Smelly but Delicious Foods - Marmite Moments in Asia
 
Discovering and experiencing local foods should be a big part of any journey. Notice the lack of the use of the word ‘enjoying’ in that sentence. What a word that is, well enjoyment comes in many flavours, and while it’s true that one person’s meat is another person’s poison, the revelation of the Marmite Moment has introduced many of us to new and exciting flavours and cuisines. This is the beauty of experience, if you don’t try you’ll never know, and especially so with adventures in food and cuisine when travelling our wonderful world.

To truly experience a culture, you need to immerse yourself in some of its rituals, and the ritual of eating is perhaps the most important, the most fun, and certainly the most delicious. One thing is for sure, foodie adventures in Asia are ALWAYS memorable, for the sights, the tastes and the smells. Dining and food give rhythm to all aspects of life across Asia, dining that follows the seasons, special dishes only eaten at particular festivals or occasions, and the great excitement when rare delicacies come into season from the Shirako season of Japan (fish sperm) typically harvested December to February, to the Red Ant Eggs of Northern Thailand harvested March to May... [Read More]
 
 
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Nattō - Japan
 
Nattō (fermented soybeans) is a sticky, stringy bowl of goo that has the delicious scent of old socks. Think gym bag, left to ferment in a hot car for a week. You’d think that would turn children off, but no! Nattō is a super-popular breakfast, and Japanese school students love to eat it as a snack. The origin of nattō is obscure. Legend has it that it was discovered accidentally in northeast Japan by Minamoto (Hachimantaro) Yoshiie when warm, cooked soybeans, placed in a rice-straw sack on the back of a horse, turned into nattō. The warmth of the horse helped the fermentation, well, he didn’t have a gym bag and hot car in those days now did he!
 
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Stink bean – Southeast Asia
 
You may wonder why someone might choose to eat something called a stink bean that smells like…well, there’s no nice way to put this, like someone just let rip/opened their lunch box/trumped/dropped a raspberry tart. Well, it’s been said that they are very good for your health, and they are, once you get past the smell, very moreish. Which is why they show up in so many Southeast Asian stir-fry dishes from Malaysia and Southern Thailand and Burma to Indonesia and the Philippines. Stink bean, also known as parkia speciosa, sah-taw, petai, peteh, bitter bean, smelly bean or twisted cluster bean, grow hanging from a petai tree... [Read More]
 
 
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Stinky Tofu -Taiwan
 
If you've ever walked the foodie heaven of a Taipei night market and noticed a smell similar to a garbage dump, well, unless it was a Wednesday, it was probably stinky tofu. This pungently aromatic dish is a street food that is popular throughout China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. True to its name, the Taiwanese stinky tofu is as stinky as it gets. It’s truly the stink king of stinky tofus. Another one of those old sock aromas, the aroma is somewhere between a good blue cheese and a well fermented sport’s sock. Think of the silver lining here, every time you open that gym bag you will be overcome with nostalgia for your foodie trips in Taiwan – Taiwan really is a foodie heaven by the way. But unique aromas aside, it is one of the most iconic and popular Taiwanese street-food dishes... [Read More]
 
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Durian – Thailand
 
Durian, the king of fruits, is cultivated and found in the markets of many countries in Southeast Asia, and in India. Although it is probably fair to say that Thailand is today the durian capital of the world. Home to over 300 varieties of this bizarre fruit, Thailand is also the biggest exporter of durian. The Chanthaburi Province of Thailand, located about 300 km east of Bangkok, is where the World Durian Festival is held every year, usually in early May. This single province of Thailand produces more than half of all of Thailand’s total annual durian production. A highly prized fruit, in 2019 a Nonthaburi (in Thailand) durian sold at auction for $48,000!... [Read More]
 
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Prahok - Cambodia
 
The hallmark of Khmer cuisine is prahok, a fermented paste made from a small fish called trey riel (Henicorhynchus siamensis). This grey-brown coloured, intensely odorous, and strongly flavoured paste intimidates the uninitiated, but prahok is the cornerstone of Khmer cuisine. Even the national currency is named after the trey riel, the Cambodian Riel. It is so revered by Cambodians that farmers from outlying provinces will travel great distances to trade rice for it. Prahok is used both as a condiment and as a main element in a variety of Khmer dishes, and it accounts for a large portion of protein in the Khmer diet. Used in many dishes in Cambodia, it is mixed into soups and curries or eaten as a condiment with vegetables... [Read More]
 
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Century Eggs - China
 
Century eggs are a type of Chinese preserved food made from either chicken or duck eggs. Known also as thousand-year-old eggs, or hundred-year-old eggs, this name is descriptive…imagine what an egg might look like after being left for such a long time. Yes, time to reach for the gym bag again. The eggs are really not that old but having been preserved in a mix made from salt, ash, quicklime, clay, and rice husks ash, the raw eggs are left, in their shells, to cure anywhere from a few weeks to several months. The yolks turn to a creamy texture and are either a dark green or black colour, with the whites turning to the colour of a good black tea. Yes they look 1,000 year old, hence the name. As a result of the curing the odor is a delicate cocktail of sulphur and ammonia, not too pungent, but definitely a smelly food. As to the taste, rather like stinky tofu the flavour varies from region to region and producer to producer. The egg-white, rather like gelatin, has little or no flavour... [Read More]
 
Discover China Now
 
 
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Asia is a foodie heaven. Plan your next holiday in Asia discovering the sights, sounds, flavours AND smells of this incredible continent – but leave the gym bag at home!

Contact the Secret Retreats concierge to plan and book your unforgettable foodie holiday in Asia.
 
 
...to start planning your Asian journey
 
 
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