2 Days in Philadelphia

I hung out for 2 days with SP before the semester begins (tomorrow)! We ate a bunch of food (no surprises there...):

1. Falafel food truck on 35th and Market St.

Thought I had escaped from rice since I'm not going to be home until at least March. Guess I was wrong. At least it isn't plain ol' steamed white rice (actually, the older I get, the more and more I appreciate eating plain ol' rice. Maybe it's because I have just grown to love food/carbohydrates, in general).
The falafel was kinda dry and crumbly and uniform in texture.

2. Ramune (Japanese drink with the marble that seals it until you push it down).

3. Singapore Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant 1029 Race St. (six stars out of five)

 Dim lighting (how utterly romantic!), cool tablecloth*, light green tea, and multiple utensils (fork, spoon, and chopsticks that seemed to be made out of a really absorbent wood). When passing me a fork, the owner (?) of the restaurant jokingly asked me, "Do you know how to use this?", and I replied "I'll try...he'll teach me [referring to SP]." (because SP isn't ethnically Chinese, but I am). Since moving to the US over five years ago, I've used chopsticks maybe 20 times in total, usually at restaurants that don't offer alternatives. My favourite eating utensil is probably the metal teaspoon.

 Stuffed tofu with amazing chunky ginger-peanut sauce. Dude. I could drink this sauce! I realise that I would probably be terrible at getting a guy via a dinner date. Especially with the picture-taking and my indecision. Particularly if there is a vegetarian menu with sections labelled "Beef", "Poultry", "Pork", and "Tofu" (all made with soy or gluten, of course).

 VEGGIES!! I am going to make stuffed tofu one day. I think they stuff the tofu AFTER stir-frying it, else the veggies would fall out.

 We also got dumplings. I want to drag SP here for dim sum one day, just because I love dim sum, and every time my family and I go to some dim sum place, most of the stuff has animal pieces. I didn't particularly love the dumplings because the filling was kinda mushy, and there was a lot of extra space inside the dumpling. SP liked them though.

 SP got a curry hotpot, and the veggies at the bottom were still tongue-burning-hot by the time the meal was over. It was pretty amazing, although I got my tongue burned a bit. I was going to get curry with gluten (read on the menu as "Curry with Beef") but I ended up getting Crispy Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs (gluten). I was debating between that and Sweet and Sour Pork Loin (soy), but the owner (?) recommended the gluten, so I got it. I mean, what do vegetarian chefs substitute animal bones with, right?

The sauce was really sweet. There were chunks of pineapple, tomato, pepper, carrot, and broccoli in the dish. I'm glad that this restaurant uses sundry vegetables in all its dishes (unlike other Chinese restaurants that pair broccoli with EVERYTHING) -- well, duh, it's a vegetarian restaurant.

The gluten ball tasted a bit like potato, a bit like gluten, and sort of had the appearance and texture of pig flesh. It obviously didn't taste like pig flesh. The sauce masked everything, though, which was neat. I'm going to believe that the "bone" part is just a potato fry, because that's what it tasted like. It was odd chewing the "bone". Seriously. It's like having an edible popsicle stick.
Note the brown rice.

At the end, we got 2 orange slices, 2 fortune cookies (grr) and 2 fried sesame balls with custard filling. My fortune was "The weather is nice". Great.
I think that for a sit-in vegetarian restaurant in the city, the meal was reasonably priced. With presumably fresh ingredients and a lot of veggies in the dishes, dim sum at night-time, a regular customer sitting in the corner reading a book (who ate a meal and also ordered take-out before leaving), and pretty tablecloths*, Singapore Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant is quite charming. SO BRING YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S) THERE!

*In looking at pictures of this restaurant online, I realised that they also have pink tablecloths. I prefer the paisley blue ones more)

4. Lotte Koala's March (cookies) - not a huge fan of them but SP loves them.

5. Lovash Indian Cuisine on 37th and Spruce St.

 More rice (long grain, rather cold -- but that may have been due to the weather, but the peas and paneer cheese were still warm). Some of the peas were still a bit hard, which means that they use dried peas, and not frozen ones. I love frozen peas and frozen corn. I eat frozen corn while it's still frozen, and I intend to do that with peas too, in the future (for other frozen things I eat, read here). The panner was less plasticky/smooth compared to paneer I've had before, and I'm not sure if that makes it more/less authentic.

 SP got chicken with something...It looked good because it was in a plastic container while mine was in a styrofoam one.

6. The Crepewalk, 36th and Spruce
Nutella crepe. Obviously better than the crepes that I made (which SP said were too thick). These are pretty much translucent!

Hot Dry Noodles (Wuhan Specialty)

In exchange for providing my cousin with ongoing hours of ACT and TOEFL prep, my uncle bought me food which my dad brought back food from his trip to China. There is nothing I'd rather have, especially as the food they got is just unobtainable here in the U.S., or it's really expensive, or the shipping fee costs more than the actual food product. Wuhan is a city in Hubei province, and my uncle and his family live there, as does a local culture of pretty delicious food. My mum always reminds me that Wuhan cuisine is quite spicy and numbing - 麻辣 (ma2 la4).

Today at lunch, my mum made some of the Hot Dry Noodles, 热干面 (re4 gan1 mian4 - it's literally called "Hot Dry Noodles" in Chinese), from a package of them that we got from my uncle. Of course, normal Hot Dry Noodles are eaten in dingy little restaurants or at street food stands in Wuhan. I remember this one time we went to my mum's friend's restaurant when I was really young, and the Hot Dry Noodles were too spicy for me, so I didn't really appreciate them.

Despite the fact that we didn't eat the straight-from-the-pot-in-a-cheap-Wuhan-eatery Hot Dry Noodles, the packaged version still reminded me of those sultry summers when I was in China, forced to eat Chinese food all the time, and being fussed over because we were "foreign". It's actually pretty funny because once, at one of those banquet dinners, my relatives ordered some fries for me and my brother because we refused to eat the Chinese dishes. The fries ended up being extremely spicy, due to the fact that the oil that the restaurant used was spicy. It's pretty funny, now that I think of it.

The Hot Dry Noodles came with packets of sauce that usually is homemade at those roadside eateries. One is a sort of chili oil with carrots and ginger, another is sesame sauce (sesame paste and sesame oil), and the other is soy sauce. The Hot Dry Noodles today were so spicy that I only used half the package of chili oil, and I had to eat a lot of bread on the side. They weren't as numbing as I remember them to be, which is a good thing. I don't really like the numbing sensation, even though it's always present in Ma Po DouFu - ma2 po2 dou4 fu3 (麻婆豆腐). I think that my brother was more zealous about these noodles than I was; he sighed that these reminded him of Wuhan. I don't feel too much nostalgia from eating these, which is a little bizarre. Even though it doesn't look sanitary (food inspections?! Psh, yeah right), if you ever go to Wuhan, you should try these! They're probably not going to be plated neatly, and the cook may tell you to hurry up and pay the few yuan already, but Hot Dry Noodles are one of the most famous dishes in Wuhan (this statement is backed up by my cousin's response to a TOEFL Speaking question).

A Walk Down South (St)

The weather site stated that there would be a 100% chance of rain at 5pm.

There wasn't.

It didn't rain at all in Philadelphia the past week, even though rain was forecast for every single day of the week.

It doesn't interfere much with my life, though, because I've decided to start swimming more and running less, since my knees are kinda shot and I do want to be able to walk properly in another 60 years (hopefully!)

TJ and I walked from 41st all the way to Penn's Landing on South St. Of course, we stopped primarily at food stores and we did glance around some clothes stores but I'm not interested in clothes that much. One lady did comment on the skirt I was wearing, which is pretty funny (okay, digression: Some five years ago, my mum and I were walking to the bus stop after my

piano exam/practice in HK, and I saw a really small shop and they had a box of clothes outside for 20HKD; ~3USD. That's where I got this lovely skirt from...I wonder what else was in that box, because I don't remember anymore).

I forgot to bring my camera, which was extremely unfortunate because we went to Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant, Phileo Froyo, and Wholefoods. The bright side is that I'm going to Govinda's again soon so I can actually write a real review of it. I probably won't go back to Phileo's just because I'm not a froyo fanatic.

I got the Pepper Steak Cheesesteak made with soy protein, green peppers, mozzarella cheese and oil, on a whole wheat bun. It was hot, umami, and the bread was nicely toasted. There was a LOT of filling, and the texture was phenomenal. Although more pricey than "real" steak cheesesteaks, it was still delicious, juicy, and worth the walk. I'll do a real review in a week or so, when I get to take pictures. In short, I'm probably going to Govinda's at least another 3 times in order to try the Chicken Cheesesteak, the Sloppy Joe, and the Kofka/meatball sub (not to mention the desserts!). Maybe Govinda's is my favourite restaurant now. Yeah, actually, I think I've decided that my favourite restaurant is Govinda's To Go.

Phileo Froyo: Philadelpia, Phila = love, "Fill-y-oh", "Philly-Yo"; it's an awesome shop name. I tried a sample of tart kiwi froyo, which was extremely delicious!! For actual froyo, I got the peach, the cookies and cream, and the lychee. I also tried a bit of TJ's coconut, which had actual shredded coconut pieces in it. The lychee flavour is simply the best; it tastes light and watery, just the way real lychees taste! The flavour is exact! (Okay, a bit creamier) The peach flavour was ... peachy. Mild. Cookies and Cream tasted more like ice cream than light froyo, and reminded me of this time I got chocolate gelato, which didn't taste as good as rose gelato... so, I suppose if I want to enjoy froyo for being "froyo", I should get the fruity flavours instead. Still, nice experience.

At Wholefoods, TJ and I each got a sample of Fage Greek Yoghurt with honey, because they were having a sale of $1/150g container - BUT ONLY THE 0% fat honey, 2.5% fat honey, 2.5% fat cherry, 2.5% fat strawberry, and 2.5% blueberry. No plain flavour :(. No 0% fat cherry :( WHY!! I love 0% fat [real] cherry yoghurt.

I ended up buying a box of twelve 0% fat honey because

0. I enjoy eating yoghurt, especially Greek yoghurt.

1. $10.80 vs. $21.48

2. 12 days of high-protein/calcium breakfast covered! 13 g protein! 0g fat!

3. Now I have something sweet for dipping my 100% unsweetened baking chocolate.

Taste of Penn Part III: Pulmuone Wildwood, Inc.,

This is part of the series about the Taste of Penn.

I'm very picky and judgmental, especially when it comes to food and food companies. I suppose this is why I'm interested in talking to representatives, because it offers me the "inside" (or however "inside" they feel like showing) of the company philosophy, and their attitudes (seem to) demonstrate to me sincerity. Or something. I don't really know, but attitudes do matter.

My first impression from meeting the representative from Pulmuone Wildwood was that she was really cheery and devoted. She pushed the sample to me, urging me to eat it and she spewed out the benefits of eating organic/soy/etc. I guess it seemed a bit belittling, because, hey, I'm not a complete neophyte. I told her the soy veggie burger patty and the tofu were delicious (it was true. They were scrumptious!), and she thanked me and moved on to feeding other people. About half an hour later, I came back to take a picture and I told her I was going to blog about her company. She kept repeating, "Don't forget to write about how we are about sustainability, and how our products are made with the best ingredients..."

I'm not actually sure what she said because she kept repeating herself and stuffing in more facts, but the general gist is the cliche "we sell organic, healthy, better-for-you food".

This blog is an advertising tool. Or, it's a reverse-advertising tool, because I will end up butchering the company profile (in the next paragraph).

At one point in her spiel, she mentioned the word "celiac", and it wasn't in a good way.

"...and did you know that in the 1970s, when there was a rise in GMOs and transgenetic products, there was a rise in celiac disease? Celiac was rarely diagnosed before; but after the rise in transgenic foods, it doesn't take much to see the correlation...And with that rise was a rise in obesity and heart disease and other things, all because of the rise in these GM foods, and our foods are organic and completely healthy...."

Celiac disease wasn't diagnosed before because it wasn't seen as a disease, much like how diabetes wasn't seen as a legitimate disease in the Middle Ages. Celiac is a genetic disease when you have issues digesting gluten. It has nothing to do with freakin' GMO! Chances are, if someone can engineer wheat without gluten, people with celiac disease can actually end up eating wheat flour! And honestly, how can you merely conclude that a rise in GMO caused a rise in disease? What about flour refinement? Increased caloric intake? More sedentary lifestyles? There is no "one" answer, and CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION! So, I just lost some/all respect for the representative/company. I'm not really sure what that means, because I'd still eat their food because it's delicious, but I believe that the company image in my mind is completely dented now.

Coconut milk?

This kind of irks me.

Sure, the company cuts out all the legality/truth issues by saying "It is theorized that...", but the mere fact that the statement "coconut provides all of the required natural properties for survival" is blatantly printed on there makes me wonder whether companies sell food for our health or for our money.

Actually, scratch that; every single company probably sells stuff to get our money. Even those ones that boast organic-ness, and wholesome-ness, and we're-gonna-make-you-live-longer (so we can sell more of our stuff to you!)-ness. I realised this a few days ago when I was looking at various food companies' websites (Campbell, Pepsico, Aramack, some local candy company...etc) for internships over the summer. They want managers and marketers. They want people who are going to get degree in management or marketing. MANAGEMENT. Not biology, not chemistry, not food science, or culinary arts. No. They want Whartonites.

Now I'm wondering if I should transfer to Wharton.

They want teams of people who can market their product. Who can persuade the public. Who probably don't know what's in the food and how those ingredients/chemicals affect the body, but it's alright; as long as they market that food out and prevent the company from bankrupting, everyone wins!

So this brings me to the marketing style of this coconut milk yoghurt.

First, with regards to macronutrients, coconuts are a poor source of protein, and contains a lot of fat. This makes sense, since they're seeds, and seeds need a ton of endosperm for energy to grow after germinating. Coconuts also do not have chlorophyll (they are seeds. Seeds don't have chloryphyll. They don't need chlorophyll, since all their energy is derived from the endosperm, which came from the mother plant, the palm...). This means that various antioxidants, vitamins, and micronutrients are missing too. There definitely is not any beta carotene, which is a source of vitamin A. (Does coconut flesh look yellowy/orange to you?) Without vitamin A, humans have issues with eyesight (specifically, hardening of the retinas, and poor night vision).

Also, I don't think that there is enough zinc, molybdenum, selenium, and other trace metals because...of the environment and the growing soil... Also, where is the calcium!?

Without doing more research and citing my sources (so, just knowledge from nutrition class that I actually remember right now...), the advertisement claim is debunked. Okay, my weakness here is that I didn't cite any sources.

No one can sue them, though, because of the first three words. However, this is something I will think of every time I look at this company. This, and the ads they put on Pandora.com. These two things irk me, and although I LOVE the soy ice cream they make (The mint chocolate one. Is. Simply. The. Best. Ice. Cream. Ever.), I don't feel much loyalty to them anymore.

Soy "Steak" Style Strips

This is another review on something called "Steak Style Strips". In the package, they remind me of cooked liver, which my mum used to make with peppers (and it used to taste pretty good. Actually, animal livers are a great source of vitamin A, iron [yes!!], vitamin D, vitamin B12, and protein. Oh, and cholesterol, but I think that the other nutrients outweigh the cholesterol content). I'm not sure why I'm advertising the consumption of livers since I don't eat them myself, but these soy strips neither taste like liver nor have the nutrients that liver has.

I cooked them two ways.

1. In the pan with some spices and some ketchup. This tasted rather bland and had a seriously gluteny texture. It was a bit peppery, but it definitely did not taste like steak. The only reasons I was thinking "Hmmm, rather steaky" were that these pieces of soy actually looked like sliced steak, and they were labelled as "steak" flavoured. In other words, appearance is vital in tricking the mind into assuming things...especially when these strips are a small component of a larger meal. In my case, they weren't, but I'd imagine if they were chopped up and used in instant noodles, you couldn't tell the difference! My food tech teacher told me in year 8 that a lot of TVP is actually used in instant noodles instead of using actual chunks of cow or pig; instead, they just add a ton of flavouring to the TVP so that it tastes like animal flesh, but lasts much longer (won't expire that soon!)! Anyway, the pan version was a bit bland.

2. Microwave, with the same spices and some ketchup. These definitely tasted more salty, and since I put them in the microwave for 2:00 mins, some of the strips were pretty crispy/crunchy in that inside-out way that the microwave likes to irradiate food. In this aspect, the microwave provided more textured and flavoured [primarily salty] soy strips. The best part about the microwaved version is that the texture, although still a bit gluteny, resembles animal flesh pretty well [way better than the Smart Cutlets did].

When they say "seasoned", I believe they mean "mixed with a ton of salt and a bit of pepper".

Also, the bread was from Costco and it was the multigrain bread that comes in one loaf rather than two when you buy them. The bread is dry, rather sweet, and kind of stale. I do not have a favourable impression of it. For sliced bread, I seriously prefer the organic whole wheat bread that comes in a two-pack from Costco.

Lightlife Smart Cutlets

To use up more dining $s, I decided to buy some Smart Cutlets and stick them on a pan and have one for dinner with veggies. I grilled one plain, and it was completely bland, so I decided to grill the second one with garlic, pepper, and pesto seasoning.

The texture was supposed to resemble chicken, I suppose, but it definitely tasted a bit gluteny and too uniform. I like the fact that there was no super-salty flavour, but there was basically no inherent "flavour", unless I added seasonings. Although the 17 g of protein is a perk, this doesn't taste as delicious as tofu, or tempeh, which have their own textures and flavours. This grilled cutlet is homogeneous to the point that I really don't know what I'm eating, even though I know it's soy and gluten.

My mum also decided to stir fry peppers and celery with apple. And goji berries. This was a sweet change. Yes. Sweet. (Oh my eardrums are tearing!!)

Dumplings!

Today AK came over to my house and we made vegetable dumplings! I had made the filling earlier on [9am, to be exact], using my brother's drink blender. Actually, it's also a solid-ingredient blender, and it chops carrots and tofu really well! The filling included carrot, extra firm tofu, garlic chives, bean sprouts, and some soy sauce... and PLENTY OF PEPPER. Perhaps there was way too much pepper...

We used premade dumpling wrappers, because it is seriously time consuming making my own dumpling wrappers. My mum used to do that when I was ... 5, and we didn't have any Chinese supermarkets nearby in Australia. She used to flatten out tons of little dubloons of flour, and I used to use the rolling pin and make irregular ovals. The wrappers were much thicker then, and tasted much better than these ones [more gluten, I think, and more transparent and chewy]...

The lettuce leaves are there to prevent the dumplings from sticking. However, at least two dumplings DID stick to the pan. :(

YEAH DUMPLINGS! This was also a great time to catch up on life and college, and to get fat for the winter. Haha.

Soy Butter

When we were in Weymouth, MA, I bought some soy nut butter because it was on sale. It was $1.43 for 425g, and this was only because its sell-by date was in two months. I, however, consume nut butters at a rate greater than 212.5 grams/month. Actually, I long to consume a jar of peanut butter within 24 hours, but I think that might kill me, or I might end up regretting it after going through seven rounds of liposuction. Anyway.

If I had to choose, I would always choose peanut butter over any other nut butter [okay, soybeans are legumes... not nuts...so it's technically out of the count. So, let's just say, out of all butters, I'd pick peanut butter]. However, the past few days, I have been utterly obsessed with this crunchy soy butter. Jar appearances aside, this stuff. Is. Creamy. With a nice random crunch, once in a while. Unlike crunchy peanut butter [which I haven't had in at least five years], the crunchy soy parts do not get stuck in my teeth, and nor do they make the butter hard to spread. It's a win-win situation! It's quite neutral tasting, so even people who don't like toasted soy beans will probably enjoy this, although it does not in any way taste like peanut butter. The jar is actually kinda cheesy in both appearance and company name/logo [haha... I.M. Healthy...]. It is not completely healthy though, in my perspective, since there are 15 grams of fat per serving. "Good" fat, yes, but "bad" in the sense that it's, well, fat. As a vegetarian, 90% or more of my fat comes from the monounsaturated or polyunsaturated variety, yet I am not skinny. So, it really depends on how MUCH one consumes. In which case I lose. Every day. So, they should instead name themselves SoyJoy, if that name hadn't already been taken by a granola bar company. This is literally Soy Joy.

The last time I tried soy butter was the creamy one from Trader Joe's... two years ago. It didn't leave that much of an impression on me, and I preferred almond butter to it [Have you noticed how THICK and CREAMY almond butter is? It is literally the densest [read: oiliest] butter out there.

So, this is a completely biased and laudatory post, but I do blog about what I consume, and I basically have been chugging through the jar the past week or so.

Random Blahs.

I'm actually going to go out to dinner later, but I'm not going to be back in time to update... so tomorrow I shall update about that. Instead, I'm just going to post a few random pictures.

Whole wheat spaghetti soup with onions and garlic and green peppers. And tomato, of course. And clumps of Boca burger. I have officially finished cooking Boca burgers and I will never consume another Boca burger in my life. I am completely sick of them. I like plain tofu better. Or even plain chickpeas.

:)

I found some Airheads candy in the food drawer. From 2007. Or maybe it was 2006. I don't really know. So I unwrapped them all, rolled them into a tyre shape [hey, it fits the theme of Cars] and threw it into the garden. Now I have a nice piece of space in the drawer for other food!

Yup - the sesame chocolate cookies I made a few days ago... This time I microwaved them for 40 seconds, flipped each over, and microwaved them for another 17 seconds. My sister actually liked them! She said that they looked and sort of tasted like fudge. Which is great, since fudge is very much appreciated in the world. Which is why everyone says, "Oh. Fudge!" when something goes wrong, because, by calling fudge into the world, all problems shall disappear.

Nut Crunch

My mum bought this thing from Costco that is basically cashews, pumpkin seeds and almonds, smothered in hard sugar coating. It's a "cashew nut crunch" thing... and I tried to emulate it.

I think I dumped in some baking soda into the corn syrup way too early... it was when the syrup was at the soft ball stage, rather than the hard crack stage. I poured it over the fruit and pine nut and almond and peanut and soy nut mix at this point, and, a few hours later, the whole mixture was still gooey. In other words, it was more "chewy" bar than "crunchy" bar, if I were to liken it to granola bars. So, I started microwaving chunks of it, 20 to 30 seconds per batch. In my first timid batch, the fruit completely burned out from the inside... but the nuts were really crunchy and flavourful. The remaining batches were zapped to a crunchy consistency, but they're still rather soggy, due to the fruit. The sugary stuff has solidified, though, but still isn't crunchy. I need to learn how to make candy. In the past, when I made caramel, taffy, and fudge, I never went past the soft ball stage. I don't think I dare myself to. Next time... however...

I wonder what chocolate gummies taste like. I have some leftover corn syrup and a lot of cocoa powder... this is gonna be interesting, when I try it out.

Sugar Cane Drink

I was going to blog about an omelette that I made, but it was definitely not photogenic.

So. I will just say that it tasted really good and blocked out the characteristic Boca burger taste. I am never going to buy Boca burgers again. I don't get why I used to like them. They are so dry, and have that weird characteristic taste... Erg... well I only have two left.

TVP is way better.

Anyway, instead, I'm going to talk about this sugar cane drink that my mum bought for my sister, but she dislikes it. So... it wasn't worth 80 Cals of pure sugar, in my opinion. This is why:

1. I've had legit fresh-out-of-the-press [yeah, literally, a sugar cane press] sugar cane juice before, at ParknShop in HK. That stuff is REAL; it's not as sweet, has that sugar cane flavour [no, sugar cane juice is NOT the same as sugar syrup], and almost tastes a tad sour, in a refreshing way. I actually can't describe it.

2. The first ingredient in this juice is water. Great. It's not even concentrated. Then it's sugar. What happened to actual smooshed sugar cane? I am aware that apple juice is basically sugars and water... but you list apple juice as "apple juice" not "water, sugar, apple essence". Well, to be fair, there is pretty much no where else to get this stuff in the U.S., so I suppose if I had an emotional attachment to sugar cane juice, I'd probably enjoy it more.

Here is a picture. An "artistic" statement. Trashed...Should've bin in a bin [ha.ha.ha.]

CHILI SIN CARNE!

CHILI sans la viande - without animal pieces...instead, there are roman beans and lima beans and TVP and pickles and artichokes and tomato and parmesan and onion and crushed up tortilla chips [the leftovers].

A.k.a., awesome-everything-I-love-chili!

In fact, this chili even looks better than these here! YAY! This is just to prove to my brother that my plating, in fact, is not substandard [I've never really liked the idea of plating though, because it makes food appear more as an ornament than as a food].

Onions, artichokes, pickles, getting "gently browned"

Rehydrated TVP with dried chili and tomato paste marinade.

Adding the lima beans!

Ingredients:

1. A LOT of water. Keep adding cups of water throughout the.... 3-4 hours it takes to cook. I was initially going to make tomato/chili soup but that would mean that I used twice the amount of water. Which would've required a larger pot. Which I do not possess.

2. Lots of tomato paste!

3. Garlic

4. Onions! LOTS!

5. Pickles

6. Artichokes in oil - we have a jar of them. I don't know why, since no one in the family except for me and my brother has actually ever heard of the term "artichoke" before. I don't know who bought these... just that they've been sitting in the fridge for a while. Well, at least it covers the "oil" part of the chili.

7. Two cups of Roman beans. Soak these for a few hours. They take AGES to cook.

8. Half a cup of lima beans. They swell TREMENDOUSLY when soaked for a few hours. Literally 2.3 times their original sizes.

9. Half a cup of dried TVP, mixed with two cups of water and one scoop of tomato paste and two packets of dried chili. This way, the flavour gets "infused". Supposedly.

10. One cut up Boca burger since I dislike eating them grilled.

11. Leftover tortilla chips with the salt at the bottom.

12. Herbs - oregano, basil.

13. Quinoa, just because.

Method:

Cook everything on low heat for a few hours in a giant pot. Cook for an hour, turn off the heat, and go to XC practice for three hours. Come back later at around 9:30pm and continue letting the stuff simmer on low heat, adding water every now and then. When the roman beans are done, the chili is ready. The roman beans determine the cooking time!!

I wonder who else makes chili at 10:41 pm.

I ended up with a lot of chili. Look at that! Three boxes of chili. BUT IT'S AWESOME BECAUSE I LOVE CHILI!

The last time I made chili was the first day of school last September. It wasn't as great as this one. This one is "awesome-sauce"ly thick and beany and protein-filled! And it DOES NOT taste bland... for those of you who think vegetarian stuff is "rabbit food". It is NOT.

TAPIOCA!

I love tapioca.

Yes, tapioca is used in bubble tea [a.k.a. pearl milk tea], which SVC introduced to me a few years ago and I was thinking "Hmm. What is so interesting about THAT?".

How wrong I was.

Tapioca Pudding is also the name of a character from the Peanuts series by Charles Schulz. I don't think I can truthfully say that I've had tapioca pudding before... though I HAVE had extra-gooey creamy tapioca, which I suppose could constitute as a sort of pudding. Anyway, my mum decided to cook this mini tapioca we had sitting in a shelf, and apparently, this kind disintegrates really easily. The orbs were mushy. However, after adding some soy milk, the globular mass started separating from each other... and I actually ended up with something that appeared to look like tapioca! Yay! [Earlier on it was a clear jelly mass, like a bowl of steaming gelatin pieces, or hair gel]. Personally I like it with a lot of blueberries :) although the mug with banana wasn't too bad. I didn't add sugar to either mugful, though, but I think that's just my preference.

Glutinous Rice Balls

Yesterday I fell asleep at around 7pm. I didn't intend to.
The run made me do it. Seriously. I finally decided [well, more like, was persuaded] to run, the week before track starts again... and what do I get running right after sittin' 'round at home for three weeks?
Pain, noisy breathing, that icky metallicy-blood taste at the back of my throat, and a crumbling of self-image.
In other words I should probably stop eating so much...
Or at least eat healthier stuff [a.k.a. probably not anything I've written about in the past 29 posts, save the peach. And oatmeal].
Anyway, on Sunday, my mum, my sister and I made a bunch of glutinous rice balls because it was the 12th day of Chinese New Year. NO, they are not those leaf-wrapped rice-and-animal-pieces-and-soy-sauce things! Those are zong zi. These... are tang yuan, which is basically glutinous rice flour and water mixed together, then boiled in a saucepan. Completely carb loaded.. but they're chewy and a bit sticky. For the past decade I've been eating them in sugar water, but on Sunday I decided to try them with soy milk... just because I eat practically every carbohydrate item with soy milk [think potato soup, milquetoast [though I honestly prefer the spelling "milk toast" because "milquetoast" is a corruption of French], steamed rice, oatmeal [there it is again!!].
It was awesome... Next time we ought to boil the tang yuan in milk, or use milk and glutinous rice flour to make tang yuan.

A few years ago I tried the chocolate-filled tang yuan. They were so good, but I saw them more as a snack rather than a meal...same with the sesame paste ones. So, I still think that I prefer these homemade ones.

Ohh it's glowing! It's a ball of heaven... tastes like heaven, guys.
[A.k.a. the camera messed up, or, with the typical lab speak, "due to human error"].