So, I’m in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. In fact, we’ve been here a total of 2 weeks now and it’s been a very busy couple of weeks with my niece’s 3 day wedding, the before and now the after! A whole lot of old family and friends to catch up with during those 3 days and needless to say, a whole lot of eating!

The picture above doesn’t need explaining of course, the world famous Petronas Twin Towers, at one time, the tallest buildings in the world. More on them and KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) later, this pic was snapped while we were caught in traffic!

I am finally finding some time to take a much needed breather and post about our first two weeks. Mind you, the only reason I’m able to find this time is because I’m on the 4th day of having the flu and have finally decided to have a day of rest!

I promise you a whole lot more to come, including recipes, these photos are just a teaser (have mercy on my cold addled brain!)

We managed to get to Chow Kit Market a couple of days ago. It is home to an array of goodies and offers everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and seafood to dried foodstuffs and spices and cooked food, as you can see from the pictures. Oh, and let’s not forget the many stalls selling local wear.

The picture below shows the drink stall right at the start of the market selling local favourites like cincau, bandung and watermelon drink. Cincau, the first one on the right, is a coconut milk and palm sugar drink that is so addictive! Bandung is a drink made of rose syrup and milk, you’ll find my post and recipe on it here.

It’s an interesting place and is very colourful and local in character and is apparently KL’s largest wet market. My kids had their noses scrunched throughout with all the unfamiliar sights and smells around them! That probably explains why there are no snaps of the fresh seafood! Next picture is of a stall selling a variety of uncooked crisps and crackers, ranging from the well known prawn crackers to fish, potato, sweet potato and other vegetable crackers.

One of the things I look forward to when I “come home” to Singapore and Malaysia is the range of colourful tropical fruit at my disposable, either unavailable back in the UK or just so expensive. Rambutans and mangosteens are just unavailable unless you have access to Oriental shops and even then they’ll be a miserly £5 for about a dozen or less!

Rambutans – hairy little guys that reveal a soft, sweet and white flesh, extremely refreshing on a hot day.

Mangosteens – called the forbidden fruit by some, it was a banned food in the US for quite a while. Its dark red/purple leathery skin reveals a sweet, fragrant and moist ambrosial bounty, so soft, it is intoxicatingly seductive. More pictures of its flesh in future posts, I promise, now that I’ve tempted you!

And of course, a market isn’t a market without street food and in Asia, it doesn’t get any simpler than fishballs! Balls on sticks, you say? Didn’t know fish had balls? (aka Robin Williams?) Well, now you do! Asian fishballs are quite a different ballgame, kettle of fish (sorry) than their Western counterparts in flavour. Some tend to be a little on the bland side because they’re always accompanied by some sort of sauce.

And after all the shopping of fruit and vegetables that we did, we sat down for a typical Malay lunch of Nasi Campur, steamed white rice with a selection of sides, be it curry, vegetables or fried stuff.

Nasi = rice

Campur = mixed

There was chicken curry, fish curry, Bergedil (fried potato patties), Pachri Nenas (pineapple salsa, click for recipe) and Udang Masak Lemak Nenas (click for recipe).

There you have it folks, just a quickie, let’s face it, sometimes, that’s all that’s needed!! Next up, my niece’s wedding in pictures with accompanying recipe!