If anyone has been reading this blog thoroughly and devotedly, they may have detected my fondness for peanuts.
When I read about the Malaysian treat apam balik I was therefore naturally eager to try it, as it is a thin pancake sprinkled with sugar, sweetcorn and lots of chopped peanuts.
When it became known we were planning to visit New Zealand, various friends and acquaintances told us “it’s like England, 30 years ago”.
Images of space hoppers, Ford Cortinas, Ringo crisps and rotary-dial telephones coursed through my brain, so I was more than a little disappointed to find out it was entirely untrue. In fact the only sign to support this claim we saw in our entire trip was a young man sporting a mullet/rat-tail combination hairstyle.
Actually everyone was also extremely nice and friendly, and while I don’t want to do my countrymen down, it did add a certain old-fashioned charm to shopping or asking for assistance.
H and I eventually decided it was more like a parallel universe version of the UK. We drove on the same side of the road, the Queen featured on money, there were green fields dotted with sheep and cows, Victorian architecture here and there, excellent cheese, erratic weather…you get the idea.
However so many things were also different. The large clapboard bungalows, the rainforest, mountains and kiss-me-quick-free coastline, the emptiness, the risk of earthquakes, the love of participating in sport, and a plethora of Cadbury products which I had never seen before.
Continue reading New Zealand Food Exploration: Parallel Universe Chocolate Review
Roti is something that may be familiar to you from the breads section of a UK “Indian” restaurant menu. It is a round, flat, slightly layered bread, which is good for soaking up curries.
It clearly shares roots with Roti Canai, something ambrosial I first encountered in Malaysia. This is a puffy, crispy flat bread which is heavenly dipped in dahl, fish curry or topped with condensed milk.
So when we passed a Rotee stall near the lower end of Phra Pok Klao Road, Chiang Mai, by a Siam Bank, I was irresistibly drawn to it. The options were fairly limited, standard (which comes topped with condensed milk), egg (where an egg is broken into it and cooked), banana (filled with sliced banana) and a few other choices which I think were mainly combinations of the above.
An excellent (if slightly frivolous) reason to hop on the next plane to Chiang Mai is kaeb moo (deep-fried pork rind).
Our Thai host speedily purchased these when we passed them on a market stall.
In texture, they are a little like soft shredded wheat. The taste is quite bland, like a heavily-eggy custard. Normally I knock down small children to obtain custard-based desserts, but this time I was happy to settle for just one.