We are alleged to have a cover story, on a Bangkok market and neighborhood that we really truly love, in today's Wall Street Journal Asia 'Weekend Journal.'
As this post goes up I'm en route to San Francisco. If anyone can confirm and provide a link, I'll add it once I've touched down.
Update: Find the article, on Bangkok's Nang Leong market, here. (Thanks to Chuck and Cupcake for the link.)
Back in January I quietly added to our sidebar a link to Dave's photography website. Now that it's about 95% there we thought we'd put it out there. If you hop over (hide your computer's menu bar and take it to full screen - yes we know some scrolling is required) you'll see food but not only food, and some images you've seen before but many you haven't.
Dave's still fiddling with the galleries - there are images to add and some to remove yet - so if any particularly appeal, or don't, feel free to let Dave know, directly or via comments here.
Thanks.
'Robyn!' Amy puts her hands on her hips and fake-frowns at me. 'Why'd you come so late!?'
Amy works for Pak Din, who mans the grill at his stall in the Lake Gardens. When it comes to ikan bakar (barbecued fish) Pak Din has few peers. Arrive after lunch and you'll find slim fish pickings; his stall's daily array of delicious curries, sambals, and vegetables is also likely to be depleted. Which explains Amy's consternation when we stroll in at 2:45p.
But this day we've come not for ikan bakar, but for another, less widely known Pak Din specialty: corn fritters. They're available weekday afternoons only, for just one hour. I've had the pleasure, but Dave - a bit of a corn obsessive - has not.
'Ah, fritters!' Amy brightens, then disappears out back of the stall and returns with three plates, which she lays on our table. 'Which do you like for pictures?' she asks. She knows us well by now.
After an unusually long wait (someone had called ahead to place an order for one hundred fritters) Amy emerges bearing a a mound of what appear to be jade and gold-flecked clouds. One bite confirms that these fritters are possibly the most artfully crafted deep-fried item on earth: barely a hint of grease, impossibly light, chewy and crispy at the same time. Studded with corn kernels (that's Asian corn, which is older, starchier, and less sweet than - but every bit as flavorful as - the varieties of corn eaten off the cob in the States), and bits of Chinese celery and red onion, and encased in a lacy armor of browned shallot shreds, they're impossible to resist. Even for a deep-fry-phobe like me.
The fritters are served with a sweet-hot dipping sauce, which Dave and I go hot and cold on. It's likeably spicy, but the main event is so scrumptious in and of itself that a dab of sauce seems gilding the lily. In the end we eat most naked (the fritters, not us).
We're not the only ones enjoying a mid-afternoon snack - several folks at tables around us are tackling plates heaped as high as ours, all by themselves. Pak Din's fritters are worth a drive across town. They merit putting cholesterol and calorie concerns out of mind for at least half an hour. And they definately justify playing hooky.
Ikan Bakar Pak Din, Tanglin Food Court, Jalan Cenderasari, Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur. Fritters are sold 230-330p, Mon-Fri (closed public holidays). Four fritters for one ringgit.
I'm heading back to the States later this week.
While it will be great to see family and friends, smell that sharp San Francisco air (I'm hoping for fog), return to Manhattan (which Dave and I left 18 years ago - haven't been back since!), and eat fresh flour tortillas wrapped around New Mexican goat cheese and roasted green chilies while taking in the view from my parents' porch, there are a few things about this trip that I'm really dreading. Intra-US air travel, for one, driving on the wrong side of the road for the other, and - most of all - being without Malaysian food for 21 days. I've thought about trying to sneak in some sambal belacan to see me through, but I know I'd be sniffed out by an SFO security beagle in seconds.
So, I'm bulking up on Malaysian flavors before I leave. Saturday afternoon it was assam laksa which, for me, is more quintessentially Malaysian even than char koay teow and nasi lemak. There's something about assam laksa's sourness tempered by characteristically Malaysian sweetness, and the combination of intensely fish-flavored broth with the freshness of mint leaves, pineapple, and cucumber, that tell me I'm not in Thailand or Indonesia or Vietnam or the Philippines, but firmly on terra firma Malaysia. Assam laksa is also truly pedas (chili hot). I know the scuttlebutt is that Malaysian food is sooooo spicy, but I really don't find it so. Assam laksa is more the delicious exception to the rule than an accurate indicator of the overall spiciness of this country's cuisine.
This bowlful was had for lunch from a stall on Madras Lane, inside the Chinatown (Petaling Street) wet market. It's a good version, though I generally prefer my assam laksa soup to be thicker with fish flakes. The addition of chunks of canned sardine (yes, canned) is a nice touch and the sambal (you'll need to ask for it if you don't look like a Malaysian) is truly fiery. In two weeks I will so be pining for this lunch.
Assam laksa stall, Madras Lane, KL Chinatown. 830a-3pm, closed Monday. Note: it's the last stall in the row, directly across from the barley teh stall. Note also that vendors in this market are proprietary about seats - be sure to sit in the section of the vendor from whom you've ordered.
