huiray

A simple fried rice. Very hot pan, sufficient hot rice bran oil, sea salt, chopped crushed garlic, cut-up Chinese long beans, three farm-fresh eggs (green-blue shelled) scrambled in situ in the center of the pan, remainder of the rice from here (largely non-red-mottled w/ char-siu juices), seasoning adjusted, chopped scallions. Cover for a minute after shutting off the heat. Serve.

Today at Keystone Sports Review. Local institution. See here also. Breaded pork tenderloin with fixin's and fries. Half-order of hot wings. Sam Adams 'Octoberfest'. The pork tenderloin was GOOD. Fairly thick but tender, juicy, crusty tasty breading. Bun OK. Fries pretty decent. Wings tender & succulent. But dressing a tad vinegary/sharp, a little too much tabasco maybe; for my taste, needed some sweetness for balance. Ranch dressing. Location on Google maps.

• Soup. Rice bran oil, garlic, rehydrated dried shrimp (har mai), water, chicken stock, the soaking water for the har mai, rehydrated wood-ear fungus, simmer; cut-up de-skinned fuzzy squash, salt, simmer till done. • Chinese BBQ pork (char-siu) (from Asia Mart), parked on top of the rice being cooked after the water had just dropped below the level of the rice. Scallions. • White rice, w/ the drippings from the char-siu.

:-) Thanks.

Soup. Turnip greens & straw mushrooms (canned) in chicken stock/broth. Hmm, might make more stock this weekend. Linguine with andouille sausage & stuff. (In sequence) Pan on medium heat, EV olive oil, chopped garlic, andouille sausage [smoking Goose/Goose the Market] sliced into rounds, sauté; cut-up costata romanesco zucchini, hot red chilli flakes, cook; pan on high heat, chunked ripe fresh tomatoes, cook down a bit, some of the caper-soaking-water (see later), dried thyme, cook down/stir a bit more; halved drained artichokes [Reese], stir/cook briefly; linguine [De Cecco] straight from the pot where it was cooked separately, stir/fold/toss around, Salina salted capers [Mongetto] (pre-rinsed & pre-soaked in a small bowl of water), mix in and cook a minute more. Serve.

Josh, BTW IMO there's no reason why 2-inch clams can't be used to make spaghetti vongole. Here's one renditions of linguine alle vongole I made with middleneck clams – here; a rendition with littlenecks here; while a rendition with manila clams is here.

What Chris & SylviaLovegren said.^^^^^ Two inches to me is borderline "small"/"medium" size. :-) I'm used to seeing Middlenecks more like 2 1/2 inches or so. Littleneck/Middleneck intermediate size, perhaps. (US East Coast terminology :-) ) But the names and sizing vary greatly, as Chris says. Josh, I assume you are referring to sort-of small hard-shell clams, since you refer to making spaghetti vongole. Do you commonly get soft-shell clams in Europe in your area? In any case, I assume that the species of clam you commonly get would be different from the ones we get in the USA (or in China), and the sizes would also vary. Here are a few articles relating to clams we commonly get around these parts (USA): http://barnegatshellfish.org/clams02.htm http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/clams/ http://www.grubstreet.com/2013/06/history-of-the-clam.html http://homecooking.about.com/od/seafood/a/clamvarieties.htm http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/clams/ (relates more specifically to US West Coast clams) Some of the above links also have cooking suggestions and/or descriptions of dishes that serve as pointers on how to cook them, at varying sizes. The wikipedia overview is useful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clam Note that littlenecks, middlenecks, cherrystones, chowders(a.k.a. quahogs) (East Coast USA) are all the same species, just at different sizes. Quahogs at around 4 inches are common in "Asian" markets even in the US Mid-West as well, although they sometimes carry small ones - if they do, they are often Manila clams. Raw (hard-shell) clams are happily eaten by many folks here, just like raw oysters. A common "sizing" for clams eaten raw, on the half-shell, would be what are commonly called "Cherrystone" - I mentally picture them as around 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide, served on the half-shell on a bed of ice with a squeeze of lemon as desired - or just as-is, with their delicious clammy brininess. :-) Naturally, the clams have to be still alive and of good quality before they are shucked and eaten. ;-)

A sort-of Pad Woon Sen (ผัดวุ้นเส้น). Maybe with a hint of Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui (大姨媽嫁女). Hot pan, peanut oil, chopped smashed garlic, sliced pork shoulder, a mixture of {fish sauce, double-fermented soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaohsing wine, water, ground white pepper}, peeled fuzzy melon sliced into skinny sticks, sliced de-seeded ripe poblano pepper, chunked yellow onion, couple eggs scrambled (more oil) in a well made in the center, pre-soaked glass noodles cut (kitchen shears) across the (softened) bundles, trimmed Thai basil and trimmed scallions. Plated, snarfed. Seconds.

Sunday – Hainanese Chicken Rice. Done w/ a yellow-skin chicken (Asia Mart). The head & feet were lopped off before pouring kosher salt all over it and inside then rubbing by hand vigorously all over, then rinsing off under the tap. Poached w/ the "let sit with the heat turned off" variation, brought to a simmer from cold then simmered for about 10 min before shutting off the heat. Lots of smashed ginger (4-5 inches worth of a fat thick rhizome) and adequate sea salt in the poaching water. Rice done w/ generous finely chopped ginger & garlic (Music) plus chopped scallions sautéed in peanut oil + cut-up chicken fat from the chicken used, rendered in situ in the pot, before adding the rice and stirring that around; followed by the poaching liquid/stock after the chicken was done, plus bundled-up pandan leaves. Cooked in the usual way – uncovered, then covered. Sauces: 1) Chopped garlic sautéed in peanut oil then quenched w/ a mixture of double-fermented soy sauce + a bit of dark soy sauce + some ryori-shu; diluted w/ some water. Brought back to a simmer for a few minutes. 2) Lingham's "Extra Hot" Hot Sauce, diluted w/ fresh lime juice (lots); with some crushed rock sugar and a dash of sea salt stirred in. Watercress wilted in a portion of the chicken broth/poaching liquid. The rice in process: 1) garlic + ginger + scallions in rendered chicken fat + peanut oil. 2) Plus rice and pandan leaves plus chicken broth.

Saturday's meals were sort-of grazing + this-and-that from the shopping that day. • Spinach "turnovers" (using pita bread) and za'atar-dressed pita, both from a Mediterranean/Middle-eastern/(West-Asian) grocery (Al Basha). • "Pickled Wild Cucumbers"** from that same Mediterranean grocery. • Chinese BBQ pork (from Asia Mart). • "Indo Mie Chicken Curry Flavour Instant Noodles". (This one) • "Ah Lai Penang WHITE Curry Noodles". (This one) This is good stuff. ** These are really "Armenian cucumbers"(Cucumis melo var. flexuosus), a type of muskmelon rather than a true cucumber. They are sold, pickled, "...in Middle Eastern markets as "Pickled Wild Cucumber"..." according to Wikipedia. Pic of one of the spinach pita and one of the za'atar pita. Zapped in the microwave. Pic of the bottle of "pickled wild cucumbers", sans a few of the things in it :-) .

Heh. Yes, it is. Did you take a look at the video linked to in the Wikipedia article? Just in case you did not, here it is (and for others interested): Here's a blog for you and others reading this post and who might be looking for more up-to-date info on Indiana Pork Tenderloin sandwiches: https://breadedtenderloin.wordpress.com/ Here are a couple other places I've posted about here on eG where I had a nice Indiana Pork Tenderloin sandwich with fixin's: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/146914-lunch-whatd-ya-have-2014/page-5?p=1961172#entry1961172 (at the Pawn Shop Pub) (Good stuff. Their onion rings are also noteworthy.) http://forums.egullet.org/topic/150922-dinner-2015-part-2/page-17?p=2016650#entry2016650 (at the 86th Street Pub) (Good stuff also.) I like the Pawn Shop Pub, I've eaten there at various times. I've also had pork tenderloins at other places, of course; I've just not posted about them here. BTW, you could have got pork tenderloin sandwiches at G.G.'s bar & Grill, the place at the other end of the short strip mall where G.T. South (where you went to) was. I have not had theirs (yet) but some folks appear to like the ones there.

Pork. :-) I mentioned it at the start of the post. ;-) Indiana pork tenderloin.

Dejah, glad you got your teeth into some amaranth. It's a nice vegetable (and widely eaten elsewhere in the world too, as you know). The mushrooms & etc look nice. -------------------------------------------------------- A very late night/early morning meal. A half-slice of Pig and Fig Terrine [smoking Goose via Goose the Market; this one]. Papa Cacho fingerling potatoes, simply simmered in salted water then wiped w/ butter. Sliced fennel bulbs, sautéed w/ salt & EV olive oil.

Yes, I saw that too. Note that he "says" that it's delicious...before he squeezes that river of ketchup onto it at the END of the video after he has already sampled it. The 3-minute sketti? Heh, I doubt HBB's mama used De Cecco. I also (smilingly) note that this really isn't THAT different from Marcella Hazan's famous tomato sauce in principle, although the onion during cooking (which is then removed) is missing, of course. But the ketchup has onion powder in it... (We really need a "devil" smiley. How about it, mods/managers?) Mama Boo Boo making that sketti

Malt vinegar plus salt is common as condiments for chips in UK and Ireland. Of course, when I moved to the US from England (a long, long time ago) I was confused when I first asked for chips and vinegar (malt, of course) and was stopped by a new compatriot (a Britisher) of mine at the research institute I was joining (we all went out to a pub my first night here) and gently told that I really wanted something called "french fries" (which I had never heard of) and no, I would be getting catsup (which became ketchup in my lexicon later) with that. If he hadn't interceded I would have got a sealed crinkly bag of salted crisps pre-sprinkled with white vinegar. Nowadays, places around here (and on the US East coast too) in my experience that serve "Fish & Chips" usually will have malt vinegar available but generally only if you ask for it. A few places bring it out with the order of F&C but it is not otherwise "automatically" (or by default already) on the table.

It just occurred to me that you may or may not be aware that that mortadella you like, if not clearly an imported one, but is loosely "Goose the Market's" mortadella, would most likely have been made by Smoking Goose - which is the "sister shop" of GtM and where their in-house stuff is made. I don't know where you live but here's the map of customers (including retail shops) that either use or carry Smoking Goose products. But perhaps you are fully aware of this, and you are indeed referring to the place "35 miles from you" as carrying Smoking Goose mortadella.

Dropped by John's Famous Stew today for one of the better pork tenderloins in town. Dithered over getting some of that stew, wanted it on the tenderloin (i.e. a "Supreme") but with the bread and all the fixin's, but somehow I confused the waitress. Should have just asked for a separate small order of the stew. In the event, I asked for chicken wings as well but that got "lost in translation" and I got a bowl of butter beans instead (???) Eh, I accepted it - it made an interesting accompaniment to the rest of the meal. :-) Later on the waitress (Southern accent) and I (probably indeterminate accent :-) ) had a good-natured chit-chat and laugh about the whole thing. Plus a Sam Adams. I broke the tenderloin in half, put one-half between the buns & fixin's and ate that; then chomped on the other half of the tenderloin while dipping it into either ketchup (Gold's) or mayo. Good tenderloin, decent thickness,** juicy, crunchy tasty breading. Here's a previous post of mine on eG when I had a tenderloin-and-stew meal at the place, which also has a shot of the interior. Location on Google maps. ** Some places pound the loin piece too thin.

Under the bathroom sink? (That's where I had it in a previous TINY apartment I lived in many years ago)

Fried rice. Very hot oil in very hot pan, shrimp; toss & remove/reserved after maybe 15 seconds. No deglazing; chopped scallions, broccoli florets, salt, eggs scrambled in situ, rice, reserved shrimp, more chopped scallions. Eat.

Arey, Thanks for sharing that. It also fills in the background for various of your past posts here on eG! It's a reminder that I am fortunate to have a lot of stuff available to me in my metro area; and beyond that, too, within a reasonable driving distance. Aha. I am guessing that the butcher referred to is Ernest and Son. How's the fish place opposite it, and the fish market? I imagine the meat you get at Stolzfuss farmers market is very good stuff, which is why you drive there. I am guessing then that other than the butcher the meats at ACME or WaWa are avoided by you (poor quality?). Decent produce and fish must otherwise be available? I confess it surprises me that good meat is hard to get in the area - even in AC, or other surrounding communities, I guess. All those casinos serving steaks...supplied by trucks from far away pulling into their loading docks, I suppose.

After lunch yesterday I couldn't help myself from swinging by Saraga International Grocery. Picked up beautiful "Kingfish"** chops and a big bunch of nice edible amaranth, the more common red-green not-as-large-leaved variety (plus a few other things). ** Not entirely sure which one this is; the raw flesh was pretty reddish. So dinner was: "Kingfish" steaks, done in a riff on a simple Bravanese recipe. I used recipe#2 with modifications. The Kingfish steaks I had were also thicker. (Red & yellow onions, finely chopped, lots. Sesame + rice bran oil. Minced garlic. Half a shrimp stock cube. Water, bring to a simmer. Add fish steaks, cook, turning 1-2 times. Black pepper, lots. "Aged gourmet" rice vinegar, 2-3 second full pour.) Edible amaranth. Trimmed, soaked/washed, "stir-fried"/pan-cooked with peanut oil, garlic, some garam masala (commercial mix) & powdered cumin, sea salt. The red pigment bleeds (as is normal) into the liquids released from the vegetable. White rice. Pic of the raw amaranth. Compare with another variety shown in this other post (scroll down).

Was it a Korean market? Those you described sounds about right for kalbi.

I forgot to mention previously and thought this would be useful for visitors – with regards to: This is the reason why the major East-West commercial corridor on the north side of Indy flip-flops in name between "82nd Street" and "86th Street" even though it runs continuously all the way across from east to west. It depends on where on the "grid" one is when the street takes a "dip" or a "bop" along its path. It is also the reason why there are streets running east-west with completely disconnected sections, but with the same name (44th Street is just one example, amongst MANY), when they do not otherwise have "named names" – because they are roughly on the grid at 4.4 miles north from the center point, using that example I cited, for instance. The dividing line between East and West is also Meridian St (a.k.a. Route 31), the main North-South road that runs right down to Monument Circle downtown. The grid system is not used SOUTH of Washington St (AFAIK), and the roads/streets/etc are all "named" streets/avenues.

Lunch at Saigon Restaurant. I had not been there in a while. Gỏi cuốn (soft spring rolls): Could have done with more shrimp but otherwise OK. Plenty of pork. Nice rice noodles, maybe more greenery would be good but the overall texture and mouthfeel was springy but yieldingly springy as it should be. Decent peanut-based dip, not earth-shattering. ;-) Tôm hỏa tiễn ("Rocket Shrimp"): Just as good as I remember it. Crisp and tasty covering, moist shrimp, with the crisp tails a fillip. Nicely savory, nicely shrimpy. Dip was fine, the usual diluted nuoc mam with a hint of chilli plus stuff, but nothing exceptional there. Bún bò Huế (Hue style noodle soup): Needed to be spicier. I think they've tamed their rendition down if memory serves me right. Decent noodles with texture/chew, OK beef slices, broth has reasonable beefy flavor with tangy/savory/umami taste but did need more chilli and pungency. Side-plate add-ons were cabbage, mung bean sprouts, mint, lime, jalapeño chile. Years ago Saigon used to be in a strip mall¶¶ just immediately north of 30th Street on the east side of Lafayette Rd, when they also had an accompanying market/grocery linked together at the front entrance lobby (and in the back of house). I think they were better then - but time moves on, and nostalgic reminiscences are subject to the law of diminishing returns. I also used to get heaps of rau húng quế (a.k.a. Thai basil) from them, years ago, when it was relatively harder to find than nowadays. I'd get it from them by the pound, after asking nicely. At that time they got it in from Texas (air-flown in) even in winter, as they naturally needed it to supply the restaurant right next door where their phở was one of the better ones around. ¶¶Guatelinda is still there.

Veal? :-) But some beef might be fine too. But I'm sure others here will have some things to say about this.