KennethT

I haven't heard of any successful morel cultivation...

Duck breast with morels, sauteed radicchio and roasted potato wedges. Probably the last morels of the season and they were on sale!

Spaghetti with chili and mint

Do you have Andy Ricker's Pok Pok book? He has 2 recipes for laap - one is the standard Isaan version and the other is the less common Northern Thai version.

Exactly - variety is super important. I've had some tree ripened mangoes in Indonesia that looked amazing and were super juicy, but literally had like no flavor at all.

I'm sorry - I'm really not trying to make anyone feel bad or like they're missing out... One of the things that I love about this community is that we have representatives from all over the world, with a huge host of experiences. I love reading about when other people experience something that I may never experience... or maybe I might. Maybe some of the things I read here inspire my travel so I can get the opportunity to experience what they have. I understand that I have the opportunity to travel more often or to farther flung places than others and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do so. When I read about people in barbeque country talk about the stuff they can get, I love it, and I love knowing that no matter how good the barbeque is that i can get in NYC (some of it is pretty good), I like to keep it in perspective as to what is available all over. One day I will make it to Franklin BBQ, or to eastern North Carolina for whole hog... but until i can get there, I can live vicariously through the stories I read here. That's what I'm trying to do when talking about the Thai mangoes as compared to what is available in NYC. As someone who has had both, I want to put things in perspective - I'm not trying to knock the NY available product - I'm trying to say (albeit maybe not very well) to people to try to imagine how good it could be.. so those who may never have an opportunity to see the things I've seen to live vicariously through me.

This is similar to some of the best I've had in SE Asia. I had one in Thailand where you didn't even need to chew - you just put a piece between your tongue and roof of your mouth and press.... it would just squoosh... and it was just sooo juicy....

I'm sorry, but I don't think that any mango that you get in the NY area, no matter how good your fruit distributor is, is going to compare to a tree ripened fruit. Before going to SE Asia during mango season, I used to think that the Champagne or Ataulfo mangoes (grown in Mexico and picked green and "ripened' in a warehouse) were the best things ever - but once I had a mango in Thailand everything changed. The whole perspective changes. Don't get me wrong, I still get the ataulfo mangoes (much better than the Tommy Atkins variety, imo) but I can taste and smell the difference.

Yes, I've gotten pretty good too, but it's like comparing a Chevy to a Lamborghini. The Chevy is pretty good and will reliably get you where you need to go, but no one would ever compare it to a Lamborghini

@Shelby I wish you could taste the ones in Asia! They make any of the ones I've had in NY taste like cardboard. They've ruined me for 355 days a year (on a good year when I get to go to Asia in the summer)

Has anyone made a potato galette in the CSO? If so, can you share your method?

what temp/time did you use for the chicken leg? What did you coat it with? I keep playing around with temp/time combos....

Chicken thighs done in the CSO with a Thai mango salad. Also a bit of homemade Viet pickle...

@jaw Thanks for that. I had found a price for the 2600W (230V) version on webstaurantstore.com for $935 - this model has the temp probe as well as a dial for adjusting temperatures rather than the screen slider. I understand that the pan temp may not be as accurate as the CF, but I think for my needs, it will be close enough, plus I really like the expanded field feature and the fact that I can control the output in 1% increments from 1-100%, which makes it emulate gas. And at 2600W, it will be very powerful - enough to boil a pot of water quickly, or bring a pot of oil back to temp fast when deep frying without the fear of overshooting like with gas. One thing I'm looking forward to is using my pressure cooker (a kuhn rikon) with it. On my gas range, i have a really hard time getting it to stay stable once it reaches pressure - either the flame is too low and the pressure drops or the flame is too high, and the overpressure kicks in at some point. So I have to check on it every 5 minutes to adjust the flame based on the spring valve. I'm sure it won't take long to find whatever temp setting the vollrath needs to keep it at the pressure I want. And a big pot of stock or something has a lot of mass, so its temperature won't change that fast anyway - so the speed of the temp sensor is likely to be much faster than how much that pot changes from instant to instant.

I'm not sure how it works but they claim best accuracy in the industry. @btbyrd has a mirage (I think) and he spoke very highly of it.

The Vollrath 4 series senses pan temp through the glass. Some models have an additional sensor that goes into liquids, but some don't.

I've lately been looking at the Vollrath series 4 line. It seems to have the control and accuracy of the control freak, but they have a 2600W version (220V) that's a similar price to the control freak.

Rodney kept calling him Smells....

Judge Smells!

@chefmdThat's so funny - we had mapo tofu tonight also, but we got it from one of our local Sichuan restaurants.

We had a salad with sherry vinaigrette, not pictured.

Fresh Direct had a sale on morels so what choice did I have? SV salmon with a porcini and morel sauce...

Yes

That Parisian name bakery is actually a Korean chain.

I was excited to see an HMart open near my new apt (we get most of fish and shopping at the one in KTown), but it was really disappointing when we were there a few months ago. Almost no fish selection and the veggie section is a lot smaller. Seems like they're focusing on snacks and packaged stuff...