Pasta with Bacon and Parsley (by Biggs)

I wanted something simple for dinner using up some of the exciting treats that were left in my house after last night's extravaganza.

I fried up some bacon and garlic in truffle oil then tossed it through some bow tie pasta with parsley. I topped it with a little gruyere cheese.

Not a meal you should eat every night but it was very tasty - good for a Sunday night.

Typical Myanmar Feast - Take 2 (by G)

The day before I had had a beer at a deserted restaurant outside the center of town because, well, it was time for beer and the restaurant was there.  The guy who was serving was a nice guy and (for reasons I won't go into because you'll think I'm soft) I promised to come back the next day.

The next day I walked for 6 hours through the Bagan environs looking at pagodas and temples. Note to everyone - do not walk around Bagan - get a bike, or a car, or a motorcycle, or one of those dicky horse buggys - hell get a helicopter - just don't walk. It's HOT and if, for some mad reason you do decide to walk STICK TO THE PATHS - do not decide to walk across the plains because it looks like the shortest way (like I did).  At the end of the day the soles of my feet were blistered and I looked as if I had been dragged ass* bottom backward through a thorn bush (because that is basically what I'd done all day). Needless to say I did not feel like trekking back to this restaurant, nor did I even want to have dinner (though I hadn't eaten all day).

In the end I decided I should go and have a beer and, while I was drinking my beer, I flipped through the menu.  The chalkboard outside the restaurant said 'Chinese Food/Myanmar Food/Vegetable Food' but looking through the menu it appear to be all Chinese.

I was in a scratchy mood and crankily asked the guy, 'Where is the Myanmar food on the menu!  Point out to me where the Myanmar food is!'.  I really can be a dick sometimes...

'Well,' said the guy, 'There's no Myanmar dishes on the menu but we do serve them'.

'Like what?' I asked - softening my tone a bit.

He went into a broken English monologue on the types and merits of typical Myanmar cuisine.  'That sounds good', I said, 'Can you get me something like that?'.

He went to check with his father in the kitchen and said that they could make a soup, a curry, a tomato salad, a green mango salad and some water cress.  It sounded hauntingly similar to what I had had the night before but I was swayed buy the guy's enthusiasm.  'Yes please!'. I said. The guy told me there would be a bit of a wait on the food because they all had to be made from scratch. 'Even better.' I said.

The food, when it came, was amazing.  The soup came first, like a thin dahl with lentils, chunks of onion and potato and whole curry leaves - the kind of soup you could eat multiple bowls of. In-fact they kept offering me more but I was conscious of the fact there was more to come.

I'm no fan of green mangoes or green tomatoes (or salads in general) but these were different.

The green tomato salad had thin sliced onion, peanuts, lentils - the flavour was something like a really fresh tasting satay - excellent.

The green mango salad was even better - not much to it green mango strips with finely chopped onion and a vinaigrette. I'm not sure if the mango had been quick pickled or not but it tasted like a really green olive.

The greens were okay - nothing too special just greens stir fried with garlic and chicken stock?

The pork curry (not pictured) was also good but not the star - the salads were really phenomenal.

Maybe the best thing was the old guy who cooked the food. He was so proud of his food and seemed to enjoy my enjoyment of it.  He hovered about watching me eat like he couldn't drag himself away and happy to answer any questions:

- Is there fish stock in the soup? - No only vegetables, nothing but vegetables.
- I taste fish sauce in the tomato salad. - No, just crushed peanuts and seasoning.
- You cooked the curry just now? How did you get the pork so tender? - Wine. - Local wine? - No, Chinese rice wine.

I told the guy and his father about the meal I'd had the night before.  'They have things sitting around waiting for people to come, me, you order it I cook it - not before'.  I think attitude and passion have more to do with it though.

The old guy brought out a dessert of sugar coated banana flamed with rum and I couldn't refuse it though I don't like desserts.

When the bill came the food cost $3 and the beer $2 - I didn't feel right paying them less than I'd paid for the previous night's dinner so I tipped a few more dollars to redress the balance.

If you're ever in the area I'd recommend this place:

Shwe Lan Thit Resuaurant (sic), Near Thazin Garden Hotel, Bagan, Myanmar Ph. 09-402773651

*Ass is censored in Myanmar - in the subtitles they substitute it for bottom.

Bacon and Eggs (by Biggs)

Tonight I had some friends over for dinner. I would probably go as far as saying I hosted a dinner party. I love cooking for friends but am both lazy and anxious to make people happy resulting in me not actually doing this too often. 

But, my friends Amanda and Mike were recently engaged, my friends Fi and Dan are soon to be married and celebrations in our world call for bacon. 

Now, when I said I hosted a dinner party in fact really all I did was fry up some bacon and provide cutlery and glassware. Fi and Dan excelled themselves. 

For entree Dan made the gastronomic specialty of tarte flambee - thin homemade dough, coated in creme fraiche (note: containing 30 - 40% butterfat), butter caramalised onions, homemade prosciutto, fatty speck and gruyere cheese. Sensibly he made two so I've got plenty left over for breakfast. It was phenomenal....and, he assured us, very healthy. 

For dinner I made bacon and eggs. By this stage I was too tipsy to attempt poaching 5 eggs so went with fried bacon, boiled eggs with Fi's famous tomato relish, spinach with balsamic reduction and a large mushroom filled with a mix of tomatoes, parsley and chorizo. We were all pretty full by this stage but bacon is just so good and I was pretty happy with my genius plan of stuffing a mushroom with chorizo. 

For dessert Fi made a black sticky gingerbread. Fuck yeah she did. I was worried it was going to be too rich and turn us all into our graves before midnight but the ginger was refreshing and this was a perfect end to a delightful dinner. 

Typical Myanmar Feast - Take 1 (by G)

Initially in the Began area I opted to stay in New Began - a small town with one sealed road and a disproportionate number of hotels, restaurants, money changers and tour agencies.  I didn't feel I had experienced much in the way of real Myanmar cuisine so far during my stay so when I saw what was advertised as an authentic Myanmar restaurant earlier in the day I decided to return there for dinner.

The place was deserted - it is a bit out of the way and not peak tourist season.  I ordered the 'Master Set' two curries with fixings. For the curries I chose Fish and Pork (I'd seen chickens scratching for food at the dump and it turned me of the bird for a while).

Shown below is a pork curry (not too bad), fish curry (excellent flavour but the fish was really flabby so I only ate the meaty bits), stir fried cabbage (okay), tomato curry (really salty), lentil curry (bland - like they'd opened a tin of lentils and poured it into a bowl, some fried chilli for seasoning, Not shown: a tomato salad (nothing special - tomatoes and lettuce on a plate) and vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, daikon and a few other vegetables cut into sticks).

I forgot that first off was a sour soup - it was okay but tasted a bit seweragey.  I was concerned for a while that it may have been made with tainted water but later decided it was probably the daikon chunks that made it taste that way.

The power went off twice while I was there (there had been 4 mini-blackouts earlier in the day) and at times I was eating by candle light - romantic maybe but not ideal in the 36 degree heat.

This meal was okay but left me thinking, 'Well, that's why you don't see too many Myanmarise restaurants about'.  I skipped out on dessert - which appeared to be frozen banana.

It was pretty cheap though:

Food: $4.50
Beer: $2.00
Water: $0.50 - that irritated me a bit because I didn't order it and I didn't drink it (but I damn well took it with me).

Meat Pie (by Biggs)

Tonight I served meat pies. Store bought, from a packet, wagyu beef pies. Yep.

If you can guess the percentage of actual meat in these pies you win a prize......Clue: It's less than 50%, a lot less.

I was going to serve them with potato chips but I ended up having them as an afternoon snack.

I was also going to serve them with beer but I ended up drinking them with my afternoon snack.

I've really got this bachelor(ette) lifestyle down pat.

Jumpy Chicken Curry (by G)

The train from Yangon to Bagan is, to say the least, a jumpy old beast.  At about 7:30 pm I was beginning to console myself to the fact that I may be having some sad looking bread-rolls I'd brought with me for dinner but - just in time - we pulled up at a station. The French couple I was sharing a cabin with were on the ball - she shouted at a guy selling water. 'We need food, something with rice. Chicken?  I want three of them'.  The guy hustled off and returned with three Styrofoam boxes which he passed across in exchange for about $5.

Below, seriously, is the best photo I could get of this meal.  The train was bumping and swaying so much I was lucky just to get it in frame.  There were only 3 pieces of chicken, no vegetables and overcooked rice but this was (for the price and due to the circumstances) and excellent meal. The chicken was rich and salty and spicy with just enough sauce to mix through the remainder of the rice.  At first I thought the leaf on top was a bay leaf but it turned out to be more like an acacia tree leaf - that is to say, I don't know what it is.

I had not been idle myself and had managed to acquire a decent supply of beer during the brief stop so that, in the end, we enjoyed a fine meal in style.

Pork with Noodles and Beans (by Biggs)

Trusty Mi Goreng noodles, beans, pork chop, salt, pepper, oil. Dinner done!

Over to you long weekend.....