Prawn foie gras

Overall, the Sicilian red prawn (gamberi rossi) is still my favourite prawn of all time. But the river prawn, especially the big ones found in Thailand and Myanmar, are not too far off, especially when it comes to what's inside the head. The Sicilian red prawn's head is sweeter and has a more intense prawn flavour, whilst the river prawn's head fat is creamier and more comforting, almost like crustacean foie gras.

 In Bangkok you can find giant river prawns at various locations throughout the city, but at P'Aor, you can get them with a prawn-fat enriched tom yum noodle soup. Flavourful and aromatic, sweet and sour, the soup of this bowl of noodles is incredibly addictive. I did expect it to be a tad more spicy, though that would be my only criticism.

Also highly recommended is the river prawn with prawn fat-infused egg on rice. A really ingenious creation – the oily goodness inside the head is used to scramble eggs which is then dumped in a big river prawn and steamed rice. In fact, if the river prawn wasn't there, I would be perfectly happy eating eggy, prawny rice. Damn good.

But then again, all is so much better with the giant river prawn, especially when you scoop out the foie gras-esque head fat. Here is a blurry picture of this amazing substance:

P'Aor's drinks are not too bad either; I washed down this feast with some refreshing roselle flower juice.

Price: 100 – 150 baht per person (2 people sharing 3 dishes and a drink each)

P'Aor

68/51 Soi Petchaburi 5, Between Soi 5 – 7, Phaya Thai, Ratchathewi, Bangkok

Phone: 026129013

Open Tues – Sun 10am to 10pm. Best to go during lunch before all the river prawns are eaten up

Not only for ramen

In many big cities around the world, when people think of pig trotters and asian food, they think tonkotsu ramen. And for good reason, it is up there with Penang Hokkien Mee as one of my favourite noodle soups.

But let's step away from the world of soup-noodle slurping. There is another way to eat pig's trotters – that is, slowly braised for aeons in soy and spices and served over rice with pickled veggies. Chiang Mai is known for this dish but a very good version is available in Bangkok in the foodie hotspot of Bang Rak, at Khao Kha Mu Trok Sung.

I really, really like how they cook this dish here. The rich, gelatinous trotter balances perfectly with the fleshy leg meat (make sure you order this combination), and all this richness is cut through with pickled vegetables and washed down with some homely radish soup. The sauce is light and not too salty, and complements the pork flavour rather than overpowering it. Dangerously addictive, and dangerously cheap.

Price: See prices in the picture

Khao Kha Mu Trok Sung

106/5 Charoen Wiang Road

Phone: +6622354930

Open: Mon – Sat, 10:30am – 7.30pm

Lazy man's crab

I love sweet, juicy crab meat. The act of smashing through the arthropod's armour and retrieving the meaty flesh within has to be one of the most rewarding gastronomic activities known to man. As much as I love this act, there are some days when I am feeling a bit lazy and wish the crab meat would just come to me.

And at Krua Apsorn, it can come to you. We opted for the crab meat cooked with yellow curry powder, which was pretty sensational. Sweet, delicate, juicy crab meat married beautifully with the subtle spice of the curry-based sauce; an extremely well balanced combination of flavours and textures.

The kingfish and green mango salad is also very good too; meaty-on-the-inside crisp on the outside kingfish, crunchy green mango slithers harmonised by a sweet, spicy and sour fish sauce dressing. My only criticism of this dish is that the kingfish was sliced too thickly, and thus as a result there was insufficient green mango dressing to go with all the meaty flesh.

Dessert at Krua Apsorn is pretty simple, yet simply stellar. Coconut sorbet might not sound like much, but when it is made from the juice and flesh of incredibly refreshing young coconut, it is pretty hard to beat.

Price: Around 300-350 Baht per person incl drinks

Krua Apsorn

Samsen 1 Alley, Wat Sam Phraya, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200

Open: Mon – Sun 9am - 8pm

How to eat a pig

Babi guling. A royally delicious dish, a must for any pork lover. A whole pig stuffed with an array of aromatics including lemongrass, coriander seeds, turmeric, pepper (recipes vary from restaurant to restaurant), and spit roasted. The result: not just juicy flesh and an unbelievably crunchy skin, but the every inch of meat and offal are all used to create a myriad of delicious elements which sum up to create a truly godly dish.

Now, babi guling was originally intended as a celebratory dish but the advent and spread of tourism throughout this island has meant that this dish is available year-around. Rarely does tourism do good things for local food, but in this case, I approve.

In this article, I'm gonna recommend two places which are both state-of-the-babi-art, in my view. I'll start with Babi Guling Sanur. As a hungry diver on my way to catch the ferry from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan, I had to make a pitstop at this restaurant to pickup a portion for takeaway.

This was my first ever babi guling, but I knew from my research that this was meant to be one of the best, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Crunchy skin (could be a bit crunchier or more glass like in my view), moist meat permeated with turmeric and lemongrass, pork satay brimming with caramelised lemongrass overtones (see my Vietnam posts to understand more about why I like this pork and lemongrass combination so much), crunchy shredded intestines dotted with tiny hits of fiery chili, a fatty sausage, chicharron, crunchy vegetables, fried liver. The rice, which is stained with the colour of turmeric and the fire of the chili, brings together all the extremely spicy and flavourful elements of the dish.

And, their soup, which comes as part of meal, was one of the best soups I've ever had. Pork bones, mung beans, greens, and a crunchy vegetable that resembles a lotus root (but with more holes in it, and not starchy) together with plenty of lemongrass and chili, make for a superb accompaniment to the plethora of pork. All for just 40,000 Rupiah.

After our diving escapades in Nusa Lembongan and a memorable encounter with magnificant manta rays, we needed to try more roasted babi. Again, research directed us to another restaurant frequented regularly by locals: Babi Guling Candra (or Chandra, depending on who you ask). Overall, very good. Less spicy than Babi guling Sanur, and probably a better introduction to the dish if you are a tad sensitive to chili.

The flesh and skin were similar to those of the Sanur restaurant, and the pork satay was equally delicious (though a tad sweeter). One other difference was the pork terrine-esque satay on a stick (the turmeric-coloured one), which was extremely flavourful and quite mild from a Scoville scale point of view. The price was about the same (35,000 or 40,000 Rupiah, I can't recall), a definite steal of a meal.

A side note: on the global scale of pork skin, these two places do pretty well. But still a bit behind the exceptional glass like crunch of CnT's lechon in Cebu.

Warung Babi Guling Sanur

Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai, Denpasar Selatan, Bali (tell you taxi driver it's opposite McDonald's on Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai)

Open: Mon – Sun 11am – 7pm (get there early to avoid disappointment)

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/bali/sanur/restaurants/indonesian/warung-babi-guling-sanur

Babi Guling Candra

Jalan Teuku Umar, Denpasar Bar., Kota Denpasar, Bali 80113

Open: Mon – Sun 7am - 10pm

Gudeg goodness

Indonesia's regional food variations are exciting, reflecting the diversity of people and cultures within this huge country. Gudeg, the highly acclaimed dish from Yogyakarta, is no exception.

Gudeg (pronounced goo – derrrg) is a stew made of young (unripened) jackfruit. On its own, I think it's too sweet. Like even too sweet for a dessert. Fortunately for me, gudeg is typically served with other 'balancing' dishes which can create a truly marvelous, albeit indulgently rich, meal.

So who are gudeg's partners in crime? At Gudeg Sagan, one of Yogya's most highly acclaimed gudeg spots, they are a rich, creamy coconut based curry (above, top picture) and an incredibly spicy cow stomach stew (above, bottom picture). These partners were born to be eaten together. The creamy, slightly sweet notes of the curry marry perfectly with the intense heat of the stew. The tenderness of the chicken meat (in my case drumstick) goes hand in hand with the gelatinous chew of the cow stomach. Add a little bit of sweet gudeg to the mix, and you'll understand why Yogyakartans love this dish so much.

Gudeg Sagan

http://www.gudegsagan.com/index.php

Open: Monday – Sunday, 16.00 until late (or when the gudeg is gone)

Crabs, done brilliantly

Bandung. An underrated destination in my opinion. Volcanoes, crater lakes, stunning green vistas, berry picking opportunities, refreshing weather and, of course, excellent food. Despite being inland, the seafood here is pretty darn good.

I'll start with Praoe Seafood whose Black Pepper Crabs, are, quite simply, the best I've ever eaten. Imagine fresh, juicy crab meat enlivened with a molten black pepper and chilli-infused sauce. Ridiculously delicious, and you'll be licking your fingers for days to come. At a mere 16 USD for two large crabs, I really doubt there is a better way to spend your money. 

We also tried their 'sweet and sour' prawns, whose sauce was not so memorable, but the freshness of the prawns was extremely impressive.

We did intend to return to Praoe the next day for more molten black pepper goodness, but our timing let us down as we had to rush to catch a bus to Jakarta. From my cross-table spying,their fried gurame (type of fish) with a mango-based sauce did look particularly tempting. One to try next time.

Next up, smoked crabs at Captain's seafood. Caramelised onions, smothered over the arthropods, wrapped in banana leaves and then smoked. Not quite as finger licking good as Praoe's black pepper rendition, but not far off. The smoke-infused sweet onions are quite an ingenious creation, and pair well with the meaty crab.

Their kang-kong (water spinach) fried in a hot pan with beef, was also quite moreish – the hot wok aroma ('wok-hei') was particularly pleasing. Also tasty but not spectacular was their fried fish, whose perfectly crisp-on-the-outside moist-in-the-middle flesh was lacking a sauce to do it justice.

At both these restaurants, only 15-20 USD per person is all you'll need to enjoy fresh, excellently cooked seafood.

Praoe Seafood

Jalan Sumatera no. 31, Jawa Barat 40113, Bandung

Open: Monday – Sunday, 10am – 10pm

Captain's Seafood

http://www.captains-seafood.com/

Open: Sun -Thurs, 10am – 10pm; Fri – Sat, 10am - 11pm

Red Prawn Addiction

Look at this. It's absolutely beautiful, isn't it?

For those of you who know your prawns, you might guess that the intensity of its red colour is directly proportional to the intensity of its flavour. And you'd be correct.

The meat is succulent, like a normal prawn, but it is sweeter and packs a greater umami punch than its 'normal' prawn cousins. So the flesh alone would win some Prawn Oscars, but the head, now that would win some Prawn Nobel Prizes. The head flavour is really, really incredible, like a sweet, prawny, umami-loaded atomic bomb.

So no surprises when red prawns, known as gamberi rossi in Italian, featured in most of our meals during our time in Western Sicily. The best way to savour their taste is to try them cooked simply: grilled with salt, and a drizzle of lemon. Especially at a place like Osteria La Bettolaccia, who know how to pick the freshest red prawns, and cook them better than almost everywhere else in Trapani.

Also, try them with the local busiate pasta and almonds, or in a risotto. Both these dishes are executed sublimely at this Osteria.

But, this restaurant also serves up a dish where the red prawn isn't the star. Their cous cous is probably the best cous cous I've ever eaten. Not that I'm a cous cous expert, but I'm sure you'd find it pretty hard to find a cous cous dish better than this, especially if you love your seafood.

Fragrant, fluffy cous cous is paired with a rich, savoury seafood broth, topped with calamari and small red prawns deep fried to absolute perfection. Squeeze a little lemon on the fried seafood, and this completes the dish. Really, really good.

I couldn't praise this restaurant more highly; not only is the food sublime, but the service is impeccable. Combine this with a modern interior, relaxed atmosphere and very reasonable prices, this is probably my top recommendation in the whole of Western Sicily.

Osteria La Bettolaccia

Via Gen. Enrico Fardella, 23/25, 91100 Trapani TP

Hours: Mon – Fri 12 – 13pm, 8 – 11pm; Sat – Sun 12 – 3pm, 8 – 11.30pm

http://www.labettolaccia.it