During my trip to Kuala Lumpur, I managed to visit many interesting places, including Alor Food Street and an area called Chinatown. While preparing the text for articles about these attractions, I realized that there wasn’t much to write about each of them separately, so I decided to combine the stories about these locations into one text, since they share one common feature: many travelers come here to try unusual Asian cuisine.
Jalan Alor Food Street
Jalan Alor is a great place to fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Asian markets and discover something new. Food stalls, cafés, and restaurants are located not only along the street itself but occupy an entire block. The food outlets look different: around Jalan Alor, you can find international chain restaurants as well as areas with small stalls right in the open air. In reviews of this area, some travelers note the good quality of food and reasonable prices, while others complain about the monotony of the dishes and the crowds.
Travelers can try seafood and meat dishes, desserts, fruits, soups, skewers with various ingredients. In my opinion, for a popular tourist spot, the prices here are not high. Even in small street cafés, international bank cards are accepted.
During my walk, I decided to experiment and ordered deep-fried frog. The dish was prepared right before my eyes, its cost was 40 ringgit, plus another 3 ringgit I paid for a bottle of water.
Jalan Alor is located just a five-minute walk from Bukit Bintang monorail station.
Chinatown
Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur can hardly be called a gastronomic attraction of the city, but still, I remember that eateries could be found here practically at every step.
Travelers coming here are probably interested not only in food but also in the architectural landmarks of the district. For example, the Sri Mahamariamman Temple is located here, although I did not manage to get inside. To enter the temple grounds, you had to take off your shoes and leave them with the old man at the entrance, which cost 20 sen. The amount was quite small, but it could only be paid in cash, and I never withdrew money during this trip, as international bank cards are accepted everywhere in Kuala Lumpur. The old man did not allow me to leave my shoes outside and refused to let me into the temple, and I didn’t feel like looking for an ATM just for that. Nevertheless, no one prevented me from taking a few photos of the temple façade from outside.
Sri Mahamariamman was founded in 1873 as a private temple for the family of a local businessman. A few years later, the temple was moved here to its current location, and later a new building was constructed for it. In the 1920s, the complex was opened to the public.
As for food, here, just like on Jalan Alor, there are plenty of eateries of various formats. I went a couple of times to a place called Chef Ma Mee Tarik. The meat with wood ear mushrooms cost 28.8 ringgit, while fried rice with egg was 13.8 ringgit.
According to online maps, Chinatown covers quite a large area. I got here by metro and exited at Pasar Seni station, from which it takes about three minutes to reach the Sri Mahamariamman Temple. The walking distance from Chinatown to Jalan Alor is about half an hour.
My next article about Kuala Lumpur will be dedicated to the colorful Hindu temples of the city.
Happy travels!
