Fullboy - Malaysia - Cameron Highlands & Penang - Hills, Thrills and Fills

We were both looking forward to an escape from the sweltering cities and the Cameron Highlands were the perfect retreat. At nearly 1500m above sea level, the climate was noticeably cooler, sometimes dipping to around 10°C at night. We stayed in a small, sleepy town in the hills called Tanah Rata. There was only one main road with a smattering of restaurants so with hoodies and trousers on we set off in search of the best tuck this town had to offer. Our decision was made as we walked past an Indian restaurant with an outdoor seating area and watched a surly Indian man work his magic with the tandoor oven and some magnificent looking chicken. The tandoori set meal was a piece of chicken, dips, and nan bread, all for £1! We weren’t exactly breaking the bank so we decided to order a raita and some aloo gobi as well. The chicken arrived at the table and I can honestly say it was the best piece of tandoori chicken I’ve ever eaten. It’s taste was heightened further by the light and refreshing mint and chilli sauce which seemed to bring out the delicately spiced flavours of the marinade. I loved the charred edges of the chicken and the puffed up, slightly burnt nodules of nan bread. The side dishes were great too but the real showstopper was the chicken, it was so good we went back the next day and had it again!!
















One of the main attractions of the Cameron Highlands are the lush, green tea plantations. Walking along the quiet roads was a nice break from the motorised chaos of the cities below and even nicer was our tea stop at the end of the road. We sat down in a very busy tea shop that had panoramic views of the tea fields and we ordered some Cameron Highlands tea with homemade chicken and vegetable pie and homemade scones and strawberry jam. It still amazes me that you can find a tea shop in the middle of Malaysia that sells scones and jam!! The pie was good but small and didn’t last long due to our hunger after our long walk, therefore no photo. The scones were warm, delicious buns of joy and the tea was strong and tasty, the only disappointment was that the strawberry jam was Heinz!! It was still nice but seeming as the area is famous for growing strawberries we were expecting a homemade jam. Feeling well and truly satisfied after our long walk and tea break, we had a little look around the tea factory, the tea museum, more tea bushes, and then decided that we’d seen enough tea for the day and set off on our long walk home. We managed to find a little place that sold fresh strawberry juice as well so that made up for the Heinz!!
















After a nice few days in the hills we were off on our way again to another city, this time Penang. We arrived at night to the “New Banana Guesthouse” and first impressions weren’t great. Around ten minutes after we’d put our bags in the room I was chasing a giant cockroach with my size 12 hiking boots… I’ve got no qualms about killing cockroaches and mosquitoes! After watching a rat run from the open drain outside into the kitchen area, we decided against eating at our guesthouse and went out in search of some real food. We’d heard a lot of raving about Penang food. Everyone in Malaysia seems to think Penang is the gastronomic centre of the country, the best noodle soups, the best laksas, the best in pretty much everything when it comes to food so we were quite excited about eating here. Our first meal was just around the corner from our guesthouse in a pretty basic looking restaurant that looked like an open garage with tables, chairs and a kitchen in it. The menu was in Chinese and English and we ordered a tofu soup, rice, garlic chicken, stir fried vegetables and bean sprouts. The food was great, but no better than anywhere else in Malaysia. The soup was particularly nice with huge balls of soft tofu and lots of pork. I find it amusing when you see tofu soup on a menu, an obvious choice for a vegetarian, and the soup arrives with pork in. I’m not complaining, I love meat and meat makes soups tastes good, but it must be tough for vegetarians! The garlic chicken was also delicious and I was biting toasted pieces of garlic out of my back teeth for at least an hour later.
















The next day we opted for a more authentic Penang eating experience and visited a local hawker centre to try the famous Penang laksa. The Penang (Asam) laksa differs from the Melaka (Baba) laksa in that it has larger rice noodles as opposed to egg noodles and doesn’t have any coconut milk in it. Instead, the soup is flavoured by mackerel, lime, chilli, mint, tomatoes and tamarind. All of these flavours are evident in the thick soup and combine together wonderfully. The flaky mackerel pieces almost look like they could have come from a tin of tuna, floating around in the rich, red broth. The lime and mint worked well to cut through the tangy heat of the chilli and tomatoes. I don’t know if I could choose between the Penang laksa and the Melaka laksa, they’re both totally different, totally delicious and easily Malaysia’s most popular national dishes.
















We had disappointing weather in Penang and wondering around a drizzly city was beginning to lose its appeal so the next day we decided to head out to the beach in the hope of better weather. The rain was just about holding off and we hiked through a jungle, had a boat trip back around the island and sat down for some calamari and beer on the beach. Whilst sitting at the little beach bar we watched a boat pulling people attached to parachutes. The men didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing and one after another, the parasailers were crashing into the sand with bone crunching force. How somebody didn’t break their legs I don’t know but everyone seemed to get up ok. The squid arrived and unlike the rubber tyre calamari I’m used to being served in England, these were whole little baby squid, probably plucked fresh out of a fish tank, covered in a breadcrumb batter and deep-fried. Fresh squid is absolutely delicious and this calamari was out of this world, the crunchy batter giving way to the tender squid underneath. Washed down with an ice cold beer, I can’t think of many better snacks to have in the sun.

















Our last meal in Penang may surprise you, in a city that arguably boasts the best Malaysian food in the country, we chose to eat a Mexican meal. We did look for a few of the ‘famous’ eateries but they were either all closed or just not where they were supposed to be so we sat down at an outdoor restaurant, ordered a few beers and looked up and down the special Mexican menu. Our Mexican chef was a very laid back Malaysian man wearing a Santa hat. We ordered a burrito, some fajitas and a quesadilla. Upon taking our order the chef proceeded to spark up a cigarette and get his outdoor kitchen ready. It was like a little food stand and before we knew it he was off, chopping, frying, sizzling, mmmmmmmm, there were some fine smells coming from his little shack kitchen. To be honest, we were in desperate need of a bit of comfort food and I was in glee when my giant burrito arrived at the table covered in fried eggs and surrounded by French fries. Wow!! That’s what you call a Jules meal! I couldn’t even see the burrito underneath the mass of egg but I knew it was going to satisfying. The fajita mix looked fresh, as did the quesadilla with its chunky, crunchy vegetables.. We felt no guilt as we washed down the last few delicious mouthfuls of our Mexican meal with ice cold beer in Penang, food capital of Malaysia.
















To be honest, the food was great everywhere in Malaysia and Penang was no exception, I heard stories that baffled me though. I mean, who in their right mind would travel 300 miles up the road to try a bowl of noodle soup because supposedly it’s the best noodle soup in Malaysia! Noodle soups are usually always great but we’re talking some little stand on the side of the road with huge queues because at some point in time, someone’s said “this is the best noodle soup in Malaysia”. That’s passion for you. I won’t even begin to doubt that Penang does have the best food in Malaysia, it’s just that we found the food to be of such high quality throughout the whole of the country and found it difficult to distinguish Penang’s food from anywhere else, maybe our taste buds just aren’t as finely tuned as the Malaysians.









Links, information and addresses


Blue Diamond Mexican Restaurant in Penang!! In the courtyard in front of Blue Diamond Inn on Chulia Street. A few shophouses down on your left once turn in from Penang Street.Lebuh Chulia
Georgetown, 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia


If you're feeling brave and want cheap accommodation check out New Banana Guesthouse!! Click HERE for website. They do offer useful VISA and travel services.


For a cup of English tea overlooking beautiful tea plantations, we tried the Sungai Palas tea plantation. Their website can be found HERE.

Fullboy - Singapore - Sticky nights and Christmas lights

A sling in Singapore was next on the agenda and we arrived to our windowless, prison cell of a room at the Drop Inn (memories of Drop Inn, Manchester flooding back). We didn’t have any reason or desire to stay in our room so we set off for a walk in search of some food.

After our long bus journey which involved getting on and off a few times at the border for immigration procedures, we didn’t really feel like walking too far so after doing a few circles around the immediate vicinity, we decided to eat at an exciting looking hawker centre called the Lavender Food Centre. There were up to 30 different food stalls selling a range of exciting foods from eminent frog porridge to simple spring rolls. We put a pack of tissues on a table because supposedly this is how you reserve your seat, and went for a look around the stalls. Our tired heads weren’t really working properly and we sat down again, still unsure of what we wanted so we settled for the stall nearest our table which was called ‘Starlit Homemade Curry’, sounded good to me. We chose a mutton curry, rice and bread to share, with a Tiger beer to wash it down. The mutton was chunky, tender and strong tasting and the curry sauce was delicious with a fairly soupy consistency and a meaty, spicy, definite Indian flavour. The bread was disappointingly just a few slices of crusty baguette, I was expecting Roti or Nan Bread, but it still served its purpose of mopping up the leftover sauce. This was enough for the night and we went back to our dungeon for an uncomfortable nights sleep.















The next day we got up early and set about seeing some of the sights of Singapore. To be honest, in two days and with a limited budget, there wasn’t much for us to do. We were paying so much for our room (in backpacker terms!!) at £24 a night that we even had to compromise on the food and drink. Our breakfast consisted of going to a Kopitam, where we had a lovely coffee and some soft boiled eggs. Melissa proceeded to shell the eggs and the insides just slopped out onto a little saucer. They were the runniest soft boiled eggs I’ve ever seen. Melissa didn’t like them at all so I was left to mop up what I could with the few slices of toast I had. After looking very clumsy trying to balance egg slop on my toast, trying in vain to use my little spoon only to see the egg slide off, and even ungraciously slurping some of the egg off the saucer, I eventually just gave up with the runny mess and we set off on our day.

After visiting a fairly boring art gallery, even Melissa found it a bit dull, I was in desperate need for some more substantial food than runny eggs. We were also a bit disappointed that the famous Singapore Sling cocktail that was invented here at the very grand Raffles Hotel was premixed!! Priorities were prioritised and we started to look for a vegetarian Indian restaurant that I had read about that prided itself on huge portions of food, sounded good. About two minutes after we had sat down in the very basic but clean looking restaurant, the heavens opened and I was even more happy than usual to be sitting in a restaurant, watching people desperately trying to open their umbrellas as the torrential rain cut through the muggy air. Melissa ordered a rice dinner and I ordered the special of the day which was a Masala Thosa, more commonly known as a dosa in India. The food arrived at the table and the portions did not disappoint, they were humongous!! I already knew that there was no way that Melissa was going to eat all of hers, which meant more for me, but then I looked at my monstrosity of Indian bread and wondered if I was going to finish all of mine. The bread itself had a consistency that was similar to Staffordshire oatcakes. It was stuffed with what looked like meat but being as we were in a Vegetarian restaurant with anti meat signs on the walls, it must have been some sort of substitute, maybe soy mince or lentils. Melissa’s rice dinner had no fewer than 10 dipping accompaniments, the highlights being the delicious tangy and spicy lime chutney, the unusual coconut dip and the green sludge looking substance that we assumed was spinach. Each dip had a totally unique flavour but there was so much food on the table that we had to leave some behind, something that we rarely do.
















Wondering around Singapore at night was a pleasant experience, the city is safe, well maintained and very tourist friendly. However, if you feel like having a drink in a bar you will find that a pint costs at least £6 which to us backpackers is just a crime! That’s a nights accommodation! This is where hawker centres come to the rescue. The great thing about these partly open air food centres is that there is a great range of food to choose from and you can just buy your beers from a shop at shop prices and take them to your table. We chose that night to eat at the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre, an established spot that we read was home to some of Singapore’s finest local cuisine. We did a lap of the giant food hall and disappointingly, many of the stalls were closed, maybe because of the time in the evening or day of the week, we weren’t too sure. There were still however many stalls to choose from and the usual hawker centre confusion crept over us… Imagine having forty different restaurants all around you with forty different menus serving many more different foods and hundreds of tables. It’s hard enough with one menu!! First things first, find a table, get a bottle of beer. It doesn’t matter where you sit, you don’t have to give your allegiance to one stall, you can order food from different stalls. I liked the look of the hanging crispy roast ducks and Melissa chose a beef kway teow noodle soup which is a famous local Singaporean dish. We set off to our different stalls and met back at our table with food in hand. My sliced crispy duck over rice was nothing special, it certainly didn’t look as good as the red, shiny, mouth-watering ducks that were hanging at the stall. I suppose the meat on my plate came from one of the ducks but the portion was meagre, there were lots of bones and not much meat and it just didn’t do the duck justice. Melissa’s noodle soup turned out to be noodles in a very thick, gravy like sauce. The noodles were thick, soft and ribbon like, and the sauce was slightly gelatinous, dark and delicious. The bowl was finished with a sprinkling of spring onions, peanuts and sesame seeds. Joy Feast!! Bellies full, legs worn out, our night was over.















Singapore’s modern, cosmopolitan vibe means that it’s not only great Singaporean food you can find. Our final day we went wondering towards the Arab Quarter and found a nice spot amongst the palm lined streets of this pleasant neighbourhood. We ordered a mint tea, hummus (again!) and tabouleh. The extremely hot, refreshing tea was a perfect tonic to an even hotter Singapore day, the hummus was wonderful, the tabouleh was fresh, healthy and wholesome and the flat breads were thick, hot and fluffy. Many bars and restaurants had shisha pipes and comfortable seating and the whole area was very laid back and friendly.





















With a strong, lingering garlicky taste in my mouth, we set off to the Singapore National Museum, a huge, old building home to a maze of facts and history about Singapore. The museum inside was a lot more modern than the outside and we were given these little computer guide things that we put around our necks, we looked like the Ghostbusters! After being pummelled with Singapore’s history we were in desperate need of some coffee. Fortunately for us, we happened to stumble across a coffee shop that sold us probably the best coffee I have ever tasted. The shop was called Nanyang Old Coffee and we each had a small cup of coffee, served to us in an old fashioned little cup and saucer. The coffee was incredibly fresh, strong and thick. The dollop of condensed milk that had settled in the bottom of the cup, something of which I’m becoming a big fan of, gave the mouth a sweet wash after the bitter assault of the coffee, or in other words it helps to get rid of coffee breath!
















Our brief stay in Singapore was nearly over. There was one last thing we decided to do which was to take an open top bus tour of the city that took you past all of the Christmas lights, mainly because it was free! We drove past a snow machine blasting Singaporean children with snow, something which they’ve never seen before, lots of lights, lots of shopping malls and some more lights. It was a strange way to end our time in Singapore. Somehow, even with all of the Christmas lights and music, it’s difficult for it to feel like Christmas when it’s 28°C outside at night!!

Fullboy - Melaka - Colonial Cuisine in the heart of Malaysia

It was a 2 hour, bumpy bus journey from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka and my only source of entertainment was reading the guidebook that I’d virtually memorized, or taking video camera footage of Melissa’s head bobbling all over the place as she was trying to sleep on the bouncy back seat. We arrived in Melaka and boarded a local bus to take us to the city centre. I was always looking forward to seeing Melaka because from what I’d read, the city seemed rather unique in that its architecture dated back hundreds of years to when colonial invaders from Portugal, Holland and England ruled the land.

After a very scenic bus ride around neighbourhoods with a distinct Portuguese feel to them, we arrived in the heart of Chinatown in Melaka, a beautiful area of streets lined with very old, rustic buildings. Our guesthouse was on one of these streets and we were both amazed by the fact that we were staying in such a grand, old house, with a balcony overlooking the river running through Melaka, for £9 a night!! The owners, Raymond and Mani, were very kind and the former gave us a brief introduction to the area, and more importantly, some good places to eat. We learnt that Melaka has its own unique cuisine with strong Portuguese influence alongside the local Peranakan cuisine. Peranakan refers to the first generation of Chinese-Malays who originated from Melaka, also known as the Baba-Nyonyas.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Melaka on Friday night, the night of the street market which ran all weekend. From previous experience, street markets = street food = cheap, great food!! Our first of many meals that night was from a brilliant dim-sum stand where you were given a clear plastic bag and a large wooden cocktail stick and you could choose seven pieces of dim-sum from huge bamboo steamers that contained an amazing variety. Upon finishing our selection we were encouraged by the lady at the stand to douse our dim-sum with chilli sauce which of course, we did. Delicious. Unfortunately no photos of this meal because sometimes we are just too hungry and forget to get the camera out.

Our noses led us to our next meal, a man furiously frying an eggy mixture on a hot plate. Anything with eggs in and I’m sold. The meal was called ‘Kuih Lobai‘, which translates into English as a rather plain sounding ‘radish cake’. We had two choices, with egg or without egg… no contest. The man took our order for one portion and proceeded to fry a concoction that looked like a sort of lumpy, potato omelette. The ‘radish’ didn’t really taste like radish at all, more like a very soft, doughy rice-cake, similar to that which I used to eat in Korea. The egg fried around these ‘radish’ pieces formed a messy, slightly greasy and very satisfying pancake which was devoured at the stall in a couple of minutes. We said thank you to the street-chef and moved on.

There were many more snacks that evening, the highlight being some superb ‘vada‘, a wonderfully spiced, deep-fried Indian snack made from lentils that cost us around 20p for three pieces. They were so good that when we had reached the bottom of the market street, we turned around, walked back up the street and got three more pieces. The crispy patties were out of the fryer hot but not in the slightest bit greasy, held their shape well and tasted a lot like Bombay mix, the difference being that the patties are skilfully mashed together into one piece and you don’t have to keep dipping your hand into a bag to fish out your favourite bits.

After all of our savoury snacks we decided we definitely needed a sweet fix and again, we were spoilt for choice. There were several tart stalls around, many of them selling my mum’s favourite, egg custard tarts, a prime example of Portuguese influence creeping into the cuisine. A number of other tart stalls sold Nyonya pineapple tarts, a delicacy local to Melaka, a tart with a tropical twist. We tried all the tarts and they were all delectable, a sugary ending to our savoury snack sweep of the market. All in all, a very successful nights work!





Breakfast in Asian countries has always been a strange one. We Brits like to eat toast, cereal and fry-ups but in Asia, the breakfast norm is rice, curry, soup, noodles and dumplings, pretty much the same sort of food as what you’d eat for lunch and dinner. Around the corner from our guesthouse was an old Chinese restaurant that was only open until midday so one morning we decided to eat our breakfast local style and took a seat. We had already been told that the restaurant served dim-sum but it also served steamed pork buns, probably the closest thing to a bacon sandwich we could find. There was no menu we could understand but there were people walking around with bamboo baskets, some baskets had fried dim-sum, others steamed. We chose a selection of both and then managed to order a steamed pork bun each. The buns were very white, a lot whiter than white bread, and filled with a very dark, sweet roast pork. Although I can’t honestly say they were as good as a bacon sandwich, they were a satisfying breakfast snack.
















After walking around all of the old antique shops that day and buying Christmas presents for our families, we returned to our guesthouse to find another couple from England, Ben and Clare, had checked in. We had a chat about our travels and then funnily enough, the conversation veered towards food. I mentioned a restaurant I had heard about called ‘Capitol Satay‘, a restaurant that offered a different take on Satay wherein you sat around a table with a vat of bubbling sauce in the middle and you dipped your own sticks into the sauce to cook them to your liking. This style of eating satay, again supposedly famous to the Melaka area, is called ‘Satay Celup‘. Later on, Melissa and I decided to hunt down this restaurant and, after a few wrong turns up dark alleys, we finally found the unassuming, very modest looking ‘Capitol Satay‘. We sat down and I have to admit, my first impressions were not good. The tables were very dirty, the vats in the middle of the tables were filled with a rather unattractive brown looking substance and we watched on in horror as a child dropped a pepperoni satay stick onto the floor and proceeded to put it back into the fridge that contained the fresh satay sticks. We decided to stay away from the pepperoni satay sticks for the rest of the evening.

Now how it works is there is a big fridge that stores lots of wooden sticks with different raw ingredients on. There’s probably around thirty different types of ingredient ranging from prawn, chicken, vegetable, crab claw, liver, squid and many more, half of which we couldn’t identify. You go with a plate to the fridge and choose as many sticks as you want then you go back to your seat and dip them at your own leisure into a bubbling hot vat of brown, peanut satay sauce that is set in the middle of the table. You are charged around 6p per stick and the sticks are counted at the end of your meal. As chance would have it, Ben and Clare who we met at the guesthouse earlier walked in as we were about to eat our meal and sat with us. This definitely added to our meal experience as I can honestly say that in this case, eating this way was definitely more style over substance. I far more enjoyed the experience of eating as opposed to the quality of the food which at best, was just ok. I forgave the dirty tables as our table was a complete and utter mess of brown splodgy sauce by the time we had finished. At first we weren’t sure where to put our finished sticks but Melissa came up with an ingenious idea of making a little structure of sticks so we could keep count of how many we had eaten. The lady counted all of our sticks at the end of the meal, Ben and Clare had eaten around 25 sticks, but me and Melissa had eaten a grand total of 46 sticks between us!! I asked the waitress if this was a lot but she told me it was around normal and that the record was over 90 sticks. Feeling full and a little deflated by being so far off the satay stick record, we staggered back to the River View guesthouse.





The ‘laksa’ is yet another food that Melaka is famous for. A ‘laksa’ is essentially a noodle soup with bits of everything thrown in such as shrimp, tofu, chicken and squid. The secret to the ‘laksa’ is in the broth. The Melaka ‘laksa’ differs from others in that the broth is infused with coconut milk. We tried two laksas whilst in Melaka, the second one definitely triumphed, a rich coconut broth infused with chilli, thick egg noodles, large prawns, and to top things off perfectly, a golden yoked boiled egg sliced in half. The first laksa we ate at the market was really good but it had no egg! Resting on the side of the bowl is a fat dollop of chilli paste which you can add if you like your food hot or remove if you prefer a milder taste. Not wanting to waste the chilli sauce, both Melissa and I added it all. Chilli makes food so much more fun and it balances well against the sweeter coconut taste so although spicy, it was tolerable.


















We had one final restaurant to try, a traditional Baba-Nyonya restaurant called ‘Nancy’s Kitchen’, another fine recommendation from Raymond and Mani, owners of the Riverview Guesthouse, . The restaurant was busy and very homely and the kitchen sort of opened out into the eating area. The first time we went there was for lunch and we had to sit upstairs due to downstairs being full. There were some lovely smells coming from the kitchen and some huge portions of food being whisked around by the busy waiters. We sat down and ordered a chicken dish and a pork dish, I’ve completely forgotten the names of them, I must always remember to take a photo of the menu! The reason for choosing my chicken dish was that I saw other people eating it and it had large lumps of what looked liked black pudding in the sauce. The dish arrived and the black objects were not black pudding at all, they looked like lumps of coal but I soon realised they were giant nuts filled with a black, sticky stuffing. The stuffing was very rich and I learnt later that the chef hollowed out the nuts, mashed spices into the nut mixture and put it back in the nutshell. The chicken was on the bone, juicy and tender and the sauce, rich, dark and wholesome. It was a very filling and completely satisfying lunch and we vowed to go back for dinner the following evening as the flavours we tasted in our food were very unique to us.




So, our final dinner in Melaka was upon us and a week of pretty much non-stop eating was drawing to a close. We went back to Nancy’s Kitchen and decided to order some of the super looking fish dishes. We ordered Lemak Nenas prawns and steamed fish Nyonya style. The prawns arrived in a bowl of creamy, yellowy coconut curry and the fish in a light, slightly chunky red sauce. The prawns were wonderful and the sauce contained pineapple which usually I’m not a big fan of in cooking, but it went side by side with the spiced, creamy coconut flavours in the sauce. The fish however stole the show for me, a thick tender fillet (maybe sea bass?), covered in a light salsa like sauce. There were very few bones in the fish and the meat was moist and delicious. Nancy’s Kitchen is a must for anybody visiting Melaka and showcases authentic Melakan cooking.



















We had a wonderful time in Melaka, although only a small city, it is full of charm, character and great food! I wouldn’t hesitate to return there. Time to move on now though, our next destination awaits…



Links, Addresses and Useful Information

The wonderful Riverview Guesthouse cannot come more highly recommended, click here to see more photos and others peoples opinions. Take bus no 17 from the Melaka Sentral bus and taxi terminal. Get off at the red Dutch Square. Cross the bridge over the Melaka River and turn right into Lorong Hang Jebat. Walk until the end of the road and into Jalan Kampong Pantai. Walk on for about 3 minutes and it is on the right of the road.

For delicious Baba Nyonya cuisine, you won't go far wrong with Nancy's Kitchen located on Jalan Hang Lekir (Off Jonker St., the main drag through Melaka.

Capitol Satay Celup can be found at 41 Lorong Bukit Cina. It opens at 5.30PM, till late night and is closed on Mondays. It is usually full of crowds (although we were lucky), especially during weekends and public holidays. Thus, be prepared to queue, even at 10pm. Some people who are not willing to queue might be frustrated.

If you fancy a dim-sum breakfast, check out the great Low Yong Mow.

Business Hours
Open: 5:00 am to noon (Closed Tuesday)
Contact Information
Low Yong Mow (Non-halal),
Address: 32, Jalan Tukang Emas, 75200 Melaka.
Phone: (6)06-282 1235

Fullboy - Kuala Lumpur, Food, Fusion and Fun!

And we’re off!! Tired, dreary eyed and bloated from sitting on planes for 15 hours without sleep, we attempt to navigate our way through Kuala Lumpur airport, which is thankfully small, nicely laid out and hassle free. The only pain was getting through passport control which involved another hour long wait. We collected our backpacks, found our way to the express train into Kuala Lumpur, found the monorail, found our stop and found our hostel. Done!

We checked in, resisted the urge to fall asleep as it was still only around 5pm local time, and got ourselves ready to have a wander around the local streets. Our hostel was nicely located, a few steps outside the Chinatown area of the city which seemed to have a relatively large tourist population. We wandered past food stalls, a man roasting chestnuts on a street corner, fresh fruit stands with fruits we didn’t recognise, lots of men trying to sell us pirated DVDs, fake Rolex shops, fake Gucci bags and generally lots of hustle bustle without it being too crazy. We decided to have our first meal on foreign soil in a simple looking Chinese restaurant that caught our eye earlier. It was also the one with least foreigners which is a bit snooty of us but it just makes me think ’tourist trap’ if the only people I can see eating at a restaurant in Malaysia are obviously not Malaysian.

We sat down on the plastic chairs, ordered a couple of large Tiger beers (the excellent local brew), and perused the large menu complete with pictures. The first thing that took us aback was the exceptionally low price of everything. We ordered small portions of pork udon noodle soup, hokkien mee which is a Malay-Chinese dish of egg noodles, dark soy sauce, pork, shrimp and vegetables all cooked together, and a fried rice that looked the equivalent of a special fried rice that you’d order from your local Chinese take-away shop in England. After a short wait the food arrived and it was lucky that we ordered the small portions as they were very generous helpings of food. Everything was piping hot and very fresh, the noodles coated in sauce but not too smothered, the fried rice steaming hot and full of flavour and the wonderful soup with its clear, meaty stock, thick udon noodles (a nightmare for chopstick novices!) and crisp green vegetables. With full, warm bellies, Melissa and I strolled slowly back to our room for a restless, broken, jetlagged sleep.

We were in Kuala Lumpur for 3 nights and to be honest, all we seemed to do was eat, eat, eat. It was just such an easy thing to do, cheap, very good quality and so much variety. We went to see the Batu caves just outside the city and I managed to get attacked by a monkey who wanted my bag!! We had our first Malay-Indian meal there, Roti Canai, a moist bread accompanied with dhal, spiced cauliflower, (like Aloo Gobi) and spiced greens (like Saag). The whole experience of eating with our hands was very satisfying and the food was amazing.

Our whirlwind tour of Kuala Lumpur introduced us to the fusion of Malaysian food. Malaysia appears to have a population split into three major groups, Malay, Malay-Chinese and Malay Indian. The food clearly reflects these three groups. In Kuala Lumpur we mainly ate Malay-Chinese and Malay-Indian food. One night though we decided to eat at a street stall that we had passed the night before, a man grilling satay sticks over a fiery BBQ. This style of food, in my mind, was Malaysian. Melissa found a table while I ordered the food, 4 chicken satay sticks, 4 beef satay sticks and 2 chicken liver satay sticks. This came to the grand total of £1. With food at this price it is difficult to resist the urge to just eat all of the time!! The old Malaysian man was busy at his fiery BBQ whilst Melissa and I were sipping our Tiger beers, salivating at the fine smells of char-grilled meat wafting in our direction. Our plate arrived at our table along with a peanut dipping sauce and some raw onion. Dip, munch, joy!


















Across the road from the satay stick man was a man cooking something in clay pots. His stall looked really busy so the next night we decided to go there. I’d read in our guidebook about a clay pot chicken stall called Hong Kee. The stall had been in the same place for 25 years run by three generations of a Chinese family. They only cooked clay pot chicken and rice and I think it’s great when a food stall only cooks one thing because you know it must be good. Supposedly the dish originates from Portugal, a sign of Malaysia’s turbulent history of being colonised by several European countries. The chicken and rice is slow cooked in the clay pot which ensures the chicken is tender and the rice moist. The chicken was marinated in a BBQ sauce and the whole meal was enjoyable and delicious. Eating out of a clay pot has a certain element of satisfaction and my favourite part of the meal was Melissa scraping all of the crispy, burnt bits of rice off the pot into my mouth.























Our final morning in Kuala Lumpur involved a trek to a coffee shop called Yut-Kee that I had read about on another Asian food blog called Eating Asia. The woman who writes this blog happens to be based in Kuala Lumpur and she said this coffee shop makes the best coffee the city has to offer. The food’s meant to be pretty good too so, after at least twenty minutes of navigating Kuala Lumpur’s fairly chaotic roads in muggy morning heat, we find a tiny, very busy, old Chinese coffee shop. These old coffee shops are supposedly a dying breed, fast being replaced by Starbucks and the like. We ordered a couple of coffees and a couple of Roti Babi, their signature dish! Roti Babi means pork bread, it is a traditional Malaysian dish and one that we hadn’t seen in any of the other restaurants we had frequented.

The coffee arrived at our table, dark, thick and strong. It was great coffee, strong, sweet and milky with a surprise dollop of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom. Then, the huge roti babi’s arrived, monsters!! A breakfast feast! My eyes gazed promisingly at the mass of stuffed bread that was before me. I tore the bread open and couldn’t really tell you everything that was inside. I’d have a guess at pork, bean sprouts, shrimp, onions, some other meats… It was scrumptious, one of the best things I’d tasted on our journey so far. Melissa was equally as enthusiastic about the breakfast experience and it was a lovely way to end our time at Kuala Lumpur. Next stop, Melaka!!
























Addresses and Links


For great roti babis, amazing coffee and old school fusion Chinese food, go to.... Yut Kee Restaurant
Open Tues-Sun 08:00-17:00 (closed Mon)
35 Jalan Dang Wangi, Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur
T: (03) 2698 8108


For a cheap, centrally located accommodation in Chinatown, check out http://www.mataharilodge.com/


Claypot Chicken at Hong Kee, Jalan Sultan, Chinatown