KennethT

I have a phony All Clad wok I'd love to get rid of. It's probably about 15 years old and used maybe twice. I haven't touched it, but since it's been hanging on my pot rack for all that time, I'd assume it has a very healthy layer of settled aerosolized oil mixed with dust on it. In fact, I can practically guarantee it. It was quite expensive when I got it - do you think anyone would want to pay to take it off my hands or should I try to donate to some sad sap? OTOH, I got a Joyce Chen carbon steel wok relatively recently and have already used it a bunch of times. It lives on my stovetop since it (was pre foot burning) is the most common thing I use lately.

The cabbage/carrot pickle reminds me of someof the pickles I saw in Vietnam - they pickle everythnig there and basically serve it with every meal.

OK - maybe not, but I certainly have done more than my share of stupid things!

For those playing the Idiot Who Burned His Feet home game, I recently got back from my 2nd appointment at the burn center where they removed the bandages and voila! Mostly healed! Sort of.... What the burn surgeon who removed my bandages said was "from a wound perspective, it's completely healed, however, you're likely to have about a week more of some pain and itching." Bandages/compression wraps no longer needed, but just tons of moisturizer slathered on. But the good news is no infections and it is completely healthy.... So for those keeping score, it is just under 2 weeks since the incident. 2 weeks of discomfort (sometimes downright painful at times), pain in the ass (definitely no cooking for the last 2 weeks - I couldn't take the chance of getting the bandages wet) and just being exhausted - this thing has really sucked the energy out of me. So, I will reiterate... wear shoes while cooking!!!!

Do you make the lobster balls or buy them?

huh. never heard of that... thanks.

Damn that lamb looks good!

@weinoocan have my older Thai basil that I've let flower. it's really pretty and still tasty. If you clip all the flowers, it will continue to grow vegetatively, but at its age it keeps wanting to flower. I have a new plant that's about a week old that still has some growing up to do, but I'm sure will be just as tasty.

I don't think you'd need to add anything to the Maesri brand except a little shrimp paste. That stuff requires no punching. I still haven't made it to Ken Hing... but if they happen to have the Nittiya brand of curry paste (it's refrigerated), it's probably the best I've had outside of Thailand... The Thai store on Mosco St. used to carry it (I haven't been there in about a year) but when they did, they sold out quickly.

That's true. @weinoo that might be really good for planting some morning glory (aka kang kung, aka ong choy, aka pak boong)

@Anna N , @jimb0 beat me to it....

no Thai basil? I'm sure it was just because you didn't have it available, but it would have knocked it out of the park! What brand red curry paste did you use?

I always figured that the layer of fat or caulfat acted as insulation to keep moisture from evaporating out of the surface of the meat. I'm thinking about the diagram in Modernist Cuisine talking about dry heat cooking of meats. I don't have it in front of me, but from memory, there was a desiccation zone (that's what would get browned) on the surface of the meat. Using a layer of fat inhibits the production of the desiccation zone I'd assume more through insulation and the creation of a moisture barrier, keeping the meat underneath cooler than it would have been without it.

I meant in general, over the last couple of years - not specifically right now.

We have the same thing - we have a standing Sat morning delivery with the Delivery Pass or whatever they call it. I was actually one of their original customers when they started. At the time, my neighborhood was one of their test neighborhoods - I still remember the weekend when they had people standing on all 4 corners of 31st and 3rd Ave handing out flyers with coupons for trying them out. I still find their customer service to be great - anything comes in damaged or not good they refund it immediately. But I will say that their produce has gone downhill a bit since when they first started. When they first started, they poached Fairway's produce manager, as well as their cheese manager.

Thanks for this. I needed a laugh lately. I will be moving in a month or two after living in this apartment for about 15 years - I can't wait to see what "treasures" we dig up as we start packing....

On sale where? Not like I'm in any shape yet for any real cooking (or anything involving large pots of boiling water) but it's nice to know...

Bake steam uses both top and bottom heating elements with steam. Broil steam just uses the top element with steam. With any of the modes, you can set the time as long as you want. In any steam setting, the machine initially gives a blast of steam and then adds more blasts of steam as time goes on.

I love Morgon - especially when they get some age on them

Your fry method is like Dave Arnold's back in the Cooking Issues days... I did it once, and like you said, they are ridiculously fragile when taking them out of the simmering brine. I wound up with 80% mashed potato looking stuff that clogged the crap out of my drying rack and 20% amazingly awesome fries.

@weinoo if you're doing the confit SV, why not just leave the sealed bags in the fridge? That's even more convenient than the freezer, and assuming the bags haven't opened, will last a really long time assuming you keep your fridge cold.

I hate wearing shoes also, but they're going to on from now on for anything hot or knives.

It is remarkable how many shophouse/street food cooks I've seen in Asia who do deep frying or jet burner wok cooking wearing shorts and flip flops. I'm surprised more of them aren't completely scarred from the waist down.

The ER was busy - it's NYC - it's always busy but they took me in right away, seen by a nurse almost immediately and saw the doctor maybe 40 minutes later. Unfortunately no slippers because the burn is on the top of the feet, just behind the toes - so nothing that would touch the top of my feet there - which is basically nothing other than the shoes I'm going to "modify"... I am very lucky to have a wonderful wife who did all the cleanup when we got home from the ER.

Not much to do. Basically just apply an antibiotic cream to it 2x a day and keep it clean and elevated as much as possible - which will be tough at work but I'll have to do the best I can.