KennethT

You've got some lucky neighbors!

I'm so sorry about this. I have a very severe food allergy to buckwheat - I have problems breathing and I also wind up spurting from both ends. Don't ask me how I found out while on the border of Brittany, France... In any case, do you have access to Zyrtec? I find it to be the most effective against a moderate allergic reaction. You can also combine it with taking Benadryl at the same time. If you get a severe reaction, it's important to carry an EpiPen - which will abate the symptoms long enough to get to a hospital. My brother has a severe crustacean allergy and has required the epipen more than once.

Durian is forbidden in lots of public places all over SE Asia, and I get completely get it but I'm curious about the denial of mangosteen as well. I've never had a problem bringing it into hotels in Singapore, Penang, parts of Indonesia, etc. In fact, I remember having a long conversation with a porter at a hotel in Singapore who told me the story of him growing up in Malaysia as a son of a mangosteen farmer. He also showed me the Malaysian farmer way of opening them (no knife required) that is so much easier than the way I used to do it. The only thing I can think of was that one time I bought a bunch of mangosteen in a market in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of Bangkok. When I got back to the hotel room, I noticed that it was infested with small ants. I brought it into the bathtub and hosed it down completely and had no further issues enjoying the now bug free fruit! But that could probably happen with any sweet fruit, I'd imagine.

Interesting. I always thought that the toasted rice powder was made from glutinous rice rather than jasmine.... then again, I haven't done Thai cooking in a long time so I might not be remembering right

Great stuff. Is this from Pasar Besar (big market) near the waterfront?

What is meant by Thai seasoning sauce? Is that like a Golden Mountain sauce which is like a Maggi type thing?

The fire pit is on the second floor of the house? So many questions! How does the house not burn down? How is it ventilated so they don't die of CO poisoning?

How did you get that shape on the mousse? Also, did you spray it with some kind of cocoa powder to give it that texture?

Venison bologna? Is this something bought or do you make it?

Love the color of the water off shore of those cliffs!

If you're in the US (meaning you don't need to worry about filtering out various viruses/bacteria), long time member and dearly missed Andisenji had raved about these for years. They filter out heavy metals, chemicals and just about anything you could be worried about, unless your water supply regularly contains typhoid.

Thanks for this. I've often had the same thought about washing hands with disease ridden water. Nowadays, we use sanitizing wipes which clean off dirt and soil as well as bacteria. The only problem is that no normal hand sanitizer is effective on norovirus.

Where is this market? Is it one near the waterfront? The mangga susu translates to "milk mango".... I found some info about it: https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Bambangan_Mangoes_24456.php Thanks for asking about the monsoon issues there. I typically use Weatherbase for my research. According to it the average rainfall really picks up in June on through December, but drops by a lot in January. I figured that since we'll be there at the end of December, I'm hoping we'll only catch the tail end if anything at all. Our problem is that my holidays are fixed in time - one in late June/early July and the other around Xmas/NYs. So Late June/early July is much more rainy, on average. The rainiest being Sept, Oct, Nov. The ideal time to go would have been Feb/March but that's impossible for us. https://weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=964710&cityname=Kota-Kinabalu-Sabah-Malaysia

Very true - I forgot how frustrating it was in Hanoi where the letter 'r' is pronounced like 'z'.

I think Bánh seems to denote more than just baked - it also encompasses steaming - such as Bánh cuốn or my favorite from Huế, Bánh Ướt.

At least their writing provides a roadmap for the pronunciation!

Sorry - Vietnamese can be confusing here. I was referring to banh mi the bread, not banh mi the sandwich! Most things (other than noodle soups like pho) in Saigon are served with banh mi (the bread) alongside.

This looks fantastic. We had bo kho almost every day for breakfast while in Saigon. Just eating that sauce with the crisp exterior and soft interior banh mi was heaven.

Love those cheeses... although I didn't see much blue in the blue!!! Maybe the veins were hiding? The stone on stone work is fascinating. I guess Ireland hasn't had many earthquakes in the last 1000 or so years. hehe... Also interesting is that the crab roll place called them fries rather than chips.

Is that beef stew made while consuming Guinness or is there Guinness in the beef stew? Or both!!!! 🤣

This came in the mail for us: A small bottle of olive oil made from very old olive trees in Napa, California. It's even hard to open due to the wax cap....

Teochew Bak Kut Teh, how I've missed you!!! The ridiculously strong pork stock made last week simmered with a lot of garlic and crushed peppercorns from Sarawak, Malaysia. The garlic becomes so sweet.... Made this healthy by using chicken breast and "fresh" knife peeled noodles.

Tap water in most of Asia is NOT disinfected. In most of SE Asia, you shouldn't even brush teeth with tap water unless it's been boiled first. It's well known to carrier a plethora of viruses, including hepatitis and typhoid.

A question about sanitation - I'm sure I've asked this before, but a long time ago. From what I understand, tap water in your area (or most of Asia in general) isn't potable. How do most people wash things meant to be eaten raw (although I understand that most people don't eat raw veggies there)? Do you use boiled then cooled water or bottled water? Or do you use normal tap thinking that the amount of water that clings to the vegetable to be negligible and thus safe to eat?

Nice- I'm looking forward to it. And yes, Ulysses is a tough read even for native speakers! We did it in a Meetup group of about 20 of us, some of whom had read it several times already and some who even took college courses analyzing it. Without the group, I don't think I would have finished it. The group talked about a field trip to Dublin to do a Bloomsday, but it doesn't really work with our holiday schedule.