food

Tired today

Had one of those mornings when I woke up at 5 and couldn’t sleep anymore. And I went to bed kinda late too, after 11.

Tried catching up on Heroes online last night. In the middle of the latest episode, the website froze for some reason. So annoying.

Had dinner with H. on Monday. We ate at this place I like in Chinatown. Pork and crab xiao long bao, shredded pork in garlic sauce, and baby bok choy with mushrooms. Yum!

My favorite dish at that restaurant is the lion’s head. I guess you could say it’s the red variety which they serve with bok choy. I wasn’t sure if H. would like it so I refrained from ordering it, but afterwards when I described it to him, he said it sounded good. They also almost always have chou dofu, which I have yet to be brave enough to try.

For some reason I’m in the mood for shopping. Maybe cuz spring is in the air though there’s still some snow on the ground. I may hit some stores after work. I’d really like some nice high heeled brown leather boots, which you’d think would be easy to find but so far are not. Either they reach practically up the thigh, or they have 5 inch stiletto heels, or they’re too chunky. Will have to continue my search.

food / writing — Comments Off
16
Mar 07

The unfocused post

Well now we’re back to winter, which is okay. We had such a short, mild season that some snowy weather seems right.

I didn’t have class this week as the teacher had some personal business to take care of. So we’ll have an extra class at the end. Three people were to email their pieces by yesterday. There was disagreement as to when: Wednesday, Thursday, etc. Two said Thursday, to give themselves more time. The third, who is so goddamned annoying, said, “Why not Wednesday? C’mon, Wednesday.”

Guess who still hasn’t emailed her piece?

Right now for class we’re reading Angela’s Ashes. Really really good. I thought it might be too pathetic and depressing, but it’s actually quite funny. And the depressing things are told in a very plain way so that they don’t come off as melodramatic. I’m interested now in seeing the movie.

The other book we read is the Liars’ Club. Again, fucking amazing. People seem to either hate it or love it. Next up is The Glass Castle.

family / food / rant and/or rave — 3 Comments
02
Mar 07

My favorite cereal

‘Nuff about dating, right? Seeing Zydecofish using the Imagination Prompt Generator inspired to check it out again.

Write about your favorite cereal.

This has changed over the years. When I was a kid, it was definitely Frosted Flakes. I loved when they got just a little bit mushy and then to slurp up the sugary milk afterwards, which was quite a feat because I hated milk then, as well as cheese. I’d say that I was lactose intolerant, as many Asians are, but I had no problem with ice cream and yogurt, and milk in a shake.

I didn’t always like drinking the leftover cereal milk. For a while my brother and I had honeynut Cheerios every morning, always leaving the bowl 1/3 full of milk. This pissed off our mother to no end. She grew up poor in Taiwan and so hated wasting a speck of food.

One morning she got the brainstorm of taking the leftover milk and making us mugs of hot chocolate. Leftover honeynut Cheerio milk + Nestle’s hot chocolate = nauseatingly sweet milk. Keep in mind this was on top of our already full stomachs of cereal and 2/3’s the bowl of milk.

We moaned to ourselves the whole time we tried to drink it. My brother, who must have been 7 or 8, even gagged, spitting up a good mouthful. To this day, this image cracks me up so that if I’m walking down the street and happen to think of it, I’ll laugh uncontrollably, creating a wide berth around me, which makes me think maybe I should conjure up this memory more often.

My second favorite childhood cereal was Cocoa Krispies, of which leftover chocolately milk I had no problem finishing. And the worst was Captain Crunch, which always succeeded in tearing up the roof of my mouth.

As a young adult too lazy to cook, I often ate Quaker Oatmeal Squares or Cracklin’ Oat Bran for dinner, which did nothing to fill me up and everything to make me gain weight. Maybe this is why I’ve lost my taste for cereal and for, in general, cold eats in the morning. For instance, I can’t eat yogurt or fruit for breakfast, though I’m fine with these in the afternoon.

Now excuse me while I imagine my 7-year old brother gagging up leftover Cheerio/hot chocolate milk and snicker like a crazy person.

food / writing — 7 Comments
21
Feb 07

Inspi(red) but distrac(ted)

I’ve been a little distracted lately and have been totally neglecting my little projects. For instance, running42K is right: I totally should have not only listed all the good food my mom made for the Lunar New Year, I should have taken some damned pictures. I’m kicking myself now that I didn’t.

So from memory, here was our Spring Festival dinner:

pan fried fish, a necessity for this holiday, since the Chinese word for “fish” is a homonym for “more than enough” or “extra,” ensuring extra luck and good fortune for the new year
stir-fried baby clams with snow peas
turnip soup
fried pork cutlets
steamed pork buns. Normally, you’re supposed to have dumplings, which are like little packages of good luck, but they’re also a lot of trouble to make. The buns were easier for my mom, and they are also like little packages.
jellyfish, shredded carrot, and radish salad in a vinegar sauce
bamboo shoot and carrot salad
short ribs

There may have been some chicken dish too but I can’t remember.

Something else I remembered that I need to do are my taxes. Egads. I still have some time though.

I’m excited about the work I’m doing for my memoir class. I like it when I know where I’m going with a piece, when it’s pretty much mapped out in my head so much so that I can really take my time putting it down on paper. When I don’t know where I’m going, I sometimes write more, just flailing about, trying to figure it out.

I’ve also been wasting time at work playing with my NaNo, which I’m having difficulty with for some reason. Like, why is it so hard to make a playlist? On my mini I could literally drag songs from my library to the iPod, but this doesn’t seem to work the same way. So I’m perusing the directions to figure it out. Maybe having a PC messes it up.

It was so nice to walk home and not have my music run out on me after 45 minutes. Now I just need to get all my songs uploaded. I had over 800 on my mini; unfortunately a lot of those are on a computer I don’t have anymore. But of course I still have the CDs. Here at work I have about 200, which is plenty for now.

food / relationships — 11 Comments
06
Feb 07

The cold, the Departed, and a secret

My lips are so very chapped. That’s what happens when it’s 10 degrees outside and the heat is blasting inside.

Sunday went as planned. I ran a couple of errands before seeing The Departed. Excellent though the ending is a little crazy. And I agree with ES: Leonardo DiCaprio is so frigging hot in this film. I’ve never been into Leo before but this movie changed my mind.

Matt Damon is very good too. He really made me hate his character. Last night, just to share, I had a beautiful and delicious falafel “chef’s salad”:

Yesterday was quite a vegetarian day for me: toast and cheese for breafkast, lentil soup for lunch, yogurt and almonds for an afternoon snack, then the falafel salad. I think it was my body’s way of saying, “Cleanse me!” after a weekend of eating badly (read: Mexican potato skins and lots of movie popcorn).

I have a secret to tell: I’ve started online dating again. It’s been more than two weeks, and recently someone actually wrote to me – well, 2 people did, but one I don’t find attractive. The other has potential.

I’m so skeeved when super old guys look at my ad (I set my account so that only guys who fit my “preferences” can contact me). The oldest so far? 60. YUCK-O-RAMA. I really really really don’t want to date a guy old enough to be my dad.

Also, “winks” are so stupid. If you don’t know, a wink is a way to show you’re interested without spending the two cents or whatever it is to send an actual message. And the thing with winking is, you can’t wink back. YOU have to spend the points to write to the winker. Like I’d even bother.

food / friends / weekends — 5 Comments
28
Jan 07

Had a great, activity-filled weekend with ES

Friday was freezing cold, but I walked home, needing to stop along the way for a variety of groceries. At my apartment, I cleaned, ate dinner, watched TV, and read, waiting for ES to arrive, which she did after 11:30.

The poor girl had to wait an hour to even get on a bus to a New York, and then there was all the weekend traffic. By the time we got her settled in and chatted a bit, it was after 1. Time to sleep!

The next morning I thought I’d wake up naturally around 8, but I was basically comatose till after 9. We were up because we wanted to get to the Whitney before 11, picking up SB along the way. It’s the last weekend of the Picasso and American Art exhibit, and I was imagining a very long line.

It wasn’t bad. I’ve been by at times that the line goes down the block. Plus the fact that I had my corporate ID meant the shorter line.

No matter what I love museums, but it’s much more fun to go with friends, and being there with ES and SB reminded me of traveling, the same feeling I had going through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, the House of the Black Madonna in Prague.

I love that feeling of peace while I look at a painting, listening to the history and inspiration behind it on an audio tour, knowing my friends are nearby. And usually I’m jazzed on coffee because we almost always eat before walking around, a tradition.

This time we ate afterwards, at Sarabeth’s downstairs. Like last time, I had the lox and cream cheese omelet. So frigging good. The mocha and scone weren’t half bad either.

Next we headed downtown. We walked all over, stopping in the Peanut Butter & Company, where we split an Elvis – a deep-fried peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich, which would have better with more bacon – and another mocha for me, which turned out to be one too many. Couldn’t finish it. Also picked up a jar of Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter. Yum!

We also stopped in my personal favorite chocolate spot, Jacques Torres, excellent timing as I had just run out of my Wicked Hot Chocolate. We chilled there a bit as well but didn’t ingest anything as we were all so full we couldn’t imagine eating ever again.

That is until we made our way back to the east side and Village Yokocho, a real Japanese place run by Japanese, not Chinese, people. Something about it seemed very authentic to us. The food wasn’t the run of the mill rolls and udons and teriyakis, but weird things like various Japanese pickles. . .

. . .yakitori. . .

okonomiyaki, which ES and I had in Japan and loved.

Being in Village Yokocho made me wistful for Tokyo. I find myself missing the city though I was there for barely a week.

After dinner we headed home and got back pretty early, before 9:30. We agreed to have a lesiurely Sunday. “Don’t call me,” SB said as she headed to her place. “I’ll call you.” Had a relaxing night in, both of us exhausted, though in a good way.

This morning we had a late breakfast at Sable’s, then walked down to Dylan’s Candy Bar. I’ve been there before, and to me it’s not that different any other candy place. Then we walked back uptown, stopping in Molton Brown, Aveda, and Sephora. I got some lovely Molton Brown Warming Eucalyptos shower gel and body scrub. It smells HEAVENLY.

ES left around 5. How quickly my apartment feels quiet and empty. The busyness of everyday life will fill it again soon.

Blah, work tomorrow.

food / photography — 3 Comments
04
Jan 07

Evidence of my indulgence

So we have, from left to right, top to bottom:

(row 1) kimchee, cucumber, spicy preserved radish
(row 2) fermented soybeans, spicy fish, unidentified vegetable
(row 3) pajeon, soondooboochigae with rice, rice with beans

I barely made a dent in the sides and ate none of the rice with beans. The soondooboochigae alone was a challenge to finish.

Now I have leftovers galore.

food — 7 Comments
03
Jan 07

My favorite Korean foods

My friend SG asked me for recommendations of good Korean dishes. I started to write her back but soon found my response was turning into a blog post. So, SG, here you go! Enjoy.

~ ~ ~

I’m not Korean but I’ve had a lot of exposure to Korean food over the years. The first time was in college, the standard bibimbop. I moved onto tukbokki, which was so spicy, I had to ingest an entire pitcher of water in order to get any of the rice cakes down.

By now I’ve honed my menu down to a handful of favorites:

chajangmyun, noodles with black bean sauce
I blog about this dish a lot. I really like it though it’s quite salty and does a number on my digestive system. (TMI, I know.)

bulgogi, barbecue beef & galbi, barbecue short ribs
Both are delish but you have to cook them yourself in the restaurant, which I guess can be fun, or it can be a pain in the ass if you’re lazy like me.

soondooboochigae, spicy tofu/seafood soup
This is the best over white rice. In fact, it’s my favorite Korean dish, neck and neck with chajangmyun.

pajeon, pancake with or without seafood
Reminiscent of Chinese scallion pancakes, except flatter and not as dense. Good in combination with spicy soondooboochigae (say that three times fast).

Another thing I like about Korean food is that you never know what little side dishes you’re going to get. Kimchi is the norm, but I like kak-tu-ki, or what I call “radish kimchi,” even more.

There are several other dishes I like occasionally – any kind of tang, or soup (the same word in Mandarin, incidentally), or chigae, or stew, though not stew like Irish lamb stew (which, by the way, YUM) but more like a hearty soup – but the ones above are definitely my faves.

The only thing I don’t really like are mandu, or dumplings, maybe because I always compare them to their heartier Chinese cousins.

Now that I’ve totally put myself in the mood for soondooboochigae and pajeon, looks like another trip to Little Seoul is imminent.

awareness / food / holidays / TV — 6 Comments
02
Jan 07

Okay, so I totally can’t find my 2006 goals

I thought I pasted them in a Word document, but I guess not. Oh well.

The ones I remember are:

Run the New York marathon. Didn’t do it.
Read at least one book a month, or, I’m being flexible here, a total of 12 for the year. Did it!
Take a hiphop dance class. Didn’t do it.
Do NaNoWriMo. Did it!
Visit one foreign country. Did it!
Save a certain amount of money every month. Erp, didn’t do it.

I can’t remember anymore.

Quite frankly, I don’t feel like setting goals for 2007. That’s right, my parents’ worst fear: I HAVE NO GOALS. I think I like baby steps better that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the new year. Less pressure. And I’m starting to hate writing about something before I do it. Somehow it feels even worse if I flake out.

I’m not sure setting those 2006 goals worked at all. I mean, NaNoWriMo and visiting a foreign country were no-brainers. I had done both before. And I didn’t start reading a lot till I began dating DK, who read, like, a couple of books a week. (That’s what happens when you don’t watch TV.) One positive influence.

As for my New Year’s Eve, which is a couple of days old now, sheesh, I spent it on my own and rather enjoyed my solitude. That’s the first time I’ve done so, and it felt, somehow, grown-up. I ran around in the afternoon trying to get to Times Square to take pictures of the craziness – they wouldn’t let us in! – then hiked to Koreatown and picked up lots of yummies for dinner. It was quite cozy stuffing my face in front of the TV while the world outside got drunk and stupid.

Monday was totally lazy. NaNoWriMo novel, posts for the city blog, the Monk marathon on USA. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes. It’s quite good. Tony Shalhoub rocks.

Then, as though 9 hours of TV wasn’t enough, I watched an episode and a half of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, one of which was highlights from earlier seasons. Again, first time. I can’t decide if I like him. Sometimes he reminds me of Morten Downey, Jr. and sometimes he seems cool, like when he was with the Inuit family eating seal.

He was very respectful and knew that reacting negatively to any seal parts offered him (eyeball, anyone?) would have been the ultimate dis to his gracious hosts. Fucking classy. Plus he said it tasted good.

But, dude, I have to ask: was that seal cooked? Good lord, it was so bloody. Then again, like Bourdain said, what’s the difference really between sitting on the kitchen floor chomping on seal that you caught yourself and sitting around a dining room table carving up a turkey that probably suffered till the end of its life? At least the former is more honest.

Hm, now I’m hungry.

food / holidays / new york / photography / weekends — 8 Comments
18
Dec 06

Soooo tempting

I’ve emerged from my cave and finally taken notice of the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. It’s the recent ad that’s gotten me, featuring a guy running on a treadmill against a movie screen to this catchy tune, which has a pretty cool video involving, yes, treadmills (one take, people! it’s done in one take).

The thing about the sport kit is that I’d have to buy a Nano. I already have a Mini, but I’ve had it for about 2 years now, and the battery’s wearing out. Like I’ll charge it all day and it’ll last only about two hours, while when I first got it, it’d last up to 5 or 6.

~ ~ ~

In other news, on Saturday I went to the 11 Spring Street open house. For those who don’t know, 11 Spring St. has long been a sort of graffiti landmark. Artists have come from around the world to make their mark.

To honor its place in the artworld and as a part of New York history, the owners invited street artists to do up the inside of the building before beginning renovations. Two months later they opened the doors to the public, hence the open house this past weekend. Renovations began today.

Hours were from 11 to 5, and I got there at about 11:30. The line went around three square blocks. Crazy! I waited for about an hour, taking pictures all the while.

I didn’t mind the wait except that it was colder than I expected so after a while I started to freeze, and then I had to pee. Oh well.

Inside, needless to say, was pretty darned cool too. A few of my favorites:

Afterwards, I stopped in Rice to Riches to use the bathroom. I’ve yet to actually try the rice pudding there. I was starving but resisted as that blast of sugar would have f’d me up. Instead I went up to Astor Place and had ramen and boba tea at Saint’s Alp. Then Whole Foods for a couple of Christmas items.

It was about 3:30 when I got home. I had left the house at 10 and was exhausted for some reason, but a good kind of exhausted. Later that night I met my mom at the Grand Central JFK bus drop-off, where we picked up the free shuttle to Penn Station. I got her on the very crowded train and took off.

Yesterday was a hermit day. I stayed in and cleaned like crazy. It was worth it. I love how my floors shine afterwards. I also rearranged and got rid of some books that I knew I’d never read or just didn’t want, ie, DK’s castoffs that he had given me. As the Gilmore Girls say:

Rory: “You know what it means when a man gives you a book.”
Lorelai: “That he’s already read it?”
Rory: “Yup.”

Should be quiet this week.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.