the hundred

I just found Very Good Taste's top 100 foods. (Bolded means I've done it before.) How many have you eaten?

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (but I looked it up and it looks AWESOME)
60. Carob chips (sick)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (if rose gelato from Naia counts)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I really want to try poutine! Who wants to hike it up to Canada with me in September?! I've still got tons on this list to conquer.

recipe overload

Do you SEE that screenshot?! All those recipes underneath the folders, unfiled...they go on for a good 400 more!! I blame Tastespotting. (If you are able to look at that food pile of love and not feel at least a little tempted to bookmark one page, you are deranged. Or remarkably self-controlled.)

The strength finders test says that this is one of my strong suits, collecting things. I subconsciously decided that collecting physical things will probably lead to me being crowded out of my own house, so recipes it is. It has been kind of difficult recreating things I love here, but I've recently made tres leches cake for our cinco de mayo party and cinnamon espresso cake as a last hurrah for the roommates before Lent, and even peanut butter cookie crust with brownie on top (both box mixes)...the truth is that we're living it up here, albeit a bit creatively!

kitchen improv

Well guys, it's no secret that they who love chocolate chip cookies and their like can find East Asia to be somewhat desolate. I try to not hold this country liable for its lack of sweet things, as it is quite clear that its citizenry prefers the sour, spicy, savory, and bitter sides of life (and food). As I have already said...I'm trying to not hold it against them.

So what is a girl to do when she finds herself away from everything she holds near and dear to her dessert stomach*? Here's a possibility: make bread pudding out of what I've got.

You know what? This is actually almost as easy said than done! Jena recently made heart shaped sandwiches for a baby shower we threw for a couple of adorable pregnant friends. I eyed all those leftover bread scraps and some milk in the fridge that was due to expire...the wheels turned. And after a while, this emerged.


The best part of this was eating them from the adorable silver cupcake cups Jena and I got from Vietnam for Aubrey's birthday. I stored them in the fridge, unbaked, and took them out as we needed over the course of four days. They tasted like Americana, like home.


Chocolate Bread Pudding

To maximize satisfaction, make with milk you're about to throw out and whatever bread scraps you can find. It's amazing how these things come together (bound by chocolate of course) to make your day a little sweeter. For those who thrive on kitchen improvisation (Lis, I'm winking at you...), this is your recipe, impreciseness encouraged. (All the measurements are approximate.)

1 c. milk
2-3 tbp. sugar
1/4 c. chopped chocolate (chips, bar, anything you've got...I used a couple shakes from the bag of chocolate chips)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
couple dashes cinnamon
1.5 c. bread (bread with lots of crust like a baguette is the best, but here in the woods you've gotta rough it a little with sandwich bread crusts)

Heat the milk and sugar over medium heat. Simmering is good; boiling is too much heat. Remove from heat and add in the chocolate and cinnamon; stir to combine. In a different bowl, mix together the egg and vanilla. Slowly pour in the hot milk mixture as you whisk so that the egg doesn't scramble. Toss the bread into the bowl until coated fully. Spoon into individual cups and chill for at least 2 hours, even better overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.


*dessert stomach is that interesting physiological phenomenon when you have been completely stuffed by dinner, but at the mention of dessert new hunger presents itself. May be specific to a certain dessert, i.e. ice cream stomach, cake stomach, cookie stomach. Bread pudding stomach?

when pigs fly

People are all buzzing around the world about this purported "swine flu" epidemic. This led to the question: does this country have it and people are keeping hush hush about it? That would be awful because I could breathe on the apple guy outside and he could kick the bucket. Or vice versa. So I took a test just to be sure. Check yourself.

springing forth

Friends! Spring has been here just a few short weeks...and I couldn't be happier. Some snapshots of what spring in East Asia looks like...

The poor trees! The spring wind blew them so far sideways. Our city is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains, so it's like living in a constant wind tunnel. Yay?


This picture is pretty blurry, but at the same time it's just so quintessentially Jena...

Umbrellas upon umbrellas after an unexpected late March snowfall!

Happy Gerber daisies outside of my favorite coffee shop in the main square.

Friends really enjoy dressing alike. I personally am enjoying their coordinating high top pink Converses! Who wants to go in with me on matching Converses?!

A couple weeks ago, we visited a different city, and my friend ordered us these. Snails. Ummm...right. I've done scorpions and countless other questionable looking food products, but these things were GROSS. Nothing even close to that elegant French escargot ish. You're supposed to jab the exposed interior part with a toothpick, then slowly pull out the little darling. All twisty and intestinal looking, probably because it's actually a digestive tract of sorts. No pictures of that because everyone's hands were covered in snail guts. Yum...

bescanwitched

The vast majority of the time, I really like it here. I love walking down the street and blending in, wind blowing through my hair, staring at the setting sun because the endless layers of pollution make it possible. I love the food--tonight Aubrey and I had "ribs 'n rice" (literally, 3 huge pork ribs in a bowl with your choice of potato, cabbage, carrot, etc and unlimited rice. Genius!) for dinner. But when I wander upon something like this, I find myself hunting for the fastest plane ticket home so I can chomp on one of those. Scanwiches! Brilliant.

One of my favorite questions to ask a person is "What is your ideal sandwich?" So much potential discourse here. Mine has been a long time coming because really, you can't rush this kind of thing. Stephanie's ideal sandwich has turkey, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado on some sort of lightly toasted bun thing. A close second would be anything to do with salami/sopressata/prosciutto--pork is a wonderful thing. That said...would I drop everything for a smoky BBQ'd pulled pork or a Philly cheesesteak? Are you kidding me? (Oh, I miss sandwiches. Not as much as Jena, but I do.)

(The "best" sandwich in Saigon! They wrap them in cute dot matrix printer paper.)

Your turn (and truly, I want to know, so please be serious and give it some careful consideration): What's your ideal sandwich?

a drop of golden sun

Thanks Dboots for the amazing link. A-freakin-dorable!!!



There is just something to be said about dancing in public. (I've done it quite a bit this year myself.) Such inexplicable joy!