Food Digest Vol. 1

I think food really is a cultural obsession. I know there are people who don't care much about what they eat, but there aren't many of them. So I decided to write an entry periodically about the food I've been eating, exciting ones. I reckon that it'll be so much better if I can accompany them with a picture and it's not that I don't have a camera. But I'm also very easily embarassed and afraid to be categorized with the "Asian Tourist Syndrome". I know that it must be the self-hate in me and Principe Rana has taught me that this "disease" extends beyond the Asian race. But as I said I'm easily embarassed. Although ES has just ordered a very high-tech digital camera for her blog, should I do the same? If I do, I'll have to carry a "Man-purse" around all the time.

OK, I finally tried making raisin bread at home. It all started because Principe like the braided raisin bread stick at a Chinese pastry shop and he said he wants to learn how to make it. What can I tell you? He and his crazy notions. So I decided to learn to make it first, so I can teach him in Spanish. I don't have a food processor or a big mixer to help me mix the dough, but DC bought me a fancy high speed egg-beater mixer for X'mas one year and that worked pretty well. I used a challah bread recipe I find in one of my cookbooks and made the dough with yeast. It was fun to see the dough rise and have to beat them down afterwards. I form the dough into strings and braided them and baked 8 loaves. The bread is a little tougher than I thought it would be, although Principe and my colleagues ate them up I think next time I'll you a croissant dough instead to get the texture I want.

I did a very nice pasta on Sunday. The Principe and I sometimes go to this restaurant that opens late at nice and they have a mussels in white wine that we like a lot, they put corn and sausage in with the mussels which give it a sweet earthy taste. So I tried to make it at home with linguine. I bought two bags of mussels from a supermarket that I trusted and about a quarter of the mussels turned out to be dead. They weren't cheap either. So I throw the dead ones out, scrubbed, steamed and shelled the rest. Sauteed some garlic andd the trinity (onion, celery and green pepper) in butter, added the mussels. Then I squashed a can of whole tomatoes, but like half a cup of corn in there Fried two bratwursts and a chorizo cut them up and throw them in witha can of chicken broth, salt-and-peppered and there's my pasta sauce! It tasted so good with the linguine. I was immensely proud of myself.

Last night, we went to a Hongkong-style restaurants in chinatown for dinner. We (or I) ordered half a peking duck, lobster fried harbor style and a crabmeat on pea shoots. Dinner was good, I pretty much liked all of them. The Peking duck is seperated into crispy skin and meat, comes with some chinese soft buns and hoisin sauce. The lobster is stir fried with a bit of pork and it's slightly spicy. Crabmeat on pea shoots has always been one of my favorite Chinese dish, I was actually thinin gof how much I like this dish while I was eating it.

As you can tell, the lollipop has not suppressed any of my appetite. If anything, I'm eating more than ever. ES and I are going to Mitsuwa supermarket in Hoboken, NJ this Saturday. So I guess, I will just have to wait until next monday to go back on atkins. But until then, I'll keep munching on.