The Best Sizzle in Town (by G)

After a bit of a dinner failure the previous night I decided to return to the same place and try 'the best sizzle in town'. I can only now assume that Tanah Rata is not well known for its sizzling dishes because this was a disappointment.

Sure, it came on a sizzle plate but it was not sizzling when I got it and I'm not sure that it ever really sizzled.  The beef and vegetables were in a kind of savoury meat gravy that I don't think lends itself to sizzling and when it came it had cooled considerably and had formed a skin over the top.

That said, it was pretty tasty - the fried rice was not as good as the night before. It's possible there was also a touch of 'nyonya' in this dish but I don't know what that tastes like so I can't confirm it.

Quick Fried Rice (by Biggs)

I'm sure thousands of fried rice connoisseurs would be highly unimpressed with my dinner but it really was incredibly tasty.

No secrets just pork fried up, veges thrown in, followed by some cooked rice, a dash of soy sauce, salt and pepper (both black and white). Fry fry fry.....fried rice.

I did intend to include eggs as tradition dictates but I only had one left and dropped it on the ground just minutes before dinner.

Still, excellent.

Lemon Chicken (by G)

I ordered incorrectly again.  It was pissing down with rain in Tanah Rata last night and I went to pretty much the closest place that served food.  I felt a cold coming on so I thought something lemony would be good to head it off.

For some reason I was expecting a sort of stir-fry instead of heavily battered chunks of chicken. The sauce was pretty sweet and almost identical to the (sugary) lemon tea I ordered (no booze at this place either), so not a good pairing - lemon on lemon on sweet on sweet.

The fried rice that came with it (not shown) was really good... just outside my all time top 10.

The napkin for this restaurant says, '.....a touch of nyonya & the best sizzling in town.....'

The best sizzling, why didn't I get the best sizzling (with a touch of nyonya)?  Maybe tonight.

Pancetta Pizza (by Biggs)

This might look all very familiar to last Friday night.....and it is.

I was back at QPAC for more free music but mixed it up a bit with dinner and went with the pancetta pizza. It was topped with pancetta, onion, rosemary and chilli. The chilli was subtle but lovely and I realised it's been missing in my life since G's been overseas.

Everyone was very happy with the pizza. Amanda, particularly impressed with the crust.

I paired my pizza with a beer. Amanda paired her with a red wine. Bonnie and Fi paired theirs with a white wine.

The Accidental Vegetarian (by G)

I arrived in Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands, Malaysia) in the mid-afternoon, wandered around for a few hours then went looking for somewhere to drink a beer or two.  I got mightily frustrated that there doesn't appear to be any dedicated drinking places. As a second option I wanted a quiet, crappy restaurant with low chairs and shaky tables to drink at - after trying 3 of these places and finding they didn't serve beer I decided just to go to an Indian restaurant that I knew served beer.

I tried to just get beer but they forced a menu on me. Despite it being very early (6pm) I caved and ordered a chicken curry with a large Tiger beer.  The beer came as expected but dinner had surprisingly little chicken - in fact, no chicken.  I didn't have the strength or inclination to get it changed.

The dahl was alright - a bit watery - the cabbage and the cucumber pickle were pretty bland. The beans were really spicy and very good.  Also good were the papadums (even though they appear to have been plated straight from a packet).

Party Pies (by Biggs)

I'm having party pies for dinner because.....IT'S A PARTY!

If I am entirely honest I'm actually home alone slobbing around on my couch drinking wine and watching TV in my pajamas but.....if that's not a party I don't know what is.

They are 'Four n Twenty' pies but there were only twelve, of which I ate six.

Kenny Rogers Roasters (by G)

In the heart of China Town, Kuala Lumpur, I see it... the holy grail of fast food chains... a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant.  Just as the light is fading and the street vendors are coming out to ply their delicious trade I throw them a symbolic 'fuck you' and head into the kitchen of the bearded warbler.  When will I ever get the chance to eat at a restaurant chain devised by Kenneth Ray "Kenny" Rogers again?

There are a surprising number of people in there - on second glance it seems half the patrons are actually staff being force(?) fed on the gamble's dime. The other half are people availing themselves of the frew WiFi. There is one tall, bemused, American looking character with a large grey moustache who appears to be a genuine customer.

The first thing I notice when reviewing the menu is that there is no alcohol - then I remember Country Ken is a life long abstainer. The second thing I notice is that the concept appears to be in favour of healthy eating. I had been looking forward to a fatty, glistening hunk of roasted pork and I was to be disappointed - chicken only. 'Less Fat... Less Salt... Less Calories' is the motto, I instantly knew I would hate it here.  Finally I decide on Kenny's Red Hot Meal - I had meant to get into the spirit and order a 'Kenny's Red Hot Meal' but baulked at the last minute and just ordered a 'Red Hot Meal'.

From what I can tell, all meals come with a muffin. I thought it would be a savoury muffin (Kenwood had devised a dessert menu after all) but no, there are 6 sweet flavours to choose from - I go with 'zesty orange'.

Alarmingly the food comes approximately 10 seconds after I order it - never a good sign.  The beans are unbearably sweet... well played Mr Rogers, you never said '... less sugar...'.  I was anxious about the mashed potatoes already given that fat, salt and calories are essential for good mashed potatoes. My fears are confirmed. I'm not sure what the pool of stuff on top of the potatoes is but the combination is something like eating mashed glue stick with wallpaper glue gravy.

The chicken is okay, not as good as virtually any other roasted chicken (salt is flavour). It is a bit dry though, I splash gravy over my shirt and pants trying to pry it off the bone and am unwilling to use the napkin to wipe it off because I want it as a memento (the napkin, not the gravy).

The coleslaw is by far the best thing on the plate - almost identical to the kind you get at a popular supermarket chain (which, incidentally, I swore I would never, ever get again no matter how lazy I was).

The muffin was terrible, tough on the outside, dense and unpleasantly chewy on the inside. The iced lemon tea was okay, could have used more lemon.

After I paid I sidled up to the counter to get what I thought was a takeaway menu but it turned out to be a paper bag for leftovers.  A waitress gives me a very strange look when I pocket it. 'As a souvenir'. I whisper to her.

Outside I look around and see a massive Nando's across the street, a more modest KFC a short distance away, numerous Indian places doing tandoori chicken and a lot of Malay places doing their own delicious versions of chicken.  A quote from Seinfeld's Kramer comes to mind: 'Roger's can't sell chicken around here, we got chicken places on every block'.

* I wanted to get Biggs a gift voucher but was told they didn't sell them at the restaurant. I didn't catch where they do sell them.
** Big K is big into Malaysian culture - he sells a range of branded moon cakes so you can Kenny up your next Mooncake Festival.

Vegetables and Hummus (by Biggs)

Very lazy but very healthy.

I didn't make the hummus.....as indicated by the first sentence. Ummm.....not much more to say about dinner. Carrot, celery and capsicum sliced and served with some chickpea dip.

I wasn't sure how to spell hummus so I asked my best friend Mr Wiki. Turns out no one knows how to spell it....houmous, hummus, hummous, hommos, humos, hommus, hoummous. Humorous! No one knows how to spell that either.

I'm not going to pretend this wasn't followed up with chocolate and a box of wine.

Vietnamese Fried Beef Salad (by G)

I had planned to eat at the night market but got myself into a money situation where I only had $50 notes left (almost impossible to break anywhere) so I decided to go to a restaurant and let them sort it out for me.

Given that I have been so close to Vietnam and won't get the chance to go there this trip I decided to go to a Pho restaurant and order up big so that I wouldn't feel like too much of a bastard springing a $50 note on them.

I ordered spring rolls, special Pho and a fried beef salad.  The spring rolls were doughy and not very good at all.  The Pho was good (the special thing was that apart from beef it also had pork balls in there) but I've had better. The real stand out was the fried beef salad.  Not too much too it, rare cooked beef, capsicum, spring onion, mung bean shoots and maybe some other vegetables dressed in a perfectly balanced Nuoc Cham sauce and topped with crushed peanuts... perfection....

Pork and Noodles (by Biggs)

I came up with a dinner plan on my way to work this morning walking through Chinatown. I decided I was going to have bok choy, rice and Chinese roasted pork. I walked excitedly into Burlington's, purveyor of fine Chinese roasted meats, this afternoon and the guy barely glanced at me before gruffly stating "no more roast pork".

So instead I had chum soy (an Asian green, not a dog food), rice noodles and marinated pork scotch fillet. I was pretty glum about the whole Burlington's "no more roast pork" situation as I was dreaming all day at work about the glistening deliciously sweet meat hanging in the Burlington's window. I took my disappointment out on the marinade and just tossed in whatever we had in the pantry without much thoughtfulness - soy, oyster sauce, chilli sauce, hoisin sauce, a bunch of stuff.

It turned out.....brilliantly! Sweet, salty, peppery, good.

Khmer BBQ degustation (by G)

It seemed like time to eat somewhere else other than the hotel and I'd noticed quite a few Khmer BBQ places around Siem Reap...

This is a great concept, like a combination barbecue/steam boat. The piece of pork fat (at top) is used to grease the barbecue dome in the middle. Chicken stock, vegetables and noodles were added to the trough at the bottom and simmered.

I had the single degustation menu (that's what they called it) for $10 which included beef, chicken, pork, prawns and crocodile with unlimited vegetables, rice and noodles.  They guy showed me how to barbecue the beef then, thankfully, buggered off so I could do the rest of the cooking myself.  The genius of the concept is that any meat juices or stray bits of meat enhance the flavour of the broth at the bottom.

This would be great with a beer but I had a sore throat and was not feeling too well so I paired it with (a spirit which I have forgotten the name of but which tastes like angostura bitters).  The combination of the medicinal qualities of the alcohol and the three bowls of chicken noodle soup at the end of the meal cured me right up.

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese (by Biggs)

On Saturday Nancy fed me smoked salmon and cream cheese for lunch and I've been craving more since so that problem was solved tonight.

I wish I could eat like this every night without dropping dead.

Room Service (by G)

I'd had a long day of cycling around the temples of Angkor and the formula one was on at the prime dinner hour so I decided to avail myself of the hotel room service menu - a beef curry and bread with a side of beef skewers and green mango pickle.

The skewers were cold and a bit dry but very good - the pickle was not too sour or sweet and was also good.

The curry was very watery and had a film of fat on top, so I drained it off into the toilet and stuffed the meat into the baguette. It was a pretty good race... and I didn't go hungry, what more can you ask?

Chorizo-stuffed Mushrooms (by Biggs)

Today I sacrificed my fridge temperate in the interest of nurturing and maturing some Camembert cheese that Nancy and I made yesterday so had to use up any fresh and / or meaty produce from my fridge before jacking up the temperature.

Fortunately I already had a plan. A few weeks ago I made the genius move of stuffing a mushroom with chorizo so tonight, I did it again. I rubbed some mushrooms in truffle oil and threw them in the oven to roast. Then fried off some chorizo, tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. I put the latter into the former and served it all on a bed of rocket.

Happiness is a warm chorizo-stuffed mushroom.

Fish Head, Clams and Rice (by G)

I got to Siem Reap in a hot little transit van in the mid-afternoon, then went to the hotel, had a walk, came back and drank 5 beers then went to my room to watch the formula one qualifying.

Unfortunately I fell asleep and woke up pretty late at night.  I'm staying really close to Angkor Wat and there is virtually nothing around here so I hastened downstairs to find the restaurant closed but the staff still sitting around drinking. Is there any possibility of getting something to eat I asked.  After some consultation the manager said there was some left over fish and clams.  'Excellent,' I said.

I was kind of expecting a fish stew not just a fish head and a plate of clams.  The clams were a bit of a worry for me because they were all closed. Someone showed me how to pry them open (which is what I was sure you were not supposed to do - maybe they had all opened earlier then closed after cooking. Regardless, I was pretty worried about possible after effects).

In the end I flaked all the edible meat off the fish, shucked all the clams and mixed it all in together. Not what I would have ordered if I'd had the chance, but more than I deserve.

Steak Dinner (by Biggs)

I've been thinking about having a steak dinner all week and decided Saturday night was the most appropriate night to give it a crack. I'm usually pretty shit at cooking meat but tonight I was committed.

I let the steak come up to room temperature, started it on the fatty edge in a cold pan to render it down while the pan came up to temperature, once it was super hot I fried a crust on each side for equal amounts of time and then popped it in the oven until it felt cooked to medium rare. Nailed it!

I served a side of mashed sweet potato and peas. I love peas but I have no idea why I made sweet potato. It's pretty much my least favourite vegetable.

The steak was finished with a mushroom gravy I made from the drippings left in the fry pan after cooking off the steak and some mushrooms.

Much better than the cup-a-soup I had last Saturday night.

Mobile Food Wagon (by G)

I wasn't too sure what to post for dinner this night because I had a kind of progressive dinner. First off, some excellent dim sum down by the night market in Phnom Penh. Too full at that point to get anything at the markets so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of drinks and some salmon sashimi (I've figured how to almost guarantee Salmon Sashimi is the last thing I eat... move into a hotel above a Japanese restaurant and eat it every night).

I was most of the way through a generous plate of salmon when one of the waitresses presented me with a small plate of food. I'd seen her go out to a hand wagon that had parked on the street earlier.  When she presented me with the plate the chef/owner of the hotel said, 'So unprofessional'. I don't know if it was a criticism or not because there are a lot of unprofessional things that go on in that place (and she also presented him with a bigger plate of food).

Shown are cabbage pickle, cured pork, cucumber, some fried green thing, yellow things, something like fried pieces of sausage and little chunks of an unidentifiable meat. It was all pretty good when dunked in the accompanying chilli sauce.  It is not the best meal I've ever had, but I was touched by the gesture so I think it deserves a place on the blog.

Pizza (by Biggs)

Tonight a bunch of us wandered down to QPAC to check out some live unearthed music and hook into beers, wine and pizza.

Pizza and soup was on offer so my friend and I shared a Bianco and a Funghi pizza. The Bianco came with potato, white anchovies, mozzarella and oregano. The Funghi was chicken, tomato, olives and mushrooms. Both were satisfying especially teamed with vast amounts of booze.

In saying that, our gluten free friend was pretty dirty she was forced to order soup and I was highly impressed that our pregnant friend somehow manged to source a hot dog.

I reckon I would have enjoyed a hot dog.

Chicken Wings, Sashimi and Yakatori (by G)

As I'm staying in a Japanese Hotel/Restaurant in Phnom Phen (OsakaYa) it was only a matter of time before I ate there for dinner.  Last night, after careful inspection of the menu, I decided on getting some of my favorites.  As the photographs show - the salt and pepper chicken wings were really crispy and impossible for me to eat elegantly with chopsticks so I ate them with my hands like to big, hairy Western oaf that I am.

The sashimi plate came with salmon, tuna and squid (with a piece of kombu inside) - the salmon was far and away the best of the plate.

The yakatori skewers were, of course, excellent.

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my few ambitions in life is for my last mouthful of food to be Salmon Sashimi - so to be on the safe side I ordered a plate of that later in the night. The salmon was as good as the best salmon I've ever had - exactly the right temperature - the perfect last bite.

 

Sadly the restaurant has not been very busy since opening a few months ago and the owner/chef asked me for my comments on how to improve it. I've seen a lot of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares'' and two episodes of Michel Roux's excellent series 'Service' and jumped at the chance. My last suggestion was very well received.  Instead of having to hunt around for someone when I want another drink it would be good if the wait staff came and asked if I would like another drink - it would improve drink sales also.
'You give me a great idea', said the owner and gave me the next beer on the house.

Pork Yiro (by Biggs)

Upon reflection I shouldn't have publically announced that I'd get my shit together tonight with the cooking thing. Instead, I went up the road and got a pork yiro and a box of wine.

I know it doesn't photograph well but the pork and bread were delicious AND.....there was a little bit of lettuce and a little bit of tomato....every little bit helps.

Happy Days!

Beef Lok Lak (by G)

Phnom Phen was a bit of an eyeopener for me when I arrived yesterday evening. It turned out to be much livelier than I'd imagined. Walking around deciding what to eat caused me a bit of anxiety because the choices are limitless. French, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, KFC... whatever you want.  I nearly caved and went to the 'Mexican and Khmer Food' restaurant to have tortillas - I'm really glad I didn't.

In the end I went to a purely Khmer restaurant - though I later heard the owner say that he was in the process of coming up with a French/Khmer menu.  The Lok Lak looked very appealing when it came out - I regret not taking a better photo. I also regret not photographing the rice, which had been molded into the shape of a Cambodia - or perhaps a whale...

The beef was tender and meaty and the sauce tomatoey, salty and a little bit sweet. It came with a small saucer of thin, savory pepper sauce which added a nice kick.  A very charming waitress had earlier told me that her Aunt had taken her to Thailand when she was younger and they had been surprised how spicy the food was - I told her I liked spicy food, which I think maybe she had conveyed to the kitchen because I got a second saucer of pepper sauce midway through the meal.

I was not in much of a drinking mood last night and had had my fill at 3 so when I got the bill I was surprised when another beer arrived. 'Hmmmm, I don't really want another beer', I said. 'But it's 2 for 1 happy hour', She said.  I choked it down and then suddenly I was in a drinking mood because when I got back to my Japanese hotel I drank another 6 beers and (shudder) Sake.

*** A nice food story the waitress told me about her trip to Thailand. She and her aunt went to a restaurant and, as they could not read the menu, ordered at random.  When the food came they were perplexed and alarmed to find that there was no meat.  The Aunt asked someone if there had been some sort of mistake in the kitchen and was shocked to hear that none of the meals had meat - it was a vegetarian restaurant... can you believe it, none of the meals had meat...

Satay Noodles and Frozen Vegetables (by Biggs)

Oh boy. I've hit an all time low of laziness. I can't believe I had noodles and frozen vegetables for dinner. I accidentally bought satay-flavoured Mi Goreng noodles which didn't make the state of affairs any better. It was very reminiscent of the type of meal I had when I first moved out of home and had no clue....or money. It wasn't a positive nostalgic reminiscing but more of a traumatic flash-back type situation.

I vow, here in a public arena, that I will pick up my game.....starting tomorrow.

Chicken Amok (by G)

I was sitting by the river in Kratie this evening with no real plans of where or what to eat (other than that it should be chicken) when a very friendly guy came by with a flyer for a restaurant just down the road. Normally I'm not very receptive to people giving out fliers on the street, but he was very engaging so I said, 'Okay'.

The reason for having chicken this night is that earlier in the day I'd hired a tuk tuk to go out and see the dolphins and a turtle hatchery - on the way back we hit and killed a chicken.  I figured there was now surplus chicken in the greater Kratie area which I should do my part to redress.

The chicken Amok was not a really great meal, it was cheap and tasted okay (mostly of lemongrass and salt) but the flyer guy and his wife (who run the Silver Dolphin Guest House and Restaurant) were very friendly.  As were the middle-aged French couple at the next table - so I ended up drinking too much beer and (alarmingly) a surprising amount of Pastis and having a good evening... though not conducive to getting up early the next day and taking a very bumpy minivan journey to Phnom Phen.

Bacon Sandwich (by Biggs)

I really hope no one reads this post to discover that I had a toasted bacon sandwich for dinner.....and ate it over the sink.

PS: It was fucking goooooood!

Porcupine Fish Egg and Pork (by G)

Due to local flooding and having to take a long detour I got into Kratie much later than expected. After taking a walk through the dusty back streets and passing quickly through the uninspiring, flyblown market I decided today was not the day (nor Kratie the town) for street food.  Instead I had a swift few beers and headed back to eat at the hotel restaurant. Most of the restaurants are attached to a hotel or guest house anyway so I didn't feel too bad about that.

'Porcupine Fish Egg and Pork' sounded like an unusual combination so I went with that. When it came it looked like this:

I took my photos then pondered for quite a while over what it all meant. Was the fried rice (in the background) meant to represent fish eggs? Is Pork a Cambodian code for Beef?  Just as I got the first delicious forkful to my mouth and embarrassed waiter came and explained I had been delivered the wrong meal.

Later, when a new dish appeared I double it was almost as thought provoking so I double checked that I'd got the correct meal this time.  Apparently I had.  After a period of reflection I think a translation of the name of the meal may be 'Porcupine Fish and Pork Omelette'. It was, after all, a savoury omelette with little pieces of pork (and possibly porcupine fish) though it.  The vegetables in the background are, green papaya, cabbage, cucumber, beans and small green, slightly bitter, but otherwise bland round things.

Spaghetti with Broccoli (by Biggs)

A shockingly vegetarian few days I know but tonight's dinner was quite acceptable. Spaghetti, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, broccoli, parmesan. It really could have done with some chilli but I had no fresh and was too scared I'd overdo it with dried chilli. 

The internet and co. says some pretty harsh things about broccoli:

"If I could uninvent anything I would uninvent Hitler's Mum, guns and broccoli" - Dominic Monaghan

"I do not like broccoli. And, I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And, I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli" - George H W Bush

"Newman, you wouldn't eat broccoli if it was deep-fried in chocolate sauce" - Jerry Seinfeld

But, I like it. I like broccoli. You can quote me on that if you like. 

Pork Ribs (by G)

I was pretty tempted to make it a trifecta of fish while on Don Khong Island but decided I should make a change.  I had only seen 2 pigs on the island, but they both appeared to be pretty content with life so I thought happy pig ribs would be good.

It was not a great selection, the ribs were pretty greasy and did not come with anything fresh or crunchy to offset the fattiness. For some reason I'd also ordered hard boiled eggs to go with the ribs, it seemed like a good combo in my brain and it may have been okay had the eggs actually been hard boiled.  When I cracked them open they were hard boiled on one side and completely raw on the other side.  I have no idea how I could cook an egg like that if I was trying - maybe the cook learned to do them this way in a Masterchef masterclass.

Another thing about the ribs is that they came with two little forks to eat them with (which bent as soon as I tried to use them) - logically I used my hands.

Rice Noodles and Vegetables (by Biggs)

It's been a while since a decent dinner but tonight was a decent dinner. I'd been promising my colon that we'd have vegetables for a little while now and tonight I delivered.

I fried up some broccoli, carrot, zucchini and mushrooms in teriyaki and oyster sauce and mixed them through rice noodles.

I love noodles. My colon loves vegetables.

Fried Fish with Garlic and a Vegetable Salad (by G)

Yesterday I took a very hot ride on a very shitty bicycle around the island of Don Khong. It was a nice ride but I was wrecked by the end of it and had not eaten since breakfast due to a persistant nausea induced by physical effort.  By them time 6:30 came about I had recovered and was starving and decided to get an early dinner.

This time I decided on fried fish (and I thought a salad would be refreshing after such a hot day). The fish was a couple of bony steaks (of what species I'm not entirely sure) incinerated to crunchy perfection. The salad was, to my surprise, coleslaw - too over dressed to be refreshing. The combination of the two was pretty good though and I seriously do enjoy fish steaks fried 'til jerky like - some lime would have been a welome addition though.  Just after the meal was served a couple of cats came lurking about for tid-bits (which they got), then later a very happy dog came by (I didn't give him any fish because there were only sharp bones left).  I felt like Dr Doolittle, sitting alone surrounded by animals.

Later some other  people came to relieve the isolation. One of them was a Laotian tour driver called Joy (seriously) who had previously worked at the Australian Embassy in Vientiane and is currently driving a group of Japanese teachers through Laos to gather information about Laotian agriculture. He'd learned English at the age of 12 and preferred speaking it to Lao or French.  When he said hello to me I invited myself over to his table where we drank and chatted past closing time.  It's handy to have someone who can say, 'leave a light on, leave the beer fridge open and I'll settle the bill in the morning'.  He also very kindly offered to pay for all the beer - which I accepeted (I think he had some kind of personal miscelaneous budget from his clients of which he had a fair bit left).

Creamy Mushroom Cup-A-Soup (by Biggs)

Tonight I'm still sick, still sleepy and still studying so creamy mushroom cup-a-soup for dinner it was. This is usually reserved to get me though weekday afternoons but, it got me through tonight too.

I know it looks chunky but those floating bits are actually "croutons".

This was surprisingly a billion times better than Monday night's tinned soup. Thanks Mr Cup-A-Soup.....if that's your real name.

Fish and Chips (by G)

This was my first night on the island on Don Khong, and when you're in the middle of the Mekong you have fish... right?

The menu described it as 'A nice piece of fish fried in a beer batter'. It was the 'nice piece of fish that clinched it for me'.

I'm pretty sure the fish was crumbed in Panko rather than beer batter, it was good non-the-less. The chips were a bit of a disappointment because I'd had a plate of them earlier in the day and they were, hands down, the best hot chips I've ever had - they were perfectly crunchy on the outside, almost like honeycomb. Not just a crunch when you bite but like a series of mini-cruches... crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

Don't get me wrong, the chips with dinner were good, but due to some change in atmospheric conditions, or because it was the dinner rush, or because of some slight chemical change in the frying oil - they were not as good as earlier.

Vegemite on Toast (by Biggs)

After a day of sick, sleep and a whole lot of study, dinner was a slice of white bread, lightly toasted with a generous slather of Vegemite.

I have to finish an assignment right now but I'll update this post with some Vegemite trivia tomorrow. Or, you could just read the Vegemite Wiki page as that's as extensive as my research is going to be.

Update: What I wanted to say post-research was that the name Vegemite was drawn from a hat competition-style. I like that. But, from 1928 - 1935 it was renamed Pawill. Marmite was becoming hugely competitive in the yeast-spread market so Vegemite thought they'd drag Marmite down with the slogan...."Marmite but Pawill". Ha! That's the sort of stupid idea I would come up with and I am not a business mogul. 

 

BBQ Dried Squid (by G)

To say this was dinner would be an exaggeration - it was the thing I ate when it was approximately dinner time.

As is often the case it was early afternoon and I had spent a hot morning wandering around town and decided it was time for beer. I looked over a string of bar/restaurants by the river and chose the one that looked like it had the best view.  As I wandered in someone said, 'Please join us'.  So I ended up drinking with some guys in their early 20's.  Mr C was the only one who spoke English, his brother Mr Min and friend Mr Sook did thier talking through him. 

We drank some beers, then drank some more beers - had a plate of gnarly chicken fried in a thick batter that was not very good, though it came with fried Kaffir lime leaves which was interesting.

At about 4 o'clock we crossed the river and climed half way up a mountain to visit a big gold buddah then went back into town for some more to drink.  There were boiled peanuts at some stage and later, when the dried squid lady was passing our table I asked if they liked it. 'Yes,' Said Mr C, 'but it's too expensive'.  Turns out 12 sticks were about $1.50 so I treated them.

I've had dried squid before, in Vietnam, and it was about the least pleasant thing I've ever tasted. This was different, barbequed tender, cut into strips and served with a firey chilli sauce. Very good, very savoury - not very sustaining though.

Later there were sugar coated sunflower seeds - they were very unpleasant.

Stoned Dogs (by Biggs)

Boy, I can't wait until G is back and feeding me again. Tonight's dinner was mediocre at best.

Named after recipe creator Curtis Stone, Stoned Dogs are usually a household favourite. The man makes me cringe most of the time but he sure nailed this combo of sausages, cheese, Dijon mustard with capsicum and onions fried off in balsamic. Sausage and peppers is a classic American combination but tonight it all went horribly wrong. I'm not sure what the problem was. I didn't have any mustard, the cheese went a lurid yellow and the sausages were an odd herb combination so none of that really helped. But, let me reiterate....this was in no way the fault of Curtis.

The good thing is that Mr Stone harps on about how this meal feeds a family of four for $10 so it fed me for $2.50. And, because it tasted so average I didn't go back for seconds. Everyone's a winner.

Strange Sandwich (by G)

When I booked the overnight bus ticket from Vientiane to Pakse the sign said dinner was included - I was a bit suss. I had an excellent late lunch of Gyoza Ramen set at a Japanese restaurant to hedge my bets.

On the bus I found myself next to a Frenchman who is an English teacher in Pakse and has take this bus about 40 times.

'I think we will get food', he said, 'Sometimes rice, sometimes a steam bun. Last time it was a strange sandwich'.

They handed out foam containers when we got to the Sothern bus station, the frenchman opened his and said, 'Ah, yes... it is the strange sandwhich'. He opened up the sandwich and showed me the filling.

'I think it's cheese,' I said - thinking it looked like a melted plastic cheese slice. 'Not where I come from it isn't,' Said the Frenchman.

When I bit into my sandwich I realised instantly that it was not cheese, it was sweet, like banana but smoother and richer - like some kind of banana caramel - is that a thing? I'm not big on desserts.

A simple description would be that it tasted... strange...

Spaghetti with Bacon and Capers (by Biggs)

I've got this budget week thing nailed. A quarter of a 75 cent packet of spaghetti, a 60 cent rasher of bacon and some garlic, onion, pine nuts and capers I had at home.

In saying that, this wasn't very satisfying. Because of a washing up situation I've got myself into I didn't use the right pan to fry off the bacon so it was hard to get any colour on it and the whole thing was pretty greasy.

This really could have done with some fresh herbs or veges but fresh herbs don't have a place in budget week. I may look into vegetables tomorrow though.

Laab Xong Kheuang (by G)

I was walking down the street in Vientiane this evening and it began to rain. Though it was still early I ducked into a restaurant - when the rain stopped about 3 minutes later I was already committed to having dinner, despite it still being light out.

The laab is a duck meat dish with fish sauce, lime (I think) and herbs (predominantly mint) along with some beans and cucumber. The best thing was the little pieces of crispy fried duck skin and fried garlic.  Along with the laab I got some pork spring-rolls. I was disappointed when they came out because they were fresh spring-rolls, not the deep fried kind. In hindsight though they probably were a good option given I'm suffering from sunstroke.

I also got glutenous rice as a side - it came in cool basket. Unfortunately it had been steamed some time before Laos gained independence and had congealed into a dense, dry ball.

  I don't think my meal comes with a song... sorry.

Chip Butty (by Biggs)

Budget week continues with a chip butty....or two. I used about a quarter of a $2 loaf of bread and a quarter of a $2.50 bag of frozen chips. I'm no good at maths but that seems like pretty good food costs.

According to Wiki they are traditionally served with ketchup or brown sauce. I think the Aussie equivalent of brown sauce is that old school sausage sizzle ETA Original Barbecue Sauce and we surprisingly had some of that in our fridge.

I know this doesn't seem super responsible nutritionally but tomorrow is a public holiday so technically this is a Friday night meal where nutritional rules don't apply.

Anyhow, any meal with it's own anthem, set to a John Denver tune, is okay by me:

"You fill up my senses

Like a gallon of Magnet

Like a packet of Woodbines

Like a good pinch of snuff

Like a night out in Sheffield

Like a greasy chip butty

Like Sheffield United

Come fill me again....

Na Na Na Naa Naa Naaaaa, oo!"

Pork Baguette and Detox (by G)

Yesterday I crossed the border from Thailand to Laos and had been feeling out of sorts all day.  I think it may have had something to do with the amount of alcohol I'd had the last few days - probably the Thai Whiskey I had the night before (yes Mother, I said I wouldn't drink the Thai Whiskey any more - but it was only 2 or 3 shots).  There appears to be excellent food everywhere in Vientiane which made me anxious because too much choice means I'll dither and spin in circles and invariably pick the worst place to eat.

The other difficulty was that I'd bought some cheeses from a supermarket earlier thinking it would make a good midnight snack, not really considering that I had no way to keep it cold - so I ended up eating most of a wheel of brie, most of a block of cheddar and most of a smaller block of Emmental in the late afternoon... not conducive to seeking out a big dinner meal.

In the end I decided a small baguette and some juice would probably be manageable (and would act as a bit of a detox) so I pulled into a juice and sandwich bar (I forget the name, it's the one opposite the 'Beverley Hills Polo Club'... seriously).  The pork was excellent, roasted and juicy (sadly not visible in the picture). Also not visible are some lightly fried onions which worked really well with the pork. The only thing that didn't go well was the raw spring onion - too oniony.

The guava juice was pretty good - it certainly tasted healthy. So much so that after finishing that I got a strawberry juice which was so cold it gave me a headache.  Different and more intense than a whiskey headache but with a shorter duration.

"Pea" and "Ham" "Soup" (by Biggs)

Welcome to Budget Week!

Part challenge, part necessity, has resulted in attempting to spend as little money as possible on groceries this week so tonight was a $2 tin of pea and ham soup. Looks appetizing doesn't it?

It didn't taste like anything but I was tired and grumpy so it probably suited my mood. Ironically there is a ham bone, a bag of peas and some vegetable stock in our freezer so I probably would have been better off, in terms of both flavour and budget, cooking it in-house.  You live and learn. Or, perhaps you don't.

Stay tuned for more horror shows during Budget Week.

Pork Belly Fried Rice (by G)

I am a man of simple pleasures and getting the opportunity to cook for myself while overseas is one of them. This was my last night in Nongkhai so predictably I went back to the riverside hole-in-the-wall bar for a mid-afternoon drink.  I was on about my 4th beer when Nong (the owner and cook) called out to me 'G, help!'. There was a bit of a rush on food and the two little tables needed clearing - so I did that.

Then I helped prep - okay, I only sliced some spring onions and did a pretty decent job considering I was squatting over and esky. When the rush died down Nong asked if I wanted to eat something. I did. 'Okay, you cook', she said.

We decided a pork belly dish would be good for me so she chopped up some pre-roasted belly while I fried off some garlic and chilli. The pork belly was added and fried, then a ladle of stock and some greens.  Nong took a call at that point so, though it was supposed to be a noodle dish, I added some cooked rice.  I ran into a little trouble at that point because the rice wasn't as dry as I'd assumed and it started to stick a little so I added a bit more oil and persevered.  When Nong returned and saw where I what I was up to she said, 'Oh well, do what ever you want'.  I added some MSG and one of the 4 dark sauces on hand (they all tasted very similar and soy like - I went with the mushroom sauce).

At the last minute I added some mung bean shoots and little slices of bean then plated and topped with some crunchies - crushed peanuts and (I think) fried onion and garlic).

Nong and her son tried a little bit and concluded it was 'Okay' and 'Spicy'.  Personally I thought it was okay, far from the worst thing I've ever cooked. 'Undeniably Edible' is perhaps the phrase I will use.

I was a bit stingy with portions so afterwards I finished a bowl of a sour chicken soup. Nong also brought some pork balls (delicious) and boiled cow sphincter (less delicious) for us to graze on.

At about 6pm it was time to close down the kitchen. I helped clean the tables and pack them and the umbrellas away. Then Nong got started on a MOUNTAIN of washing up. She insisted I sit and drink but I couldn't leave her to tackle the washing alone so off came the shoes, pants were rolled up and I rinsed and stacked the dishes.  It is probably one of the most unpleasant things I've done, the tiles were slick with oil and as slippery as ice.  For my day's labours I was paid 10 baht (37 cents) which was far outweighed by my expenditures on beer.

Leftovers (by Biggs)

I know that G plans to never repeat a meal on the blog but I have no such desires.

After a big day out I came home hungry with no motivation to cook anything. Fortunately there were enough leftovers from last night to satisfy my tummy. A lot of meals taste better the next day but it turns out this is not one of them. The sweet potato got a bit soggy, the chicken got a bit watery and the honey in the dressing made everything a tad gloopy.

In saying that, the flavours were good and for the very little effort I put in it was most excellent.

Nothing further to report.

Last Minute Street Food (by G)

After Friday's effort you would think I'd leave the booze alone for a little while. All I can say is that I was much more restrained this night, though I did have about 8 beers.  I got a bit too comfortable and forgot to eat again but there was an open air market on the river that had food stalls so I picked up some Pad Thai and Samosas to have back in my room.

The Pad Thai was not excellent, the texture was good but the flavour was oddly fishy so I didn't finish it.  The Samosas on the other hand were excellent. No real twist on a regular samosa just potato and onion and flavour (one surprisingly had rice noodles in it but the flavour was the same).  I'm not really pushing the boundaries of Thai cuisine here - and I probably won't tonight either but I'm having a good time (and at this point I'm just grateful to be alive and in posession of all my posessions and with most of my mental faculties intact).

Cajun Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad (by Biggs)

Tonight Bonnie came over for dinner and I made my stock standard "friend over for dinner" fare of Cajun Chicken. It's literally oven-baked chicken tenderloins sprinkled with cajun spice from a jar. Simple but effective.

I also made a salad of spinach, bacon, fetta cheese, pine nuts and sweet potato. The sweet potato was sprinkled with cumin and oven baked.

Up until tonight the dressing was top secret..... however, it is tahini, honey and orange juice. Sounds gross I know but it's very complementary of the salty, sweet, nutty goodness that is the sweet potato salad.  

For dessert I made Chocolate Ripple Cake. If you don't know what this is check out the back of a Chocolate Ripple Biscuit packet. Turns out if you sandwich the biscuits together with cream, lay them out like a log and cover the log with more cream, after six hours in the fridge it turns into dense rich cake. I first discovered this cake about 25 years ago and it still blows me away with it's black magic witchcraft.

Beer and... (by G)

I found a small bar and restaurant I like in Nongkhai on the banks of the Mekong, after drinking a lot of beer and helping the owner cook some meals I have a slight mental blank for a few hours.  I may have eaten something in that time but I'm pretty doubtful so dinner consisted this night of a couple of dozen beers and (I later discovered, though I have no recollection of it myself) 5 shots of Thai Whiskey.

The night ended with me wading back to my hotel through ankle deep water during a violent thunder storm - the point of my story is this: DON'T DRINK THAI WHISKEY.

Hot Sesame Chicken and Avocado Salad (by Biggs)

I got home late tonight but was prepared for dinner with the assistance of "Healthy Food".

Deep down I'm not entirely convinced this was actually healthy but there was lettuce and at least one "superfood" (whatever the fuck that is) so I'm going with it.

I oven roasted a full chicken thigh in grain mustard, honey, lemon and soy (which wasn't in the recipe) and served it on a bed of lettuce and avocado, sprinkled with toasted* sesame seeds and sesame oil.

I was pretty happy with the outcome.

*burnt 'cause I lost concentration for quite some time.