haute pom.

How to tell you're a food geek: you have all the ingredients to make two kinds of gumbo in your fridge, but you instead have to make catfish pom because your malanga is going south (anyone who can reveal the undiscovered punchline hidden in this last sentence "wins" a seat at the next SnL). BTW, another indicator that you're a food geek? You're not Surinamese and you can make pom without looking at a recipe.

Today's pom will be my first truly customized version, mostly because I'm lacking the correct ingredients: we'll be using fresh-squozen mandarin orange juice instead of reg'lar, and lobster stock instead of chicken stock. We'll see what happens.

UPDATE: it tastes very much the same as the original...further reinforcing my belief that the dominant taste of pom is the taste of malanga, which is why pom's flavor is simultaneously so unusual and so unfuckupable.

I also cooked up and ate separately a piece of zoutvlees, and it tastes very much like a highly salted piece of beefsteak. Not spiced at all as far as I could tell.

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In the Housewares department: we desperately need to re-evaluate our fridge/freezer setup, it's completely useless as is.

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In the Entertainment department: I've enjoyed Eten met Bianca since I first watched it (even before I knew someone who worked there). It's so not like most food shows: there's a certain calm, honest, informed interest about it that I find really appealing. I also like Bianca's personal tone, which to me comes off as quietly smart and, eh...unobsequious, maybe, in all the right places.

Anyway: I just watched an episode that I'd known was in production, but hadn't seen the finished product: Pannekoeken! Wherein they talk to Joachim from Japanese Pancake World and film him making okonomiyaki (among other things)...great stuff.

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