KennethT

Wow! Everything looks great! What kind of noodles are you using? Are they dried or fresh? Usually sticking is because the noodles are too wet, regardless of wok seasoning....

Of course! But rather than geckos which I think are desert lizards, I'd need the tropical kind - like a monitor lizard, but they can get really big and I don't think I'd want it snuggling in bed with us.

That is hilarious!!!! Although maybe not that far off in the future. I'd like to build a living plant wall on one 14 foot high wall of the living room, complete with small waterfalls. I figured it would be nice to have a couple tropical birds in there too, but I don't think my wife would go for them!

A while ago, @Senior Sea Kayaker asked for a photo of my indoor garden. Sorry for the delay - I've been moving things around in anticipation of going away next week. Finally got it together.... Left to right-ish: curry leaf tree, mint (heavily pruned), rau ram, lemongrass (in the back), turmeric (I just used some leaves), kencur, kaffir lime, and sawtooth coriander.

Both. They have blocks that are ready to slice and presliced. I prefer the unsliced as we like our sashimi a bit thicker than their standard thickness. Last night, they only had 1 block of unsliced yellowtail so we settled for one presliced. Their fish quality is very good with a great price. The NZ King salmon is like fish butter.

Wegmans sashimi - yellowtail, New Zealand King salmon and yellowfin tuna

Not necessarily true - years ago, I was looking into growing wasabi hydroponically indoors and I found a few already doing it in the US. So those are true wasabi root not grown in Japan. I don't remember the company names though - but I do remember that they either only or primarily sold to restaurants.

Ah! That makes sense. It's funny, when I was reading your post, the first thing I thought of was miang kum, which we had in Chiang Mai (where it originates) and it was amazing - but even better is the sweet/salty sauce it comes with which is thick palm sugar syrup with shirmp paste, dried shrimp, galangal, etc. I think a drop or two on top of what you've got would be fantastic, although it makes it a bit more work to make the sauce.

Is anyone else concerned about bacterial buildup in the center of the roast while cooking for that amount of time? When you have a large roast, it would probably take more than 4 hours for the center to get out of the danger zone. It would spend a long time in the "bacterial multiplying like crazy zone" - around body temperature. I'd be curious about everyone's thoughts about this - I haven't done much SV for quite a while but I do remember this being a concern.

These look amazing, but I"m sure I'm not the first to think that you'd never see this in a night market in Thailand or anywhere else in SE Asia - I've never seen raw fish served anywhere, which would be obvious when you see the fish markets and all the fish laying around in 90 degree heat! The usual cooking method for fish is "cook the crap out of it to make sure everything is dead".

Is that albacore tuna?

I like @Senior Sea Kayaker's idea. I was actually thinking that if you had a good homemade chicken stock, you could brown the ground beef well and then deglaze and simmer in the chicken stock. That should add the browned, beefy dimension to the pregelatinized stock.

Ground beef may get decent flavor but it will be short on the collagen/gelatin you'd get from bones/connective tissue. Making stock in a pressure cooker makes it go much faster but doesn't really help with the time to brown which is important for a good beef stock. I've used the BTB beef stock and it's pretty good. If you don't use much, I think it's a good alternative to making your own unless you have tons of time.

According to the website, the only ingredient is "shrimp". there's definitely no salt added, but I don't remember if there was any stp added. I defrost in water and then rinse several times and give a final gentle squeeze at the end. I've never noticed any off flavor and I love their texture.

I get IQF Argentinian red shrimp from Wild Fork Foods online.

Many years ago, we used to go to Lupa maybe once a month or so... back then, we felt the best thing to do was to order some salumi (especially their house made stuff like the head cheese) and some pasta/appetizer. Every time we decided to try a secondi, we regretted it. We actually felt exactly the same way when we would go to Esca. But then again, back then, prices were significantly less than what they are now - at these prices, it would be hard for me to justify the price/value proposition. But how was the Bitter End? I used to go there a couple times a month back in the days that we used to play gigs at other spots on that stretch of Bleecker and I'm happy to see it's still open.

This has become a big deal in NYC too. This weekend, we walked past a place with this and they had a line around the block.

We really enjoyed the donkey burger in Beijing. Very crispy bread with tender meat. I could make this a regular thing if it was around here.

What do you do for the overlap? I don't know much about Japanese food, but there's definitely some spices used in both Thai and Indian foods.

You've got some lucky neighbors!

I'm so sorry about this. I have a very severe food allergy to buckwheat - I have problems breathing and I also wind up spurting from both ends. Don't ask me how I found out while on the border of Brittany, France... In any case, do you have access to Zyrtec? I find it to be the most effective against a moderate allergic reaction. You can also combine it with taking Benadryl at the same time. If you get a severe reaction, it's important to carry an EpiPen - which will abate the symptoms long enough to get to a hospital. My brother has a severe crustacean allergy and has required the epipen more than once.

Durian is forbidden in lots of public places all over SE Asia, and I get completely get it but I'm curious about the denial of mangosteen as well. I've never had a problem bringing it into hotels in Singapore, Penang, parts of Indonesia, etc. In fact, I remember having a long conversation with a porter at a hotel in Singapore who told me the story of him growing up in Malaysia as a son of a mangosteen farmer. He also showed me the Malaysian farmer way of opening them (no knife required) that is so much easier than the way I used to do it. The only thing I can think of was that one time I bought a bunch of mangosteen in a market in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of Bangkok. When I got back to the hotel room, I noticed that it was infested with small ants. I brought it into the bathtub and hosed it down completely and had no further issues enjoying the now bug free fruit! But that could probably happen with any sweet fruit, I'd imagine.

Interesting. I always thought that the toasted rice powder was made from glutinous rice rather than jasmine.... then again, I haven't done Thai cooking in a long time so I might not be remembering right

Great stuff. Is this from Pasar Besar (big market) near the waterfront?

What is meant by Thai seasoning sauce? Is that like a Golden Mountain sauce which is like a Maggi type thing?