Favourite Feasts of South-East Asia

 If you’re anything like me, food is one of the highlights of  travelling to different countries.  So, when I backpacked around  South-East Asia, I was in heaven.  Of course, you have to love spicy  cuisine.  But, aside from the exotic flavours, steamy curries and cheap  street eats, I just love the way people enjoy and create their food! 

I love watching the way a Pad Thai is fried up in front of you in a  wok at the markets and how, on every table in Vietnam, you will find  fresh chilli oil, chilli flakes, hot chilli sauce, fresh lime, peanuts  and leafy salad garnishes -you can mix and match flavours to create the  perfect meal for yourself. I delight in the feasts spread out on floor  mats, where everybody shares, where you can make your own rice paper  rolls and eat until you are full to the brim.  I love how you can sit  out on the street on tiny plastic stools to feast on your Pho. It’s  wonderful to be able to pick up a street eat and ask for a  fruit shake for a mere $2.  I admire the way curries in Thailand can  make you cry because they are so hot and I adore the sticky rice in  Laos, which you roll into balls with your fingers and dip in the  curries. 

Food in South East-Asia makes my mouth water just thinking about it.   Here are some favourite feasts, which I enjoyed time and time again,  during my travels.  And no, I didn’t get sick of any of it.  In fact,  when I got home, I found myself needing to add chilli to everything.  It  is quite addictive! 

Fried Rice

Found all over South-East Asia, fried rice is a staple.  Usually  topped with a fried egg, this meal can be eaten for breakfast, lunch,  dinner or simply an afternoon snack!  It’s also a great vegetarian  option. 

               Fried rice with egg

Pad Thai

This is one of my favourites!  I absolutely loved ordering Pad  Thai from the markets in Bangkok.  The street food is so much fun to  watch, because they make it in front of your very eyes and it is ready  in minutes.  Plus, it’s great value.  Very easy to make vegetarian,  either with egg or tofu as the protein, this meal is the perfect meal,  accompanied by a fruit shake of your choice! 

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Thai Curries

From the spicy red and green curries, to the flavoursome Massaman  curry, these dishes are delicious and can easily be made vegetarian.   Make sure you order plenty of rice, as you will most probably need it.   It was always a risk ordering curry in Thailand, as you would never know  if you were going to cry and run for help, or whether you could enjoy  the flavours heating up your mouth.  Nonetheless, don’t let fear hold  you back! 

Massaman Curry

Vietnamese pancakes

These savoury pancakes were most common in Ho Chi Minh city.  In  fact, I couldn’t find them anywhere else.  I was lucky enough to learn  how to make this dish in the ‘Cyclo Resto’ cooking class. Filled with  veggies, prawns and whatever else you request, this meal is often served  with lettuce and dipping sauce.  You roll up a mouthful of the pancake  in lettuce, dip it in chilli sauce and enjoy the different textures and  flavours, which burst in your mouth! 

My very own Vietnamese pancake

Crispy Whole Fish

Usually baked with lots of herbs and spices, these fish are  delicious!  Be prepared to pick through lots of bones and expect the  fish to arrive whole, eyeball and all! 

Crispy Whole Fish

Rice Paper Rolls

Found all over Asia, my favourite rice paper rolls were Vietnamese.  I  loved learning how to make them – it’s very simple and easy to do back  at home.  You can find rice paper in the local supermarket.  Make sure  you have soy, peanuts, chilli, lime and sugar for a delicious dipping  sauce.  For inside, use rice noodles, lettuce, coriander, basil, carrot,  capsicum and anything else you fancy.  Traditionally, Vietnamese use  pork and prawns as well, though I’m equally as satisfied with the  vegetarian version. 

Rice paper rolls.  Photography: pixabay.com

Spring Rolls

Made on wheat flour rather than rice flour and deep fried in oil,  these delicious snacks are best dipped in chilli sauce and eaten hot.   Personally, I prefer the fresh rice paper rolls, but occasionally, these  crispy morsels hit the spot.  I enjoyed learning how to make spring  rolls on a boat in Halong Bay.  Not a bad spot for a cooking lesson! 

Deep frying spring rolls in a cooking class

Omelette with rice/baguette

This was a very standard breakfast all over Thailand, Vietnam,  Cambodia and Laos.  It’s a bit like our eggs on toast, but you are  always better off to order the baguette, as the toasted bread is usually  a bit dry.  Rice takes some getting used to for breakfast, though I  quite like it for a change.  In Thailand, the rice was often placed in a  cute mould like a teddybear!                   

Mini Pikelets

I found these delightful sweet pikelets in Luang Prabang.  A lady was  making them on a side street and I bought a packet for about 20 cents.   Make sure you let them cool down a little, because when you bite into  the soft dough, they erupt with a delicious custard-like texture inside. 

Mini pikelets

Laos-style baguettes

Surprisingly, baguettes are found all over Vietnam and Laos, an  influence from the French colonial days.  You can almost guarantee a  baguette with your omelette for breakfast, but my absolute favourites  are these fresh baguettes, filled with salads, in Luang Prabang, Laos.   They cost the equivalent of $2 from the street stalls and the  vendors are extremely generous with the fillings!  If you want avocado,  you are likely to find half a huge avocado on the sandwich, along with  all the other ingredients that can possibly fit! 

Laos-style baguette

Banana Pancakes, Thai Style

My friend and I were thrilled when we discovered these delights at a  market in Bangkok.  We watched in awe as the street vendor stretched and  spun the dough with his fingers until it was so thin you could see  through it.  Then, fried up before our very eyes, he cracked on an egg,  adding sliced banana and sugar, before folding it with the spatula until  it resembled a sandwich.  Once golden and crispy, it was sliced  into little squares, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and  sprinkled with extra sugar.  Just delicious! 

In the process of cooking a banana pancake

Papaya Salad

Found all over South-East Asia, the papaya salad is a refreshing  addition to a meal, although it can be super spicy so watch out!  They  often use a lot of fish sauce, so be prepared to ask for none if you  don’t fancy it.  I really enjoyed the papaya salads in Laos, though I  did have one that almost made me cry, it was so hot! 

Papaya salad

Pho

This soup is a staple in Vietnam, largely eaten for breakfast.  The  bowls are huge and the flavour can be altered to your liking by adding  fresh chilli, lime juice, sugar or greens (supplied on the restaurant  tables).  My vegetarian habits slipped quite a lot when I travelled in  Vietnam, as meat seemed to come with nearly every meal.  But I did find a  delicious Vegetarian Pho in Ho Chi Minh city.  On the other hand, we  tried to order a Vegetarian Pho in a remote area of Laos and, despite  our best efforts to say ‘no meat,’  I ended up with a huge bowl full of  many varieties of meat and seafood, some unknown!  I sipped on the  broth, ate the veggies and politely left the rest in the bowl. 

Vegetarian Pho from Vietnam

Sticky Rice

This interesting snack was served up to me in a homestay in the hills  of Sapa.  It was one of my first encounters with sticky rice – it is  a savoury snack, to be apparently enjoyed first thing in the morning,  when the sun is rising over the mountains, the roosters are crowing and  the pigs are snorting around the yard, waiting to be fed!  This  particularly morsel had been fried, so the exterior was crispy.  But,  when I entered Laos, I discovered a whole new world of sticky rice.   Generally, it is served in a little basket next to your main meal.  It  can be black or white.  You roll it into balls with your fingers and dip  it into the different dishes.  Whilst I enjoyed the novelty of sticky  rice, after a month in Laos, it started to feel really gluey in my  stomach and I was happy to return to Thailand for some light and fluffy  steamed rice! 

Black sticky rice

White Rose Dumplings

On my birthday, I treated myself to these pretty dumplings at a  restaurant in Hoi An.  They had a delicate flavour and were the kind of  thing I could have kept eating all day. I don’t think they exist  anywhere else in Vietnam, so make sure you try them if you make it to  the elegant city of Hoi An, in Central Vietnam. 

White Rose dumplings, Hoi An

Bun Cha

A traditional street food in North Vietnam, I tried my first Bun Cha  in Hanoi and was pleasantly surprised.  It consists of meatballs in  broth, with a side of rice noodles, green salads and herbs.  I could not  believe the delicious flavours erupting in my mouth!  Highly  recommended, though it was not a high point in my vegetarian ways. 

Bun Cha

Mystery Gloop

I have no idea what this meal was, but it intrigued me so I had to  try it.  The lady street vendor ladled a dollop of a  porridge-without-oats mixture into a plastic bowl.  I assume it was made  from rice flour mixed with water  (or something similar).  Then, it was  sprinkled with deep fried bread (or some kind of mystery carbohydrate)  and finally topped with something that looked a bit like brown cotton,  but tasted distinctly like cheese.  I can’t say it was the best meal in  the world, but it didn’t taste too bad.  I won’t need the whole bowl  next time though! 

Mystery Gloop

What are some of your favourite dishes from South-East Asia?  Did you ever try something that melted your tastebuds?!