spaghetttti

Me, too! Do you like the sweet or salty ones?

Hi Kapuliperson! I've never seen the cactus pears before either! Now, that Laksa & Dejah have both found them, I wonder if they're to be found anywhere in these parts. I do like the color and am just a little curious about how they taste, don't know about those ornery seeds, though!

There were still more kueh after these, too! The mini kueh were special ordered, but the rest were homemade. You don't want to know what the kitchens looked like!

My neighbor has a beautiful breadfruit tree in front of her house, and she gave me two sukuns. I fried one right away, sprinkled with salt it was nice and crunchy outside and pleasantly tender within.

Bubbles are very popular here in Indonesia, not only in teas, coffees but even some icy blended fruit drinks and smoothies. I really like them. However, I was completely caught off guard when my niece brought this over: Vile, vile too sweet raspberry flavored bottled water with little agar-agar bubbles. Why do they come up with this stuff?

My mother recently hosted a little tea party for about 100 guests. Here are some of the kueh she served. The banana leaf lined bamboo nampan holds an array of mini cakes - kueh ku shaped in pastel fruits, dadar gulung stuffed with sweet grated coconut. The top right is kueh cocorot, palm sugar & rice flour cornets. And below that are some gemblong, deep fried & glazed sweet sticky rice & shredded coconut cakes.

I used to do quite a bit of traveling by myself and have been stranded a lot. Once literally stranded in Rome, I gleefully survived on copious amounts of gelati, and not once had a bad meal while in Italy. On a trip to catch up to my husband in Paris, I got stuck somewhere in Surenes, and had my first tastes of foie gras and confit de canard there. Like snowangel, I like Bangkok. Don't remember how I got there, but got lured into Patpong. After hightailing out of there, had some wonderful mussels and a lot of khanom that I still think about. I wouldn't mind being stranded in those places again, but I've never been to Morocco and would love to get lost in a scented garden in Marrakesh. Dreaming of gently cleansing my hands in bowls of rose petalled water before dining on a feast of tagines, couscous and bastillas. BTW I love this topic. It's a game that my husband and I play often. "If you could be anywhere in the world eating good food, where would you be right now?" His answer is usually NYC, where he had his first raw oyster! Melissa, this is another one of your great threads that I've come to enjoy! I echo many of the sentiments that you think of the most creative topics, truly a hostess with the mostest!

Heheh, chuckle as you may, TP! With those beautiful and exquisite cakes & desserts of yours, I'm willing to bet that you're wielding that knife and carving up a storm!

The fruit I just got tonight looks similar to what you have described and gingerly's link. The bunch is sitting at my kitchen table patiently waiting for me to come and crack them apart, but I'm busy typing right now, so they'll just have to wait a wee bit longer. Yes, I know they really have no business on this thread, but you are correct. We call them labu siam here, and they're one of my favorite vegetables. Hey, maybe we should start a vreaky vegetables thread. gingerly, this is right up your alley! Absolutely gorgeous fruit and photos, thanks TP. Encountered presentations like those while in Bangkok. TP, after watching that demo, can you sculpt fruit like that? Ooooh, must go get some more dragonfruit!

Hey, I learned from the master, right phaelon56? Thank you verrrrry much! Whew, I love those questions and I actually know all the answers! Yeah, right. This is the only one that I do know: Flores is an island in the southeastern part of Indonesia in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Besides cinnamon and tobacco, coffee is a major commodity produced in Flores. My best friend is originally from there and when she comes back to Bandung from visits home, she always brings me back some coffee. I'm not sure which variety, but it's strong and has slightly sour undertones. Does that make it a variety of robusta? Ok, so I've printed your post, Owen, and will bring it to Mr. Widya. He really loves and takes much pride in his shop, I'm sure he'll be delighted to help. I'm gonna do some major eGullet plugging, and tell him all about the cool host of the Coffee & Tea Forum.

I live in a coffee producing country, and we may have some pretty decent coffee. The steaming hot mugs of Joe that I get in the office are perhaps the major incentive for me to get to work on time. My morning addiction comes from this place – Aroma Paberik Kopi. In the middle of a very busy street lined with auto parts stores, is this old art deco styled building. Upon entering one is transported by the aroma of roasting coffee to another place in time. Everything in the shop gently whispers antique, from the old glass jars to the coffee grinders imported from Germany and the United States. Mr. Widya, a university professor is the proprietor, a very warm and friendly person who welcomed this strange camera-bearing woman with open arms and enthusiastically took me on a tour of the small coffee factory which was built and has been in operation since 1930. The amazing thing about Aroma’s coffee is that the beans are stored and aged for years! Can you imagine 5 years for Robusta and 8 for Arabica?!. The beans from East Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Flores are centrifugally separated and sun dried for 7 hours before going into the wood burning roaster that was manufactured in 1938. I am by no means a coffee connoisseur but I hope to learn more about the world of coffee. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy my French pressed Arabica and raise a glass of kopi tubruk Robusta to you! I sincerely apologize for the large pics, still trying to get the hang of the new imageGullet

Fascinating posting with fabulous photos, which have me practically licking my screen. Thanks so much, kangarool - looking forward to the next installments.

Looks like a good just-starting-to-be autumn dinner, Eunny. Your gorgeous pictures should be in a food magazine! Absolutely amazing photography.

oooh, I like a gentle dusting of powdered sugar, in fact I think on certain desserts it adds a subtle touch to an otherwise naked confection. However, I don't like mountains of whipped cream to embellish some things, though.

The supermarket that I frequently shop at just keeps getting better and better. Adjacent to the newly added Japanese corner, the Indian section is bursting with many products that are new to me. Such as these beverages: I'll be stopping by later after work today, and I'm leaning towards the Badam and Kala Khatta. Please tell me more about these and other brands. Do you like them? What other Indian thirst quenchers are popular?

You are too funny, David! Did someone mention pineapple? heheh, I just really like this picture! gingerly, you never cease to amaze me, you should get an award for coming up with the freakiest fruit! More, more please!

Here we have several names for cassava: singkong is most widely used, kasbi and sampeu are regional. Those donuts look good!

Now see, here's one of the strange things about me -- I like most seeds and I chomp on them! I think I may have posted on a thread on that topic. But I see your point, perhaps, the tunas seeds are too hard to enjoyably gnaw on. Where do these pears come from?

Dejah, this is a fascinating topic, thank you for starting it. hzrtw8 has described me. My sister and cousins live in the States and have all married Caucasians. Evidently I have, like hzrtw8's wife, stuck with my own kind (just different tribes!). It seems that my sister and her family only eat Indonesian food when I come over for a visit. It's a trade off, they cook my favorite "American" dishes, and I'll prepare some of their requests. I love that my brother-in-law has frequently asked my mom to teach him how to cook some our family favorites. He is a fantastic cook. I'm sure my brother-in-law and his family had never heard of Indonesia before meeting my sister and our family. (They still are amazed we have McDonald's and Pizza Hut here, wait til I tell them that Starbucks has landed in Bandung! They'll freak!) My nephews are grade school age and surprisingly have passed that picky eating stage and love all types of cuisines. Now, one of my cousins lives in Maine, and I don't think they eat anything but what's good up there, delicious New England cuisine. My cousin-in-law was first exposed to Asian food when she met my cousin, and I'm under the impression that she is still exploring. Another thing, all of my stateside nephews take after their Asian parents, but the combination of Asian/American makes for such cutie pies! BTW there was some discussion upthread about Potted Meat and Spam. Well, anything's got to be better than what I can get here:

The cravings have yet to subside for some buah nona/srikaya, and I finally found some, but they're not ripe yet! Ugly fruit, yet creamy delicious! I'm so disappointed. Well, another day.

Here's a specialty of Bandung, pisang molen /pastry wrapped banana. This one is stuffed with a little cheese stick. These buttery pastries come with chocolate, too! They make great oleh-oleh or gifts/souvenirs, and I've seen people come out of the bakeries with armloads of boxes.

oooh David, I love the color of this fruit! I'm wondering how you eat it. That pulp!

Just came back from a wonderful Saturday night dinner at Torigen restaurant which recently opened here in Bandung. We were hungry and undecided as to what to order. I was leaning towards sushi or something fried. But we ended up ordering the kamameshi - ebi for my husband and salmon for me. I compromised on the sushi and got some Californa rolls since we were told that the kamameshi would take about 20 minutes to prepare. It's a great presentation, and I enjoyed the rice, though I must say on the whole it was a little bland, had to keep adding stuff to it. The okoge was our favorite part.

One of my favorite food terms, Golden Brown and Delicious

I tend to spend most of my time on eGullet, and right now I'm nibbling on these crispy peanut wafers.