KL, Nasi Ayam and little drizzles on a rainy day

It is Saturday afternoon, and KL is drenched as usual. It is something one gets used to, the unpredictable weather in the city. How the skies shift from sunny blues to raging storm and then to a gentle, mildewy patter in the span of an hour. Thus the need to carry the requisite umbrella all the time.

I have been here for more than three weeks but I am ashamed to report that aside from the touristy parts such as the Twin Towers and the relatively upscale mall underneath them, how I have not really explored KL. Well, it doesn’t help that it usually rains in the afternoon, especially on weekends. But still it’s pathetic considering how small KL is compared to say Manila or Makati.

When my bestfriend came for a one day visit on Easter Sunday, we went to the nearby Times Square Mall after hearing mass. The huge mall is, according to one proud KLer on the list of the 10 biggest malls in the world. Well, in my humble, slightly biased opinion, our own Mall of Asia trumps this mall nearly at every point. Times Square Mall is almost like Megamall, a big block with a good mix of upscale and midlevel brands but it feels as if, just like Megamall, no aesthetic touches were considered when it was built. It’s a functional mall but I’d still vote for the breezy promenades and the view of the sea at Mall of Asia.

One thing about Times Square Mall that made us giddy and excited is its indoor carnival with a pretty awesome looking rollercoaster. Pity, we weren’t able to try it for lack of time. But that is one pretty cool thing. It reminds me of the Lotte World indoor carnival in Seoul, which , for all my 14 months stay in Korea I too wasn’t able to visit. Aaaargh.

I am by nature, a very unathletic person. My version of getting fit are long walks, biking and taebo. But give me a ball or a racket and you’ll be either entertained or embarrassed at how klutzy I am with them. Which is terrible. Not that I didn’t try, I was a kickball player in grade school and I always could play volleyball, but somehow between college and now, I turned into a hopeless couch potato.

Which is why I love amusement park rides, specifically the death-defying, stomach turning roller coasters and freefall rides. They give me that much needed adrenaline rush that sports also provide. It’s a pain-free, short time and hassle free way to push yourself to your imagined limits.

Back to KL. When the BF came to visit a week ago, he roamed around the place while I was at work. When I checked on him he told me that he was at the mall at the back of my hotel. What mall? Near the subway station. Hmmm, I didn’t even know there was a subway station near the hotel hehe.

So today, all alone again, I walked to that mall to buy some groceries and to explore the place on my own. It’s a pretty small, neighborhood mall, a bit like the old Greenhills Shopping Center. It’s quaint, neighborly and very welcoming. And the goods, even the groceries, are cheaper than KLCC’s. I bought 7 plastic jars of Kaya Jam and a loaf of bread.

Kaya jam. That thick, coconut milk and sugar concoction that Malaysians and Singaporeans love to spread on their breakfast bread. I have discovered it and now like the natives eat it every single day. There are 2 common variants, the traditional brown kaya which is similar to our coconut jam in color. And the pandan infused green kaya which is of course redolent with the flavor of pandan. Kaya is sweet, but not as sugary as our coconut jam. It has an almost custardy feel to it. A velvet texture and thickness that reminds me of Dunkin Donuts’ boston crème filling.

I have not been too adventurous with Malaysian food. Theirs is a food that reflects the three races that make the country—Malay, Chinese and Indian. And while Chinese is my comfort food, I have tried only the Nasi Lemak, a Malay breakfast equivalent of our own rice breakfasts, it is made of rice, boiled egg, fried spicy dilis, a spicy red sauce which I assume to be a type of sambal, and a serving of cucumber strips to cool one down. It was, well, interesting, the taste a bit too fishy for me. But that is the challenge of discovering through eating, the chance to understand what flavor combination works for you (or not).

The cheap foods I love here though is the breakfast fare that I buy from a hawker stand in front of my office building. There’s dodol—a smooth rice cake brown in color similar to our maja blanca but made of rice flour, and sweet popiah—the Malaysian lumpia filled with sugared coconut strips with a slight aniseed flavor. There are also fried turnovers filled with curried potato, kaya flavored sweet buns and fried dough balls rolled in a mixture of grated coconut and sugar. They are cheap, sweet and a fulfilling breakfast meal.

But if you ask me what food makes me happy here. It is the simple fare of Nasi Ayam. Or Hainanese Chicken Rice. I first tried this in Bangkok a couple of years ago, and have not had the satisfaction of eating one again . Well, what do you know, Malaysia is a haven for chicken rice lovers like me. It is as almost as common as the kaya jam here.There is a stall at KLCC mall which I frequent almost daily for my lunch. The Nasi Ayam meal is made up of brown roasted chicken slices atop a rice that’s been boiled in chicken broth. The rice is so flavorful it makes me sigh. A brownish, almost watery sauce is scooped into the chicken rice. This comes with cucumber slices, a serving of red aromatic sambal, and free soup flavored with, you guessed it, chicken and spinach leaves. Ah what a delight to discover something so cheap (5 ringgit or approximately 65 pesos a serving) and delicious.

So that’s about it for KL. The sun’s shining again. And as I wait for a friend, I look out at the clear skies and think that even though it’s a little lonely here being alone and all. It’s not so bad after all. I know that, like the rain, everything comes and goes, including the small, unexpected , everyday surprises that make me ssigh and smile.