Street Food in Malaysia - ULTIMATE MALAYSIAN FOOD in Kuala Lumpur!

Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and this is one of my favorite cities in the world for food because it's such a melting pot. It has so many different people and cultures and foods that make up Kuala Lumpur. And so today we're gonna go on a Malaysian food tour. We're gonna eat a lot of incredibly delicious food and I hope this video will give you a great idea of the diversity and the spectrum of amazing food that you can eat when you are in Kuala Lumpur. And so we are on our way. I'm gonna share all the food with you in this video right now. We met up with Faro and Anwar. They're from Oh My Media. And they're gonna be taking us around today on this ultimate Kuala Lumpur street food tour. And most of all, we all love to eat. That's correct. So it's gonna be a very fun day. And we are on our way to the first place right now. Let's go. Mansion Pistaw. So the real name is called Mansion Roti Canai, Mansion Pistaw. Chicken curry. And this one is sambal? Sambal. And then the eggs. Here's the egg. We got the Roti Canai special, which they chop it up, the roti, a mess of sauces and oozing eggs, all wrapped up in that, all like soaking into that flatbread. It's all components that you could possibly want for breakfast, all on one single plate, all mixed together and mingled together. Awesome. Let's do it, let's dig in. Break the egg yolk? Yeah. Oh yes, okay. And you gotta kinda like pour the, oh nice, look at. Okay. He knows what he's doing. The same thing, right? Scoop out, scoop out the egg yolk. And just sprinkle it all over everything, coating everything. Oh, that looks awesome. Just like this. You mix it up. Oh yeah. Popping yolks is just something here that never gets old. And then I will just kinda sprinkle. Okay, that's good. I'm gonna go in for some of that. Is this a sambal? Yep, a sambal. Sambal, okay. Mix that in. Roti Canai special. Oh. That is amazing. You've got the richness of the egg yolk. You've got the bread, which is slightly, the roti, which is slightly like chewy because it's been fried in oil before being soaked in sauce. And then you've got that sambal, which is, it's like a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy. Yeah? But that I like, it gives it a nice contrast. If you want more, you can put kecap on it. Oh, this one is kecap manis? Uh, I think it's salty. Sweet soy sauce? Let me taste this. Ah. Yeah, kecap manis. Kecap manis? That's like a sweet soy sauce that you can add. So that's like a, that's like a total Malaysian touch to the whole thing. Adding some kecap manis to it. I love legit. It's great. Everything I wanted, wow. I think what makes it for me is like the entire mashup combination because you've got the, it's just all textures and flavors all mingled together. And for this bite, I'm gonna take some of that extra yolk and kinda re-yolk it. Almost like a, you know like eggs, what is it called? Eggs in the hole? Egg in the basket? No. You know eggs in the basket where you put, where you have a piece of toast and you poke a hole and then you put, you put an egg in it? This is like the extreme, ultimate, like next level version of eggs in a nest. That's a breakfast of champions in Kuala Lumpur. And this place, it's kind of at the bottom of this pretty tall, well not that tall, but an apartment complex, a mansion complex. The main stall is over here where they're making the food and they have a dining section. But then over here, this is like the extended seating section where we sat. I'm a big fan of yours. Thank you very much. Good, nice to meet you. Next we are on our way to go eat what is considered to be the national dish of Malaysia. It's a dish that everybody loves. It's an incredible dish. We're on our way to eat the next dish. And again, something I love so much about KL, Kuala Lumpur, is that it's a big city. It's a modern city. There's sky rise buildings and yet there's so many green spaces. And so we kind of came into this, it's almost like a little mountain park. But we're surrounded by beautiful greenery trees. There's a little, almost food court section and that's where we are heading. We are here to eat nasi lemak, which is often considered one of the national ultimate dishes of Malaysia. Rice cooked with coconut milk. There's a few sides that are common but then also each stall, each restaurant has their specialty of different curried dishes to include on top. And so this place is called Nasi Lemak Panglin. They've been around since 1948. And yeah, I've been wanting to come here for a long time so I'm very happy to finally be here. Yes, kopok, and also maybe the? And then the egg. You can dance while you're eating. The live band here to give you the energy you need to eat nasi lemak. It's such a wonderful environment in the nature with the band. Delicious food on our plates. Nasi lemak is a dish of many components and one of the most important, significant components is the rice, which is made with coconut milk. But then it's your choice of what other dishes to order. So I got squid curry, I got the cockles, as well as a unique dish of, it's a spleen curry. A curried spleen. We all got different plates. So you can just choose your own dishes, right? Yeah, the potato. That's like a potato patty? Bagadil. This is extra sambal as well. A piece of that squid. Oh yeah, the rice, it's fluffy, but you can taste that coconut aroma to it. Definitely coconut. It's sweet at first, but then it's kind of spicy towards the end of your bite. It tastes like a roasted chili jam almost that it's wrapped up within. Okay, and then rotating my plate over to the spleen. Oh wow. That definitely has a unique texture to it. It's like, it's actually gummy. You feel like almost a grassy texture to it. It's almost like a sponge, a gooey sponge of flavor. Really good. I think the cockle is the best. Each one of the dishes has its own flavor. I think I like the cockles the best, the cockles curry, it's fantastic. And it's just like balanced perfectly, the flavors. And I love the anchovies, because they're fried, they're crispy, they're salty. The live music was fun to dance to as we finished that plate of nasi lemak. But yeah, nasi lemak, no matter where you go, you can eat it at many, many places. It's a dish you do not want to miss when you're in Malaysia, when you come to Kuala Lumpur. Okay, we're moving on to the next spot, okay. Which is one of my favorite Malaysian, oh, my favorite Malaysian, my favorite Malaysian foods to eat. Are you having this immediately? Step out of the car, you can immediately get the distinct aroma. You want some right now? Similar to jackfruit, but different. It's more sweet, it's more honey-tasting. So she has a basket of the fruit, which is peeled already there. She dips it into a batter, and then deep-fries it. And as she's frying that, it's just so incredibly fragrant. It literally smells like honey is coming out of those oil fumes. Fried right out of the oil, it's really hot, so you better be careful biting into this. Oh yeah, oh, yeah, it's incredibly hot. Oh, it's amazing. It's crispy, it's so honey-sweet. And then the texture is also kind of a little bit stringy, as well. It kind of tastes like a, oh, and then you end up with the steam coming out of the mouth. There's about five or six different restaurants along this stretch, and there's a live band here. But this is one of the best places in Kuala Lumpur to eat ikan bakar, which is grilled fish. And maybe some of the smaller mackerel. In order to make this ikan bakar, it's actually cooked on a hot skillet. But what they do first is they take the fish, they put it into the sambal, which is a chili sauce blend. They actually dunk it into the sambal. Then they wrap it in a banana leaf and stick it onto the hot griddle. And that's sort of like, the banana leaf kind of keeps the flavor in it, so it grills and roasts and bakes and just simmers it in its own juices and chili sauce all at the same time. It goes up in a cloud of steam and smoke. Even if you walk past, if you get a whiff of some of that steam coming off the grill, you can feel it in your lungs. The sambal even caramelizes onto the fish. Really quick story before we dig into the amazing food here. But I came here back in 2012. I actually made a video. It's a very old, slightly embarrassing video. I am looking for some of the, what is supposedly some of the best ikan bakar or grilled fish here in Kuala Lumpur. Oh, I remember there's like a highway behind there somewhere. There's this big highway. And I climbed over the highway. There's an overpass over the highway. I had to find my way up to the top of this little hill to get to the restaurant. And so I remember having to hop a couple of fences, kinda whack my way through the jungle to get here. I think I have just found Jalan Belami. And I think, I'm excited. I think that is the restaurant right there. No easy mission to get here. I had to run across some highways. I had to jump across some fences. So times have changed a little bit. This is gonna be the new and updated version. But this is an ikan bakar stall that is very special to me. And so I'm very, very happy to be back. We got actually four different types of fish plus the squid, plus some different sambals, plus rice. Now this is the stingray sambal. And this is one of my favorite. If I were to just choose one fish, this is what I'd get. You can see if you unwrap it, you can see the oily juices just flowing. Look at that. Okay, I'm gonna grab a piece of this first. This has to be the first bite. Oh, it's so meaty. It's such an incredibly meaty, meaty. It's almost like chicken, yet kind of softer and oilier. And then you taste that sambal, you taste the dried chili in there, the turmeric. And again, just how the banana leaf helps to keep in all the juices so that they reabsorb into the fish as they come out, they reabsorb into it. Look at that stingray, just how it flakes off. It's so stringy. And I'm gonna dip that into some of the sauce. Okay, next I'll reach in for the squid. And for this I'll dip into, I think this is like a shrimp paste chili dip. The squid is nice and chewy. And then that sauce, the saltiness of the shrimp paste. Plus it has a wonderful acidity. I think possibly from calamansi. Next up I'm gonna try, I think this is a mackerel. And it has a little bit of a banana leaf wrapper. Oh, and as soon as you, oh, you have to get a close up, look at that. As soon as you unravel the banana leaf, you can see that oil and that sauce just caked up in there, that sambal. Oh yeah, it's just oozing and juicy. Reach in for a little piece off the side here. I think that's a short head mackerel, or an Indian mackerel. Moving on to the next fish. And I believe this one is a catfish. Just unwrap it. Oh, that's so oily and juicy and fatty. The juices and the sambal is just flowing. Look at how oily. Oh man, that looks awesome. You could actually squeeze it, and I'm sure the oils and juices would just fall out. But I'm not gonna squeeze it for you because I wanna keep those in my bite. Oh, I think because catfish is such an oily fish from the start, then when it has a chance to live on that griddle and just absorb more sambal and juices and oil, that even enhances it more. And you really taste the smokiness of the catfish. Final fish we got here is, I think it's a tilapia. A tilapia, which is also cooked in the same exact fashion with the sambal surrounded by banana leaf. And this banana leaf has just started disintegrating onto the fish. Peel that back. Let's get a bite of this. Oh, it's so oily and juicy again. That has been the story of every single fish. Is it sambal belacan? It's not belacan. So it's with the shrimp paste? Yeah. Okay, it's so good. And so yeah, that's at least like three, maybe four or five layers of flavor all in one single bite. Diversity of tastes from the sambal on the fish to the banana leaf to the sambal that you add on when you take a bite. It's superb. That fish is definitely fence jump worthy fish. It's incredible. Okay. All of the ikan bakar is delicious, but nothing can top the stingray. That is, that's the best. Like if you come here and you just eat one fish, that's the fish you should go for. And then finally to end, we have a coconut. This is just the coconut water plus the coconut meat in a cup conveniently with a spoon and straw combo at the top. Oh wow. That's incredibly sweet. Incredibly, nothing refreshes like a coconut water either. This is just a little food paradise. As soon as he lifts the lid of that ice chest, you just get this poof of durian in your nostrils. I thought the coconut was gonna be the dessert, but this, this is the real dessert. The durian on top with ice cream. I'm gonna try to get like equal ratios of both. Oh wow. Okay, I got half ice cream, half durian. Oh wow. It's unbelievably good because the durian is kind of mushy and creamy. It's pudding. It's sweet, it has a little bit of a bitterness to it. And then you've got the cold durian ice cream, which is more of like the refreshing durian taste. So you've got cold and warm cream in your mouth combining. It's sensational. It really is truly sensational. That is a dessert of a lifetime. Terima kasih. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Welcome again. Amazing. I'm a good friend. Thank you. Yes. He is the owner. And there's like maybe five different restaurants for ikan bakar, but we came to ikan bakar Seri Melaka. So that's the spot. Yeah. And he's an amazing, he's an amazing man who owns this restaurant. So this is the spot. That was delicious. Ikan bakar Jalan Belimi. It's a good place. Jalan Belimi. Welcome to Malaysia. Terima kasih. Sedap. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. I'm very happy to report that the method of getting here has changed, but the flavor of the ikan bakar, it remains the same. It's incredibly good. This, in my opinion, is a must eat area, stall. And dish when you come to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Next place, and I think we have another big meal coming up. Yes, Indian food. When I reached out and asked where to eat in Kuala Lumpur, and I was really looking for some off the beaten path destinations. And so someone, a number of you recommended that we check out this place for the banana leaf rice and curry, which is really like somebody opens their home and opens their home as a restaurant. And so I'm very excited for this next meal. South Indian food. The green gate with the plants outside. Luckily there is a photo on Google Maps. Green gate at the front, but there's not even a sign. You would not know it is a restaurant here, but it's known as Si Ganapati Mes. Potted plants, there's clay pots. Okay, and then you do walk inside and there is the sign, like once you get into the compound. This is awesome. Hello. Okay, thank you. It really is a home with like many, many rooms and they kind of like open up rooms as they get busier. So the first few rooms are full. They opened up an entire mess hall in the back. Do you have the crab, crab rasmat? Yeah, yeah. Oh, swordfish. Maybe can we have swordfish and vegetable? Mutton curry? Mutton curry. Oh, it's like a soup. Okay, perfect. Okay, and now I'm gonna move back to our dining room section to start digging in. Okay, I think I ordered. Thank you, man. That's beautiful. Yes, final step before eating is one more scoop of curry sauce over the rice, or double scoop of curry over the rice. Thank you. One of the reasons that Kuala Lumpur is just one of the best cities in the world if you love to eat, because of the diversity of foods, this would be very authentic South Indian. I think I taste ginger in there. Yeah, oh, that's wonderful. A little bit spicy, gingery, very gingery. Oh, and the spice keeps on coming. Onions have a little bit of a, more of a sour taste to them. Let me try some of that swordfish. And this is always one of my favorite dishes. Like, people really enjoy really mixing it up, getting it all evenly coated on the rice. It's almost like shredded chicken, but kind of like dry, but in a good way. I'm not sure if it's mustard seed, or there might be cumin seed in there, too. I'm gonna follow that with the crab rasman, which they serve in a cup, because you're actually supposed to drink it. It's like a beverage, it's like a soup. Cheers. Actually drink it. Oh, that's delicious. Yeah, you can taste the, it tastes like the shellfish of crab that's just been boiled down. But you taste the crab, you taste the sweet onions, herbal-ness of it. Oh yeah, you can taste that that is mutton. You can taste the goat-iness of it. The flavor is delicious, yeah. That's awesome, especially with everything else. The vegetable has a very nutty taste to it. The crab, that crab consomme is incredible. And yeah, it tastes very light, but then you taste the spice at the back of your throat as you keep on drinking it. Uh-huh, really good, really, really good. This is what it's all come down to, my final bite. The final driplets of curry sauce, the final meat juices, the final veg. That was just an ultra-satisfying meal. I'm gonna have to surrender after that, because we've had quite a lot of food, so what you do is you just hold over your banana leaf. Thank you very much, thank you very much. Just the front of a home. It's unassuming, it's not standout. You gotta know about this place, but just in the Green Gate, the restaurant and home, it just goes back further and further, and they just keep opening more and more rooms as it gets busier. Such a cool restaurant, incredibly delicious South Indian food. I'm the owner of the restaurant. Oh, thank you very much. What's your name? Kumar, I'm ex-police detective. Oh, awesome, awesome. Food was incredibly good, really delicious. Thank you. A few friends recommended it to me. Okay. For our final stop on this Kuala Lumpur Malaysian food tour, we are in Chinatown, and we're gonna go to a very legendary restaurant to eat a certain dish, but a number of people recommended it to me. It looks incredibly delicious, and this is gonna be the final dish. This is what's gonna wrap it up, and again, we are going to see just how diverse the food is in Malaysia. This is a fully Chinese food court. Four or five different stalls that you can choose from different Chinese dishes to order, and then just communal seating tables. One of the most famous things to eat here, and maybe one of the most famous, unique things to eat in Chinatown, is the clam bee hoon. So it's noodles on the bottom with a clam broth gravy over noodles, and that's exactly what I came here to eat, what I just ordered. It was very nice that they allowed me to watch them as they made the entire process of this dish. It took about five minutes, but what he first did was he took some oil, and he heated it in a wok, and then he threw in a handful of sliced ginger, and he really just caramelized that ginger. The aromatic aroma of the ginger just came fully out. He tossed in a bunch of clams into that sauce, and then I believe that he tossed in like a spoonful of cooking wine, because I got kind of that wine aroma that came out of the soup. Then they just quickly blanched the noodles, the bee hoon, and then combined, he drained some of the clams, put them onto the top of the noodles, and then put all the soup on top. It's very aromatic. It smells incredible. Again, this is a very unique dish, and the dish is called clam mee hoon. The first thing to do is just start with that broth. Oh, that's like ultimate comfort, but as it goes down, you actually feel the ginger going down your throat. It has this complexity of flavor because of the broth, the wine, the ginger, the garlic in there, and that's really what's standing out, but then just that slight, it might be clam broth as well, I'm not totally sure, but it's so, it's slightly thickened. It's rich. It's just complex. And those noodles, they're rice noodles. Yeah, the noodles just kind of go along with the soup. They're soft, they're thin, and they just sort of absorb that broth. Where's my spoon? I'm gonna refill my clam shell with that broth. Making sure to get all that ginger and garlic. And those are shells you're just gonna wanna lick until you get every last strand of ginger and every drip of broth out of it. Oh, that's a broth of wonders. They're doing a little bit of construction in this area, but we have come to the end of this Kuala Lumpur Malaysian food tour. It's been an incredible day, and again, I've mentioned this, and I probably mention this every Malaysian food tour that I ever take, and every day, but just the fact that you can eat authentic Malay food, authentic Indian food, authentic Chinese food, one meal after another after another, it's just, it's incredible, and Kuala Lumpur really is a melting pot, and that's what makes it so special, the mix of cultures, food, people. I wanna say a huge thank you to Farouk and Anwar for taking us around. They're so friendly, they're so hospitable, they, yeah, they're amazing guys, and I'll have their information and their company linked below, ohmymedia. Most of the restaurants on this list were recommended when I reached out to you on social media, so thank you for all of your Kuala Lumpur food recommendations. I wanna say a huge thank you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you, and if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now, and also click that little bell icon so that you get notified of the next video that I publish. Thanks again for watching, goodbye from Kuala Lumpur. I will see you on the next video.