KennethT

@rotuts Maybe you already said this and I missed it, but does this smoker do cold smoking? Bacon is typically cold smoked, as is most charcuterie afaik. Another possibility if that's the case is smoked salmon - if you can get King salmon (sometimes called Ora King or Akaroa) from New Zealand, it's ++++.

We haven't been back to Paris in about 10-15 years but there was bad traffic (or equivalent to NYC traffic which is pretty bad) back then!

Thanks for this - I enjoyed. But who'd want to drive a Ferrari just to sit in traffic?

Sorry to hear about your husband getting sick. I know how that goes all too well! Just once, I'd like a vacation when I don't get sick! Hopefully he feels better soon and that you don't catch it!

I'll second not going to 2nd Ave Deli... Their pastrami was like supermarket pastrami. Very disappointing. Although you might want to check out the original location (actually on 2nd Ave) in what's now a Chase bank to see the Yiddish Actor walk of fame in the sidewalk. Be prepared to wait on a long line outside in teh cold at L'Industrie on Christopher. My typical tea shop (McNulty's) is across the street - I was there a week or two ago and the line was crazy and barely moved. I'll add that you can BYO wine to Peking Duck House, which is also popular with groups. I haven't been there in years though, so things may have changed.

Don't know if you're looking for a NYC steakhouse (not fine dining but certainly not inexpensive) but I'd throw Keens in the ring. I'm a big fan of the mutton chop (it's really a big lamb chop) and their bacon is really good.

I can't really talk about deli so much, but I can say that there has been a bakery explosion over the past few years. Quite a few are in the East Village. I don't usually frequent any.... Eater just came up with a list of new ones: https://ny.eater.com/maps/new-bakeries-nyc-heatmap but I haven't tried any. And there are quite a few more, just in the EV alone but aren't brand new so they've fallen off of Eater's radar. I guess they stopped paying their PR fees since many still have lines.

I've never seen cashew chicken or cashew anything in any Chinese or Chinese-American restaurants here in NYC or growing up outside the city in the suburbs. In Thai restaurants, though, that's a different story! Ubiquitous there....

My cooking textbook said that a half hour was enough for chicken, but I find that I get more extraction with an hour. At that point, the bones crush between my fingers with little effort.

One more here. In my 16 quart pressure cooker, I usually have 1-2 pounds of feet, a couple pounds of wings and then some backs/carcasses - full pressure for about an hour, then natural release. Comes out super chicken-y and so gelatinous you can cut it with a knife once chilled. Like @Paul Bacino, after straining out the solids, I put the pot of hot stock in a sink of ice water to chill and then in the refrigerator overnight. Fat rises to the surface and is easy to remove the next day.

any side dishes of scenery pics?

What was it supposed to be?

Does anyone know about a burr grinder for spices, unlike the standard coffee/spice grinder that's like a mini-blender? Whenever I grind store bought spices (after toasting), especially, coriander, I can never get it super fine like if I bought ground coriander from the spice shop. I wonder if using a burr grinder is the only way to get it super fine like that.

I'll take the Dom, but that lobster salad looks like more mayo than lobster. Was it like that IRL?

Welcome back! While they don't have much by the way of chocolate, if you would like to try some AMAZING SE Asian (mostly Singapore/Malaysia) desserts, I'd highly recommend Lady Wong. Their flagship store is in the East Village (9th St. between 2nd and 1st Ave) and they have a stall in Urban Hawker by 7th Ave and 50th St. The owners are both Malaysian and have a lot of fine dining pastry experience in Singapore. If you've never had it before, it's a good opportunity to try durian - I'd recommend the durian serimuka (sticky rice with custard). The pandan serimuka is really good as well. The kuih talam are also really good. One of the owners loves making high end pasty and those are really good too, but I stick with the traditional kuih since I miss it when not in SE Asia.

I guess I should have phrased it as "mammalian predators...." Yes, alligator is delicious but I completely forgot about it since I haven't had it since I was a kid. I don't think I'd go so far as chickens being called predators though - have you ever seen one stalk some grubs?

Interesting. I had always heard that predators didn't make good meat, but I guess this is an exception!

Thanks. I pinched off the top of one of the keriting plants just out of curiosity so I can compare the two. Both rawit plants are already compact - I wouldn't attempt pinching them yet.

Most tomato plants only need about 4 feet worth of leaves on the vine. Professional greenhouse tomato growers use indeterminate varieties and let the vine grow to 30 feet long (using a string attached to the roof and leaning the plant as it grows), only keeping the top 5 or so feet full of leaves. The rest of the vine just has tomatoes.

Do pepper plants make suckers that need to be removed? There are a bunch of these sprouting:

Are the wontons homemade? If so, what did you use for afilling? If not, from where and what do you think of it?

@Senior Sea Kayaker Have you ever topped your chilli pepper plants? I'm debating whether I should top mine but it looks like the keriting is already splitting its apex....

They're doing well. Keriting on the left, rawit on the right.

I honestly couldn't tell you. I'm sure my tastes have changed - I don't like things nearly as sweet as I used to just for starters. Part of me thinks that the Twinkie filling probably hasn't changed in 30 years but without a time machine, or a former Hostess employee, I would have no way of knowing for sure.

Same with me - we used to have them every Friday night when my parents went out for dinner without us and we stayed home with a babysitter. Several years ago I was experimenting with a chocolate filled with what my memory was of Twinkie filling, which I hadn't had in 20 years. So beforehand, I broke down and bought one and the filling was very different from my memory - I remembered it being light and fuffy, when in fact it was greasy and unpleasant.