Laksa

Plain steamed rice isn't meant to be eaten by itself. The plainness of steamed rice is meant to counterbalance the strong flavor of the meat or vegetable dish. It's also the principal source of carbohydrates in a (Southern) Chinese meal.

1. At my local takeout, the combination plate usually comes with fried rice. The bbq pork in the fried rice often tastes like last week's leftovers, which makes eating their fried rice a very unpleasant experience. For that reason, I rarely order their combination plates. Their regular dishes come with plain steamed rice, which is preferable. At another takeout I patronize, their steamed rice resembles hard rubber pellets. No amount of soaking in the gravy/juices will improve their character. Nowadays, I throw them out and cook my own Thai jasmine rice instead. I am willing to go through the trouble of cooking my own rice even when ordering takeout because, ironically, they have a selection of dishes that are far superior to other takeout places. Needless to say, noodle dishes are eaten without rice. 2. Rice in a bowl, dish remains in the takeout container. Rice bowl in left hand, chopsticks in the right. In an almost continuous motion, move a piece of meat with the chopsticks onto the mound of rice in the bowl, lift bowl to the open mouth, and scoop with the chopsticks the piece of meat together with an appropriate amount of rice for the size of the piece of meat into the mouth and chew. I eat the vegetable pieces without rice. 3. Soup spoon for soups. Chopsticks for everything else. 4. Everything. Even if it tastes bad. Waste not, want not. (Except for rubber-pellet rice) 5. Chinese-style fried chicken wings can be very good -- no batter, and fried until the skin is crispy. Hold the sauce, please. Yangzhou fried rice, with some good bbq pork, eggs, maybe a little salted fish, can be excellent. Done well, that would be a great takeout meal. 6. Used to try a different dish every time, until we figured that all stir-fried meat with vegetable dishes taste pretty much the same. And all battered and deep fried dish, served with some gloppy sauce taste the same. So why bother ordering anything different? So now the choice comes down to stir-fry or deep-fry? But the Mrs must have her hot and sour soup every time -- it doesn't matter if the takeout place really suck at making hot and sour soup -- she must have it. 7. Don't really have a favorite place. The place with inedible rice does a kick-ass peking duck. Another place does a pretty decent shrimp hor fun, but the quality is inconsistent. The stir-fried/deep-fried dishes are equally mediocre from one takeout place to another. In the end, it comes down to convenience. Which direction am I coming from, and which takeout place is on the way home? 8&9. Best takeout experience was a stir-fried beef hor fun cooked, I guess, when the kitchen probably wasn't too busy, and when the chef could take proper care. I could taste the 'wok hei' in the dish, the slightly burnt taste in the hor fun of a really, really hot wok. All the flavors were in balance, the seasoning was at the correct level, and the bean sprouts were still crunchy and not overcooked. The worst takeout experience was the same dish from the same takeout, possibly prepared by a different chef, or a really busy guy. Completely vapid and flavorless. It might as well have been boiled for all I know. What a let down after a great experience some weeks earlier.

Also in Malaysia, also on the island of Borneo, also a recipe of an indigenous group: the Iban of Sarawak make umai from most types of white fish. The list of ingredients appear to have many items in common. Here's a link to a couple of versions my wife made, but recently I enjoyed a very good umai in Malaysia which did not have any pickled vegetables and chili powder. They used a lot of ground (with mortar and pestle) chilis instead. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

A guide would've been a tremendous help when I was there last month. Is it just me or is the food in Jalan Alor not as good as it used to be? The most memorable thing I had was the Thai fragrant coconut water (first time I tried that), and Fat Boy steamboat. The durian there is still good, but I imagine locals would know of better bargains away from downtown, right? I remember having some v good Penang Char Kway Teow years ago, but this time, it was just so-so.

Excuse my ignorance but... I've never really understood the difference between nasi kandar, nasi padang, nasi lemak with a lot of different lauk choices, and your regular Muslim "economy fast-food" with rice and lauk. When I walk through the average KL shopping mall foodcourt (sadly, my experience with nasi kandar is limited to such a setting), I wouldn't be able to tell you if I've ordered nasi kandar or just rice with curries. So tell me how it works... if the guy behind the counter is Indian, I'm eating nasi kandar?

Hmm.... come to think of it, it did seem rather strange to see that fisherman with such a large collection of blue magic markers. I agree the blue looks unnatural, but it appears that the blue ringed angelfish (Pomacanthus Annularis) does exist.

I believe mani chai and katuk are the same. Apparently, some Taiwanese ladies (and maybe also gentlemen?) who thought the raw mani chai juice would help them lose weight got seriously ill when they consumed large quantities of the stuff. Probably not worth taking the risk if you're an expectant mum. Can I interest you instead in the virgin (never having laid eggs before) hens? Double-boiled with some ginseng, I've been told they are the very best tonic for newly-pregnant ladies.

I've had mani chai two ways, stir-fried with eggs, and cooked in soup. Only the leaves are used, the stalks are discarded. It has a very pleasant fragrance, and a nice mouthfeel -- the texture is firm, the leaves don't over-soften like other vegetables, so it gives you something to chew on. One of my favorite, close-to-unobtainable-outside-of-Sarawak foods. It's also called cangkuk manis, and I just found out that there's even an egullet thread on it here! Link to good description of the veggie.

Let's not forget the dish that's named for five spice. Ng heong gueen (five spice rolls) are minced pork flavored with five spice, rolled in tofu skins and deep fried. Absolutely fabulous.

Yetty, salak is right. (BTW, in the other thread, I mispelled it as salat -- why didn't the spellchecker pick it up? ) Shiewie, well, I kinda cheated. The Bintulu market is close to the water, (either sea or river mouth, I couldn't tell), but there's no wide open beach. I took those shots in Tanjung Kidurong, quite a ways from town, where fishermen bring in their catch to sell right next to the beach. Here is the (somewhat less attractive view) from the downtown market: fou de Bassan, those are taro roots. I never got to eat sago worms. I've been told they taste buttery and delicious, similar to wichity grubs. Ok, here's my haul. It was close to Chinese New Year so we were shopping mostly for CNY-related goodies. Some native free-range birds (virgin hens, actually) A couple of pomelos Some sea cucumbers. My mum made a soup with these and some beef tendons for the reunion dinner. Snake beans Very fine and tender fiddlehead ferns, a local specialty: Mani chai (a vegetable only found in Sarawak, apparently) Some spiny lobsters, note the absence of claws, and it's not because I ate them on the way home. I steamed two of them and made lobster salad from the rest: A really fresh black pomfret which we steamed for the reunion dinner Lobsters steamed with lemongrass, garlic and rice wine. The tomalley squirted out during steaming.

I assume so, but I never looked at the room service menu. But at the breakfast buffet, there were the usual non-threatening assortment of papayas, starfruit, pineapples and watermelon. They also served a fruit cocktail with sea coconut (nata de coco) but that's not really a fruit, is it?

Forget Costco, Carrefour, Tesco, or <insert name>-mart. This is how people in Bintulu shop for food: First, the produce section: Don't forget to stock up on rice: The snails are on special this week: Getting the best pick of the fish... ...brought by this guy... ...from here: Aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen? I never fail to find something different in the ethnic aisle: Do you prefer live chickens?... ...or dead chickens? The kitchenware department... not a whole lot to choose from. Little Billy would probably like a new addition to his aquarium: After a hectic day of shopping, isn't it great to stop for a cool drink... ...or perhaps a high-protein sago worm? Guaranteed fresh (and wriggling). For your convenience, there's a clinic right in the mall. "Hey, doc, this here has been bothering me... can you take a look?"

Could this cart contain the best steamboat stock in Malaysia? We all know that the stock used for steamboat reaches its peak at the end of the meal, when the soup has acquired all the flavor from the meat and seafood that's been cooked in it. Well, imagine if that stock, instead of being consumed at the end, is saved and reused, over and over again. That could well be what's happening at Fat Boy Steamboat. Fat Boy Steamboat is steamboat on wheels. Too lazy to go to a steamboat restaurant? Let the steamboat come to you! What looks like a converted van, which can usually be found around Jalan Bukit Bintang in downtown KL, holds a treasure trove of steamboat goodies. Patrons help themselves to a large variety of steamboat ingredients -- fishballs, meatballs, squid, cockels, veggies, you name it -- all held on bamboo skewers. To cook your selection, dunk them in the boiling stock pots built into the sides of the van. Alas, the stock is not on the menu -- you don't get a spoon, nor a bowl, probably due to reasons of hygiene. But what I would give to get a taste of that soup, served up with some nice tang hoon.... oh.. boy! Fat boy steamboat!

At the hotel we stayed at in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, two fruits are banned from the rooms: the durian and the mangosteen. I can understand the reason to keep durians out... but the mangosteen? At the nearby Jalan Alor, the mangosteen stand is situated right next to the durian stand. Tables and plastic chairs are set up for tourists hankering for durians and mangosteens to enjoy the fruits right there. What a fortunate coincidence! The durian stand at Jalan Alor: Mangosteens at Jalan Alor:

Yetty, my dad tells me he had a lot of salat when he worked in Indonesia. We brought some home with us and I was eager to try it as I'd never had it before. "The taste of salat will grow on you," he said. "The more you eat, the more addicted you'll get". The fact that he needed to say that made me just a little suspicious. The inside of the fruit: Now, I confess I'm a big fan of durian. I have eaten and love to eat the stinkiest of stinky cheeses and salted fish (but not necessarily together). Belachan? Bring it on. I was fear-factor-cocky and wasn't at all prepared for salat. The texture of the fruit is very much like that of raw garlic, slightly crunchy and juicy. It started off being mildly and pleasantly sweet, but it got very unpleasant very quickly. With apologies to the fans of salat out there, I can only describe the taste as cheddar that's been aged for many months somewhere warm and damp... say... in a wrestler's armpit. "The taste will grow on you," my dad insisted, between large mouthfuls of the fruit. "You'll soon be fighting me for it." I thought that to be a very remote possibility, as I gamely accepted another piece. This time, I took a bigger bite, thinking illogically that somehow "more" will equate to "better". I had to spit it out. Salat 1, Laksa 0. Buah salat, we will meet again!

Went to the market this morning and saw lots of weird and wonderful produce. The buah salat. Fruit shouldn't rightfully be covered with snakeskin. This lady's chopping up some green (unripe) nangka: The pinang fruit: The kalang (kanaa?) is one of my favorite foods. They look like big olives, but the flesh is yellow and creamy: I have no idea what this is called, but it creeps me out. The kernels come apart, but I won't eat any fruit with eyes (that seem to follow you). This banana isn't particularly freaky, but I shot it cuz it looks pretty: They tell me this is assam, but it doesn't look anything like the tamarind I know: I have more photos, hope to post more soon. Yetty, it's good to be posting again

I'm in Bintulu, Malaysia for the spring festival so I've been busy taking photos of some local fruits. There's rambutan tree currently bearing fruit at my in-law's. We picked the fruit by the bucketload: At my house, the durian belanda or soursop isn't quite ripe yet, but has attracted a colony of ants: Not really a fruit, but we'll be having the petai nut for dinner:

How about dessert ingredients as part of the meal? To this day, I still cannot get used to the idea -- and the habit of my parents -- of cooking rice congee with sweet potatoes, congee with green mung beans, or congee with anything that I normally would only eat in a sweet soup or dessert, and eat them with savory dishes. I wonder if anyone else out there does that.

Sounds like you'd be a great person to have as a friend! I hope your friends appreciate what you're doing for them You can't get even frozen soup dumplings at the Asian grocer? Well, that might not be a huge loss as the frozen ones I've had, while acceptable, don't match up to the ones I've had in restaurants.

I love chicken feet, or phoenix claws as the Cantonese call them, but I don't have any experience preparing them. The ones I've had the most all seem to have been braised in a dark sauce, probably dark and light soy, star anise, ginger, garlic, black bean paste, and maybe some Chinese five spice? I think it's important to use quite a lot of spices, as sometimes you can get chicken feet with a particular odour, that you also sometimes get with boiled chicken. I think par-boiling the chicken feet first would help to get rid of this odour. But done right, chicken feet are truly delightful. I like mine on the soft side, such that when I have bitten off a mouthful of digits, it's easy to separate the cartilage from the bones by just maneuvering them between the tongue and the top of the mouth. Once that's accomplished, one simply spit the little bones out, kinda like how one would deal with watermelon seeds. I like chicken feet more for the texture, not that I mean to discount their taste. I think the way that they're prepared in dim sum restaurants, where I usually eat them, is a fairly common braising method that can be used to prepare a number of meat dishes. The flavour is not that unique, and the natural chicken feet taste is less dominant in comparison to the spices added. I have seen recipes where the chicken feet are first deep fried before being braised, so that the skin pucker up like prunes in the finished product. Edited to add: Ahhh Dejah... I see that I've just repeated a lot of what you posted. Teaches me for being a slow poster.

This exchange on Rachael Ray's $40 a Day show just cracked me right up. Next time I'm greeted that way in a restaurant, I am going to say the same thing. Waitress: "Hi, my name is Lilah, and I'll be your server tonight." Rachael Ray: "Hi, my name is Rachael, and I'll be your diner tonight." I very much doubt if the eternally perky Ms. Ray meant to mock the waitress, but I can imagine someone taking offense at that remark. Rachael's response is deliciously ambiguous, possibly derisive in a subtle way, possibly not.

Helen, could your Hokkien friend possibly be from the Northen parts of Fujian province...like, waaaaaay North.

Here's a link to a description of Fujian cuisine: http://www.china.org.cn/english/imperial/26131.htm Growing up, there are several dishes that my mum would cook that I think are pretty distinctively Fuzhou. 1) Stir fried 白粿 (ba gui), a rice noodle (really a 'cake') cut into short fat slices. 2) Pork or chicken cooked with red rice wine lees, a by-product of making red rice wine by fermenting glutinous rice with red yeast. 3) Red rice wine, stirred into chicken soup, usually when making long-life noodles in chicken soup. 4) diang mien ngu, or literally dough stuck to the sides of a wok. Woks are called "diang" in Fuzhouhua, served in a rich and tasty broth. 5) Pork belly stewed in soy sauce and served with "butterfly" buns. 6) Hokkien noodles that are almost always stir-fried in a 'wet' style. A thick sauce containing meat, seafood and veggies is poured over dry-fried noodles. 7) Boiled thin wheat noodles, in many different styles, but always tossed with some soy and lard, possibly sometimes with sesame oil, and with pork or "bian nuk/pian sik". Two common styles are kolok mian or kampuan mian. (幹盤面). 8) wor nay, or sweet mashed taro mixed with fragrant lard. There are all sorts of distinctive Fuzhou/Fujian buns and cakes, maybe more Fuzhou than Fujian, like "kong biang" (鋼餅), "die biang" (第餅), "junnung biang", "mani biang", etc.

I've been biding my time, waiting for the day I'll be in Singapore again, so I can taste with my own buds the Sin Huat crab beehoon. Have had recurring thoughts about that dish ever since watching a TV show about Anthony Bourdain's visit to Singapore. Bourdain outdid himself with the use of superlatives when describing the food at Sin Huat, and the beehoon in particular. A restaurant where the cooks walk around in galoshes definitely scores a plus in my book. Cannot wait.

kuan, I think you are talking about this, also known as peanut pancake. My expertise is limited to eating the pancake. Never made it before, but I have seen it made at numerous pasar malam. They pour the dough into individual pans, kinda like Pizza Hut personal pizza pans, which have been heavily greased with Planta. A mixture of ground peanuts and sugar is sprinkled on top before the pancake is folded in half, like an omelette. Best served hot out of the pan. Wait too long and the pancake will lose its crispiness.