French Toast
 

Kind of a funny topic title, I know, but the french toast we had in Vietnam and Cambodia was fantastic, and I wonder if anyone knows what was different that made it so good? In all cases it was thin bread -- could it have been the type of bread? The eggs? I don't know, but it was mouthwateringly good.

it was your hunkering for anything not cooked in a wok

One of the best I had was at the coffee house at Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. Aaah bring back memories

In Singapore there's good french toast from some Kopitiam food courts particularly the one at Centrepoint, Orchard Road. For S$2 you get french toast and coffee. Yummy

:D

So I've gotta go back to SE Asia to get great french toast? Well, ok then :-)

I've heard a lot of excuses for needing to go back to SEA, but this is a new one on me.

It's the bread. I had the absolute best chocolate croissant and baguette in Vietnam, better than Paris I must add. Even the group of french women in my hotel agreed with me.

Could be the bread. Could be the eggs. Duck eggs are used in place of chicken eggs in most cases and they are "yolkier" as well as cheaper.

Chances are very good that your french toast was indeed made in a wok, so bob's theory doesn't hold up :)

<<<Duck eggs are used in place of chicken eggs in most cases and they are "yolkier" as well as cheaper>>>

Is that why the egg yolks in my "over medium" eggs were so yellow?

Maybe, maybe not. Chicken egg yolks can be almost orange, depending on what the chickens are eating. The more greens they eat, the deeper color the yolks will be. As you noticed, the chickens in these places are truly free range, so they eat plenty of greens!

Now, I am curious. Here in New England, we are adamant that French toast be served with good quality maple syrup. How was it served in VN and Cambodia and were there differences?

It was served with delicious maple syrup!

we eat French toast with tomato sauce -it's usually a savoury dish in Australia

It's the texture that makes it sooooooo good.

<<<we eat French toast with tomato sauce -it's usually a savoury dish in Australia>>>


Interesting, because 80% of the guests at the Hanoi Elegance Diamond are from Australia, so I wonder if they liked the french toast as much as we did.

and I agree Mohan, it is the texture. My mouth is watering (and I just finished dinner!)

In Singapore, it's common to have it with kaya (coconut jam) and butter.

Can you describe coconut jam for us? It's one of those things I might have to bring back next trip!

Salut!

Kathie, I googled it (never having heard of it before):

http://thaifood.about.com/b/2008/03/...oconut-jam.htm

Thanks, SF, very interesting.

Kaya is like lemon curd (or butter), but made with Coconut. My daughter loves it, so every time we go to Singapore, whttp://www.fodors.com/community/images/PostMessage.pnge have to bring home tons of bottles!

and regarding tomato sauce (ketchup) on french toast northie...Don't australians put it on EVERYTHING?

lcuy, I didn't realize "tomato sauce" is actually ketchup!

I thought they put marmite on everything,lol

Aloha!

about eggs, I'm no expert, but I do know about buying groceries in Siem Reap. You can buy farm raised chicken eggs in the grocery store that are very similar to the crap we get in the US- watery whites with weak yolks; these eggs are the same price as free range duck eggs in the local market which are fantastic. There are also free range chicken eggs in the market and they are stupidly expensive and the collective opinion is that they are no where near as delicious as duck eggs. Day to day eggs in most restaurants and homes are duck eggs, absolutely. No one says anything about this because westerners sometimes freak out about it. Not sure why. In our café every day people rave about the eggs and we have learned to just keep a tight lip about it :)

BTW my observation is that "free range chickens" in Cambodia are mostly pecking around in the garbage all day, not sure what color that makes their yolks :)

SF it was nice to meet you and Mr SF on that unusually rainy day. Thanks for coming by to say hi!

Thanks for the info, Lori.

Lori, it was a pleasure. Your tuk-tuk guy was great - needless to say he was soaked by the time we got to town, but he was heartily laughing. We had to roll up our pants legs to get across the street!