Fishinnards

Maybe not unusually good, but fresh and decent, Sam Wang Tofu, 300 B. Morse St., Washington, DC 20002 (near A. Litteri ). This is the brand in the buckets at Grand Mart, so maybe your already familiar.

It may not be "racist", but perhaps it is culturally insensitive for some white guys to drive around town serving Punjabi food while wearing turbans and fake mustaches.

When fishing with my father we always tossed back the sea robbins and sandsharks or cut them for bait. I always wondered why we didn't eat them. Here is a nice blog post with a recipe for a classic Thai preparation for snakehead, Hot and sour curry/soup, gaeng som aka orange curry.

Achad (Cucumber Pickle) อาจาด with Tod Man Pla (Fish Cakes) ทอดมันปลา , Lap Gai (Ground Chicken Salad) ลาบไก่, Gai Phat Bai Kaphrao (Chicken Stir-Fried with Holy Basil) ไก่ผัดใบกะเพรา, jasmine rice, Elysian Bete Blanche Tripel

Some things I have been cooking, Saturday I grilled a chicken (ไก่ย่าง) (garlic, cilantro root, white pepper, coriander seed, palm sugar, fish sauce), steamed some sticky rice (ข้าวเหนียว), and made green papaya salad (ส้มตำมะละกอ). Also made a dipping sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, shallots, roasted rice powder, roasted galanga, palm sugar and dried chillies (น้ำจิ้มแจ่ว). Sunday, grilled chicken salad (ยำไก่ย่าง), rice and vegetables. (no photo) Monday, more som tam (green papaya salad, ส้มตำ) rice, bacon, vegetables, Thai "omelet" (ไข่ยัดไส้), and Lagunitas Imperial Red Ale. Yesterday, I made lamb curry (Elu Mas) from Rice and Curry (inspired by my trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool, Baaaah!). Thanks to Crackpot Gourmet, I located a nearby Indian Grocery with fresh curry leaves . Also, rice, okra and broccoli curry, tomato and onion salad and more of that good beer.

Last week I made some Indian vegetarian food, and some Thai food (of course), This week I finally got around to cooking from my new Sri Lankan cookbook, Rice and Curry. The author of this book is S. H. Fernando Jr. who turns out to be the same guy as Skiz Fernanado AKA Spectre AKA The ill Saint, DJ and label head of the strange and confounding Wordsound label. This music was one of my main inspirations for getting into the DJ game (though I don't actually spin Wordsound music much outside my own home. It's an acquired taste.) Turns out Skiz has been doing food related stuff for a few years now, including living with relatives in Sri Lanka for a year to collect recipes for this book. He appeared on the No Reservations Sri Lanka episode (which I have not seen) and has a nice cooking and travel blog and some good cooking videos. He now resides in Baltimore. I made Kukal Mas (chicken curry the photo below is cooking in progress, not the finished dish), Vambotu curry (Aunty Manel's Special Eggplant Curry), Radish and Tomato Sambol, and brown jasmine rice. I had been waiting to cook from this book till I could get fresh curry leaves, but all the usual spots were out, so I just left them out. Everything was still tasty but if anyone has seen fresh curry leaves anywhere let me know. I will be cooking from this book again very soon. Back to Thai food last night. Salmon with basil and chillies, roasted eggplant salad, pork jerky (from Bangkok 54) and brown jasmine rice. This week also included much sticky rice and mango, both store bought and homemade.

The owner, Sean Haney, is a great guy and a very talented DJ who's been playing in DC for many many years. You can catch him at Eighteenth Street Lounge on Thursday nights. He is part of the Funk DC crew.

Thursday, chicken with ginger ไก่ผัดขิง and chicken tom yum ต้มยำไก่ with brown jasmine rice and vegetables. Friday and Saturday, mango salad ยำมะม่วง (mango was almost ripe so I made a "black" dressing with roasted garlic, roasted chillies, tamarind, palm sugar, fish sauce and coconut cream), Ayershire ground pork with chillies, green beans, and eggplant หมูผัดพริก, with brown jasmine rice and vegetables. Sunday, chapatis, methi gosht (lamb with fresh fenugreek greens), hari chutney (cilantro chutney), masoor dhal, ghobi aloo (cauliflower and potatoes).

AFAIK FMS is not supposed to be spicy. You add your own spice from the condiments, hot pepper powder, chillies in vinegar etc. Similar to Pho. I might be wrong, though. I have been drinking.

Here is a link. Funny review.

Thursday, ยำมะม่วง Green Mango Salad, ไข่ยัดไส้ omelet with siracha sauce (shark brand is way better than rooster) , ผัดผักคะน้าห stir fried Chinese broccoli and brown jasmine rice. Friday we went to Margate N.J. for Passover with my parents. Saturday, I broke all the dietary laws with a "Dino's Special" from Dino's Sub and Pizza Shop. Essentially the same type of Hoagie as the more well known White House in nearby Atlantic City, same bread (Formica Bros.) and construction. It differs from the Philly style Hoagie that Taylor aspires to, and the special has an absurd amount of meat. The sandwich pictured below is a quarter of the whole thing. It's a childhood favorite of mine. The bread and the construction make the sandwich. Sunday I made a red curry paste, bought a whole chicken and made ยำกบกะทิ (mock frog [chicken] salad with coconut milk), ไก่กระเทียมพริกไทย (garlic pepper chicken), แกงเผ็ดไก่มะเขือ (red curry with chicken and eggplant), brown jasmine rice and Avery Collaboration not Litigation ale.

Food 52 has a nice passover menu with Mediterranean recipes. To add to the list of cookbooks, I have enjoyed Copeland Marks Sephardic Cooking for many years. I think it's out of print, though.

비빔밥 again

Sumatran food, Gulai Pagar Puri (lamb curry), Balado (tomato/chili sambal), vegetables, and rice.

Tonight 비빔밥 (bibimbap) kochujang, egg, beef (Ayrshire farms), cucumber, seaweed, eggplant, radish, spinach, mushroom, carrot, egg, rice.

Monday I made a roasted eggplant salad with leftover drained pork laap and the sweet pork topping from galloping horses (Ma Hor, a dish I made on Saturday), deep fried shallots, fresh shallots, lime juice and fish sauce with brown jasmine rice and leftovers. Tuesday, Tom Kha Gai (ต้มข่าไก่ coconut chicken "soup") made with whole chicken drumsticks with green mango salad and an omelet and brown jasmine rice. Wednesday, pak pad priew wan (ผัดผักเปรี้ยวหวาน), sweet and sour vegetable stir fry (to clean out the vegetable drawer), cucumber, eggplant, pineapple, onion, long red chilli, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar and vinegar. And the requisite omelet with si racha (ศรีราชา) sauce and brown jasmine rice. Wednesday has a photo: Last night my wife went to the Cheesetique with a friend, but without me (it's my favorite ethnic restaurant). Instead I had shrimp paste fried rice (ข้าวครกกะปิ) from Bangkok 54 grocery carry out, which was delightful .

Chapatis (roti) are unleavened bread. I make these twice a week. It's just flour and water. The flour is Ata, an Indian finely ground whole wheat flour. I think you could use half white flour and half whole wheat flour as an approximation. Knead 2 1/2 cups of flour and 3/4 to1 cup of water together to form a dough (about 10 minutes of kneading, or use a stand mixer). I usually let it rest for at least half an hour, but in the spirit of the holiday you could just start making bread. Separate the dough into 16 balls an roll into flat disks. Cook on a very hot ungreased griddle for about 30 seconds to a minute each side. You know when it's time to flip when it starts to puff. It should puff into a balloon on the second side. If it doesn't, put it over a high gas flame for a few seconds and it should puff. Stack the cooked breads in a towel. These are usually eaten right away. If you leave them they eventually get hard. They aren't giant crackers, but they may be closer to the type of bread eaten in the story.

Hoax

Looks like VA Great Wall is in trouble for their Pet Store very fresh seafood counter. Here's the link on the annoying Washington Post website. It made the front page. I'm not sure Great Wall was really doing anything wrong, but some people don't like seeing live animals and apparently certain species are not classified for food under Virginia law, but are regarded as wildlife (the owner claims all his animals are farmed).

Ahhh. many cooks don't use the whites, so I thought it was some sort of convenience product.

ม้าห้อห Galloping Horses (garlic, coriander root, white pepper, shallots, pork, peanuts, palm sugar, fish sauce, coriander leaves, red chili, pineapple) เต้าหู้ทอดสามรส (fried tofu with three flavor sauce), ลนแหนม (fermented pork dip with coconut cream), ลาบหมู (pork salad), หมูแดดเดียว (sun dried pork, courtesy of Bangkok 54), and brown jasmine rice.

A coriander plant grew in the area of last year's crop. That means I have coriander roots. Last night we had tuna salad, pork with garlic and white pepper (with coriander roots ) and green curry, with brown jasmine rice/Thai red rice mix.

You could also make stir-fried squid with salted duck eggs or salted duck egg coconut cream dip (lohn kai kem).

It's often translated as 'Mud fish", but that doesn't sound much more appetizing than "snakehead". Here's my post from one of the other three threads on this subject; Pla chon (plah chawn) doesn't really roll of the tongue either. Here's some photos from the Snakehead festival in Singburi province, Thailand! It happens around Christmas. If your good, Santa will bring you a grilled snakehead. Edit: It's actually a fish eating festival, not just snakehead, but snakehead is featured prominently. The pictures make me hungry.

This fish is super popular in Thailand. It's called pla chon ปลาช่อน. Here's one way to cook it. You can also get it pickled. I have a jar in my fridge.