An overdue gallery of the food I met on my December 2011 trip to Negeri Sembilan.
#FoodFri is my weekly food feature where I showcase the food I met while travelling.
It’s Saturday now, didn’t manage to post on Friday but better late than never.
Was out for Night Festival tonight, visiting museums and watching outdoor shows and lights (update to come soon).
Anyway, we stopped by Standing Sushi Bar, intrigued by their alcohol promo.
I got the “large” glass of sake and D got the plum wine. Mine tasted very “adult” and was dry.
Not really my type of drink. Thank goodness the glass wasn’t as large as I imagined it.
//PS I realized that I sent the post to my other blog instead of this one, so bringing it over.
It’s very rare that I praise local food in Singapore. By local food, I mean Chinese, Malay, Indian or Peranakan dishes. (I would rather put American food to represent Singapore.)
Why? Because the Malaysian-made version is usually better.
But, I admit that the beef murtabak at Zam Zam Restaurant is up to standard. The dough was fried crispy and they were not stingy with their corned beef.
However, at the price of S$6, it’s really a lot more expensive than what we could get in Malaysia.
Zam Zam is located at the Arab Street area. Address: 697 North Bridge Rd, Singapore 198675
#FoodFri is a post up on each Friday featuring a dish or meals I’ve had when travelling (or staying put). Happy eating!
It’s lunchtime here in Singapore so I thought it’s an appropriate time to launch this week’s #FoodFri.
I was in Jakarta last weekend and was quite disappointed by the food there.
But I only have myself to blame. Despite all the research on food in Glodok, I didn’t really jot down the locations nor print out a Google Map of Chinatown.
Well, not everything was terrible so here’s a less hunger-inducing version of the Glutton series.
The restaurant/cafe at our hotel served quite tasty nasi (rice dishes). Since I’ve never been to Bali, I ordered the Nasi Bali.
The portion that came was quite small but D reminded me that what we have back home are actually supersized.
The whole dish was slightly spicy but tasty. I even had a fish paste on a lemongrass stick which was cute.
We did a very un-budget traveller thing in Jakarta and splurged at the buffet restaurant of a 5-star hotel. Hotel K. Our handbags needed to be checked and we had to pass a metal detector before we could go in.
The main mean spread was alright. The sushi counter a bit too stingy–salmon was gone and never to appear after one hour. The cold seafood was fine, although I would love to have raw oysters instead.
The redeeming feature were the desserts. My favorite was the sticky toffee pudding.
What I enjoyed most at the restaurant was gawking at the lifestyles (and hairdos) of the rich and famous.
When we were walking in search of the illusive Jalan Jaksa, we passed by this little restaurant. (If it’s in Lonely Planet, I’m not sure how little it is.)
They had a buffet breakfast spread so we got that. They served fried rice, fried eggs, fried chicken, fried potato patty, non-fried fruits. I had a lot of the coffee and tea as well.
While we were at Blok M, the hawkers were preparing to operate after the fasting period. The stuff looked tasty but we had more important food to tend to. Maybe we can come back next time.
Not quite an originally Indonesian dish but I enjoyed my cheaper-than-Singapore Bread Papa creampuff at the airport. The organic strawberries I got from the supermarket were a bit too sour.
A colleague of mine introduced me to Teh Botol (literally “bottled tea”) before I went to Jogjakarta. The full sugared Teh Botol is too sweet for our liking but the Less Sugar version is like Goldilock’s last porridge. Just right.
Also from our hotel cafe/restaurant. The ice cream and coffee went really well.
While walking aimlessly after finding Jalan Jaksa, we stumbled upon this faux-vintage kopitiam. It has a 1960’s feel to everything.
The menu was a fake newsletter, telling people the origins of the place. (“No, it did not really exist in olden days. The coffeeshop is a recent creation”.)
I had two coffees there. The kopi jawa was a really “manly” drink with its dark liquid and coffee grounds while the Vietnamese-styled coffee lack the buttery taste.
I had one too many cups of coffes, as I found out an hour later. I was feeling nauseous for a long time after that.
I was looking forward to bouncy bakmi and huge meaty siowmay which I had in Jogjakarta. The flavor, the chewiness of everything!
Unfortunately, we visited Bakmi GM. It was the only visible (meaning a HUGE sign) bakmi place around and we thought the quality would be good.
When we reached the first floor of the building, we found ourselves with plenty of other Indonesians. This must mean that the food is good.
Our order was taken and paid on the spot. However, it took a really long time for our change to come back. In fact, our food arrived before the change did.
The avocado juice was incredibly good (as expected of Indonesia). However, the main dishes were not as tasty. D liked her veggie with oyster sauce but the rest were a joke.
My noodles were limp and all stuck together when I poked them with my chopsticks. It was not a good sign. I nibbled on it and discovered it tasted exactly like the terrible noodles I had as a kid.
Flashback of terrible noodles: It was a road trip and mom’s friends drove us to Kinabalu Park. We stopped by a shop for noodles. The dish was too disgusting that we children didn’t have much of it. Mom’s friend (Auntie L) insisted that the noodles were packed and brought along with us to eat later. In the end, I “accidentally” left the gross bad of soggy dough in the changing room. End of flashback.
Our fried siowmay followed. Instead of a fried meatball, it tasted like turnip cake. I felt like sobbing over the meal (mostly caused by caffeine induced overdrive of emotions).
We had to order another glass of avocado juice and pangsit or fried wonton to get the taste of noodles out of our mouths. The pangsit was ok with the meat as sidekick to the fried dough.
Overall, it was not a good meal. I’m sorry for being disappointed.
My #FoodFris are turning into Supper Fridays with all these late posts.
Today, instead of a dish, I want to show you something special from Japan.
Nakau is a fast food chain in the Land of the Rising Sun. They don’t serve burgers or fries but Japanese food such as noodle and rice.
We had these during our trip to Kyoto last year. The meals were not drastically expensive but my mom wasn’t very impressed by our second meal. I still can eat five more bowls of udon before I surrender.
What’s great about the chain is that even if you do not know Japanese, you can order a meal. They have coupon machines with pictures of the dishes and the price. Feed it your cash and it will spit out a coupon. Pass the coupon as you settle down at the counter and the food will arrive very soon.
However, I’ve heard that single ladies do not visit such establishments alone. It has to do with gender stereotype. Oh well, it doesn’t apply to visitors, I suppose.
In Part 1 of Glutton in Hoi An, I introduced the street food (ok, ok some were from restaurants) I had while in the town.
For Part 2, I’ll be talking about meals I had in restaurants–a bit pricey but still cheap when compared to Singapore.
Address: 106 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street (TripAdvisor)
One of the restaurants run by Miss Vy (She’s Lonely Planet famous) where I had my grandest meal in Hoi An at the Morning Glory.
Instead of the airconditioned seats, I picked the two-person seater at the veranda. Similarly, I ordered enough to feed two persons and a child.
I ordered the stir fried morning glory (which disappointly turns out to be just kangkung), Hoi An pho, iced coffee and a kem flan (Vietnamese crème caramel).
The stir fried vegetable came with a serving of rice. I wasn’t brave enough to ask the waiter to take the rice back as I didn’t want to seem like a food waster. So I ended up eating my bland veggie with rice.
The Hoi An pho was the first I had. I was surprised by the mild soup as I remembered a stockier soup in Saigon. It was OK.
The kem flan came with shaved ice on top of the creme caramel. Interesting traditional combination.
The bill was 200,000 dong, one of the more expensive meals I’ve had but worth every cent.
Address: 46 Bach Dang St., Hoi An, Vietnam (TripAdvisor)
I visited Blue Dragon at one of those awkward timing in between lunch and tea time.
The meat set meal (120,000 dong) was definitely not an Asian-person appetite serving. Maybe a really hungry Asian person-sized.
Overall, the meal was yummy. The beef fried spring roll was a bit dry. The fried wonton and it’s spicy seasoning was great, it felt like I was eating seafood because of the sauce.
The rest of the main meal: rice with chicken and fried noodles wasn’t fantastic.
I forgot that I had a frui salad at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to be serviced cool banana and pineapple.
Please don’t let my review of the food stop you from visiting the place. It’s actually pretty cool since they are linked to a charity also called Blue Dragon. On the yellow wall, you can see the mark of where the last big floods reached in the shop.
Address: 54 Cua Dai Road, Hoi An +84, Vietnam (TripAdvisor)
Since Hoi An has both the sea and a huge river, seafood is a recommended dish. I did a search of cheap seafood places on TripAdvisor, found Chinh’s and decided to visit when I was at Cua Dai beach.
The place is right before the bridge bringing you back to Hoi An old town. The view is fabulous since you can see the river. I saw two fisherfolks who sat so still that I thought they were puppets put on water as a symbolic tip of the hat to the fishing life.
Chinh’s seems to be a family-runned place When I was there, there was a lady and an elderly lady. I heard them chopping and stir frying in the kitchen.
Again, being the gauche tourist, I ordered a two-person’s servings of seashells and prawns. The coffee was unfortunately from a 3-in-1 mix.
Nice place to watch the river flow by.
Address: 2 Tran Phu Street (TripAdvisor)
On the first night, Linh the homestay owner made a face when she heard that we were heading to Mermaid for dinner. The place is too small and not airy, she said.
Linh was right.
I decided to visit the Lonely Planet-famous eatery during yet another awkward meal time. I ordered the white rose and a coffee.
The white rose were sticking to each other, not quite the “har gao” feeling I was looking for.
There are better places for food in the city but don’t let me stop you. (Bad reviews didn’t stop me from experiencing it neither.)
Vietman will always have a place in my stomach. It was the place I first started liking raw vegetable, ate banh minh, slurped good pho and discovered my love for buttery Vietnamese coffee.
So during my trip to Hoi An last week, I ate like the glutton I am.
Thought with all my cycling in Hoi An, I probably would have dropped one dress size. Unfortunately, my body believed in replacing all the muscle and fats I’ve lost in case of a zombie apocalypse so I probably ended up half a dress size larger.
I’m not sure if it’s the food portion or my vigorous cycling, I was really really hungry on Day 2 of my Hoi An trip. Even after a meal, my stomach would send signals to my brain saying: Hey! You should put more food into your mouth.
My brain obeyed and I ended up eating double portions of everything: banh mi (one pate and one plain) for tea time and a dinner for two at Morning Glory. Yikes! I was very pacified after the meal at Morning Glory that my stomach stopped complaining and was busy digesting but the feast went on.
Enough about my appetite, let me show you some of the yummies I had.
A famous noodle dish in Hoi An. My sister and I were trying to figure out what Cau Lao might mean in Chinese. Translations say “dry noodle” and she wondered if it’s “gon lau”.
The better Cau Lao I had was in the central market, eating next to locals. I was charged the price of a big bowl which I think is my tourist tax. Still, it’s only 20,000 dong (S$1.25).
The noodles are flat and translucent. There are slices of pork and pieces of pungent leaves–a taste I associate with Vietnam and have grown to love.
However, the best cau lao was made by the lady running the homestay. I had two servings and it was terrific!
My first Banh Mi in Saigon took me by surprise: fluffy, crunchy, tough and airy. A wild combination for a small baguette.
Unlike the jaw breaking French baguette, banh mi is more airy but with an equally stubbon but crispy crust.
The banh mi that I eventually ate in Hoi An was from a stall which legendary Anthony Bordain visited before. The reviews on TripAdvisor raved on and on. Despite just putting my head on my pillow and the sun being bright and strong at 2pm, I decided to find the famous stall and stuff myself with bread.
Banh Mi Phuong is not too easy to find. It’s next to shoes shops so you might miss it. At the junction of Nguen Duy Hieu and Phan Boi Chau, head towards the bridge but look at your right. The stall is right next to the small pedestrian entrance to the cloth market.
I bought one with pate and two empty ones to chew. The lady was puzzled why anyone would get empty ones when her fillings are to die for. (I didn’t dare tell it’s for my food baby–aka tummy.) All that bread for 25,000 dong. Amazing!!
I found a picnic spot opposite Hoi An town. It was a not too romantic place, perfect for my not-too-romantic face stuffing.
The sandwich was alright, yummy but not out of this world delicious. I wouldn’t mind having it from time to time. But the filling were substantial.
I’m not a pho connoisseur but Hoi An pho tasted different compared to Saigon pho. The stock less “busy” with clearer soup.
Before starting my meal, I drown the vegetables that came with the noodles. After drowning them in soup, they become half cooked and more edible. The flat noodles were perfect with the clear soup.
I had coffee at about every rest stop, coffee shop and restaurant. I was charged all sorts of prices from 9,000 to 25,000 dong. I had 3-in-1 mix, pre-made and metal filtered coffee.
The best coffee place for Vietnamese coffee in Hoi An is at Cafe 139, on Nguyen Duy Hieu. It’s a cafe under a house, next to the ditch/river. For only 10,000 dong, you get a buttery iced Vietnamese coffee *and* a glass of sweetened tea.
The serving is very petite–the regular Vietnamese size–while the ice cube really large. I usually read while I wait for the ice to melt before taking careful sips.
This edition of #FoodFri features part 1 of my Glutton in Hoi An post. In the next edition, I will showcase three (or more) restaurants I visited. Stay tuned!
Hi folks, I’m still in Hoi An, Vietnam, now until Sunday. Instead of showing you what I’ve eaten for the past two days, I plan to reveal it all in one go after the trip as part of my Glutton in Somewhere food series.
So today, I want to share the different seafood I had while I was back in KK at the end of last month. I didn’t do a Glutton series for Kota Kinabalu because the food was too familiar for me to cheer about.
KK is a seaside city and there’s plenty of seafood to go around. My favorite seafood is probably prawns but they’re a bit more expensive than crabs so I don’t eat prawns too often. I also suspect it’s because I don’t get to eat it so often that I like it more.
Mom usually brings me to this other seafood place when I’m back. But this time, they changed location to somewhere nearer my house. This new eatery opened while I was in Singapore so I never visited the place.
We had crabs (the seafood, not the STD).
As well as some challenging seashells.
On another day, my sister brought us to a roadside eatery for coconut and clams. (An odd combination, I must say.)
The clams were barbequed and quite yummy. But the chilli is what brings the yumminess to another level. Even I as a non-chilli eater liked it (but didn’t have too much of it).
So the next time you are in Kota Kinabalu, remember to stuff yourself with seafood!
The date October 22, 2011. The day for Jidai Matsuri. However, the event was delayed to the day later because of the the grey skies.
We decided to head to the Kyoto National Museum because I was not able to visit on my last trip three years back.
We didn’t have soba for breakfast. Instead, we had cakes at the cafe inside the museum compound.
The cake sets came with coffee or tea. The cakes, like all things Japanese, were presented beautifully.
I don’t remember them being fantabulous but they were nice. A different taste of Japan.
The first time I’ve ever tried deep fried duck was in Indonesia.
Compared to the fat (injection induced) friend chicken I’ve eaten, fried duck (especially in Indonesia) is very skinny. Imagine roasted duck but drier and tougher. Yes, that’s how it tastes like. Not that it’s not tasty that way, but it’s just special.
Unlike back home where meat or vegetable play the main role in a meal, the rice is the leading character here. (Let’s ignore the raw veg, I don’t eat raw veg.)
There’s a special chilli that comes along with the dish. Unfortunately, I don’t eat chilli too so I can’t tell if it’s any good.
#FoodFri is a post up on each Friday featuring a dish or meals I’ve had when travelling (or staying put). Happy eating!
YQtravelling 