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 October 13 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 Saturday at 03:49 PM by Paul Bacino (log)

[rotuts]

@Paul Bacino

 

Wow !

 

and now Ive got the Dukes .

Edited Saturday at 04:13 PM 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

[Smithy]

Buried under all this vegetation is a couple of strips of bacon I cooked in the oven a few days ago, for ease of making a favorite sandwich later: Bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickle on toasted sourdough bread.

 

 

 I'm not sure the oven-baking method cooks bacon as satisfactorily, for my tastes, as cooking it atop the stove. Granted, it's less messy. Granted, the bacon is ready to go when I want it, with just a quick reheating if necessary in the microwave. But the bacon out of the oven isn't as crisp as out of the skillet, and the flavor isn't as good. It might be my technique. It might be the brand of bacon. But it might be the method. Time and experimentation will tell. I think I drew different conclusions in earlier tests in the Princessmobile, so it might even be the oven!

[blue_dolphin]

Today’s lunch hasn’t started yet but I thought I’d tease you with the menu

 

I’ll be back with the deets later. 
 

OK, I survived the LA traffic and made it home after a delightful meal at the 2025 Heirloom Bean Encuentro at Alta Baja Market in Santa Ana so I can report on our meal. The location is a specialty grocery market specializing in foods of Mexico and the southwest US.  They also have a cafe and have been hosting this annual bean gathering for several years now. Their cafe is tiny so putting on this event is quite an undertaking. 
I did not partake of the wine pairing since I was driving but I bought a bottle of each of the wines to take home.  They’re all from wineries in Baja California.  At the moment, I’m sipping a glass of the rosé, a Grenache-Syrah blend that was served with the lentil salad. Very nice.

We started off with a refreshing agua fresca dubbed Agua de SanTana. The glasses (paper cups 🙃) were rimmed with Rancho Gordo Stardust chile/lime powder and garnished with pomegranate arils. 
 

The first food course was a Puy lentil salad from chef Evan Kleiman, former restaurateur and current host of the Good Food podcast. In this photo, the lentils are in front with a crunchy breadstick and the paper cup of agua fresca is behind the plate.

 

The next dish consisted of two scoops of warm rice porridge with pickled kohlrabi and smoked black garbanzo beans flanking  a cool disk of alubia blanca mash with miso topped with apples and pickled Christmas lima beans, nasturtium flowers and herbs. 

My photo doesn’t do this justice, nor does the paper plate, but it was a delight to eat and the story behind it was even better. Chef  Minh Phan works with culinary arts programs at local public high schools and this dish was her idea but was entirely prepared and plated by a group of her students. They all came out to join her on the stage so we could give them a big round of applause. 
 

 Next up were buckeye beans and forest mushrooms from Chef Tony Ensault. The mushroom broth was deeply flavorful but also clear and not murky at all.  The tiny (see my fork for scale) white beech mushrooms on top were pickled to add a bright note. 

 

Next up was a dish of Ayocote Negro beans cooked with habenero chiles and xoconostle for a fun mix of heat and tartness. The beans were topped with dumplings made from masa, potato and garlic. This was the only dish that some people found too spicy but I thought it was perfect. It was from chef Ray Garcia.

 

The last dish, from Chef Eric Linares, was a macha custard with sweet Domingo Rojo beans. I wasn’t expecting a bean dessert! The bean component reminded me of Asian desserts with adzuki beans, except more flavorful. There was sweetness from the condensed milk but the beans themselves also had a savory note and the macha custard was rich and delicious.

Again, the small paper bowls don’t show this one off, but it was delicious. 
In addition to the wine, I picked up a few other things in the market but I’ll post them elsewhere. 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by blue_dolphin (log)

[Steve Irby]

Ajax (my dog) and I really enjoyed an extra fatty pork steak for lunch today.  I bought four at BJ's a few days ago and grilled them today.  The trim, or lack thereof , was just like the good old days!   Served with potato pave and avocado drizzled with picual olive oil.  

 

[Neely]

Lunch was Irish seafood chowder. 

Cooked a soffitto (Sp.various) in butter, added plain flour, added fish stock, added small cubes of potato. Simmered this for about half an hour then added some cream, milk, salt and pepper, some thyme, brought this all to the boil and added cubes of salmon, cubes of snapper, some shrimp/ prawns and a few shelled mussels. Cooked for 5 minutes till all seafood cooked. Done.