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This is also a popular way to eat sliced bread in Indonesia (which is a former Dutch colony). However, here the chocolate sprinkles are called by another Dutch word: 'muisjes'.

Try it GRILLED: butter the bread, sprinkle some hagelslag and some shredded cheese (maybe something like a mild cheddar), then either as an open-faced or regular sandwich (place another slice of bread, butter side down), then proceed to grill/broil it. Take it out when the hagelslag and cheese melt into gooey goodness.

When I was living in southern California, I'd buy the DeRuijter brand hagelslag in Asian/Chinese supermarkets where they were usually placed in the 'Indonesian' food aisle.

Maybe it's time for hagelslag to catch up in popularity in America with another European chocolate-y sandwich spread (Nutella)! ;)

So stoked that you included the Avocado Smoothie and Es Doger — two popular drinks among so many other delicious, icy concoctions from Indonesia! :)

There are several other 'notable' ones (but I don't know if Simpang Asia has them on their menu), though they're more appropriate on the 'shaved ice' category, to be eaten with a spoon, rather than slurped through a straw.
- Es Teler: heavy on the avocado, either pureed or in chunks, sweetened condensed milk, young coconut flesh, and jackfruit slices.
- Es Campur: it literally means "Mixed Ice" — a delicious jumble of contrasting flavors, textures and colors of avocado, jackfruit, chewy attap seed, the aforementioned fermented cassava, black grass jelly, young coconut flesh, neon pink syrup, sweetened condensed milk.
- ... and of course... Es Duren (Durian Smoothie)!

When I was living in the U.S., I would use peanut butter as a shortcut for making the peanut sauce for chicken satay. I just didn't have the tools (and patience) to crush peanuts into paste with mortar & pestle like the cooks in my native Indonesia do. To compensate for the sweetness of the packaged peanut butter, I reduced the amount of sweet soy sauce or sugar.

You might try the recipe with chunky peanut butter for more authentic Asian (specifically Indonesian) taste and texture.

And Joshua: have you ever tried peanut butter mixed with vegetables? :) ... A famous Indonesian dish is called Gado-gado: it's made with blanched vegetables, tofu/tempeh and hard-boiled egg dressed with a savory-sweet (and hot, if you prefer) peanut sauce.

When you think about it, using peanut butter is a logical alternative/substitute for any 'peanut sauce' recipe, especially if it's for satay or Gado-gado, because these dishes also include at least one sweet ingredient (ie. sugar/brown sugar, or sweet soy sauce). If you prefer peanut butter without the sugar and/or the extra preservatives/vegetable oil, try Trader Joe's pure peanut butter.

My favorite way to prepare Bitter Melon is to stir-fry it with another 'seriously Asian' ingredient: Sour Mustard (the crunchy/stalk part only, sliced thinly like the melon) and of course, garlic and ground pork. And as a few others have commented, I usually rinse the sliced melon in salted water to remove some of the bitterness. And because I love hot food, I also add some sliced bird's eye chilies. Yum!

I do have an affinity for bitter vegetables, another one in this category is papaya buds/blossoms and leaves (yup, the ripe fruit is sweet, but the leaves and buds/flower are its total opposite in taste!). The spicy 'Kangkung/Ong Choy & Papaya Buds/Blossoms' is a classic & popular Manadonese dish here in Indonesia.

Instant noodles/ramen packets! Within minutes I'll have a tasty, steaming hot bowl of noodle soup loaded with sodium, additives and almost no real nutritional value. But I luv 'em... it's comfort food to me :)

Here's a simple recipe recently posted at Tasty Kitchen:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/02/how-to-bake-spaghetti-squash/

I agree with @lemons: get them at Asian/Chinese supermarkets if you have one nearby. Coconut milk in a can is NOT supposed to be expensive! If you're just cooking for yourself, a can is probably more than enough. You can freeze the unused portion.

As for making your own coconut milk by hand, I don't think it's worth it (if you can find inexpensive canned coconut milk). Look, I now live in Indonesia (after living in southern California), MANY Indonesian dishes also involved coconut milk, but even here most people buy packaged coconut milk.

From reading the comments, I guess this is a completely normal way to serve ice cream in Southeast Asia, because when I was growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, this was one of my favorite snacks from street hawkers! The ice cream was also coconut-milk based, stuffed into a slit made along a thick slab of sandwich bread. We also have something similar to the Singaporean rectangular sliced ice cream described by @syunne.

When I was living in California, sometimes I'd tear off a section of Hawaiian bread (like a sweet dinner roll) and stuffed it with a scoop of whatever ice cream I had in the freezer :)

I called Southern California home for 22 years, taking for granted that there was always an In-n-Out outlet (or two) close by. In my college days, there was a large, gleaming In-n-Out dine-in restaurant by the campus. When I was working there was one drive-thru by the office. And two nearby our home.

Their burgers (and fries) are some of the things I've missed the most since I moved to Indonesia less than 2 years ago. Shortly before my family and I left the States, my husband and I made a point to treat ourselves to our last In-n-Out meal (at least for a long, long time...).

I guess I was born into it :). Both of my parents originally came from Manado (North Sulawesi), a region in Indonesia well-known for its spicy, hot dishes loaded with herbs, aromatics and LOADS of chilies. Even some of the 'snack' dishes are spicy! There are also many variations of homemade sambals to accompany every meal.

Though I was born and grew up in a different city in Indonesia, Manadonese dishes were often part of the family meals. When I moved to the U.S. as a teen, the food I grew up with became a scarce commodity, but when there's a will, there's always a way! I don't remember a time when I didn't like hot, spicy food, even as a kid.

Continuing the legacy, my two young sons are growing up eating spicy foods. My youngest, a few months shy of turning 3, would specifically ask for something hot: so I'd dab some Sambal Lampung (Indonesian version of Sriracha, and yes, it's hot!) on his plate. He'd sometimes cry from the heat, but that never stopped him from coming back for more!

Maybe this is the next step for me :) I had just recently made my own homemade mayo for the first time ever (with vegetable oil, palm oil to be exact, which came out great, until I refrigerated it...).

Thanks also for the tip for hand-whisking mayo made with EVOO, because almost everything else I read warned against using olive oil because it'll be very strong/bitter (but never explaining 'why').

Next time you're in southern California, there's another very popular dim sum restaurant about 20 minutes drive east from Rosemead: Hong Kong Palace in Rowland Heights. A framed section of the Los Angeles Times displayed in its lobby claimed that it was named the city's 'best dim sum' restaurant (although I don't remember the date, maybe it pre-dated Sea Harbour's opening?).

Great food, great price and 'authentic' dim sum restaurant atmosphere: crowded & noisy, with servers trying to navigate the dim sum carts through the cramped spaces between tables! :) There was always a huge crowd spilling out of the lobby on weekends, waiting for their number to be called inside.

Since I don't live in southern California anymore (bummer), I'll be on a hunt for those duck egg yolk buns here in Jakarta!

Tiger Balm! ... the smell would always remind me of my maternal grandma who'd slather up with it every single night before going to bed :)