Dinner 2021

[KennethT]

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Lemon pork with coriander seed and okra.

 

 

 

Are lemons widely available in your area?  I imagine they'd have to be imported.  I always found it funny when traveling in SE Asia when sometimes I would be asked if I wanted lemon, but what came was lime.  I chalk it up to a translation issue.  I've never seen an actual lemon in SE Asia - other than maybe an Italian restaurant or something like that in the city.

[liuzhou]

21 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Are lemons widely available in your area?

 

Lemons are everywhere. They grow here.

 

I have the opposite problem. If I ask for limes, lemons turn up! I've only found real limes here once, several  years ago.

 

The Chinese for lime is 青柠檬 (qīng níng méng), which translates literally as 'green lemon'. Unfortunately, we do get green-skinned lemons here. They are ripe, but the skin remains green. So, that is what turns up when I ask for lime.

 

When I lived in Hunan 23 years ago, I never saw lemons. Not sure about now. I shall ask.

 

Green lemons.

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[farcego]

Kind of funny, the word Limon (Spanish translation of Lemon) in Spain refers to the yellow (Lemon), but in Mexico, the word Limon refers to the green (Lime)

cheers

[liuzhou]

5 minutes ago, farcego said:

Kind of funny, the word Limon (Spanish translation of Lemon) in Spain refers to the yellow (Lemon), but in Mexico, the word Limon refers to the green (Lime)

cheers

 

The English word 'lemon' came from the Spanish 'limon' in the 14th century.

[farcego]

15 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

The English word 'lemon' came from the Spanish 'limon' in the 14th century.

Thanks, I didn't knew.
I know Limon is a modification of the old Persian word that was used during the Islamic control of Iberian peninsula, when Lemon made its real appearance on western food (probably a bit earlier in east Mediterranean cuisines?). I am not good on history of food when it came to ancient times.

Cheers

[Tropicalsenior]

34 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Lemons are everywhere. They grow here.

 

I have the opposite problem. If I ask for limes, lemons turn up!

Here in Costa Rica it is just the opposite. They call everything here a lemon but the true yellow lemons can only be bought occasionally at our very best supermarket and they called them Persian limes. Go figure! I'm told by Nicaraguan friends that yellow lemons are very common just across the border.

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'm told by Nicaraguan friends that yellow lemons are very common just across the border.

 

And I know that limes are plentiful just across the border with Vietnam very near to me. They just never get here for some reason, although we get plenty other Vietnamese fruit imports.

[Tropicalsenior]

20 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

They just never get here for some reason

Since my two housemates are from Nicaragua I hear a lot about the difference in the food and the produce that is available to them. One of the strangest, to me, was the preference in the tomatoes. For years, all that was available in Costa Rica was the little round tomato. In Nicaragua, all that was available was the Roma variety. Thankfully, now they are both available here. Many people here call the tomatos on the right Nicaraguan tomatoes.

Edited June 21, 2021 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

When I lived in Hunan 23 years ago, I never saw lemons. Not sure about now. I shall ask.

 

@KennethT I'm told that lemons are now in every supermarket and fruit shop in Hunan now.

[Paul Bacino]

Made Cherry Tomato Soup

 

[heidih]

23 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

Made Cherry Tomato Soup

 

 

Is that a cold soup? Its beautiful. Blanking on greenery.  Tomato leaves???

[weinoo]

On 6/20/2021 at 10:12 AM, KennethT said:

We used to sit at the sushi bar in front of Yasuda-san and he would always say that, to him, the rice is the most important part of the sushi.  He talked about when he was in Japan, he spent years as an apprentice - just making rice. 

 

This is what I've always learned - that they spend years making the rice! Makes sense, considering it's part of every bite of sushi, whether there's fish, or veg, or whatever.

 

 

I wasn't even drunk yet, though the pictures are a tad cockeyed.  Macaroni salad expertly plated with fixins' for pseudacos...

 

 

Pork and beans to go in the pseudacos (with the tomato, avo, and cilantro). And some excellent corn off the cob, sautéed with shallots and red pepper, lots of dill, parsley and chives, too.

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[KennethT]

8 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

This is what I've always learned - that they spend years making the rice! Makes sense, considering it's part of every bite of sushi, whether there's fish, or veg, or whatever.

 

I find that the quality of the rice makes a huge difference.  In the old apartment, the best sushi place we could get delivery from (that wasn't an omakase place for $$$) was barely tolerable - either they used too much vinegar or too sweet, and it was always slightly gummy.  Now we have a great place that's a couple blocks away so we're back on the horse...

[weinoo]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

either they used too much vinegar or too sweet, and it was always slightly gummy.  Now we have a great place that's a couple blocks away so we're back on the horse...

 

Yeah - at Blue Ribbon Orchard, it wasn't the flavor so much as the texture - always overcooked and gummy.  What's the new one? I have ordered in from a place on Bowery, Nakaji, that was really great, but expensive. And it doesn't look as if they are delivery any more.

[Paul Bacino]

25 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

Is that a cold soup? Its beautiful. Blanking on greenery.  Tomato leaves???

 

 

Had some cherry tomatoes..  no this is hot/  I kinda stewed them till they were just ready to pop /  I dont like tomato skins/  and have figured a way to de skin cherry ones/  so these bust with flavor when you bit them   BTW  its. Arugula and I pickled some arugula stems to add also

[heidih]

31 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

 

 

Had some cherry tomatoes..  no this is hot/  I kinda stewed them till they were just ready to pop /  I dont like tomato skins/  and have figured a way to de skin cherry ones/  so these bust with flavor when you bit them   BTW  its. Arugula and I pickled some arugula stems to add also

Well  there was a trend to use tomato leaves in moderation to add more tomato depth. Yes they do look beautifully ready to pop. Thanks.

[Anna N]

56 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

 

 

Had some cherry tomatoes..  no this is hot/  I kinda stewed them till they were just ready to pop /  I dont like tomato skins/  and have figured a way to de skin cherry ones/  so these bust with flavor when you bit them   BTW  its. Arugula and I pickled some arugula stems to add also

Tomato stems can also add flavour. You would want to remove them for service! I have a vague recollection of a well known chef using tomato stems to boost the flavour of tomatoes. Maybe somebody else recalls him or her. 
Click.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

 

Yeah - at Blue Ribbon Orchard, it wasn't the flavor so much as the texture - always overcooked and gummy.  What's the new one? I have ordered in from a place on Bowery, Nakaji, that was really great, but expensive. And it doesn't look as if they are delivery any more.

https://kanoyama.com/

 

I'm not usually a fan of ordering in expensive sushi because it loses quite a bit in transit - even 20 minutes...  If the rice is warm, it heats up the fish and the rice cools.  Or, they have to use cold rice, which always sucks.

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

I find that the quality of the rice makes a huge difference.  In the old apartment, the best sushi place we could get delivery from (that wasn't an omakase place for $$$) was barely tolerable - either they used too much vinegar or too sweet, and it was always slightly gummy.  Now we have a great place that's a couple blocks away so we're back on the horse...

Or maybe they used high end rice for $1 per 454g ...

Edited June 21, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

https://kanoyama.com/

 

I'm not usually a fan of ordering in expensive sushi because it loses quite a bit in transit - even 20 minutes...  If the rice is warm, it heats up the fish and the rice cools.  Or, they have to use cold rice, which always sucks.

Oh yah - well known. It has been a while since we've dined there, but the price was always fair. And the turnover great.

 

I was surprised at how nicely Nakaji's arrived -but they are close by. And they weren't exactly selling it as omakase.

 

Smartly, the chirashi was served with the toppings separate from the rice.

Edited June 21, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[Shelby]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:58 AM, weinoo said:

I've been sadly having issues with Blue Ribbon (the one on Orchard). Not with the fish, but the rice has been terribly prepared.

 

I'm glad you said this!  I didn't comment because I don't have hardly any sushi expertise, but the rice wasn't good imo.  We all know that most of my sushi comes from the grocery store--they do make it fresh in front of you and they do a great job--and I like that rice.  I've also made sushi rice here at home several times.  I told my mom that I wished I could opt out of paying for their rice and just make my own here.  One caveat I gave them was that I had to, of course, reheat the rice for like thirty seconds in the microwave --per their instructions.  I thought maybe the rice being shipped etc. might have made it sub-par.  It was slightly hard\dry....I don't like gummy rice but this needed more stick.  And, it didn't have hardly any vinegar\sweet flavor.  I don't want it over powering, but this was more like just plain rice.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

I'm glad you said this!  I didn't comment because I don't have hardly any sushi expertise, but the rice wasn't good imo.  We all know that most of my sushi comes from the grocery store--they do make it fresh in front of you and they do a great job--and I like that rice.  I've also made sushi rice here at home several times.  I told my mom that I wished I could opt out of paying for their rice and just make my own here.  One caveat I gave them was that I had to, of course, reheat the rice for like thirty seconds in the microwave --per their instructions.  I thought maybe the rice being shipped etc. might have made it sub-par.  It was slightly hard\dry....I don't like gummy rice but this needed more stick.  And, it didn't have hardly any vinegar\sweet flavor.  I don't want it over powering, but this was more like just plain rice.

 

Here's my tip, @Shelby. For the next time you want to order from them, why not just order sashimi, and make your own, undoubtedly much better, sushi rice at home. Even if they insist on you buying their rice, with sashimi it should come separately.

 

Bad rice pisses me off.

[Shelby]

18 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Bad rice pisses me off.

Yeah.  Now that I know I wasn't wrong about the rice.  Definitely making my own next time and I'll try not to feel guilty about wasting the rice they send.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

 

Here's my tip, @Shelby. For the next time you want to order from them, why not just order sashimi, and make your own, undoubtedly much better, sushi rice at home. Even if they insist on you buying their rice, with sashimi it should come separately.

 

Bad rice pisses me off.

@Shelby I think this is a great idea.  I think that even if the rice originally was fantastic, I wouldn't have high hopes for it after traveling 1500 miles.  I just don't think it travels well unless you keep it hot.

 

All this talk got me really in the mood for sushi, so as I was driving past Kanoyama (I pass them by on the way home from work) I took a quick look... I was even willing to sit outdoors (in the shade) when it's still 85degF outside, but they're closed on Monday 

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@Shelby I think this is a great idea.  I think that even if the rice originally was fantastic, I wouldn't have high hopes for it after traveling 1500 miles.  I just don't think it travels well unless you keep it hot.

 

All this talk got me really in the mood for sushi, so as I was driving past Kanoyama (I pass them by on the way home from work) I took a quick look... I was even willing to sit outdoors (in the shade) when it's still 85degF outside, but they're closed on Monday 

Thank you!  I appreciate both you and @weinoo helping me out.

 

It is so expensive, but.....I've said a million times here.  I don't travel.  I don't buy expensive clothes or makeup etc.  So.  This is the fun stuff for me.  AND my mom will just love it I hope.

 

It's weird that the rice is the complaint though, right