Mini Siam - Mid Valley Megamall

I stumbled across this Thai fair called Mini Siam at Mid Valley Megamall which is on until 2 November, 2005. This group of Thai traders usually move from mall to mall setting up stalls to sell their food and Thai produced items. It has been quite a while since I have been to one so it was great fun to look at all the food plus browse through their items. I saw some beautiful woven baskets which I was tempted to get for keeping magazines and what nots. However I suspect if I get them, the cats will decide that it is fun to sleep in them instead!

There are two stalls at the far end of the fair selling cooked food with chairs and tables placed behind for people to eat their ordered food. The first stall(nearer to the massage stall) was doing brisk business. This caught my eye, the Thai Ice Cream which looked like an ice lolly made from popular carbonated drinks in multi-coloured hues. You can see how they freeze the ice lollies in a this metal contraption with ice cubes underneath the molds.



They had ready packed these deep fried tiny prawns which looked good and would go wonderfully with some Thai Laksa.



Then there was this creamy looking steamed fish cakes which we know as Otak-otak in banana leaf cups. There is a bit of coconut cream on top with a prawn and shreds of kaffir lime and chillies.



These are deep fried Thai fish cakes which is made from fresh fish, red curry paste and chopped coriander and lemon grass.



This was extremely popular, the noodles that quite a lot of people were ordering. They had stacked the different varieties of noodles; beehoon, yellow mee, laksa noodles, kuay teow in front for people to pick their own preference. You can also choose the seafood and vegetables you wish to add to your laksa. Once you have chosen, you hand over the bowl to the person behind the counter who will cook and ladle the soup into it.



This was the tomyam soup they had on boil in a huge rice cooker which they will add to your laksa items once they have been cooked. They kept pouring in the stock from another large rice cooker to top up the soup. Another large rice cooker had boiling water for them to cook the noodles in.



A very popular dessert, steamed tapioca. I am not a great fan of this so I am not sure if the liquid below is actually just the tapioca juices or a sugar syrup.



This is what I like, the mango glutinous rice. They had two varieties of rice, one white and one green which I suspect is just tinged with a bit of pandan extract. You can't really tell the difference. I ordered one to take away and it was yummy with a bit of coconut cream on top to accompany the rice and sliced mango.



The other stall was selling an exact replica of the food items in the first stall but they had something unusual which was pre-packed Mieng Kam, a kind of appetizer which is getting popular in Thai restaurants. You add chopped chillies, lime segments, toasted peanuts, ginger chunks, chopped onions, fried tiny prawns and toasted coconut on top of betel nut leaves and fold them to eat. A sweetish black sauce is also added into that concoction before you fold up your betel nut. This is one of my favourite street foods and I have fond memories of this old lady folding them into triangles poked in a bamboo skewer for sale in Chatuchak Market.



I chuckled a bit when I saw the mounds of grated green papaya and grated green mango that were for the som tam and mango kerabu as this was also my favourite. I ordered one portion to try at the stall and the lady pounded it up in her wooden pestle and mortar.



This was my som tam, that came in a huge mound of shredded green papaya, toasted peanuts, shredded chillies, sliced tomato, lime juice, fish sauce and tiny prawns. It was pretty fiery that brought tears to my eyes but I liked the taste. Unlike the one we tried in Songkhla Hawker, this one does not have a strong taste of fish sauce.



There was a stall selling all kinds of Thai food items including jars and jars of pickles.



They also had the Thai sauces and curry pastes for you to cook up a Thai meal at home. Besides these condiments, they had stacks of tomyam instant noodles for sale.



This three variety sweets are extremely popular in Thailand and you see them sold everywhere, the first one is a sesame seed candy, black sesame seed candy and the last one is peanut candy. You can also buy packets of just the sesame seed candy or black sesame seed candy.



Thailand is a great place to get cashew nuts and everytime we make a trip there, we will buy loads of them to bring back as they are cheaper than the ones we get in Malaysia. Something unusual that they were selling at this stall are these tom yam cashews.



They had sprinkled some black and white sesame seeds on these crackers. Usually the popular crackers are those sprinkled with pork floss.



You get quite a variety of durian desserts in Thailand and they have this durian cake and even durian sweets. Besides these items, you can also get a large selection of dried fruits including my favourites, dried longans. I will either eat them as a snack or boil them to make desserts.



This is pretty popular among Malaysians, the foot reflexology and thai massage stall. They also have private cubicles for the Thai massage. To be honest, I have not tried the reflexology before, I get a bit ticklish at my feet but from what I can see, they will add cream on your foot and put the cloth over your foot and massage it.



Hari Raya Festival in conjunction with Mini Siam 2005
Mid Valley Exhibition Centre
Level 3, Mid Valley Megamall

Kuala Lumpur