(no subject)

[oyceter]

I think both my current mainlining of kdramas and actual, home-cooked Chinese food for Thanksgiving and Christmas have gotten me into an Asian comfort food kick.

Prior to that, I was on an American comfort food kick and craving mac and cheese, pie, casseroles, more pie, burgers, chocolate cream pie, corn dogs, and even more pie.

Currently, I have been eating a lot of ramen (my favorite is butter corn, sometimes sans butter); Chinese bentos with their wonderful sides of stir-fried cabbage, tea eggs, seaweed, and dofugan; zhajiangmien; garlicky pea shoots; chicken and salty fish fried rice; dumplings (pot stickers and boiled); and jook. I think if it weren't winter, I would also be craving pearl milk tea. Aaand now that I mention it, I want hot pearl milk tea and hot grass jelly, though all the places with hot grass jelly here aren't so great.

I also want but have not yet eaten: zhajiangmien, jjajangmyeon, Korean spicy tofu stew, bibimbap, onigiri and/or yaki onigiri, Japanese-style curry, my mom's spicy eggplant, beef noodle soup, onion pancakes, pa jun, okonomiyaki, tuna and corn crepes, pretty much any donburimono, and I wouldn't turn down pie either.

I keep meaning to write something about class and comfort food and race, but my brain is dead today. So instead, tell me what comfort food you have been craving lately!

Comments

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Umami is, I think, MSG, correct?

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Glutamates (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/senses/umami.html), yeah, which are naturally occurring in a lot of foods -- some meats, mushrooms, cheeses, etc.; fish sauce (and anchovies, and thus by extension Worcestershire sauce), shoyu, kombu, all are high in glutamates.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that article it was really informative and interesting! I'm definitely into the natural umamis.

Eating the crystalized stuff which was visible on top of many dishes when I was in China....not so much.

But moderation is always good isn't it ;).

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Eek, yeah, even though I'm a fiend for strong umami flavors, I draw the line at just snacking on pure crystallized MSG -- all by itself it just tastes sort of...flat. Not horrible, but nowhere near as satisfying as when it's mixed in to enhance other flavors.