Beef isn’t really a thing in India. It’s outright illegal to sell it in some parts of the country, so obviously, McDonald’s here is a beef-free zone.
This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for McDonald’s to sell some of its most iconic creations.
The biryani at Kayees Rahmathulla Cafe comes with a spoon, but I’m pretty sure that’s just for serving. If I really wanted to eat it the right way, I should have been eating it with my hands — that’s what everyone around me was doing.
If you’re looking for a really tasty, filling meal in Jaipur, you could certainly do worse than the omelette sandwiches at Sanjay Omelette.
A samosa was one of those things I knew I’d have to try at least once before leaving India. Basically anytime you wrap something in dough and deep fry it, it’s going to be delicious. Samosas are not the exception to this rule.
You’re probably familiar with chicken rice, a local specialty in Malaysia and Singapore, in which boiled or roasted chicken is served with chicken-infused rice, typically with chili sauce on the side.
You might not be familiar with chicken rice balls, however (I certainly wasn’t until I came to Melaka); it’s basically the same dish, but with the rice rolled up into Timbit-sized balls.
Here’s one of the nice things about almost everyone being able to speak English in Malaysia: I walked into Goh Signature Centre completely at random (it looked busy, which was good enough for me). I had no idea what to order, but I was able to ask the woman in the restaurant what their specialty is.
I’ll admit that the two bowls of tonkotsu ramen I’ve had so far in Fukuoka threw me for a loop. I love that style of ramen… or do I? The two bowls I sampled in Fukuoka (the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen) were one-note porky in a way I found vaguely unsatisfying.
Though Hakata Ikkousha is a chain (and apparently they’ve just opened a location in Toronto), they serve some seriously acclaimed ramen — it’s frequently called one of the best bowls in Fukuoka.
One of the local specialties here in Fukuoka is something called mentaiko — a reddish, sausagey-looking thing made from cured sacs of pollock roe.
Tonkotsu ramen — in which pork bones are boiled down for hours and hours until you wind up with a rich, creamy soup — might be the most famous style of ramen.