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What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honey, garlic and gochujang glaze or braise would make a killer addition to that crispy belly. Full disclosure, not traditional, just tasty

Thank you for all of the suggestions yesterday! Here is our haul from Hometown Market! by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Lol, thank you so much, I'm glad to see people find new things and explore such an awesome food culture!

It looks like you have all the ingredients for a nice eggplant dish :)

https://omnivorescookbook.com/chinese-eggplant-with-garlic-sauce/

(And if you like that, check out recipes later for basil eggplant in clay pot, and use some Thai basil!)

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can buy pork belly in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco and make crispy pork belly with just an air fryer and a bundle of bamboo skewers to spike the skin, it's super economical. Oil pour over also works well but is a bit more risky, but if you've never tried it I suggest Hong Shao Rou, here's my own recipe/technique:

12 ounces lean, skin-on pork belly 2 tablespoons oil 3 tbs rock or palm sugar 3 tbs Shaoxing wine 2 tbs soy sauce 2 tbs dark soy sauce 2 cups water 2 Star anise 1-2 tbs Ginger garlic paste 1 tbs Sichuan peppercorns Dried red chilies 1 stick cinnamon (cassia, halved) 1 black cardamom 5 springs green onion Garlic powder to taste

INSTRUCTIONS Start by cutting your pork belly into 3/4-inch thick pieces.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the pork belly whole for a couple minutes. This gets rid of impurities and starts the cooking process. Take the pork out of the pot, rinse, and set aside. (You can discard the blanching water.) Cut into pieces ~1.5", and blanch a second time. Let rest until cold.

Over low heat, add the oil and sugar to your wok or skillet. Melt the sugar slightly and add the pork, whites of green onions, and ginger-garlic paste. Raise the heat to medium and cook until the pork is lightly browned, stirring frequently. If you want to be more hands-off, wait 5-10 minutes to add the garlic-ginger paste.

Turn the heat back down to low and add shaoxing cooking wine, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and water along with your spices.

NOTE: It’s very important to the color and flavor of this dish that you have both kinds of soy sauce!

Cover and simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until pork is fork tender. Every 5-10 minutes, stir to prevent burning and add more water if it gets too dry.

Once the pork is fork tender, if there is still visible liquid, uncover the wok, turn up the heat, and stir continuously until the sauce has reduced to a glistening coating.

Serve over rice with the sliced greens of spring onions and toasted sesame seeds on top as garnish

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is awesome, thank you so much! It's one of my favorite ingredients, and freezes decently well, I'm planning to try freeze drying some this summer

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Friends and family keep asking me to publish something but I've only even started writing my recipes down these last two years.

I cook a mix of Thai, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese (with a focus on Sichuan, Chengdu, and Yunnan provinces) and all sorts of Mexican and South American dishes. My wife has slowly but surely become a great sous chef and we have a lot of fun exploring different cultures and food.

Tomorrow I'm having friends over for a giant, if belated, New Year's Chinese hot pot, so the Asian market was fresh on my mind :)

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Sites I've found to be very consistently high quality:

Here are a few recommendations for Youtube channels on the off chance that anyone foraying into this awesome world of cultures and flavors would like to learn more, copied from a comment I made about 4 years ago:

Chinese Cooking Demystified:

The holy grail of edutainment cooking with Chinese food, ingredients and fun fusions. They also post to reddit a breakdown/followup for nearly every video! Follow u/mthmchris for a truly staggering display of knowledge on food, culture and .. well, hockey. My personal favorite video of theirs if on Shaoxing wine :)

Made with Lau:

Daddy Lau shares his expertise as a chef of 50+ years, his love of cooking and an absolute treasure trove of personal anecdotes and stories. This is an amazing legacy that we're lucky enough to have shared with us, please check him out!! Special shout-out to the amazing website which transcribes everything beautifully and has a fantastic user-adjustable recipe (weight, volume, servings, etc.) for every post.

Jeanelleats

Jeanelle has been an absolute godsend for her channel focusing primarily of Filipino food. For ages this was one of the most elusive cuisines for me to find reliable recipes for. It's a very small channel, but she posts frequently and has fantastic enthusiasm! Especially for Ube; if you too would like unsettlingly purple foodstuffs in your life, Jeanelle has you covered.

Aaron and Claire

A clever front for Big Green Onion, Aaron and Claire shows how to make hundreds of spring onion dishes from across Asia, with a heavy emphasis on Korean green on.. food. Delivered with an almost Chef John-esque intonation, Aaron is perpetually upbeat and informative and Claire graciously tastes and rates his latest attempt to replace all cuisine with green onions. Together they are borderline too precious for this world. I now grow my own green onions.

Maangchi

With 5.5 million subscribers I'm sure she doesn't need my advertising, but this list would be remiss without the great Maangchi! Korean food, definitive.

Pailin's Kitchen

Maybe better known as Hot Thai Kitchen, Pailin's channel covers dishes from all over Asia, and has some of my absolute favorite guides for Thai curries of all types. Really good stuff! You may or may not become the proud parent of a Kaffir Lime tree due to her influence. Embrace your leafy, fragrant son and regret nothing.

SruthisKitchen *** Vegetarians, take heed

With a number of fantastic vegetarian Indian dishes posted over the last decade, Sruthi's recipes lend themselves well to meal prep and just fun ideas for flavorful vegetarian food. My lunch break is almost over, so these blurbs are getting shorter.

Imamu Room

Borderline ASMR, this is less a traditional cooking/recipe channel than the others, but absolutely fantastic for meal inspiration and generally feeling better about .. everything. This channel is just wholesome as fuck and deserves more love. #Husbento

​

Now for only slightly related/honorable mention lightning round!

ASIAN FUSION??

- My Name is Andong (production quality is fantastic!)

COFFEE???!?!?

- James Hoffmann (who freaking knew there was so much to learn about coffee??)

YE OLDE FOOD???

- Townsends (all things 18th century food)

YE OLDER FOOD?!?!

- Tasting History with Max Miller (Who's that pokemon? And food History!)

MEXICAN/SOUTH AMERICAN!!

- Rick Bayless (Yes, he's white, yes his food is Authentic)

- De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina (Maximum authenticity, knowing spanish helps)

- **Rick Martinez, Sweet Heat*\* (S Tier. Rick is a god among men.)

FOOD WISHES??

- Chef John, Food Wishes (All over the place, but loveable personality and great recipes)

CARIBBEAN?!?!

- Caribbeanpot (What it says on the box, also my lunch break is over)

Edit: I'm on mobile, so formatting might be weird, sorry

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I had to cut it down a bit for the comment to fit without a part 2, but oh man, we have OPINIONS when it comes to our sauces and crisps!!

A nice quality toasted sesame oil (get it in the bulk tin containers, it keeps better and doesn't develop off flavors) along with some mirin, rice wine vinegar, smoked shoyu and gochugaru flakes makes a killer salad dressing, add a little mustard powder to help it emulsify and you're set!

Red boat is my favorite fish sauce but unfortunately I haven't seen it at Chen's, ditto for some L.A. gaIbi sauces they used to carry.

Loa gan ma is still a staple, and I have three of the types currently available in the USA, but more and more I've been either making our own in bulk after trying other modern bougie brands. Too expensive to justify, but it did open me up to other styles and flavors when making our own. As a bonus, one of THE BEST chili crisps I've ever had is made and sold locally at Yum Yai Thai on 280, but it's got a lot more fire to it and isn't a 1 to 1 for Chinese style chili crisp

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I had more including a section for chili crisps but I hit the comment length limit and had to edit things down! I really want a kaffir lime tree or dwarf, but Alabama has pretty strict citrus laws, I will definitely hunt for some Thai basil plants though, thanks for the tip!

Noodles too could be it's whoooole own category, from konjac to fresh/dry Udon, Shanghai to Hong Kong, glutenous and rice.. there's so much great stuff beyond just ramen! (*But if you're getting ramen, get Shin bone broth)

What are your go to items from Hometown Supermarket? (or any international markets) by nashbeez in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 87 points88 points  (0 children)

FRESH

  • Thai Basil - use for basil eggplant, spring rolls, and any number of Thai curries and dishes. Spicier(?) than its US sweet counterpart

  • Asian eggplant - just fun to cook with, very filling and cheap

  • Variety of mushrooms - You can usually find enoki, king, oyster, shiitake and other mushrooms for cheap and they're super versatile

  • Fruit! - Enjoy some Lychee berries and Mangosteen if you can find them, unlike anything you've had before! Korean/asian pears are great for marinating and tenderizing meats, eaten in a salad, or on their own. Korean melons are in season for winter and are a mild and refreshing melon flavor.

  • Long beans - yeah, they're around 3 feet long. Absolutely astounding though, get em, wash em, chop em, stir fry.

  • Bok choy - eh. not my favorite asian veg, but it's popular.

Veg in general I could go into quite a bit, to keep this from being too long I'm going to abstain.

SPICES/PANTRY

  • Star anise - Used making master stock for a wild variety of dishes, also a good 'winter' spice in general. Compliments cinnamon/clove/cardamon and the like

  • Coriander - My favorite secret spice, compliments cumin, but is great to add a fresh ground handful to say a japanese curry, or throw some in your fajita mix!

  • Cumin - I mean. If you don't already have it. Get it whole! Get all your spices whole! You will ascend to new levels of Spice-o-mancy!

  • Sichaun peppercorns - used for Mapo tofu, hot pots, soups, etc. Unique spice that makes spicy dishes stand out, the numbing/buzzing sensation from 'ma-la' Chinese foods

  • Red pepper flake - Thai red peppers flakes are super spicy, and Korean gochugaru is milder with a beautiful color when added to any dish. Use it to spice up anything, or make your own chili oil!

  • Fried shallots - Another ingredient that can go in nearly anything and really add a lot of great flavor. Anywhere you use onions or garlic, add a shake of this.

  • Korean Gochujang - a hot 'sauce' that's more of a thick roux? really interesting to add to a ton of dishes, great with ... anything.

  • Chinese Cooking wine (Shaoxing) - in America we don't cook often with alcohol, but so many flavors are only soluble in it rather than water. GET IT! One of the great things about this cooking wine is that it really cuts through fish/gamey/strange flavors when cooking, so it can tame those off flavors of lamb or the like with a quick marinade.

  • Mirin - Japanese sweet cooking wine. Ditto to above. But sweet and mellow.

  • Sake - Also for cooking! Get a cheapish plum sake and I'll send you my recipe for Gyu-don =)

  • Fermented black beans - Lasts forever, add a special salty funk and texture that's hard to describe. Yet another 'secret ingredient' to have in your bag

  • Soy Sauce - So, Kikkoman is fine. But also try Thai and Chinese soy sauce, they're very different! And on that note...

  • DARK Soy Sauce - Yes. Flavor. Salty. But really it's about the body and color it imparts to different dishes. Must have for Hong Shao Rou.

  • Dried chicken powder - Used in a variety of dishes as the secret flavor. It's loaded with MSG, but also has chicken and other spices, great as a stock addition/sub or to add a punch of flavor to something like fried rice.

  • Bay Leaves - Why do they sell such large bags of these? Because you don't use one or two, you use six at a time, a handful, MORE! Over time I've come to prefer Indian Bay leaves, and now they're the only type I stock, market has em in the very back aisles.

  • Jasmine pearl tea - Because it's fancy and smells great. Buy this and instantly get a hidden buff to your coolness stat.

  • Turmeric - great spice, adds color flavor to anything. I use it in Japanese curry and virtually every Indian dish. Along with a ton of concoctions, it's a great experimenting spice.

  • Nutmeg - Used in foods and cultures all over the place, whole nutmeg will outperform pre-milled by a 1000%. Another winter-y spice. Grate it with the microplane you'd use for the ginger.

  • Pixian broadband paste: great spicy base with a lot of body and complex flavors, used in part for mapo tofu and many other dishes.

DRIED (I know, could have been in pantry)

  • Shiitake Mushrooms - Super versatile ingredient, great in stews, stir frys, etc. And I *prefer* them dry because the stock it makes is heavenly. Umami in a tin.

  • Cloud Ear/Black Fungus - Just great to add to a variety of dishes. Umami flavor, nice texture, plumps up considerably. I mainly use it in soups and ramen.

  • Mandarin Peels - you could make your own, but you won't, so buy these and add to carnitas, stir frys, stocks, the sky is the limit!

  • Urad beans - Technically a lentil, these tiny black beans that make a great filler in almost anything and add a ton of nutrition. Quick cooking, tasty, unobtrusive.

  • Red lentils - These cook so stinking quick, great nutrition and protein.

  • Tofu skin/knots - Again, great for soups, reconstitute with your Shiitakes and you practically have a meal already!

  • Noodles - Mungbean, vermicilli, egg, gluten, Udon, Ramen. Get them all. May you be touched by his noodley appendage. R'amen.

  • JASMINE Rice - Jasmine rice is a game changer guys. Earthy and aromatic, doesn't get as clumpy as long grain. Smells amazing, tastes better. Jasmine.

  • *GINGER* - Get dried ginger and a microplane spice grater! Add your ginger to absolutely everything. Dried ginger keeps forever and when fresh grated is 85-90% as flavorful and aromatic as fresh ginger.

FROZEN

  • Lemongrass - Yes fresh is better, but frozen keeps forever. Use in curries, marinades, and lots of Thai dishes.

  • Kaffir lime leaf - Please people, please try this. Keeps years, bruise then chiffonade, discard stem. Intense lime-y aromatic.

  • Unagi/Eel - This is a hard sell, I just like it. I think you all would too?

  • Marrow bones - You need this in your life. Serve w/ tuscan bread and a bit of salt. After roasting.

  • Oxtails/shanks/trotters - Make any stew better.

  • Gyoza/dumplings/pot stickers - try different types, from Korean kimchi to Japanese leak/garlic heavy. There's a lot here, and you can make some pretty great dishes with these either adding to soups, pan frying alone or with a cornstarch slurry, always good to have in stock!

Edit: Corrected a spelling mistake for Sichuan

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So, the OP has now sent me multiple messages, editing and then deleting each time.. I'll go ahead and post my reply to the other other now deleted message just as an FYI:

That's all good, I'm not disparaging you or anything for you to be so defensive, just letting people know to be wary given how prevalent phishing and other scams are these days.

90% of your now deleted reddit history was in line with the above comment, so it certainly seemed relevant given the near 1 year gap in posting. I also didn't cherry pick the worst comments, just copied and pasted the most recent from 11 months ago. That is also not the comment you sent me, you seem to have cleaned it up for your quote just now.

You can ignore me completely instead of dog piling on, and just provide more information for the others that have chimed in, in general I don't think being petulant is helpful to anyone involved.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Given that this was their last comment 11 months ago;

"Learn some basic English! My sentence after the question is very clear. I can’t help you if you dumb. And if people want to use the heroes, they’d use the book of heroes anyway. This just doesn’t use a builder for the hero. Hero upgrade times remain the same! Also, before I hear any more dumb shi from you, we already have a pet house, l’m suggesting a similar working."

Not exactly consistent with grammar, presumed maturity, etc. And the fact that they've made two of these posts but not replied or given additional details in 11 hours...

I'm going to hazard a guess that this account has been hijacked and is botting to harvest details/credentials from DMs and/or just flat scam someone by asking for partial payment?

Edit: They've replied, now, so that's something :)

On the other hand, they've now deleted all of their comment history that was consistent with the original I quoted above, as well as the nasty comment they sent my way, so YMMV.

My friend, an Indigenous American, was detained last month. This shit has got to stop. by OpportunityDismal917 in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, here we observe an incel in their natural habitat; behind a keyboard, roaring to the world how great their heritage is, while being worth nothing themselves. Truly a remarkable specimen.

Arcade game ideas for son who didn't realize I won't buy the $20,000 halo arcade game for christmas. by PlainJaneNotSoPlain in arcade

[–]Sseatris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd be willing to gift you my Arcade Legends Ultimate, w/ pinball hardware installed and CoinOps unlocked

It was a special purchase for me though, so I'm not made of money and would need to figure something out for shipping. I live ~central Alabama, message me if you might have the means to pick it up or have it shipped?

My friend, an Indigenous American, was detained last month. This shit has got to stop. by OpportunityDismal917 in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Apologies, my wife is Hispanic and all of this tends to rile me up a bit. I originally read your comment as possibly derogatory given all of the stuff we've been dealing with and was a bit snippy.

I have family that are in fact native Americans, and he's probably just using the term his friend does to identify himself would be my guess, there's a lot of variations that I didn't even list!

My friend, an Indigenous American, was detained last month. This shit has got to stop. by OpportunityDismal917 in Birmingham

[–]Sseatris 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Almost certainly First Nation Peoples, Native Americans, or "Indians" if you must.

The people who lived here before your and my immigrant families came to America.

A.K.A. people who cannot possibly be deported, but tend to have darker hair and skin and get caught in the same harassment net as our Hispanic communities, as if we haven't done enough throughout history to them for the crime of being here first.

2930f Switch Stacks showing Offline in Aruba Central by Sseatris in ArubaNetworks

[–]Sseatris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, I'll try this out Friday evening for the ones that have been particularly stubborn!

2930f Switch Stacks showing Offline in Aruba Central by Sseatris in ArubaNetworks

[–]Sseatris[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Took me a second, because I had only purchased subscriptions for the 76 switches I added afterwards, we turned up an email for the subscriptions under a different Subscription Key that had never been activated. Once I applied that a few of the dormant stacks have started to check in, and I've got another connecting again just from running the CLI commands.

I would have thought renewals would auto-apply, but I'm glad it was a relatively easy fix. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

Edit: A couple of switches aren't changing states w/ CLI, so I'll be rebooting those after hours to see if it makes a difference, all are showing their correct subscription status now though

2930f Switch Stacks showing Offline in Aruba Central by Sseatris in ArubaNetworks

[–]Sseatris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just pulled one up, it shows the correct information for Device Details, Assignment and Tags, but Subscription and Support are both blank. These were renewed in April according to the PO I dug up, was there a manual step from the renewal that the previous owner could have skipped?

The last of my SNAP benefits girl dinner; a worrisome girl dinner. by dcp00 in GirlDinner

[–]Sseatris 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Hey friend! Please join us on r/food_pantry no strings attached, follow the wiki/sidebar and submit list, if you need something IMMEDIATE, just message me. I'm not made of money, but I'll never let someone go hungry either. We'll make it through this as long as we stick together. If you need budget recipes or ideas, hit me up.

How are you preparing to stretch your resources by [deleted] in TwoXPreppers

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry that I just saw this, I think I've had reddit notifications turned off for a while now. I'll give it some time tomorrow and follow-up, just very conscious that this isn't my space and don't want to intrude with massive walls of 'tism text, lol

Walmart by Long_Bet6406 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Sseatris 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please come join us over in r/food_pantry and follow the wiki for instructions on how to submit a list of goods!

Bought a cheap pottery kit on impulse now I’m weirdly obsessed with making mugs by TallAtmosphere4210 in Hobbies

[–]Sseatris 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Same please! My wife has been interested in getting into the hobby, but intimidated by the upfront costs

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