Piment D'Or - Paris

Welcome to the Deep Freeze!
Air France is on strike - what's new?  I got swapped over to a Singapore Airlines flight, which is like escaping the slums for a penthouse.  When we landed it took me a while to calculate what the pilot said.  "Moins neuf" - multiply by two, subtract 33, carry the nine and, and.....  SIXTEEN DEGREES??  What the fuck?  I thought of hiding in the bathroom on the outbound back to Singapore.  I didn't bring a coat so it was an extra joy shivering at the empty taxi stand for 20 minutes.  Strikes, freezing cold, non-existent taxis.....welcome back to the 3rd world, kid.  At least I can warm up with a delicious bowl at Piment D'Or!

Potong Pasir Kopi Pau - Singapore

They're Not Famous But They Should Be
Bao or pau?  Kopi or coffee?  Regardless of word choice - we're talking about a steamed bun with a sweet coffee-flavored belly button.  I tried to sell my local friends on it - they just gave me the "what does an Ang Mo know about bao" look.  Especially a bao from Potong Pasir - one of the smallest estates in Singapore. PP is a bit dog-eared in a lovable way.  While the rest of the island has been upgrading like crazy, PP has retained some original small-town charm.

Haecheon - Seoul

Seafood Karma
I recently attended a funeral in Singapore and learned a bit about Buddhism.  The priest made an interesting point about how rare it is to come back as a human.  Most of the time when you're reborn you're probably a bug - of which there are billions.  Think about that a moment.  You are lucky.  Of course, after going to Haecheon and eating their seafood pancake I considered that to be reborn a shrimp and end up on this pancake would be quite satisfying.  Simply spectacularly delicious.

Myeongdong Gyoja - Seoul

In Korea, they Replace the Z with a J
Not gyoza, but gyoja.  We heard this was the place to be for dumplings in Seoul.  Judging by the line and the fact that so many were willing to wait in it through bitter cold, I expected good things.  The place runs like an efficient assembly line.  You're given a table and a menu and they take you order and your money without leaving your side.  About three minutes later, ta-daaaaaaaaa.

Asiadog - Manhattan

Thumb-Deep in Toppings
What kind of sadistic genius carpets a beef dog with cubes of barbecued pork belly?  I'd read the ingredients before ordering but somehow it didn't quite hit me until I had it in my paws.  There they were, cow and pig together, in optimal forms, cucumber and scallions sitting shotgun.  I really enjoyed it, staining my jeans in the process.  It was my first time eating an Asiadog, and it didn't take long to realize that the place is not so much about the dogs as it is about the additives.

Cocoron Soba - Manhattan

You Better Be Good With the Sticks
One more hour of tweaking powerpoints and I was going to snap.  I hoped a faraway lunch adventure would break up the drudgery.  No planes involved, only a NYC subway ride to Cocoron Soba.  Just what the doctor ordered - pork croquettes and plenty of noodles.  However, there's work to put in - the chopstick variety.  You better be able to maneuver with the wooden sticks - at Cocoron you may have to dip your own soba into boiling broth, one pinch at a time.

Bian Dang - Manhattan

Trading Abe for Chops
Some crazy people were slinging chops from a van for only five bucks today.  I saw em driving down Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn on Saturday and jotted the name down - Bian Dang.  Pure luck - they parked a block from the job today so I donned the snorkel parka, waited in line and traded over a fiver.  In return, they gave me a filling two chop lunch that included rice, pork sauce and greens.     

Shin Liu Farm - Hualien, Taiwan

Healthiest Meal in the History of the Puff List?
I rarely do the things I should. Back in my youth I used to exercise, smile, make new friends and eat vegetables.  I've grown up to be an old, lazy, scowl-faced carnivore.  I like to think of myself as a work in regress.  That's not to say I don't enjoy a plate or two of veggies from time to time, I just don't go searching for them.  Our Taiwan guide, a colleague of Dodo's, was something of a health nut.  She drove us south of Hualien, into the east rift valley to Shin Liu Farm for some greenery, both the viewing and eating kind.

Yi Wan Xiao - Hualien, Taiwan

Perfect Post-National Park Meal
Hualien is a city on the Eastern coast of Taiwan near the spectacular Taroko National Park.  We'd spent the day at Taroko, gawking at seascape, rivers and mountains through sun, clouds and cold drizzle.  By dinner time we were famished and looking for restoration.  Luckily our B&B owner gave us an insider's inside scoop and sent us to Yi Wan Xiao for noodles.  The name could be translated as "A Small Bowl" and indeed that's all it took for me to be totally satisfied and ready for a night of unconsciousness.

Co Do - Melbourne

Finding Vietnamese Goodness on Foot
Sometimes we just luck out.  We trammed our way over to Richmond, a suburb NE of Melbourne a few clicks, known for being the cross hairs of the Viet community.  We employed an old-fashioned analog technique called "footing it" which is simple and effective - walk down the main drag and peek in restaurant windows until you find a full one (in this case, full of Vietnamese.)  This is how we found ourselves in Co Do and Dodo in front of a plate of Cơm tấm, otherwise known as "broken rice."

Kappa Sake House - Brooklyn

It Really is a Sake Bar...
....but we didn't realize, we saw the phrase "home-cooked Japanese" and thought Hibino.  We'd just spent an hour at Four and Twenty Blackbirds eating pie and now we wanted some lunch.  Yep, we tend to put dessert first, you never know when you'll absentmindedly step into traffic.

Beng Chin Garden - Penang, Malaysia

A Surprisingly Near-Perfect Coffee Shop
After touring the nearby Kek Lok Si temple we were ready to chow. We picked this coffee shop at the bottom of the hill almost at random. In these parts a "coffee shop" is a collection of street vendors selling various foodstuffs as well as coffee. We weren't expecting too much but were pleasantly surprised, especially with the Char Kway Teow, literally "wok-fried rice-cake strips." It's so-called for the flat rice noodles that are fried at a high heat with lard, soy sauce, chili, shrimp paste, tamarind juice, prawns, cockles, bean sprouts and chives. It was smoky and slightly spicy and absolutely delicious. Best meal of the day, hands down.

Guilo Guilo - Paris

Giving Food Blogging a Bad Name
My girlfriend lived in Tokyo for spell, where she learned enough Japanese to get herself in trouble. One step into tiny Guilo Guilo and she was all "sumimasen" and "oishi-des", bowing and smiling. Showoff! There's no menu, just an eight-course degustation and each course is described by the chef or one of his helpers as it's laid in front of you. Thanks to Dodo, our explanation came in Japanese. So the evening went something like this, me: "what he say it is?" her: "I dunno, fish or something." I tried eavesdropping nearby but I couldn't decipher the thickly Japanese-accented French either. So I don't know what half of it was but I can tell you this, most of it was good.

Noodle No 1 - Paris

On the Drawbacks of Being White...
There aren't many negatives to being white but when it comes to spicy food, there's a major one: nobody will serve you any. They figure you can't handle it, or worse, you'll drop dead on them in mid-chew. I've been on a Dan Dan noodle hunt here in Paris and got a recommendation from a reader, Daddy D, who pointed me to Noodle No 1. Today was perfect timing, a frosty winter day that would be laughable after a mouthful of fiery Sichuan noodles. I did everything I could to signal I wasn't a typical gwai lo, I even ordered in Mandarin, but it just wasn't to be.....

Kwong Satay and Swee Guan Hokkien Mee - Singapore

Looking for Gold, Finding Diamonds....
Of all places, I was in Jakarta watching television and saw a show about good places to eat in Singapore. This Singaporean guy was waxing philosophical about Swee Guan, a place that specializes in Hokkien Prawn Mee (otherwise known as wok-fried noodles with shrimp.) I convinced Puffin to take me there. Turns out, the real find was the stall next door, Kwong Satay. We're talking delectable....

Ponggol Nasi Lemak - Singapore

Hitting a "Famous" Stall
I'm always a little wary about visiting a famous place because it's usually over-crowded and not good enough to deserve the wait. Ponggol is "the" place to get Chinese-style Nasi Lemak, a Malaysian dish of rice cooked in coconut milk, egg, anchovies, sambal (chili paste), sliced cucumber, peanuts and in my case a fried chicken drumstick and a side of eggplant.

Sari Ratu - Jakarta

Nasi Padang
This is how they stack em up, one on top of the other. More food than you can hope to eat in a sitting, but not to worry - you only eat and pay for what meets your fancy.

Street Food - Jakarta

Yard Bird and More,,,
While walking between my hotel and Merdeka Square I noted a narrow food alley that was packed with people. The next day I brought Pingles there for some lunch. An Indonesian colleague of hers told her to steer clear of the street food. "They use street water to cook in!" she'd warned. It threw me for a second, but only a second. I didn't fly all the way here to get scared off so easily.

Walnut Bakery and Cafe - Jakarta

I Went in to Get a Coffee....
I walked around for some time in downtown Jakarta in the grimy heat and strangely was craving a hot coffee. This classy-looking bakery/cafe had air conditioning to boot, so it was an easy sell for me. Plans changed once I saw this plate-full of good looking grub at a nearby table and asked for a plate for myself. This is Nasi Goreng Kampung a Malaysian dish which is sometimes known as "village fried rice."

This version had anchovies and mackerel and included a fried egg and two meatballs on a stick (sorry, don't know what those are called.) I downed this whole plate in less than 5 minutes and then sat back in my chair and people-watched out the window for an hour. Next up, some authentic Indonesian food.

Ciputra Mall
Jakarta

Ming Kee Live Seafood - Singapore

Crab Bee Hoon and More...
I don't make any decisions in Singapore, I am sloth-boyfriend, waiting for direction from Pingles on where to go, what to think, what to do, when to do it. This approach never fails me, especially today. Her cousin recommended this place for crab bee hoon, which is crab with rice vermicelli. You just gotta fight the crab for the bee hoon...