Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Yeoh's Bah Kut Teh in Klang

Bah Kut Teh is a very popular hawker dish in Malaysia and Singapore. There are a few versions of how this famous dish started. The most credible seems to be the Klang version. Klang is a seaside town near Kuala Lumpur which has since become an important port for Malaysia. Legend has it that a gentleman from Quanzhou brought this dish to Klang, having learnt the secret recipe from a chef over there. This hearty herbal soup was very popular with the port workers, they ate it with plenty of rice to give them energy for their strenous work. 

One version of this story goes futher to explain the origin of the "Teh" in Bah Kut Teh. Bah Kut is basically Chinese for pork ribs. "Teh" in Chinese means tea. But there is no tea in Bah Kut Teh, besides the tea which is normally served alongside. So where did the "Teh" come from ? Well, this version of the story says that the gentleman from China who brought the recipe to Klang was named "Tay". Customers used to call him "Bah Kut Tay" as his shop was very popular. In time, it became Bah Kut Teh !

Bah Kut Teh is basically pork ribs in a rich herbal soup. The herbal soup is made by boiling pork bones together with Chinese herbs and soy sauce. The pork ribs and other ingredients such as pork meat, offals, tougues, etc. are usually cooked separately and added to the broth before serving. Pork liver, kidneys and fresh pork are sometimes added, as per the customer's preference.

Klang is no doubt the centre of Bah Kut Teh. There are over 500 shops selling this popular dish, and on weekends folks from all over Klang Valley make a beeline to this port town for their weekly treat. Different people have different preferences - taste is very personal, so it is hard to say which shop serves the best Bah Kut Teh. A friend took me to Yeoh's Bah Kut Teh in Klang, a very popular but hard-to-find outlet as it is tucked away behind an old building and not in a normal shophouse. 

The Bah Kut Teh here is one of the best I have tried. The herbal taste is quite subtle, with the soy sauce more pronouced. There is a nice balance of saltiness and sweetness from the pork meat. They are also famous for their stewed pork knuckle. The skin has been removed, and the knuckle stewed in soy sauce till tender and full of flavour. Taken with rice and a chili and soy sauce dip, this bak kut teh is a real treat !

The obscure backlane leading to Yeoh's Bak Kut Teh.

The Bak Kut Teh.

Side order of pork ribs. You can also order other side dishes of offals, pork liver, kidney, etc.

The stewed pork knuckle.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Charn Kee Tasty Corner at Jalan Alor

Jalan Alor has become renowned as the "Food Street" in Kuala Lumpur. Located right in the city centre, running parallel to the popular Jalan Bukit Bintang, this short street is packed with coffee shops and restaurants serving Chinese dishes and hawker food. It is popular with the locals as well as visitors who have discovered this food haven. Busy during all times of the day, it really comes alive at night when the street hawkers open for business.

Visitors to Jalan Alor would no doubt have come across Charn Kee Tasty Corner, a coffee shop famous for it's noodle soup with fishballs. The fishballs here are really good, handmade and with just the right texture that is not too firm or too soft. The extra taste comes from some additional ingredients which I think includes a dried and roasted fish powder normally used by the Chinese to season soups. 

The most popular dish here is the claypot fishball noodle soup. They also serve "lum mee", tomyam seafood noodle, and Nonya curry noodle. For your first visit you should definitely try the claypot fishball noodle. The soup is really tasty - made with very good seafood stock, and filled with bits of seafood, fishballs and topped with bean sprouts and fried shallots. The Nonya curry noodle is also very good. The sauce is more soupy then the traditional Nonya curry, but is still very aromatic. You should get a side order of the special fishballs and dumplings. The fishballs are bigger then the ones served in the noodle soup, and really tasty.

The coffee shop from Jalan Alor, and the interior.

The claypot fishball noodle soup.

Nonya curry noodle.

The side order of special fishballs and dumplings.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Dinner at Sage

Ever since I heard about Sage, I've been wanting to try it. The resident chef at Sage is Takashi Kimura of Cilantro fame. Cilantro is often rated as one of the best fine dining restaurants in KL - serving Japanese influenced French cuisine, or is it the other way round ? It's been closed for nearly a year, undergoing some major renovations. Sage is it's sister restaurant at the Garden Residences - a brand new high end condominium at The Gardens Shopping Centre.

Having read up about Sage on several blogs, I kind of knew a bit about the food here. The emphasis is on sourcing the best and freshest ingredients from all over the world, and treating them with a light touch to bring out the best flavours. With a Japanese chef at the helm, this minimalist and perfectionist approach to food is to be expected.

For a good restaurant, the service is just as important as the food, and Sage has some of the best staff in a KL restaurant. They are elegant, efficient, and knowledgeable. Quite difficult to pull off in service-challenged KL.I went for the Set Dinner Menu - which is 5 courses for RM 180.00 nett without wine. Quite reasonable for a restaurant of this calibre.

The first course was an oyster shooter. The oyster was very fresh, one of the best I've had in KL.

The oyster was followed by a grilled Japanese Mackerel with rockets. Again, the freshness of the fish was incredible - the dish was so simple, and yet so satisfying.

The 3rd course was Seared Foie Gras with Tempura French Beans and Avocado. Words can't really describe this - down right best foie gras I've had. So decadent, the flavour was so good I didn't want it to finish. And paired perfectly with the tempura too.

The main course was a seafood risotto with king prawn and scallops. This was topped with some dried shrimps, giving the essentially Italian dish an Asian touch. Again, I was in flavour heaven - the risotto was so richly flavoured with the essence of prawns and seafood, every mouthful was shear delight. And the prawn and scallops were cooked to perfection - they were cooked through and yet remained just right. I believed they were cooked sous vide as the flavour was all retained in the flesh.

Dessert was a chocolate tart with mocha ice cream. Another perfectly executed delight.

Complimentary macaroons to finish off the meal.

Chef Kimura at the open kitchen.

This one of the best dinner experiences I've had in KL so far. Great ambience, good service and food that makes you hunger for more. No wonder it made Time Out KL's Top Fine Dining Restaurant List. Next visit, I will go for the tasting menu.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Lunch at Prime Steakhouse

If you want the best steak in Kuala Lumpur, chances are most KL foodies will point you to Prime which is located at Le Meridien Hotel. This is a premium steakhouse with a large selection of prime beef from all over the world. For wine lovers, they also have a largish wine collection.

The design of the restaurant is a mix of modern and old world opulence. It is quite warm and cosy, with a predominance of warm wood tones on the floor and ceiling. A good piece of steak could could easily set you back RM 200.00 here. I decided to go for the more affordable Prime Weekly Set Lunch - which is RM 85.00++ for 3 courses.

2 types of bread served before the main meal - with 3 types of butter. Nice.

The Appetizer was a "Rendang Style" slow braised Wagyu Beef Cheek with Potato Galette and Young Mango Slaw. Needless to say, the meat was extremely flavourful and tender after the "Rendang" treatment. The Young Mango Slaw gave the dish some added tanginess to cut through the richness and spice.

The main course was a Charcoal Grilled NZ Grass Fed Beef Medallion with Pearl Semolina and Beef Bacon Risotto Style, Wilted Greens and Porcini Sauce. The meat was sublimely tender - and had a gaminess which is quite different from grain fed beef, a bit unexpected but delicious just the same. The Pearl Semolina was also surprisingly tasty even tough it had beef bacon instead of real bacon.

For dessert I chose the Lemon Meringue Pie which was served with a Mango Yoghurt Ice Cream and Wild Berries Coulis. The meringue was more like a foam which had been slightly scorched. I would have preferred a more traditional meringue texture. The lemon tart was good though.

Coffee and cookies after dessert.


Prime has been included in Time Out KL's 2009 Best Fine Dining Restaurants List. The quality of the food speaks for itself, with prices to match. The Set Lunches are very good value though, and they do not skimp on the quality. Highly recommended for steak lovers.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Essence at Hotel Imperial

This is our third meal courtesy of the Starwood Privilege Membership. This time I did have to pay for it, but the damage was reduced by a RM 75 voucher, and 50% discount using the card. All in all a buffet dinner for 2 at a 5 star hotel for around RM 80.00, not a bad deal.

Essence is the coffee house at Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur. Imperial is an older 5 star hotel, but given a facelift recently. It is still one of the top hotels in town, but location wise not as convenient as the ones in Bukit Bintang. 

The look of Essence is modern Asian, with a strong colour palette. Red is used quite prominently, giving it a strong Oriental vibe. As with most modern coffee houses, the kitchen is visible from the dining area. Buffet lines are placed outside the show kitchen counters, with different stations for different types of cuisine.

The buffet dinner comes with a free flow of red or white wine, tea and coffee. The cooked dishes were all quite good, so was the cold deli section. One of the stand-outs was the chicken satay which was done to perfection. As in most hotel buffets, the highlight is usually the desserts , and Essence doesn't disappoint in this area. The dessert section is given it's own exclusive corner, with a beautiful spiral-shaped counter. All the desserts were done to a very high standard. The problem was knowing when to stop !

The spiral-shaped dessert counter.

Fresh oysters, prawns and other goodies.

Baked oysters, beef steak, salmon and baby octopus.

Nice desserts.

Eating in Kuala Lumpur - Eest at Westin KL

Another nice meal courtesy of Starwood Privilege Membership. This time it's Eest at Westin Hotel.

Eest is a "Pan-Asian" restaurant which brings together the cuisine from several Asian cultures including Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Malay flavours under one venue. The interior design is truly stunning - a modern interpretation of Asian elements which is done to a very high standard of finish. There is a main dining area next to the open kitchen, and private rooms at another side. Actually there are several open kitchens for preparation of different orders from the pan-Asian menu. 

The really beautiful interior.

We went for the Dum Sum Brunch which is served on Saturdays and Sundays. This is an "eat all you can" concept from the dim sum menu, which has quite a wide selection. As expected, the dim sum is not as good as at specialty dim sum restaurants. It's missing one of the key ingredients - pork, as this is a Halal establishment being in a hotel. Having said that, most of the items are really quite good. The pastry and fried items were generally more successful then the steamed items.

The complimentary starter was great- a selection of mini-items from all over Asia.

One of the highlights was the Chee Chiong Fun with black cod. These are flat rice noodles wrapped with black cod inside, served with a sweet soy sauce. The pieces of black cod were sweet and succulent, and the texture of the rice noodles were just right, not too soggy and still with a bit of firmness to the bite. Just great !

The sweets are definitely the star here. Clockwise from right - green tea mochi icecream; bubur cha cha - a sweet soupy dessert with coconut milk, chunks of sweet potato, yam, tapioca jelly and sago pearls (this one was just like what mum used to make); poached pears in sweet tea broth, and mango pudding. The mango pudding was so good we had to have seconds ! It was topped with a sweet cream and black olive tapenade. The slightly bitter olive balanced off the sweetness of the pudding perfectly. This was an unusual combination which really worked.

As an extra treat, we bumped into famous Aussie Chef Christine Manfield giving a special cooking demonstration to a group of lucky foodies. She looked exactly liked in her photographs - clean, sharp and efficient. Like a good kitchen knife !