KennethT

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.

As it's a long weekend for me, I'm hoping I can do an at home "traditional" Balinese bebek betutu. Traditionally, a whole small duck of a breed I can't get is stuffed with fresh cassava leaves, slathered in a melange of chopped stuff - lemongrass, galangal, shallots, etc - wrapped in a specific palm leaf that I also can't get (but is typically substituted with banana leaves, even in Bali) and then put under a terracotta dome in a pit in the ground, covered with rice husks which are then set ablaze, and then let sit for about 10 hours. I have duck legs in the freezer. I can get frozen cassava leaves - no idea if they will weep liquid once they thaw. Chopped stuff is no problem. Banana leaves also in the freezer. No terracotta dome or pit in the ground (I live in an apartment in NYC) but I do have a stovetop smoker and a bag of organic rice husks typically used in pet bedding or as a soil amendment. So I figure I can slather, wrap, smoke, then SV for maybe 8 or 10 hours and that can kinda recreate what I'm looking for. Maybe. Then again, 99% of the places in Bali that make it use a regular oven nowadays.... but where's the fun in that?

I haven't done it in a long time, but I used to cook salmon SV with a bath temp of 113 to an internal temp of 102 - I used the Sous Vide Dash app to calculate the timing and it had never failed me. Then I'd torch the top - consistently good. I like a bit of gradient with the salmon - I like the dead center to be really rare, just barely flaking and the outside appears cooked and has a bit more tooth.

What does freezing for 48 hours prior to bagging do?

I always thought La Caja China was a brand name. Many years ago, people posted about cooking in one on this forum...

My wife and I are similar to you in our extreme dislike of bananas. On our honeymoon about 20 years ago, we were in Hanoi and were told that one "must try" item was a banana blossom salad - which is made in a similar fashion to a green papaya salad. When we said that we didn't like bananas, we were told that it actually didn't taste like banana at all - but when we had it, we didn't agree. My wife described it as a salad of "banana strings" - you know the strings that are there in between the sections of peel? I don't think I'm as sensitive - I didn't mind it so much - I thought it was vaguely reminiscent of banana but I liked the texture. But a slice of bruleed banana on the fish.... we'd run screaming.. haha...

I love the rocks on that beach. Also, what's between the burger patty and tomato? It kinda looks like fish sliced for sashimi to me!

Thanks for this @Kerala. Were you able to get fresh banana leaves or were they defrosted from frozen?

I didn't know earthquakes had seasons...

I hope the weather gets better soon!

A POUND???!!??? Around here, I've seen them for like $20 per 1/4 pound! If they are really $11 per pound, would you mind getting all that you can and ship them by next day air to me?