Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Penang – Culinary Paradise

On the morning of July 10th, we took in this great view of Penang from the lighthouse at Fort Cornwallis (an old British fort).

Here’s a taste of the local cuisine. Laksa is a noodle dish mixed with some greens and fish paste, with a dose of chilis on top. This small outdoor restaurant is renowned as the best place in Penang to eat this regional specialty! Man, was it good. If you’re a chilihead, ask for it extra spicy.

After lunch we headed to Kek Lok Si – the Temple of Supreme Bliss! This is crowned by the majestic Ban Po Thar, or Ten Thousand Buddhas Tower.

There’s a great view of the temple complex (and the city of Penang) from the top of the tower, if you don’t mind six or seven flights of winding stairs.

Definitely a lot of Buddhas (and their related statuary) in this place!

For dinner, we went to a nice seafood market restaurant in Penang. My hosts chose some interesting dishes. The barbecued stingray was really tasty:

And the female horseshoe crab, well, let’s just say it’s an acquired taste. Definitely worth trying once, for those with a sense of culinary adventure!

What’s the strangest seafood you’ve ever eaten? Leave a comment and share your crazy food stories!

Street Buys and Santa Condom

Some of the people I met in Thailand were very nice, and the Thais I know in Germany are fantastic people. But if you’re a tourist in Bangkok, be very careful whom you trust. This basically means no one who drives a taxi, tuk-tuk, or motorcycle; and absolutely NO ONE that approaches you on the street with “helpful information.”

• The attraction you want to see probably IS open, right now.
• Unless it’s the palace, they probably WILL let you in with shorts/sandals on.
• There is no “diamond buddha” at a special temple that’s only open one day a year (TODAY!).
• The traffic always sucks; it won’t get better in an hour if you stop somewhere for shopping.

On July 7th I determined that almost no taxi wants an “honest” fare. One guy complained constantly about traffic after I refused his offers to stop for shopping, and tried to guilt me into leaving the cab. I persevered, and it took a whopping 15 minutes to reach my destination (not 1-2h as promised).

A second taxi was actually nice: took me right where I wanted to go with no complaints, for the metered fare, and actually HAD correct change. The third just wanted the flag drop (35 Baht, or about $1), then persuaded me to take the Skytrain to my destination. I took the Skytrain after it was clear he had no idea how to get to my destination, a small hotel in Nana.

Aside from taxicab craziness, here’s a selection of what I saw today. First, the Golden Mount (where the first cabbie didn’t want to take me). Great views of the city from the top of all these stairs.

Second, here’s a lovely image from Wat Suthat Temple:

Now a street photo from my walk around the center of town. The small 3-wheeled vehicles are tuk-tuks, named for their annoying 2-cycle-engine noise.

After being hassled by several dudes on the street (“Don’t go to that temple! It’s closed today!”), I went to the farmers’ market. Mostly veg (for cooking) and flowers (for shrines), with a smattering of other stuff as well. Great local color!

Here’s where I ate lunch. Finally found something moderately spicy, although from what I found so far, the average Thai food (or what they serve Caucasians) is not nearly as hot as what I expected.

For dinner, I tried out a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. It promotes the use of birth control, in order to bring the skyrocketing population into check. Apparently seven children per family in a developing country is too much. The prices are much higher than restaurants the locals frequent, but the service and food are fantastic. Since the profits go to a very good cause, I was happy to splurge and spend $13 on my meal.

Plus you get to see lamps made of condoms, and great statuary at the entranceway:

Yes, Santa Condom. I think I have a new theme party idea for Skydive Orange! What do the jumpers think?

Japanese Packaging – Dry Ice, Please

I walked out my hostel door June 25th on a mission to see gardens, visit temples, and take in the atmosphere of Kyoto. My first stop was the Shosei-en gardens, which have a small (500 yen) entry fee. Quite reasonable; so far nothing in Japan was more than 600 yen entry, about $7. The lake at Shosei-en was particularly scenic and peaceful, even on a cloudy & rainy day.

I tried one of these small plums (one that had fallen on the ground). It was really sour. But they certainly look nice:

Next I saw the big temples in the middle of Kyoto, each of which is part of a spiritual complex occupying a whole city block. The temple on the east side is the biggest wooden building in the world – my lens wasn’t wide enough to get it all in one shot! Here’s the slightly smaller west temple, Hongwanji, in a 12-photo panorama.

What surprised me most about the day was this cream puff. They cost 126 yen, or about $1.40, so I ordered one. Before I knew it, the puff was packed in a fancy bag and sealed with a metallic foil sticker. The saleswoman then filled another small bag with dry ice chips, placed that in a cardboard box, taped it shut, and put it in the bottom of a third bag, with the cream puff bag on top. They said something about three hours, which I suppose is the time this thing would keep before getting home to the fridge.

I ate it five minutes later.

The green tea cream puff was divine, just like everything made with green tea here. In case you want less packaging, try some waving and hand-motions. That worked the next time I bought a slice of cake, and I got away with two less bags. Long live the environment!

There’s almost no end to what I saw today. Here are the vermillion gates of the Inari shrine. I thought it was going to be just one row of these gates. Actually it’s about 4 kilometers of them, with shrines every few hundred meters. Local businesses donate money for the gates; I suppose it brings good fortune.

Here’s one of the hand-washing pools at Inari. Drooling Dragon!

I’ll have to do more articles about this day after my return to Germany. The raw chicken on rice (with an uncooked egg yolk on top) is something that many Japanese I spoke to hadn’t even seen! Anyone ever eaten raw chicken?

Biggest Fish Market in the World

Before I left for Kyoto on June 24th, I headed to Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. Every day, more varieties of seafood are sold here than most people have ever heard of. Nowadays, they only let two groups of 70 tourists view the famous tuna auction; I decided not to get up at 3:30 to try and catch it. BUT I did see a lot of those tuna being carted around and sliced up, after my 7:00am arrival at the market. I think these are tuna?

Here are the unlucky ones responsible for my favorite sushi – eels:

Are these scallops? I’m not sure.

A varied assortment:

These crazy carts drive around everywhere loaded with the day’s purchases, trying (not so hard) to avoid running over tourists.

As this cart drove by (while I wanted 2h in line for Sushi Dai), a block of this frozen fish (I think tuna) fell off, skittering across the pavement. You can be sure, it was recovered FAST.

Since I spent the rest of the day getting to Kyoto, I have some nice shots from there as well. I’ll just throw in one: a beef okonomiyaki, Kyoto style, at the homey Kawa restaurant. It’s north of Syomen street, just east of the Takase river (a tiny canal). Very nice cook, and the first time I sat Japanese-style for a meal on tatami (straw) mats, with no pit under the table to sit “western style.” And the okonomiyaki was good.

In real life, you can see the fish flakes bending back and forth as the heat rises from the okonomiyaki. It’s almost like the dish is alive! If you want to read about this Japanese delight, check out my prior okonomiyaki post. Have you ever found one in a restaurant in your town?

Fancy Schmancy Beef

Everyone’s heard of Kobe beef. There are other similar varieties like Wagyu as well, which I think are more readily found in Tokyo. I didn’t go to a restaurant and drop $150 on a steak meal, but on this rainy June 23rd I did try a bit of it in a department store. Vegetarians: you may want to skip the next few paragraphs – heh.

As I understand, the genetics of this type of cow allow the fat to form inside the muscle tissue, in a way that doesn’t occur in normal cows. I do wonder just how unhealthy Kobe/Wagyu beef is! Perhaps the cows being massaged daily and fed wine makes their meat healthier…?

The piece I got was probably Wagyu, and was about 1000 yen ($11) per 100 grams. It was on sale though, so I paid a bit less. I just had a small steak, plus some little cubes of cheaper stuff (660 yen per 100g, the taste wasn’t really that impressive). Here’s the good piece of meat:

I cooked the steak for about a minute a side in a hot pan. It was VERY flavorful, the fat melded perfectly with the meat, and the steak was extremely tender. I can only imagine having Kobe, which probably costs 3-5 times as much in the store (and 10-15 times as much in a restaurant).

Now, today’s got to be all about food, because the other sights I saw were “no photos allowed.” So here’s my favorite sushi, Unagi (sea eel). They have so many kinds of eel in Japan that I haven’t seen before in any sushi restaurant: conger eel, freshwater eel, sharp-toothed eel… all delicious!

I’ll round out this food-oriented post with a very expensive cantaloupe. Like yesterday’s cherries, these are meant as gifts. At an exchange rate of 90 yen per USD, that’s well over $100 of melon:

What’s the most costly food you’ve tried, or most expensive restaurant where you’ve eaten?

The $175 Cherry

On June 21st, I headed to the famous Senso-ji temple/pagoda complex in Asakusa. I particularly liked the temple where women pray for things important to them (meeting a good husband, having strong children, etc).

What was interesting today food-wise: green tea donuts. Seeing Baumkuchen (German “tree cake” with layers like the yearly rings of a tree), with the German name printed on the package. Then there was this:

This small box of cherries (meant as a gift) is $175 at today’s exchange rate. Yes, that’s about a pound of cherries. For $175. This is Japan!

I’ll leave you today with this shot of a street performer in Ueno Park. I did actually give him some change! Okay, it was mostly one-yen coins (I think made from aluminum?) and some fives, but a good handful. Thanks for the music!

What do you think about street performers? Do you ever give them change or a couple bills?

Eat All the Fish!

On my red-eye arrival in Tokyo June 19th, I was pretty beat. But I was too early to check in. Fortunately a few people in the hostel were ready to head out for the day just as I arrived. So I had a great time wandering around the city with them. We went to a park, then to a “running sushi” / conveyor sushi (known here as Kaiten Sushi, I believe). Kaitenzushi, doku des-ka?

The etiquette for these restaurants is simple. Sit down, and pour yourself some soy sauce. Spoon some powdered green tea into a cup and add hot water from the nearby tap. Then just pick a few plates and chow down. A word to the wise: don’t put the powdered green tea into your soy, as I did (thinking it was wasabi). To get the spicy stuff, ask the chef. Also, in case your dish of choice doesn’t come by, the chef will make it on request – no problem.

For those who say Japan is expensive, think again. Sure, you can find ridiculously expensive restaurants, but that’s the same in any major international city. I had 8 plates of 2 nigiri each (including one toro: fatty tuna!) for about $14 USD. And the meal was damn good, equal to better sushi restaurants I’ve been to in the States (where I paid ~$40 for this much zush).

Next we went to the Tokyo Aquarium. It was not as large or impressive as the Sydney aquarium (and had a similar $$$ price tag), but had a few interesting twists. A diver feeds the fish in one of the tanks about once an hour, sometimes with interesting results:

Besides fish (including a tank of “Nemo” clownfish), there are some other animals, like penguins, birds, and this sleepy Southern Tamandua:

Outside the aquarium, a street performer was getting 110% out of his monkey. Seriously, I felt bad for the little guy, and had no qualms about leaving without giving any coins. I’d feel bad supporting this kind of literal jumping-through-hoops. But it is impressive what an intelligent animal can accomplish.

To round out an awesome first day in Tokyo, I went to karaoke with some of my new friends from the Anne Hostel Asakusabashi. The way karaoke works: you rent a private room. The fee is per person who is in the room (either per hour, or as a full night package price), like bowling. Drinks and snacks are available (but expensive). You program the songs on a touchpad; there are literally hundreds of thousands available. Nick and I even sang “Pull Me Under” by Dream Theater! My voice regretted that for a day or so. But it was fun!

So, Hi Joao, Nick (hidden), Bart, Dan, Michaelle, and Nathan! Expect more photos (and perhaps some video, mu-hahaha) later on.

For those who are regular readers, just wait for tomorrow. That’s when things really start to get crazy!

How’s about a question for you today: what’s your favorite kind of sushi? Drop by the blog website and leave a comment I’ll tell you what my best piece of sushi was, after I finish the Japan leg of my trip.

The City of Sails

It rained on June 6th, so I found indoor activities before my plane departed for Sydney. First off: lunch! One thing I wasn’t expecting in New Zealand was fantastic mussels (almost as good as Belgium!). Besides tasting great, the mussels at Fox’s were HUGE:

I headed across the street from the Viaduct area to the maritime museum, a perfect fit for Auckland, known as the “City of Sails.” If you like boats, you’ll want to go there for sure. On better days you can even sail on some historic boats. In the museum they exhibit everything from very old boats…

…to very new, advanced yachts, like the NZL32, winner of the 1995 America’s Cup:

New Zealanders are definitely proud of their sailing and boating history!

I left NZ for 5 days in Sydney aboard another kind of vessel: the brand-new Airbus A380-800. That was a surprise, since I never expected to be riding one of these new beasts on my ~4h flight to Australia. The plane was only 1/3 full, making a stop in Sydney on its way to Dubai.

About the A380: I can say it definitely felt different from every other plane I’ve flown in. The takeoff was barely noticeable. Turbulence was barely noticeable. Every seat had a personal video system and every row had 110V outlets. It felt less like a long-haul plane flight than I’m used to… which I suppose is the whole idea of this plane! So, excellent job, Airbus. Now I just need to wait for the Boeing Dreamliner, in order to compare European engineering with American.

Tomorrow: arrival Down Under. Crikey!

Auckland’s Markets

June 5th was a bit gray, so I started with a nice cup of tea. I love the sugar packets in the Skycity hotel:

First I checked out the Britomart farmers’ market, where I sampled some local foodwarez and drank a homemade ginger beer (<1% alcohol… so “okay for the kids if they don’t have too much,” as I was told). There were some street performers there as well.

For lunch I checked out Elliott Stables, a fantastic collection of restaurants and shops of all nationalities. I went for a Monte Cristo sandwich and some French mulled wine… mmm!

As I said, it was a gray day. I didn’t take a lot of photos, but I think my street photography is improving. I did enjoy sampling all kinds of international foods, including a bit of smoky Lagavulin Scotch at one of the Elliott Stables shops. Cheers!

WHAT is a Taro?

Native Hawaiians used to eat a lot of taro. It’s a root vegetable a bit like a potato, and has many varieties. Some can be pounded into poi, a purplish paste that is nothing like mashed potatoes. Poi has a strange sour taste that I didn’t really enjoy. And the letters are all right next to each other on the keyboard, which freaks me out.

But all you fans of Fritos and Lays are probably thinking, “it’s like a potato, can you deep fry it?”

The answer is, YES! (Though the sage among us know, you can deep-fry ANYTHING, even if sometimes you shouldn’t).

There are many Hawaiian taro chip brands, most of which are craft makers of small volumes of chips. Supposedly the taro is very delicate and requires a lot of attention to cut and fry it right. From the tastiness of these taro (and sweet potato) chips, I won’t dispute the hand-craft methods, though the price of over $4 per medium sized bag makes them a specialty item and definitely not for everyday snacking.

You might have had taro in a bag of Terra Chips. All I can say is, the Hawaiian Chip Company chips that I had were even better than your average Terra Chips. The crunch could fell a hundred year oak, and the taste could knock Hercules on his back. If you go to Hawaii, do try some!

By the way, for those following my one-a-day posts, this one counts as June 3rd. Though for me, there was no June 3rd – I crossed the International Date Line while asleep, and jumped from June 2nd to 4th!

Question of the day: have you ever tried Terra Chips? What did you think of ‘em?