Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm just back from a very fun dinner at Fuji Ya with friends.  Super enjoyable, thank you guys so much for the great evening!

Does anyone else have the problem where they can eat and eat and eat sushi and it's way too late when you realize you are incredibly full?

A Late Night

And too much to do.  Dishes, trash (throw out take-out boxes), clean catbox (little bastards still aren't eating), chase dust bunnies, get laundry ready to do.  I think I will clean the cat boxes and crawl in bed and read.

I had a fruit cup for lunch!

As I sat there congratulating myself, I realized none of it was local and probably used a ton of petroleum on its way here.  It was probably grown with pesticides and had who knows what sprayed all over it.  It was also largely tasteless.  Depression.

With the exception of tonight, this is the week of eating out.
Tomorrow: Fuji Ya
Thursday: Barrio?
Friday: TBD
Saturday: Il Gatto
Sunday: Red Stag

A pretty picture:

(Tomorrow is my birthday.)

Chicharron & Things My Daughter Won't Eat

I've got an awful stomach ache.

I went to Cocina Latina for the second time. I wanted to take my daughter to have the arepas.  I haven't seen them anywhere else.  This particular food holds a good memory for her and she hasn't had them in many years.  (I had them just last Thursday.)  When she was little we lived in family student housing while I was finishing my degree.  A couple of doors down a Venezuelan couple lived with their two daughters, Angela and Carol, and a son Carlos.  Angela was Morgan's babysitter and Carol and Carlos were Morgan's best friends.   Morgan spent a lot of time with the Yanez family and accordingly, spent a lot of time at their table.  She'd run home and ask, "Can I stay for dinner?  The are having ardepas."  Not only did I not know what she was talking about, I didn't figure out for years that an ardepa was an arepa.  Previous to that I didn't know what I should be asking for and there seems to be few Latin restaurants at which to ask the question, "What's ardepa?" 

So back to the restaurant that is just down the street from me.  We ordered the arepas with cheese.  When I had them last Thursday, there was just enough cheese for flavor and appearance.  Tender in the middle and the crispy outside of the arepa crunched nicely. Tonight they were drowned in enough cheese to fill a quesadilla. Morgan loved them, but her final conclusion was she wished she could find a recipe to make arepas like Carol's mother.  (Taking all advice on this matter.)

I love cheese, but I didn't like the arepas as much as I liked them last Thursday.  A little mushy from the microwaving the half a block of cheese.  Which brings me what I do like about Cocina Latina and for which I am also soliciting recipes.  I love the sauce.  It is an odd orange color and nothing I would call salsa.  It has the smallest slivers of red onion and bits of cilantro. It was a nice front-of-the-mouth burn that I quite enjoyed through a half of a smallish container before I asked what it was.  "Habaneros."

I assumed that I would end up with a stomach ache and other burning parts, but I was surprised that I only ended up craving more. 

The rest of the food.  My daughter ordered the Bandeja Latina: Carne asada, chorizo, arroz, frijol, huevo, chicharron, aguacate, arepa y maduro or grilled top sirloin with sausage, crackling, fried egg, rice, beans, corn cake, avocado, and sweet plantain.  (She was really hungry and is largely a meat eater.)  I also ordered this last Thursday thinking I would get a good idea of what the restaurant's flavors were as far as the meat products were concerned.  I too found out that I don't like chicharron.  I did like the sirloin (though not a top product), the sausage, and the plantain.  Tonight my daughter wisely took half of it home, minus the plantain and the chicharron.  I wasn't half as intelligent last Thursday, but then I covered almost everything on my plate with the habaneros sauce and I wasn't thinking clearly.

Tonight I tried the Bistec a Caballo: Pan fried top sirloin in homemade sauce, with rice, beans, fried egg, red potato, cassava root, and plantain.  I found out I really like cassava root, but I didn't like the homemade sauce and frankly the sirloin was pretty tough this time around.  I was disappointed.  I so want this place to be good.  It's so close and so friendly that I feel guilty posting this.


A couple of questions because I think I am largely ignorant about Latin cuisine.  What's up with the fried eggs?  Is it normal to have pasta on a Latin menu?  They do.

We did get some pretty pictures.  Maybe I will stick with the tacos if there is a next time so I can have the sauce.

I think one of the static-y cats almost blew up my computer because she was hanging around about my feet and there was all this little crackling.  And also, I still seem to be the only one eating in this apartment.  Anyone know anything about cat food strikes?

Going to go read some more Pollan.  New York Times article today: Michael Pollan Offers 64 Ways to Eat Food.  Maybe ice cream will help with the stomach ache.

Corn

My apartment still smells like popcorn.

It was really good popcorn though.  I prefer popping it like my dad does, in a pan on the stove.  He'd make buckets of it when we were kids--just salt, no butter.  We would eat it out of the salad bowl set that my parents got for their wedding.  It was covered in daisies with a green background.  (You can actually see an example of the pattern on the ice bucket on the kitchen set of "That 70s Show.")  I still prefer to eat popcorn out of those bowls when I visit him.

We watched Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging and were both pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.  It was even cute with some segments just like the books.  On the other hand I was able to watch (most of the time without digital issues) The Ugly Truth today and it was as I was afraid it would be.  The movie was predictable (who's surprised) and Gerard Butler just didn't look like I wanted him too look.  No CGI.

I started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan last night.  I realize I am coming a couple years late to the table (ha) with this one, but I kept asking my sister if I could borrow it and she kept saying her friend had it.  I've been looking for something to read, mostly looking for escapism in books like Sunshine by Robin McKinley (awesome), but Pollan's book has stuck me right in the middle of a reality that is almost as fantastic as vampires and magikal beings.  I've already read through the corn section.  Tonight while I sipped my decaf pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks and ate my Chipotle burrito (steak, pinto beans, no rice) in front of the TV, I wondered just how much high-fructose corn syrup I was consuming.  At my stop at the grocery store the entire section loomed threateningly, composed to my eyes entirely by stalks of corn.  I couldn't bring myself to buy any groceries (okay, I have plenty at home and didn't need anything really.)

I grew up in Iowa, though not on a farm.  The elementary school I went to was edged by corn fields.  There was a period of time when my sister started acting particularly wacky and my mom found corn kernels in her jacket pockets.  Mom decided that the wacky behavior was due to an allergy to the corn being absorbed through her skin.  My family had completed the elimination diet (do you know how bad rice crackers were in the 70s?) in the months previous and my sister had come up with that corn allergy.  To my mind I have largely outgrown the allergy as an adult, but in reading about the prevalence of corn and corn syrup in the diet of the average American, I have to wonder what those old allergies think of the junk we pour in with an increasing addiction to every drop.

Then I took a lovely, relaxing bath in Lush (60% organic) bubble bath.  I do wish my bath weren't an apartment size clawfoot, but the GIANT full-size clawfoot I bathed in as a child.  (Of course I was much smaller.)

And then I started the section of the book on grasses while in the tub.  What exactly is 60% organic?  What is organic?

I've been seriously considering trying to go 100% organic (more expensive = less food = smaller me.)  My cats went completely organic a couple of years ago because one of them almost died due to a blockage due to a build up of crystals caused by a dry and ash-filled diet.  They now eat 100% organic, human-grade chicken and herring everyday.  They are all smaller, no visible dander, and have glossy beautiful coats.  So I also reason organic for myself will also result in a smaller me with a glossy beautiful coat.  I'm not going to go District 9, but I see the benefits and I am tempted to follow the cats' lead.  And I thought shopping at Whole Foods would do it.  How disappointed am I.

Just a note on that cat food issue.  They've stopped enjoying the chicken and herring.  Time to move on to a seafood flavor.  I thought cats prefered a single flavor.  Does anyone know about cat preferences?

So I can't wait til the farmer's markets open up again when I can eat locally-sourced, hopefully really organic fresh vegetables all summer.  I plan on quizing the growers.  I miss garlic scapes.

Angus Thongs & Perfect Snogging
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Sunshine

Saturday

I had an appointment in St. Paul this morning and I was tempted to do the hip thing and go to Cheeky Monkey Deli for lunch.  I was in the Como neighborhood and I went to Nelson's Cheese and Deli instead.  (Isn't it hip to go against the flow too?)  It had been awhile and I had good memories of grabbing a couple sandwiches and heading over to Como Park with my daughter.  

The set up of the deli has changed since I was there last and I find it more user friendly and more, um, deli-like.  It was busy, but had quick and friendly service.  I ordered the Como Club:  Thinly Sliced Chicken Breast, Bacon, Chive Havarti on Vienna White Bread with Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumbers and Ranch Sauce.  I love cucumbers on a sandwich, but I wish they would use the English cucumbers (Grown in Canada.)  Waxy ones don't set well with me.  The ranch sauce didn't overwhelm and really, was thankfully barely present.  The tomatoes were oddly centered in the middle, but I moved them around.  Overall, it was a good sandwich.  Not Cheeky Monkey fun or interesting, but still a good sandwich.

The deli has a nice selection of sandwiches, make your own and specialty and hot and cold.  I like the salad options, all make your own.  There is a large cooler of retro sodas, but I chose "MASH, A Water Drink."  It was a grapefruit-flavored "Citrus Zing" and was still a carbonated drink despite the name.  I'll drink it again.

A note on the cheese.  It's supposed to all be midwest sourced.  The Havarti on my sandwich was good, but I can't say much for the rest of the selection.  It was Midwest.

I rented two redbox movies for this evening.  Neither of the movies were a first choice for me.  The Ugly Truth DVD was too scratched to be watchable and I have a feeling that was a saving grace.  I'm waiting to watch Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging.  The kid is coming over to see it with me.  We both liked the Georgia Nicolson books, but I don't have high hopes for this movie either as it went straight to DVD in the US after being made in England.

It will be pan-popped popcorn for dinner. 

What She Eats When She Eats Alone

I'm a somewhat middle-aged woman who is getting used to an empty apartment because her only daughter moved out a month ago.  Just me and the cats.  Yes, I know what that makes me.

We have wildly divergent tastes when it comes to food.  She inherited her father's hatred of all things green.  Spinach is one of my favorite things.  She would invariably order a hanger steak when out for dinner.  I rarely order the same things twice at the same restaurant (unless it's Hell's Kitchen huevos rancheros.) (Snob!)  I suppose we ended up eating alone anyways, her with her Annie's Mac and Cheese or ramen stir-fry, me with my leftovers from some ethnic restaurant.  (I do cook, albeit occasionally lately.)

So tonight for all my love of all things exotic and bordering on the edge of the occasionally healthy, I had store-bought brownies and chocolate chip ice cream for dinner.  (Does anyone else remember back in the 70s when chocolate chip ice cream had little bits of what I only can assume was some butter brickle substance?)

The cats are hungry...

What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes