Fullboy - Street eats in Thailand - Phang Nga and Bangkok

Phang Nga

It felt reassuring to be on the mainland. The islands were fairly touristy when it came to eating and you saw the same things on the limited menus in many of the restaurants. It began to remind me of ordering food from a Chinese Takeaway in that I would look over and over at the menu and then just stick with something which I know I’d enjoy. I was excited at the prospect of visiting some of Thailand’s local food markets and sampling some authentic regional food.

Our first mainland destination was Phang Nga and although still surrounded by sea, this was our first experience of a real town in Thailand. Although small in size with a population of around 8000 people, the town had a day and night market. We were lucky to arrive on a night that hosted a special market in which traffic was closed off on the road in order to allow people to gather to eat, drink and watch live music performances. The atmosphere was great and the food on show looked amazing. We found a table with a couple of plastic chairs and sat down amongst the few hundred other happy diners. The food that tempted our taste buds was a fish that appeared to be covered in a salt crust being cooked slowly over hot coals on a barbeque. Melissa went to get some beers and I went to get the food. I ordered one of the big salt crusted fish and one fish that resembled a mackerel. We sat down and were given a tray of fresh herbs and leaves to accompany the fish. The lady at the food stand slowly peeled back the salt crust of the fish to expose the mouth wateringly moist, succulent meat. Herbs, lime leaves and lemongrass stuffed inside the fish infused the meat with a gentle aromatic flavour. Fishy delishy!! It made up for the time when I tried (and failed miserably) to bake a fish in a salt crust! I just managed to get salt all over the fish so that when we tried to eat it you ended up with big mouthfuls of salt in your mouth, one for the bin! I blame the terrible electric oven anyway, could never get it hot enough. The mackerel type fish was good but totally outshone by its larger cousin. The sweet basil, mint and coriander were an interesting accompaniment and refreshed the palate nicely.

















Bangkok

The name of the city alone conjures wildly differing visions from person to person, some love it, some hate it. I couldn’t wait to make my own mind up as to what Bangkok was all about. After our relatively peaceful last week sailing around islands, exploring caves and trekking through the Khao Sok rainforest, it was time to hit the bright lights of the big city. We decided to kill some time and make some distance up by getting a VIP night bus (complete with stewardess!) from Khao Sok to Bangkok which took around 10 hours. We closed our eyes to get some sleep in our fancy bus with big comfy chairs and opened them again in Bangkok. It was about 5am when we arrived but the city was already pulsating with a vibrant energy. We stepped off the bus having been woken from a deep sleep by our stewardess with a paper cup of hot, milky, sweet coffee and our senses adjusted from tranquil rainforest mode to capital city mode. We got off the bus and followed the smell of hot BBQ roast duck to a small Chinese restaurant where we sat and had another coffee to complete the process of waking up. We had arrived!!

After a day of rest, our first night in Bangkok was going to be made extra fun by the arrival of our good friend Brynley. We met him on Khao San road, let him put his bags away and immediately proceeded to drink bucket after bucket of strong mixed alcohol and catch up on lost time, What happened next was definitely a result of too much alcohol, we decided it would be a good idea to eat…. BUGS!! We shouldn’t turn our noses up really, many people in Asia see bugs as a nutritional, protein filled snack. They’re probably a lot healthier than your average pack of cheese and onion Walkers crisps, whether or not they’d be as tasty was another matter. The lady selling the bugs had a wide range on offer; scorpions, grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, grubs, etc etc. I decided the black scorpions looked the scariest and most impressive and paid the bug lady about 20p for the pleasure of eating one. Filled with Dutch courage I put the whole scorpion in my mouth and crunched away. They weren’t bad at all!! I think the fact they were fried obviously helped with the taste as all I could really taste was the oil they were cooked in. So successful was my first taste of bugs that I was eager to try another one. This time I chose a grasshopper that was as long as my middle finger, paid the bug lady some more money, put the whole thing in my mouth and crunched away for a second time. After my initial grimace, it started to taste pretty similar to the scorpion, although I do say on the video that it tasted of grass which I think was more of a drunken observation. I got it into my head that grasshoppers ate grass, therefore they should taste like grass. I don’t really know what grasshoppers eat, I’ll wiki it. Brynley joined in with the fun and munched away on a grasshopper, thoroughly enjoying it and Melissa, who is squeamish at the best of times, gobbled up a scorpion!! We even started eating the grubs, not out of bravado but because we were hungry and enjoying a little bite to eat. I couldn’t pull Melissa away from the grubs, she still insists they taste like French fries! Still, if someone offered us a bag of crisps or a bag of bugs, I think we’d go with the crisps. Check out the videos of our drunken, bug eating fun in Bangkok.

click here to see me and Brynley munch on a scorpion and a grasshopper
click here to see Melissa devour a scorpion

(p.s. after googling ‘what does a grasshopper taste like‘, many others have reached the conclusion that they do in fact taste like….grass. This has taught me to trust my drunken observations)




















The next day, our heads were predictably hazy but we still managed to get our sightseeing done, although we were very happy when we were finished and sitting down for some lunch. We stopped at a little street stand opposite where we were staying that displayed an English sign that read ‘Chicken gravy‘. We were in the ‘anything will do’ mood and weren’t really expecting much but what arrived were succulent pieces of chicken smothered with a wonderful, aromatic, thick gravy that had notes of cinnamon, star anise and peppercorn with a side portion of steamed rice. It again goes to show that if you trust the look of a street food stand, you generally cannot go wrong with the food and more often than not, the food tastes far better than what you would eat in a restaurant.
















After an atomic afternoon nap we were ready for night out number two. We met up with Brynley and decided to venture out into the historic Chinatown district in search of a delicious dinner. Our tuk-tuk ride there was an adventure in itself, swerving in and out of the traffic and watching the busy world go by whilst being mesmerised by the flashing lights fitted inside the carriage The driver dropped us off in the heart of Chinatown, colourful neon flashing all around and we walked down the busy street in search of some tasty food. We meandered down side roads and narrow alleys, occasionally stopping to chug back a few strong Chang beers until eventually we decided to stop and eat some food at a busy looking roadside street stall. After parking our rears onto small blue plastic stools our job of ordering was made easier by the fact the stall only served one thing so we ordered three of their soups and three large Chang beers. My eyes were drawn to the ‘kitchen’ area and the scrumptious looking pile of pork with its golden brown, crunchy layer of skin. A portly Chinese man with a big medallion hanging around his neck was flattening and slicing the pork belly with his butchers cleaver in a perfectly timed mechanical motion. Our soup arrived and unlike the usual noodle soups we have become so accustomed to, this soup contained thick tube like noodles that slightly resembled penne pasta. The meaty broth had a wonderful peppery taste and was filled with chopped up pieces of pork belly and cabbage. The pork skin still retained a wonderful crunchiness and was so yummy that we managed to translate to the waiter that we wanted a whole bowl of the crispy pork belly pieces to munch on whilst we finished our beers. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Happy!!!
















On somewhat of a meat high and slightly intoxicated, we continued our journey around Chinatown’s exciting, buzzing streets. We passed many weird and wonderful shops selling all manner of dried foods, teas and Chinese medicines and plenty more restaurants and street food stalls, all with their own unique smells and sights. We decided to eat again at a restaurant we had walked past earlier that had all manners of pre-cooked foods displayed on metal plates. Even more intoxicated with ‘Sangsom’ whiskey and beer, we were slightly confused as to how we ordered and a waiter who spoke a little English explained to us to just choose a few of the dishes that we wanted. I was left with the task of choosing for everyone and tried to pick a nice balance of fish, meat and vegetables so I chose what looked like pigs liver with bean sprouts, some Chinese sausage, chicken in sauce, fish in sauce and sautéed spinach. We were given two generous bowls of hot steamed rice to accompany our food. Everything tasted pretty good but….. .. it was all cold, not something our foreign palates are really accustomed to. For a start you wonder how long the food has been sitting around, particularly the chicken, and secondly, eating semi cooked pigs liver, stone cold is just not as nice as eating it hot. However, hunger prevailed and we polished off pretty much everything with ease. Out of curiosity I asked the man who helped us with ordering why everything was cold, his reply was “if you wanted it hot you should have said”. You live and learn!!
















We returned to the Khao San Road area after our Chinatown adventure and partied into the early hours. Our third day and night was largely spent recovering from our two previous nights. Feeling a little jaded and exhausted, we were all looking forward to our escape from the city into the quieter, more peaceful confines of Ayutthaya, temple capital of Thailand. We all had a ball in Bangkok though and it’s a great, fun, safe and exciting city. The food was delicious and I felt like I was starting to get a taste of the real Thailand. We boarded our train to Ayutthaya, I bought a stick of dried squids from an old lady to munch on and off we went. Goodbye Bangkok!!

Fullboy - Melaka - Colonial Cuisine in the heart of Malaysia

It was a 2 hour, bumpy bus journey from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka and my only source of entertainment was reading the guidebook that I’d virtually memorized, or taking video camera footage of Melissa’s head bobbling all over the place as she was trying to sleep on the bouncy back seat. We arrived in Melaka and boarded a local bus to take us to the city centre. I was always looking forward to seeing Melaka because from what I’d read, the city seemed rather unique in that its architecture dated back hundreds of years to when colonial invaders from Portugal, Holland and England ruled the land.

After a very scenic bus ride around neighbourhoods with a distinct Portuguese feel to them, we arrived in the heart of Chinatown in Melaka, a beautiful area of streets lined with very old, rustic buildings. Our guesthouse was on one of these streets and we were both amazed by the fact that we were staying in such a grand, old house, with a balcony overlooking the river running through Melaka, for £9 a night!! The owners, Raymond and Mani, were very kind and the former gave us a brief introduction to the area, and more importantly, some good places to eat. We learnt that Melaka has its own unique cuisine with strong Portuguese influence alongside the local Peranakan cuisine. Peranakan refers to the first generation of Chinese-Malays who originated from Melaka, also known as the Baba-Nyonyas.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Melaka on Friday night, the night of the street market which ran all weekend. From previous experience, street markets = street food = cheap, great food!! Our first of many meals that night was from a brilliant dim-sum stand where you were given a clear plastic bag and a large wooden cocktail stick and you could choose seven pieces of dim-sum from huge bamboo steamers that contained an amazing variety. Upon finishing our selection we were encouraged by the lady at the stand to douse our dim-sum with chilli sauce which of course, we did. Delicious. Unfortunately no photos of this meal because sometimes we are just too hungry and forget to get the camera out.

Our noses led us to our next meal, a man furiously frying an eggy mixture on a hot plate. Anything with eggs in and I’m sold. The meal was called ‘Kuih Lobai‘, which translates into English as a rather plain sounding ‘radish cake’. We had two choices, with egg or without egg… no contest. The man took our order for one portion and proceeded to fry a concoction that looked like a sort of lumpy, potato omelette. The ‘radish’ didn’t really taste like radish at all, more like a very soft, doughy rice-cake, similar to that which I used to eat in Korea. The egg fried around these ‘radish’ pieces formed a messy, slightly greasy and very satisfying pancake which was devoured at the stall in a couple of minutes. We said thank you to the street-chef and moved on.

There were many more snacks that evening, the highlight being some superb ‘vada‘, a wonderfully spiced, deep-fried Indian snack made from lentils that cost us around 20p for three pieces. They were so good that when we had reached the bottom of the market street, we turned around, walked back up the street and got three more pieces. The crispy patties were out of the fryer hot but not in the slightest bit greasy, held their shape well and tasted a lot like Bombay mix, the difference being that the patties are skilfully mashed together into one piece and you don’t have to keep dipping your hand into a bag to fish out your favourite bits.

After all of our savoury snacks we decided we definitely needed a sweet fix and again, we were spoilt for choice. There were several tart stalls around, many of them selling my mum’s favourite, egg custard tarts, a prime example of Portuguese influence creeping into the cuisine. A number of other tart stalls sold Nyonya pineapple tarts, a delicacy local to Melaka, a tart with a tropical twist. We tried all the tarts and they were all delectable, a sugary ending to our savoury snack sweep of the market. All in all, a very successful nights work!





Breakfast in Asian countries has always been a strange one. We Brits like to eat toast, cereal and fry-ups but in Asia, the breakfast norm is rice, curry, soup, noodles and dumplings, pretty much the same sort of food as what you’d eat for lunch and dinner. Around the corner from our guesthouse was an old Chinese restaurant that was only open until midday so one morning we decided to eat our breakfast local style and took a seat. We had already been told that the restaurant served dim-sum but it also served steamed pork buns, probably the closest thing to a bacon sandwich we could find. There was no menu we could understand but there were people walking around with bamboo baskets, some baskets had fried dim-sum, others steamed. We chose a selection of both and then managed to order a steamed pork bun each. The buns were very white, a lot whiter than white bread, and filled with a very dark, sweet roast pork. Although I can’t honestly say they were as good as a bacon sandwich, they were a satisfying breakfast snack.
















After walking around all of the old antique shops that day and buying Christmas presents for our families, we returned to our guesthouse to find another couple from England, Ben and Clare, had checked in. We had a chat about our travels and then funnily enough, the conversation veered towards food. I mentioned a restaurant I had heard about called ‘Capitol Satay‘, a restaurant that offered a different take on Satay wherein you sat around a table with a vat of bubbling sauce in the middle and you dipped your own sticks into the sauce to cook them to your liking. This style of eating satay, again supposedly famous to the Melaka area, is called ‘Satay Celup‘. Later on, Melissa and I decided to hunt down this restaurant and, after a few wrong turns up dark alleys, we finally found the unassuming, very modest looking ‘Capitol Satay‘. We sat down and I have to admit, my first impressions were not good. The tables were very dirty, the vats in the middle of the tables were filled with a rather unattractive brown looking substance and we watched on in horror as a child dropped a pepperoni satay stick onto the floor and proceeded to put it back into the fridge that contained the fresh satay sticks. We decided to stay away from the pepperoni satay sticks for the rest of the evening.

Now how it works is there is a big fridge that stores lots of wooden sticks with different raw ingredients on. There’s probably around thirty different types of ingredient ranging from prawn, chicken, vegetable, crab claw, liver, squid and many more, half of which we couldn’t identify. You go with a plate to the fridge and choose as many sticks as you want then you go back to your seat and dip them at your own leisure into a bubbling hot vat of brown, peanut satay sauce that is set in the middle of the table. You are charged around 6p per stick and the sticks are counted at the end of your meal. As chance would have it, Ben and Clare who we met at the guesthouse earlier walked in as we were about to eat our meal and sat with us. This definitely added to our meal experience as I can honestly say that in this case, eating this way was definitely more style over substance. I far more enjoyed the experience of eating as opposed to the quality of the food which at best, was just ok. I forgave the dirty tables as our table was a complete and utter mess of brown splodgy sauce by the time we had finished. At first we weren’t sure where to put our finished sticks but Melissa came up with an ingenious idea of making a little structure of sticks so we could keep count of how many we had eaten. The lady counted all of our sticks at the end of the meal, Ben and Clare had eaten around 25 sticks, but me and Melissa had eaten a grand total of 46 sticks between us!! I asked the waitress if this was a lot but she told me it was around normal and that the record was over 90 sticks. Feeling full and a little deflated by being so far off the satay stick record, we staggered back to the River View guesthouse.





The ‘laksa’ is yet another food that Melaka is famous for. A ‘laksa’ is essentially a noodle soup with bits of everything thrown in such as shrimp, tofu, chicken and squid. The secret to the ‘laksa’ is in the broth. The Melaka ‘laksa’ differs from others in that the broth is infused with coconut milk. We tried two laksas whilst in Melaka, the second one definitely triumphed, a rich coconut broth infused with chilli, thick egg noodles, large prawns, and to top things off perfectly, a golden yoked boiled egg sliced in half. The first laksa we ate at the market was really good but it had no egg! Resting on the side of the bowl is a fat dollop of chilli paste which you can add if you like your food hot or remove if you prefer a milder taste. Not wanting to waste the chilli sauce, both Melissa and I added it all. Chilli makes food so much more fun and it balances well against the sweeter coconut taste so although spicy, it was tolerable.


















We had one final restaurant to try, a traditional Baba-Nyonya restaurant called ‘Nancy’s Kitchen’, another fine recommendation from Raymond and Mani, owners of the Riverview Guesthouse, . The restaurant was busy and very homely and the kitchen sort of opened out into the eating area. The first time we went there was for lunch and we had to sit upstairs due to downstairs being full. There were some lovely smells coming from the kitchen and some huge portions of food being whisked around by the busy waiters. We sat down and ordered a chicken dish and a pork dish, I’ve completely forgotten the names of them, I must always remember to take a photo of the menu! The reason for choosing my chicken dish was that I saw other people eating it and it had large lumps of what looked liked black pudding in the sauce. The dish arrived and the black objects were not black pudding at all, they looked like lumps of coal but I soon realised they were giant nuts filled with a black, sticky stuffing. The stuffing was very rich and I learnt later that the chef hollowed out the nuts, mashed spices into the nut mixture and put it back in the nutshell. The chicken was on the bone, juicy and tender and the sauce, rich, dark and wholesome. It was a very filling and completely satisfying lunch and we vowed to go back for dinner the following evening as the flavours we tasted in our food were very unique to us.




So, our final dinner in Melaka was upon us and a week of pretty much non-stop eating was drawing to a close. We went back to Nancy’s Kitchen and decided to order some of the super looking fish dishes. We ordered Lemak Nenas prawns and steamed fish Nyonya style. The prawns arrived in a bowl of creamy, yellowy coconut curry and the fish in a light, slightly chunky red sauce. The prawns were wonderful and the sauce contained pineapple which usually I’m not a big fan of in cooking, but it went side by side with the spiced, creamy coconut flavours in the sauce. The fish however stole the show for me, a thick tender fillet (maybe sea bass?), covered in a light salsa like sauce. There were very few bones in the fish and the meat was moist and delicious. Nancy’s Kitchen is a must for anybody visiting Melaka and showcases authentic Melakan cooking.



















We had a wonderful time in Melaka, although only a small city, it is full of charm, character and great food! I wouldn’t hesitate to return there. Time to move on now though, our next destination awaits…



Links, Addresses and Useful Information

The wonderful Riverview Guesthouse cannot come more highly recommended, click here to see more photos and others peoples opinions. Take bus no 17 from the Melaka Sentral bus and taxi terminal. Get off at the red Dutch Square. Cross the bridge over the Melaka River and turn right into Lorong Hang Jebat. Walk until the end of the road and into Jalan Kampong Pantai. Walk on for about 3 minutes and it is on the right of the road.

For delicious Baba Nyonya cuisine, you won't go far wrong with Nancy's Kitchen located on Jalan Hang Lekir (Off Jonker St., the main drag through Melaka.

Capitol Satay Celup can be found at 41 Lorong Bukit Cina. It opens at 5.30PM, till late night and is closed on Mondays. It is usually full of crowds (although we were lucky), especially during weekends and public holidays. Thus, be prepared to queue, even at 10pm. Some people who are not willing to queue might be frustrated.

If you fancy a dim-sum breakfast, check out the great Low Yong Mow.

Business Hours
Open: 5:00 am to noon (Closed Tuesday)
Contact Information
Low Yong Mow (Non-halal),
Address: 32, Jalan Tukang Emas, 75200 Melaka.
Phone: (6)06-282 1235