ONE day in KL for Hawker Food

[hzrt8w]

My former coworker told me that she had some of these "economic rice" in Penang for lunch. Cost... only RM 1.50 (US$0.40).... my gosh...

[Tepee]

Nasi Lemak is RM1.00, Roti Canai is RM0.80...how low can you goooooooo???

[Krista G]

Yes, Malaysia is unbelievably well-priced (even more so, after visiting straight from Hong Kong). I actually felt kind of wealthy for a few days, and I'm not even close to middle class by NYC standards (but NYC is screwy). It must be how Europeans feel when they visit America.

You can eat very well for little. For instance, I had read other message boards where people were complaining about the price of char kway teow at Sister's, a roadside stall in Penang: RM 4. I was shocked when I realized that was only about $1.

For comparison, I was looking at Manhattan Malaysian restaurant menus. Char kway teow averages $5 or RM 19:

Oversea Asian

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails...d=0&cuisineid=0

Nyonya

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails...=0&cuisineid=41

I think the food is better than average at both of these places (and considered inexpensive), but I'm sure Malaysians would take issue some of the preparations. We just don't have access to the same ingredients.

[Laksa]

My former coworker told me that she had some of these "economic rice" in Penang for lunch.  Cost... only RM 1.50 (US$0.40)....  my gosh...

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hzrt, how many years ago was that? Were they still playing Teresa Teng on the radio? Now, for RM1.50, you can get a plate of plain rice, and maybe a piece of tofu.

I went for some nasi kandar or padang or whatever it was in KL... I lost control of my finger and pointed at too many things, and it ended up costing me RM12 or something.

[hzrt8w]

My former coworker told me that she had some of these "economic rice" in Penang for lunch.  Cost... only RM 1.50 (US$0.40)....   my gosh...

←

hzrt, how many years ago was that? Were they still playing Teresa Teng on the radio? Now, for RM1.50, you can get a plate of plain rice, and maybe a piece of tofu.

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Really? Just 2 days ago. We IM each other frequently just for kicks. Let me ask her where she got it. Unless she's just teasing. Maybe it was just a very special promotion. She said she had rice, pumpkin (pumpkin????) and squid.

[Makan King]

Tepee, thanks for the wonderful pictures of the hawker food and the beautiful jambu air presentation! I am really homesick now for hawker goodness.

Hawker food really is the best culinary offering in Singapore - cheap, tasty and quite nutritious (okay, so maybe some of the fried stuff isn't really good for you, but the flavor!).

There's a hawker centre right smack in the middle of the business district in Singapore amidst all the skyscrapers, (the Golden Shoe Hawker Centre) and several stalls there serve economy rice too - rice and four dishes for a total of S$2 (around M$4, or US$1.20)! The hawker centre is mobbed at lunch time, but it is currently closed for renovations.

[JC]

Boy, am I late for this thread! It's been a hectic 2 weeks for me due to office activities... and dang I had to miss the trip to Kuala Selangor too.

It was great meeting our visitor (Krista) and all the other Malaysian egulleteers <is that like musketeers?>. It'll be fun to host Kristin when she comes over. When are you planning your trip here?

[Krista G]

I went for some nasi kandar or padang or whatever it was in KL... I lost control of my finger and pointed at too many things, and it ended up costing me RM12 or something.

I somehow managed to spend RM20 at a nasi kandar place in Penang. Yikes. I'm not sure if that was due to my gluttony or this particular restaurant having high prices.

[Tepee]

Nasi Kandar stalls are notorious for their high and arbitrary prices.

Laksa, did you order a beef curry, a piece or 2 fried chicken, a vegetable curry or 2?

Krista, on top of that, you probably took a piece of crab (or crap in this case)? They must have detected that you hail from the Big Apple....or the Big U$ of A.

[Laksa]

Tepee, how did you know? Were you there?

It was my first meal off the plane, if you don't count the roti canai snack I had a few minutes earlier, and everything looked too good to pass up.

My eyes were wild with anticipation, and I probably looked like a death-row inmate ordering his last supper. The nasi kandar guy saw and knew something. And he decided to charge me as though I would soon have little need for money.

Edited September 15, 2005 by Laksa (log)

[hzrt8w]

My former coworker told me that she had some of these "economic rice" in Penang for lunch.  Cost... only RM 1.50 (US$0.40)....   my gosh...

←

hzrt, how many years ago was that? Were they still playing Teresa Teng on the radio? Now, for RM1.50, you can get a plate of plain rice, and maybe a piece of tofu.

←

Really? Just 2 days ago. We IM each other frequently just for kicks. Let me ask her where she got it. Unless she's just teasing. Maybe it was just a very special promotion. She said she had rice, pumpkin (pumpkin????) and squid.

←

Okay. Got a clarification. The "economy rice" was offered at RM2.50. But her company subsidizes RM1.00 so her price was RM1.50. Even at RM2.50 it seems a great deal!

[torakris]

It was great meeting our visitor (Krista) and all the other Malaysian egulleteers <is that like musketeers?>. It'll be fun to host Kristin when she comes over. When are you planning your trip here?

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I would like to do it next winter, but if my sister has her wedding in France in the fall we will be going there instead...

Then Malaysia would be two years from now.

How is the travelling around the Christmas and New Years holidays?

[Pan]

It was great meeting our visitor (Krista) and all the other Malaysian egulleteers <is that like musketeers?>. It'll be fun to host Kristin when she comes over. When are you planning your trip here?

←

I would like to do it next winter, but if my sister has her wedding in France in the fall we will be going there instead...

Then Malaysia would be two years from now.

How is the travelling around the Christmas and New Years holidays?

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You won't be able to go to the East Coast then, because that's monsoon season and the roads may be impassible. West Coast should be OK; right, West Coast people?

[Tepee]

Yes, the west coast is largely sheltered from the monsoon by the mountain ranges.

Went to get some supplies this morning, so I didn't have time to cook lunch. There's this incredible economy (mixed) rice shop near where I went; they offered at least 40 dishes. Packed 2 boxes - total cost RM8.80 (less than US$2.50) - more than feed my 3 girls plus me.

Clockwise from the braised soya sauce hard-boiled egg, steamed egg with minced pork, crispy sweet ikan bilis (anchovies), vinegared pig trotters (chue geok sheun), stir-fried shredded jicama, steamed pumpkin (<----hz, that was for you).

Clockwise from the egg (again), mock char siu, sweet sour pork with pineapples, tofu coins with mixed veg.

I don't normally pick green vegetables from such places no matter how clean they look, because I always feel the greens are not properly washed....pet peeve....especially if they are not organic.

[torakris]

It was great meeting our visitor (Krista) and all the other Malaysian egulleteers <is that like musketeers?>. It'll be fun to host Kristin when she comes over. When are you planning your trip here?

←

I would like to do it next winter, but if my sister has her wedding in France in the fall we will be going there instead...

Then Malaysia would be two years from now.

How is the travelling around the Christmas and New Years holidays?

←

You won't be able to go to the East Coast then, because that's monsoon season and the roads may be impassible. West Coast should be OK; right, West Coast people?

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The other time of year we may be able to go would be late April to Early May, is this a better time of year for travelling around?

tepee,

those lunches look incredible!!

[Tepee]

The other time of year we may be able to go would be late April to Early May, is this a better time of year for travelling around?

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That would be perfect.

[hzrt8w]

Clockwise from the braised soya sauce hard-boiled egg, steamed egg with minced pork, crispy sweet ikan bilis (anchovies), vinegared pig trotters  (chue geok sheun), stir-fried shredded jicama, steamed pumpkin (<----hz, that was for you).

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Wow... thanks Tepee. That looks lovely. Low prices and you have your choices from 40 some items? Such a food heaven!

The Malaysian pumpkin doesn't look like the US pumpkin. The US pumpkin is bright dark orange and very sweet. More used as a dessert (pumpkin pie) than a side vegetable. Is yours sweet and soft? Or more crunchy and unsweet - like melon?

[Tepee]

The Malaysian pumpkin doesn't look like the US pumpkin.  The US pumpkin is bright dark orange and very sweet.  More used as a dessert (pumpkin pie) than a side vegetable.  Is yours sweet and soft?  Or more crunchy and unsweet - like melon?

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Sounds like the same kind of pumpkin...sweet and soft...but ours are much smaller.

[Pan]

Clockwise from the egg (again), mock char siu, sweet sour pork with pineapples, tofu coins with mixed veg.

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North Americans: Keep in mind that that sweet & sour pork with pineapples is made with fresh, not canned pineapples. Right, TP? I know of at least four varieties of pineapple that were and I believe still are grown in Malaysia. I don't know the Latin or English names, but in Malay (or at least East Coast Malay), they're nanas (the catchall name for "pineapple," also), nenas, lanas, and lenas. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[hzrt8w]

.....I don't know the Latin or English names, but in Malay (or at least East Coast Malay), they're nanas (the catchall name for "pineapple," also), nenas, lanas, and lenas. Sorry, couldn't resist.

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How do they rank in the order of sweetness? Is it:

lanas

lenas

nanas

nenas

???

[Tepee]

North Americans: Keep in mind that that sweet & sour pork with pineapples is made with fresh, not canned pineapples. Right, TP? I know of at least four varieties of pineapple that were and I believe still are grown in Malaysia. I don't know the Latin or English names, but in Malay (or at least East Coast Malay), they're nanas (the catchall name for "pineapple," also), nenas, lanas, and lenas. Sorry, couldn't resist.

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Restaurants generally use fresh pineapples but I use canned local pineapples for convenience.

*blush* Michael, your pineapple knowledge surpasses mine. Perhaps, JustKay can expand on this as she hails from one of the pineapple-producing state, Johor, the other state being Sarawak. Lanas and lenas? I've never heard of this version? Local slang, perhaps?

[Pan]

.....I don't know the Latin or English names, but in Malay (or at least East Coast Malay), they're nanas (the catchall name for "pineapple," also), nenas, lanas, and lenas. Sorry, couldn't resist.

←

How do they rank in the order of sweetness? Is it:

lanas

lenas

nanas

nenas

???

←

I have a hard time remembering. They looked a bit different, but the taste was pretty similar. I'm trying to remember if lanas was a little sweeter and less "sharp" (tajam) than nanas. It was a bit smaller, I think.

Yeah, we probably need an anak Johor to resolve this. The pineapple I ate always was trucked (lorried?) in from Johor.

[JC]

How is the travelling around the Christmas and New Years holidays?

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Like Pan said there are no weather concerns for the west coast of Malaysia around those times. Just that those are holiday seasons, so popular destinations like Penang would be crowded, hotel availability would be less (book far ahead) and room rates are higher.

[eknoo]

Never seen this before

[img noborder]http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1125528434/gallery_12248_1697_16199.jpg

Edited August 14, 2006 by eknoo (log)

[Tepee]

They are really quite common.

Kuih Koci - comes without peanuts sometimes.

You can see a close shot of pulut inti here.