[Sca-cooks] 'Tay!, Sah-tay!

[Susan Fox-Davis]

The Kawa 99 Ranch Market chain carries a surprisingly good selection of
Indonesian  ingredients, including candlenuts and shrimp paste.
I'm not sure there is one in Darach-shire but the one in Van Nuys
is freeway-close, 2 blocks east of the 405 San Diego Freeway at
Victory Blvd.  The store mainly deals in Chinese and Japanese grocery items
but caters to other Asian cuisines as well [except for India - I have
two other good stores for that though].
Know that the Indonesian, Thai and Philippine ingredients
are kept together rather than distributed throughout the store by ingredient
types;  candlenuts and kecap mani are together, not out with other nuts
and sauces.  I'd love to have you along for a "field trip to the
foodie museum" when you're in Altavia sometime!

Selene


Darren Gasser wrote:

> Thanks much!  This is the best overview of sate/satay I've yet seen.  My
> versions (which I will try and remember to post tonight now that I'm back
> home) are all Javanese, so these provide a much better variety of what is
> actually available throughout the islands.
>
> Yes, kemiri are also known as candlenuts or buah keras.   Almonds also make
> a good substitute if your local Asian market doesn't carry them and you
> don't want to spend the money on macadamias.  This is another ingredient to
> be careful with, since the raw nuts are fairly toxic and must be cooked
> completely to be safe.
>
> Also, the shrimp paste used in Indonesia is trassi, which is somewhat
> different from the more common (in this area anyway) kapi paste used in Thai
> cooking.  If you do use trassi, be sure and open it in a well-ventilated
> area as it's extremely pungent, but mellows out quite a bit when cooked.
>
> -Lorenz