Food

Even prior to leaving Sri Lanka, we were excited to go to Kuala Lumpur for the food. When we were supposed to be writing final reports for our project, Jen and I would send links of Malaysian food blogs back and forth, and we had 20 different restaurants that we “just had to try”!. These foodie blogs had a ton of pictures and in depth descriptions of flavors and textures that we could almost eat the food off of the computer screen. Here are a couple of our favorites as an appetizer:

A Whiff of Lemongrass
Kampung Boy City Gal

In honor of these Malaysian foodies, I’m going to write my first food entry of this blog.

Rain Nudle House
Pavilion KL – Food Court

Located in the massive food court of the Pavilion mall, the sleek modern décor and downtempo music at Rain Nudle House allows you to escape the overwhelming commercialism of the mall, and enjoy all the incredible flavors of Thai cooking. Slipping into the comfortable, white leather wrapped booth, I was impressed by the variety of ways that the repetition of vertical lines had been used to symbolize the rain. There was a wall of raindrop Perrier bottles, a cascade of bamboo stalks dividing the lounge and restaurant, and the requisite picture of the Thai King.

While the décor was strikingly modern, the food was traditional Thai…exactly what we had been looking for after a year of rice and curry. We ordered some of our classic favorites and couldn’t have been happier when the waitress brought out the steaming pot of Tom Yam Kung. The hot pot was literally overflowing with jumbo river prawns, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, lemongrass, chilies, and all manner of other goodies. The flavor was just as moving with the perfect blend of sour and spiciness.

Next they brought out the Mango Salad with Deep Fried Catfish. The Mango Salad was a mix of shredded green mango, shallots, carrots, and chili peppers, sprinkled with peanuts and topped with a lime and fishsauce dressing. The flavors and texture worked well together, but I would have actually liked the dressing to be a little spicier. The Deep Fried Catfish was not what we were expecting at all. We had assumed that the salad would have small pieces of catfish mixed into the salad, but instead it was served on the side and resembled more of a crispy cracker than anything else. It was relatively flavorless, but it had a nice crunch and actually worked well if you scooped a little salad on it and used it as a chip.

As a main course we had Pad Kha Prao, Chili Chicken with Basil leaves and white jasmine rice. This is one of my favorite Thai dishes and a lot of Thai restaurants screw it up in the US by overloading it with onions or other fillers. Thankfully, the chef at Rain Nudle House did not disappoint, delivering us a dish with a sweet sauce, tender chicken, lots of spicy chilies, and a healthly amount of Thai basil. It was incredible, and between us we wiped the plate perfectly clean.

Even though we were both stuffed after all of this food, no Thai meal is truly complete without some fresh Mango and Sticky Rice. We shared a small portion this delectable dessert and came away completely satisfied. We'd recommend RainNudleHouse to anyone.

One of the many delights of Sri Lanka is the fresh bread. Occasionally they burn the top of the bread, but if you get to the bakery right after the bread comes out of the oven you get to pick which loafs you would like. This event occurs every night at about seven. If you want something like a hamburger bun you need to wait until 8. A loaf of bread is 35 rupees which is about 30 cents. The oven looks like a massive pizza oven so Dan is considering making a real American style pepperoni pizza and seeing if they would cook it for us. I believe the health inspectors do not come by very often so it shouldn't be an issue.