KennethT

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I planted a bunch of really old seeds - maybe 5 years old? maybe more?? I planted them in a pH adjusted saturated rockwool cube, then misted the top to really saturated the seeds, then put them all in a ziplock bag... and now we wait... as Tom Petty said, it's the hardest part. I planted Genovese basil, thai basil, cilantro and vietnamese mint... I put in a lot of seeds - I can always thin it out before I put the blocks in the coco coir... assuming that they germinate at all of course....

This was a first attempt at recreating a dish my wife was obsessed with on our trip to Indonesia last summer - udang arsik tapanuli - shrimp in a sauce made from the kitchen sink of SE Asian herbs - lemongrass, ginger, galangal, shallots, garlic, chilis and lots more. It was pretty good but definitely needs a bit of work. It's too bad because there are only a few recipes online (all in Indonesian) and all are for the traditional version made with fish and some fruits/herbs that are completely unavailable here.

Wow @&roid... that is pretty impressive!

I use the pesto term very lightly. But I used the immersion blender as I had a lot to do tonight.

I have no idea what m & p could possibly be. The pretzel roll is actually quite tasty and not that chewy like a real pretzel would be. I think it's more like a quasi-pretzel dough but definitely has a pretzel flavored skin with a bit of salt.

Bison burger with avocado and "pesto" made with rau ram and sawtooth coriander on a pretzel roll.

I'm really happy to see all of my plants doing well now. When I took them out of their original pots, I had to trim some roots in order to be able to completely dry root them in prep for transfer into my hydroponic system (coco coir). Rau ram doing great New growth buds on the curry plant Family photo. The arrangement and plant heights are done purposely to give each plant the desired amount of light from my sole light source. There's also a new growth bud on the kaffir lime tree.

Just pretend it's Rosh Hashanah

Lurking beneath the surface of this red curry is chicken thigh meat, along with a not so common ingredient - grachai - sometimes called lesser ginger even though it tastes nothing like ginger. It has almost a medicinal quality to it, but not as much as galangal.

I chuckled when I saw the Kavalan - every time we took EVA (which was most of the times flying from NY to Asia), before every movie started on their On-Demand system, they would play a couple commercials - one was always for Kavalan - I had that commercial memorized I've seen it so many times... How is it btw? I was always curious...

This is the last of my Teochew style Bak Kut Teh... It's not traditional served with noodles or chicken for that matter.... usually it's served with the pork ribs with which the broth is made... but we're trying to be healthy while getting the flavor - so I did it with chicken breast marinated in soy and cooked in the broth which winds up being a good vehicle for the broth flavor of garlic and a specific black pepper (some use white pepper). Also, note the new noodle bowls!!! The recommendation of Miya was a great one - affordable bowls, and they arrived on Tuesday when I ordered them over the weekend! Also, untraditionally, we had a Merry Edwards pinot noir, which had a great fruity-ness and went really well with the very savory broth - though traditionally, it would be served with tea, hence the "Teh" in the name...

I had my fill of durian a few years back in Singapore... I actually really liked the flavor and texture, but didn't like how the flavor lingered.... for hours!!!

The Thai store on Mosco St? If so I'm happy to hear they're still open! But why brown sugar instead of palm sugar?

Moving on to Vietnam.... Goi Xaoi Ga - mango salad with roasted chicken thighs and some sawtooth coriander and rau ram from my garden as well as green onion and Thai basil. Thighs were done in the CSO

@liamsaunt Can I join your family???? Jeez that looks good...

I loved those fried. Good snack with beer. But to be honest I thought the fried crickets were better.

I've now used the CSO to steam whole fish twice. Both times it performed admirably but it was a bit of a learning curve as the steaming times are a little longer than they'd be than if I was using a traditional steamer on the stovetop.

Still in that Thai feeling... Steamed dorade with lime juice broth. Simple flavors but addictive! Shown with a lovely skin contact orange wine from Israel!

Fantastic! Exactly what I was looking for!!!!! Thanks!

pics or it didn't happen...

Some of those were exactly what I was looking for, but unfortunately, it's only 2 of us - I don't need a dozen of them!

I'm trying to get away from the wide shallow bowl to a deeper one commonly used in Asia... a plus if made from melamine or some other mostly indestructible (and cheap) material....

Homemade Thai Chicken noodle soup... With a beautiful chenin.... Because it's Saturday! BTW, I need new soup bowls for these Asian noodle soups and noodle bowls.... Any suggestions? I can't make it down to Chinatown any time soon....

I have some home made small batch lebne from a local Middle Eastern store that I bought a few weeks ago and have kept in the refrigerator. It has no markings of "use by" or any other expiration type dates on it. How can I tell if it's still good and when it's time to throw it out? Obviously, I have very little experience with yogurt type products!

I did save some seeds! It was years ago though, so I don't know how viable they are anymore... I just don't have the space to grow it now that I have a 5x5 grow tent in the middle of my living room... and the fact that (hopefully) we'll be moving in a few months, so long as our building allows us to start renovations some time soon. Plus, once in the new apartment (that has a 14' ceiling) I'd really like to make a hydroponic living wall filled with tropical plants... that would be really cool...