huiray

@Shelby – I would hope you ate all of that porterhouse. But I also hope you had more salad and fries than shown on your plate. Those seem...insufficient...in quantity...as shown on your plate. :-)

A bowl of "karē rāmen" (カレーラーメン). More properly, "Singapore Laksa La Mian" [Prima Taste]. The noodles and component packs. I've shown this before but here it is again all the same. Daun laksa a.k.a. daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander; rau răm) from my deck; plus mung bean sprouts. Some wild American shrimp were cooked in the simmering laksa broth mixture; and a previously-cooked chicken leg was rewarmed in the broth also. Both reserved; the la mian block cooked as directed, the bean sprouts blanched in the broth, and everything assembled in a bowl and topped w/ deep-fried shallots. Very enjoyable.

A day of grazing and odds & ends. More of the BKT from here on rice; plus stir-fried kai-lan stems. Jamaican patties from "Patties of Jamaica". Also got a bag of frozen ones for munchies later... Gingered chicken soup w/ bamboo shoots [from Asia Mart], straw mushrooms [Dragonfly], wong nga pak & toasted wheat vermicelli [Ahmed Foods] folded in right at the end. Scallions. Mini apple strudel from The Fresh Market's bakery. [This one]

Ah. Well, for myself I recognize four main types as it relates to Malaysia and Singapore – Hokkien (herbal, dark soy sauce added), Canto-Hoklo (even more herbal w/ more stuff than the "just Hokkien" version, and with oyster sauce etc added in), Klang (somewhat like Canto-Hoklo/Hokkien but with greatly reduced liquid, almost a sauce rather than soup)**, and Teochew (very lightly herbal or not at all but with vast amounts of pepper (usually white)). In Singapore the two main categories would amount to Teochew vs Hokkien. In M'sia the main versions would be Klang vs Canto-Hoklo, in my recollections, at least at the time I grew up in SE Asia, but all four types were found and it depended on which stall or shop you went to. I believe the BKT in Thailand and Java/Indonesia would also be slightly different but I am not sure of how they differ. (Although the Thai-Chinese in Thailand would largely be Teochew; whilst the Indonesian-Chinese often would be of Hakka extraction...(closer to Hokkien?)) ** and which I associate with including luo han guo (Momordica grosvenorii/Siraitia grosvenorii) in the panoply of stuff added in - or at least the shops in Klang that I would be brought to by my father when visiting Klang and we had BKT there...) If you are interested a simple google search for this dish will return more than a million results for one to browse through. The Wikipedia article isn't a bad one to look at too. There are old threads on BKT even here on eG – here is an old one, where the OP THREW AWAY THE SOUP!!!!! (I lost my eyebrows when I first read about that a couple years ago) I have posted several times here on different iterations of the dish, both "stripped-down"/basic spiced ones, Teochew ones, full-on Canto-Hoklo ones, and more subdued Hokkien-like ones. As examples, see here, here, here, here, here (scroll down), here (scroll down), here (scroll down), here. There are others. The simple-spiced one (just star anise, cinnamon/cassia, cloves, garlic) might be the most approachable one for folks not used to herbal soups but who wish for a bit more complexity. Mind you, cinnamon/cassia in savory dishes is still, to this day, frowned on by many folks who cook in the Western idiom. I haven't used the commercially available BKT packages (from Chinese groceries) for years. I assemble my desired mixture of herbs and spices and what-not myself (yes, I keep and replenish supplies of the herbs/spices used) and vary them according to my mood. FWIW, what I added in for the BKT I posted about above included: Angelica sinensis, Codonopsis pilosula, Polygonatum odoratum, black cardamom, whole cloves, cassia sticks, whole star anise, double-fermented soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rock sugar (I was out of dried longan flesh), dried tangerine peel; as well as the pork baby-back ribs, tau pok, Music garlic.

Heh. D'you have a preference for one of the BKT types, or do you enjoy all of them?

Canto-Hoklo style Bak Kut Teh. With rice cooked w/ deep-fried shallots & chopped smashed garlic. Plus Yau Char Kwai. Reheated in the oven then cut up. Pieces dunked in the soup then popped into one's mouth. Plus pickled cucumbers (just felt like it). Another bowl of the BKT later. Also with shallot-garlic rice.

Are both the small ones and the larger ones from the same plant or different plants? The larger ones are clearly smooth-skinned so I would think they are cocozelle zucchini. The small ones look like they might be ridged - are they? If the ridges are small and/or are only on the shoulders and flatten out as the zucchini gets bigger then they are also cocozelle. There are zucchinis which are slightly ridged with essentially mostly "smooth" skin (more-or-less) with the mottling shown in your pictures which are also widely called cocozelle by the folks growing them. There is a variety called costata romanesco with the same mottling pattern but which is prominently ridged and retains the ridging even in the largest zucchinis. Both cocozelle and costata romanesco are amongst the best-tasting of the zucchinis/squashes with creamy flesh. Do you find this to be true for you?

Poached halibut with stuff. Halibut fillets [Caplinger's Fresh Catch] (skin removed, central blood-line region cut out) poached in chicken stock w/ some oil & generous amounts of fresh parsley, thyme & some oregano (all from my deck). Ozette fingerlings [Bloomer's Greenhouse] simply boiled in salted water, drained, tossed w/ Charentes Poitou butter. Yellow & green French filet beans [Full Hand Farm] sautéed in a mixture of butter & EV olive oil, simply salted.

Here's something interesting for this cook-off. Ramen more valuable than cigarettes in the clink. See here too. Eater summary. Maybe some of the recipes in this book mentioned in the above article(s) might be explored...

Caprese salad. Black Krim tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, Maldon salt, black pepper, Alziari EV olive oil. A "dry ramen" plate. "Ibumie Penang Har Mee, Mi Perisa Udang" (see here also), yu choy sum, bubbly plain omelette.

I'm curious how it is that I am quoted as quoting the question about fishing...

See here. ETA: And yes, I (and many others) have posted many, many dishes with kangkong (= water morning glory) as the main ingredient, I on the various dining/meal threads in particular.

You're welcome, @Smithy.

Maybe if she had watched Moonstruck before she might have thought about whether to call her aunt right then - or not... :-) The food looks good, did you scarf down basically *all* of it?

A meal at Iron Skillet. The menu. Glued onto old school slate boards That's it. (The wine selections, also on a slate board, was below it) The starters. Iceberg lettuce wedges in a tangy-sweet-syrupy sauce dusted w/ paprika. Pickled beets. Apple butter. Full-fat cottage cheese. Some on the smaller plate nestled on the main plate. Quite enjoyable, really. Later on I actually asked for more lettuce. "Cream of Onion Soup" w/ croutons. The sides. Green beans. Corn. Mashed potatoes. Plus a couple of baking powdered biscuits. Eh. The mains. I had the "Skillet Fried Chicken" (white & dark meat) as the main order. Added on 7** Fried Shrimp as a la carte items. ** (what the Shrimp order would have if it were the main order) Some of the chicken and the sides on my plate. I simply ate the shrimps by hand straight from the serving plate, tail and all. Crunch crunch. I liked these. The chicken was decent and moist, although I wouldn't say they were the best. The seasoning was a little on the salty side for me, personally. Vanilla ice cream. I asked them to not bother bringing out the toppings. I was already so full I thought I would burst. Run-of-the-mill coffee. Iced tea, refilled promptly throughout. Service was gracious and obliging. View through the window from my table. View of the dining room from my table. View of the outside. The canopy & entrance faces away from the main road. Location on Google Maps.

Another late-night "ramen bowl". Simply a Little Cook TVP "pork" (= seitan bits) & mustard stem (= cha choy, 榨菜) bowl, plus its seasoning packages (this one); with chopped scallions added after letting the components sit in enough hot water, covered. I like this one, usually prepared as directed - see below. Ordinarily I would simply add hot water to the stuff in its styrofoam bowl with the sachet of TVP stuff plonked on top of the lid (as instructed) then opening it and adding the contents of the sachet to the bowl of stuff. I transferred everything to a porcelain bowl this time before adding the hot water and covering. I think I prefer the specified method. I also usually do not add anything else to this - IMO the chopped scallions were a mistake. The taste of the bowl-of-stuff by itself is preferred, I think. This was reviewed by theramnerater back in 2009 - when he found it "very bad". A very curious review which I disagree with. I wonder if he had ever truly tasted seitan bits in sauce at that time, or knew what "cha choy" was. He certainly seemed to expect actual pork and fresh mustard (I think, as in the Western notion of what "mustard vegetable" was) in the bowl.

Thanks, @Steve Irby.

Hiyayakko. Cold soft tofu, grated daikon, katsuobushi, scallions; mixture of Takara hon-mirin, Higeta Honzen soy sauce, water, and hon-dashi granules zapped in the microwave then cooled before pouring around the tofu. Lotus root soup. Water, sliced fresh lotus root, black jujubes, honey jujubes, dried sliced Solomon's Seal rhizome, dried goji berries, dried longan flesh, raw peanuts, couple of dried cuttlefish, sea salt, oil.

Try looking up some of the Malay and Indonesian recipes for gado-gado, rather than something interpreted by an English chef. The dish has been around for a very long time. Mind you, when I ate it while growing up I thought it not that utterly different from plain ol' rojak and didn't particularly seek it out... (and the images of "rojak' on Google don't look all that much like what I grew up with, at least not the ones with TONS of crushed peanuts dumped on it)

Recent meatless meals: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153515-dinner-2016-part-7/?do=findComment&comment=2068550 https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153515-dinner-2016-part-7/?do=findComment&comment=2068793 https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153515-dinner-2016-part-7/?do=findComment&comment=2068993 https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153515-dinner-2016-part-7/?do=findComment&comment=2069024

A very late night meal. Soft-boiled eggs w/ higeta Honzen soy sauce & white pepper. Blanched kai-lan w/ oyster sauce & black pepper. "Patan". See here for more on this dish.

Linguine with smoked salmon belly. Linguine was Rustichella d'Abruzzo stuff. Most of the ingredients: Salina salted capers [Mongetto] being soaked, lemon juice, smoked salmon bellies [Wild Alaska Salmon & Seafood] stripped of skin & fins & picked over, lemon zest. Cocozelle zucchini [Full Hand Farm], garlic (Siberian Red), parsley [my deck], Vidalia onion, Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes [Fields Farm Fresh]. Sage & thyme [my deck].

A late-night ramen bowl meal. Weisswurst; "Ibumie Penang Lad Mie Perisa Lada Pedas", oil, spinach, extra white pepper, deep-fried shallots.

A Blue Moon burger & regular fries at Boogie Burger. Claimed to be a 1/3 lb patty. Blue cheese (--> "Blue Moon") plus fixings. OK. Decent. With Heinz ketchup, of course. (Well, plus salt & pepper) I last reported on this place about a year ago. Location on Google Maps.

Fagioli corallo al pomodoro. Cipriani tagliarelle. Made w/ Arbequina EV olive oil, a Vidalia onion, garlic, hot red chile flakes, Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes, flat pole beans, salt, basil. On the way there.