The Best Food to Try in Malaysia - Afftour
Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and this is one of my favorite cities in the world for food because it's such a melting pot.
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And we have The Best Food to Try in Malaysia - Nature Tourism and Culinary
It has so many different people and cultures and foods that make up Kuala Lumpur and so today we're gonna go on a Malaysian food tour.
We're gonna eat a lot of incredibly delicious food and I hope will give you a great idea of the diversity and the spectrum of amazing food that you can eat when you are in Kuala Lumpur and so we are on our way.
I'm gonna share all the food with you right now.
Kuala Lumpur street food tour
and most of all, we all love to eat.
Yes, correct.
- So it's gonna be a very fun day and we are on our way to the first place right now.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
- Mansion Tea Stall.
- Yeah.
- So the real name is called Mansion Tea Stall.
- [Mark] Chicken?
- [Chef] Our chicken curry.
- [Mark] And this one is Sambal?
- [Chef] Sambal. This one does.
- [Mark] This one does. Oh, and then the eggs.
- [Chef] This egg.
- We got the Roti Canai Special, which they chop up the Roti.
A mess of sauces and oozing eggs all wrapped up in that, all like soaking into that flatbread. It's all components that you could possibly want for breakfast all on one single plate, all mixed together and mingled together, awesome.
Let's do it, let's dig in.
Break that yoke?
- Yeah.
- Oh yes, okay.
And you gotta kind of pour that--
- Pour that.
Oh ho ho, nice, okay.
Okay, yes! He knows what he's doing.
- It's tempting, right?
- [Mark] Scoop out, scoop out that egg yolk and just sprinkle it all over everything, coating everything.
Oh, that looks awesome.
- [Anwar] Just like this. You mix it up.
- Oh yeah, popping yokes is just something here that never gets old. And then I will just kinda sprinkle...
Oh ho, ho, ho, ho! Okay, that's good, I'm gonna go in for some of that, is this a Sambal?
- Yep, it's Sambal.
- Sambal, okay, mix that in. Roti Canai Special.
- To India.
- Oh, oh that's awesome.
- Yeah.
- That is amazing.
You've got the richness of the egg yolk, you've got the bread which is, the Roti which is slightly chewy because it's been fried in oil before being soaked in sauce. And then you've got the Sambal which is, it's like a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy.
- Yeah, a little bit.
- And a little bit spicy, yeah? But that might, like that gives it a nice contrast.
- If you want no more, you can put ketchup on it.
- Oh, this one is kecap manis? Like a sweet, sweet soy sauce?
- Let me dip this.
Yeah, kecap manis.
- Kecap Manis? And that's like a sweet soy sauce that you can add.
So that's like a total Malaysian touch to the whole thing, adding some kecap manis to it.
- It's good, I love Leche.
- It's great, everything I wanted, wow.
- I think what makes it for me is the entire mash-up combination because you've got them, it's just all textures and flavors all mingled together. And for this bite, I'm gonna take some of that extra yolk and kinda re-yolk it.
It's almost like, what is it called, Eggs in the Hole? Egg in the Basket?
- Eggs in a Basket.
- You know Eggs in the Basket, where you put three on a piece of toast, and then you poke a hole, you put an egg in it?
This is like the extreme, ultimate, next-level version of Eggs in a Nest. Yeah, that's a breakfast of champions in Kuala Lumpur, and this place they have, it's kinda at the bottom of this pretty tall, well not that tall, apartment complex, a mansion complex.
The main stall is over here where they're making the food, and they have a dining section, but then over here, this is like the extended seating section where we sat.
- I'm a big fan of yours.
- Thank you very much.
Good, nice to meet you.
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Next, we are on our way to go eat what is considered to be the national dish of Malaysia.
It's a dish that everybody loves.
It's an incredible dish.
We're on our way to eat the next dish. And again, something I love so much about Kael, Kuala Lumpur is that it's a big city, it's a modern city, there are sky-rise buildings and yet, there are so many green spaces, and so, we kinda came into this, it's almost like a little mountain park, but we're surrounded by beautiful greenery, trees.
There's a little almost food court section, and that's where we are heading.
We are here to eat Nasi Lemak, which is often considered one of the national, ultimate dishes of Malaysia. Rice is cooked with coconut milk. There are a few common sides, but then, also each stall, each restaurant has its specialty of different curried dishes to include on top.
And so this place is called Nasi Lemak Tanglin. They've been around since 1948, and I've been wanting to come here for a long time, so I'm very happy to finally be here.
Yes, capo, and also maybe And then the egg.
You can dance while you're eating.
A live band here, too, to give you the energy you need to eat Nasi Lamak.
- Yeah.
- It's such a wonderful environment in nature, with a band, delicious food on our plates.
Nasi Lamak is a dish of many components, and one of the most important, significant components is the rice, which is made with coconut milk, but then it's your choice of what other dishes to order, so I got squid curry, I got the cockles, as well as a unique dish of, it's a spleen--
- [Anwar] Curry.
- A curried spleen.
We all got different plates, so you can just choose your own dishes right.
- I choose, yeah, the potato--
- That's like a potato patty?
- Begedil.
- Begedil.
This is extra Sambal, as well.
A piece of that squid.
Oh, yeah.
The rice, it's fluffy, but you can taste that coconut aroma to it, definitely coconut. It's sweet at first, but then it's kind of spicy towards the end of your bite.
It tastes like a roasted chili jam, almost, that it's wrapped up within.
Okay, and then rotating my plate over to the spleen.
Oh, whoa.
That definitely has a unique texture to it.
It's actually gummy.
You feel like an almost grassy texture to it.
It's almost like a sponge, a gooey sponge of flavor.
Really good.
I think the cockle is the best.
Each one of the dishes has its own flavor, I think I like the cockles the best, the cockles curry it's fantastic.
And it's just balanced perfectly, the flavors.
And I love the anchovies, 'cause they're fried, they're crispy, they're salty.
The live music was fun to dance to as we finished that plate of Nasi Lamak, but yeah, Nasi Lamak, no matter where you go, you can eat it at many, many places.
It's a dish you do not wanna miss when you're in Malaysia when you come to Kuala Lumpur.
Okay, we're moving on to the next spot, okay.
Which is one of my favorite Malaysian foods to eat.
Are you have this immediately step out of the car, you can immediately get the distinct aroma.
Do you want some right now?
Cempedak jackfruit Madura, it's sweeter it's more honey-tasting. So he has a basket of the fruit, which is peeled already there to sit into a batter, and then deep-fries it.
And as she's frying that, it's just so incredibly fragrant, it literally smells like honey is coming out of those oil fumes.
Fried right out of the oil, it's really hot, so you better be careful biting into this.
Oh, yeah.
That is incredibly hot.
Oh, it's amazing.
It's crispy, it's so honey-sweet.
And then the texture is also kind of a little bit stringy, as well.
It's gonna taste like a... And then you end up with this seed at the end Steam coming out of my mouth.
There are about five or six different restaurants along this stretch, and there's a live band here.
But this is one of the best places in Kuala Lumpur to eat Ikan Bakar, which is grilled fish.
And maybe some of the smaller mackerel?
To make this Ikan Bakar, it's actually cooked on a hot skillet, but what they do first is they take the fish, they put it into the Sambal, which is the chili sauce blend, they actually dunk it into the Sambal, then they wrap it in a banana leaf and stick it onto the hot griddle and that sort of like, the banana leaf keeps the flavor in so it grills and roasts and bakes and just simmers it in it's own juices and chili sauce all at the same time.
It goes up in a cloud of steam and smoke, even if you walk past, if you get a whiff of some of that steam coming off the grill, you can feel it in your lungs.
Caramelizing, 'cause I believe it caramelizes onto the fish.
Really quick story before we dig into the amazing food here, but I came here back in 2012, I actually made a video, it's a very old, slightly embarrassing video.
I am looking for some of the, what is supposed, some of the best Ikan Bakar, or grilled fish here in Kuala Lumpur.
I remember, there's like a highway behind there somewhere, there's this big highway, and I climbed over the highway, there's an overpass over the highway.
I had to find my way up to the top of this little hill to get to the restaurant, so I remember having to hop a couple of fences, kinda whack my way through the jungle to get here.
I think I have just found Jalan Bellamy, and I think, I'm excited, I think that is the restaurant right there.
It was no easy mission to get here.
I had to run across some highways, I had to jump across some fences.
So times have changed a little bit, this is gonna be the new and updated version, but this is an Ikan, to all that, it's very special to me, and so I'm very, very happy to be back.
Now we got actually have four different types of fish, plus the squid, plus some different Sambals, plus rice.
And this is the Stingray Sambal, and this is one of my favorites.
If I were to just choose one fish, this is what I'd get.
You can see, if you unwrap it, you can see the oily juices just flowing, look at that.
I'm gonna grab a piece of this first, this has to be the first bite.
Oh, it's so meaty! It's such an incredibly meaty, meaty.
It's almost like chicken, yet kinda softer and oilier, and then you taste that Sambal, you taste the dry chili in there, the turmeric, and again, just how the banana leaf helps to keep in all the juices so that they re-absorb into the fish, as they come out, they re-absorb into it.
Look at that stingray, just how it flakes off, it's so stringy. And I'm gonna dip that into some of the sauce.
Okay, next I'll reach into the squid.
And for this, I'll dip into, I think this is like a shrimp paste, chili dip.
The texture of the squid is light and chewy, and then that sauce, the saltiness of the shrimp paste, plus it has wonderful acidity, I think possibly from Calamonte. Next up, I'm gonna try, I think this is a mackerel, and it has a little bit of a banana leaf wrapper. And as soon as you, oh you have to get a close-up, look at that. Soon as you unravel the banana, you can see that oil and that sauce just caked up in there, that Sambal.
Oh yeah, it's just oozing and juicy.
Reach in for a little piece off the side here.
I think that's a short head mackerel or an Indian mackerel. Moving on to the next fish.
And I believe this one is a catfish.
Just unwrap it, oh ho ho ho, that's so oily and juicy and fatty! The juices and the Sambal are just flowing.
Look at how oily, oh man, that's awesome! You could actually squeeze it, and I'm sure the oils and juices would just fall out, but I'm not gonna squeeze it for you because I wanna keep those in my bite.
I think because catfish is such an oily fish from the start, then when it has a chance to live on that griddle and just absorb more Sambal, and juices and oil, that even like, enhances it more.
And you really taste the smokiness of the catfish. The final fish we got here is, I think it's the tilapia?
- [Anwar] The tilapia.
- The tilapia? Which is also cooked in the same exact fashion with the Sambal, surrounded by banana leaf, and this banana leaf is just sort of like to started disintegrating onto the fish, peel that back. Let's get a bite of this.
Oh, it's so oily and juicy again, that has been the story of every single fish. Is it Sambal Belacan?
- [Anwar] It's a Belacan.
- So it's shrimp-based?
- [Anwar] Yeah.
- Okay, it's so good.
And so yeah, that's at least like three, maybe four or five layers of flavor all in one single bite.
The diversity of taste from the Sambal on the fish, to the banana leaf, to the Sambal that you add on when you take a bite, it's superb.
- That fish is definitely fence-jump worthy fish, it's incredible. Okay, all of the Ikan Bakar is delicious, but nothing can top this stingray. That is, that's the best. Like if you come here, and you just eat one fish, that's the fish you should go for.
And then finally, to end, we have a coconut, this is just the coconut water, plus the coconut meat, in a cup conveniently with a spoon and straw combo at the top.
Oh yeah, that's incredibly sweet, incredibly, and nothing refreshes like coconut water, either.
This is just a little food paradise.
As soon as he lifts the lid of that ice chest, you just get this poof of Durian in your nostrils.
I thought the coconut was gonna be the dessert, but this, this is the real dessert.
The Durian on top with ice cream, I'm gonna try to get equal ratios of both. Okay, I got half ice cream, half Dorian.
Oh wow! It's unbelievably good because Dorian is kind of mushy and creamy, it's pudding.
It's sweet, it has a little bit of a bitterness to it, and then you've got the cold Dorian ice cream which is more like the refreshing Dorian taste, so you've got cold and warm cream in your mouth combining, it's sensational, it's really and truly sensational.
That is a dessert of a lifetime.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you very much.
- Well come again, have a good day, my friend.
- He is the owner, and there are maybe five different restaurants in Ikar Bakar, but we came to Ikan Bakar (Seri Melaka), so that's the spot, yeah, and he's an amazing man who owns this restaurant so this is the delicious spot.
- Welcome to Malaysia.
- Thank you very much.
- Alright, have a great one.
- I'm very happy to report that the method of getting here has changed, but the flavor of the Ikan Bakar, it remains the same, it's incredibly good.
This in my opinion is a must-eat area stall and dish when you come to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Next place, and I think we have another big meal coming up.
Yes, Indian food.
When I reached out and asked where to eat in Kuala Lumpur, and I was really looking for some off-the-beaten-path destinations, and so a number of you recommended that we check out this place for the banana leaf rice and curry, which is really like somebody opens their home and opens their home as a restaurant and so I'm very excited for this next meal, South Indian food.
A green gate.
It's with the plants outside.
And luckily, there's a photo on Google Maps.
Green gate at the front, but there's not even a sign.
We would not know it is a restaurant here, but it's known as Sri Ganapathi Mess.
Potted plants, there are clay pots.
Okay, and then you do walk inside and there is the sign like once you get into the compound.
This is awesome.
- Hello.
- Hello.
It really is a home with like many, many rooms And they kinda open its rooms as they get busier so if the first few rooms are full, they open up an entire mess hall in the back.
Do you have the Crab Rasam?
- [Chef] Yeah, yeah.
- Oh, it's swordfish.
Maybe can we have swordfish and vegetables? Mutton curry.
- Mutton curry?
- Oh, it's like soup.
Should be rice, okay, perfect.
Okay, now I'm gonna move back to our dining room section to start digging in.
Okay, I think I ordered.
- Thank you, ma'am, that's beautiful.
- Yes, the final step before eating is one more scoop of curry sauce over the rice or a double scoop of curry over the rice.
Thank you.
One of the reasons that Kuala Lumpur is just one of the best cities in the world if you love to eat, because of the diversity of foods.
This would be a very authentic South Indian.
You can taste ginger in there.
Yeah, oh that's wonderful.
A little bit spicy, gingery, very gingery.
Oh and then the spice just keeps on coming.
Onions have a little bit more of a sour taste to them.
Let me try some of that swordfish.
And this is always one of my favorite dishes.
And people really enjoy mixing it up, getting it all evenly coated on the rice.
- Yeah.
- It's almost like shredded chicken but kinda like dry but in a good way.
I'm not sure if it's a mustard seed, there might be cumin seed in there, too.
I'm gonna follow that with a Crab Rasam, which they serve in a cup because you're actually supposed to drink it, it's like a beverage, it's like a soup.
Cheers.
- Actually, drink it.
- Ah, that's delicious.
- Yeah, you can taste that--
- Wow.
- It tastes like the shells of crab that's just been boiled down.
But you taste the crab, you taste the sweet onion's herbal-ness of it?
Oh yeah, you can taste that that is mutton.
You can taste the greatness of it.
This layer is delicious, yeah.
That's awesome, especially with everything else.
The vegetable has a very nutty taste to it.
That crab consomme is incredible, and yeah, it tastes very light, but then you taste the spice at the back of your throat as you keep on drinking it.
Uh-huh, really good, real good.
This is what it is all come down to, my final bite.
The final triplets of curry sauce.
The final meat juices.
The final veg.
That was just an ultra-satisfying meal.
I'm gonna have to surrender after that because we've had quite a lot of food, so all you do is, you just fold over your banana leaf.
- Thank you very much.
- Yeah.
- Thank you very much.
- Take care, man.
- Just the front of a home, it's unassuming, it's not stand-out, you gotta know about this place, but just in the green gate, the restaurant and home just go back further and further, and they just keep opening more and more rooms as it gets busier.
Such a cool restaurant, incredibly delicious South Indian food.
- I am the owner of a public shop.
- Oh, thank you very much! What's your name?
- Pumar, I'm an ex-police detective.
- Oh, awesome! The food was incredibly good.
- I like it, thank you, thank you.
- A few friends recommended it to me.
- Okay.
- For our final stop on this Kuala Lumpur Malaysian food tour, we are in Chinatown, and we're gonna go to a very legendary restaurant to eat a certain dish.
But many people recommended it to me, it looks incredibly delicious, and this is gonna be the final dish.
This is what's gonna wrap it up, and again we are going to see just how diverse the food is in Malaysia.
This is a fully Chinese food court, four or five different stalls that you can choose from, different Chinese dishes to order.
And then just communal seating tables.
One of the most famous things to eat here, and maybe one of the most famous unique things to eat in Chinatown is the Clam Bee Hoon.
So it's noodles on the bottom, with a clam broth gravy over noodles, and that's exactly what I came here to eat, what I just ordered.
It was very nice that they allowed me to watch them as they made the entire process of this dish.
It took about five minutes, but what he first did was, he took some oil, he kneaded them in a wok, and then he threw in a handful of sliced ginger, and he really just caramelized that ginger, the aromatic aroma of the ginger just came fully out.
He tossed in a bunch of clams into that sauce, and then, I believe he tossed in a spoonful of cooking wine because I got kind of that wine aroma that came out of the soup.
Then they just quickly blanched the noodles, the Mee Hoon, and then combined, he drained some of the clams, put them onto the top of the noodles, and then put all the soup on top.
It's very aromatic, it smells incredible, again, this is a very unique dish.
Man, the dish is called Clam Mee Hoon.
Yeah, the first thing to do is just start with that broth.
That's like ultimate comfort.
But as it goes down, you actually feel the ginger going down your throat.
It has this complexity of flavor because of the broth, the wine, the ginger, the garlic in there.
That's really what's standing out, but then it's just that slight, it might be clam broth as well, I'm not totally sure.
But it's so... It's slightly thickened, it's rich, it's just complex.
And those noodles, they're rice noodles. Yeah, the noodles just kinda go along with the soup.
They're soft, they're thin, and they just sort of absorb that broth.
Where's my spoon, I'm gonna refill my clamshell with that broth.
Making it hard to get all that ginger and garlic.
Yeah, those are shells you're just wanna gonna lick until you get all, every last strand of ginger, and every drip of broth out of it.
Oh, that's a broth of wonders.
They're doing a little bit of construction in this area, but we have come to the end of this Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian food tour.
It's been an incredible day, and again, I've mentioned this, and I probably mention this every Malaysian food tour that I ever take, and every day, but just the fact that you can eat authentic Malay food, authentic Indian food, authentic Chinese food, one meal after another, after another, it's just incredible, and Kuala Lumpur really is a melting pot, that's what makes it so special, the mix of cultures, food, people.
I wanna say a huge thank you to Farul and Anwar for taking us around, they're so friendly, so hospitable, they're amazing guys.
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