From Kuala Lumpur: Night Markets & Other Street Eats
The City of Contrasts
19-23 March ~ Jalan Alor Food Street, Kuala Lumpur
You never quite know what to expect when you take your first few steps into a new city; no amount of videos or travel guides can train your senses. I had just arrived at my hostel on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang district, an area known for its nightlife, electric vibrations, and abundance of street food. The sun had already set, but I couldn’t bring myself to settle in for the night.
I wandered mapless, using the skyline as my guide until Kuala Lumpur began to reveal itself: durian stalls, kebab shops, local restaurants and bars with signs written in three languages. Billboards for expensive brands lined the skyscrapers, and cool air blasted from the doors of gargantuan shopping centers. I continued on — music could be heard from all directions — passing by karaoke bars and stalls selling trinkets to tourists and eventually turning down a menu-clad alleyway.
Passing a royal blue banner for Tiger Lager — Southeast Asian staple and sign that I was, indeed, headed towards food of some sort — and turning from my dark alley, I was hit with the scarlet glow of paper lanterns, the bustle of a thousand food lovers, a combined aroma from cuisines the world over, shouts from hawkers and coloured lights reflecting off beer bottles’ condensation.
I grabbed a plate of garlic chicken and stir-fried greens, a large Tiger, and observed a crowd sharing in and contributing to Jalan Alor food market’s intoxicating energy:
Jalan Alor began its story in the early 20th century as an epicentre in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese diaspora. Nearly a century later, it has become a hub for street food from across Asia: Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Turkish, Indonesian and many others. You can at once sample Thai grilled squid, walk one stall over and eat a crispy Chinese Roujiamo, eat a small bowl of nasi goreng, and finish with an Indian jalebi. Whether drawn to Kuala Lumpur over the centuries through its deep mercantile history or mining industries, through the promise of opportunities or as a haven from persecution, there are few places that bear such profound and wonderful diversity — its food carries that essence.
There is no shortage of lights or sounds or smells or people; the night market is, like Kuala Lumpur itself, an amalgam of different worlds. Though part of a whole, each stall is a universe of its own; food and cash pass rapidly between hands; cooks joke and jostle despite the beads of sweat rolling down their necks; tourists gawk at foodstuffs they’ve never before laid eyes on, their anxious uncertainty as real as the squid resting on ice.
My food journey may have begun in Jalan Alor, but the City of Contrasts has much more to offer. In the heart of Chinatown, backing up onto the River of Life and situated among temples, mandirs, mosques, churches and national monuments, the Art Deco Central Market. In the slightly sterile food court, surrounded by stalls selling locally produced art and jewelry, I ate a breakfast of youtiao, congee, and sweetened soy milk.
Across from my hostel was a food hall called The Nest — I put off going there night after night but couldn’t help my curiosity. It was almost perpetually empty, save for the vendors themselves and a few isolated lunchgoers. There was a sign for claypot rice — growing up, during my days of watching travel videos dreaming I would one day experience the world for myself, I was obsessed with the idea of clay pot rice. The rice is cooked in a clay pot over a roaring flame, charring the rice in contact with the pot. When topped with southern Chinese sausage, mixed with chilies and vinegar, and paired with a beer on a hot day, it made for the perfect meal.
While wasting a day hunting for a case for my 13-year-old-camera, deep in a residential neighbourhood, I passed a duck rice shop and couldn’t possibly turn down the opportunity! Though I failed in my mission, journeying across the city, bouncing between second-hand camera shops, brought into focus parts of Kuala Lumpur I would have never otherwise experienced. The duck skin was crispy and well rendered, and the rice was saturated with its fat. I scarfed it down just around the corner on a quiet street; the skies opened up to a light drizzle.
Roujiamo — braised meat nestled inside a flaky bun — is one of my all-time favourite foods, and I was so pleased to find a stall that sells it on Jalan Alor! It needs no description, no justification for how unfathomably delicious fatty beef is atop a bun. Hamburgers, kebabs, lahmacun, kofte, roujiamo: decadence regardless of form.
I also found a shop that sells Mon Chinese beef rotis, a similar concept: a crispy, flaky bread filled with an emulsified mixture of beef and spices. Unlike the roujiamo, the meat is cooked inside of the bread, which traps all of the wonderful, fatty juices, and it was far and away my favourite meal of the trip. I would include a photo, but by the time I took out my camera, all that was left was a greasy wrapper!
And finally: durian ice cream. Durian shops are perhaps the one part of Kuala Lumpur that are consistent across all of its different souls. Whether it’s in Chinatown or out in the suburbs, durians are a ubiquitous presence — the smell is completely unlike what one would imagine when face-to-face with the king of fruit. Instead of stenches of rotting meat, old socks or turpentine, it’s pleasant: slightly sweet and floral though not without its funk. The taste can range from caramel, vanilla and almond to garlic, onions and aged cheese; the flavour transformed with each bite of my fresh durian ice cream.
I’ve always found durians quite tricky to figure out. Like Kuala Lumpur itself, some bites are blissful, while others linger in your mouth and change flavour with each in-breath. It’s an uncontrollable, thoroughly confusing sensation, at once spectacular and a test of your endurance.
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Great overview, Cole! I love that we were wandering around Jalan Alor around the same time. 😌