Subscribe Feed (RSS)Food in Asia
January 30th, 2008 by eyal | Filed under Asia. |
Print This Post
I was just reading an article about comfort food in Hong Kong and the following vivid description:
When nothing else will do but a slab of airy white bread toast
slathered with bricks of butter, garnished with condensed milk. Or a
bowl of soup filled with instant noodles and rubbery fish balls.
got me thinking about the kinds of Asian food I’ve had and what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy too much. I split it into 4 categories:
1. Top tier - can eat anytime and for long periods of time without a change of cuisine, i.e. love this stuff.
2. Very good - but not as good as the Top Tier, i.e. a nice way to add variety to the top category.
3. Bearable - can eat at a good restaurant and above every now and then (not more than once a week or two), i.e. agreeable in social settings but wouldn’t choose it myself if I had a chance.
4. Pass - OK, if I were stranded on a deserted island with nothing to eat then sure I’d eat it.. otherwise, I’d really rather avoid.
And the rankings are as follows, references only food I had at least several times in the country of origin.
Top Tier
Thai, Indian
Very Good
Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Chinese Yunnan, Peranakan, Vietnamese
Bearable
Japanese, Chinese (not including Cantonese, for example Shanghainese), Nepalese
Pass
Cantonese (other than some roast meat), Filipino (sorry Pinoy).
Other cuisines worth mentioning which I’ve not had a chance to eat at the country of origin but really liked are:
Sri Lankan - similar to Indian but not quite, Mongolian - does the Mongol all-you-can-eat BBQ count? :-)
Sri Lankan is excellent, if you can get them to be gentle with the chilli…
Japanese to my taste will be classified together with Thai and Indian, at the Top.
I had the Sri Lankan in Hong Kong so I think they recognized that our group of farangs (what’s the Sri Lankan equivalent?) probably wouldn’t be able to handle the full on chilli.
Japanese is a bit too bland for me, I usually end up ordering the same thing in Japanese restaurants - grilled saba bento with sashimi or tako salad. The katusdon and curry are not bad for a quick meal as well.
I have to say something.
I would move Indian to pass, and Malay, Indonesian to the top tier. :-)
Gav - I would have been surprised had you not moved them this way :-) Do you get good Malay and Indonesian food over there? It’s very uncommon here.
Melbourne is mostly dominated by Korean and Japanese food. I still can’t find any Malay and Indonesian food that is up to ‘MY’ standard at the moment :-) Maybe I should explore further.
Man, I just need a plate of ‘Nasik lemak’ (coconut rice), and cup of teh-tarik (Malay tea). That’s all I ask for now. :-)
Gav: I would have thought there would be some decent Malay food there. It’s quite common in Wellington although the standard isn’t of course comparable to Asia.