ROTI CANAI JALAN TRANSFER - GEORGETOWN, PENANG, MALAYSIA

Roti Canai Jalan Transfer
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

This place is a superstar in the world of roti. People travel here just for this delicacy. Roti Canai Jalan Transfer is the most popular place for it too. They do a roaring trade from early breakfast through to lunch time when it shuts down till the next day. If you want it, get here early. Be prepared for the crowds though. We arrived late, a short while after it had closed, but they kindly served us some of their great food anyway!

The roti is made freshly and they go through so much. It is light, flaky and totally delicious. We would have been happy with this alone!

With each serving you also get a curry. We had chicken and we were each served a maryland (thigh and drumstick) swimming in a rich gravy. It was so good sitting there under cover but within a few feet of the edge of the road, eating this great food. There are metal tables and bench seats to use and the food simply takes over everything. It's so cheap too - our servings of chicken and roti were only $3 Australian each. Amazing! As lovers of great roti, we'll be back here for sure on our next visit. This is street food at its best. 

NEW LANE HAWKER CENTRE - PENANG, MALAYSIA

New Lane Hawker Centre
Penang, Malaysia

Penang is known as THE place for hawker food in Malaysia - and in fact one of the best places to eat in the entire Asian region.

We were visiting Penang and one of the top hawker destinations in Georgetown was around the Sunway Hotel - which was fortunately just down the road from where we were staying.

We strolled the short distance and saw a sea of tables along the edge of the road and heaps of stalls selling all types of local delicacies. The aroma was amazing - and it was packed too. The stalls were doing good trade but there weren't any real queues as the food was moving fast.

Mlady spied a stall selling durian. It's a local delicacy that is in extremely high demand. It's a strange fruit too. The fruit part inside looks cheese-like. The locals say it smells like gas and tastes like a sweet mixture of garlic and onion. Sounds weird doesn't it - but it actually tastes really good. It's something every visitor to Malaysia should try.

There are heaps of stalls selling freshly cooked satay sticks at the roads edge.

The cooks turn the sticks by hand as the flames fly up around them. It looks dangerous but they've clearly done this for years and don't ever seem to get burned.

You can get a very wide variety of meats as well - beef, boar etc - but by far the most common is chicken - which is what we decided to have.

The minimum quantity most places will sell you is 10 sticks for around 1 Ringgit each - so 10 costs around $4 Australian.

We grabbed 10 chicken sticks which were put on a plate with some side bits and then slathered in a ladle full of steaming satay sauce.






















Our next "course" was a familiar and old favourite - char koay teow.

Its a typical combination dish that's served as street food everywhere here.

Char koay teow is a mix of noodles, bean sprouts, meats and sauces that is cooked fresh in the pan in front of you here and served onto your plate to eat straight away.

This dish was probably one of the best char koay teow's we've ever had. It had great flavours and a lift from the slivers of Chinese sausage in the mix.

It also had some decent sized king prawns too and only cost 6 Ringgits - or around $2.40 Australian. Bargain!

Hawker food is a must try in Penang - it's one of the main things this area is famous for. The quality is fantastic and the tastes are even better. 

KLCC/PETRONAS - KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

KLCC/Petronas Towers
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Any visit to Kuala Lumpur would not be complete without a visit to the Petronas Twin Towers. Apart from the fact that you can't miss them, they are possibly the most iconic and famous buildings in the city. The towers are absolutely spectacular and a must see. There's also some great shopping downstairs too with 1.5 million square feet of retail space - yes - it's massive!
We took a look around and loved it. They have all the high end brands - Mlady was in shoppers heaven.















We were surprised to discover that the Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix was on the same day. Streets were blocked off and the rev heads were out in force. It was such a buzz with plenty of car stuff going on around it all and big crowds of excited people everywhere.





















There was also food everywhere. Downstairs there are so many different places to grab food or drinks. You'd never stave here. We sampled goodies from a few of the places.

We stopped for a coffee and a quick snack - yes another one - in Chinoz on the Park just inside the Petronas Building (one of them). The coffee here is good and the sweet chocolate tarts even better!

Mlady was even happier once she discovered there was a Harrods store inside. Yes - it's been here for six years too and has a decent range of all those Harrods branded things you love to grab when in their huge London store which we'd visited a few months previously. It was a chance for her to stock up a bit more again.