Malaysia

Malaysia sits at the point where the Indian Ocean trade routes met the South China Sea, and the food is the most direct evidence of that history - Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Peranakan cuisines existing side by side in a proximity that produces something none of them is alone. Penang's George Town is the best argument: a UNESCO-listed city where a hawker centre serves char kway teow next to roti canai next to nasi kandar, and the question of what is authentic has no useful answer. Borneo, which Malaysia shares with Indonesia and Brunei, is another country entirely - rainforest, orangutans, the Kinabalu massif.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Penang's hawker routes, Borneo river lodges, Cameron Highlands tea estates and the Baba-Nyonya kitchens of Malacca where the recipes are three hundred years old and still being argued over.