Every time people ask me what's interesting to enjoy in Jakarta, I usually say, enjoy the traffic jam (sarcastically) and (also) have a bite of local food. And of course, when they go a bit deeper about what kind of food they should try, I would recommend jajanan kota para pedagang kaki lima (snacks from street-side sellers) that exists in every corner of the city. That itself is an experience.

I recently took a long overdue trip back to France to visit with my French side of the family. It had been 10years since I had last been back (a weekend trip while I was visiting London, so it didn’t really count), but 13years since I had actually spent some time there. The last time I was there I was a teenager who really didn’t care about the culture much less about the food, and so this year’s journey was one of discovery, appreciation, and a new found love for all things French.

Where does one even begin when it comes to talking about the food in this wonderful country? Do I start with the dairy section in your average supermarket that spans three aisles long? Or the markets that have food so fresh it looks fake? Or shall I wax lyrical about the incredible breads, crusty on the outside with warm soft chewy insides?

No, I will start first with a humble cherry tart. This tart is one that my late grandmother used to make every single Sunday without fail using the lovely cherries that blossomed on my grandfather’s cherry tree. This tart represents French living…  Continue reading »

Sharing some experiences from the 4th Annual New York Food Film Festival, one of my favourite events was their day 4 event : The Worlds First Food Truck Drive-In Movie at the Tobacco House, Dumbo, Brooklyn. This is a special event as somehow the organisers managed to gather 20 of the top mobile food trucks in the city. People can get a sampling of New York's best street food in one place, at the same time. Now how about that?! Cool. People were impressed because if you were to queue for them at their normal locations, the lines on some of these trucks can be about 20-30 people long at any time. It's very special occasion to see them all in one place. Tickets were sold out way in advance.

I guess that I can start this blog by saying that the city of Melbourne takes their coffee very seriously. Afterall, this is the city that Starbucks had to shut all but two of their stores citing 'under-performance' issues with no other international markets that needs to be 'addressed in that way'. FriedChillies was in Melbourne for the Food and Wine Festival 2010 recently and were wonderfully amazed at the bustling coffee scene. With an all day coffee high for a week, here is the lowdown on Melbourne's bean scene.

Melbourne is Foodie's paradise. They have great local produce, a fabulous coffee culture and a lively restaurant scene. It's hard not to eat like a pig in Melbourne. Here are some of our Favourite 5 places to nosh at.

Arintji
A very cool half al fresco restaurant that sits quite serenely in the midst of chaos. There's always something happening in Federation Square- there was a capoeira demo, dudes in drag on stilts and synchronised dancing going on just while we were there for lunch. Food here is delish though and very fresh with local ingredients like rainbow trout, stuffed calamari and tasty tapas like savoury balls of crabmeat, tarts full of butternut squash and Gruyere and salads with tart goat's cheese.

Egyptian food is rather short-changed. In general most people don't really know what Egyptian food entails and it gets lumped under 'Arab food'. And that means you will think of kebabs and pita bread, usually meat heavy with a predominance of eggplant and chickpeas. True, when explaining Egyptian food there is a whiff of Turkish (the kofte and falafel) and Lebanese (dips and grilled delights like shish tawook), but I find there's a a certain charm to Egyptian cuisine, a rusticity. It's simple and unpretentious food.

Here's my Favourite 5 picks of places and yummy things to eat in Cairo.

Andrea @ 59 Teraat el-Maryotteya St- Gosh Egyptians can cook chicken and those of the bird family incredibly well. Not once did I eat bad or bland chicken in Egypt. Fowls here have 'taste' and seems free range to me. They roast it and stuff it or boil it for stocks for their soups. However they star shines the brightest when making simple grilled chicken on a spit. Andrea serves it up so delicious, you'd be hard pressed to stop at one.

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The title says it all. That's how good Japanese food is in San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco and California as a whole is a haven for foodies. The climate makes it easy to get fresh vegetables. Asian ingredients flourish here and Chinatowns in this part of America is well stocked. If there's a place where opening a good Asian inspired restaurant is a surefire thing, San Francisco will be it. My friend Aaron who grew up near Clement Street, a famous street where all kinds of Asian restaurants jostle together said he was spoilt for choice when growing up. There are all kinds of restaurants there, Malaysian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Chinese, Indian and so forth. He even knows where good Filipino food is. "There used to be this shack where you have to walk across a rickety bridge and they had this cracked jug where they served their beverages..." I reckon if he comes to Malaysia, Bagan Lalang is his kind of place. Point is, don't try and pull a one over a person from 'Frisco'.…  Continue reading »

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