KennethT

Just to follow up on this... thanks to the kindness and efforts of a few wonderful Canadians, I am now a proud owner of a CSO-500C!!!! It arrived only 2 days after pickup, so I'm very happy. Currently cleaning it and getting it ready for its first use.... Thank you everyone who has contributed thoughts, research, purchase and shipping! This community is what makes eGullet great, even on top of all of the combined accumulated knowledge stored here.

Years ago, when I used to do "fancy cooking" I did a take on a dish we had at Atelier Robuchon - it was a cabbage roll (using savoy cabbage) stuffed with sous vide squab breast and foie gras. While I mostly focus on SE Asian stuff now, sometimes I think back to those days rather fondly...

According to Politico: A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the administration plans to impose the tariff only on goods that do not comply with the 2020 USMCA, though the ultimate details will be up to Trump to decide. Fingers crossed...

@liuzhou what about those tree stump cutting boards I've seen? I don't know what type of tree those cross sections are made from.

Hopefully it will arrive to her on Wednesday and I will have UPS pick it up the same or following day... Cutting it close! Hopefully the low value exemption will stay in effect.

The interior cavity (X-Y) seems pretty much the same dimensions as the 300N1, but the height (Z) seems a little taller.

A quick hop from Sumatra (yesterday's lunch) to Singapore - Peranakan style chicken curry made with homemade curry powder, and curry leaves and lime leaves from the garden.

Like @rotuts, I look forward to your trips as well, so thanks for bringing us along again! I'm happy to see that your weather or air quality wasn't affected by the Sahara dust as I've been reading that it's affecting some other parts of the Caribbean right now.

Is fried mantou a thing there? I've seen that in Singapore...

I've seen this in a few places in Indonesia also - but always in places that are serving foreigners, almost exclusively - like dive resorts whose clientele is mainly European or Australian (and the odd American or two). Otherwise there's nothing resembling bread at all. Unless, of course, you're in a cafe or higher class hotel in Jakarta, in which case all bets are off. It could be just like a French boulangerie in those places!

The Whippet looks like a Mallowmar... I used to love those as a kid.... but not in pink! https://www.snackworks.com/brands/mallomars/

I hate to trouble you to do that. I checked using my UPS portal (through work) and all they asked was where it was being shipped from - they didn't care where it was originally manufactured. According to my UPS portal, they said that at a value of $300, it was considered "duty type: 09, low value" and had no duty applied.

The tariff rules have been changing by the week here lately. A month ago, China had over a 100% duty, now it's like 30%. As far as I know, the tariff has been converted since it was already imported into Canada. So the origin is now Canada - it shouldn't matter where it was originally made - it is being shipped from Canada to the US. When I used my UPS portal, they just wanted to know where it was shipping from to calculate duty, they didn't ask where it was actually made. And my UPS portal told me that (when using a cost of $300) that there was no duty as it had too low of a value. The only time it matters where it was made is if it isn't actually being imported into Canada yet - if it's being shipped to the US via Canada, but doesn't stop and go through customs in Canada and actually enter Canada. But if it's being purchased in a Canadian store, then it has been converted, so the country of origin would be Canada, as far as I know.

Holy cow!!! That netParcel gets a much better discount than I can get! Are those prices (not including #1 which is drop-off only) including pickup from you?

Yes, shipping from Canada is expensive. Shipping from Vancouver to me in NY would be about US$250 - using dimensions of 25x21x20 and 30 pounds. Because of the size, UPS used the dimensional weight rather than the um, weight weight.

Thank you so much. I can check the shipping costs either once I get to work on Monday morning or if I figure out how to do it from home this evening. I will keep you posted. As for if I had a choice, I would take the new 500C. I'll get back to you soon!

Just a final update, the seller already wrote back to me and told me to initiate a refund request through Ebay and they will completely refund the purchase including the shipping cost, and that I should just dispose of the oven or try to find someone to fix it - they don't want me to bother returning it to them since it doesn't work anyway. So I'm very happy with this Ebay seller and would certainly buy from them again. So, on to the topic.... sigh.... unless an enterprising Canadian would consider shipping a CSO 500 to me here in NY... hehe... I can pay by Zelle or wire transfer and can throw in a bit extra for the trouble, and I have a UPS account to ship with - I can send a call tag so UPS can pick up from them....

Since my issues here, I'm back in the market for a new steam oven. It seems like the rest of the 300s on Ebay are all used and I'd rather not get a used piece of kitchen equipment. I would jump at the 500 if I could get it, but unfortunately it's unavailable in the US.... so I've been looking at this one from Panasonic: https://shop.panasonic.com/products/homechef-7-in-1-steam-multi-oven-0-7-cu-ft?_pos=1&_psq=sc180&_ss=e&_v=1.0 It's significantly underpowered compared to the CSO 300 and loses an inch in the depth. BUT, it comes with 2 racks and 2 pans which would be convenient at times. It also has a "ferment" setting which could be interesting.

This was a first try - came out really good, I don't know if I would change it - it came out very similar to what we had recently in various places in Jakarta. Makes 3-4 servings for 2 people - 250g Indonesian red keriting chillies (I grow these) if you don't have access to these, you can substitute the same quantity of large red spur chillies plus a few Thai chillies - 1 large US/European shallot or 3 small asian shallots - 3 cloves garlic - 1 red plum tomato (hard and not that ripe) - 3 kaffir lime leaves seasoning: - juice of about 1/3 of a US lime - 1/2 t MSG - 1/3 t chicken or mushroom powder - 1 t salt 1. Grind the chillies, shallot and garlic together to a rough paste 2. Grind the tomato separately 3. Heat a wok with about 1/4C of neutral oil and fry the chilli paste over moderate heat until softened and fragrant, stirring constantly 4. Add the lime leaves and ground tomato 5. Fry, stirring constantly, until the oil seeps back out of the mixture 6. Season, to taste

Finally some time back in the kitchen!!! I made a first try with a Padang style sambal merah, so made some Indonesian-style ground bison patties with sambal merah and sambal ijo. Bison patties with shallot, garlic, black pepper, coriander powder, chicken powder, salt and msg and a touch of starch. .

It's Ebay so you can't call them, but I messaged them through the website explaining the issue. The seller has excellent reviews so I imagine that they'll settle it fairly but they're away until 7/30 so I'll wait to hear back from them. @rotuts Worst comes to worst, they have a 30 day return policy, but that means that I need to pay for shipping back to them - to CA from NY so not inexpensive but at least I'll get most of my money back. I'm hoping that they will send a call tag to return at their expense and provide a full refund (including the shipping cost to me) since I'm returning it because it was defective, not because I don't like it or want it.

Yes, I definitely tried different outlets and have reset the GFCI. But, my GFCI outlet has an LED that shows status and it's green. Plus, I plugged something else in at the same outlet at the same time (duplex outlet) and it's working fine. We've tried that too. It used to help, but not anymore. It seems like it works for a few minutes - usually around 5-7 minutes and then the screeching starts. I think that once it gets warm, the dimensions change a bit and the bearing freezes up - many sleeve bearings act that way - they're less expensive than ball bearings, but that's what it sounds like - a frozen bearing - it might not be too difficult to fix but I can't get in there to get to it. Also, some bearings are press-fit onto the shaft and I don't know if I can make a jig to press it (I have a hydraulic press at work but it's big and without a proper jig, it would do more damage than good!).

Arrrggghhhh.. I'm dying here. This morning, the old oven made that screeching noise over and over no matter how many times it was restarted. The one quoted above finally arrived today after a week in transit, so I got the old one out of the way, unboxed this one - one thing weird - the external box shows 2 buttons (no steam clean) but the inside box shows the 3 button version (with steam clean) but still the p/n is 300N, not 300N1. Anyway, I removed the oven (looks unused, but I noticed that one of the small screws in the back is missing - and it is the 3 button version but says 300N stamped in the metal on the back), removed the rack/baking tray to be cleaned, filled the water tank and plugged it in... and nothing. No LCD screen, no buttons - nothing works. I tried unplugging/replugging a few times but nothing. I emailed the seller and am waiting for the response... meanwhile, I'm left with the screecher.

I think your cats are eating better than I am!! I've seen those on a buffet in Malaysia. All different sizes... They're even better when rehydrated and then fried!

Exactly, once 100C is attained, any extra energy goes to the latent heat of vaporization.... So the more heat energy there is, the more violent the boil as there's more vaporization, but temp stays the same.