Author: Faith

The Omnivore’s 100

So far this visit has been a lot of fun. My sister Jan and her two boys traveled with me from Salt Lake to my parents’ house on Thursday. Since we arrived we’ve been busy eating Korean food, sightseeing (we took the boys to the Space Needle), shopping, going to the Korean spa, and eating more Korean food (the highlight Saturday was a fantastic all-you-can-eat BBQ place).

I’ve taken some pictures but I’m having trouble getting them off my camera so it looks like that photos will have to wait until I get back. Since I am photoless I thought I would post a meme today.

I’m usually not really big on memes, but I saw this one over at CityMama and thought it looked like fun. I don’t like the chain-letter aspect of memes (I hate imposing on people), but if you want to post this meme on your blog, consider yourself tagged.

Here are the instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I’ve highlighted everything I’ve tried in orange)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (As a practicing Mormon/teetotaler most of my items were alcohol-related.)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros (N. makes a great version.)
4. Steak tartare (I had carpaccio for the first time last month, though.)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush.
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13.PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (In Utah you’re more likely to find taco carts, which I love. I am a sucker for street food.)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (Does truffle oil count? Eh, probably not.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I usually go for the mango lassi)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (I would love to have clotted cream with scones or berries, though.)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (I love me some unagi rolls.)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (not a big fan)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I oddly enough just never got around to having a Big Mac. I was more of a fish-sandwich-type-of kid.)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
(One of N.’s favorites from his stay in Canada)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (I couldn’t find out exactly what this was…some sort of food additive/Chinese herb?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (N. tells stories about these from when he lived in Singapore, but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet.)
66. Frogs’ legs (I feel like I should have an open mind about them, but somehow I just can’t.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict (Another standout in N.’s repetoire)
83. Pocky (One of my favorite childhood treats.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse (I wouldn’t do that to you, my friend Flicka)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (rice+SPAM+kimchi+dried seaweed=awesome lunch)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Recipe: Wacky Cocoa Cake

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting while I’m out of town, but I prepared this post in advance. If everything is going well, E. and I are currently frolicking in the Pacific Northwest September sunshine (or more realistically and just as awesome, I am sleeping in while my mom plays with E.)

Last week my friend Emily came over for lunch along with her cute baby boy. Her son J. is only one week older than E. and so it was fun to see them ‘play together’ (i.e. try to claw each other’s eyes out and steal each others binkies).

Emily knew about how E. and I can’t have dairy or eggs, and so she brought this cake over for dessert. It was super good. I think I’m going to make it for E.’s birthday in November. Emily said that her mom got the recipe from a cocoa recipe booklet and from what I can tell, there are a couple of different versions of it online. This version also has a recipe for non-dairy frosting to go with it. (I’m super grateful for all of the vegan resources that exist for avoiding eggs and milk products, but I have to admit that I feel like a bit of an impostor when I buy my vegan margarine, soy milk, and no-dairy, no-egg cookies. What would the hippie clerks at the health food store say if they knew how much I love a good medium-rare sirloin? Worst…vegan…ever!)

Anyway, this cake is great for people with food allergies or those living overseas who might not have convenient access to baking ingredients (Hi, N.’s mom and dad in Pusan!)

Wacky Cocoa Cake
(This is a doubled recipe: it makes enough for two round pans)

Mix together in a large bowl the following:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt

Then add the following liquid ingredients:

  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 Tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 tsp vanilla

Stir until no lumps remain. Pour into two 8″ or 9″ rounds. bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. That’s it!

I know I’ve been remiss about posting new photos of E. but with things having been so crazy the last couple of weeks, I haven’t taken any. I will make up for it while we’re on this trip and will post photos when we get back. Have a good weekend!

Remembering

Lately I’ve been waxing nostalgic about my high school years. It’s been because of a couple of things. My 10-year reunion is this year. N. and I were planning on attending, but the committee didn’t get around to organizing the event until it was too late to have it during the summer. Instead of attending the reunion, E. and I are flying to Washington tomorrow to visit family. I’ve been making a mental list of the people I want to visit and the places I want to go. The other reason I’ve been feeling nostalgic is that last week was the birthday of my best friend from high school. Kristen would have turned twenty-nine, but she died five years ago.

We were pretty much inseparable during high school. Kristen was witty, kind, snarky, and curious. She was always up for anything: signing up together for taekwondo (and quiting after a month), riding scooters along the beach, renting foreign films, going to concerts, trying new ethnic restaurants, or going to West Coast Swing night at the local ballroom (and getting hit on by hicks). There were so many small events in our lives that we shared. And now that she’s gone, I’m the only one left who remembers these things. As far as the world cares, they might have never happened at all.

I’m the only one who remembers when she picked me up in her car at 16, a freshly-minted licensed driver, to go for a spin. I remember the sheer terror we felt as we realized she had mistakenly turned the wrong way onto the freeway off-ramp and how we collapsed in hysterical laughter as soon as we were safe again on the road.

I’m the only one who remembers how she gamely went along with me to draw silly pictures and write non sequiturs in chalk on the driveway of a crush’s house. And how we were surprised in the act by said crush and his mother driving home and how we ran away in a panic into the thick underbrush to escape apprehension and got all scratched up.

I’m the only one who remember the time we decided it would be fun to try and go sledding in a bare inch of heavy wet Pacific Northwest snow and how afterward we lay muddied on the soggy hill and talked about what we thought God was like.

Ever since we were high school freshmen and she first tried to take her life, the spectre of her death was always there, stalking her. Sometimes months or even years would pass and it would seemed like it had been banished, like she had escaped and would be free to live a normal life. But then something would happen, some banal trial of life or some emotional event known only to her, and it would become cruelly apparent that it had never left at all. And then one day her death took her away for good.

So going home for a visit is bittersweet for me. I’m reminded of Kristen almost everywhere I look: that infamous off-ramp, the coffee shop where we hung out and played at being sophisticates, the furniture store where we went couch shopping with her mom, the Big Tom’s drive-in we would stop at for shakes, the paths we would ride our bikes along. But now these places are changing. Trees have been torn down and new stores and houses built up in their stead. Life in my hometown stubbornly goes on without her and without me.

It makes me feel old. It makes me miss her.

Movie: Burn After Reading

N. and I got a sitter on Friday (Hi, Catie!) and went to the movies. We saw the new Coen brothers movie, “Burn After Reading.” I liked it. It’s a pretty dark comedy: almost all of the characters are despicable in one way or another, but the actors did such a great job that I was still invested in what happened to them. I thought the cast was great.

I’m getting a late start today because after E. and I ended up sleeping in this morning. E. work up to nurse at 6:30am but then he (and I) went back to sleep until 10:30am. I think his body is tired from trying to get over his cold. *Yawn* I know mine is.

I really enjoyed sleeping in, but now I feel like the whole day is almost over and I’m trying to catch up. I was planning on going to to lumberyard today to get some supplies, but it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. I don’t think I mentioned it, but I’m taking that community education woodworking class again. I wasn’t sure if I was going to, but N. encouraged me to do it and so I signed up. Class started last week.

We literally don’t have any more room in our house for another big piece of furniture so I decided to make some some small projects for Christmas presents. I have to admit, I really enjoy taking this class and having dedicated time every week to work on a hobby. It’s a lot of fun.

Now I need to go shower and then drive to the post office to pay my quarterly estimated tax payment. Ugh. The joys of being self employed!

Friday Roundup

E. and I have colds, but I’m hoping that we’re over them by next Thursday, because that’s when E. and I are flying to Washington state to visit family for a week. My head feels like it’s stuffed to the brim with cotton but I have to get my August report finished by this afternoon, so I’ve been plodding through it.

But here are some random fun things for your Friday.

I am LOVING this song, “Furr,” by Blitzen Trapper. They played in SLC last night but we didn’t make it. It’s hard to find a sitter on a weeknight and I wasn’t really feeling up to it. But listening to the song right now makes me wish that we had found a way to see them.

Apparently, there is a cottage industry of bunny letter openers that spans the globe.

And lastly, “Yogurt, it’s for women!”

Have a good weekend!

The Winner is Me! (Well, Kind of)

So, football season is here again. Which means that it’s also time for fantasy football! I started to get into pro football a couple of years ago when I started watching Inside the NFL on HBO. It was a great show: it was hosted by Bob Costas and former players Dan Marino, Cris Carter, and Cris Collingsworth. The show had great highlight footage from NFL films set to dramatic Mr. Voice-type narration and the chemistry between all of the hosts was very entertaining.

Watching the show for a couple of years taught me quite a bit about football. I learned more about the rules of the game and started to follow certain players and coaches that I liked: Hines Ward (half-Koreans have to stick together!), T.J. Houshmanzada, Maurice Jones-Drew, Mike Tomlin, etc… Sadly HBO dropped Inside the NFL but it got picked up by Showtime. N. and I talked about it and we’re contemplating subscribing to Showtime so we can watch the show.

So last year when some people at work said they were putting together a fantasy football league, I asked if I could join. If you don’t know, fantasy football is a game you play by picking real individual players from different teams to form your own fantasy team (i.e. your quarterback is from one team but your kicker is from another team). So before football season starts, you get together with the other people in your fantasy league and each of you ‘drafts’ the players you want from different teams. Then every week you earn points depending on how your players did in their respective games. Every week you’re matched up against someone else in your fantasy league and who ever gets the most points wins.

Hmm…it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, doesn’t it? Well, last year was a DISASTER! First off, it turned out that a date I had made with my sister to go shopping fell on the same day as the draft. So I skipped the draft and let the computer pick for me. Big mistake! And even though I had decent knowledge about football, there were things about fantasy football that I didn’t know and that no one had explained to me: like for instance, having to manually switch out the players you have on your bench. I didn’t figure it out until half way through the season. I had players active on my team that weren’t even playing games that week! I was trying to be all sassy and “I’m a girl but I know about football” but I just ended up embarrassing myself because I didn’t know about the mechanics of fantasy football. I came in second-to-last, only beating out our marketing intern.

Fast forward to this year: I thought it would be fun to be in the league again and that it would be a good way to keep in touch with people in the office. So I ask around. And I’m told that there are a ‘limited number of slots available in the league.’ (sad!) I send back another email pleading my case (“I promise I will actually attend the draft! I bought a magazine to study up!”) and a couple of days later they tell me that a slot opened up. (Yay!) I used E. as my mascot and named my team “The Binky Blitz.”

So E. and I went to the draft. I followed some of the advice from the magazine, but went with my own gut feelings on some choices. And I ended up with a pretty good team. And last week, (drumroll please) I won my match AND had more points than anyone!

I was pretty excited as I watched my points rack up over the weekend. But then I found out that due to a technical glitch when the league was set up, Week 1 didn’t count in our overall scores. (!) Scoring begins this week. LAME! I am just hoping that my team continues to do well so I can at least come in someplace before 6th place–you know, have a respectable showing.

Reading: Unaccustomed Earth

Before I talk about Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, there’s something I have to say. I suppose I should just get it out of the way: Jhumpa Lahiri is HOT. Hot as in crazy-beautiful. She definitely has my vote for hottest Pulitzer-prize-winning author. It’s simply one of life’s petty injustices. Shouldn’t there be a bit of a trade-off? You know, you get astounding writing talent but maybe you only get average looks. Or maybe there should be a sliding scale: the more successful of a writer you are, the odder you look (i.e. Stephen King.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. I’ve read Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake, and it seems the Lahiri is continuing to grow a writer. Her prose is concise but she wrings an incredible amount of emotional complexity and and indirect characterization from her sentences.

The stories focus on the relationships: those between parents and children, husband and wife, sister and brother, and lover and lover. Most of the characters are Indian and Lahiri explores the quiet and not-so-quiet ways that cultural differences affect their relationships. Most of the characters immigrated to the States while children or are the children of immigrants and as such they stuggle with how to balance the traditions and expectations of Indian culture with the culture they have assimilated into.

As the daughter of an immigrant, I really relate to certain situations in the book. It’s cheesy, but her writing really rings true to me. Two thumbs up.

Letter: Month Ten

Dear E,

Today you turn ten months old. To celebrate, we had a new dishwasher installed. (Surprise!) With any luck, it will still be up and running when you’re old enough to pull your own weight around here…say in, three years or so. (Sheesh, it’s not like we would expect you to wash the dishes by hand as a preschooler: we’re reasonable people.)

Developmentally, it seems like the wheels in head have really started turning. You’ve started to express your own will which (shocker!) does not always agree with ours. You used to love eating Cheerios but then I gave you some of these baby cereal puffs (they’re shaped like stars). Once you had a taste of the good stuff, there was no going back. If I gave you Cheerios, you either ignored them or flicked them off the tray onto the floor. I tried mixing the stars in with Cheerios, but you would carefully pick the stars out and eat them and then dump the Cheerios on the floor. So we quit giving you stars (because we’re mean like that) and after a week or so of Cheerios, you seemed to realize that they were the only game in town and so you eat them now, but only grudgingly.

There was a week or so when you stuck your tongue out ever chance you got, which was pretty funny. But as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

You still prefer to roll around on the floor instead of crawling, at least when you’re with us. By watching the video monitor of you in your crib we discovered that you’re pretty good at creeping around on your tummy and that you get up on your hands and knees pretty well. But you don’t like crawling when we’re with you; you prefer to have us hold on to you so you can stand. Maybe you feel self-conscious and would rather to learn to crawl on your own and then amaze us by trucking across the floor one day out of the blue. Or maybe it amuses you to see us down on the floor making fools of ourselves and encouraging you to crawl. (If that’s the case, it means that you’ve probably inherited your father’s sense of humor.)

I’m trying to think back on what happened during August, but a lot of things are simply a blur; it was a pretty busy month. We actually got in to see the allergist (instead of having to wait until October as scheduled) and it turns out that you do in fact have an allergy to milk. Banishing dairy, eggs, and nuts from our diets has been a bit of an adjustment, but things are going well on that front. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you’ll grow out of your food allergy in a couple of years but if you don’t, we’ll deal with it.

Your dad started a new job, which was pretty stressful. But even when he’s stressed out at work, the first thing that he wants to do when he comes home is play with you. If you’re taking a nap, he’s disappointed and wants to know when you’re going to wake up so he can spend time with you because you’re the life of the party.

It’s so interesting to watch your personality develop and to find out who you are. When you do something new or amazing (as happens frequently), it’s like meeting you for the first time all over again.

Love,

Mama

The Joys of Homeownership

On Monday night we discovered that our basement had flooded. There was about an inch of standing water. It wasn’t completely unexpected since it had flooded once a couple of years ago, but it was still a shock. The first time it flooded we still had cardboard boxes stacked on the floor from when we moved in, which was a disaster. A bunch of photos and books got ruined. We learned from that experience and put everything in plastic bins and stacked them on metals shelves a few inches off the floor. So this time the water didn’t really damage any items. But it has still been a pain.

N. and I took turns sucking up the water with a wet vac and dumping it down the drain. He stayed up until 3am Monday night handling it and then I took over while he was at work. It was a little frustrating – as soon as the water was sucked up you could see more of it welling up from the cracks in the floor. But this morning it seems to have finally stopped. The floor’s still damp, but there’s no standing water.

We called a company that specializes in fixing this sort of problem, but the earliest they could come out is next Tuesday. The whole situation makes me worry about what it’s going to be like when we try to sell this house one day. No one wants a house with a flooding problem. The company that’s going to come out has a guarantee for the life of the house, so I’m hoping it will fix the problem and it won’t be an issue when we want to sell. I’m also hoping it won’t be ridiculously expensive.

We (I) have been taking about making some improvements to the kitchen for the past year and had set some money aside for it. I bought this year’s Consumer Reports kitchen guide and researched appliances and then over the weekend (before we discovered the flood) we bought some on sale. I had been thinking about also replacing our kitchen counters in a couple of months (my woodworking instructor does solid surface counters and said he would give me a screaming good deal), but they will have to wait if fixing the basement is going to be expensive. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But I have a feeling that the kitchen counter money is now going to pay for a french drain and sump pump, which as home improvements go, is not nearly as fun (I know, I know…the tragic trials of yuppies are SO sad!).

Speaking of yuppies, I got to play around with the new 3G iPhone last night! It’s pretty cool. N. started a new job last week (as corporate counsel at a software company) and they gave him an iPhone to use. I would have been over the moon, but N. wasn’t really that excited: it’s just a phone to him. I’m kind of an Apple fan while N. is not (He thinks that a lot of their hype is due to elevating style over substance while I, on the other hand, have always had a weakness for style over substance.) Anyway, I was oohing and aahing over the phone and trying to show him some of the cool stuff it could do and his response was basically, “meh.”

Sigh. I think this might sadly be a case of casting pearls before swine.