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Review of the GF puff pastry. AWFUL. No layers, no flake whatsoever! Can't say that was a surprise given the ingredients list. Oy!! On the plus side, I saved a lot of calories by not eating the crust. And my filling was good.

Great article! Don’t forget to review the slightly newer Salt Cod Diary topic for more ideas!

@Shelby The young girl was so sweet and shy - we couldn't ignore her. Basically, we saw her talking to her mother about us and then the mother approached us and asked for permission. They were so happy when we agreed for some pictures, and then proceeded to have pictures taken with at least 4 phones because everyone wanted their own. So, of course, we then gave them our phone for our own set! The mangoes were ok. I still haven't found an Indonesian mango that I love like some of the Thai ones. Some were juicy but pretty flavorless and some smelled like they were doused in a bucked of perfume. Most were fiberless, but not all.

YES! I'm sorry. I always try to put @Jaymes' squash in my description. I make that at LEAST once a week. Need to get more Laughing Cow cheese--that's my favorite to use.

And I see you're still making squash like I posted so long ago. That recipe came from my grandmother who owned a "meat & 3" restaurant in South Texas back in the 1920s. And that's still how I make it today. It really makes me smile to think you're carrying on the tradition. Thanks!!

For a second I thought that the mangos were pawpaws.

Im drinking this : right now . could not wait to try it. From Tj's posted here : https://forums.egullet.org/topic/155097-trader-joes-products-2017–/page/65/#comment-2454266

I pulled out from freezer some frozen grocery-store puff pastry sheets. To my surprise, they are Gluten-Free, an import from Italy. Mi esposo bought them months ago to replenish our freezer stock, unaware they weren't what I usually buy (Pepperidge Farm). My plan is to make them into turnovers (or square packets) filled with a mixture of cooked leftover chicken shreds, (well drained) spinach and cream cheese. The package shows 400 degrees baking temp; I find I have better luck with Pepperidge farm if I put (well-chilled) item into a 425 degree convection oven. Any advice on using this GF version of puff pastry versus the Pepperidge Farm brand?

Were the mangos amazing? It's been a while since I've had a good one. Lol, your wife is a great sport! It never crossed my mind but I guess redheads aren't super common there.

After breakfast, we headed to the supermarket located in the mall connected to our hotel to get some fruit for our room. This is the same supermarket as before. Durian - you could smell this around the corner in the mall... After picking up a bunch of mangoes (they had no mangosteen on this day, but had some later on), we went off for some sightseeing. We decided to see the National Monument It's in the largest public square in SE Asia. It's here where we became a tourist attraction ourselves, again, as this is a large attraction for domestic tourists visiting Jakarta. The young girl in the turquoise shirt above desperately wanted photos of us (mostly my wife because she has red hair) so we spent about 10 minutes taking photos with the whole family. They then stayed with us while walking around, the young girl asking my wife lots of questions - like what were her hobbies, etc. You can go to the top of the monument, but to do so required standing on a long line, so we decided to skip it - especially considering that there really isn't much to see. We then continued walking around the area on the way to the main mosque, the largest in Asia, only to find it closed - we forgot that it was Friday... Some walking around photos:

I just learned about them two days ago ... https://www.butlerfoods.com/product-list.html

went looking for a Chablis @ TJ's , to take down to the WHPS in a week or so. found one , butt my WineBuds recommended this white Bordeaux : it was $ 8.49 or so . I haven't had a white Bordeaux in Ions , not for any particular reason. used to get some all time . This one is a delight. My white table wine ( Index ) is the Tj's Coastal Chardonnay @ $ 4.99 Dry , no Oak , decent ' mouith feel ' this Graves is very very nice as a complementary to that : dry , crisp , light body : would be excellent w shellfish , and other very fresh fish. my WB's suggested it quite a bit pricier elsewhere . After a sip or three ( very cold ) I googled it its $ 17.99 ( USD ) elsewhere . I wouldnt get it for that price differential , but for what it is in my glass. Im taking a bottle of this , along w the Chablis down to the WHPS to compare at the same time. granted , grapes vs other grapes , but why not ?

Breakfast was included in our hotel price, which is great because this hotel's breakfast buffet was amazing thanks, in large part, to there being a lot of domestic travelers staying there so they had a lot of Indonesian options. They also had sushi, some chinese dim sum type stuff and western stuff (omelettes, yogurt, cheese/meats, etc.) that we didn't partake in. Gulai is like a thin curry using similar ingredients to rendang. with shrimp crackers, green and red sambal. In padang food, these are the primary sambals - called, unimaginatively, sambal ijo (green sambal) and sambal merah (red sambal). Neither one are super spicy, but definitely add a lot of flavor. Colo-colo is a condiment/sambal type from eastern Indonesia and typically served with fish/seafood. The fish was really meaty and nicely cooked. With squid ink crackers. Fantastic pineapple Turmeric jamu - this is supposedly healthy - it's made from (at least) ground turmeric, ginger and lime juice. My wife got some of the chinese dim sum - I don't kow what it was though. Lastly, I got some beef soup with beef balls and some kind of fish ball that is made from both fish/shrimp paste.

Jambalaya fried rice with seared shrimp, kimchee, habanero and Fresno chiles, garlic, and a rare double-yolked egg. Probably have something similar for dinner - Mrs. C made a lot of jambalaya (not that I'm complaining, mind you).

I hope you enjoy the tuna-stuffed Poblanos! And I have taken inspiration from your array of summer salads - I love a salad when it is hot and muggy, but don’t make them nearly often enough.

We are back on St. John. We arrived Saturday evening. Everyone was tired, so we just went into town for some light snacks at the island brew pub, mostly so my nephew and husband could pick up some crowlers of beer for the house. I thought I took a picture of the beer menu, but I guess not. Here’s the food options. Niece chose chicken wings The rest of us shared a hummus plate and a salad with some mahi mahi on it We stopped by St. John Scoops so niece could get her favorite chai tea latte ice cream We got in an evening dip in the pool before crashing We had the house provisioned by a grocery delivery company before arriving. That’s because when you try and go shopping on the weekends, everything is sold out. We stopped by yesterday to pick up some water and ice, and attempt to get some salad stuff (no luck on that front until the second store). Empty grocery! The only vegetables were onions, potatoes, red cabbage, and winter squash. I did snag the last loaf of raisin bread, and they had ice, so it was ok. We just spent the day reading at the villa. Too tired to beach it. Nephew made the drinkers watermelon margaritas (we brought a cooler from home with some stuff, including fresh squeezed and pre measured juices for cocktails and mocktails) He grilled some bread (got a bit charred) that I topped with garlic scape butter I made at home, and a couple of ribeyes (also brought from home), supplemented with pasta and a “salad” made from the only vegetables I could find at the second market we stopped at-a cucumber and some peppers. evening views Breakfast under the palapa with our trusty scavenger companions We were blocked in this morning by the pool and landscaping maintenance guys, but it’s finally time to go to the beach!

Yes, this is an old topic. I remember thinking I had to try salt cod, and specifically salt cod brandade, back when the topic was new. I still haven't. Thanks to this article I'm thinking again that I should, sometime in the next year. Whether you want to try salt cod or not, read the article: Les Marseillaises (or, you're soaking in it) by Michael Procopio. It's given me a lot of laughs today!

I've been on a "reduced animal protein" kick for over a year now, and recently discovered something called "soy curls".. these are a fun alternative to the usual sources and are especially great with heavy-sauced recipes If you haven't tried soy curls before (different from TVP), and you like exploring different cuisines, I think it's worth a purchase from butler foods. They have a texture similar to mushroom-stems with a mild soy flavor that goes away once sauced. soy curls and broccoli in us-asian junk food inspired sauce (melting pot of all the sauces at once together hahaha) soy curls, squash, and cauliflower with carribbean curry-ish sauce home-grown squash sauced linguini (my bastardized version of noodles alla nerano)

@TdeV do you SV , w a vac-bag and circulator ? if you do both , are you using the oven due to the size of the meat ? very interested to learn what an oven ' SV ' for a large roast does . after all , My A.O. v 1 is still in the box !

I agree. The rub might add flavor but wont affect cooking results unless you use so much salt that it is, in effect, brining the whole roast. (If brining was the intent it would take days to penetrate all the way through..about a cm/day IIRC.)

@TdeV if you are using steam as your heat transfer medium , Id let the CR thaw in the refrigerator first. heat transfer w steam @ those temps is much less efficient over water ( vac-bagged ) as a heat transfer medium. and the times // temps you mentioned earlier for AO steam SV might get you a roast that has some chew left in it which might be fine , sliced thinly. good luck

Looking forward to reading more about your eating adventures. I always have a bottle of ketjap manis in the cupboard. Good stuff.

@C. sapidus I'm always looking for new ideas that are keto-ish friendly. Your tuna salad stuffed in the poblanos caught my eye! I've done that with regular bell peppers but I think the poblanos will add a bit of a kick. Need to pick some up at the store. Tried to hurry a pork belly and still get the skin crispy like I like it. Kinda failed lol. The meat was wonderful but the skin was chewy/crunchy --it was ok but not what I was going for. I'll do better with the other half. A bagged Thai chili mango salad and stir fry to go with. Wings and broccoli salad and squash Ronnie wanted to thaw out one of the briskets that he cold smoked for 4 hours at 150F and sous vide it. The first time I did one I did it for 24 hours at 155F. It was wonderful. The second time I did one the exact same way but I think it had to have been a different cut because it was dry dry dry. This time I did 36 hours at 135F. GOOD STUFF. Made sandwiches out of the leftover keto burger buns from the 4th of July and a salad. Oh and yes. A few fries lol. Big salad night with leftover fried chicken and brisket Jalapeno cheese sausages with peppers and onions, "potato" salad made with cauliflower --not too bad at all. The usual cut up tomatoes and cubes from the garden and also some collards from the garden. Last night roast beef roll ups, fries, shishito peppers and veggies.

Our flight to Jakarta landed on time, around 10:30AM and we breezed through their immigration, thanks to the autogates utilizing facial recognition software and using their E-VOA (electronic visa on arrival). Because it's Jakarta and their horrendous traffic, we probably got to the hotel around 1PM. At this point, we weren't really hungry at all - that Singapore Airlines business class (upgraded using miles) can really stuff you to the gills! - and then eating more in the Singapore Airport and again on the Singapore Airlines flight to Jakarta - so we just took a much needed nap until around 6 or so, the plan being to wake up and get dinner, and then go back to bed, hopefully getting onto Jakarta time as fast as possible, which worked well for the most part. Our hotel is connected to a large mall which has tons of restaurants plus a food court which takes up a whole floor. We decided to go to a well known sate restaurant chain, Sate Khas Senayan (literally sate from Senayan), which serves food from the islands of Java and Bali. More info (including quite an exhaustive menu) here: https://sks.sarirasa.co.id/menu As we were exhausted, we just kept things simple by ordering some sate and a vegetable: Lamb sate - 7 skewers of lamb pieces, with each skewer having a piece of lamb fat, and 3 minced lamb sausage skewers (my favorite), sitting on sweet soy sauce with some chopped shallot and ground chilli sambal. To me, there is little in the world better than a nicely grilled piece of lamb fat with sweet soy sauce and chilli. I'm drooling sitting here thinking about it! Chicken skewers covered in sambal Stir fried kangkong (water spinach) with sambal terasi (shrimp paste, chillies, shallot, garlic) Traditional accompaniment - lontong - rice cakes cooked in banana leaf. All told, about $15 at the current rate of exchange which is about 1USD = 16,200IDR. After this, straight back to the hotel and to bed!!!

Yay!!!! I've been waiting for this . I'm starving. That chicken and rice looks sooooo good. And, love love love the sunflower garden. Looks like Kansas.