce. The yong tau foo was a soup that contained soft bean curd, fish balls, scallions, stuffed eggplant and stuffed bean curd skin. Broth was similar but even more delicious than at the food court the night before. Along with an iced lemon tea, the entire meal was less than 2 dollars.

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel a bit, hung out, then went with the four Swedes to the popiah place, since I thought they would really like it. Axel got some decent fried noodles, while Simon and David had 4 popiah each. Since I was there, I decided to eat one popiah, and I also drank a jasmine iced tea.

After this, the three Swedish guys headed off to Chinatown, and Gabriella and I took the monorail and then the subway to Ampang Park, a shopping center near the Petronas Towers. Robyn had recommended two places in Ampang Park, so we went to check them out. Selasah Cafe was closed, but Deena's Corner, a small cafe/stand in the middle of the mall was open. Robyn had specifically recommended the laksa johor (spaghetti with a Malaysian fish/curry broth) but since Gabriella doesn't like fish too much, we got the Mee Curry (curry noodles with chicken). This was OUTSTANDING and the spiciest dish I've had so far in Malaysia. The dish contained yellow noodles, several pieces of chicken, some greens and lots of chilis, all in a spicy, coconut/lemongrass/curry broth. The broth was amazing, but several spoonfulls were so full of chili that I lost my voice. Since this was already my third meal, the soup (1 dollar) was plenty for the two of us to share.

Next stop was a supermarket, where I bought a big box of green tea to bring back to the US, and where Gabriella bought a bag of some unknown snack which turned out to be cereal and chili coated peanuts. Very addicive, I ate more than enough.

Next we took the metro to KLCC, another huge and beautiful mall in the Petronas Towers (the tallest building in the world). Here we did a bit of window shopping (Gabriella looked at jewelry, I looked at food), then we decided to split up. I planned to head back toward the hotel, but I decided to head upstairs to the food court "just to take a look." Famous last words.

Stop 1 was at the dessert stand, where I decided to order something completely random and then decide whether I liked it. I chose Len Chee Kang Ice Shaving, which was a big glass full of several things: lots of dried nuts (peanuts, coconut, macadamia?) and dried fruit (lichee, dates?), some seaweed or grass jelly or something, all drizzled with a sweet brown syrup, then topped with ice, which soon melted. The end result was kind of like putting lots of GORP (trail mix) into a bowl of sugar water. I only ate 1/4 of it, deciding that I should not waste stomach space on anything that isn't fantastic.

On the way out of the food court, I passed by Genki Sushi, a Japanese chain with a sushi conveyor belt! I had heard about these places before, but I had never seen one, so I decided that I could just order 1 thing. I got a seat at a counter (in front of the conveyor belt) and enjoyed 2 dishes (did you really think I'd stick to 1?) along with a green tea (made from powder, not bad actually). First dish was raw salmon wrapped around rice, topped with mayonaise, to which I added wasabi and a bit of soy sauce. Delicious. Second dish was tender fried scallops, also topped with a bit of mayonaise. Quite good, though it wasn't hot. After this small meal, I managed to leave the mall and walked back (in the rain) to the monorail, which I took back to my neighborhood.

Kuala Lumpur is the cleanest and most modern city I have ever been to. It would not be hard to live here, and it certainly isn't hard to travel here at all. Foodwise, this country really has SO much to offer. Aside from that though, I already am finding myself a bit bored in the city. When I return to Malaysia someday, I will try to spend more time in the other parts of the country (which will be better during different months, since it is currently the rainy season). I really wouldn't recommend anyone visit Kuala Lumpur for anything other than the food, great shopping and a quick glimpse of how an economic boom in the 90's can shape a city. Since everything here is so easy, KL is definitely a good starting point for trips to SE Asia....heading in any direction from here would lead to amazing places.

This afternoon the eating started winding down, although now it's almost dinner time! I went shopping, bought some food related items and some delicious jasmine tea (which I got to sample). Sweet. The Swedish guys are going to Singapore tonight, so I'm off now to say goodbye to them, and then tonight more markets and more food!

See ya

posted by DMP @ 1:07 AM 0 comments

Day 3 in Malaysia, still in KL


Hello from a dark and high-tech internet cafe here in KL. It's cool out now, since it just poured for a few hours. The streets all flooded, but the drainage system is pretty good here, so it's all cleared up already.

Back to yesterday: keeping with tradition, I had two dinners. First I went out by myself, since I wanted a snack and other people at the hostel weren't ready to eat yet. I found a stall on my block called "Hong Kong Dim Sum" where I picked out some steamed pork buns (freshly steamed on a cool contraption on the street) and had a freshly squeezed starfruit juice. On the way back to the hostel, I stopped at a fruit cart where I bought a small bag of sliced honey dew and a small bag of sliced mango. Both were excellent, although I saved most of them until later in the evening. The mango was perfect, and it's so nice to have someone else cut it for you! I didn't eat any mango in India (except in mango pickle) since it's not in season now, so it was nice to eat it again.

Back at the hostel, I rested for about 20 minutes, then headed out with 4 Swedes who are also staying at Anjung KL. All four of them (Simon, David, Axel and Gabriella) came here from Australia a few days ago. We went to the same restaurant that I ate at the night before, and we had a good but not amazing meal. Fried rice (nasi goreng) had bits of tasty chinese sausage and a few large shrimp, and was served with a mixture of chili paste and shrimp paste. Fried noodles were tasty but less interesting. I drank a lemon tea, others had various juices and sodas. Someone also ordered some chicken and rice which was okay but not too amazing. After this, we ordered a bit more food (fried lamb and shrimp rolls, served with an orange chili sauce) and some chicken satay. Overall a good meal, but I am going to stick to Robyn's suggestions from now on to ensure great meals every time. Word.

Last night the Swedes and I decided to do a day trip today that would include the Blue Mosque (which has the tallest minarets in the world), the Batu Caves and some waterfalls that I had heard about. I didn't sleep too well last night for some reason (maybe too much food in my stomach?) so waking up wasn't too fun...somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed and across the street for two roti canai and a tea. At 9:30 the five of us left with Ken, who works at Anjung KL, in the van for our trip.

Kuala Lumpur is super modern, and driving doesn't seem too bad at all. The city kind of reminds me of South Florida, also a bit like Honolulu, also a bit like London, but even more modern than all of these places. There's still lots of construction and the city seems to be expanding. The drive to the Blue Mosque was about 45 mins, and although we technically left KL, the whole drive was quite urban and on big highways. The Blue Mosque was quite large and impressive, but Ken told us that tourists hardly ever go there. Once there, we found out that we couldn't even go in, mainly because it was Friday. Oh well. We still took several pictures, and I for one was grateful to get back in the nice, airconditioned van.

The drive to Batu Caves was another 40 mins....we arrived at 11:30 or so. The staircase and the caves were both impressive, and the monkeys were out to get all the food they could (luckily we didn't have any). The hindu temples inside the caves were interesting, but the shops selling postcards and tourist items were less attractive. Overall this place was worth seeing, but certainly I've been to better caves. At the bottom, we chose to eat lunch at one of the several South Indian places that line the parking lot. All 6 of us had the veg thali lunch which was tasty but not as good as some of the meals I had in South India with Evan. However, after a few weeks away from South Indian food, it was nice to have a nice meal of rice, sambar, rasam, 4 vegetable dishes (spicy potatoes, yellow lentils, okra and something else????) and papad. Everyone enjoyed the meal, and everyone also liked eating with their hands....Axel said it was the best meal he'd had in Malaysia so far! I tried out my Tamil skills with the waiter, who wasn't that impressed (which is understandable, since I really only know two words).

After lunch, it was back in the van for a 20 minute drive to the park that contained the waterfalls. The road finally entered a less urban and quite rainforested area, and the 2 km walk up to the waterfalls was really nice. The rainforest was quite thick with bamboo, ferns and large trees. We even saw some monkeys high in the tree tops. The waterfall was nice, although I think I'm pretty spoiled when it comes to waterfalls, so I wasn't all that impressed. Still, we had fun climbing around on the rocks and dipping our heads under rushing water. Although it was hardly deep enough to swim, I did technically swim for 3 seconds, so this will soon be a new entry in my swimming chart. Sweeet.

The van ride home was okay, luckily we got out of the rainforest before the rain began, and by the time we got back into the city, it was pouring and lightninging and thundering and flooding all around us. Back at the hostel, I showered, rested, napped for about 15 minutes, and now my Swedish amigos and I are at the internet cafe. Possibly we're going to see Harry Potter tonight, although we're not sure....I was going to go to Malacca today, but since the trip was so long, and since I'm pretty tired, I think I'm not going to go. I definitely would like to come back to Malaysia someday, especially if I can travel with a friend or two. It would definitely be nice to see the rest of the country, not to mention Thailand and Singapore.......KL is pretty nice overall, but the only part of it that truly excites me is the food. It's just so amazing that there are thousands of restaurants, and I would probably LOVE all of them.

Simon and David have a blog where they posted a few pictures....you can see my green shirt in one of them, but there are some pictures of KL and the mosque and the waterfals. The link is http://DavidandSimon.bebo.com

See ya later, over and out

posted by DMP @ 2:30 AM 0 comments

Day 2 in KL - New friends and great food

Last night I slept quite well, and due to a bit of jet lag, didn't wake up until 10 AM. I called Robyn, a chowhound buddy who lives in KL, and she told me that she'd pick me up at KL Central Station at noon to meet up with friends of hers at a good Malaysian place. Since I knew lunch was coming soon, I limited myself to a small breakfast of roti canai from the 24 hr restaurant across the street from my hotel, along with a hot, sweet tea. Delicious. Next I headed to Central Station on KL's lovely monorail. This city is super modern and clean, it's quite impressive.

Robyn picked me up at the station (she recognized me as the hungry looking white guy) and we drove to Petaling Jaya, a nearby suburb (about 15 minutes away). It's pretty awesome that I am able to meet people through chowhound, even when I am on the other side of the world! Robyn and her husband are thinking about going to India in December, so she was eager to hear about food there. I think I convinced her to go to Kerala. Anyway, it took a while to find the restaurant (Village Park Restaurant) which is located in a big area full of strip malls and parking lots...reminded me of South Florida. We met up with two of her friends (both Malaysian) and had a great meal. Robyn had a nasi dadang plate and I had nasi lemak plate. I think the main difference between these was the type of rice: mine was just coconut rice, and hers was cocounut with another type of grain too.....this could probably be googled by anyone who really wants to know. Anyway, nasi lemak includes coconut rice, sambal (chili sauce), anchovies, peanuts and slices of cucumber. Very tasty. The "plate" also included several dishes (I got to choose) from a prepared food table. Robyn's friends helped me figure out what everything was, and I chose some mutton curry (excellent), tempeh with anchovies (even tastier), sauteed eggplant, sauteed water spinach and a hard boiled egg. The food was great, writing about it now is making me hungry again!

To drink Robyn and I both tried a bright green lime and sour plum drink...this was kind of a mistake on my part, since I really don't like the sour preserved plums that come inside these drinks (I have had it before in the U.S. too). I drank more than half of it though. This country has an infinite number of juices and drinks, so many bright colors too, it's really cool. I will definitely avoid sour plum from now on though.

I am not sure what Robyn's friends had, although one had already eaten and just had a small sandwich and a white coffee, and I actually can't remember what the other friend ate. After the meal, I had a delicious frothy milk tea, and Robyn had an iced white coffee. We each paid 10 ringgit or so (less than 3 dollars). Awesome.

Robyn's friends dropped us off at the train station, where we took the train (also above ground at this point) back toward KL. It sounds like I'll be meeting up with Robyn and her husband on Sunday for some dim sum which I am already looking forward to. It was really great to eat with people who live here, and she and her friends have given me LOTS of suggestions for both Melaka and KL. Ken, who works at my hostel, has also given me some great food suggestions, so I basically have the rest of my time planned!

Robyn got off the train at Central Station again, and I continued to Masjid Jamek, one of KL's most famous mosques. I walked around, it was pretty nice. While I was there I met Alex, a guy my age from Germany. I started talking to him, then walked around with him for the rest of the afternoon. I drank a chrysanthemum iced tea (sorry about the spelling), then we walked to Merdeka Square, then to the very peaceful and lush Lake Gardens. We stayed there until Alex started getting eaten alive my mosquitoes, then we walked back and I took a taxi back to the hostel. It's hot out today, and I'm still sweaty, so it's off to another shower before I head out in search of more food.

Tomorrow I think I am going to visit some caves that are outside of KL, then in the afternoon I am going to take a bus to Melaka, a city about 2 hrs from here, where I will spend one night. Then it's back to KL on Saturday night and Sunday night, then back to the USA on Monday!

Hasta luego

posted by DMP @ 1:08 AM 1 comments

Food in Malaysia, Day 1

This blog thing is confusing me. I don't understand how to create titles for my posts. If anyone knows how to do this, please email me that info. Thank you :)

NOW, onto what you've all (or at least I've) been waiting for. Having heard that food on the block where I am staying is very good, I started off my explorations of Kuala Lumpur by walking around my block. I walked up JL Alor, passing by lots of stalls and restaurants, some with people, some closed. It looked very promising. I turned the corner, walked past 2 different 7-11's (they are popular here!) and walked down Tengkat Tong Shin. I made it almost all the way around the block before stopping to eat! Such restraint!

The food in this city is really really really awesome. I love it. It is by far my favorite thing about Kuala Lumpur, which otherwise is a nice but so far not amazingly impressive city. Except for the food, which IS amazingly impressive. I first ate at a restaurant that was comprised of a few different carts. I ordered a fish ball noodle soup, which had a really nice chicken broth, yellow noodles, several fish balls, pieces of fish cake and one fish wonton. This was served with a small bowl of chilis and oil which I used to spice up the soup. This was a hot dish for such a hot day, but it was delicious. With this I drank a cup of hot black tea.

After this meal, I moved back up the street again to a outdoor restaurant I had passed before, and that was recommended by Robyn, my chowhound contact here in KL. I wasn't exactly sure what popiah was when I ordered one, but the woman working at the restaurant showed me a picture of one, and it looked good. In fact, it was great. Popiah are sort of like fresh spring rolls, and the one I had was filled with warm noodles, chili sauce, some other sauce, shrimp and chicken, all wrapped in a wrapper like the ones they use at Fresh Side Cafe in Amherst. This was topped with more chili sauce and some hoisin sauce. It was so delicious that I ordered another one immediately, and had a canned jasmine green tea on the side. Awesome.

At this point I took a (short) break from eating, and went on a walk to the Menara tower, the 4th tallest telecom tower in the world (the tallest is the CN tower in Toronto). I bought a ticket, took the elevator up, had a nice view, listened to an audio tour, then walked back down. On the way back to the hotel, I walked through a small park that surrounds the tower that is apparantly still a primary rain forest. The neighborhood (Golden Triangle area) felt surprisingly empty during the afternoon, many of the side streets were super quiet.

After I got back to the hotel, I met a guy named Jose from Iran who is sharing the dorm room with me. I invited him to walk with me toward Chinatown, which is about 1 km away from our hotel. He speaks some English but not a ton, but it was very nice to have company on the outing. We walked along Petaling St, which is a very busy market (particularly good for sunglasses and watches and stuff like that), then roamed around Chinatown (which in the late afternoon wasn't all that impressive). I went into two tea shops, checked prices for jasmine tea which I will definitely be buying. Eventually we found a food court where we both had honey dew juice (freshly squeezed) but served on ice (which maybe is bad, but I think the ice was packaged, so maybe it's okay). I drank it quickly just in case so the ice wouldn't melt into the juice. Then we shared a plate of fried rice noodles with vegetables and egg and some fish cake too I think. Jose wasn't very experienced with chopsticks, but he did surprisingly well. At 7:30 or so we returned to the hotel, where I met a guy from Finland who is also staying here. Even though I had sort of just eaten, I went with him at 8:30 to eat again.

We walked back up JL Alor, which was now filled with people eating in all of the stalls and restaurants. Lots of tables had been set up, and I would have been really excited to eat at any of the places (mainly Malaysian and Chinese). We chose one stall that seemed to have several options, and ended up ordering chicken-in-clay-pot (which we saw on a neighboring table), two bowls of rice, and 10 pieces of stay (5 beef, 5 lamb). The satay was awesome, although I just broke a 5 week beef-free streak. Oh well. The chicken-in-clay-pot had an awesome sauce (lots of ginger pieces on caramelized onions in a sweet glaze) but the pieces of chicken were quite bony and not too amazing. I had another jasmine green tea which was great. I really wish this was more available in the states, it is the best canned beverage I have ever had, and here in Malaysia it's everywhere.

The evening ended at a fruit stand (they actually only had bananas, durian and rambutan) where I bought some rambutan to bring back to the hostel. They are pretty tasty, though I don't like them as much as other fruits. I might buy more pomegranites tomorrow, I really enjoyed eating them in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, and I saw them for sale here too.

I think that's all for now. I am looking forward to tomorrow....more amazing food!

posted by DMP @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

Goodbye India, Hello Malaysia

I made it to Malaysia! Yesterday after I wrote in the blog, I spent most of the afternoon keeping a low profile in Delhi. I traded in a book I had already read for the 5th Harry Potter, so that entertained me for much of the day. I had a nice veg thali lunch at Hotel Grand, then had an early dinner of aloo mutter at Swad Restaurant, also on Arakashan Rd. in Delhi. Nothing too special, but good enough. I checked out of my hotel and left in a car for Delhi International Airport.

I arrived at 7:30 for a 10:10 flight, so I had plenty of time to make it through security, check-in, customs and then more security. Just before the last security, I bought a bottle of water. As I was collecting my change, I turned around and saw Scott, an American who Evan and I had met in Ooty 3 weeks ago! We were both very surprised by the coincidence, and I spent the rest of the time before the flight talking with him and a few other random passengers. Scott was on my flight, but sadly I never saw him when we got off the plane in KL. I got through security and got my bags quickly, so I think I was ahead of him.

Anyway, the flight was fine, the plane was nice, but it is not too fun to have a 5 hr. red-eye flight....not much time to sleep! The meal was served at 11:30 PM India time, which is 2 AM Malaysia time....I wasn't going to eat anything, but when the food came, it looked really good. It was! Great veg kofta, rice, and stewed carrots. Yum. Also there were some fried/curried potatoes that came with a wedge of lime; the combined flavors were delicious. Dessert was goopy and too sweet so I skipped it, but the roti and papad were nice, as was the lime pickle.

We arrived in KL at 6:00 AM and my arrival process went amazingly smoothly. Malaysia is SO easy to navigate compared to India. It's a whole different world. I was one of the first people off the plane, so I got through immigration quickly (no questions asked), got some ringgits from an ATM, got my bags, went through customs with those, and boarded the super-fast express train that links KL airport to the city. I was on the train at 6:45, and I arrived downtown at 7:15. From there I immediately got a taxi coupon for a taxi which brought me to my hotel, Anjung KL (their website is www.anjungkl.com, and it really IS as nice as it seems).

Even though I arrived at 7:30 AM, there was no problem with me taking a dormroom bed earlier than the official check in. Ken, one of the people who works here, showed me around: the dorm room is very nice, with both fans and AC, several new bunk beds, pillows, blanket and bedsheet all provided. Kitchen and dining area is self service, with several types of tea and coffee, some bread and some delicious coconut jelly. Common room has a wicked nice computer (which I am on now), an even nicer TV and an even nicer DVD player. Bathrooms are shared, but the showers are awesome. This whole place is great, definitely worth the 25 ringgit (about 6 dollars).

This morning I showered, then ate a bit of toast while talking to a guy from the Dominican Republic. Then at 9:30 AM I took a little nap until 11:30. At about noon, I ventured out to explore the food options on my block......

More coming soon, now it's time to go back outside for some dinner.....get ready for some good food reports on my next post!

posted by DMP @ 3:47 AM 0 comments