If you think food prices in Kuala Lumpur are a bit steep (I definitely do), here's a pro tip: on Fridays and Sundays, you can grab a completely free breakfast at a Chinese monastery called Dharma Realm Guan Yin. People online say they invite you to join a service after the meal, but either I showed up at the wrong time or something else happened—anyway, I missed it. Would've been cool to check it out though.

Volunteers cook everything and all the dishes are vegan. They claim they don't use white sugar or MSG in their cooking. The latter is a popular flavor enhancer across Asia. If you watch videos by Uncle Roger (a Malaysian Chinese guy, by the way, though he moved to the States), he's always pushing MSG because it makes food taste better.

The selection of dishes is impressive, and they were genuinely delicious. What's interesting is that some of the dishes clearly attempt to mimic meat. But this isn't some trendy modern thing—these recipes have been around for centuries.