KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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3 hours ago, liuzhou said:
北海 (běi hǎi, literally ‘north (of the) sea’) is a city on Guangxi’s southern coast on the Gulf of Tonkin near the border between China and Vietnam. It gets a large number of domestic tourists looking for its beaches and seafood ; few foreign. The city and especially 外沙岛 (wài shā dǎo), Waisha Island, connected to the city by a short bridge, gets the bulk of the visitors and is full of seafood restaurants. Most of my fish and seafood (and all seawater species) come from there.
One special attraction is S: 北海沙虫; T: 北海沙蟲 (běi hǎi shā chóng), Sipunculus nudus, Beihai sandworms. a local delicacy. They are also referred to in English as ‘peanut worms’.
These on average, 15 cm / six inch long, unsegmented worms are picked from Beihai’s beaches early in the morning when they emerge from the sand. Fried until crispy, they have a pleasant umami-laden flavour. They are often added to congee, which is how I have eaten them.
Today, they are being cultivated in limited but growing numbers. Away from their natural habitat of Guangxi, they are sold dried. I can buy them fresh. $9.00 USD per 250 grams.
Need I mention, they are also used in TCM? In that context they are sometimes called ‘sea cordyceps’ as they are claimed to have similar medicinal benefits to those parasitic fungus infested worms?
<joke> these look a lot smaller than the ones on Arrakis </joke>
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9 hours ago, TdeV said:
Looks delicious. Might you have a recipe for this?
Might you have a recipe for dikon radish cakes?
No - while one can make kuih (SE Asian snacks) at home, it's a lot of work so almost never done.
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3 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Are your 'turnip cakes'made with turnip? In most of dim sum places here, what is sold as turnip cakes are actually daikon radish cakes. I've never seen a turnip in China.
I'd assume it's daikon radish. Many times, they'll call it carrot cake in Singapore even though it has no carrots in it - so I wouldn't be surprised if they were radish rather than turnip.
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1 hour ago, Shelby said:
Before I die I want a turnip cake.
This is my death row turnip cake.... deep fried, topped with fried dried shrimp with a spicy sambal dipping sauce...
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36 minutes ago, scamhi said:
Bryan Flannery saddle of lamb. Smoked over apple wood until 120F and then hard seared indoors to 135.
Served with smashed yukon golds and a romaine salad with shallots, dijon mustard and olive oil- sorry no pics.
Our dear friend known as the Croation Cuddler who now lives in Walla Walla Washington came for one night to visit
We pulled some big guns.
You're not kidding! 2000 Margaux! 😍
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21 minutes ago, Shelby said:
This past week has been the Week of Shelby eating what she won't get to eat for a while starting tomorrow.
Panko fried shrimp--shrimp was on sale at Sam's. I'm sad I didn't buy more because they were really sweet and good.
Indianish carrot salad: carrots, diced roasted salted peanuts, salt, turmeric, oil, cilantro and lemon juice
to go with chicken tikka masala (is it still called that if I added peas?)
SV'd steaks, fried potatoes and salad to use up leftover fried shrimp
I ordered a few things from Goldbelly to cheer myself up lol. Subs from White House Subs. Good. You get 4 huge sandwiches that we are still eating on. Along with that I got a couple of things from Hebert's Specialty Meats-Duck and andouille gumbo and seafood étouffée. I should be able to at least eat some of the soup parts and if I can't, it's an easy meal for me to make for Ronnie.
Apple pie ice cream and a store bought cookie for dessert
Yesterday I made a lasagna for tomorrow night after my surgery. I won't feel like eating but I won't have to cook at least.
With leftover Italian sausage and sauce from the lasagna I threw together a pizza
Good luck with your surgery and I hope your recovery is fast!!
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10 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Have the lines gone back to normal now that the hordes have gone?
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1 minute ago, blue_dolphin said:
Somewhere or other, @KennethT mentioned that he liked pear slices browned in butter with lots of black pepper so that's what I made. Maybe a little more caramelized than I intended but still quite excellent.
The left half of the toast got gorgonzola and the right was Mt. Tam, both excellent with the pear which I will remember as they would be great in a salad or dessert or alongside a nice piece of pork.
Yes, that was me - but even better is pears sauteed in butter with black pepper and tarragon, then add a bit of cognac and flambe.
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These are good answers, all. I appreciate it.
Out of curiosity though, can repeated refrying it extend the shelf life in the refrigerator indefinitely?
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50 minutes ago, BeeZee said:
Do you think you could freeze it as a flattened mass, thin enough to break off pieces? You could make a bunch of smaller chunks and re-bag them, or leave that flattened pack and break off as desired?
Thanks - I totally forgot about this, but I do it with other things. It also reminded me that I need to make more soto ayam (Indonesian chicken soup) spice paste - it's a pain to make so I make a big batch and freeze just like this. Every time I want to make soup, I break off what I need - about 2 tablespoons worth. So this would actually be perfect for the sambal as well.
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21 minutes ago, Smithy said:
If you aren't sure about refrigerator shelf life, what about freezing those sambals in appropriate portion sizes?
I've thought of this, but sometimes, I only want a tea spoon or two, so that would be a LOT of individually frozen portions!!! Especially if i was to make a few different sambal.
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22 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:
If the shallots and garlic are fried until crispy and no water is left, you basically have a chunky flavored oil that should last much longer than a week.
Typically, they're not. Standard sambals blend or crush in a mortar until it is a thick paste and the paste is fried, often with water added. So there will be some oil floating on top, but other than that is quite liquidy.
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I've been thinking about making a few Indonesian sambals to keep in the refrigerator. Most sambals are a combination of shallots, chillis, shrimp paste, garlic, etc. fried in oil. The salt content is not that high, and there is usually no real acid component. So after cooking, I'd assume the shelf life in the refrigerator is about a week - similar to other cooked foods.
My question is if I could extend the shelf life by refrying it every 5 days or so. Would recooking kill the spoilage bacteria and keep it from going bad?
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9 hours ago, liuzhou said:
The first time I ate Chinese food was in the 1960s in Scotland. This was in an 'authentic' restaurant above a butcher's shop in a small mining town. I forget what I ate but guess it was as authentic as Japanese haggis.
I do remember, however being served a plate of what were described as 'prawn crackers', the prefered term in the UK to this day.
Every Chinese meal I ate in the UK thereafter and there were many, especially when I was a student in London, came with the obligatory prawn crackers, right up to when I left the UK in the 90s and moved to China.
Since then, I've only ever been served a prawn / shrimp cracker / chip once and it was literally one, resting soggily on top of a plate of fried rice.
Breaking news! Prawn crackers / shrimp chips aren't Chinese! They're from Indonesia where they're called keripik udang.
Only in very recent times, it has become possible to buy these here where they are S: 虾片; T 蝦片 (Mandarin: xiā piàn; Cantonese: haa1 pin3). Strangely, I can only find them on my delivery app, not in supermarkets. Not that I want them.
They are mainly sold precooked in bags just like potato crisps/chips. Most are imported from Indonesia but I've also seen them from Thailand where they are ข้าวเกรียบกุ้ง (khao kriap kung) and Vietnam as bánh phồng tôm.
We can also source manufactured but uncooked discs, again usually imported as above, although there are a couple of Chinese brands. They come in two varieties: plain white and multi-coloured.
These are made from tapioca, MSG and maybe prawns /shrimp if you're lucky. Cheaper versions are made using powdered shells or prawn extract, whatever that may be.
Whatever you call them, they are a high calorie starter and not particularly healthy. What chips are?
Images from Meituan food delivery app listings.
A lot of the kerupuk I saw in Indonesia have a pretty high shrimp content (for the kerupuk udang) - almost 50%! I have some here that are just flour, shrimp, shallots and salt.
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8 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:
Thanks! Pears can be tough to nail the perfect ripeness for salads so I thought this method of using slightly underripe pears and browning the slices in butter was smart and one I should remember!
I'm a fan of pears sauteed in butter with a lot of black pepper.
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4 hours ago, BeeZee said:
Had a meeting the next town over and finally was able to stop in a place serving Thai style chicken and rice which opened a couple of months ago (www.gainyc.com - it's a franchise location). It's quick serve, order from kiosk and mostly take out. I ate mine at one of the tables. Ordered the steamed white meat bowl ($12.95) which had a nice portion of steamed chicken over ginger rice with ginger chili sauce on the side (a little sweet, very more-ish) and some clear broth which had a definite kick. I felt like it was a pretty darn healthy lunch. They do, of course, offer other options from the less-healthy side (fried chicken, fries, wings...). I'd get the steamed chicken again.
I don't know about healthy - usually the rice for chicken rice (all over SE Asia) is first tossed in chicken fat prior to cooking in chicken stock. But certainly tasty!
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3 hours ago, liuzhou said:
This grain is not a grain; it's a pseudo-grain in that it isn't a grass but the seed of a flowering plant. It originated in SW China but is now grown around the world. Both its English and Chinese names are somewhat misleading.
I'm talking about buckwheat, which isn't related at all to wheat or to buck in any of its many meanings.
The 'buck' part is a corruption of 'beech' and the 'wheat' part is related to 'white'. It isn't beech or white either! It has etymons in most Germanic languages.
The Chinese name S: 荞麦; T: 蕎麥 (qiáo mài) also includes the character 麦/麥, meaning 'wheat'.
Buckwheat is a friend to those with celiac disease as it is gluten free, but see the warning below. Should anyone visiting China need to know, celiac disease is S; 乳糜泻; T: 乳糜瀉 (rǔ mí xiè).
Two types of buckwheat are grown. Fagopyrum esculentum, common buckwheat, mainly in the north including Inner Mongolia; and F. Tartaricum, Tartary buckwheat, in the southwest including Yunnan and Tibet. The latter is now being called Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat by the wellness wankers and paleo plonkers trying to cash in on the so-called Himalayan pink salt craze.
The grains are ground into S: 荞麦面粉; T; 荞麦麵粉 (qiáo mài miàn fěn), buckwheat flour, which is used to make S: 馒头; T: 饅頭 (mán tou), steamed buns
Buckwheat flour
Buckwheat flour
Steamed buckwheat buns
and S: 荞麦挂面; T: 荞麦掛麵 (qiáo mài guà miàn), buckwheat noodles.
Dried buckwheat noodles
Fresh buckwheat noodles
The noodles are used as any other and can be served in soups or fried.
Warning: Be careful. Many brands of buckwheat noodles also contain wheat, so aren't gluten-free. Pure buckwheat noodles are available. Check the ingredients list. If you see 麦 listed without the preceding 荞, then that's almost certainly wheat.
In Yunnan province, the Yi ethnic minority make a type of flatbread called 粑粑 (bā bā).
_edit_51635331623370.jpg.e6a7080f8607775d7bd0a1eca065d268.jpg)
Yi ba ba flatbread
And, again, it turns up in congee mixes.
Do not confuse this with 糖油粑粑 (táng yóu bā bā), a sweet sticky rice snack made from glutinous rice and honey in Hunan.
For more on the history of buckwheat in China, see here.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-017-0649-4
fascinating - I had no idea that buckwheat wasn't related to wheat. I'm actually violently allergic to buckwheat and didn't realize that it was used at all in China. I know it is used quite a bit in Japan.
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10 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Other types of chickens we get here include some described by habitat.
These tend to be local. We get S: 尧山鸡; T: 堯山雞 (yáo shān jī) Yaoshan chicken from, a mountain of that name near Guilin city an hour to the north of Liuzhou.
Then there are S: 巴马脆皮鸡; T: 巴马脆雞 (bā mǎ cuì pí jī), Bama crisp skin chicken. Bama is a Yao ethnic minority county to the west of here, famous in China for its being a longevity cluster. It is one of the highest concentration of centenarians in the world. Whether their chickens contribute to this is undetermined. The skin is noted for crimping up more than your average cook. I will not comment on the centenarians' skin.
Bama chicken
Another local type is S: 融水飞鸡; T: 融水飛雞 (róng shuǐ fēi jī). Rongshui is a Miao ethnic minority county to the north which I have visited often and documented here.
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The name of their chickens confused me the first time I heard of it. 飞鸡 / 飛雞 means 'flying chicken', but is also an exact homophone of S: 飞机; T: 飛機 (fēi jī) meaning airplane ✈️. When I was asked if I'd had 飞鸡 🐔 before, I thought I was being asked if I had flown there! Given there is no airport, that would be unlikely.
Rongshui flying chicken
Another chicken found in the same area is S: 青脚鸡; T: 青腳雞 (qīng jiǎo jī), blue foot chicken, on account of its blue tinged feet.
Blue foot chicken
Finally, there is S: 果园鸡; T: 果園雞 (guǒ yuán jī), Orchard chicken which, like all these, are free range birds, these ones raised in yes, orchards. What difference that makes, I'm not sure.Interesting. I've never heard of chicken breeds varying by location in SE Asia. Usually, they just discuss "kampung" or village chicken - meaning one that just roams around and eats whatever it wants versus a standard chicken. The kampung chicken is notably tougher and scrawnier but prized for its flavor. On a side note, I was buying feet in Chinatown a few weeks ago to make stock and I noticed that some of the feet were a bluish black - looked just like the photo above but didn't realize that they came from a specific breed. I've never seen the whole chicken with the blue feet here, other than the unbelievably expensive poulet de Bresse, imported from France. Next time I'm in that meat market, I've got to do a more in depth look at their whole chickens.
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2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:
The market for older stewing chicken in the US must have dwindled to just about zero. Making chicken stock here means using a lot of parts from young birds like backs, feet, etc. Too bad. I would love to try making stock from a real stewing chicken. I have never seen Silkies for sale, either, although I know that some folks into raising chickens have them. Maybe next time I'm in Oakland Chinatown I'll take a closer look at what's available. Typically I buy kosher chicken for eating.
I can get both older stewing chicken and silkies at my usual meat market in Chinatown, but elsewhere, forget it!
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36 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:
You are right! It is a papaya tree. Thank you for clarifying. They are in most of the places we have rented houses from, but we have never been able to get a ripe one. The fruit rats always get to them first (fun fact: fruit rats also love to eat shampoo and soap in the outdoor showers that people think are such glamorous additions to the villas).
Here are a few photos from underwater. I hope it's ok to share.
Grunts
Octopus swimming
Octopus clinging to rocks
Hiding in their den
Yellow trumpetfish
Coral garden
Blue tang
Reef squid
I'll update this thread again when we return in May.
Thanks so much! I've only seen an octopus once - on our last trip, there was one hiding at the bottom of a giant barrel sponge.
If you're ever cooking a meal while on vacation, you can use an unripe papaya to make papaya salad. It's also pretty good snack with a dip made from salt/chilli/a little sugar. Not like a green mango, but pretty good.
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1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:
Yesterday after breakfast (yesterday’s frittata was feta, mushroom, spinach and roasted pepper, and that’s avocado toast in the back)
we had a pretty chill day just hanging out on the deck of our tent (that’s a mango tree next to our tent)
enjoying the view
We went back down to the beach for snorkeling and sea glass hunting (success on both fronts). Once again we had the beach to ourselves. I guess everyone else was on the other side of the island at the pool.
We had not planned to go back to St. John, but decided on a whim to head over for dinner. (The resort provides shuttle service as part of your stay). The concierge got us a reservation at one of our favorites, La Tapa. But first, we stopped in at Drink for, well, a drink. View
Husband’s margarita and my very exciting Diet Coke 😂
La Tapa setting
Menu
Drinks. Husband had a martini and I had sparkling water
we shared a scallop seveche special appetizer.
Then I had the tuna
And he chose the mahi. We skipped dessert.
Afterglow from La Tapa
Back to Lovango
We are flying home today, but will be back on St. John in May. We are hoping for smaller crowds and warmer water. We also made a pledge that we would only try new places to eat in May. Will we succeed? Only time will tell.
Thanks for following along, and see you on the dinner! thread starting tomorrow!
Thanks for sharing!!! I always love your trips. Do you think you could post some of your underwater photos? Also I think the tree next to your deck was a papaya tree, not a mango tree. Mangoes come from the branches of the tree, not off the trunk like a papaya does.
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19 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:
Yessterday we spent the day snorkeling again, this time on the opposite side of the island. We saw lots of coral and sea life, but no octopus. I have not checked those photos yet. The ones from the day before came out great.
They were both delicious but we got bombarded with flies. Not no see ums but actual flies. It was awful. They ended up moving our table but it did not help much. I asked them to hold our main courses until the sun went down to see if that would help. It did, but the experience was extremely irritating and put a big damper on the meal. One of the hazards of eating outside I guess.
When you take underwater photos, do you use lighting of any kind? I had wanted to get a light for when we go diving - the last time, a bunch of divers with us had lights and it really makes a big difference. You might not need it though since you're on the surface snorkeling.
I'm surprised the resort doesn't do something about the flies. We eat outside at all of teh resorts in SE Asia and haven't had an issue with flies. I imagine that the resorts spray for them when there's no one around and they also have these bug coils that make a smell the bugs don't like - although I find it very pleasant. The bug coil is lit and sits in a pretty container, and tucked underneath the table.
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3 minutes ago, C. sapidus said:
Did not plan to have this meal be quite so . . . orange.
Coconut shrimp with tomatoes. Seared and removed jumbo shrimp. Sauteed onion, ginger, garlic, jalapeno chile and bay leaves, simmered with crushed tomato and grated coconut, and then finished with ground coriander, yogurt, and the shrimp. Forgot to add cilantro, even tho I just picked some up at the store. Oh well.
Baked sweet potatoes with ginger-garlic butter and Meyer lemon juice. Dunno why I never tried this before.
Champagne mangoes for dessert. I love mango season.
Certainly no shortage of beta carotene tonight!
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Why some people eat matzo year-round
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Try eating some cardboard packaging material. That's close enough.