Holidays in New England

Hey Folks,

It's been a long time, over a month since I was last on here, I'm now getting caught up with work, jobs to do, got over the holiday jet lag etc. What a great trip- New England really is such as beautiful and diverse part of the USA, almost everyday there was a change of scenery- historic Boston, stunning wild Cape Cod with it's beautiful houses and gardens, sweeping river valleys, lush green mountains in the Adirondacks, laid back Portland and a rather quirky Salem. The sea and seafood in general was a major player in our diets- we had some amazing lobster at a place called Thurston's Lobster Pound on Mt Desert Island, Maine. As ever, I would kill to be able to get such fresh, tasty and affordable seafood here in the UK. I could almost imagine all the Thai recipes I could have used it in.

Not to worry, the one thing I always miss when travelling in either Europe or the US is the lack of spice. Last time we were travelling in the USA, we were in the far south east, being so near to Cuba and also lots of Mexican influences meant we weren't short of flavours and spices so on this trip we did make one or two excursions in order to get our taste buds going.

Thai however was not on the menu (per se) as at no point did we come across any Thai restaurants I would say that felt authentic and not the usual identical westernised versions.

We did however spend several hours in Chinatown in Boston; right as the day was getting going and just as Saturday evening was ramping up (and the city's Gay Pride event was winding down- what a fantastic atmosphere there was).

We ended up, at the recommendation of a Time Out article giving 'The Dumpling Cafe' (www.dumplingcafe.com) a whirl where their 'juicy pork dumplings' are particularly recommended.

We chased our juicy dumplings; which are bitten, slurped then topped with ginger with some pan fried dumplings (very much like Japanese gyoza) and some very garlicky stir fried morning glory.
Service was cool, brisk and the food was a little on the greasy side but the flavours were strong, punchy and the food was fresh and tasty.

A few days later we had travelled to Cape Cod where we spent our first full day in the beautiful Provincetown in the 'toe' of the peninsula. Of all the places on our trip that we visited, this was my favourite spot.

We did a bit of research and heard very good things about a place called 'The Canteen' (www.thecanteenptown.com) a busy, slightly hipster-ish place which served an eclectic mix of food and local craft beers. My eye was immediately draw to the Vietnamese cod banh mi sandwich and greedy thing that I am, to their intriguing house speciality; deep fried Brussels sprouts in fish sauce.

The cod banh mi was excellent and just what I was looking for but let me tell you something, those ugly looking crisped up sprouts were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! wow, so simple but I couldn't stop eating them- I wanted more! As far as I can tell, the crispy fried sprouts are simply tossed in a nam jim seafood sauce (fish sauce, lime juice, chilli, coriander and perhaps a pinch of sugar). with the local beer, the food went down a treat; do try them if you're visiting Cape Cod.

And so, normal life resumes once again, and as usual, I'm already thinking of where my next travels will take me....

Ikan Bakar, Kuala Lumpur & Langkawi

Sorry for the massive delay with posting. We’ve recently just bought our first home- in fact it happened a few days after getting back home from Malaysia and ever since things have been a bit hectic!
Here’s the final Malaysia post; the promised Ikan Bakar. I did actually try to do this post about a week ago but Tumblr decided it wasn’t happening and killed the page just before I tried to post.
Our experience of ikan bakar actually happened in two halves. Regrettably as we were shortly to catch a flight back to KL we didn’t have time to eat at the roadside restaurant just next to Langkawi airport where these photos are taken. A few days later, back in Kuala Lumpur, after a bit of research we headed a few stops down the Kelana-Jaya line of the LRT to Dato Keromat station where we found a small local wet market. The Ikan bakar spot we were looking for was Mat Teh Ikan Bakar. We managed to find it fairly easily despite the torrential downpour that was going on as there were huge crowds of people huddled around a smoking grill of banana leaf wrapped fish. After a bit of smiling, gesturing and pointing we had a spot at the shared tables, were slurping on fresh mango juices and watching our fish being grilled (all while trying to keep feet dry!)
We were served a  bowl of rice, a lovely plate of mixed herbs and vegetables and bowls of a fiery tomato dip- very similar to salsa before our fish arrived. We had ordered the ikan pari (stingray) and another fish (a mackeral type) peeled back the smoky banana leaf wrapper and got stuck in.
The fish was incredibly fresh, flaky and very delicate. Both fish had a light marinade that included a lot of turmeric and spices which was still very subtle in taste. The stingray was particularly good- meaty and bone free and it went beautifully with the herbs and spicy dip.
It was a fantastic way to end our food adventures in Malaysia.

Home Cooked Meal from Fox Hill Homestay, Langkawi

On our first night whilst staying at the beautiful homestay resort of Fox Hill in the centre of Langkawi, we were offered the chance to try a traditional Malaysian meal. This was without a doubt, the food highlight of our stay. We headed to the outdoor restaurant/communal area where a candlelit table had been set out for us. We had been hearing all the typical kitchen sounds of stir frying, pounding of spices and deep frying so our anticipation had risen even before we got to the table.
When the food arrived, fresh from the kitchen we were served four different dishes, each beautifully presented; asam (tamarind) prawns which were enormous, some of the biggest prawns i’ve ever seen and were coated in a sweet/sour lacquer of caramelised sauce. There was ayam berempah (spice coated chicken)- this was amazing and I’ve since recreated it; deep fried and crispy but with an exquisite blend flavours from the spices and curry paste. To add greenery and texture there was a tasty pak choi dish stir fried in garlic and to top everything off was the best beef rendang I have had to date, cooked with local beef. It had obviously been cooking down for hours as the meat and collagen fell apart. The sauce was rich, subtly spiced, a little oily and slightly sweet. This feast of Malaysian flavours came in at just 66 MYR (about £11.30).
Many thanks to Maria and her wonderful team at Fox Hill for the stunning food.

Mr Asam Pedas, Restoran 1, Kuah Jetty/Eagle Sq, Langkawi

Well what glorious food we had here thanks to the recommendation of Mark Wiens of Migrationology.com  (click here and go 5 minutes in for his visit to this great restaurant). We’ve been following Mark’s blog for around two years now and when we saw  he was in Langkawi just a week before we got there, we were very excited to see where he would eat and what recommendations he would choose. He certainly didn’t go wrong with Mr Asam Pedas.
We found the restaurant almost by chance actually, we’d come into Kuah, Langkawi’s main town just to do a bit of shopping and to see Eagle Square. When it started raining (and it was lunch time anyway) we spotted a quiet, modern brick built food court at the far side of Eagle Square. It was very quiet with just a couple of other people on their lunch break inside the open air dining area.
Mr quickly recognised Mr Asam Pedas from Mark’s Youtube video and quickly knew what we were having for lunch. Mr Asam Pedas serves only two dishes, so we went for one of each. The red dish is the asam pedas (spicy tamarind) and the yellowy/green one is masak lemak cili padi (rich, cooked, hot chilli). Both dishes were made to order and came with chunky slices of tuna steak on the bone. They were served with a beautiful array of fresh herbs, cucumber, egg, spicy sauce ( a bit like a salsa), prawn crackers and steamed rice with crispy shallots on top.


I don’t know whether these dishes are local to Langkawi or Northern Malaysia or not but they certainly shared a lot of common ingredients with Thai food and similar taste profiles too.

Both dishes were outstanding- the asam pedas was sour, spicy, fresh tasting and well balanced while the masak lemak cili padi was beautifully fragrant, comforting, refreshingly sour but with a little sweetness from the coconut milk broth. Mr Asam Pedas himself was also very friendly and welcoming too!
If you’re in Langkawi, definitely make a lunchtime visit here!

Grilled fish from the Ikan Bakar restaurant near Langkawi airport- amazing smoky smells from the huge grill. Full post coming soon about the experience!

 

Night Market (Pasar Malam) Food Stalls, Padang Matsirat, Langkawi
We spent 3 days on the island of Langkawi. The night markets take place every night at a different spot round the island. For the princely sum of £3 we came away with carrier bags stuffed full of hot snacks, stir fried noodles, sweet pastries, spicy salads and fruit. Heaven!

Preparing young coconut for sale at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Making coconut milk at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Biryani at Hamza Bistro, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur

If ever there was a lesson in writing things down at the time, this would be it. It’s two weeks since our visit to this Indian cafe in Brickfields and I have literally just spent 2 hours searching Streetview, 4square, tripadvisor etc. for this bloody place! I eventually found it via Facebook by identifying the colour of the tables!
I now know it’s a new place, having opened in March and hasn’t made it’s way onto Google as yet. Here’s the link to the FB page though- Restoran Hamza Bistro.
We ate mutton biryani which was served with poppadom, pickle and some sauces. The biryani was perfect, lightly spiced, not too oily (I avoid eating oily food where possible) whilst the mutton was rich and tender. Some sweet elements came from the sultanas, creating a nice balance and the lightly pickled crunchy vegetables provided contrast in both taste and texture. I was less keen on the lime syrup drink, which somehow I managed to inhale (not recommended!!). The plastic trays, known as thali are on my purchase list- we ate off them regularly in Malaysia.
We ended up here at the recommendation of Kerry, our guide for our photo tour of Pudu Market and also an impromptu trip to Brickfields (also known as Little India). Hopefully you’ve liked seeing some of my images of Pudu market over the last few days. I’ve spared you some of the grislier ones such as heaps of chicken feet being ‘manicured’ and half pigs heads. That aside, it gave us a fantastic opportunity to see a real market at work and people going about their daily lives. We also had the chance to go inside a working Hindu temple dedicated to Hanuman and then go behind the scenes to see craftsmen at work, carving, moulding and painting the new extension to the temple. Hearing music, we popped outside and witnessed the consecration ceremony for the breaking of the ground as the first pillar was driven into the soil for a further temple extension, complete with sacred cows.

An emotive picture; shark for sale at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fresh leafy vegetables at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Pungent dried squid at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Crates of limes at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fresh fish at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fresh mangoes, dragon fruit and rambutan at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fresh blocks of tofu at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Lady selling petai/sator (stink beans) at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fiery chillies by the crate and long beans at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Fresh rhizomes, herbs and beautiful torch ginger at Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!

Limes & Chillies at Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Limes and chillies, Pudu wet market, Kuala Lumpur. I took this as part of our photo-tour- look out for many more amazing food images of our journey!