chicken rice balls and satay action...

after a painless two hour bus ride, we arrived into melaka, got checked into our perfect little guesthouse tucked down a small lane in chinatown, got cleaned up and hit the streets for some afternoon eats.
taking a recommendation we got at borneo ink in kuala lumpur, we quickly found our way to famosa chicken rice ball. crazy sounding name, right? well the food was far from it. perfect chinese roasted chicken and fluffy little compressed rice balls, not too much different than matzo balls. they were garnished with sliced cucumber, green onion, and cilantro and drizzled with a bit of sweet plum sauce. since it was a chinese restaurant, the dish was served with a small bowl of hot soup, garnished with green onions and crispy fried onions. as with the beef ball noodles we ate in kuala lumpur, these too were served with a spicy homemade sambal (chile garlic sauce). we washed the whole thing down with our new malaysian favorite, fresh limejuice with a chinese sour plum. a really great midday meal and a good start to our eating in melaka.
later, we ended up at capital satay, somewhat of a malaysian institution, with tons of photos of celebrities, government dignitaries and past miss malaysias decorating the walls. i immediately knew that the food was going to be great when i saw the heavily worn stainless steel tables with built in hotpots along with a huge self service cold case full of all kinds of skewers. they offered everything from stuffed tofu or fried tofu to chicken, beef, pork ears, prawns, squids, greens, stuffed okras and an assortment of different little sausages and fish cakes. our server, thoroughly explained the whole process to me, what everything was in the cold case, how to cook it and how much it was all going to cost (not more than $5 for both of us…). we started cooking everything up in the molten hot satay sauce, a spicy sweet mixture of ground peanuts, tamarind, garlic, onions, chiles, ginger and dried spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander. it really is one of those perfect sauces that i am sure is nearly impossible to recreate at home. as we dug in, i remembered the last email i got from ainsley and thought how jealous he would be to hear about this… it was all really great, i particularly liked the fried tofu and pork stuffed tofu - both were nice and spongy and were able to soak up loads of the sauce. i was also a huge fan of the small plate of cucumbers and cubes of bread that we were served to eat over - the bread soaked up the drippings from the skewers, getting nice and soggy, while the cucumber was crispy and cold - making for a nice textural contrast. throughout the meal, i noticed the servers (all eight of them) keeping an eye on us. we got a few smiles and nods, so i think we made a good showing for the foreign contingency in addition to having a really good time.
fortunately, we are here in melaka for four more days before moving on to singapore. we'll keep eating and i'll keep you posted on what we find. david

pasar minggu

last night we had dinner at the pasar minggu, or sunday market. even though it happens on saturday night, it is called the sunday market because it lasts into the wee hours of the morning... however, we didn't stick around to prove that fact. we did hang out long enough to eat a few great dishes. on our way, we stopped for some pisang goreng, basically small, half ripe bananas that have been battered and fried crispy. not too sweet, but deadly in the trans fat department.
after weaving our way through a few streets of small local restaurants, street hawkers and durian vendors, we settled on a small restaurant that served traditional malay fare.
i was excited to see a sign for olak-olak, a snack made with seasoned fish paste grilled over open coals in banana leaves. i quickly subdued the fear in the eyes of the server - a phenomenon often caused when a big white guy walks into a small local eatery... i am pretty sure that they are worried i am going to try to order a hamburger and french fries or ask for a bunch of special orders... no shrimp paste, vegetarian, not too spicy, etc, etc. however, after quickly asking for 4 of the olak-olak and an order of ayam biryani, she smiled and asked if i wanted drinks too. i figured a couple of milk teas, teh tarik, would do the trick. i sat down with alina and before i knew it, we had olak-olak hot off the grill. they were great, and quite sweet despite their red color. they almost had a char siew flavor to them. the banana leaves also added a nice smokey flavor. they worked well with the ayam biryani, loosely translated chicken and baked rice. the chicken was braised tender in a thick brown sauce, spicy with clove, nutmeg and coriander. it was very tender and really complicated in flavor. the biryani, a type of baked rice eluding to the indian influence in malaysia was perfect. biryani is a baked basmati rice dish. this one was loaded with fresh turmeric, raisins, a little saffron and cardamon, along with a few chiles, tomatoes and onions. it was perfect. garnishing the plate was a relish made with fresh cucumber, pineapple and fiery hot chiles. along side the relish was fresh made sambal, a chile garlic sauce that is everywhere in malaysia. to round out the dish in the texture department, a few crispy rice flour chips were thrown in too. i was stoked to have such a great malay meal after eating so much solid indian and chinese food here. it is good to know that all of the ethnic groups can hold their own in the food scene... yet another great meal in malaysia. i have to say, this country is quickly moving to the top of the list of my favorite asian cuisines.

dinner in kuala lumpur

tonight i had frog porridge for dinner from a chinese food hawker on jalan alor in central city, only a few minutes from our hotel. it is a very simple version of congee, a traditional chinese style rice porridge. congee is popular through asia for breakfast, lunch and dinner. i understand it to be a sort of comfort food for many chinese - the same way i feel about my mom's chicken and dumplings... anyways, the frog congee, incedibly simple, had really great flavor and texture. the porridge was heated up in a pyrex type sauce pan with a little water to thin it out a bit. it was garnished with some shaved green onions and a healthy dose of dark roasted sesame oil. a few frogs were cut into three pieces each, tossed into another sauce pan with a good amount of hoisin sauce, some soy sauce and chopped green chiles. it was quickly brought to a boil on a wok burner and delivered to our table in the cooking vesel, just like the congee. although she is usually quite adventurous as a diner, alina wasn't too thrilled about my plans for dinner, so i only ordered one portion (assuring her she could stop for noodles afterwards)... however, it was more than enough for two people (for only $2.50 us), which worked out well because she ended up eating it with me after realizing how good it was. the flavors were very delicate, as the congee is pretty bland, even with the sesame oil and hoisin from the frogs. however, as the chiles continued to steep in the hoisin sauce, they got 'nuclear' hot, completely changing the dish towards the end. it was great. the flavors were interesting, the porridge was tasty and filling and the frog was cooked perfectly, tender and moist and super fresh (probably still hopping around this morning in some market in the city...). david

little india

lunch in kuala lumpur's little india was quite remarkable today. while i have always thought that i loved indian food, i am quickly realizing that i know very little about it. fortunately, with malaysia's ethnic indian population, we are getting a primer on a lot of the dishes that we have never had stateside. our lunch today at sangeetha, a southern indian vegetarian restaurant, proved to be quite a learning experience. i had the quick set lunch, costing rm $7, about $2 us. here is a run down of everything included on the tray. from top left and working clockwise, first is kuruma, a spicy vegetarian stew of chickpeas, potatoes, peas, cashews, tomatoes, chiles, star anise and cloves. second is chapatti, a crispy fried flat bread made of whole-wheat flour. next is appalam, crispy crackers made of dahl flour and scented with caraway and cumin. next is a special sweet dessert from the kerala region called semiya payasam. it is a tapioca and vermicelli noodle dessert cooked in rich coconut milk, scented with cardamom and a soft sour plum (similar in size to a raisin) that i had never had before. it was great, a really nice finish to the spiciness of the other components. next is a curd rice, a type of rice pudding made with yogurt, spiked with green chiles, sesame seeds and a fried chile pepper garnish. next to that is sambar rice made with sambar powder (a curry spice mix), turmeric, tamarind, tomatoes, onions, dahl and onions. finally is a biryani rice, basmati mixed with veggies, spices, cardamom and a few vanilla pods.
i finished the meal with masala tea, a really decadent tea flavored with spices and milk. masala chai is literally 'spiced tea.' in the states, we usually refer to this type of tea as simply 'chai,' although in india, chai simply means tea… along side the masala chai alina and i had gulab jamoon, a very rich milk dough made with condensed milk and a bit of flour, seasoned with rose water and cardamom, fried and soaked in a mixture of simple syrup, honey and rose water - out of this world. a far cry from the first time i had indian food on breckinridge lane with merilyn, carl and my brothers. i remember that the server offered us desert and we accepted, not having any idea what we were about to get. then after the gulab jamoon arrived at the table, all three of us boys, in our early teens, were hysterical with laughter at the completely unusual and foreign dessert we were presented - my, what a difference 20 years makes… here i am writing about the finer points of a great dessert that at one point in my life had me laughing so hard i was seconds away from peeing my pants… it must have been those moments - eating in indian, chinese, lebanese and greek restaurants, along with the traveling our parents did with us that got me where i am today - writing about a great southern indian lunch i just had in kuala lumpur, malaysia.
along side my set lunch, alina had chapatti set which included a few wedges of the same tasty fried whole wheat flat bread i had, along with kuruma, curried dahl (lentils) and aloo matar, a dry curry of potatoes and peas.
we finished the afternoon with a walk through little india, checking out sari shops, bangles and sitting outside the masjid mosque watching kuala lumpur's indian muslim population fill into the beautiful building, hailing the call of the muezzin for the adhan, the call to prayer. it was a peaceful and serene experience, hearing the melodic chants bellowing from the minaret above. david

eating in malaysia

malaysia's ethnic diversity makes for some great dining. we have sampled heavily from the food stalls and restaurants, eating south indian favorites, north indian cuisine, traditional malay and lots of chinese food. we only have about a week left in malaysia so we have our work cut out for us if we are going to try something from each of the 49,000 registered street hawkers and over 4,000 unregistered hawkers in kuala lumpur alone… here is a run down of a few of the most notable dishes so far.

tandori chicken from kapitain's in georgetown. well, their sign says that they have the best tandori in town. additionally, they were also recommended by the owner of our guesthouse. no one seems to be lying here - it is beyond awesome. of course, nothing that we have ever had in the states is even in the same league as kapitain's tandori chicken. it was heavily spiced in the traditional thick red curry paste that gives the tandori oven grilled chicken it's bright, distinctive color. it is moist and perfectly cooked on the inside and the bits of crispy, charred skin and curry paste on the outside are other-worldly. it is served with, as you might expect, the best naan we have had. we ordered buttered garlic naan and it was perfect. charred and slightly blackened from the intense heat of the walls of the tandor oven on one side and slightly steamed from the quick cooking process on the other side. served with mango chutney, cucumbers, raw onions and dahl - a light curry sauce made with lentils, for dipping. the other plus to the whole experience is that you get to put down the knife, fork, spoon and chopsticks and dig in with your hands, or hand that is (as the left is traditionally reserved for another part of the digestion process…). there are hand sinks throughout the restaurant and diners, wash up before they dig in, holding their right hands in the air like surgeons, waiting for their food to arrive.

hainan chicken and rice - a malay staple dish, served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. the chickens are served two ways, either roasted or poached. both methods are expertly executed and yield perfect results. the chicken is served cold, or room temperature (which is rarely below 30 degrees C). it's served on a small plate with dark soy sauce, raw cucumbers and a few chives. on a separate plate comes hot, steamed rice. in a bowl is a simple vegetable broth with a few lettuce leaves and lastly is house made sambal - a spicy, sour chile garlic sauce that is so good that alina asks for at least one extra every time we have it.

curry mee - served at street hawker stands throughout the country. each version is basically the same, although the thick curry ladened coconut broth varies from stall to stall. mee means noodles in malay and in this version, thick, chewy egg noodles are the right choice. curry mee is garnished with chunks of fried tofu that have simmered in the curry broth, cockles (a bivalve, similar to clams), shredded chicken, long beans (chinese green beans that grow over a foot long), a little cabbage and sometimes ladyfingers (okra). it is a full meal, rich and hearty and immensly satisfying.

samosa and curry puffs. the indian hawkers hold the market on the best of the fried foods - crispy, rich dough stuffed with curried dahl, shredded chicken, raisins and chilies - all fried up g.f.b. and perfect. if they were better for you i would try to sustain myself on them alone - although i am sure that would quickly undo all of our efforts cleansing at the sanctuary…

beef ball noodle is a staple dish in kuala lumpur. ngau kee beef ball noodles is the best in the city. their version is steamed, thick egg noodles covered with stewed minced beef and thick dark soy sauce. accompanying the noodles in a separate bowl are beef dumplings served in a clear beef broth. home made chile sauce, not unlike a good spicy salsa, rounds out the meal. we had ours with iced chinese herbal tea to wash it all down.

the best part about all of this great eating is that, supposedly, it is only a primer leading up to the famous food hawkers centers a few hundred kilometers south in singapore - i can't wait. david

touring georgetown

the island of penang has a colorful, multi-ethnic society that is dominated by three major races of malay, chinese and indian people. together these 3 groups make up 90%of the state's population and with their different historical, cultural and religious backgrounds have co-existed in harmony for generations. we took an extensive walk around the colonial city of georgetown and were able to experience a little bit of each of the cultures.

we set out from our chinatown guesthouse and start the day with some traditional chinese dim sum. the ginsing chicken with bean curd and the yam and bbq pork fritters were exceptional. after breakfast we continue on to our first site, the khoo kongsi, or clan house, which is a building that is partly a temple and partly a meeting hall for chinese of the same clan or surname. the elaborate temple was quite magnificent with its wildly colorful mix of dragons, lanterns, paintings and carved columns. we were also impressed by the downstairs museum that outlined the 27 generations of the clan. as we make our way through chinatown we stop at a couple more beautiful, but not quite as impressive
chinese clan houses.

the smells and sounds of india fill the air as we approach little india. we walk past shops selling beautiful saris and colorful gold bangle bracelets. we stop at a local café for some milk tea and waters. the set banana leaf lunch looked delicious, but we weren't quite ready for lunch just yet. the bollywood musical playing on the television made for excellent entertainment while we sipped our beverages. after a quick stop at an atm machine for some malaysian ringitts, we moved on towards the colonial district of the city. first we passed fort cornwallis, a legacy of the british presence in penang. as the oldest british settlement in malaysia, many grand colonial buildings can still be found in georgetown. we pass the beautifully restored town and city halls before arriving to the penang state museum. the museum's engaging exhibits depicted the customs and traditions of penang's various ethnic groups with old photos, costumes, furniture and other displays. we learned a great deal about the malay people and their culture.

malay = one who habitually speaks malay, is a muslim, and practices malay custom, or adat.

following the museum we made our way to a local indian restaurant for a late lunch of stewed mutton and curried squid - absolutely delicious! our waiter gave us a quick tutorial on some of the items on offer and some of the staple malay items like coconut rice - malaysia's "fast-food".

we met so many nice, helpful locals today and thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the cultural diversities of georgetown. we've only been here for a couple of days and we can already say that we love the sights, tastes, and friendly people of malaysia!

alina

thailand, the wrap up

our comments and observations of thailand:

.thai people are kind and have a peaceful, calm demeanor. they also politely maintain queues, hold open doors, and similar to hawaiians - stop moving traffic to allow pedestrians to cross.
.thai people have national pride like no other. the people love their king, who's photo is displayed everywhere. long live the king!
.thailand is colorful. flowers, wats, tuk-tuks, taxis, buses, food…everything is alive and vibrant with color.
.double decker, ornately painted with coordinating interiors, with food, beverages, karaoke and bathrooms….thai buses are "pimped out" and the best in south east asia.
.thai people are a bit more "normal" in size and aren't quite as mini as the rest of south east asians.
.we love thai food! we both agree that it's our favorite cuisine of the trip so far.
.bangkok is choke full of western-style restaurants like mcdonalds, burger king, kfc, dunkin donuts, outback, and dairy queen. 7/11 convenient stores are literally on every city block.
.thailand's temples are amazing. they are the most colorful, ornate, and "shimmery" we've ever seen.
.thailand has lots of pretty boys...that look like girls…
.wifi services were a bit harder to come by than expected. we encountered a fair amount of difficulties locating wifi to download and post photos to the sites.
.we love thai massage! being fans of massage therapy, thai massage has been some of the best we've had.
.thailand is an excellent country for a holistic retreat - yoga, meditation, massage, cleansing - the options are endless.
.they say, "you look like thai people!" i say, "thank you!"
.with excellent tourism infrastructure and organized transportation systems, thailand is an easy country to travel.
.thailand is addictive. we extended our stay by 3 weeks, for a total of 6 fabulous weeks.
.your money goes far in thailand. offering an excellent value, it's a great country for budget travel. we now understand why hippies choose to stay for so long.

what things cost in thailand:

.an a/c, double ensuite room at baan sabai guesthouse in bangkok $14.00
.a fan-cooled bungalow at andaman beach resort on ko phi phi $45.00
.an order of pad thai from a street stall $1.00
.green papaya salad $0.80
.bottled water $0.21
.a large bottle of singa beer $2.00
.fresh squeezed orange juice $0.30
.12 oz can of diet coke $0.50
.fresh brewed coffee $0.60
.fresh coconut water $0.50
.an order of fresh fruit $0.60
.a bagged thai iced tea $0.30
.noodle soup from a stall $0.60
.six jumbo grilled prawns from a vendor $1.50
.anything to eat or drink in the southern islands…100% more…
.a city bus ride in bangkok $0.21
.a ride across town via sky train in bangkok $1.15
.a ride on the water taxi $0.50
.a 7 hour train ride in a third class compartment $2.00
.a 3 hour ferry ride to kho phangnan $9.00
.admission to an ayuthaya wat $1.00
.one hour thai massage $6.00
.5 day cleansing program at the sanctuary $350.00
.yoga pants $8.50
.bamboo earrings $3.50
.the thai mask $17.00
.a hand-embroidered ornament $3.00
.a cotton woven scarf $1.50
.artistic photography postcards $0.60 each
.postage to the usa $0.39

what's next?

we're currently in southern thailand, in the city of hat yai. tomorrow morning we'll board a 4 hour bus that will take us across the border and into malasia to the city of butterworth. from there, we'll take a short ferry ride to the island of penang - where we will settle in for the next few days. we'll see you in malaysia!

onward!

alina

koh phi phi

our last five days in thailand were spent in the andaman ocean on koh phi phi - truly a little slice of heaven. here are a few pictures we managed to take in-between laying at the pool and laying at the beach…

just checking in...

after leaving laos, we spent the weekend in bangkok then headed a couple of hours south for 3 beach-filled days on the quiet island of ko sichang. the clear blue ocean water resembled a pool and made for perfect swimming conditions. after that, we took an overnight sleeper train south, then a ferry to the island of kho phangnan - which is where we are now. we're staying at a resort called the santuary, which is located on the remote eastern side of the island on hat thian beach. it's rather secluded and is only accessible by long tail boat or by jungle trail - so we love the peace and serenity. during our week here we're doing a fast/cleanse that consists of psyllium shakes, herbs, and daily colonics. it probably dosen't sound like much of a holiday to most, but we're excited about the positive effects it will have on our bodies. of course, we are looking forward to eating again, too!

we'll upload some photos when we are able, and we'll be in touch soon - after we are...cleansed.

alina