Kuala Lumpur Part 1

Taking A to Malaysia for a month was a exciting (and daunting) challenge. We had never been on an overseas trip together before and this trip would include a whirlwind month spent with my insane parents and completely insane extended family. A has two cousins. I've never even tried to count how many I have, I always lose count...Or forget how/if some are related to me. But a holiday is a holiday, and this particular holiday was one that I was in desperate need of after spending my last two holidays working part-time and completing my thesis.

There are really only two main things you can entertain yourself with in KL; eating and shopping. You wake up, eat, go shopping, eat, shop a bit more, go home and eat, go out and eat and shop and come home (and eat). The moment we stepped out of the airport, my parents whisked us off to Section 17 to pick up some takeaway satay, something that has become a bit of a tradition whenever I travel back. It was especially welcome this time because of my pathetic "special meal" on Malaysian Airlines. My allergy to nuts meant that my sandwhich came with nothing but two pieces of cucumber and a slice of tomato in it...I really wish I was making this up.

Our first day was spent shopping (surprise!) in 1 Utama, my happy place. This was followed by lunch at Oriental Cravings - Claypot Lou Shi Fun, Chee Cheong Fun and Prawn Mee. The claypot lou shi fun is one of my firm favourites - slippery "rat's tail" shaped noodles covered with a thick black sauce, fried with pork fat, pork mince and egg. The chee cheong fun is also surprisingly smooth and tasty.

Mum digging into the Claypot Lou Shi Fun, full of crispy, glistening pork fat mm mmm

Dinner that night was at the food court of one of the newer shopping centres in town, Pavillion. The food court there was shiny and new, full of stalls selling food from a variety of countries. My choice was the char kway teow which came cutely presented in a little bambo basket. The noodles had that lovely burnt wok flavour that is essential to a good char kway, with plenty of bean sprouts, chilli and cockles throughout the dish. The sang har mee and chicken rice were also pretty good, the sang mee a little on the bland side maybe.

Although all of us were about ready to explode from the amount of food we had consumed, my Mum insisted on getting us an ice kacang to share, but this turned out to be pretty awesome. There's just something about corn and ice that go so well together. And everyone I talk to about this in Sydney looks at me like I've sprouted another head.