KennethT

I have a form of psoriasis, and have scaly lesions on my hands. I wear good, thick elbow length rubber gloves when washing dishes so I don't get the very hot water all over them, or the detergent. I don't bother with gloves while I'm cooking - but if I get anything on my hands, I'll just wipe them dry on a towel and keep going, unless I'm worried about x-contamination. But i try to organize things so I deal with raw meats separately, so I only have to wash my hands once.

I find the best way to balance the intense heat without modifying the chile flavor too much is by adding a bit of sugar, as recommended above. But, that changes the sweetness profile, right? So, I like to use palm sugar - which still takes the edge off the heat, but is not as sweet as normal granulated sugar and it does a good job of blending into the background.

I've stated this before, but my preference is for the hose torch: http://www.bernzomatic.com/product/bz8250ht-trigger-start-hose-torch/ The propane canister hangs from your belt, and the torch has a large, swirl flame which gets really hot (and I've never detected any torch taste in years of use). Plus, the torch works just fine upside down or at any angle, no matter how filled the canister is.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question directly, since I haven't been in a food court in BKK, although I've heard that many of them are quite good. 2.5 days in BKK is not a lot of time, as transportation is not very efficient, unless everywhere you plan to go is directly by a skytrain stop... To give you some other options - a couple of years ago, I made a detailed food based trip report here: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/bkk-for-a-couple-of-foodies.cfm

I'm sorry to hear about Blanca... I was there about a year and a half ago (late spring or early summer) and I thought it was the best meal of the year (that I had had). So much of the produce was grown on their property, a range of cooking styles, they do their own dry aging of game, etc... I agree that Michelin star ratings are ridiculous in NYC, especially when compared to areas like Paris, different 3* in the countryside of France, and parts of Northern Spain - I'm looking at you Can Roca. Talk about grade inflation - to me, Per Se should have no more than 2* and that's being generous. Daniel should have 1*, but 5 forks and knives (for comfort).

I also think a slice of really good NY pizza is in order! Weinoo, any suggestions?

Most sushi places tend to have very mediocre quality sea urchin... Cosme, at the time, used extremely high quality sea urchin, and the combination with the salsa, bone marrow and corny tostada was a great effect..

So I just received some (rather unsolicited) restaurant recommendations from my hotel. It started when they emailed me to see if we had any dietary restrictions or allergies they should know about since breakfast is included with the room. I just mentioned that we were interested in having non-western foods, and like to focus on local specialties. So, I get a response that she is thrilled we are interested in "trying Vietnamese food" and gave these recommendations below... anyone have any experience with them? Cuc Gach Quan Vietnam House Lemongrass

Sorry to hear about this... In the couple of times I had been there in the past, I thought the uni tostada was the best thing on the menu...

Thanks sartoric... and welcome to eGullet! I'm so glad I could help you find this great place.

My wife and I will be traveling to Saigon at the end of December for about 7 days. Does anyone (local or visitor alike) have any suggestions? We are not interested in recommendations for any places of Western or non-Vietnamese cuisines - we would like to focus on the local specialties as much as possible. As some eGulleteers may know from reading my trip report of our July trip to Singapore, we enjoy eating street/shophouse food - but, we are certainly open to visiting a nice restaurant if it is worthwhile.... Thanks in advance! Edit for trip duration

Thanks... this makes a lot more sense to me...

ha! Hot dogs WITH charred skins! That's practically a death sentence!

I don't quite understand the statistics.... 'every additional 50 grams of processed meat eaten daily'... raises the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. What happens if you don't eat it daily, but once in a while? Obviously the statistics can't be cumulative since people who have eaten a few slices of bacon 10 times in their lives would have a 100% chance, which is certainly not the case. Plus, it says "additional 50 grams" - additional to what? Zero? Is there a baseline amount that is risk-free?

Yes, the wings are actually called Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings on the menu. By the way, the laap I mentioned above is primarily made from offal...

I really enjoy pokpok, but to be fair, I don't go as often as I used to... I think the wings are good, but I usually prefer having the foods that remind me of being in northern thailand... some things I really enjoy there are: Kai Yang - this is the rotisserie chicken (they use poussin) - I especially like their tamarind dipping sauce - reminds me of having a great fried chicken in Bangkok Laap Meuang - this dish is very local to northern thailand and uses some very hard to come by herbs and spices. Very unique flavors. Gaeng Hung Lay - this is a northern pork curry that shows Burmese roots - palm sugar, ginger, tamarind Sai Ua - Chiang Mai sausage served with nam prik num, veggies for dipping... this tasted just like what I had in Chiang Mai... Kao Soi (gai) - their version is the closest I've had to what I remember in Chiang Mai... even though they make a veggie version, I think it's best with chicken as is traditional I'd also get a Pak Boong (stir fried morning glory) Sometimes they have a special fish - I like the salt grilled fish, served with kanom jeen (thin rice noodles), herbs and lettuce for wrapping. ETA: I find most of this goes best with sticky rice... and I enjoy their tamarind drinking vinegar

If you'll be at Booker and Dax, know that it's right next door to Momofuku Ssam Bar, which I think you'd find interesting as well... they're open pretty late - so, if you're hungry around the time you're getting drinks....

Interesting. I knew it had a slight laxative effect on sdults (of course dependent on quantity) but I didn't realize that if affected children more profoundly. What I had read was that the body doesn't really break isomalt down, and instead, is treated like fiber and passes through. Also, like sugar, it is hygroscopic, so it tends to attract water into the colon, hence the laxative effect... That was my understanding of it, but could be completely wrong... Edit sp

I'm really curious as to your take on all of those on your list.. but I'm a bit worried about Cosme - there have been more reports lately of it going downhill from when I was there last. Sadly, I haven't been back in a while, so I can't reassess myself.

Another idea (but a bit harder to source) is to make a caramel from isomalt. It doesn't melt as easily as sugar, but will definitely melt and form a nice caramel. Once melted and caramelized, it performs similarly to sugar, but is not as sweet.

Does the hospital have a centrifuge?

I haven't used it in anything other than it's typical uses in Thai food - curries, som tam, etc.... with that being said, my first experience with the paste type made me think of maple sugar candies right away. It's not as sweet as cane sugar, but I don't have nearly enough sugar knowledge to guess with it will behave like sugar...

What about palm sugar? I get it in both disc and paste form.... would be great with some coconut cream if she likes those types of flavors

I don't know about that... I had a lot of discussion with the Ajinomoto US sales rep a few years ago, back when I was doing a lot of work with it, and he gave me the information I provided in the post above. He seemed pretty adamant that the GS had a higher bond strength than RM, even when dusted on the surface.

I don't know what GS stands for (Ajinomoto makes the transglutaminase, and they have many different versions for different applications) but it's not only for slurry applications, although that is one way it can be applied. It can also be applied just like RM, but it will have higher bond strength - it's good when bonding things that don't have tons of protein on the surface (like skin with some fat remaining), or if bonding things with a high water content - like seafoood. I used it to make shrimp noodles by pureeing the shrimp, adding the GS, then flattening to a thin sheet... later, I cut the sheet into fettucine widths.... and cooked SV.