KennethT

I love setting people up for a joke, especially when they come through!

What's the recipe for blurry fries?

What's the difference between the backstrap and the tenderloin? Is the tenderloing a section of the backstrap?

Memories of Viet Nam... Gỏi cuốn - summer rolls. Usually, this is served with a hoisin-like peanut sauce, but I like to do how it is typical in central Viet Nam which is a nước chấm with garlic and a ton of black pepper. So refreshing and healthy. Also it's typically done with pork or shrimp or both, but this is with chicken...

Is this a carbon steel pan? Is it a Darto? It looks great, and a great seasoning job as well!

I've haven't been to Sichuan yet, but maybe @liuzhou can weigh in? On another note, when we were in Hong Kong, we went for yum cha several times and each time, the tea was as hot as normal and used a good amount of tea. Most of the time we would get lung ching (cantonese... long jing in mandarin - otherwise called Dragon Well). We also went to a tea class in a high end tea house where the tea master demonstrated how to make a few different teas - green, gong fu tikuanyin (oolong) and red teas, and all were what I would call perfectly done. The gong fu oolong was poured just off the boil then distributed using a small pitcher. The green tea was poured into two small cups - one was the smelling cup whcih was tall and narrow, which my wife dubbed the "finger burning cup" and after smelling, it would go into the shorter, wider tasting cup. Personally I didn't have a problem with the finger burning cup, but I drink a lot of chinese tea and am used to holding the cup by the edges - I think my wife held the cup further down the side where it was much hotter.

I was thinking that it would be a great way to get them to nap on the bus!

Thanks. Tian Tian is actually one of my least favorite chicken rice in Singapore, although it used to be better years ago - the texture of their rice is great, and the chicken is good, but I'm not a huge fan of their chili sauce, and they're very cheap with it. Also, the last time I was there, it didn't even come with soup, which is ridiculous. My go to nowadays has been Wee Nam Kee - they're not in a hawker area but it's a restaurant (but I think their prices are less than Tian Tian). The rice and chicken are great, but also, their is a big container of chili sauce on each table along with containers of freshly grated ginger and a bottle of sweet soy sauce, so you can add as much ginger as you like and the same with the sweet soy sauce. Also, their chili sauce is better balanced - it has more chili flavor and is not super spicy. The last time I was at Tian Tian, they provided the same small dish of chili sauce that's in your photo, and they didn't have containers of sweet soy sauce anymore - when I asked for it, the lady scowled at me and then reluctantly found a bottle behind the counter and squirted a line of it on the side of my plate. You should have seen the look I got when I asked about the soup and requested another dish of chili sauce! I've never been to "No Signboard" but have had teh chili crab at a few other places - love that dish! Definitely interested in seeing the Jewel - although we'll be getting in just after they close the trails through the forest area for some event or something. But I love that airport - I usually try to see the butterfly garden every time I go! Plus, I'm still debating about where to go for dinner in the airport - I've whittled it down to about 5-7 choices, but the selection there is ridiculous.

You're killing me!!! Was the Song Fa bak kut teh in the airport? I'll be in Singapore for about 5 hours in a few weeks - not enough time to head into the city, but it's enough time to check out the Jewel and also grab something to eat before Singapore Airlines feeds me to death. How was it? Have you had bkt before? If so, how did Song Fa compare?

I kind of figured Thailand - given all the Thai writing - can you be more specific? Where in Thailand? I'm curious because that lobster would most probably be in the south somewhere, but miang kum is traditionally a northern specialty.... Ahh.... the milky tom yum! I gather it's become a big thing there lately... it hasnt' really caught on in NYC yet...

@mm84321 Where was this?

She called it "traditional Beijing hoisin" but I don't know if it's really a hoisin or something else that she called hoisin just because she figured it was a word that I was familiar with. I can try to find out from her more info....

I was told by a Beijing friend of mine that the traditional sauce for Peking duck in Beijing is not sweet at all - but in fact is quite herbal, although most places use the sweet sauce that is now more commonplace. She directed us to one PD specialist who still uses the traditional sauce - and she was right - it was intensely herbal. It reminded me of some traditional chinese medicine remedies I've used in the past.

Your photos and method look great! But, for some reason, I always thought that crackers were a laminated product - the dough is folded many times (like a croissant) before finally being rolled thing and cut. I once saw a video of an industrial cracker factory and they had a huge machine that would drop a thin sheet of dough onto a conveyor - but the conveyor didn't only move one way - it moved back and forth to progressively stack dough in a few layers as the conveyor went down. It would then go through another huge machine that would roll the layered batch into a single thin smooth layer. Skip to around 1:57 for the rolling/sheeting

Bumping this thread... does anyone know of any casual but good places in Oamaru? We'll be spending our first lunch and dinner there, immediately after landing in Christchurch after 30 hours of flying and a few hours drive - so no long tasting menus.... We were thinking we'd pull in, grab something for lunch, then take a nap, get dinner then watch the blue penguins come in around sunset (around 9-9:30 this time of year) and go back to bed! We're looking for standard NZ fare - fish/chips, local lamb, venison, etc....

I was thinking about a cheap butane burner - but since we'll be flying internationally to get there (about 30 hours each way), I don't think I'll be able to bring a can of butane with me, and we have limited time on the ground so I wouldn't want to use a lot of time hunting for one. I had visions of a New Zealand rack of lamb (pre-sliced into chops) that I could grill on the engine, but after seeing a few videos of guys cooking steaks, I don't think I'll really get any browning - the exterior just looks kind of grey which isn't very appealing.

I figured as such and before posting did an "exhaustive search" - but my search skills are sorely lacking on this site...

In about a month, my wife and I will be traveling and will be doing some road trips (Southern hemisphere - so summer). One of the days of our travel will be Christmas day, when, chances are, no roadside cafes or stands will be open and we will be driving practically all day. The scenery is expected to be beautiful and I figure it would be a great time for a picnic. Originally I was thinking about getting some sliced meats or sausages and cheeses and bread and having a simple picnic, but it occurred to me that I've got a good source of waste heat going to, well, um, waste. If I bring some heavy duty foil, I figure we can make something quite nice while we enjoy our scenic drive. Has anyone done anything like this? If so, any help you can provide so I don't have to reinvent the wheel so to speak?

@Shelby What are mallards like? I'm sure I've never had one - the only ducks I've ever had were farmed. They look really small for ducks - since you can fit 2 on a CSO pan... and really lean!

Me three.

I've had fish/seafood on some flights in SE Asia and they've been quite good. I was surprised how good the calamari and shrimp dish that I had on Singapore Airlines (in Economy) was... both were perfectly cooked. In about a month, my wife and I will be heading to New Zealand, via Singapore - yes, it's really out of the way, but the flight was less than half the price of going via Air New Zealand. Singapore Airlines has a new thing - not only do flights leaving out of many airports have a "book the cook" where famous chefs design a meal - this makes like 8 choices, on top of the 3 choices for the standard inflight menu. You choose your dishes in advance - up to 2 days in advance or something like that. The last flight we did over teh summer we did that, but the problem was that we had no idea what the inflight menu would be... Now, you can choose between book teh cook and the inflight menu - they tell you those choices in advance as well... So that's like 11 choices for each meal, in Economy! (well technically it's Premium Economy, but on the direct flight from NY area to Singapore they only have Biz and PE).

minus the broccoli!!! They should have use chinese broccoli, which tastes nothign like regular broccoli (thankfully)... Also, a great combo with fresh peppercorns is grachai - sometimes translated as wild ginger or lesser ginger... doesn't really taste like ginger though. You can get it shredded and frozen... a little bit goes a long way - but the combo is magical!

I hadn't heard of Yat Lok. We went to Yung Kee based on @hzrt8w's recommendation here: He was really helpful in planning our trip at that time. Love the gratuitous goose shot btw...

When I was in Hong Kong, there was a very well known restaurant that is best known for their roast goose. They're a cantonese place so of course they also have the steamed fish and other roast meats, but that goose was to die for. We actually (inadvertently) went there twice! The prices of the cooked goose served in the restaurant was significantly less than what a whole raw goose costs here in NY...

Dimmers are not an issue - the lights I've been experimenting with are 24V DC, and I found a great driver which is dimmable by varying the resistance across 2 terminals - very easy for me to integrate into an automated control system, or just with a variable resistor. Are the 120V COBs dimmable? I'd assume not since the driver is built-in... I was planning on having the tree lit with different lights than the rest of my plants because the new apartment is a loft space, so I'd rather not have blinding lights on while we're sleeping! So if I was to give the tree 16 hours of light, I'd have the lights turn on around 6AM and turn off at 10PM which will coincide nicely with our normal schedule.