One of the benefits of having maintained a blog for 8½ years is that people end up looking at your old posts for all sorts of random reasons. For example, in the past 24 hours, people have found this blog…
Every Indonesia hand knows about rendang, a spicy mutton or beef curry. What makes rendang so special is that it is prepared by boiling meat in coconut milk until the water of the coconut milk evaporates. When that happens, the…
Short observations composed in the ultra-modern, ultra-clean, ultra-efficient Zurich airport. I can see the point now of the Reinheitsgebot. Give me the “bio-bier” from the Hausbrauerei Feierling over the Dogfish Head Whateverthehell any day of the week. Intercity train travel:…
As our time in Oz is drawing to a close, it’s time to review Shiraz Viognier blends based on our tasting notes. To start, we were unable to find the wine that we tried so many years ago. That said,…
This post builds a bit on the last one. I’m not sure if it’s just that I’m paying more attention during this trip, but compared to any other country I’ve ever visited, Australian nativism seems to be a bigger deal…
Here is a topic which is relevant for Indolaysia right now: the politics of the Australian-Indonesian beef trade. It turns out that this is a really hot issue right now. Last month, Australia banned all exports of Australian cattle for…
When JMP and I were in Australia five years ago, we had a good time sampling Australian wines. One stood out above the rest, though. While out for dinner at a little restaurant in Airlie Beach, we were intrigued to…
We were first introduced to what is here call a “slice” in New Zealand in 2005. It’s hard to describe what a slice is. It’s a dense, sweet-ish treat, about the size of a deck of cards. The packaged ones…
After two days of thinking about Indonesia, I had a craving for that most un-Indonesian of foods…pork. Being in Japan, I thought I would see about one of the local food crazes right now, tonkotsu ramen or ramen noodles in…
Regular readers of Indolaysia will know that I really like bak kut teh, the porky soup whose name literally means “pork bone tea.” See here and here. I’ve decided that this is my favorite Singaporean food. On the recommendation of…
