15 posts tagged “food”

I’ve had an idea before that Bangkok is not as big as most people claim – or at least, the downtown part isn’t.  One of my first clues was when Ben said that the CentralWorld near my hotel looked exactly like the one at Siam Square.  I got even more suspicious the couple of times I rode a motor taxi to school, and it didn’t seem as far as I thought it should be.  Tonight, however, was the clincher.  I took the skytrain with Czar to Chit Lom, where his tailor was, and realized I could see Central World from where we were.  I wandered for a bit trying to find Central Chidlom Department store, cause I’ve heard they have yarn there, but to no avail.  And then, as I was turning into CentralWorld to go get something to eat, I saw it – the sign for Siam Paragon.  I know if you haven’t been to Bangkok none of this makes sense to you, but as I sit here in the food court drinking my iced lychee tea after having ordered myself 2 pairs of tailored jeans (and discovered I’ve lost 3 inches off my waist!), I’m pretty damn pleased with myself. 

Lychee tea, yummy as it is, is no dinner, so I have some noodles with duck in them too.  I’d never really tried duck till recently – my birthday to be exact – but I have been eating it pretty often here in Thailand and I really like it.  It’s quite yummy.  It’s very exciting when you’re an expat to be able to find things you didn’t expect from home, and I’m fairly lazy in my eating habits anyway – rice or noodles with some sort of brothy thing is always a sure bet with me, when I remember to eat at all.  But I’ve been thinking to myself that I should try more stuff.  (But I will still order the three-sauce fajita burrito at On the Border.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.)  In the interest of that tonight, I tried some of the konyaku-mitai stuff floating in my soup.  It looked interesting, sort of a dark purple brown as opposed to the usual oh-so-appetizing clearish-gray, and I nibbled it a few times before deciding it wasn’t yummy enough to warrant further attention.  Instead I went back to eating sprouts and drinking spicy, greasy broth.  Odd how when I was in Korea, I dreaded seeing sprouts at lunch, but when left ot my own devices, I quite like them.

It occurs to me as I type this, wondering where it’s going that maybe, sometimes, I should write with an actual point in mind.  Just, you know, occasionally. Don’t wanna cause too much of a stir or anything.  Though I rarely really consider my audience (someone call me on that, please), I generally ramble on and on in a way that is probably rather boring to people who aren’t as … invested in my observations as I am.  Which I think includes just about everyone except myself, and even then it’s debatable if I reread the stuff I write.  I certainly don’t bother to go back and edit it for conciseness.

Enough babbling for the time being. I’m going to go find the yarn shop here again, perhaps nip into a store and do some souvenir shopping, and then head home and do my last paper for my course.

Seriously. You can make pretty much anything in a rice cooker.  Rice, obviously.  But, also, cake. Pasta. Risotto (does that count as rice?).  Soup.  Just google it.  So, it stands to reason that you could make rice wine, as well.  Or other alcoholic beverages, since I think they need cooking.  How is this relevant? Well...

So, a bit ago - a few weeks, not sure exactly; it's probably best not to know - I was going to make some rice for dinner.  Or something with rice.  As it turned out, I ended up eating out for dinner, or perhaps not eating dinner.  I don't remember the details - but both options are equally probably.  Anyway - I washed the rice and put it in the cooker with some water.  Soaking rice is fine, after all.  And then, like I said, ended up going out, so I figured I'd just make it the next night. 

So, a bit ago - last week sometime - I was going to make some rice for dinner.  I think I was going to make chicken and rice, actually.  Had my chicken all thawed, and figured I better cook the rice first, cause you know, it takes longer.  So I opened my rice cooker up and found this:

Rice Cooker Surprise!

Obviously, I had forgotten to cook the rice the next night.  Oops.  Perhaps you can't see this from the picture, but there's at least 4 different textures in there.  It definitely smelled like it was alcoholic, tho I can't imagine what sort of hallucinations you would have gotten from it (or what sort you would have had to been seeing to eat that).  I was so delighted that I bounded down the hall to show Donald, who was, let's say, not as excited as I was - I think he referred to it as 'rank'.  And neechan, I know you always yell at me for stuff like this, but this was as cool as that time my arm did that exploding thing... I wonder if that video is still on my phone...

Anywho - I guess we won't be doing that again. 

In other news - I've been busy this month.  I may have mentioned Wrestlemania, the knitting competition I'm participating in.  I'm happy to say I have finished two of the projects I started for that - a lacy mohair cowl and the dismantlement of (the gloves formerly known as) my Plum Pudding Gauntlets.  Really, even considering my usual disregard for things like 'gauge' and 'recommended yarn', those were just... bad.  I've grown so much as a knitter since then, so I decided they needed to die, and be reincarnated as dishclothes or something. 

The second thing I finished is this - my Ice Queen.  (link goes to the pattern from Knitty)  I'm actually really happy with this - for one thing, the yarn is SPARKLY.  for another, it's MOHAIR.  I luvs me some mohair.  Also, despite that I have done lace before, this was my first time doing a feather and fan pattern, which is like, the most beginningest lace pattern evar.   And I had to learn 3 or so new techniques for this - so I'm really glad the way it turned out. Now, to figure out what to do with it... I might keep it, or might give it to someone deserving. 

July 2009 - Ice Queen

Well, i have finally finished the legwarmers! Yay!  The first one came out a bit wonky, cause I wasn't sure exactly how many stitches to cast on.  I did a few less for the second one, and also taught myself to do it in the round, so that made things a bit more interesting.  Here, look see?

Feb 09 - Lime Legwarmers

,

I've also been doing quite a bit of reading.  I finished Fast Food Nation, which was interesting

Fast Food Nation

to read again. Iactually read the whole thing this time, instead of just parts.  It's a bit gruesome in parts, but certainly thought-provoking.   It made me think more about what I eat, and where it comes from.  But also, it made me realize just how little control you can have over what you eat.  Even in Korea, where they use mostly Australian Beef, it's difficult to know about the conditions of the meat, especially since the largest meat-producer in Australia was purchased by ConAgra not too far ago.  But in the US - unless you go hunting for organic food (and even some stuff marked as 'organic' is not) you're a bit at the mercy of the meatpackers.  And organic stuff is expensive, so I've usually avoided it.  I'm sure lots of people do, especially in the current economic system.  Not only that organic foodtends to give visions of hippie environmentalist hippies, as well.

The Phantom of the Opera (Signet Classics)

The other night at my Gangnam meeting, Nikki took us to a small bookstore.  It had a suprisingly decent selection of English fiction, and I found a copy of one of my favorite books for a decent price. 

I first read Phantom of the Opera when I was in high school, I believe.  I remember being surprised that it was a book - I only knew it from the musical that I had grown up with.  It is from the same era as other classics - Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and others.  I really love Victorian literature, second only to my love of fantasy.  So now I am working my way through that as well.    I will probably be doing a lot of reading and knitting next month while I am fasting.  We'll see home much I get done.



Lastly, I am almost done with my first audiobook.  Well, technically, I did start listening to Twilight while I was

Wizard's First Rule

working on Tim's scarf, but I had to stop.  It was more horrible to listen to than it had been to read.  When I read, I tend to skim a lot, and just imagine the words in my head.  I often find on re-reading book passages or sentences that I don't remember, but I also remember scenes very vividly at times.

This book is one of my favorite, and I have read it several times.  But still, listening to the book is different than reading it.  For one thing, the guy who's reading it annoys me at times.  His choice for the voices is not necessarily what I had imagined.  Though I imagine that I will also have that issue when I start watching the tv show Legend of the Seeker.  The series only finished being written a year or two ago, and I had put off finishing it, just not having had the time to reread them all.  But now, with the audiobooks, I can listen to them while knitting.  I'm not coordinated enough to knit and watch TV at the same time, but I can listen to books.  It's also good for when I don't particularly feel like listening to music.  At the moment I have about two hours left, and then I will start Stone of Tears.

I've been knitting for most of the past week, and while I have made significant progress on the scarf, I'm wanting a break.  So I think tonight is going to be a watch TV or read or perhaps do some watercolor night.  Also, my wrist is starting to bother me.

Argosy in progress

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Note that this did not stop me from buying yarn this evening at Gangnam.  Well, to be fair, I bought some on Thursday, and I went back with a new SnB friend looking for the same colorway, cause I really liked it and I decided I didn't want to mix two different ones.  I got my colorway. and some cute light green ribbon-y stuff that I think I wanna try to make a shawl out of.  And the ajuma who runs the place gave me another ball and my needles for free, which was pretty sweet.  She does stuff like that though - She gave me a free ball the other night too. 

I have Kraft Mac now!  I met Robin in Itaewon for lunch today and we went to this place called Macaroni Market.  Their macaroni was decent, but I really have been just craving the cheap stuff, so she took me to a little shop that sells foreign food and I got a box of mac and cheese.  The place was way overpriced, but that's to be expected.  My box was roughly $3.50.  They had Captain Crunch, but it was $12 for the big box and I was like, um, no.  Yes, I'm serious.  But as Robin said, why charge less than what people will pay?  And yes, people will pay that here, to get American foods, especially if they don't have access to the base. 

I ended up reading another Night World book last night/this morning before bed.  I'm perfectly cognizant that, while I mock my sister for her reading tastes (bad yaoi and how to raise pigeons), my own are just as bad.  But that's the huge difference - I recognize that I read bad stuff, and read it precisely for that reason.  Also, I like to flatter myself that, while most of it is completely fluff (both types of metaphorically) there are some good parts.  So this is what I was reading:

Huntress Night World 7 (Night World)

L.J. Smith

Morgead and Jez are awesomely funny.  For one thing, Morgead gets angry really easily, and he has an abandonment complex cause his mom left him when he was 12 and he has really pretty green eyes that Smith (the author) is always comparing to emeralds.  Not the most inventive image, I know.  Oh! And floppy black emo hair that's always getting in his eyes.  But she does come up with cool - a train as a white dragon.  Anyway, my favorite part of the book has to be Morgead in one of his "Excited States" (minds out the gutter, please).  Here's an excerpt:
~~~~
Spoiler: At this point Jez has been staked and is trying to die peacefully.  Morgead takes umbridge at this.

And then, through the mist and the gold and the warmth and the peace, came a voice that wasn't gentle at all.  That was roaring in sheer outrage and fury.

"DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, JEZEBEL! DON'T YOU DARE! Or I'll follow you to the next world and KILL you."

Suddenly, in the pretty gold mist, she could see something else.   The only thing in the universe that wasn't golden. 

It was a silver cord.

"You come back and you do it right now," Morgead bellowed in her ears and in her mind.  "Right now! Do you hear me?"

The peace was shattered.  Nothing seemed quite so warm and wonderful anymore, and she knew that once Morgead got into one of his Excited States, he wouldn't stop yelling until he got what he wanted.

There's some more here but I don't feel like typing it all...

Jez whispered, "I told you never to call me Jezebel."
Then she fainted.

Ah, here we are again.  After Christmas I went to Japan for New Year's.  I had lots of fun and took about 400 pictures and some videos as well. Don't expect to see them all - most will probably die a quiet death.  Perhaps I will get around to slogging through them at some point, though with my past record... yeah.  We'll see.  I'm going to try to be more productive this year. Try being the key word there.  Anyway.

Things I missed about Japan. 

--Actual houses. 
--Being able to talk to people. 

--Rayuu and shichimi - the things that make Japanese food spicy.

Rayuu and shichimi

Afternoon Tea!

--Coco Ichibanya Chicken Katsu/Cheese Curry.
--ramen!!
--Caffe Veloce Iced Cocoa.

Yeah, food is clearly associative for me.

Before Christmas, I decorated my apartment.  And then, when I went to Japan, I got some other thingys.  So now my place looks thoroughly lived in, cute, and boasts a random collection of art, Christmas cards, and small figurines. 

First up, my puzzles. Which, I might add, were a pain in the butt.  Had to get mr. lee to come drill holes in my cinderblock walls. Hope they aren't going to charge me for that when i leave...

The first one, Starry Night, a classic.  The second one is Art Nouveu, by Alphonse Maria Mucha.  I love his art.  I would like to find more of them in the future.  He really likes painting women, and series. For some reason his works remind me of neechan.  Probably cause she likes Art Nouveau as well.

Anyone who has ever visited a room I have lived in for a significant period of time has probably noticed that I like small figurines, usually animals.  Especially cats.  I kind of collect things like that.  When I was in Japan I discovered hashi-oki (chopstick rests) are great for that sort of thing. They are invariably small and usually cute.  I had two already, a tiger and a dragon from a series on the Juunishi (Zodiac Animals).  This time while I was in Kyoto, I picked up a few more.

Tigers and Dragons

Off to the left are the ones I had before, and then from the left - chirimen dragon and tiger, a normal dragon and tiger, but bigger and more cartoonish than my others, and lastly, a pair in Heian-period robes.  I like the chirimen ones the best, but chirimen things are just so adorable - I found out while I was there this time that it's a mostly Kyoto thing, and it's made by twisting the silk thread while weaving. 

Found these in Kiyomizudera at a handmade family-run shop and thought they were adorable. No dragons, unfortunately.  They did have lots of cows though, since that's this year.  Next year is my year!!  I hope I will get to visit Japan at some point during the year of the Tiger.  These two are very different styles, but both cute.

Kiyomizu Tigers

Last but not least - on New Year's Eve day I rode a bike down the Philosopher's Path in Kyoto and found these watercolors.   I thought they were beautiful, and so I picked out the ones I liked best.  There's some of my other stuff visible on the ledge, including my Hina Matsuri figures that Gizmo loves to play with when I'm at work.

Watercolor Postcards

And one last one, entirely out of order.  My museum postcards and Christmas cards.

Art and Xmas Cards

Okay, now that's it's almost 3 AM and I have just paid $1,000 worth of bills (most of them student loans), I'm going to bed. I feel rather accomplished.  Tomorrow... other stuff.

Since I needed something to do tonight,  and neechan recommended procrastinating on Cakewrecks, I thought I'd see what they have there.  Unfortunately I couldn't remember the address, so when I googled it, one of their older posts came up.  It is, in fact, a post of horrible, horrible Dalek cakes. 

Now, I think a Dalek cake would be pretty awesome, but these are just sad.

Here's the best one:

Dalek Cake

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But hey, I've pretty much recognized that I failed NaBloPoMo and also, I accidentally took the wrong train and ended up on the other side of the purple line.  So that's my excuse.

-sudden snort- Oh man.  I just watched Gizmo try to rush in the door from the balcony and hit her head on an open drawer.  Orange though she may be, not the brightest crayon in the box... -sigh- At least she's entertaining.  Kinda vaguely reminds me of a comment Julie once made about not adopting kids - "At least if they're yours you know you won't end up with a dumb one."  The same seems to apply to kittens, I've noticed.  All the ones that I had that I knew their mothers were very intelligent.  But the ones that I get out of nowhere (which are usually orange, in another strange coincidence) are usuallly... entertaining. Not in that, 'oh, aren't you so smart you do cute things!' way but more in the 'you've got the same IQ as my pillow, isn't that hilarious?' vein.  As my mom said, at least she's sweet. 

So also among tonight's adventures - Thanksgiving dinner (it was meh), accostment by a Christian proselytizer on the train (Robin and I got off, after several not-so-subtle hints that we weren't interested), and taking the wrong train (ended up talking to a guy who was apparently an interior designer).  oddly enough, I was stopped by a girl last night too, who wanted to tell me about God the Mother.  Which made me think about the point of religion in general, but that's a longer discussion.  Now I'm home and going to finish progress reports, since I slept most of the day anyway.  This weekend is going to be quiet - Tim and I talked about going to Dongdaemun and hitting on that guy again (which reminds me I need to backpost) but I think I want to stay home till I go up to Hyehwa for SnB on Sunday.

But before I go - A Thanksgiving-themed article. Sort of.

SPACE.com -- Space Age Technology Makes Tastier Thanksgiving Ham

No urine jokes, please.   The article isn't really amazing, talking about the water content of ham and how people are obesessed with it in Spain.  No, what more interested me was the idea that there are people who spend their lives inspecting ham.  I mean, I guess whatever puts food on the table, but still.  You gotta wonder what their kids say on Career Day. "This is my dad.  He inspects hams for water content."  Still, this is important to Spain, probably almost as important as the ape rights that GinBaby posted on a while ago.

And though this is an entirely random thought for me to have fixated on, it was really what made me click the link, and the reason I couldn't focus on the content (which wasn't really interesting anyway) - who the hell eats HAM for THANKSGIVING?  That is, in my normal/entirely-unoffensive-to-mentally-disabled use of the word, retarded.  Everyone knows that turkey is for Thanksgiving.  No one draws a pig with their handprint for Thanksgiving in kindergarten.  (At least, not that I know of.) Ham is for Christmas, and then you use the leftovers for black-eyed peas and rice for New Year's.  Now, you can have both, and turkey is acceptable for Christmas if you want to have ham only on New Year's (although I wouldn't recommend this option cause it's a lot of leftovers), but there should be no substitution of ham for turkey on Thanksgiving. That's just wrong.

I'm not sure why I feel so strongly on this matter.  I just do. 

Now that's done with, I'm going back to writing progress reports, attempting to like The Glass Passenger, and trying to teach Gizmo not to lick the inside of my nose. Srsly.  She doesn't seem to get it, unless I actually snap at her when she does it.  -sigh- the joys of kittens.

Sorry, that phrase makes me start singing "Nightmare before Christmas" songs... Here's some video I took earlier today of the women who came to make kimchi for our school.  We got a new kimchi fridge the other day (yes, there are such things), and they set to work making stuff to fill it.  They made a lot, but I'm not sure how long it will last - we have 80 kids who eat lunch everyday.  So the fridge when filled might last us two to three weeks before we have to get more.  Yes, I'm serious. 

Well, pics first.  

Kimchi Making - Huge bag of red pepper

  To make kimchi, you obviously need spices.  Here we have the largest bag of red peopper I have ever seen.  I'm fairly certain it came up to my calf.  No, wait, I'm pretty sure I saw larger ones at the market I went to a while back.  Koreans love their red pepper.  Also, garlic.  Korea eats more garlic in a year than Italy. No, really.  Incidentally, those are the two spices I use most in my cooking.  -smile-

Well, today wasnt as bad as I thought it might be, considering my sleeping pattern last night.  I got up and was at work on time and everything.  Lunch was good - I always love kimchi nabe.  But the weather - omigosh it was so cold today. Douglas said the weather forecast said possible snow, and it certainly felt like it could, but the only thing blowing in the wind was all the leaves.  I'm going to have to break out my wool coat soon if this keeps up.  Still, I had my little fleece cropped vest that I got in COEX the other night. It's super cute. See?  Even the really hot Korean salesguy said so...

Fleece vest

After work I went to Seoul Station to meet Han's aunt and uncle who are visiting here for a few days. We had dinner at Bennigan's, where I had the strangest sandwich.  It was called a monte cristo - normal ham/turkey/cheese sandwich.  but for some reason the chef decided that this particular sandwich of the ones on the menu wouldn't cause enough of an arterial blockage. SO - they battered and fried it and sprinkled it with powdered sugar. Yeah, like a donut. Or a funnel cake.  I swear, it was so strange, like eating your main course and dessert at the same time.  it didnt really add to the flavor or the sandwich.  And as I was walking out of the restaurant I saw the sign where they advertise that they specialize in healthy fusion food.  Well, it was definitely fusion.  I wish I had had my camera...

They asked if I wanted dessert or anything, and I pointed out that not only was I full, but I felt like I had already eaten dessert.  So we walked around the department store there for a few minutes and then got some coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  I don't like coffee, but they had something that looked intriguing - chrysanthemum tea.  Thus, today's Korean word(s) of the day.

Kukhwa = chrysanthemum
Cha = tea

Technically, I already knew 'tea', cause of my kids.  Sometimes I bring my mug of whatever I happen to have that day, and since the kids know by now that I don't like coffee, they try to guess what I have, cocoa or tea.   Incidentally, the word in for 'coffee' is 'coppi', so the kids think it's really funny when I have to go make copies of a book or paper. 

On the way there I finished my scarf, and also discovered that I can walk and knit at the same time - I was binding off as I was transferring lines, and so I just kept going as I was walking.  I'm not sure if I could do more complicated stitches at the same time.  I even managed to walk up the stairs and everything.  So now it just needs to be blocked, and then it will be finished.  It's supposed to have crocheting on the ends, but I don't know how to crochet, so we'll just leave it as is.  I've also got that stuff that I promised to ball for Kate, and plenty of lessons to plan this week.  Plus, I have a pokemon date with neechan, andI think i want to trade her some of my current ones before i start an entirely new game and get the other starters.  btw, nick - i can play/trade with you too (and I'm sure jessica would love to as well), if you're not too busy with zelda. another thing i need to play. let's not talk about that though. I think I won't worry about starting my next gauntlet/Tim's scarf till the thursday meeting in Gangnam.

Now I've had my shower and I'm tired... I really wanna go to bed.  I guess typing my thursday adventure will have to wait again, as will the superblogpostofdoom. and I have other things- some more progress reports to finish, a bank transfer to do (tomorrow)... blocking the scarf.  ah screw it, those will wait. I'm going to bed.

Well, this week has been busy, but I don't really remember what all I did. 

Saturday I went to Cafe Istanbul and Urinetown with Lloyd, both of which were awesome. 

Tuesday I went to the Starlight Six with the Bread crew and saw Wall-E.  It was cute, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much they fucked over or completely disregarded the laws of physics.  I know movies aren't real, but its disturbing to me when they treat children like idiots, or completely mislead them.

Wednesday was my last night in Atlanta, so Lloyd and I went to the Vortex.  It was amazing, as usual.

Thursday I planned to leave early in the afternoon.  But I locked myself out of the house while packing up my car, so I ended up having lunch at Saba and then walking over the Clairmont to get the key from Alex.  I came back, and was really tired, so I decided to take a nap and leave when the traffic was less bad.  I didn't get to have dinner with my mom, but I'm going to go out there sometime this week. I grabbed a bubble tea (I missed those) and some sushi on my way out of town, and popped in my new CD. 

Today was pretty non-descript.  Went to a meeting with a temp agency, came home and took a nap while it rained, and then went to the notary and the post office. 

I've pretty much decided I'm going to Korea this year.  My grandmother is the only one who thinks it's not a good idea, but I expected that much; she didn'treally want me to go to Japan either.   She always tries to dissuade me from doing things by asking why I have to do them, and considering I don't really follow that sort of reasoning when I'm doing something like going on a trip, she just comes off as being annoying and unsupportive. Everyone else either thinks it's a good idea, or is resigned to it, or both.

So I have a month before I go... I have to work my ass off to make some money to visit Boston before I leave... hopefully some of these temp jobs will come through.

In book news: I picked up one of my very favorite books the other day, which I bought from amazon a bit ago.  I'm so excited to finally own it.  I'm very much into fairy tales, and this is an amazing book.  It's a retelling of Snow White, but with a bit of pagan imagery and the Demeter/Persephone myth thrown in.  It defies a single reading - it's one of those books that you find something new in every time, and become more deeply involved in.  It's beautiful and dark and fantastic and at some points, mad.  Tanith Lee is one of my favorite authors...

White As Snow (Fairy Tales)

Tanith Lee