The weekend report: food
Tue, Nov. 1st, 2005 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI think I spent the entire week ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija was here talking about food. There were brief forays into other topics, such as books, sex, manga, cracktastic elements in all of the above, and assorted anecdotes which (imho) prove that Murphy is the maker of the universe. Or that he is at least personally interested in some people's lives. But mostly, food. As mentioned previously, there was an extended conversation that centered solely on tropical fruit, another one on Indian and Thai desserts, another on fancy restaurants, much extolling of street food and hole-in-the-wall places, and the joys of local food.
I really didn't mean to talk constantly about food! And I swear, it wasn't all that noticeable until the final few days, when we kept trying to talk about other things, but ended up getting sidetracked by food yet again.
I have decided that I need to take a food tour of the world. Rachel will take me around India,yhlee and yuneicorn will take me around Korea, K. will take me around the South, telophase can take me around Texas (barbeque!), fannishly will enlist her cousins to bring me to Brazil, and of course, then I will drag everyone off to Taiwan and feed them until they explode.
Now all I need are more people (well, that, and money and time)! Come on... you know you want to come. And it doesn't even need to be places outside of the US (ex.coffeeandink, I make large blinky eyes at you and implore you to take me to the marvelous dessert place you were talking about)! Although I also want to go have non-Ethiopian African, assorted Continental, Russian, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, etc. etc. etc. And now, I must stop before I get totally sidetracked from the weekend report by food. How ironic ;).
After the day of Ethiopian and Chinese food (here), me and Rachel and Angela went to Japantown San Jose for Gombei (the SJ one is better than the Menlo Park one, imho, because it's next to the San Jose Tofu Company and as such gets fresh tofu!). Unfortunately, got there a bit too late and missed it =(. So we ended up sort of wandering about and getting Korean -- the little dishes of pickled things that I really love, dol sot bi bim bap (I keep trying to pronounce it properly, but I don't think it's working, anyway, the stone pot rice dish thing), bul-go-gi (bbq beef) and pa jun (sort of a pancakey thing with seafood and scallions inside), and it was good.
Dinner was Afghani food! I've only had it once before. It seems to involve a lot of meat on a stick, which I heartily approve on. I think most foods would be improved if they were on a stick.
Well, maybe not melty foods.
Still! Meat! On a stick!
And a spinach dish that was sort of like palak paneer, lamb stew and meat-stuffed dumplings in yogurt sauce. I have decided I like Afghani food. I suspect this isn't really a surprise, given that I tend to like pretty much all food that I meet. And it was interesting because it felt like a cross between Mediterranean/Greek food and Indian. Rachel mentioned that the tea she got reminded her a great deal of the tea in India.
Then, the usual Sunday farmer's market, which was very different! One, Rachel kept wandering off, distracted by other stalls ("Ooooo! *insert food here*" was uttered a lot). Two, fall foods! Persimmons piled on tables, apples everywhere, lots of chestnuts. We were debating getting chestnuts to roast over the fire -- I have lovely memories of the chestnuts sold on the streets in Taiwan, roasting in a giant wok filled with charcoal, Rachel had memories of roasting them over a fire for Christmas. Chestnuts were passed over partially because we had lots of food already, partially because neither me nor Rachel was sure about how to roast chestnuts on the stove and didn't particularly want to risk killing anyone with exploding chestnut in the kitchen.
And there were still sugar snap peas! I think the English peas are out of season, even though they're still there (the last batch I had in early October were very starchy and not at all sweet), alas. There was much sampling of Asian pears and apples and grapes, and I found a stand that sells hummus! Obviously, many, many peas were bought, along with green onion bread, salmon spread, apples (Fuji and Jonagold) and pasties. I asked the apple guy that I go to if they were going to have Honeycrisps; sadly, they just planted the trees this year and aren't expecting anything till next year. Maybe some other stands will.
It took two episodes of VMars for me and Rachel to shell all the peas! And then the rats were on the couch with the bags of empty pea pods, and man were they happy rats! Fitz-rat sort of buried himself in the bag, nose twitching wildly.
Then... the fondue! Cheddar cheese and beer in one pot and swiss cheese with wild mushrooms and white wine in another, one was wonderfully sharp and the other earthy and mellower. Dippables included broccoli, apples, grapes, carrots (all raw), cooked potatoes, roasted garlic, eensy weensy pickles, olives, tiny pickled pearl onions, and lots of bread. I think pretty much everyone was confused by the dippability of the garlic and the pickled items, so I just ate the garlic and the olives and probably had horrible smelling breath while Rachel ate the garlic and the pickles. I ate Angela's garlic too. Roasted garlic is tasty. And!yuneicorn and K. said that apples and grapes in cheddar were good, so despite her misgivings, Rachel tried them and was converted! (they are good. I think they would not have been good with the swiss-mushroom, but the sharpness and the sweetness works really well, though strangely)
There were many vegetable casualties, especially the potatoes, which apparently don't enjoy being speared and dipped into hot cheese and crumbled in the pot in protest.
And then... chocolate! Milk chocolate and hazelnut liquor in one pot and the other was something called "The Decadent One." I think it was a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, Kahlua, and... probably some other chocolate. It was ridiculously good. Especially with ... well, pretty much everything! My personal ranking of the dippables is (from worst to best): pineapples, oranges, marshmallows, Snickers bars, pound cake and then... everything else (rice krispy balls, apples, grapes, bananas, strawberries, little roll cookie things, cream cheese balls). Bananas in chocolate are good. Apples in chocolate are good.
Actually, pretty much anything dipped in chocolate was good. I feel a little bad about monopolizing the conversation, which ranged from Firefly to... food, food and more food. I think other people at the table ended up staring at me and Rachel and wondering a) how in the world we could still talk about food after eating all that, b) how in the world we could still find so much to say about food and c) how in the world we were still eating random slices of apple and rice krispy balls.
Really, it was quite easy! This is because approximately 25% of my brain is devoted to food, another 25% is devoted to books, and 25% is devoted to sundry things, including yarn and rats. The final 25% is probably perpetually empty, which explains why I keep being surprised by the same things (poor Angela... everytime we do something, I always say the same things. Ex. Every single drive down to Borders will inevitably have me exclaiming, "Oooo! An Afghani restaurant! We should go!" despite having said this eighteen other times, while Angela tiredly nods and smiles).
More reports on books/manga and random funny stories to come!
rachelmanija was here talking about food. There were brief forays into other topics, such as books, sex, manga, cracktastic elements in all of the above, and assorted anecdotes which (imho) prove that Murphy is the maker of the universe. Or that he is at least personally interested in some people's lives. But mostly, food. As mentioned previously, there was an extended conversation that centered solely on tropical fruit, another one on Indian and Thai desserts, another on fancy restaurants, much extolling of street food and hole-in-the-wall places, and the joys of local food. I really didn't mean to talk constantly about food! And I swear, it wasn't all that noticeable until the final few days, when we kept trying to talk about other things, but ended up getting sidetracked by food yet again.
I have decided that I need to take a food tour of the world. Rachel will take me around India,
yhlee and yuneicorn will take me around Korea, K. will take me around the South, telophase can take me around Texas (barbeque!), fannishly will enlist her cousins to bring me to Brazil, and of course, then I will drag everyone off to Taiwan and feed them until they explode.Now all I need are more people (well, that, and money and time)! Come on... you know you want to come. And it doesn't even need to be places outside of the US (ex.
coffeeandink, I make large blinky eyes at you and implore you to take me to the marvelous dessert place you were talking about)! Although I also want to go have non-Ethiopian African, assorted Continental, Russian, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, etc. etc. etc. And now, I must stop before I get totally sidetracked from the weekend report by food. How ironic ;).After the day of Ethiopian and Chinese food (here), me and Rachel and Angela went to Japantown San Jose for Gombei (the SJ one is better than the Menlo Park one, imho, because it's next to the San Jose Tofu Company and as such gets fresh tofu!). Unfortunately, got there a bit too late and missed it =(. So we ended up sort of wandering about and getting Korean -- the little dishes of pickled things that I really love, dol sot bi bim bap (I keep trying to pronounce it properly, but I don't think it's working, anyway, the stone pot rice dish thing), bul-go-gi (bbq beef) and pa jun (sort of a pancakey thing with seafood and scallions inside), and it was good.
Dinner was Afghani food! I've only had it once before. It seems to involve a lot of meat on a stick, which I heartily approve on. I think most foods would be improved if they were on a stick.
Well, maybe not melty foods.
Still! Meat! On a stick!
And a spinach dish that was sort of like palak paneer, lamb stew and meat-stuffed dumplings in yogurt sauce. I have decided I like Afghani food. I suspect this isn't really a surprise, given that I tend to like pretty much all food that I meet. And it was interesting because it felt like a cross between Mediterranean/Greek food and Indian. Rachel mentioned that the tea she got reminded her a great deal of the tea in India.
Then, the usual Sunday farmer's market, which was very different! One, Rachel kept wandering off, distracted by other stalls ("Ooooo! *insert food here*" was uttered a lot). Two, fall foods! Persimmons piled on tables, apples everywhere, lots of chestnuts. We were debating getting chestnuts to roast over the fire -- I have lovely memories of the chestnuts sold on the streets in Taiwan, roasting in a giant wok filled with charcoal, Rachel had memories of roasting them over a fire for Christmas. Chestnuts were passed over partially because we had lots of food already, partially because neither me nor Rachel was sure about how to roast chestnuts on the stove and didn't particularly want to risk killing anyone with exploding chestnut in the kitchen.
And there were still sugar snap peas! I think the English peas are out of season, even though they're still there (the last batch I had in early October were very starchy and not at all sweet), alas. There was much sampling of Asian pears and apples and grapes, and I found a stand that sells hummus! Obviously, many, many peas were bought, along with green onion bread, salmon spread, apples (Fuji and Jonagold) and pasties. I asked the apple guy that I go to if they were going to have Honeycrisps; sadly, they just planted the trees this year and aren't expecting anything till next year. Maybe some other stands will.
It took two episodes of VMars for me and Rachel to shell all the peas! And then the rats were on the couch with the bags of empty pea pods, and man were they happy rats! Fitz-rat sort of buried himself in the bag, nose twitching wildly.
Then... the fondue! Cheddar cheese and beer in one pot and swiss cheese with wild mushrooms and white wine in another, one was wonderfully sharp and the other earthy and mellower. Dippables included broccoli, apples, grapes, carrots (all raw), cooked potatoes, roasted garlic, eensy weensy pickles, olives, tiny pickled pearl onions, and lots of bread. I think pretty much everyone was confused by the dippability of the garlic and the pickled items, so I just ate the garlic and the olives and probably had horrible smelling breath while Rachel ate the garlic and the pickles. I ate Angela's garlic too. Roasted garlic is tasty. And!
yuneicorn and K. said that apples and grapes in cheddar were good, so despite her misgivings, Rachel tried them and was converted! (they are good. I think they would not have been good with the swiss-mushroom, but the sharpness and the sweetness works really well, though strangely) There were many vegetable casualties, especially the potatoes, which apparently don't enjoy being speared and dipped into hot cheese and crumbled in the pot in protest.
And then... chocolate! Milk chocolate and hazelnut liquor in one pot and the other was something called "The Decadent One." I think it was a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, Kahlua, and... probably some other chocolate. It was ridiculously good. Especially with ... well, pretty much everything! My personal ranking of the dippables is (from worst to best): pineapples, oranges, marshmallows, Snickers bars, pound cake and then... everything else (rice krispy balls, apples, grapes, bananas, strawberries, little roll cookie things, cream cheese balls). Bananas in chocolate are good. Apples in chocolate are good.
Actually, pretty much anything dipped in chocolate was good. I feel a little bad about monopolizing the conversation, which ranged from Firefly to... food, food and more food. I think other people at the table ended up staring at me and Rachel and wondering a) how in the world we could still talk about food after eating all that, b) how in the world we could still find so much to say about food and c) how in the world we were still eating random slices of apple and rice krispy balls.
Really, it was quite easy! This is because approximately 25% of my brain is devoted to food, another 25% is devoted to books, and 25% is devoted to sundry things, including yarn and rats. The final 25% is probably perpetually empty, which explains why I keep being surprised by the same things (poor Angela... everytime we do something, I always say the same things. Ex. Every single drive down to Borders will inevitably have me exclaiming, "Oooo! An Afghani restaurant! We should go!" despite having said this eighteen other times, while Angela tiredly nods and smiles).
More reports on books/manga and random funny stories to come!
Tags:
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 04:22 am (UTC)Afghani restuarant, do you know about Kabul? It's on El Camino in Sunnyvale by the library. At least I think it is, my memory's fuzzy. You have to go and try the Lawang which is chicken with mushrooms in a yogurt sauce. And the stewed pumpkin also with yogurt sauce. And the egplant. I want to go there rightthisminute!
Have you been to Gaesung House of Tofu in Santa Clara? If not, you must! Delicious chicken tofu salad and pajun and japchae and bibimbap and... You must go! The owners are super nice too, Sunny and Peter and you get lots of little side dishes and a delicious barley tea.
I bought a book Sunday that makes me think of you. The Yankee New England Cookbook by Leslie Land. It's a mix of essays she's written for magazines mixed in with recipes arranged seasonally. The writing's a teensy bit out of date, but still very good. Most enjoyable is the section on cooking huge salmon in a bathtub a chapter that seems written for you, "My Paen to Peas."
I tried her seafood pasta last night, a simple cream sauce with mushrooms, pancetta, peas, and crabmeat. Yum! It was easy and delicious!
I have been experimenting with trying Jonagolds and Honeycrisps (sounds like a Harry Potter sweet) at my Whole Foods. The Jonagolds I found to be best early season when I picked out the hard ones. They were pleasantly crisp and tart, much like early season Galas, but with a wilder apple tang that was faint in the background. The Honeycrisps I find less enjoyable overall, more like pedestrian apples except for the thin layer of sugary flesh just below the skin and concentrated around the bottom of the apple. In good ones, it's sweet in a clear, crisp way similar to sugar cane and I can't get enough of it.
I made mulled cider Halloween night with Gravenstein apple juice and the bulk mulling spice mix you can get at Whole Foods. It was delicious! I think I'll put in more spices the next time I make it though for a stronger, spicier cider. I picked up some cranberry juice yesterday to try mulling that. Halloween night was mulled cider with stove top kettle corn (sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of sugar on right before the corn starts popping, then salt once popped) and Halloween Buffy episodes.
I feel like I should post this in my own journal, I rambled so long. But, food!
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:40 pm (UTC)I love that you have a book with a chapter on peas. Mmmm, peas. I will miss peas when it is winter. On the other hand, yay California for having a long season!
You should post! More food posts are always of the good! ;)
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 05:01 pm (UTC)Yes, the yogurt sauce dishes are my favorites even beyond meat-on-a-stick.
You would love the Yankee cookbook. I like it just to read, and then to cook. It's very conversational and interesting and the food ranges from special occasion to everyday, but it's all relatively straightforward and hearty.
I've been meaning to post more. I will try to document my re-entry into cooking.
(no subject)
Thu, Nov. 3rd, 2005 01:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 05:12 am (UTC)If this makes you an oddball in your family, mine will adopt you (says the woman whose relatives buy her cheese for most gift-giving occasions).
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 06:53 am (UTC)http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=273
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 08:34 am (UTC)I keep being intrigued by your food posts . . . I'm not so much a food person, but I wish I were. So reading someone else's odes to it is lovely and addictive. ^^
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 12:43 pm (UTC)Oh, I'm glad the food posts are somewhat entertaining even for people who are not as obsessed with food as me! I was a bit worried because outside of Rachel, I don't meet that many people in the States who talk about food as much as me.
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 01:37 pm (UTC)I get rather jealous of your Farmers' Market commentaries, I admit--we have one locally, but I live in eastern Canada, so our selection of genuine locally-grown things is a bit limited (although not as much as someone from away might suppose, so it could be worse ^^). Still, we have lots of other things there as well, and I keep meaning to go more often . . . (it's the getting up early that kills me).
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 01:53 pm (UTC)Hee! I too worry about being stabbed in the roof of the mouth. Although I'm not sure if mine has to do with a plastic straw, but it does mean I get horrific visions of going to the hospital with a fork stuck in my mouth and trying to explain that I was only carrying it in my mouth because my hands were full....
Uh, yeah, possibly TMI ;).
The getting up early sucks, which is why it took me till August to actually start making regular trips. So I missed early summer! Tragedy!
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005 02:07 pm (UTC)I'm a total night person by nature, and until recently Friday nights usually wound up being *very* late due to watching things . . . but then too, there's the temptation to just buy waaay too much at the market, which would be unfortunate at this point in our lives. (Fun, though. ^^)
(I just switched your LJ into this account's default view, so suddenly most/all commenting is likely to come from here.)
It occurs to me that perhaps the nature of (North) American food is what keeps so many people from being really interested in it . . . it was never something I thought about too much until I went to Hong Kong and one of the students asked us why all American food was just "a lump of meat with some vegetables beside it", and I was dumbfounded by how true that tends to be.