KennethT

I'm a big fan of the hose torch - you can clip the tank to your belt or pocket or whatever (which keeps the tank upright), and then torch wherever it's convenient. Plus the swirl flame it produces is really effective. I've been using it for years and have never had any kind of torch taste. https://www.bernzomatic.com/Products/Hand-Torches/Instant-On-Off/BZ8250HT

are you talking about mine? It's a GE.

Bumping this old thread. As some know, I recently moved into a new apartment. Even though we did a full renovation, the apartment came with a nice dishwasher - a GE top control stainless steel with stainless tub. It's heads and tails nicer than the one we had in our old rental apartment. I have no idea how old it is - but when I check out the manuals for it online, they're dated around 2010. It was working great until the other day when it died. This means, of course, that I need to investigate. So after taking the whole thing apart, it turns out that one of the discrete relays on the control board is not making contact when it closes, which would power the circulator pump. $30 later (including 2nd day shipping and 3 more spares) means I should have a working dishwasher again by Wednesday evening (hopefully). It shouldn't be difficult to unsolder a thru-hole 4 pin relay and solder in a new one.

I found it interesting that the sausage restaurant listed the meat content percentage.

I agree with @ElsieD and the others. I recently moved into a kitchen with no gas service and plan to have 2 countertop induction hobs. I have teh first one (the relatively inexpensive one) now and will be bringing in the other, expensive one, soon. Even the cheap one is a pleasure to use - the near instant heating for pans, super fast water boiling, plus I can stand near it and not get hot like I would have with gas. For water boiling type stuff, I've been using an old Le Creuset enameled cast iron dutch oven and I'm amazed that I can have water boiling in it, and still grab the handles without a pot holder. I also have a carbon steel wok which is great to use with it - even though I don't have super fine power control on the cheap unit. And if I want to quickly blanch something - I can put maybe 6-8 cups of water in the wok and it will be boiling in about a minute. For the thin carbon steel, when the cheap one cycles on and off, I can definitely see when this happens if I have a small amount of liquid simmering in it - and I have also burned some things once or twice due to a hot spot that I wasn't constantly stirring - like I would be with a stir fry. Eventually I'm going to get a stainless pan with aluminum or something in the core - that should help distribute the hot spots more evenly than the carbon steel.

I would really enjoy durian if I could get it out of my head in a reasonable amount of time after eating it. The fact that it stuck with me for hours afterwards really put me off of having it again in the future.

I've never seen it fresh - at least not in the NY area. I'd love to compare fresh with the frozen. It's quickly becoming my favorite rhizome.

I've been dying to make this dish at home but couldn't because of a lack of a primary ingredient - the grachai (aka krachai, finger root or sometimes labeled 'rhizome'). Over the long weekend we made it down to Chinatown and my favorite store, Asia Market which specializes in all things SE Asian (Sorry Bangkok Center Grocery who was out of stock). They had both the jarred version 'in brine' and also frozen which I had gotten previously. I had heard from online sources that the brined was just as good as fresh (which I've never seen) - but tonight I will say that while it's ok, I think the frozen one is a lot more pungent. I didn't get it this time because I didn't bring any ice paks with me... Pad cha goong featuring kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil from my garden

If these were grown in North America or the Caribbean where they can be imported into the US, the season may be a little different. Personally I've never seen a mangosteen in the NY area that wasn't either imported frozen or irradiated, both of which irreparably damage the fruit. I've seen a few people in my fruit selling FB group selling mangosteen but after lots of questioning it turns out that they had been frozen.

Were they really fresh or were they defrosted or irradiated?

Not yet - I haven't finished the lighting yet so I don't know how well it would come out.

Yes- I am getting back into the groove. I love working in the new kitchen and it's not even done yet! I actually wrote down my prata recipe here...

Singapore chicken curry with home made roti prata

Hope you don't have an aversion to alliums - Sichuan shrimp with Korean leeks, shallot, garlic and garlic chives!

I think this was pretty universal a long time ago. I remember reading about Hanoi how the streets in the old section are named after what's sold there. But even here, in NYC, you would have a certain stretch of different streets (in the older parts of the city) dedicated to selling restaurant supplies, or lighting, or clothing. I think the thinking was the whole "rising tide floats all boats" thing - putting similar stores in the same area brings more people who are looking for that thing because they feel more guaranteed they'll find what they want somewhere.

You can't go wrong with La Chapelle with some age!

I haven't tried it but it's a good idea. I've always heard of other fruits being ripened that way - I didn't think of it for the mango though. I think we have maybe 4 or 5 left, which we're going to keep green in the refrigerator. I'm almost out of the palm sugar/chilli/shallot/fish sauce/shrimp paste dip I made - maybe I'll make a chilli/salt/sugar dip tonight - that's always tasty too!

Congratulations!

Tonight we had yet another of the green mangoes (we're having 1 each night... it's like the Chanukah mango box) but we also had the other one that I left out to ripen. It was amazing! So much better than the other ripe one. It had a similar flavor to some of the best ones I've had in Thailand, but it wasn't quite as juicy. But the flavors were like flowers and honey. I think I need to get another box when it's on offer again... temptation...

You could smell a durian stand in Singapore from across the street and down the block. Outside, not inside.

I've found that frozen durian doesn't smell nearly as strong (once thawed) as the fresh ones do.

I don't think there were any fresh durians there..... probably just frozen and defrosted. It is illegal to import fresh fruit from SE Asia (it all has to be frozen), and I don't think anyone has been successful at growing durian in the US or areas from where we can bring in fresh - like Puerto Rico or Mexico. It's possible that they could have the cut fruit - but it would have been whole defrosted fruit that was cut in the store. When I was in Singapore they had stalls selling durian (in various grades) - both whole fruit, and already cut fruit on a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.

We let 2 of these mangoes sit on the counter to ripen - we had one of them last night. It was really good, and you could tell that it would be amazing if it was left to ripen more on the tree, but being picked as green as it was really hindered the development. If I had never had one of its kind in SE Asia, I would say that this was an amazing mango, but I know its potential of dripping down your chin with a distinctive flavor, so it was a bit disappointing. I'm glad we only left 2 to ripen as we really enjoy them more when they're green.

My wife and I used to go to NOLA once a year (she grew up there) for a long weekend. Most times I'd have gumbo for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then eat my weight in oysters and boiled crawfish. One year we were invited to her step-brother's annual crawfish boil which was a lot of fun (they add pineapple btw) but some of the attendees were a little prejudiced against us Yankees assuming that we would have looked down our noses at them. That was annoying. And ironic.

Personally, I find the stories fascinating, so keep them coming! I don't always like or emoji a post because I have mixed feelings - I'm happy about how you always seem to know how to handle these situations, but I don't know how to describe how I feel about some of the people's actions!