SomewhatAtlanticPacific

Misspent youth

From V., a rather unfortunate video summarizing the dance crazes of our misspent youth.

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 1:03 AM 3 comments

Flied Lice

Fried Rice (or cha-han) is perfect for Saturday lunch, when you’ve had a lazy morning, haven’t done the shopping yet, and fridge is almost empty except for some left over rice, some limp green stuff, half a red pepper, mushrooms that need eating and some eggs. The rice should ideally be made the day before. Making Cha-han with freshly made rice just seems wrong—like making French toast out a freshly baked loaf of bread.

The recipe below is by portion, but it tastes best if made in portions of two to four. I measure a portion as a bowl of rice. A wok works best, but a large sturdy flying pan is just as good. This is a forgiving recipe—it generally works with just about any combination of ingredients. One tip: the secret ingredient is lots of coarsely ground black pepper—it gives the rice a lovely kick.

Per portion
1 portion rice (maybe a cup)—brown rice, mixed rice, white rice—it’s all good.
An equal sized potion of greens, such as napa cabbage, bok choi, scallion greens , broccoli rabe,
1/2 a portion of supplemental vegetables, such as mushrooms, water chestnuts, peppers, baby corn, julienned carrots, snow peas, bean sprouts or any combination of the above.
1/2 portion of chopped meat (left over chicken, bacon, sausage, steak), tofu, or seafood
1 T sesame oil
1 t sake (or dry sherry)
1 clove garlic
1 egg
Black pepper
1 t Soy sauce
1/2 t Hon dashi or powdered bullion (or smash a cube) or Nampla (fermented Thai fish sauce)

Place half the oil in the pan. In medium heat, sauté garlic (do not burn) and then add greens and vegetables. If meat or tofu is uncooked, add it now. If over cooking is an issue (such as shrimp or delicate thin slices of meat) don’t be afraid to remove stuff from the pan when it finishes cooking. When vegetables have gone limp and are almost fully cooked, remove vegetables from heat and place on plate.

Beat eggs with sake and set aside.
Add the rest of the oil in the pan, and heat to just below its burn temperature. In a thin layer, place rice in oil, and then immediately reduce heat to medium. Toss rice in oil until each grain is heated through and has a shiny gloss. If your rice is very wet, you may need to add more oil. Sprinkle bullion cube, lots of black pepper (one or two more shakes than you think you should is about right) and toss once more.

Form a well in the center of the rice. Reduce heat to medium low—the level of heat that you would scramble eggs in. Dump eggs in the center, count to ten slowly, and then start collapsing the sides of the well into the center. The egg should coat the rice and be spread evenly through the entire dish. When not quite cooked, add back the vegetables and meat (if meat was pre-cooked, add it now). At the last minute just before removing the pan from the heat, add soy sauce, and serve.

A note on soy sauce: You may have noticed that soy sauce is added at the very end. That’s because soy sauce, which seems as sturdy and industrial as ketchup, is actually quite a delicate animal. Soy sauce is a lot like wine or balsamic vinegar: not all soy sauces are created equal and too much heat destroys the complicated aromas. If you add good quality soy sauce to a hot dish right before serving, the aroma grows from its cold salty pucker to a warm tawny scent that complements food perfectly.

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:51 AM 0 comments

Funnies

Real Life Simpsons (Courtesy of the Rose of Academe) and Trunk Monkey (Courtesy of the Doctor of Prague). . .

What's odd is that the Real Life Simpsons is clearly filmed in the UK-- how do we know that? Maybe because "Homer" is no where near as fat enough?

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:23 PM 0 comments

2 weeks on the road: Various

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:29 AM 0 comments

2 weeks on the road III: New York

Puffbutt and Elvis, the uber cool Park Slope cats. . .

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:23 AM 1 comments

2 weeks on the road II: Dublin

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:18 AM 1 comments

2 weeks on the road

London--I had lunch in the tip of the "Erotic Gherkin" as 30 St Mary Axe is affectionately called. . .

Flowers in Holland. . .not tulips but still pretty. . .

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 12:04 AM 0 comments

Work Life Balance

In trying to acheive work-balance, I hit a new low this week. Worked to midnight. Got up at 3:45AM to catch a 4:15 cab to work to log in 20 hours at the office. And I'm still behind schedule!

Being overworked is like being hungover without the fun beforehand. I want greasy food, quiet, and want to spend the day in bed. But it ain't happening folks. . .

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 4:58 AM 0 comments

Japanese snowmen have two balls. . .

. . .while American ones have three! M. and I made one on my veranda during one of the rare Tokyo snowfalls. . .

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 4:34 PM 1 comments

JibJab

Some very well done political humor, courtesy of V.

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 5:25 AM 0 comments

Parasite couples

Himself and I have decided we are becoming frumpy before our time. We read, we write, we watch TV-- in short, we spend way too much time in our heads and in our apartment. So we decided, work constraints allowing, we would go to a museum or exhibit once a week-- and take advantage of some of what Tokyo has to offer.

Kicking off our new resolve, Himself and I visited the The Meguro Parasitological Museum (Kiseichu Hakubutsukan) on Saturday with our friend M. The Museum claims to be the only museum in the world dedicated to parasites-- and indeed we saw many, jar upon jar. The highlight of the small museum (it consists of 3 medium rooms) is an 8.8 meter tape worm (found in the flesh of trout) taken out of the gut of an unfortunate man; indeed, it did make one want to wash.

I was oddly (!) fascinated by the photos of patients with filariasis, a disease caused by the parasitic worms Wuchereria bancrofti. In particular, one of the symptoms is elephantiasis, swelling of the limbs or genitals. Hmmm.

For some reason, the museum is a popular destination for dating Japanese couples-- I suspect that's largely because the museum is free (or as M. says, in his Kentucky venacular, "a place you can take yer date for a peach and a frog"). The museum capitalizes on this, and the official mascot is the butterfly shaped Futagomushi ("twinned bugs"-- I haven't a clue what it is in English or Latin)-- hermaphroditic bugs that mate for life--you could buy all sorts of "futagomushi" gear to commemorate the trip. Sure enough, we saw a couple, wandering hand in hand as they gazed at diseased organs.

posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 2:40 PM 0 comments