Barbeque Nation, India

The name of this nationwide chain may not sound very Indian. Nor does its tagline of "The World on a Grill" lend much belief in the idea that this is local. But in between the Korean BBQ-like pit in the middle of each table and the mini churrasco-like skewers were an assortment of smoky aromatic Indian kebabs, all of which kept coming out until you lowered this little flag on your table to signal to stop. Cool.

And therein lay the problem. I liked the kebabs so much that we kept them coming, only to realize later that these were only starters! I was nearly full when the attention then switched to the main courses laid out in a buffet spread. Well, I wasn't really in the mood for too much curry and rice anyway, so it was good to have loaded up on the kebabs instead. But I'll pace myself a bit better next time.

Checking Out McDonald's India

Going to global fast food chains while on the road is not a typical thing for me. But in India, McDonald's was a destination. Why? Well, they don't serve beef, and I wanted to see what McDonald's would be like as a result.

Just as I had heard, the menu was divided into a green menu that featured vegetarian items and a red menu that featured fish and chicken. Nope, there was no Big Mac nor Quarter Pounder, but there was a Chicken Maharaja Mac, which was effectively a Big Mac but featured a couple of minced chicken patties. I can only assume that the pinkish hue of the meat came from the spices used, but this just didn't do it for me.

So I then veered toward the vegetarian menu, opting for what was amusingly named the Veg Surprise. It was a surprise all right - surprisingly small. It was pretty much the vegetarian equivalent of the basic hamburger at McDonald's (i.e., the cheap one that goes into Happy Meals). Taste-wise, I was hoping that perhaps it would have the explosive bang of wada pav, but instead this was dry and lifeless. Well, at least I satiated my curiosity about McDonald's India. I won't be going back though, especially when there is so much street food around instead.

Veda Restaurant, New Delhi

The photo here may seem very puzzling given that it looks like just a few scraps of leftover salad on a plate. But these little things brought so much joy to my mouth that I had to take a photo, even if the restaurant was so dimly lit that it made the shot look horrible.

See, this wasn't a salad. These were leaves of spinach individually fried into crunchy leaves and topped with yogurt and tamarind to effectively make this a chaat of sorts. This was one of the signature dishes of Veda (H 27, Outer Circle, Connaught Circus, 41513535), a North Indian place whose chef was behind a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York.

Other items that we got were pleasantly satisfying too, including some little deep fried fish filets as well as crispy thin slivers of seasoned ladyfingers, among others. Granted, the daal still couldn't beat Bukhara's, but this place was good enough that I'd easily come back again.

An Indian Meal on the New SQ Business Class

Cool. After having flown on planes with the old SQ seats last month, I finally got one of the 777-300ER's that had been outfitted with the new seats this time. So I took advantage of this opportunity to burn 50,000 miles on a one-way upgrade into the new business class...yes, the one where the seat was so wide that it looked like you could almost fit two people into it.

Only today did I realize why it was so wide: length-wise you couldn't really extend your legs into a flat position by pointing forward. Instead, you had to sit diagonally, which effectively made this a herringbone layout except that it didn't feel as claustrophobic as Air Canada's Executive First Suite. But since you could orient yourself toward the front of the plane when sitting up straight, you didn't have to take off and land in a sideways position. It was the best of both worlds, I suppose. (This may sound rather silly, but the lavatories were also finally the way a bathroom should be, with a deep sink, automatic faucets, and pedal-operated wastebins.)

And how about the food? Tonight's main course featured a creation from Sanjeev Kapoor, who is apparently a celebrity chef from Mumbai. Normally I don't like paneer, but this was tasty enough that I gobbled it up with ease. It still suffered from the same problem that I have with Indian food in economy class though: not enough rice!

Katsuodon from Tampopo Singapore

Tampopo has moved upstairs to #01-23 now that Yusaishoku has taken its old basement location at Liang Court. And I'm liking the new one upstairs. Not only did they have this special bonito bowl but a huge menu with so many specials that it would take forever to come try them all. We'll be coming back for more. And yes, they still had a Tomton menu to pick from if you so chose.

A Teochew-Style Steamed Fish

Here's a Teochew-style fish from...well, the Teochew Cuisine Restaurant in Singapore. I love this style of steamed fish, as the tomatoes, pickled veggies, and plums produce a mildly sour broth that does not overpower the naturally delicate taste of the fish itself. The light flavor nicely complemented the shiitake mushrooms and tofu garnishes on the side too.

Now, they provided a number of sauces to go with the fish here, consisting of a variety of vinegar, ginger, chili, or salted bean concoctions. But I was really here for the thin broth that the fish sat in, slurping it all up like a soup. I just need to remember to drink it more quickly next time; waiting until I'm done with the fish first just meant that the broth got cold. Either that or just go to a place that puts the fish on a burner instead.

Sosis by Shiraz at Singapore's Clarke Quay

It looks like Shiraz has been expanding. I've been pretty disappointed in the whimpy little kebabs sold at Shiraz Mazzeh, the late night takeout stand across from the proper Shiraz restaurant. So I was surprised to see that they had started a sausage stand just around the corner (Block D #01-14).

Taking its name from the Bahasa word for sausage, this place offered a selection of weiners ranging from chorizo to debreziner, all to be complemented with a number of condiments and sauces. My choice of chorizo with curry sauce might have been a bit odd, but at such a late hour, it's not like it really mattered anyway. The salty greasy bite of it all more or less fulfilled its purpose.

Wanton Soup in SQ First Class

This was the first class meal on SQ's redeye flight back tonight. Is it just me, or does it seem like the main thing that distinguishes first class meals from the rest of the plane is soup? At least, I've always tended to notice soup being served on those few times that I have flown in first class (no, instant noodles don't count). This one couldn't have come at a better time though given all of the Chinese alcohol stting in my belly from dinner.

What did strike me as odd though was these first class seats. I pretty much knew that I was going to get the old school first class seats, but these seemed to be one generation further back than the one I got on the way up. The seats didn't lie flat and in fact still featured a tiny little non-VOD screen. It didn't really matter too much in the end as I completely passed out after having finished the meal, but I just didn't even know that these old seats even existed.

Xie Lao Song, Beijing

My local colleague told me that one huge thing that has been popping up in Beijing lately has been restaurants specializing in ma la xiang guo, or literally "numbingly spicy fragrant pot." I wasn't quite sure what to expect: he mentioned something about duck heads and frogs in a pot with Sichuan spices. So I was a bit surprised when this basically turned out to be like a large version of Shanghai's Chicken Pot.

Basically one pre-selects ingredients from the menu (crab is apparently quite popular, and you can add other stuff like Spam too), after which they cook it all for you in the back before bringing it out in a big pot. I had quite a bit of trouble eating those duck heads pictured above given all of the bones involved, while the frog meat was also a bit of a challenge for the same reason. It was also a bit frustrating trying to get your hands on something tangible in the pot as everything was chopped up into a big sloppy mess, but the salty peppercorn-filled mixture was still tasty. It got much better for me after they poured soup into it and turned on the gas burner underneath.

One odd thing that my colleague ordered on the side were some cold cabbage rolls with a thick layer of wasabi spread across the top. It tasted just like it sounded: a bit weird, but nonetheless something that apparently is a Beijing thing. And of course, he had to bust out a copious amount of Chinese jing jiu alcohol, which still tasted a bit like watermelon Jolly Ranchers to me. I can't read the name of the Chinese address but the phone number was 010-64238422.

Three Guizhou Men, Beijing

An old friend of mine in Beijing loves this place, and he insisted on coming down here tonight. Having now expanded to a number of branches across the city, these guys specialize in food from the Chinese province of Guizhou, which borders Sichuan and thus is similar in that the food is spicy. Unlike Sichuan food though, it does not prominently feature those numbing peppercorns. The food tends to skew mildly sour instead.

And that made it all really delicious. I enjoyed everything that we had tonight, including a cold spicy noodle starter and a fish that looked deceivingly like it was covered in a Thai sweet-and-sour sauce but was not sweet at all, which made it all the better for me. The ribs in the photo above just crumbled off the bone, and with all of those savory seasonings as an added bonus. I could see why he likes this place so much - yes, it's worth coming back to.

Air China Economy Class Lunch

This was the domestic economy class meal on Air China today. It actually wasn't as bad as it looked, as the chicken was salty and moist enough that it helped to make the rice ingestion easy. But it's not exactly anything that I am going to miss either.

A Late Night Bowl of Soup in Shanghai

I don't really know what this was. But after a number of drinks tonight, my stomach was craving some soup, and this stall's late night noodles on Wujiang Road fit the bill. The broth was light yet full of savory flavor, all going nicely with the rice noodles, deep fried tofu, and chili pepper paste on the side. I wasn't in much of a mood to eat those blood cakes though.

Epilogue: I just found out that this was called lao ya tang, or literally "old duck soup." I'm not sure what it was supposed to taste like, but if the broth was duck-based, then that explains why it was so tasty.