Fishinnards

I've never had any trouble following Fuchsia's recipes. As with most East Asian food, most of your time is spent prepping, which you can do slowly while you read the recipe if it's the first time making the dish. For the actual cooking, you need to memorize the steps though, because it happens so quickly, but once you "crack the code" of the cooking methods, so to speak, it becomes pretty simple. Maybe that's just me though. I read cookbooks for fun.

Elephant Jumps has it this week. Link from their instagram

Grilled chicken ไà¸à¹ˆà¸¢à¹ˆà¸²à¸‡ Sticky rice ข้าวเหนียว Green papaya salad ส้มตำ

They are thin skinned. You can just leave them out in the sun and they will dry pretty fast. I have left them sitting out indoors and they dried. You could also just give them to me .

Khao Soi is not an Issan (Northeast Thai) dish. It is considered Northern Thai, but is most likely Burmese in origin. Although Khao soi means cut rice in Thai, it doesn't make much sense in this context, as wheat noodles are what's normally used. The Burmese word for noodles is (transliterated) Kyauk Swe and pronounced more or less the same. The Burmese dish On No Kyauk Swe is a coconut milk based chicken curry served over wheat noodles and garnished with deep fried wheat noodles and other things. On No is the Burmese word for coconut milk. Interestingly, coconut is almost never used in traditional Northern Thai cooking, except for this outlier. AFAIK The Burmese version of this dish is available at Burmese restaurants in the area, as it is very popular with Burmese people. You may be interested in trying this version as well. To add to the confusion, in Northern Laos they call another dish Khao Soi, a dish that is essentially the same as Kanom Jeen Nam Ngiaw. A dish from the Shan (Thai Yai) people of Burma and also found in Northern Thailand. Bangkok 54 Grocery used to have Khao Soi (coconut milk, chicken curry version) in the take-out area on occasion. (it's still closed from the fire right now, but will re-open shortly). Elephant Jumps has had it in the past, and they definitely had Kanom Jeen Nam Ngiaw as a special a week or two ago.

Last Saturday, same as Friday, chopped chicken salad (laap gai), omelet and I added a green curry with eggplant, because I had some green curry paste left from last weekend and the garden is producing eggplants at a furious rate. Sunday, more green curry with eggplant, and grilled eggplant salad (yum makuea, with peanuts, hard boiled eggs, cilantro, fried garlic, shallots, green onion, fish sauce, lime juice, chillies, and palm sugar) plus an omelet and rice. Eggs and eggplant theme. Monday, carrots with fenugreek greens, mung dhal (split but not not hulled) with Chinese broccoli, lamb kheema, pickle, brown jasmine rice. Photo! Last night, more dhal, carrots again, potatoes with tomatoes, hari chutney (cilantro, lime, chillies, salt) pickle, and homemade chapatis. This meal will probably be repeated tonight. Maybe I'll remember to take a picture.

Quick dinner, chopped chicken salad (laap gai ลาบไà¸à¹ˆ), omelet (kai jiew ไข่เจียว), vegetables, brown and white jasmine rice.

Sri Lankan food, Chicken curry (kukul mas), masoor dal (parapu), coconut sambal (pol sambola), salad of cucumber, tomatoes, onion, green chilli, salt and lime juice. Jasmine rice.

Kheema (with minced lamb), Moong Dal, salad of cucumber, shallots, cherry tomatoes, green chillies, lime juice, salt and mint. Brown jasmine rice, too lazy to make chapatis.

I have seen it. It was a lot of fun. Great in 3D. If you like cheesy sci-fi like the Fifth Element or Star Wars, you will probably enjoy it.

Had some people over for dinner. Made some green curry with beef and eggplant à¹à¸à¸‡à¹€à¸‚ียวหวาน, Thai fried chicken ไà¸à¹ˆà¸—อด, green papaya salad ส้มตำ, northern Thai pork and tomato chilli dip with raw vegetables น้ำพริà¸à¸­à¹ˆà¸­à¸‡, sticky rice ข้าวเหนียว and jasmine rice ข้าวหอมมะลิ. Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Extra. Snapped a quick photo with my phone:

Somewhere above in this thread you will find a translation of the Thai menu that I did awhile back. [it's here. DR]

According to their facebook page, they will soon be opening a second location in the Mosaic District.

I haven't had holy basil since last year. Ever since the fire at Bangkok 54 I haven't had a source. I have tiny little plants sprouting, so hopefully soon I will have a garden full of it. Yesterday, I went to Fresh Mart in Springfield and was very excited to find holy basil. Kapow, grapao, kaprow, à¸à¸°à¹€à¸žà¸£à¸² is the Thai word for holy basil. The Indian word is Tulsi. It has become my goal to convince health nuts that fresh Tulsi is a "superfood" of great value that you must have in your diet so you will live forever and be happy all the time. I have reaped the culinary benefits of other health fads, i.e. fresh turmeric is now available easily, as is coconut oil. Tulsi is already getting a reputation as a "superfood", but in dried form as a tea. I need to convince people that the health benefits are even more pronounced in the fresh herb, so I can selfishly be able to get fresh holy basil whenever I want. It's an adaptogen!!! When you eat it you feel great!!! I know I do, especially with lots of chillies. Last night I made pad kapow (which means holy basil stir fry, which I never get a any local Thai restaurant, because they never use kapow, they use horopa, or Thai basil, a completely different taste, and a completely different name. I know why they do this, holy basil is hard to grow in this climate, as it only likes hot weather, and it's extremely perishable, but they don't do this in Thailand because holy basil is better). หมูผัดใบà¸à¸°à¹€à¸žà¸£à¸², Mu pad bai kapow, pork stir fried with holy basil leaves, jasmine rice and ไข่ดาว, crispy fried egg on top. Heaven!!

Saag Gosht, lamb with kale, or actually, kale with lamb, as I only used 1 lb. of meat and a large bunch of kale (saag can be any green, but there is no kale in Punjab AFAIK, so this is "inauthentic" saag gosht). Cooked without a recipe. I will recount here what I did so I can remember in the future. In the pressure cooker put peanut oil and when hot added whole garam masala of 4 whole cloves, 3 cardamom pods, one black cardamom pod, a Cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, two pinches of black cumin seeds, and two dried chillies, then added chopped onion and cooked till almost brown, added meat, cut into 1" cubes, and sauteed some more (bhunao technique, South Asia understood the so called Maillard reaction long before the French... probably), added chopped garlic and ginger (about 2 tablespoons of each), sauteed some more, added, ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, hot chilli powder, and salt. Sauteed some more, added some yoghurt a little at a time stirring and stirring, added two chopped tomatoes, and little water and then closed the pressure cooker and cooked at full pressure for ten minutes. Meanwhile, washed and chopped a large bunch of kale. Added kale to the lamb and cooked at full pressure again for 5 minutes. Added some garam masala powder and it was done. Also made Gohbi Aloo (cauliflower and potatoes) and cucumber raita. Had with lots of rice. Maybe tonight I'll have the leftovers with chapatis, but probably not. Rice is easier.

Saturday I made a Malaysian style chicken curry. Sauteed a Cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamon pod and a clove with onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and curry leaves in some coconut oil. Added some tomato, salt, curry powder (Parrot Brand curry powder because I can't get Babas anymore), turmeric, hot chilli powder and a few pieces of chicken, some coconut milk and some halved small potatoes. I also stir fried some Chinese broccoli with garlic and soy sauce. Jasmine rice. Sunday I did an impromptu cooking class for a couple of my neighbors. One of them is a pescatarian so I made tod mun pla, deep fried fish cakes with sweet and sour cucumber sauce (ajad) . I also made som tom Thai (green papaya salad) and a quick curry of kabocha pumpkin (gaeng kua sai fak tong), raw vegtables and jasmine rice. They brought lots of beer and a good time was had by all. Sorry no photos...

Chopped chicken salad (Laap Gai ลาบไà¸à¹ˆ) leftover panang curry with kabocha (à¹à¸žà¸™à¸‡à¹„à¸à¹ˆà¹„ส่ผัà¸à¸—อง) omelet (ไข่เจียว), vegetables, jasmine rice, Ommegang Abby Ale.

Thank you Zora for making this happen!

Apparently, flattened rice (Baji) is a real thing among the Newar people in Nepal. Here's a video a of an intrepid traveler eating some beaten rice and other Newari food. I don't know "why". Why not.

I recently had the pleasure of eating here with Tim Carman. You can read about it here. The special red curry with pickled bamboo shoots was my favorite. There is some good cooking here. I'll be back to try the Kanom Jeen Nam Ya.

Noodle night. à¸à¹‹à¸§à¸¢à¹€à¸•à¸µà¹‹à¸¢à¸§à¸£à¸²à¸”หน้าเนื้อ Rad Na, wide fresh rice noodles with beef (Ayrshire farm) and Chinese broccoli in "gravy". Bourbon and ginger ale.

Panaeng curry with chicken and kabocha squash (à¹à¸žà¸™à¸‡à¹„à¸à¹ˆà¹„ส่ผัà¸à¸—อง) roasted eggplant salad (ยำมะเขือเปราะ), jasmine rice and vegetables.

Vegetables, very spicy tamarind chilli dip (nam prik makham น้ำพริà¸à¸¡à¸°à¸‚าม) Thai omelet (khai jiew ไข่เจียว) with Shark Sriracha, stir fried chicken in curry paste with green beans (gai pad prik khing ไà¸à¹ˆà¸œà¸±à¸”พริà¸à¸‚ิง) and chicken skin, with jasmine rice.

Song Que is still open and their banh mi is great.

Given the size of the kitchen and the type of food they are preparing, I can completely understand why they can't adjust the heat levels for each individual serving. It's not a question of sprinkling some chilli on at the end. Many of these dishes incorporate chillies early on in the prep, and the final dish must have all the flavors balanced against one another i.e. hot, salty, sour, bitter, umami, and sometimes sweet. To make the dish taste right the cook would need to readjust all the flavors if less chilli were added and this might not be possible when making each dish in quantity, as opposed to made-to-order, where theoretically each dish can be made to the desired taste of the individual diner.