KennethT

If you'll be going to Saigon, and are planning to eat local food in non-tourist locations, then this blog will be great for you.... Stay tuned! Sorry to derail this thread a bit... Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

We've been in Saigon for the past week!

Urgghhh... Now I remember why I dont try to write a longish post using my phone.... I lost it! Anyway, since we're traveling right now (leaving to go home tomorrow ) we're not cooking anything, but we had an awesome dinner of snails and seafood, pics to come when I do my foodblog after I collate all the photos... But in the meantime I'll post a few photos as we're back in our room awaiting the fireworks due in a couple hours... We ordered room service for dessert - pandan flavored banh cuon stuffed with shredded coconut with a cocolicious dipping sauce. Plus a little drinky-poo for after we do some packing... The ladt shot is the craziness in the street just below our hotel! And happy anniversary Shelby - what a great date... so easy to remember!

All the mangosteens I've seen in NYC are frozen or defrosted... And disgusting compared to the fresh ones.

I wouldn't suspect greenhouse mangosteen since the trees are notoriously hard to transplant. I became so fascinated with them a few years ago, I actually researched it. The trees take a long time to be mature enough to bear fruit (15-20 years!) and most dont survive past a few years after transplant. Since the importation of fresh mangosteens are prohibited in the US, a few companies tried to creat orchards inPuerto Rico but with no success. I wonder if they're being grown in Northern Australia? That may be a tropical climate and would be their summer now...

Does anyone know when mangosteen season is inSE Asia? I had always thought it was a pretty short season from late spring through mid summer.... I'm in Saigon at the moment and saw a vendor selling them out of a basket strapped to the back of a motorbike. But he was the only one I've seen with them all week.... I didn't get any... But I was curious if anyone knew any more info... Tomorrow's another day!

Yes unfortunately the sv dash is ios only. However nathanm's tables require no operating system. I'd figure the timing for you but I'm on vacation and dont have access to sv dash or the tables which i printed years ago and searching for the tables on my phone seems less than pleasant. I'm sure if you wait a few hours for people to wake up someone can help you more specifically than I.

As I'm sure you're aware, sv times are dependent on thickness, bath temp and core temp. Using a bath that is just over your core temp will result in the even cooking that most love sv for, but will take the longest time. To specifically answer your question, I'd advise using either Sous Vide Dash (a VERY useful app if you do lots of sv cooking) or you can use the charts provided by nathanm many years ago in the original sous vide thread. However, part of me wants to know why you'd bother cooking the pork roast well donev SV... Wouldn't it be easier and faster to roast conventionally?

Very interesting. Are the recipes from a specific region, or do they roam around China as a whole?

Hilarious....

Can I ask which airline it was? I've always enjoyed my long haul flights on EVA, Cathay and Singapore Airlines... cattle class was never so good, with friendly service and decent food.

Indeed, thick film heating has been around for several years, at least. The process sprays an electrically resistive film onto a substrate (typically mica or aluminum). Then contacts are added; when a voltage is applied, the entire surface heats evenly due to it's even resistance. See http://www.dateccoating.com/

Aside from the ears and snout (which presumably still have the cartilage in it), would you say that the texture from the rest of the face is roughly the same - i.e., skin and a little bit of meat on the back?

Right... I knew I had seen it somewhere.... thanks!

Franci, what is in the top photo?

Pedro, I was thinking that it should be possible to empirically calculate the difference in efficiency between your waterbath and steam oven. Do you have any needle probes/foam tape that you can use to measure the core temp of a block of meat as it rises? If so, you can measure the temp rise at different oven temperatures while comparing to the expected results using SV Dash.... just a bit of homework...

Technically, steam is not < 100degC... that's 'fog'... steam is the clear, vapor form of water, which, when under pressure, can get extremely hot - over 600deg! So, if the machine does produce real steam, and not just hot fog, then when the steam condenses on the relatively colder meat, the most significant form of heat transfer is the latent heat of steam, which is what PedroG was talking about - it is much more powerful than just the circulation of hot water or hot vapor filled air. This is why steam at 150degC can burn much worse than touching metal heated to 150degC - the condensation of the steam releases a ton of heat all at once - much worse than any conduction burn. ETA: after reading Pedro's description again, though, at 55degC, the oven chamber wouldn't have steam in it anyway... it would be warm fog, which is water vapor that has already condensed - so I don't think the latent heat would be a factor.

Thanks Linda... I've read through Andrea Nguyen's blog too - I just didn't put it in my list because her site is more about cooking than eating out. I've also read Stickyrice, but as you say, it's about Hanoi... he did have a couple of posts on Saigon. Unfortunately, this trip is too short, so we can't travel all over - but my wife and I were in Hanoi about 10 years ago for a few days, and really really enjoyed it. One day we will go back and see how much has changed (I'm sure a lot!) but there are still a lot of places on our list where we haven't been yet.

I've been getting very excited planning for this trip. For those following along, here's a list of books/blogs that I've been perusing: Eating Viet Nam: dispatches from a blue plastic table, by Graham Holliday - this book is a collection of musings by a British expat as he lived in Viet Nam for several years... first half of the book is about Hanoi, the second half about Saigon. An excellent read - his descriptions of food are great, and he's got a great sense of humor as well. Legal Nomads blog: legalnomads.com - this is a blog by Jodi Ettenberg, who has been traveling non-stop for several years, writing about food. She has spent the past few winters in Saigon and has many detailed blog posts about her favorite spots. Eating Saigon blog: eatingsaigon.com - 2 guys who live in Saigon constantly eating and writing about street/local food! Everything I've read so far tells me to avoid the restaurants that are listed in the guidebooks - there are so many great local options which are better tasting, often healthier, and significantly cheaper! More bang for your Dong I'll put up more info as I find it - and, of course, if anyone else has recommendations, I'm all ears! I'll probably do a write-up of our eating adventures in early January, as we get home New Year's day, and it'll take a week or two to get back on schedule, and download all the photos....

That's hilarious.. I didn't see that part - I'll have to go through again and look for it!

I thought this was fascinating, on a couple of levels. I can see how this type of interaction can help build your brand among consumers. I didn't have time to watch the whole thing - just bits and pieces.... how did you feel that it worked with your timing? Did you feel like it was a distraction during the times you were busy?

OK - now it makes more sense of what you're trying to do. In that case, if you cook the belly whole, rapidly chill when done, and press. You can then remove from the bag, remove all the jelly/rendered fat, then trim to the desired sizes. Each piece should then be resealed in a new, small bag, and then repasteurized. If you repasteurize at 60C, the belly shouldn't give any more liquid, and it shouldn't change shape. Finally, rapidly chill in ice water and store at 34degF or lower for longest possible shelf life. When reheating, dependign on thickness, just flashing under the grill may not heat it all the way through - so it may be better to instruct people to put the bag in about 130degF water for 20 minutes or so, then remove from the bag, blot the skin dry with a paper towel, then flash under the broiler, or sear in a pan with hot oil (works better than a broiler).

I think it would be a lot easier to slice cleanly when it is cold. ETA: how long are you holding it after rebagging? Remember, once you take it out of the original bag used to cook, it is no longer pasteurized. Plus, if you then bag with a chamber vacuum, you must make sure that you keep it very cold so you do not have issues with C. Botulinum. If you want to hold it for an extended time, you can cook whole, then press/chill, then portion, rebag, and then cook to pasteurization at like 60C for a time adequate to pasteurize. Then rapidly chill.

As others have stated probably better than I can, I also would like comments but not ratings. Even with a suggested framework for ratings, I think it is difficult for most people to objectively look at a recipe for something that may not be to their taste (too sweet, too spicy, too salty), but may be consistent with the style of cooking or region of origin, and rate it highly. It is hard to wrap one's mind around the concept of rating something against what it is supposed to be, rather than your personal feelings about it. This gets even more complicated when the recipe is for something that you're not intimately familiar with - like something you've only had in a local restaurant once. Then your comparison is only to the 1 example, not to a giant sample of examples. This is even more complicated by availability and consistency of ingredients. Take chilis, for example. Of the same variety, some are much hotter than others. This makes it very hard to standardize a recipe - such as 3 grams thai bird chilis, chopped finely. That's why a lot of cuisines rely more on taste than recipes - this is a hard concept for a lot of people who are used to dealing with ingredients with little variation. I think that most of us here on eG are good enough cooks to know that you need to keep tasting to make sure a dish is heading in the direction you want, and not to follow a recipe blindly - but the problem is that the more specific a recipe is, the more the reader does not want to deviate from it - even though, in its specificity it is highly repeatable assuming consistent quality of ingredients.

Interesting... I wonder how they ground the peanuts into a powder without it turning to peanut butter? I wonder if this is the ground left-over de-fatted peanuts after making peanut oil?