KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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Trying my hand at more south Indian food - trying to get close to that fish head curry meal we had in Singapore. Mahi mahi in slightly sour curry with roasted potatoes. Both made with my home grown curry leaves.
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2 hours ago, liuzhou said:
I was sceptical but had to try.
As I’ve mentioned before, despite my living very close to Vietnam, very little of their cuisine makes its way here. So, I was surprised to find this on my food delivery app today. A restaurant apparently called Saigon. Or perhaps, not. I’ll get back to that.
So, I scrolled through the menu and was surprised to note that many of the dishes listed and beautifully illustrated appeared to me to be more Thai than Vietnamese. Tom Yum soup included.
Some dishes
Fish in Tom Yum Sauce (Viet-Thai?)
Lime Sour Fish Soup
Vietnamese Sausages
Mint Grilled Pork Ribs
They had their take on phở, but only phở gà, the chicken version, labelled in Chinese as 越南鸡肉米粉 (yuè nán jī ròu mǐ fěn, Vietnam chicken rice noodles). No phở bò, Vietnam’s national dish, the beef version. Hmm.
Phở Gà
I didn’t have much of an appetite, so decided just to have one of the the bánh mì they were offering, labelled in Chinese as 越南三明治 (yuè nán sān míng zhì, Vietnam sandwich). Their illustration looked reasonable.
What arrived with me was this.
Which, rather sensibly if I say so myself, I opened to reveal this.
So far so good. The bread was exceptionally good. Made with Vietnamese rice flour, according to their description. However, they had sliced the sandwich into four; I've eaten hundreds of bánh mì in Vietnam and never had one sliced like that. Or sliced at all.
The slices tipped over to show you the contents.
The contents were what looked like liver sausage but wasn't. It was bland and tasteless. I think it was MRM chicken formed into a sausage shape. I want my liver pâté in my bánh mì. Then there what I think was meant to be char siu. It was hard to tell what the dry meaty stuff was. This came with a load of salad (as it should) which had been smothered in Kewpie "mayonnaise". It wasn't rank but disappointing. Only the bread saved it. I'd stil try some of their other dishes though, even though it was kind of expensive for here..
I stil don't know what the restaurant is called. The app lsting said Saigon. The box containing the bánh mì said Charm of Honey Viet. The plastic bag everything came in said Le Charme de Saigon. I know where they live, so I'll visit once I regain my mobility and will check it out.
The first seven images are from the restaurant's listing on the delivery app.
Fascinating. Kind of like a Viet/Thai hybrid. Those sausages definitely look Vietnamese... like nem. I'm glad the bread for the banh mi was good - to me, that's what makes it. Although from my research, they don't use rice flour in Vietnam - it's wheat flour with some kind of "dough improver" built in - some say it's like Vitamin C powder. I think the pale meat like substance is not a liver or chicken but a product in Vietnam called Chả lụa which is some kind of emulsified pork sausage. It's a common component of banh mi in Saigon (along with a few other meats). It's also a common addition to banh cuon:
in the upper right.
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@blue_dolphin Shiso (the green/red kind @liuzhou mentioned) is commonly used in Vietnamese food as well. In Vietnamese, it's called Tiá Tô. In Southern Vietnam, like Saigon, it's a common part of the bush of herbs served in every pho shop and with things like banh xeo.
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3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:
Wow, I had no idea there were so many kinds. I'd love to try the Indian, Mexican and Indonesian varieties!
I don't have any bay trees, though I'd like to get a bay laurel.
I love daun salam (Indonesian bay leaf). It's very different than the standard Bay leaf. I can get the dried leaves pretty easily but fresh or frozen ones are impossible which is a shame because fresh and dried are quite a bit different. I've never seen the dried leaves used in Indonesia - always fresh but that's not surprising since it's tropical.
I've been wanting to grow a daun salam tree but the starts are impossible to find in the US. Also, the seeds are more like a berry and must be planted fresh, so while seeds are available via Ebay and Etsy (shipped directly from Indonesia), I've heard that most of them are not viable and never sprout. It's also currently illegal to bring in either seeds or starts without a phytosanitary cert, which is hard to come by - they're typically only done for expensive houseplants where it pays to go through the effort and expense of the cert.
I'll be back in Indonesia next summer - before then, I plan on writing to the US head of plant imports in Indonesia - maybe he can find a place willing to get a cert for a plant start that I can bring home?
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Singapore style sambal grouper with cucumber salad. This is the last of my premade sambal 😥.... Time to make some more soon!!!
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1 hour ago, liuzhou said:
无骨老干妈香辣手撕鸡 (wú gǔ lǎo gān mā shǒu sī xiāng là jī) – Boneless Laoganma Spicy Hand Torn Chicken.
农鸡汤白灼油麦菜 (nóng jī tāng bái zhuó yóu mài cài) – Indian Lettuce with Thick Stewed Chicken Soup
营浓老鸡汤 (yíng nóng lǎo jī tāng) – Camp Thick Old Chicken Soup* (not pictured)
豆芽 (dòu yá) – Bean Sprouts (hidden under the chicken)
米饭 (mǐ fàn) – Rice
* Camp here is not suggesting the soup is affected, theatrical, or effeminate. It was the soup served as rations in army camps and barracks. The chicken was an old layer; the soup is not old.
My eyes must deceive me - it looks like there's corn in that chicken dish!
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@Sdogg Food/drinks taste different at altitude than they do on the ground. So the food might have been properly seasoned on the ground, but to taste the same at altitude, it needs to be aggressively seasoned. Some airlines' caterers adjust for this but evidently not all.
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Medium plate chicken with some Shanghai bok choy. Shanxi noodles buried underneath.
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This is not our typical lunch but I haven't had that much time to cook in the evenings after I get home from work lately, so....
Singapore Nyonya chicken curry using my homemade curry powder and home grown curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves. The smell of this dish took me back to walking around Penang, Malaysia (before we got sick, hehe). The combination of the fermented shrimp paste (belacan) and dried spices is just so Malaysian to me.
And for all those Authenticity Police (not that there are any of them here that I know of) who would say, "hey, where are the pools of oil?" which is a trademark of a well made curry, I present, Exhibit B:
At least a quarter cup of oil, skimmed from the surface prior to plating/serving.
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5 minutes ago, weinoo said:
@KennethT - have you ever had the Big Tray Chicken from Spicy Village on Forsyth Street? It's quite good (no comment on its authenticity).
Yes - I've also had a similar dish (made with mutton) in a Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing.
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@liuzhou What do you think of this video? It shows this dish as done in a restaurant kitchen but even the ingredients are a little different...
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8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
As much as I would have liked to have photographed my new salt pig with salt, I can't find my box of salt.
Have you checked the bedroom?
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8 hours ago, heidih said:
So I started the lamb shanks. Nicely pre-trimed. But in the packet I used the size differential was way off. So I now have one perfectly cooked and another I have to finish before reheating them for lunch. Crock pot only option and not able to use house, The flavor great. Just a timing issue I wanted to avoid, At first look they did not seem that different but the amount of flesh on Mr Big was way more.
That's a wildly (get it!) reported issue/problem. I don't know if they have plans to do anything about it.
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26 minutes ago, wibago said:
Based on a few of the posts on this forum I finally decided to build my own carbonation system. It uses the Big Mac Carbonator inside of a Mini Fridge for a continuous supply of cold carbonated water to my faucet. This works great but I wanted to reduce the pressure before serving from the faucet. From browsing these forums I found that I could either run lots of line or buy a pressure reducer. I ended up getting the "In-Line Flow Control Compensator" and while it does reduce the pressure, it also creates lots of sputtering while pouring from the faucet (which I assume is because it introduces air into the line). Would love if anyone has advice on how to fix this. Is my only option to instead run more line to reduce pressure? Thanks! To Summarize my setup: Cold RO System Water -> Big Mac -> Flow Compensator -> Faucet CO2 at 100 psi -> Big Mac On a side note, my main water line somehow got carbonated from this setup. It happened on a night below freezing but I don't know why this would have caused and (AFAIK) the Big Mac has a one way pressure valve. Really not sure what happened there...
I'm not familiar with the Big Mac, but personally, I'd put the pressure reducer after your RO system and before the Big Mac. You could also put a check valve before the RO system to keep anything from getting back to your cold water supply.
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6 minutes ago, Alex said:
There's a parallel issue in northwest Michigan with cherry growers.
It's everywhere. I see it in my business, and I hear it when I talk with both my suppliers and my customers. When my wife and I were in Indonesia last month, we wound up chatting with a German couple - the man was saying the exact same things about his business and what he hears from his suppliers and customers as well.
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This is really sad, but not uncommon. Practically all businesses worldwide are facing similar issues.
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9 hours ago, Deephaven said:
I had to google dabu dabu and I've been to Sarawak 4 times and eaten it...although it was too far before my food explorations have gotten me that far in the kitchen. Looks great. Would love to know what was in yours.
Dabu dabu is a sambal originating from North Sulawesi, Indonesia, and is one of the few "raw" Indonesian sambals. The only other one I can think of is sambal matah, from Bali. It's funny, I've heard that sambal dabu dabu is popular all over Indonesia, but I didn't realize it made into Malaysia as well. There are a few areas in Sarawak that are on our list of destinations but we haven't made it there yet.
In any case, the traditional dabu dabu is pretty simple - green and red tomatoes (they should be unripe and a little sour), shallots and a LOT of chillies. Everything is chopped (that's what dabu dabu means) and then a little bit of hot oil is poured over the top - not enough to cook it but to bring out the flavors. I used a combination of coconut oil and rice bran oil. The Minahasa people (those who live in North Sulawesi) pride themselves on having the spiciest food in Indonesia. One time I had this while we were in Manado and I could barely eat it, it was so spicy. This mango version is very non-traditional - I never saw mango anywhere near a dabu dabu while there, but we like it so I add it anyway. I used 5 long red chillies (my local store calls them Holland chillies or something like that, but they're similar to a prik chee faa in Thailand) that were deseeded and mostly deveined, plus 2 Thai chillies, 3 plum tomatoes (I can't get green tomatoes here), 2 shallots and 1.5 Ataulfo mangoes (one of the mangoes was only half good).
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Barramundi with mango dabu dabu.
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25 minutes ago, weinoo said:
Figuring I'd give Wild Fork a try, since a few of y'all like it. Received my first order today (with $20 off and free shipping, not bad!). Arrived frozen solid, with a small few pieces of dry ice in an insulated bag inside another paper shopping bag.
1 lb. of Key West wild shrimp (10 - 15)
1 lb. sea scallops (10 - 15)
1 lb. Halibut filet skin-on
2 lbs. USDA CHOICE BLACK ANGUS BEEF THICK NY STRIP STEAK (2 steaks)
1/4 lb. oak smoked salmon
1/4 lb. Gravlax salmon
All in for $98 includes a $10 driver tip
I like the Key West wild shrimp, but I'm an even bigger fan of the Argentian red shrimp. I'm curious what you think of their smoked salmon and gravlax once you have them. I'm assuming the smoked salmon is cold smoked, not hot smoked, right? Once you defrost them, how long do they recommend they'll keep in the refrigerator? Although, to be honest, it's been so long since I've bought smoked salmon or gravlax that I don't know how how long those would last either.
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2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:
I have to agree, especially with Cajun food. Unless you have a source to order things or someone that will send it to you it seems like it will be an exercise in futility. One of the most important elements in Cajun food is the roux. This is a pretty good website that will explain what you are up against.
Here is the Forum discussion About Roux.
Living in Costa Rica, I am pretty good at faking things and at substitutions but Cajun food is one thing that I could never be able to find substitutes for and learning to make the necessary roux is one battle I would never tackle.
I don't know if making the roux would be that much of a non-starter, but to me, much more complicated would be making the ingredients that most people down there buy at the market - yes, andouille as posted above, but also sourcing tasso ham (a highly seasoned and smoked ham mostly used as a seasoning agent than a protein) as well as a good hot sauce, like Crystal. I know there are Tabasco lovers out there but as one of my favorite jambalaya joints used to do, they kept their stash of Crystal behind the bar for people that asked for it, even though the bar was seemingly sponsored by Tabasco with their neon signs all over the place.
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7 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:
I'm surprised grouper isn't available in NY, since it is an east coast fish. Not even Citarella? Never seen it sold in northern CA, that's for sure. Grouper is a favorite of mine; whenever I go to Atlanta to visit my daughter I eat a lot of it, both red and black. So good! I'll be there in the fall for several weeks. Of course my twin grand-daughters are the main draw, but east coast fish is definitely a perk when it comes to visiting the south.
I wouldn't be surprised if Citarella had grouper, but I'm sure it would be a lot more expensive than WF and it's a bit out of my way to go there on a regular basis. Plus, I like having everything frozen - it gives me more flexibility. Sometimes I wind up getting home from work later than I originally expected so we wind up ordering in otherwise we'd be eating and cleaning up at bed time. Buying it "fresh" (possibly previously frozen) means it needs to be used ASAP so it gives me less leeway.
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I was (and still am!) exhausted after taking a long walk this afternoon, so it was fortuitous that Jamrock Jerk happened to be in our neighborhood and we passed it by. You could smell the smoke a block away!
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1 hour ago, C. sapidus said:
Firstly, I am no expert on Baltimore restaurants. I expect you will get good food at the places you listed.
But. If you want the local experience you want a crab joint where they will dump a bushel of steamed crabs onto the brown paper covering the table. Tell stories, drink beer, and pick crabs until you become a) full: b) tired of picking crabs; or c) in acute pain from Old Bay in cut fingers. Usual accompaniments include Maryland crab soup, coleslaw, hush puppies, etc.
Or you could go to a nice restaurant and get some delicious crab cakes. But it just isn't the same.
The closest I see to Inner Harbor are Faidley's, which has been around forever, or LP Steamers (never been). But usually crab joints are more out in the country.
Hope you have a great time, whatever you decide.
Is O'Brycky's (sp?) still around?
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2 hours ago, rotuts said:
thank you for understanding the point of my mumbo-jumbo
as I hope y0u get to use the plant some day
are you able to harvest part of a rhizome , keeping the original growing
or do you replant the rhizome again
or just replant parts of the original rhizome , getting more potential plants.
I haven't grown any rhizome myself yet, but supposedly you can do either - harvest the whole thing and save a seed piece to replant or just break a piece of the rhizome off and let the rest keep growing.
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Gardening: (2016– )
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Wow! Can you go into a bit more detail of what you did, wire wise?