KennethT

@Kim Shook This dish, among many others, is very easily customizable. In fact, many times, when you order this in a local food place, it won't have any chili in the dish at all, but will have a dish of chili on the table for you to add as much as you want. I've found that Viet food is not usually very spicy - there are a lot of flavors, but tongue-tingling, make-you-sweat heat is not usually one of them, unless you add tons of chili yourself. ETA: There are actually no chili flakes in my version either... when I marinated the chicken, I used a bit of chili paste, but that paste isn't that hot, but has a good chili flavor. And I put a bunch of thinly sliced "spur" chilis - long hot red chilis (that aren't that hot) in the dressing, but I defanged them so their mild heat was even milder - my wife is not a huge fan of very spicy food. But they have great flavor other than heat, which is why I put them in.

Inspired by @liuzhou's trip to Vietnam, I made a dish found all over Vietnam, although originating in the Central part of the country: Bun ga... you can't see the noodles in there - they're buried under the lettuce.... but there were plenty..

I had an amazing goat biryani in Singapore... the meat was tender, but yes, there were lots of small bones.

I'm guessing their larger size is what makes the second ones their "professional" series? Is that what they mean by PRO?

Somtum Der in the EV makes a raw shrimp dish that is awesome... On the less spicy side, I also really enjoy getting sweet shrimp (raw) in sushi form too....

@Pan Ha! I joked with the owner about the lack of babi guling! What we had was very well prepared... we will definitely be going back.

Just went to Bali Kitchen in the East Village for lunch. I think it's a great addition to the neighborhood. Everything was really tasty and fresh, and really well cooked - it's a fast casual type place with only a few seats - I think most of their business will be takeout. It's run by two older Indonesian guys - both are really nice. As we were enjoying our lunch there, they even brought us over a little basket of various crackers. Shrimp chips (nice and shrimpy) next to a canister of sambal Fish sate lilit Rendang Ayam (chicken) Dabu dabu - turmeric marinated broiled fish with mango pineapple salsa Crackers on the house... I think the white and colored ones were some kind of fish cracker - and the bubbly ones were barley/oat crackers... more shrimp crackers on the bottom. The cost including tax/tip was $42 - which included the sate lilit, shrimp crackers, rendang and fish... We thought everything was really well prepared - we felt like it was a good value. We will definitely be going back.

What are fruits of babies?

@DiggingDogFarm I like the emulsifier idea if the OP doesn't want to change the recipe or change the flavor by using a roux. A little bit of lecithin will go a long way and keep it from separating.

I've bought frozen fish that said that on the vacuum pack. The reason the company gave is that the fish is first flash frozen without the packaging, and then sealed under a hard vacuum once frozen solid. The company said to remove from the packaging first because they thought that the pressure would damage the fish once the fish was soft and have a bad texture when cooked.

Ha!! Here's a pic looking at the bottom of the machine... It can only go one way! Here's it in action You can't see the motor but the bottom of the spit looks like a flathead screwdriver and the motors shaft has a slot to accept it. Notice the chicjen grease on the spit - I expected it to run off onto the drip pan, but some just ran along the underside and down the shaft into the motor... unbeknownst to me at the time!

It can also be supremely frustrating - a couple months ago, I got a vertical rotisserie... after 2 uses, it died... the autopsy revealed that the design was really stupid - the spit motor is located directly under the spit, so as you're roasting away, some grease or juices runs down the shaft and gets into the motor. Just as I discovered this issue, the 30 day Amazon return expired... I've been trying to find replacement motors - I've looked everywhere - I can find many similar motors with the similar speed, the same mounting, but the end of the shaft shape (where the spit plugs in) is wrong so I'd either have to remachine the spit or the motor shaft... It's a shame because the heating elements and reflector work great. Making a new spit myself, or redesigning how the motor interfaces with it may wind up costing more than the rotisserie did!

$5 is certainly a challenge here in Manhattan where everything is more expensive... Also, lots of dishes that I make use things like fish sauce or whatever which can't be bought in small quantities, except for Red Boat, which is extraordinarily expensive and I haven't had the nerve to pull the trigger on it yet. But even still, my $3/liter of fish sauce works out to like $.001 per serving. Also, many of the curries I make may cost $20 worth of ingredients (many of them have to come from who knows where, and there isn't a lot of competition for it) but that batch of curry is good for usually 4 meals for 2 people (so 8 servings) - I can't justify doing all work for 1 meal. While I understand weinoo's philosophy, I looked at the OP as a challenge of how to eat well for very little money, not just to eat for sustenance. I would hardly compare beef stroganoff to rice and beans. I was pretty impressed he could pull off a stroganoff for $5. Exactly munchymom - I think that's a great idea!

Yay!!

I haven't made any of the recipes per se yet, but she is engaging to watch and her food certainly looks good: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/

Great! Rather than just twisting with electrical tape, I would rather use wire nuts - they're self insulating and make a better connection than just twisting wires together. (Actually, personally, I would use a crimped connector, but that's just because I have access to them and the appropriate crimping tool - but the wire nuts would work fine). BTW, if you don't want to purchase wire strippers, in a pinch, I have used a knife - just be careful not to nick or cut any of the stranded wires

It looks like you will need a set of metric hex keys for the screw with the hex shaped indentation... Metric keys are a little hard to find in the US, but I've seen sets bundled with Imperial measures at the Home Depot. You can either hold the nut with a socket wrench, nut driver, or even a pair of pliers.

@Kerry Beal Wow, it sounds like your husband and I have a lot in common!

Tonight's chicken thigh variation... Fennel som tum with kumquat...

H2O2 definitely has good use as a sanitizer. In hydroponics, it's very commonly used to fight anaerobic bacteria that could be living in root systems or the reservoir. I used to keep a gallon of 17% H2O2 in my fridge at all times - I'd basically add 8ml per gallon and that would take care of any bacterial issues. I've since stopped using H2O2 in favor of hypochlorous acid - it lasts longer in the reservoir and does just as good of a job initially. The problem with H2O2 is that it is unstable at low concentrations - which is why the drugstore stuff at 3% needs stabilizers... At 17 or 35% it is stable, but should be kept refrigerated. So once it's diluted, it doesn't last long.

did a little more reading - it seems like this restaurant is unrelated to Borobudur which used to occupy that space. I gather the owners are different.

@Duvel When we were in HK, there were only 2! This was the Causeway Bay location..

can't wait to see more of it!

Yes, probably... I had never been to (or even heard of) any other Indonesian places, but that's where it is...

I don't think I've ever heard of Huli Huli before... what is it? Is it Polynesian? Hawaiian?