The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Photograph from tisay on Flickr Chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and grilled. Photograph from doubtless on Flickr Before I knew vanilla, I knew pandan. Mind-boggling, I realize, but I was well into my teenage years before I set eyes (and greedy hands) on a plump vanilla bean, whereas my family had a pandan plant growing right at our doorstep. In fact, the corridor we shared with our neighbors was lined with pots of it—Southeast Asian cooks use pandan leaves to scent their dishes so frequently that it would be unthinkable to not have any on...
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Robyn Eckhardt and David Hagerman of EatingAsia live in Malaysia and were recently invited to a kunduri to celebrate the engagement of an acquaintance. The bride-to-be's relatives, neighbors and a few hired cooks prepared a traditional feast in her family's courtyard for over a hundred expected guests; Hagerman's photos from the day are stunning and combined with Eckhardt's writing make for the best kind of wish-you-were-here posts you could ever hope to see anywhere. Man, I love the internet....
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Janet Fletcher of the SF Chronicle got seriously obsessed with coconuts after vacationing in South India, where almost every dish she ate contained fresh grated coconut or coconut milk. She says, "For years, I have passed fresh coconuts by, not sure even how to crack one open or what to do with it if I did. But with the help of some local experts, I'm making up for lost time." High in saturated fat, nutritionists have been warning us off of coconuts for years—the University of California's even says it has "has no redeeming vitamin or mineral assets". But, she says, "Malaysians, Thais, Indians and Indonesians -- all major coconut eaters -- don't even come close to our rate...
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