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KennethT

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Posts posted by KennethT

  1. I wonder if the fat content of the cut was too low to begin with.  The term "choice" is a pretty broad range when it comes to marbling.  I've seen some cuts labeled choice that look almost like prime, and others that seem to have no marbling at all.  The marbling is important because more highly marbled meat will be much more tender to start with than more lean meat.  Lean meat is mostly water, so when dry aged for a long time, becomes more like jerky.  Meat with a lot of fat doesn't lose as much weight because the fat doesn't go anywhere.  I don't think I'd consider dry aging anything that isn't prime or almost-like-prime meat.

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  2. That international store looks amazing!  When we were there, I didn't search anything like that out, but I wouldn't have thought to even look for something like that.  I knew Saigon was an international city, but I didn't realize that it was THAT much... the quality of that stuff looked better than a lot of the stuff that I see in NYC.

     

    That street video you took was exactly like what we experienced when we wanted to go to the "Chicken corner".  Like a never ending parade. And yet the locals cross it without even looking... 

  3. Wow, they've really expanded their menu... I remember when it was basically just the beignets, chicory coffee and hot chocolate.  There was no where to go inside (well, there was a gift shop with canned coffee, tshirts, and beignet mix) but basically, you hovered around a table that looked almost done, then swooped in and waited for someone to saunter over and wipe down the piles of powdered sugar off of the table, and if you were nice, they'd wipe the chairs too as they were also covered - then you'd just place your order with them...

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  4. These are different limes than we commonly see in N. America.  The limes in Asia are like Key Limes or true limes - they are small, have seeds, and have a slightly different flavor than the Bearss Seedless Lime (which is what is typical in N. America).  In fact, the Bearss is not a true lime at all, but a cross between a true lime and a lemon.  The reason behind the creation of the Bearss lime was to reduce labor costs - using true limes are more costly since they have seeds that need to be strained, and they are smaller so you need to squeeze more of them to get the same amount of juice.  Personally, I prefer the small, true limes - I like their flavor better, and when I use them to make SE Asian dishes, they taste more like what I've had during my travels.  Unfortunately, they're really expensive here in NYC when I can get them... like $3.50 to $5 per pound!

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  5. Also, you're in prime boiled crawfish season. I'd be eating my weight in them right about now.... Even though it's touristy and a bit overpriced, we thought the boiled crawfish at Acme was the best of any other restaurant in the Quarter, over our years of trying numerous places. Nice and big, and their boil is just about perfect.

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  6. I thought the same thing about Ben Thanh... I wouldn't go back if you paid me to!  We've never been so aggressively hawked/harassed as we were there.  Loved the shots of the other stalls though.  Your photos are bringing me back... I appreciate your effort in posting them!

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  7. This is really interesting. Those banh xeo look like the ones we had in Hoi An and Hue - even the murky and delicious dipping sauce (I think also had pork liver) and thin rice papers for wrapping, and green mango as an addition.  I had always read that the banh xeo in Saigon were larger, not as crispy, and were not served with the thick dipping sauce, but more of a nuoc cham, and without the rice papers for wrapping - instead they used very large mustard leaves and a huge bush of many different herbs, but no green mango.

     

    So I'd be curious if that banh xeo place does it in the Central Vietnam way = sort of like how banh cuon is a dish from the North originally, but now there are a few places in Saigon that do it.  The locals may like it because it is a change of pace from the typical version (as well as being really tasty)...

  8. 8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

    Unfortunately,  I can't remember the name of the place - Something Club - but it is to the west of the Independence Palace and before the War Museum.

     

    To my amusement, my dinner hosts all went for the western menu, whereas I went for the Vietnamese. I had Mango Catfish, Beef Knuckle and the Rambutan Sweet Soup.

     

    It was very good, but the ambience was a bit too much above itself. And anyway,  I prefer the street food. I'm cheap.

    Based on the menu and location, I think it was Ly Club.  We didn't go there (we preferred the street and local food also), but I had read about it in the guidebooks before our trip.

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  9. This actually happened the night before we left!  My last meal in BKk was some toast in the hotel breakfast.. Then we had about a 30 hour trip home as a typhoon was heading for Taipei so I changed our flight to Singapore Air and took the long route home... BKk to Sing to Frankfurt to NY.... By the time we left for airport in bkk I could away from the bathroom (with the help of about 4 immodium) but I was just so tired...

     

    And yes @Okanagancook that was me, sitting there with the trash bin in hand... It needed to be emptied several times... Ahh... Memories....

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  10. Also, most of the small places are just reselling the bread that is baked elsewhere, usually somewhere in the neighborhood or district, unless it is an actual bakery.  But most sellers in carts or stalls on the street get daily and sometimes multiple deliveries from the bakery per day and close when they sell out of bread.

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  11. 47 minutes ago, Smithy said:

     

    I meant to ask also whether you think the leftover food is thrown away (as is legally required in the US) or goes surreptitiously to someone fortunate. You may not have a way of knowing, but if you do, I'd be curious to know the answer.

     

    As for the rest - yes, it sounds almost exactly like what we've experienced.

    Who knows!  I would like to assume that being David Thompson's restaurant, and at those prices, he would run it with the ethos of throwing away anything uneaten as it is A) unsanitary for anyone else - especially because things were not provided with serving utensils for each dish and B) I'm sure the quality would decline if it would need to be reheated or kept warm.

     

    But, it's Bangkok, so anything goes...

     

    I didn't mention this before, but in the middle of the night after eating at Nahm (our last meal before our trip home) I woke up with violent food poisoning.  There were times that I was actually sitting there in the bathroom praying for death as it would be a step up from what I was experiencing.  I am not attributing it to the Nahm experience, as we all know that food poisoning can gestate for a few days before showing symptoms, so who knows where I got it.  There were only 2 times that my wife and I didn't share everything equally - Nahm (just because I really enjoyed some of the things she wasn't a huge fan of), and the night before at the street food scene on Sukhumvit Soi 38 where she only had a bit of the barbequed sausages, and I finished them.  Not that that means anything either - sometimes one person is affected and another is not, even when eating the same quantity....

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  12. Thanks @Smithy.  Yes, we were stuffed after Nahm, and we (sadly) probably left more on the table than we ate.  It is relatively expensive - it was probably about US$80-100 for the two of us for dinner, which is not much by NYC standards, but by Bangkok standards is pretty pricey... especially considering that the meal at Lomtalay probably cost $15-20 if it cost that much.

     

    The one thing I didn't discuss much, which is a detraction from Bangkok (and I'm sure you saw a bunch of this in Egypt) are all the touts.  Tourism is quite advanced in Thailand in general and Bangkok.  No matter where you go, you are bound to have at least one person come up to you and start talking and being very friendly. They are typically very nicely dressed. They ask where you are from, how do you like Bangkok, etc.... they ask where you are going - and then they'll so "oh, I'm so sorry, it's closed today, but if you'd like, I can take you to these very nice shops that give great pricing on jewelry, jems, etc..." While there are a lot of jem sales in Bangkok, and good deals on authentic stuff if you know where to go, there is also a lot of fake stuff out there, and if anyone takes you somewhere, you can be sure that they are getting a kickback from it.  Guides are no exception - so even if you are paying your guide to take you to a specific tailor as part of your time with them, many times, they'll take you to a different place and make you think that it's the same, meanwhile, they're getting "tea money" or a kickback from it.  It's very annoying.  Plus, the taxis are a pita in Bangkok - the traffic is horrible there - you can be sitting at a traffic light for 20 minutes and not move 2 feet.  Literally.  The way the meters work (or did at the time), the taxis charge very little for time spent standing still, they basically only charge for distance.  So many drivers conveniently forget to use the meter, and will then give you an exorbitant price (maybe 3x what the meter would have been).  So, it's a good idea to tell the driver to use the meter the second you get in the taxi.  Many times, they refuse, and will then quote you a price, and then the bargaining begins... We actually got out of 1 taxi once because he wouldn't come down on the price, then got in another who used the meter before I could ask.  Traffic wasn't bad that time, so we made it to our destination fast, and the meter price was like 1/4 of what the other guy wanted... even after all the bargaining!  Very frustrating.  The Skytrain and subway system are good and inexpensive, but definitely need expanding from when we were there... if you want to go anywhere that's not that close to a stop, it's either a lot of walking down almost nonexistent sidewalks, or a taxi with more bargaining.

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  13. 6 minutes ago, weinoo said:

    40926986775_7032b654f8_z.jpg

     

    This isn't modernist, it's just one of the Neapolitan pies from Anthony Manieri, at the new Una Pizza Napoletana, on Orchard Street.

     

     

     

    How was it? IIRC, you weren't a huge UPN fan when they were in the EV...

  14. 11 minutes ago, TicTac said:

    So jealous of those fresh Asspergass (sorry, it's what this household - aka the rugrats - refers to them as...!) 

     

    They are one of the veggies that truly degrades the moment you pick them - hence why keeping them in water is advised.  Then again if it is a 2 minute walk to the kitchen, who needs water!? 

     

     

    I have an old cookbook from Joel Robuchon who basically said that if you don't use asparagus within an hour of when it was picked, don't bother using them at all!!!  I think that's a little extreme, but I thought of it when reading your comment.

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