Adventures in Cooking

In my quest to make chicken curry, I made a foray to Uwajimaya, a local Asian grocery store that sells anything and everything you need for cooking Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, and any other kind of Asian food dishes.

I love shopping there because there's so many wonderfully tasty, exotic items. Rows of rice from which to choose. Rows upon rows of soy sauces, teriyaki sauces and a multitude of other tasty sauces for cooking. Shelves of rice crackers and other snack items I came to love through my mom and our visits to Hawaii, where she grew up. Beautiful produce. Beautiful breads and meats and fish. Hawaiian Sun cans of juice (mango, passion fruit, mango-passion fruit, guava, guava-mango, guava-mango-passion fruit, and so on...mmmmmm!) for cheap. New and interesting vegetables to add to the mix. Raw sugar cane.

That's why I love shopping there.

It's also why I stopped -- I end up getting way too much! But, I have learned to hold back, and I only got what I needed.

And it's also completely amusing -- like a big soft plastic baby bottle-like container filled with this pinkish stuff that simply said "Food Stuff for ages 0-100"from Japan. There was a little picture on the front of what could either be a happy baby standing and wearing a diaper, or a plump, happy old man standing and wearing a diaper.

But the other reason I avoid going there is their nifty gift area. Lots of cool saki sets. Beautiful rice bowl sets, or just in singles. Gorgeous plates and teapots. Lots and lots of rice cookers. Sweet, sharp sushi knives. Tea whisks. Silk purses, bags, fun toys. Slippers. Woven, conical bamboo hats.

It's also fun to look at all the imported items forhousehold and bath and body care. They look similar to things we find in the bath and body sections at Fred's, but at the same time they look just like what we sell here -- and yet, also just different that even a toothbrush or tube of toothpaste has a foreign air to it; plus the English translations of the Japenese description of the products inside the packages is much like a living tour of www.engrish.com.

I think I'm going to have to remember to go shopping there more often so I can factor in some of the nifty veggies and fruits there -- as well as stock up on rice cakes and other items. Some of the stuff there was about $1 or so cheaper than the equivalent I've seen at Fred Meyer. And there's more of a selection.

I went there originally to get rice and ingredients for chicken curry; I knew they had a great selection and good pricing, and walking in I felt like I'd been transported back to Foodland, a big grocery store chain in Hawaii. It also feels good to shop among other cultures; Fred Meyer is pretty "white bread", and it was enjoyable to be around a different set of faces and people, as well as hear a variety of languages around me. At any one moment I could hear a couple speaking in Japanese, while a family going the opposite direction were speaking in Hindi.

It was also a challenge to figure out just what to get; I needed coconut milk, and I had no idea if one brand was better than the other (there were about 6 from which to choose, unlike Fred's that had 2), so I got the ones that were on sale. It was either that or try to learn how to instantly read Thai or Chinese. The brand I got was low in stock; I don't know if that's because it was on sale, or if it was a good one.

New spices, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, coconut milk and shrimp paste in hand I went home to make my meal -- only to discover that I'd gotten so distracted by all the shiny nifty things I'd forgotten to get one of the key ingredients -- unsweetened coconut flakes. I made a jaunt up to Albertson's, but they only had sweetened flakes, so I drove down the street to New Season's, where I got to packs of organic flakes for a decent price.

However -- I'd misremembered the amount of flakes I needed. I'd had it in my head it was a cup and a half, but it was actually a tablespoon and a half. I have plenty of coconut flakes now!

Cooking the meal took awhile, mostly because I was slowed down by the cloves and the cardamom seeds. When I bought the little plastic jar of the cardamom seeds, I thought they were like nutmeg -- they were about 1/2 - 1/3 the size of nutmeg and looked just like it. So while at New Seasons, I picked up something I've been meaning to get -- a microgrinder for cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. But when I started scraping the cardamom seed over the grinder, I realized it was more like a tiny little coconut and that what I'd been scraping against the grinder was actually a husk.

Confirming that by checking on the Internet, I then set about trying to figure out how to open up the little pod -- they are just hard enough so you can't just tear them open, but too soft for, say, a nutcracker. I finally discovered I could snap them open by whomping them with the pestle from my mortar and pestle set. But even that needed caution -- too little and the pod just sort of smooshed under it; too hard and it smashed everything.

Inside are little seeds that look like smooth black peppercorns fused together -- and they smell really good -- and it took me probably about 15 minutes or so to snap open enough husks to get the amount I needed to grind down to a powder.

Then onto the cloves. All I had were clove buds, and so I had to pick off the part I needed so I could grind it down. That also required care -- too little pressure to pop off the little bud and it didn't do anything, too much and you end up with a puff of nothing between your finger and thumb. That, too, took about 15 minutes.

But it was loads of fun and I was in culinary heaven from the scent wafting up from the bowl where I'd piled up all the spices. Aromatic would be an understatement.

It took about an hour and a half to cook, and that 90-minute block of time made my apartment smell divine. And the final product was tasty, too -- I also had enough for lunch, dinner and likely lunch again today. I'm definitely going to have to make more dishes like that.

The other thing about Uwajimaya is that I realized how boring standard produce selections are at standard grocery stores. Fred's does get some neat stuff, but the more exotic stuff is sometimes kind of limp-looking and / or really expensive. At least more expensive than prices I saw at Uwajimaya for the same stuff.

I think I'm going to have to go back there and meander through the other sections more -- like the frozen food, the meat section, the refrigerated food area. I love Asian cuisine, but there's only so much you can do with what your generic American grocery store sells. I love food, and I've always been a good eater, at least according to my mom. I love cooking, too, (though it's just hard to cook for one all the time!) so it will be fun to factor in some new stuff into my routine from there.

The only problem is that after awhile my apartment stops smelling good from the cooking and it gets heavy-scented with it. My old apartment did the same thing; it helps to open the front door and get a cross breeze in from my terrace doors...but I won't be able to open those much longer as the weather is cooling rapidly. Asha, a good friend from India, suggesed uncented Febreeze air freshener; I usually use essential oils warmed up in a terracotta plate on my stove, but sometimes things just won't get out of the corners.

On Sunday, I went for a nice walk around the neighborhoods near where I live; the air was gorgeous, the sun was a beautiful buttery light and song birds are still out and about. Trees still have their leaves here, so it felt more like late summer. The air was cool, but there was still a tell-tale tang of forthcoming Fall. One house had Halloween decorations out, clearly made by the resident child or children. One of them was a picture of a hand-drawn ghost with "BEWARE! SCARY!" written in all caps above the ghost, and on its chest was written "60's".

I'm not sure if the child meant that the 1960s were scary or if he meant being in his 60s would be; I suppose to any child at the age of the one who'd drawn the pictures, it would be. When you're 6, anything beyond about age 15 is "adult" and someone in their 30s is "old". (I remember watching 2001 when I was 12 and figuring out how old I'd be that year; to my horror it was 30; even at that age being 30 felt really old. Now that I'm 7 years past that, it's an amusing thought.)

All in all, it was a nice weekend.

Here's to tasty leftovers!

All in all, it was a nice weekend.

Ha ha!

So I'm sitting here at work, diligently working away, when Trillian tells me I've received a comment on my blog.

I check my mail, and I read this:

"Hey Heather. This is Zak from Shmaltz Brewing Company, the makers of HE'BREW Beer. Glad to hear you enjoyed the brews, and with a delicious roast beef sandwich no less. Happy New Year. L'Chaim!"

Turns out, from the website, he's the California Sales and Marketing manager.

You're welcome, Zak!

-- H

Greetings, Earthlings!

...For lack of a better title.

It's been awhile since I wrote. I'm essentially all settled in, and loving it. I did go into terrible sinus allergies because of all the dry wall dust crusting everything from the refurbishing going on in my wing, but that's finally passed. I'm still a bit compressed in the head, but it's about 90% of where I was a few weeks ago. Ugh.

Last day of nice weather was yesterday, though, sadly, so my time for my terrace is drawing to a close. My plan is to go to Home Depot in a few weeks and get some clear plastic sheeting to make a sort of greenhouse against my terrace wall. I'll also grab some old boxes from the recycling bin outside work and use them to insulate the plants on the floor and against the wall (it's concrete). I'm not sure how I'm going to hang the plastic, but there's wood to which I can perhaps tack it. I need to find away to keep it closed, but also allow for me to get in and water them.

I started doing something like that a few years ago after I lost my plants in a bitter wind that started up after lunch one afternoon in late November; it had actually been rather balmy for that time of the hear, and it was quite sudden that such a fierce wind came in. I finally asked to go home early around 4 so I could go home and get my plants indoors(they had weathered just fine on my terrace the years prior), but by the time I got home, they'd already died. I think the wind chill had been listed at about 17 degrees. Brr.

I'll maybe have Rory, a good friend, who likes to modify things take a look (he buys well-made camping equipment and finds ways to improve it; I keep telling him he should work for R and D at Columbia Sportswear here in town) -- or perhaps my handy father, who kindly came over and fixed my bed this past weekend. One side of the footboard where the bedframe attaches to it had pulled out to reveal lovely particle board that was starting to disintegrate. After 24 hours of being clamped down with super-duper wood glue, it's much better now.

Although I'm not Jewish, I decided to at least honor the Jewish New Year the other day in a very Andrew kind of way: I went to Hagen and got a tasty kosher roast beef sandwich on rye, and I picked up a tasty beer from the Shmaltz Brewing Company; they're based out of New York, and their beer lable is "He'Brew" (har har; it's the "Chosen Beer", as they claim...har har again!) It was founded by two Jewish men from New York, and my favorite is Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A -- A Rye-Based Double I.P.A (India Pale Ale for those of you who don't read Andrew's blog(s) and don't know what it is). It's "brewed with an obscene amount of hops".

The whole labeling and marketing they do is funny; it's somewhat as if Mel Brooks would do a spoof of a Blacksploitation film, except with Jews. There's a lot of schtickyness, so to speak, to the whole website.

To check it out, GO HERE.

It was almost a disaster, though -- I couldn't find the beer, and then, with relief, I found it on a different shelf...with only two left! Apparently other people had the same idea I did. I also included a bag of New York Cheddar Kettle Chips and went home to savor my very tasty dinner.

Oh, and the beer is certified Kosher, too. Too funny. It was a nice way to wind down after a very crazy-making day. (I began eating after sundown, too.)

Anyway, that's sort of all the news I have, and there isn't much. I think I'm going to wait on having an official housewarming until the warm weather comes around again -- that way my terrace will be in full bloom with new flowers, and I can have a BYOM / BYOB (Bring Your Own Meat / Beer) celebration and cook on my grill.

I've been thoroughly enjoying my DVR and getting House, M.D. in HD, as well as the Science Channel and the National Geographic Channel. Plus it's nice to be able to set up a series recording and slurp up every episode of something you want. I just have to be careful to stick in some exercise here and there!

-- H

Lord Edward

I did some poking around last night about Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, and it turns out they don't live here in Oregon; they do in BC and a few other NW Canadian territories, but not here. I thought it was perhaps a Rufous Hummingbird, but then I came across a YouTube video about a breed called Anna's Hummingbird.

Here is one of Lord Edward's bretheren, filmed at an aviary in Oklahoma:



They live mostly in California, but also into Arizona in the summer, but they like to winter up through the Wilamette Valley and the Oregon Coast, up into Washington and well up into British Columbia. So it looks like Lord Edward will be staying with me through the winter. I've seen a female around, too, but not as much. I kept my feeder filled all through Winter last year, as I did occasionally see hummingbirds come to it. I'm not sure what kind, though.

It turns out, from what I've read, that his perching on the three trees near me and vocalizing so clearly is his way of saying to all around -- hey, this is my feeder! Stay away! Stay away!" (Funnily enough, I haven't seen him use it recently....)

He starts in at dawn and goes well into dusk; Anna's Hummingbirds seem to be a bit more territorial than other birds, and they also guard against any bird coming near. That must be why my suet feeder hasn't found any takers.

I also read that the male likes to put on big flying and diving displays -- not just for female companions, but they like to show off for people, too -- to the point where they will angle themselves so that sunlight will show off their bright garnet plumage on their throats and head (and they can, in short bursts, fly upwards at 50 mph! Speedy little fellow, that Edward).

I have noticed, though, when Lord Edward is away, other birds do start singing in the trees.

And, thankfully, no more ants! In addition to using the monofilament and putting bay leaves on the feeder, I moved it to a slightly different spot so that the ants didn't keep trying.

My mother, upon reading my last post, called and offered me her fountain for my terrace. She brought it over today, and so I think this evening I'll put it together. Usually I go to yoga at the gym on Tuesday nights, but I've been so pooped in the evenings I may skip it. Besides, I want to enjoy as much time as I can out there on my terrace; within the next month or so it'll start getting cooler. The locust tree outside my apartment is already getting yellow leaves.

-- H

Ants!

Much to my thorough disgust, I discovered that my hummingbird feeder had become infested with big, black carpenter ants -- which were also starting to creep inside. I felt what I thought was a hair on my arm, looked down and saw one crawling down my arm. Ugh.

My friend Walt had said that he keeps them from getting inside by using cayenne and chili pepper; I didn't have any cayenne, but I have a jar full of chili pepper. I sprinkled it along both terrace doors, and so hopefully that will keep them out.

The hummingbird feeder was a bit trickier; I did some research online and the consensus was that the two things that work best are to tie bay leaves around the feeder (ants apparently don't like them) and to hang it from a monofilament line as they can't crawl down it. I knew I had bay leaves, but I wasn't sure about the monofilament. Then I remembered I had some still attached to something I used to have hanging at one point in my old apartment.

So after scrubbing the feeder clean with hot and soapy water and rinsing it thoroughly (there must have been about 25 ants that came pouring out of the little plastic flower reservoirs), I taped bay leaves to the top, as well as on the hook that holds the feeder, and then hung it back up with the monofilament. Hopefully that will keep them away. I have to keep Lord Edward fed, after all!

"Edward" is the name I bequeathed to the little ruby-throated hummingbird who lives nearby. He and his partner like to chirp back and forth to each other, and Edward is extremely vocal. He'll sit the cherry tree and sing, then the locust, then the maple -- making quite certain that we understand those are unquestionably his trees. I think most of his energy goes into that.

It's funny to watch -- he holds his little head up, beak extended towards the sky, fluff of bright red, shiny feathers all poofed out at his throat, giving him the austere, regal air. He also looks like he has a little red goatee.

I awoke this morning to his singing (he's that loud!) at dawn, and I have to say, it's really nice to lie in bed and listen to my windchimes and the birds through my terrace door. I have lots of different birds over on this side; my old unit overlooked a shadier area with denser trees -- and so I saw a lot more squirrells, robins, mourning doves and about eight billion different kinds of finches.

OK, that was an exaggeration. It was really more like 6.2 billion.

I finally got everything pretty much put away this weekend. I can't wait for the storage unit to open up in the building; I did manage to get everything tucked away pretty well, but at a loss of getting to things easily. In many places I have to move three things to get to one, or at least shift things around before I can get to it. The flattened boxes are behind my shoe racks and under my bed; I don't mind them behind the shoe racks so much, but I don't like having them under my bed. They catch dust and spiders too easily, and I keep bumping my toes on them when I make my bed. I half-considered taking my name off the list for a unit to save money, but I honestly don't like being that crammed in / Tetrisified.

I do have to refine the Sterilite drawers and other places, but that can wait. I'm sick of organizing and unpacking and toe-stubbing and thinking I have stuff put away, only to discover there's something still sitting on my coffee table that goes in the box. Or that I've finished for the day with my tool box and I find something else I need to hang up.

One necessary thing I did get this weekend was a bamboo screen for one end of my terrace; the afternoon sun shines right down on my bedroom end of the terrace and, thus, right into my bedroom making it hot. Closing the bedroom curtains made it feel too stuffy. So I went to Fred's and picked one up (nice surprise, too -- it was on sale! I didn't even know that until I got to the checkout stand). I may have to get one or two more next year; I don't know. I was going to wait for this one, but given we're due for mid-70- to-mid-80 degree weather for several days, and our summers can bleed long into October, I figured it was necessary.

I did promise pictures, so here they are:


Terrace viewed from the lving room end. You can't quite see the wall, but on the wall to the left, on the other side of the wicker shelves, there's enough room, I think, to put in a free-standing water fountain like the kind my dad has -- it leans against the wall. There's a plug just to the right of the bedroom terrace door, making it easy to plug in.




Terrace viewed from the bedroom end.



View of the pool from my terrace.





Bedroom.






Living room.



Dining area.



Terrace viewed from the parking lot.

So there you have it. Next year the terrace will be even prettier with geraniums; the light will allow for better growing, and I think the bedroom end of my terrace gets the kind of sun where I can plant at least some tomato and sugar snap pea vines, maybe a few other things. Mmm...!

Linda, my old neighbor who works on the garden I had below me came over and offered a plant to me; I said I'd wait until next spring. She also offered her tree pruning saw so that I can get rid of a bunch of dead branches on the locust tree. I think I'll wait to borrow that so that my friend Rory can help by standing below and catching what falls (the branches I want to get rid of are all about the size of my thumb and index finger) so that they don't land on the cars below.

It's a lovely view out there on the terrace. I finally started a neat book Hanne (Andrew's girlfriend) gave me for my birthday called The Omnivore's Dilemma. Good read. But with the sunshine, a Rogue Dead Guy Ale (one of the best brews out there in my opinion, tied with Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA, for sipping on a warm summer afternoon), and finally getting to relax I got too sleepy to read much. It was a nice feeling.

I'm so flippin' tired. It was a long push to get all unpacked and organized last week and this weekend, and I'm still kind of sleeping strangely and restlessly, but that will pass. I'll be right as rain before too long; hopefully before it begins falling so I can really enjoy this lovely weather we're having.

Later, all.

-- H