KennethT

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?

I was looking at one also, but saw in the manuals that it takes an hour to make normal white rice... Is that true? I've been using my Krups combination rice cooker/slow cooker and it takes only 20 minutes or so, although the rice does get better if left undisturbed for a while after it switches to keep warm...

@Shelby And it's a lot of fun when people see the extremely bright light in your window and think you're growing weed! Even more when you tell them it's just a lime tree and you can see them get disappointed... hehe

You need to get some dwarf citrus trees!!! They make very nice houseplants as long as they can get enough light, and even without enough daylight, an inexpensive LED plant light and 24 hour timer is really all you need... just in case you don't have enough to do, check out fourwindsgrowers.com

Thanks for this... you're not kidding that it's really dry! I'm glad to hear that things are coming back though.

@Shelby I concur - that is some fine looking chicken... did the chicken cool between the SV and buttermilk bath? How long did it fry for and what was your oil temp?

For that kind of money, you'd think there would be slightly less uncomfortable looking chairs...

@ocd That's correct. I imagine the company recommends using at a lower setting because plug adapters are notoriously cheap pieces of crap (even the expensive ones) amongst those in the industry and running high amounts of current through them for extended periods of time tend to make them melt. That, coupled with the liability that a NEMA 5-15 15A outlet should be used with a 15A breaker, which at 1800W for an extended time could cause older breakers to trip.

Thanks... I thought that's what you meant... I've seen advertisements for some hotels that are built that way. It's beautiful, but I always wondered about bugs, critters and such. I'll be curious to hear about the realities of it. One of my customers is a hotel in St. Lucia where the rooms are open air (there's only 3 walls) and while I've always wanted to visit it, part of me worries about waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by various tropical insects, lizards and birds...