I found myself at Central Market in KL a couple weeks ago in search of a particular little gift, and as it was quite a while since I last did any street shoots, I bought my trusted little Canon DSLR with.
central market
The last time I went to there must have been over ten years ago. In my memory, I always associated the place with the likes of Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City, or a very scaled down version of Chatuchak in Bangkok, full of traders offering all sorts of touristy and artsy merchandise in a crammed, hot, and very sweaty environment.
picking an altar
As it turned out, to my surprise, Central Market is fully air conditioned! While there are still many stores selling anything from religious statues, post cards, photo frames, art works, jewelries, cloths, 101 types of souvenirs, you can also find Old Town and a couple restaurants and food court within the main building.
guardian buddha
Note the giraffe statue right next to the wooden Buddha on the picture above. Cheesie bought them all the way from Bali while we have them right here in the heart of KL. I have a feeling these things are probably made in China anyway.
windless wind chimes
In addition to plastic and rotan sepak takraw balls (which hurts like a bitch if you try to do a header), wind chimes seem to be a popular item around here though there isn’t any wind at all inside the building.
snoozing artist
The annex at the back of the main building houses quite a few local artists, some with very impressive looking masterpieces. For a small fee, you can commission a painting of yourself in pencil, water color, or even oil. Business wasn’t exactly brisk on that Sunday morning though.
catching a breather
The street to the right of Central Market is cordoned off for pedestrian access only. Hawkers and street artists have taken up this space to offer anything from cold drinks to barely bearable music.
grabbing a bite
I took a breather at the side of the building with a can of chilled Coke, looking at the hawker arranging her keropok lekur, and wonder how this place will look like in another 10 years.
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Celebrate Like A Champion
This portion is to help me hopefully win some MU tickets and a jersey woohoo! (from TGB’s entry)
Ahhh, after a hard day’s work on the field, ze Champion gets a bit of a rest!
Today is the 9th day of Chinese New Year, traditionally the day Hokkien people worships Jade Emperor of Heaven “Tian Kung” (天公). I did hear quite a bit of fireworks as midnight struck even though the government has imposed a complete ban on such celebration.
The pictures I am posting here are of “Tian Hou Temple”, a place that might not be related at all to today’s occasion. But anyhow…
Pagoda with 8 sided roof
We went to the temple for some photography a week before Chinese New Year hoping to get some shots of the beautifully lit decorative lanterns, but luck was not on our side as it seems that conservation of electricity was the priority of the night. I only managed about a dozen different shots before the temple closed at around 10:30pm.
3-tiered roof with guardian dragons
You can read more about this place at Thean Hou Temple wiki entry.
pillar
You can find a few more pictures in my flickr set.
Happy Deepavali (or Diwali) to my Hindu friends.
I took the opportunity of the holiday to go down to KL and snap me some pictures. These shots were taken around Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, near the Maju Junction. The Canon 400D and Tamron SP90 were the gear used in this excursion, I was trying to see the effect of using a basically macro/portrait lens for streets photography.
anticipation
An old man anticipating the arrival of his bus as cars and bikes passes him in the reflection.
rejected
specks of gold
the spiral
In the older part of the city, you can find remnants of architecture from the bygone era. Do we still have dedicated fire escape routes in shop houses these days?
where do you want to go today?
There are a few more of these at my flickr set
So since today is a Friday (meaning 2 hour lunch) and I was thinking of something spicy, together with Nicholas decided to pick up the nuffie Skyler for some Pan Mee in the city. Ordinarily, we would have gone to the famous Kin Kin Pan Mee, but I decided to give Restaurant Super Kitchen just across the road a chance to prove their worth since Kin Kin is always too packed, and I was never too good at tolerating horrible service anyway. Give the underdogs a chance, shouldn’t we?
a much more hygienic setting, with air conditioning too
We ordered the dried Pan Mee, and instead of having to wait for over half an hour in hot and sweaty condition, the food came within a few minutes. Minced pork, anchovies, poached egg, pretty much the same thing you get from their more famous counterpart. One of the most annoying thing about Kin Kin besides the owner’s attitude, is the fact that the soup always lag behind the noodle by at least 3-5 minutes. Over here, everything is served at the same time, perfect.
the chili is just as good and the pan mee very well made
Of course, the most important part is the taste of the food. After all, many of us might place good food above everything else. I find that the Pan Mee at Super Kitchen, if you can shrug off the psychological effect of this place offering “imitation food”, it is actually pretty good! I believe that a person who has never heard of Kin Kin would probably prefer this place especially if you take everything else (price, service, and ambiance) into consideration.
Nicholas is feeling the heat, over sized forehead sweating like mad
Another thing to note about this place is the choices of drinks you get to choose. While the opposite restaurant only serves a few choices of canned drinks and over sweetened herbal tea, you get much wider choices, just like an ordinary coffee shop. After discovering this place, I think I’m not going to have to put up with the famous Kin Kin again, the food is pretty much just as good, and the service with a smile won me over.
Restaurant Super Kitchen is just right opposite Kin Kin Pan Mee
Address:
Jalan Dewan Sultan Sulaiman 1,
off Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.161031, 101.698272
I have always thought that the roti bakar at PJ state was one of the bests I have had, until one of my clients bought me to the food court at KLCC to order the same thing there. Since then, this little stall at the 2nd floor food court became my favorite place for breakfast.
a satisfying breakfast for two
Like the version in PJ state, thicker version of bread is used; but instead of charcoal (which wouldn’t be allowed in an air conditioned environment), the bread is heated with electrical toaster instead. However, instead of having kaya and butter spread on each piece of the toast, this place have both pieces with kaya, and then put a thick slice of frozen butter in between.
The frozen butter combined with the hot bread and the sweetness of kaya makes a perfect combination. The taste of butter blending with kaya and bread; the texture of frozen butter contrasting strongly with soft kaya spread and the crispy toast; and even the differences temperature between the ingredients combined to a very satisfying bite.
ahhh.. thick frozen butter
The toast goes best with a cup of hot coffee and some half boiled egg. As each food court rental costs somewhere around RM 18,000 per month, the food doesn’t come very cheap. Each item is slightly more than RM 2. It makes a slightly expensive breakfast, but I simply couldn’t resist this stuff, just so good. I think I’m going to the 2nd floor food court at KLCC again tomorrow.
GPS: 3.157581, 101.712102
