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November 20th, 2009
08:27 pm - in singapore
had noodles topped with fried egg, porridge, and sashimi plate for breakfast! more later
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November 15th, 2009
04:13 pm - 16 days in se asia
i'm going for the collective intelligence approach to packing, so please chime in if you see anything big missing.
wallet, passport, ipod, camera, plane tickets
printouts for our flights, hotel confirmations, google maps directions to hotels, copies of drivers license and passport
makansutra, lonely planet world food thailand, david mitchell's number 9 dream, scrabble tiles
toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, lotion, razor, lip gloss, soap, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, bug spray, glasses, contact lens solution, extra contacts, nail clippers
3-4 pairs of jeans/pants, a skirt, a dress
8 shirts
underwear, socks
sneakers, sandals (dress shoes?)
bathing suit
fleece, rain jacket
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November 9th, 2009
01:06 pm - chiang mai cooking school
COURSE 2Morning activity: Making the curry paste Each person will be making their own Thai curry paste using a mortar and pestle, and then learn how to use the pastes to cook another range of Thai delicacies which they can enjoy for lunch. Panaeng Curry With Pork : Gaeng Panaeng Muu Chiang Mai Curry With Chicken : Gaeng Hanglay Gai Fried Fish With Chilli And Basil : Pla Nin Laad Prik Bai Horapa Sweet And Sour Vegetables : Phad Prio Wan Phak ~~~LUNCH~~~ Afternoon Dishes: Spicy Glass Noodle Salad: Yam Wun Sen Black Sticky Rice Pudding : Khao Neow Dam Piak ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COURSE 3 Morning activity: Tour of the local market The group will be taken to visit the local market and they will be taught on how to identify the various vegetables, fruits and numerous other amazing items for sale at the market. Chicken In Coconut Milk Soup : Tom Kha Gai Red Curry With Fish : Gaeng Phed Plaa Fried Mixed Mushrooms With Baby Corn : Phad Hed Ruam Khao Pod Orn Fried, Big Noodles With Thick Sauce : Raad Nah Muu ~~~ LUNCH ~~~ Afternoon Dishes: Papaya Salad And Sticky Rice : Som Tam Steamed Banana Cake : Khanom Kluay
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November 8th, 2009
04:55 pm - trip
we finally got it together enough to make plans. we leave a week from thursday (!).
nov 19: boston-->chicago-->hong kong-->singapore
we land late friday and check in at the scarlet hotel in chinatown. we've got four days in singapore to get used to the time and eat street cart food. i bought the makansutra 2009, which is a sort of zagat guide to the city's thousands of food carts. i'm bookmarking where to find the best chilli crab, chicken rice, char kway teow and nasi lemak!
nov 25: singapore--> johor bahru
we're staying at the zon and taking the meal plan, so our time in malaysia will be pretty much occupied with the tournament and meeting everyone there. i figured i'd go off sightseeing or something while they play scrabble, but there doesn't seem to be so much to see in/around johor bahru, so i think i'll end up helping with the tournament.
nov 30: johor bahru-->koala lumpur-->bangkok-->chiangmai
after the tournament, it's on to northern thailand by way of a bunch of one-hour flights. thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tolarjev we connected to mameow, a scrabble player in chiangmai who signs all her messages with kitty ears. she recommended an awesome-looking bed and breakfast and a cooking school where we'll be taking two daylong classes!!!
dec 3: chiangmai-->bangkok
we've got two nights at the lamphu tree house. no plans here, basically exploring and eating.
dec 5: bangkok-->tokyo--> chicago-->boston
wish we had more time in thailand, but we hope to go back someday. i really want to run into wild monkeys at some point, but not sure where it would be most likely. we got immunizations and don't need any visas, so before then i figure we need to read up a bit more on culture, history and language, and figure out what to pack for two weeks in asia. all advice appreciated.
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October 25th, 2009
09:14 pm - monkey's applesauce
peel and core a dozen apples. melt half a stick of butter and add the apples, zest and juice from half a lemon, fresh grated ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and a cup of water. bring to a boil and simmer covered on low until apples break apart easily. smush with a wooden spoon.
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October 18th, 2009
10:09 pm - shrimp etouffee for two (easy!)
olaugh loves cajun food, but there isn't so much of it around these parts, so i do my best to fill the void.
chop an onion, a bell pepper, a hot pepper, a few ribs of celery and a bunch of garlic in the food processor while your sous chef peels and deveins a pound of shrimp. my hatred of deveining is the reason we rarely have shrimp, so it's best to stick someone else with this job.
now put the shrimp shells in a saucepan with a few cups of water, bring just to a boil and simmer on low. melt half a stick of butter in a heavy pot and add 1/4 cup flour. stir constantly, that's right, the whole time, for about five minutes until the roux is the color of peanut butter. be careful not to burn. add the veggies and brown a few minutes, stirring often.
stir in about 10 oz of crushed tomatoes, some of the shrimp broth and generous dashings of crystal sauce. season with salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, oregano and bay leaf, then let simmer on low for 45 minutes. if becomes too thick add more shrimp broth. add shrimps in the last 7 minutes of cooking, just until pink. garnish with parsley and/or green onions and serve over white rice with crystal and lemon wedges.
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October 5th, 2009
05:01 pm - sunday dinner
made thick pork chops, apple-pear sauce, red beans and rice, kale with bacon and onions and, inspired by quinquennia, jalapeno cornbread. i used this recipe but used fresh kernels off the cob rather than frozen corn. recipes always say to seed the jalapenos but we like it hot so i added half the seeds. it was really good, but we still could have gone for a spicier flavor, so next time i won't remove any.
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September 18th, 2009
10:37 pm - cornmeal catfish over kale
season catfish fillets with salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, pressed garlic, a bit of olive oil, and lemon juice. combine three parts yellow cornmeal with one part flour and some salt and pepper and heat vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet. dredge each piece of fish in the cornmeal mixture and fry until golden, 3-4 minutes a side. drain on paper towels and serve over kale with rice, lemon wedges and crystal sauce.
for the kale, dice an onion, garlic cloves and a couple bacon strips. fry the bacon until crispy and then add the onions and garlic. when onion is translucent add the kale leaves and a splash of white wine. cook just until the kale wilts a bit. super good!
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September 17th, 2009
08:41 pm - tomatillo swordfish
dice half a red onion, a few cloves of garlic, a hot pepper and 10 or 12 tomatillos. saute the onion in olive oil until soft, then add the rest. cook a few minutes until fragrant, then add the juice of half a lime, a little salt and a handful of chopped cilantro. meanwhile, salt and pepper a couple swordfish fillets and sear 2 minutes each side in a cast iron skillet. add the salsa to the skillet and stick in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. i added chopped tomatoes toward the end for color.
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September 15th, 2009
10:47 pm - in my fridge
apples
beans (green and purple)
corn
cucumbers
eggplant
kale
onions
peaches
peppers (bell and hot)
tomatillos
it's like triage eating everything before it spoils. we had three eggplants stir-fried with basil tonight, and there are still two more. i think tomorrow we'll do corn on the cob and beans with toasted almonds and garlic. other ideas: applesauce, peach cobbler, peach salsa, thai cucumber salad, grilled peppers and eggplants. if you've ever wanted to go vegetarian, sign up for a farm share. there's no time to eat meat.
also, does anyone want to stay at my place for cape cod (and drive me there)? it's a 45 minute trip.
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September 9th, 2009
12:41 pm - eggplant tomato sauce
boil water for pasta. when the water is almost boiling, dunk 5-6 tomatoes (or a dozen plum tomatoes) for a couple minutes until the skin starts to split. remove the tomatoes from the water and peel.
while the pasta cooks, dice an eggplant and chop 10 or more cloves of garlic. saute the garlic and eggplant in a generous amount of olive oil. now add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. simmer gently while the tomatoes break down. stir in chopped basil before serving and top with grated romano.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/hungry.gif) hungry
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August 27th, 2009
05:11 pm - olive pits in the disposal
i was rinsing out olaugh's lunch box, didn't know he spits his olive pits in there. i've gone fishing with no luck, and it makes a terrible noise. i think there are only 2-3 pits. the internet says nothing helpful on the matter other than that pits shouldn't go down there.
any ideas? i really don't want to call a plumber over this.
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August 23rd, 2009
11:39 pm - ceviche
cut a pound of very fresh raw fish into small cubes. i used haddock, but any white-fleshed ocean fish will do. juice half a lemon and one lime and pour it over the fish in a large bowl. refrigerate for an hour. put a quarter of a red onion, some cilantro leaves, a couple garlic cloves and a hot pepper in the food processor, or dice fine. mix this with the fish along with salt, pepper and a glug of olive oil. serve as an appetizer with corn chips.
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August 21st, 2009
12:06 pm - vacation excess
umm, it seems i have 12.1675 vacation days to burn before october 1. now i feel stupid for not taking it earlier. i went ahead and took today and all next week, but olaugh has to work, and i have no plans. i'm still trying to decide whether to go to new york by myself for a couple days or to find stuff to do around here.
then there's the matter of the other six days. i have too much work to take another week off, so i may just end up taking every friday in september.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/hot.gif) hot
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August 19th, 2009
02:14 pm - what i had last night at the yelp party
grilled corn and sea bass ceviche on tortilla chip, tuna tartare on potato chip, tuna tartare in a spoon with ginger sorbet, indian shrimp and chicken, gazpacho, pheasant pate wrapped in smoked bacon on toast with mustard aioli, cheese empanada, steak tartare, mini burrito, narragansett lager, habanero watermelon margarita, asian pear sake cooler, yuzu citrus sake cooler, ginger mojito, pomegranate vodka punch, apple ice wine, 60, 70 and 80 percent dark stone ground chocolate, vanilla chocolate, cinnamon chocolate, chili chocolate, salted almond chocolate, chocolate mousse
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August 12th, 2009
02:33 pm - garlic fries, act 3
i cut my own potatoes, which we got from our farm. there weren't that many and i had a good chef's knife, so it wasn't too arduous. i have a phobia of deep frying, though, so i baked the potatoes and then put them under the broiler to get crispy.
- cut potatoes into fry shapes
- put a bunch of garlic cloves through a garlic press or chop fine
- in a large bowl, mix garlic with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and finely chopped parsley (i didn't have any and subbed cilantro)
- toss potatoes in oil mixture and turn them out single layer onto a cookie sheet
- bake at 400 for half an hour, then broil for 3-5 minutes until brown and crispy
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August 6th, 2009
11:49 pm - sichuan pepper
i'm afraid that nearly every book i've read in the last two years has been about food. exceptional among them were the omnivore's dilemma, the story of sushi, and now, shark's fin and sichuan pepper. i'm only a couple chapters in, but it's just delightful. it's the memoir of fuchsia dunlop, a charming and whimsical british woman who moved to china in the early 90s (back when china was irrelevant and marginalized on the world stage) and had fantastic culinary adventures.
"Sometimes my reticence over a particular food was overcome through simple drunkenness. The Chengdu equivalent of the late-night doner kebab in 1994 was fried rabbit-heads, a snack I'd heard about from a Canadian friend. I'd seen the rabbit-heads sitting ominously in glass cabinets, earless and skinless, staring out with beady rabbit eyes and pointy teeth. The idea of eating one was absolutely revolting. But one night after a long dancing session, I fetched up at a street stall bedraggled and hungry. My reason befuddled by alcohol, I ate my first rabbit-head, cleft in half and tossed in a wok with chilli and spring onion. I won't begin to describe the silky richness of the flesh along the jaw, the melting softness of the eyeball, the luxuriant smoothness of the brain. Suffice it to say that from that day on, I ate stir-fried rabbit heads almost every Saturday night. (Later I learned that a Sichuanese slang term for snogging is chi tu lao kenr -- eating rabbit-heads.)"
most of it, though, is not gross-out stuff, but a marvelously fun and illuminating narrative. her writing is wonderful and conveys an astonishing sense of place and time. also a cookbook author, dunlop includes a recipe at the end of each chapter. i'm not sure if i can make them, though. of course i knew that aubergines are eggplants, but i'm not sure if minced beef is the same as ground beef, and everything is in grams. i was also worried about the availability of groundnut oil, but i googled it and that's just peanut oil. silly brits.
i encourage all of you to pick it up. it's only about one book in twenty that actually makes me look forward to leaving work so i can read more. it's making me tremendously hungry. and i don't even like chinese food!
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August 5th, 2009
02:17 pm - go drbing!
it was great seeing him keep nigel from tearing away yesterday (boring) and then come back to win it all. congrats!
this was the first nationals i missed, and i actually felt glad i wasn't in dayton playing scrabble badly. i enjoyed watching, and especially becoming familiar with nigel's creative and unorthodox style. after a while i started having fun trying to anticipate the types of things he might do.
now, is this not hilarious?
http://cross-tables.com/results.php?p=13511
http://cross-tables.com/results.php?p=13512
they never play without the other. one is 165-104-1 and the other is 161-106-1. even after this, their ratings graphs are still moving in sync! i wonder if they make pacts to split the money.
i think future nationals should be three divisions with unlimited playups. edit: and i think it would be cool to involve the general public with short "play the expert" contests, coaching sessions and stuff like that. i'm not sure exactly how to drum up interest, but an outreach component of the nationals feels like the right move if growth and sponsorship is our goal. right now we treat it like a party just for us, and then complain no one will pay for it.
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July 24th, 2009
05:43 pm - food friday
these are the places i've heard or read are good. i've been eating my way through the list since i moved here, but it grows faster than i can tackle it. (yes, i keep an excel spreadsheet of the restaurants i want to try. so what?) even the fancypants places are all offering prix fixe menus now because of the economy, so i can go without feeling like it has to be my birthday or something. who wants to join me?
( the list )
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July 22nd, 2009
11:50 am - stuff
you may have seen this nyt story, at the top of the most emailed list yesterday, about how a federal agency covered up data on the risks of cellphone use while driving. my maid of honor margaret, whom some of you met at my wedding or bachelorette party, was the lawyer who sued to make the data public. yesterday she was on cbs evening news with katie couric, fox news and radio stations across the country! oh yeah, don't talk on your phone while driving. duh.
possible activities this weekend:
brunch at vee vee
bike to franklin park zoo
bike to allandale farm
go boating on jamaica pond
see harry potter
roslindale fish market
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