
KennethT
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A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Not only to enjoy in a healthy state, but you can't dive if you have a head cold - snorkel only. So since the whole point of going to Bunaken was to dive, we wanted to make sure we'd be able to do it once we got there... hence quarantining as best we could for like 4 weeks before we left, to masks all the time prior to getting there. The mangosteen were great. The hotel in Bunaken didn't offer too much more - they had a lot of rambutan and SE Asian bananas and we saw a lot of salak (snake fruit) which I'm not a huge fan of. -
I think the letter was referring to the CSO-300N1 no longer being made, not the CSO-500.
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With an answer like that, why did they even bother replying?
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Rice cooker using a little less water than the amount of rice usually calls for. As that amount of water boils in the rice cooker, it hydrates the rice and by then its completely absorbed. At that point, the rice cooker switches to keep warm mode and I Iet it sit for at least a half hour after the machine says the rice is ready for it to be completely steamed. In my 20 year old rice cooker/slow cooker/steamer, I use 2 fillings of rice (washed well) using the included cup which seems to be the standard rice cooker sized cup, and then fill to about 1-3/8 mark on the inside of the cooker - a little less than between the 1 and 2 mark.
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A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
We wore the N95s practically everywhere indoors except while eating before we got to Sulawesi. The only exception that comes to mind is on the flight to Singapore - since we had upgraded to biz class (using miles) and we saw how much space there was between seats and how the seat kind of wraps around you, we figured it would be really hard for someone's expectorate to reach us without going through the plane's hepa filter first. Fortunately, when eating indoors in Jakarta, there was a decent amount of space between tables everywhere we went - unlike when we're in NYC and you're literally rubbing elbows with the tables next to you, and restaurants are so loud that everyone has to shout to be heard (forcefully expelling the contents of their lungs). The last time we wore masks in Sulawesi was in the long car rides to get to the marina after the airport. We stopped wearing them once we were on the open boat (what's the point?) and the hotel was almost completely open air with lots of space between tables, etc. Also, we didn't worry about getting a respiratory virus once we started diving as it would take a couple days to incubate - and by that time, we'd be finished diving so the worry is over. We didn't bother wearing masks on the trip home since we weren't concerned if we got sick or not and we'd rather be comfortable on the 18 hour flight while in our seats - although we did put one on when going back to and in the restroom on the plane. -
@Shelby That method for rice works great for basmati - really helps with the lengthening of the grains. Jasmine rice can get mushy when done that way - it prefers to be steamed rather than boiled once hydrated otherwise it gets gummy and also loses its aroma.
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A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Weird... when I click the link, it takes me to the first post of the return flight meals. First up are the photos of the menus, then photos of the first meal. Next post is the 2nd meal, followed by a post with the snack, followed by the pizza... Let me know if you don't see it and I can link it again.... -
Years ago, I used to make flank steak SV pretty regularly. My goto was 131F for 24 hours, then torch before serving.
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A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
After breakfast, we went back to the room to start getting everything together and pack. Our flight to Singapore left Manado at 5PM which meant that we had to check out and be on the boat back to Manado by 1:45. 2 other groups of guests were leaving at the same time since they we were all on the same flight - there's a limited way to get to/from Manado. Lunch started at 1PM, so we all had a fast lunch on the beach: Tofu, chicken curry with herbs and sambal bakar (top left), sambal matah (between the tofu and chicken) and the last dabu-dabu. I don't know why they called this black forest cake - no cherries were involved it its creation.... Last pineapple for a while.... One of the servers was so sweet - the coffee mousse was late being brought out to the buffet, so as we were eating, he came to us to let us know that it arrived and asked if he could bring us some. Note that all of the mousses (mic(c)e?) had the texture and mouthfeel of whipped cream. Unfortunately, this would be the last time we would eat until the airport in Singapore that night. The airport in Manado was pretty desolate (I don't think they had many flights that day) and had limited food options - besides, we weren't really that hungry yet. Then the 3 hour flight to Singapore was on a budget airline so nothing there either. Once in Singapore, we had to go through immigration (takes 2 seconds using their autogates) and then get our bags, and then check them in for our flight home. I had planned on getting something fast to eat at a food stall in our terminal at a place called Sarawak Gourmet which claimed to make colo mee, a famous noodle dish from Kucing - the main city of Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo), but unfortunately and surprisingly for the Singapore airport, it took forever to get our bags. They claimed that there was some kind of technical problem in getting the bags off the plane but it took at least 45 minutes to get our bags. The airport came around with a cart with snacks, but we weren't in the mood for a pack of Oreo cookies, a bag of Doritos or a Kit Kat bar. By the time we got our bags and rechecked them in, there was no way we'd be able to get something to eat as our flight was due to start boarding in about 30 minutes. We passed a French boulangerie called Paul on the way to our gate, so once we were settled, I ran back to them and grabbed their last palmier as I could grab it fast. No photos - we devoured it in the final minutes before boarding which between that and some cashews I had brought from home (yikes, I wonder what their carbon footprint was!) was enough to tide us over until meal time on the plane which could be found starting here. Getting ready to land in NY around 6AM. So that's it for this trip! Thanks for reading along and see you after the New Year! -
A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Last breakfast: Bacon, chocolate pancake (with rambutan honey) and awesome pastry stuffed with spiced apple. I went back and got seconds of those, to make up for all the diving we had done the last 3 days, of course. Can't get enough of this... my wife and I did our best to clean them out of pineapple at practically every meal. Toast with peanut butter - unsweetened, unsalted plain ground peanuts... the texture was runny and with the house made preserves and some salt was fantastic. -
A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Dinner that night: Cake-bread. Very tasty with: Mild dabu-dabu. The hotel would usually provide a triple dish with dabu-dabu, sambal bakar and some olive oil but we would clean out the sambals in a couple bites so they always brought us more. That night was the night of the buffet sushi, but they also had a seafood barbeque: Grilled shrimp, tuna and squid, with red rice and dabu-dabu which is always great with fish. I can't remember when I've had as many desserts as on this trip. I kept telling myself that it was because of all of the exercise.... hehe.... -
A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Lunch that day was held "inside" - the restaurant had a roof but no walls - because was drizzling on and off: Chicken cutlet with garlic and kaffir lime rice, sambal bakar and dabu-dabu. From the side station - mackerel with coconut sauce. I really appreciated the fact that it was cooked to order - it was cooked perfectly, nicely flakey and juicy - not how the fish in the area is typically cooked which is "to death" since the fish at the market isn't refrigerated or on ice. I have to say that I was a little nervous that it wasn't thoroughly cooked knowing how fish is typically stored/treated in that area but there were no problems. One evening, the hotel even had a sushi display in the buffet but we were both too nervous to have any raw fish there. I assume that it would have been safe, but we didn't want to risk anything getting in the way of the diving, which is our whole reason for being there. Studded with slices of fresh coconut. -
A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
Breakfast the next morning: Beef sausage with sambal bakar. The sausage was simmered with onion - it kind of tasted like bologna or mortadella. Gotta have my pineapple and dragonfruit fix.... Sweet bread filled with chocolate: The chocolate interior was surprisingly not grainy like I typically see it in a chocolate croissant - pain au chocolat. More dive videos: I'd never seen this live before - a turtle at a cleaning station - several remora fish were stuck on the turtle eating whatever was stuck to its shell. Bigmouth mackerel - we saw a couple of schools of these over the few days we were there. -
A week in Jakarta and Bunaken island, Indonesia
KennethT replied to a topic in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Dining
A couple dive videos from that day: This video shows a couple of turtles... The island of Bunaken is well known for lots of turtles but I was shocked at how many we saw over the 3 days. This is an interesting video - it shows the caretaker of the reef - the parrotfish, in action. In addition to being really colorful, they're interesting because they bite off a chunk of coral reef and then poop out sand... Dinner that night was not buffet, but plated for some reason. Menu Onion bread - like at the other hotel, the bread had a cake-like texture - this one was stuffed with sliced onion. Really tasty with a ton of the sambal dabu-dabu Amuse - a fish croquette Pork dumplings I neglected to take a photo of the main course - I got the chicken massaman curry which didn't really taste like massaman but it was tasty. Mango parfait. -
I don't even see it listed at all at Cuisinart USA's website... If an enterprising Canadian were to send a friend in the USA a gift, do we have to pay duty?
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@Duvel Your ability to put out so many dishes plus side dishes and not spend 4 days making it all never ceases to impress me. I'd love to see video of you working in the kitchen - must be like watching ballet...
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I saw the NuWave earlier today but the footprint is significantly smaller than the CSO-500C. CSO: 20.80" x 19.10" x 18.30" NW: 13.88 x 14.75 x 14.88
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I think your Google map needs updating.... St. Catharine's ON is about 450 miles away from NYC.... That's a long day trip!
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Yes, I see it on Cuisinart Canada's website, but not on their US website.
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It's not too late for me to cancel my Ebay order if you're willing to part with yours!
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It'd be even funnier if that's who I was buying it from!!! She doesn't happen to live in California?
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Thanks. It's amazing how we can become attached to devices like this. I'll probably keep it even if the pan doesn't fit - I barely use it with that pan anymore anyway so it's not a huge loss. If it is only a fraction of an inch different, I can always shave down the cast iron pan a bit! Always fun to break out the angle grinder....
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Also, I find it a little funny that I paid considerably more for the replacement than I did for the original!
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Screw it... I bought it. I figure that they have a 30 day return policy in case it's not what I thought - I just pay the shipping back. Thanks for the help, y'all!
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Interesting - the photo of the box shows the p/n as CSO-300N, but the image of the oven on the box shows the steam clean button. Personally, I don't really care about the steam clean button, I can always just set the oven to super steam at 250F but I'm more concerned about the difference in interior space.