KennethT

Are these cobs dimmable?

I love caneles... I had them 3 times a day, years ago, when in Bordeaux... Back then (and probably still do) they had packages of caneles at the airport to take home. After having so many, one thing I can say is that there is a huge difference between a great canele and a mediocre one... some can even be rather bad - soggy and rubbery.

I found a package on instant Luosifen in one of my local groceries... in NYC... I haven't tried it since I always thought the instant noodles weren't very good... but seeing this thread is causing me to reconsider...

I think about 95% of NYers are doomed as most of us are lucky to have a hood that just blows the air back in our face... Hoods that vent outdoors are practically nonexistent. Edit... NYers, not Myers!!!! damn autocorrect....

OK - then bleach would be the way to do it most easily without procuring specialty stuff. Also, in addition to bleach or H2O2, there another option for sanitizing while plants are still there and growing - hypochlorous acid - yes it is basically bleach, but there are plant/food grade versions (made from calcium hypochlorite) without all the other additives that bleach has - and it doesn't have any sodium. Check out UC Roots - it's actually more effective than H2O2 since it won't degrade as quickly... just make sure your sanitizing solution has a pH of about 5.5.

If you want to sanitize while you have plants growing in there, I would use hydrogen peroxide - but I'd stay away from the stuff you get in the drugstore as it contains additives and stabilizers. Instead, you can get 17% or 35% H2O2 which don't require additives because it is stable at those percentages. Be very careful when you use that stuff because if you get it on your skin, it will burn. I've used 17% for years with my lime tree - about 8ml per gallon works fine to sanitize the system and won't hurt the plants. If you are not growing anything at the moment, then using a bleach solution will be fine. Just make sure it's rinsed thoroughly and allowed to air dry before putting plants back in. Also, don't add bleach to the soil since it will kill all the microorganisms in there, which will make it very hard for plants to uptake nutrients.

Do you make the paratha from scratch? It looks very similar to the Malay/Singaporean prata (many times made by Indian men)... If you make it, can you provide the recipe?

huh... I didn't realize it was that small... the one I have (from a Chinese rest. supply store) looks just like it, but the strainer portion is about the size of an eggplant.

The hook on the side of the noodle strainer is for use in a professional situation. They don't boil noodles in a pot, but basically a deep fryer that continuously boils water. Noodles to be cooked are placed in the basket and lowered into the water, with the hook over the edge, keeping the basket submerged but the handle from falling in the water. When ready, the whole basket is removed and shaken to get the excess water out.

This is the problem with salting - once you salt an area, it will be a long time until anything will grow there again - unless you do a lot of flushing! ETA - I don't think it "kills the land" but it would certainly kill all the beneficial bacterial/fungi (like trichoderma, mycorrhizae, etc) which are essential to allow your plants to take up nutrients in soil.

@liamsaunt Wow! Amazing shots - I can't imagine what it must have been like to be so close to a wild dolphin... When I was in high school, I had the chance to swim with some dolphins in a research facility - that was amazing, but my mind is blown with the wild dolphin being so close! Thanks so much for posting all this... loved it!

huh... I had no idea... I always had heard that there was a large Thai concentration in LA, and just assumed it was concentrated in one area...

I'm sure you'll find plenty of sources in the Thai neighborhood in LA

Malaysian shrimp curry and belacan yu choi... Shrimp x3 - shrimp, shrimp paste and dried shrimp. Now the apartment smells like home!

I agree. Love the snorkeling shots and all the seafood. When I was young, my family and I went to the Caribbean once a year or so, and I did a lot of diving. Nowadays, my wife doesn't dive (primarily because we don't have the time to get her certified), so when we go somewhere appropriate, we snorkel so we can do it together - but most places in Asia I've found to be vastly inferior to sites in the Caribbean. In general, it's poor visibility, and not much to see because of the damage of pollution or trash. One day, we'd love to go the the Great Barrier reef before it's completely destroyed... but there's too much to see, and not enough time.

We already have more than enough of that... besides, she never checks luggage on work trips, so bringing back that kind of souvenir wouldn't be practical anyway.

My wife recently came back from a work trip to Bordeaux, connecting through Madrid. She brought me a present...

Interesting story... I still don't understand how the ethnic Han (95% of China's population according to the article) are congenitally lactose intolerant, but drinking lots of milk. Does the CCP also hand out lactose tablets with each milk purchase? Or does the human population now create more methane than the cows?

I just did a quick check with the producer of the dwarf tree I have (fourwindsgrowers.com) - they say that most citrus won't flower or fruit if they don't get enough direct light. In a shaded space they will produce foliage, but not flower.

I love those small limes. I keep thinking about changing out my Bearss lime for a true lime tree (I only have space for 1) but I don't have the heart to kill my tree - it's probably about 10 years old by now, if not a little older... FWIW, I think most citrus trees don't start flowering/fruiting until they're about 5 years old... so there may be hope yet!

Strange - mine flowers/fruits all the time, and it's all by its lonesome - I think it's the only NYC lime tree in existence... Is yours a true lime (small fruits with seeds) or a Bearss lime (sometimes called Persian lime or Tahitian lime - the standard lime you would find in the US/Europe which is actually a cross of a true lime and a lemon, which is larger than a true lime, has a thicker skin (although I find it still doesn't take insults well) and has no seeds)? I don't know about true limes, but Bearss limes are self-pollinating - they don't even need insects!

What cut of pork do you typically use?

@liuzhou How old is that lime tree? I have a dwarf lime tree (it's a standard lime tree grafted onto dwarf rootstock) and I love it! How do you keep your tree from getting root rot issues?

Thanks. I had read that you could put the rice in ahead of time and use its timer, but the manual says that the results aren't as good. I'd be curious if anyone has tried setting it up and have it turn on about 12 hours later.

Not necessarily impatient, but after getting home from work and the rest of dinner takes 30-40 min, I'd rather not wait for another 40 min just for the rice... I wonder why it takes so long?