Alone again...

[oyceter]

Well, the mad week of visits is now over. The boy just left for the airport, and my apartment is strangely quiet now. I especially miss having my sister around. It was nice having her here. After my dad left, me and Ning hung around. I made her watch Strictly Ballroom, and she had her friend Grace over several times. The ahyis took us out to eat a few times (i.e. stuffed us to the gills), and I got lots of people to play Puzzle Fighter with me! I dunno, it seems more laid back then when the boy comes to visit, because with the boy there always seems to be this pressure to be doing something interesting. My sister's a lot more like me. I would get worried about entertaining her, and then realize she was sitting on the couch immersed in a book. At that point, I figured I would have hated anyone who disturbed me, so I got to read my books too. And I got Cranium, so there were games to play with my sister's friends. I'm a complete pushover for games like Pictionary or charades or Taboo or whatnot. Or Trivial Pursuit. And Cranium's a combination of all of the above. And it was nice to have a girl person to go shopping with. Because although the boy doesn't really complain, he also doesn't get excited about finding a cute jean skirt on sale or the like. So I got a nice new black skirt that will be nice for interviews, as I seem to have outgrown wdith-wise my other ones :(. And the aforementioned cute jean skirt. And some shoes. All on sale, yay.

Plus, Ning shows me how to cook. It's nice not cooking by myself too. Because again, while the boy is nice, what we each think is nutritional and good to eat is really not at all the same thing. Plus, boy doesn't really cook Chinese food. I'm still baffled by the fact that a great deal of people cook without soy sauce. I mean, theoretically I knew that, but when people tell me to cook some hamburger, I have a mental disconnect when I realize I'm not supposed to marinate that in soy sauce and oyster sauce. Oh, and I finally got my rice cooker! No more having to cook rice in pots!

Anyway, so I'm kind of lonely now.

I've had the first three discs of Stargate S3 for forever -- thinking of returning them to Netflix and starting La Femme Nikita. I think watching two seasons of Stargate in about 4 weeks has got my mind a bit boggled. Plus, I also desperately want to watch some romantic comedies and musicals because those are my comfort movies. Maybe I'll pop in Chicken Run today, because there is no possible way to watch that movie and not feel happy and goofy. I mean, hey! Chickens with teeth! I'm kind of surprised Chicago the DVD is already out... and Two Towers coming out in two days! So both of those should be coming soon from Amazon, woo! I'm hoping Two Towers will have good extra features on Eowyn and a sneak preview of RotK. I desperately want to see Eowyn pictures from RotK, but most of the ones I've found so far are Arwen, sigh. And I'm dying to watch "Class" on Chicago.

I'm just rambling now. Maybe will write some stuff about the books I read over the week later.

(one last bit -- Overnight Scentsation finally bloomed and she is absolutely gorgeous. She's very big for a mini, and she smells wonderful, and she's just a profusion of pink petals arranged perfectly, bobbing gently on her stem)

Comments

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

still baffled by the fact that a great deal of people cook without soy sauce

I have no Asian background, and yet I pretty much use soy sauce or oyster sauce on everything now – I think they’re two of the most popular sauces down here, along with the ubiquitous black bean sauce. We certainly go through bottles of soy, and we’re not really a cooking kind of family! It’s funny how eating habits have changed down here over the past couple of decades - when I was a little kid, I remember we use to have tub after tub of tomato paste!

[oyceter]

Wow, that is interesting! I think it's interesting seeing how many non-Asian people go to the Asian supermarket, or having me in the aisle looking for stuff for instant risotto (which I'm eating right now).

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

Most of the big supermarkets down here actually have an 'Asian section' - noddles, sauces, bottles of stuff I can't actually read or identify. Plus, there are plenty of asian veggies sold in the produce section (bok choy and wot not).

Canberra and Sydney do have a fairly high proportion of people of Asian background, so that partially explains a lot, if not most, of it. But, beyond that, we just seem to go through 'food crazes', where a cuisine will get amazingly popular for a while, everyone will buy it, all the trendy restaurants will change their menus, and then it'll fade away as the next trend comes on through...

But, mmm, soy sauce...

[oyceter]

Yeah... well, speaking for California, at least. I think a lot of that has to do with the giant Asian population here.

I find the whole fusion thing that was in interesting -- slightly seared Ahi tuna with wasabi for people a little leery of getting into sashimi, Indian influences, Thai influences and Chinese all that the same place!

Speaking as an extremely ignorant person, is there any sort of Australian food? Never been there, would love to someday...

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

An Australian cuisine...mmmm. Not as such. "Modern Australian" is a bit like that Californian stuff, but with a heavier influence on the Asian than the French. I don't each a lot of it, though. $35 for three tiny pieces of ravioli and a tablespoon on some bizaare-o sauce isn't my thing ;-)

There are a handful of restaurants with an 'Australian' theme - that tends to mean kangaroo stir fry, lemon thyme cheese cake and some salad with juniper berries. I, er, steer clear...

Classic Aussie foods include damper (a scone-like bread), lamingtons (sponge cake rolled in chocolate and dessicted coconut), meat pies (pastry with mince 'meat' - snerk), sausage rolls (sausage 'meat' wrapped in pastry) and pavlova (a meringue cake with cream and fruit). I think that's about it, though. We're not known for our food :)

[knullabulla.livejournal.com]

My brother can be rather amusing to watch when he goes into an asian supermarket. He's not at all shy about asking every one in the store about to properly make an authentic asian-whatever. Pretty soon, he has complete strangers running around the market looking for the perfect set of ingredients. Thai Town is only a couple of miles from where I live and Korea Town is also pretty close, so it's pretty easy to find decent markets. China Town and Little Tokyo are both downtown, but worth the trip--especially when I'm not in the mood for "anglo-ized" dishes when I go out to eat.

[oyceter]

Hrm interesting. Kangaroo stir-fry? Wow. I guess I shouldn't be talking, considering some of the things I have been known to put in my mouth ;).

[oyceter]

Hee! That's awesome. I should do that ;). Although my cooking mainly consists of: chop stuff up. Dump in soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry.

I love being in California because of the food -- Princeton had three Chinese restaurants and all of them had General Tso's chicken and whatnot. My dad always complains that stuff in Taiwan tastes better, but I figure I will take what I can get.

[knullabulla.livejournal.com]

Most chinese friends of mine absolutely refuse to eat at chinese restaurants if they're not in Chinatown or Monteray Park... and they will go into gagging fits at the very mention of "Orange Chicken". So my guess is, the food just isn't quite on the authentic side. (understatement much?)

Really, when I compare the food I get at a restaurant verses what my friend's mom makes, it's completely different. Texture, taste, smell... all of it. I remember that while staying in the dorms in college, there would be special asian cuisine nights in the dining hall. On "chinese food" night, most of the chinese students would be wrinkling their noses and asking "what the heck is that?" On the other hand, "sushi night" was usually well received by the exchange students, despite the only sushi being available was "California Rolls".

I'm thinking that the big difference is that americanized chinese food seems to be cooked completely different, in addition to different ingredients used; whereas (I'm just guessing), americanized Japanese food always seems to me like the sushi chef is just really excited about trying ingredients that he couldn't get at in Japan. Once while at a sushi bar, we asked the chef how "authentic" the rolls were; he just said "avocadoes are really expensive in japan." (90% of the rolls had avocado).

[oyceter]

The funny thing is that I do like all the sweet and sour stuff. Except, sometimes I just want something that tastes remotely like something I could get in Taiwan. Food is one of my big links to home... I particularly miss Taiwan street food.

I used to make fun of Chinese nights at Charter -- it's fake Chinese food again! And just too much salt, too much sugar, too much oil.

I love California rolls too! I always wonder if Japanese people think it's the General Tso's chicken of their culture. It's just odd too, that most Japanese places here are all about sushi and sashimi. I remember eating at my host family's in Japan for the two months I was there, and thinking just how different it was. Lots of Japanized American food there too -- bitty fried chicken, potato and corn salad, omelet rice.

Taiwan's got funny takes on American food that the boy gags about just thinking ^_^. Tuna and corn and pepper crepes, tuna and pizza sauce and cream cheese crepes (they're good! really!).

So I figure to be fair I can't complain too much about Americanized Chinese food ;).