Taipei - Moon Moon Food

There was a branch of Moon Moon Food, a local chain known for traditional Taiwanese fare, just down the street from us, so we stopped in for dinner.

It had a modern, but comfortable feel and was busy, but efficient.

We tried their signature sesame-chili noodles, despite the fact that we aren't big fans of too much sesame. And it was just too much sesame paste for me - which was a shame, since the texture of the noodles was good.

The chicken and clam soup fared better for us. A nice, clean broth with tasty clams and bone-in chicken that was a bit bland but perked up with a little soy.

And, of course, we couldn't resist some lu rou fan. This version was less seasoned than others we've had, which made it taste a bit lighter - something that worked in the context of this meal.

Hanoi - Quán Thịt Nướng Khói

We walked past this place a couple of times, and it was busy and giving off a good vibe, so we stopped in for some skewers one night.

We ordered some chicken skewers, some pork skewers and some sausage skewers.

All were good, but the sausage skewers turned out to have the best flavor. They had cartilage pieces in them, which gave you something to crunch on.

Da Nang - Grilled Meats at Hai Còi and Cay Xè

Craving something grilled, we stopped in for some chicken at Hai Còi. There are a number of similar "chân/cánh" (feet/wing) places within a block or so - we chose this one because it had a good vibe going on.

Although translated on the menu as "chicken legs", "chân gà" really means chicken feet. We enjoy braised chicken feet, but it turns out they aren't super interesting grilled - there just really isn't anything that can be easily eaten on them.

The chicken wings (cánh gà), on the other hand, were incredibly delicious.

Another night after a few drinks in the expat area of Da Nang, we happened to round a corner and stumble upon another collection of grilled meat stalls.

We stopped at one called Cay Xè for some grilled pork.

The tables are set up with holes to accomodate a charcoal grill.

We ordered some pork belly (I think) and they recommended something called "pork frills" (điểm nướng) - not sure what park of the pig that is, but it was tasty.

Interestingly, the setup came with kimchi - I think probably due to the increasing tourism the area is getting from Korea?

Langkawi - Restoran Selera Padang Puteh

Another place I found via google maps, but had confirmed by a local as a "good spot" (this time, a grab driver). Selera Padang Puteh is a breakfast/lunch place - we went for both.

First up, lunch. The restaurant is primarily a buffet - you take what you want, and they charge you based on what you've taken. The options were a bit overwhelming. We ended up with one plate with fish balls, braised egg, and beef rendang.

The other plate heaped with fish, two types of chicken curry, potatoes, and eggplant. They had both a regular sambal, and another with ikan bilis in it.

Everything was really good, and it was a very pleasant place to eat, so we came back another day for breakfast.

Breakfast was a similar affair, with a buffet that overlapped with the lunch offerings, but with some different items. We got a plate with some fried chicken and rice with a gravy from a few of the dishes.

They do roti in the morning, so we ordered a roti pisang - roti canai with banana cooked in it, served with condensed milk.

And a couple of half-cooked eggs.

Great local restaurant - the kind of place that would be in our regular rotation if we lived here.

Langkawi - Temonyong Night Market

Langkawi has a night market that rotates daily through various locations. On Thursday nights it is near where we were staying, so we stopped in to see what we could find.

I often find night markets disappointing - either full of non-food items or food I'm not interested in. This market was very food centric, and had a lot of appealing things to eat.

We started with some nice-looking grilled chicken on a stick. It was juicy, and coated in a tasty, spice sauce. Meat on a stick rarely disappoints, and this was no exception.

Next, we saw stand selling murtabak - someting we'd not yet tried. Malaysian murtabak consist of a roti-like wrapper stuffed with various fillings - usually egg with vegetables and sometimes meat.

We got one with chicken. The vegetable seemed to be primarily cabbage. It was mildly flavored, but tasty and very filling.

Needing just a little bit more to fill us up, we got some fried chicken. It had a salty, spicy coating and was delicous.

The market had a great buzz, and was being frequented by a lot of people - tourists and locals alike. Great place to grab a bit to eat.

Langkawi - Cenang Food Truck Square

The island of Langkawi, and more specifically the Pantai Cenang area, is a tourist center. It is also in a bit of a slump, which has resulted in a lot of touristy restaurants that aren't very busy. It took a while for us to get our footing here food-wise.

Our first success was finding this small cluster of trucks busily serving up food to a mixture of locals and tourists.

One night we ordered some sticks of satay - some chicken skewers, a "chicken bone" skewer, and a chicken liver skewer.

Simple, and tasty.

We also patronized a woman who was making a variety of thai salads.

We got an order of som tam and it was really good. Perfect refreshing flavors with just the right amount of heat.

We returned another night and got a different dish from the same lady - a seafood salad.

Shrimp and squid in som tam style dressing. Very good.

George Town - Nasi Lemak at McDonald's

Every once in a while, it's fun to stop into a familiar fast food joint overseas and see what different items they might have. Finding ourselves a bit hungry at the Penang airport with time to kill and limited options, we checked out the local McDonald's.

We ordered nasi lemak, which turned out to actually be pretty good. The chicken was moist, and deliciously seasoned. The rice was also good, and it came with the requisite egg, cucumber and ikan bilis. Not too shabby at all.

George Town - Hameediyah Restaurant

It had been a while since we'd had nasi kandar, so we had dinner one night at Hameediyah Restaurant - supposedly Penang's oldest nasi kandar spot.

They are obviously popular, as they have expanded into another storefront a few doors down. You order at one place, and then sit at the other.

We got one place with beef rendang, and another with grilled chicken and an omelette with okra and some other veggies in it.

Nothing revelatory, but a very tasty dinner.

Goerge Town - Belacan Fried Chicken and Hai Koay Teow Soup

Doing my research on George Town, I'd read that Kimberly Street was *the* food street. While that may have once been the case, it now is fairly subdued - with more active street food areas in other parts of the city. Still, there was good food to be found there, and one evening we stopped in to try a few things.

First we got some fried chicken from the "Belacan Fried Chicken" stand. "Belacan" means "shrimp paste" - not sure if that was supposed to indicate a flavoring for the chicken? I didn't taste shrimp, but the seasoning was super good, and the chicken was moist and piping hot out of the fryer.

Right across the street, Hai Koay Teow Soup was doing brisk business.

We snagged one of the last free tables and put an order in. Looking around there were lots of others sitting waiting for food. They meticulously put out bowl after bowl and we were finally rewarded with ours.

Well worth the wait. Full of goodies. Rice noodles, fish balls, fish cakes, pork slices, liver slices, minced pork...

Great bowl of noodles.

Kuala Lumpur - Restoran Bunn Choon

Given the significant Chinese demographic of Kuala Lumpur, we decided that getting dim sum here was a pretty good bet, so one morning we had a meal at Restoran Bunn Choon.

The place stretched up over multiple floors of small dining areas and was packed, but we only had about a 15-minute wait to get a table.

We always take an opportunity to get some greenery, so we ordered some long beans - very well seasoned and delicious.

Some little shrimp dumplings with super-thin skins and an intensly shrimpy filling.

Sherry rarely passes up a chance to order chicken feet. These ones were great - nice and soft with a savory and slightly five-spice sauce.

Some pork ribs that were just ok, but the bits of some sort of sweet potato or winter squash that came with them were surprisingly tasty.

Bean curd stuffed with a pork mixture. Generous tasty filling, and the bean curd skin gave a nice texture.

Dumplings with the same sort of pork mixture, but with a chili oil sauce.

Overall, a very enjoyable meal. We availed ourselves of the "biscuit" counter on the main floor.

They wrapped things up in a pretty box (that's how you can tell that you overpaid for them...)

The egg tart was ok, but decidedly below average.

The lotus bun with salted egg wasn't a favorite. The lotus paste didn't have much flavor, and the egg yolk didn't add a lot.

The third was a coconut pastry which we really liked. Fluffy, with nice coconut flavor and shredded coconut texture.