London: Nyonya Food

Tonight I met up with Limster (a friend from chowhound) for a meal at Sedap. It's a newish Malaysian restaurant in London specializing in Nyonya food.

Here's a description of Nyonya cuisine:

"Nyonya food, also referred to as Straits Chinese food or Lauk Embok Embok, is an interesting amalgamation of Chinese and Malay dishes thought to have originated from the Peranakan (Straits Chinese) of Malacca over 400 years ago. This was the result of inter-marriages between Chinese immigrants and local Malays, which produced a unique culture.

Nyonya food is also native to Penang and Singapore. However, over the years, distinct differences have evolved in nyonya cooking found in Penang and Singapore than that in Malacca. The proximity of Malacca and Singapore to Indonesia resulted in an Indonesian influence on nyonya food. Malacca Nyonyas prepare food that is generally sweeter, richer in coconut milk, and with the addition of more Malay spices like coriander and cumin. Meanwhile, the Penang Nyonyas drew inspiration from Thai cooking styles, including a preference for sour food, hot chilies, fragrant herbs, and pungent black prawn paste (belacan)."

You can read the rest of the description on the website marimari.com, which I think is at least fairly accurate. Click the link in the links section that says "Description of Nyonya Food"

Now I'll just copy what I just posted on chowhound.

I thought the restaurant was very good - best Malaysian food I have had outside of Malaysia - definitely better than what I could find in Boston or San Francisco. We shared:

Roti Prata w/ Chicken Curry - The roti was crispy and flaky, clearly freshly made. Quite good. I liked the chicken curry - it tasted a tad undersalted to me - but it was still good.

Seafood Crab - Crabmeat, shrimp, cuttlefish and fish stuffed in a crabshell. This was served w/ some pickled vegetables and a sweet chili sauce. I liked this, though I wouldn't necessarily order it again. But it's something I had never tried before and the presentation was cool.

Penang Char Kway Teow - The noodles were served hot out of the wok, and they were very good. I especially liked the bits of Chinese sausage. Shrimp were cooked perfectly. The serving seemed small to me - I realize that servings in UK tend to be smaller than the US (in the US, this dish would have been twice as big), but I still noticed the small serving most in this dish, especially considering the price.

Sambal Brinjal - Nice presentation, eggplant was tender and the sambal was spicy. I wouldn't necessarily order this again either, but I would definitely order other dishes with the sambal.

Curry Tumis Fish - This was my favorite of the lot. I felt the serving here was pretty generous - chunks of boneless sea bream and perfectly cooked okra in a sweet and sour curry broth. This reminded me of similar Cambodian and Malaysian dishes I'd had before, but the balance of flavors in the sauce was perfect - just the right amount of sour/sweet/spicy. We had to order extra rice to soak up all the sauce. I would definitely come back just for this dish.

Nyonya Kuih - We each had an order of this - really good! The dessert tonight was freshly made, and was a cake made w/ tapioca and coconut. It reminded me of a cross between a mochi and a macaroon.

Limster got a frothy milk tea which was also really good - I only had a sip as I was avoiding caffeine to fight jetlag.

Here are some pictures of our meal. I will definitely be back at this place in the fall!

London: Walk to Borough Market

Jet-lag hit me last night - I had a lot of trouble falling asleep, even after listening to my Mandarin lessons.

I woke up at 8:30 and went on a run in Hampstead Heath. It's really nice running there - parks like this inspire me to go running. It started raining on my run - but the smell of the trees and the rain was really nice, and since it wasn't too cold I didn't mind.

I rode with Anna on a bus (double decker!) to UCL this morning, and she showed me around a little bit. We went into the University of London Student Union, and I saw the entrance to the main library. Then Anna went on to class, and since I had 45 minutes to spare, I went in to the British Museum. It's free and located about a 2 minute walk from my school, so that will be very nice.





Next I met up with Coll, a friend of Karen's who studies at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He's about to head off to Argentina to study, but it was fun talking to him and hearing about his experience in London. His school is located just next to SOAS. We had lunch at the Architechtural Association cafeteria.

We walked around after this for a bit, then Coll had to go to a meeting so I went off on my own. I walked through Soho, Trafalgar Square, across the Thames and along the south bank of the river to Borough Market. I took some pictures along the way.



A double-decker bus on Oxford Street!


London has palm trees!


Chinatown!


Pedestrian Bridge!


Big Ben!


Kid doing jumps on his bike!

I arrived at Borough Market and took some more pictures.


I almost bought some candies for the plane ride. But I didn't.


I took this picture of Turkish Delight.

Borough Market is open Thursday-Saturday, but Thursday seems to be the least busy day, and many stalls weren't even open. But there are lots of good foods to try there, so I'm sure I'll be back.


In addition to an Argentinian empanada (which wasn't that good), I had this creme caramel. It was pretty good.

After the market, I sat in the cathedral for a bit - a choir was rehearsing so it was very nice. Then I took the tube back to the Barker's to rest.

London: Hen Photography and Buckingham Palace

I met up with Adam (a current member of Shir Appeal) this afternoon. I had brought him the latest Shir Appeal CD from Boston. He's studying abroad for his entire junior year.

I got to check out his living situation. He's studying at UCL, but it seems like the on campus housing he's in is similar to what SOAS offers. He lives in a single room - it's pretty spacious and has its own bathroom - and a shared kitchen is down the hall. The kitchen was pretty big and nice too...later this week I'll be checking out the SOAS housing, but after seeing his situation, it definitely seems not bad for just a year.

After this, we walked through Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and St. James's Park. There, we met a somewhat odd photographer, who tried to recruit Adam for his photography project, which involves photographing strangers. He also noticed me photographing some pigeons and hens, and told me I should get down to eye level instead of shooting the photo from above.

Here are the results.

Before

After

Next Adam and I walked toward Buckingham Palace, and then on through Green Park.

After this, Adam had to go hand in an assignment. We took the tube back to Kings Cross and then parted ways. I walked down to the Waitrose supermarket near Russell Square to check it out. It's not a bad supermarket - a bit on the upscale side, but not too expensive for some items, and some good variety. This market is relatively close to both my school and the area where I might live if I choose to live on campus, so I'm sure I'll shop there sometimes. I bought some cheese and crackers for dinner, and also got some steak flavored potato chips which weren't too good. Then I made it back to the Barker's for a lovely tea time out in the garden. 

Now it's time for bed - I don't feel too tired yet so I will listen to some Chinese lessons, which will either teach me something or put me right to sleep. More tomorrow! 

London: Russell Square Campus

This morning I went to visit SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies - see link.) I had a chance to walk around quite a bit, and I also met with two professors and took a tour of the main SOAS building. The professors seem great, so I am looking forward to next year already! We talked a bit more about the structure of the program, and also my research interests. One of them is doing research about the organic food industry in China, and he had recently been in Yunnan Province doing research - he had some nice Yunnan tea that we drank as we talked.

And the school and neighborhood are nice too - it helped that it was such a nice day.

Here are some pictures:

This is one of the streets that leads up to SOAS.

The square next to the SOAS building has grassy patches where people were eating and studying. The SOAS building is in the right of this photo.

The back side of the SOAS building.

Motorcycles outside of the school.

This is Russell Square, which is right next to the campus. There was a class being taught on the grass.

I went back later during lunch and there were lots of people picnicking.

Here's another picture in Russell Square.

Finally, I took this picture of taxis parked near Russell Square.

London: Risotto and Sticky Toffee Pudding

It's Wednesday evening now, but this blog post will focus on the rest of Tuesday. 

I took a 2.5 hour nap, which felt very nice - though it was hard to wake up. Anna and I went for a walk after that, up to Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath, but once at the top it started to rain so we came back home. I helped Anna cook dinner - a risotto recipe from Jamie Oliver's cookbook.

Some of the ingredients out on the counter.

It is interesting to see where produce comes from in England. In the US, and especially California, most everything comes from California, Mexico, elsewhere in the Americas, and a bit of Asia. But for our dinner last night, the green beans came from Kenya, and the mint came from Israel. 

I took some pictures of the packaging.

Nancy and Chris came home and we all had dinner. 

My dinner looked lovely.

Since it was still light out when we were done, and the weather had cleared, we went for a walk in their neighborhood and into the park. We passed by the ponds in Hampstead Heath, which had mist rising up from them - it was dusk and the park looked lush and beautiful, with lots of flowers, green leaves and grass. I felt like Frodo walking through The Shire.

I didn't take pictures in the park because it was too dark, but I took this on the street just before we left the house for the walk.

On the way back, we stopped by the famous (to our family) Cafe Mozart - or perhaps it was the place next door (same owner), where we shared sticky toffee date pudding and a 'fruits of the forest' crumble. We had both with custard. I like custard more than ice cream. The sticky toffee pudding was really sweet - I preferred the crumble.

I managed to stay awake till 11 PM, which was a bit tricky, but paid off - I slept quite well and only woke up briefly during the night....and didn't get up until 8:30 this morning. After breakfast I headed out to explore SOAS and Central London.

London: Two Hours on the Underground

I am in London! I just took a shower and am ready to take a nap.

The trip here was a bit long, but went smoothly enough. The plane ride was delayed in both the takeoff and landing, so what would have been 6 hours on the plane turned into more like 8. But fortunately, a woman named Patricia who was supposed to sit in the aisle seat of my row never showed up. So the guy right next to me moved over, leaving a middle seat open between us.

The in-flight entertainment on the plane was impressive - Continental has 350 movies to choose from, and then has TV shows and music too. I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which seemed like it lasted most of the flight (I am glad I didn't end up seeing this last Christmas - it was a bit too long). Chris (the guy next to me) finished his movie long before mine ended.

The food was OK but not great. I had some beef (brisket-like) with mashed potatoes, string beans and carrots. Maybe for the way home I'll request a special meal. Patricia had done this, which is how we know her name is Patricia.

We eventually landed in foggy London. Customs and baggage claim went smoothly, and soon I was waiting for the tube to head into the city. Chris ended up on the tube with me, which was great because the trip required some navigation - he lives in London and helped me figure the mess out. The Piccadilly Line was under construction of some sort, and closed for part of the line. This caused delays, and then eventually we had to get off that train onto another train. And then onto another train where I said bye to Chris, then finally reached the Northern Line, where I switched again to get to Tufnell Park. In total, the tube ride took me more than two hours, when it should have only taken 1.25.

The Northern Line car wasn't crowded, so I took pictures.


.


I remembered how to walk from Tufnell Park to the Barker's house, which was uphill, but I was glad to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I got there at about 11 AM GMT, and Anna was there to greet me. She is writing an essay today.

It is officially nap time now.

Newark: Reporting from Gate C98

I made it to Newark airport with no difficulties. The Amtrak was fine, and it connected to the Airtrain which brought me to the Continental Terminal. I checked my two big bags, then went through security.

I still haven't finished all of my lunch. My mom made me two salami and cheese sandwiches with mustard on rye bread. I also had some apple, some pretzels and some cheese crackers. 

As I checked in, they asked if I might want to volunteer my seat for a $400 voucher. I said 'yes' tentatively, but I don't think I will end up doing it - the next flight isn't until tomorrow and won't arrive in London till 9 PM. But we'll see what they really end up offering.

As can be seen here, it's a beautiful, warm day in Newark.

My plane is already at the gate - it arrived from Hong Kong earlier today. The gate isn't crowded yet either because it's still more than two hours until my flight.

This is my plane. It's a Boeing 777.

I paid to use the internet here in Newark Airport. Now I am thirsty so I will probably go get a smoothie. Unless I get bumped, the next report will be from the UK!

Bridgeport: Coach Class in Connecticut

I am on the Amtrak train right now. The drive to New Haven went smoothly and now I am on the way to Newark. I havent been on an amtrak train in ten years. Its not bad so far. The conductor just came to take my ticket and pretty soon I will eat lunch.

Amherst: About to Leave!

I am about to leave Amherst. This picture shows all my stuff spread out - it is now packed into two suitcases (one will stay in UK) and 1 small backpack.

The journey begins!

Hadley: Fiddleheads and Cake

Fiddleheads came up three times today! For those who don't know,
fiddleheads are baby ferns, so they are only around for a few weeks
each year in Massachusetts. I saw a few when I was out on the walk
today with my parents and Barley. Then, while doing some errands at
Atkins, I saw they were selling them there. And tonight, at an
impromptu birthday gathering for Jeff, I got to try some. Jeff and
Greg had picked them earlier in the day behind Jeff's house in Hadley.

Jeff explained that fiddleheads grow in clusters of seven. When picking them, you should only pick 3-4 per cluster, so the fern doesn't die.

Jeff and Greg told me how to prepare them. First, you
remove the skin. Then they need to be boiled twice for ten minutes.
The second boil helps to remove extra tannins and toxins. After
straining them, they put them in a bowl with some butter, salt and
pepper.To me they tasted like a cross between spinach and Brussels
sprouts - I hadn't eaten them in a few years!

I like eating wild foods, and aside from mushrooms, I rarely eat them
these days. So it was exciting.

After dinner, we had a delicious birthday cake made by Jeff's
housemate Cathie. It had three layers of chocolate cake - in between
was a layer of strawberries/raspberries and a layer of vanilla mousse.
Delicious.

Just before dessert, I accidentally spilled the entire cup of gravy
over the table, and onto my foot. Luckily I was wearing flip flops, so
I went outside to the outdoor faucet and washed off my foot. It was a
new experience - I don't think I have ever washed gravy off my foot
before.

I am all packed now, and I leave my house tomorrow at 10 AM!

Amherst: Skunk Cabbage

On my last day in Amherst we went for a walk in the woods. The skunk cabbage are just coming up. I am updating my blog from my phone since I'm still in the woods.

UPDATE: Now I am back in my house. Here are some more pictures from the walk, taken with my dad's iPhone.

Here is a better picture of the skunk cabbage. It's the first real green thing in the woods in the spring, so it stands out a lot more in April than it does during the summer. I also saw some fiddleheads but no one seemed interested in eating them with me.

This is Barley waiting to go into the house. He was covered in mud because he swam in the pond. It is 90 degrees again today.

Amherst: New England Dairy

We had a very nice dinner tonight at Mi Tierra in Hadley, MA. It's not the same as being in California, but it's pretty good and authentic* Mexican. I had shrimp with chipotle sauce - others had shrimp al ajillo, steak, chile relleno and chicken mole. We also ate some great sweet plantains.

Today was an unusually hot day in Western MA - over 90 degrees at the warmest. So when we left the restaurant at 7:45, the air felt wonderful - still warm, but with a nice breeze. I rallied everyone to go to Flayvor's - we got there just in time before they closed at 8. For those who don't know it, Flayvor's is a dairy farm in Hadley - they make their own dairy products, including ice cream (and hot fudge).

I had a hot fudge sundae with malted vanilla ice cream. Sitting out at the picnic table, listening to crickets, smelling the cow and grass-scented air, and eating the sundae with my family reminded me how much I love New England.

After I finished my ice cream, I went down to visit some of the cows. I took this picture on my cell phone as the sun was setting - it came out looking like a painting.

I still haven't started packing, but that's the plan for tonight and tomorrow!

*Authenticity of food is one of the research areas I'm interested in. How do I know that the food was authentic? Who am I to judge? What criteria do I use to decide this, and what would make food *not* authentic. More on this eventually.....but I thought I'd point out that I was using the word, since it's thrown around a lot these days. 

Amherst: Unpacking and Packing Again

Last Wednesday (April 15th), I moved away from San Francisco. It was a sad farewell, and I miss it already

I've been spending the last week and a half in Amherst and Boston, and now it's only 48 hours before I am boarding a plane to England.

Here's the general plan, as far as I know it so far:

April 27-May 4: Visit England

May 5-May 12: Visit Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou

May 12: Fly from Guangzhou to Guilin

May 12-early/mid June: "Intern" at the Yangshuo Cooking School - see link.

After That: Travel a bit more in China, ending up in Shanghai.

June 20th: Fly from Shanghai back to London, and then from London back to USA on June 22nd.

It wasn't until today (Saturday) that I started feeling a bit unprepared for my trip. I was at a frisbee tournament in Northfield, MA (watching, not playing) - so I decided to make my packing list there. It seems like a lot of stuff that I am going to bring to China, so I have to narrow it down still. Plus I plan to bring an extra suitcase (or two) full of stuff to bring to UK - since I am moving there in September, I might as well maximize the possessions I bring over for free on the airplane flight.

Right now the office is a mess, but I am excited. I don't speak Chinese. I don't really know what I'm going to be doing in China. But I am excited to document my adventures (both foodwise and otherwise) on this blog and in my writing. So hopefully I'll have regular enough internet access to keep this up to date. 

I took a picture of myself in my office a few nights ago. See? Excited!

I still haven't started packing yet. Or even gathering things. Plus, there are boxes arriving from San Francisco with more things, some of which I might try to bring with me. So I have my work cut out for me for the next two days before I go!

Tonight I'm going out for Mexican food with my parents and grandparents. I won't be seeing much of that in UK or China, so that will be good. More soon!