The city is awash with western food chains selling the taste of capitalism. All the big chains are here and one chain in particular here have a huge presence. KFC apparently are celebrating 35 years in Malaysia and can be found everywhere. The colonel’s face is even plastered all over the monorail trains and on the side of buildings. If someone had no notion of KFC then they would probably believe the colonel was a local deity his exposure is so complete.
The remarkable thing here is that these chains charge prices which seem to be so different from those of the local suppliers. They are not too far off prices you would find in the west. A breakfast of coffee and a pretty awful cheese and tomato roll from Starbucks will set you back 20+ ringitts whilst a full dish of, say, claypot rice, would only be 5 ringitts. Regardless, these western chains seem to be very popular with the locals and seem to be doing very good business.
Why eat western when you could have a nasi lemak? No - I wasn't sure what it was either so I picked the one with the longest name as I recognied a couple of the words - nasi lemak ayam rendang chicken. Well this meal was certainly a surprise with a real mix of flavours and textures. Chicken in rendang sauce, peanuts, dried fish, a hard boiled egg, green vegetables, and…...some cucumber. Oh how I’ve missed the cool refreshing cucumber. The chicken drumstick was pretty tender and the covering sauce had a nutty taste complimenting the chicken. Now the one thing on the plate I haven’t mentioned is the red sauce on the side. Now red normally signifies danger and I confirm that was true of this sauce. Fiery hot is an understatement. The whole meal was all in pretty strange affair. Was there a particular order I should eat it in? Should I mix up all these tastes into one big glob of food? I don’t think I’ll be trying nasi lemak again….even if it does have cucumber.
The remarkable thing here is that these chains charge prices which seem to be so different from those of the local suppliers. They are not too far off prices you would find in the west. A breakfast of coffee and a pretty awful cheese and tomato roll from Starbucks will set you back 20+ ringitts whilst a full dish of, say, claypot rice, would only be 5 ringitts. Regardless, these western chains seem to be very popular with the locals and seem to be doing very good business.
Why eat western when you could have a nasi lemak? No - I wasn't sure what it was either so I picked the one with the longest name as I recognied a couple of the words - nasi lemak ayam rendang chicken. Well this meal was certainly a surprise with a real mix of flavours and textures. Chicken in rendang sauce, peanuts, dried fish, a hard boiled egg, green vegetables, and…...some cucumber. Oh how I’ve missed the cool refreshing cucumber. The chicken drumstick was pretty tender and the covering sauce had a nutty taste complimenting the chicken. Now the one thing on the plate I haven’t mentioned is the red sauce on the side. Now red normally signifies danger and I confirm that was true of this sauce. Fiery hot is an understatement. The whole meal was all in pretty strange affair. Was there a particular order I should eat it in? Should I mix up all these tastes into one big glob of food? I don’t think I’ll be trying nasi lemak again….even if it does have cucumber.
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