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Ma khwaem is simply a variety of prickly ash/Sichuan peppercorn - others can be found in Nepal, Korea, China (obviously), and on Sumatra. See this excellent source of info on spices and herbs: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Zant_pip.html Earlier this year we spent several days wet marketing with and cooking at the house of a talented lady cook in northeastern Thailand. Ma khwaem featured in several of the dishes, usually added at the last minute so as to maintain the fragrance. I bought a pile home with me (like Sichuan pepper, it keeps well in the freezer). In terms of appearance, it looks like a dimunitive Sichuan pepper (smaller branches, pods, and seeds). It smells like Sichuan pepper with a distinct lemony fragrance. It tastes like Sichuan pepper and lemon, without Sichuan pepper's numbing sensation. I would consider Sichuan peppercorn a decent substitute, but you'll want to use only a quarter, or maybe even an eighth, of the amount of ma khwaem called for in Austin's recipe - what you want it the whiff of Sichuan pepper without the buzz. I'd also consider adding a bit of lemon basil for a subtle lemon flavor.

Richard - is oncom anything like taucu, fermented soy beans - which we encountered saucing a whole fish on Sumatra. Where can one try oncom - stalls, the market, restaurants? Thanks!

A recent trip to Sumatra started me on some reading about Indonesian food. Though I haven't been to Bandung, I've read about these Bandung specialties: bakso tahu goreng - fried tofu stuffed with meat and topped with peanut sauce lalap/lalapan - salad of raw veg with spicy sauce; each veg is thought to have medicinal value (W Javanese/Sundanese specialty) lotek - cooked veg with peanut sauce heavily flavored with lesser galangal mi kocok - egg noodle soup w/ beef knuckle, leeks, chili peppers, and bean sprouts

Ack! American-style, to this American anyway, is tomato-horseradishy. It should have a good bite from the horseradish and not be too sweet. We encountered that Thousand Island-ish version in Australia. An utter abomination. (No offense to Aussies intended ).

PCL, what kind of sauce for the prawn cocktail at Jake's - Australian-style (French dressing-ish) or American-style (horseradish-based tomato-ey)? FWIW, Le Meridien @ Sentrel is advertising the imminent opening of their 'international' steak restaurant, whatever that means....

Most decent Thai cookbooks have a recipe for guaytiaow laad na -- Thompson's does, and there's a tasty version in Hot Sour Salty Sweet. If you don't have access to a cookbook I'll post an adapted version of one or the other. I love laad na, esp. with plenty of vinegar-chili sauce and dried red peppers from the traditional Thai noodle shop condiment trolly!

A similar thread appeared in, I think, this section a couple years ago. Can't remember if I posted then ... but, I must say I have a real problem with the *culture* argument. Culture is malleable, and culture changes. Bound feet in China anyone? There are many Chinese, in China, who 'grew up in a culture where dogs are eaten' who would no sooner eat a dog or cat than they would a clod of dirt .. and think poorly of anyone who does. (Re: the 'heaty-ness' of dog meat, which is why it's a winter specialty - lots of locals don't buy that either.) There are Sumatrans who 'grew up in a culture where dogs are considered unclean' who raise them to hunt wild boar ... if you saw the emotional ties of these men to their dogs (and the amount of physical handling) you'd doubt that they are Muslims (as I did). But they are. Fewer and fewer Japanese eat whale meat, many Koreans disdain dog meat. Some Chinese avoid shark fin, Japanese women are marrying later, fewer adult married Asians live with their parents, lots of Muslims drink alcohol (some even eat pork) .... And plenty of adventurous American tourists from dog-loving countries seek out dog meat in Vietnam or China or wherever. My longwinded point is that all over the world folks pick and choose which of their society's cultural norms to abide by, and which to ignore. Those norms are constantly in flux and evolve over time. Behavior might be conditioned by culture but it's not *determined* by it. To justify whaling or eating dog or cat meat with the culture argument is a bit questionable if the justifiers aren't also working to preserve every other part of their country's/society's 'tradtional' culture. The most honest response to the dog/cat meat protestors would be: I eat dog/cat meat because I WANT to, and because I want to, I should be able to. Period.

Alex, there's a recipe for nam cim ('dip') made with crab roe in David Thompson's 'Thai Food'. (I'm half a world away from my copy right now or I'd provide it). Crab roe (from paddy, not ocean crabs) is a crucial ingredient in (Vietnamese) bun rieu as well. Why is shore crab roe considered dangerous?

Orangeblossom, prasantrin, thank you. Got a Sing jaunt coming up soon so yr comments are just in time. BIG thanks to Alex - Philippines is a piece of the puzzle we'd been missing. Excellent info. BTW - have you heard of any floating or once-a-week markets in the Phil?

Kra chai is an essential ingrdient in naam ya bpuu, the southern crab 'curry' that's ladelled over kanom jeen (fermented rice noodles). I was told by a vendor who makes a fantastic version that she uses it in excess to add another layer of heat (beyond chilies).

Tad - thank you! Just the kind of info I'm looking for. Have heard about Hue. Know Chow Kit well, I love it. Phnom Penh we checked out a couple yrs ago but I wondered if it had gotten any better, food and produce-wise ... guess not. Austin - markets will absolutely determine our destinations. And we'll be doing it in 3 or 4 trips rather than one so different countries not a prob. If we hear of a good one, we'll go there, so recommend away. Bali - yes we've got Gianyar, Denpasar, Amlapura on the list. Luang Prabang have not been for 12 years ... not much of a market then and we'll look forward to going back. Apparently this board needs a little Philippines coverage! Have been perusing the archives of this excellent food blog to get ideas for that country.

Yeah, I have my doubts about Singapore -- but it *is* in SE Asia, so thought we'd give it a try. Gosh, I would have thought if there were any folks out there who would pay attention to these sorts of things (wet markets) it would be egulleters. Am I the only traveller who eschews museums and tourist sites in favor of wet markets? C'mon folks, you got nothin' for me?

We're planning a bit of food market-focused travel in SE Asia and I'm seeking nominations for 'best' food markets in the region. 'Best' is defined however you like (size, items on offer, vendors, setting, etc.). If you're a lover of food markets you'll have no problem understanding what we're after. If you have a look at the 'food markets' category on my blog you can get an idea of what we're looking for. We pretty much have Malaysia, Thailand, and s. Vietnam covered - esp looking for input on the Philippines, Indonesia (other than Bali), Lao, Myanmar, Cambodia. Oh, and Singapore. Our itinerary is completely open at this point ... we'll go most anywhere. Thanks for any ideas!

It was the first time I'd ever had goat cheese, period, so at the time I didn't have anything to compare it with. Looking back, it was somewhat similar to an aged (dry) French goat cheese --- very strong flavor. I was slightly repelled but liked it at the same time .... the same way one can be with shrimp paste. Beyond Mongol and Tibetan influence, Central Asians brought by the Mongols to subdue Yunnan settled and stayed afterwards .... perhaps the presence of cheese in the province is connected to that as well.

My first taste of goat cheese was in Kunming, 20+ years ago. Not a tourist restaurant, just a wok-in-a-garage type place. I ordered it bec. I was curious (goat cheese not being too common in the American midwest back then). It was slightly aged, sliced into wedges, and pan(wok)-fried till lightly browned. Tasty but goat-y. The owner-cook and his wife were Han Chinese, not minorities. So yes, some "true" Chinese do eat cheese. And have been doing so since before Kraft came on the scene.

trillium, IMO there's no better topping for kanom jeen than olive-green gaeng tai plaa (fish innards curry) -- super spicy, stinky, and delicious! But probably not something I will attempt at home. BTW I made kanom jeen nam ngiaw last week and found Japanese somen are a very acceptable substitute for kanom jeen noodles -- same diameter, and they clump in the same way after they cool down.

What can I say ... you're a hardy soul. Hot and spicy is great when I've got a cold but when the stomach's involved ... I like congee best. I think the Chinese connection for khanom jeen is because "jeen" sounds like the Thai word for Chinese -- but the tone is different for the two so it's really just a homonym. As far as I know the words kanom jeen come from the Mon words "khanawm jee" --- the first refers to threads of anything that are sticky and can clump together, and the second mean 'cooked'. So it may be that kanom jeen have a Mon origin. Whatever, it's one of my favorite things to eat in Thailand!

Trillium, I'm pretty amazed that anyone with the flu could manage a bowl of kao soi! A nice plain congee yes, but .... rich coconut milk and chili paste?? Here's two different kao sois we sampled in Chiang Mai. We found a really nice, but a more soupy, version in Phayao too. Northern Thailand is a kao soi lover's heaven! The yellow noodles in kao soi suggest a Chinese influence ... the Muslim traders that plied the Golden Triangle were Chinese Hui, from Yunnan province. Anyone travelled in Xishuangbanna (Sipsong panna) who can weigh in on whether or not a kao soi-like dish made it north as well as east, from Burma?

As for the photo, it's a little strange that the picture features two women sitting alone at a bar. Unless they're bar girls - but this is obviously not *that* kind of bar/cafe. That's from what I imagine would be my Thai friends' perspective.

Hmmm ... thanks Pim. If bai menglak is grown and consumed in Thailand, is it a "Thai" basil? I suppose it is, but only to Thais who've never encountered it elsewhere.

Austin, you've been living at the source too long Thai restaurants outside of Thailand often take liberties with traditional recipes. From my experience phat wunsen krapow is a pretty common dish in American Thai restaurants. As long as we're on the subject of Thai basils - there's also bai menglak (known as "gumgaw" in the north), usu. added to curries.

Trillium, I do think your friend falls on the polite side of things. I have to respectfully disagree with the advice to be seated before eating. Like good egulleters, we spend most of our vacations stuffing ourselves -- primarily at local markets, Thailand being no exception, and I can tell you that nothing will make a Thai vendor happier than to see you enjoy his or her food (if you take pictures of it, so much the better) -- which sometimes means sampling on the hoof. This holds true whether you're in Bangkok or a little nowhere town upcountry. Thais really understand the enjoyment of food, and I've never felt negative or disapproving vibes as I've been eating my way around a market -- but I have gotten a lot of encouraging smiles, laughter, and big thumbs' up. Not sampling on the street or at a market unless there's a table (from grilled pork skewers to sweets) means denying yourself a lot of the best Thailand has to offer!! It's good to be aware of cultural do's and don'ts, of course, but Thailand is one of the most relaxed places in the world, and Thais are so tolerant of our (farang) missteps (within reason - the don't point feet/don't touch heads/women avoid physical contact with monks dictums are not elastic). The advice to smile, smile, smile is probably the best of all.

I know little to nothing about bread making, but I would suspect that roti are super-kneaded so that the elastins (is that the term?) are much more highly developed than in a regular bread. I've not observed dough balls sitting in oil here in Malaysia, but oil does seem to play a big part in the dough's being able to be stretched so thin without tearing. The dough is kneaded on an oily surface and then rubbed with oil before they're set aside, and then when it's time to roll them out yet more oil is applied to the work surface. This guy in Kota Baru used an interesting technique of letting his dough balls rest with air trapped inside to lighten his roti. They definately were by far the flakiest I've ever had.

Tepee, I think you are the one to ask ... have you ever made sang har meen at home? Or is it perhaps just something that one can only have out (a good version, that is...)? Er, um, to toot my own blog, more pics of Malaysian hawker and stall food here. As far as food goes, Malaysia truly is heaven on earth!

As long as we're talking murtabak (among other things), you can find a couple pics of the prep here. I was surprised at how liquid the filling is when it hits the wrapper. It's quite a skill to be able to enclose it so quickly and thus avoid leakage.