KennethT

Wow - I didn't even realize he traveled to Africa!

Has anyone experimented using a vacuum chamber to dry herbs? Herbs dried the traditional way (low humidity, elevated temperature) take on a different flavor than when they're fresh. Drying under a vacuum can be done at lower temperatures, maintaining a more similar flavor profile. There has been some research done on this that I've read here and there, and there are some "vacuum ovens" that integrate low power microwaves to speed the process slightly, but they're very expensive. I'd be curious to know about anyone's experiences....

That's interesting... I never knew he did a set in Israel... I'll have to check them out when I get some time. I've enjoyed a bunch of his videos in Thailand and Vietnam...

This place has been all over the NYC food media lately. It started as a stall in a mall in Flushing and has now expanded to Manhattan - on Canal St. in a fancy new food court right near the 6 train. They make a big deal out of the fact that they grind their rice daily to make their batter. Prices are pretty expensive - they range from $7-$10 or so for one plate of rice roll - elsewhere in Chinatown, it would be about half that. We had just had lunch elsewhere, but I wanted to try it so my wife and I split a shrimp rice roll as a snack. Due to all the price and hype (and long line) I was expecting the best rice roll I've ever had. It was good, but didn't blow me away. I actually thought the rice roll itself was a little too chewy. Please forgive the red hue in the photo - the lighting in the seating area was really funky...

So my wife and I finally made it to the new incarnation of Kopitiam. We went there once when it was in the old space, which was basically a closet with 4 counter stools about 2 feet from the register and were underwhelmed, but now that they have moved into a much larger space in the LES and have received TONS of great press, we decided to give it another try. The new setup is quite nice - it's a lively room with a good amount of seating - there are both tables for 2 and 4, a large communal table, and some counter seats at the window. The ordering scheme is similar to the standard kopitiam (coffee shop) in Singapore/Malaysia - you order at the counter and tell them where you are sitting, and then they bring you the food when it is ready. Once nice thing is that they won't let you order at the counter until you have a seat - and people waiting to sit don't hang over the diners like vultures - the very nice staff will help with the seating arrangements. Once seated, they don't rush you out either - in fact, there were a few times when I was about to ask the wait staff if they had forgotten to bring one or two of our dishes. There's also a decent amount of space between tables - it's nice to be in a casual place and not be on top of your neighbor or hear their conversation more than your own. The new menu is quite large - much larger than in the previous space. It is broken up into snacks and larger dishes and then a selection of kueh which are like sweets. Some items are made in batches - like the kueh and the curry puffs. When they sell out, it can be a long time until they are refilled. It's hard for me to judge this place as a typical New Yorker would - as someone who loves Singapore and its local food, my expectations of both flavor and value don't necessarily translate here. If I had never been to a typical kopitiam, I would think this place was excellent and might return often. But as it is, it is a little hard for me to reconcile my idea of value - but then again, real estate prices in SG/Malaysia are not NYC either... Otak Otak - this is a mousse made with fish, egg and curry paste, then steamed in a banana leaf. The texture of this version was much looser than we've had anywhere else - like it wasn't quite set yet. The flavor was ok - but very strong on the chili which basically overpowered everything else. It was ok when had with the rice, which you had to add for $2 extra. (sorry for the view of the eaten chicken wing!) Pulut Inti - this is my wife's (and mine too) favorite kueh... It's made from sticky rice stained blue using a butterfly pea flower, cooked with coconut milk, and topped with dried coconut shavings cooked with palm sugar. The rice should be slightly sweet and slightly salty. This one, the rice had almost no flavor of it's own, although the palm sugar coconut shavings were good. Curry puff - this was the best thing we had... I went back on line to try to order another (or two) but they were sold out and it would have been at least 20-30 minutes for them to come back into stock. This was probably the best curry puff I've ever had, anywhere. The crust was delicate and flaky, and the potato filling had a great curry flavor. When ordering, you can get it room temp or heated - I opted for heated. Belacan chicken wings - if you didn't tell me, I'd have no idea that belacan (fermented shrimp paste) was anywhere near these wings. You could barely get a sense of it... I was hoping the belacan would come through a lot more. Plus, it was like $6 for 5 tiny wing forearms... Kaya toast - in Singapore, this would be called "Bread Toast". The bread here was a little too dense for my taste, and the butter was completely soft and melted. To me (and many Singaporeans I have talked to) a proper bread toast should have ice cold pats of butter, in the warm toast and room temp kaya (coconut egg custard). I love the contrast between the cold butter and the warm kaya and toast. The kaya here has decent flavor (they also sell it by the jar), and the butter is really good, albeit too warm to the point where it almost squirts out when you take a bite. Teh tarik - black tea pulled with sweetened condensed milk. This was reminiscent of what it was supposed to be, but I was longing for a much stronger black tea, and a bit sweeter condensed milk flavor. This one was on the watery side. Total cost was about $35 before tip. In SG, this would have probably cost $10 if that, but again, NYC real estate so I understand... All in all, while we were a little disappointed that the dishes didn't live up to our expectations, we enjoyed ourselves there and would go back again. I am also curious to try some of their larger dishes - it looks like they had a shrimp laksa (but they didn't call it laksa so maybe it's just a shrimp noodle soup) and a beef rendang that I'd like to try. I also need to have another of those curry puffs!

I've done this with a faucet aspirator also - the biggest problem with it is the huge use of water.

@CanadianHomeChef Years ago, I grew an heirloom tomato plant hydroponically in my living room. After a few months, it was huge - drinking over a gallon of water a day. The roots grew so well, they wound up clogging the inlet/outlet of my flood/drain setup and when the pump turned on, it caused a leak in the piping at one of the joints and caused a lake of 30 gallons of nutrient water in the middle of my living room floor! So I'm not surprised that the tap root found its way into the wicks...

I have a 10 cup rice cooker (it's actually a combo slow cooker) and I hate it. We are only 2 people, and most commonly only make 2 cups of rice, for which this machine is extremely oversized. It makes it much trickier to make a good batch of rice.

In theory, the de bellota is "healthy" for you - they claim that the fat is very high in Omega-3 fatty acids - so much that they say it is equivalent to eating salmon! Or at least that's what I keep telling myself...

Holy crap is that drool worthy.... I love how it glistens!

@Chris Hennes Does MB talk about the reasons for the additives in the Wonder-ish bread? I wonder if they help delay staling...

The traditional way to serve this is with "pan con tomate" - which is a Spanish bread slightly toasted, then rubbed with a cut clove of garlic, and then rubbed with a cut tomato. The bread should be tender but crisp on the outside - I've never really found an equivalent in the US - but some kind of baguette with relatively tender crust would do. Personally, I find that the jamon iberico de bellota is best enjoyed by itself at room temp. Put a slice in your mouth and let it kind of melt while it rolls around...

@TicTac Where did you find a 3 cup zoji for $65? Are there any left?

I can't help with that specific place, but maybe you could do a virtual walk around with Google maps to try to find it that way?

@rotuts https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26693746

I've heard that this happens with most starches - and that the method of cooking is not important, but it is the cooling. Look for info on "resistant starch" - basically half of the starch becomes indigestible - but provide great food for your gut microflora. Some people complain they get a bit gassy when first eating a lot of resistant starch due to the increased activity of the microflora. The key is to not reheat things too high after the cooling - over about 110degF (I think but don't quote me) the starch will change back to non-resistant.

does anyone have experience with Cuckoo rice cookers? http://www.cuckoousastore.com/shop-rice-cooker-products/all-rice-cookers.html These are made in Korea, and look good, and are a lot less expensive than the Zojirushi...

That's correct - but you typically don't want heat all the way up the side walls of a wok. The curved induction machine you linked looked perfect for a wok - the heat would come to about the same place as it would on a traditional gas wok burner. If you don't have a curved induction surface like that, then you need to use a flat bottomed wok otherwise you will only have a very small point of heat source - aluminum or not, it's not enough to get the heat you want.

I don't quite see the point of cladding with aluminum to cook on induction. The purpose of cladding aluminum to SS is to even out a discrete heat source (like a gas ring) over the entire surface of the pan as quickly and evenly as possible. But induction works differently - the magnetic field causes the pan itself to create the heat, so as long as your mag field is even, the pan's heat will be even, with no cladding necessary. Also, if you have a powerful mag field source (that's the hob), you'd probably want the thinnest pan possible to give it the most responsive action.

I think the steel adapter may work better in theory than in practice. Unless the curvature of the adapter EXACTLY fits that of the wok, its heat transmission will not be very good because it is transmitting heat through conduction. Any gaps or space is dead air and is a decent insulator.

Wow that brings back memories... my parents had those when I was a kid. We had 3 - one for plastic wrap, one for aluminum foil and the last for waxed paper. They worked for years and years. Once they died, they were still usable - if you pulled on the sheet manually

I would call it "red curry duck".... I think I've seen something sort of like it at a market vendor selling various room temp premade curries out of large stainless steel bowls...

coriander, aka cilantro, is really tricky to grow so don't beat yourself up! Just look at it wrong and it bolts!

Yes, I definitely noticed that also, especially prominent in the last few shows...

@liuzhou That looks amazing. I wish we had something even remotely close to something like that here. ETA Then again, if we did have something like that, it would probably be $100 per person.