Ramazava, Rujak and Vanilla

My daughter's new blog entry explains that Ramazava is a dish from Madagascar that includes Zebu meat, rice and vegetables. Rujak is a dish from Indonesia that combines local fruits salad with prawn paste. So what does that have to do with vanilla? She points out that while we think of vanilla as the definition of plain, it is just as exotic a flavor as ramazava and rujak. Vanilla is an extract from the seed pod of a orchid that grows well, ironically, in Madagascar and Indonesia.