street food

Apr 14, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 55 Comments

French Fry Coated Bacon on a Stick

When Brillat-Savarin said that “the discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star” he perhaps hadn’t spent much of his time near the deep fryer. This dish confers on humanity nothing but moral decline. I present to you french fry coated

Read More
Feb 10, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 8 Comments

“The only reason to move to Sydney would be to kick Bill Granger in his white-panted balls”

Which was how my friend J summarized my decision to move back to Melbourne. I personally have nothing against Bill Granger and he has nothing at all to do with my decision to not move anywhere near him. The other reason to move to Sydney seems that in my absence,

Read More
Feb 07, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 7 Comments

The last ditch

Saturday night market in Little India, Kuala Lumpur If you could choose your last meal in a country, what would it be? It’s a much more concrete question than some imagined last supper: unless you’re on death row or about to commit suicide then chances are you’ll have no power

Read More
Jan 30, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments

Kota Bharu Street Life

Setting up the dried squid stand in downtown Kota Bharu, Malaysia

Read More
Jan 21, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 2 Comments

Petronas Towers from Kampung Baru Night Market

As a casual photographer, there are not to be many moments when I rue the decision not to carry around a full-sized tripod, despite the highest ISO setting on my camera being 400. But this was one of those moments. Kampung Baru’s (poorly lit) Sunday Market runs from around 6pm

Read More
Jan 11, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 2 Comments

The Wok Hei Economy

One of the great mysteries of eating in Penang is the economics of the hawker center. A group of vendors cluster around a kedai kopi, a cafe serving drinks and work almost independently of the cafe. Some pay rent, others are owned by the cafe, some seem to have agglomerated

Read More
Jan 09, 2008 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments

Triangulating Gurney Drive

Searing satay at Gurney Drive Hawker Center. Gurney Drive’s Hawker Center is a roughly triangular lot encircled (entriangled?) by the most diverse set of street food vendors that you’ll find anywhere in Malaysia, alongside the mudflat-facing promenade. The road was named after Sir Henry Gurney, Malaya’s High Commissioner whose brief

Read More
Dec 24, 2007 | Post by: Phil Lees 4 Comments

Assam Laksa: The power of sour

A few years in Southeast Asia has me captivated by sour. I literally can’t get enough tamarind paste. In Cambodia, I’d buy it by the kilo block from the Russian Market and suck the piquant pulp straight from the seeds whenever I felt like an overwhelming sour kick. Lunch without

Read More
Page 3 of 512345