This is part six and my final post chronicling my multi-day food binge in Kuala Lumpur. You can read part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, and part five here.
Food fest started with a bang and ended with a sandwich (along with Indian food and a pizza). As it's already been a few days since we hit the one-week mark, I'm writing this up as a summary of the meals we had during the final stretch of the food fling.
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| Our final meal of the Food Fling |
Friday started as innocently as the previous days. We once again dined on the hotel's fine breakfast and then headed back to the room to get ready for a day of hanging around Kuala Lumpur.
On our way out to the monorail station, we stopped by Ali's food corner for yet another teh tarik. This has become a daily habit and we've made the effort to work it into our routine having not missed a beat since we started back on day one. We're becoming 'close' with Ali (we're assuming it's him. We haven't actually asked; we just figured that the way he walks around like he owns the place would make him the owner), who seems to never sleep nor take a day off. He doesn't speak much English, but we have an unspoken understanding. Thank God for the universal language that is restaurant hand gestures.
Anyhoo, we had decided that it was time to slow down temporarily as pigging out constantly for five days straight has some, umm, unintended consequences. We decided to forego lunch and instead have an early dinner. We had just been upgraded in our hotel to one of the suites and, eager to enjoy this unexpected bonus, decided to order-in and watch a movie.
Kuala Lumpur is a modern and above all easy city. With this modernity and comfortable lifestyle, it only makes sense that the food delivery market is alive and well here in the Malaysian capital. We opted to go for a pizza from Papa John's. I don't think I need to explain what Papa John's is to my American readers, but for those of you reading from Europe, it might need some clarification.
We in Belgium have two main choices for delivery pizza: Pizza Hut and Dominoes. These two behemoths of the fast-food pizza industry hold a dominant share over our pizza market (with Pizza Hut largely ahead of Dominoes). However in the US, we also have Papa John's (as well as Little Caesar's and I'm sure others that I either can't remember or don't know about). I was always a fan of their pies growing up and for me, they taste better than either of their two larger-known competitors.
Ready to bite into nostalgia, we ordered a pizza from the Papa John's located in the nearby shopping mall. As it was a Friday night, their delivery queue was back-logged and I decided that I would take the ten minute walk to go order in person and then bring it back to the hotel room.
Thirty-five minutes later, I returned with our pizza. We went with a vegetarian pie with a side of chicken pepperoni. As Malaysia is a majority-Muslim country, pork products are hard to come by and, sensitive to their market, position their products so that they are in compliance with Halal eating requirements.
The taste was more or less how I'd remember Papa John's. The chicken pepperoni tasted almost identical to it's pork counterpart. The only downside for me is that thanks to Belgium's large number of Italian immigrants, I've had the pleasure of eating some amazing pizza during the past decade. This, unfortunately, has caused my satisfaction for 'fastfood' pizza to considerably dwindle and with my diet change a couple of years back, I try to avoid the stuff as much as possible. That being said, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane and I certainly don't have any regrets about the decision.
The next day, we needed to checkout of our hotel as we had already extended our stay twice and as we were hitting the weekend, availability had dried up and we needed a new place to stay. We weren't quite ready to leave Kuala Lumpur (as is still the case) so we found a hotel nearby and checked in for the evening,.
For lunch, we headed back to the Lebanese restaurant, Al-Amar Express and treated ourselves to another shawarma sandwich. The quality was exactly what we were expecting and the surprisingly light lunch was the perfect prelude for that evening's dinner: more Indian food.
That evening, after having sufficiently digested our wrapped sandwiches, we got on the monorail and headed towards Brickfield, the main Indian neighborhood in central Kuala Lumpur. We had done a little bit of research online and found a place called Jassal Tandoori Restaurant that had received high marks on TripAdvisor.
We wanted to treat ourselves as it was Saturday night and the end of our food fling. Here's what we went with:
For starters:
The meal was fantastic and after eating a lot of fried foods with rice and/or noodles over the past couple of days, we were excited to have a mostly grilled and baked meal (the samosas notwithstanding). Full of flavor and spicy enough that it wasn't distracting, we took immense pleasure in each bite. By the time we had finished our plates, we were satisfied but not stuffed. This came in handy as we had to trek back to the monorail station and then walk another 15 minutes from our stop to the hotel.
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Pizza
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The next day, we needed to checkout of our hotel as we had already extended our stay twice and as we were hitting the weekend, availability had dried up and we needed a new place to stay. We weren't quite ready to leave Kuala Lumpur (as is still the case) so we found a hotel nearby and checked in for the evening,.
For lunch, we headed back to the Lebanese restaurant, Al-Amar Express and treated ourselves to another shawarma sandwich. The quality was exactly what we were expecting and the surprisingly light lunch was the perfect prelude for that evening's dinner: more Indian food.
That evening, after having sufficiently digested our wrapped sandwiches, we got on the monorail and headed towards Brickfield, the main Indian neighborhood in central Kuala Lumpur. We had done a little bit of research online and found a place called Jassal Tandoori Restaurant that had received high marks on TripAdvisor.
We wanted to treat ourselves as it was Saturday night and the end of our food fling. Here's what we went with:
For starters:
- Tandoori chicken wings
- Vegetarian Samosas
- Chicken Malak
- Saag Paneer (spinach with cheese)
- Garlic and Cheese Naan
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| Tandoori Chicken Wings |
Food Fling was a blast. We both had an absolutely fantastic time indulging our taste buds for a week straight. But every good thing must come to an end and after a week of non-stop eating, the effects were beginning to take their toll. During our stay in the Philippines, we only ate two meals a day; one big breakfast and one late lunch/early dinner. Switching from eating twice a day to three times had a bit of an adverse effect on our stomachs and metabolism and we began to feel a bit heavier. Alas, it was time to call it off.
That being said: no regrets. I'm on this trip to expand my knowledge of the world and to enjoy a part of this planet that I'm largely unfamiliar with. I'm definitely looking forward to the next round of food fling. It will be worth every bite.
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