Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Once a month my Thai-Chinese family meets for Sunday dinner, each time one of the five brothers in my father's family will host.

This month was my Dad's turn....which meant a selection of all his fatty favourite Chinese foods. We went to a Chinese Restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 24, just down from Imoya (Potato Club) and I guessed just about every course of the usual suspects

First up, selection of starters including smoked duck, chilled jellyfish, drunken chicken, and yam cake


Second was a bit of a surprise. It's usually shark fin soup but due to my abstention over previous meals (I love shark fin soup but figured I should try to practice what I preach in terms of sustainable seafood) he ordered fish maw soup (fish stomach). I have no idea whether the stomachs where harvested sustainably


Third, fresh prawns with dipping sauces


Fourth Peking Duck


Fifth, shitake mushrooms with black hair seaweed


Sixth, deep fried prawns (I sat this course out and handed my prawn over to my 20 year old cousin)


Teo Chew style Goose Feet noodles


I had the noodles, but Hock ate the feet. I've never been a fan of feet. I don't really see the point, but Hock loves them. I'm not a big chicken cartilage fan either, whereas Hock eats grilled parson's nose off street meat vendors


Cantonese style steamed fish


9th course was kaw tom, or rice soup with vegetables and mined duck meat

10th was dessert...which was predictably the black sesame dumpling in ginger soup

The meal was long and at times yummy, I've definitely had better versions of this meal at other Chinese restaurants

It took 3 hours, during which I sat and eavesdropped on my cousin's conversations in Thai "next week something something is happening, Monday afternoon something something, hair something something" and so on....I really must get back to learning Thai

Thai/ Chinese porky stew goodness with star anise, cinnamon and whole boiled eggs...what's not to like?

1 tablespoon oil
4 garlic cloves (kratiem), minced
1 lb (500 g) side pork/pork flap, cut in 1-in (2.5-cm) cubes ( used short ribs because its all I could find in the dumb stores of Canberra, you can use trotters)
8 oz (250 g) fried tofu
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1 stick of cinnamon
2 star anise
2 -3 cloves
1/4 cup coriander root (raak pak chee), minced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) sweet soy sauce (I forgot to buy and just used normal soy with extra sugar)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) fish sauce (nam pla)
3 tablespoons sugar or brown sugar (palm sugar is probably more ideal)
2 cups (16 fl oz/500 ml) water
6 hard-boiled eggs

fry pork and then garlic and then add all ingredients and bring to the boil. Rapidly simmer for as long as possible to bring out all the juicy flavours, or until the pork is cooked if you are a greedy guts and just can't wait



Serve with white rice (or brown if you're a freak) and steamed gai lan or other green asian vege (not bok choy unless you want to anger the gods or if you're white) and pickled mustard greens if you're all about "authenticity"

Sprinkle with coriander leaves if you want to make it less beige

You can also put little sliced chilis in fish sauce and serve this on the side for extra salty spice

It was another sopping wet night in Bangkok

Not really the night for venturing out to eat a dirty Chinatown seafood meal on the street.

But we did anyway, with our friend Reneau (friendly neighbourhood french restauranteur from Siem Reap) and his french and argentinian friends who live in Costa Rica




We had forgotten that Mondays are street food free days in Bangkok. So we ended up sitting inside at T & K's, a grubby little seafood restaurant in Chinatown where we usually perch on plastic stools on the street and order a cheap seafood feast. E's is positively high class compared to this place. But it is exceptionally cheap and mostly fresh.



I had never been inside the restaurant, but I'm glad I did because we got to see their beautiful tinsel signage




The thing this place does exceptionally well is bbq river prawn. They have charcoal grills on the street and the prawns are infused with a wonderful smokey flavour. They are also fresh. Fresh enough to suck the heads. I never used to suck prawn heads until Hock told me to close my eyes and think of boulliabase...I did, it's worth it.



The crab fried rice was very good also


I like to eat sea snails, just as I like to the eat the little foot that always stick to the shell when you eat a mussel. There is something satisfyingly chewy about sea snails. These were big, but some weren't fresh which of course ruins the chewy thrill.




The fried fish with fish sauce was a disappointment. It was dry and over cooked, a pale comparison to the original Rayong recipe which comes with shredded green mango marinated in fish sauce on top




Decent cockles stir fried with chili sauce and Thai basil


The bbq crabs were a bit dry and old

It's somewhat a family tradition to take first time Bangkok visitors to E Pochana's. So before my pop's left we took Green Dean to experience his first curry crab.

While Somboon's may very well be the curry crab originator, E's is definitely the perfector.

Everytime we go we only ever order the same dishes, because they are sooooo good










Satay, ok it's not seafood but they do make it especially well


Clams stir fried with Thai basil


Simple stir fry kangkong with garlic and chilis


Goong woo sen - Teow Chew dish of glass noodles in a pot baked with prawns, sichuan peppercorns, garlic and pork fat


Fragrant baked fish with pandan leaves, and a yummy paste, my guess is garlic and corriander roots


The piece de resistance - curry crab


The money shot



E's is located next to Sam Yaan Seafood Market

Another good meal we had in Singapore was here. It's on Hok Lam St.



They serve an excellent bowl of Teo Chew (Chaozho in Mandarin or Chiuchow in Cantonese) beef noodles.



The noodles are somewhat similar to a bowl of pho bo but much much richer with a far more deep fragrant herbal broth, my guess is probably more cinnamon, more star anise and probably some shaoxing wine.

Teo Chew cuisine is renoun as a herbal almost medicinal version of Cantonese food. Other famous Teo Chew dishes include a herbal pork anise stew, a great steamed fish in herbal ginger broth with wolf berries and chinese prunes, and dishes such as what is known in Thailand as goong woosen, frangrant glass noodle and prawn claypot, goose feet noodles and fried oyster omelette. Teo Chew people hail from Northeast Guangdong, they are the original rice smugglers and triads (yes the original gangstas) of China and make up the majority of the Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia, thus most of Southeast Asia now has regional variations of Teo Chew dishes, I'm thinking of Thailand's Khai Paloo and Singapore's Ba Ku Teh. Thailand also has a beef noodle dish that is similar to above said noodles, but it's sweeter and they put Thai basil in it.

My Thai/ Chinese side of the family are Teo Chew, that's how come I know this shit.

Anyway, if your interested in learning more wiki has some info although I'm not sure about the fruit carving comment, this is prevalent everywhere in asia, not specific to Teo Chew people