Ramadan Bazaar 2009 @ Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur

1. the huge crowd of people, 2. kebabs are kept hot under a steamer

This year's Kampung Baru stalls seem a little larger and a bit more organised. It's definitely a big improvement compared to Taman Melawati's bazaar where they try to cramp too many stalls in one area, making walking around difficult.

deep fried crabs on a stick

Weirdly enough, we seem to be having great weather this year with sunshine throughout the bazaar (last year it rained every day). However, too much of sunshine, wasn't too good for picture taking though, leaving loads of shadows everywhere.

loads more deep fried items - cockles, quail eggs and fishcake

What's new this year? It's weird how each year, the different bazaars seem to have a trend. This particular bazaar more famous for bubur lambuk, seems to not be selling any or have sold out them long ago before we arrived. All we saw were empty pots and pans at stalls selling bubur lambuk.

the not so satisfying pulut durian

Instead, what they had was bubur sum sum - a kind of rice flour pudding flavoured with gula melaka syrup. More popular in Indonesia, almost every stall was selling plastic cups of this - in black, green and white layers, whereby the green part is the pandan flavoured and black is the gula melaka syrup. We bought some to try and its pretty nice to eat but somehow, it would taste better with a stronger gula melaka syrup. It's great for breaking fast, since it reminds me of comfort food with its soft texture.

one of my fav Raya snacks - buah rotan with sesame seeds

The other trend were fried items. Usually stalls will just sell a variety of fishballs, cuttlefish balls, nuggets and etc. This year, they seem to have upped the selection - giving you crabs, prawns of various sizes, cockles and even quail eggs.

sweet kuih cara and roti jala, lacy pancakes to eat with curry

The deep fried crabs and prawns looked mighty tempting though - all stuck on skewers making it easy to eat. Masks weren't so pre-dominant here compared to Taman Melawati, even though one enterprising fella was selling them on the sidewalk.

bubur sum sum found everywhere

As usual, bazaars are great places to bump into fellow foodies aka Adly from Fried Chillies. He was describing to me some far flung bazaars, that sounded so tempting, we'll reserve it for the weekend, when we have more time to explore.


multi-coloured kuih and agar-agar

Whenever we drop by here, one must be prepared to walk, a very long stretch since the bazaar straddles two parts - nearer towards the LRT station and the Raja Bot area, moving towards Chow Kit. We usually park around CT Garden/CT Roses and walk the whole area, slowly.

mask up

Tourists can take the Kampung Baru LRT stop, walk out and be greeted with loads of stalls - like the sweet broth stall where you get loads of selections with sago, nangka, bananas, tapioca and etc. Walk a little further down and you will get fluffy nasi briyani with rich tasting lamb briyani.

pound up some som tam

Usually Kampung Baru shows, more of an Indonesian influence with the migrant workers, but I was a little surprised, they had this lady making som tam, on the spot. Nice to have some refreshing and spicy papaya salad.

salted eggs galore for nasi kerabu

Murtabak Pak Din seemed to be super crowded, loads of people queuing up for that, since it fills the tummy well. The Kelantanese stall along the Jalan Raja Bot area was also open and packed with people taking home nasi dagang and dishes to eat with it.

kids everywhere

I'm partial to pulut durian - the sticky glutinous rice with a durian flavoured sauce. Saw one stall selling that, which I had to buy. Didn't quite satisfy the cravings though as the sauce was so watered down.

sugarcane juice to quench yr thirst

What else did I spy? Rendang Tok being sold at the stalls - quite a rarity to find the Perak specialty. Looked good - dark and very dry.

variety of rice available at the Kelantanese stall

For more on the previous bazaars in Kampung Baru, you can click on the 2008 link that leads to the other years. More pictures of this year's bazaar, is found in my Flickr set.