Laksa

Hello everybody! I hope you guys like bananas! 99.9% of my diet consists of bananas. For protein, I pick ticks from my fellow wild men. But seriously... I work as a computer programmer in Poughkeepsie, NY. So what's this crap about being a wild man of Borneo, I hear you ask. I am really from Borneo. I was born and raised in Sarawak, Malaysia, but my grandparents originally came from Fuzhou, China. From the age of 13 until 26, I lived in Melbourne, Australia. For the last four years, I've been going wild in the jungles of Poughkeepsie. "Wild man gone wild" is now available in VHS and DVD from your local quality video store. Why is the wild man rambling? I think it gives some background to the type of food you can expect to see in this food blog. That's right, it's gonna be a confusing and incoherent mish mash. Ok, there will be Chinese, there will be Malaysian, there will be Australian, and there will be Sarawakian. There will be steak because I love steak. I like cooking only when it's not a "chore", so sometimes we eat out. I bet all the New Yorkers are dying to read about the wonders of Poughkeepsie's restaurant scene. Here's an attempt at providing some structure to the ideas swirling in my head, in no particular order: Pork congee - what I'm going to have for lunch today. Pictures to come. Asian BBQ pork - inspired by the recent eG BBQ pork thread. Kari Ayam (Malaysian Chicken Curry) Umai - Sarawakian raw fish salad Sarawak Laksa (of course... and nothing like the one from Penang) Tuna casserole (Australian recipe) Aussie burger with the lot (that means fried egg and beetroot, I'm afraid) Steak I'm terrible at making desserts, but I'll have a go at making kueh salat, because I miss it so. I hope that list meets with your approval, fellow eGulleteers. There's only going to be two of us eating the food, and our main meal is dinner, so the list may be overly ambitious. Forgive me if I don't get around to every item or if I change things around mid-stream. I can't make any promises, but there is a plan to eat some stinky durian and to incorporate as much stinky shrimp paste in the recipes as possible. Be prepared to hold your noses! If any term or ingredient is unfamiliar to you, please feel free to ask. My googling skills are at your disposal!

Bravissimo Abra! (or should that be bravissima?) I have enjoyed following your blog. Thank you for sharing your week with us. Your culinary skills know no bounds. You are equally at ease cooking with couscous or kicap manis. It's going to be a hard act to follow.

What do they smell like? You gotta hold your nose really close and inhale hard. If they pass the test before you cook them, smell them again after. Then do the taste test. FWIW, I've eaten sausages that passed the two smell tests but only after chewing them in the mouth did I begin to notice that not-quite-right "smell", but I didn't get sick from them though.

Jo-mel, Are you talking about a by-product of making red rice wine? I never knew that it was used in bbq pork. The foochow people have use that as the main flavoring agent in a number of chicken and pork dishes. I ate a lot of that when I lived with my parents, but miss it terribly. Everyday, I find more and more reasons to check out China 46.

Irwin, if you are talking about "kao yok", that is my favorite way to eat pork belly. I like it stewed with "mui choi" and slices of taro. Is that Hakka in origin? I never knew. Can you recommend a good place in NYC to have that dish? (I should probably ask that in the NY forum, but since I'm here...)

2 lbs is still a sizeable hunk of meat. Is there a reason you wouldn't want to reheat it on the grill? I think this cut of beef can cook to medium and still be tender and juicy. Prime rib to me is such a luxury that I would hate to transform it into any other dish that could be made just as well with a cheaper cut.

That is sad news indeed. I've always liked her show. She would've been 92 on Sunday Aug 15.

My story: Born in Malaysia + 13 years there + 13 years in Melbourne + 4 years back in M'sia + 4 years in Poughkeepsie, NY --------------------------------------------- = one guy who eats just about anything You took Skippy the Kangaroo and brought him to NY? So that's why they stopped making the TV show...

Irwin, I'm a little confused by the terminology you use. In Chinese "siu laap", there two different "roasted" pork dishes. When someone says roast pork, I think of "siu yok", which is a thick slab of pork belly that has a crispy crackling skin on one side and layers of fat and lean meat underneath, and possibly some bone. Siu yok is often salty, but never sweet. The pork with the characteristic red exterior, to me, is Chinese BBQ pork or "char siu". It is an entirely different cut of meat (loin?), tastes slightly sweet, and is (somewhat) less fatty than siu yok. Although both are technically "roasted", restaurant menus I've seen adhere to those labels and definitions.

That's absolutely fine with me, Laksa! I was planning to be in DC/NYC this summer, but had to postpone the trip until later this year. What would you like me to bring you? That would be so coooool! But let me try to see if I can find some here first before imposing on your kindness. I think the Indonesian philosophy is that if you can eat it, you can eat it as a chip. Another friend once brought back mushroom chips. Not mushroom flavoured chips, but slices of mushrooms deep fried like potato chips. Incredibly delicious!

Yetty, I am willing to trade Doritos, Cape Cod chips and bagel chips for some of your emping and keropok. I know Indonesia has about a zillion different keropok, right? My Indonesian friend from college view keropok crackers as a must-have at every meal. That and sambal oelek.

Dejah, thanks for a superb blog! I am interested in your Ma Po dofu recipe if you care to share. It's my favourite tofu dish.

Happy Birthday Abra! Looking forward to following your blog. Could you tell us where you are geographically?

20 million Aussies can't be wrong! "We are happy little Vegemites as bright as bright can be, We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea..."

Aren't those the best colors though? That and the colors you can't see without psychotropic chemical assistance.

Add Thailand to that list too. My local Thai grocer tells me that the mangoes and guavas she gets that are labeled "Produce of Mexico" are really from Asia. They are shipped first to Mexico to be (re-)labeled. Apparently they're not as strict about stuff coming from Mexico.

Do you need a special permit for installing that burner in your home? When I get my own house, I would like one of those "jet engine" wok stoves. For the time being, I make do with a really thick cast aluminium wok. I feel the thickness of the metal helps conduct heat better, even if the heat source is inferior.

You're welcome. My mum only ever makes them without the chilli, but I think you could sprinkle chili powder on them while they're still hot out of the oil. Fried ikan bilis and peanuts is an important component of Nasi Lemak, so you if there's a Malaysian restaurant in your town, you could well ask the owner/chef to supply your needs as they probably make it regularly.

If you live in any big city in the Western world, (I assume you're not in Asia, rightly or wrongly), I think you can find "raw" dried ikan bilis (dried anchovies) in the bigger Asian grocery stores. Deep fry these until golden brown and mix them with roasted beernuts and voila! Edited to add: oh, you have family from Malaysia? So I guess you probably already know how to go about making your own ikan bilis.

Of course, I have to say Malaysian fish and shrimp keropok (crackers). My favorite Indonesian snack is emping melinjo crackers (melinjo nut? padi oat?), both the spicy and sweet flavored ones and the plain salted ones. Emping has a slightly bitter aftertaste. My favorite Indian snack is muruku which I think is made from lentil flour. My favorite Chinese snack is sweet rice crackers with sesame seeds, sometimes peanuts （the Malaysian version also includes fried shallots). These are crunchy bricks of puffed rice, stuck together with some sweet syrup. Also like fried dough twists, and flaky peanut sweets (can't find pictures). I used to eat tons of these Want Want Senbei rice crackers a few years ago, but grew sick of it.

The resident eGullet NY forum expert on all things Malaysian, Pan, is on vacation, I think. I hope he can give us some useful information when he gets back.

Have you considered asking them to ship you multiple issues once every quarter or every 6 months to save on shipping?

If you must have that red ring, I would choose food dye over ketchup. IMHO, the amount of ketchup you would need to add to achieve redness would throw the taste out of kilter by making it more vinegary.

I'm a lot more familiar with kalamansi than I am with key limes. We had a kalamansi tree in our house in Malaysia. The fruits were less than 1" in diameter. I seem to remember the keylimes I saw at the supermarket were bigger than that. Just never saw them side by side. Kalamansi do have rather big seeds for their size. About the same size as orange seeds.

I, too, would be interested in the replies to this question. I remember dining at a Malaysian restaurant in Manhattan Chinatown, whose name I have forgotten, but I think it had a green and white sign and not too far from Grand St subway station, that had some kuih you could take-out. I had some deep fried crispy shrimp kuih and I think they also had panggang and angku kuih among their small selection. Don't remember if they had ondeh ondeh. Would kill for some ondeh ondeh, kuih salat, pulut inti and panggang right now. Oh man! Until I get my fix, I'll just have to salivate over these pictures of kuih-muih.