Weird Food

I've often thought that garlic ice cream would be good. There's something about the bite of the garlic with sweetness of the ice cream that sounds interesting. However, since coming back from China, ice cream has been less interesting to me--along with ice water, ice cream is just too cold, and it doesn't give me an overwhelming feeling of bliss, like it used to.

A while ago, I heard about a chocolate bar flavor on NPR. I saw it, and, I must admit, made an impulse buy at the checkout of World Market. I tried it a little apprehensively, but it turned out to be just wonderful. It was on clearance, so I suppose other customers don't listen to NPR and/or aren't as brave.


If you've tried Mayan cocoa or brownies, with cayenne and cinnamon, you might understand the concept behind curry and chocolate. The curry is milder than the cayenne, though, and hits a little lower on the palate. The coconut gives a nice texture. One small piece is satisfying, so the bar has lasted me this whole week, and I still have 1/4 left.

What weird foods or combinations strike your fancy?

-吴碧芙

Fancy Feasting

I feel a change in the tide. Although it's still cold outside, it feels like those Iowa City springs when I would eat cucumbers with salt for dinner, while my roommate and I admired the sky, aglow at sunset. In grad school, I walked some slightly brisk nights, with a tomato in my pocket, for a barbecue with some vegetarian friends. That was how I found out that asparagus is, in fact, palatable. My friend would barbecue it and brush it with Italian dressing.

As another sign of spring, last week I decided to try going to the gym downtown. This new gym, which so far has made my most obscure muscles ache, caters to a more sophisticated crowd than the free student fitness center and includes classes ranging from belly dancing to "Michelle Obama Arms." It's nice to get back into the swing of things.

When I say I want something 文大男 uses some magic and makes it happen. Remembering barbecues in grad school, I suggested a barbecue date. He owns an actual, real barbecue machine...uh, I mean grill...which makes him "very man," as we might say in China. We had Quorn chicken on the grill with BBQ sauce. I made Turkish marinated chickpea salad (middle), and he made some barley salad with onion, cucumbers, and artichoke hearts. (click to enlarge)


This weekend was our very productive "study date." Along with the date came your usual study foods, such as pizza, crackers and cheese, and fruit salad that I had a hankering for. The fruit salad had grapes, cantaloupe, strawberries, kiwi, and mango.


It looked like a rainbow, so we had to take a picture.

-吴碧芙

Yes I Can!

It's been a few crazy weeks of homework and trying to organize my life. I had to decide on a grad. school by Wednesday. I had kind of made my decision, all except the final step of putting my signature on the paper and handing it in. Since it's now written in stone, the Internet can also know that I'm staying put for next year. I'll be in the same apartment complex, but I got an opening for a one-bedroom apartment. I'll be moving a few doors down at the end of May.

With the decision behind me, I feel a little more relaxed and more able to enjoy the grueling weeks ahead as the semester winds to a close.

Kavi likes to climb. In fact, I think he prefers it to flying. I made a video of him climbing from the floor to the couch. I think you can really see the decision-making process in his mind, as he eventually decides to go for it. Blogger is not cooperating again, so I'm providing a link.
"Yes I Can!" Video

-吴碧芙

Kitchen Witch

Perhaps in some ways uglier than my mom's kitchen witch, the one I sniped on ebay finally arrived. I hung her up over the sink. Since then, my cooking has been going well. This weekend I made veggie chili that 文大男 said was absolutely amazing. I added the secret ingredient: Lard (just kidding).


My mom's had little felt feet and a dark blue dress. Her face was grey with a long nose. The new-fashioned ones have cute names like Tiddly Tabitha and pretty faces, with kitchen gadgets hot glued to their dresses. I was deathly afraid of witches as a kid, but not of the kitchen witch, although I thought it was kind of weird to hang it over the sink like that.

-吴碧芙

Cue the Halleluia Chorus

This time I tried hand mixing, turned the oven up about 10 degrees, used a bigger scoop, and made sure my pan was cool. Mine look different because I also added blended oatmeal, but they spread and baked evenly, at least on one of my pans. The other pan yielded the less spread, dark bottomed cookies, even though they were better than Trials 1 and 2.


Although I'd like to try again, I think I better take a cookie detox first.

For those who wondered if "Big Cow" might be insulting: It was between that and Da Niao (Big Bird). I'm assured by my distinguished colleague that Da Niu is a real name--the Chinese equivalent of Aloisius, in that, yes, it's a name, but old, rare, and kind of weird.

-MsLin

Secret Cookies

I went to DBF for a personal lesson in cookie making. From the softness of the butter to the size of the cookie scoop, I tried to notice things that he did differently from me. Not much that seemed relevant was different. I observed every moment, and noted, in my mind, what he did. He didn't do the hokey pokey, burn incense, or pray to the cookie gods. Yet, the result was way better than mine. Compare:


So, I may have to face the music on this one: cookies are not something that I can make really well. Yes, I made a new batch when I got home tonight. I even mixed it by hand, but it doesn't look like his dough, so I'm already sure it won't be as good.

Today, after much suspense, I successfully sniped a kitchen witch on Ebay. As the time ticked down to 30 sec, I placed my bid and won. It is ugly like my mom's, and it has a green dress. I'm hoping that this will solve my cookie problems.

We also gave DBF a Chinese name: 文大牛, which means Big Cow (Da Niu) Wen. :)

-MsLin

If at first you don't succeed...

DBF has the best cookie recipe. He's made some for me, and they are the perfect amount of chewy, with a flavor of store-bought ready-to-bake dough cookies, without the store-bought preservative flavor. So, I asked for the recipe, including the secret ingredient, which he has developed. He emailed me the recipe, and I tried to make it yesterday. They turned out horribly (left cookie). After 8 min., I saw that the edges were crispy and the middles were raw. The end result was a cookie with a gooey center and lacy dark edges. They were inedible. He's out-of-town, so I called to ask what I could've done wrong. After some conversation and internet inquiries for "cookie problems," we finally arrived at the truth of the matter, which was that he had typed "1 tsp. soda," but the actual ingredient is "1 tsp. baking powder."


I tried the right recipe this morning. They didn't turn out like his, but a vast improvement (right cookie). And now we know what happens if you use baking soda instead of baking powder. I feel like I should get a girl scout badge for this little experiment.

-MsLin