Market fresh

A major revelation for me after all of this travelling has been in the differences in eating habits across the world. In many parts of the world you can't find a supermarket because there are none, in large part because people are only interested in fresh foods not processed foods. And if you are going after fresh foods, large supermarket chains will not cut the mustard so the day markets are where people pick up the goods for dinner. Sicily is no exception. More fresh veggies, fruit, fish (including monster swordfish layed up on the butcher's block), cheese and breads than you can shake an olive branch at. Jammed packed with shoppers and noisy from the competing yells offering rock bottom deals on olives, spices, and artichokes it is not just a shopping trip but a life experience.

Medieval Lyon

Lyon has some beautiful outskirts, including this beautiful medieval village sitting atop a hill about a half hour outside of town. It is known for its sweet breed flavoured with orange liquor... quite tasty.  The stonework is amazing and had lasted more than 500 years.  All but deserted in the winter, it is quite a cool little destination with great views of the countryside.

Bouchons

The traditional Lyonnaise restaurant, called a bouchon, gives you a great view of the old world with the unchanged atmosphere, close personal service, and cuisine where you can find more tripe and stinky cheese than you can shake a stick at. But of course the portions at this one below would probably be a bit on the small side...

Singapore revisted

Who doesn't like cheap fried food. The hawker center is alive and well in Borneo. For not much more than a buck you can land yourself soup, rice, citrus drink, and the damn tastiest crispy fried pork or duck this side of Shanghai. The open air style restaurant is something that I hope catches on in the US... its a great way to take you back to the feeling of eating in a middle school cafeteria which you have been missing out in your dining experiences lately.

Singapore sling

It's a damn expensive town. But its easy to forget about when there is so much eating to do. Actually, the food ain't so expensive when you sit down for grub, only the booze (the namesake Singapore Sling costs $26US at the Long Bar). Singaporeans, and those that call Singapore home, do their best to eat as often as possible. Food is at the center of the culture and meals tend to be smaller but are taken more times throughout day than in the West. Curiously contrary to the flashy nature of a culture that has an established class system, getting down to some good eats need not be a flashy affair. Many meals are eaten in open air food markets, "hawker centers", on make shift tables sitting in plastic chairs (I personally prefer the green). Construction workers sit along side investment bankers at their favorite eating spots, each known for its own famous dish. It almost seems like their may be a disdain for fanciful ambience as it may only be a cover for poor cooking which is the only real measure of the quality of a Singaporean dinning spot.  So the cheap food almost makes up for the $8 beers... almost.

Soupy delights

My favorite lunch back in Manhattan is offered at Tang's Pavilion in the form of soup dumplings.... mmm so tasty. I knew at some point I would be able to find myself a challenger for best dumpling, and I did just that in Vientiane.  A shop known as a specialty dumpling shop had so many different varieties of meat... duck, pork, chicken, shrimp, etc. but I needed to order the pork dumps for the apples to apples comparison.  My assessment: immediate reaction was concern. These did not look like the soup dumplings I was used to, but I was relieved once the soup touched my lips to feel like I was home again. Amazing seasoning of the pork inside the dumpling and probably the best I have ever tasted.  The soup inside this tasty morsel was excellent although I strongly feel they could have double-stuffed more in.  The shell of the dumpling was a bit dry for my taste but overall these dumps were amazing.  Also amazing was the fact that we ordered a dozen dumps as well as a two person Peking Duck set all for under ten bucks... gotta love Asia for its cheap food.

An evening on the Mekong

After a daunting set of flights on some Laos Air prop planes we finally landed in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, up in the north of the country. We bagged a guesthouse room not too far from the Mekong River and got a jump on down to catch the sun setting over the Thailand side of the river. It seems to be a popular place were locals and some travelers go to hang out, drinks some Beer Lao, and enjoy the night. The river has a really cool vibe and the locals were cooking in makeshift kitchens along the banks with makeshift dinning areas set up under strings of lights to host anyone who has a hunger in their belly. After the major disappoinment of the Cambodian cuisine we had been used to over the past week we were excited to see some real local food, and not just pizzas and hamburgers whipped up for the uninspired Westerner.

So... is this fresh?

Insectavore

Crickets, scorpions, and larvae, oh my!

Farang-free night market

We have been eating the same varied Thai dishes that are offered up by pretty much each and every restaurant on Koh Phanghan and Koh Tao for the past five weeks. We had memorized the menus and other than a few times we were able to get our hosts at Love Lip Bungalows to whip us up some real local food we had not experienced some real Thai food... the Thai food that Thai's eat on a daily basis. So after we got into Surat Thani on the mainland we headed out for the local night market. Surat Thani is not a tourist town and at best is mentioned as a waypoint in the guide books. We were excited about the opportunity to experience a little bit of culture and food that was not packaged for resale to westerners. We arrived at the night market to find a crowd of mostly what appeared to be hourly wage workers stopping by after a long days work for groceries and some quick food to tame the hunger of a hard days work. We were not surprised we were the only westerners in the entire market and certain this would mean we could get our hands on some real Thai food. The stalls were merely makeshift kitchens and grills fashioned to motorbike sidecars. The options ranged from Thai curries over rice, meats on a stick (god I love this stuff), fish and octopus on a stick, breads and pastries, oddly colored liquids of uncertain purpose, to sweets of questionable origin. I went in after some Laab, minced meat in citrus sauce with basil and some Thai curry, which I have had before on Koh Phanghan. The taste was delicious, but it came with a Thai chili spice that provided I heat which I have never experienced before in my life and will probably require a trip to the clinic if I experience it again. None the less it was a great taste of local Thailand, and unlike markets in many other countries in the world were you run into dogs roaming about we ran into a pet of a different sort, this elephant, trying to quench his hankering for some sweet fruits.

Stuffed

I have left every Thai meal feeling completely stuffed. Possibly due to the lack of leisure alternatives on this isolated beach or possibly due to the number of good friends we have made here which we enjoy sharing time with, each meal has become an event and the food has never failed to deliver a good time. Although I believed I would be missing my American standbys, my actual experience has been quite different. Most often there are many western dishes available on the menus, but they have mostly lost their appeal on and I find my favorites to be Thai, and often involving some type of curry. Most of the Thai dishes the locals whip up for farang involve rice, veggies, chicken or pork, cashews or peanuts and some type of noodle or curry. Some are a little more interesting. Stuffed pineapple or if you are going all out the Thais would be more than happy to fry you up a snapper right from the sea... eye balls and all. Remember the cheeks are the tastiest.

Bottle or bucket?

Koh Phanghan is infamous for its Full Moon Party every month on the night of the full moon.  Tens of thousands of people converge onto the island, probably doubling its population, to a small beach about a quarter mile long to drink and drug all night long and dance away to hard techno music in the sand.  So well known is the party that neighboring islands have borrowed on the theme to throw Blue Moon and Black Moon parties.  The cheap accommodations, eats, and booze draw the gap year, vacationing college kid, and young backpacker lots that have made the party what it is.  As for the booze it comes in two forms… beer or bucket.  The beer of choice is Chan Lager popular for its 8% alcohol content and cheap price which is usually served as a tallboy 22oz‘er.  Small stalls about 1-2m wide line the beach front with shouting and hollering Thais trying to entice you to buy their buckets over their neighbors under bright red lights signaling the danger that lies ahead.  Usually used to help build sand castles for cute little kids buckets are sold in various sizes with a much naughtier intent.  In the smaller buckets you find either a can of soda or juice, a bottle of Red Bull concentrate (100ml concentrate bottles with ingredients illegal in the US including ephedrine), a 200ml bottle of your poison of choice, and four straws.  The cheapest, most popular, and most likely option to strain your liver being SangSom, who’s label claims the substance inside to be rum while a taste tells you it is clearly a liquor in a genus unto its own.  The larger buckets just double or triple the soda, the Red Bull concentrate, and the booze and double or triple the likelihood you wake up in a tub full of ice with your kidney missing.  I am not much of a gambling man so I will just stick to my Singha Lager.

 

Brews of Thailand

One of the best treats in life is an ice cold beer, especially in a land where it is at least 34C/95F in the shade every day.  What makes Thailand a bit different, other than the beers itself, is that you can buy beer anywhere and drink it anywhere.  Pick up a few on the way to dinner, pop one open on the street, and walk right in to the restaurant with it… no worries.  It helps add to the sense that I have been developing while in Thailand that you are home wherever you are.  Chan Lager… has as much alcohol content as it does lack of good taste.  Often served as a tallboy 22oz’er and breakfast of the frat boyish type, two of these and you are faced, three of these and your face is in the toilet.  Nearly on par with Sri Lankan beer for its righteously horrible flavor.  Singha Lager… great taste if not a tad bitter, the go to beer of choice on the islands.  Leo Lager… the best of the lot, the most expensive, and the most difficult to track down on the islands.  Bonus points to Leo for the coolest label.  7-11 prices: Chan 30b/$.85USD (tallboy 55b/$1.50USD), Singha 40b/$1.10USD (tallboy 70b/$2USD), Leo 55b/$1.50USD

Rice burger

First the fried chicken bun, now this, why can't someone invent the bacon bun?

Pizza... the international delight

So far away, yet so close to home.  Even after making some missteps abroad chasing down a good pie, most notably with some pizza cheese of questionable origin in Peru (consensus being that it was alpaca cheese), I found a little slice of home on Koh Tao at El Gringo's.  Nothing like snuggling up to the “El Gringo” with a mildly chilled Singha and watching some English satellite television after a day of academics at the dive school and learning I was in fact not done with written tests for the rest of my life as I had thought.

Yakiniku: more gratuitous meat grilling for your pleasure

Using what may be the most fantastical dinner table ever invented, Japanese Yakiniku involves cooking various kinds of beef, steak, chicken, and veggies on an open fire pit and grill built directly into the dinner table and flush with the dinning surface.  Genius strikes a gain here folks, the Japanese know how to do some grilling.  Why have I never even had this as an option on my dinning furniture?  You would be hard pressed to find a man that would turn down the option of an open fire pit in his dinning room table... sounds like another opportunity for vast wealth and riches.

FYI - The Yakiniku is hands down amazing.  If you can find it get it.  I would use it as a marinade on steaks, probably letting them soak for just a few hours.  I personally do not prefer the many teriyaki steak marinades, but yakiniku on the other hand is a whole different ball of meat.

Shabu-shabu

What a genius idea... a meat cook-out on your own dinner table. Someone deserves a medal. Fresh vegetables are boiled up in a large bowl to create a tasty bath for cooking beef. A grill under the bowl is used simultaneously for browning all sorts of delicious items such as steak, duck, chicken, pork, and more veggies. But the sweet, salty, and savory dipping sauces a-plenty are the real mark of a culinary adventure. Someone should popularize this stateside, they will make millions... hibachi ain't got nothing on this.

Last American Meal

Why not sample some fine American cuisine just before traveling abroad extensively and being divorced from artery clogging high fat American fine dinning. Down a highway, across a bridge, and over a river we found flavor country in an grease stained brown bag... a tasty little temptress, the Five Guys double bacon cheeseburger with grilled onions and fried peppers, and crispy jalapenos for some, awaited. Cheese overfloweth, ground beef so tasty, and peppers and onions peeking out from underneath the bun just to say a quick inviting 'hey there big boy'.  So good, yet so so naughty, I will miss you America.