Mack's Chicken Inasal Atbp., Singapore

All right - it's more Filipino food...but this time, at Singapore's Lau Pa Sat Market. I guess I couldn't stay away from that vinegar after all, with these guys offering a spicy one in addition to a regular one. I sure needed it; for some reason, the grilled chicken here was rather greasy, and a good dose of vinegar helped cut right through it.

They had a few other dishes here to choose from too, including longganiza and sisig. But after this greasy chicken, I still needed something sour, and ended up grabbing a lime juice at the drink stall down the way.

Philippines Epilogue: Chichacorn

Mmm...that was awesome! I bought this at a random stall in Manila yesterday afternoon as it looked like it might be pretty good, and indeed it was. Much lighter than American Corn Nuts, this crunchy little snack was another great vehicle for ingesting salt and grease. The garlic flavor sure made it addictive too. Presumably these were incidentally the same corn bits that were mentioned yesterday?

Filipino Pork with Vinegar on SQ

Speaking of vinegar, look at what popped up on SQ's cattle class menu tonight: Filipino grilled pork with vinegar dip! And boy, did these pieces of pork need the vinegar...at least a quarter of each piece of pork was just solid fat. Once dipped in the vinegar though, it went down nicely, so much that I even poured the remaining vinegar over the remaining rice because I enjoyed the sour taste so much. Now I'm actually starting to crave more vinegar-paired food. Who'd have known, especially after that initial reaction to chicken adobo?

C2 Classic Cuisine, Manila, Philippines

This was a completely random pitstop that we came across after having gotten back into the city. Presumably unrelated to the local C2 tea drink, this place (Level 1 Midtown Wing at Robinson's Manila, 466-6387) did a bit of a modern interpretation of local food. I thus don't know how true to form the dishes here were, but there wasn't much of a choice either way as this was our last stop before heading to the airport. I was happy either way to see that they had pata and sisig, two items that I didn't have the chance to get earlier.

I'm glad we did get get them though. The pata, or hog's hoof, was pretty much just as I imagined it: almost schweinshaxe-like, but with a few tough parts that I couldn't quite figure out how to eat. The skin was not the paper-thin version from the other night, but pork skin is delicious no matter what form it's in.

I also got to try the sisig, a little pile of sauteed salty pork bits and onions, which was great, if a bit fatty. I think finally see why there is such an affinity for sour food here now: preservation intentions aside, vinegar provides a much needed distance from all of the rich pork fat. I'm liking it more and more.

An Assortment of Filipino Packaged Goods

Time for a recap of local drinks and snacks from the Philippines. There was certainly no shortage of snacks around here. The Brew Bud chips alone says the attitude about the latter: known as pulutan, many of these things were apparently made to go with beer. I certainly couldn't complain about pork rinds. It was interesting to see a little bit of vinegar included with those little deep fried fish though. At first it seemed a bit weird given my initial reaction to sour food here, but I guess that it isn't that different from drenching fish & chips in malt vinegar either.

Drinks-wise, the Summit Zero Cal above was a flavored carbonated water that I rather enjoyed, although for some reason I kept getting an odd aftertaste with that citrusy Dalandan Fruitsoda. C2 was a green tea drink that was apparently quite popular here, but was a bit too syrupy for my liking. The Cali pineapple drink below was just pineapple-flavored soda.

Finally, Gina was a mango nectar that we heard of some folks hauling back to Singapore by the case-load, so I was quite intrigued. But it just tasted like it sounded: a thick mango nectar. I think I was more amused by the Gina name, which kept conjuring up the speed dating scene from The 40 Year Old Virgin in my head.

A Couple More Filipino Dishes

I've had a couple more random dishes here in the Philippines, the first of which was called pork apritada. Described to me as a stew, I was a bit surprised to find it ending up more like a tangy Chinese-American sweet & sour pork than anything. Well, this one was mildly spicy at least, which made it a bit easier to eat.

I also had something called chicken tinola the other day, which was a clear chicken soup but very heavy on the ginger. It was refreshing, even if it was a bit salty. If there's one thing I've realized over the past few days is that the food is definitely not shy about flavor around here. And lechón aside, I think my favorite of the bunch so far is the tom yam-like pork sinigang soup.

San Miguel Philippines Centennial Edition

San Miguel is of course everywhere in the Philippines, with these little brown bottles commonplace around here. But this afternoon, I noticed a few small words printed on the neck of this bottle that I hadn't seen before: "Philippines Centennial Edition." Seeing how the country gained independence from Spain in 1898, did that mean that this bottle of beer was brewed for consumption in 1998? I can only assume that it was just an old bottle that was re-used, as the beer tasted just fine, and in fact arguably better than some of the stuff that I've had overseas.

Breakfast in the Philippines

Here was my local breakfast this morning: a fixing of chorizo-like sausages and garlic fried rice, among others. The sausages, however, were sweet, as was the slice of pork tocino in the back. I suppose that it was a bit similar to some caramelized char siew, but I'm not a huge fan of sweet things, so this isn't exactly anything that I'll start craving again. Beware of the dragon breath resulting from the garlic fried rice so early in the morning too.

Bistek Tagalog and Pork Sinigang Soup

Looks like the Pilipinos have a variation of beefsteak hotplate too. This sizzling platter was a bit salty, but helped to ease the accompanying plate of white rice into my belly.

I also grabbed a bowl of pork sinigang, a clear tamarind-based soup filled with veggies (a bit like tom yam soup but without the chili peppers). I really enjoyed how puckeringly sour this was, despite the issues that I raised about chicken adobo earlier today.

Filipino Barbecue off the Streets

Unfortunately, the beach area we were staying at here in the Philippines tonight was full of tourist traps serving featuring nearly identical menus. Fortunately, there were a couple of street vendors around, one of which was selling skewered meat on a fire, otherwise simply known as "barbecue" around here. Great - let me grab a quick skewer as a warm-up before dinner!

It was pretty cool: open up those plastic tubs on the side yourself, pick out the various cuts of pork that you like, and toss them on the fire, whereupon the guy bastes them in a sauce and hands them over to you for ten pesos (US$0.25) each. It was a bit on the sweet side for me (a bit reminiscient of Thai skewers), but it was good to find a mild hint of spiciness in this guy's sauce at least.

Chicken Adobo from the Philippines

I don't know much about Filipino food. Aside from the awesome lechón that we had last night, my only exposure to the culture's dishes has been limited to lumpia and balut that my college roommate mentioned from time to time. That, and something called chicken adobo. The phrase was always at the tip of my tongue, but I never really knew what it was until I finally tried it today. And unfortunately I wasn't that huge a fan of it, mainly due to how sour it was.

I mean, I do like sour food, but something about this just didn't sit right with me well enough to say that I liked it and would go for it again. From what I'd read though, I'd better get accustomed to it quickly as vinegar seems to be used quite heavily in dishes around here. I do have a decently long list of other local dishes that I do want to try, and I'll have plenty of chances to do so here in Mindoro for the next few days, even if it means eating from an isolated beach resort's tourist-priced kitchen.

Lydia's Lechón Restaurant, Metro Manila

Nice. This being my first trip to the Philippines, it seemed as if there were an endless number of new things to eat. But there was one thing I had to be sure to get while I was here: lechón, or roasted pig. Sure, one might argue that roast suckling pig in one country is just like it is in any other, right? But unlike the thicker skinned version I had in England just a couple of weeks ago, the skin of this beast was paper thin...and separated from the meat, kinda like crispy Peking Duck. Pair this with a very rich yellow "Java rice" that they had here (551 Service Road, Roxas Boulevard, Baclaran, 851-2987) and this became a very satisfying meal. Yum.

We felt a bit stupid though when we ordered some lechón paksiw as well. We thought that we were trying something new, only to find that this was basically leftover lechón sitting in that sweet liver sauce that we already got on the side with the "fresh" version. Oh well. There's certainly no shortage of other things to try in this country, although frankly I'd be happy eating nothing but that thin pork skin for the rest of the week.

The Problem With SQ's Hindu Meals

I grabbed the Hindu meal on this morning's SQ flight again, loving every bit of the fresh ginger mixed in with the daal plus the pickles and yogurt to boot. The only problem with it all was simply that the portions were really small. I know that it was on an airplane after all, but if you look at the amount of rice there, it was only a third of the heated central tray. Compare that to a proper Indian meal and this little thing barely put a dent into my stomach, which was made all the more frustrating when this thing was so darned tasty. I guess that was a good problem to have.

Unadon from Singapore's Chikuyotei

Chikuyotei was an old Ginza-based unagi shop that we were considering going to on our last run to Tokyo, but did not have the time to make it out to. Something about that name sounded so familiar though, and it dawned upon me later that we had been there before...at their Singapore branch at Ngee Ann City. They were apparently related to Si Bon out on Sentosa too. Really? Well, Si Bon was great, and if Chikuyotei was such the historical legend that it was made out to be, then I figured that this was sure to be a winner to come back to again.

Unfortunately, that probably also built up our expectations too much. I opted for the top-end Special Deluxe Unadon at S$76 (US$54) tonight in the hopes of getting the richest unagi I'd had in my life. Instead, it turned out to be leaner than I had hoped, reminding me a bit more of saltwater-based anago instead. Well, it definitely wasn't bad though, and was still easily edible. This "special deluxe" version that I got also had a pleasant surprise to it: a third slice of eel layered into the rice underneath. Cool.

Lufthansa Business Class Breakfast

Whew! My upgrade request finally came through on this return leg. And it looks like they are still doing their Star Chefs program. I got a bit excited when today's menu featured a black truffle prominently on the cover. While I don't think any of that was to be found in the veal dinner I had at the start of the flight, I was still very happy with all of the cheese provided throughout the meal, including this fresh cold platter for breakfast. It sure beats a lot of those omelettes on United.

A Cheese Sandwich on Lufthansa

Lufthansa gave us a cheese sandwich on today's quick hop from Heathrow. I was surprised that they gave us anything on such a short flight to Frankfurt (especially in economy class), but I wasn't complaining, as I rather enjoyed this thing, including the chocolate and banana flavored muesli bar.

A British Soft Drink Roundup

Time for a roundup of some local drinks from here in the UK. The first one came in a very timely manner as I stumbled through a 24 hour Tesco after a few beers earlier this week, as a product called Head Start appeared "for alcohol consumers." Yep - it was designed for fighting hangovers.

It instructed you to buy two bottles: one for consuming before going to sleep and one upon waking up. That's what I usually do with water anyway, so I dunno if this sports-drink-background formulation really made much of a difference. And the tart taste probably would have been much better had I drank it chilled. But I generally liked it, and it was certainly interesting to see.

Next up were a couple Jamaican drinks that I got when I was down in Brixton. The one on the left was simply grape soda, while the Karribean Kola on the right was a bit more interesting. I couldn't completely place my finger on it, but it didn't taste like cola. It was a bit fruity; almost like cherry soda or something. I think the label said that it actually came from the UK rather than Jamaica itself.

Lastly came a couple of healthier drinks that pretty much combined water with juices. Both were much lighter in taste than I was expecting but nonetheless were refreshing ways to rehydrate after so many nights of drinking.

The Cow Pub & Restaurant, London

One of my favorite things in the world is Western seafood. So when we came here the other night for drinks, I couldn't help but notice all of the cold shellfish platters folks were eating, and I knew that we had to come back (89 Westbourne Park Road, 020-7221-0021). See, this was one of those so-called gastropubs, or pubs serving more upscale food than typical pub fare, and these guys specialized in shellfish. And boy, did I love what they had here.

I grabbed their signature fish stew for lunch today, which was perfect for an alcohol-ridden belly from the night before. It reminded me a bit of San Francisco's cioppino, but was much better with its spices and super fresh seafood. It wasn't exactly cheap at £13.50 (US$26), but if I lived nearby then I would be happy as a clam coming back here for more, including some of those raw platters. I can't stop salivating at the thought of it.

Sights from London's Borough Market

I'm a firm believer that one of the things to do on the road is hit up local markets. And after what I just experienced, the Borough Market in London has easily become my favorite of them all. Everything about this place was right up my alley, with so many vendors selling items like cheese, oysters, and olives. I was practically drooling as I walked down the aisles, especially with all of the cheese samples being handed out and the wonderful aroma of grilled meat in the air.



With that, I could not help but cave in. I grabbed a set of grilled sausages shoved into a lightly toasted bread roll called a bap. This one guy was burning rosemary underneath the bangers, which satiated even this rosemary-hater; the light aroma provided a surprisingly nice accent to those little greasy garlicky sausages. Another guy was selling what he called "mushroom pate" - just think of minced mushrooms spread across bread and you'll get the idea. Man, I could spend forever in this market.

The Rock & Sole Plaice, London

This one was a bit of a head-scratcher. A number of comments that I saw online bashed this fish & chips shop for having bad service and food...and a listing in some travel guides made me worry that this was a tourist trap too. Yet when I walked by earlier in the day around noon, the food looked and smelled great, and there was a huge line forming outside. I thus figured that maybe those online comments were totally wrong, so I came on down in the afternoon (47 Endell Street, 020-7836-3785) to see for myself.

Unfortunately, the comments were largely right. The batter was stiff and thick; almost to the point where it was like the Colonel's fried chicken. The chips were done way too hard too, making it taste like cardboard. I thought maybe they intentionally did it that way to help offset any sogginess resulting from a good vinegar dousing and paper wrapping process when ordered to go. But I was eating on-site, and I just didn't like it. At least the fish was fresh...and there were quite a few other selections of fish for your choosing, some of which looked pretty good. But by and large, this is a place that I probably won't miss.

St. John Bar & Restaurant, London

Murphy's Law prevailed today. I was so looking forward to trying this place's famous bone marrow (26 St John Street, 020-7251-0848). But when I arrived for a late lunch, they had sold out already. Crap! Resigned, I nearly gave up and started to look for another lunch venue. Fortunately, I slapped myself out of it before it was too late. This *was* number 16 on Restaurant Magazine's Top 50 list after all, so it was likely that anything else there had to be good too (these guys specialize in eating every single part of the pig - "nose to tail eating," as they call it).

Indeed, it was amazing. All I grabbed was a small starter of the cold Middlewhite pork at the bar to go with my beer, but my eyes lit up with glee at the first bite. The meat was just bursting in a smoky roasted pork taste, all with a crispy layer of crackling to boot. I didn't even bother with that little raisin chutney on the side, although it did provide a nice tart counterpoint to the pork fat when needed. While I didn't get a full meal here today, this place is definitely one that I'm coming back for on my next trip out here...and early enough to grab the bone marrow next time!

Jamaican Curry Lamb from Brixton

I went out to Brixton Market today, as I was told that it had a bit of an Afro-Carribbean focus. It turned out to be less interesting than I had hoped: a number of butchers, fishmongers, and vegetable vendors, but not much more. At least there was one Jamaican food stall. It didn't have any jerk chicken ready this morning, but that turned out to be a good thing, as it forced me to try something different: the curry lamb.

But how could curry lamb be that different, especially for someone living in Singapore, of all places? While curry lamb was apparently brought over to Jamaica by Indian migrants, it of course was adapted locally. And what a wonderful thing this turned out to be. It was much richer than it appeared, in part due to some bright yellow layer of oil sitting on top, but I think the rice and beans were cooked in coconut milk or something. The resulting dish was something so rich and tasty that I inhaled this thing in seconds. Nice one, even after having eaten so many curry-related things this week already.

A Late Night Kebab in London

Ugh. That was nasty. I passed by a late night kebab shop on my way back to the hotel tonight, thinking that all kebabs in Europe would match my post-drinking expectations. But this one was dry, and their limited selection of sauces didn't help either. I didn't even bother finishing it. I'm sure that there are better shops out there - I was just unlucky to hit a total dud.

Vindaloo from Aladin, Brick Lane, London

After enduring a painfully traffic-clogged ride in from Luton airport this morning, the very first thing I wanted to do was to fill my empty stomach with the wonders of that adored English dish: vindaloo. So I made my way down to Brick Lane and picked these guys toward the end (132 Brick Lane, 020-7247-8210). I dunno if the photo of Prince Charles in the window made it a tourist trap or not, but I took comfort in the fact that I was really after the scorching hot Anglified version after all.

Anyway, this fiery stuff hit the spot. The heat didn't necessarily strike right away, but it did build itself up to the point where it made my belly warm and small beads of sweat started to form on my forehead. I was quite surprised to catch myself panting mildly too. It might have been a bit odd to start a day with this spicy red concoction rather than ending it after some drinks, but the two plates of white rice that I needed to facilitate its ingestion did satiate the hunger pangs that were killing me all morning.

Those two plates of rice unfortunately also prevented me from trying something else that every shop on this street was offering: a Balti, whose main selling point was the iron pot that the curry sat in. Now that I look at it, I should have tried a Phaal too, another local invention that is supposed to be even spicier than vindaloo. Really? My stomach would love to give it a shot.

A German Soft Drink Roundup

Time for another local drink roundup. Neither of these were particularly memorable for me. The apple-flavored Lift drink on the right was rather watered down compared to Taiwan's Apple Sidra or Singapore's China Apple. Similarly, the orange flavored cola on the left really didn't have much of an orange flavor at all. Oh well.

One Happy Potato Soup from Berlin

One couldn't help but chuckle at what had to have been one of the most phallic presentations of food that I'd ever seen. This was supposed to be a local potato soup. I don't know if it usually comes with a sausage standing upright like that or not, but at least it tasted fine.

BTW, the name of the restaurant was Diekmann (5 Alte Potsdamer Strasse, 2529-7524), contrary to what it might look like at a quick glance, especially in the context of the photo.

A Doner Kebab from Berlin's Hasir

Whoa - that was unexpected. Seeking a post-drinking kebab from the streets of Berlin, I made my way to one of the outlets of Hasir (10 Massenstrasse, 215-6060), which was apparently one of the originators of the handheld kebab back in the day. But what I got instead was a plate with all of the ingredients laid out and sauces on the side. I guess this was meant to be a DIY product, eh?

It was still good, especially with the crispy shavings of meat (almost carnitas-like). I didn't bother trying to assemble it into one of those things with the bread though...I just ate it right off the plate. Maybe next time I should look for one of those kebab stands rather than the proper sit-down place that this was.

Prater Biergarten, Berlin

I swear - I'm not some psychotic Bourdain groupie trying to go everywhere that he goes. But this place (7-9 Kastanienallee, 448-5688) was right down the street from Konnopke's Imbiss, and it was definitely hard not to go get a beer in today's blazing summer heat. Besides, they are only open from April to September, so it was a bit of a rare opportunity.

I got there a bit too early in the day - before they started serving proper food, but I did manage to get a pretzel along with a couple of beers. Unfortunately, I've never really liked the bitterness of German beers, and both the pilsner and dark beers that I had today further reinforced my downbeat opinion of it. But I definitely wanted to come check out a Biergarten with all of the big outdoor benches. It wasn't exactly Clark W. Griswold in the Lederhosen (and I was a bit surprised to see them using plastic cups), but it was nice to kick back outside in the sun with a beer tap nearby.

Getting to the Bottom of Berlin's Currywurst

Currywurst was a local Berlin dish that I never quite understood on my last trip here. It was just a fried sausage covered in ketchup and curry powder, right? So when I saw this place called Eckert's a few doors down from Rogacki selling this stuff, I stopped to give it another chance. But even on this second time, I still couldn't figure out what the big deal was.

That was, until I went to Konnopke's Imbiss (44 Schoenhauser Allee, 442-7765) later this afternoon...the same place that Bourdain went to. This one was a bit different. The skin was crispier, and the ketchup was a bit spicier, even if they didn't use as much curry powder on top. Yeah, I can see why this was a bit more interesting. Was it anything that I will crave? No, but I guess it was better than a commonplace hot dog off the streets of the US.

Epilogue: I had the chance to eat this stuff again just 24 hours later, but with full control of the curry powder this time. I basically loaded up on the stuff, and the spicyness that resulted from it was finally the punch that I was looking for. Now I know. The trick is to get them to make it as spicy as can be.

White Asparagus from Rogacki, Berlin

It's white asparagus season in Germany, so I made sure to grab some here at Rogacki in Berlin today (145 Wilmersdorfer Strasse, 343-825-0). I'm still not sure if I understand what the big deal is about these things though. Sure, it was a bit more tender and sweeter than the usual green asparagus, but they lacked that signature asparagus taste that I love so much (in fact, a few of these stems were a bit bitter toward the base). My super-thick butter-topped serving today came with a side of potatoes, which filled me right up, all without necessarily putting a smile on my face. And yes, these things still gave me asparagus pee.

I was also a bit puzzled as to why Bourdain loved this place so much in that Berlin episode. Sure, it was a visually cool deli - there were so many counters around that I practically got lost trying to figure it out (no one spoke English, so I had to rely on my broken high school German and some finger pointing and nodding). But the food just wasn't a huge hit with me. I tried some of that headcheese stuff and it tasted like it looked: small cuts of meat all held together by a clear gelatin. Maybe I needed to try more things here - there was definitely no shortage of selection.

Pretzels at the LH Lounge in Frankfurt

You know you've reached Germany when the lounge has a huge pile of pretzels and eggs waiting there for you. I didn't even eat one...it was just interesting to see, that's all.

An Economy Class Meal on Lufthansa

The cattle class selections on LH tonight were "fish" or "duck." I could smell the stench of the fish from a mile away, so I opted for the duck instead. Being on a run to Europe, the word "duck" conjured up thoughts of duck confit or something. So I was a bit surprised when chopsticks were handed out; this was Cantonese duck instead! It actually tasted a little better than I thought it would, and I liked the tandoori chicken and dill cucumber salad on the side too. Too bad my upgrade request didn't go through though...and on a long haul flight on a plane without seatback screens.

Les Bouchons Restaurant, Ann Siang Road

Man, I wish I had known about this place earlier (7 Ann Siang Road, 6423-0737). It was pretty cool: a little unpretentious French place specializing in steak frites, and not much more. All they had was a one-sided menu centered around a selection of meat dishes, most of which were uniformly priced at S$30.80 (US$22) complete with a salad and unlimited servings of fries.

I opted for the ribeye, which looked whimpy-thin but went into my belly rather easily, especially with that butter on top fueling the taste. The melted butter went conveniently with my fries too, which were done - to my surprise - in that fresh and spongy In-N-Out Burger style, albeit seasoned and cut more thickly. A selection of sauces sat on the side should you so desire, including mustard, horseradish, and Bearnaise.

OK, they did have a few starters and desserts on the menu. I grabbed an order of escargot, mainly because I had heard that this place was related to L'Angelus around the corner, and I had very fond memories of those crouton-topped snails there. So I was a bit bummed to find they put them all into a small iron pan here instead.

But I'm not complaining. I loved how simple and unpretentious everything was here, and will gladly return. I can only wonder if that two-person cote de boeuf is worth coming for or not...it sure looked good at the neighboring table.

Negi Oroshi Katsu from Yu Sai Shoku

It looks like the folks at Ichiban Tei have set up shop at Tomton's old Liang Court location (177 River Valley Road #B1-50, 6338-0393). And in Ichiban Tei-like fashion, they dump at least three or four gigantic laminated menus on your table as if they were all from separate restaurants. Fortunately, one of those menus was new to me, and it specialized in tonkatsu.

One thing in particular on that menu caught my eye: the negi oroshi katsu. There was no way that this daikon and scallion lover was going to refuse anything loaded up like that, even if it made the katsu coating a bit soggy. Heck, I probably could have eaten the daikon straight without the pork; I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the latter anyway.

Margarita's Restaurant at Dempsey Hill

Here's an updated photo from Margarita's, although this time at their outlet at Singapore's Dempsey Hill (11 Dempsey Road #01-19, 6471-3228). I guess that I didn't mind the food as much as I thought I would, but it looks like they were still doing that pickled jalapeno thing, not to mention the sour cream drizzle that annoys me so much. And despite the high prices that they charge for food, they still don't take American Express.