KennethT

Les Halles hasn't been in business in a long time - at least a year.

Do you know if your tomatoes are determinate or indeterminate? The difference is that determinate will basically grow vegetatively for a period of time, then flower basically all at once, ripen all at once as the season ends, then the plant dies. Indeterminates will continue to grow (maybe to 30 feet long!) and continue to flower for about a year until their production slows down (but never really stops). Most heirlooms are indeterminate, but it's not a guarantee. I used to grow an awesome indeterinate heirloom in my apartment, I pinched the first several flowers as well, waiting for the root system to be able to take the strain of heavy fruiting. I think I started to pollinate the flowers (gotta do it by hand indoors) after the plant reached it's third truss. But the length of your growing season would affect my decision. Indoors, I don't have a growing season as I can manipulate basically everything - but outdoors, once frost comes, that's it - so depending on the length of the season, you may not need to pinch off the flowers.

@dcarch These varieties are not runnering strawberries, so there is no chance of that.

In honor of Tony Bourdain, tonight, I'm making a Singapore Nyonya curry. It was his shows on Singapore and other places in Asia that sparked my love of travel to those places. No picture, but I've shown it before - it didn't look any different tonight.

I'm surprised that Travel Channel won't be showing any Vietnam episodes - it was one of his favorite places in the world, and he did several episodes for them.

Here's an update on the strawberry experiment: I picked a bunch of flowers this morning - I don't want the plants to fruit until they're a little more mature. They all had flowers except #2 which had some problems from the beginning. If #2 doesn't come back in a few weeks, I'll plant a new one and see if it does any better. Right now, there's too many variables to see where the problems are coming from - is it that plant? Does that variety not do well in hydro? Was it from the shading in the "nursery"? Too many unknowns to be sure...

Being a foodie in NYC, it's impossible not to know Xi'an Famous Foods - they've expanded all over the place. For a period of time, I would go there several times a month. According to an interview, they attribute a lot of their success to Bourdain when he talked them up after eating at their sole stall in a Flushing, Queens mall (Flushing is probably the biggest Chinatown in NYC right now). See https://ny.eater.com/2018/6/8/17442082/xian-famous-foods-jason-wang-anthony-bourdain

I had just heard about this. Like many, I watched his shows for a long time. I think his shows on Asia sparked my love of the region and desire to travel there. Lately, his shows on CNN were beautiful - really well shot, paced, and had a great narrative. I'll miss watching them.

@ImportantElements Your pics always look so good. What do you use for lighting?

Most residential fridges instruct the installer to use a dedicated line as well. Whether or not that is done is a different story, but it's in practically every installation manual I've read, and I've read a lot of them for work!

@pastrygirl Ha! One of these vacations, we're going to go to southern Vietnam - and spend a little time on Phu Quoc - a small island that while it is beautiful, is very well known for having several large fish sauce making facilities. They say you can smell them for miles!

I can't answer your question, but I did want to say that I'm impressed that you tried to make your own soy sauce... it reminds me of when I was young and reading the Time Life series of international cuisine books and saw a description for SE Asian fish sauce. Never seeing it in a store before (that stuff wasn't readily available back then), I tried to make it and it wound up being a horribly spectacularly smelling failure.

BTW, @PassionateAmateur - I used to do what you're talking about every once in a while - I would make a 4-5 course tasting menu for 8-10 people every couple of months, in a small Manhattan kitchen. Sous vide was my best friend and I could make everything (except the fish) the week or so before, then retherm for service and everything tasted just like it would have if made fresh.

@TicTac This is an experiment to grow some relatively rare (in the US) wild strawberries. I have been considering using some unused warehouse space and growing them commercially, but before I put down that kind of capital, I want to check yields, costs, etc. to see if the investment makes sense.

@dcarch There shouldn't be. Usually slime is caused by bacteria, which would be an indication of other problems - primarily root rot caused by anaerobic bacteria. The good thing about NFT is that all the agitation highly oxygenates the water, and since it's only a film on the bottom and there should be no standing water, it should be pretty resistant to anaerobic problems. Theoretically. Over time, as the roots grow, they can block the flow somewhat causing ponding, which is a haven for anaerobic bacteria. The 2% grade usually helps with that, as does "air pruning" which can be done by cycling the nutrient flow on and off letting part of the root get dry and die back. From that point, you get lots of secondary roots, but it keeps the clogging to a minimum. Also, keeping the nutrient cool does a good job of keeping oxygen in the water and the anaerobes at bay. Luckily enough, research has shown that strawberry crowns' optimal temperature is about 65F which is also good for keeping plenty of dissolved oxygen. Most problems start when your nutrient gets over 70. There should also be no algae, since algae needs light to grow, so keeping the root zone and nutrient dark keeps that away.