Currently Listening to....

I recently bought "Blacklisted", by Neko Case. If you like Alt-Country, or Diana Krall (because Neko is sort of a cross between the two) then you should definitely check her out.

BBM2

Well, I still haven't managed to get a digimatized camera. So, unfortunately, I will be unable to show what any of the items looked like. But I received a very awesome package from Eileen in Belgium. (And now that I think about it, I've already eaten a lot of what she sent...so the pictures would have been of empty packages!)

Anyway, it turns out Eileen did a little homework and snooped around my blog. So she included some tasty Japanese treats (because of my trip to Japan). She sent a little variety pack of wasabi treats: peas, lima beans (I think), almonds and peanuts. All coated in tasty wasabi goodness! Also included was a package of okazu nori, or "side seaweed". These are the little sheets of nori seaweed that usually accompany rice. They make a nice texture and taste contrast to rice.

She also noted that I am a number cruncher (both by trade and by hobby). So she included some statistics about the eating and drinking habits of Belgians. The average Belgian drinks 15 cups of coffee per week!! And 1 restaurant per 460 inhabitants! Dallas has a lot of restaurants, but I'm pretty sure we can't match that statistic.

And of course, some fabulous Belgian chocolate was included. She even tried to appeal to my Texan tastes by making one of them a chocolate bar with pink peppercorns! I haven't tried this one yet (I'm trying to be good and not eat everything at once!), but have great expectations for it! And also along the Texan theme were some "homemade" (presumably by Eileen. - if so, then very well done!) chocolates that have chili in them. Some chocolates shaped as diamonds, that were made in the diamond district of Antwerp. And finally a "typical Belgian cookie", that has already been consumed!

And finally, perhaps the most interesting item was the mix CD that Eileen made me. She stuck to a food theme, with the exception of "Come on Eileen" - which is more than understandable since it was Eileen who went to the trouble of making the CD. There were other various food related songs (some of which I didn't know), but I must say that any CD with a Jeff Buckley song ("Lilac Wine") is an instant hit with me!

So, Eileen, thank you very much for the unforgettable package! I'm trying to ration the goodies, but I have a feeling they will not see the end of the weekend!

Eet smakelijk, indeed!!

Ahh, playdough - thy taste is divine.

There was a time, not so long ago, when I actually had a litte intrigue and adventure in my life. When my days were made up of more than just crunching numbers and meetings. I have posted a few pictures of my time in Japan; and its time for post number 3 in this series.

In the picture on the left you see (from l to r) Kazuhiko (my college roommate), Stacy (my sister), me (myself), and Kinuyo (another college friend). We are taking part in tea ceremony. Kaz had been taking a class in tea ceremony etiquette and he arranged for us to take part in an actual ceremony. As you see us now, we have finished the tea and are about to chow down on some wagashi, the traditional sweet that is served with green tea. I must say that there are some Japanese sweets that I quite enjoy, but the wagashi we had that day is not really one of them. Plus, this picture represents my first exposure to said sweets.

You will notice that they look very similar to lumps of playdough. Granted, the taste is a little better - but the consistency is all playdough. Anyway, perhaps my favorite thing about the first picture is that you will notice that I have decided to tackle the problem of consuming playdough by appealing to the great green tea gods above. While my friend Kinuyo has decided that she will just flat out challenge anyone to make her consume what is before her!

The local delicacy?

You know, I used to think that I was a pretty adventurous diner. I mean, I've veered off the path of conformity from time to time. I've had raw horse meat (basashi) for crying out loud! But something happened yesterday that made me realize I'm really just a punk. I was reading an old issue of Outside Magazine and found a small article about cliff diving in Norway. And as an aside they mentioned a "local delicacy" called smalahove. So being the inquisitive soul that I am I looked it up. And I believe I just might have found something that there is no way in heck I could eat. Now, I'm not talking about Fear Factor crap. I mean real, honest-to-goodness dishes that the locals enjoy. Real food. I've always thought that I could handle anything that actual people enjoy eating. But if the Norwegians really do eat the delicacy shown in the above photo, then I gladly bow to the real champions of open-minded eating!

I'll take the saw-kee-sone, please!

We now take an intermission from the current series of Japanese memories. I was reading this entry by cindym on learning the ropes in Paris, and was reminded of a funny experience of my own. I'll try to keep it short. At my previous job I was "required" to travel to London every couple of months. Almost everytime I went there I would take the opportunity to visit my friend (see photo) in France over the weekend. On one occassion I was to meet him (and his wife, Alexandra) in Paris. Because of flight times I had to either arrive early evening or shortly after noon. I opted for the earlier flight, but that meant spending a few hours alone in big, scarey Paris (as my friend had to leave work and then drive in from Nantes). But I did it anyway. So, I arrived at the airport, took the train to the station where we were to meet. I had my little day-suitcase, with wheels. At this point, I've still got nearly 4 hours to kill.

Now, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that it had been a relatively long trip. I left from Northampton, England (north of London), took the train to London. flew to Paris, and took the train to....somewhere (I can't remember the stop where we met.) So, my bladder had plenty of time to become not empty (I would now like to apologize for the graphic nature of this post!). So, I'm strolling up and down the same street (because I'm scared of getting lost!) with my little roller suitcase, a full bladder, and an increasingly empty stomach.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I didn't (and really still don't) speak French. I'm an ugly American. During my trips up and down the same street I had noticed a nice little cafe that looked like a decent place to stop, empty bladder, and fill stomach. (An earlier attempt at operating a port-a-potty that took coins had proved quite fruitless.) The only problem is that I'm such a freaking prideful bastard that I was scared to reveal to the waitstaff (and the rest of France) that I couldn't parlez the langue. So I kept walking, kept pulling the stupid suitcase, and kept cursing the port-a-potty for not functioning properly!

Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I am human - and that I can only go so long without answering the wailing cry of nature. Pride be damned! I had to pee for crying out loud!! So, I stepped into the cafe. I chose a seat. And the waiter approached. He said something. I looked at him with my best ugly American look. And he gave a knowing nod, indicating that he was privy to my stupidity, and asked in English what I would like to eat. So I'm home free, right? I can order in English! Woohoo! (And by the way, where is the toilet?) But, no! I still couldn't get it right. I recognized something on the menu that my friend, Arnaud, had shared with me before. It was saucisson (see photo). So I decided that I would order some saucisson and a beer. So, in my best American English I informed the waiter that I would like a beer and some "saw-kee-sone". Unfortunately, the proper pronunciation is "saw-see-sone". So, yet again, I am humiliated and reminded of my burden of being from East Texas. Thank you, and good night.

Octopus what?!

Well, its time for part two of "Trying to make my blog look cool with old scanned pictures, since I'm not hip enough to own a futurmalistic dige-camera thingy." I'm actually of the opinion that this is a pretty darn good picture, stylistically that is. Unfortunately, I can't claim credit for taking it - since I'm actually in the picture. (I'm the dorky looking, fresh-faced, homester on the right; sister is just to the left.) But anyway, note the choreography in the left of the picture. It almost looks like a '60's era National Geographic picture, or something. I don't know, I just think the girl's school uniform looks just retro enough, and its sort of blurred out, and with the strange "foreign" characters on the sign - it all just looks pretty cool I think. Anyway, what we're eating is "Tako-yaki" - or octopus balls. No, c'mon, keep it clean! Its little bits of octopus, or Tako, submerged in batter, and then fried (yaki) into a ball shape. It is served with a sauce that is very similar to what you would get with yaki-tori (fried-chicken). (Actually, "fried" is a little misleading, since its more of a skewered roasting that takes place.) And finally, for your Japanese lesson of the day: If you look at the Japanese characters in the very top left of the photo you can see what the hiragana characters for "ta-ko" look like. Use that knowledge wisely and you will go far!

Not a food blogger, but love me some grub

I'll cut straight to the point. This isn't really much of a blog; much less much of a food blog. But that doesn't necessarily mean I don't appreciate blogs, food, cooking, long naps and cracking my knuckles. So, I wanted to make my "blog" all nice and pretty like the cool people do. Maybe show off some of my splendiferous cooking. The problem, however, is that I don't own a digimatized camera. So I thought to myself, "I know, I'll dig up some old pics and scan them. I mean, I've been places; I've done things; I've eaten...stuff." So that's exactly what I did. I dug out the old shoebox and sifted through countless memories of days gone by. I ended up spending about an hour looking at photos and visiting old friends and places. So, I've chosen some of the loosely food-related pics, and I've decided to share them. Now, since I'm a sporadic poster at best I think its best if I avoid making an uber-post today - and instead post one photo at a time. So, this first one is a little boring. But we wouldn't want to rush into anything would we? I mean, we barely know each other! I've never met your parents, nor you mine. I have no idea what your favorite beverage is; what type of toothpaste you use; or why that cute little vein in your forehead always seems to show up when I'm giving you "suggestions" on how to properly slice a cucumber. So, you get the idea. Just look at the boring picture first - then, if things go well, we can progress and I'll show you more. So, here it is (the "boring" picture):
Many moons ago, my sister and I made a trek to Japan. While we were there we paid a visit to my college roommate, Kazuhiko. He took us to this huge greenhouse in his hometown where they grew strawberries. As you can see from the photo, they sorta knew what they were doing. There were just rows and rows of these beautiful, sweet, sugary strawberries. Stay tuned for further adventures in extreme dining!