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I took the NCA course back in ‘93. It was really a great class

Here is personal favourite. 青头菌 (qīng tóu jūn), Green Headed Mushroom, Russula virescens. Despite the name, the colour varies from green to a light grey. They are also as the Green Cracking Russula or the Quilted Green Russula. The highly respected London Italian chef, grocer and wild mushroom expert, the late Antonio Carluccio described these as being "not exactly nice to look at". They can look a bit mouldy. Dried Green Headed Mushrooms They grow under tropical lowland rainforest trees in western Yunnan and we are just entering their season which will last until about September. Like shiitake and some other mushrooms, drying them enhances their flavour but cooking or even just soaking the dried mushrooms diminishes the colour. Some reports suggest that older specimens can smell like herrings, not something I’ve ever noticed. Rehydrated Dried Mushroom Care must be taken when foraging these, as younger specimens can resemble Amanita phalloides, the death cap mushroom, recently a feature in the Australian beef wellington murders case. They can be fried, grilled or even roasted. In taste, they are mild, nutty and fruity. They can also be eaten raw in salads, but the people of Yunnan don’t go there.

Smoke them! I'm having pork belly for dinner.

I was wandering around the meat section of my local Meijer and stumbled across a pile of cryovac'd pork bellies. I never see pork bellies (outside of bacon) at any mainstream grocery. I didn't know why they were there. I wondered if there was something going on I didn't know about. Anyways, the cuts were large (like 5lbs) and not suitable for an impulse buy. Then two days later I was in a Kroger. Again, the pork bellies. These were smaller so I picked one up. What's going on? Is there some sort of pork belly holiday I'm not aware of?

I picked the first few tiny tomatoes from my plants. Tiny, but taste like tomatoes.

I caved on Delish! Tonight I plan to cook up a pot of Rancho Gordo beans, haven't decided which, to accompany my smoked pork belly from the other day.

Why are there instructions to cut of the bread crusts (and discard) when making breadcrumbs?

@RWood, so delicious looking!

Had my dad over for lunch today. Salad with heirloom tomatoes, burrata, peaches, pistachios, cherries, basil, mint and drizzled with lemon thyme and garlic infused oil.

Here’s a Bamix video for pita bread. Edit: Just watched the entire video, looked more like a crumpet or some freakish English muffin than any pita I’ve seen. But the dough/batter texture is shown.

What defines a "soft dough" ?

Batter, even somewhat thick batter I would say yes. I suspect it would need to be a very soft dough.

Can I use the Bamix immersion blender to mix dough for flatbreads?

Walked over to Chinatown (wait, I sorta live in Chinatown, so I only walked a few blocks west on Grand Street) to restock a few pantry items, along with some ginger, mangoes, etc. Never tried anything from the Ning Chi company, which is located in Taiwan.

See also Delish! at Thriftbooks.

Chorizo, cabbage, and egg, flavored with "super spicy" kimchee, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, turmeric, and a habanero, then mellowed somewhat with heavy cream.

That was my first thought too.

The coconut mousses look so happy

Hi, David, and welcome! Looking forward to hearing more about the food in your life.

Lunch that day was held on the beach as it didn't look like it was going to rain (for a change - they were saying that the weather was really weird this year. July is usually the start of the dry season there, but it was starting later this year). This is interesting - while most of Indonesia is Muslim, and therefore doesn't eat pork, North Sulawesi is predominantly Christian so pork is popular. In fact, on some of the surrounding small islands, there are tiny villages next to a beach but the main building is a huge Christian church that dominates the landscape. The setting... Pork with local herbs along with 3 different sambal. On the left is a local sambal called dabu-dabu. Typically, dabu-dabu is blow-your-head-off spicy - like eye-watering, nose-running, hiccup-inducing spicy. It's made from a lot of chillies, shallots, garlic, unripened tomato and lime juice. All the ingredients are sliced rather than pounded. Hot coconut oil is then poured over the top which just slightly wilts the ingredients. This version was more like a really tasty tomato salad. Over the time we were there, I ate tons of this stuff. The staff kept worrying that it would be too spicy for us, but we assured them that it actually was barely spicy at all and we tried our best to clean them out of it! They also started making separate dishes of it for us so they could make it spicier (they said that most of their guests complained if things got too spicy) but even then it wasn't close to what it would normally be for locals. Anyway, next to the dabu-dabu is more sambal bakar, and next to that is sambal matah, which is typical in Bali. The side station was making sauteed squid to order. They called it squid with galangal, but I thought it was only reminiscent of galangal - it was more turmeric foreward. Very tasty, especially with the various sambal. The pineapple on this trip ranged from fantastic to amazing. We couldn't get enough.

Yesterday, Trader Joe's was on the errand run. I picked up a few items, including which has become one of my favorite frozen entrées. It heats up very well in the microwave, and is quite forgiving WRT time and power range. Add some rice, and you've got a quick, easy, and inexpensive weeknight meal. I think this is the least expensive of TJ's frozen entrées ... $3.69 IIRC. Sometimes I add finely diced or sliced veggies to this entré, such as finely julienned carrot, summer squash, or even Brussels sprouts leaves. A little Piment d'Ville contributes a nice highlight to the dish. Also finding its way into TJ's shopping cart was this feta, thanks to an earlier mention by @blue_dolphin. The last time I purchased brined feta at TJ's, I purchased another style, also with the TJ's brand on the container. It'll be nice to compare the two.

Breakfast the next morning. Pancake (with slices of coconut within) with rambutan honey, and cinnamon roll More fantastic pineapple Chocolate chip muffin

Easy dinner last night. Grilled steaks and served with frites, a wine sauce and salad

Diving interlude..... this is the first time I've used any kind of camera while diving. Since I didn't want it to be too distracting, I decided to use a GoPro in video mode. Visibility was typically around 45 to 60 feet, although sometimes less if it had rained the night before. For reference, this is a map of the area: The large land mass to the East is the mainland of North Sulawesi, the Manado area. Our hotel was located at the white dot on the west side of the island closest to the mainland. Most of the diving in this area is focused around the island of Bunaken, which is known for being home to tons of turtles (both green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles) and also lots of macro life - which basically means small critters like sea horses, shrimp of various kinds, nudibranches, etc. One of the green sea turtles we saw - this one was probably around 4-5 feet long. I finally got to see a spotted eagle ray!!!! I've been dying to see these for years. At the time I was filming, I was actually focused on a turtle, but our guide started shouting (underwater) to get my attention so I wouldn't miss it. It was pretty far away but it looked to have a wingspan of maybe 8-10 feet. One thing you may notice is at the beginning of the video - Bunaken is known for having a sheer wall that drops straight down into the abyss. Cold water from the deep, with tons of nutrients, hits the wall and rises to the surface which attracts tons of marine life. We were really happy to see that all of the coral reefs that we saw were in really great shape. I still have to go through a ton of footage but I've got to make space on my phone first - hopefully I can do that over the weekend.

Dinner that night: Some kind of generic beef curry with western style potatoes In addition to the buffet, they had a live station that changed every meal - this type was some kind of Chinese stir fry with chicken, seafood, etc. or an Italian pasta of some kind. I didn't want the whole stir fry, but I did get some stir fried vegetables. Peanut caramel cake and more amazing pineapple.