KennethT

Breakfast was included in the rate for all 3 hotels we stayed in. This is a good thing, since the airport hotel was not within walking distance of any kind of local food or any other restaurant for that matter. But it was really nice - a typical buffet setup with lots of Asian options (dim sum, japanese, sushi/sashimi, local Indonesian/balinese) and also western options as well. Noodle soup with shredded chicken and fried garlic. Mie goreng (friend noodles) pineapple and passionfruit In addition to the buffet, servers would walk around offering various Balinese specialties: Black rice in coconut milk (a very traditional dessert) some kind of tonic made with various fruit juices including mango and passionfruit as well as spices like clove and cinnamon.

Happily though, this only happened to us in the heavily touristed south. Once we were in North Bali or in Ubud, in Central Bali, no one every mentioned money or expected tips. Alcohol is definitely allowed in Bali. Unfortunately, I only have a drink (literally A drink) once in a great while due to some of the medication I have to take which conflicts badly with it. And funnily enough, my wife, who works in the wine industry, doesn't drink at all when on vacation because she wants a break from it! All hotels have wine lists, specialty cocktail lists, and of course beer. Quite a few restaurants even had cigarettes on their drinks list.

Traveling around Bali is a pita. There is no public transportation to speak of, and once you get outside the main areas in the south, the roads are basically 1-1/2 lanes wide, which may have been fine when the only traffic was motorbikes, but now, there are a lot of cars (vans, SUVs!) and relatively large, slow moving trucks. Our first main destination was in North Bali, which is about a 3-4 hour drive from the airport even though it is less than 100km. So, we decided to stay the first night in a beach area in the south since it was only 15 min from the airport, after traveling for about 24 hours including layover, and the fact that we were up for probably about 40 hours since we had both worked a full day the day we left. Before I get to where we stayed, I will relay a short story of the airport adventure. Now, the arrival experience at airports in many SE Asian countries are really not so good, to put it mildly. The airport itself is not that bad, but once you leave the doors, you are surrounded by people desperately trying to get you to take their taxi, rather than someone else's. Evidently, in Bali, there is some kind of taxi racket. For a long time, each municipality has had its own "taxi cartel" so to speak, and to get a taxi you had to go through them. Recently, there has been a huge uproar with the ride-sharing companies like Grab (which is basically Uber in SE Asia). So much so that it has turned violent in some occasions, where members of a local taxi cartel have dragged Uber drivers out of their cars and beaten them. Note - we didn't see any violence on this trip and didn't hear of any either. We did see signs put up all over basically saying that Uber/Grab and other ride sharing cars were not allowed to stop in certain areas. So, the guidebooks say that there is a specific cartel that runs the airport taxi system - they are the only ones allowed to make pickups at the airport. That doesn't stop the throng of people awaiting you once you leave the arrivals hall. We made our way to the cartel's desk where you tell the guy where you're going, he quotes you a rate, and hands you over to one of the drivers hanging around. Also hanging around are some of their buddies, who help the driver take your bags to the car, chatting and joking all the way with each other. It seems that the first thing everyone says to tourists is "Where are you from?" We had thought it was initially a friendly gesture, but we soon felt that it was really an opening to try to extract money from you. Once they heard that we were from the US, the friendly conversation always turns to money, how poor everyone is there, how they appreciate our tourism (Americans make up very few tourists statistically - the vast majority are Australian), etc. Once we get to the car, the driver's buddy starts demanding a "tip" for helping his friend with our bags. We got the distinct impression that this wouldn't have happened if we weren't American. Unfortunately, the airport ATM only dispenses 50,000 rupiah notes (at about 14,000 rupiah to the USD), and I thought it was ridiculous to "tip" a guy that kind of money for gently steering our wheeled bag a short distance while smoking and chatting with his friend. that I would have been happy to do myself. So after a long discussion saying that I had no change and no USD (he would even accept his tip in USD evidently) he walked away. While driving to the hotel, the driver was very nice, but kept bringing up the idea of money, and how he has children who are going to school, etc. etc... ugghh. After the longest 15 minutes of our lives, we reached our hotel in Jimbaran, one of the more quiet beach areas in the south that was once a fishing village, and is now known for having a bunch of restaurants on the beach grilling seafood at sunset. The hotel was beautiful, and we would joke to ourselves that it was the "nicest airport hotel in the world", since we'd only be staying there the one night before moving on. After checking in, and cleaning up a little bit, it was getting to be sunset time, and time to get dinner on the beach as I had planned. Beach at sunset: The area where all the seafood restaurants are: This area is set up for tourists - I don't think you'll find any locals there, as I was led to believe. There are tourists from everywhere - Indonesian tourists, some from China, England, Germany, and lots from Australia. There are a bunch of restaurants all right next to each other - their menus and prices are all basically the same. As you walk past, a guy from the restaurant approaches you showing you their menu and tries to drag you to one of his tables, speaking with you the whole time, in English. We settled on one because the hawker seemed the nicest and seemingly friendliest, little did we realize initially that that is not necessarily a good thing. Typically, people get a set menu which consists of a fish, some seafood, appetizers, rice and vegetable depending on how many in the party. Everything is also available a la carte. We didn't want all the food shown in the set menu (we were exhausted) so I started asking about the size of the different fish, and he happily took us into the back of the restaurant to show them to us and weigh a bunch for us so we could pick. The charcoal grill in action Once seated, we saw a vendor grilling corn right near our table - he was mostly frequented by Chinese tourists Here's a shot of the setting - very nice and peaceful: And a few of the restaurants (and full moon!): We got: Grilled prawns Grilled fish - the waiting said this was some kind of garuppa, but I don't think it was. Served with rice, and kang kung (water spinach, morning glory, etc). It was also served with 3 different condiments (not pictured - the photos didn't come out well). There was a dish of minced garlic, one of pureed tomato, and a third of chopped chili - a sort of make-your-own-sambal type thing. The fish was nicely cooked - flaky and moist, and the prawns were cooked well as well. As we were eating and enjoying the surroundings (and trying not to pass out at the table), our waiter would routinely come by to chat us up. We noticed that he didn't do this with any other tables. As we were chatting, he casually mentioned how expensive his apartment was, how he and his wife and 3 children all lived in 1 room, and then showed us photos of his children on his phone, mentioning how expensive their schooling was. humppphhh... we started wondering if we could say that we were British or maybe German to avoid all the money talk.

OK, I'm back, by popular demand! hehe.... After being back for 2 days, I'm still struggling with crazy jetlag and exhaustion - so please bear with me! This year, for our Asian adventure, we went to Bali, which for those who don't know, is one of the islands in Indonesia. Bali is a very unique place - from its topology, to the people, language, customs, religion and food. Whereas the majority of people in Indonesia are Muslim, most people in Bali are Balinese Hindu, which from what I understand is a little like Indian Hinduism, but has more ancestor worship. Religion is very important to many people in Bali - there are temples everywhere, and at least in one area, there are religious processions through the street practically every day - but we'll get to that later. Bali has some food unique to it among its Indonesian neighbors, but like everywhere, has seen quite a bit of immigration from other Indonesian islands (many from Java, just to the west) who have brought their classic dishes with them. Basically all Indonesians speak Indonesian, or what they call Bahasa Indonesia, or just Bahasa, which, anyone who has read my prior foodblogs wouldn't be surprised to hear that I learned a little bit just before the trip. Unfortunately, I didn't get to use any of it, except a couple times which were totally unnecessary. When speaking with each other, most people in Bali speak Balinese (totally different from bahasa) - many times when I tried using my bahasa, they smiled and replied, and then tried to teach me the same phrase in Balinese! As time went on, and I used some of the Balinese, I got lots of surprised smiles and laughs - who is this white guy speaking Balinese?!? Seriously though, tourism has been in Bali for a very long time, so just about everyone we encountered spoke English to some degree. Some people spoke German as well, as they supposedly get lots of tourists from Germany. As one of our drivers was telling us, Bali is heavily dependent on tourism as they have no real industry other than agriculture, which doesn't pay nearly as well as tourism does. While there are beaches all around the island, most of the popular beach areas are in the south of the island, and those areas are the most highly touristed. We spent very little time in the south as we are not really beach people (we get really bored) and during planning, decided to stay in less touristed areas so we'd have more opportunities for local food... this didn't work out, as you'll see later. So, it wouldn't be a KennethT foodblog without photos in the Taipei airport and I-Mei Dim Sum, which we called home for about 4 hours before our connection to Bali... Beef noodle soup: The interior: This was the same as always - huge pieces of beef were meltingly tender. Good bite to the thick chewy noodles. Xie long bao (soup dumplings) and char siu bao (fluffy barbeque pork buns):

How does the Blossom Set fertilize the blossoms? I am to understand that it is a plant hormone which helps the fertilization set and not drop off. I would think any true pollination is coming from the action of the liquid spraying into the flower, dragging some of the pollen with it. Personally, if I'm going to spend the time spraying something into every flower (which are mostly hidden in the foliage), I'd rather spend the same time and use a pollinating wand and not use any chemical whatsoever.

A new show on YouTube is just coming out now, from our own @Fengyi. I had the pleasure of hanging out with her for a day on our trip to Beijing, and her great personality definitely comes out in her show. This show is all about the local foods of various areas in China and the wines that pair best with them. Fongyee travels around to all different areas, talks with chefs and shows some awesome food porn, all with tons of knowledge to boot. Here's a link to the first episode:

@TicTac Upward curl is sometimes called "leaf roll" and can be caused by a few things.... Some varieties naturally have a curl to their leaves - but it's not usually that drastic. If it is very hot and humid, tomato plants will curl their leaves in an effort to curl water loss. This is because the plant is losing more water than it can take up with its roots, so the plants roll their leaves to limit evapotranspiration. There is also a leaf roll virus which can cause this. Finally (but this is usually more of a farm problem), leaf roll can be caused by over application of certain herbicides... Based on your description, and knowing how hot it has been in the North East, I'd say the problem is being caused by the heat, in which case there's not much you can do aside from setting up some kind of misting system to lower the temps and raise humidity!

I don't think it's necessary. The plants should be producing enough hormone on their own, and as long as I can manipulate the environment (which I can) I can make sure that the plants are healthy. The only problem is the lack of pollinators (like bees) indoors, so we have to do it manually. It seems as though some of the blossoms have pollinated themselves (maybe from the circulation fan?) but I don't know how good of a job it is or how even it is. Uneven pollination results in misshapen fruit. This is why most indoor growers either hand pollinate (with a vibrating wand that resembles an electric toothbrush) or if the facility is large enough, with a hive of honeybees.

I was a little nervous leaving the strawberry plants while we went on vacation, but they're doing great! Now I'll start pollinating every day and we should be getting tons of strawberries soon.

We use Fresh Direct practically every week. The're great for bulky heavy things, but their meat/seafood is good too. I usually like to pick my own fish, but if we're strapped for time, FD is our go to. My wife gets a few pounds of red potatoes from FD every week and rarely has a problem. One graet thing about them is that if you have a problem with your delivery - anything at all - they will basically immediately credit you for it once you contact them. They're great to deal with when there's a problem.

Wow. You could take Big Blue on to the side of the road and set up a fresh juice stand! That is, if you ever want another occupation....

What made it Japanese?

@HungryChris Your clam dishes always look so good! Have you ever posted your recipe for linguine in white clam sauce?

@Smithy Mangosteens. It's very hard to describe them to someone who's never had a fresh one (which is most people on the US) as I think they are unique. I tried to describe them in my Singapore foos blog. Let me know if that helps. Right now I can only use my phone so long descriptions are a pita.

@TicTac check out the discussion in this thread from last year (I think it's on page 6). @liuzhou gave a good description of how to pick them.

Finally!!!! After being in Bali for about a week, we were finally able to get to a market where there were fruit vendors (with one day to spare - we're leaving Friday morning (it's now Wed evening)). I got a nice sized bag of these: The vendor originally wanted IDR75000 but I was able to get her down to 55000. At about 14000 IDR per USD that's nit quite $4. Before getting back, the quality seemed good using the equator squeeze test, so I was optimistic. Now, back at the hotel, I thought I would sample one but wound up going through about half the bag - thry were so good... So juicy they were dripping down my chin.... And that flavor! There's nothing like it.

This fruit is new to me; it appeared in a hotel "welcome" basket. This is an Indonesian fruit called Salak or snake fruit, as the skin looks (and feels) alarmingly like a snake skin. It's also thin like a snake skin. Once peeled it looks like this: It has 3 large garlic clove-like segments, each with its own stone. There is some kind of membrane around each clove as well. It has a texture similar to a chestnut and has a scent that reminded me of a mild french cheese, but fruitier. Flavor is very slightly sweet and a little sour... All in all it is certainly not amongst my favorites... but I thought it interesting nonetheless.

Usually the prefilter goes just before the main filter. The filter that I have is called a kitchen or bathroom filter and is designed to filter the entire kitchen or bathroom cold water. They make other types of "whole house" filters but they'd need to accommodate much more flow than a single room filter. But if part of your problem is coming from old rusty pipes, a filter at the water entry point won't help that...

I love how every dish's pruce is xx.95 😄

My filter doesn't slow down the cold water flow initially, but definitely slows down over time. If your local water had a lot of silt or particulates, it could be beneficial to get a prefilter which will only remove solid particles that would quickly clog the main filter.

Years ago, I installed an under the sink filter in my rental apartment. One day, when we move out, I'll have to do something about it. Ours is a little different, but very easy to install - it probably took no longer than a half hour. Ours doesn't use a separate spigot, but filters the cold water line of the kitchen sink. I installed a GE filter system that was like $50 at the Home Depot. I think it's been either discontinued or just that the Depot doesn't sell it any more. But I get replacement filters from Amazon or Ebay for anout $25. In hindsight, I'd install a different one as the filters are a PITA to change.. But the initial install was really easy.

@dcarch great post - so glad you did that. That is the big misconception about BER, the lack of calcium but it really is a distribution problem. I had the same problem with my hydro tomato and my nutrient mix was just fine. Here's hoping I dont get it or tip burn on my strawberries!

Maybe for typical strawberries. The ones I'm growing are particularly delicate- and I'll be picking them super ripe for same day or next day delivery. Pollinators are easy - I've used an old electric toothbrush on a tomato plant with great results. It's still slow though... I have a theory for a different kind of pollinator that's much faster but it needs some testing first.

You're reading my mind!! Although I believe the cameras could be trained to spot a ripe berry, I think the actual robotic harvesting would be a challenge due to its fragility. Most grippers aren't that gentle. Plus we'd still need people for doing other maintenance like pruning older leaves, pollinating (I dont know if I'd have the volume for a hive of honeybees) etc

I've been picking the flowers until the roots were a little more established and until we get back from vacation. There have been a lot of flowers! Lots of them lurking in the foliage.