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Exploring night street food in Kuala Lumpur
Exploring night street food in Kuala Lumpur (KL) brings you to experience deeply the Southeast Asian culture in which street food is always an inseparable part that you should never miss out. A truly different feeling from normal indoor eating style, street markets offer visitors with interesting experiences in roadside gastronomy and a great opportunity to sample delicacies of the country. You may be busy during the daytime wandering at scenic landscapes of KL, but a trip to night street food markets in KL will help fulfill your experience in such a multicultural and dynamic city. Check out the most highlights of KL night street-food markets:
Related post: 6 places to enjoy Kuala Lumpur culinary style
1. Jalan Alor:
Jalan Alor is a unique food place in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. During the day, there are not many activities here, but when the night falls, the street becomes hustling and bustling with various activities. When walking down the street at night, you will see a long range of hawker stalls on both sidewalks. This is an ideal place for both locals and foreigners to visit and taste the unique dishes of Malaysia. There are plenty of delicious dishes for visitors to choose from so the advice for you is to bring your appetite. Actually, it is not enough to explore this food street in just one single trip. So if possible, let spend time visiting Jalan Alor at least twice.
Let see which food you are highly suggested to try out there:
If you are a fan of noodle or fried foods, let head to Wong ah Wah restaurant to taste its well-known roast pork dark noodle and chicken wings. Wong ah Wah restaurant locates at 16, Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant is open from 5:00 pm – 4:00 am daily and sometime is close on Mondays.
If you love original Chinese foods especially those from Sze Chuan province, let head to Kedai Makanan Dan Minuman TKS. The foods you should order here include fried lotus root (for those who can’t really eat spicy Sze Chuan food), fried dumpling, fine potato soup. The restaurant is open from 5:00 pm – 2:00 am. Kedai Minuman & Makanan TKS locates at 38, Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur.
The food coming next is chicken rice. Fragrant rice, silky smooth chicken skin and sauces all bring you a great flavor. The suggested place is Pin Chen Hainanese chicken rice located at Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur 50200 (next to Sangkaya Ice Cream). The restaurant is only open during the daytime from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, so it is great if you drop by to have lunch there.
Other foods should come on your list including curry noodle, fish head noodle, tom yum.
2. The Taman Connaught Night Market:
Another place to spend your night exploring night street food in Kuala Lumpur is the Taman Connaught Night Market. The market stretches for around 2 km and is known as the longest night market in Malaysia with about 700 stalls offering food, clothes, household goods and food.
Taman Connaught Night Market is well-known for its vast rows of Malaysian hawker stalls like curry noodles, laksa, satay, char kuey teow, ice cream, snacks, desserts. If you wish to look for Thai, Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese snacks, then this market is truly a right place. When in here, remember to try its famous chili drenched stinky tofu.
Taman Connaught Night Market is open from 5:30 pm until midnight. During the opening hours and especially at the peak hours from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, the market can be rather hot and humid because the stalls start cooking and they sit near to each other. So remember to wear light clothes and be careful of pickpocketing when in crowded places.
3. OUG Night Market:
Your trip to exploring night street food in Kuala Lumpur cannot miss out OUG night market. This night market is not as famous as the others but it is a more traditional one. OUG offers various Chinese ethnic cuisines varying from local Hakka to Hong Kong Cantonese.
Now are you ready to fill up your energy with OUG’s great offerings? When in here, remember to enjoy the local flavor of Asian bubble-tea concoction which is a perfect choice to fight the humid weather. Then, stop by some laksa stalls to see the biggest pot and the steamboat stall for some tom yum. Now, add some more yummy foods to your must-try list: fried Kuih Kak, Kai Dan Zhai (known as little egglets), Taiwan oyster mee sua, classic kuih from prawn crackers.
OUG night market is located at Taman OUG, 58200 Kuala Lumpur and is open from 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm on every Thursday only. If you want to have a good parking lot, come to the market early.
4. Sri Petaling Night Market:
What makes Sri Petaling night market different from other night markets is that, there are some small tables and chairs next to the food trucks and stalls where you can sit, take a short break and enjoy the scrumptious dishes before discovering the market further.
Now let take note some of the best foods when wandering around this night market.
Tofu bakar: this dish is served in a rojak style, tossed together with a kind of special spicy sauce from Penang, peanuts, chicken floss, cucumbers and crisps. Excitingly, the food somehow still keeps crispy flavor even when drenched with sauce.
Deep fried mushrooms: it is mixed with chili powder and served in huge chunks of batter. It is so tasty and healthy.
Deep fried glutinous rice cakes: it is a lump of sticky sweet rice which can sweeten your voice after enjoying the food.
Pork and leek fries: These pies are filled with pork mince and leek fillings to its brim. Then, they are grilled to a perfect golden brown color right in front of the customers.
Other foods you may try out are salted egg fried chicken, black stinky tofu, dimsum, char kuey teow, dragon beard candy. All are tasty and worth your money.
Sri Petaling night market is located at Jalan Radin Tengah, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur and is open from 5:00 pm until midnight every Tuesday.
5. TAPAK urban street dining:
Completing the list of exploring night street food in Kuala Lumpur is Tapak urban street dinning. If you want to see sound-like Western street food style, let drop by Tapak. Tapak serves street food in the modern form of food trucks. These food stalls have a wide and familiar kitchen shape offering restaurant-like menu yet remaining a roadside gastronomy quality.
When visiting Tapak, visitors can enjoy a variety of delicious yet affordable local and international dishes – varying from boxing chicken, Sarawak Kolok Mee, churros, tacos, roti john cheese to coconut shakes, mystic mangos, Frappuccinos and many more. There are nearly 40 trucks on their stock, each night witnesses a rotation of more than 10 food trucks offering plenty of choices for Tapak regular visitors.
Tapak is located at 2A, Persiaran Hampshire, Hampshire Park, 50450 Kuala Lumpur and is open every evening from 6:00 pm until midnight.
Now that we have shared with you a list of outstanding night markets in Kuala Lumpur where you can enjoy the delectable street foods and experience closely the nightlife of KL as well. Perhaps, it is time for you to head over Kuala Lumpur and start your night street food tour in this capital city.