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Once I'm more confident about the temperature control, I'll do that again. The grill is too small for indirect heat methods. I have cooked without foil, with good results, but I'm trying different things out. I haven't tried different woods for smoke and flavour yet.

I would put the A4 on the high setting and not cover for crispness. Or you could slight cock the lid a bit to allow steam to come out and keep most heat in. The lid really works well to keep the steam in, to the detriment of crispiness.

@blue_dolphin perfect toast on your breakfast sandwich. Moe's breakfast. I still had half the small Sterling Silver roast from a couple of days ago so I put it in the Breville PC this morning and turned it into a pot roast. Made Moe a couple of small sandwiches on homemade rolls.

Fan in the oven ceiling.

Yes, there are a few new features - air fry and turbo roast. Unlike the original CSO, there seems to be as large variable speed fan in the ceiling of the oven. The fan speed depends on the cooking mode - both air fry and turbo roast use the high speed fan, turbo roast uses steam while air fry does not. The door seal is the same as the original, although it's now on the unit rather than the door itself, and is not selective, however, I wonder if the vent at the back is selective - further investigation is necessary. I think I'm going to try the turbo roast mode for the grouper tonight and see how it goes.

We had the extra large but since we're only 2 people, would have been happy with a smaller one.

what happens when you air fry , a new feature , w the heat ? ''' I feel a slight warm breeze coming out then too. ''' is the oven not sealed as the CSO I was ? or is the ' seal ' selective ? ie for toast , but not other functions ?

Be careful, Ronnie might take you up on that 😆

Resistance is futile! The mini-max is the one I'd likely get at this point - it's the same size as the medium but lower to the ground.

@Smithy For the pastry cream, I infused the milk overnight with toasted fig leaves (~50g for 500g milk). I was first turned on to it by Nicola Lamb's Substack, and Edd Kimber has recently done a post on it, too. Edited to add: It's the toasting of the fig leaves that takes it over the top for me, giving a grassy, coconutty flavour that is totally unexpected.

Either for lunch or dinner, I plan to make some grouper. Typically, I pan fry it to get a crust, and then 10 minutes on convection bake at 350 to bring up to temp. Usually, this time in the oven winds up getting the crust a little soggy. What say ye about using the air fryer function as opposed to convection bake?

Sorry if you explained this before and I missed it...was this an infusion of a fig leaf in the cream / crème?

@Kerala will you try to cook something similar but not wrapped in aluminum foil ?

Firstly, that lamb looks delicious! Second, I do have one bit of experience with regard to Big Green Eggs. We had a large one, which was great for feeding hordes of people. But for routine cooking it took way too long to heat up, so we rarely used it and eventually passed it along to a nephew (who uses it all the time). So, for regular usage, I think smaller is better than bigger, unless you absolutely need bigger. Good luck!

This really makes me regret traveling right now. There are actually good nectarines in the Duluth grocery stores right now. i've been enjoying them -- and, to my chagrin, I left the last one in the refrigerator the day I left! (I notified a friend to go enjoy it.) The good news is that I'm going through Colorado and New Mexico. Maybe I'll be able to score some good peaches along the way. I still dream of the lug of Palisade peaches I picked up one year.

@Kerala but you must admit you've made a wonderful case for buying the full-sized BGE at this point. 😉

These monstrosities may look like white bread for toasting or sandwiches. No such thing! Described by the store as 黄金芝士条 ~ 流心芝士下午茶 (huáng jīn zhī shì tiáo ~ liú xīn zhī shì xià wǔ chá), Golden Cheese Bars ~ Lava Cheese Afternoon Tea Collection. What kind of cheese they use is not divulged but I would bet heavily on it being American ‘cheese’ which isn’t cheese! Of course, I've never bought it to test!

I wouldn't worry about your adding oyster mushrooms to beef and broccoli being 'inauthentic'. Beef and broccoli isn't 'authentically' Chinese anyway!

Beef with broccoli. And inauthenticity oyster mushrooms.

I've seen a few too many social media posts of people doing hideous things with hotel room appliances to use them anymore.

As long as you weren’t stark nekkid, I’m sure you’d have been better dressed than anyone else you encountered in the wee hours! If they sent up coffee packets, I’m sure there would be no filters…or no cups…or… When I traveled a lot for work, I kept a ziplock that tucked neatly between the handle rails of my carry-on with tea bags, oatmeal, single-serving pucks of peanut butter and jam (hoarded from my work cafeterias) some of those Wasa crackers sure to survive a nuclear attack, prunes - almost as durable (and yes, as effective as the Wasa), plastic utensils, several folded paper towels, wet wipes, etc. It got me through a LOT of unexpectedly late arrivals when I needed to be at work very early! Those in-room coffee makers always gave me pause though. If I wanted to use them for hot water, I always ran 3 cycles of water through to get rid of the stale coffee smell. I think you were likely saved by the ineptness of this operation!

Fried chicken, potato salad, garden tomato salad with balsamic glaze.

@Smithy, I have a tea stash for just this purpose. If you're interested, et me know where I should post my response.

I've been thinking about buying a Big Green Egg for about 10 years, I guess, my usual decision-making time for non-essential extravagances. The BGE is expensive, and a) will I like cooking on it and b) will I use it after the initial period anyway? I have enough cameras and guitars sulking around the house to be wary of jumping in. Even the cheaper BGE alternatives are expensive. But then, from the middle of Lidl: £80! $106 for our friends across the water! OK, the grill diameter is only 10 inches, but it was too tempting to pass. I've had it about 2 months, and never had a bad meal from it, although I've still not mastered the temperature control. Tonight's meal was lamb. I deboned a leg and kept interference to a minimum. Garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, rosemary. Wrapped in foil then 130C- 170C for 4 hours. Fell apart with a couple of spoons: Served with store-bought Lebanese flatbread and some salad. Salad dressing was honey, lemon juice, olive oil The family loved it. This ceramic grill is too small to cater by itself for a much larger gathering. There were 6 of us eating today and there was easily enough for 10 people. The joint was 1.6kg before boning, so pretty substantial. I have a kettle grill and of course an indoor oven, plus an air fryer. So I don't need a BGE. Will I get one? I know how this ends...

I finally remembered to take this over to the new house since I don't have cookware there yet. A few days ago I bought a package of the pork egg rolls at Aldi that I really like. (I hadn't taken this yet.) I nuked one for lunch while I was there and it was soggy and horrid. So, I brought "The Box" and I had one today that I heated in it. Put it on med/med hi, egg roll in, covered. I turned it several times. It wasn't quite as hot as I wanted it to be, but it was at least crispy and I had with some Aldi Thai Chili Dipping Sauce. Much better than the soggy mess the other day. Sorry, didn't think of taking pix since I was in a hurry. Just wanted to report that it worked just as desired.