The street food landscape of Kuala Lumpur is eclectic to say the least, with the street food Jalan Tuanku scene really epitomizing this.
What makes it so unique? Pretty much because unlike “tourist” street food areas in KL Jalan Tuanku is much more rustic local dining.
What the Jalan Tuanku?
Located about 15 minutes drive from Chinatown, as well as 30 minutes walk or so from the Petronas Towers this area has a greta location without being too touristy.
There are though a bunch of hotels in Jalan Tuanku, which includes not one, but two Hilton Garden Inn’s. Alas these are two pretty bad Hilton’s.
The other main draw here is the second hand/thrift market where t-shirts and the like could be gotten for just a few USD.
Street Food Jalan Tuanku
Having not eaten following my red eye flight I headed out to see what if any were the dining options in Jalan Tuanku. Largely this featured truly Malay style restaurants, as well as a plethora if slushily more random places.
This included a Syrian restaurant, which while it looked good would have been overkill after my recent trip to Rojava, as well as the fact that I have done many a Syrian tour.
Slightly less random though was an Indian Restaurant, namely Delhi Delhi Jalan Tuanku. I may give this its own article, nut this was light years the worst Indian food that I have ever had.
Satay Padang
What was to save the day food wise though was a swish little restaurant called Satay Padang. What drew me here was quite simply the word satay, yet while this is extremely popular the world over, what we like is different to what most eat in Malaysia.
Before embarking on the satay we also went for a real local variant, which was a bunch of already cooked dishes such as fried chicken, beef lover and a whole heap of other stuff that you have with rice. Really Asian cafe style, but decent enough to warrant the busy nature of the place.
The satay here though was like nothing I have ever tried. The meat, which was “only” chicken came as is the classic style, but it was covered with a rich gravy like tomato and peanut sauce. Unlike the tourist version of satay this was much more flavorsome and indeed “weird”.
Underneath this, or rather accompanying it was some very glutinous rice cake like dishes. This was the first time I have sampled satay like this and I have to say it overall worked pretty well.
Street Food Jalan Tuanku – Durian
Unless you have beeb living under a rock, or are merely ignorant about food then you should know that the Malaysians truly love a bit of stinky durian. I will explain durian more later.
Opposite our hotel was a place selling Cendol Pulut Durian. Now I will give this fabulous establishment its own article, but for all intents this is like a local version of halo halo whereby ice, cream, jellies and pother bots are combined with durian (among other fruits).
This much like the durian and sugar cane hybrid I found in Hue was frankly a revelation and the perfect end to my Street Food Jalan Tuanku escapades….