Lunch 2025

[Ddanno]

On 10/8/2025 at 2:21 PM, rotuts said:

a fuzzy late lunch :

 

 

Tj's ' Thai ' shrimp ' gyoza '    fuzzy iPhone pic ,  Fz gyoza are soaking in cold water for a minute or two

 

the AF'd

 

 

I do this w many of TJ's Fz item that will end up in the AF .  it changes the texture just a bit 

 

Tj's sweet chili sauce , a couple drops of RB40 , and some chili oil .

 

excellent .

 

What's RB40? Google just shows me light bulbs, which, unless you work at a circus, I assume you didn't add to the dish.

[Neely]

Macaroni and spring vegetables ( Primavera ) with lots of fresh ground pecorino which was quite strong. I enjoyed the macaroni as I hadn’t had it for ages.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminds me I must make Mac n cheese which I also haven’t had for a long time … grandchildren will enjoy I guess … might sneak some finely diced red peppers in and maybe some peas for more vegetables. 

[KennethT]

10 hours ago, Ddanno said:

 

What's RB40? Google just shows me light bulbs, which, unless you work at a circus, I assume you didn't add to the dish.

Red Boat 40degN - it's a brand of Vietnamese fish sauce.  The 40 degrees indicates the degrees of Nitrogen.

[Smithy]

34 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Red Boat 40degN - it's a brand of Vietnamese fish sauce.  The 40 degrees indicates the degrees of Nitrogen.

 

Can you elaborate on this, please? I see from the Red Boat web site that 40 degrees indicates the quantity of Nitrogen, which they say correlates to umami flavor. However, "degree" is not usually a quantity measurement in my book, except for angular measurements including latitude and longitude. When I search on "degrees of Nitrogen" I get information about freezing and boiling points, which isn't helpful in this case.

[blue_dolphin]

14 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Can you elaborate on this, please? I see from the Red Boat web site that 40 degrees indicates the quantity of Nitrogen, which they say correlates to umami flavor. However, "degree" is not usually a quantity measurement in my book, except for angular measurements including latitude and longitude. When I search on "degrees of Nitrogen" I get information about freezing and boiling points, which isn't helpful in this case.

Apparently in the fish sauce world, °N is the unit representing grams/liter of nitrogen so 40 °N would be 40 g/l nitrogen

[liuzhou]

40 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Can you elaborate on this, please? I see from the Red Boat web site that 40 degrees indicates the quantity of Nitrogen, which they say correlates to umami flavor. However, "degree" is not usually a quantity measurement in my book, except for angular measurements including latitude and longitude. When I search on "degrees of Nitrogen" I get information about freezing and boiling points, which isn't helpful in this case.

 

20 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Apparently in the fish sauce world, °N is the unit representing grams/liter of nitrogen so 40 °N would be 40 g/l nitrogen

 

I've always believed and been taught that degree count refers  more to the protein content and than to do with nitrogen.

 

 

Edited October 12 by liuzhou (log)

[C. sapidus]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

I've always believed and been taught that degree count refers  more to the protein content and than to do with nitrogen.

 

 

 

As I am sure you know, nitrogen and protein correlate because amino acids contain nitrogen.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

 

As I am sure you know, nitrogen and protein correlate because amino acids contain nitrogen.

 

Yes.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Lunch today was undoubtedly the worst thing I’ve ever tried to eat in 30 years in China; maybe in my life.

 

Advertised as “Spicy crispy duck wraps”, I had two delivered, the minimum order. What ever they were they certainly weren’t crispy, didn’t taste of duck and were so greasy the very thin wrap stuck to the paper they came in. Flabby undercooked skin, insipid duck meat and dripping in tasteless grease. And by the time I separated the wrap and the paper, weren’t even wrapped. Utterly disgusting.

 

Here is what was advertised and then what was delivered.

 

 

 

I took one bit of the first and immediately binned the lot!  Disgraceful, inedible crap.

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 02:11 PM by liuzhou (log)

[Neely]

Oh @liuzhou I’m sorry that happened, looks very bad. 
 

We had salad bowls with the usual suspects again. This time they contained home grown lettuce, kale and coriander. 

My garden is doing much better this year because I have put chicken wire around it to stop the possums eating everything. The possums have multiplied to be a problem due to, I think, the demise of the neighbour’s cat, who would hunt them. Yes cats are a menace but so are the possums in the city, although they are very cute. 
 

[blue_dolphin]

Grilled cheese made with Gorgonzola, pear and a schmear of fig jam.

 

As to possums, @Neely, your possums are much cuter than ours. I inadvertently startled one while watering a potted camellia bush on my second floor balcony and it looked more this:

Since I was leaning down to check the soil, and he was curled up under the bush, we were pretty much nose to nose.  I needed a very large glass of wine to calm down!

[gulfporter]

Grilled blackened salmon on a toasted croissant with tartar sauce and arugula.  

 

 

[Paul Bacino]

Fried Sogno Toscano Mortadella-Fritos-dukes-tortilla

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Paul Bacino (log)

[rotuts]

@Paul Bacino

 

Wow !

 

and now Ive got the Dukes .

Edited 8 hours ago by rotuts (log)

[Dejah]

It's soup weather!
Made Hot & Sour for a friend who has a terrible cold. The vinegar and spice cleared up her sinuses!
We had some for lunch:
                                                                  
Took a bit of time this morning and made up a batch of wonton filling with ground pork shrimp, and waterchestnuts.
We had some for lunch and I am delivering some to elderly friends

                                                             

[TdeV]

@Dejah, your photos look so good. Could you please point me to a good recipe for wonton filling? And also, instructions for folding the wonton.

 

Do you use fresh or canned water chestnuts?

 

Thanks.

[Dejah]

30 minutes ago, TdeV said:

@Dejah, your photos look so good. Could you please point me to a good recipe for wonton filling? And also, instructions for folding the wonton.

 

Do you use fresh or canned water chestnuts?

 

Thanks.

I use canned waterchestnuts, only kind available 11 months of the year. I pulse the waterchestnuts and shrimp in my mini processor then work them into the ground pork?>
This is the recipe we used in my restaurant. Everyone else used just pork. 
There are different ways of folding the wontons. I usually just scrunch them up at home. Best to google for different shapes. We used one for soup and one for deep fried (appetizers)>

Soo’s Wonton meat recipe: for 40 lbs

 

 

40 lbs. lean ground pork, one commercial size can of sliced waterchestnuts, 5 lb box of small shelled and deveined uncooked shrimp. Chop shrimp and waterchestnuts with cleavers until same as ground pork.

Seasoning: Using a Chinese porcelain soup spoon:

7 spoons of sugar, 10 spoons of salt (same for MSG option), 2 spoons white ground pepper, 7 spoons EACH of oyster sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce for colour, 1/4 cup veg. oil, about 1/2 cup of cold water. Work the mixture for a few minutes with your hands. This produces a really nice texture and makes sure the seasonings are well distributed. These days I use my KitchenAid with the paddles to do the mixing.

 

At Home recipe:

1 lb lean ground pork

6 oz shrimp chopped fine

3 oz waterchestnuts - chopped fine

1 tsp. soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

1/4 tsp pepper

1.2 tsp lemon juice

1.5 to 2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp MSG

4 tbso cold water

1 tsp cornstarch

 

Mix above ingredients together vigorously until "thready" ( looks like strands of thread in the mixture. Makes filling fluffy - good mouth-feel texture - tender, juicy)

 

Chill until ready to use

 

Can be used for soup or deep-fried wontons.

[blue_dolphin]

Inspired by @gulfporter's recent post and my weekly fish share delivery of fresh halibut, I made this blackened halibut sandwich with Creole mayo and a cabbage& snap pea slaw