spaghetttti

The latest craze in Indonesia is to deep fry freshly steamed bao -- the bao develops a thin, crisp shattering-upon-bite shell with fluffy steamed pastry and luscious meat/veg filling within. I haven't found anything like it here in the States.

Hotcakes!! Blueberry pancakes and caphe sua nong : Vietnamese coffee and sweetened condensed milk, made in these cute little press filters like in pho shops. Very addicting

I'll play! As an Asian-American, born & raised and currently visiting Washington, DC, I'm a GRITS girl!

Thanks so much for the welcome back, Percy! It's a very cold blustery morning here in DC. I would've liked some slow cooked oatmeal or grits for breakfast, but I'm running around on errands today, so it's a very quick breakfast of cheddar cheese scrambled eggs, toasted buttered english muffins and some strawberries. Coffee, coffee, coffee!!!

As an alternative to Thai cooking, may I suggest these Malay/Indonesian recipes: Rempeyek / Peanut Crisps Beef Rendang / Sumatran Beef Curry

Actually, Gifted Gourmet, if you ever find yourself in Indonesia, it would be my honor and pleasure to welcome you to my home for a meal. My signature dish is probably soto ambon, chicken broth flavored and colored with turmeric, ginger, galangal, garlic, (the three g's), lemongrass and loads of spices. Served with rice, the add-ins and toppings were blanched bean sprouts, shredded chicken, glass noodles, quartered hard boiled eggs, chopped celery leaves, golden fried shallots, fried potato sticks, kecap manis and sambal, and tiny potato croquettes. A healthy squeeze of lemon cina , a really fragrant citrus, really brightens up the soup. Since we are blessed with two seasons (rainy & dry), we have a wealth of frightfully freaky fresh fruits, so I'd invite you to try the wonderful mangoes & jambu air (rose apples) in a salad that I make often called rujak buah.

Oh my gosh! That sounds incredible! Is there a Kosher liverwurst? Now your breakfast is going to be running through my mind all day today!!! This morning I had a cup of green tea but it's purple because of the anti-oxidant grapeseeds and two scrambled eggs topped with shavings of smoked gouda cheese handschlepped from Utrecht.

I'm no authority on cheesecake, but the Japanese-style steamed cheesecake is my new favorite. NYC cheesecake made with cream cheese is dense and creamy whereas The Italian-style cheesecake found at Veneiros in NYC is lighter and made with ricotta cheese. The Japanese-style is light and fluffy and steamed. I want some now!!!

Tonight we had dinner at Satay Sarinah, quite a little gem located in the Van Dorn Station strip mall in Alexandria. I remember several enjoyable visits to its earlier incarnation on Wisconsin Avenue, Georgetown. Sarinah's menu is quite extensive, and although we didn't order it this time, Sarinah offers rijsttafel, which is a five-course meal which includes soup, appetizer, salad, a vast array of entrees and dessert. We started off with Nasi Goreng Sarinah/Sarinah Fried Rice with chicken. Very tasty! Gado-Gado, vegetables in peanut sauce. Nicely spiced, but a bit too sweet for me. This is a plate of Nasi Rames, (a meat & three ). I loved this -- the steamed rice was accompanied by opor ayam (stewed on-the-bone chicken in a yellow coconut sauce), two skewers of satay, one chicken and one beef, stir-fried green beans, telur balado (deep-fried, halved hard boiled egg with a very hot red chili sambal) and krupuk (shrimp crackers). A bowl of gulai kambing, a lamb curry -- very hot but packed with spicy flavor. Es Teler was a nice and cool ending to a delicious meal. Satay Sarinah 512-A South Van Dorn Street Alexandria, VA 22304 703 - 370 4313 www.sataysarinah.com It's a cozy, casual place with warm and friendly service.

For the benefit of others who might have a craving for those ricecakes, they can be found at: Fong Inn Too Inc 46 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013 (212) 962-5196 Check out the excellent dou fu with ginger syrup (steaming hot bowls of soy milk pudding) yummmmm

Wow, I could've written that list, we share a lot of similar favorites. A new favorite is the Japanese-style steamed cheesecake from King Wah Bakery, Broadway I like these rice cupcakes from a tofu place on Mott. Although my all-time favorite is Papaya King, I tried Gray's for the first time ever Just a few of my favorite things, there is so much to love in NY, food and elsethings!

The owner of an Asian grocery store let me in on a secret employed by several pho shops in this area when preparing cafe sua da/nong: they blend 2 parts Cafe du Monde to one part Trung Nguyen (brown box) and use Longevity brand condensed milk.

Hi mudbug! I absolutely adore Bok Tong Go, mmmm one of my all time favorites! I found a recipe for tape singkong (cassava) that may be of interest to you. Tape Ketan and Singkong Here's another: Tape Singkong

MumonA, I enjoyed reading your review, thank you for including Upi Jaya's address and answering Michael's subway stop question. I understand that there are various versions of rendang and the deep dark inky black rendang with hard chewy chunks of meat is the typical rendang of Padang, West Sumatra, the region of Executive Chef/Owner, Upi. The rendang paste is usually drier and a bit crumbly rather than moist, I think it's just delicious on hot rice.

It's my pleasure, Jenny & Michael. In all fairness, though, I should state that I thought on the whole, the meal was only pretty good. I especially liked the chicken sate, nice and juicy cubes of white meat in a a flavorful peanut sauce. The gado-gado was tasty as well. However, the perkedel disappointed me, it looked better than it tasted, the spices didn't blend well and had a bit of stale taste. The empal was a tad dry but the spice was about right. My mother dug into the beef rendang before I could snap a photo of it, but I did get a bite of it, soooo spicy, too spicy for me to enjoy. But rendang in Sumatra is very hot, so it was authentic. Usually a simple dessert, the presentation of the fresh, piping hot banana fritters was fancy, and it's pretty much the way pisang goreng is now being served in a lot of places in Indonesia. I've recently discovered an Indonesian restaurant here in Alexandria, VA which I hope to try soon. Perhaps I'll post on the DC board.

I like to thinly slice them and deep fry in vegetable oil. They are beautiful as toppings for many savory Southeast Asian dishes.

Michael, my father really likes this place (Sun Hop Shing) on Mott for nostalgic reasons and for these beef balls: OT: Whatever happened to the Hong Kong Cakes lady?

This is the yeast we use to make tapai pulut : fermented sweet (glutinous) rice. It was discussed in the Kuih/Kueh thread here. I'll try to look up some more uses for the yeast for you. Indonesian: ragi

Although I was not feeling very well during my recent visit, I really enjoyed being in one of my favorite cities -- NYC. The weather was quite pleasant on a few days and we ventured out several times, nostalgically visited old haunts and tried some new restaurants. So many places, so little time. After some volunteer work at a mosque in Queens packing up boxes of food and clothes for tsunami victims in Banda Aceh, we dropped in for lunch at Upi Jaya in Elmhurst, a nice little, cozy place with food that reminded us of home. The chicken sate (satays) were huge chunks of marinated breast meat in a very good peanut and kecap manis sauce. An order of gado-gado, steamed vegetables in a peanut sauce was topped with emping (melinjo nut chips) Perkedel (potato fritters) were first dipped into beaten egg whites then deep fried to lacy crispiness. Slices of empal, marinated and twice cooked spiced beef. Crispy pisang goreng for dessert.

Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year 2005 to everyone! We have been going to NYC Chinatown a lot lately and today I just had to have some shrimp & scallion dumplings and beef cheung fun. Sue-On, I want to eat at your house!!! All the best for 2005 Love and peace Yetty

Could you all perhaps be talking about this: We went out for pho somewhere in Elmhurst (Queens) and got some of this delicious coffee. Loved it so much, I asked the waiter where I could get these filters and he pointed out the supermarket right across from the restaurant. I bought two (US$3.99 + tax each) and now I want more!

Wow, Pitchblack70 that's a marvelous list, what an undertaking that must've been! Everytime I come to NYC, I seek out these kueh in Chinatown. I've loved them since I was a teenager but never knew their names other than rice cupcakes. The ones with the little red beans are new to me. Does anyone know what they're properly called? Then we can add them to Pitchblack70's list.

Oh Malawry, I agree -- Hillvalley, that looks fantastic! I'm in NY now and after shopping around in Chinatown hooked up some sea bass and prepared them Chinese style, with loads of ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and cilantro. Fragrant fish!

I'm in NYC now and got these steamed rice cakes, we call them apam -- oh so yummy! Going back to Chinatown tomorrow, it's such an awesome place!

My sister went down to the wharf on Maine Avenue, Washington DC and got some shrimp. We steamed them with Old Bay seasoning. And, yes - those are some cows in the blanket - Hillshire Farms Beef Lil Smokies wrapped in Pillsbury Flaky Buttery Crescent Rolls - mmm so simple, so good!