Asian Cuisine 101

With a new shift in the restaurant market, there has been a profound spike in the interest of Asian cuisine across South Africa, specifically in Joburg, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria. Whether you’re in the mood for Chinese, Japanese, Thai or a touch of Indonesian, there’s something for every palate, with asian restaurants using the best of local produce and traditional Asian recipes. It is certainly safe to say that  the influence of the flavours, spices and cooking techniques of the East is noticeable. Asian restaurants have become as popular as burger joints and steak houses, with most of the top restaurant menus  now featuring fusion dishes, mingling Western and Eastern tastes.

Kong, Orient, So Yum and Wangthai are perfect examples of Asian fusion with their menus epitomizing Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesia and Thai influence presented in the best way possible; exciting for any Asian cuisine lover.

Have you ever wondered what makes each of the cultures different? Here are a few fun facts:

Thai cuisine 

  • Eating a meal is generally treated as a celebration therefore it’s quite common to see large groups of individuals eating together. Thai culture treats eating alone as a bad luck gesture.
  • There is no such a thing is baking in Thailand. None of the food is baked, and most household don’t have an oven. The people mainly cook on a wok.
  • Thai culture generally consists of a fork and a table spoon. The use of chopsticks arises only when eating noodles.
  • Thai cuisine is a perfect blend of flavours – salty, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy. Almost every thai dish combines all five tastes.
  • Dishes in Thailand are region-specific. Often the dishes that steal the hearts of travelers in the north of Thailand are nowhere to be found in the south and vice versa.
  • Thai dishes often contain a spoonful or two of sugar. This is because Thai food combines all flavours to make for the perfect dish: salty, spicy, sour, and, of course, sweet. One of the most famous Thai dishes, which combines all these flavours with condiments of vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and chilli, is the pad thai. We highly recommend trying Wangthai’s famous prawn pad thai served with stir fried noodles, bean curd and egg.
  • When it comes to food, there is no differentiation between what is considered breakfast, lunch or dinner. There are Thai dishes that are more popular in the morning, but they are also eaten regularly at all times of the day.
  • Thai food is certainly unique, even though, from soy sauce to rice, the Thai diet originated in China.

Vietnamese cuisine

  • Vietnamese dishes always include a combination of several herbs mostly including lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander and Thai basil leaves. Each dish is accompanied by a kind of herb.
  • Vietnamese cuisine is known for four distinct flavours: fish sauce, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar.
  • Vietnamese cuisine depends heavily on rice, which is the key and most important dish throughout the day.
  • Different ingredients are used in cooking varying dishes at certain months of the year. During summer, the food is lighter and a lot of vegetables are used in preparing dishes. In winter pork and beef are used more incooking. With spring around the corner, you should definitely consider trying Kong’s crystal salad rolls: rice paper rolls filled with the freshest
    vegetables, mint, basil, and vermicelli noodles. Our favorite is the prawn, avoid and rocket crystal spring roll served 
    with Vietnamese fish sauce.
  • Traditional Vietnamese cooking is appreciated for the freshness of the ingredients and for the minimum use of oil which makes this cuisine very healthy.
  • This cuisine is famous for its noodle soup and spring rolls.

Japanese cuisine 

  • Like a samurai, the blade of a professional sushi chef’s knives must be re-sharpened every day. This is especially important when working with sashimi – raw, thinly sliced fish.
  • The fortune cookie originated in Kyoto, Japan in the 19th century.
  • The Japanese are very particular about their table manners. Beware of leaving your chopsticks straight and upright in your rice bowl. It is considered a bad omen and is done only for the dead.
  • After French food, Japanese cuisine (washoku) is considered to be the best cuisine by the United Nation’s cultural organisation for the principles it involves in preparation and eating of the food which is vital to the survival of the traditional culture and holistic ways of living.
  • In Japanese food terminology, the word “sushi” actually refers to vinegar rice, and not fish, while the word “sashimi” means pierced flesh.
  • Japanese food is not limited to sushi and sashimi; other tasty options on a traditional Japanese food menu include teppanyaki, tempura and teriyaki. Orient has been rated one of Johannesburg’s best sushi spots, however, when paying the restaurant a visit, you should certainly try their tempura prawns or vegetables. 

Chinese cuisine 

  • Chinese cuisine has the world’s biggest variety of flavors. It has five key flavors that must bebalanced according to traditional Chinese medicine — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and spicy.
  • Unlike in most world cuisines, soup is part of the last course. The Chinese say that it allows for better digestion.
  • China has eight culinary cuisines: Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang
  • Ice cream was said to have originated in China around 2000 BC. According to historians, an emperor loved it so much and kept it a royal secret before Marco Polo brought the idea to Italy. There is another version of ice cream called “baobing“, which is actually shaved ice with some sweet syrup.
  • Dim  Sum originated in Guangdong, China. Dim sum literally means point of the heart (This is a direct Chinese translation).
  • Dim Sum is a Cantonese cuisine that comes mainly in the form of steamed and fried dumplings that contain a wide variety of fillings. They are viewed as a full meal because they are made with meat, chicken, shrimp, and vegetables.
  • The Chinese believed that drinking tea with greasy food burns away some of the fat from your meal.
  • For the perfect tea and dim sum experience visit So Yum. Some of our favourite dim sum dishes are: spinach and cream cheese gau, lamb gyoza and of course Hong Kong pears.

Indonesian cuisine 

  • A typical Indonesian meal consists of steamed rice and one or two main dishes made of fish, meat, chicken or vegetables, sometimes including soup, all of which are served together. A common side dish is sambal.
  • A popular Indonesian dish is satay (pronounced sah-tay) served with peanut sauce, ketupat (pronounced ke-too-paht), cucumber and onions.
  • Some of the intense flavour in Indonesian food comes from very sweet and sour ingredients – such as the thick sweet soy sauce called kecap manis, which is used in countless dishes. The sour notes in the cuisine come from tamarind and lime and the aromatics from shallots, ginger, galangal, pandan, turmeric, lemongrass and lime leaves
  • Because of the humid climate and volcanic soil, tropical fruits, vegetables and spices are found in abundance. Dried spices such as coriander seeds, cardamom pods, cinnamon quills, cumin seeds, cloves and nutmeg are used every day in many dishes and each curry has a number of dried spices as well as fresh herbs.

The next time you have an Asian cuisine craving, stop off at Kong, Orient, So Yum or Wangthai for a truly  exotic culinary experience with unforgettable signature dishes and a wide variety of Asian comfort food.

Seeing as choosing our favorite dishes proved to be an almost impossible task, visit below to see more of what’s on offer at each of the restaurants:

Kong 

Wangthai 

So Yum 

Orient