Breakfast and Books in KL

It was a beautiful Friday morning in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and we were up bright and early. Pinky had taken a few days off, but she had to head back to Bangkok to get back to work. I hadn't bought my return flight yet, and I was glad that I hadn't, because on Thursday night the Thai embassy requested an extra document for my visa, and I was pretty sure that they weren't going to get it finished before the weekend (I was right)! Luckily for me, Thailand instituted an e-visa system last year, so I no longer have to spend my time waiting at the embassy. I can just upload my documents and wait for the visa to arrive in my email.

We packed our bags, checked out of the hotel, and called a Grab cab to take us to breakfast. On the way out of the neighborhood, I stopped in to visit the Church of St. Anthony, a beautiful and historic Roman Catholic church dating back to 1913.

We ate at Restoran Yut Kee, Hainanese family-run kopitiam that has been open since 1928! It's one of the oldest and most popular breakfast spots in the city. It can get extremely crowded, but we got there a little after the breakfast rush and were able to get a table without having to wait.

The shop is famous for its "roti babi", which is a type of Malaysian pork-filled breakfast sandwich.

I ordered another shop specialty: beef rendang, a slow-cooked beef stew made with tons of herbs and a base of coconut milk. The taste was amazing, but I wasn't able to eat all of the broth. Even though I've got a decently high tolerance for spice nowadays, this dish was a little too much for me. I was surprised - Malaysian food doesn't necessarily have a reputation for being crazy spicy!

After breakfast we wanted to visit BookXcess, one of the most unique and Instagrammable bookstores I've ever seen.

The store is located inside the old Rex Cinema building, which was built in 1947 and burnt down twice before being transformed into a trendy cultural hub, and you can still see from the structure where the tiered theater seating used to be installed.

BookXcess specializes in discounted overstock and was founded with the mission of making reading affordable.

Pinky and I both bought a book to keep us entertained on our travels. We have our Kindles with us, of course, but sometimes it's nice to have a physical book with you, and we like supporting local shops and enterprises like this when we're traveling.