Hong Kong / Malaysia

So here we are in the new year (I'll catch up on the holidays later ... first some more "at the moment" business) and I'm in Malaysia. It's only a temporary thing for work, but I'm excited about the work opportunity ... and also about trying some exotic (at least for me) cuisine.

A few years ago I traveled through China (Beijing, Xi'an, Guillen, and Shanghai). The experience transformed how I viewed Chinese food. I found it nothing like the American versions we so often find ourselves shoveling out of cardboard containers. Love those containers. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is great and has it's place in my diet, but it's not the same as the real thing. And the real thing is hard to come by in the States.

When I had that last adventure, I didn't do a thorough job documenting all the greatness that I ate. So for the next week or so, I want to use this blog as a sort of "food journal" for my Malaysia trip; a meal-by-meal account of the food I've eaten. In the process I hope I can share it with you as well. Since the absolute purpose of this trip is work, some of the meals might be repetitive (e.g. the complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel), but I will do my best to try as much variety as possible. With that, let's get to it ...

Day 1 - Hong Kong / Malaysia

Breakfast

Because of our travel arrangement we had the fortune of a 24 hour layover in Hong Kong. Most people would say that "fortune" should not describe "layover" more than "intelligent" describes Paris Hilton, but in this case, it gave myself and a couple of coworkers a chance to explore the city. So off we went early in the morning, taking the express train from the airport, and arriving in time for sunrise:



I would characterize Hong Kong as similar in openness and geography to San Fran, many parks sandwiched between tall, beautiful buildings, and the city nestled between hills and the harbor. That said, it is about 10 times the size of NYC. It is very clean and is clearly built for the walking pedestrian. We explored the city quite a bit, walking in and out of gardens that seamlessly transitioned between buildings, before our hunger tracked us down.



After some searching, we found a local bakery that served all kinds of buns. I selected two: a sesame bun filled with red bean paste (pictured below) and a Japanese style chicken bun. The bean paste being slightly sweet (not nearly as sweet as a jelly donut, which are usually too sweet for me) was a nice compliment to the savory chicken bun, which was similar to a The pastry portion of the buns were very moist - perfect really. Both buns were washed down with hot English tea with lots of milk.



Lunch

Lunch was at the airport waiting for our flight to Malaysia. We shared a cool and crisp Japanese cucumber salad that was lightly dressed with oil and freshly minced garlic. The consistency was similar to cucumbers I'm used to but the flavor was much denser, a welcomed surprise. I then had fried noodles with shredded pork and black mushrooms. I'd probably go with a different adjective then "black" if I were running the place ... but het, I can't argue cause the taste was good. A little soy sauce (which is sour and salty here) was needed to spice it up a bit but they were good enough.


Dinner

There are six employees here, ready to spend the next one to four weeks completing an intensive job ... but that doesn't start until Monday. So we decided to commemorate the start of the project with a fine local meal at an open air seafood restaurant that overlooked the ocean ... excuse me, I mean sat over the ocean. When we walked "into" the restaurant - I say "into" because it was more like walking onto the deck - we were greeted by several live aquatic animals in tanks. It seemed like an endless array of different species of fish and shellfish I had never seen. Oh and then there was geoduck ...

Dinner was family style and we had two whole fish (one steamed and the other BBQ ... I think they were Grouper ... served with a flavorful spicy chili sauce), a whole chicken (and I mean WHOLE), baby bok choy (again in a light garlic sauce ... I'm sensing a simple theme ... and I love it), and hollow root (also in a chili sauce, albeit a bit meatier than that for the fish).

But the star of the show (and a delight I have never had before) was the mantis prawn. Think of an animal with the face of a shrimp, torso of a praying mantis ("hands" to match), and the tail of a lobster. There you go. Not the most beautiful animal on the planet, but hell with that, it tastes heavenly. They are boiled whole in water and served coated in a salty, spicy rub. If you have ever been to Maryland and smashed crabs coated in Old Bay, then you are familiar with this presentation. The meat from the tail of the mantis prawn had the consistency of crab but was sweeter than lobster. Oh was it sweet. I couldn't get enough of 'em. I think I'll be going back soon so I can have some more ...

For drink, the Carlsberg flowed freely. Now, they tried to convince me it was a local brew but I know my geography and I'm pretty confident that it was founded here. Instead it most likely has a connection to the days of European empirical rule. So the question is, does the fact that it is brewed down the street make it "local"? hmmmm ... I will say that when you say "beer" in English here they don't understand you, but as soon as you say "Carlsberg" one shows up at your table. Brilliant marketing move Carlsberg, setting the language like that. Regardless of its origin though, the horrible skunk taste is inexcusable. From now on I will be sticking to the other common beer that sounds more likely to be local by name, Tiger beer.