Boots in the Oven

Pudu Market, Kuala Lumpur

Pudu Market in Kuala Lumpur, for me, is the quintessential southeast asian market experience.

Behind the scenes

It's big enough that you can lose yourself in the narrow lanes watching the bustle of commerce and exploring a large variety of fresh and prepared foods, but it's small enough that it won't wear you into the ground or leave you feeling like you might have missed the best part if only you had turned left instead of right.

It's a working market that hasn't been watered down or sanitized to within an inch of its life, but it's not so gritty that you're concerned about contracting exotic ailments or showering immediately after.

Tourists are rare enough that most of the vendors have remained unjaded and are quite tolerant of questions and photos, but not so uncommon that you attract attention simply by walking around.

Hard at work keeping things clean.

Pudu boasts some impressive produce ranging from the familiar-

like these carefully curated okra,

and this lovely mint- to the more exotic, like these helix shaped petai beans

and these orange cucumbers (that I still have no idea what they actually are. Little help?)

The seafood section smells like the ocean; the wares on offer being scrupulously fresh.

I'm not sure what species these blue spotted red fish are but they're gorgeous.

If fresh isn't your thing Pudu has you covered there as well.

You can always score some smoked or dried fish, or a block of flavor-packed belacan.

There are lots of fresh tofu vendors and flower hawkers and if I would have had access to anything approaching a kitchen I definitely would have had these guys juice me up some fresh coconut milk.

After you work your way through the entire labyrinth, odds are you'll be a little peckish.

Luckily for you there are some great food stalls that run along one whole side of the market.

I opted for a roti canai (this one filled with egg and cheese at the cook's insistence) that came with a side of curry and an amazing sambal. I actually finished the sauce with my spoon.

The owner took a shine to me (or maybe to my camera) and put on a little show when I ordered a teh tarik, or pulled tea.

The dude was impressive. He stretched the liquid as fas as his arms would go and even threw in a behind-the-back flourish without spilling a drop.

Even if markets don't really do it for you, you can always stop by in the hopes of making a new friend.

Pudu Market: Inside the triangle formed by Jalan Pudu, Jalan Pasar, and Jalan Yew. Open everyday from 6am to 2pm or so. But I'd come early.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur: The Tip of the Iceberg.

Kuala Lumpur is just a fun town to eat in. The long simmering blend of Malay, Indian, Chinese, British, and other random cuisines has produced a modern food scene that can keep you entertained for weeks. As long as you don't need a lot of fresh vegetables.

KL is huge and our time on the ground short, so instead of making a futile effort to unlock the deepest secrets of the food matrix, we happily skipped along the top, picking out highlights and sampling classics in an attempt to get a good first introduction.

As street food junkies, the eating lanes were naturally high on our list. Jalan Alor came up time and again, and even though it is firmly cemented on the tourist trail we felt it was worth a try.

Jalan Alor features mainly Chinese iterations of Malaysian food. After a couple reconnaissance passes of all the vendors we pulled up chairs at Restoran Meng Kee Grill Fish, the most promising looking of the contenders. The menu is huge and we vastly overordered but these are a few standouts from the meal.

This was hands down the best stingray I've ever had. The lightly spiced and expertly grilled meat tasted like a halibut and a crab had thrown caution (and the laws of nature) to the wind and made sweet, sweet love to produce one gloriously edible offspring.

The chili and shallot dipping sauces made for a nice accompaniment, adding a little spice to balance the natural sweetness of the fish.

At first, I refused to order these butter prawns as I've had several truly awful renditions in the States and think of the dish as a sort of calorie dense novelty food. That being said, these kicked ass.

What made the dish here was the addition of a generous amount of curry leaves. The pungent indian twist brightened up the flavor and gave the rich prawns something to play off of other than "fried" and "butter".

I'm still not sure how I felt about this deceptively named "grilled beancurd". First, the dish is in no way grilled. The tofu is dried and fried, leaving a very light and very crisp tofu shell. Then it's stuffed with noodles and various vegetables tossed in a thick sweet peanut sauce. It certainly wasn't bad, but you didn't need to eat a lot of it.

Another ubiquitous street food (unavoidable in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia) is satay. Some of the best we encountered on our swing through these regions was in KL.

We stumbled into Sate Kajang one rainy evening after trying to find several other restaurants that were either closed or mysteriously absent from where our map swore they were. (Not that this happened ALL THE TIME, leading to despondence, bickering, tears, and the occasional wife-launched physical assault.)

Luckily, we lucked out. (Can I even say that?) S. Kajang dished up some appealing skewers- the very popular chicken and beef were fine, but I loved the mutton and rabbit, both proving to be more moist and tender than the standards.

The requisite peanut sauce came with a spicy chili oil and sides of pressed rice cake, cucumber, and red onion; great for cutting through the smoky grilled meats and flavor intense dips.

On the noodle front, we hit up a little one-dish place called Super Kitchen Chilli Pan Mee. They have a couple other locations, but we tried the original branch on Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1.

I like chili pan mee because of the do-it-yourself nature of the dish. The thin wheat noodles come topped with tiny fried fish, ground pork, fried shallot, scallion, spicy chili paste, and a poached egg. You get to mix it all together in whatever proportions you deem appropriate.

What I didn't know is that the dish almost always served with a side of soup (incidentally, the same soup they use to poach the eggs.) With a mild fish flavor, the broth is chock full of an herb called cekur manis that I had never heard of. Similar to a slightly funky, sweet baby spinach, Malaysians use it kind of like the Japanese use wakame. It's a common herb to pair with anchovy flavored soups and stews.

Veering away from street food, we went looking for a place stamped with the culinary imprint of the old Empire.

Yut Kee came through in spades, redolent not only with Brit inspired classics, but also with some serious old-school charm.

We originally found the place while looking for a good kaya (a caramelized coconut, egg-based jam). Yut Kee's version was worth the trip and made an excellent accompaniment to the rather disturbing looking but totally addictive half-boiled eggs. (Think soft boiled but even softer, with the whites somehow getting entirely cooked through with none of that weird snotty texture.)

Fortunately for us, our friendly waiter convinced us to get the chicken chop, a breaded chicken cutlet with anglo roots so evident that it literally came with peas and carrots and a side of worcestershire sauce.

Little known to us at the time, it looks like Yut Kee may be closing. Check out Robyn Eckhart's much more in-depth view of the place and keep your fingers crossed that Kuala Lumpur can hold on to irreplaceable restaurants like this.

Next up, market spelunking! 

Kuala Lumpur: gettin' to know yous

I didn't have much of a preconceived mental image of Kuala Lumpur before we arrived. Petronas Towers, big Southeast Asian megalopolis, yup yup yup.

And... that's what we saw! In between chowing down on lots of noodles and curries, of course.

The Petronas Towers are hugely tall, but seemed a little puny after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. They're beautiful skyscrapers, all chrome and shine.

Fancy lobby, too.

We actually didn't go up to the observation deck, partly because you can't see the towers from within the towers (weird physics, right?) but also because the system for getting a slot to head to the top is poorly conceived and handled.

So, we went to the top of the KL Tower, instead, where the views are 360 degrees.  

Nice view of the city on a relatively clear, HOT day.

AND, our ticket came with a free driving simulation! No, I'm not sure why, but like I'm going to turn down a racing game? Shyeah, right. VROOM VROOM, bitches.

Also to-do in KL: walk around until the heat gets to you.

Most of KL seemed pretty new, but there were some grittier, more picturesque bits near the Indian Bazaar, where we were staying.

It kind of reminded us of Cape Town, South Africa.

We also spent a nice afternoon at the Islamic Arts Museum, where my favorite exhibits were the large dioramas of mosques around the world. There were also beautiful textiles and some super-cool weaponry. How would you like this li'l number sticking out of your belt?

KL has some very spiffy traditional markets, too - more on one of those later - though we found ourselves in antiseptic Western-style grocery stores a few times. Individually wrapped sushi, anyone?  (Turns out we Americans do not have the packaging market cornered, like I'd always assumed.)

Got Durian?  Because Kuala Lumpur does.

More on Kuala Lumpur this week, including a market tour and a lot of eating! Turns out I like noodles stir-fried in pork fat. SURPRISE.

Koh Samui

This will probably sound kind of snotty, but I was totally prepared to dislike Koh Samui.  It's one of Thailand's larger and more touristy beach islands, with an international airport and super high-end resorts, and I figured it was just going to be totally bleached of any semblance of "real" "authentic" Thailand.

Turns out, in a stark contrast to Koh Tao, WE LOVED IT.  

We holed up at Harry's Bungalows, near but not on Mae Nam Beach, and spent the week lounging, exploring markets, and scootering our happy way around the island.

Harry's had great toilets.

But unfortunately, no infinity pool.

I think the thing that made Koh Samui so wonderful was that it's big enough to absorb the tourism while still doing its own thing.  There are tourist areas, sure, but it's easy to get out of them.  Also, the range of accomodation is great; everything from cheapie non-a/c bungalows up through stunning places with exercise rooms overlooking private beaches.

The other great thing about Koh Samui is the island's markets!  Almost every night, Logan hopped on our rented scooter and made a dinner run to a nearby covered building, where people set up tables with all sorts of prepared foods.

Curries and soups simmered away in enormous pots.

This woman had an array of fire-roasted vegetables that she would pound into a quick dip for you to eat with sticky rice.  My favorite is the eggplant.

We ate like kings in our hotel room; I had some of the best fried chicken of my life.

Of course, the markets had lots of non-prepared foods as well, and we ogled the meats and sniffed the vegetables like the good tourists we are.

Good god, there's nothing like a nice fresh curry paste!

These are tamarind leaves; we found them later in a coconut milk broth with squid.  They're nicely sour, just like the fruit, but with a slight bitter edge, too.

I drank a LOT of coconut water. Gotta stay hydrated.

And who would have thought the seafood on the island would be so pretty and fresh fresh fresh?  (Me.  I would have thought that.)

We went out to eat a few times, too, including a dinner at this roadside joint that served grilled fish and lots of unidentifiables out of cauldrons.

We overordered, because we didn't know that many of their offerings were soups. Soups made with lots of offal and pork blood. They were definitely good, but STRONGLY flavored. I preferred the super-spicy papaya salad and the grilled snakehead fish.

We also lunched out and about. I am a big fan of tom kha, a spicy/sour coconut milk and galangal soup.

What is there to do in Koh Samui?  Well, there are tourist bar areas in a couple of towns, and probably discos, and dinner and a show places, but if you are in search of other entertainment there's:

(we didn't go)

or

(we also didn't go)

Next up, we leave behind the slow island pace of Koh Samui to see the city lights of Kuala Lumpur!        

Koh Tao, Thailand: Picturesque Disconnect

Getting to the tiny island of Koh Tao from Bangkok was relatively easy - Solar Air sells through tickets that take you from plane to van to ferry for one price, and all went fairly well. The plane was the smallest I've ever been on, seating 15.

But, sadly, we did NOT like Koh Tao.  

And you are going to look at these pictures and think that we're crazy.

What the pics DON'T show you about this tiny island is how completely it's been overrun by mediocre businesses; nasty fly by night hotels just out to make a buck, travel agencies that also happen to sell brightly-striped juggler's pants and keychains, restaurants serving crap renditions of Thai food on a ten-page menu that includes fish & chips, or vegemite sandwiches, or burgers and fries; the trash lining all the roadways and beaches; in short, a tourist ghetto that has taken over most of the island.

I hear it used to be different, ten years ago. It's still apparently one of the cheapest places in the world to get your scuba certification, which is what brought us there originally; but after two hours of poking around and seeing what was up, Logan and I had had enough, canceled the rest of our stay, and booked a high-speed ferry leaving for Koh Samui the following morning.

But not before we enjoyed a beer with the sunset, surrounded by Europeans with crisp sunburns, and picked at our plate of flavorless curry.

So sorry, Koh Tao. You coulda been a contendah.