Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Seriously being mocked by you is an honour. Am only too happy to be mocked.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
capsasin
And I thought you were about to mock me for misspelling capsaicin ... multiple times.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Aboriginal cultures had a deep understanding of the movements of the stars.
I also liked that they knew how to calculate Venus rising at dawn over a particular site. It's not a simple calculation since it varies from year to year with a complicated cycle. When asked how they knew which day it would rise at that location they replied "we count the days *", which for a culture not meant to be able to count past 5 is interesting.
* I'm pretty sure there was a silent "stupid" in the sentence.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to JacksonP,
Apparently you can become desensitised to Chilli
Yup and as Lucy said it’s because the receptor for the capsasin (the hot compound) gets down-regulated. What that means is the more the receptor gets triggered the less receptor is made so the next time you come in contact you are less sensitive.
In food terms it means as you eat more chili hot food you become less sensitive to the chili. The effect builds up over months and lasts a couple of months. It’s biology at work.
What is really interesting (if you are a science geek) is that the capsasin receptor (the actual molecule) is the same receptor that responds to physical heat and chemical pain. So if you rub your hands daily with capsasin you will be able to hold physically hotter things without pain. Note that doesn’t prevent the burn damage just stops you feeling the pain.
Warning below may put you off your dinner…
This actually has practical applications. Since the capsasin receptor is the same as the chemical pain receptor, for people with chronic and painful bladder infections one effective treatment for the pain is to flush the bladder with capsasin (under general anesthetic). This provides relief from the pain for 1 to 3 months. -
Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to BenWilson,
Also very good if you like the taste of spit in your food, which I personally don't.
Chefs do NOT put saliva in your food. Proper chefs use a new spoon for every tasting, they will cook with half a dozen small spoons tucked into their whites.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Russell Brown,
For one of the RWC games, I had some folks around and served curried lamb shanks, slow-cooked for six hours. Was sensational.
For the NZ France game we did Lamb studded with garlic slivers and marinated overnight in Kim's spice mix (roasted cumin seeds then ground) then cooked for 12 hours at 140C with a tin of chopped tomatoes thrown in the bottom of the roasting pan ... OMFG!
NZ won the Rugby and the desserts (pavlova FTW)
But France won the cheeses and the Syrah -
Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to BenWilson,
The most obvious solution, something that many smaller shops around Auckland are doing on an increasing basis, is supplying the table with a selection of seasonings. Pepper, salt, sugar, chili oil and powder.
...Then you serve the food slightly on the bland side, for the convenience of those who prefer it that way, and yet those who prefer heat can simply add it.
Those seasonings change the flavour of the food as it cooks. If you add the seasoning afterwards you may as well just eat a seasoning sandwich. Really good indian flavours come from cooking the spices to extract and alter the aromatics with heat. And then if you are lucky the dish will be cooked over several days to truly incorporate the flavours.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to BenWilson,
because there are no convenient measurement systems.
Um taste the food as you cook?????????
Oh you mean objective measurement - most great chefs train and use their own palate as the best objective tool they have.
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Oh and just to balance my criticisms I recommend Crave in Morningside for good coffee and really good scones etc.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Ok I'll give LI another try.
As you say Mekong Neua does understand chili which is a big plus. I do suspect you are right that some things on their menu they don't do as well as others.
Which raises the question, if you know that you don't cook a good dish then why would you put it on your menu? It would be like inviting friends over and serving them something you know you can't cook well. Especially if you know you can cook something else very well.
It's the same problem I have with the chinese restaurants in Balmoral, they each (apparently) can cook one thing well but their menu contains every possible dish so unless you know exactly what to order your chances of getting the one good thing are miniscule.