KennethT

Basil #2 has sprouted! Damn - you can't kill those things!

@Franci We definitely need a drool button... the only thing better would be a closeup of the sliced char siu in the bun with sauce/fixins... that would be unbelievably drool-worthy!

Yes, and now that I think of it, in the south of Vietnam, Cha Gio (the fried spring rolls) are typically wrapped in lettuce leaves as well....

You stir fry it - I"ve had stir fried lettuce in a few places in Asia... it will wilt down to nothing!

using lettuce leaves may be tasty, but it definitely won't be Bo La Lot - which has a specific flavor due to the "la lot" leaves, or wild betel leaves which really have a distinctive flavor. Otherwise it's just beef with fish sauce, lemongrass and lettuce... but I don't know what that would be called haha... ETA: Bo La Lot doesn't necessarily have to be wrapped - I saw it once in Hoi An layed out flat... see here:

Update #1: one of the group's looks great... It's one of the basis but I'm not sure which yet... The other basil looks like it's about to sprout...

I'm surprised to see that there is no drain hole in the bottom. When I steam things in the CSO (like a steamed fish) a ton of water winds up in the drain pan. If you were to steam things in this oven, where does the condensed water go?

Thai steamed wild caught black bass... Pla neung manao. Steamed in the CSO and dressed with a tangy sauce made with tons of garlic, lime juice, fish sauce and chilis.

Viet style chicken noodle soup with some herbs from my garden

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I planted a bunch of really old seeds - maybe 5 years old? maybe more?? I planted them in a pH adjusted saturated rockwool cube, then misted the top to really saturated the seeds, then put them all in a ziplock bag... and now we wait... as Tom Petty said, it's the hardest part. I planted Genovese basil, thai basil, cilantro and vietnamese mint... I put in a lot of seeds - I can always thin it out before I put the blocks in the coco coir... assuming that they germinate at all of course....

This was a first attempt at recreating a dish my wife was obsessed with on our trip to Indonesia last summer - udang arsik tapanuli - shrimp in a sauce made from the kitchen sink of SE Asian herbs - lemongrass, ginger, galangal, shallots, garlic, chilis and lots more. It was pretty good but definitely needs a bit of work. It's too bad because there are only a few recipes online (all in Indonesian) and all are for the traditional version made with fish and some fruits/herbs that are completely unavailable here.

Wow @&roid... that is pretty impressive!

I use the pesto term very lightly. But I used the immersion blender as I had a lot to do tonight.

I have no idea what m & p could possibly be. The pretzel roll is actually quite tasty and not that chewy like a real pretzel would be. I think it's more like a quasi-pretzel dough but definitely has a pretzel flavored skin with a bit of salt.

Bison burger with avocado and "pesto" made with rau ram and sawtooth coriander on a pretzel roll.

I'm really happy to see all of my plants doing well now. When I took them out of their original pots, I had to trim some roots in order to be able to completely dry root them in prep for transfer into my hydroponic system (coco coir). Rau ram doing great New growth buds on the curry plant Family photo. The arrangement and plant heights are done purposely to give each plant the desired amount of light from my sole light source. There's also a new growth bud on the kaffir lime tree.

Just pretend it's Rosh Hashanah

Lurking beneath the surface of this red curry is chicken thigh meat, along with a not so common ingredient - grachai - sometimes called lesser ginger even though it tastes nothing like ginger. It has almost a medicinal quality to it, but not as much as galangal.

I chuckled when I saw the Kavalan - every time we took EVA (which was most of the times flying from NY to Asia), before every movie started on their On-Demand system, they would play a couple commercials - one was always for Kavalan - I had that commercial memorized I've seen it so many times... How is it btw? I was always curious...

This is the last of my Teochew style Bak Kut Teh... It's not traditional served with noodles or chicken for that matter.... usually it's served with the pork ribs with which the broth is made... but we're trying to be healthy while getting the flavor - so I did it with chicken breast marinated in soy and cooked in the broth which winds up being a good vehicle for the broth flavor of garlic and a specific black pepper (some use white pepper). Also, note the new noodle bowls!!! The recommendation of Miya was a great one - affordable bowls, and they arrived on Tuesday when I ordered them over the weekend! Also, untraditionally, we had a Merry Edwards pinot noir, which had a great fruity-ness and went really well with the very savory broth - though traditionally, it would be served with tea, hence the "Teh" in the name...

I had my fill of durian a few years back in Singapore... I actually really liked the flavor and texture, but didn't like how the flavor lingered.... for hours!!!

The Thai store on Mosco St? If so I'm happy to hear they're still open! But why brown sugar instead of palm sugar?

Moving on to Vietnam.... Goi Xaoi Ga - mango salad with roasted chicken thighs and some sawtooth coriander and rau ram from my garden as well as green onion and Thai basil. Thighs were done in the CSO

@liamsaunt Can I join your family???? Jeez that looks good...

I loved those fried. Good snack with beer. But to be honest I thought the fried crickets were better.