This time I’d like to tell you about three of Japan’s B-rank gourmet foods.
Recently, B-rank gourmet food is enjoying great popularity throughout Japan. People search all around the country for cheap, delicious food; B-rank gourmet competitions are held, too.

First is ramen. This is a representative B-rank gourmet food that has taken firm hold in Japan. Ramen comes in abundant variety and no two taste the same. Ramen is categorized in many ways: for example, by the flavor of the soup (shoyu or soy sauce ramen, miso or bean paste ramen) or by the locality where it originates (Sapporo ramen, Hakata ramen). It’s also fun to enjoy the different flavors of ramen made with ingredients that are specialties of particular localities around the country. Ramen is cheap and delicious, so there are ramen shops everywhere in Japan and it’s made regularly at home, too.

Second is tuna and yam bowl. This dish consists of hot cooked white rice topped with raw slices of tuna and grated yam and sprinkled with soy sauce. Tuna is readily available in Japan, so this is a dish that can easily be made at home, too. Tuna is a healthy food that is becoming very popular worldwide. By the way, Shizuoka Prefecture ranks No. 1 for the largest catches of tuna and is also the largest consumer of tuna in Japan.

Third is Kofu City boiled chicken giblets. This B-rank gourmet dish was the winner of the Grand Prix in 2010 in the B-1 Grand Prix contest, which is one of the events held for the purpose of promoting localities through their local cuisine. The Kofu City specialty is made by boiling chicken giblets flavored with sugar and soy sauce, and this salty-sweet flavor is the secret of its popularity. Kofu City in Yamanashi Prefecture became a topic of conversation when its boiled chicken giblets won the contest.

Many dishes are named for the place where they originate, which is an indication of the close connection between food and localities. I hope I have the opportunity in the future to introduce more of Japan’s B-rank gourmet foods.

By Eiko Furuich, GAD.

Keropok Lekor is a popular gourmet in Malaysia. In fact, it has been called the unofficial national dish of Malaysia.The easiest way to describe Keropok Lekor is to call it fish sausages snack. It is the specialty from Terengganu, a state at the east coast of Malaysia and omnipresent in the streets and villages and very much a part of the live of the people there.

It is made of fish meat, sago, and a bit of salt, there are some that uses flour in addition or instead of sago too. The mixture is being hand-rolled into a sausage form. There are some basic machines to do the mixing processing. The sausages are thrown into boiling water for a few minutes until they are cooked and ready to be sold. This stall is so popular that the sausages are sold freshly right from the pot with people waiting patiently in a long queue. Then, the huge and long sausages are cut into smaller pieces and thrown into the pan to be deep-fried until they turn crispy gold. Another option to take Keropok Lekor is to just steam it. This gives it a fishier flavor but tastes as good as the crispy ones according to some people. A completely different kind of Keropok is Keropok Keping and it comes in different flavours; fish, squid and prawn. Here, the Keropok is shaped into even bigger tubes and cut into thin slices to let it dry in the sun. They are sold in packets and consumers will have to fry them and they are taken as crackers. During frying, it is entertaining to see the pieces of Keropok expand to bigger pieces when they hit the hot oil.

Keropok Lekor ready to be served with their chili sauce, or with own home-made chili sauce if one prefers or shrimp-based sauce is also common. You get the best of it if you take it right after frying when it is still hot, crispy on the outside and tender at the inside. Definitely a must-try if you want to experience the Malay culture from the east coast in Terengganu and its diversity in food is one of the ultimate elements of the culture.

Keropok Lekor is widely sold in the local market and usually produced on a daily basis to fulfill the market demand, especially for school canteens, night markets and hawker stalls. It cost at only RM1.00 per sausage.

At present, most of keropok lekor manufacturers carry out the processing manually, following established procedures with little mechanization.

Living in multi-racial society in Singapore offers Singaporeans varieties in many areas, especially in the area for food. Typically, many countries which we visit would serve specialties characteristic of each country. In Singapore, it is a totally different story, we get to enjoy cuisine from various countries and the prices of these cuisines are affordable to a person living in Singapore. There are many different types that can be found in Singapore, namely, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Hong Kong and Taiwanese. As such, residents in Singapore are spoilt for choice when it comes to dining out.
There is even a shopping mall, Bedok Point which focuses on restaurants and cafes in Singapore. If one wants to go for Korean food, they can go over to Square 2 where there are a few Korean restaurants like Seoul Yummy, offering authentic and affordable Korean cuisine, which cost about 15 dollars to 20 dollars for a meal. For Japanese and Italian fusion food, there is a reasonably priced place called Saizeriya (common in Japan) where people can go for a good and affordable meal.

Besides restaurants which offer various cuisines, there are also many shops in the various shopping centers which offer snacks which are cheap for people who eat on the go or just want something for afternoon tea. The snacks can range from pancakes to toasted bread with kaya. Given the wide variety of food in Singapore, people living here need not to travel out of the country to actually taste the food offered overseas.

Besides being a worldwide renowned “Shopping Paradise”, Hong Kong is also well-known as a “Gourmet Paradise”. One does not need to visit 5-star hotels or high-end restaurants to experience it. You could find large varieties of “cheap gourmet” just round the street corners, or main junctions of busy streets like right outside Mong Kok MTR (underground) station, Times Square in Causeway Bay (near PCL office), or along the well-known Temple Street, Women Street.

Want to challenge your taste buds by the genuine flavors of Hong Kong?
Try the below typical “cheap gourmet”:
“Yu Dan” (curry fishballs)
“Ngau Jap” (cow’s internal organs such as intestine, pancreas, stomach and lungs)
“Chau Tau Fu” (smelly bean curd)
“Yeung Sam Bo” (Deep fried eggplants, chili with fish meat)
“Chui Pay Law Pak” (Pig’s skin & carrot)
“Gai daan jai “ (Mini Egg)

Besides hawker food, a wide range of fast food are also available in the local tea houses, such as “Daan tart” (a baked egg custard) and “bor law yau” (sweet bread stuffed with a slice of melting butter inside). Having these with a cup of coffee or Yun Yan (a mix of milk tea and coffee) is a good way to start your day or for a relaxing tea time. It is nothing glamorous but really tasty, refreshing and truly Hong Kong.

From time to time, we will pick up some of these along the way back home or office and share it with our colleagues. Are you ready to challenge your taste buds with us?

Xiaolongbao literally "little basket bun"; also known as soup dumpling is a type of baozi (filled bun or bread-like item) from Eastern China, including Shanghai and Wuxi. These buns are traditionally steamed in bamboo baskets, hence the name.
Xiaolongbao are traditionally filled with soup and meat, but variations include seafood and vegetarian fillings, as well as other possibilities. The soup inside is created by placing some meat gelatin inside the dumpling before steaming. The steam heat melts the gelatin into soup. In modern times, refrigeration makes it easy to wrap up using chilled gelatine which otherwise might be liquid at room temperature during hot weather.
As is traditional for buns of various sizes in the Jiangnan region, these steamed buns feature a skin that is gathered up into fine folds at the top, prior to steaming. Serving traditionally, the Xiaolongbao is a treat or snack item and obviously it served hot. It is dipped in Chinkiang vinegar with ginger slivers, and is traditionally served with a light, clear soup.

The Xiaolongbao has also become popular as a dish in a main meal. In Cantonese regions and the West, it is also commonly served as a yum cha item.
Frozen xiaolongbao are now mass produced and a common type of frozen food sold in China and outside. They can be steamed and served on a bamboo basket. Origins in Shanghai.
The Shanghai version of the xiaolongbao were originally from a town called Nanxiang, a suburb of Shanghai in the Jiading District. The inventor of xiaolongbao originally sold them in his first store in Nanxiang next to the town's famous park, Guqi Garden. From there on it has expanded into downtown Shanghai and outwards. Two specialist Xiaolongbao restaurants are traditionally regarded as the most authentic. One is the Nanxiang Bun Shop (Nanxiang Mantou Dian), which derives from the original store in Nanxiang but now located in the City God Temple precinct, is famed for its crab meat-filled buns. Nanxiang Bun Shop has at least 105 years of history and has divisions opened in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The other is Gulong Restaurant at the original site next to Guqi Garden in Nanxiang. Variety Xiaolongbao in Wuxi tend to be sweeter and have a thinner dough skin, and are juicier than the Shanghai variety.
From the annals of Jiading; "Buns can be made with leavened or unleavened dough. Those made with unleavened dough uses clear water for mixing, that skin is thin and the fillings large. It is frequently made in Nanxiang, but is imitated elsewhere, calling it "Xiang style".

By Y. L. Lee of Production Dept.

Liu-Ho night market is one of famous sightseeing night market in Kaohsiung. In early time, arriving at Kaohsiung, every tourist like to stroll along Liu-Ho night market and all say “What a steal!” Although in recent years some new night markets have mushroomed all over Kaohsiung, Liu-Ho night market still wins the glory of heaven of delicacy, and presents local spirit.
Being in night market, you can truly feel the vitality of traditional Kaohsiung life.  As night falls, night market has gradually gathered a crowd of people. We all come here to look for familiar, delicious local food.

Liu-Ho night market is not big so that the whole journey takes about twenty minutes. Many people enter night market, the first food should not miss is papaya milk. All kinds of fresh fruit are arrayed on the small booth, attracting people to try a cup of papaya milk. Along the way there are other kinds of delicious food and snack.

Rice tube Pudding

“Stinky tofu” is a popular delicacy, which as its name suggests, exudes a very strong odor due to its fermentation process, but some people love it so much!  

“Seafood porridge” is rice mixed a little spicy, crisp and delicious crab, squid, oyster, and meat. All are everyone's favorite flavors.

Another excellent choice of snacks is “Rice tube pudding” which is a traditional food, the steamed glutinous rice with mushrooms, red onions, dried shrimp, pork and coriander.  

A night market visit in Taiwan can bring you a rewarding experience. Come and join us to experience the charm of Liu-Ho night market. Let’s sit down and try it!

If we talk about popular gourmet in Thailand, we will think of North-Eastern food that is Som tam or Papaya salad. There are several Som tam such as Som tam Thai, Som tam Poo and Som tam Para. Som tam is admired to have with sticky rice, roasting chicken, grilled fish and vegetables’ side dishes such as cabbage and cow-pea.

Som tam Thai, the ingredients are raw papaya, carrot, cow-pea, fish sauce, sugar, lemon, tomato, dried shrimp, peanut, chili and garlic. The taste is almost sweet, sour and a little spicy. Som tam Poo, all ingredients are the same as Som tam Thai except dried shrimp and peanut change to crab. The taste is almost salty. Som tam Para put Para replacement of dried shrimp. Tam sua, put noodles replacement of papaya line. Tam Pha, all ingredients are the same as Som tam Para but additional ingredients are noodles, mimosa, pickle, shoot, bean sprouts and snail. Besides, papaya cans replacement of cucumber is called “Tam Taeng” or fruit such as mango “Tam Mamuang”, banana “Tam Guay” and several of fruits is called “Som tam Phon-lamai”. These are modification menus for present.

The method of doing Som tam is easy as follow;

1. Bring papaya to peel off, wash papaya and chop papaya in linear then bend into slightly line.
2. Put chili and garlic into mortar. Pounding them break into pieces by flail, put in papaya line, tomato, and cow-pea then pounding them again.
3. Seasoning taste by lemon, fish sauce and sugar then mashes them together.
4. Taste and add ingredients as required.

The ingredients of Som tam menus have many benefit properties of good health. Papaya is help about digestion, tomato is good for skin care, chili have a good appetite, garlic is reduce sugar and fats in the blood vessels, cure skin disease, inhibit the growth of bacteria, fungi and viruses, lemon solves the bleeding gum and vegetable such as cow-pea and cabbage is activation of sac and intestine . Moreover Som tam is very popular menus for diet people and healthy food. The price is not expensive, around 30 ~ 80 Baht per dish (up to location).

China's long history of pasta snacks has different style and a wide variety. Surface points of the history of food can be traced back to the Neolithic period. In the period, machinable flour and powdered food were made.
To the spring and the autumn, there had already been fried and the steaming pasta, such as bait honey, sweet wine food, mix food and so on. Since then, with the improvement of cooking and cooking, the Chinese side at snack of raw materials, system of law, an increasingly rich variety. A number of popular snacks, such as the north dumplings, noodles, pancakes, glutinous rice balls, etc.; the south spring rolls, dumplings, round night, deep-fried dough sticks and so on.

Deep-fried dough sticks
For most Chinese, deep-fried dough sticks are good choice as breakfast. It is very cheap and easy to be found, and soya bean milk usually goes with deep-fried dough sticks, it's like coffee with doughnuts. Even American fast-food chain KFC begins to serve deep-fried dough sticks in all of its restaurants in China, making another step on its road of localizing its menu.

Stinky tofu
Stinky tofu is a form of fermented tofu which has a strong odor as the name suggests. It is a popular snack in China where it is usually found at night markets, roadside stands or as a side dish in lunch bars.
Chinese Stinky tofu is made and consumed in different ways in various areas of China. For example, the types of dried stinky tofu made in Changsha and Shaoxing are both very popular. But they are made with different methods and the resulting flavors are very different. The most famous shop for stinky tofu in Changsha makes the tofu with yellow soybeans marinated in seasoning. The stinky tofu sold in Tianjin is mostly made in the Nanjing style with a mild aroma.
The Stinky tofu smells like smelly and tastes like joss-stick. Some people respect it and some people will then eat it to be a kind of habit.

Chongqing Hot pot
Hot pot - is the most famous and favorite dish in Chongqing. Chongqing local people consider the hot pot as a local specialty which is noted for its peppery and hot taste, scalding yet fresh and tender. People gather around a small pot boiled with charcoal, electric or gas, filled with flavorful and nutritious soup base. You have a choice of spicy, pure and combo for the soup base. Thin sliced raw variety meat, fish, various bean curd and all kinds of vegetables are boiled in the soup base. You then dip them in a little bowl of special sauce. Be careful since the spicy soup base is burning hot.
 First, it was eaten by poor boatmen of the Yangtze River in Chongqing area and then spread westwards to the rest of Sichuan. But now it has a very popular local flavor and can be found at every corner of the city. There are a great variety of hot pots, including Yueyang Hot pot, Four Tastes Hot pot, Yashan Hot pot and Fish Head Hot pot. If you are adventurous enough, you can basically cook anything with hot pot, e.g., pig's brain and duck's kidney.
 Chongqing people love their hot pot, especially when the weather is steamy. The fire dances under the pot, the heavily oiled and spiced soup boils with hazy steam, and the people are bathed in sweat. Although hot pot can be found wherever there are street vendors or small restaurants, Chongqing Hot pot has the greatest variety and is known for its delicious soup base and dipping sauce.