Hidden Taiwanese night market in Kuala Lumpur: 13 Hipster snacks at Pasar Malam Taman Segar you must not miss!

Written by Candice Neo

When was the last time you went to a night market (or known locally as Pasar Malam) in Kuala Lumpur and went wow, this is such a different one! So trendy and hipster?!

Of course, we all know the popular Taman Connaught Night Market which is very awesome but the thing is, everyone already knows. Have you heard of Taman Segar night market, which is also in Cheras (Kuala Lumpur)?

It’s smaller than Pasar Malam Taman Connaught and relatively lesser-known, but just as vibrant with trendy Taiwanese-inspired snacks on the only night it’s open – Friday nights!

Here’s our main highlights of the night, and many of these stalls rotate between several night markets so you can probably spot some at Taman Connaught and other Pasar Malams too!

Read more: 

Tapak Urban Street Dining: Hipster night market in KL with food trucks selling monster burgers, crazy milkshakes, jumbo Indomie and more!

Sunway Velocity (Kuala Lumpur): 7 Authentic Chongqing and Sichuan restaurants and supermarkets with mala hotpots and more!

What to eat in Subang Jaya’s SS15: 14 Affordable, trendy and local food you must try near bubble tea street!

1. Time for that cheesy IG pose with a JUMBO sausage: Korean Mozzarella Cheese Sausage Stick

We recommend sharing this with a friend unless you are a huge cheese lover! It took three of us to finish this, and my goodness even though we opted to have both sausage and cheese, the entire stick was 70% cheese!

You can find them at Taman Connaught Night Market on Wednesdays too!

2. Bite into crispy golden sweet potato balls: Golden Potato

This sweet snack adds an extra crunch to your night stroll along this Pasar Malam – crispy on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. They make the balls freshly from sweet potato on the spot, and the melted sweet potato oozes out when you bite into it right after it’s freshly hot out of the wok!

We assure you’ll come back for more (unless you’ve stuffed yourself so much with other street food like we did)!

3. Spicy mala dumplings that taste exactly like your hotpot: Yezi Crystal Dumplings

I love Sichuan mala hotpots (loosely translated to “numbing spicy” hotpots which are a signature in Sichuan, China), and so do many Malaysians and Singaporeans, as you can tell with the current trend of authentic mala hotpot restaurants sprouting up all over in KL, especially in Sunway Velocity, which is just 15 minutes’ drive from this night market.

People would queue for hours just for mala hotpot and anything mala gets most people as excited as they would with boba. So it comes at no big surprise that mala has made its way even into dumplings! And it actually tastes pretty authentic, almost like how your mala hotpot would taste like (but without the soup, of course).

You can find other interesting flavours of dumplings here, such as kimchi (which we did not manage to try as it was sold out!), pumpkin, tom yam, char siew and more. But best is still mala!

4. A must at any Taiwanese night market!: Tainan Oyster Mee Suah

If you’ve been to Taiwan’s night markets, you know your experience isn’t complete until you’ve tasted a bowl of hot soupy oyster mee suah. Of course, you can’t compare it to the famous one in Taipei (where I had two bowls in the same day, and I’m usually not a big eater), but this one is still pretty decent.

They are very generous with the oysters, which were fresh and not fishy; their mee suah (thin noodles made from wheat flour) was soft and smooth, so it was a perfect combination with the hot soup and oysters. You can pair it with chili if you wish (Malaysian style, as traditionally in Taiwan it is not served with chili but with a dash of vinegar).

But do not expect a very comfortable experience, as you will be sitting on makeshift tables and chairs behind the stalls along the road (which might be a bit uneven), as it’s a night market after all. Not to mention it’s generally warm and humid even at night. But I must say that despite the discomfort, I would definitely choose to eat it again even though I was already super stuffed that night!

5. Add pineapple to your savoury pork burgers!: Classic Homemade Pork Burger

You can’t go wrong with a simple homemade burger with pork patty, which was very delicious (or maybe we were just hungry). Our tip? Add a slice of juicy pineapple for that extra tang and crunch! Trust me, it makes a difference to your burger! 😉

6. Smoky rib-eye beef cubes with pink salt: Mad Beef Torch Grilled Beef Cube

Using rib-eye beef cubes, your cubes are grilled to perfection here. I personally feel it’s a little too well done, so it’s a bit on the tougher side with a bit of chewiness, but the smoky aroma topped with their signature pink salt made the serving overall pretty enjoyable.

If you want to try their other flavours besides pink salt, they also have pepper, garlic and curry too!

7. You can’t miss this popular crispy roast pork at the entrance!: Roast Pork

Located at the entrance of the night market, we saw the long queue at the roast pork stall when we arrived, but as we were too excited to try some of the other snacks (damn, sweet potato balls, but they were so good too!), we thought we’d come back later but it was too late when we did – it was all sold out!

As they say, when there’s a long queue for food, there’s a high chance that it’s good. Have you guys tried it? Let us know your verdict!

8. Snack on freshly deep fried fish skin with salted egg and more!: Salted Egg Ultraman

You’ll recognise this stall by its iconic superman flag; it does not have a signboard or name, and people simply recognise it as “咸蛋超人” which is a pun on the Chinese words as this is what Ultraman is called in Hongkong, but “咸蛋” also means “salted egg”.

You can find salted egg prawns, squid, mushrooms, pumpkin, chicken, fish skin and more here… You get the idea – you can fry anything with salted egg and it will taste good! The squid is a little too chewy and rubbery for my liking (skip this if you don’t have good teeth), but the mushrooms are nice!

9. Taiwanese stinky tofu marinated in black tea and paired with kimchi?!: Black Tea Stinky Tofu

I usually steer clear of stinky tofu stalls; you can smell them before you even reach them! But we thought this one was pretty unique, it’s situated right smack in the middle of the night market (most stinky tofu stalls are usually placed right at the end due to its pungent smell) and I couldn’t smell anything foul here!

Though not a completely new concept – you can find Black Tea Stinky Tofu in Feng Jia Night Market in Taichung – it’s still relatively unique in Malaysia, whereby the stinky tofu is soaked in black tea, and they serve it with kimchi too!

I haven’t had the courage to try yet, but if you’ve tasted it, what do you think?

10. Dig into Traditional Malaysian cuisine: Assam Laksa, Oyster & Lala Omelettes, Prawn Noodles, Chee Cheong Fun, Lok Lok and more!

How can signature Malaysian local cuisine be missing from a KL night market?!

If you simply want some good ol’ Malaysian food and flavours, you can be sure to satisfy your cravings with prawn noodles, lok lok, assam laksa, oyster omelettes (they even have a lala version too!), chee cheong fun and more at a couple of local food stalls!

11. Mild flavours for the perfect end to a very savoury food trail: Soft Rice Cake

Now after all that salted egg, roast pork, burgers, mala, assam laksa and other super flavourful Taiwanese and local Malaysian snacks, your tastebuds would be grateful to end the night with a mildly sweet soft rice cake. We sure did!

We tried their original flavour which was a lovely refreshing break after hours of savoury snacks (I was at the point where I could not stomach yet another salted egg mushroom, but this one was a yes!)

And surprisingly, we could still taste its mild flavour (I thought my tongue would be numb from all the excessive savoury food!) and the rice cake was almost like a smooth and chewy soft candy which slides down the throat easily.

They offer pandan and lychee flavours too!

12. That Hong Kong that will never get old!: Lao You Ji Curry Fish Ball

Curry Fish Balls are a typical but popular street food in Hong Kong, and here you’ll find them too – succulent fish balls soaked in curry, so every bite is a burst of flavour.

If you don’t want to go for the traditional fish balls, you can choose to have pork balls, lobster balls or even cheese sotong balls too!

13. Pair your snacks with refreshing fruit smoothies: Milk Eight

Of course after all that (unhealthy) snacking as we walked and ate along the night market, we were craving for something refreshing, and this was it – fruit smoothies! The milk would neutralise anything spicy you just ate, and your choice of fruit would refresh your tastebuds so that you can….continue eating!

I opted for a lime smoothie which was super refreshing and addictive, while another one of us ordered an avocado smoothie, which was very smooth and just the right amount of sweetness!

You can also find their newly opened cafe (as at December 2019) at Subang Jaya SS15 too!

Did you think there’s only the popular Taman Connaught Night Market in Cheras? This trendy one will surely change your mind about pasar malams in KL! Tag your foodie friends to hang out this Friday night!

PLEASE NOTE: All the above information is correct at the date of publication. If you come across any changes or updates, please let us know and we will update the information accordingly. Thank you! Tell us

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