With the help of James Oseland’s book Cradle of Flavor, I have answered a question that’s been bugging me for a long time.

_Cradle of Flavor_ is an awesome book about the food of Malaysia, Singapore, and mostly Indonesia. I started by making the cover recipe: chicken satay. I felt a little silly making this at home, since (a) I don’t have a grill, and (b) it’s available at probably ten restaurants within half a mile of my house. But the author made it sound so delicious, I had to give it a shot.

I warned Laurie and Iris, as I often do, that this was an experimental dinner, and they might have to fill up on rice and cucumber salad if the chicken didn’t come out. But Iris took one bite of the the chicken and said, “Oh, man, this is good. You *should* make this again.”

For the marinade, you blend together turmeric (Oseland called for dried but I had some fresh from Uwajimaya), lemongrass, shallots, coriander, fennel, peanut oil, and other good stuff. Even though Oseland warned me not to, I tried blending this all in my spice grinder, and it worked perfectly. (I only had the guts to try this because I remembered that [Adam Cadre](http://adamcadre.ac/) recommended it a while ago.) You marinate strips of chicken thigh in that for an hour or two, then thread it onto sticks. This was more fun and less trouble than I expected. Then I brushed the satays with lemongrass-infused peanut oil and broiled them for five minutes on each side. I was too lazy to make peanut sauce.

You know how when you go out for Thai food, you get an order of chicken satay, and it’s maybe four sticks, and you always end up wanting more? I’ve always wondered how many satays I could eat if allowed to graze freely on them.

Answer: 8.