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KennethT

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Everything posted by KennethT

  1. Ok... Duck is not hard to find... Or wasn't.... But grouse?
  2. I don't think you'd find that stuff in Shoprite in the best of times!
  3. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Infanticide on that Chablis! GC Chablis can age really really well...
  4. When we were in Beijing, we visited a tea house with one of my wife's friends and another person we ran into while walking through the hutongs to get there... The owner of the tea house put out a huge spread of snacks for us (which we were all too full to eat since we just came from a large lunch), but among the snacks was a plate of fruit smothered in what looked like mayo.... I can only imagine that it's the kewpie stuff.... let's just say that curiosity did NOT get the best of me...
  5. Definitely. It reminds me of the Chinese restaurant we'd frequent when I was a kid. The waiters all wore mustard yellow jackets (not that it was a fancy place - it wasn't). Brings back a lot of memories.
  6. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Yes, it is pre-ground and vacuum packed ground bison. I definitely understand your concern about eating pre-ground meat that does not get pasteurized. For me personally, I think that the risk is worth it - my wife and I are generally very healthy, so the possible bout with food poisoning most probably won't kill us. Plus, we don't eat it very often, which lowers the risk considerably. I also feel that the bison pre-ground at the processing plant and vacuum packed is safer than store ground - less hands that it has to go through, and I expect and sincerely hope that they are using safe practices at the processing plant - I'd imagine they would have stricter controls than they do at the grocery store as well.
  7. After a few days with more light and some nutrient, the rau ram is starting to look a lot better
  8. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    @liuzhou when you buy shrimp in your supermarket (or wherever you buy them) are they head-on and shell-on or do they come precleaned and headless?
  9. I'll expand the "what to plant together" discussion to container gardening indoors. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to plant all the different herbs I'll be growing. In an ideal world, I'd have each planted separately so I can tailor water/nutrient/light to each plant. The last time I grew a bunch of herbs, I had them in my windowsill NFT (nutrient film technique) garden. In this situation, they all got the same amount of everything, and consequently, some were very unhappy - like my cilantro which bolted after about 2 weeks since my window is southern facing and on a sunny day can get HOT! Now, I'm preparing to move (whenever NY State and my building decide to start allowing non-essential construction to do my renovations) eventually, so I've been putting my herbs in my 5'x5' grow tent that sits in the middle of my living room. I'm also going to be experimenting growing them a little differently - hydro in coco coir. I had a lot of issues with the NFT system - I realized that NFT is not meant for long term plants - it's best suited to sow/grow/harvest the whole plant all at once. So, for instance, my basil which I would only harvest some at a time, lived for a long time and turned into a giant bush - but the root system got so large that it blocked the water flow causing ponding in the trough, and almost caused a flood all over my floor! Ponding is a no-no because the stagnant water doesn't quickly becomes devoid of oxygen which then causes root rot issues. So far I have a small kaffir lime tree, and curry leaf tree, sawtooth coriander aka culantro, rau ram aka vietnamese coriander and lemongrass. The kaffir lime and curry leaf are similar in the fact that they're both in the citrus family - so both like lots of light - full sun, which I am interpreting as a DLI of about 25mol/m2/day and the roots like to dry out a little between waterings as they are very prone to root rot issues. These will each go in their own container with their own moisture sensor to determine watering frequency. The sawtooth, even though it is a tropical plant, doesn't like too much light - from my research, the leaves have better texture and more flavor if grown in part-shade, which I am interpreting as a DLI of about 10. So it will need its own container so I can place it further away from my sole source light. The lemongrass and rau ram seem to have similar requirements - full sun and keep the soil moist at all times. So, they can probably be put together - but my question is whether the lemongrass will spread - does anyone have any experience with it? Down the line, I'll be planting mint (which needs its own container due to its invasive root system), cilantro (which may be able to be put with the sawtooth), thai basil and regular basil, which could probably go in the same container as well.
  10. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Bison burgers with avocado...
  11. @Anna N That's exactly what I did, and they turned out well (just not enough of them, but then again, is there ever?) but I was just curious if there was a magic perfect temperature that the freak could hold so I wouldn't have to stand over it for 20-30 minutes....
  12. Sorry - you had it exactly - crispy shallots used in Thai and Indian (among others) cuisines - sliced very thinly.
  13. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Thai style biryani... Khao mok gai...
  14. Yes. For a while, he had a few restaurants in NY. He started here with Pok Pok NY, which basically was a recreation of the Pok Pok in Portland. The dish that had all the herbs was a northern Thai laap - which had no lime juice, but had all these really interesting herbs and spices. Served along side was a plate of rau ram, sawtooth coriander and thai basil. I loved the dish so I didn't really need an excuse to get it, but I would always get it when I wanted to start a new rau ram plant because it doesn't really grow from seed and is only propagated through cuttings - and needless to say, those cuttings (at least in NYC) are really hard to find. After a while he also opened PP pad thai which basically just focused on pad thai - even though it was really good, probably the best I've had outside of Thailand, I always missed the fact that you couldnt get it with shrimp head fat, which is a common addition in Thailand. He then opened a bar which also served snacks (and served as a place to wait while waiting for a table at PPNY)... sadly, all three have been closed for a while. He just couldn't make the NYC economics work.
  15. Nice! I"ve grown rau ram a few times before - although I've never had to pay for it. There used to be a restaurant (Pok Pok NY) that served a dish with some sprigs of it alongside... so I'd take a sprig home and sprout it (it clones really really easily) in a rockwool cube in my DIY cloner - although it roots just as easily in a glass of water. It likes staying nice and wet. I haven't grown kaffir lime, but I've been growing a dwarf regular lime tree for like 15 years so I imagine it would be pretty similar, but I'm giving it (along with the rest of these) a shorter day (about 13 hours or so) to simulate summer in Thailand. I've read that sawtooth coriander likes partial shade - if grown in too much sun it has less flavor and the leaves are less green.... so I've put it further away from the light than the rest. Right now I've been giving most of the plants about 600umols/m2/s - for a DLI of about 15mol. The sawtooth is getting about 200umols/m2/s. I figured I'll keep the lemongrass evenly moist - as most grasses like.... and from what HeidiH said (and other videos I've seen) the curry plant likes to dry out a bit between waterings - which is similar to the citrus tree. I am well aware that citrus is very prone to root rot, so it likes really good drainage. Most people kill citrus from overwatering. If you see the leaves dropping and twig dieback on a citrus, it's usually root rot.
  16. Does anyone know the optimum temperature to fry onions for really crispy onions? I'd assume it's around 250F but I wouldn't swear to it
  17. @heidih Thanks. I saw some other sources basically saying the same thing - so I'll treat it the same way I treat my citrus trees - let it dry out a bit between waterings...
  18. Has anyone grown a curry leaf plant successfully? Someone was talking about growing them several years ago, but hasn't been around in a while? I'm just curious if they like more or less water - are they prone to root rot?
  19. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Chicken curry with homemade roti prata.....
  20. The leaves are not a dark green like they should be.... maybe because they just spent the last 6 days in a box, or maybe the nursery's greenhouse isn't getting enough light yet... but yes, otherwise it looks pretty good.
  21. They arrived! Most look ok, but the rau ram has seen better days. I gave them a bit of water and light and we'll see how it goes...
  22. I ordered some herb starts (and a kaffir lime plant) from Well-Sweep Herb farm - about 60 miles away from me. They shipped on Monday by the US Post Office and the package is finally arriving today!!!! 6 Days!! And they shipped it by Priority Mail!! I hope they all survived...
  23. When I have to go out here, I use the tip of a key to push elevator buttons, pin pads, etc. I also keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer with me to use immediately if I have to touch something with my hands.
  24. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    Happy bday @TicTac! Love Pio Cesare! My wife just got a whole bunch of samples from them... nice to know someone in the wine biz...
  25. KennethT

    Dinner 2020

    That's about the same price I'd pay when I got them... the vast majority of the cost is the shipping!!
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