Chicken Rice

One thing everyone (well, most people) always gets excited about when traveling is the opportunity to try new food. And here is no exception; there's a vast array of new and exciting dishes for me to try and experiment with at home. On paper a lot of it sounds great. Chicken, rice, and some exotic spices and veggies you may or may not have had. Sounds yum. And it can be. An important piece of the equation a lot of people leave out, however, is food preparation. Like chicken. In the US if you order chicken at a restaurant it's usually a breast or thigh (sometimes a drumstick) that's been trimmed, boned, skinned, etc. Other countries (Malaysia being one of them) don't necessarily do that. You could get the left side of a chicken that's been cut in half. Or maybe the chicken was smashed with a hammer until the pieces were separated. Maybe it was even cut into pieces with no regard to the bones that may or may not encbe included. So far in my two and a half weeks here I have been presented with all these options. And while chicken does taste like chicken, the experience can be a little different when you're picking bones out of what you chew every other bite.

Another two meats are beef and fish. With fish, you're typically going to get a whole fish, with scales, the head, everything still attached. Beef tends to taste like you'd expect beef to taste. But the method in which the cow was raised and slaughtered might be different, as well as any spices used to enhance the taste (chili powder, pepper, and cumin seem to be popular options here). As for pork, well, there's not a lot of that depending on where you go. You can find it, but it's in its own section of the store, right next to where you buy your liquor and cigarettes. Or you can go to Chinatown and there's pork in all kinds of varieties wherever you go. I haven't tried bacon from the pork carts they have, but I am really tempted to.

Of course, there is a downside to trying new food: not all of it will agree with your digestive tract. It can taste delicious going in, but once inside, all bets are off. I had my first experience with that last night continuing into early this afternoon, where the chicken fried rice and lamb I ate for dinner didn't want to digest without a fight. It's basically done for at this point, so all is well. It probably won't be the last time it happens, so rolling with the punches is a necessity.

Overall, however, the food I have had has been pretty good. The stuff with fish heads floating in it that comes from a cafeteria? Not so much. But I think that can be said about any cafeteria food. The best so far has probably been from Chinatown, and I plan on doing that again since everything they cook there smells delicious. I haven't had a huge amount of Malay cuisine outside of work, since that's what is usually for lunch in the aforementioned cafeterias. And there is only so much chicken rice you can have over the course of a week before you want something different. But it's something I plan on getting around to soon, since an entire cuisine cannot be judged on what is mass processed for your consumption. I'll also try and get pictures going soon. It's kind of hard since I don't have wireless in my apartment yet and I'm starting a new workout routine (meaning any free time I have, I'm walking, running, or swimming), so it has kind of fallen through the cracks. It'll happen, though. Eventually...