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beijing, part 1: essential eats

by on December 9, 2010, 2 comments

I spent most of my 2 months in Asia in Beijing, so I got to see a fair amount of it by the end of my trip. Because we lived in more the political heart of Beijing, at first I had a hard time with the cold, sterile feel of it that reminded me a lot of Washington, DC. What really warmed me to this city, though, were the hutongs. I kept going back to northern Beijing, where many of the hutongs (back alleys) are, and walking around, from Deshengmen all the way to Yonghegong. While there are hutongs scattered throughout the city, the great thing about this northern part is that, in addition to the residences, there are also lots of shops, eateries, coffeeshops, and bars. The area includes the hip backpacker’s district, Houhai, as well as the hutongs turned cool tourist shopping and eating street known as Nanluguoxiang. And in the midst of all that, plenty of old-world Beijing still exists.

Hutongs in Beijing (most photos); Adidas & Uniqlo stores at The Village shopping center in Sanlitun; the Great Wall (last)

After several weeks in Beijing and plenty of failed attempts in trying to direct cab drivers where we wanted to go, my husband and I finally settled on a fairly reliable method. In addition to writing out (in Chinese) the name and address on paper, we also made sure we had our cell phones and the place’s phone number on us (cheap phones aplenty, so it may be worth it to get one even for a short stay). We learned that it’s pretty common to simply call up the restaurant and ask them to give directions to your driver. This turned out to be the best way to get around. I just remember how even the Beijing natives and longtime drivers would give us this look of defeat whenever we were trying to find some place deep in the hutongs. But having the driver speak directly with the restaurant usually got us there with minimal trouble.

I debated whether to split our Beijing meals into separate posts… But I’m afraid I’d never get through them all that way! Instead, I thought I’d divide them into two categories — the main foods that have come to be associated with Beijing, and the regional and ethnic foods that we tried in the city. Without further ado, here are some of the must-try Beijing foods we ate…

Dumplings. Known as jiaozi when boiled and guotie when fried, dumplings are a food staple of northern China. Of the several dumpling eateries I tried, I liked Bao Yuan Jiaozi Wu (Bao Yuan Dumpling House) the best for its extensive, picture-filled, bilingual menu and, of course, the dumplings themselves. It seems you can get anything wrapped in a dumpling these days, like corn or noodles, but I still like classic fillings like pork and chives. I also became acquainted with lamb dumplings in Beijing, which I love, and at Bao Yuan you can even get multicolored wrappers made with vegetable juices.

Another popular dumpling house is Xian’r Lao Man, which has at least two locations in northern Beijing that I know of. They serve a large variety of dumplings as well as many local homestyle dishes (known as jia chang cai). But it’s best to go here in a group, as they have a minimal order of two liang (a steamerful of 10 dumplings) per type of dumpling, which means it’s hard to try several kinds if you’re only one person. The location I went to (see below) gave me an English menu when I asked — a waitress kindly climbed up a chair to fetch it for me from atop one of their fridges. After I was done, it was tossed back up there! It’s nice to know this is the kind of place that doesn’t have much need for an English menu.

Dumplings at Xian’r Lao Man (left) and Bao Yuan Dumpling House (right).

Besides boiled and fried, there’s the steamed xiaolongbao, the Shanghai soup dumpling, which is in a class all its own. If you’re not familiar with Shanghai soup dumplings, their specialty lies in how the soup is contained inside the dumpling itself, absorbing all the juicy flavors of the filling. I mentioned xiaolongbao in my Shanghai post, but I didn’t get to talk about the legendary Din Tai Fung. That’s because, of all the places we could have eaten at Din Tai Fung — Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia, even Los Angeles — we decided to do it in Beijing (on my 30th birthday, actually!). And for a chain that started in Taiwan making the soup dumplings that originated near Shanghai, Din Tai Fung may not seem like that obvious of a choice no matter where you decide to try it. But it all makes sense once that delicate dumpling skin breaks and fills your mouth with a rich, gelatinous broth. Din Tai Fung is known for its paper-thin wrappers, each folded with exactly 18 pleats. Every location makes its own broth that results from an intense process of blanching and boiling pigs’ feet and skin to get a clear gelatin that’s wrapped with the filling and melts into a viscous broth when steamed. An article in Afar magazine earlier this year even revealed that the sourdough starter used to make the wrappers is 30 years old!

Dumplings at the legendary Din Tai Fung, with locations all over the world. Next one opening will be in Seattle!

Bao Yuan Dumpling House 宝源饺子屋 [map]
朝阳区麦子店街6号楼侧
6 Maizi Dian Jie, Chaoyang District, east of Lufthansa Center/Kempinski Hotel
Phone: 6586-4967

Xian’r Lao Man 馅老满 [map]
东城区安定门内大街252号
252 Andingmennei street, Dongcheng District
Phone: 6404-6944

Din Tai Fung 鼎泰丰 (many locations in Beijing) [map]
朝阳区新源西里中街24号
24 Xinyuanxili Zhongjie, Chaoyang District
Phone: 6462-4502

Hot pot (huo guo). Traditional Beijing hot pot (known as shuan rou, or “rinsing meat”) is done with a coal-heated copper vessel, plain water for cooking, and sesame paste for dipping. We met a couple locals who took us out for shuan rou, but unfortunately I no longer remember where. It was just my husband’s kind of place too — no-frills, unpretentious, and full of locals out having a good time. One group next to us was drinking up a storm, toasting in that classic Chinese manner we’d later experience ourselves. (For a shuan rou experience, you might try Savour Asia’s recommendation of Hong Shou Zuan.)

We also tried a swanky hot pot restaurant called Ding Ding Xiang, which was completely not what I expected and turned out to be what one might consider an experience of gaudy luxury in China (but, hey, everyone needs one of those memories, right?). Don’t get me wrong — it was nice, just… not really necessary. And it was rather pricey, too. There were plush, comfy chairs, fake crystal chandeliers, and individual pots of broth. To me, this sort of defeats the whole purpose of huo guo — the communal pot, the sharing, and most of all, the re nao — that Chinese characteristic essential to every successful gathering — fun, din, a certain rowdiness, a bit of happening. But I suppose if you wanted to get dressed up and have hot pot for a special occasion, this would be the place to go.

Somewhere between these two experiences was Haidilao, a popular hot-pot chain among the locals. Both food and service were great here. We had the common Sichuan-style hot pot, with the pot split into a fiery Sichuanese broth on one side and a plain broth with dried dates and goji berries on the other side. I especially loved Haidilao’s dipping sauce bar, with its large variety of sauces, oils, and garnishes. And if you order the noodles here, you’ll get a little noodle-pulling dance performance!

I wish I’d had time to try Little Sheep’s hot pot as well, which is known for broth so good it supposedly makes dipping sauces unnecessary. But since there are Little Sheep restaurants in California, it wasn’t as high on my priority list.

One thing I noticed at all the hot pot places I tried throughout China was that the broth didn’t seem to be the highlight at the end that it’s always been for me when I have hot pot at home, where we start off with plain water and let it gradually absorb all the flavors of the meats and vegetables by the end. At a number of places in China, we watched the waiter start the meal off by emptying a large plastic bag full of multi-colored seasonings straight into the pot — and that was what flavored the broth. It was a little scary! At Haidialao, they gave us a bowl of the broth at the beginning (which was good, but I’m not sure I want to know what’s in it), but besides that, no one was really into drinking the soup at the end. Even for shuan rou, where you start off with plain water, the waiters kept coming and adding more water to our broth as it cooked down, diluting it back to mostly just water.

Traditional Beijing-style hotpot or shuan yang rou (left) and hot pot and dipping sauce station at Haidilao (right).

Ding Ding Xiang 鼎鼎香
东直门外东中街14号1层
1/F, 14 Dongzhong Jie, Dongzhimenwai
Phone: 6417-2546

Haidilao Hot Pot 海底捞火锅店 (many locations in Beijing)
海淀区海淀区大慧寺路2号
2 Dahuisi Lu, Haidian District
Phone: 6213-3511

Noodles (mian). I think you could walk into virtually any random noodle place in Beijing and count on having a noodle revelation. For more on noodles, see here and here. I’d definitely recommend trying more rustic, handmade noodles at some hole-in-the-wall, where the strands are uneven and a little ragged but every bit as (if not more) delicious as anywhere else you go. I’d also recommend ordering noodles with your hot pot, where you sometimes get a whole noodle performance that may be worth it alone. And, finally, it’s fun going to a fancier place (fancy in the usual, not over-the-top, sense) like the Noodle Bar, where you can get a front-row seat watching your noodles being made to order. The menu at the Noodle Bar is short, simple, and presented in multiple-choice fashion on a cute little clipboard. I have to admit that I found the thin noodle option a bit too thin (like angel hair) and the thick noodle option a bit too thick (like udon), so I wish there were either a middle option or that the two weren’t such stark contrasts. But both types of noodles we had were wonderfully chewy. And I do admire the simplicity of the restaurant’s concept — pick your noodle thickness and then your beef parts (including tendon, which my husband loves), and these all get served in the same deliciously light and fragrant beef broth. There are also a few tasty side dishes you can order along with the noodles. The restaurant itself is small and intimate — just a kitchen in the center, surrounded by a bar with 12 seats. Hidden away in a courtyard, it’s also very calm and quiet.

Noodle Bar 面吧 [map]
1949, The Hidden City, Courtyard 4 (behind Pacific Century Place Mall)
朝阳区工体北路4号院
Gong Ti Bei Lu, Chaoyang District
Phone: 6501-1949
Note: By subway, go to the Tuanjiehu stop (on Line 10), which is just southeast of The Village shopping complex in Sanlitun. Exit and head west on Gongtibeiulu, the main street, and you’ll soon come to Pacific Century Place mall. If you take a cab, just ask the driver to take you to Pacific Century Place (盈科中心). Walk through the mall and exit out the back. Across the back driveway you should see the entrance to a courtyard labeled “1949.” Walk through the art galleries until you get inside the courtyard, where you’ll find a number of fancy restaurants, including the Noodle Bar.

Peking duck (kaoya). How could we talk about food in Beijing without talking about the duck! I actually only had Peking duck once the whole time I was there, since there was so much other food we wanted to try. And for our one duck tasting, we decided to go to Da Dong, the fallback place where most tour groups and visitors go. Many reviews I’d read said you would get you the best bang for your buck here, and I think I’d agree. (For more on our adventures at Da Dong, see here.) Unlike dumplings or noodles, where cheaper, grittier places may actually be better, Peking duck needs some proper care and attention in making. So I’d recommend avoiding the “fast-food” type Peking duck joints and heading to either Da Dong or the nicer, pricier places like Quan Jude, which has a long history of making this specialty, or the more modern Made in China or Duck de Chine.

In short, the food at Da Dong was fantastic and the prices were decent, but the service could’ve been better. The restaurant has an extensive menu filled with glamor shots of some of the most beautiful and creative dishes. It’s not indicated on the menu, but they suggested we get a half order of duck, which would serve two and give us room to try a few other items. I picked a few other interesting-sounding dishes — Sichuan-style duck wings (with the meat taken apart and molded into clumps held together by what seemed like gelatin) and this pork dish that we didn’t realize would come with a whole poetry recitation and presentation of falling “snow.” Appropriately, the star of the night was the duck itself — thin, crispy pieces of skin that the waitress taught us to eat dipped in sugar crystals (first time I ate it this way, and it was delicious) and succulent meat. Included with our duck was complementary duck soup, sorbet, and, the finale… grapes presented over dry ice. Yes, this was another one of those over-the-top experiences, but overall, I really wouldn’t mind going back

Da Dong 大董 (several locations in Beijing) [map]
朝阳区新源西里中街24号
24 Xinyuanxili Zhongjie, Chaoyang District
Phone: 6462-4502

Street food / snacks (shaochi). Skewered lamb dusted in cumin and chili is one of the things that immediately comes to mind when I think of Beijing. I even brought some packets of cumin and chili back for my sister because she craved it so much. Kebabs in general are enormously popular and can be found all over the streets of the city, but some of the most common spots are Ghost Street and Wangfujing.

Guijie, or Ghost Street, all lit up with red lanterns at night, has a chuan ba (skewer bar) every few steps, and hot pot seems to be popular here too. We went to a place with the hilarious name of Chuan Lai Chuan Qu (roughly, “skewering here and there”). They had a long menu of skewered foods, as well as grilled and stir-fried shellfish and other regular dishes. We tried a hot corn drink here that turned out to be pretty good too. This whole street is lined with restaurants serving tons of kebabs, hot pot, and chili crawfish, all best accompanied by some cold beer.

Wangfujing small eats street is as touristy as touristy gets, but it is fun. It’s also where you can get all kinds of scary-looking things on a skewer, from scorpions to starfish to rodent-like critters. I’m normally a more adventurous eater, but due to past bad experiences in China, I’ve become a little wary of eating strange meats here. So I stuck with things I was a bit more familiar with. Not all the vendors actually season their kebabs at Wangfujing (though some have the seasoning out on a tray that you can dip into), but if you sample widely, you’re likely to find a good one. I also don’t think the kebabs they advertise as “lamb” are actually lamb, but one of our favorite Wangfujing eats is a stall further in on the street that sells a whole grilled leg of lamb — succulent, well seasoned, and nice and lamby. My husband, when asked to name his one favorite meal in China, thinks fondly back on that leg of lamb. I also love the vinegary dan dan noodles just a few stalls down from there.

Incidentally, I would just like to say that chuan (“kebab” or “skewer”) is my favorite Chinese character ever! (See lower left photo in the collage below.)

Wangfujing small eats street. Note the character for “chuan” (kebab) on the sign in the lower left photo!

Jiumen Shaochi is a fun food-court-like place to try all kinds of northern Chinese snacks and street foods. It even has one hallway devoted only to Muslim foods (and you’re asked not to bring any pork through there). What I found most amusing about this place was that, for a moderately sized food court, it had one of the most efficiently run systems I’d seen during all of my time in China: You purchase a card and put money on it, and then each vendor has a machine where they scan the card to deduct payment. You can eat to your stomach’s content and, at the end, get back the remaining change left on your card. Now, the subway in China may run on a similar system, but the efficiency there is all counteracted by the fact that you have to get your bags scanned on the way in. At the food court that is Jiumen, however, hidden in the hutongs of northern Beijing, this electronic payment system makes only for a happy, well-run, self-contained little kingdom.

Jiumen Shaochi main entrance off Houhai (top left); alley entrance off Gulouxi Dajie (top right); food stalls inside (bottom left); snacks (bottom right).

Finally, any visitor to Beijing must also try jianbing, the Beijing crepe. It’s smeared with hoisin sauce and chili and topped with an egg, scallions, ham (for 1-2 yuan more), and fried crispies. I wasn’t all that excited about it at first, but it actually turned out to be rather tasty.

Chuan Lai Chuan Qu 串来串去 [map]
东城区东直们内大街194号
194 Dongzhimennei Dajie (also known as Guijie, or “Ghost Street”), Dongcheng District
Phone: 6406-7310

Wangfujing Snacks Street 王府井小吃街 [map]
北京东城区王府井大街277号
277 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District
Phone: 6525-1783
Closest subway stop: Wangfujing (Lines 1 and 5)

Jiumen Shaochi 九门小吃 [map]
北京市西城区孝友胡同1号
1 Xiaoyou Hutong
Phone: 6402-5858
Note: This can be a little hard to find by the hutong address. The main entrance, with plenty of large signage, is off Houhai (“Back Lake”), close to the Former Residence of Soong Ching Ling (a good landmark to go by when asking/giving directions). If coming from Gulouxi Dajie, right around No. 158 you’ll find an alley with small signs marking “Houhai Jiadao” (the alley) and “Jiumen Shaochi.”

Jianbing (Beijing crepe) 煎饼
All over the city! There’s usually a stall right in front of the subway entrances.

Next up, my last China post for now… The great variety of ethnic and regional foods available in the Beijing, including some of my favorite meals from our trip.

Update: Map links added 4/8/13.

chengdu, city of gastronomy

by on November 29, 2010, 0 comments

Chengdu was the second city in the world that UNESCO named a City of Gastronomy in the Creative Cities Network earlier this year. All the more reason why I was excited to tag along with my husband on his assignment in this area in September, and all the more reason why I wish I had more than one day in the city! (We spent most of our time at the nearby Bifengxia Panda Base, working on our first tag-team story. If you don’t come here for the food, come for the baby pandas! And, yes, that is a milk mustache. :)

In my short time here, I did manage to squeeze in some great food. Chengdu is located in Sichuan Province, known for its mala flavor — that is, numbing and spicy! The numbing effect comes from the Sichuan peppercorn, which creates a tingling sensation in the mouth and isn’t so much hot as it is fragrant. The heat comes instead from lots and lots of chili peppers, whether fresh or dried. In fact, one of the things my husband’s Chinese researcher told us about is this delicious local dish with the unfortunate nickname name of “Looking for Prostitutes in the Red-Light District”! The play on words comes from chicken, which is also slang for “prostitute” in Chinese. The dish consists of fried bite-sized pieces of chicken buried in a mound of dried red chili peppers. The chicken is crispy and loaded with mala flavor, and it’s stir-fried with peanuts and scallions.

We had our share of hot pot in Sichuan, where it is tremendously popular. A friend of ours told us about how he walked into a hot pot restaurant in Sichuan to find it full of businessmen in nice trousers but with their shirts and ties taken off because they were sweating so much from the spice!

Hot pot in nearby Ya’an, where we opted for a non-spicy broth. Still plenty of chili on the side to go around.

I also made it to Jinli Street, a fun tourist spot made up of winding ancient streets, temples, archways, and, of course, your local Starbucks. It also has some of the most amazing street-food stalls!

And lastly, I paid a little visit to Chen’s Mapo, where I had mapo doufu (that’s mapo tofu — mapo allegedly derived from the grandma Chen who created the dish and supposedly had a pockmarked face; this version was meatless, but it’s often got ground pork or beef), qingjiao roupian (pork slices stir-fried with garlic and lots of fresh green chilies), and dandan mian (noodles with minced pork and a salty, mala, and sometimes vinegary sauce).


Chengdu was named City of Gastronomy not least in part for its famed street food, characteristic Sichuanese flavors, and ancient food traditions. It’s one of the last major cities in China to still have wet markets, though this seems to be changing. Like the rest of the China, Chengdu is modernizing quickly, with buildings being torn and built every day. When I was there, I found it hard to come upon “authentic”-looking family establishments, especially since I only stayed one day. My guide was pretty much the Chengdu posts on Robin Eckhardt’s Eating Asia blog. But even with the posts, the small alleys can be hard to track down, especially with the city changing so quickly and dramatically. I only hope that UNESCO status will encourage the local government to preserve some of the more historic and traditional neighborhoods and eateries that earned it the position in the first place.

shanghai and yang’s fried dumpling

by on November 14, 2010, 2 comments

I visited Shanghai for the first time in September, and wow… What a great city! I loved the blend of ancient and modern, East and West, urban grittiness and refined taste. Sophistication just oozed from every corner. I found myself simply walking and walking, coming upon one charming street after another.

I have to confess, there was so much to take in, at times I just did not care to make food a priority (yes, there is such a time). And with the combination of the city being more expensive, my husband working a lot, and the variety of pretty good international food available there, we ended up getting quick meals mostly around the French concession neighborhood where we were staying. So I must shamefacedly admit that our eating adventures in Shanghai were so pathetic, there’s really only one place worth reporting back on. But it’s a pretty fantastic one.

We initially came upon Yang’s Fried Dumpling by accident. We were trying to get to Jia Jia Tong Bao, which is famous for its xiaolongbao, the revered Shanghai soup dumpling. But Jia Jia had a really long line out the door, and when we glanced across the street, we spotted a server scooping up nearly tennis-ball-sized fried dumplings from a big round tray. They looked so good, we immediately abandoned our original plan and opted to go across the street instead.

We were lucky at that moment, as there happened to be no line and a table free at Yang’s. Not long after we arrived, a line started forming almost as long as Jia Jia’s, and we later discovered that Yang’s is just as famous and for an equally revered Shanghai specialty: shengjian, or the fried soup dumpling.

We had a lot of fun following the dumpling-making process at Yang’s, from the dough being kneaded to glugs of oil being poured into the pan to the final sesame seed-flecked round dumplings being scraped up and slid into styrofoam boxes for customers to take on the road.

We also ordered some hot and sour pork intestine rice noodles. I think I might’ve loved this even more than the dumplings. You can hardly ever go wrong with spicy, sour, and pigs’ intestines with me.

We eventually did make it to Jia Jia Tong Bao later in the week. But since it was nearing the end of the night when we arrived, the only dumplings left were the crab and pork crab roe dumplings, which cost as much as the dumplings did at the far swankier Din Tai Fung (more on this in upcoming Beijing post). After reading another account, I suspect that it’s not that uncommon for Jia Jia to be left with only the expensive soup dumplings, and despite them being as tasty, with similarly paper-thin wrappers, as Din Tai Fung, it just didn’t seem right to shell out something like 12 USD for dumplings at a hole-in-the-wall.

Not surprisingly, after finishing our crab and pork dumplings at Jia Jia that night, we promptly headed across the street to Yang’s for another helping of their fried soup dumplings. Four dumplings for 5 yuan (75 cents)… You just can’t beat that.

Yang’s Fried Dumpling
97 Huanghe Lu
黄河路97号
Shanghai, China
Phone: 5375 1793

malaysia and singapore eats

by on November 8, 2010, 0 comments

Ah, Malaysia and Singapore… otherwise known as foodie heaven. The mix of cultures there makes for an incredible variety of dining options, and everyone who lives there not only loves to eat but knows their food.

When I visited in August, I had food I’d never eaten before as well as food I grew up with on the streets of Toronto. In fact, one of our favorite family outings was going to the dai pai dong food court (similar to the Singaporean hawker centers) in the basement of Dragon City in Toronto’s Chinatown and ordering what we called “chow gweh,” or char koay kak in Malaysia. After we moved to the desertlands of Phoenix, Arizona, my parents would trek all the way to one particular restaurant in LA just to eat chow gweh, among other things.


Making poh piah (spring roll) wrappers in Penang.

Armed with my notes compiled from various sites and several free and detailed eating guides at the Penang airport (that’s how seriously they take their food!), I set out to eat my way through these two countries.

I usually tell people I eat way more than they probably think I do, but when I travel and try to pack as many meals into a day as possible, I soon realize I can only devour so much. There was a lot I didn’t get a chance to try (one of the drawbacks of traveling on your own… I’ll just have to go back!). On my last day in Singapore, I attempted to order fish head curry, since it is one of the quintessential Singaporean dishes that I still hadn’t tried. Only I was met with a confused look and a series of questions: “You want it to go?” (No.) “You’re ordering it all by yourself?” (Yes…) “Really?” And then I finally realized that it is an enormous and slightly expensive dish that you normally share. So I ended up getting chicken rice instead. :P

No matter, I still managed to have plenty of great food during my stay! Here are some highlights…

Char koay teow. This stir-fried rice noodle dish was the first thing I ordered after setting foot in Penang. It reminded me a bit of Cantonese beef chow fun, only with the exceptional improvement of cockles and fried lard croutons in lieu of beef. It was also my first time having nutmeg juice, made from the fresh fruit!

Breakfast at Toh Soon Cafe in Penang. Two new friends brought me here for a traditional Malaysian breakfast of kaya (coconut jam) toast, soft-boiled eggs with pepper and soy sauce, nasi lemak (coconut rice with anchovies, hard-boiled egg, and chili), and coffee. What a great way to start the day!

Assam laksa. One of the dishes I needed to try in Penang was assam laksa, a Penang take on the Peranakan rice noodle soup. Assam laksa is named for the tamarind that flavors the broth, and it is also characterized by the use of fish. To me this tasted like a marriage of Vietnamese canh chua, which is a tamarind fish soup, and bun bo hue, which has similar rice noodles and plenty of lemongrass, all topped off with some shrimp paste.

Ramadan food bazaars. I happened to be in Malaysia and Singapore during the month of Ramadan, and between the two countries, I visited plenty of evening Ramadan bazaars. They are so lively and sometimes a bit crazy! The bazaars had Arabic, Malay, Indian, Chinese, and various blendings of those foods. I got so overwhelmed. It was almost enough just to walk through the aisles. Almost. :)


Indian food. I also had the chance to sample various Indian dishes, which I was told by a friend tended to represent more southern Indian food, whereas what we usually eat in the US tends to be northern Indian. I absolutely love roti canai and ate it whenever I could. It’s a traditional Indian flatbread that’s beautifully flaky from plenty of fat and delicious dipped in curry. I also had teh tarek (pulled tea) for the first time — tea and condensed milk “pulled” by pouring back and forth from up high in order to create a nice layer of froth at the top. A friend also took me to a vegetarian place called Annalakshmi at the Temple of Fine Arts in Penang, where you pay as you like, and the money goes toward a clinic that the organization runs. One of my favorite things about Malaysia and Singapore is how various cultures are living side by side and mixing or adopting customs from each other. At Annalakshmi, we got an order of char koay teow (which has Chinese roots) alongside our dosa masala and mango lassi. I also received durian advice from the Indian Malaysians sitting next to us, whose English I noticed happened to be littered with the Chinese “la”!

Chicken rice. Originally known as Hainanese chicken and rice, this is a popular southern Chinese meal that somehow ended up becoming Singapore’s national dish. It’s a variation on one of my old favorites — poached chicken — and it’s something I could eat every day and practically do when I’m in Hong Kong and, most recently, Beijing (in fact, I started feeling guilty for the frequency with which I ordered poached chicken in Beijing when there were so many other foods to be tried). What makes Hainanese chicken and rice different is that the rice is cooked with the chicken juices and broth, giving it lots of flavor. In Singapore, the chicken is eaten with a dipping sauce made of chili, garlic, and ginger.

Peranakan food. Peranakans — or Straits Chinese or Baba Nyonya — are descendants of 16th-century Chinese immigrants who married local Malays. It was really my first encounter with this culture, and I was surprised to learn that both of the friends I visited in Singapore were of part Peranakan descent. I was so fascinated I made a special trip to the Peranakan Museum (in Singapore) the very next day to learn more about the history and culture. My friend Greg is half Peranakan, and he took me to one of his favorite restaurants called Spice Peranakan, which quite amusingly happens to be located in a government research complex, so we had to walk through hallways filled with biohazardous warning signs before getting to dinner. :)

I was grateful I had Greg to order and explain the dishes to me here. I learned that Peranakan food in Penang (like assam laksa) has some Thai influences and can be a bit more sour in taste. By contrast, Peranakan food in Malacca or Singapore has more Indonesian influence. Not being that familiar with Indonesian cuisine, I found myself reminded instead of Native American food, where long, slow cooking has reduced sauces down to very thick, rich, fragrant-sweet flavors. Pictured here are (1) kueh pie tee in the top left – crispy cups filled with turnip and topped with chili and cilantro; (2) lemongrass and pandan leaf drink on the right; and (3) in the last photo on the bottom left, clockwise from the soupy meatball dish in the foreground: bakwah kepeting – flower crabmeat, minced pork, prawns, and bamboo shoots rolled into meatballs and boiled in chicken stock; chap chye – mixed vegetables drowned in tau chio or fermented beans; and lastly the star dish, ayam buah keluak – Indonesian black nuts stuffed with minced pork and prawns and cooked in a rich, sour gravy. Greg told me that the black nuts alone have to be soaked a couple days to lose their bitter taste, and ayam buah keluak is one of those dishes that few places make well anymore.

Durian. I’ll take any excuse to explore more of Southeast Asia, but this particular trip really all started with my fascination with durian… I’ve always wanted to write about it, and I thought if I could just get to Penang, the details would sort themselves out later. This was only my second time traveling in a foreign country by myself without knowing anyone (my first being in Vietnam), and I have to say, getting into Kuala Lumpur at 10pm, navigating the transportation system, and realizing (around midnight) that I was going to have to make the last leg of the trip to the hotel via cab (which I’d read somewhere to avoid…) was pretty stressful! Normally I am more cautious about not traveling after dark, but I made an exception for a budget fare this time. And, in some ways, I did it all for durian. Hopefully, you’ll be hearing more from me on this pungent, pungent fruit, the aphrodisiac of Southeast Asia.

Resources. I couldn’t have done without these resources in preparation for this fooding adventure…

Cradle of Flavor by James Oseland – Amazing book on the foods of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia by the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine. I was surprised to learn that his love for food and cooking actually started when he visited Indonesia as a teenager. I daydreamed away through the early chapters on Oseland’s travels and encounters with the flavors and foods there. And I’ve recently started trying out some of the recipes with a few of the ingredients I brought home with me. What I love about this book is that it’s not only full of love for the foods and cultures of the Spice Islands, but it’s also completely practical, with thorough descriptions of unfamiliar ingredients, techniques, and how to find and store those ingredients or substitutes in the US. I so wanted to visit Indonesia this time as well, but I just didn’t have the guts to venture there on my own. It’s definitely at the top of my travel list!

Eating Asia – How much do I love this blog? The photos, the writing, the articles, the research… I scoured the archives for not only KL and Penang, but also Chengdu and other parts of China. Eckhardt’s article on George Town and this one on KL are great too.

An Insider’s Guide to Penang Hawker Food by Rasa Malaysia – You can be sure I’ll be stalking this blog for recipes the next few months!

Chubby Hubby’s Ten Singapore Must-Eats – Couldn’t ask for a better distillation of Singaporean eats from one of my favorite blogs.

Traveler’s Lunchbox on Penang and Singapore Parts 1 and 2 – These posts are pretty recent, and I only wish I could’ve read them before my trip! When I saw them afterward, I was completely floored at how Melissa managed to eat all these foods on one trip! Everything’s so carefully selected and planned out too. I’m totally in awe of her traveler eating skills.

Finally, I am so thankful that I was able to connect with some contacts I was put in touch with through a friend of my mom’s. One of my travel writing teachers told me he always travels with a list of local contacts, and his goal when he travels is to get invited to a local’s home. Taking his class was one of the things that inspired me to take a trip somewhere on my own, sort of as a personal rite of passage. And I was really grateful that after I landed in Malaysia — well, I was grateful I landed and got to my hotel safely first of all — I was able to make a few new friends. Despite being friends of friends of my mom’s, who actually had barely kept in touch with each other for decades, these Chinese ladies treated me like we had known each other forever. They reminded me of what I love so much about my culture — generosity, kindness, and hospitality. I hope to have the chance to connect with these ladies again in the future, whether here in DC or back in Malaysia!