Nausea-inducing winding roads up a mountain pass leads to vast fields of strawberries literally ripe for the picking. A tea plantation, tranquil fields of green & yellow as far as the eye can see. Steamboat, fueled by charcoal. An unexpected but otherwise awesome food find, perhaps one of the most memorable of the trip. A new found perspective on karaoke (image included).

All this and more on Day 4 & 5 of the heart of Malaysia & Thailand, when a group of Sydney food bloggers visits the Cameron Highlands.

The food tour hits the road once more, this time heading north to the mountainous region of the Cameron Highlands.

The drive up to the Cameron Highlands was fraught with nausea-inducing winding roads, lined with colonial style buildings. It’s no surprise that the area was discovered, and then colonised, by the British back in the 19th century.

After what seems like an age, we finally reach our hotel, Equatorial Cameron Highlands, situated 1628M above sea level, if the plaque about their entrance was anything to go by.

Upon exiting the vehicle, one thing that was distinctly noticeable was the difference in temperate. It was close to 10 degrees cooler than the low lands of Malaysia and far less humid.

As we quickly drop off our bags and hit the road once again, our stomachs settle and appetites build, enough to warrant an investigation into the local food culture of the region.

We find ourselves at Restoran Sri Brinchang located within Brinchang, one of the major townships on the Cameron Highlands. The selection of this restaurant had very much to do with its proximity to free wifi and little to do with experiencing food unique to the region.

There was plenty of time for that later at any rate. There were emails to be read, networks to be socialised and gossip to be caught up on.

Sri Brinchang is, for the most part, an Indian restaurant. So, Indian food, for the most part, was what we ordered.

There was the Ghee Dosai (1.80 RM), and its more structurally perky, ghee-less cousin, the Paper Dosai (2 RM). Both dishes were served with the same assortment of curries.

Both dosai were alright. Nothing out of the ordinary if you’ve had a decent dosai before.

I can’t speak for how the Roti Canai (1 RM) with its single curry, or the Chicken Tikka (7 RM) with its yogurt spice marinade, had tasted. However, at those prices (approx. $0.37 and $2.60 AUD respectively at time of post), who cares? :)

One dish I did care about, or rather didn’t care for, was the Mee Goreng (4 RM). It wasn’t bad but I wasn’t all that excited about it either.

The Garlic Naan (2.50 RM), like the dosai, isn’t a bad effort. It helps that it was baked fresh and arrives to the table steaming hot.

Chicken Thali (7 RM) is the most appealing meal in my eyes. Partly due to its visual impact. Partly due to my Korean heritage of almost every meal consisting of rice with a whole bunch of small side dishes; the more the better.

With our hunger for food and Internet connectivity sated for the moment, we adopt the role of a tourist and spend our time doing touristy things. Things that we would likely never do back in our home city.

Like visit a cactus nursery.

We forgo the paid admission of Cactus Valley (or are unaware of it) and instead find ourselves at Big Red Strawberry Farm. Both venues are not only popular tourist destinations for the region but also conveniently located on the same premises.

We’re actually not here to see the cacti which, surprising to me, I found to be appealing, visually speaking.

Nor were we here to view carnivorous pitcher plants, that lures insects into its cavity to trap them in order to digest them for their nutrients. Nor for any of the other vast array of flora on show for the viewing public.

We were here for the strawberries. Not just any old strawberries mind you but ones that we could hand pick straight off the plant.

There are rows and rows of strawberries that, at the right time of the year, you could hand pick to your heart’s content. For this place, this was, unfortunately for us, not the right time of the year.

However, for those that must have their fresh strawberries, or strawberry-based products, there is a store from which you can purchase fresh strawberries by the punnet, as well as strawberry beverages, jams and so forth.

A number of varieties of lettuce are also grown here in abundance, though I don’t believe that hand picking activities for tourists are available for these leafy greens. However, and rather oddly so, as with the strawberries, you can purchase freshly processed lettuce juice.

In the past, a friend of mine occasionally would talk about marketing lettuce juice. He would also talk about how all his ideas, once voiced, would inevitably be stolen. Coming to this place was a surreal moment in my life.

We move on from the disappointment of not being able to pick our own strawberries to head for one of the many tea plantations in the area.

The inevitable rains of the season are brought forth, a daily ritual that we learn to adapt to, or at least tolerate. We take refuge at the Cameron Valley Tea house at the Bharat Plantations (warning: annoying flash site), foregoing the tea shop retail store for the moment in favour for a warm cup of tea and some scones.

We order a pot of tea and four scones to be shared amongst the five of us. After a little mathematical problem-solving, we work out that we each get 3/4 of a scone each, with one to spare.

The tea is nice enough. I was expecting something spectacular considering we were overlooking its likely source. However, this could just be my trumped up, and perhaps unrealistic, expectations talking.

The scones on the other hand were terrible. Stale & doughy, warmed by microwave, and served with whipped cream straight out of a can. The image above was all I had of my 3/4 share.

This was a far cry from the freshly baked, wonderful scones that Billy had had in the past. I feel for him somewhat as he must have been really disappointed that these did not live up to the previous experience.

The rains cleared and we make our way out of the tea house, passing a giant novelty-sized cup and saucer, serving as a tip cup at the register. What served as a symbol of playful optimism and humour on the way in, in my eyes, ended up looking sad, if not slightly arrogant, on the way out.

We make our way down the stairs, to the tea garden with its diverse range of flora christened with the rains that had just past, giving the flowers a lush quality of fresh morning dew.

Further along the path beyond the garden lies an enthralling vista of green and yellow as far as the eye can see. Acres upon acres of tea bushes carpet the valley and mountain side. Seemingly ripe for the picking, despite visual reminders to discourage us from this very action.

Having made the most of our time down at the plantation, we make the trek back up to our vehicle. There are only so many tea leaves one can look at before the mind starts to wander, even beyond that of the playful antics previously documented.

Having been dissatisfied with the inability to pick our own strawberries at Big Red Strawberry Farm, we make a stop of Kok Lim Strawberry Farm to try our luck there. As luck would have it, the strawberries here were ripe for the picking, so to speak.

Money exchanges hands as we’re offered admittance to the field of strawberries below with an empty plastic container in hand. The fee of 20 RM covers a minimum of 500g worth of strawberries. Anything beyond this is charged at a rate of 40 RM per kilo.

Rows and rows of strawberry plants run along either side of narrow walkways just wide enough for a single person to stroll through comfortably, in a vast undercover complex.

What initially starts off as a novel activity of hunting for the best, most ripe, specimens soon feels somewhat like a chore, in much the same way that picking fruit at a grocery store or supermarket is.

Once you’ve had your fill of filling a punnet full of strawberries, the strawberries are weighted with additional fees charged, if necessary. In the case of the punnet I was sharing with Helen, we fell short by a fair margin. Thankfully, there are plenty of surplus strawberries at the weighing station to make up the 500g minimum.

However, it almost begs the question, why bother picking them in the first place?

In the evening, we head once more to the township of Brinchang in search of some food. This time a specialty of the region – Charcoal Steamboat at Restoran Highlands.  The cooler temperatures during the day invariably lead to chilly evenings. This was the perfect environment for such a meal.

The charcoal does two things for the steamboat. It firstly operates at only one temperature – boiling hot. This makes for some fast cooking. However, it also means that you have to be more mindful of food items that can overcook easily, such as leafy greens or noodles.

The second thing it does is impart a smokey character to the dish. Other than a smokey aroma, likely more from the source than what may have been infused into the cooking stock, there wasn’t much difference that I noticed from your regular steamboat meal.

The meal was quite satisfying, with variety of ingredients such as chicken, crab claws (the fake stuff), fish, fish balls, jellyfish, pork, prawns, squid, tofu, leafy vegetation, with a couple of types of noodles and eggs to finish off the meal.

A disagreement breaks out regarding whether the eggs should be left whole to boil or cracked open to be incorporated into the soup. We end up going the whole egg route, though if you were to ask me, my vote would have been for cracking them open.

We finish off the evening with some karaoke back at the hotel. Having never done karaoke before, I was somewhat skeptical of enjoying the experience of singing off-beat and off-key whilst listening to other people do the same. However, I kept an open mind about it and I’m glad that I did.

Karaoke can be a lot of fun, so long as you don’t take yourself too seriously and just enjoy the moment. My new found appreciation for 80′s love ballads, mentioned in the very first holiday post, as well as the impulse to sing to favourite tunes out loud was born this evening.

It can also be a learning experience. For instance, singing Madonna’s Material Girl as a heterosexual guy is exceedingly weird, to the point of being uncomfortable. More so when sung as a duet with another guy. I also learned to appreciate how Filipinos get so worked up over having Frank Sinatra’s My Way sung badly, to the point of deaths being involved. Having destroyed that song first hand (and not destroyed in the good kind of way), I think I’ll leave it up to Frank to sing it his way from now on.

The next morning, we pack our bags and head for a local market not far from the hotel.

The street market, which runs on either side of a small side street is, for the most part, a product market hawking the local agriculture. Corn, strawberries, various leafy greens, and other fruit and veg, as well as tea, naturally. There are other stall, such as the occasional one selling cooked food, or trinkets and souvenirs.

The strawberries here are half the price of the hand picked ones at Kok Lim i.e. 20 RM/Kg. If hand picking strawberries isn’t your thing, buy the strawberries here.

We hit the road once more, this time in search for some breakfast. Having done away with the buffet breakfast provided by the hotel (thankfully!), we eventually find ourselves at Uncle Chows (note:  URL on their business card but it’s a parked domain. future site?).

Uncle Chows was something of an odd find. A sign on the road randomly caught our attention stating little more than the name of this kopitiam (cafe) and a direction to drive. After a few more signs and changes in direction, we arrive at a quiet establishment located right by a residential complex.

With the lack of clientele at the time that we arrived, I wasn’t all that hopeful that the food would be any good, as with the experience at Sri Brinchang, the day before.

Boy, was I ever wrong!

A couple of people order the Roti Bakar Set (Set A, 5 RM), which consisted of kaya toast with butter (the roti bakar), soft boiled eggs and a coffee (kopi o in the case above). Though I’d not tried this, I was told that the kaya/butter to toast ratio was lacking, not making for the best example of this staple breakfast combo.

The Curry Laksa (7.90 RM) was much like some of the best I’ve had in Sydney. I was quite pleased with the depth of flavour of the mild curry spices, as well as the fish balls, and large pieces of chicken, still on the bone. I would have a preferred it with a little more heat but it was good all the same.

Har Mee (7.90 RM), a prawn flavoured noodle soup isn’t as spicy as one would presume just by looking at it. Billy, who had ordered this dish, didn’t seem too fussed over it, either in a good or a bad way.

Asam Laksa (7.90 RM) is a sour, fish based soup built primarily on shredded mackerel and tamarind. Touted as the best version of this dish by both Minh and Helen, this happened to be the only one I missed out on sampling! Gotta find my way back here if I’m ever in the area to see how good it is for myself.

It may be a bloody long way from Australia, but we were also a bloody long way from heading back. There was still much of Malaysia & Thailand to discover, explore & taste.

Next stop – Ipoh. By far and away the best food experience on the whole trip. Coming soon. Don’t miss it!

Malaysia, day two. The food tour group’s first day on the road leads us to a bubbling cauldron of meat, bones and end trails, with a little toil and trouble; a flash flood and a growing dislike for a deity; seafood with a lyrical name; and taking a fresh approach when facing an arch nemesis on its home turf.

Klang Lek Bak Kut Teh, Klang

After what ended up being a surprisingly decent buffet breakfast of nasi lemak provided by our hotel, The Nomad SuCasa, we pick up our motorised passenger vehicle from the Mid Valley Megamall (known throughout most of the trip as “Mega Valley Mall”) and made our way down the congested motorway to the port city of Klang.

We slowly grind through the traffic on our way to Klang for one express purpose – bah kut teh. As Klang is reported to be the first place that this dish was served in a restaurant, its birth place (at least in a commercial sense) was likely a good place to journey to find a good, authentic example of this dish.

We travel over a bridge, past a sign for a bak kut teh restaurant under the Klang bridge. Seng Huat is meant to be one of the pioneering restaurants, supposedly staying true to the original recipe when the restaurant first opened over 30 years ago. However, we forgo this restaurant in favour of another.

We instead make our way to Klang Lek Bak Kut Teh. With a certain degree of difficulty mind you, as it took some assistance from people at a nearby petrol station to direct us to this restaurant; one which was fairly highly recommended based on some research on the Internet. We did had a GPS, which we obtained with the vehicle. Unfortunately, this unit proved itself to be very good at being very bad at what its primary function was i.e. to direct us to our destination.

We eventually take our seats outside by a kettle that sits on its own burner, exclusively for our table. Whilst our kettle bides its time until it brews with what we would later find out to be Ti Kuan Yin tea, another, much larger, kettle brews a different sort of tea out the front of the store.

Bak kut teh, which translates to “meat bone tea”, is a complex concoction of various herbs, spices and other ingredients. It often includes, but isn’t limited to, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, star anise, Chinese angelica root, soy sauce, pork meat and/or offal, & pork bones.

We end up with two varieties of bak kut teh, served in heated clay pots, each of which costing 30 RM. One contains offal of pig’s intestines known as “9 layers intestines” [sic], apparently what they’re famous for in Klang. The other is a combination of lean and fatty cuts of pork known as half-half. Both pots also include button mushrooms as well as yuba, dried bean curd sheets reconstituted in the dark, herbal soup.

Both bak kut teh dishes were good in their own way. The “9 layers intestines” is wonderfully springy to the bite, somewhat like a firm sausage, whilst the fatty pork practically melts in the mouth. However, I couldn’t help but compare it to a rendition that Lex, professional chef and food blogger of vue de cuisinier, had made up as a trial run for a dish that would later become his entry into a cooking competition (his bak kut teh recipe here). His was just as good in my mind, and that was before he perfected it for the competition.

The two pots of bak kut teh were served along side accompaniments of wilted lettuce, yao char gwai (the fried dough cut up into small chunks), and rice.

Batu Caves, Gombak

After our rather nice lunch in Klang, we hit the road once more but this time to burn some time and some calories at the famous, though I prefer infamous, batu caves (more on that below). It’s the site of a series of Hindu shrines dedicated to the deity Lord Murugan, serving both as a place of worship (one of the most popular outside of India), as well as a tourist attraction.

The entrance to the batu caves is rather picturesque in its own right. Off to one side resides an ornate shrine. Beside the stairway leading to the caves, stands a statue of Lord Murugan; the largest of its kind in the world at 42.7 meters.

Whilst we spend a few moments enjoying the view, the heavens open up, raining down one of the meanest storms I’ve seen in a long while. We take shelter at a nearby cafe, biding our time before we make the climb up to the caves.

I was quite happy to kick back and take our time, as I knew what was in store.

Two hundred and seventy two steps, scaling a height of almost one hundred meters. It wasn’t bad enough that I was already sweating from the heat and humidity.

Anyhow, the storm had come and gone in a short moment. Before we headed to the caves, shoes & socks were removed. Not as a sign of respect for the caves, but as a necessity in order to cross the impromptu, knee-high lake that had bridged the gap between the cafe and the entrance to the caves.

Approximately 40 normal steps, 30 mildly discomforting steps and 202 excruciating steps later, we finally reach the summit. On the brink of collapse and drenched in more sweat that I thought was humanly possible given the already sweat-rendering heat and humidity, there was a serious case of the CBF’s that was had at that moment with regards to photography, let alone sightseeing.

However, after a much earned breather and the achievement of reaching the summit behind me, and despite being tired, wet and bare footed, I pushed on into the caves to see more of what I’d already seen outside – statues, shrines, small bodies of water and-

Oh, this is so wrong. More stairs? Seriously? Two hundred and seventy two steps wasn’t enough? Buddha is out there probably laughing his arse off right about now.

Aside from the shrines, statues and stairs (!!), there are also wild macaque monkeys, and a man wielding a large yellow python for photo ops, to see. However, between the humidity, flash flood and ungodly number of stairs to climb, I was very far from caring to give them much notice.

In spite of all the hardship, I was able to take in, and by the end even appreciate, the grandeur of these limestone caves. After all, all the pain and suffering was behind me.

If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him.

Jalan Alor, KL

Flash forward to the evening. After a much needed rest-stop and change of clothes back at the hotel, we find ourselves on Jalan Alor once more. However, this time we do away with the alfresco seating and opt to dine in at Meng Kee Grill Fish.

The decor is quite reminiscent of many no-frills Chinese restaurants that can be found in the suburbs of Sydney. There are various articles posted around the restaurant, presumably promotional material for the restaurant or the owners. The hat was an odd touch though.

As with most meals, we begin the dinner with drinks. Likewise, as with most meals, the drinks seem to be handled by an operator independent to the establishment we dine at. I’m not sure if it’s just my ignorance of Malaysian food culture, but there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between food hawkers and drink vendors.

A pear and sour plum iced drink is what I decide to go with. It has a very grass-like flavour to it, which seems very unusual to an inexperienced palate. Refreshing, but unusual none the less.

My first serious dish of vegetation on this trip thus far is this dish of Fried Sambal Chili Four Angled Beans (8 RM). It’s the first time I’ve had this uniquely shaped vegetable, which I find to be rather pleasant.

Continuing on with the sambal chili, there was the Fried Sambal Chili Lala (15 RM). Apparently, “lala” is what KL locals call pippies. I pity the poor tourist that points quizzically to a plate of these in a restaurant, to only get back the answer “it’s lala, lah!”.

Grill Stingray Fish (varies from 15RM to 40.50RM) is the wing of a stingray grilled in a simple fashion, served with a dipping sauce. The meat is rather mild in flavour but otherwise quite a pleasant tasting bit of seafood.

Fried Oyster Egg (varies from 8RM to 15RM). This oyster omelette is interesting in that rather than being fluffy, the egg is cooked to a crispy texture. Personal preferences polarise some of the dining party into fluffy and crispy camps.

Fried Kue Teow (5 RM). This version of char kueh teow had nice, slippery rice noodles and was neither stodgy nor greasy.

Grilled Taufu (varies from 4RM to 16RM). Grilled slices of crunchy tofu sandwich a medley of vegetables and a prawn-flavoured dark sauce. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had referred to this as an interpretation of rojak, as those were the flavours and textures that came to mind when eating this.

After dinner, we make our way out to Jalan Alor proper to frequent the dessert place from the previous night for Ais Kacang & Chendol. Just as we’re about to leave Jalan Alor, we make one last dessert pit stop at a durian vendor.

I have no love for durian. Actually, a history of distinct hatred for it that I do not have for any other food item I’ve come across to date. To be fair, I’ve only ever had durian in either its frozen or artificial forms and never the fresh fruit itself. Figuring that having it fresh in the country that is known for their production of durian, if I don’t like it here when people who like it says it’s good, it’ll be stuck forever from my list of things to eat and be considered fructus non grata.

The first taste of fresh durian (16 RM/Kg) was unusual. It wasn’t the disgusting taste that I’d learned to despise. Instead, a distinctly strong flavour of onion came through this savoury, custard-textured room temperature fruit (by Malaysian standards i.e. warm). It was one of the most unusual experiences I’ve had.

Though I’ve no longer written off my arch nemesis, “the king of fruit”, it was very far from winning me over. For now, the jury is out.

Luna Bar, KL

We end the evening with a nightcap of sorts; cocktails at Luna, an upmarket bar located on a lofty floor of the Pacific Regency Hotel Suites building.

The bar has a number of distinct features. Firstly, the majority of the bar is without a roof, making this something of an open air bar. There’s the swimming pool taking up the majority of the floor space within the middle of the bar itself. The men’s urinals, which is just a window out to KL with little more than an opaque strip covering ones privates. That was an interesting experience. Lastly, the inflated prices for drinks, which were close to being expensive by Australian standards, let alone Malaysian ones.

Having capped off another food-filled day, we make our way through the streets of KL to find a taxi back to the hotel, passing numerous billboards and the occasional street performer entertaining tourists and locals alike.

I wonder if there is a bronze man too…?

A journey, when seen through the rose-tinted perspective of a metaphor, is one that not only implies a sense of adventure, but also a degree of change and growth in one’s self.

A recent journey (in the literal sense), a food-centric tour of Malaysia and Thailand, with fellow food bloggers Billy, Helen & Minh, along with a couple of additional traveling companions, had drawn me into a rather unexpected journey (in the metaphorical sense).

Things will no longer be the same.

Caution: This is a rather large, detailed post. Hopefully it’ll be worth your while, so thanks for bearing with it if you do.

Through the course of a two and a half week holiday, there was much change and growth; experiences & lessons learned, shifts in perspectives and priorities, subtle changes to character and mannerisms, and a broadening of ones own views.

For instance:

• Exchange of currency is often better done in the country you’re traveling to.
• Sydney is a really expensive city, out of reach of many an average foreigner.
• Skepticism towards the degree of importance one should place on travel advisories.
• Getting something you’ve wanted at a price that cannot be matched locally can still leave you with a feeling of melancholy, and even a degree of distain.
• The usefulness of Internet-connected devices, and my degree of reliance on them.
• A new found appreciation for 80′s love songs and ballads.
• An impulse to sing to favourite tunes out loud.
• Ear plugs are a godsend for maintaining one’s sanity.

This is by no means exhaustive. I’m sure that more will be uncovered during the course of subsequent posts.

Hosier Lane, Melbourne

A brief stop-over was made in Melbourne, the first leg of our tour de food. Though a failed organisation and a failed shout out to meet with Melbourne food bloggers felt like something of a lost opportunity, we made the most of our time in Melbourne with some food, and a spontaneous tour of the city.

The highlight for me was the site of a recent Masterchef celebrity chef challenge location, Hosier Lane; a graffi-ladened laneway where artists are free to show off their street art, often with a considerable degree of talent. As beautiful as these images may be on the screen, it’s another thing entirely to be immersed in the artwork; to experience all its splendour first hand.

If you’ve never been, take the time to visit the next time you’re in Melbourne. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Suria KLCC, KL

The first thing you notice when stepping of the plane into Malaysia is the heat and humidity. For someone who is inclined to turn on the A/C once the mercury starts to approach the mid-twenties, well, let’s just say it takes some getting use to.

Our first day in Malaysia was spent predominantly in or around KLCC, the city centre of Kuala Lumpur (KL for short). As much as there was the heat and humidity to deal with, thankfully KL is likewise blessed with a large number of air-conditioned shopping malls. One such shopping mall is located at the base of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, namely Suria KLCC.

Suria KLCC was our first shopping experience, as well as our first taste of what Malaysia had to offer with regards to food.

The look and feel of the food court here is much like a lot of Asian food courts, such as those found around Chinatown in Sydney. As much as the range of cuisine on offer differed, it felt very familiar; very safe. That probably should have served as a warning.

I ended up with a “generous” plate of food and some ice tea from Hameed. Nasi Kandar (40 RM, including the ice tea) to be more precise.

Yes, yes. I know. 40 ringgit.

To the Malaysians that are reading this with considerable disbelief, disgust or any other dis-prefixed word you feel is appropriate, I know that I was utterly gouged. There are some lessons you learn the hard way and this was one of them.

For those that may not understand the gravity of this price, though conversion to Australian dollars may at worst make it seem a tad expensive (approx. $13 AUD), check out the price of other meals further down for a better perspective.

Nasi Kandar, to over simplify the dish, is pretty much rice served with a variety of sides. In my case,  it was deep fried chicken (also known as ayam goreng), mutton curry (hidden from view), a large prawn (which ended up being half the total cost!), some fried meat item which I can’t for the life of me recall, and some mixed vegetables. It was an average tasting meal, as one might expect from a typical food court.

One of the dishes that made my short list (and one I should have gone with in hindsight), was this Curry Noodle Soup from Ipoh Noodle (7.80 RM).

Nasi Lemak with Ayam Goreng (8 RM), as well as a couple of desserts were also ordered.

Ais Kacang (4 RM), a popular Malaysian dessert known locally as ABC (short for Air Batu Campur), I thought was rather nice at the time. Little did I know of what was to come. Incidently, Air Batu Campur translates to “stone water mix”, which makes sense given the dessert is ice, with a melange of various sweet and savoury items mixed in.

The other dessert, simply called Red Ruby (4.20 RM), is likewise an ice-based dessert topped with red-coloured, tapioca flour coated water chestnuts (the red rubies of the dessert); jackfruit, & salted coconut cream.

Yep. Utterly gouged…

Hakka Restaurant, KL

With an over-priced lunch, shopping and some much needed rest back at the hotel seen to, we journey once more into the city to sate our growing appetite. As the evening’s twilight takes its leave and the curtain of night is slowly drawn behind the Petronas Towers, we find ourselves at Restoran Hakka, a restaurant that serves, oddly enough, Hakka-style Chinese food.

Fish, inmates encased in a prison of glass and water, bide their time on dish row; oblivious to the crowds of diners that await the execution of their order.

The order is given, and an unsuspecting catfish meets its demise on the blade of its executioner. Its head is presented on a platter (along with the rest of this tasty morsel), steamed and served with a simple soy-based sauce with ginger, chili and coriander. The River White Whisker Catfish (70 RM/Kg) has a surprisingly firm and springy flesh, but is somewhat mild in taste.

There is also Bitter Gourd (13 RM), which is stir fried with egg, and wasn’t all that bitter.

The tender, fatty and gelatinous pork belly wonder that is the Moi Choy Khao Pork (14 RM), a signature Hakka dish stewed with preserved vegetables in a dark soy that tastes a lot like the stewed Korean side dish jang-jorim (link: Maangchi).

Herbal Chicken (22 RM), a moist, comfort dish of stewed chicken that falls off the bone, is served with an unknown starchy root-like vegetable and a sweet, herbal sauce.

There is also the delightfully spicy sweet Kam Heong Style Prawns (40 RM), stir fried with dried shrimp, minced garlic and curry leaves.

Homemade Hakka Noodles (20 RM), with its delightful chewy texture, smokey breath from the wok and a flavourful sauce without being greasy.

Homemade Tofu (10 RM), made on premises and served with minced prawns, mushrooms, chili & spring onions; is silky in texture and mild in flavour.

Jalan Alor, KL

After a much needed post-dinner stroll around the city, we end up at Jalan Alor for supper; a strip that seems dedicated to the service of food, whether it be in an enclosed restaurant, or an open-air hawker stall.

White plumes, either of mist or fog, descends on the dining public, attempting to hold at bay the evening’s heat. Even at this late hour, it’s still very much sweat-inducing.

The, ahh… “perfume” of durian when entering Jalan Alor is unmistakable. Having yet to have tried one of these fruits in its fresh form, I was far from tempted when considering the cornucopia of supper items that were available.

Don’t let the image fool you. If Billy’s opinion was anything to go by, this Rojak (price unknown) was very far off the mark. Exclamations were made of missing crackers & tofu, as well as insufficient fruit & sauce.

Having only eaten rojak once before during a blogwarming dinner more than a year ago; this salad of sorts, comprising of cucumber, green mango & pineapple in a fishy-salty-sweet dark sauce, seemed to be somewhat lacking. Whether it was due to the memory of my previous experience, or the influence of the high standards of our critical Malaysian ex-pat, I couldn’t say for certain.

Rojak, thankfully, wasn’t the only thing we had for supper.

ABC (4.50 RM), which tasted far superior to the one had earlier in the day, perhaps in part due to the substitution of rose syrup with palm sugar syrup (sorry Karen, I’m with Billy on this one).

Lin Chee Kang (3.50 RM), a herbal flavoured and mildly sweet dessert soup with mixed fruit and jelly pieces.

Chicken and Beef Satays (0.70 RM each), served with a decent tasting mild satay sauce.

Chicken Wings (2.20 RM each), which, aside from a sticky, soy glaze, was otherwise unremarkable.

We make our way back to the hotel, somewhat in a daze (or at least I do). Brought on, I would imagine, by the very feat of pushing our stomach capacities to its very limit. However, this was only Day 1, and we had many more food-filled days ahead of us.

This is going to be interesting…

Note: Address details of all of the above venues to come soon.

Whilst out on a shopping run to Rozelle, something that I find myself doing about once a month due to a number of great purveyors that can be found there, a request was thrown out onto Twitter for good place to stop by for lunch. As often as I shop in Rozelle, I rarely find myself eating there for some reason.

A number of suggestions were thrown around, but one that came up with some degree of frequency was la grande bouffe.

Before I continue, apologies in advance if the photo processing is not up to par. Not working with my standard equipment due to being away on a holiday, so it’s hard to tell if it’s right. Anyhow…

la grande bouffe is a French bistro situated at the southern end of Darling St, on the very outskirts of the Rozelle shopping district. There a very few purveyors down this end, with only Herbie’s Spices, & now The Essential Ingredient, though not at the time of this visit. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was already shopping at Herbie’s, I may never have bothered to venture here.

You see, for some reason whenever the suggestion to visit a French restaurant is bandied around, it always gives me pause. Don’t get me wrong, French food is known to be some of the finest of the world. However, whenever French food comes to my mind, it often comes with the baggage of rich, heavy, formal & expensive. These are generally not the traits I desire from lunch, especially after a large shopping run on a warm day.

Placing my entrenched concerns to one side, I pulled up a seat at one of the street-side tables (mostly for lighting reasons) and requested a menu.

Lunch began with a Latte ($3.20), and a Warm Baguette served with butter ($4).

I’m of the mindset that a good latte can be enjoyed without the need for added sugar to balance out any undesired bitterness. This was one such coffee, with a smooth flavour and that desired buzz that one often seeks in a coffee, good or otherwise.

The baguette is one of the better ones I’ve had in Sydney. A delightfully crunchy crust encases a warm, fluffy centre that melts the butter almost immediately on contact.

Having already broken away from what I guess you could call my status quo, I figured why not go all the way and order something that I would not normally have for lunch, or in this case, order at all.

A warm salad of Sautéed Chicken Liver with Beetroot and Wild Roquette ($15) is placed before me. The salad is a little confronting, as I have a lot of childhood memories of being fed the livers of various animals under considerable duress, for the sake of my health and well being.

After the first bite, all the bad memories came flooding back. The metallic taste. The unpleasant, grainy texture. The subtle gag reflex. Were I to have stopped there however, I would have missed out on the greatness to follow.

The first piece of liver was a small one that was cooked all the way through. The next one, and many subsequent ones afterwards, had a pink centre that melts away like a rich, meaty butter. The roasted beetroot paired very well with the liver, cutting through its richness, whilst cubes of lardon (salt-cured pork fat) had a wonderful flavour to them which serves to season the salad. Despite the richness of the liver, it was lighter meal than I was expecting it to be.

Not only was this a wonderful lunch to cap off a periodical Rozelle shopping run, it also served to chip away at entrenched beliefs as the chicken liver salad was quite good, the atmosphere casual and, though in my mind the baguette is somewhat on the pricey side, the rest of the meal was reasonable in cost.

There’s the Sautéed Calves Liver with Pomme Puree and Balsamic Jus on the lunch menu. I just might have to give that a go after another one of these shopping runs.

la grande bouffe
Shops 1 & 2, 758 Darling St, Rozelle
(02) 9818 4333‎
Breakfast from 7:30am, 7 days
Lunch from 12pm, 7 days
Dinner from 6:30pm, Tues – Sun

View the heart of food: map

Some succulent looking roast pork, huh? It’s been a while since I’ve had roasted pork this good! However, this dish was but a small portion of the food that was available at a post-Christmas gathering of food bloggers that was organised by Richard from Here Comes The Food.

Though, don’t be fooled into thinking that this was just some casual gathering of a few people.

No, no, no…

With up to 21 attendees in total, which includes a few +1′s i.e. partners, this turned out to be something of a special occasion. An occasion where the food ranged from the good, the crazy, and the crazy good.

I begin with the one that, depending on the person, would be classified into any or all of the three categories. This was the audacious, if not outrageous, contribution from Suze, commonly referred to as the Luther burger.

Though you may not know it by name, I’m sure you’re aware of the concept of a Luther burger – a standard burger, in this specific case a bacon cheese burger, with the burger buns being substituted for donut halves. It may not seem like much of a change on balance but the donut “bun” substitution turns something rather pedestrian into something of a legend, a horror, or at the very least a curiosity. Perhaps all three.

For me, this was one of those experiences that I was happy to have at the time but something that I’m unlikely to repeat. I’d learned that day that I do indeed have my limits :)

A variety of tasty sausages from the Ninja. I’d not thought to ask what was contained within but considering how secretive ninjas are, I doubt I’d be able to find out.

Billy’s roast pork was everything that Richard’s wasn’t and visa versa. I don’t mean that in a bad way for either party. Whilst Richard’s pork was rich, gelatenous, sticky and meaty, Billy’s roast pork was firm, sweet, clean tasting with a crunchy crackling that people came back for more often than the pork itself. To complement the subtle flavours of Chinese five spice, a hoisin sauce was served on the side to add another dimension of flavour to this dish.

My contribution, which was literally a last minute thing that I’d come up with that morning (and the reason why I was a couple of hours late) is something that I refer to as Chicken Surprise. The Chicken Surprise was thusly named as the intention of the dish was that you wouldn’t know what you’d be getting until you bit into the ubiquitous crumbed casing.

This dish comprised of a flattened thigh of chicken wrapped around a core of various fillings, which was then coated with panko bread crumbs and then deep fried. The fillings included asparagus, Belgian smoked cheese, a Chicken Kiev like filling with a herbed butter centre wrapped in ham, and one wrapped in prosciutto. There was also a single ball that was packed with as much wasabi as I could find around the house, akin to the legendary wasabi bomb from Wagaya’s sushi roulette. This one I affectionately refer to as the Chicken Nasty Surprised, which apparently wasn’t all that bad after all from what I was told.

Leona’s contribution was some Indian treats purchased from a store in Newtown. Rather tasty and somewhat spicy. Just the way I like my Indian :)

Potato salad by Jacq. Light and clean tasting, this was one of the best potato salads I’ve had during this festive season.

One thing I found odd about potato salads in general is that they seems to be synonymous with Christmas. There wasn’t a single lunch or dinner that I had gone to that didn’t have some version of this dish, often with two.

I’d initially thought that this ham, tomato & cheese foccacia-like bread was purchased from a bakery but I later found out that this was in fact made by the expert hands of Shez.

Some time into lunch, a red can was presented by Billy. This little can was something of legend within Sydney food blogging circles ever since the post on A Table For Two almost a year ago. Though this may look like cat food, this was in fact a tin of whale meat smuggled into the country more than a year ago.

I must confess, this was the second time that I’d had whale. The first time was an unexpected occasion at an izakaya i.e. Japanese pub, in around the Osaka area in Japan (Koshien to be precise). In that case, it was served raw in sashimi form, having a clean flavour similar to tuna but with the look & texture of a slightly chewy beef.

In the case of the tinned variety of whale meat, there was likewise a duality of contrasting textures/flavours. However, in this case it was more like the taste of tinned tuna with the texture of a stewed pork. If you’ve ever had stewed meat out of a can, it’s somewhat akin to that too.

For a first hand account of the experience of whale sashimi and the izakaya in general, look no further than this post on what I guess you can call a precursor to the heart of food. I no longer maintain it so don’t bother leaving a comment there.

Moving on from some of the theatrics of the savoury portion of lunch, this wonderful slice of s’more-inspired marshmallow & chocolate cheesecake, with the toasting of the generous marshmallow topping a la minute via blowtorch, carries over the theatrics into dessert.

As always, Steph presents another wonderfully sweet cake (though not overly so), from its caramelised, slightly crunchy marshmallow cap through to its crumbly biscuit base.

Helen likewise has something of a reputation when it comes to cakes. Well, specifically cupcakes. In this case, she goes with the classic flavour combination of strawberries and balsamic vinegar icing. Strawberry flavoured pop rocks adds something of a theatric element to these fine cupcakes.

Panna cotta topped with fruit encased in fruit jelly (peach if I can recall) was the delightfully refreshing dessert by Jacq.

The aptly named tea-ramisu, is essentially a green tea flavoured tiramisu made by Lisa. Due to food allergies, pistachio nuts that would otherwise have been incorporated into the light & subtle dessert was served on the side.

Shez’s dense & crumbly chocolate fruit pudding, very much in line with Christmas puddings that you see around this time of the year was quite nice and not overly sweet. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the typical theatrical element of the booze-fueled flambé which I was hoping to see. However, the freshly whipped cream, courtesy of a Tupperware whipping flask (for lack of a better term) picked up during a Tupperware party, served as a nice accompaniment.

Another dessert that was serviced by the Tupperware-whipped cream, was this fragrant orange sponge, which was made by Shez’s +1, who like the host, is likewise named Richard.

These Momofuku cookies brought by Teresa, rather than being made from the recipe book from the man behind the well-known restaurant by the same name, was actually from the store in New York, flown over for our enjoyment.

These cookies were quite good and deceptively rich. The cookies were bound together by something that had the texture akin to copha, a vegetable shortening (i.e. fat) used as the binding agent for such treats as chocolate crackles. It makes me wonder how much solidified fats are contained within these cookies.

Towards the evening, Yas & Lex both arrive with their food items. Yas presents a couple of sushi platters, courtesy of the Japanese sushi restaurant Makoto. Lex on the other hand brings along some large prawns stuff with a fail-safe anchovy butter, which were grilled fresh and were a delight to eat. Unfortunately, no pictures to show for it. Sorry folks.

What a fantastic way to end a fun and food-filled year with a sizable portion of the Sydney food blogging community! A huge thanks to Richard for hosting this great party and for the attendees for bringing along such good, crazy & crazy good foods! :)

Join the heart of food Fan Page on Facebook to get access to more photos from this post, as well as photos and videos of other posts that are not featured on the blog.