Dinner at KLCC food court.

Our first dinner in Malaysia was at KLCC mall. To be honest I wasn't that keen on eating in a mall. Somehow I felt like Malaysian food needed to be served in a Warung to be real Malaysian food. But thats ridiculous, the food being eaten all around at KLCC was being eaten by Malaysians and I'm pretty sure that makes it Malaysian food. Retrospectively I'm a lot more open minded about what Malaysian culture is. When i first got to Malaysia I had the idea that Malaysia food had to be traditional Asian style, something anachronistic and archaic.  What I came to realise over the next week is that Malaysian food, particularly in KL is like a representation of Malaysian culture as a whole (cheesy right?). Malaysia was once a traditional, old school Asian society,  and perhaps that old school culture remains, but  Malaysia is a country rushing forward into a new version of itself. In the food court at KLCC there are still the traditional Malay elements like Nasi Lemak, but you are also going to see everything from Indian and Thai curries, Chinese soups, Mexican burritos, Italian pastas or *shudder* Maccas or KFC.

We sat down for dinner in the food court with some students from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. It was Halim's shout so we sat down to a feed of Chicken and rice, sounds fairly boring right? But its not it was great. Funnily enough the place that sells this chicken and rice is called, wait for it, "Chicken Rice" and the dish is called.. Chicken Rice.

"Chicken Rice" is a traditional Hainan recipe that centers around chicken poached in a stock with ginger. It is served with a warm broth with some sliced spring onions tossed in, some sliced cucumber (apparently a Chinese thing) and of course the rice.The chicken was deliciously tender and surprisingly tasty with a subtle hint of ginger from the stock it was poached in. The rice was almost perfectly cooked in the same stock as the chicken. It was nice and fluffy with just a hint of crunch. This place was hopping, people were lined up the whole time we were there and plates of chicken rice were flying across the counter. And why not? At 6RM its a filling meal thats affordable for just about all Malays. It was Halim's favourite with good reason, and when I go back to Malaysia, I'll go back for Chicken Rice.

Despite being delicious, the chicken rice didn't fill the hole, which was probably mostly caused by enthusiasm. So of course, surrounded by options I went off to find some more food to eat. I was captured by a guy cooking what cooked like giant crepes behind a window. I'm always a sucker for a cooking display, I invariably stop and watch, and usually buy something. If i ever have a cafe I think I'll put a guy out the front behind a window cooking something flashy. The punters are easily amused. I was hooked by a dish called Dosai, a fermented pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. Its a staple throughout southern India and very popular in Malaysia. In this instance my Dosai was served with a delicious Sambar, a stew made with Pigeon Pea and veges and flavoured with Tamarind and Asafoetida.

Accompanying my Dosai was a nice selection of Southern Indian food. Some tasty but oily, green beans braised with onion and garlic, a hearty chickpea curry, a fairly un-interesting green chutney, some curry chicken and a completely underwhelming tandoori chicken. Whilst it was all quite palatable and easily the equal of takeaway Indian food in Australia, it wasn't a scratch on some other southern Indian food I was to have later in my trip. The Dosai and and Sambar was definitely the star of my Indian experience at KLCC. All up i think i paid 13RM, I think the servers were quite surprised that I ordered the Dosai and the curry dish, I think I was being a bit extravagant, I doubt very much that their average customer spends or eats quite that much in one go.

To accompany the curry I got an apple juice, I was pursuing that elusive juice experience from earlier that day at Warung Halims. But alas it wasn't to be. Once again it was frothy and served with plenty of fresh ice. In a very Malaysian style the juice was sweetened with sugar cane juice or air tebu. It wasn't overly sweet but definitely gave it another dimension of flavour, not sure if I liked it though to be honest, I think I like my juice unadulterated.

Finally to end an epic day of food, I had Red Ruby. Red ruby is  a Thai dessert made by boiling pieces of water chestnut covered in tapioca flour and red food colouring, and serving them over shaved ice, rose syrup and evaporated milk. This was another of Halim's favourites but this time I wasn't such a fan, to be fair though everyone else seemed to really like it. I think unlike the juice, this desert wasn't sweet enough for me, the shaved ice was kind of boring, the mango was nice though :)