Hawker Safari

We would love to tell you about the amazing adventures that we have had in the jungles of Borneo or diving off of eastern Sabah, but we did not budget enough time in Malaysia to travel to these exotic destinations. We definitely have a touch of regret in this, but alas it is impossible to see everything. If we ever come back to this part of the world we would certainly like to see these places. Instead, our time in Singapore and Malaysia has consisted primarily of eating lots of delicious food, something we are not going to complain too much about. Both countries are known for their excellent and numerous marketplaces and food hawker stalls that line the streets. If you’ve ever traveled through SE Asia, then you know that these are the places to get delicious, authentic, and CHEAP food. It’s a traveler’s paradise. The marketplaces and food hawker stalls are generally easy to find (except when there is construction happening and the entire marketplace is moved to a temporary location). Just follow the crowd of people walking at night, or alternatively, follow the scents wafting down the street. Seriously, it’s that easy. At the local marketplaces, you can pretty much find anything you want. Fresh fish or meat? They’ve got it. Just make sure to rinse the fish and other meat juices off your feet before getting into bed later that night. Vegetables? They’re just past the fresh fish. Fruit? Look right next to the vegetables. Clothes? They’re at the other (and less smelly) end of the market. Hungry? Select from any number of food stalls selling anything from roti to chicken biryani to soup and noodles to Hainanese chicken and rice to dim sum. Between the produce and clothes areas. Thirsty? Check out the stalls selling fresh sugar cane juice or coconut milk straight out of the coconut. Need a little dessert? There’s usually a wide selection of freshly-sliced fruits, tropical or not, to choose from. Like we said, there’s pretty much anything and everything at the marketplaces.

Food hawker stalls on the other hand, generally do not open until 5 or 6pm and last until midnight or later. We’re not talking about those little pushcarts of food, like hot-dog stands… Some of these stalls are full-fledged restaurants that expand past the quasi-sidewalks (read: if there is a sidewalk) and into the street. What is usually a three-lane street during the day becomes a congested one-lane clog of pedestrians and cars at night. Every stall seems to have an appointed “go-getter” calling out to each and every person walking by, offering menus full of food and cold beer: “Hello buddy...fish, noodle, beer...you eat here?” As you walk down the street, you can smell meat and fish grilling, garlic and chilies being stir-fried, and the occasional whiff of durian overpowering it all. Choosing a stall can be problematic. With so many stalls offering up grilled fish and meats, noodle dishes, and vegetables stir-fried with garlic, how do you choose just one? Which one offers the best food? Just take Andy’s advice -- simply plonk yourself down at the most crowded stall. And make sure that the crowd is filled with locals while you’re at it. If you find yourself at a stall serving beer, pretzels, and schnitzel (and you’re not in Germany or other neighboring country) get up and find another stall.

Beware however, as marketplaces and food hawker stalls are not for everyone. If the occasional scurrying cockroach, rat, or insect bothers you (yes, we have seen them all, the rat at least, was dead in an ally and not next to our stall), consider dining elsewhere. There are plenty of food courts that serve up (almost) equally delicious foods at only a slightly higher price. But for some (and us on some nights), having a non-plastic chair that is visibly clean, a fork or other utensil, and no worry of whether you will later regret the ice in your drink is a must. If that’s you, by all means, head to the food courts and save yourself a lot of stress. Singapore and Malaysia have so far been fantastic for eating…and not just eating, but eating quite healthily. There’s never a shortage of fruit and vegetables (the main staples in Katherine’s diet…we won’t mention the chips and chocolate), and there’s a wide selection of seafood to choose from. So far, we’ve eaten fish cooked four different ways and a chili crab, with much more surely to come (hopefully by the end of our trip we won’t come back with mercury poisoning ala Jeremy Piven).


It is impossible to convey how good the food is here and how hard it is too choose a place that serves food below expectation. Perhaps the best meal we have had was at one of the grungier looking hawker stands in Kuala Lumpur. We choose to eat there simply because one of the managers remembered us walking by the day before and had let us take pictures of some of the fish that they were cooking up. The dish is below, some kind of steamed tilapia with a spicy thai-like curry sauce and fresh vegetables. Before and after photos are included to show the damage that we did to this fish. Not pictured was a large plate of garlic vegetables, two beers, a diet coke, and two plates of rice, all for the very economical price of about $12.

On our first night in Kuala Lumpur, Andy ordered his meal by pointing at a picture in the menu of some kind of grilled fish covered in chili sauce and wrapped in a banana leaf. The fish was amazingly good, but was kind of strange in appearance. The meat was firm in texture, sort of like chicken, and the bones were large, again like a chicken. The head was hard to figure out, the mouth seemed to be enormous and it had huge eyes. When we asked one of employees what this fish was, he said it was a “chicken fish.” We walked around and found an uncooked “chicken fish” and it still looked strange. We went home and googled chicken fish, but the only thing that came up was essentially an identical picture of the dish that we had just eaten. Here is the fish below, if anyone knows what kind of fish this is please let us know. We suggest grilling it in a banana leaf and covering it in chili sauce.

kl & aa.