FIVE THINGS TO EAT BEFORE YOU DIE

Starting a new entry so we can start collating the entries for the Must Eats Before The End.. Come on, the rest of ya! Wei's selection: 1) Sashimi at the Tokyo Fish market at 5am in the morning. I didn't watch all those discovery travel shows for nuthin'. 2) Special adult version chocolate chip cookies or brownies, like the ones they have in Amsterdam or similar, with an extra ingredient that I will not spell out in public. 3) Paella in Spain. Cos I want to go to Spain. 4) A meal at Tetsuya's in Sydney. 5) Fried chicken skin from one of the beachside restaurants in Krabi, Thailand. Incredibly addictive, forget the calories. Here's Gnat's Top Eats (though this one busted the limit of five in a big way) * Bebek Betutu at Crossroads Cafe in Ubud, Bali.This is a smoked/fried duck dish with plenty of Balinese spices stuffed into the lil un. It's considered a speciality of the island. We've had a couple of versions of this dish, even at the famed Dirty Duck restaurant which is supposed to serve the best version of the dish on Bali. Nah. Stick to Crossroads Cafe which is just a few steps away from the main market there. Oh, ps, if you're on that beautiful island, try out the babi guling too - roasted piglet. Yums.Well, you also have to go to La Luciola, on Seminyak Beach if you're in Bali and looking for a good meal. It's not cheap and its Italian fare, but hey, the restaurant sits on a beach and you can see/hear the tide crashing just metres away. 10 points for ambience, maybe 8 for the food now - still good, but it seemed better four years ago. * Cloudberries in Sweden. Fairly rare, since they only grow at certain times in the Artic. But we had these at a *gasp* Michelin Star restaurant in the town of Malmo, in the south of Sweden. They're small, yellow when ripe and a bit tart, sweet and bitter all at the same time. perfectly complemented the vanilla ice cream though - yes, it was real vanilla and hand-churned ice cream - all the lovely pod bits in the ice cream. Decadent but amazing.This restuarant also had this amazing cold soup with warm salmon bits in it. The melange of flavours and the contrast in textures, taste and yes, temperatures, was quite out of this world. * La Carbonara in Rome, Italy. This is a restaurant that's been around since 1912, and supposedly, came up with the original version of... you guessed it, carbonara pasta. This one was just coated with cheese and egg yolk - none of this creamy sauce thing that somehow became associated with the dish. Of course the extremely fatty pancetta - ham - bits were quite heavenly. Each small tiny piece glistened with a large layer of lucious fat. Yums.I can't show you what the dish there looks like, but here's a map of where it is, at least.PS: dress up. And nicely.They are all Italians dining in the restaurant, and they wear three-piece suits to lunch, and you really don't fit in with jeans and ugly jackets. * Real gelato from a gelateria in Italy. Preferably in a small-ish town, like Bolzano, where there ain't that many tourists. * Coke Chicken in Chiang Mai. I have no idea what this woman puts into the stuff but its a small stall near the night market. It's supposedly coca cola, but it's soooooo addictive (we kept going back repeatedly for this stuff in our four days there) that I have to wonder if its the other sort of coke. It's a spicy noodle soup dish, and I MEAN spicy, and the nice old lady and gent running the store cannot speak a word of English. But wha, must try it once before you die - definitely. * "Maguro Steak" in some suburb of Tokyo. Yes, it was tuna and cooked lightly in some sauce; fua.... eyepopping flavour in this absurdly small little place. It was recommended in the Lonely Planet - suspect because its the only one in that area that had a menu in "English" that you could point at to order and the proprietors didn't mind stupid Gai Jin walking in and fumbling up all the proper etiquette for food. I can't remember the name because I don't have the Japan Lonely Planet with me, and there's no way I'll find it on the Net. * Harbor View restuarant in Pepin, Wisconsin. This small little restaurant has fans who will fly in from New York etc etc just to eat there. It doesn't take reservations, just show up and take your chances. It also opens and closes at very specific hours. Its menu changes regularly - but what I had was simply superb. A friend had fish that melted right in your mouth, and I had a huge chicken dish. It sits right in front of the mighty Mississippi, but is in a town so obscure and the position so remote that you'll definitely need a GPS to find it. * Le Dalat in Bangkok's garlic king prawn. You get one prawn but man oh man is it big. And the garlic on top. Fuaaaaaaa. * Cow and Chicken pho in Richmond, Melbourne. It has a name, but this shop is better known for the cartoon characters it puts up in its window. The cow looks suspiciously like the laughing cow trademark used by a brand of cheese, but anyway, the beef in the pho is fantastic and the broth it comes with is amazing. Stuff in a couple of springs of basil, squirt lots of Siricha hot sauce - this garlicky chili sauce - and you've got a meal that you'll want again, and again and again. * This is a bit esoteric - but a "meal" to have before you die? Take a safari tour out into the plains of Botswana, settle down for sundowners, have some antelope jerky and a stiff, oh sooo stiff G&T. Eh, but some of the best things can be found here man! Once at least before you die: pig trotters at East Coast Parkway food centre. They sell out damned super fast and there's a looong queue. But good lah.

EATS BEFORE THE END.....

Yes yes, it has been insane, but I have resigned myself to insanity being the norm, and sanity making an occasional appearance. Life. A taste of the goodness of Cork is in order (best at the English Market, above). But Ireland is only slated for the summer. Siiiighs. Singapore's in the grip of this dengue epidemic, and its been long days and longer nights. We're just hoping and praying it doesn't get so serious that 1) one of us gets sick (touch wood), or 2) one of us can't get away for our planned break next month. The plan right now is to - if we finally graduate from the unending waiting list for flights - to attend Kishore's wedding in Bali. *Fingers crossed*. Anyways, Pete and I were inspired enough by food blog The Traveler's Lunchbox to experiment with the meme Five Things To Eat Before You Die. Its been done by everyone from Chubby Hubby and The Domestic Goddess in the aim of creating a Foodbloggers' Guide to the Globe. In any case, we've decided we will do it too, and we hope that you'll add your fav five in the comments section. Heck, death is the inevitable end point anyway, so we might as well be sharing the best and most gastronomically satisfying routes... So here goes... There's 10 between us (well, duh). Besides, while I completely agreed with Pete's five, I had a few others I simply had to include. 1. Poached to perfection eggs Benedict at Odessa, Dublin 2, Ireland. You haven't lived till you've tried this one, especially with their great homemade Hollandaise sauce. Had mine with salmon and the meal alone made the trip worthwhile. A close second is the poach eggs on toast at the Hick's Brasserie at Cotswolds House Hotel, Cotswolds, England. Amazing stuff. 2. Banh My Pate, or pate and baguette, flavoured with pickled cucumber, coriander and chilli sauce from a streetside stall in Saigon. The old lady near Ben Tanh Market is oh-my-god to-die-for good. The French would freak out. Now wouldn't that be fun to watch haha. 3. The crispy fish salad at Song Trang, undeniably the BEST restaurant in all of Saigon. The greatness of this dish even escapes description. The only problem is that its so popular now that you have to book a table like waaaay in advance. Ah well. (Make sure you try the lemongrass escargot as well, its phenomenal). There used to be one in Singapore, but it came nowhere close to the real one. Ask any local where to find it coz its kinda off the usual tourist radar. While we are on the topic of fishy business, the seared black cod at Brasserie Wolf, Robertson Quay, Singapore, is divine. 4. Anything at all from The Stinking Rose in San Francisco, California. Just follow your nose to this one. Its all garlic, all the way. Apparently, they serve something like 3000 pounds of the good stuff a month. Amazing stuff. The garlic dip with the bread was smashing. For a main, I had the Garlic Encrusted Baby Back Ribs, which were phenomenal. Pete had the 40 Clove Garlic Chicken, though he still complains it didn't quite have enough garlic. Madness. Quite fortunately, of course, both the boy and I love the pungent stuff, so it doesn't cause any, erm, tension. Ha Ha. Checked out the most recent menu and they now have a "Roasted Garlic Potato Onion Soup". And if anyone out there has anything close to a recipe, PLEASE PLEASE share. 5. Hainanese Delicacy for its chicken rice, top floor of Far East Plaza. Been eating there for yonks and finally introduced it to Pete earlier this year. We are both chicken rice fanatics, and anywhere else has since paled in comparison. The oyster sauce veg is great, second only to the salted vegetable soup. 6. Crubeens (crúibíní in Irish). Wikipedia calls em salted pig's feet or trotters, boiled/braised, and best eaten with cabbage, and either mashed or baby potatos (Goodbye Atkins). Pete calls em heaven. Best after a few drinks. They are traditionally eaten using one's fingers - yet another link to these Indian-Irish union. Made to be together we are, I tell ya. While we are in the Cork region, the clam chowder at the English Market, Cork, Ireland, is one of those die die must try things. Great chance, too, to load up on real Irish salmon, black n white pudding and amazing cheeses. The stuffed olives from the deli are amazing too. 7. Seafood (especially the grilled and soyo sauce fish) in Hua Hin (where the Thai king vacations). The restaurants are built on old piers where the fishermen used to offload, and while we can't quite remember the name of the one we went to, it was the third one down from the end. The food was phenomenal and I am sure the name of it will come back to me at some stage. We kena scolded by the waitress too - she said our eyes were bigger than our (collective) tummies and we were ordering too much. At the end of the day, we just let her pick and were happier for it. Only downside to Hua Hin - its a bit of a trek to get there (even though its only a couple of hours outside Bangkok). Its well worth it though, and it means a lot of the trash-tourists are nowhere near. Heaven. Closer to home, I would say a near second best would be the soya sauce whole fish at Ubin Seafood. at the Bukit Timah and 6th Ave junction. I have no idea what its called on the menu, but its done with ginger and spring onion. Pete's throwing in a third contender - the kopitiam across the street from the office that I only know as Wy Wy's Grandfather's Coffeeshop (Thanks, Alison). If you're familiar with the neighbourhood, its in the same block as Aroma but on the other end. Not bad at all for something near enough to work. The wait for a table can be endless, though. God, I am getting hungry. 8. Soto Ayam from a streetside stall in Bali. Words simply escape me. It's just different. Don't ask, just try. Two places come to mind, both of which I don't have names to. First one is near the Bali Hyatt in Sanur (Walk towards the beach, turn right, 100 metres down. Its the one with the blue sheet of canvas over it. If lazy, the soto ayam served by the hotel's Indon restaurant to the poolside passes the test) and the second one is near the Santika resort in Tuban (get out to the beach from the resort - oh, and the restaurant bordering the beach is Ooh-la-la too - but anyways, turn left and take a stroll along the beach. About 100 metres down is a restaurant on the beach front. It actually fronts a backpacker/budget hostel area. Very good stuff and the only cheeseburger in Bali pete gives three "beers" to. Considering how particular this boy is, that is generous). Try. 9. Samosas and coriander-mint chuntney at Rita's Kitchen, East Coast, Singapore. Don't bother asking for the address. This one's Mum. :) Haven't met a samosa or chutney I can take seriously other than hers. Revolutionary. I mean, at least one son-in-law wanted her samosas as dowry instead of anything else- and got it. Another son-in-law kicked himself for not being able to do the same at the risk of sounding unoriginal. Need I say more? Other dishes that stick in the mind - Mum's chilli fried rice, serve with fried chicken winglets, fried lady's finger doused in masala, and homemade yoghurt. Yes yes, a fried frenzy, heart attack in a plate, whatever. Awesome. Another one that comes to mind Mithi Loli - a kinda sweet crispy pancake, which Mum spoiled me with when I got chicken pox. Why, I have no idea, but it sure sweetened a shite period in my life. Oh, and mum's rice cooked in dahl. And finally.... 10. Curry chips from Aroma II, Wexford Street Dublin. Note that these have to be eaten at 4am, when one is pissed enough to ignore the cold, and stupid enough to wanna walk all the way there when the bar is just up from the hotel. "One" (being Pete) also has to be smart enough to send one's wife in for the fine stuff, just so she knows what queueing with drunk thugs in a foreign land. The chips - or at least the first five (until they complied with Irish winter weather and got cold) - were good though. Sighs, I could go on.... I don't even have Chin Wah Heng's pepper crabs in there, or Bak Kut Teh, or Mussells from Brussells.... How can one only pick five/ten things.... Ah well. Okay, your turn. I'm already tagging Gnat, Wei, Ling , Jonno, and the independent-for-a-few-more-days Gene. Everyone else, please please do join. Hugs, TW Note: Some of the pictures on this post are from http://www.noodlepie.com/ and from the WWW. Those lovely ones of the olives and the English Market and such are Pete's though.. Thanks to all.