On the food trail… ‘the worldwide round up’ pt 1

So I like to eat, that much should be clear by now to anyone who’s happened by the pages of this blog before. For those that haven’t and to provide a handy recap ahead of the actual content of the post let me explain. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to go on a little world tour, which while not directly motivated by food was nonetheless the perfect excuse to get my eating on. Before this world tour I lived in Japan for about 18 months, and before that I lived in England, France and Italy (kinda). And now I’ve returned to Italy for a little while, so I can say I’ve lived here properly now. I’m half French, half Italian and that means that not only do I love eating, I also love food, I love cooking and I love talking about food, which has proven both a social boon and curse in the past.

For those that don’t follow the often random flow of content from this blog, over the past few months I’ve done a series of posts about my culinary discoveries, thoughts and experiences during my recent trip and I’ve now decided to round it all up in a handy post, with bullet points because that’s something everyone can easily understand and including food from places I’ve lived in as well as visited. A sort of battle royale of cuisines and dishes, with 3 continents facing off and my tastebuds and preferences as the judge, jury and most importantly, executioner. For anyone into food and thinking of visiting any of the countries mentioned, I guess this post forms a handy guide of sorts, but I am not responsible for any food related accidents! This is gonna be longer than I thought so I’m splitting it into 3 posts, one for each continent.

We’ll start with the continent I last lived in, mainly because there’s a fair amount to cover there and some heavyhitters.

Asia

Japan
The Good: Eating out in Japan is relatively cheap, there is ample choice of cuisines, dishes and styles (within Japanese cuisine and outside of it too), basic drinks like water and tea tend to be free and service is almost always of a high level. The Japanese take on ramen (essentially a Chinese noodle soup) is quite possibly the best thing in the world, which is a totally biased comment and addition but one that needs to be made.
The Bad: Eating in in Japan is a pain in the arse, your kitchen will most likely be just about big enough to boil a kettle if you’re unlucky, and boil a pan if you’re lucky. Supermarkets can be a nightmare to navigate at first unless you’ve already mastered the language, and ingredients and staples tend to be quite different from the West (which I know is obvious but should be noted). Also the Japanese have a habit of putting nori (dried seaweed, generally flaked or stripped) on pretty much anything, which is not only wrong but also often just plain disconcerting (explain to me why I want dried seaweed on a meat dish please). They also put katsuobushi on a fair amount of dishes, which is even wronger than nori.
Overall: On a day to day tip, and even for tourists or short term visitors, Tokyo, and Japan, offers an incredible range of choices and a very good level of price/quality. It’s definitely the number one spot for eating as far as I’m concerned, and that means it’s better than most European places. Yes I said it.

The Good Food:
There’s a lot but I’ll try and keep it short and sweet…

• Ramen – especially tonkotsu broth, and even more especially Ramen Jiro.
• Yakitori – essentially skewers of bits of chicken and pig dipped in sweet sauce or salted, the chips of Japan would be a very innapropriate yet fitting comparison.
• Noodles – Soba or Udon, cold or warm, in a broth or on their own, Japanese noodles quite simply totally own. Also the grilled versions, yakisoba or yakiudon, are quite sick.
• Tempura – it’s an obvious one, but when done well it’s absolutely heavenly, I’m thinking in particular to a dish of tempura avocado I had in Kyoto which was out of this world. Also among the most expensive foods with sushi, cos if you want the good shit you gonna have to pay for it.
• Okonomiyaki – a sort of pancake type throw-anything-in-and-see-what-tastes-good dish, Okonomiyaki is a firm favourite cos its cheap and generally tastes good and it’s also great fun as it’s a cook on your table type of thing. A big minus for being a magnet for katsuobushi though.
• Yakiniku – the Japanese version of Korean bbq, less messy and with a lot more choice than the Korean version. Again though it’s great fun to cook on your own table, and it’s also one of the few types of Japanese food where you can get a meat fix, which shouldn’t be frowned upon in a country where a good slab of red meat is hard to come by.
• Rice – it’s also obvious but it comes in flavours and options you would have never thought possible, and it’s also pretty healthy and good for you. White rice is a bit of a bore after a while though.
• Miso soup – another obvious, but the variety of Miso soup in Japan makes this one of the best dishes the country has to offer. I seem to remember someone telling me Miso soup varieties numbered in the hundreds, and while I probably only got round to trying maybe ten at most, there were some unbelievable ones in there. Again Kyoto is a spot to hit up for that with not only good Miso soup, but also incredible Miso paste based dishes. Oh yeah they make Miso ramen too.
• Katsu – not a dish as such, more like an ingredient I guess. Katsu basically refers to a type of Japanese breadcrumbs, called panko, which are used to make, well, breaded dishes. It seems the Japanese will put katsu on pretty much anything these days, from pork cutlets to chicken to fish and even seafood. Which is no bad thing really. The origin of the dishes apparently used beef, and today’s most standard used meat for katsu is pork. Katsudon, a bowl of rice with a pork cutlet or chicken on top with a dose of tonkatsu sauce, is a must whether in its cheap and fast version or swanky version where the price is based on how much meat you get breaded.
• Nabe – literally pot dishes, generally soups or stews. Chankonabe is the food of sumos, and for a good reason. It’s not the tastiest, but as a winter dish it totally owns, and again benefits from being simple, easy to make or cheap to buy and can go from plain but tasty to really intricate and even more tasty (such as the amazing tempura prawn and curry nabe with udon I had in Meguro once).
• Kare – aka curry, and which gives the Indian variant a run for its money. Japanese curry tends to be a lot less spicy and, some might say, more bland than Indian curry. Normally served with white rice, a choice of meat, generally breaded, and toppings including roasted garlic and ginger (the same one used with sushi but stripped instead of sliced). I love Japanese curry, it’s another one of those flexible dishes, you can go for the cheaper versions which are decent or go for the posher ones which can be real culinary eye openers. Also Udonkare is a must try for anyone who likes Udon.
• Sushi – possibly the most obvious and ubiquitous Japanese dish, and one that, like tempura, will go from cheap and really decent to incredibly expensive but unforgetable. Kaitenzushi, aka the conveyor belt sushi restaurants, are entirely on their own in Japan offering cheap sushi fixes that often best most of the expensive European sushi spots. They’re also incredible fun. The pricier sushi places in Japan are many and well all worth it for various reasons. Personally I became addicted to the places that specialise in all tuna cuts around the Tsukiji fish market. Sushi in Japan is dangerously addictive. So is wasabi, and so is the ginger served with it. It’s the kind of addiction I can do with though.
• Green tea – again more of an ingredient, but the Japanese have mastered the art of putting green tea, or its ‘flavour’, in pretty much anything. And that’s something that should be commended and exported. Highlights include green tea soba, ice cream and pretty much any sort of green tea flavoured cake.

The Bad Food:
Disclaimer: all following comments contain a fair dose of irony, and also well it’s just my opinion, horses for courses and all that.

• Anything with mentaiko in it or in the title – seriously it’s the roe of fish and should be left alone. Extra losing points for making mentaiko spaghetti a national favourite.
• Nori as a topping – see above comment. Don’t get me wrong I love good nori, hell I even became accustomed to the idea of eating it on its own (it’s rather nice if you go for the good shit), but not on every goddam dish I order please.
• Katsuobushi – it’s fish flakes for crying out loud. Fish flakes!
• Takoyaki – deep fried/grilled octopus balls, which wouldn’t be that bad if they weren’t then covered in stupid amounts of fairly gross toppings, including katsuobushi. I’m seeing a pattern here.
• A fair portion of the grosser fish and seafood – which is hardly surprising considering Japan is an island and well has a long culinary history based around making the most of the sea. Not really any different to some of the stuff people will try to serve you in Europe. Dude that’s cow nerves, I’m not touching it. Still some like it, but I draw the line somewhere especially with seafood.
• Coffee – finding good coffee in Japan can be as hard, or expensive, as finding good meat. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but you’re gonna pay for it.
• Frozen Chinese food – mainly because of the poison.

I warned you it was gonna be long. Japan also offers a wealth of Western foods and restaurants, but as I often remarked when living there, why in hell would you want to eat western food (generally badly done at that) when you have all this other amazing stuff around you. The same goes in reverse for Japanese and asian foods in European countries.

As an aside on that point, some of the best Japanese food in my opinion is actually an interpretation of a foreign dish that has been assimilated into Japanese cuisine and culture, such as ramen or yakiniku for example. It’s fairly ironic when you think about it, especially in light of the constant bashing that goes on between Japan and China, or the way in which the Japanese tend to be very protective of certain dishes and local cuisines (like sushi).

A special mention also to izakaya food, which is I guess not a dish or type of food as such, just the food that you eat while drinking in izakaya in Japan (which are basically the equivalents of pubs but with the whole southern European tapas/eating thing going on). Most izakaya will specialise in certain dishes, like fish for example, or serve a variety of many of the foods mentioned above, and they’re a great place to get drunk, chat and eat well.

China / Beijing
Disclaimer: I didn’t spend long enough in China to really be able to speak on the cuisine as such but I’ll do it based on what I have experienced in Beijing.
The Good: Eating out is also pretty cheap in China. Street food and stalls offer some great alternatives to bland and slightly generic restaurant stuff. There’s lots of variations on nikkuman (aka steamed meat bun) which is a good thing in my book. There’s also some pretty mean duck. Language is definitely a barrier but nothing pointing and gesturing won’t solve.
The Bad: There didn’t seem to be a lot of vegetables happening in Beijing that I could see/find. Some of the restaurants were worse than the ones in Europe. It can be hard to find something interesting that isn’t tourist related. Did I mention the vegetable thing?
Overall: I really wished I had had the chance to check out the rest of the country, as I’ve heard that local cuisines in many of the provinces are the real highlight of food in China. Still Beijing offered a nice insight, primarily with the street food or some shops/stalls. Of all the restaurants or bigger spots I tried in one week there, only the last one was quite good, and that’s probably because locals took me there and knew what to go for. I definitely intend to go back for round 2 and a proper try at some real Chinese food.

No good food/bad food round up cos there isn’t really enough to go on. The good stuff was definitely the steamed buns, lamb skewers bought in the street as well as some noodles I had in a small street stall, but which looked more Vietnamese than Chinese. The bad stuff includes most of the food in the more touristy spots, which is to be expected really.

Vietnam
The Good: Vietnam continues the whole ‘eating out can be cheap’ theme that I would venture probably applies to most of Asia and the Far East, in the case of Vietnam it can be ridiculously cheap to eat out as long as you stick to the street food/vendors. Street food in Vietnam comes in an incredible variety of dishes, tastes, colours and experiences, from sipping Pho on the side of the road to eating homemade spring rolls with mint and a dash of cold soup by the railtracks. Vietnam has Pho soup, a ramen equivalent (comparison is loose but useful to an extent) and definite heavyweight contender in the noodle soup world. Vietnam also has spring rolls, quite possibly the best ones in the world. Vietnam has amazing markets, most of the street food seems to be cooked using fresh ingredients, and Vietnamese cuisine is actually a lot more intricate and diverse than fake Vietnamese in Europe might have you believe. Did I mention eating out in Vietnam could be cheap?
The Bad:The flipside of cheap street food is that you run roughly the same amount of chance of being ripped off and overcharged as you do paying a ridiculously low price. Ok so ripped off might be a strong word, as one or two dollars more might not be the end of the world and is definitely a huge plus for those who ripped you off. But you know it’s just the principle more than anything. The touristier (is that even an adjective?) the place, the higher chances of being ripped off in a very blatant manner, especially trains and stations. It’s easy to get sick in Vietnam with street food if you don’t watch it or have a fragile stomach, so apply common sense but don’t go overboard either. I ate street food for 8 days and never felt ill. Ice cubes can also be dangerous, see previous advice. I’m really struggling to think of bad points as such for Vietnamese food… oh yeah be careful of the spice bottles on tables, that stuff will destroy your tastebuds in a second flat. If you don’t like noodles or rice, then I would recommend avoiding the place, and most of Asia for that matter.
Overall: I would have to say Vietnamese food/cuisine is possibly some of the best in the world in my opinion, and in Asia definitely ties at the top with Japan. It has variety, incredible tastes, colours and fragrances, it’s cheap, it’s healthy, it’s easy to make yourself should you feel inclined (right ingredients are a plus of course) and the whole experience of actually eating in the street or with real Vietnamese people rather than in restaurants takes the whole experience to a whole other level, in a similar way to the experience that eating in certain spots in Japan can bring you (like a local sushi joint full of salary men and old locals or a small ramen joint). And in both cases that experience comes with a possible downside, in Vietnam it’s being ripped off/falling ill and in Japan being made to feel uncomfortable or not even welcome. But yeah Vietnamese food is just incredible, everyone who’s serious about food should go there at least once. Also the influences from French cuisine, kept from the colonial times, and China as well as neighbouring countries means you can find a lot of things that you’ll already know but which will be cooked/served in entirely new ways, and that’s also a plus.

The Good Food:
I don’t actually a lot of the names for a lot of the dishes, so excuse the ignorance. If anyone can clarify please do in the comments.

• Pho – for breakfast (which is a standard in Vietnam as I discovered), lunch, dinner. Pho totally owns, and there’s a lot of varieties too which makes it only better.
• Spring rolls – uncooked, lightly fried or fully fried (careful with that last one if you eat in the street) with mint, salad and dip. They are quite possibly the best thing ever and never get tiring.
• Vegetables – I had a lot of amazing vegetable dishes in Hanoi, including some killer potatoes and spinach cooked in oily sauces with just the right amount of spices. It’s all about the vegetable side dishes if you eat in certain street stalls/restaurants.
• Dried fish and seafood – not something I particularly went for a lot, but tried it once and it was really good, on a par with the Japanese equivalents. In Hanoi it looked like street food at night was mainly seafood following the day’s catches, so best time to try it is then.
• Crepes – in Saigon more than Hanoi I came across a lot of crepes and various takes on French patisserie which were very good, better than most other non French places I’ve ever tried them. Saigon seemed to go more for Crepes in the morning than Pho too. Recommended.
• Noodles – again as with Japan most noodle types and noodle based dishes in Vietnam totally own, no matter how they’re cooked/served. The flat, thick noodles are especially good.
• Buns – Vietnam also has a fair amount of steamed buns and there are some really nice variations to the Chinese ‘classics’. Again I seemed to find more buns in Saigon than Hanoi, but maybe I just didn’t come across it as much as in Saigon.
• Grilled meats – in both Hanoi and Saigon I found some amazing dishes consisting primarily of grilled/bbq-d pork chops served with rice, vegetables and salad. Not sure what exactly was used as seasoning and/or basting but in every case it was just the perfect way to liven up the simple chop.
• Rice dishes – there’s a few of them and I don’t know any names but one that stuck in my mind was a simple dish I had on the train between Hanoi and Saigon which consisted of rice cooked with some spices which made it yellow (pretty sure it wasn’t saffron) and served with grilled chicken and topped with a garnish which I found in a lot of Vietnamese food but which I never managed to learn the name. Closest I can come to a description is that it looks like wood shavings but tastes incredible, which is probably not that useful.

While my actual knowledge of names and dishes isn’t quite there, I was generally busier eating than really paying attention to dish names and my Vietnamese is non existent, there’s a decent Wikipedia page on Vietnamese cuisine that should help anyone whose curiosity has been aroused (or apetite sent into overdrive). For me the best food was definitely always to be found in the streets or away from the obvious tourist spots and ‘normal’ restaurants, but I did have a proper meal at a restaurant in Saigon and that was pretty damn amazing, so I’m not saying avoid them completely, but unless you’re staying with/hanging out with locals, you could do worse than checking out the street vendors and smaller street restaurants if you’re after a real taste of Vietnam.

The Bad Food:
I found very little that I didn’t like in Vietnam, but a few things come to mind.

• Coffee – Vietnamese coffee tends to be sweet, and that’s just wrong no matter how you flip it, especially when you’re trying to wake up in the morning.
• Bread – another remnant of the French colonial times, and while it’s better than bread in Japan say, I still wasn’t that convinced and some of the baguette sandwiches I tried were pretty wrong. Stick to the patisserie.

Cambodia
The Good: Again with the cheap, with Cambodia probably even cheaper than the other countries I visited when it came to street food. Some “interesting” ingredients and cuts for grilled foods. Khmer cuisine is another name for Cambodian cuisine, but as I found out towards the end of my trip in the more expensive and touristy restaurants you can find some really interesting dishes that you probably won’t find in the street joints. I guess ‘happy pizza’ counts as a culinary highlight (and no I didn’t try it). Fresh fish on the coast, bbqd in front of you after being caught the same day. Spring rolls, not as nice as Vietnam but still good, and Pho-like soups. As with Vietnam, I found Cambodian food to be quite healthy, varied and tasty but definitely less than its Vietnamese counterpart, no doubt due to the country’s history and the fact that out of all the South East Asian countries I visited it was by far the most devastated from recent upheavals. Also as someone remarked to me on the train in Vietnam, Cambodians tend to be a lot more welcoming and happier to have you eat with them at street stalls and the likes and are a lot less likely to try and rip you off than the Vietnamese, which I found to be true to an extent.
The Bad: You have to be careful with food and the likes in Cambodia too, as with Vietnam and other neighbouring countries, and I actually fell ill in Phnom Penh from eating street food, namely a deep fried spring roll and fish cake that were refried instead of reheated. Bugs are still a common ‘food’ in parts of Cambodia, that’s a big of a wrong’un if I’m honest. I’m struggling to think of many bad points as such for Cambodian cuisine as well, though most of what I mentioned for Vietnam pretty much applies.
Overall: Strangely my stay in Cambodia was probably my least favourite cuisine wise, in part due to the fact that I fell ill on my return to Phnom Penh about 4 days after arriving in the country and that basically ruined things for the next 5 days and also left me with a bit of a sour taste vis a vis Cambodian food (pardon the pun). If I think about it now though, with hindsight Cambodia was actually pretty good food wise, it’s just that compared to Vietnam say, which I’d just come from, it’s just a lot ‘less:’ less colourful, less tastes, less fragrances etc… There’s still plenty to find and discover, and some pretty good stuff too but I missed that I think between the falling ill and spending the first few days on the south coast were choices and variety was a lot less than it seemed to be in Phnom Penh. As with China I’d like to go back one day to give it another try as I definitely a lot of stuff that interested me in the last few days, I was just unable to physically stomach anything.

The Good Food:

• Spring rolls – not as tasty as the Vietnamese equivalents, but I had some great ones in the south, mainly uncooked with really nice chilli dip. Perfect on the beach while the sun is pounding around you.
• Grilled meats – not sure what it is I actually ate, but I indulged in a few plates of skewered meats on the road side in Sihanoukville, and while they looked fairly odd at first they turned out to be real tasty. Also in there were grilled chicken feet, which I didn’t try but I guess would likely be better than the Chinese versions I’ve had before (which were boiled).
• Salads – as with Vietnam, there seemed to be a fair amount of fresh vegetables/ingredients in Phnom Penh (in the restaurants this time) and on my last night I had a Banana flower salad that was absolutely amazing, fresh and fragrant and even though I was sick as a dog I managed to nicely stomach it. It came under Khmer cuisine apparently, so look for it in restaurants if you’re in Phnom Penh.
• Beach side bbqs – in Sihanoukville this is the only thing to go for at dinner time, with a choice of meat and fish (though fish is the obvious choice really with the sea staring you in the face, I’d say meat origins are probably less than ‘trustworthy’) and the whole thing cooked in front of you and served with simple side dishes of vegetables. And the whole thing sets you back 3 dollars.
• Beach side portable grills – again on the beaches of Sihanoukville I tried my luck one day with this woman who was walking around with a portable grill balanced on her shoulders (one grill pot and one ingredient pot balanced at each end of a long stick) and who was selling about 10 grilled squids for a dollar. Pretty good if a little bland. Also be careful they don’t gut the squids before grilling them as I unfortunately found out.

The Bad Food:
I didn’t really try enough to honestly say something was bad, and I stayed away from anything that looked overly dodgy. One thing though is to be really careful with deep fried foods as my experience in Phnom Penh taught me. It could well be that something also helped me falling ill, but I got a feeling the huge cockroach that came running from under the stall as I was waiting for my food was likely not a good sign.

Malaysia and Borneo
The Good: Food in Malaysia and Borneo was surprising, and that’s definitely a good thing considering that as a westerner you’re likely to have, as I did, a fair amount of preconceptions about most Asian cuisine, and so it’s always good to have these shattered. Malaysian cuisine was probably the one I knew the least about and that also only added to it. The main surprise was the diversity of influences, especially in Borneo and the dominance of Indian and Chinese strands of cuisine. Malaysia and Borneo were probably the most expensive of all the spots I hit up, relatively, and once you put it in perspective it was still fairly cheap compared to western prices. Proper Malaysian food is also a real mix of tastes and fragrances, with some great variations on curried dishes and thick, gravy-like sauces, while the Indian and Chinese variations also offer some nice differences to what you might expect. Satay skewers probably counts as one of the highlights for me, as well as many of the various curries I came across. Variety is probably the main thing that really stuck in my head in Malaysia and Borneo.
The Bad: Again I can’t think of a lot to say that’s particularly bad there, and most of it is a personal thing. Malaysian cuisine seemed to lack noodle based dishes compared to the other South East Asian cuisines, that’s one thing, and some of the Chinese food I came across in Borneo was particularly poor (though that’s more likely to have been the spot I ate at). Also actual proper Malaysian cuisine can be tricky to find in Kuala Lumpur due to the abundance of different cuisines and influences, especially Indian and Chinese. This was probably due to my own stupidity too, but I’d say unless you’re with locals, you definitely should look specifically for Malaysian cuisine rather than hope you’ll come across it naturally as I did.
Overall: As I mentioned variety is the main thing about Malaysia and Borneo as far as I’m concerned, a variety that stems from the country’s history, religions and migrations patterns. Borneo especially is interesting because you’ll find Indian, Chinese and local cuisine all next to each other or blended, which makes for interesting tries at dishes you think you know. Malaysian can be quite spicy too so be careful if you’re weak on the spices like I am. And the other thing is to be careful of what you go for as the variety also brings the downside of making it harder to find something specific or something that isn’t an attempt at luring tourists with names they’re familiar with. Malaysia is a definite foodie heaven if you know what you’re looking for and/or keep you wits about you and go look for new tastes and experiences.

The Good Food:

• Curry – I had a lot of curry in Borneo, and while they were fairly inline with Indian curries I’ve had in the past there were some really interesting variations mainly in the ingredients and meats/fish used, one special highlight being cuttlefish curry. Definitely recommended if you like curry, as it’s an interesting variation on the Indian template.
• Dosa – a southern Indian variation on the French galette, eaten for breakfast or as side dish for curry, best enjoyed with a simple filling of rice paste.
• Satay chicken – skewered, with lots of Satay dip, small size means you can stuff your face and feel like you’ve barely started eating.
• Malaysian stir fry – not sure what the name actually is, I think the place I had it called it that and I remember a Malaysian friend mentioning it too. Basically a stir fried rice dish with Malaysian ‘ingredients’ if you will, very tasty and a meal on its own actually as it contains vegetables, meat and fish/seafood. Don’t let that get in the way and do like I did and use it as a side dish.
• Sauces – I had some ridiculously tasty and moreish sauces at the Malaysian restaurant I found in KL, a weird blend of curry, with the gravy-like thickness, and stews, taste wise. I’m sure there’s a wealth of diversity and names but I only had two and they were the highlight of the food experience in Malaysia by far. Watch for the spices though and it’s all about ordering multiple small balls of vegetables and meats in different sauces.
• Noodles – not technically Malaysian I guess, as it’s more to do with the Chinese communities who live there, but I had a really decent Pho-like soup in KL and I also had some tasty fried noodles. At least you can get your noodle fix on basically.
• Fish – especially in Borneo, with the sea all around, Borneo is a great spot to overdose on fresh fish with Tuna ridiculously cheap. Most kitchens at hotels and other spots that have tourists can be convinced to cook the fish for you if you bring them all that’s needed and give them a bit or pay them. Also haggling in stinky fish markets is actually fun.

The Bad Food:
I’m really struggling to think of bad food again, but definitely be wary of Chinese and Indian spots that will be serving stuff that has no resemblance to the title on the menu or description. Also spices could technically count as a bad thing if you’re like really weak to them or just hate them. But yeah I’m struggling to think of anything, though in this case and most of the other countries it’s mainly due to the fact that I didn’t spend long enough there to find the bad stuff and I also wasn’t looking for it, duh. I guess a standard ‘bad’ food in any of these countries would be any of the western spots pretty much as well as some of the supermarket stuff. As with most of South East Asia, eating in the streets or where the locals eat is a good rule of thumb for avoiding shit experiences.

Hong Kong
The Good: Hong Kong is the home of Dim Sum. That basically sums up all you need to know about why HK is good food wise or why you should go. Ok it’s a bit limitative but if you don’t like Dim Sum then something is wrong with you. Seriously. Alright, apart from the awesomeness of Dim Sum, there is plenty in HK I’m sure, I just didn’t really look for it because I was only there for 1 day and a bit and I wanted to eat as much Dim Sum as my body could take before shutting down. So I’ll say it again, Dim Sum. Oh yeah actually I also had Macanese food in HK, that was really good, but technically it’s not from HK. It was noodles too which is a total bonus. HK is good for tea as well, though be careful as they have some potent stuff. Dim… ok I’ll stop.
The Bad: Again time and my fixation with Dim Sum meant I didn’t really find anything bad as such, though I’m sure there’s plenty to be found. Actually I tried to have a proper Chinese style breakfast on the day I left and instead got given some pretty crappy stuff, probably a combination of being a foreigner and being unable to read the menu considering people around me were eating what looked like Dim Sum for breakfast.
Overall: I won’t be doing a breakdown of good and bad food considering the small time I spent there, but basically if you like Dim Sum then the only thing to do in HK is to eat at your heart’s content and never mind the rest. Be careful of some of the ‘rules’ and the such of eating Dim Sum, I messed up a couple of times much to the horror of the only English speaking waiter in the restaurant I was at. My friend had recommended the town hall as the place to go for Dim Sum but it was closed for renovation when I visited so I’ll pass the advice on. I went to a place in Kowloon that was really good, but I’m sure if you ask any local or hotel/guest house staff they can point to the nearest decent place. Dim Sum is also ridiculously cheap in HK which only makes it better/worse depending on where you stand. The quality and variety is high as you’d expect it, and I came across some serious amazing numbers in my 3h eating challenge. The Macanese cuisine was also well worth it, and I’d recommend it. The restaurant in question is near the night market if I remember well, but I’m sure you can find it in any decent guide book. While Beijing was a bit of a disappointment food wise, HK more than made up for it and I would go back in a heartbeat just to get my Dim Sum on again and actually try some other food.

That about rounds up Asia. None of this is really groundbreaking news, but if I can let me confirm that Asian cuisine most definitely is one of the best in the world if not the best. If I had to balance it against European cuisine I think it would be a tie or close win/lose. Actually I might do that when I get to looking at European food in the last post. So yeah look out for that I guess and if you like food I can’t recommend going to Asia enough and getting your food on. Just don’t stick to the trodden paths, go out in the ‘wild’ and explore and don’t be afraid to try stuff even if you can’t communicate, that’s how I came across some of the best food in my time in Asia. Damn I’m so hungry right now.