It was pretty embarassing, actually. There Dave and I (residents of KL going on three years, now) were, giving Andrea Nguyen an 'insider's' tour of the city's best eats, and she ends up introducing us to one of its tastiest street treats.
'Are those choo-choo bah-dah?' Andrea asked, pointing to the browned dough patties nestled amongst a Chow Kit kuih vendor's sweet and savory offerings. Andrea had sampled the filled pastries for the first time the night before at - of all places - her hotel restaurant's buffet.
As we found out later, the real name for these golden puffs of deliciousness is cucur badak, but in Malay a final 'k' is barely aspirated, almost swallowed ... and a final 'r' can be hard to catch if you're not a native speaker. No matter, because that Chow Kit vendor knew exactly what we were talking about when we excitedly asked for a heap of choo-choo bah-dah to go.
Cucur badak are deep-fried sweet potato-dough dumplings filled with a spritely, spicy filling of grated coconut, shallots, chopped shallots, chilies, and lemongrass (the ones below had a few mustard seeds thrown in for good measure). The best versions incorporate enough regular flour into the dough to counteract a sweet potato's naturally high oil-absorbent tendencies, and go extra heavy on the chopped lemongrass so that it perfumes the other, more assertively flavored ingredients. When the proportions are right, a cucur badak's filling strikes a sublime note.
Cucur badak are one of the more difficult Malay kuih to find on the streets of KL, and unfortunately many of the versions we've sampled since Andrea's visit (to tell the truth, we've become somewhat obsessed with these little bites) are leaden with oil and insipidly spiced. The best we've had to date are those served up by the vendor that Andrea led us to, on the lane leading to the back entrance of Chow Kit Market. Even a few hours out of the deep fryer, her wrappers are crispy outside, delightfully chewy and grease-free within.
We're willing to travel some kilometers for a good choo-choo bah-dah, so if you have a favorite version do our obsession a favor and cough up the details in the comments below. In the meantime, we must give credit where credit's due: thanks, Andrea.