KennethT

Out of curiosity, how did you make sticky rice without a steamer? Was it a pot of water with a steamer insert?

I checked it out a couple weeks ago. The fish area was a madhouse as they were breakingdown a whole tuna and giving out samples as well as people taking enough photos to fill a Sears catalog. I actually did try some of the premade sushi - for the price, it was actually pretty good. I wasn't very impressed with the produce selection, although they had a few of my staples and their prices were significantly less than anywhere else that I know of. But since they don't have everything, I probagly will continue to get most of my produce at Hmart so I don't have to go to two stores.

Sichuan fish....

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken

Is the elephant real jade?

The turmeric is really taking off now.

Beer duck a la @liuzhou. I also added some dried green Sichuan peppercorns as I thought it would go with the doubanjiang.

Ha! Damn, I'm predictable.... sorry - I completely forgot that I already asked you about this.

what do you use for a recipe for da pan ji?

Chicken pho made with the wrong noodles. The broth was 90% done before I realized I didn't have any real pho noodles.

First - beautiful job on the bacon lattice! What type of wood did you use to smoke the leg quarters? How long did they smoke for since they were already fully cooked and tender?

Do you have any photos of these? I'd love to see them.

I personally feel that if you have something that's ivory, that was made a long time ago, it's best to just enjoy it. Throwing it out or not enjoying it would not help the elephant it came from. I have 2 things made from ivory that I adore and you'll have to pry them from my cold, rigor mortis induced grip - a pre WWII piano with ivory keys (it was my grandmother's) and a cast bronze elephant statue with ivory tusks made in the late 1800s I think. My other grandmother was a big fan of antiquing and picked it up probably some time in the 50s maybe. I don't support buying anything newly made with ivory - not that you could probably even find anything.

I wonder if it's because the fake porcelain ones are easy to clean and reuse? They can put them in those chopstick sterilizer machines that I saw all over Beijing. Not that wood or bamboo ones are expensive.... even here in the US.

South India via Singapore fish (headless) curry.

The problem is that pheasants have almost no fat on them. Maybe confited in a neutral fat?

The liquid aminos is a typical ingredient in Thai stir fries - the classic combo is oyster sauce, light soy sauce, Golden Mountain sauce (aminos), fish sauce. I could definitely see that combo in a Thai burger or meatballs, but not in a laap.

Interesting. Thanks for this. Re: the David Thompson recipes, I'll say that the Chiang Mai style laap is totally different from Isaan laap so it's not surprising that the Chiang Mai style would have it while the other does not. I also wouldn't be surprised if a recipe or two had "lesser galangal" aka fingerroot rather than galangal. They're totally different but fingerroot is much harder to find outside of SE Asia.

It's 'healthy' because it uses rice bran oil and some egg yolk powder instead of the traditional margarine and sweetened condensed milk. It's pretty good, but no one will confuse it with the real, unhealthy version. I actually did find a very small can of sweetened condensed milk (like 2oz) so the next batch I'll make I'll try it with it.

Hmmm..... I've never seen galangal used in laap before either... at least not the Isaan version (the one with the lime juice). The northern Thai laap is totally a horse of a different color and it's really uncommon outside of Northern Thailand. In general, I find this to be a pretty good representation of an Isaan laap: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/laab-moo/ Also, just for clarity, my laughing emoji was for the N. Minnesota laap line... I wasn't laughing at anything else.

And two of my kencur plants have started to flower! A good day....

Yes!!!!!!! One of my turmeric pieces has finally sprouted!!!

I've never seen a laap recipe that used ginger. Is this an Isaan laap or a Northern Thai laap?

This can actually be useful, though, when making a cuisine that is new to you and doesn't do things in a style that is similar.

Malaysian Nyonya kapitan chicken curry with homemade "healthy" roti canai.