Kuala Lumpur - Paradise and Nightmare

Kuala Lumpur is where I grew up and went to high school. From a small town on the confluence of two rivers it has emerged as a metropolis I could never have envisioned in my young days.

Its iconic Twin Towers is the symbol of how far it has come. This view is taken from the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, the surroundings of which are green and peaceful.

Where KLCC now stands used to be the Royal Selangor Turf Club and race course, surrounded by huge bungalows in enormous compounds with majestic Rain Trees, Yellow Flames and African Tulip trees along the roads, most of which have been chopped down to make way for wider roads. The grand old bungalows were demolished and high rises have sprouted in what is now known as the Golden Triangle. The perennial nightmare is the traffic jams caused by the thousands of vehicles clogging the roads at any time of day late into the night, worsened if there is rain. Flash floods are quite a common occurence these days whereas they were unheard of in the old days.

Kuala Lumpur is a food paradise where one can find all kinds of cuisine. You don't have to go to Italy or France to find good Italian or French fare. The local cuisine comprising food from the main ethnic groups in Malaysia are aplenty and these days the fad is fusion food although I much prefer the real authentic local food that is to be found in simple coffee shops and hawker stalls.

This is a noodle dish that has made its way into the newspapers and people travel from afar to come to this particular coffee shop to enjoy it. The coffee shop is along a typical side street and is run by an elderly man. You can have the noodle dry or in a soup. I prefer it dry and it comes with fried anchovies, some minced pork and a bull's eye ( fried egg with runny yolk ), accompanied with a small bowl of vegetable soup. The difference lies in the chili flakes that you shake into your noodles and mix everything thoroughly to get that unique flavor.

In Kuala Lumpur the durian is almost always available although it is a seasonal fruit. Its distinctive aroma will either have you salivating or running as far away as possible! The Musang King ( mau sang wong ) is most delicious, with its golden color flesh and small flat seed. This time the price has come down to as low as RM12 per kilo and the XO variety is obtainable at RM9 per kg. Needless to say I pigged out on durian, the king of fruit and my favorite. Durian is a fruit with thorns all over the shell and aficionados will pay to get sink their teeth into the soft creamy flesh which can range from the very sweet to almost bitter. My preference is for the latter.

The secret of getting rid of the smell left behind on your fingers is to hold the shell under running water and washing your hands in that water. It gets rid of any lingering smell. However if you do not wish to have sore throats, you need to drink water from the shell after you have eaten the fruit.
Kuala Lumpur is indeed more of a paradise for me as I love this city where I used to walk along its leafy avenues a long time ago.