Showing posts with label Wishful Thinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wishful Thinking. Show all posts

28.11.12

virtual tourism, continued.


View Istanbul in a larger map.

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The leetle friend Hilly the Poes goes off to Istanbul for work tomorrow and has had no time to do any research, so I did some real quick just now cos I used to be interested in a visit there myself, and cos I'm fast at researchin', and cos H the P does stuffs for me all the time.

Clicking on the little blue pushpins gives you further information, URLs and shtuff, but there's one pushpin you can't see because it's all off to the southeast in the Asian district: it's Çiya (seeya!), more detail here and also in the comments for this post, courtesy of the wonderfully helpful Zora.

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And now after looking at all that food I'm having terrible döner/shawarma/falafel/blo my dam head off with spicy stuff cravings. As a result, I will now try to make some of the hot-as-balls Yemeni thing called zhoug, plus some vitamin-rich omi houriya und some cooling tahini sauce.

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zhoug.

6 of them finger-sized spicy green Turkish peppers, basically like jalapeno hotness. Stemmed, not seeded!
1 cup of fresh cilantro, washed
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, washed, or just use all cilantro like I did
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp caraway seeds, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup of olive oil, plus 2 tbsp
optional: 1/2 to 1 tsp raw sugar, use only if you're thinking that something's missing

Pretty sure this is what I did except for salt and pepper could be off. But it looks and tastes EXACTLY like Maoz' spicy green sauce, which is a great great thing to look and taste like.

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21.10.12

barcelona whenever.



View Barthelona Whenever in a larger map.

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I'm starting to remember how this works: you read about a place and then get excited about/interested in visiting that place. It totally just happened with me and Barcelona. Why does it still refuse to happen with me and Paris? I canNOT get legitimately excited about the city of lights or whatever it's sometimes called.

Just a reminder: try to duplicate the now-closed Bar Inopia's pineapple + lime zest + molasses dessert.

Here's the Guardian's list of Barcelona tapas bars, I didn't see it til after I'd made my list, good to see there's at least a little overlap. Here's this too.

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Quimet i Quimet. 
Known b/c of Bourdain, but sounds unmissable anyway. This is the place with the salmon and honey tapa. Almost everything comes from cans.

PLA.

Montolio Can Maño Restaurant.
Pretty unknown and locals-oriented.

Paco Meralgo.
One of the few Sunday night options, mostly great but uneven reviews. Show up at 8:30pm to get a seat.

Pinotxo.
In the market, open at 8am. A "fish or meat?" place.

Kiosko Universal.

La Cova Fumada.

Bar Tomas.
Allegedly the best patatas bravas in town.

El Xampanyet.
Either get there at 11am or 7pm. Good cava, boquerones, lomo.

Cal Pep.
Get there by 7pm to wait in line for the bar (info). Sit at the bar, not in the back room. Is near Picatho museum so good to combine.

La Vinateria del Call.
Very old wine bar.

19.10.12

me, mt, pah-ree, eventual-lee.



View Paris Eventually in a larger map!!!!

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So my little blast of research for those doomed twentysomethings was informative enough and thus enjoyable enough to remind me that I was vicariously traveling through them and that I should really try harder to travel in my own real life, money being the greatest obstacle to this, and thus, Note To Self, I should try harder to set aside some money to travel with.

This Paris trip is the kind of trip that will never ever happen unless I first research it and plan it, so I've decided that that's what I'm going to do, because it's stupid that it's so close and I've never been there: it's Paris. I don't know when we would go, but here's where the trip planning officially starts. 

I have another of these trips in mind too actually, one that also has no actual reality-based timeframe: Barcelona, specifically to see the Gaudi buildings. The watchword for both of these trips would be: pretty massive cheapness. Like 4 days tops, frills: none, and probably not til 2014, if the world's still here. But more on that later. 

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16.7.06

expiring, mine.

I think my cooking might be getting better, I don't remember this ever being as good as it just was. Plus, the way I did it tonight was simpler and easier than the Bayona recipe. Secrets: longer cooking times for onions and kraut (20 minutes?), lots of black pepper, beer instead of wine, and the only spices involved are generous amounts of thyme, juniper, and caraway. Salmon sauteed in butter then placed on already-caramelized onions and beer-soaked kraut. Skillet into the oven for 10 minutes.

Or...maybe it wasn't the recipe changes. My sauerkraut expired a month ago. Which raises the question exactly when does "expired" sauerkraut become inedible or dangerous.

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5.4.05

day 1: shopping.

Considering that these are the goals:

decrease total dietary fat, especially saturated/verzadigd fat. only use products with good oils: sunflower, safflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed, sesame oils; or monounsaturated fats like canola, olive, peanut oils. Monounsaturated fats are preferred. Here's why:

SATURATED FATS are found primarily in beef and dairy products in the US diet. Diets high in saturated fat tend to raise both total cholesterol and LDL* (the bad) cholesterol levels, which is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Saturated fat should be limited to less than 10% of daily calories.
TRANS FATS are found in processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Like saturated fats, trans fats raise the LDL cholesterol level that increases the risk of heart disease.

POLYUNSATURATED FATS are usually a good source of essential fat, like linoleic and linolenic acids, that are needed by cells, but cannot be made by the body. Polyunsaturated fats in the diet have been shown to lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels, but also lower HDL* (the good) cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats are found in nuts and vegetable oils, and should make up 10% or less of daily calories.

MONOUNSATURATED FATS, the predominant fat found in pistachios, other nuts and olive oil, have been shown to lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels while maintaining the beneficial HDL cholesterol level associated with lowering the risk of heart disease. Up to 20% of daily calories can come from monounsaturated fat.

decrease dietary cholesterol.
limit sodium intake.
increase consumption of deep-sea fish (in order of goodness: mackerel, salmon, herring, albacore tuna, lake trout) b/c they contain the much-ballyhooed Omega-3 fatty acids, which help to lower blood cholesterol.
increase intake of fiber and complex carbohydrates. Eat 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber every day. Foods such as legumes, oats, barley, brown rice, apples, strawberries, and carrots are good to eat because they contain soluble fiber, which lowers blood cholesterol.
increase. consumption. of. walnuts.
decrease calories if needed to reach a healthy body weight. uh, yes.
for liver rejuvenation: raw vegetable juices and other cruciferous veggies; avoid: dairy, processed, fried, margarine. look into milk thistle and Schizandra chinensis.
20-30 minutes cardio 4-5 times a week.
no smoking of anything.
drinking red wine in white-knuckled moderation. maybe even white. i need variety!

I did pretty well, 'cept smoked eel is apparently not a good thing to eat, which i didn't know until after i bought it. Also on the list of "avoid" foods: cashews, macadamia, brazilnuts, coconut. Frown.

I spent 40 euro, but that included two bottles of chilean merlot, 2 jars of herring, and 2 frozen thingies of salmon.

Next on my list of things to figure out: finding a good margarine substitute; finding out if rehydrated wheat protein is any good for you; find out exactly what scharrelkippenei-eiwit is (sounds like free-range chicken egg protein, in which case i probably shouldn't be eating it. but it's in my veggie burgers! It totally doesn't sound like a vegetable product, does it? Update: it's not. It's egg protein. What the fuck is it doing in my veggie burger?); Finding a Euro shopper mayo substitute; including garlic and ginger in the list of things to eat a lot of.

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