Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly

Having decided to do a little detour through more of SE Asia before our big hop to the other side world, I was absolutely over the moon that this diversion enabled me to sample some real Vietnamese food. The closest I've ever come to chowing down on some proper Vietnamese grub is on the Kingsland Road, and in all honesty, none of those restaurants really compare. So after trying out many of the classics from North, Central and South Vietnam, here's my top 5 must haves: 1. Bun cha By far my favourite dish is the guiltily indulgent, bun cha. This sweet meets savoury dish can leave you feeling that you've eaten a healthy 5 a day meal with the mountainous herbs and salad served alongside, whilst also feeling that the pounds will pile on with the sugary sauce cum soup, BBQ pork belly and pork patties. This northern Vietnam dish, bun (meaning rice noodle) cha (meaning BBQ pork) requires some DIY food prep. Traditionally you will be served a bowl of rice vinegar,

So here it is, my post on my experiences of Filipino food. The long awaited, bound-to-suck blog post. Many of you warned me before we arrived that the food in the Philippines was pretty poor, leaving me to wonder what the focus of my post would be. And I have to say, although Filipino food leaves little lasting impression and lacks, in my opinion, a strong identity, it isn't unpleasant. Well perhaps balút maybe, but I'm sorry I wasn't prepared to eat a duck egg with a partially formed embryo, so I'm unable to report back on that one... We had a month to explore as many of the 7,000 plus islands as humanly possible, albeit at a slightly slower pace than the previous countries we visited - I'll use being on "Filipino time" as the excuse! Even after all that time, I found myself struggling to decide what Filipino cuisine is. On one hand it consists of a lot of meat - lechon (roasted suckling pig), inasal chicken (BBQ chicken), skewered BBQ pork belly - an

I had never eaten out for Burns Night before, sure I'd had haggis, but that was accompanied by eggs, sausages, bacon, potato cakes and a hearty serving of baked beans. I kind of just assumed we'd just be served our Scottish themed food paired with an array of whiskys and that would be that. I was so wrong. Just to set the scene, I had won a competition last year on Twitter for a 4 course Burns Night meal at Plum + Spilt Milk for two. So jumping on the chance to truly celebrate Burns Night in style, I threw on my tartan dress and headed to the bustling Kings Cross station. Wading through the throng of Londoners returning to the city, heads bowed and full of Sunday night dread, we made our way up the escalators of the London underground. From the distance we hear the sound of bagpipes. "Must be something happening in the main station." Oh no, no those bagpipes were bellowing from the first floor of the Northern Hotel where Plum + Spilt Milk were getting ready

From the rice, sesame and chilli fields we saw during our three day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake, to the wet markets of Yangon, it seemed abundantly clear that much of the Burmese cuisine revolves around the fresh ingredients the land offers. Until now, I knew very little about Myanmar cuisine, and when trying the dishes I often struggled to work out what ingredients and flavours they were made up of. Unfortunately having not attended a cookery class, I am still none the wiser, however these flavours are something I am definitely keen to learn more of and experiment with when I get back to London. Perhaps the Burmese cookery book James bought me a while ago may get a bit of use! Why am I so keen? For one, they have oodles of noodles, which I absolutely love, and as through most of India my options were rice or bread, I was happy to be able to consume an alternative carb! My particular favourite were the Shan style noodle soups, with either minced pork or chicke