KennethT

Some people have asked how 2 relatively unathletic people can go hiking every day.... here's our secret: These are what the hiking backpack companies call "hydration packs". It's quite a good design. Each pouch holds 2 liters of liquid. On the back side (not visible) is a rigid plastic which helps insert it into a special sleeve in the backpack even when the pack is fully loaded. The pouch does not leak no matter its orientation or how hard you try. The top closes sort of like a heavy duty zip lock bag and another hose with mouthpiece (that you bite in order to allow liquid to flow) stays attached to your pack's shoulder strap with a magnet and connects to the bag's hose. Most people fill their pack with water... ours are filled with gatorade. When you're tired and thirsty, it is like nectar! This is what I brought from home: I made a whole bunch of premeasured zip lock bags full of powdered gatorade - each bag creates 2 liters of gatorade. Very convenient! Anyway, the next day, after a similar breakfast, we packed up and checked out of this hotel. Our next hotel is about an hour to the West, close to the Skaftafell park and the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon posted above. The plan was to go to the park and do a short hike on the way to the hotel, then check in after that. The short hike turned into being a lot longer - we decided to take our time a bit more and go at a really slow (dare I say glacial?) pace... This is the scenic route to the famous waterfall called Svartifoss. The hike starts in the Skaftafell parking lot where there are some interesting signs. This map shows how much area the main ice cap takes of the whole country. The hike clings alongside a glacier ice fall for the first section... lots of good views ending up here: Svartifoss is interesting because it was formed via volcanic activity. The waterfall is surrounded by basalt rock, formed into geometric shapes (mostly hexagonal) formed during rapid heating and cooling of the rock. This closeup shows the hexagonal shape of one of the rocks which has fallen off: When we got back down to the parking lot, it was pretty late - around 5:45PM and we had not had lunch... it was nice to find this food truck right there in the park: We both got an order of the fish and chips... with a nice view. This is one order - the fish is local cod, perfectly cooked with good fries as well. It came with some kind of tartar type dipping sauce. This really hit the spot, and we wound up checking into the hotel around 7:30PM or so and spent the rest of the night relaxing. Breakfast the next morning at the new hotel... The horizontal black strip in the middle of the green is the main highway. Farther out is the ocean. Behind the building are mountains. My wife loaded up with more of the chia porridge that she was addicted to, some skyr that she buried in nuts and poppy seeds and some smoked salmon. I chose the significantly less healthy route with some bacon, sausage, croissant, roasted potatoes and smoked salmon. The smoked salmon in this hotel was so salty. I finished it anyway (need to get my Omega 3s to counteract all the pork products!).

I've seen those oishii berries - never tried them though. Lots of tomato/cucumber greenhouses uses bee hives - manual pollination doesn't work for large scale growing.

I've only made popcorn once in that wok - it was a complete disaster. The wok is thin carbon steel and it burnt (or I did rather) the crap out of the popcorn.

Do you do anything with the flowers/seeds?

Happy birthday @Kim Shook! Looked like a great mini-trip. It's so hard to find really good onion rings - I'm drooling over those (among other things!).

Those who've read my Singapore (and other) food blogs might know how much I love (Old) Lai Huat's sambal pomfret. They take the whole fish and fry it, then cover it with this crazy savory sambal. The fish is basically just a sambal delivery mechanism. I'd be happy eating their sambal with just some rice, or even just licking it straight from the plate like a dog. Needless to say, I've been trying to recreate it at home for years and never really been happy with it. This is the closest I've come - it's pretty close. Makes 2 meals for 2 people 100g medium size dried shrimp 10-15 (depending on size) dried puya or prik chee faa chillies - or other mildly spicy chilli 160g shallots, chopped 1 head of garlic, deskinned and crushed 200g spur chillies - mildly spicy long red chillies, deseeded 2-3 Thai chillies 30g belacan (shrimp paste), toasted then crumbled Rice bran oil or other high heat oil for frying 1) Soak the dried shrimp for about 20 minutes, then drain 2) chop then pound them in a mortar and pestle - you don't want it too fine 3) Destem the dried chilli and snip into short lengths removing the seeds and soak for about 20 minutes, then drain discarding the soaking water 4) In a food processor or blender, grind the shallot and garlic together to make a paste 5) Separately, grind the drained dried chillies and fresh chillies together to make a paste 6) In a wok, heat about 1/4 - 1/3 C oil, then fry the shallot/garlic paste until quite fragrant - about 3-4 minutes 7) Add the chilli paste and stir to combine, fry for a minute or two 8 ) Add the pounded dried shrimp and crumbled belacan, stir to combine 9) Keep frying over medium heat, stirring to prevent scorching 10) When the oil first starts to come out of the paste, turn the heat to medium low and keep going until the sambal is quite dry It should look kind of like this - or maybe even a little drier.... Try not to splatter your wall like I did... 11) Season - it should only need a little salt (both the belacan and dried shrimp are salty) and maybe a little sugar, then reserve and keep warm 12) season your fish (I used mahi mahi which worked well) with some salt, then coat in 50/50 cornstarch/rice flour... or all rice flour... or wondra flour.... 13) Heat some oil in the wok and shallow fry the fish until done 14) Drain the fish, then top with a generous coating of sambal. Serve with rice/stir fried veggies Edit: increased the amount of dried shrimp

Here here!!!!

Broccoli is a vile weed and should be eradicated. KennethT is to broccoli as @liuzhouis to corn.

More cooking.... Sambal mahi mahi. Sambal made from scratch to be like Old Lai Huat in Singapore. This is the closest I've come and is pretty close. I was really happy with it.

Great example of a fibonacci sequence!!!

More light SE Asian as we're drying out from our vacation. Bak Kut Teh noodle soup with 2 types of shrimp (I didn't have enough of either)

I've made black pepper shrimp in one form of another occasionally but it's never been the same twice. Last night's version was a keeper, so I'm putting it here so I can do it again. Black pepper shrimp exists in both Singapore and Vietnam (and I'm sure elsewhere as well) - this version is basically the Singapore version with added herbs. Recipe is for 2 people, to be had with rice. The sauce is really thick and strong, so you only need a bit with the rice - it goes a long way. 12 Extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined, then sliced 3/4 of the way through from the back. You could also use shell on shrimp (how it's done in Singapore) but then the sauce clings to the shell rather than the meat. Season with a little salt and let sit while prepping the other ingredients 1 T whole black peppercorns (I use Vietnamese) pounded or ground coursely, dry fried to release the aroma 1 small handful medium size dried shrimp, soaked for 20 minutes in water, then drained, chopped and pounded - not to a paste, but small pieces 1 normal size shallot, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 Thai chilli, minced 1 sprig curry leaves 2 garlic chives, cut into 1/2" lengths 2 t oyster sauce 2 t sweet soy sauce 1 t dark soy sauce 1 t light soy sauce Pinch salt slightly larger pinch sugar small handful cilantro, chopped a few sprigs laksa leaf (rau ram), picked and chopped 10 Thai basil leaves, chiffonade Rice bran oil (or other high temp oil) for frying, plus maybe 1 t butter later 1) in a hot wok, at a few T of oil and sear shrimp on both sides, then reserve saving the oil 2) in the same wok with same oil (add a bit more if needed) on low to medium heat, fry the pounded dried shrimp until golden brown and crispy. Drain, reserving the oil. Clean the wok to make sure you don't get any burnt bits 3) Heat the wok over medium heat, add back a couple T of the shrimp oil plus the butter and sweat the shallots until translucent and just starting to brown 4) increase the heat a bit and add the garlic/chilli/curry leaves/chives plus the dry fried black pepper. Stir fry until fragrant 5) add the fried dried shrimp and mix thoroughly 6) add the sauce and mix to combine - it should boil pretty furiously when added and turn thick and syrupy fast 7) add the seared shrimp and mix to coat evenly and just reheat 8 ) turn off the heat and add the herbs

Hence the importance of trusting one's butcher.

After the last week of eating practically nothing but arctic char, lamb and langoustine continental style, then a week of takeout, it was nice to have time to have a home cooked meal. Sing/Viet black pepper shrimp. The secret ingredient is soaked/chopped/pounded/fried dried shrimp!!! I could put that sh!t on everything.

Wow!!! That looks amazing. Sorry for my ignorance, I don't think I've ever looked at the Breakfast thread - I pretty much only eat breakfast while on vacation. I'm also not a huge fan of most American breakfast foods, but I agree - that Mett would be good any time of day!

What is Mett?

What do you plan to do with the finger limes? The only thing I can think of is fancy lime garnish. But I feel the way you do about the flowers on my Kaffir lime tree.

Yes, I have seen finger limes but I don't know what I would do with a lot of them.

The weather the next day turned out to be beautiful. After breakfast (we had the same things as the day before - chia porridge/bacon/croissant, etc.). Originally, I was just planning to do a hike to Hangandifoss waterfall (one of Iceland's tallest waterfalls) and Mulagljufur canyon (don't ask me how to pronounce that!!!!). The drive there took us past the most famous Jokulsarlon (glacial lagoon) so we decided to stop on hte way, even though I had scheduled to see it the next day. One thing we learned is that the weather is so variable - you have to take an opportunity when it presents itself. Practically across the road from the Jokulsarlon is Diamond Beach - known for its black lava sand and some icebergs which wash up on the beach. Unfortunately, there weren't that many diamonds that day. After that, we continued on. Because we made the extra stops, we didn't really have time for lunch - also considering that we were in the middle of nowhere and there was no where to eat! But we had a big breakfast, so we really weren't super hungry anyway - so on to Hangandifoss and the unprounounceable canyon. The canyon (and waterfall) is beautiful but doesn't photograph so well when it's so sunny out - too many shadows. I couldn't believe I was actually hoping it would turn overcast! The canyon and the waterfall: Right next to the parking lot for the canyon is another glacier lagoon - Fjallsarlon which is the lagoon for Fjalljokull ice fall. It was about an hour's drive back to Hofn at which point we decided to have an early-ish dinner. I had seen good reviews of this place but didn't know if they were open or not when I was doing my research. Quite a few restaurants in Hofn had permanently closed as they couldn't survive the pandemic with no tourists. We passed this place by the first evening on the way to Pakkhus and I realized it was open so we decided to give it a try. It was more moderately priced and was really good. Unfortunately, we both had forgotten to take photos of the menu... Lobster soup - really good flavor and the few pieces of langoustine in there were perfect. Smoked salmon salad. The salmon in here was awesome - not too salty, and contrary to our hotel's breakfast buffet, didn't look like it was hacked to pieces with a dull axe! Lamb - the seasoning they used was really good (a lot of garlic) but the pieces were pretty thin - most were cooked nicely but one was a little overcooked. Langoustine sandwich. There was a top half of bread, but we removed it for the photo. The langoustine here were perfectly perfectly cooked.. They were amazing. Probably the best langoustine we had in Hofn. I overheard the waitress talk to another table about their homemade donuts... so......

After lunch, we decided to take a hike I had read about which was close to Hoffellsjokull - the closest ice fall to our hotel. It's not a commonly visited ice fall as it's not right off the main road - there's a short drive on a gravel/rocky road. Once we got to the parking lot, there was one other car there and the family was coming off of the rise to view the glacier lagoon told us that it was really windy up there. We had no idea how windy it was until we got up there ourselves... it was like standing in a hurricane! We couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of where we found ourselves. After shooting this we actually were able to get a photo or two of the glacial lagoon. It's very different from the main one that is super popular as the icebergs have more debris in them, which makes for interesting markings. Shortly after taking this photo, I stupidly put my back to the wind for a moment and the wind literally knocked me off my feet onto my butt. Ow. We never actually made the hike - which goes up the right side next to the ice fall - it was just way too windy to risk it. We were also planning on going to a thermal tub place right there but decided against it since it was just so windy and the idea of drying off in 50F and super windy wasn't appealing! So we went back to the hotel to relax a bit since we have been running around seeing so much. We decided to have dinner at the hotel. Here's the view from our table: The menu: Smoked mackerel - this was really good. I was a little nervous as sometimes mackerel can be a bit fishy, but this one was not fishy at all, but had great flavor and was still moist and really smoky. Langoustine soup. They used a good stock but I thought the one we had at lunch had a stronger flavor - this one had a bit too much cream for me. But it was really tasty. Arctic char with a hollandaise mousse and charred onion (and potato puree which was a LOT of butter). Lamb - if I didn't read the menu, I'd no idea it was a rhubarb sauce, but it was very good regardless. This is the birch dessert. I was really disappointed by this - there was no discernable birch flavor and the meringue tasted like it was made 3 days ago and sat around in a steam bath. I was so looking forward to this as I have some nice memories being in summer day camp sucking on birch tree branches while we were supposed to be playing some kind of sports.

Personally, I wouldn't call it unattractive! Is taht paratha or naan? Do you make from scratch?

I'd keep the temps on teh low side. The key to crispy fried garlic/shallots is to boil all the water out slowly - once that's done, it starts browning fast. If you use too high of a heat, the outside will brown before it's completely dry. I'd probably try 275F or so to start.

Who did you get the finger lime and Meyer lemon trees from? What do you do with finger limes? I don't know if I've ever had one.

There is definitely something visceral but it's more than that. China and Korea are countries. So Chinatown and Koreatown are named for that. I think the visceral feeling comes from a history of being segregated, looked down on, and forced to live in ghettos. I'm not saying other cultures haven't experienced the same but it's how I feel.

huh... then again, I shouldn't be offended - English isn't the primary language after all....