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• Peanuts

  Peanuts - groundnuts are surprisingly not nuts, but pulses. Seeds growing under the ground, where they move after impregnation. They are used for flour, oil, peanut butter ......

• Bedum - Fried noodles with peanuts

  I have always thought, eating instant curly noodles is just an instant fast food, that we buy in supermarkets and that people in Asia have no idea this kind of food even exists. In Sri Lanka I realized I was wrong. They cook with these instant noodles quite often, just different way than us. Bedum is prepared for special occasions only. New Year, Almsgiving and other holidays.

• Bun cha gio - Vermicelli with fried spring rolls

  If you made too many spring rolls, you can eat part of them with vermicelli and you get Bun cha gio. Really simple dish. You just cut spring rolls on noodles, add some vegetables, traditional Vietnamese sauce and here we go. I have got some pork on the picture too, but it was a bonus ;)

• Gado gado - Mung sprouts with peanut sauce

  In Lombok in Indonesia, they simply love cooking with mung sprouts and water spinach. Really, they are part of at least half of traditional Lombok specials. This time it is gado gado with peanut sauce. You can find so many flavors and recipes of peanut sauce all around Indonesia. The great thing about this one is, that it is very simple, fast, with just a few ingredients used and still soooo delicious :)

• Rujak - Fruit and vegetable salad with sweet sauce

  I love this salad. The one on the picture is made of green mango. But you can use many kinds of other fruit or vegetable and mix all together. The most important is the sauce anyways :) Very common mix in Indonesia is pineapple, watermelon, papaya, daikon, cucumber ..... so no worries and lets experiment ;)

• Sate ayam - Chicken satay with peanut sauce

  This is Indonesian classic. This is literally a meal, that you do not have to go for, it simply "comes" to you itself :) In other words, it is a very common meal sold from "meals on wheels" restaurants. On motorbikes (yes, ardent charcoal included) or manually driven.

• Som Tum - Green papaya salad

  This Thai salad is a perfection itself. Firstly it was prepared by a really nice couple by the road, who were passing by with their mobile kitchen on a sidecar. You just wave on them, they stop and prepare straight in front of you what you choose from their offer. The combination of flavours of lime, palm sugar, peanuts, shrimps, chilies ..... do I really need to add more?

• Xoi dau den - Sticky rice with black beans and coconut

  Very common breakfast in Vietnam is a soup or rice with meat, which is not very common for me back home. So a breakfast like this on a daily basis was sometimes too much. You can imagine, how happy I was when I was walking down the street and met a lady who was offering some sweet purple mix topped by peanuts, served on a banana leaf. It tasted great and was a pleasant change I really needed.