Parking problems in downtown Kota Bharu, Malaysia. According to locals, this year the river was particularly high. See also: I ♥ wet season, I ♥ hot season
Category: Location
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 on Saturday night until the… Continue reading Petronas Towers from Kampung Baru Night Market
A sea of tea
I know very little about tea, apart from what you learn by osmosis from your Anglo-Australian grandparents. I can make a decent cup of black tea but tend to regard it as a sort of beverage bycatch; something that fits well alongside pho or yum cha or fruitcake. I have no idea how it is… Continue reading A sea of tea
The found pepper of Cambodia
What does the visit of Chinese emissary Zhou Daguan to Angkor Wat in 1297, Khmer Rouge kidnappings and the recent landgrabbing of Okhna Ly Yong Phat in rural Sre Ambel, Cambodia have in common? Cambodian pepper: which is how I tenuously link them all together in this month’s Chile Pepper magazine (US). With photos from… Continue reading The found pepper of Cambodia
Kuala Terengganu Street Life
Walking into the monsoonal wind on the waterfront, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
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 at a single point in… Continue reading The Wok Hei Economy
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 reign ended in 1951 when… Continue reading Triangulating Gurney Drive
Choul Chnam Thmei: Cambodian is the New Thai
While I’ve been saying for what seems like years that Sihanoukville is the new Luanda, in one of its final posts of the year, Epicurious has announced that for 2008, Cambodian food will supplant Thai food. A triangulation between Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai cooking, Cambodian’s emphasis on noodle dishes, curries, stir fries and prahok, the… Continue reading Choul Chnam Thmei: Cambodian is the New Thai