dcarch

Not sure what I had done can be useful for you. I had steak SV'ing at 129F, I put the frozen lobster tails in the same bath for about 30 minutes. Then I took the steak out and add boiling water to the bath to raise the bath temperature to 135F instantly. 20 minutes later, I put ice cubes in the bath to instantly lower the temperature back to 129F. put the staek back in, SV for 15 minutes. Then both the lobsters and steak are ready for searing and serving at the same time. dcarch

Get a trail cam, as cheap as $40. You can find out what kind of critters have been messing up your garden day and night, and then work out a way to deal with them. I found out it was my neighbor's dog which dug up my yard at night. My neighbor fixed their fence. dcarch

Inspired by Franci's lobster dinner. I went out and got myself some. Not grilled, just sous vide'd. dcarch

I expect their accuracy rate turns out to be close to 100%. Here is the system I developed: 1. Inexpensive weed control landscape fabric, which allows watering but blocks weeds. 2. "A" is a 1 1/2" metal tube. The tube is heated up using a blow torch. It can cut holes thru the fabric easily and quickly. 3. "B" is another 1 1/2" tube used to core and remove soil thru the same holes, leaving a precise hole in the soil at a depth good for garlic. 4. "C" is a plunger to push the soil inside tube "B" to cover the garlic clove inside the hole. 5. "D" is a ruler to make sure proper social distancing between cloves are maintained. :-) Everything is reusable. Same system is used for growing a few other seedlings, if weed control is needed. dcarch

Planted 165 garlic cloves. Proper social distancing between cloves. dcarch

BLT never. (Better Late Than never) Cold weather is here. Not many tomato days left. dcarch

My uneducated opinion: 1. I have never seen browning vegetables in a Chinese restaurant. Browning food is generally considered unhealthy and to be avoided. 2. Blast furnace hot stove creates appetizing aroma in the air (wok hei?). 3. Blast furnace hot stove for restaurants cooks food faster, and therefore faster customer turnover. 4. In the old China days, pork fat was used frequently for cooking, and fatty meat was preferred. Yes, extreme heat makes lots of aromatic hydrocarbons and Maillard reaction with fat. But high heat does not much to lean chicken white meat cooked in vegetable oil. dcarch

Extreme heat wave is predicted for the next few days in many areas. Many people will suffer. I apologize for finding this funny: "With current temperatures hovering above 120 degrees, rangers in Death Valley National Park have some advice for would-be visitors: Drink plenty of water, avoid excessive outdoor activity and, please, stop trying to fry eggs on the pavement. It doesn’t work, it makes a mess and the staff has better things to do than clean up after you. In fact, the proliferation of broken shells, discarded cartons and accumulated goo has reached such a point that the park recently took to its Facebook page to implore people to stop ---------------------." dcarch

Shame on you. You lazy bum! You know how to build more lights , multi-layer farm, and high-rise interior gardening. dcarch

Typical desktop computer cooling fans give you about 50 to 100 CFM (12VDC) and run at about 1500 to 2000 RPM. Cooling fans for server room, data room equipment run much higher and noisier. I have many of those. TFC1212DE (120mm x 120mm) fan runs at 5000 RPM and 252 CFM. V80E128BHA5 (80mm x 80mm) fan runs at 6300 RPM and 73 CFM. That's why I find it interesting that some kitchen exhaust fans claim they can quietly evacuate 600 to 900 CFM. dcarch

Many areas' building codes require make-up air for kitchen exhaust, something like over 600 CFM. dcarch

You are absolutely correct with universal motors and some brushless motors, their speed is determined by voltage, but induction motors are synchronous motors. They are more or less constant speed motors determine by 60 Hz line frequency. The pushing fan is not going to make the fan speed higher. With very restricted and long running duct systems, you can increase CFM by adding in-line booster fan. dcarch

The quantity of exhaust air is determined by the size of the duct and the air pressure of the fan. If the duct size is only big enough for one fan, then it make no difference how many fans you have, 2, 3, 50, 100 fans will give you the same CFM of exhaust air. As long as the fan size is the same, having more fans will not increase air pressure, therefore CFM. dcarch

I don't believe range hood specifications. They are fake numbers. Do you have a leaf blower? A powerful leaf blower with 400 CFM spec blowers a lot of air and makes a lot of noise. Can a kitchen hood with 600 CFM to 900 CFM make not much noise? Range hoods to keep the motor noise down mostly use induction motors which run inherently at low speed, and the path to exhaust the air restrict the diameter of the duct. The length of the duct and any bends in the exhaust duct created air turbulent back pressure, and filters can restrict air flow. I would be surprised in actual use, a typical hood can exhaust more than 200 CFM. dcarch

I think Dan Barber is leaving Blue Hills. dcarch

Many restaurants have backyard tables. Make sure you check weather report, 10-day forecast before making reservation. dcarch

Farm-to-table restaurants may be of great interest to you. Blue Hills I think is only indoors. There are a few others. One I like is Fable, has out door seating. Not sure they are open. May be you can get in touch with the operator and see if they will make you something to eat. Fable: From Farm to Table 4.5 (13) · Farm 1311 Kitchawan Rd Closed ⋅ Opens 11AM Sun "Great food and fun for everybody."

Pattypans, are just prettypans. It's all about looks. dcarch SV oxtails with pattypans from my garden

True. However, "you are what you eat". In addition to many medicinal food ingredients (Ginseng, ginger, etc) Asians use a lot of fermented ingredients, soy sauce, thousand-year-eggs, Kimchi, fermented fish sauce----etc. Isn't it true that "Penicillin (PCN or pen) is a group of antibiotics, derived originally from common moulds". I am not that serious about this. The point is it makes cooking more interesting. dcarch

I hope I am not going off topic. Obviously Asian cooking is a big topic here in this forum. However, I haven't not seen much discussions about food as medicine. Food as medicine is very important in Asian cooking. Every Chinese mother is a medicinal doctor. Many bigger Chinese stores have an area for medicinal supplies for folk medicine. In addition to wondering why Asian countries have so little problem with covid-19, if you look into it, you will also find that many Asian countries also are way on top of the life expectancy scale. As I indicated, it makes cooking fun to try different ideas. dcarch

Behold, folks! I have discovered a cure for covid-19 Dr. Fauci commented today that Asian countries have been able to successfully controlled covid-19 infections. He gave many explanations how they achieved their success. I have also seen a few other reports regarding Asian counties' dramatic ability to limit covid-19 damages. Many scientific reasons have been given, cultural differences, political systems, genetics, ---etc. None can really satisfactorily explain why. Of course , those scientists are too myopic. They have missed one glaring factor that is common to all those countries, they all eat Asian food!! I have been have fun eating and cooking Asian inspired foods. Don't we all look for excuses to try different cooking? This can be interesting. Stay safe. dcarch

For me, the minimum diameter for a wok should be 14". barely big enough to stir fry for two. Especially if it is flat bottom. less than 14" it is just a deep skillet. I prefer a 16" wok. dcarch

Come to think of it, you are not incorrect. Those are not ovens for roasted ducks and pork , they are fire pits. dcarch

Also, let's be clear about steaming. Water evaporates into steam when boiled at 212F+. But that does not mean that the food being steamed is actually be cooked at 212F. It all depends on other factors. What you see "steam" is not steam. Steam is not visible. You are in fact seeing water droplets in the air which are already below 212F. dcarch

I hope we are not confusing "crispy" skin with "crunchy" skin. For crispy skin chicken, there is deep fried (whole chicken) you can order in Chinese restaurants. For white cut chicken, skin is never crispy, but crunchy. Not crunchy like cookies. Crunchy as opposite to leathery. Chinese restaurants do have ovens, that's what they use for Peking ducks, and roasted pork. dcarch