KennethT

Just catching up on this now... Are there any lactose intolerant Russians? What do they do with all that sour cream?

OK.... here we go again!!! While this post is a bit premature (we don't take off until around 1:30AM tonight), I am extremely excited so I figured I'd just set up the topic now. As in previous foodblogs, I may post a bit from time to time while we're there, depending on how good my internet connection is, and how much free time I have... but the bulk of posting will really get started around July 9th - the day after we get home (hopefully without too much jetlag!!!)

Wow... alcohol! I never knew hospitals allowed that - nevertheless administered it! I hope it can make your stay there as pleasant as possible. Any news of when you'll be able to leave?

I hope you feel better soon!!!! That is most important... we can all deal with crappy food for (hopefully) short durations (not that we always want to though)... while unpleasant, hopefully you're getting good care and will be back doing your own thing quickly.

sorry - I can't really comment on cocktails or most of the restaurants, but maybe @weinoo can help there? Wow... Monte's... that's a name I haven't heard in a long time... a long time... I was recently wondering if it was even still in business. Funnily enough, my parents had their first date there... and they had been married for about 50 years! I used to go there with them when I was a kid, but it was going downhill near the end of the '90s... I think I was back there around 10-12 years ago, and I seem to remember it being a shadow of its former self. So, personally, I would leave it off the list. Unfortunately, I don't have any good suggestions for a replacement - but I think there have been threads in the last year or so about NYC red-sauce Italian places....

Arrrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!

I"m not a fan of Tabasco either - but I love Crystal - which is a common hot sauce used in Louisiana, and NOLA...

That kueh in the middle photo is my favorite!!!

@Allen89Thanks for your input... I appreciate your thoughts.

I LOVE mangosteen - it is my absolute favorite fruit. Unfortunately, it is almost completely unavailable where I live, unless you consider the frozen kind, which I don't because they're disgusting. I'll be in Vietnam in a couple weeks - hopefully I'll be able to find some when I'm there!

The Japanese are really the most advanced when it comes to hydroponic greenhouse strawberry cultivation. I've been researching growing strawberries hydroponically, here in NYC, and most of the information is coming from research done in Japan.

Mornings are also best for harvest as the produce has the highest water content, before the heat and sun pull moisture out.

I finally received my new blade this weekend. I, too, have kept the old blade (which looks perfectly fine) as a backup.

During my senior year in college, I took a professional cooking class at the hotel school. Our first task was chocolate chip cookies. A few of my classmates' cookies spread like these and the chef said that they had overcreamed the butter. He didn't explain what caused it though.

I don't know if there's already a topic devoted to this, but I saw a few of these bottles and had to share...

Is it possible that the butter was over-creamed?

@liuzhouThank you so much for taking the time to post all the photos and provide the (sometimes hilarious) commentary. This made my day!

hi Warren, I'm sure I speak for many here who would love to see some of your local foods and the techniques/recipes you apply to them!!! Welcome!

My dwarf lime tree in silhouette.

The wrapper looked like brique pastry - sometimes called feuillete de brique...

som tam is a thai salad - typically made with green papaya or green mango. The main ingredient is shredded and lightly pounded in a tall m&p (so stuff doesn't escape) with chiles, palm sugar, limes, etc. The Thai also use a smaller, granite m&p for grinding their curry pastes..

I agree with @JoNorvelleWalker. When I was in Thailand, I saw a lot of curry pastes made by hand with m&p that looked EXTREMELY smooth.... - and when made into a curry, the paste basically dissolved into the coconut milk - there was no grainy-ness whatsoever. A good, solid m&p and lots of time and arm-grease can make a very smooth paste - much finer (and drier) than my blender can do. I've been thinking about those Indian motorized stone wet grinders typically used to grind lentils et al. Like this: https://www.google.com/#q=ultra+pride+wet+grinder But I have no idea if it can be used to make pastes out of harder ingredients such as galangal, which can be quite hard and woody. Plus, they're pretty expensive, unless you're making pastes all the time.

That is really frustrating... I hope they can shed some light on this.... I'd be curious as to the solution.

@liuzhouExactly - NYC has very clean air for a big city, but I still wouldn't want to moisten them with the dew here! Plus, living in an apartment with no balcony would make it difficult anyway.... one day I'm going to experiment with the steamer method.

When we were in Saigon, last year, we saw a few uses - I've been meaning to do some experiments at home, but have not gotten around to it. In one area, they put the rice papers out on racks either at night, or very early in the morning, and allow the morning dew to soften the rice paper. They don't get as soft and flexible as if dipped in water, and they have a slight but pleasant chew. It is great to use as a taco of sorts - add various meats, veggies, herbs, etc. and then dip into some kind of watery (consistency-wise) sauce. You can also take the slightly softened papers, but them into quarters and deep fry them for a very nice snack. Now, I think it goes without saying that no one I know is going to go through the effort of trying to soften the papers using the morning dew... my experiments were going to be to try to mildly steam them in a low temp. steam environment.... ETA: we're going back to Vietnam (central Vietnam this time) in late June/early July - maybe we'll get some ideas then?