Megamalls

As far as shopping goes, I feel like a fish out of water. When I moved to Chicago many years ago, I had the same feeling. Then, I had been a non-meat eater, moving to the meat packing capital of the U.S. But I found my way and found some great food along the way. 


 In Malaysia, where there are more stores and megamalls (200-500 stores under one roof) than I can count and shopping is the country’s major past time, I have not yet found my comfort zone. I continue to look for likeminded individuals to participate in cultural events and I look for more modestly sized malls to do my shopping in.

Here are two megamalls in KL:

www.midvalleygardens.com.my 430 stores

www.suriaklcc.com.my ???stores, 6 floors of stores

KLCC

in front of KLCC and the Petronas twin towers

Fall

What does it mean to live in a place without seasons? Since we arrived in Malaysia in summer and it was hot, all was good in my world. But now that it is mid-October and there is no lessening of heat and no shortening of our days, I feel a little discombobulated especially since I love fall so much. It is the relief of cool days and nights after many days, weeks, and months of hot summer that refreshes and rejuvenates me. It is the pumpkin patch and the corn maze that energize me and remind me of all the falls past. It is PUMPKIN PIES!!! It is Halloween. It is preparing the garden for winter. It is making soups and stews and warming foods. It is fires in the hearth. And it is my birthday. 

Some of these things I will still be able to enjoy like pumpkin pies (now that I found some canned pumpkin ;)) and my birthday, of course! Pumpkin pie has always represented the fall as my birthday is at the end of October, just before Halloween. This year, pumpkin pie will be the entire representation of all the fall traditions I love as Halloween isn’t really celebrated here and neither corn (for corn stalks) nor pumpkins are grown here. I think I can do it ; ) By the way, a medium sized pumpkin here is $33!!! Guess I won’t be buying any pumpkins this year :( Enjoy your fall and have something pumpkiny for me ; ).

Below are some pumpkiny times from our past...

Steph's pumpkin

Madeline w/pumpkin vase

M at pumpkin patch/corn maze

the cutest pumpkin ever...

K, M, & G at the corn maze

the phantom and a mermaid

witch, wizard, and scare farmer...

And here are this year's fall pictures :

a coconut I found on the beach in Sarawak, Borneo, became my pumpkin this fall

Madeline's Halloween cat

steph's bday dinner at Laziz, a Mediterranean restaurant (yum!)

Kopitiam

A generation ago, when Malaysians still talked to most of their neighbors, they would often invite each other over for coffee and a chat. Today, Malaysians tend to have coffee at Kopitiams (Cafeterias) or in restaurants or coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Coffee at the local shops can be as cheap as RM 1(30 cents), but as expensive as RM 15 for a specialty coffee at Starbucks or the Coffee Bean. 

Malaysia has their own style of offering coffee. Below are a few of the most common coffee options.

Kopi  is the standard coffee and includes sugar and milk-often sweetened condensed milk is the additive.

Kopi-O is coffee without milk (sugar is still included).  

Kopi kosong (plain) is without sugar (milk is still included). 

Kopi-O-kaw is unsweetened black coffee. 

Kopi-C has unsweetened evaporated milk.

Kopi-peng will get you an iced Kopi (or you can order Ais Kopi).

You can also order Kopi panas (hot) or ais (iced).

You can also order tea (teh) the same way as coffee. It’s quite surprising that people aren’t fat here considering how much sugar they enjoy in their coffees.

My experiences as an expat in Malaysia is that every group you join has weekly or monthly coffees to socialize. In Mont' Kiara where I live, they congregate at the Coffee Bean where there is always a line out the door.

Kopi

Kopi (notice the condensed milk at the bottom)

Masjid Negara, the National Mosque

Joe and I visited Masjid Negara, the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. It is the main place of worship in KL for the Malay Muslim population. Muslims make up >60% of Malaysians, around 17 million people. This mosque can accommodate 15,000 people for prayer and welcomes non-Muslims at other times. There are many mosques around Malaysia and although you may not see a mosque nearby, you are likely to hear the call to prayer which happens 5 times a day from loud speakers at the top of towers at all mosques.

To visit a mosque, you must time your visit not to coincide with prayer time. We lucked out and entered the mosque just before the midday call to prayer. We left our shoes at the bottom of the stairs as requested and then I put the purple visitor's gown on. This gown is required clothing for all women (and men in shorts).  A tundung or hijab (headscarf) is also required apparel for all women. Fortunately, I had brought a head scarf with me so did not need to borrow one.

Below are some of the pictures of our visit:

prayer room

prayer room

steph in full muslim garb

donation container

National Mosque

visitors in purple

 muslim women & men eating separately 

mausoleum at mosque

Joe with muslim woman

Plants of Malaysia

I love tropical plants. I love the fragrances. I love the huge leaves. I love the palm trees.

On Thursday, Joe and I visited the Orchid and Hibiscus gardens in the Lake Gardens area of Kuala Lumpur. Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia and although both orchids and hibiscus are in bloom year round in this tropical climate, only the orchids were present in profusion. I was thrilled when I found a stall at the orchid garden selling potted orchids for RM 3 & 5 each ($1-1.60). Of course I had to buy 3 to put on our condo porch. They are easy to take care of as long as you know what to do. Orchids require filtered sun, high humidity, and weekly watering. Their planting material should be something very porous like coconut husks, bark, moss, or pebbles. I also learned that they like to be crowded in their pots. I am excited to be able to grow a plant that I wouldn’t normally grow at home. 

Here are some of the plants I am enjoying this year...

Hymenocalis caribaea (Carribean spiderlily)

ginger

Heliconia pendula

tropical fern

alocasia

my orchids

tropical foliage

frangipani (plumeria)

at the orchid garden

orchids at the orchid garden

orchids for sale

more orchids for sale

Joe captured a photo of this dragonfly at the hibiscus garden

Monkeys

What is it that is so fun and appealing about monkeys? They have such cute faces and jump around in such a clever way. And I guess we love them because they remind us of ourselves!

When the kids were little, we always referred to them as monkeys, probably because they enjoyed climbing so much. Madeline used to climb up our laundry pole. Gabriel always enjoyed climbing the walls inside the house until Joe saw him and told him to keep his grubby paws off the walls! The kids were also good at clinging like monkeys. For years, I found it difficult to walk anywhere without 1 or 2 kids grabbing onto my legs. Anyway, with all the monkeys hanging around here, I thought it would be good fun to do a blog on monkeys.

Here are some cute monkey pictures and a couple of cute monkey songs...

the monkey dance

upside down

macaque w/bananas

baby macaque w/juice box!

macaque w/flowers

Roti canai/Roti chana

Despite the fact that Malaysians love food, talk about food, and have food stalls all over the place, I haven’t found the food here any better than the food I love to eat at home. Don’t get me wrong, Malaysian food is tasty with all the varied spices that come from the Malay, Indian, and Chinese cultures. But I think I am less impressed with Malaysian foods because: I am a foodie, I have developed sophisticated tastes by eating at a wide variety of restaurants from around the world, and much of my food is fresh, organic, and locally produced. I have it better than most people around the world.      

One unexpected outcome related to food is that Joe and I have both lost some weight since coming here. I think it must be a combination of eating less because of the humidity and eating less ice cream and alcohol because they are so expensive ($10 for a pint of Haagen Daz and $14 for a 6 pack of Carlsburg beer). But interestingly, we are both eating much more meat (chicken, for the most part) which seems counterintuitive to losing weight!

Yesterday, after a good hour trekking up and down hills, a Malaysian friend took me to an Indian open air restaurant where she introduced me to one of the locals’ favorite, cheap snacks, roti canai. I fell in love. roti chana is an Indian flatbread that is fried in ghee (purified butter) and then covered in whatever variety of sauces you deem appetizing. At this restaurant, there was fish curry, dal, a yogurt mixture, and a couple of other spicy sauces. We also ordered Teh ginger, which is hot ginger tea with milk and sugar (the normal way of ordering). There is a trick to eating the roti to get the most bang for your buck! You pour the sauce on the bread and then use a spoon and fork (the normal eating implements used when not using fingers to eat) to eat the sauce and a little bit of the bread whereby you are able to keep pouring delicious sauces on the roti and eat to your heart’s content. Not only that, for 4 good sized pieces of bread and as much sauce as we desired plus 2 teas, the total was less than $3!!! Delicious and a bargain!!! What could be better for a bargain girl like me?!?

roti chana w/sauces & tea