A visit to Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown in Petaling Street is always worthwhile. The best way to explore the place is by walking. Here’s my record of the sights and sounds of Chinatown:
The thoroughfare along Petaling Street is a haven for bargain hunters who are looking for imitation branded bags, shoes, clothes, watches, and fashion accessories. The rule of the shopping game here is to haggle over the prices.
On the corner of Petaling Street and Jalan Sultan is Kwong Woh Tong, a chain store selling traditional Chinese herbal teas and the popular herbal jelly called Gui Ling Gao. The herbal teas come in two flavours, sweet and bitter. A bowl of the black Gui Ling Gao, which is made from a concoction of herbs and tortoise shell powder, costs between RM7.00 and RM8.00. It is usually served chilled with sugar syrup or honey to sweeten the taste. This black jelly is also reputed to be a detox and helps to relieve the body of its heat.
A stone’s throw from Kwong Woh Tong is the Purple Cane Tea Art Centre. This tea chain store sells mostly teas from China. The highest price tag is RM2,800 for a cake of ten-year-old Red Tea.. The store also sells teapots, reference books, tea drinking accessories, music, snacks, and hampers. If you want to learn the art of preparing and drinking Chinese tea, the store runs various training programs for adults and children. Purple Cane Tea Art Centre is at 11, Ground Floor, Jalan Sultan. (Tel: 603-20311877).
A short walk from the din of Petaling Street is the Old China Café, which occupies the premises of the seven-decade-old guild hall of the Selangor and Federal Territory Laundry Association. From the outside, you see the big bay windows of old.
Step inside, and you’ll be taken back to the past, with portraits of founding members and their descendants displayed on the walls. The shophouse still retains many of its original features such as the swing door and the back door with its wooden bolts.
The Cafe serves Nyonya food, a cuisine of the Peranakan or Straits Chinese, descendants of early Chinese-Malay intermarriages, whose culture is a fascinating hybrid of both traditions. Old China Café is at No.11 Jalan Balai Polis (Tel:603-20725015).
Catch the Putra LRT and get off at the Pasar Seni station.
