KL Part 2

After our close encounters of the animal kind we headed to a more civil and less savage area - Petaling Street. Errr...right....

Petaling was a crazy maze of stalls intertwined with one another that created a Vegas feeling of never finding your way out. The walkways in between each side was approximately 18 inches and led to sideways walking and always touching something that someone was selling. Pausing and touching mean one thing to the sellers: you want it. If you pause for one second, examine an item for a breathe or raise your hand to touch it, you better be ready to a salesperson to come at you. There is no window shopping or pleasantly strolling through stalls (or even in shops) - it's an aerobic event for all. And they are ALL upsellers. We weaved in and out of stalls looking for goods to take back to our loved ones. It was mayhem! We'd walk in front of one another and let the other's know if we were stopping or moving on. I stopped the most, followed by Melissa and then Les. Les was in sensory overload and was in no mood to bargain, to banter, or to cut a deal. He laughed with us but was basically clawing for a way out of the claustrophobic mob scene. I bartered and had a great time with the stall-keepers (I keep using different names for these people bc I have no idea what the real name is for them: salesmen, stall-keeper, shop owner, etc). They'd play with you and groan when your price was too low and tell you it was your lucky day or anything to keep you looking. It was fun and alive with noise, color, and the sound of cash.

We had gone to the Central Market beforehand which is basically a small building with mini open shops inside - very mall like but still with stalls. It had a much calmer atmosphere, better items and less bargaining. Melissa really enjoyed the Central Market scene and fell in love with several scarves.

I liked the madness and the bargaining opportunities at Petaling St :) Surprised?
Les laughed at me and the results I got with some of the stalls. There's a fine line between good negotiation and insulting prices: I thought I stood on one side of the line, he thought I stood on the other. Hahahah :) Either way, yay! Was very close to getting a Coach purse (knockoff, of course) for about 60,000 RP which is about $7 USD.

After our shopping expeditions, we headed to find dinner.
We had our Frommer's Tour Book and had agreed on a place called 'Top Hat'.
We wound our way down the streets but when we arrived at the location, we were told it had been relocated! D'oh.
On to choice 2 - Shook!

It turned out to be at the bottom of a Marriott Hotel that was connected to the Starhill Centre.
We were worried when we found out that it was in the basement of a mall (ick, mall food) but found out soon enough that this mall started with Louie Vouitton and kept climbing the Brand ladder. We went downstairs and found about 6 great restaurants that we could have eaten at.
Determined we finally found Shook! (yes, it has the exclamation point in the name) and took a look at the menu. We were worried that our day clothes wasn't nice enough for this restaurant as it was beautiful and the hostess had a lovely black dress on. She didn't seem to care as she gave us the menu and encouraged us to try it.

We went for it.

It's menu was split into 4 different categories: Italian, Chinese, Japanese and the Grill.
It contained about 30 different pages of foods and probably over 100 different choices total.
It looked incredible. We started with drinks (Martini for me, Tiger Beer for Les, and a Caiproska for Melissa) as we were celebrating our amazing day. This dinner would be a treat for us all.
I got Short Ribs with Mashed Potatos and slaw from the Grill, Melissa got Spring Roast Chicken with Sweet Potato Purees and Les chose Tempura Vegetables with Udon Noodles. We devoured our dishes as they were the closest to 'home' food we had had in a while. They were excellent.
We had a great time over dinner discussing anything under the sun and totally enjoyed each other's company. Music was being played just next door on this mini stage and so the music set a beautiful tone to our meal.

We left full (we got chocolate fondue for dessert), tired and thrilled by our day.