I discovered Jayden’s ideas on how to enliven a steak, which is very similar to what I do when I ziplock bag brine a skirt steak. Yum!
Also, there is a great link on Boostrapper on the top 100 foods to improve your productivity. Try it out.
any graduate student learns the skills of finding free food. Heck, this is a skill most undergrads also manage to hone.
Of course, this is a skill we don’t think of much outside of the poor student sector, but one worth considering, because an awful lot of perfectly good food gets thrown away, either from fast food joints, bakeries, restaurants, and supermarkets. Think about how much food there is out there, if not for the social taboo of finding it in dumpsters. Better than think about it, watch the Current TV piece about it.
When I miss China, it always helps to eat something i would snack on when I was there.
I love citrus fruits. Oranges grapefruit really make me happy, but tangerines are a little too sweet. If you know Chinese medicine, things are usually separated into things that raise your internal heat, and things that lower your internal heat. This isn’t the same a temperature or spiciness, but there is some carry over.
Things that raise your internal heat can give you problems like a fever, acne, smelly sweat, infections, phlegm, and other problems like a scratchy throat or bloating. Why? When the body has too much heat energy it will then try to get rid of it.
What raises heat? Anything with lots of oil, so most meats, and many things that have a strong flavour, high caffeine, etc. Most citrus lowers heat, but not all of it is reducing enough. What is a girl with high internal heat and vitamin C craving to do? Well, pomelos and grapefruits are considered “cold” fruits.
Even beyond the whole idea of heat inducing and heat reducing foods, I really like them. They’re yummy and like massively oversized pear-shaped grapefruits. If my local grocery has them, they must be available at an awful lot of places. Unlike citrus, you can’t eat the skin surrounding the sections, it’s too tough, but the pulpy stuff inside the segments stays together much better than in an orange, so it’s a pretty clean snack.
I have a new culinary hero. Anyone who knows me knows that I like the Food Network, and I’ve scrubbed many a good recipe from their resources. I think that last amazing success I had was a mango glazed stir-fry that was pretty spectacular, and that was back when I was still at Hampshire.
Well, currently I am frustrated with tv. I know I sound like I’m whinging, but I can’t be bothered to find much of anything on tv. It’s a hassle. Instead, I occasionally stick on a channel I know to get me through a meal.
Alton Brown struck me as a tv show host who is funny and nerdy, and communicates in a why that I identify with, and on top of that his recipes are straightforward and easy, and he talks about the science of the whole thing. That’s what i want in a cooking show! Less culinary mysticism and more scientific insight into why and how. That way when I want to tinker with a recipe I have an idea whether i am screwing up the elasticity, or sacraficing butteriness for more airiness. Good Eats recipe list is available online, but I highly recommend checking out the show.
If you like coconut flavored sweets, here’s one I love. You can find the ingredients anywhere that carries Asian foods, if not anywhere else. Just remember, Sago is huge tapioca. If you like tapioca pudding and coconut, then this is definitely for you!
My one note of advice, it’s always best to soak the sago first, for about an hour. They’re very hard!
Sago Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
(1) Boil the water in a pot
(2) Put the sugar and pandan leaves into boiling water.
(3) Add in the sago and stir periodically to make sure that the sago does not stick to the bottom of the pot. (The water should always be boiling)
(4) After 30-40 minutes, the sago should be cooked (they turn transparent). Turn off the heat and stir in the coconut milk.
(5) Cool in fridge and serve with fruit
This recipe, and others can be found here.