Fruit

OK, sure, I knocked the 30 new fruit thing off my list. Still, I want to share some new fruit I tried. So here is the first one.

I came across a cherimoya - also known as a "custard apple" - at the Kirkland PCC a few days ago. It was bright green and about the shape of an avocado. It was a little spendy at $7.99/lb, and the one I got was almost a pound.

The cashier told me I needed to wait until it was mostly brown and spongy to the touch before I ate it, to make sure it was ripe.

Today I took it, in its scaly-brown goodness, to work.

True to the name, it smelled strongly of apple before I even cut into it. Once I cut it in half, I found a cream-colored fruit filling a leathery skin. The name was doubly fitting; it was creamy but with a taste of apple. Imagine an apple pudding, and you've got it. The only drawback was the fact that it was full of seeds, each hard as a rock and about the size of a lima bean.

It was a delicious fruit, though, and I wish I could afford to eat them often.

Secret Exercise Goal Update

OK, so I have until June 19 to get where I need to be for this thing I want to do. Vague enough? As I said earlier, I am trying to have a secret goal so that the wind doesn't come out of my sails by blabbing about it, and so if I fail, the only people who will know are myself and whomever answers the phone at the suicide prevention hotline.

By June 19, 2011, I want to be able to run at least 6 uninterrupted miles, and in decent time. I also want to be able to do at least 30 uninterrupted pushups. Right now I can hit about 50, but need to take breaks in between sets of 10 or 15. (Boo!)

My workouts haven't been great the last week and a half, but I've been eating really well, excepting Easter, which is a feast day, so fasting on it is a sin, I think. Sorry I'm not totally clear on the details; Catholic school was a long time ago...

A month and a half plus should get me where I need to go, if I stay focused. If I can get there, I have another month or so to keep cranking until the event I want to take part in.

More regular progress updates will be forthcoming. Wish me luck!

Bug Museum

OK, this fell in with a post on my other blog, so I'm just copying and pasting.

"Since I had missed my planned trip to the Bug Safari, I hopped a bus and made a visit. It was a cool little zoo, very professionally maintained and fancy. It lacked, however, the thing that made the Victoria Bug Museum so cool: hands-on interaction. The fancy, climate controlled, padlocked (?) terrariums were not opened, and even when I specifically asked if I could hold some tarantulas, scorpions, or giant stick bugs, I was told “no.” They don’t do that. Bummer. On the bright side, the goliath bird eating tarantulas were much larger than those in Victoria. The bigger one could have taken down a deer, I think."

Also available is my Yelp! review.


No pics...terrible lighting and glass tanks, along with the fact that I was stuck with the pocket camera, made for terrible photos.

Ethnic Food Is Gross

I had the recent experience of tasting some "meat" products from two distinctly different cultures: scrapple, from the U.S. South, and blood sausage, from many cultures, but in this case from Ireland.

Scrapple is made up of the pieces of pigs deemed unfit for hot dogs mixed up with cornmeal and spices. I must admit, I'm not against it. I really thought I would like this dish. It may sound gross to you, but I promise you, you have eaten worse. Frozen Salisbury steak? SPAM? Chicken McNugget? You have eaten some questionable shit. Don't judge scrapple.

That said, scrapple is horrible. I'm not a big fan of breakfast sausage. I do, however, enjoy pate. That said, scrapple is has the unpleasant flavor of sausage mixed with the wretched texture of pate. Yuck.

Blood sausage, a combination of pork, spices, and dried pig blood, all mixed together in pig intestines, had a great flavor. That great flavor, however, is cancelled out by the consistency. Another name for blood sausage is blood (and black) pudding. The name is fitting. Imagine getting a dish of pudding. You look at it, and assume it's chocolate. You stick your spoon in, take a big mouthful, and OH MY GOD, it tastes like pig meat!!! It's weird. Even knowing that you're about to eat something called blood pudding doesn't prepare you for the image of cutting into a sausage casing and having scabby pig glop come gushing out. A shame, really. Stupid Brits and their gross meat dishes.

That said, next up: kidney pie!  Woot!

So, two more to go...

 Scrapple. Yum. Oops, sorry, that's a typo. It should have been "yuck."

Blood sausage. What it sounds like.

I forgot some...

I have actually enjoyed more ethnic foods than I remembered to write down. One of them was a treat enjoyed in Maui, Loco Moco.

Basically, a hamburger patty with a fried egg on it and smothered in gravy.

It's a thing. Like most Hawaiian "things," however, it was bland at best, and gross at worst. It seems (and there was literature on the island attesting to this) that Hawaiians tend to like bland, greasy food. Supposedly, this is from American colonialism, and has caused the epic morbid obesity in the islands.

Four to go!!!

Ethnic Nummers and the Old List

On my original 30 before 30 list, I made a goal of trying 30 new ethnic foods. I tried many, but not 30. On my 31 before 31, I restated this goal.

I'm actually almost there.

I'm continuing this goal with my current remaining count.

Below, however, are what I've tried thus far:

1. Pad Thai – A Thai noodle dish. Nummers.
2. Shark Fin Soup – Yes, it’s reprehensible, but I tried it. Sue me.
3. Buddha Jumps Over The Wall – Another Asian soup consisting of seafood in a broth with the aroma and flavor of month-old vulture vomit.
4. Torta – The Mexican version of the panini. Love these now.
5. Vegemite – A thick, brown paste made of yeast. Also the only item on this list that literally made me come close to vomiting. I even tried it prepared the traditional way: on toast, with melted American cheese on top.
6. Menudo – As near as I can tell, a Mexican soup made of corn and lard. Oh, wait, I remember reading the ingredients; it is actually made with corn and lard.
7. Posole – Menudo’s ugly step sister.
8. Naan – I mean REAL naan, an Indian flatbread. Think tortilla, but with flavor.
9. Aloo tikki – Basically, Indian version of latkes. Potato and spice dumplings. BTW: AWESOME!
10. Tandoori chicken – Seasoned chicken cooked in a traditional clay oven, another Indian delight.
11. Lamb Vindaloo – One of those Indian dishes with lamb meat served in glop. Delicious, delicious glop. See also: Lamb Rogan Josh.
12. Lamb Rogan Josh – More lamb. More wonderful Indian glop.
13. Carrot Halwa – Again, Indian. Think carrot cake, but without the cake.
14. Gulab Jamun – Indian doughnut, basically. Super sweet, and drizzled with sugar syrup flavored with saffron and cardamom.
15. Miso soup – In this case, a tofu and noodle soup seasoned with the traditional Japanese spice blend “miso.”
16. Kalbi ribs – Short ribs marinated and cooked in Korean soy sauce.
17. Kalua pork – Hawaiian pork cooked in an underground oven.
18. Pork Laulau – A Hawaiian dish of pork – apparently the parts too fatty to pack in a can of pork and beans – wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. Good. Little full. Lotta fat.
19. Lumpia – Filipino version of the spring roll.
20. Boxty – Irish potato pancakes.
21. Coddle – A new staple in our house. An Irish dish of potatoes, onions, carrots, fresh herbs, bacon, and sausage, all simmered in hard cider. Delish!
22. Colcannon – Basically half mashed potatoes and half cooked cabbage, blended together.
23. Turkish delight – Ever had sugar-coated fruit jelly candies? Like those “orange slices?” That’s pretty much Turkish Delight. I made the mistake of getting rose flavor (the only flavor I could find), which was like eating the gelled contents of gramma’s perfume bottle.
24. Pakora – Another South-Asian treat, essentially a vegetable fritter.
25. Jaipur Karhi – Indian potato dumplings in a coconut milk and saffron sauce.

I have also given up on the 30 new kinds of produce. Turns out I've tried so many in my life, and many of the varieties I haven't tried are unavailable. So screw it.

Some of the other items on my 31 Before 31 list will be repeated, but mostly my 32 Before 32 is new.

As a reminder, the old list:

1. Inventory all DVDs in collection DONE!


2. Try 30 new ethnic foods ALMOST DONE!

3. Try 30 new kinds of produce

4. Lose 30 pounds

5. Do 100 push-ups

6. Have a picnic in a park DONE!

7. Read a classic novel, cover to cover, in one sitting

8. Beat Super Mario Bros. on NES

9. Get better at juggling

10. Put up shelves in man cave

11. Visit Kubota Garden

12. Visit the Banana Museum - DONE!

13. Watch all DVDs in collection I haven't seen yet

14. Join Slow Food organization

15. Go to U-District Farmer's Market DONE!

16. Move video game systems from living room to man cave DONE!

17. Beat my 2009 Torchlight Run time DONE!

18. Have a party DONE!

19. Organize storage room DONE!

20. Visit the Flaming Geyser DONE!

21. Go to Bob's Java Jive DONE!

22. Visit the Experience Music Project and Sci-Fi Museum DONE!

23. Visit the Bug Museum

24. Get photos from hard drive onto Flikr account

25. Visit the Museum of Flight DONE!

26. Visit the Burke Museum of Natural History DONE!

27. Make pate at home

28. Eat at Dick's Drive In DONE!

29. Read "Pride and Prejudice"

30. Get a tattoo

31. Re-learn to rollerblade.

One last try...

If it wasn't for my rugged good looks and ability to sing any song in a pirate voice, I'd say I don't have much going for me. In particular, THIS FRIGGIN' BLOG!!!

So, I'm giving it one last go.

Reasonable goals.

Consistent upkeep.

That's it. It's not so hard. Don't know why I can't do it.

But, well, if I can't, I'll quit. It's not worth the stress I feel every few months when I remember that this blog exists.

So read on: new goals, and an update on my previous year's accomplishments. I will say, better than last year! Woop! Victory!