One normally hesitates when recommending to ‘dine’ in a gallery or museum beyond basic sustenance, but Tate Modern’s restaurant on level 7 is an exception, not only offering modern (as you would expect) high quality, seasonal-focused food but also possibly one of the best dining views in London.

To gain the maximum appreciation of this brilliant art deco style building and its surrounds, walk along the Thames River and cross over the Millennium Bridge. It’s an incredible space, inside and out; almost as surreal as the paintings housed in it with its soaring 325ft chimney, equally towering interior ceilings and the massive iron beams of what was once the Bankside Power Station.

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The essence of contemporary Bali mojo, Sarong Restaurant – Bar – Lounge, where the mood invigorates the food.

There’s no question you can eat well in Bali, with a multitude of resorts, hotels, restaurants and eateries constantly adapting to the pulse of capricious tourists. For many holidaymakers it’s simply an issue of sustenance, preferably from a horizontal position.

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Darren Gall, The Wandering Palate Cambodia correspondent lunches with Julie Thai, proprietor of Phnom Penh restaurant, Le Wok – an incarnation of her Khmer-Chinese and French parentage.

Having lunch with Julie Thai, you come to understand that her restaurant’s ability to seamlessly combine the cultures and cuisines of France and Asia with a simple and understated elegance is an extension of the woman herself and her desire to share the things she loves.

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Somewhat paradoxically, ever since I left Australia for Asia eight years ago, I have been in search of, if not craving, the innovative contemporary Thai-influenced food of David Thompson (Darley Street Thai, Sailor Thai, Nahm) and his one of his star apprentices, Martin Boetz of Longrain.

Despite Thompson being Boetz’s mentor, their interpretations of Thai cuisine are poles apart; Thompson the archaeologist of the countries cuisine, authoring the tomb “Thai Food” (published by Pavilion), surely the most comprehensive and authoritative cookbook on the subject ever written, yet Thompson pushes all boundaries in Thai cuisine in his idiosyncratic style although retaining a nucleus of tradition and the utmost respect for the core ingredients of Thailand.

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Our Cambodian Correspondent, Darren Gall, finds himself in a North Korean Room 39  enclave and partaking  in a little ‘covert activity’ in the Penh!

For most of us, life north of the 38^th parallel is impossible to witness first hand and is only ever glimpsed through the eyes of the, (mostly western) media. Who can ever forget the award winning cover of The Economist: glorious leader, Kim Jong-Il, waving stiffly to the crowd, resplendent in trademark 50’s-jump-suit-cum-grey-safari-suit, under the heading ‘Greetings Earthlings’!

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Serving up pork buns to our enthralled restaurant reviewer for pennies.

It seems an incongruous place to find a rating most chefs would strangle their sous-chefs for. But the gamy Hong Kong district of Mongkok hosts the cheapest starred restaurant in the famed culinary kingdom of the Michelin Guide. It is Tim Ho Wan, a Cantonese eatery that for instance features for just HK$12 (US$1.53) three light, crispy barbeque pork buns filled with a gentle stew of meat chunks swaddled in slightly sweet sauce. These baked buns are largely responsible for not only keeping this restaurant forever busy, but earned it a star that would be the envy of the tens of thousands of chefs in France.

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Our Cambodia Correspondent, Darren gall, finds himself well at home in a Izakaya, if not somewhat culturally anomalous to Cambodia…

Phnom Penh’s uber-in-style Japanese restaurant Yumi is modeled on the traditional ‘Izakaya’ restaurants found all over Japan.  The word Izakaya is a compound word, loosely translated as ‘a shop to sit and drink sake’. Izakaya restaurants are typically small spaces with a long bar and a handful of tables that serve what could be described as Japanese ‘tapas’ style cuisine to go with the core purpose of their being, which is of course drinking!

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Driving back to Singapore from our Chinese New Year pilgrimage to Ipoh, we decided to stay overnight in Kuala Lumpur.

Contrary to both locals and Singaporean’s who treat the motorways in Malaysia as a Nascar training ground, it is prudent to be wary of inane reckless drivers, taking one’s time and splitting up the trip. Incidentally, in the midst of a deluge of rain, we encountered an accident scene where no less than 18 cars were in nose to tail pileup!

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