Best (and Worst) Things You Can Eat in Southeast Asia

1.Massaman Curry (Thailand)

Thailand is known for their spicy, sweet and overall delicious curries representing the colors of the rainbow including red curry, yellow curry, and green curry. However, my personal favorite is the famous Massaman Curry, a soupy meat dish cooked with coconut milk, peanuts or cashews, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, sugar, fish sauce, chili and tamarind served with rice. Beef is the traditional meat used in the dish, but it’s not uncommon to see it served with other meats or vegetables.

2.Pho (Vietnam)

Pho is a rice noodle soup served with beef or chicken and is typically eaten for breakfast. While the soup may seem pretty standard it’s an art form that you can decorate the finishing with with basil or mint leaves, bean sprouts, onion, lime and chili. For less than a $1 a bowl, there’s no better way to start the day slurping up the delicious soup.

 

3.Curry Laksa (Malaysia)

 

Laksa is a type of thick rice noodle which is used in the famous Malaysian Curry Laksa, a coconut based curry soup. Street vendors and restaurants serve the soup typically with fish, tofu, or chicken and heaping spoon fulls of chili paste, coriander, and laksa leaf giving it that distinct spicy flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

4.Chicken Tikka Masala (Malaysia)

 

Malaysia’s cuisine is a culinary blend of Chinese, Indian, and Malay so you don’t have to be in India to enjoy Chicken Tikka Masala. Baked tandoori chicken chunks blended in a spicy cream sauce with tomato and coriander gives the dish a savory and buttery flavor. Indian flat bread such as naan, chapati, or roti are commonly used to slop up the masala when eating with your hand (right hand only).

5.Amok (Cambodia)

 

Amok is a thick sauce dish prepared with a freshwater fish (usually Mekong catfish), coconut milk, chili, onion, lemongrass, garlic lime, and traditional Cambodian spices. It’s served either in a banana leaf or coconut and is not as spicy as other Cambodian dishes.

 

6.Bonus Drink: Vietnamese Coffee (Vietnam)

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If you’ve never had a Vietnamese coffee, you’re missing out! Finely ground Vietnamese-grown dark roast coffee is placed into a French drip filter, slowly dripping the coffee into another cup. You can drink it as is, add sweet condensed milk and/or pour over ice.

 

7.Frog’s Legs (Vietnam)

 

Okay, so perhaps it wasn’t the best idea ordering frog’s legs from a restaurant next to a dirty creek bed, but anything fried has to be safe right? Wrong! For the next five days, my husband lived in the bathroom. It was horrific. Now, that’s not to say frog legs are bad everywhere, just be safe about where you order them and more importantly where the frogs come from.

 

 

 

8.Questionable Meat Stick (Thailand)

 

If I could eat chicken satay everyday of my life, I’d be a happy camper. However, I did try some very questionable meat sticks in Bangkok that made me wonder what the heck I was chewing on. If you’re going to do the meat stick thing, stick to chicken or a recognizable meat. Don’t agree? Let me know in the comments below.

9.Ant Soup (Indonesia)

 While I’m still not sure if we ordered wrong or the place was just filthy, but it appeared that a thousand little ants marched right into our Ant Soup. We ordered our Ant Soup in Bali, but after I did a little research it’s common all throughout Southeast Asia and is made of ant eggs.

 

 

10.McDonald’s (Everywhere)

 There’s no taste like home, and as much as I hate to admit it six months into our trip we cracked and ate at McDonald’s. While Southeast Asia has some of the best cuisine in the world, we just wanted a little familiarly of home and some cheese, which is not something you’ll find a lot of in Asia. Overall, it tasted exactly the same as back home, is fake food, and was expensive. Looking back, we’d rather have spent a quarter of the price on some local street food.

11.Bonus Drink: Bali Coffee (Indonesia)

 Unless you like slurping on sludge and coffee grounds, skip the Balinese Coffee. It’s more like instant coffee that doesn’t dissolve. Stick to tea instead. Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 baca juga:best indonesian foods!!!