<snip>
> I love your stories, DC. Thanks!

Oh... It's just me reminiscing & remembering the good old days... & perhaps
give you folks here a little cultural info & also an idea of how things were
not so long ago.

> > Pedas in Malay means hot/spicy & i don't know if it means the same in
> > Filipino... if it's any help.
>
> Looking at a Tagalog dictionary, doesn't seem like it means that in
> Filipino. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if it was so in some other of
the
> many Filipino languages...

Yes i was thinking about that too, i don't know Tagalog at all except for a
few words but i was thinking maybe the people living further south (Palawan
& Sulu Sea) nearer to East Malaysia & Borneo/Indonesia.

<snip>
> I think I'm born to love the Malaysian cuisine to death, but I have very
> little experience in it, unfortunately.... But the more I read about it,
> the better it gets. I'll need to head out there sometime.

Well there's basically a 'modern' malay cuisine & a 'traditional' although
some would argue as being only one. I think there's definetely 2, a modern
city fare & a traditional 'kampong'/village fare. Also the further out you
are in the country, you'll discover ingenious cooking methods & foodstuff.
And in certain areas, a strong Arab influence or a strong
Minangkerbau/Sumatran/Indonesian influence. and in the North you'll get Thai
influences. That's just in Peninsular Malaysia. East Malaysia on the island
of Borneo is different again. There's influences from the local native
tribes & when you cross into Indonesia with it's 13,000 islands + many
different 'tribes', well... that's where it gets interesting. Indonesian &
Malaysian cuisines are quite similar as they share same basic ingredients
like rice, coconut & certain spices.

Yes you'll need to head out there sometime to really appreciate it. I
occasionally find the food in the city a little bland while in the country,
you might be having jungle fodder like young wild fern tips, fried river
fish, fresh water prawns, jungle fowl etc. It's making the best from the
land & is always different.

DC.