The one about the food...

Its true. I love food. Good, tasty food. Yet the more observant of you will notice that this blog has been somewhat light on the gastronomic side thus far.

Time to right that wrong...

Feast your eyes on some of the things I've been enjoying these last two months. Of course, this is just a snap shot of the many adventures my pallet has been through, for three reasons. One, I've been travelling solo for the most part, making it slightly harder to take pictures of the food infront of me without looking slightly stupid. When you're out eating with friends or your girlfriend, you don't look THAT weird taking millions of pictures of the plates in front of you, especially if you're Chinese (Lets face it, you still look pretty stupid). But eating alone is embarassing enough as it is, what with everyone in the restaurant wondering why there is a random man sitting at a candle-lit table with an empty chair in front of him. So drawing attention to yourself in these situations is not wise in the first place. Add to this a very conspicuous camera and lots of flash lighting going off and you'll draw attention like Amy Winehouse at a bible study. Having said this, I got quite good at ignoring my inner voice that begged me not to take a photo of ANOTHER meal. I prepared a good story in my head in case anyone asked why I kept taking photos of various combinations of rice and meat. I'm a chef touring the world in search of culinary inspiration. I'm a food journalist searching for the perfect meal. I'm a UN food analyst researching the impact of rising grain prices on everyday meals. In the end I stopped caring what others thought and snapped away, UNLESS, I was too hungry, which is the second reason I don't have more pictures of the great meals I had. The last reason is that some meals looked very average, but tasted sublime, so most of these go unnoticed too, but not unremembered.

If you're hungry this might not help...


Ngau Chap- Malaysian specialty
Noodle soup with white carrot, beef, tripe and lots of other stuff that tastes good la.


Venison cooked to Malaysian perfection.


Nasi Lemak. Another Malaysian specialty worthy of pixels.


Kon Lau Meen with Buffalo meat and Sayur Manis- L.U.S.H
My dad says this veg can only be found in Sabah- shame cus its also lush.


Green Papaya Salad- Thai specialty


Barbequed Tiger Prawns in Thailand


Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice


Vietnamese claypot barbeque grill


Vietnamese Spring Rolls, or Nem to the locals.



Fish Amok- Khmer specialty
This steamed fish curry is wrapped in banana leaf and topped with coconut cream.


MANGO STICKY RICE
ALTHOUGH THESE PICTURES AREN'T IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER, THIS DESSERT IS VERY SPECIAL- TO THE POINT OF CAPITALISING EVERYTHING AND ADDING LOTS OF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAI DISH BUT EATEN IN CAMBODIA- THE BEST MANGO STICKY RICE TO DATE.


Roti Chanai- Malaysian specialty found in Singapore as well
Many will know this famous dish. For those that don't, you do not deserve to be looking at its picture so turn away and come back once you've repented.

So there you have it. A very quick glimpse at some of the things that have been going in and out of my body over the last 2 months. Note to Sam and Roy- Pictures of latter available on request.

A quick one...

In Phuket, with about 20 minutes before check out time at my hotel. Here's an update in lightspeed mode:

- Koh Samui was alright. Not great weather to be fair, but way too touristy for this tourist. Other people want to come see the same places as me? How dare they...

- Journey to Krabi was the worst journey to date. Should have taken 5 hours, took 9 because of poor service. Taken to random offices to buy more tickets, said no and made to wait. Broken down minivans (not sure if this was authentic) and way too many ppl in one vehicle, but met a nice couple along the horrendous way. Got to Krabi eventually.

- Did a cooking course in Krabi which was amazing. Thai food is one of the best cuisines in the world in my opinion, and its suprisingly simple, if you know how to do it. Which I am half way to doing. 3 of us in the class cooked all this in 2 hours, with some help ofcourse:

- Ko Phi Phi was gorgeous, but this attracts many white faces, which made the island feel more like a western place than a thai one. Did some more kayaking there, which bought me to the nicest beach i've seen on this trip so far, secluded, with water the colour of... well this:

- Phuket Town is great. Less white faces and alot of character make this place feel like some sort of old colonial chinese town, with great food due to the mix of chinese, thai and muslim communities livin here. Favourite town in Thailand so far. and best place to stay on a budget.

- On a less related but potentially more important note, I am in awe at Coldplay's new single. This could well be their best song...EVER.

From Bangkok

Okay, where to begin...

I last updated in Phnom Penh, just as I was about to head out on the motorbike tour. It is now Monday the 9th June, and since then I notched up another year in my life. 23 is now what I have to remember when asked my age. And I've already failed at this once.

I arrived in Bangkok safely last night, and am still in awe at Thailand's capital city. I knew it was going to be big and bold and loud, but after spending a month in more laid back countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, Bangkok is proving to be a real shock to the senses. I love it.

I never really thought myself a city boy, but rather grudgingly I think I have to accept that I am, given that I do feel quite at home in big cities like this. I love the remote places too, but there is something reassuring about the buzz of big city lights. Even the computer I'm using now has THE largest monitor in the world. This is a far cry from the motorbike tour of South Cambodia I did last week, which has been the highlight of this trip so far. Here's how it went.



I met the tour operator Bernard the day before starting, and was immediately impressed by this large- charactered French man with heavy French accent to match. In true European (not British) fashion, he was typically carefree and nonchalant, telling me not to worry about this or that, waving his hands with every other word. I met Vuth, my personal guide, who turned out to be one of Cambodia's top off-road bikers, and a complete nut on his bike. This guy was fearless, drifting round corners whilst standing up and racing through what seemed like un-passable roads at lightning speed. I later learned that the only other person to ever beat Vuth in terms of speed and nut-job crazyness on his bike was an off-road rider, who was apparently ranked number one in France. Setting off at 8am, Bernard had just two pieces of advice. One, be careful around Phnom Penh as the drivers have no brains, and two, if you hit anything or anyone, EVEN if it isn't you're fault, DON'T STOP TO SORT IT OUT, JUST DRIVE AWAY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. This really helped settle my nerves (!) Bernard said this was due to the fact that in Cambodia, the foreigner is always in the wrong, and so diplomacy doesn't work. In the event of trouble, just run. I couldn't help imagining trying to ride off after an accident, perhaps with a broken leg or worse. Shouldn't we at least swap insurance details? Insurance? Not something the Cambodians are familiar with it seems.

But as soon as we hit the open road, all this was forgotten. The bike, a 250cc Honda endurance bike, was much bigger and more powerful than I would have imagined for a 250. The sound of the engine was deep and not disimilar to a small Harley or Ducati. Compared to my 4 cylinder bike at home, which has more of a scream rather than a roar, this smaller enginged V-twin bike made an awesome noise when I twisted the throttle, prompting all smaller Cambodian bikes to quivver in fear, their riders instantly soiling themselves at the sound. In my head at least...

So there I was, riding this fast and very comfortable bike through various Cambodian terrain in the burning sun, with a strong, cool breeze. It was just as I pictured. Off-roading, however, was much harder than I anticipated, and consequently, much more fun than I realised too. At first when we hit some dirt tracks it felt like the bike would flip or lose control over the bumps and holes, but instead, it handled it perfectly. The key, according to Vuth, was confidence. If you hit the uneven terrain slow or tighten up in fear you risk falling. After a while this became more natural, as the back wheel started to drift and I started to get some air over jumps. I fell over once, riding on what I found to be the hardest terrain to master- sand. It looks innocent, but both the front and back wheels find no traction on this surface, and before you know it, the bike is zig-zagging and losing control. Vuth again provided the ironic solution. Go faster. This is hard to do when you've fallen once already and every instinct in your body is telling you to slow down. But it worked.



We rode for a good 10 hours or so that first day, with breaks in between for lunch and drinks. Turns out Vuth also knew and appreciated his food, ordering some very tasty Khmer dishes. Funnily enough, one of the dishes he ordered has been one of the best culinary experiences on this trip too. Funny because it was raw prawns, and I HATE raw food. To me it makes no sense to eat something cold and slimy when it tastes so much better cooked. If you're stranded on an island without matches or Ray Mears, fair enough. But if you got some fire, cook it! BUT, this dish was seasoned and prepared in a way that agrees with my tastebuds. Lots of ginger and chilli, some garlic, spring onion and fish sauce, topped with lime juice. The acid or something scientific cooks the prawns (kinda). Now, I had been forwarned by everyone not to even look at raw or undercooked seafood, so at first I hesitated. But Vuth assured me that it was plucked out of the ocean we were sitting next to minutes before, and so was completely fresh and safe. I'm glad I didn't listen to my instinct telling me not to eat it, because those raw prawns tasted b.e.a.utiful. No exaggeration I swear. Stupidly, I didn't take a photo because when they first appeared on our table, I was not impressed at all. Raw prawns!? And then when I realised how tasty they were, I was too distracted to take photos. Fortunately for you, raw prawns are quite easy to imagine.

A boat trip later and we were on Rabbit Island. Rather foolishly I had visions of a resort hotel, powerful shower and comfy bed. (We were covered, head to toe, in orangy, fine dust- in desperate need of a shower). Ofcourse, Rabbit Island was more like the scene of Castaway. No shower, one squat toilet and a beach hut with what I could only guess to be cockroach poo covering the not so comfy bed. It was r.e.mote. Once I got over the fact that I had to sleep in poo and dust, with no fan let alone air con, I somehow stopped caring. The flipside was that you could see a million stars from the beach, with no light pollution, and only the sound of the waves crashing against the sand that was 10 steps away from my poo bed. It was nice.

The next day Vuth decided I was ready to graduate to medium level roads, and we hit some much harder trails. Twice we had to cross small lakes (actually massive puddles from the rain but lake sounds better), which got me soaked, but I didn't fall in, which would have killed my camera. Given it is rainy season, we also hit some intense rain, which felt like paintballs being fired into my face. Saw one crash on the way home, and nearly had one myself, but survived in the end, tired, smelly, dusty, poo-covered, wet, bruised, battered and shaken, but alive, and very satisfied. I would highly recommended it anyone. And after trying out the buses in Cambodia, bike really is the best way to see the country.



Tomorrow I'm flying to Surat Thani for 4 days of beach, sun and sand. Oh and apparently thousands of other people looking for the same. Score.

In other news, I saw a Tesco advert on TV yesterday. You know you're missing home when the sight of the Tesco logo brings you to tears.

Till next time...

From Phnom Penh

In the words of Gordon Ramsay- Vietnam, DONE.



I know that time is supposed to fly when you're having fun, but the way it flew these past 3 weeks is suprising. I remember arriving in Hanoi and the fear of being driven from the airport at night by a maniac. And now i''m across the border in Cambodia. Ofcourse my 3 weeks have taught me that this initial driver was indeed a very normal Vietnamese driver. In fact I started to enjoy the way traffic works there. The single biggest joy of it is that road rage is practically non-existent. How many other countries can boast that? I couldn't understand why this was the case at first, given Vietnam's near constant state of war. Yet the masses of people riding motos around the country keep entirely calm whilst coming up against near miss after near miss. People cut people up, beep constantly and make u-turns whenever they feel like it, yet I only saw one small incident and almost no anger or aggrevation during my whole stay. The small incident was wen me and John (my roommate for the trip) hired a motorbike and headed into the countryside. A lady on a bike hit a lady on a bicycle and they squared up momentarily. It was resolved peacefully. BUT, quite interesting was the fact that they were both women. Some things never change, no matter how far you travel. And so whilst I never thought I'd say this, I will miss Vietnamese traffic, or at least the way traffic there works.



In terms of the food, this also got better throughout the trip. Travelling with others always requires being flexible, and with this in mind the food aspect of Vietnam was never going to be the focus. I did eat some great stuff though, and overall enjoyed the meals there. The most exotic of all the stuff I ate was a deep fried scorpion claw. The taste was ok, but the texture was horrible- crunchy and difficult to swallow. The most exotic drink was snake wine (which tasted like whisky). The best pho was in Saigon, which I had with the best spring rolls, steaming hot, crispy and light, and wrapped in lettuce and Vietnamese Basil (I think), dipped in fish sauce.



I think the biggest thing that will stick with me from my trip to Vietnam though was unfortunately its history of war. The war with America comes to mind for most people, but I found it interesting learning about the way the Vietnamese people have resisted numerous threats over many years, each time making massive sacrifices. Against the Chinese, Mongols, French, Americans and Khmer. The desire to be a sovereign country was so strong, and it was tested immensely over so many wars and battles. Going to the war remnants museum in Saigon was tough. The pictures and exhibits there are so raw that it was hard not to get teary eyed. The worst ones weren't always the graphic ones, but the pictures that showed the faces of villagers moments before they were massacred. Seeing the pictures themselves only showed scared men and women. But reading how the photographer took their photo, turned to walk away and heard gunshots made those faces almost difficult to look at- the fear of iminent death and the helpless look of confusion caught in the eyes of the villagers. The Cu Chi tunnels was also fascinating. Wikipedia will do a better job describing this complex of underground tunnels, but I was in awe at the human determination to win back ones country. To live underground for years on end, and in the worst conditions, but at the same time cause maximum damage to an enemy that was immemsely advanced in almost every way just shows how much Vietnamese people wanted a unified country without foreign intervention. And it worked.



So all all, these past few weeks in Vietnam have been thoroughly enjoyable. The group I was travelling in was great, as was our tourguide. Vietnam is a country that is shown in so many war films, but going there and seeing it firsthand shows a side that is impossible to capture otherwise. To see the people and to hear them speak of their past. To understand their desire for freedom. And to see their immense sacrifice in fighting for that.

I'm now in Phnom Penh, on my own again. I can't wait for tomorow, wen i'll be heading off-road on a motorbike, just me and a guide. I'll be riding for 2 days, and will hopefully get a good glimpse of remote life in Cambodia, off the beaten track, and best of all, on 2 wheels.



Till next time...