The Taste Of Asia

Chilli crab is a dish from Singapore. This delectable dish is made with stir-fried crab in a tomato-based, sweet, savoury, and a bit hot chilli sauce. Use crab crackers to get at the meat in the claws. The popular crab of choice in Singapore is mud crab. This popular dish began as street food and now is considered to be the national dish. You can find chilli crab in many restaurants and since the crab is served in its shell it is also a challenge to eat it using your hands. The dish is served with bread to soak up the delicious chilli sauce.

In the Himalayas, you'll find the delicious dish momos. Coming from Chinese influence these are meat or vegetable dumplings and can be eaten as a take-along food. The dumplings are served with an optional hot chilli sauce, dark soy sauce, and soup on the side, They are traditionally filled with minced meat but can be also filled with chopped vegetables or a combination of the two. Momos are native to Tibet and the recipe was brought to the Kathmandu Valley along with Newar merchants.

Momos have also become popular in Indis. The dumplings are usually steamed but can also be fried. The shape of the dumplings is either a purse or a half-moon. The best-known varieties are filled with water buffalo meat, sha momos with beef or yak meat, and khasi momos with lamb or mutton. Jhol momos and C momos are served with a spicy hot sauce. Momos without meat are filled with vegetables, potatoes, or cheese. They come as an appetizer, snack, or are served as a main course with dipping sauce on the side.

Beef rendang is served in Indonesia where beef is stewed in coconut milk with a spicy paste that is a combination of ginger, turmeric, and fiery chillis. To bring out the flavors of this delectable dish it is slow-cooked for many hours.

From Vietnam, we have bun cha which is fatty grilled pork that is served with rice noodles or bun, herbs, and a salty, sweet and slightly hot dipping sauce or nuoc cham. It has become a popular Hanoian dish and usually served for lunch. The dish is a combination of three elements - a bowl of grilled pork in a cold broth, a plate of rice noodles, and a mix of fresh greens like perilla leaves, lettuce, coriander, and morning glory.

A fiery stewed pork dish known as bicol express comes from the Phillippines. The pork is flavored with garlic, chilli, ginger and shrimp paste and then simmered in coconut milk.

A popular dish from India is tandoori chicken. The chicken pieces are marinated in spices overnight. The next day it is skewered and cooked in at large earthenware oven, The chicken comes out tender on the inside and crisp on the outside.

A well-known dish is the traditional Chinese Peking duck that is a dish prepared right in front of the customer. The duck meat comes out very thin and crispy and is wrapped up in small pancakes. You have a choice of toppings such as scallions, cucumber, or sweet bean sauce.

Ginger and tomato Salad Burmese is not your usual salad. This Burmese dish includes nuts and vegetables covered in oil. This ginger salad has chunks of ginger along with nuts, crispy fried soya beans, and tomato. It can also include cabbage.

Tteokbokki is a spicy stir-fried dish from Korea. It consists of cylinder-shaped rice cakes, sweet red chilli sauce, and fish cakes. It is considered to be a popular street food. Originating in the Joseon Dynasty it was one of the dishes served at the royal court.

From Japan comes sukiyaki a sweet and salty hot-pot meal, It is usually prepared at the table on a portable gas stove, in a traditional shallow iron pan, The dish is prepared with beef along with sliced Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, leeks, gelatinous konnyaku noodles, and shungiku leaves. The ingredients are combined with a mix of mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.

Kare is a Japanese-style curry and one of the most popular dishes in the country, There are three main versions of kare in Japan - kare raisu, curry served over rice, kare udon, served over noodles, and kare pan as a pastry filled with curry. The most popular version is kare raisu served with fukujinzuke pickles or Japanese scallions on the side.

Sarma is part of traditional Turkish cuisine. There are various versions of this delicious dish with the usual being a combination of minced meat, rice or bulgar, herbs, seasonings, red pepper, paprika, ground sumac or tomato sauce and wrapped in vine, cabbage or sauerkraut leaves or a variety of leafy vegetables like collard greens and swiss chard. The dish is served with plain yogurt, mashed potatoes, and bread on the side.