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Everything posted by Duvel
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Fantastic ! Would you elaborate on dough and baking conditions ?
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Now I want to see the resulting egg salad sandwiches, too !
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Casual dinner with friends at the Okinawan Izakaya "Kinjiyo's" in Central, HK. Sashimi (selection of the day), fried octopus, tamagoyaki, stir fried pork with bitter melon, kitsune (minced chicken and cartilage), "German potato salad" and - of course - mentaiko ... Served with two different sakes as per Kinjiyo's recommendation. Nice !
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Sunday night is pizza night - and today we were joined by a friend of my son and his parents, which extended “pizza night” to “whatever we have at home turned into some kind of tapas AND pizza night”. Roasted pumpkin with romesco sauce and pine nuts. Olives. Fuet (Catalan cured sausage). Tete de Moine. Guacamole. Truita de patatas. Postal crisps. Hummus. Pizza with mushrooms and peppered salami, Roman style ... Crumb-shot. A quite pleasant Chilean red, curtesy of our guests ... Full and happy 😋
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Well, some of the items might have been for sharing - "sharing is caring" - and truth to be told the free-flow of Sapporo draft was also not primarily geared towards him. But he got his chicken wings 😉
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Today is my son's name day or "saint", as per Catalan tradition. For my wife this equals his birthday, so we had presents, extra quality time and a nice dinner out ... Tonight thus "Gyu-Kaku", Japanese-Korean barbeque with plenty of choices, including my sons (current) favorite chicken wings. He was a happy camper (in a slightly awkward pose) and all of us enjoyed the fantastic view of HK islands skyline (and the food, of course) ...
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I am a meat eater by heart, but if I could get all that imaginative food you dish out on a daily basis @shain, I doubt I would miss much ... Fantastic !
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You know, @Anna N, it’s a courtesy to warn other members before posting hard core food porn. Especially when those members are slightly jet lagged and even more slightly hung over and would kill for a perfect poached egg right now ...
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Comfort food was in order after a 12h intercontinental flight, so my son requested “Papa’s pizza” and I happily complied 😊 Mushrooms & Fuet (a Catalan cured sausage), baked Roman-style as I was too lazy to dish out individual pies ...
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Lovely! Which ratios did you use ?
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Baking with Myhrvold's "Modernist Bread: The Art and Science"
Duvel replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Well, MB is pretty much technique-oriented, so size really doesn’t matter here ... -
Germans are creatures of habit ...
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That looks great ... care to share your temperatures ?
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I admire that as well @JoNorvelleWalker, very much so. And while I believe that freshly made dashi is far superior, I’d think that in Tsuyu the subtleties in flavour might get overpowered by the other ingredients. For me Tsuyu has very robust qualities, so instant dashi should do the trick. I’ll ask at work tomorrow, but I would assume most households use regularly one of the myriads of readily made and bottled versions of Tsuyu available here ...
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It’s (sun-)dried fish (maybe mackerel, or smaller sea fish, even squid), ground to a fine powder. It has a very strong umami effect; think mushroom powder or - if the would exist - freeze-dried fish sauce ...
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Surely that Bratwurst wouldn’t sustain me for long. So, upon returning to Tokyo station I headed down to the lower basement for Tokyo station’s Ramen Street, a collection of famous and semi-famous Ramen shops. I opted for Rokurinsha (of Chang’s “Mind of a chef” fame), arguably the best Tsukemen in Tokyo. Of course there was a queue... After 30 min or so I was placed and with the prepaid stamp purchased while waiting in line I got the classic Tsukemen. The noodles were thick, almost Udon-like, but with the typical Ramen bite and a slight yellowish hue. The broth was super concentrated, with Tamago, Menma and Chashu, as well a tiny square of nori with a heap full of fish powder for some extra Umami ... The leftover dipping sauce can be - upon request - augmented with extra fish broth and Yuzu salt, but I preferred just to drink it meat. Lovely second lunch - I might need to downsize my dinner plans 😋
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Walking the main (shopping) street of Karuizawa I came across a shop selling DLG (German agricultural association)-awarded meat products. As a German I simply had to sample and ensure that quality standards have not eroded since 2006 ... They have not. It was a good Bratwurst, grilled perfectly to order and my poor balancing skills aside (which cause the sausage to roll over and smear the mustard everywhere) it was a quick and satisfying lunch ... As an interesting side note: They also sell Wasabi-flavoured Leberkäse ... should I give this a try at home 🤔 ?
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A bit delayed as this was actually yesterday’s breakfast: Travelling by train in Japan means that you HAVE to buy (or bring) an “ekiben” or train lunch box. Large parts of Tokyo station are dedicated shops to provide you with any imaginable food, boxed neatly in any required portion size for taking to your trip. I opted for Tamagoyaki in 7 different flavours (classic, chestnut, chicken, chilli, seaweed, little fishes and something I already forgot). The classic one was rich and sweet and I found that the other flavours did not really stand a chance against the basic seasoning. That being said, they were tasty ... Out of curiousity I bought also the Green Curry Pan, which consisted of baked green tinted bread, filled with a thickened and very aromatic green Thai curry and topped with roasted shaved coconut. A heavenly cream mbination that I will try to replicate at home. Just before boarding the Shinkansen ‘‘tis would be the last chance to buy an ekiben, but as you could see I was already set ...
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I stayed overnight at Karuizawa, in a faux-European style hotel, at the recommendation of a work colleague. At first I was more than sceptical, especially when I learned that the set dinner menu was also supposedly European “inspired” and centered around vegetables ... I was more than pleasantly surprise. The dinner room offered a great view into a bamboo forest and since the was a Taifun approaching, the rain and the bamboo movements provided a quite dramatic background to the dinner. First course was salad, wrapped in a rice paper parcel, with beetroot yuzu dressing. The salad itself contained another soy milk based dressing, tangy like ranch dressing. All veggies were organic from contracted farms around the area. It was a nice composition and certainly a good start. Homemade bread (spinach and rice flour) was served with dipping oil with ground local walnuts (c.f. the lunch thread). I also got the recipe for the soy ranch dressing from the kitchen ... Second course was a variety of slow baked mini potatoes on top of anchovy garlic purée with thinly sliced and deep fried gyoza wrappers on top. The combination of the sweet and earthy potatoes and the sharp umami of the anchovy garlic paste was outstanding. Main course was slow braised heritage pork, from a local farm. Very soft, very porky, with a spinach based sauce. Satisfying, and accompanied by the house sangria ... Dessert was pumpkin creme brûlée with ice creme. The pumpkin taste was subtle, but noticeable. A nice finish. Overall I was more than happy with both the choice of restaurant as well as the great meal. The atmosphere in the restaurant surely contributed as well. After dinner I had booked a 45 min time slot in the private open air hotspring belonging to the hotel. While soaking in the hot water sheltered by a roof I could see and feel the Taifun shaking up the large forest trees in view of the onsen while is was pouring down. An ice cold whisky highball moved my already relaxed mood towards perfect bliss ...
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Sorry, maybe wrongly put. It's Tsuyu plus walnuts, so the ground nuts get loosened/diluted with Tsuyu (comprised of dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake) ...
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I love that one as well. And I know already - having 45 min on Monday in the Mekka of Japanese kitchenware, Kappabashi - what will go home with me to Hong Kong ...
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Trying (unsuccessfully) to escape the heavy rain brought by Taifun #12, I took a train to Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture. The local speciality is Soba, specifically Kurumi soba, where the dipping sauce Tsuyu is enriched with a paste of freshly ground walnuts. And conveniently enough for the kitchen staff, the guest have to do the grinding. Served with the beer brewed in this mountain town, Tempura and finished with Sobayu, the starchy boiling water of the buckwheat noodles that one dilutes with the remaining Tsuyu. All was delicious ...
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Normally I'd say you are overestimating both my English capabilities and my capacity for alcohol ... But of course you are spot on 😋
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I knew something was up when I boarded the local train from Anegasaki station after a really long day at the production site. It was crowded beyond anything I had ever experienced. Getting out at Makuhari with literally thousands of people confirmed that suspicion. I took a taxi for the normally 10 min walk to the hotel only to learn upon check in that today was the annual fireworks in Makuhari (one of the bigger ones in Japan) and since all fireworks for tomorrow had been cancelled to to an incoming typhoon, everyone wanted to join tonight. After explaining that the very nice girl at the check-in told me that Because fireworks would start in 5 min and so.e guests for the "perfect view" rooms didn't show up I'd be up for a treat ... I had a great view on the fireworks and headed out shortly after only to find that again literally thousand of people gad the very same idea ... Spend some time in the hot spring of the hotel, then dozed off and woke up famished at 23.30h. Only reasonable option was pizza napoletana at the hitel-owned cafe, which wasn't half as bad, followed by curry-flavored rice crackers. Waiting time for the pizza and the pizza itself was accompanied by Whisky highball ... A pleasant start into the weekend !