Mee Goreng

Malaysia.  My life's adventures have led me to the heart and soul of curries, noodle dishes, sunshine, humidity and crazy teksi drivers.  I'm in freaking Malaysia, and I'm loving it.

Per usual my work is the reason I'm abroad (who in their right minds would deny a free airline ticket somewhere, anywhere, everywhere?).  However, since my last blog post (admittedly, far before my more recent travels) I've switched career paths and now find myself in international architectural product sales.  Hoooow neat.  So how did I end up here?  Approximately three months ago my company decided to open a new Asian branch in Kuala Lumpur.  Low and behold, here I am; eating noodle dishes, sitting in the sun, and using teksis.  What is life?

While albeit, a large amount of my time here is spent in the office, I have just finished my first complete week here and feel like I finally have accumulated enough adventure to share with all of you.  My main adventure, as always, is in the local food.  Holy taste bud awakening, batman.  I won't lie; when I first heard I was headed to KL, I wasn't aware of much, especially not the culinary adventures I was about to encounter.  After some eventual googling, I came to realize my ignorance; I was actually headed to one of the most culinary diverse cities in the world, known for fusions galore- how could my heart not beat a bit faster just imaging the opportunity ahead?  After a week, I can assure you, this city has not disappointed.   The spices, textures, aromas, ingredients; every day is my own personal Alice in Wonderland scenario;  my senses diving into new, unfound rabbit holes, with wonder how I'd ever survived without it's existence prior.  My absolute number one obsession thus far is that of Mee Goreng.  Mee Goreng is a simple noodle dish comprised of enough complex flavors to initially kick you straight in the face, yet leave you begging for more. Egg noodles mixed with garlic, ginger, chili sauce, bean sprouts, cabbage; how could you not?  For those who are a bit faint hearted towards culinary adventures, this is the perfect dish for you.  Everything in this dish can be found in western everyday dinners; nothing to fear. 

    

 

 

As mentioned, it truly is nothing to fear; nothing more than your mother's hamburger helper on Ecstasy... with Indian spices.. in Southeast Asia.

 

 

What's that bun thing?  That's a fresh pork steam bun, or also known as a (insert Malay word for pork) Pau.  Why is it red?  Don't ask me such complicated questions.  It just looks pretty, okay? These buns are primarily eaten as a breakfast food and have a variety of different fillings, from sweet to delectable.  My favorite is on the sweeter end, the Kaya Pau.  Kaya is a Malaysian coconut egg jam, and it's amazing.  Seeing a trend here?

 

 

Other notable mentions (photos in order):  Pork intestines, fish head, , popiah, claypot chicken rice, fermented egg salt squid, satay kebabs and prawn (Hae Mee) Hokkien. Get in mah bellay. 

 

 

 So seeing as you are what you eat, I'm a wondrous fusion of the elements of the unknown, blended with household tradition and surprise kicks to the face.  Couldn't sound more legit if I tried.

 

While I clearly have invested the large amount of my experience thus far in the cuisine, I have also thoroughly enjoyed the role of tourist and have jumped in a few teksis to do the "must sees."  When I travel alone (which everyone should do, if not only once, but multiple times in their life), I revert away from the sites such as trip advisor and such (okay, some of the places I go don't even exist on trip advisor) but rather revert to other traveler's blogs, Pinterest "What to do in (name whatever city) in 24 hours!" links, and advice from friends and colleagues who have visited prior.  I find the experiences suggested by these tend to be more genuine experiences and less of the "bring me back a key chain" type scenarios.  Luckily for me, my colleagues from my past position actually held a medical conference in KL last year, thus providing me ample suggestions of how to spend my rare bits of free time.  That being said, if anyone has ever even heard of KL, they know of the Petronas Towers; the worlds largest towers (maybe?  I don't know- they build new things every day..).  Directly underneath the towers is a huge mall, probably the most luxurious I've ever experienced (and yet was still able to score a reasonable yoga mat at- bazinga!).  Basically, if you're looking to remind yourself how small you truly are in this vast world, the base of these towers is a prime place for you.  They're extremely magnificent, especially at night, and provide a free, festive and bright fountain show every evening at approximately 8pm.  Since the weather is basically always sublime here, I definitely recommend grabbing a seat on the terrace around the fountain and enjoying the view. 

 

 

 

 Hi mom.

 

As with all man-made wonders, the towers have a view deck for tourists.  Quite honestly I was not able to convince myself to get out of bed early enough on my first weekend to get in line to see the view, but it's on my KL Bucket List.  Standby.

 

My other adventure was off to the historic Central Market; KL's one-stop-shop for all things souvenir and tourist worthy.  Again, I'm not much for key chains (and self-admittedly, I bought a lot of the same tourist items for a bunch of you back home when I visited Thailand last year...apparently the souvenirs don't vary much within southeast Asia, just the name printed on them) so I merely wandered the market.  I did spend a bit of time sitting with a local in his booth discussing his collection of small figurines of spirits, luck charms, premonitions, etc.  It was truly fascinating how deep the Asian religious and superstitious aspects of their various cultures go.  So many elements of daily life from cleaning, eating, gift giving, picking a home, etc. are all done with deep thought and care.  It's quite admirable and if I were a patient person (never have been, never will be) I'd consider giving it a try.  I told the man I'd come back for a second lesson, and I entirely plan on it. 

 

 



 

The neat part about being in the area of Central market is its close proximity to China Town; the favorite place for friend rice and fake purses.  I meandered the streets a bit, haggling for a few local beer tank tops to run in under the Malaysian sun ($3 each- Nailed it) and a few headbands to boot.  The streets are lit in the evenings with a never ending strand of Chinese lanterns, along with the heat lamps of the street vendors food carts.  It isn't a reputably safe area in the evening, especially not for a woman (no matter how strong and independent) so my musings here will only be midday.  Nonetheless, I was captivated by the colors, laughter, fake Kate Spade, bedazzled selfie sticks and egg noodles.  Even KFC loves it here. 

 

 



Well, that's a wrap on the first week and some.  Next weekend I'll be hiking some random Malaysian hill somewhere with my coworkers; stay tuned!

"And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling."- Author unknown.