Text 8842, 65 rader
Skriven 2014-01-17 22:28:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 73
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Kuala Lumpur has undergone this huge transformation
- it started around when I was first there, and the boom
has been continuous and amazing since. Lots of extremely
fancy hotels, new shopping malls for the daughters and
sons of the rich and famous, all sorts of stuff. There
are two fairly new fancy hotels next door to each other,
one a Hilton and one a Meridien; they're accessible by
the same door (which as with many Asian hotels is not
on the ground floor but on 4). As Lilli is a Sheraton
person and I'm Hilton, this is perfect, we can have one
night at one chain and the next at the other and rinse
and repeat, getting stay credits toward status, which
comes with worthwhile perks.

The hotels are exteriorly exact mirror images of each
other and interiorly have, shall we say, more in common
than not. I think the bathroom sink hardware may be
nicer at the Hilton, that's about it. The places are
owned by the same outfit, which must have saved money
by using the same building plans for both. From a
distance, the sight of two behemoths, one with a big
H on it and the other a big LM, is quite amusing.

-

Anyway, Hilton food: I had a dish that was perhaps
unique to that property: it was on the face of it a
quite ordinary bowl of chili con carne, with frijoles,
agreeably spicy, an example of the internationalization
of tastes; it could have been in Austin for all I could
tell. The only notable thing was an intense, and I mean
intense, ring of fire afterward - I'd give a bit to know
what kind of peppers were being used. Another exemplary
Hilton dish: chicken satay, available in white meat for
Lilli and thigh, with saus prik. Truly excellent, the
chicken having a wonderful balance of ginger, galanga,
and lemon grass. I was pleased.

Meridien dishes included beef and mutton rendang,
available on different days; rather soupy and a bit too
sweet but of good intensity of flavor. Also an Indian
chicken curry that was the hottest chicken dish I have
ever tasted. These were on the breakfast buffet, which
I accompanied Lilli to just from politeness and to watch
her eat omelet and toast and bacon but ended up actually
enjoying parts of. One thing that appeared once that I
put off tasting - tomato strudel.

-

Today's special: vegetable biryani that smelled so
strongly of pumpkin that I didn't dare put it in my
mouth.

Eating in hotels isn't my first choice, but I can get
more or less what I want, and Lilli can get what she
wants pretty exactly, though sometimes at a cost. The
chili, for example, was not an included item (the satay
was) and was charged up at a whopping US5.50. On the
other hand a 7-oz burger with the works was 32.50. Lilli
points out that adding cheese and bacon brings it up to
$39. No burgers for us in this city.
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