Exploring street food in Asia

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is not part (well, at least not yet) of Luke Nguyen’s itinerary as he embarks on street food adventures in the neighboring countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (place of his origins) for his TV show Street Food Asia. If and when that happens in a future episode or season, it would be interesting to see how the chef and restaurateur would take to our kwek-kwek, isaw, banana cue or balut, etc.

Meantime, Luke is taking viewers to vibrant food scenes and secret eats that keep the streets alive and bustling, from dawn to dusk, day-in, day-out, in Asia.

Just a little background: The TV host was born in 1978 in a refugee camp in Bangkok, Thailand, shortly after his parents fled to Vietnam as refugees. His family eventually migrated to Sydney, Australia, where they continue to reside today.

When he was 23, Luke opened his own restaurant, Red Lantern, with his partner Suzanna Boyd, sister Pauline Nguyen and Mark Jensen. Apart from his award-winning Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney, Luke also opened two more restos, Red Lantern on Riley and the Red Lily Cocktail Bar in 2012.

Luke is also best-selling author of cookbooks — Secrets Of The Red Lantern, Songs of Sapa, Indochine and Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong.

In 2009, Luke and Suzanna founded The Little Lantern Foundation in Vietnam, a non-profit organization that gives disadvantaged youth the opportunity to be trained in the restaurant and hospitality industries.

Here are the excerpts from The STAR’s recent phone interview with the Street Food Asia host.

On how to make the most of street food adventures:

“Before I go to any country, I like to learn the basic words, so you can actually converse slightly. I don’t mean, you know, do a month- or two-month course, but just basic words where you can communicate, not just through the language of food, but also through their own language.

“The locals are always key. Follow the locals, ask the locals and see where they eat and where they recommend. And that’s what I always do and I think with my programs, I love to find authenticity. I don’t want to go to places where you can simply get online. I’d rather hear it from the area that I’m in. I ask people around me and look at where people are eating and discover the best places. A lot of it is trial and error, of course, and I eat a lot of all in the different areas. But the first thing, of course, is you see where all the locals are going, where there’s people sitting there from morning to night and that’s always the busiest stand, you never fail there right?”

On how to enjoy the eats minus those inconveniences like a bum stomach:

“I always look at the produce as well. The beauty of street food is that you see all the ingredients in front of you, they’re cooking them right in front of you. So I always look there, look at how fresh it is, how vibrant the ingredients are. And I love to eat street food where it’s close to a wet market because then you know that every morning, they just go to the market, buy their produce and they set up right there, so you know it’s really fresh. And if they run out of something, they always go back to the fresh market and then cook it again.

“So it’s from market to street food vendor to your plate, you know. I think a lot of people are a bit concerned about eating street food because of hygiene and, of course, that’s a big concern. But for me, if you see that people are eating there busy, go there, or if it’s right next to a market and you can see the produce and it’s cooked in front of you, it’s going to be fantastic.”

On how much of an influence his Asian heritage is to his cooking:

“I grew up in Sydney in an area called Cabramatta. After the Vietnamese war, a lot of the boat people, and my family are boat refugees, came to Australia and we migrated to Cabramatta and that’s where a lot of the Vietnamese boat refugees lived. For me, living there could be living in Saigon, alright, because of so many Vietnamese people there; probably the biggest Vietnamese community in Australia is where I grew up.

“So, I grew up in a very strong Vietnamese culture, strong Vietnamese language and a lot of the things that we also had in Vietnam, like great fish markets, great butcheries, great Vietnamese grocery stores, great Vietnamese bakeries, great Vietnamese restaurants. The Vietnamese culture and Asian culture were already engrained in me from a very, very young age. So when I travel to Asia or travel back to Vietnam, I really feel like I’m home.”

On his favorite filming experiences on Street Food Asia:

“My most memorable? Wow, every city had a fantastic memory.  I really, really enjoyed Kuala Lumpur, for example. I got and I woke up very, very early and went to a market called Imbi Market, and I remember being there, maybe at 6:45 a.m. and I was still half-asleep when I arrived, I was meeting a friend. I just entered this space and it was so busy, and there were people everywhere, it felt like it was a big food festival before 7 a.m. and there were so many different dishes. Everyone was up, everyone was eating with their family and dining. And I think, for me, to be able to experience that is fantastic.

“We had Popiah, which is the best Popiah in town. We had some beautiful freshly-baked tarts — you know the custard egg tarts which are lovely. We had the Kopi, the milk and coffee served tea coffee drink and there were so many different stores. (The place) just totally woke me up and gave me a great sense of how people dine in Kuala Lumpur.”

On trying anything and everything:

“There have been things before in my previous travels where I’ve really kind of struggled to eat (a certain food), but at the end of it, I always do try because I love to try everything.  And this thing I’m talking about is just live coconut worm; it was wriggling around, was very big and looks very, very milky. But you know, I like to try everything so I can’t say there’s anything that I won’t eat. I would always try it once and even if I don’t like it, I would always give it a go. I think if you’re in a country and people eat it on an everyday basis, then you should try it at least once. So there’s nothing in this world that I would not eat.”

(Luke Nguyen’s Street Food Asia airs Thursdays at 9:25 p.m. on TLC.)