KennethT

I don't know - both could potentially kill you!

The last time I made the sockeye, I coated it in curry paste, wrapped it in a banana leaf and put it under the broiler. I cooked it in the Eric Ripert method - until when you can insert a thin metal skewer (I have one just for the purpose) and it feels just warm on the inside of your lip. Because of the banana leaf, it doesn't get the heat of the broiler but basically steams itself but is flavored with the charred banana leaf. Even though it was just barely warm, it was still dry... The coho is next up...

@Smithy and @weinoo Yes I have a CSO and I've steamed whole fish in it really well - it's an idea. I could always treat it like I treated the farmed stuff and SV it to a core of 102F

I recently received a second box from Wild Fork... more chicken thighs (we go through a lot of thighs), a rack of pork spare ribs for $2 a pound or something ridiculously cheap like that (I'm using them to make stock) along with a couple of pork hocks, also for the stock. I also ordered 1.5 pounds of grouper, of which we had some last night. It was devoured faster than we could take a photo - I made a Thai pad cha grouper stir fry. This may be my new favorite fish for this type of application, and the quality was fantastic. On the fish note, I have a glut of wild Alaskan salmon - both sockeye and coho. To be honest, I really don't know what to do with them. I'm used to dealing with the fatty, almost unctuous farmed Alaskan salmon. But the first portions I made of the sockeye were underwhelming. They were dry. Really dry. And I don't think I overcooked them - definitely not enough for them to be as dry as they were. Any recommendations of what to do with them so that we'll actually enjoy eating them?

This is really cool... but I do worry about eating an icepop covered in metal dust!

How can we guess without knowing relative size? They could be 4 feet long and used to dig a pit to cook a whole pig wrapped in banana leaves!

As @liuzhou said, you could use it for lots of things - I made a Mexican red chile chicken in it last night - simmered chicken thighs in the red chile sauce, brought some water to a boil super fast to blanch sliced shallots to make a pickled shallot, etc. I also use it for steaming (you need a steamer basket of some kind then) or a double boiler. I've also deep fried fish without having to use that much oil. I dry fry spices in it prior to grinding. It is vastly superior to a saucepan for reducing sauces in a hurry. All with the added benefit of being well seasoned carbon steel - it is basically non stick and takes literally 5 seconds to clean - I just rinse it with hot water and wipe it out with a towel, then reheat it till it smokes a bit.

Tom yum has a very different flavor profile than tom kha. Tom=to boil so is used to describe soups. Kha = galangal, which is the one of the primary flavors in tom kha. Tom yum is definitely more spicy (tom kha is typically not spicy or just very slightly spicy, but more herbal) as it uses nam prik pao (along with thai chilies) and is much more lime-y. Traditionally, tom yum is water based (no coconut milk), but lately, there's been a trend in Thailand (and worldwide) to make a creamy version of tom yum not using coconut milk, but usually using evaporated milk as the cream-ifier.

I agree with the wok idea. I recently got a carbon steel flat bottomed wok to use on an induction burner and I love it. I originally got it for stir fries, but now I find I use it for many tasks. I use it so much, it lives on my countertop.

Looks great, but the tom kha gai looks more like a tom kha talay. Gai=chicken... talay=seafood

Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of growing a pineapple plant. When I was a kid, I had the space in the summer but wouldn't have known what to do once it became colder here. Now, I know what to do and would grow it indoors but don't have that much space!! There's nothing like a completely plant ripened pineapple - something we almost never see here in the US (everything is brought in green). How big is the mature plant now?

Your last dinner killed me! Conch fritters! Local fish with mango salsa! Yes please!!!

Reminds me of a toy I loved as a kid - Spirograph... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph Now edible! I am wondering about the purpose of the arrows he draws initially...

Right - the LTD has an anodized aluminum exterior with an aluminum core and stainless interior. But even the stainless interior is non-magnetic as is most types of stainless.

I'm going through the same issue - but I've switched out a gas range for induction burners (my new apartment has no gas service). None of my 16 year old All-Clad LTD works on induction. I will be using 2 countertop induction hobs - I have the first one (relatively inexpensive) already, and although it is quite powerful (3500W), it doesn't have the most even heat distribution. If I turn my cast iron on high power right away, you can see a definite ring. So, I let the cast iron heat at lower power to even itself out. The heat distribution issue is even more obvious on my carbon steel pan! But when I use higher power for my Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot filled with water - it brings it to a boil really fast and the large amount of water evens out the hot spots. I've been thinking about replacing the LTD with something that is magnetic (hence induction compatible) but also has some sort of aluminum or copper core to help even out the hot spots but I don't know what to use just yet. I don't plan to get any non-stick cookware.

I'm definitely interested!!!! Have a great trip!

I wish I could say that it was some stroke of brilliance, but no - @weinoo was dead on - except the carcass came from Wu's Wonton King, not Peking Duck House.

@DJ Silverchild Interesting. I assume you're adding a canna butter to a basic pate de fruit recipe? Or are you using a distillate based extract? I'm curious how they might affect your recipe? Also, can you put a filter in front of the depositor feed rather than prefiltering the juice?

I was a huge fan of banh xeo in Saigon, but became a convert once I had an amazing example of banh khoai in Hue - it's like a smaller banh xeo, but crispier, and came with the most addicting, murky looking sauce. And yes, part of it is the accompaniments which are unavailable elsewhere - like trai va - some kind of unripe fig that I had heard only existed in Hue. I found it hard to believe they didn't exist elsewhere (reminded me of the magical well water found in Hoi An) - but the story goes that people come from all around Vietnam to Hue for a few things- the trai va and mam tom chua - fermented raw shrimp.

There's also the old school "grape-stomping" method... but I don't know about the yield.

I don't know if it could be used for fruit/seeds but I've used food grade mesh nylon bags with good success. They make them in different mesh sizes and hold about 5 gallons at a time. After adding the fruit, you can hold the open end and give the bag a spin which will create a lot of gentle pressure.

It's an antique that my grandmother got somewhere. It's a bronze statue by a Japanese artist from the Meiji period - you can see the front of it here: Living in a small apartment, we have very few collectables or knick-knacks, but when my mother moved out of the house, this was the one thing I wanted.

Even though we're not going anywhere this year, it's vacation time, which means I can have more interesting lunches than my normal weekday fare.... Duck dry-noodles (not in soup) with maitake, gai lan. Made with a peking-ish duck stock...

Sorry - I was referring to: At some point, I guess this was only in my head, I started referring to that sauce as "foot-burning-sauce"...

The makings of foot-burning-sauce-2.0..... And done....