KennethT

Your luggage must have smelled really smoky once you got home!

I've been jonesing for this forever, but have finally made it today.... Javanese Soto Ayam - chicken soup with mung bean noodles, cabbage, chicken, fried shallots. The broth is homemade chicken stock scented with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves (both from the garden) and then a rempah of galangal, ginger, garlic, shallots, candlenuts and turmeric. I could have used more broth!!

You should smell my fingers once I'm done pinching off!!! Really fragrant

I finally saw these back in stock at my local HMart after a long absence: I am really excited - I've never tried them, but I'm really hoping they come out similar to one of the best airport snacks we've ever had.... in the old domestic terminal of Don Muang airport in Bangkok while waiting for a flight from BKK to Chiang Mai.

I've been pinching off the blossoms (there's been a flush of them lately) because I have really no use for kaffir limes and I'd rather have more vegetative growth.

My kaffir lime tree is starting to fill out nicely again. Once the new growth completely matures, I'll prune the long arms again to bring it in even more... Here's an update on the rooted grocery store Thai basil and my laksa leaf (rau ram) - I didn't have much time so I didn't get to transplant the TB into a large container so it stalled for like a week, but now it's feeling much happier. Once it gets a bit bigger, I'll move it into a 1 gallon fabric pot. The main laksa plant is way too woody, so I cloned 5 tips and they're now doing well in their own cup - it's a fast grower, so it should be transplanted into a fabric pot in a week or two.

yes please!!! I've never made a massaman that I've been happy with so I rarely make it.

What recipe do you use for your massaman curry?

I saw these being sold out of carts all over Beijing. I actually tried one - it really does taste like nothing!

Are Drake's products distributed up there? When I was a kid, I thought they were just a NY area (or Northeast US) thing, but now I'm curious...

When I think of the term "coffee cake" what immediately comes to mind is my childhood in the early 80s in New York - specifically, Drake's coffee cake... https://drakescake.com/www/cakes/view/3/coffee-cakes

Elk mapo tofu using the remaining raw meat from last night.

Yunnanese elk with herbs (again). Made with maitake mushrooms and 7 different herbs, 5 of which from the garden. Sticky rice and cucumber salad.

Bumping this really old thread - but it's the closest I can find for my question. Does anyone know if it's possible to over-soak Thai sticky rice (glutinous rice)? The package I have has a chart on the back indicating the month it was vacuum packed (and flushed with nitrogen) and how long to soak depending what month it is currently. I assume that is for the minimum soaking time (the chart ranges from 2 hours up to 10 hours), but does it do any harm to soak longer than that?

Torch ginger flower (frozen). I can't wait to use one! Unfortunately, I was in the store looking for frozen sand ginger (also called lesser galangal) or kencur in Bahasa, and couldn't find it anywhere. Nor can I find it online. I can find it in its dried form easily, but I assume that like most things, the dried form has a very different flavor and usage than the fresh or frozen.

true - I was just looking at the shape of the bulbs

I used to use a UV device for psoriasis and it had 4 sets of bulbs that looked just like yours!

I have a relatively inexpensive high powered induction burner (my apartment building has no gas service) and I have the same issue as the OP. Cast iron conducts heat relatively poorly so on induction you wind up with hot spots just above the induction coil if you crank the heat up right away. I also did a great job of warping the bottom of my flat bottomed carbon steel wok! When I do anything on cast iron, I let the empty cast iron pan heat slowly on relatively low heat for maybe 10 minutes before I need to use it. Using an induction compatible pan with aluminum or copper sandwiched in the base will make your heating much more even. Hopefully soon I'm going to get a better (and unfortunately not inexpensive) induction burner that supposedly has a more even magnetic field distribution - but I'll know more once I get it.

OK - temporarily out of SE Asia and on to Mexico - with a rendition of the ever popular smoky red chilli chicken foot burnin' tacos.... I refreshed the master sauce in the freezer with an extra Pasilla de Oaxaca (super smoky) and 2 chipotle and some of the adobo, along with a bit of fire roasted crushed tomato, and some shallot and garlic. ETA - I just noticed this now - and no, I'm not @CantCookStillTry's husband....

After drooling over @shain's Thailand photos, I was so in the mood for Khao Soi that I finally succumbed and just made it... Recipe from a cooking class in Chiang Mai many years ago....

Southern India inspired shrimp with masala potatoes, coriander-mint chutney from Dishoom and tamarind chutney. Curry leaves and mint from the garden.

Is it too late for you to adopt me?

Indonesian-ish mee goreng (fried noodles) with shrimp

Chicken Panang curry... kaffir lime leaves from the garden (the tree needed a bit more pruning to encourage more new growth).

How does that work? Do they pack the bread and cold cuts separately?