24. A little more of Langkawi ... 2009

And of course for those who love their desserts, no trip to Langkawi can ever be considered complete without a stopover at Bon Ton resort ... small place, rustic n o so charming? Just be wary for those who do not like dogs because there are a few roaming in the restaurants as there was (not sure now) an animal shelter/ vet in front of the hotel

And if you are departing via the ferry or speed boat or hydrofoil ... then when you visit the old crappy rundown so-called Mall in the town of Kuah, walk to one of the little eateries facing outside. They have these delicious iced lemon teas! Good for a hot day

23. Langkawi ... a mix pot ... 2009

Let's start off with something from one of the 5-star hotels that a group of us stayed for a night and woke up in the morning to a beautiful breakfast marred only by an awesome fly on the baked goodies! We do not mention name of hotels because ... hey these things happen!

For those non-halal types, you will be surprised that Langkawi has its own share of yummy pork-a-licious goodies ... the following photo is an awesome pig knuckle down to the bone cooked Chinese style in one of the shops near Kuah town

It is certainly yummy and there were some of us who wished we could gnaw on the ends!

22. Phnom Penh Cambodia ... Feb 2009

This is not your typical Cambodian tourist food or traditional food. It is in a nice restaurant that has been around for ages run by the press/ journalistic association or so the name says so and they have another high end outlet in Siem Reap ... what made it great is the warm lighting, old world feel and tons of awesome war torn and peace time black n white photos ... naturally everything there is over-priced!

Food was average, service was average ... ambiance is awesome!

21. JW Marriott Jakarta ... a disappoinment? April 2009

We arrived late ... and hungry ... and decided to have something simple, basic, well known at every street corner of the country ... nasi goreng or fried rice ... have a look at the photo below ... taste average n presentation? Definitely not even a good 4-star eh?

20. Hanoi Highlights ... Jul 2007

Okay we are going to skip the usual Vietnamese Pho and Banh and moved on to other dishes we had in Hanoi that is less widely available beyond Hanoi ... and that we stumbled upon it by accident

Our first breakfast was at a streetside vendor ... and we had no idea what they were selling except that the soup was delicious and steaming hot .. and there were loads of veg and herbs stuffed into the bowl!

Lunch a few days later was equally unusual where the restaurant's main dish is this ... pan with fish cooked in a sort of stir fry but the sauce was just awesome ... everything else was an accompaniment to this magnificent dish ... anyone who knows the name, please send me a message ... thanks!

19. Langkawi is our next stop ... Feb 2007 ...

Actually we flicked through about six months worth of photos but nothing much on food ... even though we stopped by Dubai amongst others ... until Langkawi ... and for our first offering ... Kuah Jetty Starbucks hahahahaha

Okay here is the most awesome romantic dinner there ... u go to one of the many sea fronts ... and some will have a mixed seafood platter for two with candlelights ... hehehe

No way can we finish this because it is accompanied on a separate platter full of salads and potatoes!

18. Back to Sey ... Jun 2007

Yes we admit that the photos seem to be jumping everywhere but the truth is waaaay back then we did a fair bit of jumping everywhere ourselves. Anyway, this one is a mix between home cooking and one of the local eateries. The local eatery shall remain nameless except for the table signage. So if you recognized it, means it still exists today hahaha (sorry for poor quality of photos)

That's chicken steak and chips with pizza ... and now here's something I was planning to whip up in my little kitchen at home on Baie Lazare (hope I get the spelling right)

Okay do ignore the vodka please ... we do tend to drink a wee bit more back in those days ... and here is the finished product

Banana leaf is actually harvested from our own garden hehehehehe ...

17. Tuna overload ... Jan 2007 ...

Well if you think all those Indian type powders are a bit too much for your stomach but you still like food with a little zing, look no further than the awesome isles of Maldives. Here we present some of the foods that the locals have been eating for years and oh-so-yummy and cheap

 

A little Western influenced desserts? Yup but the one we are recommending is the pic below

Tuna cakes - inside is boiled tuna with desiccated coconut, cut chilies, onions, lime juice yummieee!

16. Africa ho! Feb 2007 ...

From foods that are served straight for eating, we jump a wee bit westward to the small island nation of Mauritius as we present to you something different ...

All sorts of jars filled to the brim with home made recipes of pickles, pastes and sambals!

And if you thought those bottled stuff was still too prepared, how about going to the basics? The powders themselves? Heh!

15. And on a less developed desert front ... Qatar ... Dec 2007 ...

This is an eye opener of a  trip ... I had a short transit of which I changed into 12 hours ... then I just walked out of the airport and kept walking along the roads aiming for Doha ... yup walked without a map!

And hungry ... I turned off from the main roads into side roads finding nourishment in the form of many of these little diner run by Indian migrants with Indian fare ... quite tasty

Remember the days of these types of phones? Hehehe!

14. And now for a spot of Luxury ... Bahrain ... 2007

As promised from last posting, it was meant to be from a sumptuous buffet in this gigantic tent (so-called although from within you couldn't tell it's a tent) ... but as a mate knows the head chef ... he asked us to sit and his team presented three rounds of awesome food ... in the pic above is merely the spread for round 2!!!

Zooming in for clarity ... Bahrain Ritz = Awesome-ness!

13. Simple foods in a luxury surrounding ... Bahrain ... 2007 ...

From all those (predominantly) meanderings in Asia, let's move west ever onwards ... and you will see, slowly that the pictures of our featured foods start to reach proper plating standards ala today's crazed world obsession with taking photos of food ... back then ... well ... we love our food but we didn't think to take proper photos know what I mean?

Anyway ... here is one of 8 dishes featured in my humble apartment in Bahrain ... steamed veg and sambal chutney ... hehehe

And then there's the welcoming platter from a hotel ... partially eaten before realizing I needed a photo ... see what I mean? Hahaha! Check out the colours though ... isn't it awesme? Plate of sweets, plate of savouries and a bowl of uncut fruits

And then ... if you order room service like I did ... a Caesar salad ... they serve this to you in your separate private dining room in your "little" villa ... just awesome service and design of villa ... not so sure about taste of food though ... not saying it's bad ... just that everything else is so over the top that ...

All these for an order of Coca Cola (guilty yes) and a Caesar Salad

12. Childhood Memories ... 2006 ...

While I am not big fan of those local style buffets, but if there is one thing they are good at, it is having a wide spread of local desserts ie kuih and here are some of my favorites! Basically you can find them at street markets or those 3-star type of hotels. Forget the so-called fancy shops or malls as they are usually not so "authentic" anymore

11. An Asian breakfast ... Sep 2006

So ... So ... Sorry first ... because this is another non-halal food posting ...

Anyway, this is what is deemed to be a traditional sort of breakfast here in wonderful Penang island, Malaysia ... a pot of herbal soup with tender, succulent pork, rice, crullers (cha koay) ... yummy!

Enjoy ... and definitely go for at least an hour's walk after this kind of breakfast!

10. Chinese, Chinese ... They are "Everywhere" ... Oct 2006

Well if you like that last post on porky food ... and you don't mind the occasional Chinese food ... then heck even in a small island nation like magnificent Seychelles, you can find quite a few Chinese restaurants that are independent of the burgeoning hotels

Here is one that has been around forever ... and it is cooked always by chefs from mainland China ... do note that service is slow so always book in advance for any restaurant in Seychelles but tastewise ... can you complain?

Here is an initially let-down of a greasy plate of pork n chives gyoza (though the flavours are awesome)! But they more than make up for it with the following ...

Rice n noodles n veg n pork n fish ... perfect complete Chinese family dinner! Seychelles rocks!

9. Non Halal Alert ... Jun 2006 ...

From Malaysia based Japanese cuisine buffet style, we travel down south to the island nation of Singapore stopping at the suburb of Pasir Ris and of all places their food courts in residential area and look at this yummilicious signage eh?

See? Nice breakfast noodles and a huge assortment of condiments like sausages and luncheonmeat (spam) ... steamed chicken with Hainanese oily rice ... soooo yummieeee

And of course for dinner how can you just not love this? Roasted pork knuckle. The marination on the skin is awesome and perfectly crunchy. And that sticky salty fragrant interiors ... so delicious! Sorry for the old photo quality

8. After solo-ing, it's time for over-eating ... June 2006

A long long long time ago ... there wasn't that many Japanese buffet restaurants aside from those inside hotels and mainly 5-star hotels ... so when one opened like Saisaki/ Shogun ... you know that you are going to need advance reservations ... and so without further ado, we give you a glimpse of what Shogun was good for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back then

Seafood salads with all sorts of sauce (ours is a white cream based sauce) ... varieties of sizeably cut sashimi ... some seared beef ... and miscellaneous and you know we are off to a good solid start!

Freshly hot off the deep fryer tempura (although their prawns are generally tasteless) ... miscellaneous cooked food including Chinese ... baked scallops ... grilled bacon with mushrooms ... soft shell crab ... and we are so stuffed!

So if you know we said at the first paragraph, that these restaurants were good ... in the past ... now they are more into as many dishes as possible regardless of quality ... so you even have Western food and what-not added to the mix ... sigh!

7. Time for some solo (not being solo hahaha) ... #April ... #2006 ... #Solo ... #Indonesia

Continuing our own style of giving you food that is not so much pretty plating but authentic ... here are a few more dishes that you can walk the streets of Indonesia to find ... we are sure you can get them in fancy little bistros and what-nots in the malls ... but that's up to you ...

 

 

All we know is that it is some kind of soup (soto) but as to what exactly ... sorry we cannot remember the name but it is found in the town of Solo, Indonesia and it is thick and rich (not rawon though) ... very nice and delicious in the evening with a bowl of steamed white rice and iced tea

Okay ... this is a bit different ... street vendor on bicycle ... we stop him while walking through the old city walls of Solo (near the palace called Keraton) ... and we tried this rojak made with its own black and spicy and sweet brown sauce with pickles and veg and other stuff we have no idea what and we didn't dare to ask hahahahaha

6. What happens before the luxury ... #2005, #Maldives, #FourSeasons, #Christmas

After all that Asian food from the streets, let's move on to something different, something that guests who come to 5-star luxury hotels rarely get to see ... and that's the real staff food just prior to hotels opening ... where time and hard work (and a lot of fun too) are invested ... and here are some of our shared highlights ... first up ... awesome roast turkey and meatloaf during Christmas 20005 @ Four Seasons Kuda Huraa, Maldives ... prior to its re-opening

And we are not all about the nights ... here is a test set-up for a simple breakfast ... note that it's cheap ingredients but used elegant setting (somewhat elegant)

5. Beef Noodles n Awesome Coffee ... #dalat, #vietnam, #coffee, #pho, #beef, #noodles

And finally the posting you have been waiting for ... a dish that has plating and orchestrated set-up ...

... or not ... hahahaha! It's a picture of a finished breakfast hence the drained coffee cups. Love the fact that they gave us expired newspapers though ... not htat I can read Vietnamese. Hehehe! Still this was an awesome breakfast place in a little cottage not far from the lake in Dalat. Always look out for these beautifully maintained places when you are there ...

And here's a little something for those of you who like to do takeaways. Hehehe! These are Vietnamese rice wine available in these charming jars (small, medium, large) with those adorable bamboo stalk holders. Apparently, how you drink is use a straw (hollow bamboo) and stuck them through the top covers and then share it around with your mates ... I was told this is the traditional method. And it comes in a few choices of black rice, brown rice and normal white rice ... I tried the sample only and it was so sweet that I was immediately thinking of ice wine

And the price was amazingly cheap starting from USD5!

Cheers and happy drinking!

4. Dalat, Vietnam ... 2005 ...

From Malaysia in 2004, we moved a year forward to 2005 and a different country ... flying up North to Saigon or as it is now known, Ho Chi Minh City ... and then a bus onward to beautiful and chilly weather type Dalat ...

I do eat street food but rarely this type that is so low and near the ground ... I know ... but in this case, everything looks so clean and "hygienic" that I just had to order and try ... and it was great. I am not sure if it is because I was hungry or that the weather was beginning to be freezing ... all I recalled is that I have never had this in Vietnam and decided to give it a go and it was just delicious

I had one of each ... green is wrapped in edible leaves and the naked one is a different type of meat ... all pork spiced and herbs adequately ... it made me hunger for the main course which we had in the restaurant next to the lake

By the time dinner rolled around,  the weather had become drizzly and we were freezing! Thank goodness for awesome cups of hot Vietnamese coffee!

Okay that's enough for this post ... for those wondering about food in fancy plating ... be patient! Those are coming too. It's just that these are flashbacks from the past ... and those are in the future!

Cheers n Goodnight

3. Roasted Meats n Greens .. #penang, #roastpork, #meats

Nowadays you see pictures of food on blogs and normally, it is plated nicely and in fancy little café or bistros (most cannot tell one from the other) ... but hey there was a time (that still exists) that the most beautiful of meats can be had in the Asian wet markets and here it is ... (another 2004 photo flash back) ...

There are 2 shops (back to back) selling the exact same food in the entire Pulau Tikus, Penang, Malaysia wet market ... and if you are ever there especially on a Sunday, you need to go try. How it works is straight forward. You can buy any of the meats for a fixed sum say RM10 ... or you can go by weight like 300gm etc ... got it?

Amongst some of the food included duck, goose and pork. None hanging will include char siew and lorbak. What makes this good is that the skin is always crunchy and the meat is marinated well with enough spices and salt. So good you can get them to chop up some and you eat it there and then when it is still warm. O yes you can also choose the cut of meat you want

And in case you are worried about all that cholesterol, well, here are some veg on sale next to the meat stands. Of course most here requires some cooking!

Happy Eating, all!

2. Steak n Chips (2004) ... #hardrockbali

Here's a blast from the past ... let's roll back that ole time machine 11 years to 25th July 2004 (yes we have the date) ... and the food we are sharing is ... Steak and Chips (ooooo how exciting ... not!)

As you can see ... thanks to the napkin (both paper and cloth) ... it is from the Hard Rock Hotel ... and the tray tells you it is Room Service. Look at that bread! It is positively gleaming as if it is meant for decoration and not for consumption ... and as for those fries (ugh) ... so limp already eh?

Do you want me to comment on the steak with its watery sauce?

Or perhaps that so-called steamed veg sides? It certainly looks ... unappetizing, eh?

I can honestly say ... that the food has improved when I visited Hard Rock a couple of years ago ... thank goodness!

O yes this is the Hard Rock Hotel, Bali

1. Hello and Welcome ...

Out of curiosity, I started instagramming ... and to my surprise people responded and loved the amateur photos especially on food ... and after more "research" it seems to be the trend now that people are avid food lovers! And earlier this year, I have been requested to start a little blog on the foods I have encountered in my little journey through what I call my life thus far ...

Well ... after much thinking ... here it is! I am not sure if this will be a regular blog but ... let's see, eh?

This blogpost is created in room #304 @ Hotel d'Ostender, Nice, France on 21.09.2015 @ 8:15am (hehehe) and no it's not just about food here in this place but rather I will do it out of sequence

So for my one and only (hopefully) ego shot, I am posting it here in this first blog. This is me in 2004 enjoying beef ribs for the first time in my life in Indonesia. Yup first rib experience ever! Hah! Future blogposts will have the food!

 

 

But to ensure you come back and read us again, I am posting shots of others eating their own choice of delish! Hahahaha! Do come back for post 2 where we "get a little serious", eh?