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The Joys of Asian Street Food or How to Get Seahorse Breath

3/16/2010

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Street food in the west seems to be of limited variety. It is easy in most cities near lunch time to find mediocre burgers, hot dogs, burritos, pizza and hot pretzels sold from carts on the sidewalk which are hooked up to car and towed away by late afternoon. Our food courts are no more than a conglomeration of fast food outlets. The market for both types of food are people in a hurry to eat in time to get back to work. They are more concerned with filling an empty spot in their stomach, than tantalizing their taste buds with food well prepared and enjoyed while observing the street scene around them.

   In Asia, street food is still delivered by door to door vendors, but most of it is sold by less mobile sellers. They can have simply a cart or a portable grill, some have a few plastic table and chairs. The chairs are usually only 12 to 18 inches off the ground, uncomfortable for larger, less flexible westerners, but perfect for smaller Asians, who often seem more comfortable squatting on their haunches than they do sitting. Other vendors may have a tarp or even a roof to keep their patrons shielded form the elements. How can street food be delivered by a small business with a roof? Isn't that a restaurant some may ask? While they may have a roof, they often lack walls and they are still only enclosures for the small carts, grills or other types a small areas necessary for preparing food rapidly. What none of these places have is an actual kitchen were food is prepared out of the sight of the customer. Food courts in Asia, even some very nice ones in upscale shopping malls in Singapore are just an area that contain a variety of small stalls that rapidly prepare very tasty food from a limited menu.

   Street vendors abound where pedestrian traffic is the heaviest. Some vendors are out early in the morning and close by early afternoon. Others will not open until the early evening, closing well after midnight. One thing that most vendors have in common is a roll of toilet paper in lieu of napkins. One American ex-pat living in Thailand, wrote that you know you have been in Thailand too long, when you keep toilet paper on the dining table rather than in the bathroom.

  The food offered by Asian vendors is of a variety unimagined by the typical foreigner. Most of it will be types of foods and spices that we might know but have little or no experience with the local combinations and methods of preparation. A most obvious example of this is traditional toast served in many places in Malaysia. It is thickly sliced bread, toasted over an open fire, slathered in butter then sprinkled with sugar. Simple, delicious, but slightly different. The toast is usually served with Malaysian kopi or coffee, which is strong, sugary with condensed milk. A great way to start off your day.  Noodles in all themes and variations are ubiquitous. Pho in Vietnam. Rice and what noodles everywhere with a wide array of sauces or toppings that you will not see in your neighborhood Italian trattoria.

   On the other end of the spectrum are things that we would rather step on than put in our mouths. Insects and worms are commonly eaten in most parts of Asia. Thailand, Cambodia, and China in my experience. Although I would guess that they are not alone. Grasshoppers, crickets, scorpions, spiders, water bugs are the bugs most often consumed. The worms tend to be various kinds of grubs and silkworms. Although, I find a worm more difficult to identify than bugs. I, also, find them more difficult to eat. Insects are crispy, salty, served usually with a little chili powder. No matter how well fried, the worms tend to remain liquid in the center and "pop" a flavor that I have not acquired into your mouth. I don't like chocolate covered cherries either.   Insects are one of the few true "green" foods. They take few resources to grow and process. Bugs are high in protein, about 70%, compared to 15% for beef and low in fat. There is a never ending supply of them. Bugs are disgusting! But if you think about it so are lobsters, crabs, shrimp and other creatures we consume with relish.

   Grasshoppers are my personal favorite. When deep fried, they are great with beer, like a healthy potato chip. Crickets are a close second. Small scorpions are okay, but the big ones are just for show.  According to the locals, scorpions give a man "power". Asians describe many foods as "power foods" for men. Since there are 4 billion or so Asians, there may be something to this. Women don't need power foods. They always have the power except when they have a headache.

   Thailand and Malaysia seem to have the most street food. Both countries take great pride in it. The Bangkok Post has a weekly column dedicated to the joys of eating at street stalls. In Malaysia, I found a book, The Star Guide to Malaysian Street Food. Both give are written for and by connoisseurs of street fare. They describe the food and give directions on where to find the vendors. Many local residents make a point of regularly seeking out the best that the street vendors have to offer. In Thailand, it is often a hot topic of conversation regarding who sells the best tom yam kung, a very spicy soup made from chilies, lime, ginger, lemon grass and shrimp or som tam, a fiery salad made from shredded papaya, chili, lemon, and dried shrimp.The Malaysians will look for the best nasi lemak, a sticky rice with an anchovy sauce, an egg and various meats wrapped in a pyramid shaped banana leaf, or lorbak,  a variety of items, such as fish, squid, pork, chicken, vegetables of bean curd, flash fried in a very thin, spiced batter. If prepared correctly, it is light flavorful, crispy and not oily.

   My own personal street food experience was great fun, usually a culinary adventure and often just an adventure finding a particular vendor. I tried all of the aforementioned foods. Not surprising, most of the time we were the only westerners eating in these places. Many of the local residents eat at a street vendor regularly because there apartments are so small that they don't have kitchens.

    In Malaysia, Mike and I took a tri-shaw ( a three wheeled bicycle rickshaw) to a place called Line Clear. Their specialty is nasi kandar, which a large plate of rice with your choice of a dozen or more toppings. We chose chicken, beef, spicy lamb, a variety of veggies with a few kinds of curry sauce poured over the pile of already spicy, flavorful food. It was the only time in our street food experience that we ate too much and the cost of the meal was over $5.00, including beer, since you paid according to the toppings chosen. If we would have selected two or three, like the other patrons, rather than asking for the works, our cost would have been less than $3.00.

  The ambience of Line Clear is typical of more "upscale" street food vendors. They had tables, chairs(plastic) and a partial roof, made  from tin and cloth. Line Clear is in a small alley very near the local mosque. The people who worked their lived at the end of the alley. Their children played around us as we ate. During dinner the already exotic atmosphere was enhanced by the muezzin's call to the evening prayer. For those of you that have not traveled to a Moslem country, there is nothing quite like the sound, particularly when there are many mosques nearby and you can hear many versions of the call at the same time, but at various distances. For the full experience, try Cairo with hundreds of mosques or Istanbul near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia were the muezzins of each regularly compete in an amplified "battle of the muezzins".  After the muezzin serenade, we were entertained by two cats chasing one another across the tin roof. I think if one would have caught the other we would have had a different sort of music.

   Most westerners are wary of eating at Asian street vendors because concerns about hygiene. My thinking is that at a vendor I can see everything. The food is cooked in front of me. In a restaurant kitchen, I have no idea about the state of cleanliness or the food storage and preparation. I never got sick after eating at a street vendor, but then I never got sick eating at a restaurant. The only negative experience I had eating at such places was in Beijing. I walked to a street known(at least in English) as the "Snack Street". It was just a street of food vendors in the middle of the city. The fare offered was interesting. There was spicy tofu, ribs with various sauces, various duck parts and one "bug" stand. The bugs and worms offered were fairly common, but fresh. For example, the scorpion stick had four or five  live scorpions attached. They were active until placed on the grill when they became very active for a few seconds, then all activity ceased, other than some snapping and crackling. Having already sampled scorpions and the other live food, I opted for the seahorse on a stick. It wasn't alive, so not as fresh as the bugs, but how could I resist. I had never seen seahorse on a stick before and likely would not again. It would be an understatement to say that the little critter had a very strong fishy flavor. My brother complained for two days that my breathe smelled like a fish tank that hadn't been cleaned for a month. 
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Random Thoughts On Returning To China After 24 Years

3/16/2010

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-Of course, the changes in China are profound since I was last here 24 years ago. Cars now dominate where before the sound of traffic was the tinkle of thousands of bike bells. Now, like in any urban area anywhere in the developed world cyclists put their lives on the line to ride on the streets.

-The Chinese do have the most interesting street signs I have ever seen. A truck with an elephant in the back with the universal "do not" symbol( a circle with a diagonal line through it) means, do not exceed the weight limit. If there is a giraffe in the back, do not exceed the height limit. A driver with martini glasses circling his head, do not drink and drive. Our favorite, which remains a mystery, is an exploding car. We have seen it on the highways, as well as, more quiet side streets. It may mean if you park here, we will blow up your car. Maybe, it is an area of frequent terrorist activity. All we have been able to determine is that means some kind of danger.

-The National bird of China must be the construction crane. There are buildings going up everywhere. Many complain that much traditional architecture has been destroyed. Particularly the hutongs of Beijing. A hutong is a narrow street or ally way in Beijing where traditional Chinese homes are located. In 1900, there were about 2000 of them in Beijing. The number grew to near 9000 before 1984. Now they are back down to 2000. Some of the hutongs have very attractive courtyard areas. Most of them now have electricity. Few of them have indoor plumbing. The people go to communal toilets, which are modern. If you consider, squat toilets modern. You can identify the communal toilets long before you can see them.

-The Chinese are building small planned cities in the countryside where none existed before.

-Much of the modern architecture is very interesting and quite beautiful.


- The people of China are very warm and friendly. My first day in the hotel. I said "sheh sheh", which is thank you in Chinese to a young girl. She looked at me and said,"You speak Chinese very well. Do you mind if I sit and talk with you?" The girl is 10. She introduced herself as Lucie. She was her regions winner for an English speaking competition, which were just ending in Beijing. She got top scores in speech, but did not do as well with written English, but she was competing against 12 and 13 year olds. So, I am sure she will win some day. After our hour long chat, meeting her family and friends, she gave me her name card, which is like a business card. Her card said "Lucy, a very nice, young Chinese girl'. She certainly is that. But, she did confide in me that she also studies kung fu and she sometimes practices against boys, who are "devils", who mistreat her friends.

-Every day when you are out on the streets, you hear,"Where you from?" and, "Do you speak English?", from people who want to practice. English study is compulsory here. Unfortunately, we have learned that many also use it to scam travelers. We have encountered the taxi scam, the tea ceremony scam, the hutong tour scam, the art student scam and others. We fell for the tea ceremony scam, which was expensive, but so far the bill has not come through. The sad part of the scams is that there are many very nice people here who do want to practice their language skills and have a chance to learn about other cultures. In time, some travelers will become wary of them.

-Like many countries where the government is often opposed to ours, many of the people love America and would like to go there.

- The other day, while driving through a small village, a slightly demented young man jumped in front of our car. He refused to move until we paid him a sufficient toll. Our driver told us the same guy does this when ever a car, not from his village, passes though. It is his source of income. I fear that some day soon a car will not stop and put him out of business.

-In The Forbidden City in Beijing, which was the home of the Emperors of China for nearly 500 years, there are many palaces and temples. In one area, there are 3 temples; Two larger ones at each end of a courtyard about 100 yards apart and one smaller in between the two. The smaller temple was for the Emperor to stop and rest during the long 100 yard walk between the two bigger palaces. That the Emperor was burdened with responsibility there is no doubt. "Heavy weighs the crown", and all that, but you would think that he could make it 100 yards with out resting. My esteem for the fitness of the Emperor declines even further when I learned that outside of his own palace, it was not permitted for him to walk. He was carried everywhere in a sedan chair. We think that too many of our people are couch potatoes!

-It is likely that the rate of divorce for the Emperors was low. The Empress was permitted to live in the palace of the Emperor for only 3 days then she had to find her own dwelling in The Forbidden City. The Emperor had a harem of 100s of concubines to consol him for the early absence of his bride.

-Hacking spitting, nose picking, nose blowing without benefit of tissues, belching and farting in public are held in high esteem in China.

-The Dowager Empress Cixi, when her country was near bankruptcy and torn with strife, had a palace built to be used only on her birthday. It was unused the rest of the year. To enhance her birthday view, a lake had to be dug, the dirt from the lake was used to construct the hill on which the palace was built and a nine story pagoda was placed on the skyline a few miles away. So she could pretend that she was sailing on her lake, she had a life size boat built of marble. It all seems a little irresponsible to me.

-Almost all of the Chinese who speak English adopt English names, like Lucy, Mike, Tina, Jojo, John, Peter, etc. They think there Chinese names are too complicated for westerners. They are also much enamored with things western. One of our guides has a Chinese name of Shaolu, which I think is a beautiful name, but she goes by Katherine.

-I thought it would be fitting if I chose a Chinese name. Cleverly, I began to tell people that I had adopted a Chinese name. They were quire excited that I had done so. When they asked me what was my Chinese name, I would tell them "Bruce Lee". To my astonishment and dismay, no one has heard of Bruce Lee. Of course, they know him. He is on TV often here. But, they know him by his Chinese name.

-A question I have for Russians traveling on holiday, "What were you thinking when you put on that outfit?" From my observation of younger Russian women traveling in China, there must be a Fredericks of Hollywood Outlet Store in Russia. Paint would cover their bodies as well. Men will wear cargo capri pants with flesh colored socks or stripped sailor shirts with captains hats. Where do the moor their yachts in Beijing?

-The Chinese seem to love Christmas and birthdays. They know little about the holiday of Christmas, but they love the decorations. Many hotels and businesses will have blinking lights, Christmas bulbs and pictures of Santa Claus in strange places. The hotel I am in currently must play the song "happy Birthday" 20 times a day.

-At dinner last night, our waitress, a very young girl named "Lala", told me that I reminded her of her dead grandfather. She meant it to be a complement. The elderly are well regarded in China. While I like to think not, I qualify.


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    by Bruce Warner or Patrick Ogle (except where noted) Bruce and the other writers own all these words and we are using them with permission.  Don't even think about stealing them. I will find you. I will.

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