Hawker restaurants in Asia
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Jln Alor
KL's biggest collection of roadside restaurants sprawls along Jln Alor, just north of Jln Bukit Bintang. From around 17:00 till late every evening, the street transforms into a continuous open-air restaurant, with hundreds of plastic tables and chairs and rival caterers shouting out to passers-by to drum up business.
Most places serve alcohol and you can sample pretty much every Malay Chinese dish imaginable, from grilled fish and satay to kai-lan (Chinese greens) in oyster sauce and fried noodles with frogs' legs. The best way to experience the food street is to stroll along looking at the signs and the dishes on the tables to see what takes your fancy.
Stalls to look out…
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Maxwell Road Hawker Centre
One of Chinatown’s iconic hawker centres, Maxwell Rd is best viewed at lunchtime, when it’s heaving with people, though that might not be the best time to be a foreigner wandering bewildered among the hundreds of stalls. Its most famous resident is the Tian Tian chicken rice stall (No 10).
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Old Airport Rd Food Centre
One of the great things about eating in Singapore is that the most unappealing-looking places often house the most revered hawkers. This hidden nook boasts Matter Rd Seafood (sign is famously misspelled, but famous for white-pepper crab), Toa Payoh Rojak and much beloved fried Hokkien prawn noodle.
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Lau Pa Sat
Steamed dim sum, chilli crab and sizzling satay under a magnificent wrought-iron structure.
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Kampung Baru Hawker Stalls
Saturday evening is the best time to eat in Kampung Baru, when dozens of hawker stalls set up around Jalan Raja Muda Musa for the weekly pasar malam, which rolls through till early Sunday morning. You can find all sorts of Malay specialities here, from ikan panggang (grilled skate) to rojak (spicy fruit-and-vegetable salad), and the night market positively crackles with energy.
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Street Food
Indulging in Solo's Street Food should on be everyone's list of things to do. Roaming hawkers pack the streets at night advertising their wares by screeching, striking buffalo bells or clattering cutlery. Of the plethora of dishes on offer, try nasi gudeg (unripe jackfruit served with rice, chicken and spices), nasi liwet (a local speciality incorporating rice cooked in coconut milk and eaten with a host of side dishes) or srabi (mini rice puddings served on a crispy pancake with banana, jackfruit or chocolate topping).
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Hawker Stalls in Chinatown
Chinatown has some of the best street food in KL. From late afternoon the pavements along Jln Sultan and Jln Tun HS Lee fill with plastic chairs and tables, and mobile kitchens are set up in the street, serving an astonishing array of Malay and Chinese dishes. Many of the food stalls stay open till midnight or later and you can get a filling meal of rice and spicy stir-fried beef with a cold beer for as little as around RM20.
Everything is prepared fresh so the food is almost always safe to eat, but stick to stalls with lots of customers.
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Food Stalls at Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman
The best time to visit Little India is during the Saturday pasar malam on Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the alley between Jln TAR and Jln Masjid India. From mid-afternoon, this narrow lane becomes crammed with food stalls serving excellent Malaysian Indian food, as well as favourite dishes of the Chinese and Indian communities.
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Jln Raja Muda Musa
Jln Raja Muda Musa is lined with hawker-style restaurants serving excellent Malay food to hordes of hungry city workers.
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Night Stalls
Some of the cheapest and tastiest dishes in town can be found at the night stalls that emerge at dusk on streets running off Th Sisavangvong where the night market takes place. The main congregation is one street north of Th Kitsarat, where you can dine on a whole barbequed pig's head, superb vegetarian dishes and noodles, and just about everything in between. There's even a 'vegan' stall.
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Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa
KL has dozens of intriguing, off-the-beaten-track places to eat - our favourite is the permanent hawker court at Pudu Market, known locally as Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa. This congregation of cooks sprawls beneath a gigantic tin roof behind the wet and dry market. The pavilion is as big as an aircraft hangar - fans on the ceiling whir ineffectually, failing almost completely to drive away the tropical fug. Nevertheless, as the sun sets, this is the place to be.
The hundred or so plastic tables and chairs fill suddenly with locals ordering big bottles of ice-cold Tiger beer and bags of Chinese marinated sunflower seeds. Waitresses in matching T-shirts fight their way through t…
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Home Restaurants
One place to taste true Uzbek cooking is in an Old Town home restaurant. These establishments have no signs or shop fronts - just tables in a courtyard, where you're served one or two simple dishes, plus tea or beer.
One such neighbourhood, called Chigatay, contains dozens of these establishments. Boys practically drag you off the street for the midday and evening (after 19:00) meals. From Tinchlik metro, walk to the closest traffic signal on the main street, Beruni prospekti, and turn right into Akademik Sadikov kochasi. Most of the home restaurants are between five and 10 minutes walk along (or just off) this street. Look to pay about sum3000 per dish.
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Dungan
You'll find Dungan snacks such as ashlyanfu (meatless, cold, gelatine noodles in a vinegary sauce) in the Al-Tilek Bazaar for only a few som. It can be quite spicy so watch the red stuff. The best Dungan food is of course in Dungan homes, where a slap-up meal may have eight to 10 courses (Dungan weddings can have up to 30 courses). Yak Tours can arrange a good Dungan feast if you can get a group together.
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Holland Village Market & Food Centre
Probably the only hawker centre in Singapore that has a signboard outside describing the local dishes and the etiquette of ordering – but then, this is Expat Central. Strangely, despite the dramatically lower prices, most foreigners seem to steer clear of the place, which is a mistake, because all the classics are here, from BBQ seafood to Katong laksa to fried kway teow.
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Zelyony Bazar
Stalls at this large central market are piled with nuts, fresh and dried fruit, smoked fish, vegetables and enormous hunks of fresh meat. You can get kumys (fermented mare's milk) and shubat (fermented camel's milk) here too. Cafés overlooking the action will serve you a bowl of laghman, tea and bread for less than around T300.
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Jea Corner
This tiny stall is literally the only place in Belaga still serving food after 6pm. It serves up a small variety of decent Malaysian rice-based dishes. The friendly proprietor, Albert, will probably find you before you find him. He has a wealth of information about the surrounding area and its people and culture – just don’t get him started on politics!
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Pashtun Eateries
For quick eats, there are dozens of Pashtun eateries along GT Rd, particularly near the bus station and around Nishat Chowk. Fill up on chicken, kebabs, curries and dhal for a few rupees, washed down with juice from a nearby drinks stand. Seasonal fruit vendors are everywhere, especially trying to out-shout one another at Green Chowk.
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Zhongxing Shenyang Commercial Building
Inside the Zhongxing Shenyang Commercial Building, near the south train station, there's a decent supermarket on the 2nd floor. At the Carrefour Supermarket (Jiālèfú; Beizhan Lu), near the long-distance bus station, you can pack a picnic for your travels or grab a quick bite from the food court.
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Riverfront Satay Stalls
This collection of satay and drink vendors right on the riverfront offer one of life's great combinations: satay and fresh coconut juice. This is a great place to watch the sunset - when the colours really start working, why not jump into a waiting water taxi and enjoy the view from sea level?
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Eng Seng Coffeeshop
The definitive Singapore dish – black-pepper crab – is so good here that locals are 1) willing to queue over an hour to order and 2) be rudely told how many crabs they can order by the proprietress. The sticky honeylike peppery sauce makes it worth arriving at 4.30pm for an early dinner.
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Gluttons Bay
Selected by the Makansutra food guide, this bayside collection of the best hawkers (or street-food masters, as they call them) is a great place to start your exploration of the island’s food culture. Everyone has their own favourites – we like the BBQ seafood stall.
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Newton Food Court
Serving Chinese food in the main hall and Halal at the back, Newton Food Court, just west of the Mahkota Parade shopping complex, is Melaka’s newest and most attractive hawker centre. It’s under an immense thatched roof and is bordered by palms.
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Fish Night Stalls
Fish is the dish in Tarakan. Stalls mushroom nightly, particularly on Jln Sudirman, many serving excellent ikan (or ayam) lalapan, grilled or fried. One of the best is about 500m north of THM Plaza, just beyond the Barito Timur Hotel.
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Seafood Warungs - Mega Mall
Hidden behind the massive Mega Mall on Jl Piere Tendean is an excellent stretch of seafood warungs that kicks off every night. The price, variety and sunsets are unbeatable. Not all serve alcohol, so shop around if you are in the market for a drink with dinner.
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Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre
It’s hard to believe that everything prepared at this spotless place at the base of a backstreet apartment block is vegetarian, but it’s true. The char kway teow (broad noodles fried in chilli and black-bean sauce) is highly recommended.
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