Is there any difference between lo mein (Chinese egg noodles) and ba mee (Thai Chinese-influenced egg noodles)?

From the pictures I see when searching for them on Google, they look the same to me.

Thank you so much for the fantastic reply!

I wasn't able to find black soy sauce at my local Asian grocer, so I ended up using Kecap Manis instead.

Tomorrow I will be going to the bigger (and further) Asian store to look for Thai black soy sauce.

I am planning to cook a Thai recipe by Kasma Loha-Unchit that calls for black soy sauce. In her site, she recommend the Kwong Hung Seng Thai brand: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/bran.... In her book, she describes that this soy sauce is thick as light syrup and its flavor is sweet, almost like molasses.

The description of this sauce sounds very similar to Indonesian Kecap Manis, which I have in my fridge. I am wondering if these two soy sauces are basically the same, or if they're different enough that I should invest in the Thai one.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Thanks RoboKaren! That makes sense.

Great info, thanks a lot!

I was just now investigating the possibility of growing my own tree.
Does your kaffir lime tree produce any fruit?
Do you keep it indoors or outdoors?

OK cool. I'm happy with "tasty" :)

So the soaking time is the same for both types?

Photo is attached. Yeah, styrofoam would be a good way to describe it.

Do they require different treatments? Which one is preferred?

I see. Are they still edible if I make a thin chiffonade though?

I have been trying to find holy basil in local South East Asian shops, with no luck.

I am now considering the possibility of planting the seeds in my small backyard. Does anyone know of a good place to buy holy basil seeds (online)?

Thank you in advance for any advice!

I'm using fresh ones, but since I can only find them in big bags, I always freeze a bunch. Is freezing not recommended?

I'm new to Thai cooking. Several recipes I looked at call for cutting Kaffir lime leaves small, or for torn leaves, instead of whole leaves. I assumed that they would be added whole to curries and then removed before eating (sort of like bay leaves).

However, since several recipes call to cut them small, I am wondering if people typically eat them. The ones I've been using don't seem too appetizing - they're quite tough. Maybe I shouldn't be freezing them?

Got it. I'd like to cut it in pieces, so I'll soak it for a few hours.
Thank you!

I picked it up in Kirkland. They can transfer the meat to any location though - in fact, the guy said that they received the meat in another location on Friday, and transferred it to Kirkland on Saturday morning.

I got boneless hind leg, and the price was around $20 a pound. Expensive, but I think it's worth it for such a hard to find and fresh piece of meat. Not for everyday, but a worthy indulgence!

Thank you so much for the great replies!
Those really are great ideas, and they encourage me to experiment with ingredients I haven't worked with before, something I'm always looking to do.

To prepare the fish maw, I assume I just need to soak it overnight?

I picked up the venison on Saturday. It looks beautiful and fresh! You can see the attached photo, after I chopped it.

They told me at Metropolitan that they get it from a farm in Oregon. I only bought a pound, but they had to order a bit chunk of it to be able to sell me only a pound. I hope they can sell the remaining meat.

The meat is marinating now, and I'm planning to cook it tonight. Looking forward to it!

I picked up a dried fish maw from a Chinese store, with the goal of making Chinese fish maw soup.

Does anyone have a good recipe or good ideas/advice on how to make soup with fish maw? I searched my Chinese cookbook collection and couldn't find one single mention of this soup. I found a few recipes on the internet, but I'm not thrilled with any of them.

Thank you for any replies!

Yelm is a bit far for me... but it seems like they're also at Pike Place!
Will check them out next time I make it there. Thanks for the recommendation.

I will for sure post here when I get the meat. I can't wait! :)

Got it! Thanks!

That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

Thank you Fátima - that is extremely useful information!

Now that I know the name of the pepper, I did a quick search, but could not find evidence of these two chilis being the same. The latin name for the Thai prik chii faa is "Capsicum annuum Linn. var acuminatum Fingerh." according to the following source:
http://www.ajofai.info/Abstract/Antio...

I couldn't find the latin name for the Indian Finger Hot Chile.

They seem to have a similar level of hotness though (depending on which source you believe...), so maybe they're a good substitute for eachother.

Do you know of any traditional Indian dishes that call for the Indian Finger Hot Chile?

mahlzeit_yumyum,

Maybe you're assuming that the chilies in the photo are "Indian long peppers" based on the sign I mentioned was next to them. But I don't think they are. If you google for "Indian long peppers" or "Piper longum", and look at images, you will see that they look very different from the peppers in the photo.
https://www.google.com/search?q=piper...

They do in fact look very much like "Prik Chii Faa" to me. I don't know if "Prik Chii Faa" are also used in Indian cooking.

I was hoping to see some Indian person purchase these while I was in the store so I could ask which dish they cook with them. However, everyone I saw shopping for chilies was going straight for the regular Thai chilies (the "Prik Kee Noo").

Actually, I just called Metropolitan and they will get it for Friday! I did not expect them to get it that easily.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will check out the other places, just because I'm always looking for good places to buy meat.

Thanks firecracker! Those are great suggestions!
I will call them and see what they can order.

I am wondering if anyone knows where I can find venison in the Seattle area.

Thank you in advance for any replies!

I found the chilie peppers you see in the photo attached at a local Indian store. The sign next to them simply said "long peppers". I am wondering if anyone can help me identify what kind of peppers these are.

In particular, I am wondering if these are Thai "prik chii faa".

Thank you in advance for any replies!

Oh! That blog post has a photo of the potato dish I was talking about! Apparently it's called tudou qiu. Ah, good memories...

The Yunnan restaurant we used to go to in Beijing is called "Back to Lijiang". We went to a few other restaurants in other parts of town, but I don't recognize the names in the blog post.

I just made two batches of yogurt, one using a cooler and another one using sous vide. As a starter, I used yogotherm cultures. All the milk was heated and cooled to the same temperature, at the same time, in the same pot (82C and then 42C). The sous vide was set to 42C and the yogurt in the cooler had some towels and hot water bottles around it, and was placed near the fire place. I let both batches of yogurt stay at this temperature for the same amount of time (7 hours or so).

The result was interesting... both batches came out with the same consistency, but the sous vide yogurt is a lot more sour than the cooler one. The only difference between the two batches is really the temperature at which they were held.

Can anyone explain to me what causes sourness in the yogurt, and why the sous vide batch came out so much more sour?

Ah, yes, good point.
I usually buy fresh curry leaves east of the lake, at Mayuri. They always carry small bags of it. Plus I just love going there - it feels like I'm in India! :)