KennethT

OK, so I've decided that I will definitely be getting a CSO... now the question is, should I get a refurbished older model (300N - $125) or a brand spanking new one (300N1 - $199)? The refurb is quite a bit cheaper, but I don't know if the new one has improvements made that make it worthwhile. I see above that @weinoo just got a refurb that looks really good.... and I'm sure @rotuts will make teh case for getting both, but right now, I don't know if I have space to store the backup model...

I saw that 50g bitters... That's like half a bottle...

@Kerry Beal That wok looks great - have you used it for anything other than deep frying? I'd love to know how it works for a stir fry with the control freak...

I made ice cream with dry ice once - just be warned that it will slightly carbonate your ice cream... can be a neat effect - I used an "egg cream" flavored base (it's a NYC thing) so the slight spritz I got from it worked well. A couple things (note taht I haven't looked at your dry ice link yet) - while dry ice is easy to store, it's usually industrial grade and can have some dirt in it or on the surface if purchasing large blocks. Also, make sure you turn the dry ice into snow in a food processor and make sure you don't get any lumps while you're mixing because biting down on it can be quite dangerous as I'm sure you're aware....

Yes, if you're mixing perlite and compost, you wouldn't need the extra nutrients... and I'm not surprised that the rooftop grow was growing in perlite - was it a vining crop like tomatoes or cucumbers? It's very common to grow those in perlite because perlite holds a good amount of water (so it doesn't need to be watered constantly) and is inert and won't affect the pH of your nutrient.

The problem with perlite is that you'd then be growing hydroponically - so you'd have to feed them a complete nutrient, rather than just water or water with some "plant food". While it's certainly doable (I've been a big proponent for a while), it does have a learning curve.

I have no problems reheating refrigerated rice. My improvised steamer, which is a wet papertowel layed over the top and tucked in the sides, microwaved for about a minute or two, works really well for rehydrating/reheating... I was worried about b. cereus since it's commonly discussed as a problem with rice, and I had heard that it still grows at refrigerated temps so had always heard not to keep old rice more than a day or two in the fridge.

I didn't use a recipe per se... In Thailand, they will make som tum out of lots of different things, depending on what's on hand. In this country, we know it only as the "green papaya salad", but my preference is for the same thing but made with green mango - the green mango is a little more tart and tannic, but practically impossible to find in this country (or at least that I've seen). But you can adapt the basic dressing/method to lots of things... so I used cucumber - the mini persian kind which has the tender skin. A long time ago, I saw a recipe for som tum and its variants in the Pok Pok book by Andy Ricker... I've been using it as a basis fora long time, but haven't actually looked at the recipe in a long time either, so I may have been making changes as time goes by. The basis is dried shrimp, palm sugar, lime juice, chilis and fish sauce, oh and peanuts.. I usually add a clove or two of garlic, and last night, just because I had it laying around, I added a sprig of lemongrass, minced then pounded into a paste (or really sawdust since the lemongrass I get here isn't very juicy). I also threw some fried shallot on top, because fried shallots make everything better.

@HKDave Exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you. To all the other replies - I thank you as well - while I understand the quality loss that comes with refrigerating rice, I have relatively low standards for my weekday lunches while at work... I don't really have time to enjoy it anyway!

Finally over the jetlag (mostly) so it's time to start cooking again.... Weekly salmon, with cucumber som tum.

Now I'm nervous... I currently live in an apt. with a gas range and practically no counters space, so I've put off buying one of these, no matter how good you all make it look. My wife and I are considering moving to a new apt. with, gasp, no gas! The kitchen currently has an old electric coil top range, which I loath, and will get rid of post haste if we move. Since we only cook for the two of us, and really only use the full size of our current oven for keeping delivered pizza warm while we eat it slice by slice, I've been thinking of just getting a CSO and a couple induction burners... What will I do now? I'm thinking of getting a CSO, but I'm not even sure we're going to get this apartment.... arrgghhhh....

@liuzhou great stuff.... I think your grandson is your clone...

Thanks for posting this! @gfron1 This looks incredible - I'm so happy to see all your hard work executed so well! I wish I lived closer so we'd be able to come...

Beautiful shots!

I've had refrigerated rice left a day or two - it reconstitutes well using my improvised steamer method - wet paper towel over the top, microwave for on high for about a minute or 1.5

I would pitch a tent and live in that store...

You beat me to it!!! Where is this magical free room? Around here, we don't even get discounted! Also, @Kerry Beal what did you think of the Robuchon fries? How do you think they compare with other methods? The best fries I've ever had were ones I made using Dave Arnold's method on Cooking Issues many years ago... granted, it took practically all day and required stuff like Pectinex to degrade the surface pectin, but they were awesome... perfectly fluffy on the inside, and super crisp on the outside, even once cold they stayed crisp!

I am exploring options for my usual weekday lunches - I make this over the weekend, refrigerate, then microwave while at work to warm. For a long time, I've always brought some kind of noodle/pasta dish - it warms just fine in the microwave for about a minute with a damp paper towel layed over the top. I was thinking about extending this to rice based dishes - but I'm nervous about eating cooked rice that has been in the refrigerator for about 5-6 days. Does anyone have any info about the safety of doing something like this? Some people may have the idea of keeping a small rice cooker at work and making the rice fresh each day, but I usually hardly have time to eat, as well as washing/rinsing and cleaning the rice cooker. My workplace is a factory (of non-foodstuffs) so isn't the most hospitable place in the world for making food - the microwave is in the office, but the sinks are out in the factory or the restrooms, neither of which is suitable to be anywhere near stuff to be put in one's mouth!

You can have the six fries with the lone okra... :>)

I wish I could "like" and "sad face" at the same time!

I keep picturing the old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he's in the fancy restaurant eating a lone carrot on a plate with a fork and knife...

I'm leaving the winery visits up to my wife as she's in the industry. That's what actually sparked the NZ trip - she was offered a trip to NZ where they would take her around to various wineries, but we weren't happy with it as teh trip was almost 2 weeks long, and we don't like to be away from each other for that much time. So we decided we would go together on our own, and just see what we wanted to see, rather than get taken around by whoever is footing the bill!

I try to learn a little bit of the language of each country we visit. This can be problematic since I don't know each of those languages very well (at all), sometimes words in the wrong language slips out, which gets some pretty funny looks! Most of the time though, I don't really get a chance to use the language much anyway - in most places, it seems there's someone around who speaks some English (usually a younger person working somewhere), or they have menu with pictures, or we just do some pointing. One time I was happy I spent the time to learn some Vietnamese was when we were doing a private "tour" with a hired taxi for the day - the driver spoke no English, and there was a bit of a misunderstanding about the order of our itinerary... also, once we got out of Saigon, he was completely lost, so I had to give him directions while using Google Maps on my phone.

There was definitely alcohol available in the hotels, but we didn't have any. For a while now, I've been taking some medication that doesn't play nicely with alcohol at all... so unless there's something absolutely worthwhile, I don't bother. And my wife, funny enough, works in the wine business, so she's actually very happy with a vacation from it from time to time! The next trip is actually going to be this winter, over Xmas... we're headed to the south island of New Zealand, spending most of our time in Otago, where I'm sure we'll be visiting a winery or two... As it's in your neck of the woods, I'd love to hear if you had any recommendations... most of the time will be spent in Otago, and we'll have 1 or 2 nights in Christchurch.

The next day, we woke up early to make our flight back to Singapore - our flight landed around 1:30PM, and we didn't have to be back in the airport for our flight home until about 8, so we checked our bags in the airport and took a taxi into the city. After landing, we went straight for a light lunch (they had already fed us on the plane - check out the Airline food thread)... I had been jonesing for this place ever since our trip here a few years ago... Since we were here last, they have significantly upgraded their restaurant space and ordering system, as well as opened some satellite locations... good to know the food is just as good though! Kid goat biryani Chicken biryani Their biryani is done the traditional way, now called Dum Biryani. The aromatics are incredible... I wish I could find something even remotely as good in NYC... for more info, see my Week in Singapore thread in the SE Asia dining section from a few years ago... After lunch, we headed off to the Gardens by the Bay. With so many choices of what to do, and such little time to do it, it was a tough decision, but I had read earlier that they had a new exhibit of scented orchids in the Cloud Forest... Enroute to the gardens... Then we went on to the Flower Dome where they were having a rose exhibit... Bottle trees Baobob - makes me thing of Le Petit Prince... The super trees... functional they they not only make electricity for the gardens (there are solar cells on top), they are very useful in the dehumidification of the domes - the system uses a liquid desiccant which removes a lot of humidity which takes a huge load off of their A/C system... the liquid desiccant is then boiled to release the water which is vented out through the top of the trees. Time for an early dinner before we go back to the airport... I couldn't wait to get back to an old favorite... Sambal Pomfret - I love their sambal - it's a wonderful mixture of chili, garlic, shallots, dried shrimp and shrimp paste, and who knows what else... This is fried until it's almost dry... the fish is coated in rice flour and wok fried, then coated with the sambal... if there is a heaven, it smells like shrimp paste... Crab bee hoon - this is one of the huge mud crabs - the claw meat is the size of a small fist! Tons of sweet crabmeat and very little effort needed to extract it. It seems like there's a lot of sauce, but it was sucked up by the bee hoon (rice noodles) pretty quickly. This was a really tasty dish, but I think the crab bee hoon at Sing Huat Eating House had a bit better flavor to the bee hoon... but this crab was cooked absolutely perfectly, while Sin Huat's was slightly overcooked the last time we were there.... Kangkong, aka morning glory, aka pak boong, aka rau muong, aka ong choy Baby gailan Now that we are completely stuffed, it's time to head back to the airport to get our bags out of storage. There is a spa/lounge pre-security in Terminal 2 that has shower rooms for rent... for about US$13, we were able to spend 45 minutes taking a shower and getting changed into fresh clothes for our 18 hour plane flight home... So that's it!!! I hope you enjoyed coming along our trip and that the rambling that my half-jetlag induced head came up with made some sort of sense!