Hanoi - Cháo Dậu Cà Bà-O

Near our hotel there was a stall set up on the street during morning and afternoon that was always busy.

They had two large pots full of some kind of porridge - one yellow and one reddish brown. Looking it up, it turns out to be a very traditional dish we'd never heard of before - cháo đậu. It is a rice porridge - the red version is made with red beans and the yellow one is mung bean.

We got a bowl of the yellow version. The base is fairly bland, but they added in a salted egg and some braised tofu. The egg in particular is very salty, so when you break it up and mix it together, you get a nicely seasoned dish. Not something I'd go out of my way to have again, but it was fun to try.

George Town - Restoran Nasi Padang Minang

We'd had a lot of the "nasi" variations so far on this trip, but we'd yet to try nasi padang (named after Padang, in West Sumatra).

This place was serve yourself from a large buffet of dishes. They had lots of good looking fish, so we concentrated on that.

Including their speciality, which was this fried fish with a ton of shallot. The shallots were actally the highlight on this dish - smokey and a bit sweet, we used them as a nice condiment for the rest of our meal.

The smaller fish were, as you would expect, a bit of labor of love to separate flesh from bone, but worth the effort.

In addition to the fish, we got some veg and this big chunk of tofu, which had a really nice texture. The various sauces were all delicous.

Overally, a really tasty lunch in a friendly setting.

Malacca - Capitol Seafood

We had dinner one night at Capitol Seafood - one of several seafood stalls down an alley off of Jalan Bunga Raya in Malacca.

The speciality is small shellfish (cockles, clams, snails).

Our favorites of the shellfish were the cockles - dark-fleshed and nice and strong flavored. Even better dipped in the provided sauce which had a mixture of saltiness, acidity, umami and heat.

We also really like the smal clams - nice, clean flavor.

The snails were quite pretty, and they were fun to eat (you suck on one end to loosen it, and then on the other end to pull them out). They didn't taste like much, though.

We weren't huge fans of the squid (sotong). It mostly just was a textural component, without much actual flavor.

We also ordered a small plate of rojak. It was our first time having this dish, and we really enjoyed it. This version had tofu skin, fish cakes, and pinapple topped with a couple of sauces (one sweet and one savory) with a splash of sambal on the side.

Another vendor came by selling otak-otak (fish cakes steamed in banana leaves) and we couldn't resist getting a couple. They were very good.

Kuala Lumpur - Brickfields Pisang Goreng and Other Snacks

The last time we were in KL, we tried to get pisan goreng (fried banana) from this stall, but we got there too late and they were out.

This time, we made sure to get there earlier and were rewarded with freshly fried banana fritters.

We also got one of their kuih bakul - a fried "sandwich" with nian gao (a sweet, sticky paste made from glutinous rice flour) between a slices of sweet potato and/or yam. And we got some curry puffs to snack on later.

We've professed our love for egg tarts before, and we've been snagging them here and there on this trip. This one was from a cart in a hawker center in Brickfields. Mildly sweet, and nice and eggy.

We'd heard that KL's Chinatown has been up-and-coming in recent years, but you wouldn't know it from our visit to the Petaling Street market stretch. Still just packed with stall after stall of knock-off shoes, bags and watches.

As on our previous visit, the one highlight is the soy milk stall in the middle.

Tau foo fa - soy milk pudding - topped with a brown sugar and ginger syrup. Comforting and refreshing.

Kuala Lumpur - Laksa Kg Baru and KLCC Mall Yong Tau Foo

One rainy evening (most evenings have been rainy for an hour or so during our visit), we had dinner at Laksa Kg Baru.

The owner was very friendly and helpful, and took us through the menu.

They specialize in Laksa and Kari Mee (curry laksa).

We made a bit of a mistake by both ordering curry laksa. We got slightly different versions - one with mee (wheat noodles) and one with bihun (fine rice noodles) and chicken and beef added. We prefered the bihun version, as the texture of the mee was a bit too soft. Favorite parts were the bits of fried tofu and tofu skin soaking in the broth.

Another evening, we found ourselves hungry in the KLCC mall (we'd come there in search of an ATM that would take our debit card). We ended up having Yong Tau Foo for the first time in the mall food court. You pick a set of ingredients (we got water spinach, bok choi, fish cake, fish balls, eggplant, bitter melon, and a big chili all stuffed with fish paste, and tofu skin), tell them how you want it (we got soup with rice noodles), and they prep it up for you. We really enjoyed it, and look forward to having Yong Tau Foo again in a non-mall context.

Kata Beach - The Pad Thai Shop

Pad Thai has become almost a cliché dish - both as an American Thai restaurant staple, and as the only dish Americans order when in Thailand. That doesn't mean you shouldn't order it, though, because it is delicious. And it rises to a whole new level in Thailand.



Located on Patak Road, inland from the tourist beach corridor, The Pad Thai Shop is very much a local joint with a sprinkling of expats and tourists thrown into the mix.



We ordered the chicken and the prawn pad thai - both were delicious, but we particularly liked the chicken. Easily the best version of the dish I've ever had.

There were other items on the menu we wanted to try, so we came back again another day. This time the main event was noodle soup with braised chicken:



Chicken leg, foot and an egg in a rich, savory broth with wide rice noodles. Amazing.



Less amazing, but still quite pleasant to eat was the crab fried rice.



I wish we'd been able to eat here a few more times, as other items on the menu were still beckoning. Definitely a must try if you are in Kata Beach.

Singapore - Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu in Albert Centre and Gardens by the Bay

After an afternoon at Gardens by the Bay (see later in this post), we were hungry and didn't want to go far. Somehow we had neglected to notice the Albert Centre Market food court even though it was only about a block from our hotel and we had walked past it a number of times.



We stopped in for a bowl of yong tau foo at Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu. It was easily the busiest stall in the building, with a long line of people waiting for bowls of their soup.



After eating, we understood why there was a line. The bowl contained one each of a number of very tasty morsels - including tofu, shrimp ball, pork ball. Each was delicious in its own right.



We liked it so much that we came back for a second bowl the morning we flew out of Singapore. The line was still very much in evidence.



Our trip was mostly about food, but we did do a little bit of sight-seeing while in Singapore. We really enjoyed our visit to Gardens by the Bay, with their giant "trees":



And huge conservatories housed in giant, temperature-controlled domes.



The cloud forest dome was fantastic, with its impressive scale and equally impressive details.



And then there is the giant baby sculpture. Yeah, I don't know quite what to make of it either...

Hong Kong - Street Food in Kowloon

Hong Kong is a great place for street food. If you like eating tasty treats on a stick, you will not be disappointed. You can find street food most anywhere, but the largest density is probably in Kowloon at night.



We purchased the fried tofu above from a bustling stall a few blocks southwest of the Ladies' Market.



The outside of the tofu was crispy, the inside soft and it came with a nice spicy sauce.

Walking down farther south to the Temple Street Night Market, we had our first stick of curried fish balls:



Spicy and delicious.



Not in Kowloon this time, but just outside the Tin Hau MTR station, we had the street version of cheung fan - rolled rice noodles:



I wasn't a big fan of the sauces (too sweet), but I liked the texture of the rolls. The guy running the stall was quite the character:



We found ourselves back in Kowloon again at the tail end of our trip. Near the Mong Kok MTR stop, at the corner of Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street are a number of very busy street food vendors.



We got a little bowl of shiumai, which were pretty good but basically shiumai-shaped fish balls.



Just down the street was a guy grilling up skewers of various meats.



Unable to resist meat-on-a-stick, we had two lamb skewers. They were lovely - tender and full of flavor.



We still needed a little snack, so we got some fried chicken bites from one of the ubiquitous Hot Star stands. Crispy, and coated with some chili and five-spice flavor.



We rounded out the evening with soft-serve ice cream when we succumbed to the lure of a Mobile Softee truck.