Local Drinks, Kuala Lumpur

Having Lot of Chatime Outlets in Malaysia, Particularly in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley Areas of Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Cyber Jaya, Putra Jaya, etc. Makes me wonder as Malaysia is a tea producing (primarily in the Cameron Highlands) and tea drinking counrty with different kinds of hot and cold teas (like teh tahrik, Teh C Peng) around the country. And It was a such a surprise that a Taiwanese Global Bubble Tea Brand is so popular in Malaysia that it accounts for almost half of it's overseas revenues. I am talking about the Famous Taiwanese Bubble Tea Brand, CHATIME.

It currently has more than 100 stores around Malaysia and even has 40 branches here at the Greater Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur Areas.

the one we went was at the Oasis Boulevard, near the Sunway Pyramid Hotel.

Opens: 10:00 am to 11:00 pm monday to thursday
10:00 am ti 12:00 am friday to sunday

according to wikipedia:

Henry Wang Yao-Hui founded Chatime in 2005 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, under the parent company, La Kaffa Coffee.[4] He modernised traditional tea making culture by producing tea machines that could make quality fresh teas that were consistent, using a variety of flavors, fruits and toppings, in order to stand out from the many competitors in the market.[4] The company has its own tea plantation in Nantou, Taiwan

Favorite Dish: they have and almost endless array of teas (green, black, oolong, red, rice tea, etc), fruit teas and more with lots of different toppings (grass jelly, pearl, nata de coco, coconut jellt, etc.) you can choose from (which they call Varieteas!).

Prices Range from RM 6 to 10, depending on the type of tea and type of toppings you want (you can also add extra toppings if you want).

Air Mata Kucing” translated into English literally means “Water of the Cats Eyes”! But gory descriptions aside, “mata kucing” is the local name for the longan fruit, and the drink actually uses the dried version of the fruit.

Air Mata Kucing or Longan Drink, is made by boiling the “lo han guo” or Lo Han fruit, rock sugar and dried longans. It is a dark coloured drink that is sweet and supposed to help cool down the body heat.

This stall right in the center of Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur has made themselves famous by just selling this drink. In fact, they are so famous that they now have a franchise in Mid Valley Megamall!

I used to drink this when it was still served in little tin bowls with tin spoons for you to scoop up the drink and bits of longan and jelly in it. I liked it for the nostalgic feel it left me with because tin bowls and spoons remind me of my childhood. However, with progress, it has now become paper cups and straws. Most of the magic is thus, lost.

Favorite Dish: The drink however, remains the same – thick, sweet and icy cold. Perfect on a hot day, after walking through the crush of stalls in Petaling Street.

The stall is located in the heart of Petaling Street, at the cross roads just outside the Hong Leong Bank. You won’t miss it for the crowds. A cup of drink (hot or cold) costs RM1.20. If you don’t want ice it’ll cost RM1.50 for a large cup and RM1.20 for a small one.

The next time you are in Petaling Street, don’t forget to cool down with an Air Mata Kucing

I felt kind of exhausted at one point and in Chinatown they have those herbalsuperhealthy tea shops, so I thought I do something good for myself and try some of it. So they offer special mixtures for every symptoms you might have: fever, cough and so on.....the thing for me was a dark black mixture of some eight herbs - and it tasted really really bad. But hey, medicine is not for the joy of delicious flavours.....still, good that they offer a second cup with water to spill down this weird taste.

So did it help???????? Im not sure, maybe the taste just distracted me from everything else ;-)

Teh Tarikh, or pulled tea, is a Indian Chai like sweet black tea with milk - and the Malaysian national drink. You can find Teh Tarik on every corner and in every restaurant - wherever you go in Malaysia, Teh Tarik goes with it ;-)

If you are ever in Chinatown, don't miss the chance to try this famous 'Air Mata Kucing' (Longan + LohHanKo Drink). This is the best Longan drink that I have ever had. The ingredients are: dried longan, Loh Han Go, winter melon, rock sugar. It is so good especially on a hot day.

RM1.2 - Small
RM1.5 - Large
RM1.5 - without ice

By the way, they also opened a branch on Lower Level of Mid Valley Megamall.

Favorite Dish: Longan Drink

This is a MUST stop. Tucked in the middle of Petaling Street, Chinatown is this hive of an activity.

Watch people stroll up, pay MYR1, grab a cup of cold brownish liquid, slurp it all up in gusto, slapped on a face of immense satisfaction and then be on their merry way.

So what is this mysterious elixir of life?

Loosely translated, "Air Mata Kuching" means "Cat's eyes drink"....though before you turn blue at the idea of drinking actual cat's eyes floating in a liquid, the drink is actually a sweet herbal infusion of dried longan (which looks like cat's eyes), momordaceae fruit (aka "Luo Han Guo") and winter melon pieces, served refreshingly cold. This infusion has been claimed to cool the body from "excess heat" and is good on a hot humid day or after a heavy meal of fried stuff.

Favorite Dish: The Air Mata Kuching....ah but then?

Kopi (pronounced Ko-pee) or Coffee is served in this kind of cup in any local Chinese-restaurants. A cup of Kopi cost RM0.90 only. You can ask for Kopi-O (Coffee sugar without condensed milk) or you can have Kopi-Kow (Coffe sugar with extra condensed milk).

The exact pronunciation of Kopi-O is Ko-pee-Or. Local peoples have the habit to request extra strong and dense of Kopi-O, to do that, you just yell at the waiter " ...boss, Ko-pee-Or-kau !!! ", no extra charge on this, same price.

Milo is a Nestle product very popular in Malaysia, Milo is available in almost all local restaurants. The photo is a glass of Milo Kosong Panas (Hot Milo without condensed milk). This glass of Milo Kosong Panas cost RM1.20 only. I remember I met two Swiss guys in travel, they told me they never heard about Milo and only Malaysia has it.

Chinese hot tea is what you see in photo. I like to drink when eating Pows, biscuits, after meals, DimSum and also on special occasion. I have a bunch of Chinese hot tea friends who want to invite peoples to drink with them anytime and anywhere. Chinese hot tea can be as cheap as RM2 per pot upto thousands of ringgits. If you are in street restaurants, they charge RM2 or 3 for a pot of average quality of tea. If you want to drink expensive tea, try the tea shops.

Herbal Medicinal juice is actually the traditional drinks to cure sored throat and heatness of body. It is not sweet as our Coca-cola but bitter taste, something similar to the Irish Guinness stout especially the WLK Wong Low Kut. If you try the Kway-ling-gao, it is even more bitter in taste but that's why we like it. Tourist should try.

And in this photo I snapped some less common names of Alcoholic beverages. They are Victoria Bitter, Budweiser, Forster's, Tsingtao, Tetley's, LEO, Sapporo, Gold, Kick and non-alcoholic Jolly Shandy. If you want to drink Malaysian liquors, please go to the Indian street to buy Tuak.

Look at what we have at this photo. Heineken, Asahi, Taiwan, Corona extra, Chang, Royal Stout, etc. They were imported products again and again. Sorry, we have nothing homemade to offer to our dear visitors. Our Indian Tuak is perhaps the only drink for tourists unless you want to visit our East Malaysian Aborigines village to taste their Tuak.

Again I snapped another photo to show you our mass importation of exotic Alcoholic productcs. We have Carlsberg Beer and Royal Danish Stout in this beautiful photo also from the same location. We have no other choices but to offer imported products to our visitors and guests, very sorry.

These are our Lumpurese Alcoholic beverages. Tourists who love liquors have all these choices which I snapped from one of our local famous supermarket. In this photo, we have Carlberg Ice, Anchor ice, Tiger, Special Brew, Guinness Stout, etc. All these brand names were not Malaysian. If you want to taste Malaysian's Alcoholic beverages, I can only offer you our Indian homemade Coconut-Tuak.

Chinese Tea Ice is probably the cheapest drinks we can offer. This glass of Chinese Tea Ice or Chinese Hot Tea cost you only RM0.40 comparing to a bottle of Coke RM1.50 or some occasion gone up to RM3.00

Chinese Tea Ice is for budget tourists. Anywhere in Malaysian, if you go to a restaurant with Chinese words, you can ask for Chinese Tea Ice. This is certainly only for budget tourists not recommended for luxurious tourists. This drink is very Malaysian, a must.