What do I do when I am on vacation? Eat. Here are a few places in KL that I tried recently. From the list, you can see that I can’t entirely be too fussed.

Bedouin

This Arab eaterie can be found in the Wan Kadir precinct in TTDI. We headed there one evening as my brother said it reminds him of dining at Zeugma, as well as the price being better than this other place that rhymes with harga maut. There was ample roadside parking when we arrived. I guess we were somewhat lucky as ten minutes after, patrons started milling in non-stop.

We ordered the hummus together with the flat and airy Lebanese bread as starters to share. I foolishly ordered the mixed grill as when it arrived, it was clearly meant to be shared. The chicken kabsa (similar to the Yemeni mandi but Saudi Arabia in origin) which my sis-in-law ordered was quite tender, as was the mandi. As for drinks, it was fruit juices all around, and they were all freshly made. Despite the mixed grill debacle, I had some space for the crème caramel which is pretty popular. The place has a genuine ambience to it as their staff is manned largely by lads from Yemen and the like. Highly recommended, and better come on a really empty stomach!

6 Jalan Wan Kadir
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

https://www.facebook.com/bedouin.my/

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul

Now, when it comes to a particular town’s signature dish/kueh/dessert/whatever, nothing beats the real thing. A Penangite is (likely) to frown upon any remark praising, say, nasi kandar from a non-Penang establishment, even though it’s a bona fide branch of a Penang restaurant. As a KL person, I have no choice but to frequent such branches as I am not that much of a foodie to actually drive/fly up hundreds of kilometres just to have genuine *insert name of dish here*. I stumbled upon this cendol (spelled chendul here) place in 1Utama. I have heard of this Teochew cendol place in Penang but since I won’t be going up there anytime soon, I might as well have a try.

The cendol was actually quite good. I am not a fan of non-regular cendol (I don’t add pulut or durian in mine) but the regular version here has kidney beans in it, which actually add to the flavour. Not too bothered with the additional Penang street food that was on offer, but the rest of the family had the rojak buah, chee cheong fun and assam laksa. Dad loved the rojak and CCF, but I thought the assam laksa‘s gravy could be a bit more thick.

Food Street at LG Floor Promenade
1Utama
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor

http://www.chendul.my/

Last but not least, just a couple of shout outs to two particular dishes that I enjoy eating, sold at places which may well be meh to food snobs. These are cases of make-do-with-you-what-you-have!

The first is mee rebus. Of course, gone are the days of mee rebuih Hamid that was sold in TTDI (Restoran Dawood that is no longer there) that had some kuah rojak in the gravy. My fav at the mo is the one sold at Portofino at HERO Market in TTDI Plaza. You’d think they should be serving pasta, but the mee rebus they serve here is gorgeous with generous strips of tender beef in the gravy. Their nasi lemak is quite good too.

The other is the nasi ayam (chicken rice) place at the KLCC Signatures Food Court just because they serve roasted or BBQ chicken, and there is an option where you can have both. Great when you need fuel to manoeuvre through Kinokuniy… never mind. The food court can get really busy during lunch as a lot of mall staff and office workers would descend onto level 2 for makan.