Chinatown at KL houses many good street food

We employed a food guide to bring us around Kuala Lumpur to introduce to us the Best Street Food in KL. He said that he wanted to bring us to some famous street food and some not-so-famous ones but are equally good.

We went around at night because we fat and fat people scare hot. But many good stalls are closed at night. So these are great supper spots:

The Madras Lane Curry Noodles is named second best street food in the world by Lonely Planet, but it is only opened in mornings.

Since we went around at night, we went to another equally famous kiosk behind Madras Lane, the Petaling Road stall. It’s in the middle of the pasar malam (night market) with small lanes and it has no name.

But to identify the stall, that’s the auntie in the photo. She started cooking when she was 19 and now has 50 years of experience! They use charcoal fire to give that smokey aroma.

Both the Assam laksa and curry noodles are so awesome you have to order both. They are savoury with little sweetness unlike Singapore’s versions which are sweeter. They are only slightly spicy, not as spicy as Singapore’s. As a result, you can eat more without being feeling jerlat.

The piquant Assam laksa is packed with mackerel, and if you add the sweet prawn sauce on the table, it gives the dish a whole new depth.

Brickfields Claypot Rice

This food cart has no address and is found on the pavement in front of Impian Budget Inn and Hotel Double M. It is not a proper shop and only has makeshift tables and chairs. On rainy days, there is no shelter.

What this food cart has is an uncle with 30 years of experience. And the experience shows in the claypot. You’ll have to wait 20-30 minutes for the rice to cook over charcoal fire.

As a result, the rice is aromatic and smokey. The chicken is tender. But I would have love to have more charred rice 锅巴. Still, I usually don’t like claypot rice but I like this one.

“When you go to KL/Ipoh/Penang, you must eat dim sum.” Not sure why people keep telling me that. It’s like at every place in Malaysia, you have to eat dim sum. But yes, this one is awesome.

It was recommended to us by the bosses at Go Noodle House.  If you can produce good food, you’ll know what good food is. And these bosses sure know what is good.

We were there at 7.30am and it was already 3/4 full. The servers will bring around baskets of dim sum to your table.

Most of the items are above average but definitely get the lo mai gai, which is their signature. It is less sticky and the chicken tastes fresh.

This is a very popular KL Hokkien Mee shop (and we also tried a great soup from another stall in the same coffeeshop).

Big fire for wok hei

We ordered two big plates and I suspect both plates were fried by different people. They tasted different. One was way more superior than the other. It has a great balance of sweet and savory with that elusive, umami wok hei.

I wish you good luck in getting the right person to cook your food.

The Blue Stall

Like Neo’s choice between the red and blue pill, there are two famous colour-coded nasi lemak stalls at this hawker centre, Medan Selera Jalan 223 Petaling Jaya.

The stall with the blue signboard is called Suri Nasi Lemak Panas (T: 016-2381261 / 012-3854541).

The stall with the red signboard is called Gerai Yatie (T: 012-2660369 / 012-3717007/ 012-3520916 / 012-7749916).

The red stall

the red and blue stalls’ nasi lemak

The red stall is more popular with a queue but we all prefer the blue one. The red stall’s sambal is more sweet, less spicy, similar to Singapore’s version. But the blue stall’s rice is more fragrant.

How is my artistic shot of satay? Not photoshopped!

If the small packets aren’t enough, you may also order satay from Warisan Bonda and tauhu bakar from Kerang Bakar.

Bursting Meatball Mi Xian in Premium Superior Soup

If you want the comfort of air con and still enjoy affordable street food, Go Noodle House is the house to go. The bosses use their family recipe for their fish soup and their bursting meatballs, according to one of my readers, are “legendary.”

Many ingredients are handmade twice a day, once for lunch and once for dinner, such as their fish paste, and pan mee noodles.

Special Dark Sauce Pan Mee and Onsen Egg

They recently open an outlet at 313@somerset Singapore. Full review here.

They have an outlet at Resorts World Singapore but this is the original shop. It’s like Starbucks is everywhere but if you go to Seattle, you must visit the first ever shop.

It is also recommended to us by the Bosses of Go Noodle House, and the snacks are superb.

They have been making traditional Chinese pastry since 1909. They maintain the same recipes except that they reduce the sugar and oil.

Everything is great here! I ate at least one WHOLE piece of each variety. But the best is the lao po bing.

I don’t like lao po bing generally but this one is so good. The ratio of the thin, crispy skin to filling is fantastic. It’s not too sweet and they added orange peel for that oomph.

I wanted to buy the lao po bing back to Singapore but they RAN OUT. Very sad.

To recap, I highly recommend the ones highlighted in red although the rest are worth visiting too:

–Assam laksa and curry noodles: Madras Lane Curry Noodles (breakfast), Jalan Petaling Curry Noodles (dinner)

–Claypot rice: Brickfields Claypot Rice (dinner)

–Dim sum: Restoran Ful Lai Dim Sum (breakfast to supper)

–KL Hokkien mee: Restoran Ahwa 新青山亚华福建面 (dinner and supper)

–Nasi lemak: Medan Selera Jalan 223 Petaling Jaya (dinner and supper)

–Noodles: Go Noodles House (lunch and dinner)

–Chinese pastries: Fung Wong Biscuits. (Buy this home for your friends and family.)

Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.