Chilli and bratwurst in New York

The tricky thing about being in the US is that it doesn’t fit in to the concept of the Chilli World Tour, in terms of unpicking the chilli’s 50 yr reverse colonisation of the world via the Portuguese.

The fact that in both San Francisco and New York, Spanish is a very strong and evident 2^nd language and that Mexican food in all its diversity is one of the underpinnings of everyday culture makes the ubiquity of the chilli something that is inevitable on a number of fronts. And a function of the past four hundred years or so here. I would guess. The culinary history of the rest of the world notwithstanding.

Mind you, seeing a vinegary green chilli poking its nose out of my sauerkraut, bratwurst and mustard at lunch at the Met on Friday really suggested one part of the chilli presence in New York certainly has taken a European journey.

Is this the kind of circle being almost completed here? …There are Thai restaurants on the lower East side, and presumably there are in Mexico and Brazil as well. The trade in cuisine as it were has an almost universal reach, even if its spread has taken longer than Portuguese took with their gold and chocolate and spice trade in the 16^th Century.

Mexican salsas in downtown SF after mission mural adventure. West coast is a shortcut for the chilli world tour.

Organic chillies for sale Wharf market SF CA

Ainslie chilli powder

As mentioned in blog below. Not as hot as the Daintree Chilli I take it.

chilli world tour1.1 less exclusive?

Well this world tour thing isn't going to work if it relies too much on me.

 I will be in New York (and Montreal) later in the year, and I can certainly find some cultural and culinary connections, although I'm not sure  how or when the chilli got to the European settlers in  North America, exactly.  Clearly there's a lot of Mexico and Latin America more generally in the US now....

 But as Fran points out below, there is also Australia to explore in that context, I understand that she's in Cairns or will be soon..

 And Amanda will be in Zanzibar shortly, which really was a Portuguese trading hotspot in the  early 16th centre -  the years of the great chilli spread.

 So I'm thinking of how I could open up the world tour to guest bloggers.  Either simply add comments or email me in the first instance..

 meanwhile I've baked all our post frost chillies here in Ainslie and ground them don to make a nice bity slightly smoky powder.

 keep the fire burning.

Next steps

Well I need to consolidate the experience of this pilot tour before the chilli world tour concept fades into the non urgent background.

Some of the lessons are obvious: but there's no harm in repeating,just to give me an action plan for next time maybe, in handy dot point form. There's also been a few suggestions already made by family and friends that I can sew into that list, and for which I'm grateful.

There are also some refinements at the technical end that might give this chilli tour more substance next time around. I imagine.

Actually I don't know, although I do imagine. Probably people reading the blog, were there still any, could make the suggestions. I need to add a kind of wiki dimension to encourage external guidance and advise on the run.I have resisted facebook in my life to date but I have a feeling that it would make sense to add a facebook dimension if I were to try to make the blog something more than me just talking, more or less, to myself.

The list so far:

• Research destination in concrete ways prior to departure
• Seek to make some contact with target population before departure
• Advise Aus consulate at destination and destination consulate in CBR.
• Read and act on advice as received through blog
• Seek out and absorb multiple perspectives on local culture - don't get distracted
• Implement facebook or other social media links to blog to encourage input
• Develop technical blogpacity in order to add links and interaction
• Follow other blogs

So Grette and I are in no immediate rush to do another leg of the tour. But some degree of planning can start now. Do we want to go to some where less equivocal about its Portuguese connection. Such as Mozambique, Goa or Brazil?  Or Portugal itself? Or perhaps another ex trade hotspot such as Zanzibar or Hoi An?

 If so, is there a community here in Australia I should look out for first?

Anyone got any links to culinary social histories they can forward, or Zanziban colleagues they can introduce me to?

Near the end

A few Ainslie chillies arrived at the NSW far south coast, 

end of journey?

Delicious chicken biryani on MHS 123

Main course and water, good;
dessert, salad, bread and chocolate.. not this time

This was probably the last meal of the Chilli World Tour 1.0 pilot journey. Since then in Sydney neither the won ton soup for lunch nor Monica's delicious Italian dinner  have included chillies in any noticeable way.

All that dinner on the aeroplane was too much for us in our state at the time but the biryani was fragrant and just what the doctor would have ordered.

Actually a few unrelated matters re difference to finish this tour blog I think. Speaking of doctors I suddenly found myself spending the equivalent of lots of Ringot on health. But I did get immediate access to a doctor, appropriate antibiotics and then cough mixture, so my fragile western body got well looked after. On the other hand, the traffic on the highway out of Sydney on Good Friday sure makes the traffic on Malaysia's expressways look light.

Art work

After afternoon tea, where we rejected all the cakes and ate cautious white bread sandwich fingers (no discernible chilli) Grette and managed to resist the enticing prospects of checking out Tiffany, Boss, Marks and Spencer's et al (we had bought shirts and bags from Jim Thompson at another exclusive shopping centre earlier in the day) in order to visit the contemporary art space run by the national oil company  Petronas.

Some great works from new academic designers and artists, backed up by quite a few weighty arguments by university leaders and the gallery patron arguing variously that art is or should be  a research discipline of facts and ideas, and that it has a socio-political responsibility to recast the ideas our life together. Throw into the mix the range of art explorations, often modern and innovative but linked to traditional life or culture, which appears to be strong at the toppish end of tourism... and the potential and value of art as the real forum for intercultural  connection - inside and between countries - looks really obvious.

A world wide chilli arts festival,live and on the internet,perhaps.

A tale from today

The plan was to walk across to the National Museum after checking in our luggage at Sentral Station. It's very close on the map. But no one knew how it could be done. We divined its location behind the Hilton and Meridian but the porter at the Hilton suggested a taxi. I got a bit argumentative and probably rolled my eyes. He said I could walk along the roads and it might take 30 minutes. We took a taxi, although the taxi driver and I chuckled at the 30 min estimate when we set off. Actually if we tried to walk Grette and I might still be there. Even the taxi had to drive in spirals for close to 10 mins to get there.

The museum is a good one. lots of detail on the various Malay kingdoms of the past thousand years, installations to recreate colonial times, detailed information on the Communist emergency ... My aunt Beryl was serving in the Army in Malaysia then I think.. and quite a lot about Government programs and progress on  sharing development and promoting  cultural harmony. As always the stuff on trade proved most interesting to me.

I'll insert a snippet of our lunch in the cafeteria when I can get the technology sorted.

That did get me thinking about being a pedestrian. So many people who work here come into the city by train and bus. And others live here anyway. But even new developments rarely allow for pedestrians who of course walk in the road which is a little hairy in Melaka but can be really hairy in KL.

The buildings here have really interested me: from the grand to domestic, ancient and modern. Even unit blocks and office towers are often inventive, meaningfully reference culture, history and religion, are a pleasure to look at and to be in. But getting in and out of those buildings must be perilous at times.

The buildings work for human beings but the ground around them, in the auto era, do not.

Moderate lunch at the cafeteria - yes, chilli

Towers in the mist from the KLIA Expres

We were caught in an exciting storm in 'little India',
this is the residue as we leave it behind

Rol food guide

Pascale in KL has asked for a rol-araunt point system reflecting on the food we've eaten but I can't really make sense of everything in that way.  I can say this:

• In Georgetown, Penang, fabulous tandoori chicken at an Indian takeaway and eat on the street establishment on the corner of Chulia and King, and on Lebuh Campbell fab dim sum at Tho Yuen, which two older women stopped to advise us is also famous for its rice. 
• In Melaka, the grand family Peranakan Restaurant across the road from the Hotel Puri, expresses the culinary tradition but is a little gentle with the ubiquitous brown sauce. 
•  Here in KL, under somewhat constrained circumstances, we ate at two great top 100 places, The Museum at the Islamic Arts Museum and Sao Nam in Tingkat Tong Shin.

I bought a guide to cooking hawker food at KLIA tonight so as to catch on some of the dishes we missed.

A chilli cafe at upmarket KLCC

High intensity consumerism cowering between the feet of the giant silver Petronas towers against a black sky and lightning. Not that you can tell from the photo.

Rolandfood

Rolandfood.com: Global experts in specialty food. I searched for chilli and got a lot of korma paste etc, so they know what is in their products at least.

Not yet sure if Rolandfood is really my global speciality.

Chilli chopping at Chinese vegetarian restaurant nearby, this morning

Last Day in KL

Well digestion issues - not chillies but water, or even eating too much -  have slowed my consumption of food. I am more comfortable now but quite disapointed. Black tea, white toast and honey for breakfast.  we did manage another go at Sao Nam last night although the very delicious grilled salmon with dill marinated in fermented rice was ( you guessed it) farly rich. I only had a little. IT came with chillie sauce. Or maybe that was teh  crispy prawn and chicken pancake. Most deliv cous was the tofu and, veg and rice hotpot. Restraint is working wonders on my taste buds.

We had a fine conversation with the urbane owner or manager of the restauraunt, who seemed to understand this interest in the spread of the chilli (which he had thought came from India). Them being ubiquitous and all.

 Next photo of a chilli cutting kitchen hand in the street this morning (I need WiFi for that - maybe at the Jim Thompson shop up the road...)

Next late post - Portuguese settlement, repris

The photo below showing me sadly outside the closed museum doesn't meant there's nothing happening at the settlement. It's just none of the bars or museum or restaurants were open at 10:00am Monday.

It  is a bit like the Causeway (Canberra reference): special housing of a remaining group of people tucked out of the way, but in this case so they can keep fishing. There were community notice boards with jobs and meetings (in engish). I imagine this being holy week there are a series of church events just getting up their head of steam. The community still speaks an archaic Portuguese, those who are there, although maintaining a language in a community of only 300 people has got to be a challenge. There is or was a website so I reckon I ought to contact them them, just in case I get to go back.

The later post from KL

These are comments linked  to photos below.

 Islamic Arts Museum and lunch

 Well a fragile digestion saw me enjoying the smoothest and most luscious hummus and soft bread ever, and very limited quantities of an menu that  won't annoy you all with. The big challenge for me was only to eat a very little of the roast lamb pieces, none of the salad, have a soupcon of cumin flavoured  thin lentil soup, have only two spoons of a dessert that might have been made from eggs and nuts and even cream.

 It's just not my usual style such restraint. But 'needs must' as they say, and interestingly the flavours were that much more intense! One of those obvious lessons of life I guess.

 The Arts Museum itself was cool in all senses I think, wonderfully laid out, interesting materials linked to the other experiences of this trip - architecture, and the contribution of diverse cultures to daily life, science and maths, and general cultural practice.

The big news is that Grette found a little book about Islam and the spice trade which (not surprisingly) neatly describes the interlocking  nature of the spread of Islam and the trade in spices. Also not surprisingly the European traders don't come out of it well, particularly their penchant for over exploitation of the resources.

 while the Portuguese are acknowledged for plundering the East while they had the chance, comments on Trade from the West (thew Americas) pointed to Spain, and chocolate and Vanilla. I also know that the Spanish were big on cochineal, and kept the secret of its provinance hidden for a hundred years or so, in order to control the market.

 So I realise why chillies, despite their incredible take up by just about every culinary disposition the world over, never rate a mention. Because there was no secret to keep, or limited supply from which access can be controlled.  Those chilli seeds just grow like topsy. Not as invasive as blackberries, thankfully, or prickly pear (to ref back to cochineal for a moment), nor as limited in their setting as say chocolate, nutmeg  or coffee. And a very easy germinator.

 I see a series of films. Germinator 1 : the Chilli in Africa. Germinator 4 - Fire up the Danube!!

In the meantime, perhaps we can see that it's the limits of economic history (and military and colonial history) which explain the absence  of chilibrations around the world, and why the contribution of the Portuguese is (understandably, perhaps) a little unappreciated.

Central Markets

 And here was a very nourishing satisfying lunch for very little money, for two hot travellers, having the choice of  about 8 or ten distinct authentic cuisines in a food court, surrounded by teenage local girls with mobile phones and fabric and soap and travel bag shops, in a 19th century market building. 

The Post from KL

Aha: in an internet game den as access to wifi and internet is down today at our very fine boutique hotel
today [www.anggunkl.com]. These game dens really appear to be the same all around the world.  But  I'm not going to write a lot in this post, as I'm going to add some material to the photos below, which I should be able to do now I'm on a computer.

I must admit that the search for the chilli is a bit more abstract now (1) we've moved on from Melaka and  (2) my digestion is a little dysfunctional or  agitated.

A delicious mid east lunch at the Islamic Art Centre

We thought there might be chilli in the fatoush

A trio of chillies in a KL foodcourt

Perfect spring rolls at Sao Nam

Chilli on the side

Sao Nam chilli sauce

Chilli peddler outside Portuguese square museum. Monday am.

Next steps

We leave Malaka today, and I have a few regrets.

Having seen the Portuguese settlement and the closed restaurants in the rain on Saturday morning and then sort of imagining that trying the food in town was an easy way to tick that box, I have continued my search for cultural symbols of the chilli and the Portuguese in wider Malakan life and commerce.  I realise now as I leave (one of my strengths is to eventually realise the self evident)  is that the small surviving community of the Portuguese speaking Kristang need to be a part of any chilli world tour stop-over in Melaka. It's not the chilli, its the people. Well probably those people, and the chilli, and all other people too...

Advice from a local was to come back in June for the festival of St Juan.  When there are culural events out at the Settlement. And that's good advice. But I do feel pathetic that I didn't go diving in and try to find someone to begin an intercultural connection on the Portuguese/chilli front. While I was here.

Mind you,  I can see why the Portuguese colonial  heritage did not evince a warm response when I brought it up. Particularly as their destructive conquest of Melaka, as I understand it, brought to an end its "Golden Age". Despite the long European colonial history as a trade centre thereafter.

My other regret was doing too much walking and not catching the multicoloured, flower bedecked rock and roll trishaws that are a feature of this town. You tell yourself that its good for your health - all that food needs to be used up - but walking in the heat erodes the decision making process I find.

 Last night's dinner was a subtle and delicious Nyonya meal but the photo was a video and I deleted it. Dryish tasty beef rendang with kaffir lime and lemongrass. Prawn fritters (we asked for chilli sauce!) and sizzling luscious juicy tofu; in a giant old family restaurant.

At the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum a bag of chillies

Regarding the spice trade,
amid the bags of spices, cardamon, cinnamon, pepper, is this bag of chillies

Looking for the Portuguese traders.

Standing at the Porta de Santiago - last remaining vestige
of the Portuguese fort, looking for a Portuguese chillie hawker.
It seems they've moved on.

Another messy photo of a dinner: Portuguese devil curry

Fried calamiri with English batter and five spice, Chicken devil curry, and veg.

Touring Melaka

Well I now know a lot more details about how Melaka was used and abused by various imperial powers, Asian and European, although the History and Ethnographic Museum is quite heavy going, linking some old paintings and detailed reorts of battels and conquests and destructions; none of which mention chillies, or even food.

There is a small community of Portuguese speaking (Cristang) people in Melaka, which is quite remarkable when you think of it, given the Portuguese themselves were forced out 450 yrs ago. Our taxi tour took us to the settlement on the harbour, but the restaurants were closed at that time of the day, in the rain. All quiet on the western front as it were. 

There is a Portuguese cuisine restaraunt in town that we went to last night, and the food was delicious and a little lighter than the Nyonya food we've been having recently, but I'm not sure if they are at all connected to the actual settlement.

Back the histrical thing. And culture.

 Well  it doesn't appear that the ongoing Portuguese connection is the source of much pride or interest from the other locals we've met here.  Mind you, the wanton destruction of the golden age of the Sultanate of Malaka, inculding flattening all the mosques and temples, isn't going to endear you to later generations. And certainly, from yesterday's experience of  museums  and the architectural remnants of churches and forts, that sure is how it seems.

And I could be quite wrong about the impact of the Portuguese via the chilli.  Athough not the impact or the reach of the chilli you would think.

 Food as a pleasure and pursuit and a site of cultural meaning has seemed very strong in the parts of Malaysia I've enjoyed so far.  And clearly the chilli is deeply embedded in that experiecne.

UNESCO project - World Heritage Cities - highliights the way architecture is telling more complex stories. Perhaps we need some cuisine museums, interactive of course, with enough history embedded in them so locals and visitors can connect the past to the present, histrical events and evryday life - with  the result (presumably) of a richer experience. More gravy or spices on the bare bones of  recorded history.. as it were.

Hello Melaka

Well I've searched a thousand junky market stalls and souvenir and novelty shops  and found one grotesque fridge magnet and no other chillies can you believe? The invasion point for chillies into south east Asia, lands of sambal and laksa, and while the real thing is present in most savoury foods, it's not a cultural feature of the UNESCO world heritage city project for this place.

Not yet, anyway.  It just so happens the board of  the UNESCO world heritage cities project is meeting here in this hotel. Yesterday today and tomorrow. Maybe I should burst in and talk up the culturals and historical significance of the chille to this city and the world?

So it was also a shock to arrive here from rundown but very real, richly complicated Georgetown in Penang to  - when it comes to this heritage centre - a place that is a bit like Byron Bay and a bit like side show alley and a bit like Paddy's market.  Some of the pavements and buildings look great so the UNESCO thing is making a difference, and the food and the entertainment at the markets tonight was full of local poeple prodcuing and consumeing - but you do have to wonder about how much the fabric of a city is culture and heritage and how much the people and what they really do are culture and heritage too, or instead?

Dinner at a Nyonya restaurant (Chinese + Malay over hundreds of years), which the photo below deomstrates - was more than satisfying and culturally rich. We'll head off to the Portuguese settlement tomorrow night perhaps and see the the chilli will burst into life for us then.

Farewell penang

I should just say that I was getting the hang of Penang after three days when we left. The fact that all the eating that goes on isn't about tourists, despite the clearly high profile of tourism and heritage in the everyday business of Georgetown at the heart of Penang,  everybody eats ...and they all sure like their food.

Spending more than usual on acommodation  - at The Straits Collection  http://www.straitscollection.com.my/Stewart-49B.htm do check it out - really did give us a grandly unpretentious and stylish home from which to base our adventures. And people like to be helpful.

The other thing I was finding was an international approach to local art and culture which clearly has some legs in terms of enriching (inter-)cultural tourism.

 Anyway, now we are in Melaka and so far its different on most fronts. Architecture however, is still fantastic.

Nyonya dinner destroyed in Melaka

Happily destroyed mind you - a touch of chilli throughout

Western-ish meal in a Chinese museum house. Chilli in the red cabbage salad dressing.

Recommended by our host from Straits Collection, for the setting.

Dim Sum for breakfast: spot the chilli sauce.

Actually the chilli sauce is hidden near side of the middle dish, delicious

Rent control and heritage

Lots of old Georgetown is preserved because now it has UNESCO cultural heritage protection and because before that it had rent control for many years which meant fairly poor people lived in the centre, and there was no incentive for property owners to demolish and rebuild. No incentive to maintain or improve these houses and other buildings either. Anyway the end of rent control and then shortly after the championing of heritage protection is leading to lots of restoration and also many fewer residents. The culture of food and tourism and cultural tourism I guess  isn't  all a bad thing but does raise the international issue of housing unaffordability and the amenity for people on low incomes.

Last night the fish, as can be seem in the post below had a delicious subtle poaching juice with a surprise chilli or two as Grette discovered. At lunch today mutton rogan josh and tandoori chicken, with the chillies unobtrusive. Street noodles tonight not overtly dependent on chillies either.

It seems the Portuguese had well and truly done their work before Georgetoen and greater Penang got going. If we get to some Nonya cuisine after the Botanic Gardens tomorrow the chilli may resurface.

Steamed whole fish with surprise chillies

Here is the surprise chilli

Chinese Lunch.. The trappings

Stewed duck and seafood noodles not  write home about, although I am, but collection of ageing bent women serving us with alacrity and table setting all perfect

 All the basics

Chillies in Georgetown

Penang/Georgetown is entirely gorgeous.no signs of chillies here yet but I am optimistic that the highly regarded Chinese restaurant down the road  - noting we are in a food lovers paradise as I understand it - will have chillies linked in.. Presumably the same again when do Tiffen tomorrow afternoon. Portuguese not big in Georgetown. no surprises there [actually, as it turned out, we walked the very long way around the block in humid heat - my GREAT navigation - to find out that it appears to have shut down. went to another  restaurant also recommended, good photo (See next blog) but no culinary delights as yet].

Even the airport is on board

Sydney airport gives hot rates

Assembly Chillies

These were precursor chillies. Artwork by Kate Taylor

Chillies of Ainslie en flagrante

Now they are a small bottle of a dark red powder

Dickson Chillies

Hoi An next. perhaps

Chillies of Ainslie

Who knew the Portuguese had traded
with people of the Canberra region

Phone blogging

I guess we'll find out how easy it is to blog by phone. Slow so far. And can't access images from the phone it seems. I guess there's an app for that. Anyway .. Too many things to do re preparing to go.. Learning how to use our camera. Searching for info re airports and buses. Drying chillies from our garden here for psychological preparation perhaps. Of course that's a bit cart before the horse. And to return to the theme. quite slow on the phone

The uses of chillies

There might be some medicinal uses for chillies that  reflect their role in Melaccan society in the 16th Century, and thereafter... making babies heads smaller in childbirth perhaps, clearing head colds, or bringing wisdom to trivia night events (to pick three examples from my immediate work environment) which hopefully I can discover and document next week.

 If anyone would like to steer me towards more substantial examples, feel very free to do so.

Starting

Thanks to Lonely Planet for this image

(I'll collect my own when I am there).

The chilli word tour will eventually trace the spread of the chilli to cultures and cuisines and cities around the world.
  
In just 40 yrs Portuguese traders from  the Americas introduced the chilli to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and eventually Europe. By sailing ship. Without internet.


Chilli world tour 1.0 is a brief visit to Melaka in Malaysia which the Portuguese ruled in the 1500's. I plan to be there 15 to 18 April, this year. 500 years after the chilli was just starting to spread across the world.