Finally, a little food talk

But only a little.

Just got back from a lovely long trip to Southeast Asia, and it was a joy to munch our way through the local food. Durian - it's really amazing what people get up to with durian - cakes and pastries and jams and of course, the old standby, kueh dodol. That was mostly the Unit (Spousal) - I think over the course of my life, I've eaten enough durian to last me till I pop my clogs. I comforted myself with bak kua, and bak chang, onde onde, kueh lapis, pulut intisari, ikan bilis, pineapple jam tarts, kai chok, and a salted duck egg that I purchased and carried around for a couple of days. Of course, a trip back is not complete without a visit to Rendezvous Nasi Padang, and this time I think I actually managed to taste the difference between the Sumatran "hand" with spicing and the commoner Javanese, Malay, and Indian, in the Rendezvous' delicious ayam kari rendang. I longed for some ayam buah keluak, but regrettably there's only so much you can stuff in your stomach before it bursts. That's OK, I did bring back a ton of buah keluak (amusingly referred to in various culinary publications as "black candlenut," which it assuredly is not. Now if I can figure out how to cook it, I can make my own ayam buah keluak.
I think I'll post the recipe for Ayam Masak Golek. The folks over at Steve Gilliard's blog seem to be foodaholic, and there's a rumour that New York might actually have a halfway decent restaurant from my part of the world - a rumour I fully intend to investigate, when next we visit.

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