C. sapidus

To raid unsupervised food, our now-departed Jack Russell terrier mix used to take a running leap onto the dining table, and then scrabble with his claws to avoid sliding off the far end. These surreptitious canine incursions left several rows of paralled gouges on the soft pine tabletop. Combined with the unremovable remnants of various family projects, these dings commemorate the table’s 20-year service as central hub of the household. Not bad for an inexpensive flat-pack table, hauled from Ikea in a subcompact hatchback, and disassembled and moved from apartment to apartment and house to house. When we get a new table, it will not be covered. Sometimes we do break out a tablecloth for parties.

While I made dinner, the boys snacked on mangos and Mrs. C’s delicious guacamole. We also had amazing heirloom tomatoes (German Red?) from the farmer’s market. Mrs. C is not usually a big fan of tomatoes, but we ate those heirlooms like tangy candy. Tonight’s dinner was creamy corn soup with roasted Poblano chiles, chicken, and spicy chorizo . . . . . . and rainbow trout with macadamias, Serrano chiles, and green beans, both from Mexican Everyday. The pan sauce with chiles, lime juice, and cilantro is one of my favorite earthly delights.

Peter: I am so looking forward to tagging along with you and the family this week, although I will miss Scud. From a purely selfish standpoint, the more Thai food the better, of course. And sign me up for any airline that serves red curry beef. When you are in Egypt, how do you satisfy a craving for jungle curry? Can you get Thai ingredients in Egypt, or do you have to pack in enough supplies to last? I am especially curious about fresh produce – can you find, oh, apple eggplants, or do you substitute?

Now that is good long-term planning. A reward for outstanding parenting, to be sure. When our boys were younger, their favorite choices at Thai restaurants were sate (a.k.a., "meat on a stick"), fried spring rolls, and fried rice. Perhaps not the most Thai dishes, but reliably available and always popular.

Ce’nedra: Thank you, the chicken curry had an intoxicating array of flavors and textures, with red curry paste, shredded ginger and kaffir lime leaves, crunchy peanuts, palm sugar, and a large handful of fragrant holy basil. With two cups of cracked coconut cream, it was not “light” – a small portion of the rich curry was quite satisfying. Check your mailbox - I sent you a PM with the recipe. Enjoy!

Pille: First of all, you are doing a wonderful job. If English is your second language, doubly wonderful. Thanks for the Moomintroll reference – I had not thought about those books for years, and regret that we missed the opportunity to introduce the boys to the land of Moomins. I am also looking forward to trying Cream of Wheat with an egg yolk when the weather cools suitably. We found Edinburgh delightful when we visited a few years ago. We stayed in a cottage on a sheep farm and took the train into Edinburgh or Glasgow. Your mention of haggis, neeps, and tatties caused a chuckle – my Scottish mother would slip back into her native dialect after a long phone call with the Edinburgh relatives. Re bear meat: a co-worker brought crock pot of bear meat to an office potluck once. It was greasy, stringy, and nasty. I do envy your fish selection, though, especially the eels. Fascinating to see that you can get Thai fish sauce in Estonia. I am looking forward to the remainder of your week, and more of your lovely writing and photographs. Best to you and Kristjan!

Tonight we made avocado-mango salad with Gorgonzola cheese, bacon, and toasted pine nuts, adapted from Mexican Everyday and served over Romaine lettuce. The dressing was garlic and Serrano chile, browned in bacon grease and blended with lime juice, honey, and toasted pine nuts. Soooo good, but the avocados were definitely not picture-worthy. The boys cooked eggs for themselves – dry omelet for the elder, cinnamon sugar omelet for the younger. Eternal cukes.

Thai Food tonight: chicken curry with holy basil, ginger, and peanuts; flounder soup with pickled garlic syrup; jasmine rice; and cucumbers. Details on Thai Cooking at Home.

Tonight we made two dishes from Thai Food: chicken curry with holy basil, ginger, and peanuts (geng gai haeng); and flounder simmered with pickled garlic syrup (dtom pla nahm gratiam dong). Following a tip in True Thai, we pounded the paste in the mortar and finished it in the food processor, which worked nicely. The fish soup was simple and light, contrasting nicely with the rich curry. We poached sliced flounder fillets (substitute for trout) in homemade chicken stock and pickled garlic syrup, seasoned with fish sauce and lime juice, and finished with scallions, white pepper, and cilantro.

Brenda: Thank you, and dang, I bet your pho smelled amazing with all of those aromatic greens! Note to self - learn to make pho. The boys had a basketball clinic until 8:00 tonight, so I had grand plans for an elaborate Thai dinner. Unfortunately, I had to work very late so we made our fallback meal - spaghetti and meatballs. We had a basket of banana chiles and mild Kashmiri chiles so I adapted a David Thompson's recipe. Crush the chiles and char them black in a dry wok, add oil and garlic paste, simmer with chicken stock, oyster sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, and palm sugar, thicken with potato flour, and then finish with white pepper, light soy, and cilantro. Not very photogenic but definitely a keeper.

Beautiful! Maybe I missed it upthread so feel free to refer to me to an earlier posting, but what does "after...sauce" mean? It can't just be fish sauce, right? The "after" looks so rich compared to the "before." Maybe why good pho is so delicious. ← Ce’nedra: Beautiful pho, and welcome to eGullet! Let me guess – is the “after sauce” a mix of hoisin and Sriracha?

Thank you! Your unorthodox curry sounds delicious – I can picture how sweet Sungolds, sour tamarind, earthy turmeric, and creamy coconut would consort nicely.

Robin, what a lovely meal! I simply must try the Javanese grilled chicken and the green beans with coconut milk. What's next?

Mmm, scallops, beautifully-cut sashimi, bacon-corn chowder, and a gorgeous upside-down cake. I would dearly love to try them all. To prolong the waning days of summer, we grilled thick New York strip steaks after marinating them in light soy sauce. The boys split a steak; the grownups split a Thai grilled beef salad (click) with shallots, cilantro, mint, long-leaf coriander, roasted rice powder, and tomatoes from the garden. Cukes and jasmine rice on the side.

Tonight we made a grilled beef salad (nahm dtok, modified from Thai Food). The recipe called for a dressing of equal parts lime juice and fish sauce, with a pinch each of sugar and roasted chile powder. This makes a salty, mouth-puckeringly sour dressing. We increased the sugar and chiles and added garlic, moving the dressing closer to a Vietnamese nuoc cham. We also added tomatoes from our garden. Sometimes, personal preference wins out over authenticity.

Mexican oregano, ground cayenne and chipotle pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns seem to disappear most quickly at our house. When we get on a rib kick, the dry rib rub devours large bags of paprika. Of course dried chiles disappear the fastest of all, if you wish to count them as spices.

I can personally attest that slicing bananas onto cereal goes back at least as far as the mid-1960s. My father changed breakfast cereals over the years, but always sliced bananas or peaches over his cereal. I don't eat breakfast cereal any more, but sliced bananas on Total or Product 19 is pretty ultimate.

I love monavano’s meatballs and prawncrackers’ crab linguine. Eskay - congratulations on the roast chicken! Tonight we enjoyed fried egg soup with pork, Napa cabbage, scallions, lots of fish sauce, and fried onions and garlic (from True Thai). Stir-fried flounder with chile-tamarind paste, thinly-sliced rhizome (krachai), Thai basil, kaffir lime leaves, and plenty more fish sauce. Pretty spicy, so the jasmine rice came in handy.

Thank you, Misa. Breakfast isn’t usually that extravagant. Percy- mmm, sausage and eggs. Bill, that yolk looks decadent. Did you marinate the eggs after peeling them? A jar of chipotle paste caught my eye, so I beat three eggs with ground chipotle, cumin, smoked paprika, and salt. After sauteeing the chipotle paste in butter, I made the omelet in the flavored butter, sprinkled on Mexican oregano and garnished with cilantro and feta cheese. Next time I will make a drizzling sauce with chipotle paste, butter, and lime juice. Double-chipotle omelet

Thai tonight: “barbecued” chicken thighs (actually baked and then grilled); cucumber salad with tamarind and garden tomatoes; and coconut rice. The boys and a visiting friend scarfed it all down enthusiastically. More on Thai cooking at home.

Hear, hear! (and thanks ) Tonight we cooked from Thailand the Beautiful: “barbecued” chicken (gai yang); Northeast cucumber salad (tam taeng); and coconut rice. The mouth-watering chicken marinade contained garlic, ginger, white pepper, cilantro, Shaoxing wine, fish sauce, soy sauce, and coconut milk. We baked the chicken at 350F and crisped up the skin on a hot grill. Not really barbecue, but quite delicious. The cucumber salad had the usual ingredients (garlic, Thai chiles, fish sauce, sugar) with an interesting twist – it was soured with tamarind rather than lime juice.

We have a Preethi ChefPro Plus. It does a fine job of grinding Thai curry pastes smoothly as long as you make a large batch. It is too powerful for small batches, and immediately flings the ingredients against the walls of the blender jar. The juice extractor is an amazing thing. We use it to make freezer jam. Do NOT use the Preethi to make Mexican hot chocolate (trust me on this - I am still finding chocolate spots on the ceiling). I have not had much luck grinding dry spices with the Preethi - a whirly-blade coffee grinder seems to do a better job for the small batches that we typically make. The Preethi may do better on larger batches of dried spices, but we have not yet had cause to try that. Good luck!

Jensen - Aww, what a nice thing to say. Your eG contributions are too valuable, so don't die any time soon, OK? I did learn one thing, though – buy plantains early (or find a better source). One plantain was nicely black and ripe; the other was too hard and starchy to be used. Sorry, no openings - we have three pooches now, which is one too many. Besides, they get Iams Active Maturity, probably not what you are looking for.

Tonight’s dinner: grilled flank steak with garlicky ancho chile rub; grilled plantains and red onions with tomatillo-chipotle salsa; and cukes. We set out bowls of extra tomatillo-chipotle salsa for spooning over anything that stood still long enough. For the salsa, we browned tomatillos and garlic on a dry skillet, and then tossed them in a blender with chipotles in adobo and salt. Good stuff – maybe we’ll add some cilantro next time. The rub contained chopped garlic, brown sugar, Mexican oregano, cumin, S&P, ancho chile powder, chipotle powder, and paprika. It was supposed to be all ancho powder but I ran out and improvised. Laid on thickly, it made a spicy-sweet-aromatic crusty mixture with the meaty juices.

Glowing fruit and a 20-minute Chinese feast – nice! Tonight was our first Sichuan meal in a while: spicy braised rainbow trout with whole garlic; and stir-fried spinach with chile and Sichuan peppercorn. Rice and cukes rounded out the meal. Yes, all those roundish objects are whole garlic cloves, three whole heads of garlic fried in their skins and then peeled and braised with the fish. Everything disappeared quickly. More on Chinese eats at home (clicky).