KennethT

We go to the OG Shake Shack in Mad Park sometimes when it's nice outside - although we haven't been there in a while. I had the truffle burger last year at some point. It was OK, but nothing spectacular. But TBH, I'm not a huge fan of truffle oil...

Fascinating. I have seen parrot fish while snorkling/diving but never knew that people ate them!

The shrimp are wild key west pink shrimp I get from Wild Fork - like $12/lb - they're really shrimpy. Noodles I get at HMart.

Indonesian mie goreng

fresh rice noodles are notoriously sticky. For me, I think the key is to only stir fry 1 portion at a time and have your wok be really well seasoned. My wok's seasoning comes and goes a bit (a few weeks ago, I made a curry in it that had a lot of tamarind, and it stripped 80% of the seasoning by the time it finished cooking!) so I personally wouldn't attempt cooking fresh rice noodles right now - or maybe I'd coat them with a little bit of oil before the wok, and a bit more oil than normal in the wok heated to smoking so they don't stick together so bad until you can get them moving. And have your stir fry sauce at the ready to pour on top once you get a bit of char on the bottom.

fresh rice noodles don't usually need to be cooked prior to stir frying

We were there a long time ago (maybe 15 years ago) but we loved Chiang Mai. Definitely check out Doi Suthep, the large Wat in that area. And for the chicken eaters, have Khao Soi (a chicken curry noodle soup with egg noodles and coconut milk) at least once if not a lot - it's mainly served at breakfast/early lunch. Back then, it wasn't advisable for non-Thai to rent a car to drive themselves because the laws basically said that if you were in an accident, it was automatically the tourist's fault. I don't know if that's still true. We hired a driver/guide for a day or so - back then very inexpensive - his name was Sergeant Kai (he was a sergeant in the Thai military when he was young) and he was one of the nicest, most gentle people I've ever met and had tons of great stories. I'd assume that you could use Grab or Uber there nowadays. Also, Chiang Mai proper was very walkable - and there were tons of really cheap foot massage people everywhere you went. There was a fantastic Sunday walking market as well. Chiang Mai has (had?) a lot of food that is unique to Northern Thailand - stuff you won't see in the rest of the country - many of it has Burmese roots. Great things to get are a Northern Thai laap - but be warned that it is usually made with a lot of offal - and lots of unique herbs but not spicy - it has no lime juice - it's totally different from the Isaan laap from North-East Thailand. Also, I'm a huge fan of hung lay curry - typically made with pork. If you can get it, Andy Ricker's book Pok Pok is basically only about food from Chiang Mai. I can't wait to see your photos - I'm sure it has changed a lot since I was there - back then, it was almost like a time warp. My wife demonstrating how to drink iced coffee with a straw from a plastic bag. Various insects to snack on. Our guide LOVED the ant larvae and picked up a bunch to bring home later - we couldn't sample them because they had to be cooked. But the crickets and silk worms were really tasty and a good beer snack. Doi Suthep -(there's a lot of stairs to get up there) Back then, there were a lot of Thai cookery schools in Chiang Mai. We hired a new one (at the time) called A Lot of Thai - the teacher used to work at the big name cooking school then started her own. Most of the classes started with a tour of the market, and then you go back and learn to make 5 dishes or so. Her school was small and she ran it out of the back of her house - as was typical back then, the kitchens were outside. I don't know if it would be open now because of COVID, but another big thing in Northern Thailand is celadon. We took a tour of one of the celadon factories, Baan Celadon. You could watch their artisans at work - they even let my wife try her hand at the potter's wheel. Back then, the Baht was really weak against the US dollar so we wound up buying a lot of celadon tableware - plates, bowls, and a gorgeous handpainted tea set. Everything hand made and really unique and at the time, unbelievably inexpensive. They packed everything up into 1 box which we then carried through 3 or 4 airports and 2 countries - everything made it home in perfect condition. Hope you didn't mind my trip down memory lane!!

Pad cha gai - chicken stir fry with grachai, chillies, peppercorns and Thai basil

@Anna N I can't imagine anyone being insulted by you advertently or inadvertently! Glad to hear you're ok...

When you get your monthly box email, make sure you select either the combo box (for salmon + various white fish) or the white fish only box.

Staff note: Posts movede from the Cooking with Myhrvold and Migoya's Modernist Pizza discussion, to maintain focus. While not necessarily NY style, Motorino, a NYC based (but now has a few far flung branches) neo-neapolitan place does an awesome brussels sprouts pie - it's a white pie (no sauce) with fior de latte, pecorino and smoked pancetta.... https://www.motorinony.com/location/east-village/#menus/ - scroll down

Those look like glass noodles (typically made from mung bean starch) rather than rice noodles...

I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit...

A WEEK!?!?!

Prawn moiee from Dishoom, on rice vermicelli made with wild Key West pink shrimp from Wild Fork (they're really shrimpy). I didn't have any green Indian chillies so I used my spur chillies (prik chee faa). It tasted a bit off balance, so I added a touch of palm sugar, but all-in-all we thought it was a bit bland. I don't know if I'd make it again, without a lot of adaptions, probably add some hing powder and maybe some whole cumin.

I wondered about that as well - I think the only differences are the curry leaves added once the onions are done and removed, and the extra spices that the o/t masala doesn't have - maybe they think it's really important to fry those spices in the oil before the tomatoes are added and it simmers rather than fries.

We forgot to take photos last night, but I made the soft-shell crab masala from Dishoom, but with wild Coho salmon from Wild Alaska. The masala was really interesting - the long cooked onion and tomato gave it an almost chocolate flavor and was really complex. It was really tasty, but did take a long time with the slow cooking of the onion and tomato. This might work well to make the base of the masala in a large batch and freezing them in portions, then just doing the last few steps at the last minute. Also, I finally did a decent job of cooking the wild salmon and didn't overcook the crap out of it. It was marinated in garlic/ginger paste with a touch of lime juice and cooked in the just simmering masala - I just kept checking the core temp with a thin metal skewer over and over, so it came out flaking nicely and juicy inside.

Chris, how are you stretching it? I don't know how much NY experience you have, but a common sight here is pizza guys stretching the dough. When I was a kid, we used to go to a place where they would stretch it on their forearms and knuckles most of the way, then toss it (while spinning) in the air. I don't know how much the air toss was for show and how much was stretching, but for sure, the forearm/knuckle hang and stretch technique works really well.

What is the texture like once fried? Does the mucus coating cook off or does it get kind of crunchy?

Is it common in Mexico to list dishes on a menu with the weight/count of the primary protein?

Ok - that is fascinating!

hmmm... I don't know if the mushiness is caused by the bullet or by the 6 hours. Many years ago, when the sous vide thread first started (with nathanm), it was discussed not doing venison for long sv since it could get mushy - the reason given then was because there was an enzyme that caused this. I've done plenty of short time SV venison (usually rack of venison) cooked just to temp - no need to tenderize - and it came out perfectly every time. But those were commerically purchased New Zealand racks of venison, I assume farmed (no bullet required).

I've heard this also, but I don't quite understand it - how does the bullet and then sous vide make the meat mushy? What if the SV was only a short time? (a tenderloin shouldn't have to cook too long, I'd imagine)

from what I've read, it is many times added both in the beginning and at the end of cooking... the flavors mature during cooking which is wanted, but you also want some freshness. This is also done with things like ginger.

I've always had the same issue - most recipes don't use much garam masala, but a little bit of it is in seemingly everything. I've heard it freezes well, but I've never done it myself.