Fullboy - Xian & Datong - Chinese Muslim Food!

Xian, home of the famous terracotta army, was our next stop. It's a large, modern city home to over 8 million people and our hostel was right in the middle of the action. There's a small population of Chinese Muslims who reside in the city and we were located right next to the Muslim quarter. The food was hearty, heavy and delicious and we had a great time sampling the local delicacies in the night market. The stuffed lamb flatbreads, toasted and generously filled with cumin spiced meat were a standout. The meat was strong tasting, more like mutton than lamb. We sat and ate our sandwiches on small tables right next to where the meat was grilling on the BBQ and enjoyed taking in the bustling markets sights and smells. I still had room for a delicious quail egg snack on the way home. Five eggs were cracked into a specially moulded griddle, and basted with sesame oil. A stick was then inserted into them like a kebab for easy eating. So delicious!!

The next day we thought we'd go back to the market area. The market was only on at night but there were many restaurants serving up delicious food during the day. We sat down in a simple, cheap looking restaurant and ordered several dishes, including a spiced lamb shank, a bean salad and some lamb dumplings. The food was great and we felt like we'd made a good choice in choosing our accommodation right next to the Muslim Quarter!

I don't think we ate anywhere else in Xian other than the Muslim Quarter other than on one occasion where we visited an old, famous restaurant named Tong Sheng Xiang that made an unusual soup called Yang Rou Pao Mo. It involved breaking soft, thick flatbreads into small pieces and dropping them into an empty soup bowl. The hot, muttony broth and glass noodles were then added to the bowl that resulted in a filling, tasty and heavy soup. It seemed to take an eternity to finish our bowls but it was a great experience. It's always a good experience to be an active participant in the making of your food, even though you're not really making it and the ritual of breaking the bread into the bowl was great. It's always refreshing to sample a cuisine uncommon to the country you're in, yet local and authentic at the same time. I think I'll remember Xian for it's food even more so than it's famous Terracotta Army! But I suppose that's just me!

Our one month Chinese visas had nearly expired and we planned to renew them at our next stop, Datong. I'd read horror stories about renewing the visa at Beijing so before we arrived I did a bit of research into how we went about renewing the visa in Datong. In terms of the language barrier, China was definitely the most difficult place to get around and it was always an adventure getting off the train in a new town or city. Upon arrival, we wondered around aimlessly until we found a hotel. It was another 'by the hour' place but it was cheap, relatively clean and had air-con which was definitely needed as it was very hot. Fortunately for us, there was a restaurant about three doors down from the hotel that had what we referred to as 'the food bible', basically a dictionary that had thousands of Chinese dishes translated into English. We'd just look for something we liked and point, if only it was that easy everywhere! Still, that would be taking away half the fun. The food we ate was simple, mainly consisting of noodles and vegetables and was very good quality. To be honest though, after the range and quality of food in Xian, we weren't getting too excited about the options in Datong. Datong was not really on the tourist trail, although there were some great attractions in the surrounding areas, namely the Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Monastery. The Grottoes are a UNESCO Heritage site and were very well preserved caves containing many statues of Buddha. They were spectacular and one of the finest sites we'd seen on our travels to date. The Hanging Monastery was also a very interesting spectacle and it's amazing that it's still standing as it's built precariously into a cliff face.

Another major event in Datong was replacing our camera (AGAIN!!) as the photo quality had gone from bad to worse. We got a good deal on a Casio camera so hopefully from now on, the blog photos will look a bit better too! We had to wait in Datong around five days as our visas were being processed. The police were keeping a watchful eye on us (suspicious foreigners!) and on one occasion in the local internet cafe, my computer switched itself off. I noticed two police officers talking to the lady at the till and I later found out that I had been banned from the internet cafe!! I have no idea why... I can only guess it was because one early morning (around 4am), me and Melissa went there to watch the England Vs USA world cup match, quite possibly one of the worst football matches I've ever seen! After sorting out our visas we headed to the giant capital city of China, Beijing.

Fullboy - Laos - Luang Nam Tha - Country Food

We arrived in Luang Nam Tha, relatively unscathed, and found a nice, cheap, hotel on the main road. There was a surprisingly large number of travellers milling around the hotel restaurant given the remote location of the town, and after having a quick look at the dull menu we decided to try our luck elsewhere. We found the ‘Minority Restaurant’, a place purporting to serve local tribes food. The choices consisted of fairly basic vegetable and meat dishes. We chose a simple boiled vegetables and green beans with a hogsplum chilli sauce and a young rattan shoots and banana flower soup with chicken. The vegetables consisted of what looked like broccoli leaves and giant green beans and were simply presented, simply cooked and tasted delicious. The accompanying sauce was also a highlight, containing the seed of a hogsplum, chopped up chillies, coriander, garlic and salt. It had a fruity, almost sour taste with a hefty kick of chilli to give the vegetables a boost. The soup was fantastic, a very clean, clear broth with succulent pieces of chicken, and what tasted like bamboo shoots. The side order of sticky rice was wonderfully presented in its own bamboo wicker basket. To eat the rice you picked up a piece in your hand, rolled it into a ball like shape and ate it. Using your hands to eat is perfectly acceptable in Laos, unlike Korea!! We felt very healthy after our first taste of the local food and we were looking forward to trying some more.
































Our lunch was delicious but the hunger hit us again a few hours later so we attended the town's night market directly across the road from our hotel. The market consisted of a square surrounded by food stalls with a few tables and chairs in the central area. The back of the market had more stalls selling local minority clothing and more food. I was naturally drawn to the rotisserie stands, the meaty aromas having the same effect on me as the towns local canine population, enticing me closer and closer to the barbecued goods on offer. There were juicy ducks and crispy pork bellies, turning slowly, their fat dripping onto the coals below. By this point, I was totally intoxicated and decided that a whole duck and a fat piece of pork belly would be enough for me and Melissa. We sat down at a table next to our food stand and I went to get some vegetables to accompany our meat feast. I nipped to the back of the market and found some similar vegetables to the ones we ate earlier in the day and also some cabbage that appeared to be slightly pickled. The food was so cheap that even giving the smallest amount of money to the market vendors left me with enough vegetables to feed about eight people!! I arrived back at the table and we started to eat, the meat was fantastic!! The duck was the best we had eaten on our travels so far and after being slightly disappointed with the portion sizes and general quality of the duck we tried in Singapore and Malaysia, we now had before us more wonderfully cooked duck than we could possibly eat. The skin was crispy and fatty at the same time, the meat tender and tasty. The pork belly was definitely on the fatty side but the fat was crispy and melted inside the mouth. I had to eat most of the pork as the fat was a little too much for Melissa to handle. About half an hour into our meal, our bags of vegetables barely appeared to have a dent in them and we still had several pieces of meat left. We'd had enough but we didn't want to waste any of the delicious food. Fortunately for us our answers were sitting all around us. There must have been around ten or so dogs waiting patiently around our table for the leftover scraps of meat. They were very pleasant dogs, occasionally having a little fight between themselves over who got what, but never being aggressive towards the patrons of the market. They definitely didn't seem rabid or rabies infested, more like scruffy mongrels who had found the doggy version of Shangri-La. With our bellies full to bursting we made our way back to bed for a good nights sleep.





























The next morning the air was so cold outside that we could see our breath. We arranged a guide to take us on a two day hike starting the following day and after that, decided to rent a bicycle and explore the local villages. The untouched beauty of this part of the world was wonderful to see and a mere five minute cycle from the main road of the town, we were surrounded by rice paddy fields being tended by buffalo, old ladies knitting, plump chickens and black piglets running around and intricate hand woven fabrics hanging from washing lines. We passed raw cotton and sheets of bamboo paper on the side of the road, drying in the scorching sun (it didn't stay cold for long!!) In this modern age of convenience and haste, to see this delightfully laid back way of living was a great experience. After hours of cycling around in the midday heat, we were a little hungry and thirsty and stopped for a break at a ladies house. She had set up a few tables and chairs outside and signalled for us to sit down. We ordered a noodle soup (I think that's all she made) and sat down on a table that had lots of bottles, tubs and bags of condiments. I'm definitely a condiments man and love to have a sniff and taste of the different sauces, pastes and other complimentary edibles on the table. There was lemon juice, soy sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce, chilli paste, chopped chillies in soy sauce, and a mysterious, very dark and thick fishy smelling paste that tasted sweet and salty at the same time! I think it was possibly some sort of local crab or shrimp paste but I can't be certain. We were provided with a bowl of salad leaves and a bag of chillies to add to our soup as we desired. It was one of the best selection of condiments we'd encountered so far for a simple bowl of noodle soup. The soup itself had a tasty stock that in my opinion didn't need any more flavour other than of course the obligatory chilli to fire things up a little. By this point in our travels I was definitely in the depths of a full blown chilli addiction and sometimes didn't know when to stop. I'd know a few hours later if I'd eaten too many as my stomach would start to cramp and feel generally uncomfortable but this didn't stop me going back for more the next time! I managed to limit myself to just four chillies from the bag of hundreds and a spoonful of the chilli paste and soy sauce with chopped chillies. After sampling all of the other condiments on the table I decided that they didn't need to go in the soup. We finished our meal and sat for a while, reflecting on our wonderful day, listening to a chicken clucking away happily and watching him walk casually, without a care in the world on to the dry, dusty road with not a vehicle in sight.





































We woke early the next day, refreshed and a little chilly, ready to embark on our two day hike. The first days hike was uphill, through forest to the top of a mountain where we would camp overnight. The next day was downhill. There was a group of seven of us and our first stop was at a local food market where our guide and two porters bought the food to cook on our hike. We arrived at a local village and began the hike from there, the curious eyes of the local villagers following us as we entered the forest. Our porters were carrying all the heavy stuff, pots, pans, rice and bags. Our guide was carrying bags of green liquid, bags we later discovered to be the infamous 'Lao Lao', a locally produced rice wine made in many homes across Laos, anywhere between 30% and 70% proof. Every drink is of course different as the whole process of making the drink is so rudimentary. This particular Lao Lao was green because it had been fermented with mystery herbs and leaves. We stopped for food shortly after we'd began our hike and before we knew it we were all sitting around a giant banana leaf being served. Our first meal had been pre-prepared at the market and consisted of the ever popular long green bean, pork mixed with mushrooms and bamboo shoots, a dill omelette and heaps of sticky rice. The standout was the delicious dill omelette, a chunky block of egg with fresh dill and onion running through it, not dissimilar in texture and appearance to a takeaway Chinese Foo Yung, one of my classic takeaway picks!! I think what surprised us most was the taste of dill in this part of the world, another unexpected taste of Asia.




































Upon reaching the summit, our legs were weary and the first thing on my mind was an ice cold beer, a thing of greatness after a long hike. Unfortunately, the wooden hut we were sleeping in didn't have a fridge (it didn't even have windows) and I had to settle for Lao Lao. I can't say I liked the drink, but hey, it definitely does the job. The porters were kind enough to fashion us little bamboo shot glasses from the raw bamboo stalk and then prepared a meal for us with the ingredients from the market. There was an abundance of fresh herbs and vegetables and a huge chunk of buffalo meat which looked pretty similar to stewing beef. A few hours later our feast was ready and we again ate from banana leaves but this time at a candlelit table as there was no electricity. The porters and guide had cooked a wonderful meal of buffalo stew, a Laos ratatouille and of course, sticky rice. It was possibly my first taste of buffalo and I'd definitely eat it again, really tasty, soft and lean. After we finished our meal, the group sat around the fire, chatting and drinking Lao Lao that was practically being forced on us by the porters. We were drunk and our guide decided it would be a good idea to go on a trek in complete darkness with nothing but our flashlights to guide us. This proved to be hilarious as we traversed a path no more than a metre wide in single file, hoping for a glance of elusive, nocturnal wildlife. Rob, a fellow Englishman, decided to get people on their toes by throwing stones into the undergrowth to mimic the sounds of moving animals which made everyone jumpy and added to the fun. After a while though, we thought it was probably wise that we returned to the camp fire so back we went and sat down again. The most amazing thing about the night for me was looking up to the sky and seeing what looked like thousands of stars, shiny pin pricks in the black of night.


































We woke up in our mosquito net cocoon and heard activity in the kitchen. Another feast was being prepared, it was only 9.00am!! Before we knew it, we were all sitting at the table yet again and huge bowls of sticky rice were being placed in front of us. Still full from our feast of food the night before, we attempted to eat the stew, rice and vegetables but none of the group had any appetite and we had to politely, almost guiltily decline the food that had been prepared from scratch. We set off on our easier downhill trek and hours later we reached our destination, a small village inhabited by local minority people, many of whom were in the process of building a relatively large two storey house. We were ushered up to the second floor of the partially built building and we all sat down and rested our legs as curious children hid behind their grandparents. Our lunch was being laid out before us, again on a banana leaf, and we all sat down and got stuck in. The highlight for me was a smoky aubergine puree, very similar to the famous Middle Eastern dish, Baba Ganoush. Another stand out was a salty, spicy sauce, quite similar to the Hogsplum chilli sauce we tried a few days earlier and delicious when mixed with the sticky rice. To round things off nicely, a petrol canister of Lao Lao was brought into the equation and the locals seemed on a mission to get us drunk. We downed shot after shot of the fierce local spirit, some more than others (name no names Daniel Bowles!), and it was a great way to end a fantastic time in Luang Nam Tha.

Fullboy - Thailand - Korat - Fried Eggs, Sausages and Strange Soup

It was finally time to say goodbye to Brynley, a giant amongst men! (Thanks for another great time!!). We also had to say goodbye to Ayutthaya as we travelled on to Khao Yai Rainforest. As with Khao Sok rainforest, the food here was unspectacular. We actually ended up visiting a Tesco and buying a crusty loaf of bread with some German meats and Philadelphia cheese which was probably the food highlight of this area. The menu at our guesthouse stretched as far as fried rice, banana pancake and sweet and sour pork, nothing wrong with any of it but just not worth writing about.

After coming face to face (nearly!!) with wild elephants in the rainforest, we moved on to a fairly large city called Korat. We were only stopping over briefly here as we gradually wormed our way up the country. There was some interesting food to be had and I was excited to see lots of sausages being cooked at the street food stands. Supposedly the area is famous for sausages and I got stuck in straight away. The sausages looked similar to a Toulouse sausage and tasted quite salty and garlicky. We checked out the night market later on and found lots more sausages and other tasty snacks such as crunchy, fried chicken skin, very similar to pork scratchings and very delicious, especially the intermingling deep fried lime leaves. As we only snacked at the market I was still a little bit hungry so upon returning to our hotel, we stopped off at a busy little restaurant next door. Melissa ordered an intriguing fried egg salad (the first time either of us had seen this on a menu) and I opted for the innards soup, as it seemed to be their speciality. I’m a big fan of offal since living in Korea and have no aversion to eating strange bits of animal. In this case I think there was liver, kidney, brain, heart, intestine, tripe and other stuff in this rich, robust, meaty, and very manly soup. Melissa’s fried egg salad was a perfect blend of crispy fried egg that was cut into small pieces and mixed with fresh, crunchy salad leaves, sliced onion, tomato and finely chopped chilli. All in all we were very impressed with our food during our flying visit to Korat.

Fullboy - Thailand - Ayutthaya - Fun in the night market

Melissa, Brynley and I arrived in Ayutthaya exhausted from our long nights in Bangkok and wandered aimlessly around the streets hoping for a hotel to find us and reel us in. I had a specific hotel in mind but our collective willpower at this point was low and to have to look at maps and follow directions involved way too much effort so we decided after a short period of time that we’d done enough walking and settled for the nearest hotel. Relieved to have rid ourselves of our backpacks, we had a simple lunch, had a rest and headed out to the local night market for some dinner. With Ayutthaya being a fairly small town, we weren’t expecting much of a market. We had to walk quite a way from the centre of town to find the place, asking several local people for directions along the way until finally we could see a glimmer of lights at the end of a long dark road. The road seemed to be a favourite hangout for the stray dogs of the town and you never quite knew what they were going to do when you walked past them. Some were lazy and wouldn’t bat an eyelid, others would growl and grumble, one decided that he’d confront us and barked and snarled viciously as we crossed his path. We all just continued to walk, albeit a lot faster and with hearts and mouths, hoping that this vicious doggy wouldn’t attack us. Fortunately it turned out he was all bark and no bite and we all made it to the market in one piece. There was a narrow path with stalls lined up on either side for as far as the eye could see. Hungry from our walk we checked out some of the stalls at the start and immediately I was in heaven as I had found the holy grail of beer snacks, pork scratchings!!! What a find!! We grabbed a table immediately, bought a bag English style pork scratchings and a bag of the quaver looking pork scratchings which I guess are the more American style ones. All we needed now was a few beers… alas the stall didn’t sell them. Me and Brynley had to run the gauntlet past the stray dogs again to a nearby shop, bought some beers and Sangsom, and ran back, eager to get stuck into our snack. What a combination!! Ice cold beer followed by a salty crunch of skin all brought together by the porky tasting fat that envelops the inside of your mouth. Heaven!! However, we didn’t want to spoil an evening of eating so we saved some scratchings for later and went on the hunt for some more tasty treats.

















The stalls went on and on and the food on offer looked great. Our plan of action was to walk to the point where the stalls ended, keeping an eye open for anything that took our fancy, and then walk back and buy the food. This seemed to work in theory but we couldn’t resist sampling some of the snacks along the way. Brynley set the ball rolling with some devilish coconut cakes.
Then we were lured to another stand selling some sort of herbal, medicinal whiskey which we downed with aplomb and followed it up by eating a sour fruit dipped in salt that looked very similar to a chickpea. Next were some very strange looking eggs, similar in style to a scotch egg except the outer layer was fried, minced fish as opposed to sausage. There were two types of egg, one of them being of the standard yellow yoked variety, the other having a frankly disturbing looking black yolk. Still, as disturbing as the black yolk looked, my curiosity got the better of me and I just had to try the eggs. The eggs were chopped up into pieces , dressed with chopped up spring onions and a dash of spicy sauce. They tasted good, the black yoked egg tasting a lot richer and eggier than the yellow yoked egg. I later learnt that black yoked eggs were a Chinese delicacy called century eggs, eggs that are coated in a mixture of mud, rice and clay, buried in the ground for up to three years, and allowed to go through a chemical cycle that makes them edible again. My dad informed me this type of egg was recently eaten by a ‘celebrity’ on “I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here!”. Supposedly the ‘celebrity’ said it was the worst food she’d ever eaten. I told my dad I must have only eaten a half century egg then because the egg I ate tasted very similar to a normal egg. I’m sure a lot of the negativity surrounding the taste has to do with the colour of the yolk as black yolk is usually associated with rotten eggs. Also, the area surrounding the yolk is slightly gelatinous so the texture is different to a normal egg. It’s all mind over matter!!












The snacking continued deep into the night as we munched on pancakes, sausages, and spring rolls. Melissa was snacked out and had to go to bed but Brynley and I decided to take our big bellies and herbal whiskey to investigate the second food market. We arrived and it was a far more formal affair than the first market with more areas to sit down alongside the river. I decided to try frog with green peppercorns, mainly because I was drunk and I’d never tried frog before. The plate of food arrived and the frog was predictably full of bones, crunchy and tasted like chicken. There was an overwhelming number of green peppercorns, hundreds of them! They were in clusters of around twenty to thirty, like bunches of mini green grapes. Eating them caused a peppery explosion inside the mouth and there were far too many to finish. If eaten carefully, peppercorn by peppercorn, they had a pleasant, almost floral taste. Brynley and I were finally defeated and we decided to call it a night.

















The following evening, after an excellent day cycling around ancient temples, we all went back to the first night market because it was just so good and we decided to have a bit more of an informal sit down meal as opposed to gorging on snacks. We started with an eggy radish cake, similar to the one we had in Melaka, one lady cooking up plates of what looked like messy omelettes to the hungry queue of expectant customers.
We had to wait a good few minutes as she was so busy which is always a good sign. The eggy mess mixed with spring onions was comforting and enjoyable and after finishing this we went back to the start of the market for our main course, only to find that the man had sold all of his salt crusted fish!! We managed to find another lady selling fish and we bought some pancakes and a stuffed banana leaf to accompany. The fish and pancake were good but there was a surprise as I opened the banana leaf. I assumed it would be filled with rice, as I have had before, but you should never assume anything with a stuffed banana leaf. After unravelling the layers a pink, very raw looking piece of meat appeared before me. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it…. Should I eat it? Are you meant to take it home and cook it? The locals sitting next to me seemed to be giving me assurance that it was fine to eat. I tentatively took a little nibble and found the taste to be not so bad, similar to a salty Parma ham. Brynley and Melissa cautiously picked off a little and again, they didn’t find it to be too bad. But… there was just that ever present doubt in the back of all of our minds that we were eating raw bacon and this just wasn’t something we were used to. I left a little of the meat, it was very salty and rich tasting and the oniony looking pieces running through the meat were actually chewy pieces of rind. We managed to find some yummy, multi flavoured cream filled cakes (chocolate, coconut, vanilla, strawberry, etc) and a bag of coke (the sweet sugary type) to wash the saltiness away. If there was one thing we learnt from our feast it was to be wary of the stuffed banana leaf, because just like a bag of Revels, you might end up with the coffee one!