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But what's the difference between the Chinese and Indian styles of rojak? I frankly don't know. And is there also a distinct Malay style?

I wasn't angry; I laughed. I've had fiddleheads once and didn't like them. I thought pucuk paku was better. But the fiddleheads I had had a strong fern taste.

Maybe, but it doesn't quite fit Shiewie's description because it was plain white rice (maybe cooked with a little coconut milk) with the leaves and dipping sauces separate.

That's hilarious!

Vegetarians can be such boars. I mean...boors....no wait, I mean BORES.

Thanks for the pics and report! One detail: I'm guessing that Suedtirol St. Magdalener is an Italian wine, not German. Suedtirol is the German name for Alto Adige, a region north of Veneto which used to be part of Austria and is now part of Italy. Nordtirol is still part of Austria.

Thanks, Mary. I drink only occasionally and I'm definitely not a wine connoisseur, but I do enjoy wine from time to time. With the meal, I usually like wines that are fruity and only moderately dry but have some complexity and a good aftertaste. Probably the best wine I've had in the last several months or so was Sept Grains (I believe from Alsace), which Katie Loeb gave me a taste of. It's made from juices of 7 different varieties of grapes and is like a chameleon, changing taste in my mouth. I enjoy both red and white wines and also like a good dessert wine on occasion. I really would have little idea what the pH of the wines I've drunk has been, but I love to read labels, so there's no doubt that if the pH were mentioned on the label of a bottle, I would look at it. It's so much fun to drink acqua minerale in Italy and see how all of the ions have been broken down into a list with concentrations noted, and it's so disappointing not to have all that information to look at here in the U.S.

Please clarify.

Thanks for telling us the end of the story, srhcb. luvtoeat, did you go to the restaurant after that?

The only one I wouldn't have thought that of was rojak. The best satay I ever had was at a little hole-in-the-wall on the outskirts of Jakarta, in 1976. We asked the chef/owner what his secret was, and he smilingly led us to an enclosed yard where he had hung a bunch of goat meat tied in papaya skins. The original meat tenderizer. When you said "tough" I was thinking of kerbau (water buffalo) meat, but you're talking about beef? Fascinating about the several-days cooking. Makes sense, though: Many European stews also taste better the 2nd day (though they're usually reheated rather than cooked continuously). Glad to have you here!

No, I can't remember those, Shiewie. Sounds like you solved the mystery about the Nasi Ulam, though. It was apparently the non-Nasi Kerabu. What's the difference between Chinese and Indian rojak, Su-Lin?

Heh heh .... so then we have 2 versions of Nasi Ulam - one Kelantan (the more popular one I guess) and one Terengganu (I assume you had this in Terengganu). No, it was in the day pasar in Kota Bharu.

That's beautiful!

Perhaps, but I'll tell you that they had a sign up advertising that they served Nasi Ulam, what I described is what they gave me when I ordered Nasi Ulam, and other people sitting at the stall were eating the same thing (and other dishes, because you could also get fish curry and various other dishes there).

The chili sauce is on the chicken. But its not wet, its dry. And its not Chicken Rice -- thats served on the side at that restaurant. Yeah, the chili sauce is given separately with the Hainan Chicken Rice.

I love almonds but I'm not positive they'd go well in nasi ulam. The final dish doesn't look like what I had in the pasar in Kota Bharu (the day pasar - whose name I forget - not the Pasar Malam). They gave me a bunch of green leaves and such and I think three dipping sauces (sambal belacan, tempoyak, budu - and perhaps a fourth sauce which was a red hot sauce) and a plate of rice. I then proceeded to take the leaves, dip them in the sauce (I mostly stuck to sambal belacan but tried the others), put them in my mouth, and then pick up a handful of rice and put that in my mouth. Then I repeated the procedure until I was too full to eat anymore. Honestly, I don't remember having nasi ulam in Kg. Merchang, Terengganu. Seems to me ulam was always a separate thing, and the rice (nasi is cooked rice, in case that hasn't been made clear before) went with savory dishes.

I spoke with my mother this evening, and she told me that pregnant women in Terengganu could eat whatever they wanted to (aside from pantang [dietary restrictions] which they could choose whether follow to any degree they felt like, too), and that post-partum mothers were encouraged to eat heaty foods, so they apparently didn't feel that encouraged bleeding.

Bux, have you tried their pizze? If so, how were they?

Thanks, Mary. Do you have any general recommendations of a good wine pH? And does pH have much to do with dry vs. sweet?

I think this statement gets the "Duh!" award.

Thanks, Suzanne.

What's radhuni? There's a recipe for panch phoran here, which I think I can reprint since it's just a note at the bottom of a much longer recipe: Is radhuni a synonym for kalonji (nigella seeds)? Nigella seeds aren't all that difficult to find in New York. Very easy for me, in fact, because there's a Bangladeshi store a couple of blocks from my apartment where one can get 8-ounce bags or something pretty cheaply. Nigella is a wonderful flavor, too, and worth having around separately. Other recipes call for "wild onion seed." Is that the same as nigella/kalonji?

Thanks for the reports! Suzanne, what is "N of 1"?

If you speak French, that works fine, but I think you're going to get somebody in trouble with that line. 30 years ago, when I spoke no French at all, I asked something just like that of a French waiter, and he replied, very nicedly, "Ce sont des cuisses de pigeon farcis de leur fois, rôtis à four doux jusqu'à rosace avec des navets confites et blancs de poireau au miel." and I was no better off than before I started. Your point is well taken. You do have to be able to understand the answer for the question to be worthwhile.