Food: the good, the bad, and the ugly (in no particular order)
by prudence on 17-Dec-2012
I've been a bit remiss on the food blogging lately. So let me make amends with a three-in-one food post about recently visited places.
Our recent trip to Thailand made me realize how much I'd missed Thai food. I really love what's on offer in Malaysia, as my many enthusiastic posts have surely demonstrated. But there's something very unique about Thai flavours. And they just don't travel well. You really can't get good Thai food outside Thailand. So, it was a delight for the palate to be back.
I could ramble on for hours about the many outstanding meals we enjoyed. Instead, I'll single out just three food experiences, which managed a particularly felicitous combination of ambiance and tastiness.
Lunch at one of the seafood places on stilts over the sea in Hua Hin is a must-mention. Tangy, spicy som tam (green papaya salad) with big prawns (because it's the seaside). Delicately spiced pineapple rice (also with big prawns). And pomfret (fried to crispy, chewy perfection) with tamarind. An amazing combo of flavours -- sweet, sour, and hot -- which blended really, really well. With a beer Singha (100 baht), two waters, and two coffees, it came to 900 baht (90 ringgit). The breeze was fitful, but even so, this must have been the coolest place in town, and the views over the sea were great.
Another memorable experience was dinner at Once Upon a Time. This is a gorgeous traditional Thai townhouse -- all wood planking, leafy garden, and old photographs. Our selection included a tour of Thailand: crispy fish; laab (a spicy pork salad); tom yum gung (the coconut version, complete with melting chunks of coconut flesh); a soft, creamy crab dish; and a great roll-your-own salad consisting of herbs, little tasty bits and pieces, and sauce, which you stuff into salad leaves to make fresh, delicious packages.
Not exactly a meal, but certainly a memorable gastronomic experience, was the best mango ever (just on the cusp of turning from green to yellow), purchased from a vendor on the sea-front at Songkhla... All Southeast Asia's countries claim to produce the best mangoes, but I really think this Songkhla mango clinches it...
Cambodian food tends to be eclipsed by that of its bigger neighbours, and I have to say I haven't really got a handle on it, despite four visits. What I eat there is always good, but I'm never totally sure what is "Cambodian" (apart from fish amok, which seems to come in a bewildering range of versions). Here's a quick primer, but many of these dishes are still outside my ken.
What sticks out in my memory from my most recent Cambodian trip is my little walk on the wild side. The road from Phnom Penh to Takeo Province offers multiple options for stretching your palate. Venues range from the simple, one-product stall to the much more extensive mini-complex, offering a very comprehensive menu and an array of those four-poster bed arrangements in which you can recline to enjoy your snacks and beer in comfort.
For the record, freshly fried crickets are crunchily OK. Ditto freshly fried whole tiny frogs. Also tasty are frogs stuffed with spices and impaled on a stick, their legs crossed separately above them. Even snake is not to be sneezed at... Yes, if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. Water snake that has been folded, marinated, dried, and fried has a texture a bit like bacon. Snacon, anyone?
Although I have to admit that all this stuff tastes absoutely fine, there is still that inner "yuck" at work that means I wouldn't exactly seek it out...
And, finally, the Philippines... We came knowing that this is a country with a very bad food rep. The food is "horrible", said one Malaysian colleague. "All lard and sugar," said another, quoting -- even more worryingly -- a Filipina friend.
And, initially, it's a little off-putting. Spam? Luncheon meat? Corned beef? Hotdog sausages? These are foods from my childhood, foods I thought the world had outgrown, like childish diseases -- or would at least indulge in secretly, rather than advertise and celebrate and plaster all over menus.
And that American influence is pervasive. When I asked for a cup of tea on my first morning in a big Manila hotel, I was brought a cup of luke-warm water and a tea-bag... (The wait-staff there also doled out little bottles of Yakult -- apparently another Philippines tradition...)
But Philippines food, I'm coming to realize, is actually a delicate flower. Done badly, it's ghastly -- over-sweet, over-salty, over-fatty. Done well, it's really good.
Breakfast options end in -silog, indicating that whatever it is comes with garlic rice and fried egg. So tapsilog is dried beef, garlic rice, and fried egg. Tocsilog is sweet pork, garlic rice, and fried egg. We've had both good and less good versions of these. Fish, traditional sausage, or hotdog sausage are also breakfast mainstays. And you can, of course, get cornsilog -- corned beef with, you guessed it, garlic rice and fried egg.
Sisig is a sizzling pork dish with egg stirred in at the end. It's apparently made of pork jowl, so it's probably good to register that it's very tasty and goes well with your San Miguel before considering its origins too deeply. I didn't even realize pigs had jowls... Pig products are hugely popular here, and I don't pretend to know the half of them. But we did sample chicharon -- a popular snack made of fried pig-skin. OK, in small doses, but I have to say I prefer the Chiang Mai version...
What else is notable? Well, there's pancit (a mixture of rice and egg noodles fried up with veges and chicken); pinakbet (a tasty vegetable dish reminiscent of ratatouille); and tinola (a fragrant soup containing meat and cooked green papaya). Anything "adobo" has theoretically been cooked with vinegar, garlic, and soy sauce, but we've encountered so many different things claiming to be adobo that I'm now confused. Food from the Bicol region is notable for its liberal use of coconut and chillies. You can't really go wrong with that approach.
And there's halo-halo... This comes in various guises, but here is the first version we encountered. Imagine the ABC beloved of the Singaporeans and Malaysians. Crushed ice, syrup, and bits and pieces, right? Then imagine it crossed with cendol, to give you the coconut milk element. OK, so you're picturing a tumbler, two-thirds filled with coconut milk, sugar, and crushed ice. Then, in your mind's eye, Philippinize it up a bit. Go on -- let your imagination run wild... Add cubes of black, green, and red jelly, bits of banana and mango, black pearls, rose syrup, sweet corn, and sweet potato. And top it off with grated cheese... Fantastic. Phantasmagoric, even.
For something rather different from standard Philippines fare, go to the Bee Farm on Bohol. Organic food is their speciality. They do lovely "garden salads", which include edible flower petals. They offer refreshingly light and unusual breakfast buffets. And their home-made ice-cream is awesome ...
Ahh, Southeast Asia... Never short of new food experiences...
Our recent trip to Thailand made me realize how much I'd missed Thai food. I really love what's on offer in Malaysia, as my many enthusiastic posts have surely demonstrated. But there's something very unique about Thai flavours. And they just don't travel well. You really can't get good Thai food outside Thailand. So, it was a delight for the palate to be back.
I could ramble on for hours about the many outstanding meals we enjoyed. Instead, I'll single out just three food experiences, which managed a particularly felicitous combination of ambiance and tastiness.
Lunch at one of the seafood places on stilts over the sea in Hua Hin is a must-mention. Tangy, spicy som tam (green papaya salad) with big prawns (because it's the seaside). Delicately spiced pineapple rice (also with big prawns). And pomfret (fried to crispy, chewy perfection) with tamarind. An amazing combo of flavours -- sweet, sour, and hot -- which blended really, really well. With a beer Singha (100 baht), two waters, and two coffees, it came to 900 baht (90 ringgit). The breeze was fitful, but even so, this must have been the coolest place in town, and the views over the sea were great.
Another memorable experience was dinner at Once Upon a Time. This is a gorgeous traditional Thai townhouse -- all wood planking, leafy garden, and old photographs. Our selection included a tour of Thailand: crispy fish; laab (a spicy pork salad); tom yum gung (the coconut version, complete with melting chunks of coconut flesh); a soft, creamy crab dish; and a great roll-your-own salad consisting of herbs, little tasty bits and pieces, and sauce, which you stuff into salad leaves to make fresh, delicious packages.
Not exactly a meal, but certainly a memorable gastronomic experience, was the best mango ever (just on the cusp of turning from green to yellow), purchased from a vendor on the sea-front at Songkhla... All Southeast Asia's countries claim to produce the best mangoes, but I really think this Songkhla mango clinches it...
Cambodian food tends to be eclipsed by that of its bigger neighbours, and I have to say I haven't really got a handle on it, despite four visits. What I eat there is always good, but I'm never totally sure what is "Cambodian" (apart from fish amok, which seems to come in a bewildering range of versions). Here's a quick primer, but many of these dishes are still outside my ken.
What sticks out in my memory from my most recent Cambodian trip is my little walk on the wild side. The road from Phnom Penh to Takeo Province offers multiple options for stretching your palate. Venues range from the simple, one-product stall to the much more extensive mini-complex, offering a very comprehensive menu and an array of those four-poster bed arrangements in which you can recline to enjoy your snacks and beer in comfort.
For the record, freshly fried crickets are crunchily OK. Ditto freshly fried whole tiny frogs. Also tasty are frogs stuffed with spices and impaled on a stick, their legs crossed separately above them. Even snake is not to be sneezed at... Yes, if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. Water snake that has been folded, marinated, dried, and fried has a texture a bit like bacon. Snacon, anyone?
Although I have to admit that all this stuff tastes absoutely fine, there is still that inner "yuck" at work that means I wouldn't exactly seek it out...
And, finally, the Philippines... We came knowing that this is a country with a very bad food rep. The food is "horrible", said one Malaysian colleague. "All lard and sugar," said another, quoting -- even more worryingly -- a Filipina friend.
And, initially, it's a little off-putting. Spam? Luncheon meat? Corned beef? Hotdog sausages? These are foods from my childhood, foods I thought the world had outgrown, like childish diseases -- or would at least indulge in secretly, rather than advertise and celebrate and plaster all over menus.
And that American influence is pervasive. When I asked for a cup of tea on my first morning in a big Manila hotel, I was brought a cup of luke-warm water and a tea-bag... (The wait-staff there also doled out little bottles of Yakult -- apparently another Philippines tradition...)
But Philippines food, I'm coming to realize, is actually a delicate flower. Done badly, it's ghastly -- over-sweet, over-salty, over-fatty. Done well, it's really good.
Breakfast options end in -silog, indicating that whatever it is comes with garlic rice and fried egg. So tapsilog is dried beef, garlic rice, and fried egg. Tocsilog is sweet pork, garlic rice, and fried egg. We've had both good and less good versions of these. Fish, traditional sausage, or hotdog sausage are also breakfast mainstays. And you can, of course, get cornsilog -- corned beef with, you guessed it, garlic rice and fried egg.
Sisig is a sizzling pork dish with egg stirred in at the end. It's apparently made of pork jowl, so it's probably good to register that it's very tasty and goes well with your San Miguel before considering its origins too deeply. I didn't even realize pigs had jowls... Pig products are hugely popular here, and I don't pretend to know the half of them. But we did sample chicharon -- a popular snack made of fried pig-skin. OK, in small doses, but I have to say I prefer the Chiang Mai version...
What else is notable? Well, there's pancit (a mixture of rice and egg noodles fried up with veges and chicken); pinakbet (a tasty vegetable dish reminiscent of ratatouille); and tinola (a fragrant soup containing meat and cooked green papaya). Anything "adobo" has theoretically been cooked with vinegar, garlic, and soy sauce, but we've encountered so many different things claiming to be adobo that I'm now confused. Food from the Bicol region is notable for its liberal use of coconut and chillies. You can't really go wrong with that approach.
And there's halo-halo... This comes in various guises, but here is the first version we encountered. Imagine the ABC beloved of the Singaporeans and Malaysians. Crushed ice, syrup, and bits and pieces, right? Then imagine it crossed with cendol, to give you the coconut milk element. OK, so you're picturing a tumbler, two-thirds filled with coconut milk, sugar, and crushed ice. Then, in your mind's eye, Philippinize it up a bit. Go on -- let your imagination run wild... Add cubes of black, green, and red jelly, bits of banana and mango, black pearls, rose syrup, sweet corn, and sweet potato. And top it off with grated cheese... Fantastic. Phantasmagoric, even.
For something rather different from standard Philippines fare, go to the Bee Farm on Bohol. Organic food is their speciality. They do lovely "garden salads", which include edible flower petals. They offer refreshingly light and unusual breakfast buffets. And their home-made ice-cream is awesome ...
Ahh, Southeast Asia... Never short of new food experiences...