Here’s a traditional and authentic recipe for Burmese Fish Curry (Mohinga). It tastes like it is halfway between an Indian and Thai curry, which is precisely where Myanmar (Burma) is geographically. I first tasted it in Thailand in a restaurant with Burmese staff, many escaping the conflict that blights this amazing country.
Yum Pla Muk is a delicious Thai dish featuring squid (Pla Muk) as the main ingredient. It’s a refreshing and spicy salad that’s perfect for seafood lovers. Here’s an authentic recipe for Yum Pla Muk based on a dish I enjoyed in a Koh Samui night market
A classic Northern Thai soup combines tender braised chicken (or seafood) in a coconut curry broth with boiled and fried noodles. I first ate this in Chang Mai with chicken but recently enjoyed Khao Soi cooked with seafood in a beach cafe on Koh Samui.
“Chu Chi Pla” is a delicious Thai dish featuring fish (usually a firm white fish) in a rich and flavourful red curry sauce. This is one of my favourite Thai fish dishes, which also works very well with salmon.
Batu Ferringhi is a beach resort northwest of George Town on Malaysia’s Penang Island. It is known for water sports and seafood restaurants. We ate steamed fish in a seafood restaurant offering a choice of live seafood from its aquariums. After choosing a live fish from a tank, we waited for it to be cooked, knowing that it could not be fresher. After dinner, we visited the night market.This steamed fish dish is commonly known in Malaysia as “Ikan Siakap Tiga Rasa.” “Ikan” means fish, “Siakap” refers to the type of fish (often snapper or sea bass), and “Tiga […]
“Dry-Fried Sichuan Chicken” or “Gan Bian Si Ji (干煸四季)” is a popular Sichuan dish known for its dry, flavorful, and spicy profile. The classic dish in Sichuan cuisine originated in the Sichuan province of southwestern China and includes Sichuan peppercorns. The first time I enjoyed this dish in Chengdu was in 1987; it consisted of cubes of chicken, whole garlic cloves, peanuts, and red chillis stir-fried together in more or less equal quantities. I had arrived in Chengdu after a 63-hour train journey from Guangzhou. After having to eat the good but plain food served on the train, this was an assault on my […]
Saigon summer rolls (Nem cuốn) often contain a combination of fresh vegetables, herbs, and sometimes protein, all wrapped in rice paper. Different variations may include the use of different herbs, vegetables, or protein choices based on individual tastes and regional preferences.When Vietnam, opened up in the 1990’s, I was in Hong Kong, so my colleague and I went to Saigon for the weekend. With the help of a photocopy of a hand-drawn map bought in a side alley, we tracked down the address of a building used by my father (then a British army intelligence officer) as his HQ in […]
Taking the train from Bangkok in 1987, my good friend Nitza and I travelled down to Penang, in Malaysia. The journey took us through a verdant landscape dotted with small villages surrounded by paddy fields. One of the most memorable aspects of the journey was the Thai Blue Swimmer crab curry served in the buffet car – spicy, delicious and a million miles away from the ubiquitous stale British Rail cheese sandwich. Cooked in a huge wok in the tiny galley next to the buffet car, this was a symphony of flavours in every bite, with the sweet, spicy, and […]
Kushiyaki is a Japanese technique that includes various skewered and grilled meat, seafood, or even vegetables and tofu. The ingredients are placed on bamboo skewers and are typically seasoned with either salt (shio) or a reduced and sweetened version of soy sauce that is known as tare.Kushiyaki should always be freshly prepared and served immediately after grilling, while the typical accompaniments usually include edamame, salads, or pickled vegetables.Here is a Japanese asparagus dish using belly pork bacon, based on a meal I had in Hong Kong in 1987, where this was one of the side dishes served with yakitori chicken. […]
