I Eat Southeast Asia

Sadly enough, I'm approaching the end of nearly four weeks in Southeast Asia. It's been a wild and delicious ride. Here's some of the tastiest things I've eaten in each city:

Hoi An, Vietnam: Crispy, savory banh xeo pancakes (top photo) that I learned to make at a cooking school. I'd been dying to try them and they were as tasty as I imagined. The batter is accented with turmeric, and the filling includes pork, bean sprouts and herbs.

Hanoi: Steaming bowls of pho bo (above) or pho ga for breakfast on many a morning.

Saigon: Wild boar, frog legs, and shrimp (still kicking for an uncomfortably long time) grilled at our table at 3T Quan Nuong. The super smoky open-air restaurant was packed to the gills with local families, downing beer and barbecuing. Each table had a propane tank under it.

Singapore: Spicy barbecue stingray, black pepper beef and kangkong (a leafy green) stir fried in shrimp paste (above) at a street cart in Chinatown.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Traditional Khmer tasting menu, including ambarella (kind of like an apple) salad with dried snake, prawn and water hyacinth soup, stir fried frog legs with curry and peanut, at Meric in the Hotel de la Paix.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Khao soi, yellow coconut curry noodle soup (above), eaten everywhere we went.

And that's really just the tip of the iceberg ... oh, how I will miss the wonderful and ubiquitous food in this part of the world.