KennethT

Love the color of the water off shore of those cliffs!

If you're in the US (meaning you don't need to worry about filtering out various viruses/bacteria), long time member and dearly missed Andisenji had raved about these for years. They filter out heavy metals, chemicals and just about anything you could be worried about, unless your water supply regularly contains typhoid.

Thanks for this. I've often had the same thought about washing hands with disease ridden water. Nowadays, we use sanitizing wipes which clean off dirt and soil as well as bacteria. The only problem is that no normal hand sanitizer is effective on norovirus.

Where is this market? Is it one near the waterfront? The mangga susu translates to "milk mango".... I found some info about it: https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Bambangan_Mangoes_24456.php Thanks for asking about the monsoon issues there. I typically use Weatherbase for my research. According to it the average rainfall really picks up in June on through December, but drops by a lot in January. I figured that since we'll be there at the end of December, I'm hoping we'll only catch the tail end if anything at all. Our problem is that my holidays are fixed in time - one in late June/early July and the other around Xmas/NYs. So Late June/early July is much more rainy, on average. The rainiest being Sept, Oct, Nov. The ideal time to go would have been Feb/March but that's impossible for us. https://weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=964710&cityname=Kota-Kinabalu-Sabah-Malaysia

Very true - I forgot how frustrating it was in Hanoi where the letter 'r' is pronounced like 'z'.

I think Bánh seems to denote more than just baked - it also encompasses steaming - such as Bánh cuốn or my favorite from Huế, Bánh Ướt.

At least their writing provides a roadmap for the pronunciation!

Sorry - Vietnamese can be confusing here. I was referring to banh mi the bread, not banh mi the sandwich! Most things (other than noodle soups like pho) in Saigon are served with banh mi (the bread) alongside.

This looks fantastic. We had bo kho almost every day for breakfast while in Saigon. Just eating that sauce with the crisp exterior and soft interior banh mi was heaven.

Love those cheeses... although I didn't see much blue in the blue!!! Maybe the veins were hiding? The stone on stone work is fascinating. I guess Ireland hasn't had many earthquakes in the last 1000 or so years. hehe... Also interesting is that the crab roll place called them fries rather than chips.

Is that beef stew made while consuming Guinness or is there Guinness in the beef stew? Or both!!!! 🤣

This came in the mail for us: A small bottle of olive oil made from very old olive trees in Napa, California. It's even hard to open due to the wax cap....

Teochew Bak Kut Teh, how I've missed you!!! The ridiculously strong pork stock made last week simmered with a lot of garlic and crushed peppercorns from Sarawak, Malaysia. The garlic becomes so sweet.... Made this healthy by using chicken breast and "fresh" knife peeled noodles.

Tap water in most of Asia is NOT disinfected. In most of SE Asia, you shouldn't even brush teeth with tap water unless it's been boiled first. It's well known to carrier a plethora of viruses, including hepatitis and typhoid.

A question about sanitation - I'm sure I've asked this before, but a long time ago. From what I understand, tap water in your area (or most of Asia in general) isn't potable. How do most people wash things meant to be eaten raw (although I understand that most people don't eat raw veggies there)? Do you use boiled then cooled water or bottled water? Or do you use normal tap thinking that the amount of water that clings to the vegetable to be negligible and thus safe to eat?

Nice- I'm looking forward to it. And yes, Ulysses is a tough read even for native speakers! We did it in a Meetup group of about 20 of us, some of whom had read it several times already and some who even took college courses analyzing it. Without the group, I don't think I would have finished it. The group talked about a field trip to Dublin to do a Bloomsday, but it doesn't really work with our holiday schedule.

I wonder why all the dried spices were irradiated?

Great start!!! I'm hooked already. Can't wait to see what's next! Will you be in Dublin at all? My wife and I just finished reading Ulysses, which gives a virtual tour of the place, granted circa 1905 or so...

Sorry to hear about your durian experience!! Do the durian vendors also sell mangosteen (the Queen of fruits!) there? They're commonly sold together in many markets.

I use an 18 year old slow cooker that has a rice cooking setting. It took a couple tries to use the right amount of water, but now my rice is perfect every time. We're just the two of us and my wife doesn't eat much rice so we often make more than we need since it's practically impossible to make less than 2 cups in this cooker. One day, when it finally gives up the ghost, I'll break down and buy a real rice cooker - there are some small ones that will make 1 cup which would be perfect for us. Personally, I'd look for a model that has a small capacity and is neuro-fuzzy or something like that. I'm thrifty in that I don't think I'd spend for a Zojirushi, but not so much as to get the super-cheap ones that just have an on/off switch.

Yes!!!!! We'll be in Sabah this coming Christmas/New Years. This time of year is their rainy season - it should be quite dry in late Dec, early Jan. What is your plan while you're there? We'll be doing a few days of scuba diving - there is a underwater national park just off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, and then we're going to head east to hang out with some orangutans and sun bears....

hmmm. I wonder if the hydrogen peroxide is doing the heavy lifting of the sanitizing here. I would be cautious of most hydrogen peroxide that you get in the drug store or supermarket - at 3% strength, it is not stable, so manufacturers add stabilizers which are not food grade. So if you wipe your boards with it, make sure you rinse it afterwards. I get 35% hydrogen peroxide that I use in quantity for my plants - since it is so strong, it is shelf stable for about 2 years so it has no additives, but I have to use it immediately once diluted. If you wind up getting 35% strength, be VERY careful with it - it is a very strong oxidizer and can burn your skin, not to mention eyes!!!

Yay!!!! Where are you going?

Between yesterday and today I made pork stock. About 6 pounds of pork ribs with 2 pounds of feet yielded 6 quarts of intensely gelatinous stock, so much that the ladel just sits right on top when cold One of the primary uses for it was lunch today, Ayam buah keluak - chicken in black nut curry, one of our favorite Singapore Nyonya dishes.

Makes sense - very similar to a bo nu'o'ng