KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — I happened to be at Suria KLCC the other day and feeling bored with its culinary offerings, I decided to walk out to the nearby temple for lunch.
It's a pleasant walk despite the hot sun and if you go early, the atmosphere is calm at the temple. You do spot an occasional tour bus though.
Just walk through the main entrance and keep left to walk behind to the food centre. There's also an entrance from the side, ideal for those working next to the temple.
You will find the spread of dishes for mixed rice on your right side. Expect about 30 plus dishes from 11am onwards. Food is replenished once it's finished.
The spread is a combination of vegetables; simple stir fried ones or cooked with minimal side items. There are also bean curd dishes including tempe, which they make on site.
I liked how fewer mock meat items are used, keeping it healthier. They do have one of my all-time favourites though which is roast "goose" made with deep fried bean curd sheets.
Generally, you will find the food is cooked with less oil and salt. Prices are also kept reasonable as my plate of rice with various dishes was RM11.
It definitely beats paying premium prices at the shopping mall plus I also get to exercise a bit during lunch time.
The food here is cooked by volunteers; you can spot them prepping vegetables to be cooked later.
You will also see many diners bringing tiffin carriers to take home the dishes for others too.
If you prefer to have something other than mixed rice, they do daily specials. These are usually a variation of fried rice and noodles. They also have beetroot or seaweed fried rice.
On Wednesday, they do tomato sauce noodles, which you don't usually find at other places and on Thursday, you can get curry noodles or celery soup noodles.
You also have soup where the flavours are rotated daily for three days. On Monday, it's black bean, Tuesday is bitter gourd and Wednesday is herbal.
Staples are seaweed rolls and tomyam mee hoon which is offered every day except Friday as you get lui cha. The lui cha here is a good one with a fragrant green tea broth. It's a little watered down but still flavourful.
What I really look forward to is their spread of snacks. Previously you see them preparing the snacks on the premises but with Covid-19, this has changed. Instead, the food is prepared off site and brought to the temple.
They're all packed already so it's very convenient. It's only the fried sesame ball or jin tui which you need to pick and place in a brown bag yourself.
This is my favourite as you get a crispy exterior studded with sesame seeds and a red bean filling that is not overly sweet. They rotate the filling between red bean and lotus paste too. Each sesame ball is RM1.50
As these are super popular, grab them first before you have your lunch. I really enjoyed the pan fried radish cake (RM4.20 for two pieces). The texture may be a little dense but it's flavourful. It's the type you will greedily finish even though you're full from lunch!
Other popular items include their vegetarian "siu pao" and curry puffs with a flaky pastry. I tried the peanut bun too as it's not often you find this type of filling. You get ground peanuts paired with a fluffy bun that was delicious.
After you finish your meal, just make sure you put your empty plates on the tables on the right side. You can separate the rubbish to be thrown in the bin, while the utensils are placed in a bucket. This helps them cut down the work to clear the tables.
For the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, expect a bigger crowd here as many people are vegetarian for those two days. On that special occasion, the menu is mixed rice, nasi lemak, Hainan rice, fried noodles, chee cheong fun, seaweed rolls and tomyam meehoon.
Dharma Realm Guan Yin Sagely Monastery Food Centre, Lorong Binjai (Off Jalan Ampang), Kuala Lumpur. Open: 11am to 2.30pm (Monday to Friday). For the first and fifteen day of the lunar month, it's open from 7.30am to 2.30pm.
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