Malaysian cuisine was influenced by different ethnic groups and it consists of many cooking traditions. Locally grown vegetable produce is available year-round as Malaysia is a tropical country and does not have four seasons. So it’s easy to find food stalls filled with vegetables on streets if you are a plant-based eater.
We shared our experience that usually it’s hard to find good and nutritious food for us on the journey. But Malaysian capital left a different impression.
Street food
After our first evening walk at the main night market street (of course, most of the street food places open at night in Asia) we were surprised by the big variety of vegetables we found.
We filled our plate with as many different vegetables and mushrooms as we found and waited our place get it boiled in a pot. It was a super healthy find for us, because usually in Asia we got fried veggies in a big pan with plenty of oil. Of course it was before our trip to Bali, where you can find different food.
When you veggies are done you get very spicy spices to put on it or many different from sweet to sour sauces to season it. By the way in some places you can boil your veggies yourself and in other places sellers to it for you.
It’s also good to buy fresh coconut water to wash off that spiciness if you’re not a big fan of it. We loved being able to drink fresh coconuts while we traveled in Asia!
You should know you’ll also find many street stalls that don’t sell anything for veggie lovers or even vegetarians. So always be caution and ask if you’re not sure what you can get.
Fruits
Not all findings are always good. Some will leave you with an amazement and other things will make you wonder why did you take that bite.
Eisve’s first bite of fried banana didn’t look good. But apparently it was good and you don’t have to trust her look. it was just really unusual: oily, fried banana covered with pastry! You can find this kind of dessert in Thailand as well, either in Chiang Mai or Bangkok.
You always have an option to eat a durian, while you can find it on any street. No wonder, the name durian actually derives from the Malaysian word which means thorn as it’s really spiky. But Justinas had a bad impression about it and he didn’t want to try it.
Rambutans are the best snack on the go! Remember I told you we found a Rambutan plantation in Bali? Since then we feel we can eat as many rambutans as it fills to our tummies. And while we travel in Asia we always try to carry few of them in our bags.
One of our the most favourite fruit was red dragon fruit. It tastes…I have no words to describe that goodness, just look at the picture.
Lebanese Kitchen
When we travel we always search Happy Cow for the inspiration to find restaurants to eat and this one was our best find so far. It’s called Arabesque and it’s a Lebanese cuisine restaurant owned by real Lebanese! The food is first class and the staff and owner are super friendly. After we found this restaurant we went there every day till we left Kuala Lumpur and we would go there if we came back.
The restaurant is on the busiest street – Petaling, but inside you don’t feel it at all and you won’t hear the noise of loud sellers. You’ll be taken by a peaceful atmosphere and nice music.
We tried every vegan meal they had on their menu. Although we didn’t photograph all of them. From the top to the right you can see Foul, Muhammara and Hummus. I’ll shortly explain what it is as it was very uncommon for both of us and we haven’t heard most of their dishes before.
Foul – fava beans mixed with tomato and parsley, topped with lemon, garlic and olive oil.
Muhammara – burghul with red pepper paste, chilli pepper and tahini sauce, topped with olive oil and walnuts.
Hummus is pretty common, but in case you don’t know it’s made of chickpeas pure, garlic, lemon juice, spices and topped with olive oil.
In the second picture you can see falafel platter and I probably don’t need to explain this one.
For the dessert we had some kind of cupcakes with tahini and chocolate sauce, topped with sesame seeds. Oh my goodness it was delicious and they change desserts every day!
This restaurant was a true discovery for us, because in our hometown first Indian restaurants opened maybe few year ago. So we try all intriguing flavours when we travel and we didn’t expect to try Lebanese cuisine. And you know what, now we want to go to Lebanon!
Small reminder, remember to take your reusable water bottle with you whenever you go out! It will save the planet 😉
All words by Eisve Treciakauskaite and all images by Justinas Lekavicius, unless otherwise noted.
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