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Sheesh, Tana, you must have gotten strong stuff! My parents keep their asafoetida in the little yellow plastic container they got it in, and it doesn't seem to have affected anything much else. Did you have 100% pure stuff? The stuff I've found around here is adulterated with other ingredients (including corn starch, I think).

I've been in American offices where cups of coffee are paid for on the honor system, so someone seems to think it works. Depends how honest the employees are.

There are all sorts of recipes that call for bamboo shoots, and fresh are always better. One good use for them is in stews and dishes cooked in casseroles, but I note that they're already boiled...hmmmm...So perhaps for stir-fries? I wonder if you'd want to make crackers with them and whether it would work well to use already-boiled bamboo shoots for the purpose. The reason I bring that up is because I sometimes buy some tasty crackers that include bamboo shoots as a major ingredient when I go to that huge Chinese supermarket on Kissena Blvd. in Flushing, Queens. I have no recipe to provide you and haven't found the product by Googling, but I throw out that idea as a possibility. Another idea would be to simply make up an excellent hot sauce or some other excellent sauce and pour it over the bamboo shoots for a cold dish. There's a terrific bamboo shoot cold dish that I like to order at Spicy & Tasty, a Sichuan restaurant in Flushing.

Oh. Duh. Perhaps you can see how I didn't get it, though.

Maybe so, but what does it mean?

I Googled for "Burmese recipes" and found some links that might interest some of you: Myanmar.net recipes (Scroll down to avoid the flashing ad.) Oh, here we go: DeliciousGlobe.com South East Asia If you click on "Recipes From Burma @," you get a clickable list of various websites with different Burmese recipes. Have fun!

You said it about the sotong. And my mother hates fish and doesn't relate to the ikan bilis, but I love it. I don't know if I mentioned it, but my favorite Malaysian dish was the Chili Udang Galah I used to get in Chinatown in Kuala Terengganu. The udang galah they caught in the 1970s were collosal and when they had the eggs in their heads! MMMmmmmmmmm! But Malaysian udang galah is still excellent. Last July, Shiewie and Maukitten took me to a place in PJ that served excellent udang galah and other seafood. Thanks, gals. Another wonderful dish I used to have was a Cantonese dish in a great banquet restaurant in the Hotel Malaysia, again in the 70s, called the Imperial Room: Pigeon with Peanuts. That was always our first dish whenever we ate there. But regardless of my remarks about 70s food, the general quality of Terengganu food is much better now than it was then, especially in the kampungs - partly because people are richer and can afford better ingredients and partly because of the influence of Thai food. I've heard complaints that much more sugar is used nowadays, and that that may be partly responsible for the huge increase in diabetes (though I think the lack of exercise in many parts of Malaysia is a much bigger culprit), but if true, that didn't bother me in terms of taste. In other places like KL, the food has always been wonderful and remains wonderful.

Have fun!

How will you handle the menu, Blov?

I gave up on Empire Szechuan quite some time ago, after a number of absolutely inedible meals in a row. And the only reason I gave it that much rope is that my parents live a block away from the original one at 97 St. and Broadway. I don't ever plan on going to any branch of that chain again.

Years ago, my parents, brother and I went to a restaurant somewhere in Midtown Manhattan, I think, where a similar thing happened. The waiter brought a main dish I hadn't ordered. I mentioned I hadn't ordered it but liked the look of it and said it was fine and to please give it to me instead of what I had ordered. The chef (or sous chef or whoever) screamed at the poor waiter, who insisted on also giving me the main dish that I had ordered, though I tried to refuse it on the grounds that it was way too much to eat. All the food was quite good, and we would have wanted to return, except that, in good conscience, we could never again patronize a restaurant where the workers were so mistreated.

Thanks for your responses, Chewme. Wow, offal! Sounds like I have to head for the Minangkabau country one of these days... Malaysians will correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that the best places to get satay in KL are stalls, not restaurants. Everyone in Malaysia used to say that the Satay in Kajang was best, but Kajang is no longer on the main highway and KL-area friends told me they never go to Kajang anymore and that many of the Kajang satay-makers moved to KL. But it doesn't surprise me if you found the sauce too sweet. I also lament the decline in availability of ketupat. Is ketupat still routinely served at sate stalls in Indonesia? I use the Malay spellings. Batik is still pronounced "batek" to me, regardless of "ejaan baru" (the "new" [by now around 30 years old] spelling which is designed to harmonize Malay and Indonesian spellings).

Great report! One perhaps silly question: Are pig's trotters the same as pigfeet?

I hope you were able to get off that medicine, JennotJenn. Thanks for sharing.

I always really liked Pepin's shows with his daughter and friends. They were about cooking but not just about cooking; they were also about relationships and life, and they were real. He always seemed like a really nice person.

You may have to go in to DC. But of course, you'll let us know what you end up doing. Have fun!

Not that soon, but I'll PM you.

Apples, really untraditional! The Malaysian restaurants I've been going to in Flushing, Queens and Manhattan's Chinatown tend to include tofu, jicama, cucumber, and pineapple in their rojak, which is of course Rojak Cina. A bunch of people have come here from Ipoh. I visited Ipoh last August. Beautiful, pleasant city (with delicious food!) but no work.

Yetty, I wonder whether you'd like to give a longer rundown on Minangkabau dishes. I've been to Negeri Sembilan but I never made it to the west coast of Sumatra, so I haven't had the pleasure of having Nasi Padang in Padang or seeing the city of Bukittingi.

Yeah, this is fun. I love rendang! I do think lamb would be too tender, but how do you suppose goat would hold up? I don't think I'm familiar with kalio.

You're right, TP. Sorry, Kew.

I think a bottle of that cost me $5 in the Sunrise Market in New York.

Yeah, I'd love to visit that area, too. Magari!

I never realized people made rendang with offal. What other items can be the basis for rendang?

That's interesting because I haven't found confirmation that any part of Suedtirol is currently part of Austria: http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/austria.htm http://www.travel55.co.uk/walking_tours.html Other Google results seem to indicate that the part of Tirol that's still part of Austria is identified as "Tirol," but that "Suedtirol" is synonymous with Alto Adige. Also, note the term "Classico" on the Suedtiroler wine. If they're required by law to include the name "Alto Adige," I think it must be there in smaller print somewhere. I think that's an Italian wine.