Living in KL - Part 2 - Food in KL

I hope you got a glimpse of KL through my eyes in my last post. Today, I will continue to talk about my KL experience of the most talked about thing in my life: FOOD :)

In my new adopted hometown, the three adjectives that people most often use to describe me are: Indian, Married, Vegetarian.The first one is obvious living in a foreign land. The second one is alright (although I could do without the tag sometimes  ;P) but the third one is a bit of a surprise.

Now you see, nobody bats an eyelid back home when I say I am a vegetarian. Actually. I never have to say 'I am a vegetarian' coz unless someone specifies their preference to eat meat, it is a foregone conclusion that the whole world is 'shakahaari'. But over here in KL, people make it a point to confirm whether I at least eat fish or egg when I say I am a vegetarian and some go ahead to confirm if garlic is 'ok'. So the word 'vegetarian' in itself doesn't mean much to them.



I am a self-proclaimed foodie. I live to eat. I want to try every cuisine on earth and choose the worst one, recommend it to everyone and have exclusive access to the rest of them for the rest of my life (big wicked grin). The length of this post is very well justified by my love for food. To all my dear friends on a diet, I recommend that you skip the rest of this post and come back later for my other experiences :)

Malaysians take pride in their food. However most of their 'food', actually all of the famous parts of it, are non-vegetarian. So what could a 'vegetarian' foodie do!! Two things - stick to the food you know and eat just dal-rice OR request every steward in every restaurant of the city to help customize the food and make it vegetarian. I chose the latter and discovered that there is no lack of vegetarian food in this apparently non-vegetarian city.

P.S. My food experiences are just from KL and do not hold true to other parts of Malaysia where vegetarian food is really scarce.

This city thrives on nasi lemak (coconut rice with a piece of chicken, peanuts and a spicy sidekick called sambal) and banana leaf meals (rice with a variety of veggies and curries). They have rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and I thought I loved rice) !! The fact that the city is truly cosmopolitan is apparent from the range of cuisines available. From cuisines that were new to me ranging from Japanese to Korean to Malay to French and a new twist on the familiar cuisines like Chinese, Thai, and South Indian, I have had a blast eating it all!!

I am sharing some of my favourites amongst all these cuisines with you :)

Vegetarian sushi which tastes terrible in India is awesome here

Tea and cupcakes in the Tea Estates of Cameron Highland (special mention to the beautiful breeze and the beautiful company I had here) 

Healthy vegetarian brown rice with lots of veggies

Thai omelet - Heavenly!!

Fried mee and Beancurd in Thai sauce :)

Banana leaf meal in local restaurants

While I am talking about the cuisines, a relevant part of the population in KL is Chinese so all the Chinese dishes of the world can be found here and guess what - Manchurian - is not a Chinese dish. Nope, not even a little bit. Nobody knows of anything with that name here. How that turns out to be on the menu of every single Indian Chinese restaurant is still an enigma to me. Let me know if you find out how!!

In spite of all the great food around me, there are times when I crave a McD burger or some nice North Indian food. At such rare desperate occasions, I resort to cooking on my own (which by the way I happen to be great at, Thanks to my mum) or get a burger imported fresh from India with the next friend or family member visiting me :) What more could I possibly ask for !! 

Home made dum aloo and matar pulao with bell pepper and mushrooms

Omelette made in teddy faced pan

Vegetarian food from McDonalds ... Awesome <3

Also, people are nice here so apart from the very helpful stewards (who customize all the food for me), other people are also keen on helping me find food that suits my preference. I appreciate that but sometimes it leads to really awkward moments.
Like this one time when in an office buffet lunch, a nice person informed the host that I am a vegetarian and the word spread like wild-fire. Everyone around me was pointing to the vegetarian dishes in the buffet and shouting 'that's non-veg' when I even passed a chicken gravy container. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! I was like, I have been vegetarian all my life, I know what vegetables look like and I am capable of finding my own food.
Will you please leave me alone with the love of my life - my dear vegetarian food :)
Have you had some queer food experience, share it in the comments!!

Going back to eat now and see you soon with more :)