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Nước Mắm
Nuoc Mam, aka fish sauce, is a staple of Vietnamese cooking. It has a very fishy (surprise!) and salty taste. It can be used both as an element in the cooking process and as a condiment (this condiment dipping sauce is not the same though!)
In its pure form, as it would be used for the cooking process, fish sauce looks like this:
Click here to find out more about the magical wonders of fish sauce
Poached Scrambled Boiling Vortex Eggs
Arthur shared with me this post and I decided to give Daniel Patterson’s “poached scrambled eggs” a try. Short version of the story – it works. Swirling a pot filled with water and dropping beaten eggs into the boiling whirlpool for 20 seconds before straining will create fluffy scrambled eggs.
I was skeptical at first about how the eggs would turn out. As the eggs swirled around, I peeked into the pot and saw that the eggs had shredded as it circulated through the whirpool. It didn’t look tasty, and it didn’t even look cooked. It just looked like a messy glob of yellow strings. After straining though, the egg somehow coagulated together and became a nice bed of fluffy eats. I’d definitely recommend trying it at least once, at least because it’s such an interesting and quick way to cook eggs.
Chocolate Dipped Macaron
I’ve never heard of a chocolate dipped macaron, but I stopped by Columbus Circle’s Bouchon and stopped in my tracks as soon as I saw it glistening in the display. There were a few flavors available, including caramel and chocolate. I chose pumpkin, since I love fall flavors and pumpkin. Here’s a picture of the hockey-puck sized monstrosity:

It is absolutely divine. The chocolate coating was really thick – maybe a full 2 milimeters thick, revealing the macaron inside. You can’t tell how well-made the shell is since the usual flaky crunchiness was masked by the chocolate. The chocolate was still “crunchy” though in the way that chilled chocolate dipped things usually are. The pumpkin flavor was still really vibrant though and paired surprisingly well with chocolate. Shell aside, the crumbly delicate rich texture of the macaron was still amazing and I am now a fan.

