Duvel

Last week’s hot pot surprise ... Only one way to describe it, once poached: Custardy.

Pork belly, chicken leg and beef brisket. Beef tongue. And pork collar.

Give me a break ... by no means that the ultra-organic, hand-plugged by Bolivian albino orphans at full moon, cleaned with triple distilled deionised water and endorsed by at least three TV doctors on two continents stuff that I would use in my Mirepoix !

Sure. Ever tried to get that fraggin’ Pozole out of your Anova again ..!?

Essentially, you are making sodium acetate. A salt, and it can be obtained as a dry powder. Once hydrated, it dissolves partly and inthat process releases small amounts of acetic acid, which - in conjunction with the other absorbed flavour components - created that vinegar “feeling”. Sodium acetate is the main flavouring for salt & vinegar potato crisps.

@JoNorvelleWalker did as well ...

I gave a cooking class on southern German dishes yesterday for my companies social committee. We prepared: Flammkuchen Saure Zipfel - sausages cooked with onions and carrots in a wine/vinegar based marinade ... Carrot fish to match my t-shirt 😋 Knödel - bread dumplings served with mushroom cream sauce (not pictured) The (mostly) local colleagues were very happy with the dishes. I chose to pair the three courses with individual sake, which gave the whole event a more regional touch and was equally well (or maybe better) received ...

Yup. I carried 2 kg of curing salt (which - in Germany - is not dies pink) in my carry-on once. Lots of questions asked, yet still allowed to fly ...

I don’t feel qualified to judge his character, but I do object to the assessment of “loser nobody”, given his vita ...

Well ... Joe owns and operates some 30 restaurants in the US and abroad. It might be that he has some idea about what he is talking.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shortly before midnight. After airport express to the hotel it was past 0.30h, and in the area around the hotel no local shops were opened anymore, except for the McDonalds in the train station. My colleagues went to their rooms to enjoy overpriced sandwiches, I headed out to find something to contribute to this thread ... Cempedak is a local fruit, bitnof a mixture of durian and mango. They wanted to close at 1.00h, so only takeout was available ... The rice was palatable, fried chicken freshly made and spicy. Condiments were ok. Corn pie was too sweet. The Cempedak McFlurry was tasty, really tasted more like Mango, with a kind of Durian-esk afterglow. Still it was too much and I could only finish half ...

Somewhere on the side of a road leading towards the north of Kuantan, Malaysia. Business lunch. Some banana leaf with rice & chutneys was presented ... Alongside came curries ... Chicken Goat Fish Shrimp Curry gravy to moisten the rice The cooking liquid / soup from the goat meat, with some lime juice added. Excellent! Lime juice The damage done. A great lunch ... spicy, aromatic, fresh - about 2 USD per head ... Fresh chickens waiting next to the washrooms ...

Malaysian Airlines (domestic) lounge, Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysia: Laksa ... Nyonya chicken curry ... Both quite nice - I enjoyed. The chef was so happy when I told him 😊

From this weeks visit to the market ... It made me so ulset that I couldn’t buy the “tasting set” that I bought above whale curry to compensate ...

Yeah, but where to get the whale meat required ..?

Found this instant curry at a Japanese market ... I am usually not a big fan of seafood curry, but this might be different 😉

Actually, I have seen it only mixed. A bottom layer of the soy sauce with copious amounts of chili oil floating on the top. Nevertheless, I agree with you that the description fits more to an garlic bean sauce type, but the flavour profile remains inconclusive ...

Not quite. Sweet aromatic soy sauce (or 复制酱油) is pretty much Sichuanese; a recipe is provided in the book you’ve recommended ...

Not quite simple ... did your source have soy our plain oil ?

This goes in the right direction ...

Definitely not ...

A very common option is also red chili oil mixed with sweetened aromatic soy sauce. Any chance it went into that direction ?

Summertime in Japan is Curry time (because allegedly spicy food makes you sweat, which I turn helps with the heat ...). Whether I subscribe to this wisdom or not, I felt compelled to try the seasonal McDonalds Chicken Curry burger. It was good. Battered & fried chicken leg, slathered with a mild and aromatic Japanese style curry sauce. Nice ! Just for comparison I had to try the MOS Burger variety of the Curry cheese burger ... basically a cheese burger with the MOS Burger chili, heavily scented with S&B curry powder. Spicy, leads aromatic that the McD equivalent, but thanks to two (freshly grilled) beef patties and ample amounts of kewpie mayo far more satisfying ... On a side note: MOS Burger advertises everyday where they source today’s veggies. Quite nice ...

After a liquid breakfast a quick lunch at “drunk street” ... an apt name, as they have exactly the food I was craving ! Otoshi (the “free” starter you always have to pay): Burdock & carrot ... Today’s recommendation ... I had liver ... Gizzard, pork belly and minced chicken... Garlic wrapped in chicken skin (from the recommendations) ... very good ! More chicken skin and another recommendation - miso-cured diaphragm: one of the best skewers I had in a while ! Some fatty fish ... Gyoza ! Cold chicken skin with ponzu (not my favourite) ... Fried tofu ... All in all - very satisfying and gave me enough energy to return to the hotel to have a nap 🥳

Liquid breakfast ... a visit to the Asahi brewery. Getting toasted at 10.00am on a Sunday certainly has its advantages. The “cream cheese puffs” did not buffer much ... Our guide explained very diligently how to enjoy beer at home ... One happy Duvel. Cheers !