KennethT

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

Had a friend visit for dinner last night Black pepper spot prawns Peranakan chicken curry with belacan yu choi Some kuih from Lady Wong Friend brought homemade ice cream made with coconut cream.

Following this - I've been thinking about this for years.

Sambal salmon And a talam pandan kuih from Lady Wong

Vietnamese chicken soup - grandma style, mien ga And a durian serimuka from Lady Wong

Massaman curry with chicken And a pandan serimuka for dessert

I live in a building with no gas service. I got a countertop induction unit - it's a Chinese branded unit - a 230V system capable of up to 3200W. You can control it either by the power level or by "temperature", but for this unit, it seems that controlling by temperature really just changes the power output - but doesn't adjust it with a thermostat or anything. It has 8 levels - so you can increase/decrease by 400W. When I use my Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker, once it gets up to full pressure, I turn it down to 400W for about 5-8 minutes or so, but then have to increase it to 800W for a minute, then back to 400W for another 5-8 minutes. It's a bit of a pain in the ass and I really wish there was like a 500W or 550W setting! But, when making stock, I only go for maybe an hour at most so it's not the end of the world. One thing to wonder about the Miele is whether or not the power scale just adjusts how long the power is on for on a time weighted average - for instance, in my unit, when setting to 400W, it basically puts out the full 3200W for like 1 second, then it's off for 7 seconds or something like that. It's fine when simmering a pot of water, but when sauteeing or shallow frying you get a boil/cooling/boil/cooling cycle. I've been eyeing a much more expensive Vollrath 230V unit that not only has 100 gradations, but rather than just adjusting duty cycle, it also actually adjusts the power output moment by moment, so it should be much more accurate when it comes to maintaining a gentle simmer or shallow fry.

Thai shrimp nam prik pao.

Aside from the hind legs, is there any meat on the rest of a frog?

I have experience pruning both determinate and indeterminate varieties. For years, my father grew determinate varieties (mostly hybrids) in our garden. We always pruned the suckers since they won't have fruit. My indoor tomato was an indeterminate heirloom called Goose Creek, which was prized for its flavor. Being that there's only 2 of us, I liked having an indeterminate plant since I could basically harvest 1 tomato per day, every day, for months. Most commercial greenhouse growers grow indeterminate plants - once the leaves on the stem start to yellow, they are removed leaving a naked stem and only the top maybe 4-5 feet of the plant has leaves. They will also remove the suckers since those branches won't provide fruit and the plant doesn't really need that many leaves assuming that you've got decent light levels.

Glad to hear it!!

Personally, I like the layers to be thinner, so I (and all the prata guys in Singapore) stretch the dough rather than rolling it out. A while ago, I wrote out a recipe for making the Singaporean chicken curry with roti prata. The last edit is pretty much my final prata recipe. While I agree that butter makes it better, I usually make these for during the week meals so I want to keep it a bit healthier, so I use some grapeseed oil (or a neutral flavored olive oil). The results come out really good:

I used to hand pollinate my indoor tomato plant and had tons of fruit. The best way is to use an electric toothbrush - you don't need the brush itself, just the vibration. Press the neck of the toothbrush under the truss for a few seconds - you should see the pollen fall out of the flowers like snow. Best times to do it are early morning and late evening. You should be able to get 100% pollination. Definitely prune all suckers and the lower leaves (which may or may not start to yellow)!

This looks a lot like the roti prata that I love so much in Singapore. The basics are that you make a stretchy dough and stretch it really thin so that you can see through it. In Singapore, they slather the dough with some kind of shortening (which will stay solid at Singapore temp) then roll into a snake, then coil it into a disk and pressed flat.

Nyonya chicken curry Chinese broccoli with garlic and fried shallots More kuih - talam gula melaka. Pandan custard with coconut and palm sugar

@Duvelmy thoughts exactly.... Hope you're just busy and everything is ok.

The last of my Teochew style Bak Kut Teh. I need to make more soon! And a durian serimuka for dessert.... From Lady Wong