Breakfast Toasts - Kuala Lumpur

In Malaysia, they're Simply Better
I get down from time to time.  At its worst, the world seems dark and meaningless and I can barely drag myself out of bed.  As bad as it gets, I am always excited for breakfast.  I absolutely love the first meal, no other comes close.  If you were to plot my day on a graph, starting with breakfast on the left, the line would slant steeply downward, past lunch, going negative near dinner.  While I'm still eating my morning meal I often ask the Dodo "what's for breakfast tomorrow?"  She usually rolls her eyes.

Restoran West Lake - Kuala Lumpur

KL Hokkien Mee
Looks can be deceiving, my friends.  What appears to be a plate of fetid earthworms is in fact the famous Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee.  Thick yellow noodles, pork and specks of cabbage sauteed in a dark soya sauce over a charcoal fire.  Bits of deep fried pork fat lurk within, setting off a frantic chopstick battle royale that I lose time and again.  Dodo brought me to Restoran West Lake to show me how this dish is supposed to taste.  For reasons I cannot discern, it's miles better than the wan versions I've tried in Singapore.

Roti Canai - Kuala Lumpur

Waking Up with Street Breakfast
Dating a superstar has its perks - getting a lot of sleep isn't one of them.  She often learns about her big-shot meetings the day before and then puts on her sweetest, squeeky-mouse voice "You wanna go KL, baaaaaaaaaaaaaabe?"  At 5:45am today I wasn't sure why I'd agreed.  We caught the 7am flight and just a few hrs later, sitting at a street stall in the warmth, I was glad I did.  The spicy sauce served with the Roti Canai here is just what you need to get the blood platelets flowing again.

Khong Guan - Singapore

Nasi Padang in Queenstown
This is the full circle post - the one that takes me back to the beginning.  Khong Guan is one of the first places I tried in Singapore and the one from which my girlfriend's nickname sprang.  See the "greedy shot" photo on the right, the one with the sparkling curry puff?  That was taken here a few years back and sent to me long-distance.  I started calling her Puff almost immediately and the name stuck for quite a while.  My mom still calls her that, resisting the more recently concocted "Dodo" as being too insulting.  Puffin grew up eating at this coffee shop and she gets all misty-eyed when she talks about their mee rebus.  I was more than happy to gnaw on a fat curry puff, which was deliciously tasty, sentimentality aside.

Amelie Cafe - Penang, Malaysia

Cute, but not the Swiftest
It took me a while but I finally got the recycling theme at Amelie. They use recycled everything - from the jars in which they serve their lattes to the furniture and menus. We were parched from wandering around nearby Khoo Kongsi and this was a perfect place to sit back, relax and sip some cool drinks. Just don't be in a rush - if you cannot make the tenuous connection, let me help you: Amelie is a French name and France ain't synonymous with speedy service. There is one chef for fifteen people, about the maximum this tiny cafe can accomodate.

New Lane Street Vendors - Penang, Malaysia

Two for Two Heaven
Rarely does it go so perfectly. Pick out two things you love, get two perfectly lovely things delivered. So it was at the New Lane market, where we feasted on this plate of char siew pork and roasted duck. Every single bite was a fatty, smoky step towards the grave. But hey, you can't live forever.

Apom Chooi - Penang, Malaysia

Banana Pancakes - Nonya Style
I was so full but Puffin talked me into one more thing! The word apom means pancake in Malay, Chooi is the name of the vendor himself. His brother Guan works another stall only 30 feet away but apparently they're not on talking terms. Gotta love the internet - don't know if any of that is true but it makes for a good story - check out the source for this post here.

Transfer Rd Roti Canai - Penang, Malaysia

The Revered Roti Canai in this Town
I really wanted to try out Roti Canai in Penang and asked around for a good one. Every taxi driver, hotel worker and random person told me to go to Transfer Street. We went by in the evening once but it was closed and I began to worry that it wouldn't reopen until after Ramadan. I'd all but given up. Luckily, as we were flagging a cabbie this morning we happened to be standing half a block from it and it was open. As she pointed down the block, Puffin asked the cabbie "is this Transfer Street? Roti Canai?" He smiled widely. "Yes, yes, yes, the best. Take your time, I'll wait for you."

Beng Chin Garden - Penang, Malaysia

A Surprisingly Near-Perfect Coffee Shop
After touring the nearby Kek Lok Si temple we were ready to chow. We picked this coffee shop at the bottom of the hill almost at random. In these parts a "coffee shop" is a collection of street vendors selling various foodstuffs as well as coffee. We weren't expecting too much but were pleasantly surprised, especially with the Char Kway Teow, literally "wok-fried rice-cake strips." It's so-called for the flat rice noodles that are fried at a high heat with lard, soy sauce, chili, shrimp paste, tamarind juice, prawns, cockles, bean sprouts and chives. It was smoky and slightly spicy and absolutely delicious. Best meal of the day, hands down.

Juice and Antique Spot - Penang, Malaysia

What an Unexpected Combo
I don't know how it happened but I'm the anointed navigator in Penang. This means I have to consult the map and take an absolute direct route to whatever the ladies desire. If they sense the slightest double-back or circling the boos are quick to come - after all: they're Singaporean. On our way to Khoo Kongsi Temple I decided to take an unnecessary left turn for fun. The ladies were hesitant but eventually followed. While waiting for them a young man called to me from the sidewalk "would you like some fresh juice, sir?" It was so weird because he was standing outside an antique shop and it took me a few seconds to locate a small sign that read "Juice Bar."

Leong Chee Kee - Penang, Malaysia

Getting Lost for Baked Goods
I'll wander around for a long time and have Puffin ask people for directions if there is something sweet at the end of the trip. Leong Chee Kee is lauded for its coconut biscuits and we searched hard for this hard-to-find bakery. The coconut biscuit was a let-down, definitely not the best thing they make. Good thing we found something there which was way better.....

Toh Soon Cafe - Penang, Malaysia

Kickoff Breakfast in Penang, Malaysia
I'm here for a three day weekend with Puffin and some of her girlfriends and the goal, funny enough, is to eat as many different things as possible. Keeping it simple for the first meal: charcoal-cooked toast and coffee. Toh Soon is a sliver of an alley that is known for its toast and after trying it out I can see why. It was wonderful.

Ponggol Nasi Lemak - Singapore

Hitting a "Famous" Stall
I'm always a little wary about visiting a famous place because it's usually over-crowded and not good enough to deserve the wait. Ponggol is "the" place to get Chinese-style Nasi Lemak, a Malaysian dish of rice cooked in coconut milk, egg, anchovies, sambal (chili paste), sliced cucumber, peanuts and in my case a fried chicken drumstick and a side of eggplant.

Baba Charlie's - Malacca, Malaysia

Lesser Men Just Use Their Garage to Store Their Cars
Day two of our Malacca food tour we headed to an out of the way spot for some Nyonya Kueh, which can best described as bite-size treats. I mean "out-of-the-way" literally, as in down a dusty side street in a residential area, far from town.

Bukit China Stalls - Malacca, Malaysia

The Mee Goreng Steals the Show
On our foodie road trip from Singapore to Melaka, Malaysia we made our first stop at Bukit China, just outside Malacca town. The word Bukit means hill in Malay, so literally we were stopping at the Chinese Hill, the bottom of which has some food stalls that sell various types of noodles. Pingle had been here before and was returning for the mee rebus, a boiled egg-noodle dish served with a gravy made from curry powder, potatoes, soy beans, dried shrimps and peanuts. Some boiled egg and sprouts were thrown into this version for good measure.

Sanur - Manhattan

Window Shopping for Prawn Crackers
Ok, so we weren't actually window shopping for prawn crackers, we were walking around Chinatown looking for pork chops. They were propped up in the window and caught the eye of my foreign correspondent, Ping to the Ping. She jumped around and got excited when she saw them and ran over to buy a container. They lasted approximately, oh, I am guessing 4 minutes when we got them home. So, a few days later, back we went to get more. This time two containers. P2P began perusing the other Malaysian and Indonesian foods on offer and when I asked if she wanted to stay for lunch, her simple reply of "I don't mind" was all I needed to hear.

Nyonya - Manhattan

Malaysian in Chinatown
When I spent time in Singapore there was a soap opera playing at night called "Little Nyonya." It was all the rage, with half the country watching. I must admit, I got swept up in it and by doing so, learned a little about Peranakan culture. The term Peranakan means "descendant" in Malay and Indonesian and refers mainly to the early Chinese settlers in the Malaysian Straits, also known as Straits Chinese. Nyonya means "female descendent." Wikipedia has a good write-up here. One of the story lines in the show involved the Nyonya cuisine, which is a special mix of Chinese and Malay. Fastforward to Manhattan, months later. I was reading the Lunch Blog and I see a post about a restaurant called Nyonya. Puffin and I went there today for lunch.