Boots in the Oven

Welcome to Bali!

I swore I wouldn't go to Bali. At the very start of the trip people kept telling us over and over, "you can't miss it, it's just amazing." All I could picture was middle aged women on journeys of self discovery, thin fingers extended gracefully from the loose sleeves of their flowing kaftans as they pecked away on expensive laptops in the corners of overpriced tourist cafes.

But I keep an open mind.

As the trip progressed we kept running into interesting and genuine travelers, all who had had great experiences on the island. My opinion of Koh Samui and Koh Tao had shifted drastically from our own visits there and as I learned more about Indonesia, Bali started to look more and more intriguing.

Long story short- I caved like a bitch and bought plane tickets. And yes, I'm glad I did.

The beauty of Bali is that it's big. There are plenty of tourists (even plenty "women of a certain age" Eat-Pray-Loving their way through the day) but for the most part they stay locked away in their little tourist cages and leave 95% of the place free and relatively unmolested.

The social structure there is incredibly strong. We were constantly running into impromptu celebrations, concerts, and festivals.

I know I've beaten this drum before, but if you really want to see a place you've got to get out of the tourist bubble. Your own transportation people. It's key.

We rented a scooter and spent hours exploring on our own. As I mentioned, the island is quite large so in 9 days we actually moved guesthouses (and towns) three different times so that we could cover more ground.

The entire island is gorgeous. I can't over stress that.

Here's a quick hit list of some of the wonderful bits about Bali that won me over:

It has stunning beaches (some where people still harvest seaweed).

Temples from fairie tales,

Rice paddies whose terraces go all the way up (if you know what I mean).

Towns where people hang out on stoops and smile and wave to each other.

Towns were they bake the island's iconic roof tiles using piles of old coconut husks.

That stuff burns hot!

Random road side fruit stands,

and inviting roadside diners.

Art is everywhere.

From quirky street art,

to roundabouts with kinda freaky public art (yeah I know it's religious- still freaky though),

intricately crafted offerings,

and hundreds of galleries in every shape and size.

They even decorate their garbage cans.

One thing that became abundantly clear in our time there though, was just how fast things are changing. Urban and agrarian lifestyles are clashing more and more frequently and the tourist impact is on an exponential upswing.

Guesthouses are slowly taking over the rice paddies.

In the next few posts we'll cover some of what we saw, both the magical and the depressing. Also, lots of monkeys and food.

And remember, if your scooter helmet ever wears out on you, it doubles as a kick ass scare crow.

A Beginner's Guide to Eating in George Town, Part II

Let's just get right back into Georgetown, Malaysia, shall we? Part I kicked things off with some classic nasi kandar, a couple unmissable starch dishes, and drinks to wash it all down with. This time, I say we start with dessert. You know, because you can. You're an adult, damn it!

The beauty of this next spot is that it's a three-for. For whatever reason the little alley of Lebuh Keng Kwee is home to excellent versions of three George Town staples, and they're practically stacked on top of one another.

1. Cendol from Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul (yes, you can spell it either way- that's the beauty/curse of transliteration)

You can ask any passerby, stray animal, or street lamp in town and they will inevitably tell you to go here. But lucky for you they're right. This little stall churns out well made cendol and ABC at a blazing pace and they're never lax on the quality control.

Cendol is a simple dish of shaved ice topped with gula malaka syrup (a rich brown palm sugar), coconut milk, kidney beans, and soft rice noodles flavored and colored with pandan leaf. It's cooling, refreshing, fairly sweet, and lots of fun to eat.

This is actually ABC (ais batu campur). It's like a methed up cendol with extra corn, nuts, fruits, jellies, ice cream, and god knows what else.)

You can also grab a beautiful chrysanthemum tea there as well while you observe their ice shaving speed skills and do some top notch people watching . And remember, it's been scientifically proven that cendol tastes 2.8x better when eaten standing up. So hang out in the alley like the locals instead of grabbing a table.

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul is on Lebuh Keng Kwee near the corner of Jalan Penang.
It's the one on the south side- but you'll be able to tell by the lines.

2. Asam Laksa from Joo Hui Coffee Shop

Joo Hui is the corner diner that the cendol stall sits infront of. It's a little confusing but they're entirely separate businesses. Joo Hui has two entrances, but at the one that actually opens onto Keng Kwee you'll find an awesome aunty stirring up big vats of asam laksa.

Asam laksa is a sweet, sour, and spicy fish soup. It's flavored with tamarind and a mackerel-like fish and brimming with pineapple, cucumber, onions, rice noodles and various fresh herbs.

Some versions can be objectionably fishy but Joo Hui nails the balance. It's a very approachable intro to a soup that can occasionally be challenging to western palates. And she's super adorable.

3. Rojak from Keng Kwee Rojak Stall

Rojak is a Malaysian and Indonesian obsession. Different variations abound. At its heart, rojak is a sweet and salty fruit salad almost always with a seafood component. Here we're talking specifically about Penang style rojak.

Penang style is typically a mix of some combination of cucumber, jicama, pineapple, green mango, rose apple, puffed tofu, and youtiao (fried bread chunks). Dried grilled cuttlefish is a common addition but can easily double the price and I found it to be unnecessary.

The real trick is the sauce. It's made from (always secret proportions of) sugar, lime, chili, and a molasses-like, slightly funky, prawn paste called hae ko or petis. Then the whole mess gets topped with crushed peanuts and the good times roll. It might sound weird, but trust me, it's great on a hot day.

This rojak place is actually owned by the same guy that owns the cendol stall. It's located on the same street about 50 meters further on. Both are on the right side if you're coming from Jalan Penang. It doesn't seem to have a name.

Open 10am-7:30pm

4. Most Things from Tek Sen Restaurant.

Robyn Eckhardt of Eating Asia turned us on to this Chinese Malaysian joint. I've talked before about what a great confluence of cultures Penang has, and Tak Sen is an excellent place to sample the Sino side of things.

Order what you'd like but don't miss the Home Recipe Double Roasted Pork, or pork candy as Robyn calls it.

You can go a little more Malay with the stir-fried kacang botol (wing beans) in sambal,

or sweet and sour with the tamarind prawns. Their homemade tofu dishes are also winners.

They also have a drink called the Michael Jackson that's soy milk and dark grass jelly. Top that.

The place is a little pricy for George Town standards and you're likely to have to wait but it's certainly worth the effort. And definitely check the hours. You've got a pretty narrow window of opportunity.

Tek Sen 18-20 Carnavon Street, George Town
Open: Noon-2:30p; 6p-9p
Closed Tuesdays

5. Roti Canai from the Roti Canai stall on Transfer Road

I fell deeply in love with roti canai during our time in Malaysia, especially with a side of teh tarik or pulled tea.

Roti canai couldn't be more simple. It was originally concocted as a way to use leftovers. Yesterday's roti would be soaked in the sauce from last night's curry after all of the meat had been eaten out of it, making a kick ass breakfast.

These days the roti is cooked fresh to order and you can get it either banjir (flooded) or on the side to keep it crisper. We tried it both ways, but I gotta say there's some special little magic that happens when you just drench the bread and let it start soaking up all the goodness in one big messy pile.

The stall is on the east side of Transfer Road between Jalan Ariffin and Jalan Sekerat, across from the mosque and just south of the Caltex station.

Open: 6am-1pm-ish

And lest you think George Town is a purist haven of street hawkers and small local restaurants, these McDonalds VIP drive-thru stickers are rampant. McNasi Kandar anyone?

Next, we're up up and away to Bali!

A Beginner's Guide to Eating in George Town, Part I

George Town is such a densely packed labyrinth of food amazingness that I'm pretty sure you have to live there for a few generations to master all the nooks and crannies.

In our time there we averaged about 5 meals a day. I'd say they were small, but you know I always get that weird look on my face when I'm lying. I won't embarrass either of us with a coverup.

So we got in a little practice, most of it enjoyable.

We may not have rooted out the most obscure locales, but we've distilled down some of our favorites into a little hit parade. So without further ado, here's Part I of our Beginner's Guide to Eating in George Town.

1. Nasi Kandar from Nasi Kandar Line Clear

Nasi Kandar is a serious George Town tradition. While it's popular all over the country, pretty much everyone agrees that Penang has a lock on the superlative version.

Line Clear is an institution. We're not breaking any ground here by recommending it. However, it's an excellent place to get an introduction due to the fine blend of quality, character, and the wide mix of patrons. Not to mention that it's open 24 hours a day so you can always get your crazy grub on.

The start of an impressive fish head curry.

The concept of nasi kandar is a broad one. It doesn't refer to any specific dish but rather to a hodgepodge of bold flavored meats and vegetables served over rice with a finishing pour of mixed curry sauces.

Basically you work your way through the line pointing at anything you want a scoop of. At the end, tell them you want it banjir (or flooded) and the helpful dude there will spoon out dollops from 3 or 4 of the curries of the day.

Sooo good...

There's really no way to go wrong but if your palate's on the delicate side watch out for some of the funkier dishes like the stewed fish maw or swim-bladder.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear is in an alley on the SE side of Jalan Penang just south of Lebuh Chulia. You can't miss the signs.

2. Fresh Nutmeg Juice from Kedai Kopi Lam Ah (or the Lam Ah Coffee Shop)

Penang grows a lot of nutmeg. I knew the seed was delicious of course, and I was familiar with the whole fruit from our time in Zanzibar. But what I didn't realize is that you can you can squeeze that sucker and wring it out into a refreshing beverage.

Word on the street is that you have to get out into the countryside to find the best nutmeg juice. But if you're like us, working with limited time and transportation, Lam Ah is a great place to sample the drink in the city center.

The flavor is surprisingly mild, bringing out the light, tangy side of what can sometimes be an oppressively potent spice. The drink is almost white in color (there's a dark version made from the cooked fruit), slightly sweet and has a subtle and not unpleasant astringency on the finish. It's rather addictive, but I'd be remiss if i didn't mention that it's also a mild natural laxative so don't get carried away.

Lam Ah is on the NW corner at the intersection of Lebuh Pantai and Lebuh Chulia.

3. Nasi Lemak from Toh Soon Cafe

Nasi Lemak may be the most iconic dish in Malaysia. The little packets of rice cooked in coconut milk and commonly paired with spicy sambal, boiled egg, and peanuts are ubiquitous on pretty much every street corner and roadside snacketeria.

To spot the best would be a herculean task requiring charts, graphs, double blind studies and maybe a theme song. None of which we have.

When in doubt we default to a really enjoyable version in a top-notch atmosphere. Toh Soon is old school Penang in fine form. The long, narrow, semi-open space is comfortable and inviting. They still grill bread on open coals and make rich coffee in a sock filter.

Parcels of nasi lemak come standard on every table but they're not actually made in house. Toh Soon gets deliveries multiple times throughout the day from a nearby producer. Even so, the final product is sweet, salty, spicy, a little pungent, and extremely enjoyable.

4. Char Kway Teow from the Stall in front of Sin Guat Keong Coffee Shop

If any dish can rival nasi lemak in shear saturation quotient, it's char kway teow. These broad rice noodles stir fried in lard with soy, sugar, chili and various seafoods are extremely popular.

We spent a good chunk of time tracking down acclaimed vendors and comparing their wares. Some days we managed to slip char kway teow in for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or at least second breakfast, second lunch, or second dinner.)

We found several lovely versions, but it was hard to beat the combination of flavors and theater at the little stall in front of Sin Guat Keong. Ah Sean, the owner, still cooks over charcoal and he mixes the oil he fries the seafood in back into the pork fat that's used to stir fry the noodles. Not a bad trick. He'll also throw in some fat mantis shrimp for a few extra ringgit if you wanna get fancy.

The stall is open from 6pm-Midnight and is located on Lebuh Kimberley at the corner with Lebuh Cintra.

5. Medicinal Tea from Shong Hor Hin Medicated Tea Shop

After all the eating you're going to be doing, nothing settles the stomach like a glass of bittersweet herbal tea from this Chinese shop.

The proprietress mixes over 40 herbs, leaves, flowers, and bits to make a lukewarm tincture that despite your doubts and misgivings will totally hook you up. The very sweet lady who runs the place will keep a sharp eye on you to make sure you polish off the last of the revitalizing dregs. She'll even follow it up with a splash of syrupy bonus beverage Mary Poppins-style to soothe any insult to your tastebuds.

I wouldn't skip this place. We came back almost every day we were in town.

Shong Hor Hin is at 194 Lebuh Kimberly (on the north side between Jalan Penang and Jalan Kuala Kangsar)

Open: 1pm to 10pm

Note: This is the storefront location. The mobile stall is in the same area but changes location (We found it on Lebuh Cintra just south of Lebuh Campbell.)

Stay tuned for a second installment of good ol' George Town eatin'.

Boots in the Paper!

Over the weekend, a very exciting thing happened!

Reshma Kirpalani at the Austin American-Statesman wrote an article! About us!

I'm pretty terrible at self-promotion, so I find the whole thing more than a little embarassing (it took me ten times starting to read the article before I was able to finish it). But it is pretty cool to be in print like this!  

Here's a link:

Austin couple goes around the world in 14 months in search of local food

Thanks to you guys who followed us around the world!  It's been, and will continue to be, a wild ride.

Hello, world!

...hi!

You, er, may have noticed that there haven't been any posts here for a week.  OK, more than a week.  It's because we are back, in Texas, and life has once more gotten in the way of our blogging!  No worries, we'll be back to talking about the rest of our trip soon.  Look for continuing posts on Malaysia, then on to Singapore and Indonesia!  

Here's a taste:

See you soon!