Monday, September 11, 2006

Food

One of the hardest things about returning to Japan is the food. I have been eating extremely well for three weeks, with lots of variety and styles of cooking (Chinese, Indian, Malay), and suddenly I'm back here where the food is bland and expensive. Why is it that Chinese food in Malaysia can be ten times more tasty for a tenth of the price of 'good' Chinese food in Japan? And where is my Nasi Kandar?

Looking at this picture is making me hungry.

6 comments:

potentilla said...

You could do some cooking? Or are the ingredients to hard to track down? There are quite a lot of Slothful Asian recipes on my website - if you tell me which ingredients you really can't get, I could see if I can think of alternatives.

I was going to Hong Kong and Kota Kinabalu at the end of October, now almost certainly off because of medical stuff. I'm sorry not to be going to see my sister and niece and nephew and bro-in-law, but pretty much equally as sorry to be going to miss Man Wah (HK Mandarin Oriental) and various Thai restaurants in Sai Kung and the street food in KK and the Indian restaurant at the resport hotel we wre going to. Sigh.

Badaunt said...

I sympathize DEEPLY about your trip being (probably) called off.

My problem is not so much that I can't cook the food (I'm not a great cook, but I do try sometimes, and not always unsuccessfully), but that I managed to get used to eating about eight times a day, and it was all wonderfully varied and interesting and tasty - and cheap. Today I made Bifun (or Mee Hoon, or however you spell it) and it was pretty good, but then in a couple of hours I had a hankering for roti canai, or maybe some other sort of Indian food, and perhaps some fruit, but for Indian food I'd have to go shopping again, and cook again, and fruit here is SO expensive...

I don't want to spend all day cooking. I want to spend all day eating! And I miss the fruit...

Pkchukiss said...

Indeed, fruits are in abundance in south-east asia. Especially when you count the ones that come from the orchards in neighbouring Thailand, Vietnam, or locally grown fruits. Durain is a must-try!

Badaunt said...

I tried Durian on my first trip to Malaysia, thank you very much. :-)

(The taste was OK. The aftertaste was SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY.)

Artistic Soul said...

Oh I am SO with you!! I had such a hard time with food in Japan. A person can only eat sushi so often - and although it is quite tasty, it gets old quickly!

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

Aw. Too bad. I suppose it is possible to get tired of sushi.