Pan

What are you saying about jazz musicians?

That reminds me of the way things used to be in rural Terengganu, Malaysia in the mid 70s. Man, when it's really hot, ice is a wonderful thing even when it's hacked off a big block that's delivered by truck every morning and kept in a bin. And I survived that two-year stay in good shape. Have a wonderful time, but make sure you're tested for parasites after you get home. I speak from experience on that.

Not the Eurasian Plate; the Burma Plate. Here's one report explaining what happened geologically.

Giving 4 stars to a middlebrow restaurant is an absurdity to me. In addition to which, anything expensive enough to be given 4 stars by the Times had better be highbrow, or it's a tremendous ripoff. But if we want to debate this further, it might be best to do it in the thread about NYT stars.

Please tell us more about the cuisine there. Also, what kinds of prices are we talking about and what are the cross streets?

You mean like their resumes or something? Sure, you can say that X chef worked at Y restaurant and staged with Z somewhere. But is any of that important if you don't like the taste of their cuisine? Or is there something else you're thinking of here?

That sounds really weird to me. Can you provide a more detailed documentation of that, applicable to all the affected countries? I mean, it may be that most of the agriculture in India is on the Deccan Plain, but what of countries like Bangladesh that are mostly near the coastline or large estuaries, period, or countries like Burma, Thailand and Malaysia where agriculture is mostly near the coast or on river valleys (many of which, however, are on the South China Sea side in the latter two cases)? One thing I haven't read about is the degree to which the tsunami waves entered and affected estuaries. I also want to emphasize the comments about water contamination. Right now, that's a severe problem, and the combination of salt intrusion and contamination because of dead bodies and poor sanitation is likely to remain a really serious problem for some time -- probably the salt contamination of the water table, in particular, which renders water undrinkable and makes land unfarmable.

That's correct: There is a tsunami warning system in the Pacific (headquartered in Hawaii) but not in the Indian Ocean. Yes, it would be realistic for there to be a warning system in the Indian Ocean, but there is an understandable reason why the countries in the region weren't part of the tsunami warning system: Tsunamis are so rare in the Indian Ocean that the last time there was one was in the aftermath of the tremendous eruption that blew up something like 2/3 of the island of Krakatau in 1883 and led to a period of global cooling from all the soot in the air. And when you consider the way that countries in the region are regularly beset by cyclones and flooding, you can understand why there was no thought given to paying whatever it would cost to maintain a system of buoys to predict a tsunami. I'd add that, for similar reasons, there is no warning system for tsunamis in the Atlantic Ocean.

Thank goodness you weren't in Phuket for the tsunami! I'm wondering about the safety of those ice cubes, though. Best wishes to your digestive system, and enjoy the rest of your travels!

Further to Gastro888's remark about chicken, we had a semi-informal banquet at Congee two days ago and got a whole hacked chicken with plenty of garlic. It was delicious, and I noted with approval that the head was included. I ate the head.

I don't know if there's any affiliation. XO Cafe & Grill Inc (212) 343-8625 96 Walker St Xo Kitchen (212) 965-8645 148 Hester St

Gastro888, I've never tried the XO Cafe, but I've heard some good reports on it. Anything else you recommend there?

I also like the ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard St., though the place is hardly a secret. Try their mango/papaya, coconut, pineapple, mango, lychee, and ginger flavors, for instance. The ginger has a nice bite and is made with crystallized ginger.

Thanks, Bux. Go to Lupa for lunch, and you won't have such trouble getting a reservation or even getting a table for two or three without one.

I'll bet you can't get alligator in snowy Ontario. You were a great sport, Marlene, and I really enjoyed being part of your audience. P.S. Crawfish etoufee -- yum!

Oh, one other thing: After having tried it two days ago, I can give a hearty recommendation for the crab congee at Congee, 98 Bowery between Hester and Grand (west side of Bowery).

Michael, if you want to go for a Shanghainese meal, consider the following dishes at Yeah Shanghai Deluxe: Aster Indicus Beef Tendon W. Spicy Flavor Kaufu Spicy Cabbage Aromatic Beef House Special Vegetarian Mock Duck Spicy Minced Meat Noodle Crab sauteed with garlic, scallions, and hot peppers Jumbo Shrimp with Chili Sauce Chicken with Chestnuts Eel with leeks in black pepper sauce They also have good juicy buns (xiao long bao) and scallion pancakes, and I often get noodle soup there, which consists of a combination of noodles in broth with one or another of their cold dishes. For something that's more hidden, there's a bakery on the east side of East Broadway maybe a third of a block up from Chatham Square that sells little cakes with pineapple jam in them. They're probably not as good as the larger pineapple cakes I had in Beijing, but I like them very much. Especially if it's a cold day, get some hot taro green milk tea at Tea & Tea (formerly Saint's Alp) on the west side of Mott St. just south of Bayard. If you go for dim sum at Jing Fong (20 Elizabeth St.), they sometimes have buns with kaya (rich Malaysian coconut custard jam) in them. That might be only on weekends.

I was watching the News Hour on the US Public Broadcasting System a few minutes ago, and the people they had on said that things are likely to get a lot worse. An official from CARE (their US president, I think) said that epidemics of cholera or other diarrhea-causing illnesses are likely because of water contamination, poor sanitation, and large numbers of dead bodies washing ashore; that those epidemics could easily kill more people than the number who died in the initial disaster; and that they need money now.

Thanks. I don't have any family in Malaysia. Most of my friends are on the East Coast, which wasn't affected by the tsunamis but did suffer heavy flooding in the monsoon a week or two ago. I have yet to hear just how badly their communities were affected, because the one email contact I have no longer has an account. I really need to write my friends in Terengganu and ask how everyone is and how their property fared. Other friends are on the West Coast, but most of them live in the KL area, which is far enough inland not to have problems with anything from the Straits. But there's one person in Penang who I know through the soc.culture.malaysia newsgroup and haven't heard from yet. I'll feel better when he checks in.

I agree, and the information you've given is most appreciated. Thank you for the reports, FaustianBargain, and I hope all of your loved ones are OK.

Thanks, Mongo. I was just going to post a request for information on where to contribute in a way that would best help the survivors. I'll still ask that question: Which relief organizations (whether local or international) are most efficient, least corrupt, and spend least on publicity and so forth? And does anyone have any idea how I could make sure a contribution actually got into Aceh and helped the people there, for example? (Please, only positive recommendations; we don't want to get into arguments about problematic organizations.)

My brother and I just had a great lunch at Lupa yesterday (which I posted about separately in the Lupa thread). Would anyone like to compare Hearth and Lupa? What about comparing Hearth to Bianca?

I don't think I'd like that salad, but the bread looks really yucky to me.

Have a look at the kueh thread.

Just an extraordinary calamity! I don't know what to say, other than to join in sending best wishes to the survivors and condolences to anyone who's experienced loss in this tremendous natural disaster.