Sometimes I am guilty of taking Asia for granted. Because I remember a lot of my early childhood from the Philippines (we lived there till I was 5), much of the scenery and culture in Asia feels familiar to me. We spent weekends in the province among rice fields and bamboo cottages. We pumped water from a well, tended to chickens and pigs in my grandparents’ backyard and have been part of most 3rd-world-country dodgy activities that the west would consider illegal (i.e. lighting large home made fireworks in the front driveway on New Year’s Eve). I’ve seen dirt and poverty and pollution. And foods like salted shrimp paste and rambutan and durian don’t surprise me. But traveling through Asia this time around has really helped me to see this place differently. I can decipher the things that are similar across countries and all the things that are different. Though I hate to generalize an entire planetary region, there are several themes/foods/behaviours that ring true for many of the Asian countries I’ve visited thus far. Here are a few:
- Rice. If you’ve ever learned about how rice is harvested, you probably have a greater appreciation for the staple crop. Growing rice is HARD WORK! It is laborious and backbreaking. It takes a whole community of people to tend to rice fields, to plant the seeds and to harvest the crop. We take it for granted that it is so plentiful but oh my gosh, it is a crop grown with the labor of love.
- Night markets. What is it about westerners and night markets? I am staying in the middle of Chinatown in KL and at night the place is full of westerners buying fake Rolexes and Billabong shorts and LV rolling luggage bags. I understand it feels exotic but there are markets like this in every major city in the world, including San Francisco! The best part about these markets aren’t the things you can buy but the crazy foods that you can try. Fried scorpions in Beijing, durian in KL, snake-skin fruit in Bali and fried salted fish galore everywhere.
- Strange dessert foods that I loooove! Warm soy bean curd with brown sugar syrup (I used to have this for breakfast as a child in the Philippines and found a cart selling it just around the corner here in KL!), red bean pastries, sweetened cooked corn kernels in a cup (there is actually a fast food chain that sells this like McDonald’s sells chocolate covered sundaes), salted dried tamarind fruit, bubble tea (sweet juices with tapioca balls), black rice pudding, fried bananas.
- Scooters. Everywhere. They serve as long-haul buses for entire families: the mom, the dad, the two babies, the toddler, the 2 roosters, the couch and the neighbour. They are utilized to the max and can dramatically change the economics of an entire community.
- Fantastically prepared fruits and vegetables. Avocado juice (avocado blended with milk and sugar is amazing), salted pineapples, sweet mango with pungent shrimp paste, banana pancakes, ginger teas, sticky rice cooked in fragrant banana leaf, purple yam pudding, vinegar and sour green mango, jackfruit in warm rice and sweet milk.
- Cheap movies. Though I don’t agree to purchasing pirated originals, I was shocked to walk into what looked like an HMV only to realize that I was browsing new release DVD copies that were selling for the equivalent of $1.50 USD each. In the last two weeks I’ve seen the latest Harry Potter, Revolutionary Road (which is SO very depressing), the latest two Batmans and Underworld Revolutions for basically nothing.
- Terribly unethical tobacco advertising. On TV tobacco advertisements are the equivalent of a mini Survivor Man movie. They are disgustingly aspirational – touting adventure, ruggedness, masculinity and escape. One shows a man trying to climb a snowy mountain. He is overcome by an avalanche but manages to dig his way out to victory. Then, BOOM, the “International” tobacco brand is plastered across the screen. Tobacco is so very cheap in this part of the world. Sadly, affordably addictive.
And now some interesting differences…
In Bali, even though I didn’t have international TV at all (not even the BBC or CNN), watching local TV was fascinating. In one commercial break there were at least 3 or 4 different advertisements for what looked like psychics or fortune tellers or prophets of some kind. They all touted things like success, health, happiness and love (guessing from what I could make out of Bahasa Indonesian). You could text for a quote, or perhaps an appointment? So interesting!
Kuala Lumpur (which means ‘muddy conglomerate’ because of the original site’s rich deposits of tin and silver) has been a real surprise! I had always known that Malaysia is a Muslim country but never really thought about how that fact would translate when I got here. It is so very multicultural and much more liberal than I originally anticipated. There are people of all shapes and colours, veiled and unveiled, Asian and Western. And the architecture is different from any other place I’ve seen in Asia because it’s Islamic. Typically Islamic art has focused on the depiction of patterns and Arabic calligraphy instead of living figures because it is feared by many Muslims that the depiction of the human form is idolatry and a sin against Allah. Thus, Islamic art and architecture will usually showcase beautiful floral and geometric designs (like the Petronas towers).
And well, the Philippines. I could go on and on about how it is different but I would be a little bit biased with my insider’s view. I would have to say that of all the strange foods that I’ve seen in other parts of the world, the Philippines tops my list for having the STRANGEST dishes of them all:
- balut: a boiled, half fertilized duck egg with yoke and baby chick inside (I used to eat this as a child but can’t bring myself to have it now as an adult!)
- kare-kare: meat (usually oxtail and innards) with coconut and peanut sauce
- sisig: crispy fried (usually spicy) pork ears
- dinuguan: pork blood stew with liver and meat
- buro: fermented fish and fish eggs (the smell is just ridiculous!)
If you’re brave enough to try any of the above, you are invited to come with me when I go back to the Philippines next year!
