After a few days in Kuala Lumpur we took a coach to Penang.
We’d booked a hotel on the edge of the part of George Town which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A short walk away was the New World Park (Jalan Burma), home to a food court and a number of restaurants including Passions of Kerala, which specialises in banana leaf cuisine.
Continue reading Malaysia Food Exploration: Banana Leaf Meal
On a previous visit to Malaysia in 2008 I asked a local blogger (boo_licious of masak-masak – I can highly recommend her site) for some restaurant suggestions for a celebratory family meal, and one place that came up was Precious Old China in the Central Market.
We went there and had a very enjoyable time, so much so that we returned there on our recent trip just to have a drink.
To follow on from my South Island recommendations, now it’s the turn of the North Island.
As with the other post, I have not created a map as the places are so spread out it would be a real fiddle to use. Plus I’m lazy…
Continue reading New Zealand Food Exploration: North Island Recommendations
We spent around 12 days on the South Island of New Zealand, and very beautiful ones they were too.
Our limited budget forced us to view things a little differently, and during this early period of our holiday, we were still railing against it quite frequently. It was a sharp change from our usual vacation spending excesses, and I must confess to twinges of sadness when we had to bypass a vast array of gourmet restaurants in favour of cooking in our motel room or a pizza.
It was quite a salutary lesson though as to how frivolously we spend money on food when at home. Having to write down every day where the money was going really hammered home how stopping for a coffee and a hot chocolate consumed one eighth of our budget for the day, and drinks with dinner torpedoed it.
We got used to drinking the free water every restaurant provides, and to make the most of the limited cooking facilities our motels offered. I know it sounds like a big fuss over nothing – it’s not like we were starving or eating beans on toast 3 times a day, but as the title of the blog hopefully conveys, for me, food is about going beyond sustenance into the realm of pleasure.
So bearing all this in mind, I wanted to document some of the places where we really enjoyed eating. None of them were too pricey, and although many (to my chagrin – what a waste of research!) were listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook we acquired before departing, some will hopefully augment your own lists.
Continue reading New Zealand Food Exploration: South Island Recommendations
I imagine any UK readers are looking askance at the title of the post and thinking “Um, thanks, but I think I know what fish and chips are,” while rolling their eyes a little.
But before you jump ship to another site muttering “teach your grandmother…”, perhaps you haven’t heard of tarakihi or warehou, kumara chips or corn patties. Neither had I until very recently, and I’m desperate to show off my newly-acquired knowledge to anyone who will listen.
Due to our budgetary constraints, takeaways were bound to feature on the menu a few times. We couldn’t afford fancy fish restaurants, but we could stretch to the occasional fish and chip supper.
Continue reading New Zealand Food Exploration: Fish and Chips