Imbi Market, Yut Kee and Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

Forget the museum, the art gallery, the church or the zoo. Wet markets are one of my favourite plates to visit when aboard, the culinary underbelly of a city with its maze of makeshift stalls, occasional puddles, and smiling locals determined to feed the people with good fresh produce, poultry and seafood.

Our second day in Malaysia would take us to Imbi Market, one of the last surviving wet

Malaysia food tour with Adam Liaw: Nasi lemak, roti and char kway teow

Oh Malaysia. It was like I never left you.

Last Sunday night I landed in Kuala Lumpur with a contingent of fellow journalists, invited on a week-long media famil of Malaysia. The trip was a follow-up to the phenomenally successful Malaysia Kitchen Food Market, and the invitation to attend was definitely a rhetorical question. Adam Liaw, MasterChef season two winner and official ambassador for

Kambozza, Parramatta

This month's Time Out Sydney column is all about Burmese food. I headed to Kambozza in Parramatta and found a nine-page menu filled with traditional Burmese dishes.


Eat this...Mohinga

WHAT IS IT?
Mohinga ($6.50) is the unofficial national dish of Burma, a fish noodle soup that is eaten primarily for breakfast, but is popular at lunchtime and dinner too. Find it at Kambozza, one of Sydney's

Marco Pierre White masterclass

Marco Pierre White's reputation precedes him. Vaunted as one of the original bad boy chefs, Marco is infamous for his history of kitchen rage: legendary incidents that include kicking out customers from his dining room if they clicked their fingers at a waiter, and cutting open the back of a young chef's uniform with a sharp knife when he complained about the heat in the kitchen.

And yet

Crab, marmite pork ribs and 1m roti, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Forget the humble nut cracker. I love that in Malaysia you get a little hammer to crack open your crab.

After three days in Phuket exploring James Bond and Phi Phi islands, we make our way back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a finale of shopping and eating. Crab has been at the top of our To Eat list, and we head to Wong Poh in Petaling Jaya, a local favourite famous for their crab.


Pickled

Freebie Friday: Win 1 of 3 copies of Voracious

Hungry? Sink your teeth into Voracious, a collection of newly commissioned essays that celebrates "The Best New Australian Food Writing". Many of you will have already read my contribution, ABC, detailing my experiences on growing up as first generation Australian, and my thoughts on reconciling my cultural heritage with my nationality.

The good folk at Hardie Grant have kindly offered up

Phi Phi Island, Thailand

"Maya Bayyyyy....... Maya Bayyyyyy......"

Our second island day trip from Phuket felt more like a cattle call as we were herded into groups, labeled with stickers and then hustled along to our waiting speedboat, ready to take us to Phi Phi Island.

Our squawking guide was a stark contrast to the quiet start the day before, a tour to James Bond Island that included sea canoes and cave systems.

Voracious: The Best New Australian Food Writing

My name. On the front cover of a book! I'm so pleased I can finally reveal my work has been published in Voracious, a collection of newly commissioned essays that celebrates "The Best New Australian Food Writing"

It's one matter to have my words published in a book with my byline, but to be included with noted food writers like Gay Bilson, Jill Dupleix, Matthew Evans, Helen Greenwood, Alan

Freebie Friday: Win a $100 gourmet food hamper from eFarmersMarket

It's Freebie Friday time! This week's prize comes to you from eFarmersMarket, a new online shopping site for Australian handcrafted artisan products. The current range covers 750 Australian small batch items, spanning from teas and jam, to olive oils and local honey.





THE PRIZE

One lucky reader will win a gourmet hamper worth $100 that includes:
Lynwood Angelo's Plum Jam - Collector NSW

Becasse Chef's Table, Sydney

Dining at a Chef's Table has always been my idea of bliss. I'd much rather forgo the silver service of a dining room and be a fly on the wall of a restaurant's kitchen. It's here, in the inner sanctum, that the true heart and soul of a restaurant can be found.

I'd first spied the Chef's Table at Becasse during the launch party, and was immediately struck by how thoughtfully this feature had

James Bond Island, Phuket, Thailand

On our holiday to Malaysia last year, we ended up taking a detour to Phuket. We had two full days in Phuket, and like most tourists in the area, we booked ourselves on a island-hopping boat tour.

We went with Holiday Sea Canoe to see James Bond Island, involving a 7.30am transfer from our hotel to the pier at Ao-Poh in Phuket's north. Our boat is large, with about 25 tourists on-board, and a

Becasse, Din Tai Fung and Sassy's Red, Westfield Sydney

The hand bag stool - it's one of several new features at Becasse, which relocated from Clarence Street to Westfield Sydney last week. The idea came from head chef and owner, Justin North, who had noticed female diners at Becasse asking for a napkin to place on the floor to protect their handbags. Could there be any more reasons for women to swoon over Justin North?


Justin North

We're here on

Supermeal, Haymarket Chinatown

Sometimes even your best mates won't wait for the requisite food blogging photo. 

We'd stumbled into Supermeal for dinner after drinks at the pub - our party of ten hungry and ready to eat. Supermeal on Goulburn Street changed name (and owners?) from Superbowl a couple of years ago, although the Superbowl on Dixon Street continues. It's never been fancy - a backlit sign bright enough to give

Quarter Twenty One, Sydney

Quarter Twenty One is the latest ambitious undertaking by Justin and Georgia North, officially opening in Westfield Sydney late last week. The concept includes the relocated Becasse (moving from Clarence Street and shrinking in size from 70 to 24 seats), and expansion into a new modern European restaurant, cookery school, providore and a retail bakery. The size of the space is 700 square metres