When in Cusco...

My blog’s normally about street food so this whole Peru section doesn’t really fit that theme very well. But I don’t really care, since this country has a plethora of top restaurant options, at pretty darn good prices. One such example: Incanto (Santa Catalina Angosta 135, Cusco), just off the Plaza de Armas in Cusco. Now fusion ain’t really my thing, but seeing as Peruvian food is already a fusion of many cuisines, I knew this was going to work out just fine.

I went for the squid ink linguine with sautéed prawns in an aji (chilli) sauce – definitely a winner. Spicy yet not overpowering aji, juicy prawns and a strong dose of the sea was evident in the linguine, all components of a quality dish.

Then, my flavour of the month, in the form of lucuma mousse with a pisco and dark chocolate sauce. Rich, earthy and slightly sweet lucuma mousse and the warmth of bitter chocolate = a winning combination.

The Best Char Koay Teow Ever, and more

If I was backpacker visiting Penang for the first time, I would stay around the historical part of Georgetown close to Chulia Street. Why? On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings (correct at the time of writing this), a special talent comes out to cook the best Char Koay Teow ever.

That might sound like a big, enormously bold statement, especially in Penang, the home of this amazing dish. (For those of you not so familiar with Malaysian cuisine, this dish is composed of flat rice noodles, egg, beansprouts, chives, soy, chilli paste, prawns and cockles stir-fried in a fiery wok). But this Chulia St based hawker makes char koay teow using a special touch, by using a traditional charcoal-based flame. It imparts an unbelievably addictive smokeyness which a conventional gas-based flame cannot compete with. Furthermore, all his ingredients are super-fresh, culminating in a treat which can even make the fullest of stomachs feel hungry again (this was another Penang supper after a deliciously enormous dinner).

Chulia St also has another trick up its sleeve; awesome Curry Mee. A flavour-packed, rich, coconutty broth envelopes fresh egg noodles, crunchy bean sprouts and an abundance of seafood make this another flag-bearer of Penang’s embarrassment of culinary riches.

Chendol: pandan jelly noodles in sweet coconutty soup

For people unfamiliar with South East Asian cuisine, particularly Malaysian cuisine, the concept of eating green noodles as a dessert might be slightly offputting. But trust me, having Chendol at the famous stall on Penang road pictured below, and you’ll be in for a treat.

Three main themes run through this dish: slippery, vanilla-esque pandan infused noodles, an icily refreshing coconut soup and sweet, deep red bean goodness. Mix it up, slurp it down; this is one of Asia’s best desserts.

Honey butter cod

CRC is one of those Penang institutions which keeps going and going. It’s always a favourite amongst local Penangites for dinner, and for good reason. It does a number of solid dishes like sweet-n-sour pork ribs, stuffed bean curd amongst others, but there is one dish which it does particularly well: their famous honey-butter cod. It’s a dish I’m currently in the process of reverse-engineering that so I can enjoy its deliciousness at home. Succulent cod, crispy on the outside yet juicy in the middle, lightly coated in a not-overly rich sauce probably amalgamated from butter, honey, soy and rice wine. A Penang classic.

Also pictured below are their prawns fried in an egg batter with curry leaves – which although tasty, could’ve done with a hand-full more curry leaves to intensify the fragrance of this dish.

Food epiphany: Som tam tod (fried papaya salad)

Sometimes, you have a realisation, which leads you to change the very manner in which you approach life itself. In my dictionary, I call those realisations epiphanies. I recently discovered at Koh Lipe’s Khonlay Restaurant (on Walking Street) that you can also have the food version of such realisations: a food epiphany.

What made me have a food epiphany? The dish pictured above, som tam tod (deep fried papaya salad). Why did it make me have an epiphany? Firstly, you would never expect a fried salad to be so good, and thus the extent of its excellence surprised me, even shocked me (but in a good way). Secondly, it was so good that I struggle to put it into words, but let me try. Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside tempura-esque slithers of fried green papaya, whose slight oiliness is cut through by the sour, spicy and sweet sauce on which it lies. Throw in crunchy snake beans, acidic tomatoes, earthy nuts and juicy deep-fried prawns, and you have a dish so good it shakes the very foundation of the old rule-of-thumb that som tam, gai yang and khao mun (som tam, grilled chicken and sticky rice) was always the way to go when eating som tam – well, I must say, after eating som tam tod, that perception has changed – hence, my food epiphany.

My only word of warning about this restaurant is that the service is extremely slow – so come for lunch, or an early or late dinner.

Razor Clams Two Ways

Khonlay Restaurant also knows how to cook seafood very, very well – exemplified by their use of razor clams. Below, you will see these creatures stir fried a la pad krapow – that is, with Thai basil, chilli, fish sauce and a slightly sweet soy. The aniseed hits marry beautifully against the juicy, ocean-sweet razor clams.

Even better than this, in my humble view, were the grilling of these unbelievably tasty sea dwellers on the barbeque in a light curry-based marinade, partnered perfectly with a delightfully heavy-on-the-ginger and garlic sweet chilli dip. 

It’s not just the flesh of the razor clams which will  awaken your taste buds, the smokily sweet juice of the clams of the shell are worth throwing your etiquette out of the window for a quick lick of the inside of the shell here and there. Just 250 Baht for both dishes (half kilo of razor clams), a bargain by any standards.

Simple ingredients, elegant execution

Koh Lipe’s best dinners tend to be of the barbequed type, with Monkey Bar’s being no exception. Here, their unique spicy-and-refreshing (I’m sure there was a hint of lemongrass in there) curry marinade does the trick. When laid atop fresh, succulent squid and charcoal-grilled to perfection, an additictively smokey taste leaves you wanting more.

When laid atop juicy, meaty tuna of the local variety, you have another winning dish.

Not quite as good but nonetheless a tasty treat were their grilled prawns (both xl and normal size).

This dinner, including matchingly refreshing large Chang’s, set us back only 300Baht each. Koh Lipe just kept impressing on the seafood front.