I Travelled Asia In Three Days

One of the things that I would consider to be my greatest achievement is if I've travelled the world. But since I'm working and there's not enough time, maybe I'd plan it for another time.

See, all things began small, so let me start my travel around Asia.

I've been to Japan, day one. Sushi is the most famous Japanese dish outside of Japan and one of the most popular dishes among the Japanese themselves.

During the Edo period, "sushi" referred to pickled fish conserved in vinegar. Nowadays, sushi can be defined as a dish containing rice which has been prepared with sushi vinegar. There are many different types of sushi but there are particular ones that are usual in my list.

Sushi meal: nigiri (raw tuna, salmon or squid),
norikami (sushi rice and seafood rolled in dried seaweed sheet) or maki,
inari (sushi rice filled into inuurage bags or deep-fried tofu)

Add wasabi on the specially-prepared sauce and you're in for a spicy lunch of your life.

Sushi meal from Teriyaki Boy, P275 and it's good for 2 people. Not bad for going Japanese.

Come dinner, I opted for rice bowl.

Rice bowl meal is bowl of cooked rice with some other food put on top of the rice. Some of the most popular toppings are tempura (tendon), egg and chicken (oyakodon), tonkatsu (katsudon) and beef (gyudon).

Gyudon: strips of beef on top of rice

Coffee jelly

My dinner only at Yoshinoya, my favorite Japanese fastfood. For P200 you will have a decent Japanese meal.

Day two, China. I've been fascinated by chopsticks ever since. Not the famously Chops waltz but the chopsticks famously used in meals. Just the effort of trying to use two bamboo sticks picking pieces of food from the plate, especially if it's rice, fascinating.

Chopsticks are small, often tapered, sticks used as the traditional eating utensils of China and its diaspora, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Northern provinces of Laos, Thailand and Burma.

Appetizer: prawn crackers until the main course is served

Wonton and beef brisket noodle soup

Wontons are made by spreading a wrapper flat in the palm of ones hand, placing a small amount of filling in the center, and sealing the wonton into the desired shape by compressing the wrapper's edges together with the fingers.

Wontons are usually boiled and served in soups and sometimes deep-fried.
Wonton is also spelled wantan, wanton, wuntun and is a type of dumpling sold in the streets after World War Two.

Dim sum: shrimp dumpling (ha gauu), shaomai, siopao (bau),
chicken feet (fung zao), vegetarian spring rolls

Dim sum is a type of Chinese meal that involves small individual portions of food, usually food is pushed around on carts by servers and served in a small steamer baskets or on small plates.

Super Bowl of China is the best place to be for this kind of food at P300.

Spice up the life for Thailand on day three. There are many herbs and spices but I only saw few of them and knew very less of them.

Thai food is known for being spicy. And Dusit Thani, the restaurant with foreign and local clientele, is the first to pop on my mind.

Tom yum seafood: mushrooms and mixed seafood
in spicy creamy coconut milk

Tom yum served in traditional Chinese hot-pot

Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime, the juice of which can be added along with Thai condiments.

A meal from Dusit Thani is P300 and an experience to eat with a foreign dignitary on the table beside you.

There's still time to drop by Vietnam before the day ends, so I headed to Pho Bac Restaurant to complete my day. Forget the motorbikes and coffee and milk combo, this one will be a heavy one for me.



Pomelo salad



Cambodian noodles

A meal at Pho Bac Restaurant is at P250.

So much to say, so little time. I'm full, satisfied and happy. All the foods that I've tried truly speaks of each country's origin and lifestyle.

Who knows, next time I'll be in Europe, Eat Pray Love style.