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Would You Pay to Meet a Local When You Travel? Would You Rent a Friend? Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Would You Pay to Meet a Local When You Travel? Would You Rent a Friend?

Would you pay to meet a local when you travel? The most memorable trips are worth cherishing for the people we meet as much as the places we experience, but how far would you go to meet people when you’re on holidays? Would you rent a friend?

One of the reasons I started blogging in 2007 was to write about the things we couldn’t cover in the guidebooks we authored. Some of the stories I wanted to share were about the people we met during the course of our work: a storyteller in Damascus, a chef in Amman, an artist in Dubai, a curator in Doha. In those days we were still mostly writing on the Middle East.

That connecting with people made travel more special was also a reason we launched Grantourismo in 2010. We wanted to inspire and encourage other travellers to engage more with locals when they travelled. What we had in mind at the time was good old fashioned methods like joining classes and heading to local bars. We could never have envisaged that there’d be websites where you could hire new local friends.

Would You Pay to Meet a Local When You Travel?

It’s People That Make Travel Memorable

“It’s people that make my travels so memorable,” I wrote in one of my first posts on my first travel blog. “And I don’t necessarily mean the people I befriend. Sometimes it’s a person I merely see on my travels, an exchange of knowing looks as we walk down the same lane, as we leisurely stroll the same route, as we nudge each other out of the way on a busy shopping street. Sometimes it’s a person I meet fleetingly – in a souq, in a restaurant, on the road – someone I may never see again. And yet, that moment – a smile, a stare, a wave, a tear – may leave a lasting impression.”

At the time Terence and I were shifting our focus from authoring guidebooks to writing more magazine and newspaper stories. Prior to 2007 we mostly authored and updated guides and wrote the occasional article. In the years following we reversed that situation.

One of the reasons we made the shift was out of frustration with the fast-paced nature of on-the-ground guidebook research (“pounding the pavement and ticking shit off” was how we described it) that didn’t give us enough time to get to know locals.

It was our delight in doing longer in-depth profiles on people for magazines that soon had us developing ideas for Grantourismo and a travel project that would enable us to move more slowly and settle into places so we could better engage with locals and gain more of an insight into how they live their lives.

In one of our early posts from January 20, 2010 – five years ago – I wrote “Local travel and connecting with locals is going to be a big part of what we do here on Grantourismo. Because sometimes it’s the people you meet on your travels, as much as the places you visit, that makes travel meaningful and memorable.” Sound familiar?

“Whether it’s an all-night conversation with an engaging character on a plane or train, the friendly receptionist on the hotel desk who never forgets your name, the owner of the corner store you buy your groceries from who teaches you a new phrase everyday, or an artist who enlightens you with insights into their culture you never imagined possible, simple or complex, encounters with locals, with strangers who become friends, can really make a trip and become one of the things we treasure most about a travel experience.”

That’s why we decided that meeting locals, local travel and living like locals would be such an integral part of Grantourismo and how we would try to travel from that point on. Another reason was because it was the local people with expertise and specialised knowledge who always gave us the best tips for great local markets, shops, restaurants, and bars, whether it was a chef sharing eating tips or a musician recommending live venues.

And that’s why we made it our mission to introduce those locals to you and share their insider secrets and personal tips as to what you should do in their hometown through specialist guides to eating, drinking, shopping, and so on, and our Local Knowledge series. It’s also why I started offering my own insider experiences of Siem Reap last year.

When we began to encourage our readers to interact more with locals when they travelled, we initially envisaged old-fashioned ways like saying hello to someone in an elevator or at a bar. In a post we wrote on meeting locals in August 2010 in which we reflected upon the people we’d so far met on our grand tour, we made suggestions for meeting people, such as using social media, enrolling in a language class, doing a course, and developing habits like going to the same stall at a local market everyday.

Although it had always been our dream to see things change dramatically in travel to the extent that local travel become more than a passing trend and meeting locals became a priority for everyone when they went on holidays, we didn’t envisage at that time that one day it would become so easy for travellers to book an experience with a local online or to rent a local friend.

Renting a Local Friend

Back in 2010, there was a website that made it possible to hire professional tour guides directly around the world, cutting out the travel companies, although that was soon bought by a major online tour site. There was also Tripping, which started in 2011, which began as a global community of travellers looking for locals with shared interests, but that transformed into a search engine for holiday rentals.

Of course, there were peer-to-peer accommodation sites like Couchsurfing, which started back in 2004, where you could find a sofa to sleep on for free somewhere in the world, and in most cases that host would show you around and serve as a local guide.

Home-swapping or home exchanges as a concept had been around since the 1950s and holiday rental sites were really nothing new. My family rented holiday houses and beach cottages in the 1960s and 1970s which they discovered through word-of-mouth.

In the 1980s we called local real estate agents we found in telephone books in the beach towns where we wanted to holiday. Terence and I found our first overseas summer rental in Venice in 1999 online, albeit through an old-fashioned Venetian real estate agent with a rudimentary website.

Holiday rental sites like HomeAway, which launched in 2005 and later bought VRBO, VacationRentals and OwnersDirect, and sites such as Stayz and others were essentially just online property agents that specialised in short-term rentals, although they promoted the ability to ‘live like locals’.

As did Airbnb, which started in 2008 (although it prefers to call itself a “community marketplace”).

Sites that facilitate direct connections with friendly locals around the world, who had no special guiding qualifications but just wanted to show you their city or town, took a lot longer to take off.

Yet throughout 2014 rarely a week passed without us receiving an email from a travel start-up telling us how their new site would enable travellers to connect with locals and asking our advice or inviting us to test it out. There were so many at one point that I deleted most, filing away just a few to investigate in the future when I had more time. Interestingly, a quick search today revealed that most of them didn’t survive or even get off the ground.

One start-up, Trip4Real, grabbed my attention for a few reasons and it wasn’t because of the very Aussie name that made me nostalgic. (Do teenagers in Australia still say/write “4 real”?). It was partly because it was based out of Barcelona, one of our favourite cities in the world. We know a lot of Catalans and they are some of the friendliest people on the planet, so if anyone was going to make a success out of this ‘book a local’ start-up, they probably would.

The motto of the Founder/CEO Gloria Molins, “You only truly know a place when you know its people”, succinctly summed up our own philosophy, and one of the world’s greatest chefs Ferran Adrià was a partner/investor. They were all points working in their favour, as far as we were concerned.

Trip4Real’s focus is on booking experiences, activities and tours ran by locals, so it falls somewhere in between those sites I mentioned above that no longer exist. There’s everything from a typical Spanish experience, a tapas and wine tour with a local foodie, to a more educational yet edgy tour on the history of Barcelona’s graffiti tradition which dates back to the medieval period. Who knew?

As you’d expect from a start-up that an Adrià is involved in, there is a big focus on local food experiences (a whopping 144 were listed when I checked!), from the quintessential to the quirky. There’s everything from a Catalan cooking class in a chef’s home and picnics in the vineyards in Priorat to a jamon tasting on a market tour and a gin and tonic experience with a local cocktail master on a terrace in Gràcia (which is where we like to stay when we’re in Barcelona).

When we connect with locals around the world for anything other than socializing we always seek out experts. We go to chefs to learn how to cook the cuisine and bartenders to learn to make drinks. Trip4Real appears to offer experiences and activities with a combination of experts qualified in their fields and everyday locals who don’t appear to have any special attributes that make them suitable for running tours other than their passion for the subject and their city. This is my main quibble. I’d like to be able to discern the experts from the enthusiasts.

But maybe that’s not such a big deal to most travellers. You tell me.

Perhaps not everyone requires experts to lead their tours. Maybe some people simply want to meet locals when they travel and they don’t mind whether they’re especially qualified in anything or not. They’re just happy for their new friend to introduce them to an off the beaten track neighbourhood and some happening local spots.

Indeed, some of the travellers who have done my Inside Siem Reap experiences have said that they really enjoyed hanging out and sipping cocktails and dropping into bars where I knew the staff and owners. They might have arrived as strangers but many have left as friends and we’ve stayed in touch by email and social media. I wonder how often that happens between professional tour guides and their clients?

My mother often said that like my father I have ‘the gift of the gab’ and can talk to anyone and everyone about anything and everything. I certainly inherited my dad’s gregarious nature and have no trouble making friends. However, I appreciate that some people are more introverted and find it harder to meet people, especially when they’re away, and particularly when they’re in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language.

Hiring a local certainly saves a lot of time making small talk.

So, would you pay to meet a local when you travel?

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About Lara Dunston

A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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Comments

  1. marie karaka says

    January 21, 2015 at 3:43 am

    Kia ora (hello),

    Yes we would pay for local. We have done this on previous trips, one being to Fiji. We went for a walk up the top of Dravuni Island and to the other side, to find we got a little off track (I wont say lost?). We come around the corner and a family (3 generations) were having their lunch.
    We kept walking, trying not to bother their feast and they invited us to join them. Feeling quite shy and intrusive; we sat and enjoyed their delicacies and conversation.
    We had a common understanding and found our cultures were very similar and it was such an honour to be a part of their time.
    We left a gift and money; only to think it wasn’t enough, as the knowledge and hospitality was priceless.
    Definitely memories you can’t buy, especially when it being a “spur of moment” too.

  2. Lara Dunston says

    January 21, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    Kia ora, that sounds like a wonderful, serendipitous experience! I know the feeling of not wanting to intrude – we were also invited by an extended family (it felt like the whole village!) to join them during the ancestor’s festival here in Cambodia last year, but we politely declined as we didn’t want to impose on something so personal.

    I took a look at your site, Marie – your tours look wonderful! We will definitely be looking you up when we next return to NZ. We did just one Maori experience on a trip to NZ and it was so wonderful I wished we’d done a whole trip based on Maori tours. For us, indigenous experiences in Australia are the most inspiring. I only wish more people would do them.

    Thanks for dropping by to share your lovely story!

  3. Heather says

    January 24, 2015 at 8:23 am

    I’m not so sure that I would … seems to defeat the purpose of traveling in my mind!

  4. Lara Dunston says

    January 24, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    Why is that, Heather? Is travel primarily about serendipitously meeting people for you?

  5. Brigid says

    February 5, 2015 at 10:55 am

    Interesting idea! From a travelers perspective I think it would be wonderful to have the chance to spend time with a local. Not everyone has the personality to initiate contact, so as long as the benefits were mutual, why not! Also, not everyone is fortunate enough to get to travel to world, so from the locals perspective, they would get to connect with people from all different walks of life and cultures. A wonderful learning experience I say :)

  6. Lara Dunston says

    February 5, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    Great points, Brigid! Thanks for dropping by to share your views. Appreciated :)

  7. Sheila says

    February 16, 2015 at 9:54 am

    When I was in Cape Town, SA, I ate a home cooked and delicious dinner with a family using dinewithalocal.com.
    It was a wonderful evening and I have recommended it to all.
    I plan to research similar opportunities in other locations.

  8. Lara Dunston says

    February 17, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    Hi Sheila – that’s good to hear. I’ve had dinewithalocal.com on my list to try it out, along with a few other similar sites. Let me know if you end up trying any others and what you thought of them. Thanks for dropping by!

  9. Jo (The Blonde) says

    August 4, 2015 at 9:21 am

    I used Airbnb in India and I was hosted by some lovely families I made friends with. I would hire a local to show me around, that’s for sure and I have done that on numerous occasions. couchsurfing is good, too but I just don’t like not having a piece of my own space. I think nowadays there are so many options that it’s hard to decide which one ot choose.

  10. Lara Dunston says

    August 4, 2015 at 10:01 am

    Hi Jo – you’re right: it can be overwhelming at times deciding where to stay, how to experience a place, what to see and do. But I think it’s better to have too many options that none at all.

  11. Max Joles says

    October 16, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    In an ideal world, travelers would take the time to travel slowly and meet people in a more natural way; chatting with locals at a coffee shop while, sharing a compartment on a long distance train, or riding the same wave while surfing for a day.

    The reality is most people are constrained by time during their travels. I think everyone has the desire to experience a place “like a local”, but they’re discouraged by the idea of taking the time to develop relationships with locals. This sounds bad, but building trust and a friendship takes time.

    I think there is a place for peer to peer, “meet with locals” style platforms. (I’m a founding member of Advlo.com, so naturally I strongly believe this.) They expedite the process of connecting with friendly faces and provide the foundation for future friendships. Yes, there is a money transaction involved, but there is nothing stopping two people from hanging out beyond the paid experience. By all means, try and meet as many people as you can while traveling, but if you’re looking to connect more quickly, why not try one of these new platforms. What does everyone else think? Would love to hear!

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Lara and Terence are an Australian-born, Southeast Asia-based travel and food writers and photographers who have authored scores of guidebooks, produced countless travel and food stories, are currently developing cookbooks and guidebooks, and host culinary tours and writing and photography retreats in Southeast Asia.
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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

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Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

#recipe #recipes #vietnamesefood #cambodianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #ricenoodles #rice #noodlebowl #meatballs #igfood #igfoodie #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #writingacookbook #writingacambodiancookbook #patreon #patreoncreator #grantourismo
It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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