KennethT

BTW, @PassionateAmateur - I used to do what you're talking about every once in a while - I would make a 4-5 course tasting menu for 8-10 people every couple of months, in a small Manhattan kitchen. Sous vide was my best friend and I could make everything (except the fish) the week or so before, then retherm for service and everything tasted just like it would have if made fresh.

@TicTac This is an experiment to grow some relatively rare (in the US) wild strawberries. I have been considering using some unused warehouse space and growing them commercially, but before I put down that kind of capital, I want to check yields, costs, etc. to see if the investment makes sense.

@dcarch There shouldn't be. Usually slime is caused by bacteria, which would be an indication of other problems - primarily root rot caused by anaerobic bacteria. The good thing about NFT is that all the agitation highly oxygenates the water, and since it's only a film on the bottom and there should be no standing water, it should be pretty resistant to anaerobic problems. Theoretically. Over time, as the roots grow, they can block the flow somewhat causing ponding, which is a haven for anaerobic bacteria. The 2% grade usually helps with that, as does "air pruning" which can be done by cycling the nutrient flow on and off letting part of the root get dry and die back. From that point, you get lots of secondary roots, but it keeps the clogging to a minimum. Also, keeping the nutrient cool does a good job of keeping oxygen in the water and the anaerobes at bay. Luckily enough, research has shown that strawberry crowns' optimal temperature is about 65F which is also good for keeping plenty of dissolved oxygen. Most problems start when your nutrient gets over 70. There should also be no algae, since algae needs light to grow, so keeping the root zone and nutrient dark keeps that away.

I finally got a chance to finish (well almost - it's functioning but not yet perfect - more parts coming in soon) the setup for the strawberry experiments, and not a moment too soon!!! These guys were crowding each other around in the nursery - so much so that one of them was almost completely shaded - we'll see if it can recover in the main garden... This is how it looked as of this morning - the black container with yellow top is a homemade humidifier - there is an ultrasonic fogger floating in that reservoir and 3 cheap fans push the mist out of the box and into the tent. The hose going into it is coming from a trough underneath the cold water air conditioner - it's basically just a heat exchanger with about 40degF water running through it and a couple of fans blowing the tent air through it, so the heat exchanger gets lots of condensation - so by draining the condensate back into the reservoir, it's self sustaining. The heat exchanger is quite effective at sucking heat out of the room. Here's a closeup of the "nursery".... This is the new setup (without the plants) going through a testing phase. In hydroponics lingo, this is called an NFT setup which stands for Nutrient Film Technique. Nutrient water is pumped into the left side - it flows like a river down the trough which is sloped at a 2% grade, and then drains out the right side into a sump underneath. The sump then pumps the nutrient back into the main reservoir located outside the tent (for heat purposes - the nutrient is kept around 65degF, which is different from both the daytime and nighttime temps in the tent, plus it's big, so it frees up real estate inside). Finally, the plants are home! #2 is the runt that was shaded by everyone else in the nursery. Added this shot of the outside - 30 gallon reservoir and chiller

I think the floss is usually purchased rather than made at home. Every time I fly by EVA from NY to Taiwan, there is a package of fish floss accompanying the congee during the breakfast service.

I live in a small Manhattan apt and have a stovetop smoker... it's great for adding smoke flavor. I'd rub, then stovetop smoke it for 20 min or so, then roast as you desire to get the tenderness. You could always hit it with another round of smoke afterwards if necessary.

@liuzhou Is lettuce easily available where you are? I was under the impression that Chinese (and people in most of Asia) didn't eat raw greens, so I didn't think that lettuce would be widely available... then again, now that I'm thinking about it, the Vietnamese eat raw lettuce and herbs all the time, so maybe I answered my own question. What do you wash it with? I had always read that the water in most of Asia was not potable due to large amounts of diseases in it - hepatitis, typhoid, etc., hence why no one drinks tap water - but drink tea (which has been boiled) or bottled water.

Let the long weekend fun begin! I have ambitions to make 4 different curries this weekend that will be frozen and turned into fast weekday dinners. I dint know if I'll get to all 4 since I also have some light construction to do on the spaceship strawberry garden.... Also please don't judge my exhorbitantly expensive shrimp paste - I didn't have time to go to Chinatown where it's like half that price...

I've heard that most uni comes from Santa Barbara. There are huge kelp fields off the coast where they love to feed - most of thisvis exported to Japan. But Hokkaido is known for super high quality because the water is cold and they supposedly have some of the best kelp in the world.

Last night my wife and I went out for dinner for the first time in a long time. Although we usually get sushi delivered once a week or so, I never look forward to it as the affordable sushi places are just decent at best. So last night we decided to treat ourselves and ho for a step up. Surely this is not high end as it is unbelievably expensive in NYC, but I would definitely say it's a huge leap from our local delivery place. It did not disappoint. A small glass of daiginjo sake from producer Kamoizumi. Floral nose but a little earthy in the mouth. Soft shell crab tempura. Kanpachi usuzukura. The little green dabs are chili puree and it had a yuzu sauce. Sushi and sashimi combination. We added one piece if blue fin o-toro and a raw botan ebi (sweet shrimp). The fried shrimp head arrives a few minutes later. For dessert: Hokkaido uni sushi. I can't think of a better way to end!

I was at a crawfish boil in Waveland, Mississippi (granted, everyone there was from New Orleans) and they put a pineapple in the boil - everyone loved it... pineapple or not, the boil itself tasted very standard - but sliced up, boy was that pineapple tasty!

Wow! This early? What variety are you growing? Is it June bearing (long day) or ever bearing (day neutral)?

Here is a shot of my tent from 6 days ago - sorry I don't have a better close up of the plants: Here is a close up of the plants tonight - just 6 days later... These will have to be moved out of the "nursery" into their forever home soon - I'm already seeing some shading going on!

The only fish/cheese combo I can think of is smoked salmon (lox) and cream cheese.... but I don't think that's what you meant, right?

@Okanagancook What variety of grapes are you growing? What do you use for a training method?

I wonder if the fat content of the cut was too low to begin with. The term "choice" is a pretty broad range when it comes to marbling. I've seen some cuts labeled choice that look almost like prime, and others that seem to have no marbling at all. The marbling is important because more highly marbled meat will be much more tender to start with than more lean meat. Lean meat is mostly water, so when dry aged for a long time, becomes more like jerky. Meat with a lot of fat doesn't lose as much weight because the fat doesn't go anywhere. I don't think I'd consider dry aging anything that isn't prime or almost-like-prime meat.

Just finished adding a LCD and some buttons to my farden controller. Now I can check the temp, humidity and CO2 concentration from outside the tent without plugging in a computer.

That international store looks amazing! When we were there, I didn't search anything like that out, but I wouldn't have thought to even look for something like that. I knew Saigon was an international city, but I didn't realize that it was THAT much... the quality of that stuff looked better than a lot of the stuff that I see in NYC. That street video you took was exactly like what we experienced when we wanted to go to the "Chicken corner". Like a never ending parade. And yet the locals cross it without even looking...

Wow, they've really expanded their menu... I remember when it was basically just the beignets, chicory coffee and hot chocolate. There was no where to go inside (well, there was a gift shop with canned coffee, tshirts, and beignet mix) but basically, you hovered around a table that looked almost done, then swooped in and waited for someone to saunter over and wipe down the piles of powdered sugar off of the table, and if you were nice, they'd wipe the chairs too as they were also covered - then you'd just place your order with them...

I've never had a problem either, but I'm not a restaurant or bar squeezing out gallons of lime juice a day!

These are different limes than we commonly see in N. America. The limes in Asia are like Key Limes or true limes - they are small, have seeds, and have a slightly different flavor than the Bearss Seedless Lime (which is what is typical in N. America). In fact, the Bearss is not a true lime at all, but a cross between a true lime and a lemon. The reason behind the creation of the Bearss lime was to reduce labor costs - using true limes are more costly since they have seeds that need to be strained, and they are smaller so you need to squeeze more of them to get the same amount of juice. Personally, I prefer the small, true limes - I like their flavor better, and when I use them to make SE Asian dishes, they taste more like what I've had during my travels. Unfortunately, they're really expensive here in NYC when I can get them... like $3.50 to $5 per pound!

Also, you're in prime boiled crawfish season. I'd be eating my weight in them right about now.... Even though it's touristy and a bit overpriced, we thought the boiled crawfish at Acme was the best of any other restaurant in the Quarter, over our years of trying numerous places. Nice and big, and their boil is just about perfect.

How was Bayona? My wife and I were there years ago (we sat in the garden right next to The Radiators) and it was really good. A nice thing about NOLA is that if you don't finish your of wine you can get it in a to-go cup.

I've had them, along with fried crickets and meal worms as a snack in Thailand. They're actually quite tasty, but with a bit of a bitter aftertaste... not bad as a beer snack though.

I thought the same thing about Ben Thanh... I wouldn't go back if you paid me to! We've never been so aggressively hawked/harassed as we were there. Loved the shots of the other stalls though. Your photos are bringing me back... I appreciate your effort in posting them!