After two and a half years of blogging, I'm ashamed that it's taken this long to post about the place we eat out at most regularly. Kuala Lumpar Malaysian Restaurant (which we usually refer to as KL) has been our favourite place to dine at for many years as their delicious veg food won us over and still entices us back often. It's always worth the 10 minute car trip to the suburb of Carnegie which is bustling with so many other types of restaurants we simply cannot bring ourselves to try.
A variety of dishes have been sampled over the years although our order rarely changes from our favourites these days. The vegetarian Mee Goreng (ordered without egg) is a pile of stir-fried wheat based noodles with some onion, carrot, Asian greens and beanshoots. The sauce can vary in spiciness on a given night so if we are feeling like some extra heat we ask for it to be extra spicy and they never disappoint us. The man loves this dish and gets especially excited by the slightly charred noodles.
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Spicy salted tofu is adored by everyone who tries it, our extended family members also order it regularly too. The deep fried chunks of tofu are cooked in a salted batter with a subtle hint of Chinese 5 spice. The tofu is served on a bed of deep fried vermicelli noodles and topped with shallots, spring onions, chillies and lots of garlic. It's important to note that all of the tofu items on the menu use a homemade egg tofu by default which can be switched to a standard tofu upon request. Ask for the "white tofu" when placing your order as that's how they refer to it at KL.
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Last but not least is the Claypot mixed vegetables in a Malaysian curry sauce. The claypot is full to the brim of carrots, broccoli florets, snow peas, a mixture of Asian greens and occasionally some mushrooms. It is delivered to the table with a piping hot bubbling sauce which the claypot keeps warm for ages - we learnt the hard way to let it cool down a bit before diving in. The curry sauce is spiced with star anise, cloves, curry leaves, chilli and coconut milk amongst other things. The quantity of curry sauce and it's spiciness can vary on a given night, we love it when there is loads of sauce so we can finish our meals with extra curry sauce ladled over the remaining rice in our bowls.
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Some of the other meals we have sampled over the years are curry eggplant, mixed vegetables with garlic sauce, spinach with garlic sauce and other noodle dishes. A new dish called Nonya tofu was recently added to the specials board - we haven't ordered this yet but plan to in the near future. We were advised during a recent conversation with one of the owners that they are looking to expand the veg section of the menu as their vegetarian customers have been on the rise.
Kuala Lumpar has been in operation for many years and maintains a very good reputation amongst the locals. It's advisable to book a table for dining on Friday or Saturday night as the restaurant is generally very busy. The service is usually efficient and the food is always delicious.
123 Koornang Road, Carnegie
9563 6707
Open Tues-Sun for lunch and dinner
Veg main meals range from $13-$16
It is probably best that you didn't post this favourite place early in blogging - I find that the ones I did when starting blogging just didn't do justice to places I love. But you have sold this to me - I just wish it was a bit closer as it looks fantastic
ReplyDeleteThanks Johanna, that's a good way of looking at it. I've also been concerned about taking decent photos there with a camera phone as I never remember to bring my real camera and I did want to do the place justice. I wish a lot of places over your side of town were closer to me!
DeleteBTW - I have never heard of egg tofu before - is that common in Asian restaurants?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem to be very common (perhaps as it's usually housemade) and is usually stated on the menu as egg tofu (from my limited experience anyway).
DeleteLike Johanna, I'd never heard of egg tofu before either. That's a new one on me! This all looks so delicious! I am crazy about stir-fried noodles. If that's on a menu, it's tough for me to order anything else. That's great that their vegetarian customer base is on the rise, and so they're planning on adding more veg menu items!
ReplyDeleteI always love a good noodle dish too and was very happy to hear that they are attracting more veg customers.
DeleteOh, that claypot dish sounds divine :) This definitely looks like a place worth re-visiting, especially if they honour your spice requests (that sometimes seems far harder to get than you'd expect!). I have learnt the hard way about egg tofu - I can detect the difference instantly but it is always too late by then - so it's also good they can give you another option if you know to ask.
ReplyDeleteThe claypot is a personal favourite of mine as it is so full of vegetables and the curry sauce is so delicious. The texture of egg tofu is a bit different and the flavour is slightly richer than standard tofu, I only ate it before going vegan and have been vigilant about not eating it ever since!
DeleteNope, another person who's never heard of egg tofu. Good that they can switch it though - I could go for a big bowl of salty fried tofu at any point in the day! Noodles also calling to me now.. I could see what you'd keep going back there!
ReplyDeleteWe actually stopped ordering the tofu dish after going vegan and it wasn't until the owners asked us why we weren't ordering it any more that they offered us another tofu option. It was tough to go there and not eat salty fried tofu for a while!
DeleteThis looks really good. A Malaysian restaurant opened in Townsville last year. Andy and I went when his parents were up. It wasn't terribly vegan-friendly, but the things I could order were very delicious. If nothing else, it was a nice change from the standard Thai/Indian/Chinese that occupies the rest of Townsville!
ReplyDeleteThat's great there is a Malaysian restaurant in Townsville with vegan options for you. It is a lovely change from other restaurants that are more common.
DeleteUh, I totally recommend the vegos to try egg tofu sometime - it's always housemade, quite common (I know laksa king in Flemington does one too - huh, maybe it's specifically Malaysian).
ReplyDeleteI find it really hard to get great Malaysian food in Melbourne so I'm totally gonna trek out and sample these wares! Looks great! I'm jealous it's close to you.
I agree Steph - vegos should try out the egg tofu as it does have a great texture and flavour. From what I tried to find out about egg tofu, it's more common in Chinese and Japanese food but I've never seen it in the latter.
DeleteI hope it doesn't disappoint if you do make a trek out there (it's a short walk from Carnegie train station if you are on PT). Make sure you ask for things to be extra spicy if you want extra heat as I reckon they have been toning it down a little lately.
I loooove the look of that tofu! This looks like a terrific find, I struggle to identify veg-safe (let alone vegan-safe) Malaysian food and your tips are very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThe tofu is a must try! I think the local knowledge has helped a little bit - we started going here frequently in our early vegetarian days and knew what was in most of the dishes before we went vegan.
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