Ms Congeeniality

Kew, the soupy noodle sure look delicious. I can almost smell it. Looking forward to pictures of your curry plant. Absolutely love kedondong. Most memorable is with sambal belacan (shrimp paste), as relish to stimulate the appetite on those hot days. Recently bought what looked like sliced kedondong from the fruit-stall in Sungei Wang Plaza. However it didn't taste like the kedondong from the old days ie. sour & fibrous with a lot of crunch. This one had less fiber, and tasted a little bit sweet... almost like guava minus the fragrant. Anyhoo, I had the sliced kedondong sprinkled with sour plum powder. Speaking of sour plum powder, fruit hawkers seems to be the only place one finds it. Haven't seen it sold in any of the super-mega-hyper-markets around KL. Isn't this bizarre?

This is what I heard too. Some Taiwanese friends use seeded unripe papaya with top lopped off as a vessel for double-boiling. Forgot what they put in the papaya, but supposedly the sap from the unripe papaya is the key ingredient.

The ever observant Yetty is right. Welcome to eGullet, Greatbigsea..

Yetty, sama-sama. Hidup Asia Tenggara absolutely!

Fellow eG members, hope everybody had as much a good time as we had doing this. I made my debut in eG right in this foodblog not a week ago, but certainly we'll see more of each other in the regular forums. For now, I'll do some more cramming for an interview tomorrow, and looking forward to flying home to NY on Friday to taste some of the food that Laksa cooked up. Thanks for being so great & goodnight from Kalamazoo....

Dessicated coconut consists of fine coconut strips. Conventional Nasi Lemak does not have these bits and therefore the santan (milk) would have been accurate, like the way you cooked it. Dessicated coconut is excellent for adding texture to curries. Dad uses them for his assam (tamarind) fish too, which works well. Gladly. Just try to stop me. Meanwhile, you can stay away from it.

My dad has been using that since the 80s and has been touting it to everybody he knows. Real time saver. Don't remember him soaking overnight, though. Could be because he uses it in "soupy" dishes and the coconut just get reconstituted that way??

I would second that...

helenjp, I have often heard of "kumara", but had no idea it was Maori until now. We too use "yam" to mean "taro", but one can never be too sure in the US. FAO postulates that taro originates from southern or south-east Asia. Similar finding was suggested by this website. An excerpt: For example, its speciation has been postulated as occurring in "Indo Malaysia" by de Candolle (1886), in "Indonesia" by Engler and Krause (1920), in "India" by Burkill (1935), Vavilov (1949-50), and Chang (1958), in the "East Indies" by Degener (1945), in "Southeast Asia" by Sauer (1952), and in "Malaysia" by Keleny (1962) and Good (1964). For sure it's been around for a loooong time in Malaysia This is too cool. Seems to be available from Amazon. Great idea for wedding gifts, thanks for pointing this out.

Hey Yetty, this is a revelation to me too. He's usually up earlier in the morning anyway, so I have no idea what he's up to. Looks like he goes hunting..

Pray tell, Ms. Congee...what is an Ugoff salad? spaghetttti, when Burger King introduced premium salads on their menu (Atkins frenzy), they created a snazzy fashion designer character called Ugoff in TV commercials to promote them. House of Ugoff website: www.ugoff.com. I called it the Ugoff salad to distinguish it from their regular salads. Here's what's in the salad: lettuce, tomato, mushroom, cheddar cheese, baby carrots, red onion, cucumber. Choice of grilled chicken or shrimp & dressing.

I was afraid the Ugoff salad might steal Laksa's thunder, and didn't have the heart do it...not!

Most congee inevitably turns thicker the next day. To reduce thickness, add water/broth to a serve of congee and reheat in microwave prior to eating. Repeat until desired consistency is reached.

Sounds like an interesting book.. the more controversial, the better. There are 2 types of ferns that Sarawakians (and Malaysians) eat - paku and midin. The shoots or the tender stems are delicious stir-fried, signature dishes that visitors MUST try and often love, even if they vow off rabbit food. Midin is a smaller version of the fiddlehead ferns found in the US and A (the term Ali G - http://www.hbo.com/alig/ uses), but has a more delicate taste. Don't think bracken fern grows there, although it is possible that it is found in the higher grounds where the climate is more temperate. Yam (known in Malaysia as sweet potato) is native and widely used.

Abra, in your opinion, when there's too much ingredients & the rice cooker bubbles over, would it help to take the cover off and let it simmer that way for a while ? Seems that the TheFoodTutor was able to put a towel around the lid of the rice cooker to minimize it. While I have not encountered this, I'm interested to know how this is tackled.