A Night Out On Jalan Alor
After getting settled in our hotel, we met up with our friend Sarah, who’d graciously agreed to act as our guide during our stay in Kuala Lumpur. In addition to driving us through the city’s crowded streets (it took us a while to adjust to the whole “driving on the left side” business – more than a few panicked shrieks rang out from the backseats as Sarah deftly navigated her way), Sarah was going to make sure that we sampled as much Malaysian food as possible.
The best place to get started on that, she told us, was Jalan Alor…
Jalan Alor is a street just a few blocks away from KL’s main shopping district. By day there’s nothing remarkable about it, but at night countless vendors set up their stalls on the streetside, and begin to cook up a dizzying array of dishes. As we walked down the strip, vendors rushed forward to thrust menus in our hands. We stood out like sore thumbs as tourists – Jalan Alor is mostly a locals-only place – but we weren’t the only ones being pressed upon to try just about every variety of food you could imagine (and plenty you couldn’t). The Jalan Alor vendors don’t stop the hard sell simply at sticking a menu under your nose and imploring you to sit down, though. Powerful fans were set up above various grills and pots, sending the aromas of each stall’s specialty out into the street to compete with others. Every step you took, every time you turned your head, some new smell was there to greet you.
It’s safe to say that culture shock was starting to set in at that point, and so we were relieved when Sarah found a place that was up to par, sat us down, and began to order a dizzying array of dishes from the various menus we’d been given. After some much needed iced teas, dish after dish began to arrive at our table. We were served buttered shrimps tossed in egg, kangkung belacan (a leafy green vegetable sauteed in a shrimp paste that is ubiquitous in Malaysia), braised tofu with onions and ginger…and stingray! Ian hadn’t been expecting to eat such a formidable beast of the deep on his first night in KL, but he sallied forth, and predictably described it as tasting like chicken, albeit a fishy, porky chicken.
Watch Ian chow down on stingray here!
Refueled and having gotten our first taste of Malaysia, our second wind officially kicked in. The night was still young…
Tags: 1, ikan bakar, jalan alor, kangkung, kuala lumpur, malaysia, malaysian cuisine, malaysian food, shrimp, stingray, Travel
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