Eating in Malaysia

Visiting Malaysia and Singapore is all about two things: Shopping and Food.
So what do you do when you don't like shopping and are eating Failsafe?
You cook.

I actually really enjoyed cooking in a different environment and shopping at the local wet markets and shops.  I actually love shopping at markets it is only shopping malls that make me sick.

Victor's apartment had a pretty typical set up minus a cook top. He very kindly went out and bought a hot plate and frying pan before we came, after Mum convinced him we couldn't eat out even if it is cheaper.

I am so annoyed a forgot to photograph the kitchen. It was small and narrow with a double sink and drain board on one side. The left hand sink was covered with a white square of plastic which served as the chopping board.

Opposite the sink was Victor's self constructed wall of shelves made from identical three shelf units that were slightly taller than a bed side table. Two of these together with a tiled top made the heat resistant place for the hot plate.

I would cook dinner, making enough left over for Sam and I's lunch the next day. I put the left overs in rice paper wrappers and put them in a box, we can eat any time anywhere. The great thing about being a "wai guo ren" (foreigner, aka white) is that they excuse you bringing your own food into restaurants. Not that they mind too much as you can go next door and order a dish and they will deliver it to the other restaurant.

The hotel in Johor presented a different challenge, it turns out their idea of a kitchenette was a fridge, a tea kettle with extensive cupboards, all of which were empty, and an optional microwave to delivered on request. And there was only one plug so we had to unplug the fridge to use the kettle and microwave.

To get around these difficulties I cooked at Lao Ma's in Singapore and put the food in take away containers to re-heat at our room. Then of course we ate two nights out of three at the Seafood Market.

While I like my Gluten Free oats for breakfast with pear Jam it sure was hard eating that at the buffet while Stuart ate Nasi Lemak and Kaya on bread. I love Nasi lemak though I hadn't realized it was a traditional breakfast food as we always had if for dinner.(It is coconut rice with a mild sweet and sour chili sauce, roasted peanuts, these small dried fish, boiled egg, cucumber and tomatoe.)

There were a few things we could eat.

Samantha tried fresh Red Bean Baozi and Roti prata (a Malay Indian fry bread).
We had red bean soup, black glutinous rice porridge (oh jook) and an Indian rice pancake thing called Appams.
I also enjoyed getting fresh soy milk and fresh tofu. Oh so much better than anything in the shops here.

Our last day we cheated on the diet. I had four magnificent bites of Nasi Kandar beef (a spicy slow cooked wonderful dish). And for dinner we had fish steamed with ginger, a chive and onion omlette and bean sprouts with carrot. Very yum but it took me a week to get it out of my system.

Oh I did have a few other cheats here and there, one slice of mangostene, a sip of fresh coconut water, a sip of Malaysian tea with ginger in it, that sort of thing.

Stuart on the other hand enjoyed eating all his favourite foods and bought back durian twice while in KL. He ate Jack Fruit, mangostene, fresh coconut, curries and fish ball soup, fried noodles, roti prata, and all sorts of sweet treats. (he gained 3kg)



Ah Kong having his "Koppi O" while Stu and AhMa have fresh coconut in JB

They cut off the top of the coconut and you drink the water with a straw (coconut water is not the same as coconut milk)
Then you scoop out the soft flesh with a spoon.

Red bean soup, not 100% failsafe because it has dried orange peel, surprisingly the reaction came and went swiftly.
15 minutes after eating it Samantha begins to talk without drawing breath, asking questions non-stop for about 30 min.
It happened both times we had the soup.

Jack Fruits piled on the stairs inside the Cafe.

Which one are we going to have for dinner?
That's what I call fresh fish.
Seafood Market Restaurant JB

Stuart enjoying Hainan Chicken Rice in Meleka with their specialty rice balls along with some fish ball soup and some fried veggie.

More steamed rice please.
Much better than eating Mommy's cold chicken risotto or cold bean threads.



This is where we bought our "kampeng" chicken, meaning free range.
The freshest chicken I've ever eaten. It was very nice.
This is the wet market Down the hill from Victor's house.

This machine shreds the coconut(coming out the left hand shoot)
 and squeezes out the "milk" (coming out the right hand shoot)
Oh but I wanted to try some of that.
Also at the wet market.

Just some of the sweet treats Stu enjoyed, different types of  'kuey'.
Don't let anyone tell you Chinese don't like sweet things.
They just don't like western style sweet things.