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Showing results for tags 'Southeast Asia'.
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We will be traveling to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and a few other areas of the country) and Singapore the end of Feb/beginning of March. Does anyone have any restaurant or must try food suggestions?
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An old college friend of mine lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City and I went to visit him and travel around for a couple weeks. Although a third DC friend was scheduled to join us (and thus balance out the itinerary in favor of more non-food activities), he was delayed several days by the snowgasm in DC and then by United Airlines nitpicking, so it ended up being an unabashed food-oriented romp around the country. A few notes: 1) I was expecting relevatory Phở, and did not find it. The dish is better in the US in almost all categories except herbage...the array of fresh cheap herbs in Vietnam is unparalleled. 2) B�nh m� are fantastic, and even cheaper in Vietnam than in the states. The "Op La" is a breakfast option with a fried egg on it, and it's fantastic. 3) There were so many "wrap your own" dishes that I fell in love with. Mustard greens ftw. 4) Vietnamese beer sucks (no surprise there) but there are some German and Czech brewpubs that make some more acceptable pilseners and dunkels to help balance out the crappy rice lager that is the country's standard. 5) The language is tonal, and thus very difficult to speak well, much less understand. I was very lucky to have a friend there who spoke the language and could sort out any translation difficulties. City by city: H� Ná»™i: Unfortunate timing meant we were in Hanoi for the beginning of the Tet holiday (Ch�c Mừng Năm Má»›i!) and thus all of the places we'd been recommended were closed. It's truly sad because another friend claims Hanoi is his favorite food town in the world, and I didn't feel like we got a very good sample of what it has to offer. Thịt NÆ°á»›ng - street vendor selling little skewers of marinated and grilled pork. first thing we ate and a clear "best dish in the city" choice, although probably also a front-runner in the "most likely what got me sick" contest Ph�ng HÆ°ng Market - probably not what it's actually called, but it's on Ph�ng HÆ°ng street and had a lively assortment of whole birds and fresh fruit/veg. Bun Ca - a fish and noodle soup from a street vendor that was doing some fairly decent business. easily one of the worst things we ate all trip, the broth tasted like water and oil, and the fish was just crappy deep fried chunks of bland white fish. Legends Brewery - standard brewpub with Bia V�ng ("yellow beer", a pils) and Bia Den ("black beer", a dunkel), just average beers. cool second level terrace overlooking the busy square and corner view of the lake. B�nh cuốn - another unnamed place, stumbled into when yet another recommended place (Phở Thin) was closed. these little mini rice-crepe-ish things were filled with dry mushrooms and topped with fried onions. pretty tasty, especially when dipped in fish sauce (which came with some floating bits of something else...tofu or very bland pressed pork?). Hoa Vien - the bar was closed but they were staffed with two guys who were just selling pre-filled growlers to go. my friend used his vietnamese skills to convince them to let us drink a Bia Den on premise and then take home some Bia V�ng. the V�ng is probably my favorite of the Vietnamese microbrews that we had, a nice hoppy czech pils. there's one of these in HCMC too. Chao Ga - desperate for dinner, we finally found a place that was open on Tet Eve, this divey place service chicken porridge. Not very good, but filling. B�nh m� Op La - late-night street vendor hooking up the egg sandwich with pork on top! Phở b� - the dish that originated in Hanoi, probably my favorite thing about Vietnamese food before I started this trip. we tried two street vendors after exhausting the recommended places (and finding them all closed). both were disappointing: lackluster herbage, weak chicken-y broth and crappy beef. Squid Beignet - at some touristy french-ish restaurant that happened to be open. the name should've been a tip-off, but this was pretty terrible, like really bad fried calarami. Gold Malt - a brewpub a little bit outside of the main downtown area. beers were just ok. Hang Be Market - my first exposure to chả gi�, deep fried pork spring rolls. ubiquitous in Vietnam, I tried the offerings at two different food stands in the market and both were delicious. Huế: After a string of bad noodle bowls in Hanoi, the food here was a fantastic uptick in quality. CÆ¡m Hến (28 Truong Dinh) - baby clams, rice, peanuts. mild clam flavor, delicious bowls B�n b� Huế (on L� ThÆ°á»ng Kiệt) - a thinner noodle than Phở, spicier and with pork and beef partying together in the same bowl. one of my favorite noodle dishes we had the whole trip. B�nh Nam - a restaurant serving lots of small bite-sized rice rolls with shrimp (paste, whole shrimp, etc). can't recall the name of this place, but it was great. Há»™i An: A more touristy town than the previous two, we ate pretty well here. Mango Rooms - easily the most expensive meal of the trip so far, something like $35 for a four-course lunch. portions were a bit skimpy (not as much of a bargain as I was expecting) but everything was tasty, especially a starter of sesame-fried scallops with onions and chiles. Cao L�o - at a random restaurant near our hotel. specialty of Há»™i An, a dry dish with peanuts, grilled pork, and a uniquely-textured noodle (apparently treated with lye). pretty tasty. Phở b� - at a random restaurant near our hotel. no better than the street versions in Hanoi. Hồ Ch� Minh City: The country's economic center and my friend's home base, this was where virtually all of our great food finds came from. The itinerary was all laid out before we even got to the city, and we stuffed our faces with glee for several days. Bến Th�nh Market - great spot. here i tried durian fruit (i like stinky cheese and sour beer, but i couldn't take more than a couple bites of this before giving up) and balut (Há»™t vịt lá»™n in Vietnamese...fertilized duck egg). a bit hectic, but a really cool market. Hủ Tiếu - Tung Hung is the name of the place, and this was the best noodle dish of the trip. basically pork Phở with a dash of shrimp. after a few setbacks on the food adventure, this is when we really starting hitting high notes Qu�n Ä‚n Ngon - 160 Pasteur. a bunch of different street food vendors gathered into one huge restaurant. lots of "make your own roll" style stuff: grilled meats, veggies, noodles, herbs, and rice paper for you to wrap and then dip in fish sauce or other sauces. fantastic stuff. Phở b� - tried it at Phở Bắc Hải H� Ná»™i (29 Nhuten Thi Minh Khai) and it was again, nothing special. on the other hand, the đặc biệt at Phở H�a (260C Pasteur) was the best bowl of Phở the whole trip. finally a broth i loved, and some tasty beef (tendon, flank, but no tripe) Qu�n 94 - a crab restaurant (at 84 Dinh Tien Hoang Street...don't be confused by the other places with the same name on this street) with some fantastic stuff. Chả gi� cua (crab spring rolls, deep fried), Miến x�o cua (crab with glass noodles), and cua lá»™t x�o me (soft-shell crab with tamarind sauce) were all pretty excellent, the soft-shells especially. B�nh m� - two places: at the first, a small street stand across Mạc ÄÄ©nh Chi from the US Consulate, i tried the Op La (egg) and a regular pork one. both very solid and super cheap, like $.75 apiece. at the second, Bamizon (across Nguyen Van Chiem from the Diamond Plaza), pork set me back more than a dollar (horrors!) but was a touch better than the pork from the street stand. B�nh x�o - savory crepe-ish things that are simple and delicious. we tried to go to "B�nh x�o 46A" but it was closed so we ended up at another place whose name i can't remember (B�nh X�o A Phủ maybe?). you cut off a bit of crepe (with shrimp and pork inside), place it in your mustard leaf or lettuce, add herbage, roll up, and dip in fish sauce (are you noticing a pattern here?). excellent. Wrap and Roll - 62 Hai Ba Trung. another place with a penchant for rolled things, and done really well. menus with english translations, and food likely tailored a little for the tourist trade (although we were the only obvious tourists there). still really good mustard leaf spring roll and grilled eel. Ty Coz - classic french at 178/4 Pasteur. the last night of the trip, and the most expensive dinner of the trip. p�t� de campagne, dragonfruit and passionfruit sorbet, duck magret with pommes de terre au gratin and pepper sauce, and gaufre with whipped cream and a pear puree. very good for the price, but not without flaws. still, i'd recommend it. Nguyá»…n Du Brauhof - another german brewpub with more variety than any other so far: lager, dunkel, weizen, m�rzen. nothing great, but all solid. Ph� Quốc: An island off the southern coast, I spent a couple days here by myself at a remote beach resort. Went on a night squid fishing trip (3hr on board fishing and eating) and rode a motorbike around the island, but mostly did a bunch of sitting around and eating the mediocre hotel fare. Grilled Squid - since i was by myself for this trip, i'll just be naming the dishes in english. these were the freshest squid i'd ever eaten (having just been caught by myself and others on board), and were fantastic simply charcoal-grilled in squarish chunks. Grilled Clams - again, simply grilled with chives. delicious. Thang Loi - resort where i stayed (Thang Loi) was a beautiful setting and a great place to relax and drink beers, but unfortunately the resort was pretty far from the main city so it was difficult to explore. The food was fine, but boring: fish in a clay pot, squid stuffed with rice and pineapple, chả gi� with fish. Photos are here, if you are so inclined.
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Cambodia has an incredibly ancient and detailed history - Wikipedia contains a lot of useful information. "Ancient City Uncovered in Cambodia" by Ella Torres on abcnews.go.com -
Hello, all: Traveling to Thailand and Vietnam in mid-September. I'll be there for a little over a month and would love recommendations re: where to go, what to see, and what to eat. Flying into and out of Bangkok, but otherwise have no restrictions. Cheers!
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The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is one of the world's most comprehensive collections of Asian art. Their collection holds more than 18,000 pieces and the museum exhibits approximately 2,500 pieces. When we visited they were in between major exhibitions, but the permanent collection is well worth your time. We spent about 3 hours there and could have easily spent a couple more. If you are a fan of the Sackler/Freer museums in DC, you will love the Asian Art Museum.
