A few years ago we had one night in KL and determined that we hated it. We've since learned that judging a place based on a one night stay is fraught with danger and decided to give it another crack. The previous time in KL we thought the food was average, the people were pretty shit, there didn't appear to be any koalas anywhere and all in all it was a pretty boring city. So these were the highs and lows of KL's four night road to redemption.
Reacquainting ourselves with rats scampering around every corner, watching you whilst you eat, was not so much of a highlight.
Depending on who you ask this is a high or a low. We sat down for dinner and Nix felt her heel stick to the back of her chair and then looked down and realised that someone had had a direct hit with a big goober and it was making it's way down the back of her ankle. Who said KL wasn't famous for its oysters?
When you return to have dinner at the same place you had breakfast you know you're onto a good thing. Chili Pan Mee - spaghetti-like flour noodles, a soft poached egg, some small fried fish (ikan bilis), fried shallots and garlic, and a self serving of signature chili flakes. It got funky down in Chow Town, let me tell you that.
Bak Kut Teh is a herbal porky broth served with pork belly and intestines that held the mantle of the best meal of KL until the Chili Pan Mee muscled it's way to the top. Search it out if you're ever in KL.
If there's one thing that will get us out of bed in the morning it's the promise of good food. The promise of a food orgy had us running out the door. At the Imbi market we got stuck into popiah, a charcoal and black sesame custard tart, crispy pork intestine porridge, peanut pancakes, ginger chicken and downed two Cham (a coffee and tea mixture). Aside from the overpowering flavour of pork fat in the tart, nothing else disappointed.
It's the food failures that make the good ones so good is what I tell myself to get to sleep each night. On paper, Roti Babi (French toast with pork and onion inside) sounds pretty average, in real life it doesn't look much better and it tastes, quite frankly, pretty disgusting.
The verdict? The people were lovely, the food great and the city's gone up a notch or two in our book. Still no koalas though...
