Foods That Scare Me (a little)

My daughter is making sucking noises.  She's eating edamame stir fried with soy sauce, honey, and chili garlic sauce.  It's delicious, but it's turning my stomach a little right now.  I am planning on a different snack this evening:

 

I have a list of things that I think I want to try.  I'm supposed to be an adventurous eater.  Adventurous, perhaps, for being (mostly) raised in Iowa and coming from a (mainly) Swedish background (where Lutefisk was only served to my uncle, once a year.) 

I want to prove my worthiness.  I want to survive the food gauntlet.  (I'm kidding.)

My list of intimidating foods is (partially) as follows:

snails

sweetbreads

Lutefisk (I think I am finally ready for one of those church suppers)

durian

natto

rabbit

pickled watermelon rind

tripe (I've had this, but I don't think I've had it prepared correctly.  So many people like it and I feel like I am missing something.)

congee

black pudding (will probably have this soon at Anchor Fish and Chips)

various pig parts

chicken feet

soft shell crabs

I also want to like my intimidating foods.  Which brings me to the source of my guilt.

Last weekend I tried the soft shell crab.  

I love the place I bought the sandwich.  I wouldn't say a bad thing about the business, ever, ever.  It's me, it's my failing.  No Sam, I did not like the soft shell crab sandwich even if it has delicious pickled ramp tartar.  See?  It's beautiful:

I tried, I really tried.  There is something about the chewy and the thought of shell.  Then I got about half-way through it and I looked and I saw it's hepatopancreas and I gagged a little.  It's totally my fault, my weakness.  It's a texture and thought thing totally which doesn't bode well for a lot of the items on my list.  I know other people love them and thank god for those people.  Please try them, you might like them.  Don't let my failing be your guide.

This weekend my order will be the pulled pork nachos.  Kingfield Farmer's Market is opening this weekend!

Ugh.  Now she's slurping on a Sugar Daddy.  

"What, you don't like rice?" or Leftovers

My mom was a scientist in the kitchen.  She had a degree in home economics from the University of Minnesota.  Recipes were followed with precision.  It irritated her when measuring spoons were dispensed with and approximations were made.  To my taste, my mother's cooking was very successful.  But again, to my taste, there were a few notable exceptions.

One such dish was Tuna Rice Patties (click and cook at your own peril.)  Something about the tinny, canned tuna combined with rice and egg that made me gag.  It's a recipe that is made for leftover rice, but I am pretty sure my mom made rice just to make the patties.    One night, when I was around the age of 12, I refused a dinner of the tasty treat.  Nothing else was available to me and I knew it.  It was house policy to eat what was put in front of you.  I had great pleasure telling my grandmother the next day that they didn't give me anything to eat.  She didn't fall for it.

One of my sisters loves tuna rice patties to this day.  The other sister won't touch any rice based on The Lost Boys.  This is a scar she has carried with her since she was a child and a quick Google search reveals she isn't the only one who walked away from that movie feeling less inclined towards the white, fluffy staple.  I'm not sure why most people, including her, don't have the same feelings about noodles.  (Awesome, do click this link.)

Other dishes my mom made that I could not stand at the time include egg foo young (seriously, what is that slimy crap that is served with those?) and chow mein (gag, again--cooked celery.)  After I came back from college I actually requested the chow mein and pushed aside the celery and asked for more crispy noodles to have with the ground pork, water chestnuts, and sprouts and more rice.  Still cannot stomach any egg foo young.

Something else that I was always pretty suspicious of was fried rice.  Mom made it on occasion.  Rice and soy sauce and ham and egg?  Leftover vegetables?  Ugh.  Salty and otherwise tasteless and what I still see as a coward's way out of a Chinese restaurant. 

Which finally brings me to my point.  I made this for dinner:

It's kim chee fried rice!  It was so good.  I checked out a few recipes, but basically it is meat of your choice or no meat at all (I used my lo bulgogi), kim chee, whatever veg you may have around, a little soy sauce, and LEFTOVER rice.  Dice up the meat ( I saw lots of recommendations for Spam), dice up the kim chee, throw in the extras (I had diced green onions in the fridge), and then stir-fry it up in a little butter.  (I blinked when I saw butter since I am so used to using olive oil for everything, but I could taste the difference.)  When it's good and hot, throw in the rice and the soy sauce (other recipes also used a red pepper paste--had to Google that and will be putting it on a future shopping list.)  Crisp up the rice to taste, making sure everything gets incorporated with everthing else and the whole thing turns lovely colors.  Finished with a little toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds.  I added some chopped garlic chives too.  Tasty.  Some of the recipes called for a fried egg to be served on top, but I was in a sentimental mood and went with the scrambled-egg-in-fried-rice method.  I like my own cooking.  Morgan wasn't home.

I'm a little concerned I am going to be up all night.  I didn't sleep last night and today I did the fall-asleep-on-the-couch-for-20-minutes-after-work thing and have been wide awake since.  I'm making a vegetable stock (for the first time) for a vegetable soup that I am making tomorrow for a vegetarian friend.  It's still got awhile to reduce, then strain, then find a place in the fridge for it.

Bulgogi on a Sunday Night

It's been awhile.  I am back with bulgogi.  It's the first time I've made it and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It looked a little more saucy and was a little more sticky than what I've had in the past.  In fact, it really does look more like a teriyaki. I think I let it marinate too long, but even Morgan said she would eat it again.  I used a recipe from Chow, but I will probably continue to search until I find something more "authentic." The kim chee (which I've been craving and was the whole reason I made this) came from Don Yang Oriental Foods in Columbia Heights.  

Mill City Farmer's Market opened up again this weekend!  It meant Indian Spice Mini Donuts from the Chef Shack and Harukei turnips and goat cheese.  The weather was chilly, but it was worth it.

We bought greenhouse-grown brandywine and a purple/black tomato.  They weren't as tasty as the in-season tomatoes will be, but they were certainly better than anything that can be found in grocery stores right now.  Dinner was bacon, lettuce kale, and tomato sandwiches, with a turnip and greens saute on the side.  I used uncured bacon from Whole Foods which I will never use again because it was paper thin and just not bacon-y enough.  I thought I was incredibly clever to use braised kale instead of lettuce (I'm becoming of the opinion that lettuce on a sandwich/burger/whatever--anything but a salad--is superfluous.)  I added dried Thai chili to give it a little kick.  I made my own mayo (used very sparingly) and the bread--sourdough (really?) and garlic--came from the market too.  A meal heavy on the greenery, but that made up for the "bacon."

So lots has been happening--a few shows,  awesome book "discoveries," dinners out and dinners at home, company, surgery, healing--the norms.  If I can manage to get back into this, I plan to share.