Chattering Kitchen

Rambling through the streets of Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, our stomachs were now begging to be satiated. The smells emanating from the Spanish Tapas bar, German Pubs and Iranian restaurants were inviting, yet not enough to excite our desire for adventure and discovery. The thrill was in unraveling the mysteries of South-East Asian cuisine, and simply doing what the locals would do. That meant looking for street hawkers bent over their sizzling woks, stir frying local delicacies for the hungry onlookers.

As we paid careful attention to the hoarding, we had reached the Heritage Food Village in Lot 10 Hutong. A narrow escalator took us to the basement and our imagination fooled us.

Tiny alleyways dotted with famous street stalls made up the entire blueprint of this food village. Talking to the first stall owner, he said that it was based on architecture of Old Beijing, where most neighborhoods and houses were linked by alleyways called hutongs. As a way of paying homage to old Chinese culture and heritage, this food village was designed to represent the Beijing of a bygone era.

25 street hawkers, who founded their stall on the corner of some street plating up for taxi drivers and workers, have now found themselves catering to a very different clientele. The grandchildren of those who would stand in the blistering heat cooking their family's best kept secret, are now operating from an air-conditioned environment, maintaining the same recipe and quality of food and ingredients.The oldest stall in this food village dates back to 1927.

It's a place where all your five senses will be tantalized; the sizzling sounds of egg noodles being stir fried in a wok, the spicy aroma of lemongrass, kaffir leaves and fish balls cooking in chicken broth, the sight of roasted duck being sliced up and tossed into gravy before being served, tingling your fingers as you pick up the hot bowl of soup and finally the taste of South East Asia on your lips with your first bite.