KennethT

Yikes! I hope it's not too serious and you're out of there soon!

Have you tried SV for them? I don't know about the skin, but short times work pretty well for very lean meats like that. But you can never go wrong with bacon!

As I know you are aware (but many on this board may not be), maybe not salt or pepper dispensers, but I can't count how many places in Asia I've seen have some form or combo of soy sauce, black vinegar, chopped chillis, chili oil, etc. Thai food (in Thailand) revolves around the several condiments one can add - fish sauce, chillies in vinegar, dried chilli powder, etc. I was once in a street food place in Hue that specialized in banh canh - which is a black pepper forward soup - and on the table were dishes of chopped chilli and a LARGE (half empty) dish of ground black pepper with a spoon for serving. One of the other diners there (a regular evidently as his discussion with the owner seemed like they knew each other) dumped a spoonful of finely ground black pepper without tasting.

What is meant by Durian ice mooncakes? The box said 100% durian - is it just frozen?

They're a little bigger than a cherry tomato. The relatively new classification is "cocktail tomato".

@ShelbyOuch! Yikes, that sucks... but I'm glad you didn't land on your head... that would be even worse! I'm amazed you can cook feeling that way. I'd be whining lying on the couch, ordering delivery...

Yeah, their sushi/sashimi combo is really good.

The last of my soto ayam paste AND I can't believe I'm almost out of homemade chicken stock.... Soto ayam - central Java style Kuih kosui for dessert - with salted coconut shavings

Got takeout from Kanoyama

Did you check out the Asian ingredient section? I'm curious about their selection/prices. I'd imagine they'd be a LOT more than I'm willing to pay - especially since they're even further than Chinatown! But I wonder if they have some harder to find things.... I'll definitely wait until some of the buzz has died down before making it down there.

Too bad about the scales - have you ever scaled it yourself? I love the skin on steamed fish - so gelatinous! Mine is cod, not halibut - I wish it was halibut but it is really expensive around here right now. The liquid is chicken stock, a little palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Plus garlic, 1.5 Thai chillies and 2 prik chee faa (mild spur chillies).

Chicken stock was first simmered with some daun salam (Indonesian bay leaf) and home grown kaffir lime leaves. Those were then removed and the other herbs are cilantro, Thai basil and rau ram aka laksa leaf aka Vietnamese coriander (the last two being home grown).

Thanks but your halibut is gorgeous (as is everything you make)

Very timely due to the discussion with @TicTac - I actually planned this for yesterday but wound up getting home too late. Thai style steamed fish (wild caught cod) with 5 herbs.

Wait a minute... I just noticed... do my eyes deceive me or did you steam that fish without the skin?!? And aren't green onions alliums also?

Your steamed fish looks great. But certainly the chinese don't have the lock on steamed fish! I think I like the Thai style (with lime juice and tons of garlic) even more!

We had tons of them in HK. That was actually our introduction to them and it quickly became one of our favorites.

It was summer - it was really hot that year also - about 35-38C every day! It was the end of June/beginning of July. We spent a little over a week in HK and had yum cha every day - each time at a different place so we were able to go to most of the major players there at the time.

I think it depends on what type of biryani you make. I was referring (but I didn't say it, whoops) to a "dum biryani" which means that everything is cooked together in a sealed vessel. Typically, you would par cook basmati rice, then layer it in the pot with spices and the raw meat, seal then cook with a minimal amount of liquid to create some steam.

I saw plenty of spring rolls at yum cha in Hong Kong, but never chow mein. In fact, i don't recall any kind of noodle anything?

Isn't that kind of like biryani?

How are the har gao (the translucent shrimp dumplings) after sitting around? Usually they have a shelf life of about 5 minutes, if that.

If you're planning on trying a standalone burner (aka hob), I'd recommend a 230V model rather than a 120V one as they can be much more powerful. Hard to get a good sear or boil water quickly with only 1800W, the max of 120V models.

The sambal oelek is probably more Indonesian than Vietnamese - but it's basically just ground chillies, so it works for lots of things. It's the same brand (Huy Fong) that makes the rooster Sriracha, which is American. While I don't think their Sriracha tastes like the real thing, the ground chillies (what they call sambal oelek) or their chilli garlic sauce are decent and convenient. The soup itself though was definitely traditional Vietnamese... grandma style - meaning it's something people would generally have at home rather than going out for like one would for pho ga or pho bo. The soup I made is usually called mien ga - but like most Vietnamese soups, they're named for the noodle they use rather than the type of soup. So mien in Vietnamese are the mung bean noodles, commonly called cellophane or glass noodles. Pho is the flat rice noodle. Bun bo hue is named since bun are round rice noodles. Of course, everything that I just wrote would be technically wrong since I'm not bothering putting in the accent marks, and without them, they could be completely different words... but I'm lazy - finding the proper letters on my English keyboard is a lot more effort than I'd like.

Vietnamese chicken soup