Tiny Urban Kitchen

Exploring Food from Boston to Hong Kong and Beyond

  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • About Me
    • Travel
    • Recipes
    • Michelin
    • Subscribe
    • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ×
    • Godenya Hong Kong
      Godenya Hong Kong (revisited)
    • The Chairman Hong Kong
      The Chairman Hong Kong (1 Michelin Star)
    • Hanu Wan Chai Hong Kong
      Hanu (Korean Beef) Wan Chai
    • Always Joy Hong Kong
      Always Joy Hong Kong
    • Michael Chiarelli Ottimo Yountville California
      Bottega + Ottimo Yountville
    • Ciccio Yountville California
      Ciccio Yountville
    • Charter Oak St. Helena Napa Valley California
      Charter Oak St. Helena Napa Valley California
    • Cole’s Chop House Napa California
      Cole's Chop House Napa California
    • Compline Restaurant Napa California
      Compline Restaurant + Wine Shop Napa
    • Napa, California
      Thomas Keller's La Calenda: A Tribute {Now Closed}
    • Ad Hoc Thomas Keller Brunch Yountville California
      Thomas Keller Ad Hoc + Addendum + Bouchon Bakery
    • Mandalay San Francisco
      Mandalay San Francisco (Burmese Food)
    Home » World Travel » Malaysia

    Malaysia Food Tours: Walking food tour of Kuala Lumpur

    Published: Oct 29, 2014 by Jennifer Che

    Malyasia Food Tours

    This is the eleventh post in the Malaysia and Singapore! series. Other posts in this series include Lot 10 Hutong - Kuala Lumpur's Most Famous Hawker Stalls Under One Roof, LaZat Malaysian Home Cooking, Otak, Otak Fish Dumplings in Banana Leaf, Little Penang Cafe + Visiting the Petronas Twin Towers, Roti Jala - Malaysian Lacy Pancake, and Nonya Malaysian Chicken Curry. Bijan, Onde Onde, and Jalan Alor.

    I love walking tours.

    Actually, I just love walking. Whenever I visit a new location, my favorite way to experience it is to walk it. I like randomly exploring and stumbling upon interesting shops, roadside food stalls, and people going about their daily lives. Usually when Bryan and I travel, we pretty much eat and walk. Plan out our food stops and walk as much as possible.

    It's a lot of work to plan out walking paths, however, especially in an unfamiliar country. You might not know which neighborhoods are safe; the street signs might be in another language; and you may end up wasting a lot of time.

    Sometimes, especially if Bryan is doing work meetings during the day and I'm traveling alone, I'll opt to join a walking food tour instead. I've realized it's a great way to be exposed to a new cuisine from the eyes of a local. Plus, it's fun to learn more about the food and the culture from someone who actually lives there.

    On one of my last days in Kuala Lumpur, I booked a walking tour organized by Food Tour Malaysia in collaboration with Kuala Lumpur Urban Adventures. I had a blast trying all sorts of local treats.

    Indian

    Our tour was led by an Indian guy named Charles. He explained to us that his name was Charles because his family is Christian. In Malaysia, I found it really interesting how most people naturally shared their religion. It's something that comes out naturally, and is a huge part of their identity. In Malaysia, Indians and Chinese practice various faiths, while Malays are Muslim, by law.
    We first stopped at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur's "Little India."
    Brickfields, Little India
    The streets are colorful and full of life.
    _DSC8738
    There are outdoor vegetable markets with so many exotic (at least to me!) vegetables.
    _DSC8739
    My first time seeing fresh baby corn!
    _DSC8736
    Here's a woman who's willing to tell your fortune for a fee.
    _DSC8733
    The flower markets are incredible. People put so much labor into these elaborate flower hangings, knowing that they will only last for a couple days."Are you guys hungry?" asked Charles.
    I was famished, and couldn't wait to begin our food tour.

    Roadside Eatery
    _DSC8745
    _DSC8741  Indian food in Kuala Lumpur
    We stopped by an open air eatery called Tarani Food Corner, where we enjoyed a variety of fantastic Indian food. I'm so glad I took a tour for this, because I would have had no idea what to order.
    _DSC8753
    Pots of different dipping sauces sat in ceramic bowls heating over smoldering coal.
    _DSC8742
    This is battered and deep fried Indian bitter melon, which had a great crunch and a pop of spices that I can't even begin to name. Suffice it to say that the spices, salt, and crunchiness were the perfect complement for the bitterness of the melon.
    _DSC8752
    Roti Canai is ubiquitous in Malaysia. It's a flat, circular bread made by stretching the dough really thin and grilling it on a flat surface. It taste fantastic when dipped into various sauces.
    _DSC8743
    We each received a tray with a square banana leaf topped with rice, a few different dishes, and some pappadum, the thin, crispy cracker-like "chip" you see on the right.

    "Where are the utensils?"
    _DSC8748 _DSC8749
    I had no idea how to eat with my hands. It was so weird! I was totally caught off guard when I first tried to pick up the food.

    "Ah! It's hot, hot, hot!"

    It's definitely an art that I have not mastered.

    I still managed to finish all my food somehow. It was so good, so many interesting and flavorful spices that were new to my palate. I loved it.

    Fried Snacks
    _DSC8760
    As we continued walking, our next stop was a simple fry shop that made all sorts of fried foods.
    _DSC8761
    They seemed to specialize in various types of doughnuts as well as fried chicken. Pictured above, medhu vadai, a rice and lentil based savory doughnut.
    _DSC8755
    _DSC8762
    I loved the savory doughnuts, especially the masala vadai, the curry lentil patty (pictured on the left), which was my favorite of the bunch.
    _DSC8764
    I wish I knew what these were - they remind me of empanadas from South America. Update: these are curry puffs!

    Sweets

    _DSC8765 _DSC8766
    We continued on our walking tour, next stopping at a little bakery. We sampled one of these dense little fried cakes, called gulab jamun, which are soaked in a fragrant sugar syrup. It was very sweet, frankly a bit too sweet for my tastes. However, I can see how some people might enjoy the intense burst of sweetness.

    _DSC8770
    Kueh dadar  is a pandan flavored sponge cake with a palm sugar coconut filling inside. I fell in love with the flavor of palm sugar in Malaysia when I discovered it in my cooking class. This is equally delicious and a fantastic snack.

    _DSC8768
    Finally, we stopped for chendol, the Malaysian version of shaved ice sold right on the street in a little cart from a Chinese couple in their sixties. Apparently this woman has been doing this for decades.

    Charles explained that all ice in Malaysia is now pretty safe because the government put in a lot of measures to address the problem. Essentially, all restaurants have to buy ice from specific commercial entities, which cut and handle the ice properly. Gone are the days when people froze their own blocks of ice in their  freezers, mixed together with raw meats and other risky items.

    I loved my shaved ice, which came with a delicious base of coconut milk and palm sugar. I finished my whole bowl even though I was kind of full.

    Chinese
    Our next stop was Chinatown, where we would enjoy Malaysian Chinese food. Malaysian Chinese food is different from Chinese food. It takes Chinese cooking methods but incorporates a lot of the local produce as well as influences from Malay culture. The result is a vibrant, flavorful cuisine that looks a lot like Chinese food but is exploding in flavors from ingredients like balacan (fermented shrimp paste), pandan leaves, and local herbs and spices.

    _DSC8772 _DSC8767
    Before heading straight into the heart of Chinatown, Charles first showed us how the various religions in Malaysia live in harmony side by side. On the left is a elaborate Hindu temple, Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest and richest temple in Kuala Lumpur. Not too far away is a Chinese Taoist temple.
    _DSC8774 _DSC0036
    We then stepped into the heart of Chinatown, a colorful, almost over-the-top area crowded with vendors selling fake knock-off items, food stalls, and lots and lots of people.

    We entered Restoran Kim Lian Kee, one of the oldest and most historic restaurants in the area. They claim to be the inventor of Malaysia's hokkien mee, a dish I had actually sampled a few days before at their satellite location inside Lot 10 Hutong food court.

    Char kway teow
    Char kway teow is reminiscent of Cantonese chow foon, and consists of stir fried flat rice noodles tossed with bean sprouts, chicken, eggs, chives and thin slices of preserved Chinese sausages. A good char kway teow has that smokey wok "huey" that comes from using a properly super hot wok.
    _DSC8780
    I'm not sure what this dish is called (does anyone know?), but it was these short, worm-like noodles in a hot pot served with a raw egg.
    _DSC8779 _DSC8784
    We tried their Chasu-bao, or barbecued pork buns, which was similar to what I've had in Cantonese restaurants. We also tried a few unusual drinks: A sour lime and plum drink that was interesting, though not a favorite; and "white coffee", a lighter roast coffee made from coffee beans  roasted in palm oil margarine.
    _DSC8778
    Roasted pork belly was tender, fatty, and delicious.
    _DSC8776
    I really enjoyed this unusual noodle dish, which consisted of thinly fried vermicelli tossed with eggs, chili peppers, and a savory sauce.
    Restoran Kim Lian Kee
    Alas the tour was over. This small group of people: an attorney from Brisbane (Australia), another couple from Brisbane, a woman from Aukland (New Zealand), Charles from Kuala Lumpur, and me from Boston (United States), had become friends in the last four or so hours. We shared with each other stories from our homelands, cultural differences, and what we thought of Malaysia. It was eye opening and deeply enriching, not only to learn so much about Malaysian food and culture, but also to meet like-minded people who hungered (both figurative and literally!) for travel and learning what other cultures had to offer.

    I came away inspired, feeling like there was still so much of this world that I had yet to visit, explore, and experience.

    More Malaysia

    • Hiking the rain forests in Malaysia (and swimming in the waterfalls!) with Open Sky Unlimited
    • Mamak - Malaysia's Indian Muslim restaurants
    • Jalan Alor - Kuala Lumpur's most famous food street
    • Onde Onde (sticky rice balls) LaZat Malaysian Cooking School

    Recent Posts

    • Godenya Hong Kong (revisited) June 12, 2025
    • The Chairman Hong Kong (1 Michelin Star) June 6, 2025
    • Hanu (Korean Beef) Wan Chai June 2, 2025
    • Always Joy Hong Kong May 29, 2025
    • Bottega + Ottimo Yountville May 14, 2025
    • Ciccio Yountville May 11, 2025
    • Charter Oak St. Helena Napa Valley California May 8, 2025
    • Cole's Chop House Napa California May 5, 2025

    Trackbacks

    1. Happy New Year - A Look Back at 2014 says:
      February 28, 2015 at 12:39 pm

      […] Malaysian dishes (all the recipes are on the blog if you want to check them out!). I took a fun walking food tour to experience Malaysia’s rich variety of street foods, and I even went hiking in a jungle […]

      Log in to Reply
    2. Private Saigon Food Tour | SEO Zen Bonus says:
      January 21, 2016 at 1:51 pm

      […] October 29, 2014 by Jennifer Che 11 Comments […]

      Log in to Reply
    3. Hola Madrid! Exploring Spain's Incredible Food - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
      July 17, 2016 at 11:41 pm

      […] since I started going on walking food tours in Southeast Asia (where I really felt like I needed help distinguishing and hunting out the best […]

      Log in to Reply
    4. Malaysia and Singapore! - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
      March 5, 2017 at 11:48 pm

      […] Visiting the Petronas Twin Towers Bijan Jalan Alor -Kuala Lumpur’s Most Famous Food Street Walking Food Tour of Kuala Lumpur Mamak – Malaysia’s Indian Muslim […]

      Log in to Reply
    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen

    Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am an expat who moved from Boston to Hong Kong 5 years ago. Born and raised in Ohio to Taiwanese immigrant parents, I am a chemistry nerd, patent attorney by day, blogger by night, church musician on weekends, and food enthusiast always. Feel free to explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!

    More about me →

    logo
    Food Advertisements by

    Explore

    • Recipe
    • Restaurant
    • US Travel
    • World Travel

    Popular Posts

    • Boulettes Larder Ferry Building San Francisco
      Boulette Larder (Ferry Building) San Francisco
    • Bodega SF California (Vietnamese)
      Bodega SF (Modern Vietnamese)
    • Tselog Daly City California
      Tselogs (Filipino food) Daly City California
    • Mesa by José Avillez Macau
      Mesa by José Avillez Macau

    Recipes

    • Appetizer
    • Snacks
    • Meat
    • Vegetables
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Seafood
    • Noodles

    Recently Traveled

    • Hong Kong
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Boston
    • California
    • United Kingdom
    • Germany
    • Spain

    Support Us

    Support Tiny Urban Kitchen by making purchases on Amazon through our affiliate link:

    Recognition


    Featured on the front page
    of the FOOD Section: 2015

    Best Food Blog Awards:
    Restaurant & Dining 2012

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Me
    • My Equipment
    • In the Press
    • Project Food Blog
    • Privacy Policy

    Eating Guides!

    Eating & Travel Guides
    Trip Reports
    "Kawaii" (Cute Foods)
    Around the World

    • Pinterest
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Mail
    • RSS Feed

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Shop at Amazon

    Copyright © 2024 Tiny Urban Kitchen