huiray

Yesterday at the Broad Ripple Farmers' Market – see here for details. Pic of some of the stuff: Kale, broccoli, French melons, Jonathan & Ashmead's Kernel apples.

Thanks, scubadoo97! ---------------------------------------- Short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed (peanut oil) w/ smashed garlic (Music) & sea salt then stewed/simmered w/ thick-cap Chinese "flower pattern" mushrooms (rehydrated first), black wood-ear fungus (pre-rehydrated also), some chicken stock + the soaking water for the mushrooms + more water; then later on, young daikon (Funny Bone Farm (Amish farmer)) scrubbed but unpeeled, cut into ~2 inch lengths; simmer till done. Taiwan bok choy stir-fried w/ garlic & peanut oil, plus just sea salt. Couple heaped bowls of white rice.

Saturday 2015-1017 at Broad Ripple Farmers' Market: Red-tinged oak-leaf and red curly-leaf lettuces, Russian Banana fingerling potatoes, "French melons", Ashmead's Kernel & Jonathan apples, a head of curly kale, purple-tinged broccoli. Kale, broccoli. L-R: "French melons", Jonathan apples, Ashmead's Kernel apples. ETA: Oops, forgot to list a "head" (whole stalk) of brussels sprouts on the stem.

On Friday 2015-1016: Viet Hua Food Market: Frozen blood cockles (supposedly already cooked), ground pork, short-cut pork spare ribs, fresh prawns, soft tofu, fresh ginger, Chinese long beans, coriander leaves, scallions (prices went up 3 bunches/$2), Persian cucumbers, bitter melons, Taiwan bok choy**. ** On the receipt they were listed (wrong key entry by cashier?) as "King Vegetable" (with the Chinese being "皇帝菜" = Emperor vegetable) but they are not, insofar as I know the term. (This term, 皇帝菜, often refers to the small-leaved variety of edible chrysanthemum, a.k.a. "tong ho" in Cantonese)(see here too; Google translation). They were what I know them to be as I listed them above. They look like this: Patel Brothers: Tender amaranth (labeled as "Tandaljo bhaji" - the Gujarati/Northern India name for this) (but not Hindi - that would be "Chauli" or "Chaulai"), store-made fresh "South Indian mango pickle" – pictured below. I asked an Indian couple who was also making selections from the "fresh pickles" bar for more details about this and was told that it was sort-of "South Indian" but more of an Andhra style rather than Tamilian, say; and they briefly described some of the other varieties (including other mango pickles) on offer on the bar. Namaste Plaza: Curry leaves (Murraya koenigii), tender amaranth leaves (labeled as "Thotakura" – the Telugu term for this), which looked identical to the ones I got from Patel Brothers) except these had more worm-chomped holes in the leaves. :-) – pic below. They're a little limp because I left them out before sticking them in the fridge sometime in the p.m. of Saturday :-(

Neither do I. Curious.

Prawns§ pan-fried w/ peanut oil, sliced ginger, trimmed scallions, sea salt, black pepper, sliced hot ripening Korean chilli, good Shaohsing wine. The prawns were soaked in cool running tap water for a while, drained & semi-dried/patted down w/ paper towels, the long feelers trimmed off, then tossed w/ generous amounts of sea salt & fresh ground black pepper and left alone for a bit before frying. Tender amaranth¶ (green pointed leaf edible amaranth variety) "stir-fried"/sautéed w/ sliced garlic & peanut oil. ETA: Oh, and just simply sea salt. Several bowls of white rice, with splashes of the available sauce from the prawn dish and scraped from the pan. :-) The clean, "green" taste of the amaranth complemented very well (in a contrasting way) the more complex taste of the prawns as done/prepared. For my taste. § Technically prawns, not shrimp. They had sequentially overlapping (like roof tiles) exoskeleton segments, plus 3 pairs of claw-like appendages. ¶ Bought as "tandaljo bhaji" (Gujarati/Northern India name).

A couple of meals with chicken-cabbage soup. Water, chopped-up chicken leg quarters, parboiled in hot water, rinsed off, re-simmered in fresh water w/ chicken stock, a bit of extra oil, crushed garlic; simmer; then sliced green cabbage & simmer till done. Meal 1: with toasted vermicelli [Ahmed Foods] & parsley garnish. Meal 2: with lumachine [Garofalo] (cooked separately), broccoli florets (briefly simmered in the soup, & parsley wilted into the soup at the end.

Sounds like asking for the One And Only And True recipe for "fried rice". :-)

Yesterday's meals. Earlier – The remainder of the sauce from here added in to sautéed Tuscan kale & white asparagus. Tossed in the pan with just-cooked fusilli [Garofalo]. Late at night – Fried sliced red onion; Brat Schnecken [Claus'] pan-fried in the same pan & oil after frying the onions; jarred Sauerkraut [Hengstenberg] tossed in the pan w/ the fond after doing the Schnecken, adding water, some jozo mirin :-) and aged rice vinegar ;-) plus a few fresh bay leaves and halved scrubbed Papa Cacho fingerling potatoes then simmering till done.

I would think of "roasted pork & wonton noodle bowl" as Chinese-origin rather than Vietnamese --- although that is nevertheless OK as the Southern Chinese presence in Vietnam** is very large and many dishes "found there" could be thought of as Cantonese/Teochew dishes inflected with or adapted to local (i.e. Vietnamese) ingredients and flavors – and having that bowl of noodles with the pho accompaniments certainly adds a Vietnamese/semi-Thai dimension to it! It also makes it more of a Southern Vietnamese style,¶§ rather than a Northern Vietnamese one. FWIW several Yelpers thought the pho there was odd or disappointing? There is only an "order online menu" accessible from their webpage but on that one the only pho option is with thin-sliced round-eye steak. No tendon, or tripe, or meatballs, or brisket, or flank, or curdled blood, etc toppings offered? Also didn't see anything specific about whether the broth tasted "right". If you have the pho there it would be interesting to read about your thoughts. ** in Thailand the Chinese there are predominantly of Teochew derivation. ¶ Which is also appropriate, as much of the Vietnamese diaspora from Vietnam over to the USA at the end of the Vietnam war tended to be Southern Vietnamese (after the fall of Saigon) § In Cholon, the "Chinatown" section of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), my understanding is that you won't need Vietnamese to make your way around expertly - if you speak Teochew you will be just fine!

Sounds delicious! I did a search on Google and found what I assume is the place (plus Yelp reviews etc). I must say that Teriyaki chicken and Pho (2 of the 4 items featured on the landing page of the webpage of the restaurant) aren't exactly...Thai. Yelpers seeking Pho (a Vietnamese dish) extol Baan Thai, a "Thai" restaurant. Heh. But unless one is keen on a "pure Thai" or "authentic Thai" place (both very slippery terms, yes) if it is tasty that's what is important, right? :-)

Danny Meyer is eliminating tipping at all his establishments. ALL of them. http://ny.eater.com/2015/10/14/9517747/danny-meyer-no-tipping-restaurants It is reported that he is also taking out the tip line completely from all the itemized bills. This would be in contrast to folks like Keller (e.g. at Per Se) who leave the tip line in even though "service is included" in the cost of his meals. Good for Meyer. Glad he is not, so far anyway, going the Achatz/Kokonas system of pre-paid (all-fees-included, yes) unrefundable tickets let alone the "pre-paid season tickets" for Next that they have. I hate that ticketing system.

Fedelini [De Cecco] with tomato sauce. Sauce – EV olive oil, sliced red onion, sliced ripe Pink Beauty tomatoes, sliced de-seeded ripe poblano peppers, chicken stock, cook & simmer down (tomato skins removed as they separate off), parsley stems, a bit of salt, some dried thyme, simmer, pre-rinsed & pre-soaked salted Salina capers, (remove parsley stems), chopped parsley leaves, stir & heat turned off. Accompanied by Prosciutto Rossa & rabbit - pork cheek paté.

Kam Heong clams & chicken wings. Pan-fried & cooked cabbage. White rice. Stuff that went into the dish beside the clams (littlenecks) & chicken wings (chopped across the bones) included peanut oil, minced rehydrated har mai (dried prawns), finely chopped shallots, minced garlic, minced ginger, curry leaves (Murraya koenigii), taucheo (salted semi-fermented soy beans) lightly smushed, sliced Korean chillies, the soaking water for the har mai, Madras curry powder, bit of salt.

Heh. What're you offering in return? :-)

Yet most of the cheesesteak places have customers who eat the stuff right there on the premises, at those tables or even at stand-up counters. They're restaurants. ETA: Even those two "reviews" referred to above have the cheesesteaks consumed on the premises, when the stuff had just been assembled, as it is meant to be eaten as I understand it - rather than the congealed stuff which it might become if one were to cart it away to some other place some distance away. (Hardened congealed Cheeze Whiz --- not something that strikes me as delectable)

It would be nice to know of new cheesesteak restaurants opening up too - and which *would* be classified as restaurants if they weren't, say, food trucks or push carts; or a take-out counter only.

Sliced beef flank stir-fried w/ lots of garlic, sea salt, Hua Tiao Shaohsing wine, green beans. Made to be saucy. White rice.

Naftal, the chicken feet were fine, actually. Quite decent. As far as I know there isn't an excellent place for dim-sum in Indy. Reasonable, yes, for Indianapolis, where really good restaurant Chinese food is hard to find.** Personally I think I still prefer the dim sum at Lucky Lou overall - but then there aren't exactly many places for dim sum in Indy. I reported on this other place further up this topic/thread, from more than 2 years ago, although I have eaten there various times recently and mentioned it (no pics) a few months back (scroll down) here on eG too. ETA: An additional snippet about my dim sum lunch at Szechwan Garden – I was offered a tired-looking plate of oyster sauce kai-lan and I asked if they had some fresh stuff. "Sure", the waitress said...then after a while she circled back to me and offered me that same plate, looking even more sorry by now. I passed. I didn't feel encouraged to ask if they even had any other fresh vegetables that I might order. ** And I have in mind "Chinese" food, not "American-(nominally)Chinese" food - which can be found in very fresh renditions, including in places like P.F. Chang's.

Dim sum at Szechwan Garden in Indianapolis. I had not been back here in a long while. The last meal I ate here was underwhelming in the extreme, and ever since then I had given it a pass. Still, that was years ago and I had not, in fact, had their dim sum before either; and it seems that in the last couple of years or so lots of folks including Chinese folks go there for the dim sum at least. So...what I had today: Country-style dumplings (鳳城鮮蝦粉果) Chicken feet in special sauce (好味醬蒸鳳爪) Stuffed bean curd skin with pork & shrimp (鮑汁鮮竹卷) Beef short ribs with pepper sauce (黑椒牛仔骨) Beef (omasum) tripe with ginger & onion (七彩牛柏葉) Deep fried taro puffs (蜂巢荔蓉芋角) Po-lei & dried chrysanthemum flowers tea Personally, I thought it was mostly decent but certainly not top-level. The country-style dumpling (rice flour) wrappers could have been far thinner. The taro puffs were tasty but were sort-of soggy and oily :-( . The short ribs were nice and the best of the five. The tripe was #2. Eh, edible. p.s. Some of the names in Chinese above are, um, not exactly what the English is. ;-) Pic of the place inside immediately next to my table... Pic of the outside... Location on Google maps.

GO FOR IT!!!

Will you be doing mail order, especially for hard-to-find-elsewhere-stuff or really-special-stuff that you are or may be offering?

LOL. As it happened the cabbages at this vendor were also by the head. :-) Heh. I sympathize with BOTH the huckster and the slum dweller in that Kurosawa movie, but for different reasons, of course. A couple of weeks back, similar cabbages of even larger size were being offered by this vendor and I spent a short while observing a young couple (the man, in particular) poring over, picking up, inspecting, etc almost all of the heads of cabbage there - apparently in search of the biggest, bestest, whateverest, head of cabbage they could identify...for $3...whereas I'm sure they would have spent more than that (IF they did do this) for a cup of whatever-flavor of Starbucks coffee that they would have nonchalantly ordered on any and maybe even every morning they had their Starbucks Morning Joe. Heh. One of the things that flittered briefly through my mind was this.

Hahaha!! I thought that exact same thing too, before I actually opened the thread and read Kim Shook's post.

Smithy, heh. True, trimmed cabbages look sort-of humdrum most of the time. There were some at this vendor that still had all the outer leaves intact, purple-streaked too...and I thought of picking one of those up but then felt a bit too lazy to do the stripping of the leaves and bagging them up and chucking it in the trash. :-)