Asia - the place for food (Part 1)
If anyone asks me what my favourite food is, the answer is simple – Asian food. I really do love just about all of it.
As a resident of the UK, my love of Asian food probably started with the excellent Chinese restaurant in my small home town, run by a couple from Hong Kong. The crispness and freshness of the ingredients grabbed me at once, as well as the delicious flavours of char sui, (red cooked pork), duck, and other exciting dishes. Having discovered Chinese food I was then eager to try other establishments, and with other foodies went to restaurants in Leeds and Birmingham.
Then it was Indian food, and many a time, when out with friends, we couldn’t decide whether to go to an Indian or a Chinese restaurant. I once heard that to eat Indian food is to take a glimpse of heaven, and I have certainly found this to be true, with the irresistable flavours, the spiciness, the rich sauces, and the lovely scented pillao rice. My friends in the UK who come from Indian families recommended Indian cookery books for me and other Indian food enthusiasts to try, and we cooked up some very passable and tasty dishes of our own.
Then I moved to Japan, and discovered how delicious sushi can be – particularly liking the sushi rolls. Here I also discovered many different kinds of noodles, from the lovely ramen with pork that you can have in the small ramen shops after a night out, to the fine, white somen that are so cooling in the summer. I also discovered miso soup, which I still have to this day.
Being in Japan also led to other new food findings, which I shall relate in the next post.