KennethT

Yes, shipping from Canada is expensive. Shipping from Vancouver to me in NY would be about US$250 - using dimensions of 25x21x20 and 30 pounds. Because of the size, UPS used the dimensional weight rather than the um, weight weight.

Thank you so much. I can check the shipping costs either once I get to work on Monday morning or if I figure out how to do it from home this evening. I will keep you posted. As for if I had a choice, I would take the new 500C. I'll get back to you soon!

Just a final update, the seller already wrote back to me and told me to initiate a refund request through Ebay and they will completely refund the purchase including the shipping cost, and that I should just dispose of the oven or try to find someone to fix it - they don't want me to bother returning it to them since it doesn't work anyway. So I'm very happy with this Ebay seller and would certainly buy from them again. So, on to the topic.... sigh.... unless an enterprising Canadian would consider shipping a CSO 500 to me here in NY... hehe... I can pay by Zelle or wire transfer and can throw in a bit extra for the trouble, and I have a UPS account to ship with - I can send a call tag so UPS can pick up from them....

Since my issues here, I'm back in the market for a new steam oven. It seems like the rest of the 300s on Ebay are all used and I'd rather not get a used piece of kitchen equipment. I would jump at the 500 if I could get it, but unfortunately it's unavailable in the US.... so I've been looking at this one from Panasonic: https://shop.panasonic.com/products/homechef-7-in-1-steam-multi-oven-0-7-cu-ft?_pos=1&_psq=sc180&_ss=e&_v=1.0 It's significantly underpowered compared to the CSO 300 and loses an inch in the depth. BUT, it comes with 2 racks and 2 pans which would be convenient at times. It also has a "ferment" setting which could be interesting.

This was a first try - came out really good, I don't know if I would change it - it came out very similar to what we had recently in various places in Jakarta. Makes 3-4 servings for 2 people - 250g Indonesian red keriting chillies (I grow these) if you don't have access to these, you can substitute the same quantity of large red spur chillies plus a few Thai chillies - 1 large US/European shallot or 3 small asian shallots - 3 cloves garlic - 1 red plum tomato (hard and not that ripe) - 3 kaffir lime leaves seasoning: - juice of about 1/3 of a US lime - 1/2 t MSG - 1/3 t chicken or mushroom powder - 1 t salt 1. Grind the chillies, shallot and garlic together to a rough paste 2. Grind the tomato separately 3. Heat a wok with about 1/4C of neutral oil and fry the chilli paste over moderate heat until softened and fragrant, stirring constantly 4. Add the lime leaves and ground tomato 5. Fry, stirring constantly, until the oil seeps back out of the mixture 6. Season, to taste

Finally some time back in the kitchen!!! I made a first try with a Padang style sambal merah, so made some Indonesian-style ground bison patties with sambal merah and sambal ijo. Bison patties with shallot, garlic, black pepper, coriander powder, chicken powder, salt and msg and a touch of starch. .

It's Ebay so you can't call them, but I messaged them through the website explaining the issue. The seller has excellent reviews so I imagine that they'll settle it fairly but they're away until 7/30 so I'll wait to hear back from them. @rotuts Worst comes to worst, they have a 30 day return policy, but that means that I need to pay for shipping back to them - to CA from NY so not inexpensive but at least I'll get most of my money back. I'm hoping that they will send a call tag to return at their expense and provide a full refund (including the shipping cost to me) since I'm returning it because it was defective, not because I don't like it or want it.

Yes, I definitely tried different outlets and have reset the GFCI. But, my GFCI outlet has an LED that shows status and it's green. Plus, I plugged something else in at the same outlet at the same time (duplex outlet) and it's working fine. We've tried that too. It used to help, but not anymore. It seems like it works for a few minutes - usually around 5-7 minutes and then the screeching starts. I think that once it gets warm, the dimensions change a bit and the bearing freezes up - many sleeve bearings act that way - they're less expensive than ball bearings, but that's what it sounds like - a frozen bearing - it might not be too difficult to fix but I can't get in there to get to it. Also, some bearings are press-fit onto the shaft and I don't know if I can make a jig to press it (I have a hydraulic press at work but it's big and without a proper jig, it would do more damage than good!).

Arrrggghhhh.. I'm dying here. This morning, the old oven made that screeching noise over and over no matter how many times it was restarted. The one quoted above finally arrived today after a week in transit, so I got the old one out of the way, unboxed this one - one thing weird - the external box shows 2 buttons (no steam clean) but the inside box shows the 3 button version (with steam clean) but still the p/n is 300N, not 300N1. Anyway, I removed the oven (looks unused, but I noticed that one of the small screws in the back is missing - and it is the 3 button version but says 300N stamped in the metal on the back), removed the rack/baking tray to be cleaned, filled the water tank and plugged it in... and nothing. No LCD screen, no buttons - nothing works. I tried unplugging/replugging a few times but nothing. I emailed the seller and am waiting for the response... meanwhile, I'm left with the screecher.

I think your cats are eating better than I am!! I've seen those on a buffet in Malaysia. All different sizes... They're even better when rehydrated and then fried!

Exactly, once 100C is attained, any extra energy goes to the latent heat of vaporization.... So the more heat energy there is, the more violent the boil as there's more vaporization, but temp stays the same.

with lots of stuff in it!

@TdeV @ElsieD I'm sorry for the confusion... I put up the Airline meals (both ways) while still on the plane (flew there on July 1 (really late - so we didn't get our first meal until technically 7/2) and returned home July 12, again leaving really late so technically 7/13), and I linked to them while still really jetlagged.... The rest of the posts were written starting a day or so after getting home.... still really jetlagged! Here's the links to the flight over's meals: 1st meal on the flight to SIN 2nd meal on the flight to SIN Singapore to Jakarta Returning home: 1st meal flying SIN to NYC 2nd meal flying home Snack flying home Snack flying home just before landing

interesting. I actually use the broil function from time to time. I'm surprised it can't do it since it's only just using the top heating element. Does it say how air fry works? Is it just bake (top and bottom elements) plus strong fan?

I wonder what the difference is between air fryer and turbo roast?

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.

With an answer like that, why did they even bother replying?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.