KennethT

@ElsieDtook the word right out of my mouth!!! That water is so clear...

I've never seen pickles on a standard American-Chinese restaurant.... however, every Sichuan restaurant here offers at least one kind of pickle. The Hunan restaurant around the corner from me liberally uses pickled mustard greens as a condiment.

As I'm sure you know, lots of deep water fish are frozen whole on the boat since the boat stays out at sea for days or weeks at a time. When frozen properly, there is no additional water added - the fish's skin keeps the water out. In my part of the USA, I don't think it's possible to find truly fresh shrimp/prawns. I think what we see in stores here that looks like fresh is really just already thawed. Much of the fresh fish we get is a over a day old - at best it was caught the day before, at worst, I don't want to know! When improperly (too slowly) frozen, ice crystals form in the meat's intracellular fluid, breaking cell walls. Once thawed, the punctured cell walls lose their fluid, which results in the weight loss you describe - I don't think the higher frozen weight is because of water added. Modern blast freezing or super cold brine freezing solves this problem by minimizing or eliminating crystalization - so cell walls don't get punctured and you don't lose fluid once defrosted. And buying live fish in the USA? Good luck, other than in Chinatown. Unfortunately, most Americans have an aversion to buying their meat live, with lobster being the only exception I can think of. And most unfortunately, many of the Chinatown fish stores with live fish are notorious for using low quality fish. Definitely not wild, line caught. With all this being said, I still haven't had a chance to try any of the frozen fish I received lately - but that should change this weekend, and I'll report back. I do know that the spot prawns I had last weekend were fantastic - just as good as the prawns I had in Roses, Spain where the restaurant has personal relationships with the local fishermen and what is served is usually only out of the water for an hour or two.

We use sharpies to mark wine glasses when tasting more than 1 bottle at a time. The ink washes off with soap and water.

I recently saw a Rick Bayless video on guacamole - he confirmed what I already thought - avocados don't ripen off the tree, they soften. They take a year on the tree to ripen, which means, they accumulate fat. They get to full size within 3 months, but need the extra 9 months to accumulate the fat which will never happen off tree. However, they won't soften on the the tree - they need to be removed for that. I have very little pear knowledge, so I can't comment on whether they are truly ripening off tree or something else...

I liked @JoNorvelleWalker's idea of mapo tofu. I'd also consider various spicing methods to either make an Indian sikh kabob or maybe a middle eastern kabob... or go the Indonesian route with a sate lilit.

This is a slightly different thing - no fruit, heritage or not, will taste good if not picked ripe. Plus, among the thousands of "heritage" strains of tomatoes, lots of them are just plain blah - even when picked perfectly ripe. I think most people buy the heritage or heirloom tomatoes in the grocery store because of how they look, and just imagine that they taste better.

huh, you would think that a block of tuna that size (the "small" one) would need a lot more than 5 minutes when starting from -60C. I would've assumed that the salted water would initially form a glaze on it once removed from the water bath and that it would need hours in the refrigerator to completely defrost. I'd also assume that the fish from Alaska is super frozen - especially after traveling on top of a block of dry ice. But after it's been off teh dry ice and in a normal freezer for a while, it's no longer super frozen.

I don't know if heritage or heirloom are terms defined by the USDA. If not defined, anyone is free to use them on anything so they're practically worthless. Lots of official sounding terms are used in food marketing but actually are unregulated and mean nothing, i.e. "all natural" etc...

I have a great memory of getting a pineapple like this - peeled and de-eyed but on a stick from a vendor roaming the beach in Thailand. Wish I took a photo of it.

I've seen people in Thailand peel and de-eye them so fast - with a cleaver! This was definitely the best pineapple I've had in the continental US. (I remember having some fantastic pineapple in Hawaii - but that was many years ago). I'm so happy I stumbled on to this Facebook group about buying/selling fruit. The quality is so much better than I can get locally - it's too bad shipping is so expensive.

I just got a box of these Phulae pineapples (a Thai variety) grown in Guatemala and picked ripe (not picked green). I have strong memories of going crazy over the pineapples in Thailand and Vietnam... They're much smaller than the pineapples we get here but they have such a strong flavor and aroma and are ridiculously sweet and juicy. While carving this one, I had to stop a few times to remove the juice off the board so it wouldn't spill onto the counter. Don't want to waste it! My mediocre carving job to remove the eye Finally!!!! This plate lasted about 1-1/2 minutes between me and my wife.

that's fascinating. Are the peanuts pickled raw or are they boiled or roasted first?

It looks likethe scallops were IQF - like shrimp usually are. Then they're just placed in a sealed bag - no vacuum.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about - phak kat dong. It was never neon when I saw it in Thailand (or in Vietnam for that matter) but the only stuff I can find in the stores here is extremely neon.

wow - you've trained them really well!

I can find Thai preserved mustard greens in my local Asian store - they're always a neon yellow/green color - although I've never seen that color anywhere in Asia. I'm curious if your locally packaged preserved mustard looks similarly or if it is an export thing that they add extra preservatives or something.

Absolutely gorgeous... and that hotel balcony for breakfast is worth any price - even if the bed was made out of straw!

This just shows the value of sarcasm on the internet... at least without something to make it exceedingly obvious - like a hehe or an emoji the kids like using nowadays... hehe...

When they live in the water, they don't have any exposed flesh - skin is a moisture barrier.

They probably recommend it for concerns of bacterial growth and being very conservative. Reduced Oxygen Packaging has botulism concerns at temps over refrigerator temp. So, as the package is defrosting in the water bath, you have potential for the bacteria to grow on the warmer parts (the outside) while you're waiting for the inside to thaw. 15-20 minutes is fine, but you wouldn't want to let it sit for a few hours. And botulism toxin isn't destroyed by heat, so cooking it thoroughly post-defrost won't help.

I've never used frozen fish (yet) either, and like @Margaret Pilgrim, in the past, I've always defrosted shrimp in a bowl of cold water and never had any problems. Part of me can't believe I've been putting in so much research into the best way to defrost the fish, but I think I'm doing it just because it's so expensive compared to fish I usually buy in the supermarket.

Interesting. I haven't thawed any fish yet - I think I'm going to do one set tonight - maybe the cod. They have a blog on their website, and one of the posts talks about how to thaw. They recommend taking the fish out of the vacuum bag and thawing on a rack in the refrigerator - that way, the fish won't be sitting in a puddle of salt water melted glaze. There's also a video showing a bunch of different defrosting methods. I think that I would only thaw in salt water if I wanted to do it in a hurry - then I would use salted cold tap water and leave it on the counter - possibly changing the water once it starts to feel really cold.

Back to an old favorite tonight , Cafe Mogador. First time in a year and a half. We've gotten delivery but it's definitely not the same. Fresh squeezed lemonade with mint Various mezze to start - sauteed shrimp with a lot of garlic, homemade tabouli, and babaganoush - served with just baked pita. 2 lamb tagines - lamb charmoulla and lamb with preserved lemon and olives, served with their fantastic couscous.

I'm no professional, but I've eaten the tops of the baby leeks I get in my local Hmart - htey're like big scallions.