June 4th, 2010

Kuala Lumpur - Day Three - Afternoon

After our exhilarating visit to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, we walked through The Islamic Arts Museum,  which houses more than seven thousand artifacts, as well as an exceptional library of Islamic-art books.  While we weren’t permitted to take photographs inside, you can find out more about the collection here.  The next stop was lunch and as we drove through the city, we admired the beautiful architecture.  Our destination was the Restaurant Fresh Unique Seafood.   This fantastic place offers more than 100 varieties of live seafood imported from all around the world.  The walls are lined with dozens of aquariums where all the seafood is kept until it’s chosen for preparation.  Then it was off to the Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation, a center for the traditional crafts of the country.  The staff here works very hard to keep tradition alive and helps tremendously with small entrepreneurial home industry around the country.  They also maintain a very high quality level.  Please enjoy these photos taken on day three in the afternoon!

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1 This is the exterior of the Islamic Art Museum, which houses a vast collection.

2 Parts of the building have beautiful tile designs.

3 Here I am with Adline binti Abdul Ghani, the lovely curator of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.

4 The Kuala Lumpur Railway Station is a great example of neo-Moorish architecture designed by Arthur Benison Hubback.

5 A very efficient monorail circles the city.

6 More beautiful old artichecture in Kuala Lumpur

7 Photographing from a moving vehicle sometimes results in very interesting pictures.

8 You can see in this photo the beautiful weather, however, I will remind you that the temperature was in the low 100-degrees.

9 On the motor cycle is Abu Bakar, our outrider, provided by the Ministry of Tourism. He made sure we got to our appointments on time. Riding behind him, we saw the 'parting of the Red Sea of traffic' in front of us.

10 After the Islamic Museum, we had a wonderful and authentic lunch at the Restaurant Fresh Unique Seafood. http://www.unique-seafood.com.my/res-23.html

11 We were all happy about this sign!

12 Inside Fresh Unique Seafood - the lunch is certainly fresh! There are dozens of tanks filled with live fish, clams, lobster, crabs, and more.

13 We tried a dish made with these razor clams.

14 Each tank is labeled in English and Chinese - 48 Malaysian Ringgits (RM) is about $15.

15 We liked the huge fish sculptures hanging from the ceiling.

16 So many types of crab! We sampled many crab dishes too, guided by Adly of the Fried Chillies blog. http://friedchillies.com/

17 Giant mud crabs from Tasmania are used in the many chili crab recipes.

18 We loved the cherry stone clams cooked scallions.

19 And prawns (shrimp) were prepared with a sweet, tangy sauce.

20 A few tanks had a variety of inhabitants.

21 I wanted a serving of clams on the half shell with cocktail sauce at this point, but they are not on the menu.

22 We did not know what these fish are - we did not order them.

23 There were also many varieties of lobster, such as this one, costing $100 US for 2.2 lbs!

24 These clams, the geoduck, I always leave unordered. I just cannot bring myself to consider them a delicacy.

25 We loved the dumplings - both steamed and fried - they were tender and well-filled.

26 The dumplings are made in great quantities and cooked in bamboo steamers

27 Wooden clothespins are used to attach table orders to the steamers.

28 Ordering dumplings was a communal effort.

29 There is one chef who chops the fresh chilies for all the dishes using a cleaver and a wooden cutting board.

30 We wondered why his hands were not on fire!

31 This lady is opening big bags of sprouted mung beans for the dishes.

32 Part of the restaurant was under construction, but that did not keep diners from enjoying the fare.

33 The chili prawns were really good.

34 Bowls of condiments on a lazy Susan

35 Fried prawns with 1,000-year-old duck eggs and butter

36 Steamed fish with soy and coriander

37 Clams with curry leaf, fermented black beans, and lettuce

38 Adly and his co-worker, Honey, had a great time eating with us.

39 Egg yolk custard tarts are eaten anytime during the meal. Often sweets are introduced before the savory courses are completed.

40 The razor clams, which tasted really good, were removed from the shells and served atop them.

41 Jori, Zach Pelaccio's partner, ate and ate and ate along with Zach, who owns the Fatty Crab restaurants in NYC.

42 Zach and Jori are very serious food addicts - they studied every dish and its components.

43 Our support team loved eating in the same restaurant right near us.

44 These shrimp dumplings were very good.

45 This is another version of crab fried with egg.

46 This was a very odd dish that tasted exactly like mac and cheese. However, it was snails and cheese!

47 Again, my favorite dish was the Chinese broccoli and the very finely chiffonaded leaves, which were fried.

48 Our favorite crab dish here was crab with scallion and honey pepper.

49 And another version of chili crab

50 Adly and I were discussing the virtues of Malaysian cuisine.

51 This is a cute photo of Adly and me.

52 Fried dough was a very weird addition to the meal, but common according to Adly and Zack.

53 Pork dumplings with hot soup inside

54 Chili dumplings

55 Sticky rice steamed inside a pandan leaf - this was very good.

56 After lunch, we visited the Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation, http://www.malaysiancraft.com/index.cfm a center for the traditional crafts of the country. The staff greeted us on the steps - the lady in white is the director - Datuk Zakiah Ahmad

57 There were many baskets for sale from all over Malaysia.

58 I wanted these sleeves for ice cold glasses.

59 The mannequins were all draped exquisitely in the traditional cotton and silk batiks.

60 Brass is a popular material for serving pieces.

61 A wonderful tea was served to us at the center.

62 A platter of fresh fruits

63 The rambutans, mangosteens, and longans were so good!

64 And tapioca sweets

65 Tea sandwiches, too!

66 Cornish pasties were the inspiration for these delicious curry puffs.

67 Here I am with the staff again.

Posted on June 4th, 2010 in Friends, Photo Gallery, Travel | Permalink |

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