Fishheads and Chicken Bones

So adjusting to KL life wasn't too hard. Most everyone speaks English in some form, albeit many I can't understand even in English lol. There's Malay Malaysians, Chinese Malaysians and Indian Malaysians, so it's really like living in Toronto. Except I think we're less of a minority here...

The food is the same you'd find in Toronto...clearly there's lots of Chinese and Indian restaurants, but also Thai, Vietnamese and traditional Malay. Okay, so there's differences:

Chinese food here has no chicken balls with fluorescent red goop. Instead, it's fishballs in a broth with fermented fish paste and and a sunny side up egg. Slight adjustment.

The Indian food is so spicy that I actually get the "hole in the ground" toilet mentality. Burns on the way in, and flies on the way out. It also explains the water hose in all the bathroom stalls...why use toilet paper....that kind of friction mixed with heat could cause a fire. Much better to hose it off.

Okay, Malay food....what can I say about this; Fish heads and chicken bones. They don't de-bone their meat. they get a cleaver out and chop chop, add some yummy fried sardines on your rice along with hot hot hot hot hot sambal, and let's not forget the egg. The egg shows up everywhere...it's like it's always Easter, but never cooked. The other concern is the local beef. Why does it taste like old mutton? It's disturbing, but also  makes me understand why Mcdonalds only sells "chicken sausage"...



It's very interesting to see all of the chicken products. I get that it's really the best protein you can have considering the other options, but I really didn't see a pizza as coming with chicken floss, chicken salami and chicken loaf. Like EVER. But here it is...It's on my "to do" list for sure...lol

Given all this, whenever someone asks me out for lunch at work I need to qualify where we are going. If they are Malay Malaysians, I pretty much say no f'ing way right off the bat. Not only for the fish heads but because many eat with their hands, and those are the same hands that hold the hose in the bathroom...you know what I'm saying? So I stick with my Chinese and Indian Malaysian friends for food dates la...(oh they say "la" at the end of every sentence like we say "eh" it's quite charming and something I have adopted quickly as it hides my post sentence belches...but I digress). 

Now in saying all that there are really neat things too. After intense laptop shopping we went for a drink in a local chinese restaurant and ordered Jasmine tea. Infront of us they poured boiling water in a glass cup then threw in what looked like a marijuana bud. I wasn't about to argue..
Over the next couple of minutes it bloomed! The end result is the picture to the right. Tasted absolutely awesome and looked stellar.
That was a nice moment. Now back to the food.

The Malay food should be on the weight watcher's friendly list. I'm losing weight. The Malay food is a new diet plan. Why didn't I think of this back home!?!?!?! Fish heads, chicken bones, chicken floss, and beef that tastes like mutton. I may be on a fast track to becoming a vegetarian...but let's not get ahead of ourselves yet.....time will tell. For now I go to the overpriced expat market and buy imported beef from Australia for about $50RM a steak when I get the craving for red meat.

That's it for me today, tune in next time...this is Christine in KL signing off.