spaghetttti

LOL, wongste, you're hilarious! I'm sick in bed right now, and you've made my head hurt even more. (Where's that Tylenol?) Seriously, what is it about that picture? I'm truly clueless. Yetty

What about grape seeds? I like to eat them as well as watermelon seeds. I don't bother to spit out orange or tangerine seeds either, just swallow them down. Even though I'm told that an orange tree will grow out at the top of my head. Wait that one's for the food superstition thread, right?

Susan, that looks absolutely exquisite! Beautiful plating. I love your dinners and photos! Yetty

First of all my apologies for being late in thanking Behemoth and Toliver for the comments and great advice on my posted photos. Thank you! But now I really need help, can you possibly tell me why I'm getting these reactions to this photo? From the Let's talk zongzi thread in the China and Chinese Cuisine forum: Is there something subliminal there that I'm just not getting?

How are you, Shiewie? That sounds absolutely delectable. I love lemang, and can get it here piping hot in the bamboo cane, oh I know where I'm headed after work tonight. Dejah, sure thing - another photo essay for the thread! Recipes will be forthcoming as well. Yetty

Hi Dejah, The filling is usually ground meat. Actually, the photos are of purchased bacang/zongzi. There's a vendor very close to my office, and I'd wanted to try his bacang for the longest time, but never got around to stop and get some. This morning I bought those two and they were quite tasty. But this thread, and your posts especially, have prompted me to invite my mom to come over next Saturday for a fun-filled day devoted to making and boiling up some zongzi. When I spoke to her on the phone today, she said that my dad likes the rice parboiled with lightly salted santan (coconut milk). And she prefers hers without soy sauce. My husband likes the spicy fish filled ones made with glutinous rice, so we'll try to make several kinds to accommodate the various preferences. I'd also like to use stewed meat chunks rather than ground. I'm really looking forward to this weekend! Although I don't think ours will be as beautifully wrapped and tied as your mother's and yours. Thank you for the inspiration. Yetty

Ooh, can I play too? We don't get anywhere near the delicious kinds of dumplings that you all have described. Here in Indonesia ours literally pale in comparison. We call them bacang, and the halal ones are usually filled with beef or chicken, sweet soy sauce and scallions. Regular rice rather than glutinous rice is used. My husband's family is from the Moluccan Islands and there the bacang is made with a combination of regular and glutinous rice and stuffed with fish and aromatic spices, then wrapped in wide pandan leaves. Yetty

Hi Michael, Sassy sugar? (heheh!) Oooh, the memories! We used to suck on little rounds of maple sugar around Thanksgiving time when we lived in the States. Your manisan sounds good. Ours are tooooo sweet to eat whole. However, here in West Java, Indonesia, manisan is candied fruit. I like the manggo and papaya manisan. Delicious eaten straight but for real decadence -- manisan with ice cream. Mmmm! Yup, the supermarkets here in Bandung carry a lot of different sugars, imported and domestic. I'm sure there's a vast variety available to you in NYC, yes? Yetty

That's great info, thanks for the clarification, Kew. Here are some Gula Jawa Kawung that are available at my local supermarket. How are they shaped and packaged where you all are? Yetty

Maybe spaghetttiiiii can help with the Gula Jawa. But, in a pinch you can use dark brown sugar. Or the easier and yummy substitution for the sago pudding recipe - caramel syrup. Yikes, I've always been under the impression that Gula Melaka and Gula Jawa were the same thing = Gula Merah. So, by all means do use the Gula Jawa. Oh-oh, now my boss is standing over my shoulder reading this and telling me that Gula Melaka is palm sugar, what we call Gula Aren, and Gula Jawa is made from coconuts. Anyway, I remember when I was little living in Washington, DC, my mother used dark brown sugar or maple syrup as substitutes. In fact, she almost always used dark brown sugar for those ondeh-ondeh (klepon, to me). Imagine her delight many years later when we discovered the Asian markets in nearby Arlington, VA which carried lots of the ingredients needed to make her favorite Indonesian dishes. Yetty

Oooh B! I've been feeling kinda low, haven't eaten a decent dinner for a coupla days, but upon reading your post I literally laughed out loud! Thanks, you've lifted my spirits tremendously! Think I'll go and fix a bowl of oatmeal now. Yetty

Dear Lucy, You are my hero! Love, Yetty

I don't have "the eye", but I really want "it" This thread has such a wealth of information, so much to learn, it just might be possible for me to achieve the eye. Be assured that I can take the knocks. I'll embrace them.

Hello all, On my way home from work today, I pulled the car over when I saw this guy crossing the street. He's a kue ape maker, one of a very precious few that can be found in and around Bandung. Fragrant with pandan, the not-too-sweet rice flour kue have fragile, crispy paper thin and brittle edges, while the centers are nicely plump and moist. Ok, now I'm on a mission to find more obscure traditional kue!

Last night was Salmon night. Started with salmon roe and then threw the filets on the grill. Green beans sauteed with butter and garlic and a creamy gratin of potatoes were the sides. Icy cold limeade to quench the thirst.

Yes, Shiewie, let's discuss other Southeast Asian treats! On a trip to Bangkok some years ago, I fell in love with the Thai khanom. The combination of sweet with a shot of savory is such a taste treat. Oh by the way, Kew , here are the names of some of the cakes that I got the other day. These pandan flavored,steamed rice flour cakes topped with shredded coconut are called "Putri Salju" or Snow Princess. I don't like these too much : naked nagasari cupcakes. Basically your nagasari without the banana wrapping. Jewel colored kue lapis made with tapioca flour. These were quite slippery to eat. Kue ku. Shiewie, I'd never had them pan-fried until yesterday, they are absolutely delicious!

A friend brought over some crabs from Makassar! I prepared them in tons of garlic, ginger, scallions, butter and oyster sauce. Quite tasty indeed. (edited, posted a better photo)

Wow, all this discussion of delectable pastries made me crave them, so I really had to go out and buy some. Went all over town to three different places until I finally got some of the kue klepon. But it was well worth it! Just to add to the fun of the different names for kuih/kueh --- in some parts of Indonesia, your onde is our klepon, and our onde is the sesame seed coated bean paste filled pastry. And now for your viewing pleasure, (before I devour them) I present to you:

I forgot to upload and post this green chili pepper sambal. It's swimming in oil, but eaten with hot coconut rice and the cassava leaves, mmmmmm!!! Sorry, it's kinda blurry, but it was the last picture I took before my batteries decided they wanted to be recharged!

This is what we had for dinner, it was Padang take-out from Simpang Raya: Fish head curry Steamed cassava leaves Coconut rice Rendang Anchovies with chili and pete (stinky beans) The rendang is typical restaurant fare, it's wet and the beef chunks are way too huge. Homemade is far, far better and should never look like this.

Oh yes, I've had beef liver rendang. It's gorgeous, the liver is quite firm in texture and has incredible flavor, really adds dimension to the spiciness of rendang. The beef lung is also delicious. It's chewy, in a good way! Being from a neighboring island (West Java), I'm really not all that familiar with the cuisine from Bukittinggi. I like it, but don't know too much background about what I've been eating. Veering off slightly, another dish I like is dendeng balado. Quite colorful though not too spicy. A fried beef jerky with bright red chilies, it's wonderful on hot rice (eaten using hands/fingers- no spoons or forks, thank you).

Here, kalio is more stewlike and wetter than rendang. I believe kalio is mid- stage before reaching true rendang consistency. BTW any plans to come out this way again anytime in the near future? I'll be coming home very soon for a short visit and can't wait to eat my way through NYC!

Hi Michael, how are you? This must be nostalgic for you, yes? I'm sitting here with some co-workers discussing rendang, and although some have had chicken rendang, we all agree that beef holds up really well compared to chicken. The chunks maintain their shapes better whereas the chicken either turned into shreds or just got too hard to enjoy. (I'm sure that chicken is more suited to kalio than rendang). Lamb would probably be just too tender, wouldn't you think? Best, yetty

Hi Chewme, (cumi?) heheh So glad to see another Indonesian poster! I love rendang, the best that I've tasted is made by a friend who's originally from Bukittinggi, West Sumatera. On the several occasions she's made some especially for me, they've not all been just beef chunks. The latest rendition was beef offal (lung & liver). I also liked a rendang where she added some small red beans to it. Homemade rendang, mmmm. I just don't like the rendang served in Padang restaurants here in Bandung, which are somewhere between kalio and rendang. To me, the "blacker" the rendang the better. For

Needed some comfort food, so dinner was breakfast: these skillet home fries, perfectly scrambled eggs and toast, cardamom tea with sweetened condensed milk.