i'm back!

since i'm a student again, i guess it's time to continue my chronicle of the horrible things i cook and eat. i'm in a grad program now, which equals even less time to cook than before.

therefore, i have invested in a slow cooker. usually on sundays, i'll make up a giant pot of something to always have at hand for the entire week. this past week, it wa

s chicken soup. unfortunately, this is the only picture of it, before it's cooked. and i'm sure you don't want to see what's left in the pot a week later. a 4 lb chicken, 5 celery stalks, 4 carrots, 1 giant onion, 2 bay leaves, black pepper. now, that was fun without a vegetable peeler or chopping board.

SlapChop

this is food related, so i guess it's allowed here.  if you're not familiar with the SlapChop, it's an infomercial gadget, presented by the guy who does ShamWow!  as well.  curse the remix for being so catchy!

Furikake

hello there faithful readers.  it's been a year hiatus, but it's never too late to post cell phone pictures of bad food!

i was running late to work and pulled out what i thought was a takeout box of leftover fried rice for lunch, just enough to tide me over til a real lunch after i finished.  i was in a rush so i grabbed the wrong box, of course, and ended up with a container filled with some not-so-good-quality white rice.  an hour before i was supposed to be off, i found out that i'd have to stay longer, so i was stuck with my unappetizing rice.  what's a Bao to do when there's not even a stray soy sauce packet around to flavor restaraunt rice?  the answer is simple:  leftover Cooler Ranch Doritos furikake!

i only had the doritos b/c they were past their "fresh" date and therefore no one but me wanted to eat them.  before you ask, no, it didn't taste gross.  after crushing them in the bag for tiny pieces, the chips were just crunchy enough to add some texture and the savory cool ranch flavor went quite well with the rice.

other chip flavors that would compliment rice well:

nacho cheese

wasabi

sour cream and onion

ketchup

taco

flavors that would not taste good:

mesquite bbq

dill pickle (pringles now makes these)

chili cheese

pizza

sweet potato

anyone with what they think would taste good rice rice?  bugles perhaps?

inactivity

been in kind of a cooking slump lately, so haven't made anything interesting lately. only thing of note was a beef stew maybe a month ago. thank goodness i am not the only cook anymore or else it'd be rice and sauce every day.

happened to be in sd last week and tried the loco moco at the hawaiian bbq place next to taco motion in PB. it was delicious. the hamburger was so meaty tasting... kind of tough, b/c it was like all meat, but meat factor made up for that. wish the cabage underneath was cooked or something though. aside from that, i was really really hungry, and that was dinner, then breakfast and lunch for the next day along with 3 red delicious apples.

"lookie what the cat threw up!"

once upon a time several years ago, trader joe's sold something called a "spicy lemon soda". it was immensely unpopular and at one point, they'd sold it at 2$/6bottles to try and get rid of it. and it still did not disappear fast enough. i, however, have a taste for sweets that usually come in combinations of spicy, sweet, salty and by extension, loved the soda. it kind of burned and left a warm almost roiling feeling in your tummy when you drank it.

one day, a year and a half ago, i had a cold with a stuffy nose and really couldn't taste anything. then i figured i might as well try and concoct something warm and flavorful, and perhaps sinus clearing with expectorant properties. what happened was that really gross looking hot lemonade with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in it. it didn't taste very good. but the chili did help with the phlegm and i'm sure the lemon bits gave me much needed vitamins.

HK student lunch

had lunch with my cousin today. she has to go to school (she's 16), but gets a 1 hour lunch break, so i took 2 minibuses down to her school and met here there just as she got out from class. most students in HK don't eat in the school canteen b/c it is overpriced and the food sucks. they usually go to nearby "tea restaraunts" or bring lunch/go home during their ample lunch breaks and order combo meals that come with a drink. for example, she got a roast pork and wintermelon stew with rice and a cold milk tea (2.83 US$). i got a "student set meal" of bacon (and supposedly pork chop) on top of spaghetti covered with a goopy unspicy curry sauce and a cold milk coffee (2.31 US$). unfortunately, i was a bit rushed this morning to make it on time, so i left my camera at home. food here can be crazy cheap like that to cater to students, or really expensive. i mean, a full hot meal with choice of drink for under 3 bucks is unheard of in the states. although.. i must say that local student/kid fare is pretty gross. teens seem to like eating things like creamy tomato goop covered rice and spaghetti with ham or spam on the side. i had to try a student meal though, hehe. but next time.. i'll stick to the more traditional fare like my cousin. oh oh, even better, i was hungry 3 hours later because i didn't eat much of that stuff.. so i went to a thai restaraunt and had afternoon tea there. gotta love the brit influence. for 2$ USD i had a hot lemon tea and a bowl of thai style pork chop rice noodles with bean sprouts. i think one reason why food is cheaper here is b/c portions are nearer to CharSiuBao-sized meals. so if you eat a lot, you can order different stuff for variety! yum yum.

is it.. tea time?

baked beans on toast. not a big fan of heinz. this is some other brand.. maybe it's bush's or henry's store brand. van de camps pork and beans rank pretty high on my list however, they are not to be confused with baked beans. extremely filling and satisfying. and flatulence inducing.

korean feast

i wen to the zion market with my korean friend, who admittedly knows nothing about food, but can read labels in korean *grin*

this was going to be dinner for two.. but somehow it ended up being dinner for 4 + leftovers. i think we got a little food crazy. lighting in the kitchen is always too dim. top- grilled salted mackerel, right- dukbukge, bottom- laver, left and counterclockwise- tofu pockets with seasoned rice, kimchee, spicy sweet fishcake, seasoned cucumbers, soybeans. plus the ubiquitous rice.

pear season!

actually, it's not pear season anymore. and if it was pear season, maybe it was in the beginning of october. i really don't know, but that's when massive amounts of pears started arriving in the markets. maybe getting an almanac would help... if i were a farmer. i think i bought one of every pear i could find that day, minus the really expensive ones (aka organics) of course.

seckels, bartlett, d'anjou, starkrimson, comice

taco rice

well, i made this a year and a half ago, and i don't think i posted anything about it.. remembered making this due to mmm-yoso's and others' reminiscences about taco rice. i didn't have any lettuce, cheese, or tomatoes... but tacomeat+onions+sauce on rice is close enough. it probably doesn't taste nearly as good when made by professionals... it tasted pretty bad, in fact. that's why there's some bbq sauce on the top in hopes that it could be salvaged--i mean, bbq sauce makes everything taste better.