April 11, 2006
Hot Dog in Hanoi: (not) eating the Thịt chó
Day 6: Hanoi
Thịt chó: translates to mean hot dog....literally
This week's Time Out New York announces the City's best hot dog. Gray's Papaya Uptown won. But the dog we're talking about is not the hot variety, but the canine kind.
Our wanderings through Hanoi eventually led us to Dog Meat Alley. We look with fascination at the cooked carcasses hanging about. For a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to preparing dog meat for eating, and for background information about the practice go to Loupiote's Flickr photos and description. There are more photos too.
Deterrence
My biggest regret is that I didn't indulge in a sampling. I do have a long list of excuses: the ubiquitous puppies were so cute; my vegetarian traveling companion's eating practices quickly became contagious. At times I blame the reason I did not sample the meat on my sex. (The dog restaurants were for men, not women. Excuses, excuses. I know. I'm sure they would have made an exception.) And I won't be getting any dog meat during my trip to California. They made it illegal.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2006
Working the Streets: Eating the Street Food of Hong Kong
Hong Kong Day 3
Our thigh muscles were where we felt the pain. And as with any muscle burn, that hard-earned pain triggered a signal in the brain to green light any and all eating endeavors. By day two of our Hong Kong tour we had climbed up and down the steep hills so much that we longed for the flat cornfields of Iowa. But we did not long for Iowa's food. We hadn't flown to Hong Kong with the intention of toning our thighs. We were there to eat. We had all the offerings to satisfy our hungry bellies in the back alleys and lining Hong Kong's streets.
Ferry to Street Food
Breakfast Pastries
egg custard tart (before it was dropped)
Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it should consist of the most important food group: sugary treats. We had heard about a top-notch bakery across the bay from our hotel on Hong Kong Island called Tai Cheung. Based on the positive reports, I was certain their treats would give this cakehead the fuel she needed to ascend and descend the hills for further street sampling. We took a ferry across Victoria Bay then scaled a number of hills until we came to Lyndhurst Terrace. It took some wandering before we found it. But had we looked for the long line leading up to a glass case of baked pastries, we would have tracked the shop down sooner. When my turn came to make my selection I narrowed my choices down to two yolky egg custard tarts, a fried donut-like pastry coated in sugar on the outside and all custardy like a popover on the inside. I also made the mistake of selecting a little angel cake-like square that was too dry to finish without espresso.
But before sampling could begin, the vegetarian traveling companion snatched the bag away to examine the contents up close. A self-avowed klutz (possibly due to lack of protein), the vegetarian not only dropped the pastry-filled sack on the pavement, but then in a state of panic proceeded to do a little dance that wound up being more of a stampede on top of the preciousness. Not one to allow cake-like substances to go to waste, I rescued and salvaged the contents, proceeding as planned with our sugary street breakfast.
Vegetarian Street Lunch
gelatinous turnip and mushroom cube
We did a little more hiking about around the multi-leveled walkways and pathways of Hong Kong, killing time until our next feeding. But we pushed up our lunchtime when we stumbled upon a street stand on Cochran Road selling all vegetarian treats. For $2 we purchased several gelatinous squares made of turnip with specks of mushrooms, a deliciously greasy spring roll filled with bean sprouts, and mushroom and a dumpling filled with fake pork. The dumpling was so good that we founded an outdoor dumpling shack in an alleyway where we ate a pile more spring rolls and dumplings.
Temple Street Night Market Dinner
After a jet lag nap and some cocktails we were ready to eat more. We made our way to the Temple Street Night Market where university students and teens gathered to eat cheaply. Lining the alleyways where "100% cotton" socks and underwear could be purchased for pennies were plastic tables and chairs. Nearby women stood over industrial-size woks and kettles stirring vegetables or deep-frying fritters and fish. We chose an outdoor table at a spot advertising "seefood."
We chose right - both with dining locale and with the dishes we ordered. The fried oyster fritter was like a big omelete, rich with oysters and could possibly be my favorite dish during the entire trip. The semi sweet fish dipping sauce accented the richness of the oysters. My companion indulged in another hit - a corn kernel-rich porridge-like dish containing large chunks of fried salted cod. Both dishes were unlike anything we've eaten at the Cantonese spots in New York's Chinatown and now that we're home we're suffering from withdrawal.
Posted by Cakehead at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2006
Skyline on Crack & John Tesh
Click image to see and hear light show
In Hong Kong we stayed at a hotel run by Jesus' people: The YMCA Salisbury. We stayed there not because we're practicing Christians needing to find fellowship with other Jesus worshippers from around the globe, but because the views from the hotel were spectacular and the room rate was over $200 cheaper a night than the luxury hotel next door. The area we stayed in is in an area called Kowloon and it's situated across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island - Hong Kong's Brooklyn. And just as Brooklyn is the best place to see the Manhattan skyline, Kowloon is the best vantage point to see the illuminated skyscraper cubes that climb Hong Kong Islands dramatic hills.
On our second night in Hong Kong, having recovered from our sugar crash and woken from our jet lag recovery nap we looked out the window and wondered aloud, why the whole sky was flashing with laser lights.
Every night Hong Kong's tourism bureau puts on a laser light show that could rival the Pink Floyd light show thousands of times over. And even more exciting was when we learned that there's a radio station which plays music to which the light show is choreographed. Think John Tesh on crack.
Over 30 buildings in the Hong Kong skyline have lights up and down the sides so they can participate in this fantastic spectacle. We've seen nothing like it before but hope that cities across the great USA will begin to adopt this approach to urban planning.
Posted by Cakehead at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2006
Hong Kong Sugar High
Hong Kong's Mr. Softee
We arrived in Hong Kong at 8 PM. That's sixteen and half hours after we departed New York and 24 hours since we had slept. But in the end, we discovered that sacrificing sleep for airplane food and bad new movie releases was the right move to overcome jet lag. By the time midnight rolled around we were sufficiently exhausted and ready to sleep through the night without disoriented interruption.
But before we slept, we ate - eager to try some of the city's culinary offerings.
Hong Kong easily rivals New York, London and Tokyo with its restaurant prices and our goal was to eat for cheap. Why waste money on food that will be consumed in a jetlag haze? We stumbled into one of the ubiquitous noodle shops for some Hong Kong comfort grub. The vegetarian I was traveling with (really more of a pescatarian) had shrimp dumplings with noodles which he proclaimed to be the best he had ever had. The highlight of my barbequed pork on rice was the slightly burnt crust of rice found at the bottom of my clay pot. I later learned that others like the crust too - so much that it has a name, guoba, which translates from mandarin to "pot scar." There are even restaurants dedicated to featuring these delicious scars. Smeared with barbeque sauce or some of the oyster sauce from the baby bok choy dish was like eating a sweet rice crunch.
After dinner, we spotted Hong Kong's own Mr. Softee truck across the busy road on the far side of the median barrier. We had not yet figured out that the signs for the subway were not for the underground train, but rather the passageways through which one crosses under the street. Quivering with sugar withdrawal I stumbled forward (sans Softee) hoping that we might find another place to satiate my sugar craving. The vegetarian has certain theories about gender and sugar and proclaims he does not need the sweet stuff the way women do. He did, however, need beer to bring back to our hotel. So we stopped at the local Sev (Seven-Eleven) to stock up on cans of San Miguel.
But I was soon distracted by the ice cream freezer chest. Over the junk-food lined shelves I spotted it: icy and loaded with the Hong Kong version of the Good Humor ice cream products. But they weren't Good Humor bars, they were from a Unilever (yeah, the same people who brought us Olestra and Lever 2000 for your 2000 parts) subsidary called Wall's. I stocked up on several frozen ice cream products to do some late night sampling.
Wall's Vienneta ice cream snack
Wall's Vienneta is a Viennese-like pastry made of ice "cream." The cream is in quotes because upon examining the label I discovered that there was a hell of a lot more coconut oil and sugar than cow product. It is pretty to look at. Ripples of "chocolate" soft-serve ice cream are folded into a rectangular box. Unfortunately the ripples had hardened into a crystallized hunk and the block was dusted with ice. With my first bite the high contents of coconut oil became apparent. When I ran my tongue over my teeth a felt a mossy coating of lard. The Vienneta snack gets an A for presentation and a D for flavor. Unilever should stick to making soap.
Hazelnut Ice Cream Roll
The Hazelnut roll was a lot more satisfying. The vanilla ice cream log was filled with a hazelnut core and dipped in a thick coating of milk chocolate. However, after reading the label I discovered that hazelnut was the last ingredients on the list, leading me to conclude that there's not enough of the nut to legitimately call it a hazelnut roll.
Disappointed but buzzing with sugar I crawled into bed and allowed my jet lag buzz to overpower my sugar one and fell into a deep Asia slumber.
Posted by Cakehead at 03:43 PM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2006
Airplane Food
Cathay Pacific Flight # 831, New York to Hong Kong dinner
In all there were seven different flights that we took during our trip to, in and from Southeast Asia. Translation: there were seven opportunities to savor the airlines' culinary offerings and evaluate. New York to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Hanoi; Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City; Siem Reap, Cambodia to Hanoi; Hanoi to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Vancouver; Vancouver to New York City.
chocolate mint mousse cake
Each leg provided at least one full course meal. But aside from the chocolate-mint mouse cake served on the Hong Kong to Vancouver flight and the garlic shrimp served when we flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong, we weren't impressed with the Hong Kong-based airline, Cathay Pacific and its Vietnam based counterpart, Vietnam Airlines.
What? Surprise that airline food is a let down? Yes. I admit, that part of the joy I find in traveling comes from discovering what the airlines can fit into those cute little compartments - the compartments that are the closest thing adults can find to resemble the school lunch tray.
But there were other factors besides the flavors that detracted from my mile-high dining experiences.
Maybe it was the grumbling of my flying partner, a vegetarian whose special meal request wasn't conveyed by the travel agent for the early part of the trip. When The Vegetarian discovered the error, a visit was paid to the Cathay Pacific food specialist who offered to make the change in the system for the return flight. The vegetarian options were endless: lacto vegetarian, Asian vegetarian, vegan, Seventh Day Adventist special meal, pescatarian, Indian vegetarian.
Indian vegetarian sounded intriguing so he selected that choice. Then, three times the duration of the 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver and then once on the 5 hour flight from Vancouver to NYC, my traveling companion was offered breakfast, lunch and dinner - all "Indian style." Not Native American Indian. Actually if they had alternated between American Indian & India the country's cuisine it wouldn't have been so bad. But every meal contained the same undercooked bean Masala, dry basmati rice, spinach slop and two round sweetened balls made of corn and coconut. The only edible item was the accompanying beverage: Tiger Beer. Having established that the full-on carnivore menu was equally appalling (the lamb shank was dog-food grade) by the flight to Hanoi, I had switched from selecting the meat options to the choosing the vegetarian meal - the version that required no special requesting (unlike the Indian Vegetarian tray). The generic vegetarian meal - the meal he would have received if no special request was made - was perfectly fine pasta with creamy pesto.
It took over 36 hours of flying to establish, but I'm sorry to report that the rumors that have been circulating about airline food are true.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:11 PM | Comments (2)
February 27, 2006
Asian Cakes: Dispatches from afar
The whole time that cakehead has been blogging away, a large team of dirt dogs have been working around the clock to dig a hole to China - well really there were several different tunnels - one to Beijing, another to Hong Kong, one to Hanoi and a final one to Ho Chi Minh. The motivation? To have a quick and easy route to sample some of the best food in the world. (Additional tunnels to Thailand and Laos were schedule at a later date.)
Unfortunately, due to a labor strike, the digging has been halted. So instead of providing our readers with a direct route to one of our preferred lands to dine, we'll instead be running the written dispatches by our dependable contributor, Amy, who will report on the dining experiences in Hong Kong and throughout Vietnam and Cambodia.
Until she arrives at her destination on March 1 check out these other food blog reports from the region:
Hong Kong
Cha Xiu Bao A food blog site run by Josh who describes himself as like chaxiubao, a staple in the Hong Kong dim sum tray. At first glance, he looks untempting and plain; not something alluring at all. There're even some not so fine wrinkles developing around his eyes. But once you get to know more about this guy, you'll find out he's hot, juicy and frisky inside... just like a well-prepared chaxiubao.
Saigon
Noodlepie Blog about scoff and swill in Saigon. From gutter grub to gourmet tables
Laos
Wrapped In Dough's dispatches from last year's travels through Laos
Singapore
Chubby Hubby - Musings on Food, Wine and Marriage from Singapore
Other sites to get you in the mood:
Chopstick Cinema- Celeste Heiter's Daily Adventures in Asian Food & Film. She picks an Asian film, and cooks its cuisine.
- Don't miss this month's installment - based on one of our favorite films, In the Mood for Love
Pho King Pho King is and always will be about nothing but that most wonderful and complete of all foods, the ambrosia of beef, broth, noodles, chili and lime known as pho.
- Although the site surveys the delicious pho found in the States, what better site to visit to warm up the taste buds and trigger salivation.
Posted by Cakehead at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)
