Fatty Friday

I went to Kajang for a meeting last Friday. Food lovers in Klang Valley should be familiar with Kajang's most famous delicacy, the Kajang Satay. Even though I have been to Kajang countless times for work purposes, this is, embarassingly, the first time I'm trying out this dish (I've ate Satay before, just not Kajang Satay).

A Satay is basically marinated grilled meat on a bamboo skewer. The meat can be either chicken, beef, mutton or fish. Usually the dish is served with sliced cucumbers, onions and a special peanut sauce for dipping.

Chicken and beef satays with sliced cucumbers.

Along with the special peanut sauce.


Peanut sauce for dipping.

As far as I can tell, there wasn't much difference between Kajang's Satays and the regular Satays you can buy elsewhere in KL. I have never, however, tasted fish Satay before so I might give it a spin next time I stop by the place. If there is anything different about Kajang Satay, I'd say it's the slightly more expensive price.

After having Kajang Satay for lunch, we decided we shouldn't stop there. So, for dinner we drove another hour and a half through heavy rain to Klang, the birthplace of the Bak Kut Teh.

Bak Kut Teh, literally translated as "meat bones soup" in Hokkien, is a popular dish among the Malaysian Chinese. It is a distintively Chinese fare that found its fame in Malaysia. It consists of fatty pork, spare ribs and pig internal organs eg. intestines and stomach linings, in thick, rich herbal soup.

Again, Bak Kut Teh stalls and restaurants can be found all over KL, but they are quite different from those found in Klang. For starters, most Bak Kut Teh in KL have more variety of ingredients, including mushrooms, vegetables, fried tofu and so on, whereas the Klang "originals" consists of only meat, organs and nothing else. The soup is also much thicker in the Klang version. You can also order vegetables as side dishes.

My main peeve with this food trip is that I had to pay more for less, after having suffered a difficult trip and spending a good half hour looking for the particular shop where we wanted to dine in.

meat, meat and more meat. Then there are the organs.

After another ardous trip back to KL, we returned to our trusty mamak stall to enjoy nasi lemak for supper.