KennethT

Hmmmm... simple is relative, no? It's not a difficult dish to make, but there's certainly no shortage of ingredients. Mine is modeled after the fish head curry we had in Singapore in a well known South Indian restaurant. See the post here. One day when I get some time I'll upload my recipe to RecipEgullet but in the meantime, heat some coconut oil (I cut it with rice bran oil to make it healthier) and roast some fenugreek, mustard, cumin and fennel seeds. Once popping, sweat like a whole red onion chopped fine, then add several tablespoons ginger/garlic paste and a couple sprigs of curry leaves and sweat some more. Then add the powdered spices (a big teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder, a half teaspoon hot chilli powder, a teaspoon each coriander powder and fennel powder, and maybe 3/4 teaspoon turmeric). Stir until the oil separates back out, then add about 3 plum tomatoes either chopped really fine or blended, about 1 big tablespoon tamarind paste (25g tamarind with 50ml hot water, then strained), and some water. Season with salt. At this point, you'd add any vegetables (I just had potatoes) and then I used mahi mahi at the very end.

South India by way of Singapore fish curry

I don't know about in this locale, but I've seen old people all over SE Asia comfortably squatting way lower than I ever could on my best day. I think if you do certain movements continually throughout your life, it doesn't stiffen up like it does for us who do them only occasionally.

@BonVivantThank you so much for this. I never thought of these islands but now we might put them on the list!

An old favorite, ayam buah keluak.

I read about this too and, like you, am a big fan of his. I hope he is ok and that nothing sinister has happened to him.

They're diploid? Hmmm. Definitely not what I had in Vietnam then.

Can you upload a higher res photo that I can zoom into? Years ago, on our Saigon trip, we made a day trip that included a local restaurant - one of the dishes we ordered came with a large bush of herbs - there were probably 12 different types in there and a couple I couldn't identify but really enjoyed and have been hunting them ever since! The shape of my favorite looked a little like the pomelo leaf, but I'd like to see the vein structure if possible as that would clue me in better. It had a nice almost lemony flavor - but very different from a makrut lime leaf.

I thought of you yesterday when making the mapo tofu. I was out of c0rnstarch and used potato starch instead...

salad? In China? Also, how was the mango? I wonder where they're getting ripe mango from right now....

Dai style bison with herbs (7 herbs, 5 from the garden) with sticky rice.

Bison mapo tofu with Korean leeks (like a giant scallion) and cucumber salad.

@Duvel Thanks! That's my belly laugh for the day!

How does one drink from the funnel? Is the bottom sealed?

This is so sad. I remember her talking about her son Matt, so I am pretty sure it's real. She had so much to deal with near the end of her life - from issues with her aged father and his wife to son's medical problems as well as her own. I will miss her interactions - she always had something interesting to say and I will personally miss discussing plants and gardening with her of which she was passionate and very experienced.

Last meal of this batch of kapitan chicken curry with homemade roti canai. This is definitely the best roti I've made - even though the dough was made in a batch of 8, after stretching they were all frozen. When frying, I think less is more when it comes to heat for a relatively slow fry which left the inside chewy and moist with a crispy exterior.

How common are lemons in China?

Love these. As I'm sure you've done, I remember buying them from a kid on the beach in Thailand. They were usually mounted on a stick for easy eating. How they'd peel and eye them in front of you in around 30 seconds continues to amaze me.

Out of curiosity, how did you make sticky rice without a steamer? Was it a pot of water with a steamer insert?

I checked it out a couple weeks ago. The fish area was a madhouse as they were breakingdown a whole tuna and giving out samples as well as people taking enough photos to fill a Sears catalog. I actually did try some of the premade sushi - for the price, it was actually pretty good. I wasn't very impressed with the produce selection, although they had a few of my staples and their prices were significantly less than anywhere else that I know of. But since they don't have everything, I probagly will continue to get most of my produce at Hmart so I don't have to go to two stores.

Sichuan fish....

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken

Is the elephant real jade?

The turmeric is really taking off now.

Beer duck a la @liuzhou. I also added some dried green Sichuan peppercorns as I thought it would go with the doubanjiang.