haresfur

Was sea salt. Sea salt is conventionally considered to be salt evaporated directly from seawater, usually, by human-controlled processes. Once it is buried it becomes recrystalised and often flows due to its ductility, which modifies the material.

It still took some balancing and my back decided it was a bad idea but I used old basalt building stones to make an inunnguag. Had to rebuild it after this photo was taken because rain caused the ground to settle and it fell over. Obligatory food note: the green pigface in the front that isn't flowering is supposedly edible but I haven't tried it.

First, Himalayan pink salt is rock salt not sea salt. I'm sure you all realise that but the bloggers don't seem to. In terms of impurities, I strongly suspect some potassium chloride due to the colour, but don't quote me on that. KCl does tend to have a bit of a bitter flavour, as anyone who has used light salt, could probably taste. In Australia you can get Murray River Pink Salt. I usually see the flake form, so not really designed for salt grinders or shakers, although a grinder does work. According to the web page, they do make coarser grinder salt. I was fortunate enough to take a field trip to the area where they produce the salt. It is basically a by-product of an operation to pump salty groundwater and keep it from flowing into the river. Some of the water is diverted into salt evaporation basins and recovered. Interestingly, it is pinkish in the basins but fades to white in the air. The company was quite cagy about how they get the pink salt. It seemed to involve adding brine from another well. I suspect that the flavour of finishing salt mostly depends on the texture and how it dissolves on your tongue. Bonus: Maldon Salt. I had to look this up because I didn't really know much about it. Many of you probably know that one of the features they tout is the pyramid shape of the crystals as opposed to the more common halite cubes. Maldon is located at the end of the estuary of the River Blackwater. Sound appetising? Well here's the thing, In 1763, M. Romé de l'Isle discovered you could get salt to crystallise as octahedral pyramids by adding urea. So maybe Maldon salt does have a unique flavour.

I tend to be risk adverse when it comes to things that are hard to replace and only have fake-stone. Be aware that there is granite and granite, and many counter tops sold as granite could be something with completely different properties. As a geologist, I think you would be safest with something that has uniform tightly bound grains with no indication of cracks that might have formed and sealed underground. But that doesn't say that something else wouldn't be safe. I suppose the best thing would be to ask for a cutting board size piece when you are having your counters put in and try with that first. Maybe the piece they cut out for the sink. Hindsight.

Had the durian been frozen? The supermarkets here used to sell durian that had been frozen then thawed to cut the smell. Now I think I can only get frozen durian from the Asian grocery. Haven't tried it, but maybe when the other is out of town sometime...

I lived up the hill from there. I hope your picnic was after they spruced it up a bit or at least sealed up the broken tombs. When I was there, the decay was pretty over the top, except around Karl, that they kept nice for the Chinese and Russians to lay wreaths or whatever. I did often have tea with my well to do friends when the son my age (14) was back from school. The food was light but nice enough and conversation was suitably genteel, like discussing whether fornication had to be between two unmarried people, or just two people not married to each other. And if it was the former, was inability to fornicate grounds for divorce? Supper, if served when I was there was very spartan. So more like two small meals. I'm trying to remember what my working class schoolmates did. I know I had tea the drink, but can't remember their meal schedules. Yes, a meal at 4:00 doesn't work well if you are holding down a job. btw, Many Australians still call the evening meal "tea"

I'm sure there were worse meals in many places/times so I don't want to argue to the bottom either (Australians from farming communities talk about the school milk they had to drink that was delivered in the morning and kept out in the heat until noon.) But dodgy over-boiled cabbage, lumpy mashed potato (I hated potatoes at the time) and 2 fish sticks comes to mind (I could eat the fish sticks, anyway). Then again the fried blood sausage in my Swedish school was pretty revolting to me.

British school food in the 1970s was the stuff of horror movies. I know from more recent (although still long ago) visits that things have changed but the iconic British caff wasn't much better. Like anywhere, it does depend on what level of dining you seek out and how knowledgeable you are. Even back then, I had some really nice meals with my rich friends. As for the French and their food, I fail to see what the hype is about so I discount their opinions about British food.

I have been banned from ever cooking with squid ink again after pretty much the whole kitchen ended up stained black after I used too much when I tried. Looks good though.

I bought some Peking Duck flavoured potato chips for the express purpose of posting to this thread but didn't get around to taking a picture and working up the courage to try them and threw the bag out when it started to puff up like a tick on a dog.

Spray roux!

You can more or less double prices here and there seems to be an extra charge if you go over 40%. I agree that Wild Turkey is harsh but sometimes with bourbon that is a good thing. Or maybe I just convinced myself of that when I was young and stupid. But I think if you age it too much it can get kind of bland.

I haven't been drinking a lot but my go-to bourbons are Russel's Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey/WT-101. I have a couple of others that I'm not as fond of so I should really drink them up. Bourbon is expensive here.

Frankly, I have found their food pretty shocking. The company would probably do better serving food so good that people looked forward to their time in the camp.

I will never again lose both of the steamer inserts for pots. Certainly true if I never find them.

Armed with a printout of @Liuzhou's message (thanks!), I went to Johnny's for Doubanjiang and he recommended this for eggplant so I could adjust the spice upward, rather than the spicy Doubanjiang he had in stock. I have no idea if that was good advice but judging from the wicked Sichuan peppers, I posted above, I think some caution might be a good idea.

Lobster! (or scallops)

I like to use red lentils as a thickener in stews or tagines. Add them to the pot and cook the heck out of them (they cook quickly).

I'm saying that eggs here certainly seem washed and they aren't refrigerated in stores or usually in people's homes. So maybe the washed vs unwashed thing is a myth and Americans are overly cautious.

Seems logical because most commercial salad dressing tastes full of sugar to me anyway

Happy April Fool's Day!

For some strange reason the birds here seem to leave them alone. The parrots will strip all the pears from the pear tree but maybe blueberries are too small to bother.

Won't they kick you out of New Jersey if you can't grow blueberries? I actually got a few handfuls from my bush this year. Feeding it some chelated iron made a big difference. After the berries were done I fed it some fertiliser for acid-loving plants and got enough new growth I'm planning on repotting it.

Interesting. Kaolinite has been used for this in the past. I would think montmorillonite would swell too much.