KL's food scene,
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Kinfolk, PJ Sea Park

Kinfolk is a pork restaurant in Sea Park, Petaling Jaya, and it does not hedge about it — the whole menu is built around the animal, nose to tail. What to Order at Kinfolk Start with porchetta di testa: a thin-sliced rosette of rolled cheek, tongue, ear and skin, collagen-rich but clean-tasting and supple rather than heavy, cut through by house-pickled cornichons. The Perak-cultivated oysters are the other opener, layered with lardo and a kitchen-spiced hot sauce. Lunch is where it gets playful. Spaghettini comes tossed with nduja and marinated cockles, and the pad kra pao arrives under a substantial pile of crackling. Leave room for the Smoky Porky Cake, which is the destination dessert and exactly as odd as it sounds — gently savoury-sweet with cured pork, candied fruits and walnuts, served warm with rum and cream. For pork in Petaling Jaya or nose-to-tail cooking in Sea Park, Kinfolk is the most committed version of it in PJ.

Blue @ Sky51, EQ Kuala Lumpur

Blue is the rooftop bar at EQ Kuala Lumpur, with a straight view of the Twin Towers and a cocktail list built entirely out of Malaysian ingredients. What to Order at Blue The Go Lokal menu is the reason to go — eight signature cocktails from head mixologist Boy Fazy, each reimagining local fruits, spices and dishes as drinks. Some are built from food: there is a cocktail drawn from the rich, piquant flavours of laksa, and others take classics and turn them local. The more unusual bottles come from Borneo. Fazy works ingredients from his home state of Sabah into the list, along with Sarawak rice wines — langkau and tuak — which almost no other bar in the city is pouring into cocktails. For a rooftop bar in Kuala Lumpur or Malaysian-ingredient cocktails with a Twin Towers view, Blue is the one doing something specific rather than generic.

Dapo & Dough, Shah Alam

Dapo & Dough is a home-based bakery-cafe in Shah Alam — a small, sunlit room built around sourdough rather than a full restaurant kitchen. What to Order at Dapo & Dough The sandwiches come out oven-fresh and warmly fragrant; the one to order is smoked salmon with herbed cream cheese, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach. The more interesting plate is the house take on Turkish cilbir — creamy eggs over tangy yogurt, finished with melted butter and chilli flakes, with crackly toast for pushing it around. It runs Monday to Friday and is built for a family breakfast rather than a quick one. For sourdough in Shah Alam or a weekday breakfast in Selangor worth sitting down for, Dapo & Dough is the neighbourhood version done properly.

Cocktails paying tribute to KL\u2019s iconic districts

Nasi Lemak Ajak, Bandar Glenmarie