Looking for culinary gem in Sungai Way New Village
January 14, 2015 | 12,025 viewsThis article was originally published in The Malay Mail Online. Read it HERE.
Right smack in the heart of commercialization, fairly strategic in terms of location yet somewhat removed from the cold, lifeless brick and mortar businesses and an extensive colony of residential homes, is this new village (kampong baru in Bahasa Malaysia) named Sungai Way in Selangor.
When I first wandered around the neighbourhood, it surprised me that this area still exists within the realms of Petaling Jaya, wedged between areas marked for development. The atmosphere is entirely different from its more commercialized counterparts; relatively chaotic with narrow lanes suited for one-way traffic, single storey houses built almost within arm’s length of one another (a tad exaggerated, but you get the picture) and the multitude of foreign workers happily strolling across the labyrinths of Sungai Way all decked in generic uniforms past 5pm every day.
I would not have thought of coming here for a food hunt, despite the overwhelming curiosity ignited by the sight of stalls, eateries housed in home compounds, authentic Indonesian fare prepared and served by ladies from the same country, and the wet market with a food court on the upper level. I was initially intimidated by the neighbourhood; the startling number of foreigners and haphazard traffic after working hours did not make me think of Sungai Way as being an ideal neighbourhood for food walks. Read the rest of this entry »