KennethT

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!

This is really interesting. Those banh xeo look like the ones we had in Hoi An and Hue - even the murky and delicious dipping sauce (I think also had pork liver) and thin rice papers for wrapping, and green mango as an addition. I had always read that the banh xeo in Saigon were larger, not as crispy, and were not served with the thick dipping sauce, but more of a nuoc cham, and without the rice papers for wrapping - instead they used very large mustard leaves and a huge bush of many different herbs, but no green mango. So I'd be curious if that banh xeo place does it in the Central Vietnam way = sort of like how banh cuon is a dish from the North originally, but now there are a few places in Saigon that do it. The locals may like it because it is a change of pace from the typical version (as well as being really tasty)...

Based on the menu and location, I think it was Ly Club. We didn't go there (we preferred the street and local food also), but I had read about it in the guidebooks before our trip.

@Lisa Shock According to a person who worked in a bakery in Saigon, no rice flour is used. But the wheat flour that bakeries use comes with a "dough improver" included.

This actually happened the night before we left! My last meal in BKk was some toast in the hotel breakfast.. Then we had about a 30 hour trip home as a typhoon was heading for Taipei so I changed our flight to Singapore Air and took the long route home... BKk to Sing to Frankfurt to NY.... By the time we left for airport in bkk I could away from the bathroom (with the help of about 4 immodium) but I was just so tired... And yes @Okanagancook that was me, sitting there with the trash bin in hand... It needed to be emptied several times... Ahh... Memories....

Also, most of the small places are just reselling the bread that is baked elsewhere, usually somewhere in the neighborhood or district, unless it is an actual bakery. But most sellers in carts or stalls on the street get daily and sometimes multiple deliveries from the bakery per day and close when they sell out of bread.

Who knows! I would like to assume that being David Thompson's restaurant, and at those prices, he would run it with the ethos of throwing away anything uneaten as it is A) unsanitary for anyone else - especially because things were not provided with serving utensils for each dish and B) I'm sure the quality would decline if it would need to be reheated or kept warm. But, it's Bangkok, so anything goes... I didn't mention this before, but in the middle of the night after eating at Nahm (our last meal before our trip home) I woke up with violent food poisoning. There were times that I was actually sitting there in the bathroom praying for death as it would be a step up from what I was experiencing. I am not attributing it to the Nahm experience, as we all know that food poisoning can gestate for a few days before showing symptoms, so who knows where I got it. There were only 2 times that my wife and I didn't share everything equally - Nahm (just because I really enjoyed some of the things she wasn't a huge fan of), and the night before at the street food scene on Sukhumvit Soi 38 where she only had a bit of the barbequed sausages, and I finished them. Not that that means anything either - sometimes one person is affected and another is not, even when eating the same quantity....

I loved the bread in Saigon. I was surprised (and disappointed) that the bread in Hue and Hoi An wasn't nearly as good.

Which district were you staying in?

Wow, that market looks great! Ah, scorpion on a stick... brings back memories...

Thanks so much for posting this! I'm very excited!

Thanks @Smithy. Yes, we were stuffed after Nahm, and we (sadly) probably left more on the table than we ate. It is relatively expensive - it was probably about US$80-100 for the two of us for dinner, which is not much by NYC standards, but by Bangkok standards is pretty pricey... especially considering that the meal at Lomtalay probably cost $15-20 if it cost that much. The one thing I didn't discuss much, which is a detraction from Bangkok (and I'm sure you saw a bunch of this in Egypt) are all the touts. Tourism is quite advanced in Thailand in general and Bangkok. No matter where you go, you are bound to have at least one person come up to you and start talking and being very friendly. They are typically very nicely dressed. They ask where you are from, how do you like Bangkok, etc.... they ask where you are going - and then they'll so "oh, I'm so sorry, it's closed today, but if you'd like, I can take you to these very nice shops that give great pricing on jewelry, jems, etc..." While there are a lot of jem sales in Bangkok, and good deals on authentic stuff if you know where to go, there is also a lot of fake stuff out there, and if anyone takes you somewhere, you can be sure that they are getting a kickback from it. Guides are no exception - so even if you are paying your guide to take you to a specific tailor as part of your time with them, many times, they'll take you to a different place and make you think that it's the same, meanwhile, they're getting "tea money" or a kickback from it. It's very annoying. Plus, the taxis are a pita in Bangkok - the traffic is horrible there - you can be sitting at a traffic light for 20 minutes and not move 2 feet. Literally. The way the meters work (or did at the time), the taxis charge very little for time spent standing still, they basically only charge for distance. So many drivers conveniently forget to use the meter, and will then give you an exorbitant price (maybe 3x what the meter would have been). So, it's a good idea to tell the driver to use the meter the second you get in the taxi. Many times, they refuse, and will then quote you a price, and then the bargaining begins... We actually got out of 1 taxi once because he wouldn't come down on the price, then got in another who used the meter before I could ask. Traffic wasn't bad that time, so we made it to our destination fast, and the meter price was like 1/4 of what the other guy wanted... even after all the bargaining! Very frustrating. The Skytrain and subway system are good and inexpensive, but definitely need expanding from when we were there... if you want to go anywhere that's not that close to a stop, it's either a lot of walking down almost nonexistent sidewalks, or a taxi with more bargaining.

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....