A Taste of Southeast Asia

I had three days all by me onzies this week. A bit lonely, after, as I have grown used to a household of 3. And the sky over the city was grey and drizzly...
But of course there is always a bright side to everything. Being alone, I could cook whatever crazy 'exotic' foods I wanted. Also, in the city there is an Asian grocery store.
So I took a culinary trip to South East Asia!
Red Hot Chilies:

Juicy limes:

Fragrant Jasmine Rice (rised and draining):

At first I was only intending to make the Tom Kh Gai from Hot Thai Kitchen.

It turned out really well! You can't tell from the white blob in the photo, but it was warm and rich with suble layers of spice and herbs.
The next day I had leftover rice, so I made my own version of Nasi Goring.

The most important ingredient was the succulent shimp!

The next day I had a whole bundle of Lemongrass leftover. What to do with all that lemongrass?

Well, tea was the obvious answer.

But that's a lot of tea! 

Having extra coconut milk leftover as well, I decided to attempt Nasi Kuning.

I've never made this before, so I had to look it up. I read that Indonesians shape it into a giant cone and set dishes around it's base. It's served as ceremonies, to give thanks. I remember my Oma cooked it for me once, and it wasn't in a cone shape.  Also,I recall she served it with some spicy chicken. I don't know how to cook chicken so  I cheated and bought a spicy chicken leg from the Traiteur.

I also didn't have a cone funnel, but I tried to make a tower of storts.

My Make-shift Tumpeng:

 The salad, in case you were wondering, is shredded carrots, cabbages and leeks. I don't completly made this up, included the dressing which was comprised of the following:

I don't know if it is authentic, but it tasted pretty good.

Also, at the little old Thai lady at the market was selling her homemade goodies, and I couldn't pass up on these Ka Nom Tom- sweet coconut balls filled with palm sugar.

 I couldn't finish all the Ka Nom Tom by myself. For some reason, none of my classmates would help.

 And so, the moral of the story is, sometimes it's good to indulge. By the end of the third day, I was really looked forward to some 'normal' food like goat cheese on spelt bread!