Best and Worst of RTW Eats: Southeast Asia edition
My month in Southeast Asia took me to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Certainly there were highlights in each of these countries, so it was tough deciding but here goes:
The Best
I wasn't expecting much eating at our Luang Prabang hotel Le Bel Air, the first night we stayed. We requested it just a couple hours before eating, and the hotel didn't have a bona fide restaurant. We were to eat by ourselves in the outdoors breakfast dining area (while it was pouring rain). But it turned out to be so atmospheric, our table lit by a single candle. And our dishes had an awesome range of flavors and textures. There was kaipan, dried river grass coated in sesame served with jeow dip; this was crispy and savory. The "Luang Prabang curry" with bamboo shoots, pea eggplant, beef, and leafy greens was spicy and bitter all at the same time - quite nice. The pork and buffalo sausages were perfectly done, with crispy exterior and moist interior. And the green curry with chicken was suitably spicy.
The Worst
The race for "worst in Southeast Asia" was a statistical dead heat among a dozen meals I had in Cambodia, from the ubiquitous and cloyingly sweet and creamy amok, to the entirely forgettable meals in the Angkor temple areas. But the one eating experience that is directionally even worse than the others was one that initially brought me a lot of excitement. After a couple days of lackluster eating in Siem Reap, we went outside to eat breakfast at a street-side stall. Then I noticed a man pushing a food cart in front of us, and I leapt up at the chance to try some street snacks which I'm a big fan of. They looked like Chinese baozi: how can you go wrong with carbs and some sort of filling inside? They're steamed, so you know they're hygienic too.
Wow, someone must have used a lot of brainpower to come up with a filling that combined the taste of metallic gelatin and the mouthfeel of soft boiled knuckles. I think there was onion and bits of pork parts inside, but I can't be too sure.
