KennethT

I guess the main reason I posted my question is that I'm concerned about explosions of hot oil from the fryer as the frozen crabs defrost and let out water. I'd rather not experiment wearing a hazmat suit or get oil all over my kitchen. But yes, I also thought that if defrosted, the starch coating would get gloppy...

naked

I saw these boxes of frozen crabs in my local H-mart today... This one, the crabs seem pretty small and are already coated in starch: This one is just crabs, no starch: How do you cook these? The first one says "Just Fry - 3 min" but doesn't have any other instructions on the box. Do you defrost them first or fry from frozen? I sense a catastrophe waiting to happen. But, the first one looks more attractive to me as I'd love to replicate this - one of the best airport snacks anywhere... Bangkok, circa 2006... These crabs were fried whole with just a thin dusting of starch, and eaten as is, shell and all. They were amazing and I've been looking for something similar for a long time. The sauce is true Sriracha, not at all like the Rooster brand, ever-present in the US.

A little of both

Mapo Pacific cod. I defrosted the fillet pieces in a large bath of cool water - took about 20-30 minutes. Then removed from the bath and patted dry, then put on a rack over a plate, covered with plastic and in the fridge until I was ready for it. Perfect texture - no mealiness at all.

A few weeks ago, my wife attended a work event that had a really nice gift bag... So, what better holiday lunch would there be? The toasts on the left were a little gross so we got a nice locally made baguette and a few other things to supplement it:

Peking-ish duck noodles with a gorgeous dry 1996 Wachau Riesling. The duck was duck legs cooked SV - 180F for about 10-11 hours. And $5 for the pair of duck legs! What a steal! It's Peking-ish because the sauce was made with some of my duck stock that I made from the carcass of a Peking Duck we had in Chinatown.

Now I feel like I should've held out longer when considering joining!

@ElsieDtook the word right out of my mouth!!! That water is so clear...

I've never seen pickles on a standard American-Chinese restaurant.... however, every Sichuan restaurant here offers at least one kind of pickle. The Hunan restaurant around the corner from me liberally uses pickled mustard greens as a condiment.

As I'm sure you know, lots of deep water fish are frozen whole on the boat since the boat stays out at sea for days or weeks at a time. When frozen properly, there is no additional water added - the fish's skin keeps the water out. In my part of the USA, I don't think it's possible to find truly fresh shrimp/prawns. I think what we see in stores here that looks like fresh is really just already thawed. Much of the fresh fish we get is a over a day old - at best it was caught the day before, at worst, I don't want to know! When improperly (too slowly) frozen, ice crystals form in the meat's intracellular fluid, breaking cell walls. Once thawed, the punctured cell walls lose their fluid, which results in the weight loss you describe - I don't think the higher frozen weight is because of water added. Modern blast freezing or super cold brine freezing solves this problem by minimizing or eliminating crystalization - so cell walls don't get punctured and you don't lose fluid once defrosted. And buying live fish in the USA? Good luck, other than in Chinatown. Unfortunately, most Americans have an aversion to buying their meat live, with lobster being the only exception I can think of. And most unfortunately, many of the Chinatown fish stores with live fish are notorious for using low quality fish. Definitely not wild, line caught. With all this being said, I still haven't had a chance to try any of the frozen fish I received lately - but that should change this weekend, and I'll report back. I do know that the spot prawns I had last weekend were fantastic - just as good as the prawns I had in Roses, Spain where the restaurant has personal relationships with the local fishermen and what is served is usually only out of the water for an hour or two.

We use sharpies to mark wine glasses when tasting more than 1 bottle at a time. The ink washes off with soap and water.

I recently saw a Rick Bayless video on guacamole - he confirmed what I already thought - avocados don't ripen off the tree, they soften. They take a year on the tree to ripen, which means, they accumulate fat. They get to full size within 3 months, but need the extra 9 months to accumulate the fat which will never happen off tree. However, they won't soften on the the tree - they need to be removed for that. I have very little pear knowledge, so I can't comment on whether they are truly ripening off tree or something else...

I liked @JoNorvelleWalker's idea of mapo tofu. I'd also consider various spicing methods to either make an Indian sikh kabob or maybe a middle eastern kabob... or go the Indonesian route with a sate lilit.

This is a slightly different thing - no fruit, heritage or not, will taste good if not picked ripe. Plus, among the thousands of "heritage" strains of tomatoes, lots of them are just plain blah - even when picked perfectly ripe. I think most people buy the heritage or heirloom tomatoes in the grocery store because of how they look, and just imagine that they taste better.

huh, you would think that a block of tuna that size (the "small" one) would need a lot more than 5 minutes when starting from -60C. I would've assumed that the salted water would initially form a glaze on it once removed from the water bath and that it would need hours in the refrigerator to completely defrost. I'd also assume that the fish from Alaska is super frozen - especially after traveling on top of a block of dry ice. But after it's been off teh dry ice and in a normal freezer for a while, it's no longer super frozen.

I don't know if heritage or heirloom are terms defined by the USDA. If not defined, anyone is free to use them on anything so they're practically worthless. Lots of official sounding terms are used in food marketing but actually are unregulated and mean nothing, i.e. "all natural" etc...

I have a great memory of getting a pineapple like this - peeled and de-eyed but on a stick from a vendor roaming the beach in Thailand. Wish I took a photo of it.

I've seen people in Thailand peel and de-eye them so fast - with a cleaver! This was definitely the best pineapple I've had in the continental US. (I remember having some fantastic pineapple in Hawaii - but that was many years ago). I'm so happy I stumbled on to this Facebook group about buying/selling fruit. The quality is so much better than I can get locally - it's too bad shipping is so expensive.

I just got a box of these Phulae pineapples (a Thai variety) grown in Guatemala and picked ripe (not picked green). I have strong memories of going crazy over the pineapples in Thailand and Vietnam... They're much smaller than the pineapples we get here but they have such a strong flavor and aroma and are ridiculously sweet and juicy. While carving this one, I had to stop a few times to remove the juice off the board so it wouldn't spill onto the counter. Don't want to waste it! My mediocre carving job to remove the eye Finally!!!! This plate lasted about 1-1/2 minutes between me and my wife.

that's fascinating. Are the peanuts pickled raw or are they boiled or roasted first?

It looks likethe scallops were IQF - like shrimp usually are. Then they're just placed in a sealed bag - no vacuum.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about - phak kat dong. It was never neon when I saw it in Thailand (or in Vietnam for that matter) but the only stuff I can find in the stores here is extremely neon.

wow - you've trained them really well!

I can find Thai preserved mustard greens in my local Asian store - they're always a neon yellow/green color - although I've never seen that color anywhere in Asia. I'm curious if your locally packaged preserved mustard looks similarly or if it is an export thing that they add extra preservatives or something.