Ahoy Hanoi - September

Pig on a spit

Some said that it may be the greatest thing that anyone has ever done but I don't want to blow it out of proportion. 

Amanda turned 37 and decided that I should celebrate by cooking a pig on a spit. 24 hours in a brine, trips to replenish the melting ice bath every 5 hours, 5 hours of roasting, 400 degrees on a small apartment balcony and I was as shocked as anyone that it was phenomenal. The logistics were such that I will never do this again, but I can't wait to do it again.

Burmese Cats

Over the Easter long weekend we took a trip to Yangon not really knowing what to expect. By-Elections had taken place the weekend before with Aung Sun Suu Kyi winning a seat in parliament and their party taking 43 of 45 contested seats.




What we found was a city seemingly little impacted by tourism and a window into what other South East Asian cities may have been like 30 years ago. As Yangon doesn't hold the major tourist sites of other areas in Myanmar, we would walk the streets and not see another tourist - an unusual and pleasant experience. There was no touting or hawking, prices seemed genuine with no tourist "premium," and market vendors didn't bat an eyelid at me speaking Mandarin (humph! I am special damn it!).




The people were extremely warm and quick to flash a big smile with a little encouragement. Beautiful children, a huge diversity of races and faces.




Shwedagon was an impressive a site as any religious building I have seen. Move over Catholics, the Buddhists can do it to.




The food was fantastic. A real mix of Asian flavours in the cuisine highlighted by seeing South-Asians cooking you tiao and East Asians cooking chappati!

Tales from the Crypt - Shanghai dumplings

It would have been one of my very fist trips to China (probably in 2000 or 2001) back when I was far more adventurous and game. I was down some back lane of Shanghai eating dumplings in a street side stall, concentrating on my chop stick action under the gaze of of all those eyes, set just above the rim of the slurped-at bowls.

I was sitting in the back trying to be inconspicuous, when an old man surprised me by suddenly rushing at me and brushing my then, very serious side burns. I have no idea what he was saying except that he was enjoying himself, even as he was chased away at the end of a broom. He continued to enjoy himself from the other side of the lane, until I slipped out the back and took off.

Singapore Snapshot - Little India wet-market

You never know what you have until it's gone

I went to the hawker centre next to the office for lunch after dreaming of coal barbecued pork belly. Unfortunately it appears that there are not enough sane people in the world and we have let this magician go under. Shame, shame, shame. It's back to rice & vegetables for me.

When the moon hits your eye

We are in Naples and we're threatened with murder.



Heading to Nick and Bel's wedding in Ravello, we spent 5 nights in Naples, a city I had travelled through a few times however had never stayed for any length of time. The reputation is of a gritty, unglamourous & dangerous city. The looking over my shoulder had just started to ease-up while we were walking through the Spanish Quarter, home of the Camorra.




A stereotypical nonna was hunched through her doorway watching her streets when she looked at me, pointed up the the road and wagged her finger at me. I gave her the smile reserved for doddering old ladies and kept on walking. She gave me the smile reserved for stupid tourists and after pointing up the street again, drew her finger across her throat and pointed at me.





On a brighter note, the Veiled Christ is one of the most magnificent works of art I have ever seen. Photos are not allowed however as can('t) be seen in the above ripped-off photo, nothing could do it justice. In particular the incredible detail off the feet, somehow under a veil, somehow not, was breathtaking.





It was great to spend some time with friends I had not seen in a while including my God-Daughter Ms. Ginger who was kind enough to share the fact that Dom has a crush on Bronwyn Bishop and Georgia a crush on Tony Abbott. Some good meals and some good wine were long overdue with Dom & Georgia as well as Mr Too-Cool-for-my-Wedding-Nicky.







The view from our Ravello rooms was not too bad either.





Being the birthplace of pizza and being a fat pig, I (and my not a fat pig wife) hit the streets pretty hard for a fix. As each pizza wore off, we searched harder and longer for a bigger high never being satisfied, even while eating fists of mozzarella like an apple.

• L'Europeo di Matozzi - our fist stop within 90 minutes of checking into the hotel so was always going to hit the spot, scratch the itch, twinkle the ivories and raise the flag. A little bit wet but molto bene.

• Sobrillo - my favourite all-round pizza. Cheap, flavour-full, not wet (as it seems the Neapolitans like) and an excellent crust.

• Trianon di Ciro - my favourite crust - smoky, chewy, charry. Amanda's DOC margherita was phenomenal though pretty wet.

• Antonia et Antonia - adjacent to the bay, great views of Naples and the air-kissers. A very competitive pizza that would be proud in any line-up. Glasses of prosecco while you wait and my starter of a basketball of mozzarella was outstanding. A little bit saltier than others and all the better for it. Unfortunately ruined by the waiter kindly informing us that in addition to the 15% service charge and 4euro pp seat cost that a tip is customary.
  
  

Pastries were generally exceptional at our pre-determined destinations.

• Mignone - good but probably the weakest of a strong group.


• Gran Bar Riviera - excellent, adjacent to our hotel, jaw-dropping gelato.


• Aruta - fantastic


• Angelo Carbone - diabetic

Amanda managed to eat 2 gelato for every day of our trip. While the gelato was fantastic (nociola, nociola, nociola!!!!) even I, one of the world's pre-eminent ice cream whisperers could not compete.

Coffee, pastries, pizza, mozzarella & gelato were generally of exceptionally high calibre wherever we ate. Other meals were for the most part, disappointing. Pasta appeared to be from a packet at every restaurant we ate at - maybe Amanda needs to teach them how to make the fresh stuff!

• Hosteria Toledo - great service, great company, good food but not particularly memorable.

• La Cantina Di Triunfo - solid, great service, modern decor...OK

• Da Salvatore (Ravello) - solid salumi plate, some very good plates at the table (ricotta gnocchi with veal cheek) and a semi-freddo inedible for 3/4 of the table (including me - Ice Cream Whisperer). I was hoping for better.

• Umberto - terrible. Polpette that tasted like dense, soggy cardboard

• Squisistezze - tasty little lunch spot with modernish takes on Italian. Yummo zucchini amuse.

The exception was Da Dora. It is an expensive restaurant for all its simplicity however the seafood risotto I had was incredible. Not the kind of dish I would normally eat however was extremely delighted. The restaurant is a small kitschy place located in a small alley in the Chiaia region. Nonno does the cooking in an alley-side open kitchen (charcoal BBQ included) while Nonna and team serve it up inside. Ugly nautical paraphernalia, TV on - loved it.

Lau Pa Sat

After finishing a full Saturday in the office, what could be better than sitting in at Lau Pa Sat, drinking a cold beer, reading a book, eating satay and smelling the smoke drift over the night market?

Penang street food

My belly is still full from our weekend trip to Penang however not so full that I didn't dribble over the photos of the roti canai (in Singapore called roti prata) we ate.

Michelin's definition of 3 stars is a meal worthy of a special journey. On that basis Roti Canai Transfer Rd (Transfer Rd near the Caltex, in front of the blue shops, mornings only) serves a three star meal.

We ate the lamb and the beef, both meats cooked until you could almost drink them through a straw. The lamb curry was a thicker, tomato infused curry, the beef a thinner reduction. The roti was crisp, with a great char & flakiness - a delight. All served with some great banter from the roti-men.

The char kway teow from Heng Huat (Lorong Selmat) came highly recommended from various research sources and when the patrons were prepared to weight 1 hr, we thought there must be something special to it. There was not.

There wasn't anything wrong with the char kway teow and it was good, just not 1 hr-wait-good. We ate one chili and one non-chili, the non-chili allowing the delicious wok hei to come through a little more. Not worth a special journey.

The Nyonya restaurant Hot Wok (124 Jalan Burma) was a complete disappointment. They had a good otah which was airy and fresh however other than that, this was probably the greatest waste of calories on a trip where any calorie calculation would have caused a meltdown.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear on Penang Rd served some fine nasi kandar. Very friendly service and a location near some night spots meant that trade was pretty good. I could see this being a fantastic mid or post drinking meal.

If you were passing by, you would stop for a quickie.

While not on the level for the roti, the twice cooked pork from Teik Sen (Lebuh Carnavon, evenings) was phenomenal. Amanda doesn't like bacon (I know, I know - but I love her! What can I do?) but she liked this. I loved it. The below photo doesn't look like much however this is pig fit for a king.

While eating, you can gaze over the likely source of pig carcasses hanging in the tropical, open air butcher across the road. Yum!

We ate popiah, yam cake, mapo dofu, satay, krupuk and wanton mee. We drank beer and tea, wine and coffee (pretty good stuff from Straits Collection on Stewart Lane), water and barley juice. 36 hours of food coma inducing excess.

Let's do it again.

Tales from the Crypt - Ibu Oka, Ubud

From a trip several years ago to Ubud. See below pictures of babi guling - no words needed.

Hong Kong - Bledisloe Cup weekend

Amanda and I were in Hong Kong to watch the Bledisloe Cup - a great birthday present from a very thoughtful husband. Australia had not beaten the All Blacks in 10 matches and NZ were on track for a world record winning streak. The Wallabies had a recent habit of running in tries through the first half then being overrun in the second so when the All Blacks went into half time with a lead, it looked bleak.

The Australian back three were brilliant again and when O'Connor scored after the final whistle to tie the scores, it was left to him to convert his own try for an overdue win. The rest is history and a history that will give the All Blacks some nightmares over the coming year. It was a fantastic test after a brilliant Tri Nations with rugby back on track after some boring years. It's now time for SA, NZ and Aus to embarrass the Northern Hemisphere teams and the quality of rugby being served up there.

So, food.

We ate at an OK Teochow restaurant on arrival but it was great to line the stomach for the rugby. A few drinks with Bobby and Kim after the match and then off to an Italian steak restaurant for some very fine meat. Bistecca in Lang Kwai Fong served some of the better steaks I have eaten in recent times.

In the morning I went for a walk and came across one my favourite street foods of all time - congyoubing - scallion pancake. A few pancakes were scoffed on the street watching the world of Causeway Bay go around. They were not great, but they were still congyoubing.

We were staying in a cool boutique hotel called JIA which I can recommend. Cool design, afternoon tea, evening drinks, free flow soft drinks, a 1 Star Michelin restaurant attached......

While we ate lunch at Caprice and were pretty disappointed (as I semi-expected to be), the real treat was eating at Le Marron, a small French restaurant which has recently graduated from a private kitchen. Very well done classic French cuisine - plump, juicy escargot, some delicious Gaillarde oysters, the juiciest pork chop I have ever eaten and a bottle of Bass Phillip pinot noir hands down outshone the over-priced and beige offerings of Caprice. Excluding the Epoisses cheese perhaps.

Macau & Hong Kong

Amanda and I are just back from classy Macau and as always, amazing Hong Kong. I had never been to Macau before and was interested in the intense development that has taken place and is continuing to take place.

We decided to embrace the tackiness of Macau and stayed at the Venetian. As you can see below, the Venetian is all restraint and elegance. Even better, the frescoes are in great condition, far superior to the crappy ones you see in Italy. The "Grand Canal" runs through the middle of the Venetian flanked by Italian masterpieces such as Gucci, Armani, Versace and the flagship of Italian cuisine, Starbucks.

We had lunch at Robouchon and were incredibly disappointed. After previous experiences at 3 Star restaurants my previous suspicions have been confirmed and I am content to never place much value in the substance of the Michelin guide's higher certified restaurants. I have no interest in eating over-worked food in pretentious surroundings served by well dressed glassies.

However, I did eat one of the greatest cheeses I have ever tasted. It was a camembert from Champagne however unfortunately I got the name of the other camembert that was served and so am none the wiser. Stay tuned, I have sent emails to ask for the name and to see if I can marry their pastry chef.

Then began the great Portuguese egg tart hunt. After getting lost in the casino for 20 minutes and then stumbling upon the canal which was worth another 30 minute wander I ended up in another hotel. The concierge called ahead to confirm that the bakery was open only for the first taxi driver to not know the location. 10 minutes later the second taxi driver talked it through with the concierge and we finally had agreement. 15 minutes later I end up at a different egg tart bakery, my second preference - Lord Stow's. After my initial disappointment at not finding Margaret's Cafe e Nata I got stuck in to Lord Stow's. They are pretty damn good although a little too eggy. But with pastry like that, I can forgive many many sins.

Dinner at Fernando's was a great rustic bookend to the day and although my belly looked like I had a cheese-baby, we still managed to eat several plates of great food highlighted by an incredible plate of clams.

In Hong Kong we ate dinner at a fantastic private kitchen. Liberty Private Works served a seven course meal (accompanied by our beautiful BYO Lakes Folly) each course of which was beautiful. After the butter-fest of Robouchon the dishes were delicate, simple and fresh and I can highly recommend it to everyone.

Amanda is normally my salami mule as HK has some great delicatessens, however this time I smuggled my own cured meats. An incredible salami is calling to me from the fridge as we speak and the voices in my head won't stop.