KennethT

To me, I thing the best thing to do with cast iron is remove the rust with steel wool, then wash, then reseason...

Nancy, it's definitely a nice problem to have... OK - 2 limes down! Making a batch of pickled red onion... the nice thing about limes straight off the tree - I got about 1/4 cup of juice from each lime!

'Unfortunately' my lime tree is a dwarf Bearss seedless lime tree... I say unfortunately, now, because in hindsight, I wish I had gotten a 'true' lime tree, or key lime tree as I prefer those limes to the standard Bearss limes.... I've talked about this on the gardening topic, but I'm on the fence about getting rid of this tree and replacing it with a true lime tree, but this tree is maybe 10 years old and healthy... we've grown attached to it, but don't have the space for 2 trees, not if I also want to eventually replant my heirloom goose creek tomato plant.

I wish.... unfortunately, both alcohol and sugar are pretty much out for me right now....

OK, as I was sitting around, I had some other ideas: Chili/salt/lime juice paste/dip used with vietnamese seafood and grilled dishes (see various applications here).... Red onion pickled in lime juice as an accompaniment to a cochinita pibil type dish.... Anything else? Please keep 'em coming!

Very interesting - they're seeing similar problems in Singapore where profits of hawkers stalls is declining, and the younger generation are now university educated and don't want to do the hard work of running one... the government of Singapore is very concerned about this, since the hawker stalls are part of their heritage, and are constantly having conferences among food professionals and public opinion experts as to how to solve the problem.

There have been times that I have made chicken parts using them right up to the sell-by date with no issues... I also keep my refrigerator really cold - on the verge of freezing though....

I just noticed this morning that my dwarf lime tree has about 15 full sized limes that are ripe and ready to go. They're adding so much weight, the tree wants to tip out of its pot! They'll stay ripe on the tree for a long time, but I've got even more that will be ripe in a few weeks, and flowers blooming for even more... I usually do a fruit or cucumber based som tum once a week, so that will use 1 lime, but any more ideas for how to use the rest? Unfortunately, I can't really drink too much alcohol right now, so mohitos, et al, are out, and I am also trying to avoid having too much sugar, so limeade is out too! What's challenge without constraints!

I definitely don't think it's silly to SV shrimp - I used to do it all the time - best shrimp ever! It's especially convenient if you're making a bunch for a party... and easy cleanup! ETA - I just reread Douglas Baldwin's guide (I haven't read it in a long time) - if you packed the tenderloins individually (so they're more cylinder than slab), you can cut the heating time in half!

@IndyRobYeah, when I first read the post, I mentally skipped over the 'tenderloin' part, which was where that first sentence came from.... but, as you know, the theory is still valid for cooking anything SV - I really wanted to stress to SV newcomers that the cooking time is based on thickness, rather than weight as is typically used in cooking in an oven (when I was younger, I remember hearing instructions for cooking a turkey 18 minutes per pound or something like that). I think that is the biggest difference in concepts to grasp - before SV, you never had to measure the thickness of something! ETA: Back when I had more time to cook, I used to do SV pork tenderloin a lot... my go to was to puree a can of chipotle in adobo, marinate the tenderloin in that and cook SV to like 135F. If memory serves, a single tenderloin took about an hour or so for pasteurization.

@ShelbyI just reread your post, and I think, next time, it would be better (if possible) not to season that far in advance. I have found that it results in the meat having a slightly 'cured' texture. Lately, I don't season anything I cook SV in advance - I season it after it has finished cooking, when I take it out of the bag, but before final searing. The only exception to that is when I cook salmon filet (or other fish), which usually only takes about 30 minutes or so to come to temperature (I use a bath temp of 115F and shoot for a core temp of 102F - I use @vengroff's Sous Vide Dash app that (hopefully) is still in the the app store - it is definitely worth the price!

Depending on thickness, you may HAVE to leave it in there for 3 hours! Like blue_dolphin said, the most important thing to know about cooking sous vide is that the time for the middle (the core) to get up to temperature is dependent on the thickness and shape, not on the weight. Personally, for pork tenderloin, I like to cook it to about 135-138 or so to keep it nice and pink. I would get it all sealed up, then measure the thickness at the thickest part as best you can. If you're unsure of the exact measurement, add about 1/8" (0.125) to whatever you think for an additional safety factor. When cooking pork, I usually cook to pasteurization, so I would use those tables... you can definitely pasteurize at 135-138F. I would also set the water bath temperature to 2 degrees F higher than your desired target temperature, otherwise, it will take a ridiculously long time to go those last couple of degrees. For pork tenderloin, you can let it sit a bit longer than the calculated time, but I wouldn't let it sit for 3 hours extra - it won't "overcook", but what will happen is that it will lose juices (they will wind up in the bag and make nice drippings for a sauce) and be drier than it should be.

@Jaymes, I didn't think of posting these pictures, but this is for you! They're in the process of building a public transportation system - one of the terminals will be right next to the hotel... and we had a drink at the bar on the roof....It had a great view of the city below...

And so the addiction starts!!!!

Someone here (a while ago) on eG talked about reheating pizza on a hotel room iron!

I don't know if I'd necessarily assume that the time to temp would be the same as meat, as I'd assume that the thermal conductivity of rice/cous cous would be lower than meat. I'd also have no idea where to get the conductivity information. One thing to consider is that rice is known to harbor B. Cereus, which is relatively heat tolerant... see this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus

In my experience, the EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam coolers tend to leak a little bit - I don't think they're meant to hold a volume of water.

@SmithyThat's a hard question to answer. Supposedly locals do go to that market also.. Graham Holliday, in his book, claimed that locals went there (but that was written a while ago and written from memories from before then), and that there was actually a very good seller of banh cuon who had been there a long time that many locals visited, but I didn't get that feeling... Maybe they were tourists from other parts of Vietnam? But it seemed that most people there had cameras and were just browsing, which I don't think would be typical of locals. Or maybe locals go at different times of day when there would be less tourists? They do have a raw meat area, which I'd imagine only locals would buy anything (how would tourists cook?) so maybe some locals do go there... Also remember that Vietnam gets lots of tourists from other parts of Asia, especially mainland China - so it makes it hard to tell who's local and who's a tourist just by looking at their face. Plus, I'd imagine that if locals did get the aggressive treatment, they'd do that hand wave gesture with the facial expression that everyone in that region seemed to understand so that the seller would get out of their face. The interesting thing I always find when traveling in heavily touristed parts of Asia (other than Singapore) is that if you're caucasian, there is a very good chance that you're a tourist... it's not like traveling to Europe where they may not be able to tell unless you open your mouth to speak... granted, there are some expats living there, but statistically, white person=tourist. Singapore was different - when we would meet local people at a hawker area or something, most of the time, they assumed we were expats living there, A) because there is such a large amount of them and B) most tourists don't go to the hawker areas we frequented (which is a shame) We went to a different market, called Saigon Square, which didn't sell any food products, but was mostly clothing (of all kinds), electronics, dvds, etc... that market seemed to be 95% locals as people were there haggling back and forth in Vietnamese, and looked like they were shopping for every day items... underwear, socks, jeans, sneakers, etc... The sellers here were not aggressive at all - they sat in their booth and watched you - if you took an interest in something they would stand near you and wait for you to ask how much it cost.

Yes, Malaysia is definitely high up on our list of places to visit. One of the reasons I loved Singapore so much is that it gave a window into the food of Malaysia. Now I know that most people will argue that Malaysian food in Singapore is not nearly as good as it is in Penang or Ipoh, and I would not doubt it... what Singapore does have going for it is sheer variety. In one small area, you can have relatively excellent* examples of many different cuisines all on the same day if you have the stomach space. Plus, you do it in what I consider to be a very beautiful, relaxing and comforting environment. *Relatively excellent is a frame of reference. Is it excellent compared to food at the source (in Malaysia)? Probably not. Compared to anything else I can get remotely near me, absolutely - especially since I can't really get anything like that locally...

I haven't seen that app - I have to check it out. I learned a little Vietnamese using Pimsleur's course, which was very good. It's typically expensive to buy, but I was able to borrow it from the NYC public library for free... it comes on CDs... the Vietnamese course had 30 lessons, each 30 minutes long, which is convenient since my commute to work is usually about 30 minutes or so, so I could study a new topic in evening, sleep on it, and then review it again in the morning. I did this a couple years ago with Thai before going to BKK for a week. It was fun! I don't have an issue with data charges... I have T-Mobile in the USA, which provides free unlimited data access in like 120 countries (Thailand and Singapore yes, but Vietnam no)... so since my data wouldn't work there, I got a SIM card at the airport with something like 3 GB of high speed data plus 60 minutes of worldwide calling for around $8.

If you enjoyed reading this, I would heartily recommend reading the Graham Holliday book Eating Viet Nam, which I named at the beginning... not only are his descriptions of food and life in Vietnam vivid and detailed, he also has a really good sense of humor that kept cracking me up as I read....

So that's it.... it was a week that went by way too quickly. Saigon is a beautiful city, in it's own crazy way. In some ways it can be quite relaxing, as there are many shady, tree lined streets that can be quite pretty... but sometimes your peaceful dream is broken when someone on a motorbike decides to drive on the sidewalk and just narrowly miss clipping you. So, rules to keep in mind: look both ways before crossing the street, even if it's a one way street - motorbikes commonly drive the wrong way; sidewalks are not just for walking - it's also open season for driving if there's too much traffic on the road, for taking a nap, parking your motorbike, or running a small restaurant or store.

That's the place, supposedly.... I can't tell you how many times we walked past that corner... back and forth... we must have walked back and forth (with and without help) like 20 times... there was a guy hanging out there who was a motorbike taxi who tried to get us to hire him so that he'd take us there, but I don't think he knew where it was either...

For dinner, on New Year's Eve, we wanted to go somewhere fun for dinner, but we couldn't go too far because we had heard that the area around our hotel (and most of the other major hotels that are within a 3 block radius) gets cordoned off and gets crazy while people mill around and wait for the midnight fireworks display over the Saigon river. We decided that it would be fitting for our last meal to be at an O'c place, for more snails and seafood.... So, to another place that was highly recommended, Ut Trang: Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the sign, but I borrowed a photo from VietnamCoracle.com This place was really good - they had a menu that even had English translations! This was helpful since the staff did not speak English... Here's what we got: A great example of rau muong.... lots of garlic, and perfectly cooked... Some bahn mi next to the sauces.... These were translated as Ireland Snails, although I don't think they were from Ireland... maybe they meant Island Snails??? In any case, they were extremely tasty, and fried with salt and chili. Scallops with green onion and peanuts. These were really good, but the ones we had the second night were just a little better. Grilled Shrimp... these were perfectly cooked... A different type of snail in a coconut sauce. This coconut sauce was much thicker than the one we had previously... tasty, but thick... I think it was thickened with cornstarch or something... The carnage... I always wondered what people did with the shells if they didn't give you a shell bowl... looking at other tables (or underneath them) gave me a clue, so I figured when in Rome..... throw your crap on the floor....

The next day was our last day.... and so the question of what to do for lunch is a big one... try something new and hope for the best, or go back to an old favorite.... after much hemming and hawing, we decided to go back to banh cuon Tay Ho for more of this: Oh banh cuon, how I love thee.....