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Sunday, March 1, 2026
Despite being completely knackered last night, I was over-tired and, as a result, slept more poorly than usual and was awake not much after four. Body clock stuff, I guess – I’m too used to that 4.16 am alarm. Grant, however, was annoyingly asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. It’s his superpower.
We have a food tour later this morning, so we breakfasted relatively lightly. I, of course, went straight for clear soup and noodles. Breakfast of champions.
Although we’re not meeting our guide until 10.30, we’re up and about, so we decide to be out and about for a walk around Chinatown first, and grab a GRAB to Kwai Chai Hong. 9MYR for the ride.
Kwai means demon or ghost, and this little lane roughly translates to Little Demon Alley. Some say the name refers to naughty children, others say it used to teem with drunkards, drug addicts and the like, or that it was the haunt of a street gang who called themselves Kwai Chai.
Wherever the name came from, it’s been rejuvenated, the pre-war shophouses restored, and some cool murals painted to reflect life in 1960’s Chinatown.
It’s also now an Instagrammer’s paradise, and when we were there, so was a busload of tourists, plus more. There’s an exhibition on for the Chinese New Year, and at night, all these creatures are lit up. I managed to get pics of our animals (goat - me, tiger - Sarah, and ox - Grant) without people in them. That’s my superpower.
Back out of the lane, we meandered our way through the colourful streets of Chinatown to our meeting place at Central Market.
Central Market, built in 1888, was originally a wet market; today it’s a place for crafts, silverware, jewellery, batik, fortune tellers… You get the idea. It’s also well worth a look around.
After meeting our guide, Neem, and B, the other participant on our tour, we head to our first stop: Lai Foong Lala Noodles for, wait for it, lala noodles.
Lala means clams in Malay, and the bowl is full of them. Neem arranges some extra bowls and splits the soup and clams between us. With a broth made aromatic with housemade Chinese yellow wine and ginger, it’s no wonder this place gets a mention in the Michelin lists.
While we slurp, Neem tells us about the three cultures that comprise Malaysia (Malay, Chinese, and Indian), how they came to be here, and the roles they’ve played in the food culture. We also hear that as a result of this unity, Malaysia has more public holidays than anywhere in the world. (Side note: I googled this when I got back to the hotel, and while they consistently rank in the top 5, they can’t get close to Nepal. Hey ho.)
Next stop is a hole-in-the-wall for Siew Pau: juicy char sui pork in golden, flaky pastry buns made by a master who bakes about 500 of these a day. While siew pau has long been a yum cha fave of ours, these ones were outstanding.
Onto Yooi Kee Chee Cheung Fun for noodles with red sauce, sesame and chilli. Ipoh-style, this stall has been churning out these noodles since 1943, with the third generation now dishing them out.
Essentially, these are steamed rice noodles slathered with red-hued hoisin (the colour comes from fermented red bean curd). In any case, they’re good, very good, and Grant’s dish of the day.
While we eat our noodles and chat amongst ourselves (B is English, but splits his year between being a dive instructor in Indonesia and working behind the scenes at music festivals), Neem joins the (long) queue for our next tasting...soya bean.
Drizzled with a brown sugar syrup, it’s cooling, but way too sweet for me, so I don’t bother with more than a spoonful.
We don’t need to walk far to our next tasting at Madam Tang Machi Popo for peanut muah chee.
They’ve been serving this glutinous rice snack coated in a mixture of crushed roasted peanuts, sugar and sesame seeds since 1949. The original Madam Tang has passed, but the next generation is just as adept at wielding that blade to chop the rice dough into tiny portions. While tasty, it’s not a favourite, so again, I limit myself to just a taste.
It’s time for curry laksa, so to Madras Lane we go. Neem has her running shoes on, and we struggle to keep up and look around. I decide that looking around is more important than keeping up, and she slows her pace to wait for us.
Back in 2018, Lonely Planet’s Eatlist ranked KL’s curry laksa as the second-best food experience in the world - and this stall in Madras Lane was the classic old-school spot highlighted in that post. In case you’re interested, pintxos in San Sebastian came out on top.
In any case, this is one very good bowl of laksa. Perfect spice, perfect balance, perfect body to the broth. Again, we share, and as good as this is, we’re glad of that. We might be only having tastes, but all those tastes are adding up and I’m holding space for chicken rice.
Onto Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, where shoes and socks come off, and we can wander around. There’s also a bathroom available at this stop.
The last time we were in KL, we hired a driver for a day and explored the main religious sites, including Batu Caves, the National Mosque, the Thian Hou Temple, and this one. Back then, the paintwork here felt faded; now it absolutely is not. It’s stunning.
Standing on one leg, trying to put sweaty socks and then shoes onto sweaty feet seems one step too far (too much information?), But we manage because Neem is already off. This time back down to Kwai Chai Hong, which is even busier than when we were here earlier.
Just outside the alley is Restauran Bunn Choon, which has been in business since 1893 and specialises in (extremely good) egg tart (tart telur).
Onto Pasar Karat, which is apparently “Thieves Market” and where the brochure says we’ll “catch a glimpse of the street's colourful murals and uncover why a Hindu gopuram sits side by side with a Taoist warrior’s sword.”
While Neem pointed us toward the Instagrammable murals, there was no explanation of what we were looking at. I googled it when we got back to the hotel, but I’m no wiser about the gopuram and the sword. Hey ho. In any case, the art is good. (In the pic below, top right, a bride-to-be is having a quick costume adjustment as part of a pre-wedding photo shoot…)
Even though we’re well ahead of time (well ahead), Neem has her sprint back on, and there’s apparently no time to be stopping to snap more colourful walls, so I don’t.
Our next stop is at Foo Hwo Kopitiam - a traditional Chinese coffee shop in a back lane. In Malay, Kopi is coffee, and Tiam is Hokkien for shop. The coffee is thick and aromatic, “pulled” back and forth, and iced. It’s made with condensed milk, so Neem asks the proprietor to make ours less sweet (As I’m not much of a coffee drinker and dislike ice coffee, Grant and I opt to share). She does, and I actually enjoy the sip we have before Neem’s off again.
Finally, it’s the stop I’ve been waiting for - Nam Heong Chicken Rice. This Michelin-mentioned shop has been dishing up the good stuff since 1938. (I have mentioned how chicken rice is my ultimate comfort food, haven’t I?).
Neem orders us each a rice and broth, and we share a single serve of roast chicken between the four of us. The chicken is soft and exactly as it should be, the rice is flavourful, and the broth is excellent.
From here, we sprint to another stall for popiah – one cut into three. It was fresh and tasty. B tried to ask what was in it, but Neem was in a hurry. Again. For the record, popiah is a fresh spring roll with a thin, paper-like wheat wrapper filled with a mixture of cooked, shredded vegetables, e.g., turnip, carrot, lettuce, bean sprouts, tofu, peanuts.
Our final stop for the day was for pancakes, although again we weren’t told what we were eating – just that the stall had been operated by a hardworking grandfather for over forty years.
Another customer told us we should be trying the peanut pancake, the one they were famous for, but Neem didn’t respond.
Again, Google came to the rescue and informed us that the stall was Apek’s Apam, known for apam balik (or murtabak manis, a sweet murtabak). The peanut pancakes, as the customer pointed out, are their biggest seller and are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, filled with crushed peanuts, sugar, and a hint of creamy corn.
I think the one we had was coconut-flavoured. I’d given up asking, but B asked Neem, and she just smiled and started walking again, this time back to Central Market and the end of the tour, about forty minutes ahead of schedule.
As far as food tours go, the tastings were exceptional, but that’s not why we do these. We’re also interested in the history, culture, ingredients, and stories of the place that come through the food, and we were a tad disappointed with this aspect.
Our guide has plenty of five-star ratings and a massive social media following (70,000 followers on Instagram), so I wonder whether it was just us. Maybe she didn’t think we were interested; perhaps we should have communicated this better and asked her more questions when we had seated tastings - there was no opportunity to do so at the standing ones. In any case, we have another food tour booked in Penang with this company, so we will make sure to speak up.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the morning, but are hot and tired, so after a quick look around Central Market, we grab another GRAB, this time to Suria KLCC. Located just outside Petronas Towers, this is a massive shopping mall, but we’re here for one reason only: to stock up on bras and knickers (too much information?) at Marks & Spencer’s (IYKYK).
By the time we walk back through the park to our hotel, we’ve clocked around 15,000 steps, all on concrete, most in the sun, so when my feet hit the pool this afternoon, I swear I heard them sizzle.
As for dinner tonight… you’re having a laugh, aren’t you? We’re still full, so make do with drinks and a snack in the lounge.
This series of posts is transcribed straight from my travel journal …
Your photos are lovely! Thanks so much for sharing with us all.
Amazing colours, thanks for taking us on the tour with you.