A Weekend of Indulgence

We returned once again to Indulgence Restaurant & Living in Ipoh for a short weekend break and some serious self indulgence in the excellent cuisine from chef Julie Song. The food was, as ever, excellent and accompanied by the great service of her well trained team it was a memorable experience. The boutique rooms at Indulgence are all very comfortable, each one decorated in a theme or style. This time we were lucky to enjoy the wonderful Roccoco style of the Qatrynka suite which as you can see from the photographs was beautifully furnished and decorated. The bathroom with its brightly coloured hand-painted murals on the walls and the tasteful fittings was both stunning as well as spacious.

Saigon Street Scenes

Saigon, or rather Ho Chi Minh City as it is called now, is a wonderful place for observing street life. It is a vibrant Asia city where many activities occur on the street from peddling goods to preparation and eating of a multitude of foods. Many years ago the bicycle was the king here but this has now been replaced by the motorcycle which predominates the traffic in the city. On Sundays people simply cruise the streets on the motorbikes and it is a real challenge to actually cross the road given the density of the bike traffic. The trick is to slowly, but positively, walk out into the street and the bikes will part and move around you ..... that theory has held up for me so far!!

Fried Green Chillies

This was one of my favorite tapas dish during a trip to Spain .... fried green chillies. Wonderfully pungent with a slight spicy taste was a great way to start a meal washed down of course with some sangria or wine. This shot was taken in a small restaurant just off the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain.

Bag Boys

A common sight in Siem Reap, Cambodia are orphan children roaming the streets begging or scavenging for food and other basic necessities to scratch out a living. These two boys were walking the streets with their large bags collecting useful items to use or to sell. Amazingly many of these poor children still have a happy smiling face as we can see here as this boy looks round and spots me lining up my photograph.

The Tavern

The Tavern Bar in the Aryaduta Hotel, Jakarta used to be a real hot-spot but as you can see from this i-phone panoramic shot the place is now very quiet. It was famous for it's pub food, particularly the hot-stone steaks and the resident band who were invariably from Philippines. With all the new hot-spots in Jakarta it looks like the crowd has moved on leaving The Tavern more spacious but with little atmosphere now.

Foodie Friday

Remembering your favorites meals is easy with your i-Phone when out for a dinner. Looking at these scallops I can almost remember the sweet delicate taste and texture.

Ipoh Tauge (beansprout)

Ipoh in Malaysia is well known for its wonderful street food and one of the most famous dishes is the Ipoh chicken rice usually served up with a large plate of bean sprouts (locally called tauge). These wonderful fresh, fat, juicy bean sprouts are basically blanched for a matter of a few seconds in boiling water and then served with soya sauce and usually a springing of pepper.

Life After Death

These mushrooms had sprouted up on an old dead palm oil husk. Fungi are important decomposers of dead animal and plant matter and break down the organic material into simpler compounds that can be absorbed into the soil and  used by other plants. During this process they return carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which green plants then use during photosynthesis to produce food and these green plants then produce oxygen.

Pretzel Logic

Pretzels are a common street food seen in New York and always reminds me of that famous Steely Dan song and album Pretzel Logic.

I would love to tour the Southland
In a travelling minstrel show

In a traveling minstrel show

Yes I'm dying to be a star and make them laugh

Sound just like a record on the phonograph

Those days are gone forever

Over a long time ago, oh yeah

I have never met Napoleon

But I plan to find the time

I have never met Napoleon

But I plan to find the time

'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill

They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still

Those days are gone forever

Over a long time ago, oh yeah

I stepped up on the platform

The man gave me the news

He said, You must be joking son

Where did you get those shoes?

Where did you get those shoes?

Well, I've seen 'em on the TV, the movie show

They say the times are changing but I just don't know

These things are gone forever

Over a long time ago, oh yeah 

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic by Aural Villains

Yakitori

The term Yakitori can also refer to skewered food in general. Kushiyaki (skewer grilled), is a formal term that encompasses both poultry and non-poultry items, skewered and grilled. Both Yakitori and Kushiyaki mean the same, so the terms are used interchangeably in Japanese society.

The average yakitori is made from several bite-sized pieces of chicken meat, or chicken offal, skewered on a bamboo skewer and grilled, usually over charcoal.

Diners ordering yakitori usually have a choice of having it cooked with salt (shio) or with tare sauce, which is generally made up of mirin, sake, soy sauce and sugar. The sauce is applied to the skewered meat and is grilled until delicately cooked.

• hatsu (ハツ) or kokoro (こころ), chicken heart
• rebā (レバー), liver
• sunagimo (砂肝), or zuri (ずり) chicken gizzard
• tsukune (つくね), chicken meatballs
• (tori)kawa ((とり)かわ) chicken skin, grilled until crispy
• tebasaki (手羽先), chicken wing
• bonjiri (ぼんじり), chicken tail
• shiro (シロ),　chicken small intestines
• nankotsu (なんこつ), chicken cartilage
• toriniku, all white meat on skewer

Pasar Malam

Pasar malam is an Malay and Indonesian word that literally means night market, "pasar" being related to "bazaar" in Persian. A pasar malam is a street market in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighbourhoods.

It brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruits, vegetables, snacks, toys, clothes, shoes, alarm clocks, and ornaments at cheap or at least reasonable prices. Pirated DVDs, CDs and computer software are often sold at a pasar malam. A pasar malam often takes place only one to a few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighbourhoods on different days of the week. Haggling over prices is a common practice at such markets.

Pasar Malam are often differentiated by ethnicity. A Malay pasar malam will often contain stalls selling Islamic books, kopiah hats, sarongs and other Malay specialty items. Chinese pasar malam may sell Mah Jong sets, incense, joss sticks, joss paper and various Chinese prayer supplies. Indian pasar malam may contain Hindu prayer supplies

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Wing Wah

The bright red shop of Wing Wah really stood out in the surrounding drab buildings of Guangzhou, China. Wing Wah is a famous food manufacturer and specialises in moon cakes. This image was post processed using Aperture and by reducing all the colour saturation sliders to zero except the red colour slider I highlighted and emphasised the red colour.

Szechuan Cuisine

Szechuan cuisine, Szechwan cuisine, or Sichuan cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in Sichuan Province of southwestern China famed for bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of theSichuan peppercorn. Peanuts, sesame paste and ginger are also prominent ingredients in Szechuan cooking. Although the region is now romanized as Sichuan, the cuisine is still sometimes spelled 'Szechuan' or 'Szechwan' in the West. There are many local variations of Sichuan cuisine within Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, which was politically part of Sichuan until 1997. The four best known regional sub-styles are Chongqing style, Chengdu style, Zigong style, and Buddhist vegetarian style.

West Lake Floating Restaurant

This beautiful floating restaurant is on West Lake in Hangzhou, China. West Lake seems to be a very popular name for Chinese restaurants - I used to go to one in Singapore many years ago. It was only when I eventually visited Hangzhou that I realised the name comes from the famous West lake that is there. 

Yummy Yam

Another image from the back streets of the Old City in Shanghai showing the yam (or sweet potato) seller in action.

Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae). These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam.

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, but it is not part of the Dioscoreaceae family.

Although it is unclear which came first, the word yam is related to Portuguese inhame or Spanish ñame, which both ultimately derive from the Wolof word nyam, meaning "to sample" or "taste"; in other African languages it can also mean "to eat", e.g. yamyam and doya in Hausa or "to chew" in Dholuo language of the Luo of Kenya and Northern Tanzania.

There are over 100 ethnic groups and languages in Nigeria, and each has different language names for Yam, "Isu" is the Yoruba translation or "Iyan" when it has been prepared to be consumed as a main course for dinner. The yam is a versatile vegetable which has various derivative products after process, it can be barbecued; roasted; fried; grilled; boiled; smoked and when grated it is processed into a dessert recipe. Yams are the staple crop of the Igbo people of Nigeria, in their language it is known as ji, and they commemorate it by having yam festivals known as Iri-ji or Iwa-Ji depending on the dialect.

Yam tubers can grow up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and weigh up to 70 kg (154 lb).

The vegetable has a rough skin which is difficult to peel, but which softens after heating. The skins vary in color from dark brown to light pink. The majority of the vegetable is composed of a much softer substance known as the "meat". This substance ranges in color from white or yellow to purple or pink in ripe yams.

Yams are a primary agricultural commodity in West Africa and New Guinea. They were first cultivated in Africa and Asia about 8000 B.C. Due to their abundance and consequently, their importance to survival, the yam was highly regarded in Nigerian ceremonial culture and used as a vegetable offered during blessings.

Yams are still important for survival in these regions. The tubers can be stored up to six months without refrigeration, which makes them a valuable resource for the yearly period of food scarcity at the beginning of the wet season.

Yams are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Palpifer sordida.

Bó bǐng

Bings are usually a casual food and generally eaten for lunch, however, they can also be incorporated into formal meals. Both Peking duck and moo shu pork are rolled up in thin wheat flour bao bing with scallions and sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce. Bing may also have a filling such as ground meat. Bing are commonly cooked on a skillet or griddle though some are baked.

Some common types include:

• Cong you bing (蔥油餅; scallions and oil bing)
• Fa mian bing (發麵餅; yeast-risen bing)
• Laobing (烙餅; branded bing)
• Shaobing (燒餅; roasted bing)
• Jian bing (煎餅; fried egg pancake, similar to crepes), and a popular breakfast streetfood in Hong Kong.
• Bó bǐng (薄饼; literally "thin pancakes") refers to a thin circular crepe-like wrapper or "skin" (薄餅皮) wrapping various fillings. This is sometimes called "Mandarin pancake" or "moo shoo pancake" (木须饼, mù xū bǐng) in American Chinese food contexts.
• Yuèbǐng (月餅; mooncakes) a type of bing usually produced and eaten at the mid-autumn festival
• Luo buo si bing (萝卜絲餅, shredded radish bing) is a type of panfried bing consisting of a wheat dough skin filled with shredded radish

Bings are also eaten in Korean culture, the most common being jian bing, which are consumed together with seafood.

These Bó bǐng seen in the image above were seen being made in one of the tiny back streets of the Old City area in Shanghai. This street was full of food vendors making and selling a large variety of foods and made a very colourful and lively venue for street photography ..... as well as food sampling.

The video below shows the process of making the Bó bǐng.

Floating Cuisine

This takes "Meals On Wheels" to a new aquatic level ..... Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia where many people live and do their daily business. This means floating homes, floating schools and churches and mobile food markets by boat.

Petaling Street

Petaling Street is in Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is infamous for pirated clothes and accessories such as handbags and watches along with bootleg DVDs and CDs. Petaling Street however does not exclusively offer pirated products. Haggling is a common sight here and the place is usually crowded with locals as well as tourists.

The area has dozens of restaurants and food stalls, serving local favourites such as Hokkien mee, ikan bakar (barbecued fish), asam laksa and curry noodles. Traders here are mainly Chinese but there are also Indian, Malay, and Bangladeshi traders.

See also my earlier blog on the Toy Man who I photographed in Petaling Street.

Food on Foot

This is the Vietnamese equivalent of "Meals on Wheels" .... I call it "Food on Foot"! You will see countless vendors moving around the streets of Ho Chi Minh carrying their goods to sell on the streets. These vendors will set up shop on a convenient street corner or roadside and get down to business. You can also see many of these people cooking and selling roadside food which provides a cheap and convenient way to have a quick lunch or snack.

The Pink Sage

Tucked away in Jalan Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur is a new style hawker food outlet called "The Pink Sage" which calls itself a diner and pantry. Breakfast here is special with apparently the best pancakes in town - the main star being the stack of three thick, fluffy pancakes served up with corn and boysenberry syrup. Or you can choose the artery-blocking Greasy Breakfast with corned beef, hash browns, beef bacon, eggs and tomatoes. The homemade burgers are what customers come back for and the American Classic Cheeseburger being voted one of the best. The restaurant has a simple but appealing design and the clever use of glass makes it spacious and airy. Check it out.