The food and wine thread

[Vicky Park]

I usually eat out around 4 times a week [nothing fancy], but since the lockdown here in the Detroit area I am cooking more at home. Too cold and snowy at present for a BBQ, so back to my preferred Japanese/Malaysian/Indian cuisine.

Simple beef curries with Malaysian-style sweet simmering sauce and raisins, coconut sticky rice, and sides of sweet peas, sliced banana in shredded coconut and sour yoghurt, a hard boiled egg, some dried tiny shrimp [think Nasi Lemak] and a cold beer - Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA 7.2%.

Harder to do Jap as the specialist supermarkets are shut.

Michigan in lock-down until end of month. Supplies getting scarce. Plan to head up to Rapid City South Dakota in a few weeks time. Not a big meat eater but by then will fancy a nice rib-eye at a grill joint, with a baked Idaho potato with the trimmin's.

Was going to fly to Oz next month for 4 weeks or so but don't fancy being quarantined there for 2 +2 weeks, so will stay on the wide northern prairies until it blows over.

I think Nasi Lemak is probably my favourite dish. Period. So much happening on the plate, but it all goes together beautifully. I can do a ‘not bad’ version at home, but I miss a good NL from a restaurant that knows what it’s doing.

 

[Maggie5]

I think Nasi Lemak is probably my favourite dish. Period. So much happening on the plate, but it all goes together beautifully. I can do a ‘not bad’ version at home, but I miss a good NL from a restaurant that knows what it’s doing.

When this is all over, I am going out to dinner in a restaurant every night for the first week.

 

[deltablues]

I think Nasi Lemak is probably my favourite dish. Period. So much happening on the plate, but it all goes together beautifully. I can do a ‘not bad’ version at home, but I miss a good NL from a restaurant that knows what it’s doing.

The Hut and Soul in Pulteney Street Adelaide is one of the few good Malaysian restaurants I have been to in Oz. Run by Malaysian expats. Does a good Nasi Lemak. Only open Thu, Fri, Sat, tho.

At one stage I thought of retiring in Malaysia, with Malaysian citizenship and taxes etc nearly finalized. That was when retiring in low-cost/low tax countries was all the rage with expats. I'd checked out places like Panama etc also, but Central America? Hell, no.

Anyway, I bought an apartment in the Batu Ferringhi area on the north east coast of the island of Penang about 10 years ago, overlooking the sea on one side and the jungle on the other, and ate a lot of Malaysian. Best fusion food of Chinese and Indian ever. Penang is majority Chinese - Malaysian, which is good, as the Malay bumiputeras are not my cup of tea.

My maternal grandparents also had a villa in Penang, so a bit of a connection. They were expats who had lived for decades in Singapore until the Jap invasion during WW2 - my mother's first language was Malay, taught to her by her amah.

But stupidly enough, in the context that I shooda known, duh, I found the humidity too much, plus it is after all a TW country and I belatedly discovered that after over 30 years as an expat I had had enough of living in foreign countries - actually living there instead of visiting. No Barnes and Noble bookshops etc.

 

[Vicky Park]

The Hut and Soul in Pulteney Street Adelaide is one of the few good Malaysian restaurants I have been to in Oz. Run by Malaysian expats. Does a good Nasi Lemak. Only open Thu, Fri, Sat, tho.

At one stage I thought of retiring in Malaysia, with Malaysian citizenship and taxes etc nearly finalized. That was when retiring in low-cost/low tax countries was all the rage with expats. I'd checked out places like Panama etc also, but Central America? Hell, no.

Anyway, I bought an apartment in the Batu Ferringhi area on the north east coast of the island of Penang about 10 years ago, overlooking the sea on one side and the jungle on the other, and ate a lot of Malaysian. Best fusion food of Chinese and Indian ever. Penang is majority Chinese - Malaysian, which is good, as the Malay bumiputeras are not my cup of tea.

My maternal grandparents also had a villa in Penang, so a bit of a connection. They were expats who had lived for decades in Singapore until the Jap invasion during WW2 - my mother's first language was Malay, taught to her by her amah.

But stupidly enough, in the context that I shooda known, duh, I found the humidity too much, plus it is after all a TW country and I belatedly discovered that after over 30 years as an expat I had had enough of living in foreign countries - actually living there instead of visiting. No Barnes and Noble bookshops etc.

Two of the best Nasi Lemaks I ever had in Australia were in unexpected and surprising places. One was served in the chalet of a ski lodge in the off-season (summer) while staying there for a conference. The owner had a Dutch-Indonesian background, a cordon bleu cooking qualification, and she cooked the most amazing food. None of us wanted to leave. The other was in a pub in Gippsland, off the beaten track (i.e. not on the Princes Hwy). The wife of the proprietor was Malaysian, and she cooked like an angel. The pub had an Aussie menu and a 'specials' menu. You can guess the rest...

 

[Sinjin Smith]

The Hut and Soul in Pulteney Street Adelaide is one of the few good Malaysian restaurants I have been to in Oz. Run by Malaysian expats. Does a good Nasi Lemak. Only open Thu, Fri, Sat, tho.


Anyway, I bought an apartment in the Batu Ferringhi area on the north east coast of the island of Penang about 10 years ago, overlooking the sea on one side and the jungle on the other, and ate a lot of Malaysian. Best fusion food of Chinese and Indian ever. Penang is majority Chinese - Malaysian, which is good, as the Malay bumiputeras are not my cup of tea.

Sorry to intrude on an enemy forum

But nnnniiiiccceeee, how did you pull that off? Ive never been able to get close to buying in SE Asia did your use a 3rd party to close the deal?

 

[deltablues]

Two of the best Nasi Lemaks I ever had in Australia were in unexpected and surprising places. One was served in the chalet of a ski lodge in the off-season (summer) while staying there for a conference. The owner had a Dutch-Indonesian background, a cordon bleu cooking qualification, and she cooked the most amazing food. None of us wanted to leave. The other was in a pub in Gippsland, off the beaten track (i.e. not on the Princes Hwy). The wife of the proprietor was Malaysian, and she cooked like an angel. The pub had an Aussie menu and a 'specials' menu. You can guess the rest...

Yes indeed, Dutch Indonesians. I don't know if you have read any of W. Somerset Maugham's Short Stories Vols 1 -4 (in Penguin soft back), originally published as Under A Chinese Screen, IIRC, set pre WW2 in the Old Raj days in the Federated Malay States, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies [Indon] and South Pacific... but he had a few vignettes about some Dutch Administrators in-country wolfing down rijsttafel, nasi lemak and other local culinary delights.

And outside of the Orient the best of that cuisine is in Amsterdam, with its old Dutch East Indies heritage and the many Indon-Dutch living there.

When I was based in Libya for 3 years, back in the day, I often flew direct from Tripoli to Amsterdam for short leaves, and stayed in an old family hotel on one of the outer canals, in a pleasant leafy residential suburb which had excellent Indon restaurants. Have brunch around 11 a.m. of delicious nasi lemak/goreng/rijstaffel etc, with a small chilled glass (or two) of Damrak Dutch gin, nicely glutinous, which you drink neat.

That set me up for the day...

KLM used to hand out, on board, small porcelain replicas of the 3 or four storey narrow merchants' houses you see on the inner canals downtown - hollow, with a cork, containing Dutch gin. Each one was different and the flight stewardess used to let us regulars choose a different one, each flight, until we had a full set.

I still have a few complete sets, but sadly, no gin remains in them.

 

[deltablues]

Sorry to intrude on an enemy forum

But nnnniiiiccceeee, how did you pull that off? Ive never been able to get close to buying in SE Asia did your use a 3rd party to close the deal?

Heh, it's nearly 4 a.m. here, but with the shutdown time doesn't mean much - so B4 I turn in I'll answer your Q.

I looked at Penang property on-line and flew there to inspect. I was also finalizing my Malaysian passport and banking [you basically buy the pp by depositing funds in a local bank for X years]. I tee'd up the property agents in advance. I bought the ppty thru local Penang (Chinese) lawyers who did the conveyancing.

I don't recall if one had to hold a Malaysian pp in order to buy real estate there, but I did the transaction as a non-Malaysian citizen. I was physically present there during the transaction.

 

[Maggie5]

Day 28, now on to pickling the last of my tomatoes and hot peppers.

 

[ottoman]

Day 28, now on to pickling the last of my tomatoes and hot peppers.

View attachment 862214

Just talking about pickles makes my mouth water.
We have the best pickle shops here and mother Otto is also fantastic at making pickles so I always have a healthy supply.
Mouth is watering big time now. I am the human Pavlov's dog.

 

[JB007]

Just talking about pickles makes my mouth water.
We have the best pickle shops here and mother Otto is also fantastic at making pickles so I always have a healthy supply.
Mouth is watering big time now. I am the human Pavlov's dog.

I will swap you for a Sherrin.

P.S I literally just ate some of my Dads pickled Tomatoes with shredded carrots......delicious.

 

[Maggie5]

Just talking about pickles makes my mouth water.
We have the best pickle shops here and mother Otto is also fantastic at making pickles so I always have a healthy supply.
Mouth is watering big time now. I am the human Pavlov's dog.

When this is over, heading to your place for a few meals. We seem to like the same things.

I will swap you for a Sherrin.

P.S I literally just ate some of my Dads pickled Tomatoes with shredded carrots......delicious.

I love them, nothing fancy just a big slice of bread from Italian bread shop, chuck in the middle and munch away.

 

[Maggie5]

I live on a block with two units. My neighbours are a young Lebanese couple and as soon as I moved in, bought over food almost every night for the first week.

Now they are fasting (Muslims) and last night they gave me a platter of tasters felafel, dips, and small stuffed eggplants. Sorry I didn't take photos as it was dinner time and I ate them.

She said she would bring over more during the week. I love Arabic/Lebanese/Turkish food.

Best neighbours I have had in a long time. The last place I lived at apart from a 'good morning', nobody really mixed.

 

[ottoman]

I live on a block with two units. My neighbours are a young Lebanese couple and as soon as I moved in, bought over food almost every night for the first week.

Now they are fasting (Muslims) and last night they gave me a platter of tasters felafel, dips, and small stuffed eggplants. Sorry I didn't take photos as it was dinner time and I ate them.

She said she would bring over more during the week. I love Arabic/Lebanese/Turkish food.

Best neighbours I have had in a long time. The last place I lived at apart from a 'good morning', nobody really mixed.

You know Maggie, Greeks and Turks will quite often argue whether or not a certain dish is Turkish or Greek in origin. The truth is when you really trace the origins you find quite often that it is neither Greek or Turkish but Lebanese.
It's all lovely though and that's thae main thing.

 

[deltablues]

I live on a block with two units. My neighbours are a young Lebanese couple and as soon as I moved in, bought over food almost every night for the first week.

Now they are fasting (Muslims) and last night they gave me a platter of tasters felafel, dips, and small stuffed eggplants. Sorry I didn't take photos as it was dinner time and I ate them.

She said she would bring over more during the week. I love Arabic/Lebanese/Turkish food.

Best neighbours I have had in a long time. The last place I lived at apart from a 'good morning', nobody really mixed.

Levantine/Mediterranean] cuisine is indeed delicious and very healthful [new word]. But not "Arabic" cuisine, if you mean the Arabian Peninsula - which apart from fish, can be very basic, fatty food.

I was posted to Kuwait for many years and had a Thai cook, who did excellent Thai and Indian - and rarely ate the local cuisine. Fortunately. I attended quite a few traditional Arab weddings in the wedding season during my posting there - big tents/marquees in the desert with penned sheep and camels ready for slaughter. You ate sitting down on rugs, and dipping into large dishes of fatty sheep tails [yellow fat] and camel portions, with rice, eating with your hands, and drinking sweet tea and Coco Cola. No women present - they had their own tent.

I couldn't refuse for business and of course for cultural social reasons, but I deserved a medal for eating that fatty meat, which I washed down with a few gallons of Coke to avoid gagging.

I'd never fully appreciated until then the James Herriot vet story where the Yorkshire farmer's wife offered the vet home-made bacon consisting of 90% fat [the fattier the better in Yorkshire, apparently], which, being fat-averse like me, he could only eat with huge quantities of her home-made piccalilli.

She was delighted and he staggered into his car with a gift pack of her bacon and piccalilli. LOL, as they say...

Contrasting with the delicious Levantine food I ate in Casablanca when I lived there - usual Med salads, cous cous, goat meat etc. Lathith katheer [very tasty].

 

[Black_White]

Was given this a while ago and finally got to it.
Very nice.