TacoCat’s Travels #216 (KL-Genting): A Trendy Gastronomic Adventure! 😋

August 2023 · 11 min read · Kuala Lumpur

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last post, I started sharing about our first time venturing up into the mountains of Malaysia, specifically to Genting Highlands! It's a an integrated resort development perched on the peak of Gunung Ulu Kali at 1,800 meters high. I've heard about it a lot but never actually been, and it's been a long time since Sean last went there with his family so he was excited to show me around.

Source: klpropertynavi

Genting is about an hour away from Kuala Lumpur but obviously we had to go to KL first, so last week we started our journey by flying to KL and meeting up with a friend there!

We had a nice brunch in Changi Airport before arriving in KL where we went to chill in the mall while waiting for check-in time at the hotel.

After we had a nice lunch at the food court we made our way back to Don Don Donki to buy some snacks! Donki is our favourite variety store in Japan and now they have many other stores in Southeast Asia as well. It is still a little pricey here of course but at least we have more options too.

While this Donki didn't have its own food court like the ones we have in Singapore, there was a very appetising aroma coming from outside the shop as there was a stand outside that was selling snacks like these Wagyu beef skewers!

They also had plenty of other snacks like this yuzu soft serve that also looked really good:

And a number of drinks and desserts as well.

They also had these Japanese sweet potatoes that were roasting and they smelled so good too!

Since this little food stand was called Sweet Potato Factory, we decided to give it a try. Sean also ordered a banana Hokkaido milkshake.

I think the sweet potato might've been a little overrated. The texture of the sweet potato was a little mushier than I expected, and for me it was way too sweet. I know it's called sweet potato and all, but I have had other sweet potatoes before and it was not as sweet as this. We could barely finish this because of how sweet it was.

Tbf the banana milk didn't help either since that was also sweet. But after that I was in dire need of something savoury to even out the sweetness so we decided to get a wagyu beef skewer too. It was being grilled right in front of us it was so hard to resist!

While it might not have been grilled as much as we would've liked, the meat was super tender and juicy! There was also some salt and pepper on it and it was so savoury it definitely helped to neutralise the sweetness for sure.

There were a few other food trucks here as well, some giving out free coffee as part of a promotional campaign. For all the times I've been to KL this was new to me since I don't think I've been to the city center before.

The hotel we were staying in for the night was called WOLO and it was right across the street from Lot 10, the mall we were just in.

It looked like a modern fancy hotel, and they even have a Starbucks Reserve right connected to the lobby.

The lobby area is quite small but understandable since it's a city hotel and the building itself isn't that wide.

We waited patiently for our keys and collected our bags from concierge before heading up to our room. There was a nice art piece embedded into the wall in the lobby that I thought was like one of those interactive exhibits at the Science Center where you could turn the dials but it's just for show.

The lift lobby was nice and cozy as well with some lighting that reminded me of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

It was a pretty nice and spacious room actually. We got the twin room but the beds were basically queen.

There was a sink in the room right beside the TV with some open hangers I guess as a wardrobe.

In the other corner of the room was a little minibar with a coffee machine.

At the entrance of the room was a little aisle where the toilet and shower was on either side.

Everything looked really nice and clean and modern with either marble or gold fittings.

From our room we saw the street we just walked across from the mall.

Overall it was a very nice room and Sean managed to get a good deal on it too so it was less than half what you'd normally pay for it.

We hung out for a bit in the room and settled in before taking off to go check out an event that Sean's company was hosting here in KL. Thankfully he didn't actually have to work that day since we were only here in KL for the 1 day. But since we didn't have any other plans we thought we'd check it out as a sign of support.

Our friend graciously offered to drive us there again, and we started making our way to this exhibit area that was a little out of the main city center.

We ended up in some depot area that definitely does not look like anywhere in Singapore. The pebbly roads here are very obviously Malaysian.

We had to go through this empty warehouse and were questioning whether we were in the right area before we found it!

The event is called Passport to Feast and I guess it's to promote Singaporean food here in KL. Although it's a hot debate that Malaysia has better food than Singapore (and tbf it is more affordable) I guess this event is to show otherwise? On top of attracting Malaysians and tourists here to come visit Singapore of course.

There was a little photo booth near the entrance and we thought we'd take a picture here to commemorate the trip.

I think the whole gimmick about this photobooth was the background was supposed to show different areas of Singapore but the staff told us it kept coming up with the same one every time for some reason. Either way, it was a good keepsake nonetheless.

The whole space was pretty nice actually and even though it was outdoors it was thankfully not too warm.

It did seem like a hipster up-scale place instead of a local hawker center like we were expecting. I guess since Singapore and Malaysia hawker centers are quite similar there would be no point in promoting that.

The stalls here did seem to focus on special fusion food and other modern twists on traditional local dishes. This bar for example had drinks based on classic soya beancurd, alcoholic thai tea and a soft drink based on Bandung (a popular rose syrup drink here in SG and MY).

This stall that had Lobster Kueh Pie Tee (a traditional Peranakan dish normally with Chinese turnips, vegetables and prawns) and even Asian Fish Ceviche.

It definitely felt like a very hipster food court with all these unique food offerings and even this industrial style setting. And we were surprised to find all the different types of people here checking out the event as well.

There was even a stall selling tacos! But not just any tacos; they had Thai beef salad tacos, crispy rendang tacos and even ayak buah keluak (a traditional Peranakan chicken curry dish with tamarind gravy and buah keluak nuts).

This stall had some saba fish sandwiches, grilled tofu with peanut chili, char siu tuna and even a pandan donut!

There were so many different stalls and quite a lot of seats around. I'm not sure what the max capacity was but thankfully it wasn't too crowded since it was the first day of the event and it was after peak lunch hours.

There were also some famous stalls like this one called the Bao Guys which I remember reading about in the news.

There were so many stalls selling different things, but most of them weren't full meals and seemed more like snacks. They were pretty pricey though.

Overall, it was a pretty nice and chill place to hang out. But there was quite a crowd at this section of the warehouse for some reason.

There was even a live music area where there were more bars around. There was an acoustic performance going on at the time but it was quite loud so we chose somewhere quieter to sit.

After we chose a nice spot to sit, the guys went to look and see what interesting dishes they wanted to try. Sean came back with the pandan donut from the the stall called Laut.

It wasn't like a regular donut with the hole in the middle but it was like a jelly donut but with pandan cream in the middle, a lavender coconut glaze on top and garnished with cacao nibs and sea salt.

It was actually really good! The donut was light and fluffy and while the glaze was a little sweet it's still not as sweet as the sweet potato from Donki. While I'm not a big fan of creamy stuff, I also really liked the pandan cream!

From the same stall, Sean also bought the Tofu "sumbat" which is based on sotong sumbat - a traditional Malay dish where the squid is basted constantly with a sweet and spicy coconut sauce while it is grilled over a charcoal flame.

But instead of sotong, they use tofu and topped with a mountain of shredded vegetables and bonito flakes. I'm not sure if the tofu is grilled here but it did have a nice crisp to it.

The peanut sauce that came with it had a nice sweet and spicy kick as well and was really tasty!

Our friend Dean wanted to try some pasta from one of the stalls that specialised in handmade pasta.

This one was also really good! The pasta was nicely cooked al dente and the mushroom sauce that came with it wasn't too overpowering. The texture of the noodles was good too and definitely tasted better than the store-bought ones we make at home.

There was this middle eastern stall with the huge kebab rotating at the back that was too tempting so we decided to try it too.

The aroma of the kebab meat was too strong we just had to try it.

Instead of a wrap it came in a bowl topped with lots of veggies and sauce. It'd been a while since we had kebab meat and it was so tasty!

After that we were pretty satisfied since we also ate lunch beforehand so after we sat for a bit we made our way back.

We were also kinda tired from being up almost all night since we had to catch the early flight. So our friend drove us back as it got into the evening.

There was a little bit of traffic as we got back to the city center where our hotel was, unfortunately.

We bade our friend goodbye and thanked him for driving us around today before heading in for the night.

But first, since Sean and I shared lunch and also the snacks I wasn't completely full yet and wanted to get sushi from Donki since it's also cheaper here compared to Singapore.

So I enjoyed my favourite aburi salmon sushi in bed after taking a nice shower.

It was a very comfortable night stay in WOLO hotel and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting KL for sure. Both for the room and the accessibility.