Malaysian Food Identity
It turns out that the easiest way to get from Hanoi in Vietnam to Siem Reap in Cambodia that doesn’t take 20 hours by bus backtracking through Saigon and doesn’t cost $300 is to fly AirAsia with an overnight in Kuala Lumpur.
Seeing as I am on this trip in part to experience the various cuisines of Southeast Asia, and I was now given one very rushed day in Malaysia, I was excited to eat as many meals as possible. “What defines Malaysian food?” was the question I sought to answer with one lunch, one dinner, and way too many street stalls, all over the course of a mere 10 waking hours.
(We’d have had slightly more time there but for the long distance from the airport to the city, some confusion about where to get a bus, a lot of traffic, an obscure hostel location, and crazy one-way streets that alternate their direction of traffic flow every three blocks. I might also recommend slightly better planning, as our 7am flight the next morning required that we’d leave our hotel at 4:15, when the last Friday night clubbers were just getting back to their beds.)
For lunch, we ate generic noodle soups, one with chicken the other beef. Both had the same broth which was unlike anything I’ve really ever had (including many kinds of ramen and a few Vietnamese noodle dishes). There was a smokiness in this dish, best described as “chiken noodle soup meets the smoke rings of the American barbecue culture”—somehow delicious though bordering on overpowering.
Dinner only a few hours later was a great excursion. There was an incredible book on Malaysian street food with detailed maps, beautiful photos and three paragraph summaries of the cuisine and atmosphere of the given restaurant (or push cart). It was the Zagat’s of low brow food, and skimming the pages inspired my current dream job of writing an equivalent guide for NYC.
Due to its nearness and late closing time, we chose Sang Kee, on the other side of Chinatown. The roast pork had been carmelized to the point just before becoming candy, making it hard to stop shoveling the small crispy pieces in front of me into my mouth long enough to remember to breathe. We also ate loh shee fun, a worm-shaped rice noodle simmered in a clay pot with ground pork and an egg cooked on the residual heat when served. Both dishes were excellent.
But here’s my problem: nothing I described above struck me as uniquely Malaysian. The noodle soups were distinctive, yes, bit they weren’t aromatic with fresh cilantro and basil as they would have been in Vietnam. The broth had no flavoring of shoyu or miso as with the most common ramen varieties in Tokyo, no earthiness common to most Khmer cuisine. The roast pork I’m pretty certain is what they call cha shu in China, though lacking the traditional red hued exterior (which I was recently told is achieved through food coloring). The noodle’s shape was different than anything I have had elsewhere, though it didn’t jump out as Malay.
Perhaps my problem was my proximity to Chinatown, which unsurprisingly produces excellent Chinese food. But I suspect there are deeper forces at work; I think it’s mostly that an indigenous cuisine is impossible to find in an extremely multiethnic city. Other than pizza, what exactly is New York food? I can’t really begin to answer that, and certainly not in an afternoon.
All it means is I’ll have to go back to Malaysia again. The countryside is the best place to eat traditional dishes anyways.
Vietnam cooking class
Posted by pariser in Quick and Simple Eats, Travel on September 1, 2009
In Hoi An, we took a cooking class organized from the very nice Phuoc An hotel. Starting downtown, we were brought their river-side sister hotel of the same name, and from there we embarked on a journey to the local market via a traditional oar-powered boat down the river.
Every town has its own small market (this one half-indoors, the rest roofed by well-secured tarps) where the villagers purchase their produce, meat and fish. Vendors are unsurprisingly specialized in what they sell; one has greens and vegetables (mint, green onions, Chinese cabbage, bok choi, cilantro, …, limes and lemons, green beans, tomatoes, chiles, tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, cucumbers, …), another has rice noodles and rice paper, the next has fresh fruit of every kind. A separate seller each for fish and shellfish, pork, beef, and live chickens and ducks. There are also a few “street restaurants” to sample the local food. Unlike the bigger markets we browsed in the cities, the attitude was very relaxed, and very few of the vendors pushed for us to buy from them.
Out chef-instructor (I sadly forgot his name, though I have a picture I will post later) led us around the various stalls. We picked up mint, basil, cabbage, tarrow, carrot, chiles (red and green), a bag of pickled sprouts and cucumbers, tomatoes, shallots and an onion. Then, sitting at another comically short table, we downed a pair of mixed fruit smoothies (avocado inside makes for a strange texture, though the flavor was quite complex and rather tasty). We wouldn’t buy fresh meat or fish at the market, as the hotel buys it at a discount in bulk straight from the providers, which incidentally ensures freshness.
After a trip back up the river, we went to the top floor of the Phuoc An River Hotel, which had an excellent view of the area and, with windows open on every side of us, a delightful cool breeze. We donned our aprons and chef hats and waited a few minutes while all of our purchases were cleaned and prepped most of the way for us. Any time you want me to cook for you, I will be readily convinced to do so should you do all the mise en place.
During the class we were also taught how to make a flower out of the skin of a tomato–a highly useful skill, if I can say so myself.
Sorry about the measurements by weight…
DEEP FRIED SPRING ROLLS
Ingredients (for 4 pieces):
Rice paper
60g Minced pork
40g Finely chopped shrimp
10g Black ear mushrooms
10g Tarrow
6g Carrot
2 Shallots, smashed flat
1 Egg yolk
Create a fine dice of the vegetables and mix thoroughly with egg yolk, a small pinch of salt and a large pinch of pepper.
Place the rice paper sheet in front of you, fold 2 inches of the bottom up to double-layer the paper nearest you. Take 1 tablespoon of mixture, place in center on the two-layered area. Fold the left and right edges in to cover the filling. Making sure that fold stays tight the length of the rice paper, roll from the bottom to the top. If you overstuff any, they are prone to exploding open when cooking.
Heat vegetable oil (enough that no more than a quarter of the spring roll is uncovered) in a small high-walled pan until your cooking chopsticks when placed in the oil start to cause small bubbles. Place the spring rolls in, cook about 8 minutes (make sure to turn them). Be sure to only lightly brown them, remove them to a paper towel, let cool a bit before serving.
SQUID SALAD
Ingredients (serves 2):
200g Squid, scored on the diagonal
15g Red chile (one small)
30g Cucumber
15g Tomato
10g Onion
15g Carrot
5g Ginger
15g Pineapple
5g Celery (thin stalks, perhaps Chinese variety)
5g Mint
5g Basil
Shrimp chips (one small bag)
Fried shallots for garnish
Sweet & sour fish dressing (below)
Julienne all vegetables, mix with finely chopped herbs.
Heat water to a rolling boil (the same sauce pan and amount as the vegetable oil above), place squid in water. Cook for three minutes at a boil. Do not cook longer! Remove to a prep bowl.
Make sweet & sour dressing (below). Mix squid with a generous squeeze of chili sauce and then some dressing, pouring the rest over the vegetables. Place squid on the salad, pour remaining chili sauce atop the plate, and serve.
SWEET AND SOUR FISH DRESSING
Combine 3-4 tbsp *light* fish sauce, a generous amount of sugar (1 tbsp?), pinches of salt and pepper, juice of a tiny lime.
PORK IN CLAY POT
Ingredients (serves 2):
200g Pork, thinly sliced
1/2 tbsp Garlic, minced
4 Green onions
1 Red chile
1 Green chile
3 tsp Light fish sauce
1/2 tsp Sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste
With hot oil in sauté pan, cook green onion and then garlic until fragrant. Add pork, along with other ingredients. Cook on medium-high for a few minutes until pork is browned uniformly. Add 1-2 cups water, bring up to simmer, and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer to a clay pot, put atop flame for a bit and serve. Use kosher salt to elevate the pot from a serving plate. Serve with rice.
Mekong delta fruits and tiny tables; the search for banh mi
A good number of Vietnamese people are extremely lucky to live atop a fertile flood plain. In the south, the Mekong Delta is such a place. Farmers run the show here, though a large number of tour groups float down the rivers, trying to get that passing glimpse of local life.
There are about 20 kinds of fruit in the Mekong that are uncommon at best in the States. (Note that this estimate is probably really inaccurate, as I’m only able to count those things readily for sale in the markets, and I can’t even begin to fathom seasonal differences.) There are incredible floating markets along the water ways where most of this is sold. You can see what each boat is selling by looking at which items it hangs on a tall stick
Perhaps most infamous is durian, which you should probably avoid for your own sake. It’s incredibly pungent, has an interior resembling the texture of custard mixed with cheese, and is banned on (most or all?) public transportation options. I’m one to try everything, so I tried it, and though it’s against my nature, I (almost) regret that I did. And since I tried it in the States, I’m even more hesitant to try it here–thoughts like “what if it’s even more horrible here, closer to the tree??” plague me.
Street food is incredible here. The distinction between a vendor and a restaurant is blurred a bunch, because most vendors have tables and chairs next to their metal and plexiglass cart. Funny thing is that these tables and chairs are almost all little child size, so as I eat, my knees are almost level with my head.
Some of you in the states will know of and completely love the most obvious Vietnamese food export, the bánh mì sandwich. It’s a short baguette with some meats (often paté and roast pork), julienned carrots and cucumbers, cilantro, chili sauce, and fish sauce & vinegar or mayo.
First clarification: bánh mì literally translates to “with bread” so trying to order it yields very strange looks. For example, bánh mì ôp la is bread with a plate on which sits a poached egg and meat in a stew-like sauce almost resembling huevos rancheros (less beans and tortillas). I haven’t yet had a sandwich as I described above, but I’m about to go to get a late quick breakfast, which seems as good a time as any…
I’ll continue with more musings on food as I have time.
Epilogue, 10 hours later…
For breakfast / lunch we ate at a street vendor serving bún chà, nem rán (spring rolls), bún bò, and bánh tôm. I can’t tell you which is which, but let me explain: you are given a soup bowl with grilled beef and (I think…) Asian pear slices inside, a plate with mixed lettuces and fresh mint and basil, and a plate of rice noodles. You are told by gesture to put everything in the soup and eat from there. Then the other courses–cut up spring rolls and a shrimp pancake–arrive and yet again you are told to dip them in the broth. You have the option of adding chile-based sauce, and you do. And everything is delicious. $5 for a feast for two.
For dinner, I finally found something like the sandwich I described. The seller had an LED sign saying “bánh mì doner kebab”. It’s not what I think of as the prototypical still, but I was very happy. $0.95 per person. Internationalism is amazing–how this traditional Mid East dish can be found adapted to the local taste–but perhaps that discussion is best left to a food historian.
Food for Travel
In sitting at SFO International, waiting to board my flight to Narita (Tokyo) en route to my Southeast Asia expedition. One might think that I’d be a bit more jaded each and every time I do this, but I find that each past trip fuels my desire to travel more!
This trip is to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. If there is one excellent thing about graduate school, it is that it affords me the ability to take such 3 week vacations.
Why Vietnam? Well, it’s beautiful, cheap, and has excellent food. And that entitles me to writeabout my trip on this blog, provided I dwell on the cuisine. Also, watch the episode of Top Geatlr when the hosts “race” motorcycles from the south to the north of the county, and then tell me you don’t want to go there too.
Cambodia is on the agenda solely for the temples In and around Angkor Wat. And I won’t be doing Thailand any justice in basically one week, but I’ll return there aain some day!
The plane doors are closing, so it’s time to sign off!
Until next time…
Grilled Octopus and Corn Salad
Posted by pariser in Uncategorized on June 19, 2009
A few days prior, I was sitting around at night watching Iron Chef America. Battle octopus was quite entertaining, with something like two pressure cookers per side, and a hell of a lot of great looking presentations of little no-longer-squirming tentacles. The result of watching this hour of television was a great desire to eat octopus, one which I haven’t satisfied by eating out for much of the past two weeks (more on that in a general update later). When at Whole Foods yesterday, I had no other choice than to buy baby octopus for $4.95/lb.
It’s hot in California right now, so I figured that some sort of summer salad would be a nice little treat. And the corn was amazingly fresh. Plus, Whole Foods doesn’t remove half of the husk like most other grocery stores in California (anyone know why Safeway does that?)
Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef)
Posted by pariser in Quick and Simple Eats, Recipe on May 29, 2009
(From Seattle)
My friend John and I were inspired to make this simple wok-fried beef salad from the post found here. It’s a lot like the Vietnamese pork salad Nick and I have made many a time, but this one does not call for a grill. That having been said, a grill would have been a great way to cook the beef.
Ingredients (for 6):
- 2 lb beef cut into one inch cubes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 onion
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- Salad greens (we used red leaf lettuce, watercress suggested)
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 lime
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 thinly sliced serrano peppers
Cooking instructions: Marinate beef in last four ingredients. Wash and prepare salad greens and sliver the tomatoes. Slice onions really thin and rest for 20 minutes in just enough vinegar to cover them — this will soften the bite of the onions and is a really nice trick I will likely use again. Heat a wok to high, put in garlic (minced) and then the beef and cook as desired. Put beef atop greens, tomatoes and onions, and dress with juices from the wok. Optionally, make a dipping sauce out of lime juice, black pepper, salt and some serrano peppers.
For Next Time:
- Thinner slices of meat may allow for a crispier texture
- Perhaps grill the meat and replace wok juices with a separate salad dressing
- I’ve already updated the recipe to 3 peppers in order to kick up the intensity
- Don’t eat 6x portions as 2 people
- Something crunchy (perhaps slivered almonds) would have been a nice textural addition
Lemon-Baked Black Bass with Spinach Salad
Cookbook Thursdays: This time, I’m cooking from the Tra Vigne Cookbook, subtitled Seasons in the California Wine Country. Nicely organized into six sections, one for each season and another for Tra Vigne’s classics and for desserts, this book’s beautiful bright colors are reflected in the food. Four ingredients are chosen from each of the four seasons
- Spring: Asparagus, Garlic, Fresh Peas & Shelling Beans, Potatoes
- Summer: Corn, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Summer Squashes
- Autumn: Mushrooms, Greens, Onions, Eggplants
- Winter: Broccoli, Artichokes, Citrus, Winter Squashes
and though it was not winter, I chose the lemon-baked Sea Bass in parchment, figuring it would be good to have some fish every once in a while and that it didn’t take too much prep.
Lemon-Baked Sea Bass with Spinach Salad:
- 4 lemons
- 1 tbsp minced shallot
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 cup olive oil
- 4 sea bass fillets, 6 oz each and 3/4 inch thick
- salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp red onion slivers
- 2 cups packed baby spinach
Cooking instructions: If the sea bass fillets are too thick, butterfly them to obtain an even thickness. Preheat oven to 450. Put shallots and parsley into juice from two lemons, and whisk in about 3/4 cup oil (should be moderately tart). Add fish to marinade (for 10 minutes) and coat well. Put each piece of fish in parchment package (see below) with a generous tablespoon of the marinade, seasoned with salt and paper, some very thin lemon slices atop each fillet. Make sure the closure is tight. Transfer to baking sheet and cook until done, about 12 minutes depending on thickness. For the salad, soak red onion slivers in juice from the last lemon for a few minutes until they turn pale pink, whisk in olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, then toss with the spinach. Open the parchment and place a portion of the spinach salad atop each fillet; the spinach will wilt across the top.
For next time:
- Listen to the last instruction to wilt the spinach
- Use less liquid per package, or perhaps set each piece of fish atop some vegetables so as to lift the meat out of the marinade
Lemon Basil Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken and Artichokes
Posted by nickwest in Lighter Fare, Recipe on May 19, 2009
