Fishinnards

Last night, jasmine rice and squid and Chinese sausage salad (ยำปลาหมึกกุนเชียง) Tonight, jasmine rice, egg with bitter melon and pork and squid with holy basil (มะระผัดไข่ หมูปลาหมึกผัดใบกะเพรา) Had a fatty piece of pork, so I rendered the fat and used that to stir fry. It was good.

Bai horapa is regular Thai basil. Bai Grapao (kaprow) is holy basil. I saw some last year at the Arlington farmers market but didn't buy any because I already bought some plants from the Thai grocery and started some from seed. I have some seeds started for this year and I'll keep looking for plants. It seems Bangkok 54 has had holy basil for sale once a week since March or April (confusingly labeled Thai basil), so they found a good supplier with a green house this year. It was more like once a month last year. I might get tired of holy basil by the time I have plants going, but probably not. Great Wall sells cilantro with and without roots (both locations), though lately they've taken to chopping the root off right at the stem (as in the photo above). But that bottom part works better than just upper stems, which is what I use when I can't get roots. I know somewhere around here there are huge piles of cilantro roots rotting in the trash.

Wife is away (with the good camera) so I'm cooking for one. หมูผัดใบกะเพรา pad grapao with pork and eggplant. It's not the best Thai dish, but it's my favorite. Holy basil season is the best.

I've heard good things about Rahama African Restaurant from a friend that used to live in Ghana. 1924 9th street NW

Sunday, Chinese broccoli salad (ยำผักคะน้า, fried shallots, peanuts, kaffir lime leaves, roasted chili paste, coconut cream, tamarind, palm sugar, fish sauce) fish cakes (ทอดมันปลา, fish paste, kaffir lime leaves, red curry paste, basil, fish sauce, sugar) with cucumber "pickle" (อาจาด, cucumber, shallots, vinegar, sugar, garlic, cilantro roots, chillies, cilantro, peanuts), red curry with pork and soybeans (แกงเผ็ดหมู, pork and beans!), omelet (ไข่เจียว, eggs, basil, green chillies, shallots, fish sauce) with Siracha sauce, jasmine rice. Monday, Chicken salad (ลาบไก่ laap gai, chicken, shallots, mint, cilantro, galanga, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, stock, fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, roasted dried chili powder, roasted rice powder), leftover red curry, eggs with Si Racha sauce, jasmine rice. Yesterday, mung bean dumplings in tomato fenugreek sauce (moonghodi tamatar methi), cauliflower and potatoes (ghobi aloo), cilantro chutney (hari chutney), chapatis. >

Hammonton When I was a wee lad we would stop here for breakfast before going fishing off Absecon Island. This was over 20 years ago, but I do remember the Spanish omelet being good and the scrapple was good too. In fact, this was probably the place where I first had scrapple. Someone always got cream chip beef on toast (not me). I have many fond memories of many bleary eyed breakfasts at 6am.

Wednesday, Kachin chicken curry and carrot salad (from Burma, rivers of flavor), rice. This curry turned out really tasty. It's a curry paste of dried red chillies (I used 5, seeded and soaked, recipe just says seeded but soaking makes them easier to grind in the mortar) salt, ginger, garlic, turmeric (I used fresh because I had some, recipe calls for dried), and coriander seeds. Mix with pieces of chicken chopped through the bone with a little bit of water (I used homemade stock cause I could) and steamed for an hour and 15 minutes or so. Thursday, roasted eggplant salad ยำมะเขือยาว (eggplant, beef, shallots, fried shallots, roasted chickpea flour, peanuts, culantro, mint, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, chillies, palm sugar), leftover chicken curry, rice. Friday, beef laap ลาบเนื้อ (shallots, mint [from the garden, it's growing like crazy], culantro, slivered kaffir lime leaves, sliced lemongrass, roasted galanga, roasted rice powder, roasted prik-ee-nu chilli powder, lime juice, fish sauce) ผักคะน้าน้ำมันหอย Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and smoked tofu, rice Saturday, Sri Lankan sauteed greens (mallung) and chicken curry (kukul mas), rice

N'ice Chouffe

Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce Chinese broccoli with salted fish Chinese broccoli with crispy pork belly crispy pork belly with holy basil rice with roast duck rice with roast pork seafood sukiyaki yen ta fo egg noodles with roast pork rice noodles with… (pork, blurry) rice noodles in tom yum jungle curry stir fried crispy fish in red curry paste

I thought hummus was Arabic for chickpeas so it's already plural and hummus bi tahina is the dish, chickpeas with tahini.

แกงไตปลา Southern Thai fish innard curry from Duangrat's. Duangrat's grocery not the restaurant. I don't think you will ever see this on the menu at Duangrat's or Rabieng (or anywhere around here). Very strong taste, and very very spicy hot delicious. >

That pan is for a Thai dish called kanom krok (which is great), but I think it is almost exactly the same as a abelskiver pan. I want the grill.

The online forum of which you speak is the Patch article linked in Mike's post. Take the time to read the comments, they are amazing. These apartheid people are real and not just internet trolls, my wife had a conversation with some yesterday. Words fail me.

Holy Basil again at the Thai market this week (Bangkok 54) Tuesday night, beef with holy basil (Nuea pad grapao เนื้อผัดใบà¸à¸°à¹€à¸žà¸£à¸²) with crispy fried egg (with runny yolk) on top of brown jasmine rice. Wednesday, jungle curry with chicken, eggplant and holy basil (gaeng ba gai à¹à¸à¸‡à¸›à¹ˆà¸²à¹„à¸à¹ˆ). It was face melting hot (oops), wife could not eat it but I enjoyed the thrill. Last night, chicken with holy basil, an omelet, and a festival of leftovers (five spice pork, tom yum chicken, jungle curry), rice.

A week or two ago I bought a pork leg from my butcher. At first we had a crossed conversation that resulted in me buying some bacon ends (always a good thing, he thought I wanted smoked ham hocks). After some clarification he procured a pork leg later in the week. I wanked to make a Thai/Chinese dish called Ka Mu Palo (ขาหมูผะโล่, pork leg in five spice i.e. the Thai version of red cooked pork). It's been years since I've had this dish, but I recently got some from the takeout section of the Bangkok 54 grocery (my go to for real Thai food) and I realized I missed it and would like to make my own. I really enjoyed the contrasting textures of the skin and cartilage and meat. Of course, I had way more pork than I needed for the stew (about 4 lbs in all), so over the course of the last two weeks I used the (very lean) meat from the upper part to make many other dishes. And I took some pictures I made my own ผะโล่ Chinese "five" spice powder (because I could) Here is the pork leg in the pressure cooker (and now the house smells like a Chinese grocery) The meat and skin came off the bone and were sliced. The stew made numerous appearances at various meals throughout the week, with deep fried tofu and hard boiled eggs added. The other parts of the leg became: Green curry แกงเขียวหวาน Chopped up it became part of glass noodle salad ยำวุ้นเส้น (pictured here with friends) Here is the pork leg stew with blanched Chinese broccoli and fried tofu and pork laap ลาบหมู (aka larb) from some of the extra meat. the red stuff is homemade chili garlic sauce that Thais always serve with palo (which by itself is not spicy) Later, pickled mustard greens were added to the stew (and some hard boiled eggs) Finally out of raw pork, the last two nights we had chicken tom yum ต้มยำไก่, tuna salad ยำปลากะพง and egg ไข่เจียว with the pork leg palo ขาหมูผะโล่ As always, everything is eaten with piles of jasmine rice and vegetables. The all Thai food diet was interrupted by two nights of Sri Lankan chicken curry. And a belated Happy (Thai/Lao/Burmese/Khmer/Sinhalese etc) New Year to all (2556)!

Grilled chicken salad (yum gai yang ยำไก่ย่าง) made with leftover grilled chicken from Sunday. Rice, and vegetables. Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace >

I had one more bag of holy basil to use before it went black and sad, so tonight we had the same thing as last night, but with pork instead of chicken (used one pork chop from Lets' Meat). Pork stir fried with holy basil and long beans with crispy egg, brown jasmine rice, vegetables and fish sauce with chillies (หมูผัดใบกะเพราไส่ถั่วฝักยาว) My plate

Chicken with holy basil and long beans (Gai pad bai grapao ไก่ผัดใบกะเพราไส่ถั่วฝักยาว), jasmine rice, crispy fried egg on top, with fish sauce with chillies (prik nam pla) and vegetables (lettuce, green radish, cucumber, long beans, grape tomatoes). Bangkok 54 has had holy basil pretty regularly this past month .

It was nice out, so I grilled a chicken. I marinated it with garlic, white pepper, cilantro roots (Great Wall has cilantro with roots at both locations), palm sugar, vegetarian "oyster" sauce, and soy sauce. Served with two dipping sauces, nam jim jaew (fish sauce, lime juice, sliced shallots, roasted rice powder, roasted chili powder, culantro, palm sugar) and sweet chili sauce (vinegar, sugar, garlic, chillies), rice, vegetables, and the requisite green papaya salad. ส้มตำ ไก่ย่าง >

No fish sauce (nam pla) or Lao fish sauce (pa dek/pla rah) in veggie laap, she uses soy sauce instead, so it will taste a little different, but still good. Here's a pic.

Last night, rice, vegetables, grilled chicken and green papaya salad. Tonight Gaeng Masaman แกงมัสมั่น (homemade curry paste, beef, potato, pineapple), green papaya salad again (som tum ส้มตำมะละกอ), vegetables and rice. >

Eggs with basil and shallots (with siracha sauce), cucumber, collard greens, dandelion greens, red cabbage, and carrots, Red curry with beef and pumpkin, green mango salad with smoked salmon, mint and peanuts (and chillies, garlic, shallots, palm sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce), Thai red rice. >

After consulting with a Thai friend, I have updated the translation above. I transliterated the Thai on the menu and used that for each dish name. The English on the menu is mostly transliterated Lao with some English words.

Som Tum Lao "“ green papaya salad with raw pickled crabs and pickled fresh water fish Som Tum Thai "“ green papaya salad with peanuts, palm sugar and dried shrimp Tum Teng "“ som tum made with cucumber Tum Sua- Som tum made with thin fresh rice noodles Som Tum Kai Kem "“ som tum with salted duck eggs Tum Mama Talay "“ seafood noodle salad (mama brand instant ramen) Tum pho tohu pla "“ fish tofu rice noodle (pho noodles) salad Peek Gai tord/yang "“ chicken wings fried/grilled Kor Mu Yang "“ grilled pork neck Mu Yang "“ grilled pork skewers Nam Tok Kor Mu Yang "“ grilled pork neck salad Sai Oua - sausage Gaeng Om Gai "“ herbal chicken curry/stew Gaeng Om Si Krong Mu "“ herbal pork rib curry/stew Gaeng Om Krueng Nai "“ herbal curry/stew with innards Gaeng Om Pla kot "“ herbal cod fish curry/stew Tom Sap Si Krong Mu "“ hot and sour pork rib stew/soup Tom Sap Tilapia "“ hot and sour Tilapia fish stew/soup Tom Sap Pla Kot "“ hot and sour cod fish stew/soup Tom Sap Flounder "“ hot and sour flounder stew/soup Tom Sap talay "“ hot and sour mixed seafood stew/soup Laap Mu Krueng Nai "“ chopped pork and pork innards salad Laap Nua Krueng Nai "“ chopped beef and beef innards salad Laap Gai Krueng Nai "“ chopped chicken and chicken innards salad Laap Pla Krob - crispy cod fish laap Kao Soi Kai "“ chicken curry noodle soup (Northern Thai) Keap Mu + Nam Prik Noom "“ pork rinds with roasted green chili sauce (Northern Thai)

This menu is in Thai (not Lao). Which means I can read it. I'll translate it to the best of my ability when I get a chance (I'm not fluent).