haresfur

The water being released by Japan has had radionuclides removed except for tritium (including cesium isotopes in the article cited above). Tritium, for those who may not know, is a radioactive form of hydrogen, H-3, with a half life of about 12.3 years. It is present as a part of the water molecule since it is hydrogen. There is essentially no way to remove it from the water which is being treated to remove other, more hazardous radionuclides. Tritium is an emitter of weak beta radiation that does not bio-concentrate in fish or other life forms, including humans, because it is part of water. It gets flushed through as other water is consumed. As such, drinking water standards are quite high compared to other radionuclides. The drinking water standard for tritium is set by most countries and organisations at 7,000 Becquerels per liter, based on consumption of 2 L of water per day. The basic assumption in calculating radiation risk is the "linear low dose" extrapolation method where any radioactive decay is calculated to have an associated risk. Thus, the goal is to have no radioactive exposure but in actuality we all are exposed to, and consume natural and man-made radionuclides. So yes, there is always a risk with any radioactive exposure but standards for acceptable radioactive dose have been set for the general public and at much higher levels for workers at radioactive facilities. There is a whole lot of science and policy in translating the radioactivity of different isotopes into a dose due to exposure. It can be hard to take all of this and put it into a context of, "Ok, how worried should I be?" while still maintaining the actual accuracy (or precision for that matter) of the science. I wouldn't tell people there is no risk but it is hard to show them how small the risk is. We used a "Theoretical maximally exposed individual" to show that no one would approach dangerous exposure levels near a nuclear facility. It would be good if China took that approach, I don't know for sure why they haven't (no politics). Another way to gain perspective is to compare the discharge to the amount of tritium released by other sources. From a Japanese news site: I don't have any figures for the estimated tritium concentration expected for fish near the coast of China but would be very surprised if it was as high per kg as the drinking water standard. One thing to look for is to compare seawater concentration measurements to the drinking water standard. I personally wouldn't worry about eating the fish if the seawater levels are lower than the drinking water standard since tritium doesn't concentrate in the flesh and I'm not likely to eat 2 kg of fish every day. I do know I was happy to consume steelhead caught by the nuclear facility I mentioned above.

I love pickerel but never caught enough to make a meal of cheeks

It looks like only the dried daun salam leaves are available in Australia, too. I'm a bit surprised that no one brought in plants before our biosecurity got so strict. I expect it would be a major operation to do so now, similar to what you describe or worse. You sent me down a bit of a rabbit-hole because daun salam is related to the Australian lilly-pillies. Lilly-pilly berries are edible (although there is varying opinion on whether they are worth eating) and I found a facebook video that said they will send out stems with pink leaves (all new leaves?) that you can eat or just chew on. No mention of eating the green leaves as bush tucker. They are tropical so don't know how well the better tasting varieties will grow where I live.

That is an impressive plant. I think I have some coming up in a small pot where I shook out the seeds from a volunteer in my lawn. I'll have to figure out where to plant it. Tends to get pretty cooked in the summer here but didn't do well under the shade cloth in my cat enclosure. The drinks look delicious. I found red shiso syrup goes moldy in the fridge so vinegar seems like a good way to go. Thanks for the idea. I made green shiso pesto one time but the partner wasn't impressed. Maybe I'll try red if I get enough plants.

You apparently missed the bit about yellow being the unripe colour for essentially all of its development. That is the important point about how they are different from most other capsicums. Bell peppers grow up green to their full size then turn red or yellow.

Hungarian wax peppers (I think "banana peppers" are the same thing) start off as tiny green things but once they grow longer than a couple of cm, they turn yellow and yellow is the immature colour as they grow to full size and start turning red. They are generally eaten in the yellow immature stage.

That explains that picanha is rump cap but doesn't really compare. I basically think of the picanha as the back end of a full tri-tip but it might depend on your local butchering practices. I prefer tri-tip, personally because what I get here is the foreward bit cut off and I don't need the fat cap.

Link to Washington Post article that confirms my suspicions (probably pay-walled)

For what it's worth, I haven't seen the same dying trend in Australia. The Borough still has 3 shops within two blocks and one changed hands not too long ago. Prices probably have risen but not to that extent. And our energy prices have been going up a lot.

It is Australian. There is some debate on whether it is supposed to contain chicken bullion or not - like pumpkin spice doesn't contain pumpkin. It's basically just one type of seasoned salt.

Might not be able to get an exact substitute for ingredients but can probably still make something tasty. You should be able to find a somewhat similar sausage but I'm not sure which one would be the best fit. Can you get okra? Maybe you have an Indian grocery that would have it.

Those are the ones I have, mentioned above.

aka, the beer-crisper

Staff note: This post was moved from the Secreto steak and other cuts of pork discussion, to maintain topic focus. For what it's worth I was talking to my beef dude today and that would be oyster blade here, if I understood correctly, also chuck roast. He had a massive one where he extracts the tendon from the middle leaving the roast whole. Something like Superior Chuck, I forget exactly what he called it. I think he sells the tendon for pho. But I get the thin steak from the other side of the blade that we call banjo steak. Doesn't taste as strong but is more tender. The real secret imo.

Only spent one night in Frankfurt but there are no shortage of places to eat along Kaiserstraße, east of the train station. Of course most are American, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Australian, etc. I had decent schnitzel and beer at Dicke Butz. I didn't seek out fine dining. @Duvel I missed your Berlin blog previously. I wish I had sought out a currywurst.

Your reputation precedes you. One of the original internet influencers. edit: I see I was beaten to it.

It took all my willpower as a graduate student not to requisition a small agate mortar and pestle from the geochemistry lab. I still regret it.

That looks like it would be awesome for beating air into eggs for omelettes / scrambling - if it wasn't right handed.

SIL just gifted me a couple of small but sturdy silicone spatulas and dang they are nice. The old rubber ones I had just aren't beefy enough to use and these are perfect for getting the bits out of tins and many other tasks. Not to mention hard to melt. Aside from that, cheap-ass plastic scrapers with a variety of flat and curved sides for lifting things of boards and out of bowls. I think they were $3.00 for the set at the crappy-stuff store in town. And last but not least, my various garbage knives. Something sturdy enough to cut apart pumpkin/squash without chipping. Knives to abuse and throw in the dishwasher, knives for the partner who thankfully doesn't want to touch my good ones, and a shout-out to Kiwi for cheap, wobbly, and easy to sharpen. I have this one and it gets a lot of use.

Your post is absolutely correct. There are whole levels of complexities in mixing stuff that may or may not matter in practice. Like you pointed out, mixing two liquids can change the total volume - if I recall the example in my chem class was mixing acetic acid with water and ending up with a smaller volume due to delta-V of mixing (it's thermodynamics, it's the law). But most people don't have volumetric flasks at home. The people in the know in the food world have taken to doing more by weight for solids because the amount of, say, flour in a cup can vary a lot. But most of the liquids used are pretty close to a density of 1 or are at least consistent in their density so recipes work using volume. Well, that is except my Australian measuring cups and spoons are different from American ones. So that's one reason I recommend weighing everything in this instance - it's easier to calculate exactly what you are doing correctly. For example, in the original post, adding 1 g of stuff to 1000 mL water will give you a total of 1001 g so not exactly 0.1%. Probably doesn't matter, but it's easy enough to get right when you stick to weight. The other reason is that it is much easier to weigh things precisely than to measure volumes precisely - the uncertainty in volumetric glassware is much higher than the uncertainty in scales for a given range. Don't get me started on people who talk about % without specifying weight:weight or volume:volume.

Or you can do a serial dilution. The first thing to do is to ditch the volume measurements completely. Weigh out, say 10 g into a container and add water until it weighs 1000 g. Note this isn't exactly the same as adding 1000 L water but is 1 %. Then 10 g of this contains 0.1 g of bromelain so weigh that amount into another container and add water until the weight is 100 g - 0.1 g/100g = 0.1%. Then you can use the rest of the first stock solution to try different percentages. Better check my maths first, though.

Nice thread, even though when I read the title I keep thinking you are talking about St John the sixth

I think I need to hack back my warrigal greens before they take over the rest of the lawn. I don't eat them that often. The will climb so I may try to plant some where they can spread vertically.

I did a major pantry cleaning that included dealing with some jars stuffed towards the back - some green walnut pickles that didn't work out so well and some proto-nocino. I think I may have thrown out some nocino thinking it was the pickles but am not sure. We are talking about 5 year old stuff. I finished the one jar of nocino and it is pretty good but a bit too sweet. If I recall I used Wild Turkey 101 because high-proof vodka is unobtainable here. Guess I should use up what I have before I start a quest to acquire more green walnuts.

A haul from Nick's Wine mail order except the Chartreuse, which was a dusty bottle at IGA that I thought I'd better pick up, given the current scarcity. The Luxardo Gin was clearance so almost inexpensive. The Teelings Irish Whiskey is aged in whiskey barrels that they sent to a brewery to age stout and then the brewery sends back to age whiskey. Very meta. It does have a slight chocolatey flavour but not overpowering. Their single grain and single malt whiskies were out of stock.