If you think that travelling is mainly about unwinding at an exotic beach, exploring historical sights or testing your endurance while trying to get to a remote place off the beaten track - think again, because you are missing a very important part of a genuine travel experience - local cuisine.
None of the journeys can be complete without tasting some of the authentic local dishes, either in a restaurant or just at a simple roadside stall. We always do it and more often than not, we are delighted about culinary masterpieces that we stumble upon. Once we return home, we often try to recreate the dishes that we have eaten while on the road and believe it or not - a taste of a dish that we had in a local eatery tucked away in a narrow side street of Ho Chi Minh City can bring back as many memories as the best travel photos.
Some useful tips to start with
No salt in rice!
One important thing to clarify about Asian cuisine is that salt is normally
not added into rice, except when cooking special flavoured rice (briyani
rice, nasi lemak, nasi dagang, pineapple rice etc).
Eating with hands
Indians, Malays, Thais, Indonesians and many other South-East Asians eat
with hands, right hand to be more precise, as left hand is used for cleaning
yourself up after going to the loo. Thais and Chinese do use chopsticks
for eating noodles. Chinese also use chopsticks for eating rice (from
a bowl, not from a plate).
How to select fresh fish
Fish
1. Press its body (yes, in Asia we are allowed to mingle with the seafood)
to check if it's still springy due to high water content. If the finger
mark takes more than 5 seconds to disappear, the fish is definitely not
a catch of the day.
2. Fish's eyes shouldn't be red (caused by broken blood-vessels).
Prawns
1. A tail and a head should be intact and not fallen off.
2. Eyes should be bulging.
Crab
Crab should be bought either alive (very lively - moving around non stop
and trying to escape) or frozen.
Fresh seafood never smells foul, so let your nose be the judge.