Pan

Thanks, hindyg.

Which ones, please?

That looks right. I didn't think it was like tofu, but it was a great fish.

In Manhattan, I recommend Madras Cafe on 2nd Av. between 4th and 5th for consistently good South Indian vegetarian fare. Having never been to the UK, I'm guessing that it's inferior to good South Indian places there, but it's dependable and chef-owned, and if you ask for extra hot peppers, you'll be treated seriously. I generally ask for the fresh green ones to be added to my dosa. Better yet, though, I recommend the Jackson Diner in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Thanks for the report, Suzanne. I'm glad to hear that the Charlie Parker Festival happened again, too. Last year, they said they weren't sure if they'd be able to get enough funding to do it again, and I bought a t-shirt. Needless to say, I missed the festival this year only because I was out of the country.

Shiewie, I'm not sure what the name of the fish was. I was served what seemed to be part of the belly and the attached tail, so I think the fish was a fair degree larger than what I got (which was plenty). It had white flesh with a bit of fat (not that much) and its skin was black checkered with brown or gray. The best thing about it was how perfectly fresh it was. It was presented to me with a flame under it still lightly cooking it. It was already cooked and tender with just a bit of pleasant chewiness, yet it didn't get overcooked before I finished eating. In Ipoh, I bought two samosas in the India Town that were just fantastic! Here's a description I gave in an email to friends: I headed into India Town and bought two samosas that were just amazing. When I buy samosas in New York, they're kind of dry and have a little potato filling. These were filled to the brim with onions and then also had some potatoes in them, and they were so tasty! In the New Town, I visited a Chinese seafood restaurant. I can't find the name of the place or its exact location, but I recall that it was sort of behind the New Cathay Hotel, where there's an Internet place. If you're facing in the direction of the Old Town on Jalan C.M. Yusuf, turn right after the New Cathay Hotel and walk a couple of blocks. It proclaims in big letters that it has seafood, so if you're on the right street, you really can't miss it. The place was Cantonese, and I ordered steamed fish much as I did at Oversea, with Kangkung Belacan. It was also a very good and somewhat though not outlandishly expensive meal (the fish was trout, and it cost some RM 29 or something, such that the whole meal was about RM 34). I spoke some with the waiter, who's the son of the owner, and he told me that he goes to a kampung every day to buy fresh fish. I finally ran into the big Tauge Ayam street on my last night in Ipoh. Having unfortunately previously eaten, I could only order some chicken to be packed away for the next morning's trip to KL. The chicken itself was nothing special after a night in the refrigerator, but the red sauce was great. It had live chili, ginger, and various other things in it. I ate very well in Kota Bharu. I was there for four nights and went to the Pasar Malam every night. During the day, I went to the Pasar Besar, whatever its exact name was. This is from an email I wrote to friends: My last lunch in Kota Bharu was Nasi Ulam. Nasi is the word for cooked rice, and Ulam is a Malay salad of raw vegetables, cultivated or/and wild, and it can be eaten with various sambals (sauces). I had mine with chili sauce. For lauk (hard to translate - something to have with the rice), I got fried catfish, and a little sayur (mixed vegetables cooked in coconut milk with fresh red chilis) was also dumped on my plate. Even though I was still having some intestinal irritation (which is mostly gone now), I simply couldn't pass up a chance to taste the young leaves of the cashew tree before I left the East Coast. The cashew leaves that restaurant in the central market (which is a few blocks from the Night Market, in a building as opposed to operating under tents in a square) lacked the freshness of the leaves I used to pick directly off the tree, but their wonderful, indescribable fragrance was intact, and the other leaves that were on the plate were also excellent. When the waiter noticed I still had plenty of rice after finishing the fish and sayur, he offered to add more lauk, and I asked for more sayur, a dish which for me is also a nostalgic remembrance of old days in the village. The whole thing, with sugared iced tea, may have cost RM 6 or so, if that (and that would be less than $2). P.S. about the intestinal irritation: It disappeared completely while I was in Ipoh. Food in Kg. Merchang ranges from chicken or fish fried with a delicious blend of spices to fish cooked in a red chili sauce, chicken curry, etc., etc. (many good vegetable dishes, too, including a type of salad featuring cucumbers, onions, and small slices of red chili with a sweet/sour blend of water, sugar, and vinegar). There's much more influence of Thai food than there used to be. Pad prik (spelled Paprik, etc.) is available in local stores and all up and down the coast. When I was in the Pasar Malam in Kota Bharu, I finally tried a Malaysian rendition of Tom Yam soup. It was delicious but the beef (kerbau?) and chicken in it were unduly tough to my taste. The fruits in Terengganu were fantastic. I used to hate durian, but no longer, and a friend and old classmate of mine has a red durian tree, whose fruit was the greatest. But I still prefer rambutan. Rambutan available all over Terengganu is wonderful, whereas the rambutan I bought in KL was tasteless and caused me to wonder what the big deal was and why I remembered rambutan as a great fruit. It is indeed a great fruit, but the further it goes from the trees where it was picked, the more taste it loses. I loved the bananas, too. I wasn't able to find my previous favorite - pisang kelat keling - but some kelat (tart) varieties were available in the Pasar Besar in both Kuala Terengganu and Marang. I also enjoyed Jambu Air (a crunchy, watery type of guava that has a tart, lemony flavor). One odd thing about modern Malaysia is that you can get most things you want at Mydin's in Kuala Terengganu, but Ziploc bags seem to be unavailable, at least in those parts, so anyone who thinks they may need some is well advised to bring them from home.

I didn't try any of the Persian or Arab restaurants in KL because I was too busy having Malaysian food. Truth be told, I prefer Malaysian food to the Arab food I've had (an unfair comparison because I haven't been to any Arab countries yet), and while I happily eat Arab food in New York, I'd be a lot more likely to check out Persian in Malaysia, given a long enough stay. From what I know about Persian food, it's a highly sophisticated cuisine that uses wonderful flavors like pomegranate syrup, and it's not too easy to find that cuisine in New York. I'd also love to visit Isfahan one of these days. My flight to Malaysia flew over Iran, and the country was ruggedly beautiful from the air. I engaged in a degree of debauchery during my last couple of days in PJ/KL. I went to Restoran Oversea in the Amcorp Shopping Center in PJ for dinner, and said I wanted to eat rice with fish, plus a vegetable dish. I said I wanted steamed fish, but left the choice of fish up to them. The vegetables were thin asparagus in sambal belacan, and they were perfectly cooked. I forget what the fish was - some river fish - but it was also perfect of its type. It was very expensive by Malaysian standards, as I expected it would be. The fish was RM 55 and the meal as a whole cost RM 72 - outlandishly expensive, but from my viewpoint, I had economized for almost the entire trip, and it was less than $20 for top-quality food that really couldn't have been better of its type (i.e., one could have other dishes, but not better-quality dishes of the exact same type, I think). The next day, I went to the Concorde Hotel and had dim sum lunch at Xin. This time, I pigged out, getting 8 plates. Chicken feet came with a delicious red sauce and had none of the cod liver oil taste common in U.S. chickens. Fish cakes with meat underneath were clearly Malaysian in style, coming with a lovely yellow curry sauce including some galangal and plenty of hot pepper. Vegetable shiu mai were far superior to versions I've had in New York. Roast pork sandwiches (in sesame buns) were a revelation - sweet and savory, with red bean paste, I think. Red pork buns (pao) were similarly far superior to New York versions, and elicited a smile of recognition from me, as I used to go to the Imperial Court (or was it Dragon Court?) in the Hotel Merlin, which the Concorde used to be called. Etc. And they have live music: A young woman who played erhu and Chinese harp. She's quite skilled at both but a real virtuoso on the harp. The meal came to RM 55. My last taste of Malaysian cooking was the satay I brought onto the plane, which came from Restoran South Pacific in PJ - 10 skewers for RM 7, a much more normal price for food in Malaysia - and was a nice way to say goodbye to Malaysia, for now.

I'm so happy to be in Kota Bharu now! I'm staying a hotel right across the street from the Pasar Malam (Night Market) and just went to Yati and got Ayam Percik (chicken roasted with coconut milk and various spices), which came with rice, shredded coconut, a delicious blend of herbs, and sauce. With some Te O Ais (iced tea with sugar but no condensed milk), it was a great meal. I then walked around the pasar and, at one booth, got some quail eggs (which really aren't much different from chicken eggs, though smaller), and at another, got a wood-baked cake with beans. A banana murtabak (a sort of crepe-like thing) from yet another booth is waiting in a bag.

I went to Golden Dragon today with my parents, and I took Shiewie's suggestion of asking them to give me what they like best. They gave me some soothing food that was good for my stomach, which was upset earlier in the day. I had mixed vegetables (including tofu skin) with little dried shrimps, which was nice, and a pork and lotus root soup, which again was very soothing. I think the place is good if accepted for what it seems to be: A place to get simple, homey (hamish, in Yiddish or New York English, which amounts to the same thing) food. My parents and I wonder whether the location is the same as the place where we used to get hacked pork and cili udang galah in the 70s. It may be. I spoke with the proprietress, whose looks reminded me of the proprietress in those days. She said that her mother was indeed the proprietress of the restaurant and is still living, and that she will tell her mother about us. Her father, the cook, is dead. But if it's the same place, in those days, they didn't use steam trays, and the food was better.

Thank you as always, Shiewie. My folks went to Golden Dragon the other day and brought back some food for me. The stuff they got was OK but nothing special to me. Did they order wrong? I had a fried fish that tasted like a normal Malay ikan goreng, a cucumber dish with dried shrimp that was pretty good, and a soothing chicken soup with that white rhizome I keep forgetting the name of - soothing, but not something amazingly delectable like the cili udang galah we used to have at a restaurant that used to be near there (actually, we thought it might have been on the same site).

Shiewie: I first of all want to thank you and Maukitten for a fabulous feast at Greenlake (is that the right name for the place you took me to that specializes in seafood?). My plans have changed. I've had a wonderful time visiting with old friends in Kg. Merchang, Terengganu. I'm still there and plan on leaving probably the day after tomorrow. I figure I'll have time to spend a couple of days in Kota Baru but probably insufficient time to go to southern Thailand and do much there, so I'm thinking instead of going across to Ipoh for a couple of days before I go back to KL (though I have to check bus schedules for timings). My parents will be staying in Terengganu for some time to come, though. So my updated requests are: Chinese and Indian restaurants in Kuala Terengganu Any worthwhile eateries anyone wants to mention in Kota Baru and Ipoh. I've had a wonderful time in Malaysia, and the food has been excellent in Terengganu and much more consistently good than it was in 1975-77, when Chinese food in the cities was marvelous but Malay food in the kampung was spotty.

One of these days, I have to post the old story about the onion- and garlic-merchants and the fierce king of the island in some appropriate spot on these boards...

Glad you liked it! I think the Malbec was what I had, too. Perhaps I'll see you when I'm back in New York, where it really is the time that my posts are still set to. (Here in Malaysia, it's 4:51 P.M.)

Yes, Shiewie, the Thai Chicken fits your description. Thanks for the other descriptions. I have a printout of all the advice in this thread which I brought with me, and I've referred to it somewhat but haven't had a chance to post a lot.

Have fun!

Thanks, SG- I've been enjoying the coconut water vendors sell. I had great satay in PJ last night, but since a friend took me, I have no idea where the place was.

Hi, everyone. I'm posting from an internet center on Jalan Bukit Bintang in KL. I'm staying in Petaling Jaya, but my first post will be about a place in KL's Chinatown, because I think it shows something about Malaysian Chinese cuisine. I took the LRT tonight to the stop nearest KL's Chinatown (Pasar Seni), walked around what turned out to be the sleepier part of the neighborhood, and decided to eat at a very basic restaurant called Restoran West Lake on Jalan Sultan, a major street in Chinatown. West Lake is lit exclusively with white fluorescent lights, and all the settings are plastic (bowl, chopsticks, spoon, plate). No napkins are provided. First, I was asked if I wanted to eat rice or noodles. "Rice," I said. I requested chili crab from the menu, but the waitress said they were out of it (I did show up kind of late, I guess, at least for that part of the street - 8:40). So I asked what they did have. They had chicken and vegetables, mainly, as I remember. I ordered what turned out to be something they called "Thai Chicken." It was as hot-peppery as the hottest Buffalo Wings at Atomic Wings in New York, but much tastier, and I liked it more and more the longer I ate it. So why do I say that something called "Thai Chicken" shows something about Malaysian Chinese cuisine? Because there's no way you could get something that hot-peppery at anything except perhaps a Sichuan place in New York, and it's certainly the case that I've never had a similar chicken dish in any Chinese restaurant in New York. Nor did it really taste Thai. This is _Malaysian_ food, and damn good, too.

I'm probably a raving lunatic to be posting now. My flight for Malaysia leaves from Newark at 11:30 A.M. and I haven't slept yet, but I usually sleep little before a long trip. Anyway, I'll try to type this quickly. I went to Pampa with an old friend from nursery school (!) who I'm still in touch with. We started with empanadas (her) and blood sausage (me). She didn't like the blood sausage, so I didn't try her empanadas, which she was very pleased with (she had the meat [beef I think] and corn empanadas). I liked the blood sausage the last time I was there and liked it this time; very flavorful. We followed up with the entrana (skirt steak) for two, which, in my friend's words, was "the whole cow"! Of course, between the two of us (both with fair-sized appetites), we finished barely more than half of it (should have ordered the entrana for one and shared). But that wasn't all. It came with a really large bowl of salad with a decent though not mind-blowing citrusy vinaigrette, and we had also ordered the garlic-parsely french fries because I liked them before. It was a pity they didn't give us half an order, though. The entrana was delightful. The sort of skin of the meat was flavorful though a bit salty, but the inside wasn't salty. We ordered it medium because that's what my friend wanted. I would have ordered it medium rare, but I was satisfied. As we got further into the piece of meat, it got juicier. I don't have steak much, but it's great to have such a lovely piece of steak on occasion. I had a couple of glasses of Argentian red wine with the meal which I liked (waitress recommendation); it had good complexity and was a cut above being merely a table wine. Sorry, I don't remember the name. My friend had two Cokes (I'd say she's not a sophisticated diner, but she had a wonderful time). After they had packed the remnants of the meat, salad, and fried potatoes for my friend to take home, we ordered two desserts and shared them. I got the crepe with creme caramel which was good but she got the one with dulce de leche, which was superior and came with a very strongly-flavored vanilla ice cream that delighted us. The bill including the tip came out to precisely $100 all told. We had so much fun it was worth it, though I could really use a job in a summer festival next summer to pay for meals like this. Anyone know any summer festivals that need an experienced flutist, flute teacher, and music theory teacher? Enjoy your August, everyone. I may or may not have a chance to post while I'm in Malaysia.

I thought "Chinatown: Eat, Drink and Speak Cantonese" was a lovely article. Thanks for the link.

Thanks, Bux.

When you say "drink" I'm assuming a glass of wine apiece. We can start with some Italian restaurants in the East Village. Try Il Bagatto, Col Legno, and Lavagna. I've never paid more than $40-something, and that was when I went to Lavanga or Il Bagatto with 2-4 friends and shared a bottle of $40-something wine. OK, I may have paid closer to $50 when I also got a caipirinha before a meal at Il Bagatto, had a full-course meal, _and_ split a $40-something bottle of wine 5 ways. But I got dessert, too. Your request doesn't include a primo piatto, secondo piatto, and dessert. Appetizer + primo or secondo + dessert + a glass of wine apiece is easily under $50 at all three of these places, regardless of what dishes you order - but of course you could get an expensive bottle of wine if you choose to.

Has anyone eaten in those Mexican stores Azimov reviewed? I live in the East Village and don't know where the Zaragoza grocery is. That isn't the place on Allen St., is it? (That wouldn't be the "East Village" to me, nor probably to Azimov.) I sometimes go to a taqueria on 1st Av. near 2nd St., though. It's not bad for a hearty meal to go or stay, and I like the people who work behind the counter, but it doesn't exactly make me think of taquerias in San Francisco - let alone La Super-Rica in Santa Barbara - by comparison.

What is it, then?

I couldn't agree more, Bux. Well said!

New York tap water was much better back in the 70s, but the worst water I've had the misfortune to taste is in Santa Barbara. Ugh!!!!!!