Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Flying Wantan Mee: A bit of fun, a bit of theatre with some noodles. Chef Mr. Hung [of Flying Wantan Mee] was incredible. When I go through and I make these noodles with him, it's all about being precise in your approach. I blanch the noodles in boiling hot water - it just can’t be hot, it has to be on a rapid boil, really quickly, so you do that for 10-12 seconds and then you take it straight out onto cold water and then back again into the hot water. Cold water to stop the cooking process and then back to blanch to make them warm again. And you need to get rid of all that excess water, otherwise it will dilute the actual broth that you’ve worked on for hours on end. You need to shake that off, similar to ramen noodles where they shake off all the water. And so, instead of just sitting there and doing that, Mr. Hung throws them up in the air 5-6 storeys high and then you see the water escaping the noodles and as it lands it’s done. It is just genius!”
Watch it fly!
Jakarta, Indonesia
Jalan Kyai Maia, Sate Ayam satay stall: This was a great experience - eating all the satay in Jakarta. I sat with the locals on wooden benches, immersed in the charcoal smoke and the aroma of satay skewers, Java-style. A Javanese satay is cooked with a kecap manis, a sweet soy sauce and what else is interesting is how it is served - with chilli on the side, sweet soy sauce on top as well and a steamed rice cake on the side. I was like ‘wow!’ They were really, really good satay sticks, I really enjoyed that. Definitely a favourite - I was able to compare the satay in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur and I think I might just lean towards Jakarta.
Love your satay?
So much more to satay than peanut sauce
Saigon, Vietnam
The breakfast street - Cô Giang: You definitely want to get up early, get to this street by 6am, and just eat and absorb the energy of that strip. You really do feel like you’re experiencing the real Saigon right there. Especially because Saigon is so cosmopolitan these days, but that experience – and that is near my parents old house, in their neighbourhood so I personally get a sense of how it used to be when they were young. I love that strip, especially in the morning, it's so vibrant. Taking the crew there they were like, ‘where do we shoot – everything is a great shot’. It is one of those places you just want to take a photo of everything. It is where the locals get up and shop; where the locals get up and eat their breakfast before work; and where the locals go and do their ingredient shopping, so it’s really exciting and there’s multiple food vendors. So doing a breakfast crawl there is amazing! I’m not talking about bacon and eggs or cereal, I am talking about really exciting dishes.
Bangkok, Thailand
Jek Pui, Chinatown: What I really enjoyed in Bangkok was this curry house in Jek Pui, Chinatown, with the beautiful wall and a queue that goes forever this stall has been here for 70 years. You just sit there on the curb side on the footpath, no table - it’s just you and your chair and a whole bunch of locals and there’s four curries that you eat. You’re in Chinatown and so the curries are very different and you can’t help but have two or three different curries to yourself. I was just like ‘wow, I just feel like a local.’
Luke pulls up a stool at Jek Pui in Chinatown. Source: Luke Nguyen's Street Food Asia
Soi 11's Kuai Jap Num Sai stall: I love offal and so another highlight for me was this soup stall in Bangkok that serves all their offal in a beautiful noodle soup. And I sat there thinking what an interesting dish this was, lots of white pepper through there and this was an offal dish that made me go, ‘wow!’. You realise why it’s the busiest stall in Bangkok because it’s so delicious – good for you and affordable.
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