KennethT

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

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.

@liuzhou I hope we get to see some of the food you had on your trip!

I understand that - I actually planned to cover the insulation with plastic wrap to contain it... I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe this weekend. I never thought of building a structure out of foam insulation board that I can go in and out of, while keeping it light proof and close to air tight.

Yes, the strawberries are heirloom varieties and can be planted from seed - although there are a few tricks to getting them to germinate. Your rigid insulation board is good for small setups, but eventually, the strawberry plants will be about 24" in diameter each - and there will be six of them. Plus, I need room for the light, air conditioning unit that keeps the proper temp. So, the nice thing is that once the strawberries are growing in their upgraded spot in the tent (currently under construction), I'll have room in there for some other fun stuff....

What is involved with extreme controlled environment urban agriculture? Insulated tent from the outside. CO2 canister, humidifier and seedling nursery. 6 different types of rare strawberries.

Cuisinart Steam Oven

Whoops!

During the time when the Cooking Issues blog was active, Dave Arnold and Co. did a lot of tests with vacuum. They concluded that using high pressure usually resulted in poor texture - for most meats, I think I remember them saying that 70% was best, but my memory could be completely wrong on that. At high vacuum, the liquid inside the meat boils at room temp or even refrigerator temp, which alters the texture once cooked.

What is this? I assume it's a wet grinder, but which brand, and do you like it? I've been thinking of getting one to make curry paste at home - I just don't have the patience to pound away for 30-40 minutes to make it the traditional way.

Many of the supermarkets/large stores (like BB&B) in Manhattan use a cart escalator - typically, they only take the cart itself, and is immediately adjacent to the person escalator. The cart one has no platform, it just has pegs on both sides. I used to go to the Ithaca Wegman's all the time in the mid '90s... that was probably the best supermarket I had ever seen... even for that time, they had a lot of international stuff - much more that what I was used to.

@Shelby That fried chicken looks great! Do you deep fry or shallow pan fry them? What do you use for a coating?

I don't know about the chcocolate business, but years ago, I knew people who ran food tours of the West Village - they would charge for their tours, and they would bring people around to various venues where people would hear history and get some samples. I know there are tours like that still going on, as I've seen them in action while walking around. Maybe you could talk to some of those tour operators and get some of their experience?

What is a fake chicharron? Looks like a pretty good pork rind to me!

@weinoo interesting. I don't think I've seen a loose fermented saysage before.

@ImportantElements Nice... glad to see you're still here and that the previous discussion didn't scare you off!

@heidih Fascinating read - thanks for the link.... I don't buy Jews and flour tortilla thing though, if for no other reason than the whole lard thing...

Are flour tortillas common in Mexico?

On our last night there, we went to Nahm, which is David Thompson's restaurant that started in Australia, but moved to BKK. He is known as the foremost non-Thai authority on Thai food, and he probably knows more about it and its history than most Thai people. I think it's impossible to give a dish by dish review - you'll see why in a second. We got the set menu, which turned out to be an unwieldy amount of food. The sheer volume alone was daunting - and try as we did, I think we barely made a dent in a lot of the dishes. This should not be an indicator of our enjoyment or its quality, however. In fact, we thought that the meal was amazing - so many of the dishes were so complex it would be impossible to try to describe them. Plus, I wished we had a list of what we ordered, because our one complaint was that a lot of the servers were hard to understand when they were presenting each dish. If we had a copy of the menu or of what we ordered, we could read the descriptions as we were having them. But it was worth getting the set menu to be able to taste so many dishes - we just thought the portions could have been a LOT smaller. The set menu also opened our eyes to the sheer variety of styles that are available in Thai cuisine. Some dishes had some extremely bitter components, some very sour. Others fragrant and heady. Somehow everything balanced each other out wonderfully. Also, everything was perfectly prepared and executed, and the pacing was great. All in all, it turned out to be a fantastic end to the great BKK experience.

One of the things that makes BKK a pita to walk around in is the fact that there is practically no usable sidewalk anywhere. Many of the stores use the sidewalk in front of the store as extra display space, and it's also used for motorbike parking or riding.

The next day, we went to a very interesting place for lunch - Jok's Kitchen. It's usually impossible to get a table here unless you know someone. Fortunately for us, at the time, I was posting and asking questions on the Fodor's Asia board - they have a lot of people who frequent BKK, and even some posters who live there. One of them is a regular at Jok's, and offered to call them to get us a table. Jok was awesome. We were seated in their front room at a large table by ourselves. It's an interesting experience being in a restaurant and being the only people in the room. The food there was incredible - some of the best we've had on this trip. We started with the quick fried ginkgo nuts, which I've never had before, but were enjoyable - especially with the spicy dipping sauce. Actually, we didn't get much choice - the dishes just sort of came out once we sat down... Next were the shrimp wontons that were excellent - a great texture, and flavor that was only enhanced by the black vinegar. This was followed by a snow fish salad... this was really impressive to me, as the fish had a wonderful crispy skin, a great color on all sides, and was really perfectly cooked in the middle. Juicy, moist, tender... Then, for me, the star of the show (who thought it could get better than that fish?) were steamed mud crabs. It is obvious how his reputation was built on them - one of the things that makes this place famous is that the chef used to be a crab fisherman and still has many as friends - they supply him with all the seafood basically straight from the fishing boats. Crab claws the size of my fist (almost) that were perfectly cooked and simply prepared so the flavor of those crabs could really shine through. My wife's favorite dish came after - the stir fried abalone. I really liked them, but she went crazy for it. The abalone was really well cooked - very tender, with some pieces having just the slightest bit of chew, and others being so tender that they practically melted. The sauce seemed to be an oyster sauce base, but very earthy from the addition of the mushrooms. I don't know if the mushrooms were fresh or rehydrated, but were a great foil to the subtle flavor of the abalone. I was worried when I saw it that I didn't have enough cash on me to cover the bill (they didn't take credit cards), especially with the abalone, but the abalone was not expensive itself - actually one of the least expensive dishes... only 200B, with the total coming to 2290B.. certainly well worth it!

That evening we went to Sukhumvit Soi 38... This is a side street where there are lots of vendors selling street foods. Here's a shot from an overpass showing the scene: Nothing we had here was outstanding, but I'm very glad we went for the experience. Plus, I got to have a nice conversation with one of the guys working at the bamee stall where we were seated who wanted to practice his English, and I wanted to practice my Thai....... I thought the whole experience was very interesting. When originally reading about it, I just assumed they closed off the street, but no! Traffic (cars, motorbikes, etc) all milling about. I wonder how many people get mildly injured per year. I almost got hit a few times as I was a bit distracted checking out all the different vendors. We had 2 different kinds of bamee - one with a clear broth, crispy pork,and wontons, the other had a darker broth with BBQ pork. Also, we got some BBQ pork and Isaac sausage on a stick from one of the busy grilling guys. All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went there.... But it was nice to be back in the air conditioning, especially as it just started to rain after we left! The grilled pork was actually really good, and I really enjoyed the sausage - plump nuggets of slightly fermented pork product, juicy with a nice snap on the skin... And very hot! Just off the grill! Always good to go to the vendor who is really busy so what you get is fresh....

@heidih Tamarind is brown, so I don't think that's what's coloring your pad thai... maybe turmeric?

The next day, we had an appointment about an hour outside of Bangkok. Afterwards, they arranged for us to have lunch at a local restaurant near the river, Lomtalay. All I can say is, wow. The place is pretty big, and very pretty being right on the river. It was packed with what looked like families going there for lunch. Whole fried fish covered in fried garlic pak boong tod mun goong, which were different than I'd seen elsewhere - very light as if they were made froma shrimp mousse, then covered in what looked to be Panko then deep fried. Excellent. Grilled tiger prawns.... The prawns were ridiculous. Each the size of my fist, with head on so you could suck the head fat. Perfectly cooked with great charring from the grill... Google this place - it's worth it going out of your way!

For dinner that night, we had a pad thai showdown! In one corner, the venerable stalwart, Thip Samai. In the other, almost next door neighbor, Leung Pha Pad Thai. First, the ground rules - as all good experiments mut have controls. The PT should have fresh shrimp, shrimp head fat, and not be contained in an egg bag. Here's an interior shot of Thip Samai: Notice the tons of staff out front... this place was packed! Part of their menu: The pad thai: The noodle's orange color comes from the shrimp head fat. Here's an interior shot of their neighbor, Leung Pha: It's a much smaller place... And the pad thai: So without further ado, the breakdown of the results in no particular order: Fresh shrimp cookedness - winner: Leung Pha. Their shrimp were cooked perfectly, while TS's were slightly overcooked. Egg cookedness - Winner: Leung Pha. Their eggs were just barely set, and almost mixed themselves into the noodles, whereas TS's were slightly overcooked, bordering on hard/rubbery. Misc components/ general flavor - winner: Leung Pha. LP uses larger pieces of shallot which retain a very slight crunchiness providing good textural contrast, whereas TS's shallots are smaller and basically melt into the noodles. Obviously, this whole thing is subjective, but this is more subjective than the rest. We also thought the overall flavor was slightly better at LP. Noodle cookedness - winner: Thip Samai. Their noodle texture was just perfect. Soft, but retaining a little bite. LP's noodles were a little mushy. So this is a David and Goliath moment... Thip Samai, the giant PT factory and institution versus the tiny neighbor. Overall winner: Thip Samai. Their noodle texture was crazy good and heads and shoulders better than LP. To us, at the end of the day, PT is a noodle dish, and the noodle texture is key. The overall flavor of both were excellent, but even if LP edged out TS in almost every category, the differences there were subtle and relatively minor compared to the textural issue. As an aside, how come no one in NY can make a PT with shrimp head fat?? It lends such a great flavor that is so distinctive, and turns the noodles a bright orange color.