Now That's a Big Bowl of Rice

As seen in Chicago, near Rush Street. Nothing says "I like Asian cuisine" like a rice bowl the size of a compact car.

Mr Squid. 'Nuff Said.

OK, for every great food idea Japan comes up with (like Vermont Curry), they also dream up one that is, well, not so great. Witness then "Mr Squid"-brand baked squid snacks. Made in Thailand for export to Japan and apparently for the Japanese palate. Or lack thereof. The things taste undeniably awful. Stale and somewhat rubbery, it doesn't even seem like it's a food source when you put it in your mouth. Bad. Like, really bad. Stunningly bad to almost being inedible. OK, you get the idea.

I should have known. Thailand. That explains it. The home of the fried egg flavored lollypop.

Vermont Curry - From Japan With Curiosity

Today's entry into the exceptionally weird world of food leads us to an old favorite, and decidedly more tasty than silkworm pupa. Vermont Curry. Why does a curry brand made in Japan since 1963 (and not originally intended for export to the U.S.) carry the name "Vermont"? Damned if I know. Perhaps the House Foods Corporation thought it was trendy at the time (1963). Anyway, the stuff is great. Major league tasty, easy to make, and mongo nutritious.

And in my quest to figure out how they came up with the name "Vermont", I came upon a cool factoid, considering I always considered curry as a decidedly Asian dish. Here ya' go - curry came to Meiji Japan during late 1800s by way of the British, who picked up a taste for it in colonial India. The Japanese, at the time, considered it a trendy 'Western' dish at a time when many new foreign ideas and products were entering the country. Pretty weird, eh? What we consider quintessentially Asian was thought by the Japanese to be quintessentially Western. So maybe the leap to naming it "Vermont Curry" in 1963 wasn't that far, after all.

As for why curry tastes the way it does, here's the list of spices that go into it (courtesy of the House Foods website):

The spices used in curry sauce and their general effects are:

Cardamom: improves appetite, relieves flatulence, and induces sweating
Turmeric: increases liver function, heals fatigue, and acts as an anticancer agent
Cumin: improve the appetite and digestion
Black pepper: stimulates appetite, digestion, and circulation
Coriander: helps purify the blood, induce sweating, and aid digestion
Red pepper: helps to improve heart and circulation, as well as induces sweating
Cinnamon: acts as a stimulant and detoxifier
Nutmeg: has analgesic effects and acts as a sleep aid
Fenugreek: brings down fever and helps with acid indigestion and diarrhea
Bay leaf: contributes to good digestion

OK, second weird curry factoid. The idea of putting potatoes in Japanese curry is credited to, umm, a guy from Massachusetts. William S Clark (1826-1886) was a president of what is now Amherst, officer during the Civil War, and 1876-77 spent eight months in Japan as a founding president of Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University). There was a rice shortage in Japan at the time (due to a drought), and apparently Smith came up with the idea of adding potatoes to curry mix for extra nutrition. Pretty cool, eh?

REALLY Bad Food Ideas

Pupa? No, really. Pupa? Let's look at the definition of that tasty culinary term:

[[From Wikipedia]] A pupa (Latin pupa for doll, pl: pupae or pupas) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis...In the life of an insect the pupal stage follows the larval stage and precedes adulthood (imago). It is during the time of pupation that the adult structures of the insect are formed whilst the larval structures are broken down. Pupae are inactive, and usually sessile (not able to move about). They have a hard protective coating and often use camouflage to evade potential predators.

Yummm. Tasty. OK, quick admission here. I lived in South Korea for almost 6 years. And they sold these things on pretty much every street corner. Try as I might, I never quite could get used to the idea of eating insects in a transition phase. It seemed kind of personal. To the insect, at least. Kinda like walking in on them in the dressing room.

But, hey - that's just me.

Not to mention that when I get hungry, the first word that pops into my mind isn't "holometabolous". Buffalo sauce, maybe. Holometabolous, no.

That said, I can't say the brilliant "market it as pupa for overseas markets" move will garnish much more of the seriously deprived north American edible larvae market.

Unless a LOT of hot sauce is involved.

The Litchfield IGA - Hmmmm.

And they wonder why grocery stores in the small towns of the Midwest are dying. I'm no farmer, but I'm relatively certain those aren't peaches.

Small Pleasures

Sometimes, you just need a small pleasure to pick you up, or get your karma back on the roadma. This is mine for today. Gas at $2.13 a gallon in central Missouri. I've heard it has actually gone a little lower, but I only post what I see.

OK. I feel much better now.

NIU Football - Bowlbound This Year?

I think YES! Northern is off to a 3-2 start, with the losses coming against Wisconsin and Idaho. Their big win against Purdue set them up for a powerful season.

Even better, the Huskies lucked out with an relatively light schedule this year. Let's look at who they face for the rest of the season:

Toledo (17 Oct) - This would seem like a pretty balanced fight, with both teams at 3-2 so far this season. But take a look at Toledo's three wins - an upset against Colorado (1-3), and then Florida International (0-4), and Ball State (O-5). A combined record of 1 - 12. Not exactly strong opposition. NIU should be able to knock Toledo off, as long as they don't choke.

Miami of Ohio (24 Oct)- Miami is currently 0-5.

Akron (31 Oct) - Akron is currently 1-3, with their one win coming against Morgan State, a Mid-East Athletic Conference team.

Eastern Michigan (5 Nov) - another MAC school sitting at the bottom of the charts with an 0-4 start thus far.

Ball State (12 Nov) - another team currently at 0-5.

Ohio (21 Nov) - NIU will have a nine-day rest before they take on Ohio, who are currently 3-2. But like Toledo, look at the schools Ohio has beaten: North Texas (1-3), Bowling Green (1-4) and Cal Poly (2-2) from the Great West Conference.

Central Michigan - Currently 4-1, and will probably be the team for NIU to beat to win the MAC West, But other than their impressive win over Michigan State, their three other wins were against Alcorn State (0-3), Akron (1-3) and Buffalo (1-4). This will be a tough game for NIU nonetheless as CMU seems to be the team to beat in the MAC this year.

Northern needs to win 4 more games to get that magic 7 wins. Between 24 October and 12 November, NIU plays four teams with a combined record of 1 - 17. These should be walkovers. As long as they don't choke, they should be able to handle both Toledo and Ohio. That just leaves CMU - the last game of the regular season. Even with one or two off days, NIU should go 8-4, at the worst, and possibly 9-3.

The MAC will get three bowl bids this year - the GMAC, International, and Little Caesars (the old Motor City Bowl), and could get more slots if other conferences fail to have enough bowl-eligible teams (which is how NIU eeked into the Independence Bowl last year with a mediocre 6-6 record). So, which one to hope for: Detroit (cold), Toronto (very cold) or Mobile (never cold). Hmmmm.

B-B-Q'd Quail

I picked up a package of six frozen quail at the same Chinese grocery story that had the periwinkles. I'd only made quail once before, and it wasn't that successful. The problem - quail are so small, they are very easy to burn or overcook. The recipe below seemed pretty simple, especially the use of barbeque sauce and water. I also was attracted to the use of an electric skillet. I love electric skillets. So retro.

Oh, I used a Korean pancake mix instead of flour, as I didn't have any flour readily available. In retrospect, I should have passed on either the mix or flour - the breading doesn't add anything to the recipe, and makes the fowl meat unnecessarily filling. No value added there. The barbeque sauce is more than adequate.

I found this recipe on http://www.backwardbound.com, which has all types of strange and mysterious game recipes, including squirrel, raccoon, and armadillo.

B-B-Q'd Quail

~ 2 quail breast per person
~ flour
~ oil
~ 1/4 tsp garlic salt
~ 1 cup "Cookies" bbq sauce or your favorite sauce
~ 1/2 cup water

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in an electric skillet until hot. A regular skillet can be used in place of the electric one.

Roll the quail in the flour. Add to the hot oil.

Fry until browned on all sides.

When browned, remove the quail and drain the grease. Return the quail to the skillet.

In a bowl, mix the bbq sauce and water together. Pour over the quail.

Sprinkle on the garlic salt.

Simmer between 250 and 300 degrees until meat is done.

The Recipe List And Recipe #1 - Periwinkle Chowder

OK, new list off to the right - a list of recipes. Some I will have tried, and some I just want to save for later. I will note the difference. Eventually, I will need a set up, like, a real web site for all this stuff. But this will suffice for now. The photo, by the by, is Matt and Theresa making sandwiches for the local homeless shelter in Woodbridge, Virginia. Lot's o' sandwiches.

I found this recipe online, at Recipes Wiki. About the only periwinkle recipe out there, actually.

More to the point, though, is where I found the periwinkles. They were at a Chinese grocery store in Kansas City. One package (a pound, more or less) equals about 2 cups worth, once they are chopped up for the chowder. On this one, I followed the recipe pretty closely, as it was new territory for me. I did add a second potato and went a bit more on the broth, creme, milk, and spices, mainly because I was stretching the dish out for more than six diners (and the periwinkles ended up being about 2 cups, vs. 1 1/2 cups called for in the original recipe. Unlike the original recipe, I bought my periwinkles already deshelled, so the whole "salt water/boiling" issue wasn't a problem. However, knowing that this type of seafood will get hard if over boiled, I waited until the bacon, onions, and celery were already well sautéed and soft before adding in the chopped periwinkle - the last five minutes or so. After that periwinkles and the sautéed ingredients started to simmer/light boil and produce a liquid, I added them to the potato-laden broth. I let the combined mixture simmer on a very low temp for another ten minutes of so (not too much, so as not to toughen up the periwinkle meat). All in all, it got great reviews, and was wolfed down faster than expected. One taste-tester said it needed more salt, which was probably a fair comment. Of course, I didn't tell them that periwinkle was actually a type of snail until after all was said and done. Cook's discretion, of course.

And, oh - I didn't have any pure cayenne readily available. I used Old Bay Seasoning instead.

Texas Periwinkle Soup

Description

Texas Periwinkle Soup is similar in taste to clam chowder and the recipe may be individualized to suit personal tastes. It is from Jamaica Beach, Texas, United States.

Ingredients

• 1 C chicken stock
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1/2 tsp. tarragon
• 1 tsp. paprika
• salt & pepper
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1/2 C dry white wine
• 1 C milk
• 1/4 C butter
• 1 1/2 C cleaned Periwinkles
• 1/2 C light cream
• pinch cayenne pepper

In a large soup pot, heat chicken stock, potatoes, tarragon, paprika, salt & pepper. Melt butter in a skillet, and lightly sauté the cleaned Periwinkle meat (see below), onion, celery, and bacon.

Add to stock mixture. Stir in wine and simmer until potatoes are cooked. Do not boil. Add milk and cream slowly, stirring constantly; do not boil or it will curdle. Add cayenne.

To clean Periwinkles: take a sauce pan full of water and throw in a small amount of salt. Bring to a boil and toss in the snails. Let them simmer for a few minutes, remove and use a toothpick to pull the meat from the shells. The salt water serves to both shrink and toughen the meat, making it easier to remove. Don’t boil them too long or you will end up with a very tough and chewy meal.

Dusk Arriving, Montana

Another perfect day in Montana ends - October 2008. Last post for today. More tomorrow.

Today's numbers:

11

Same as yesterday

680

175.0 (!!!)

Praying at the Altar of St. Ronald

One more from Pattaya, Thailand - where Ronald McDonald is, apparently, an object of near-religious veneration. He's kind of like the St Joseph of hamburgers. Or the St Francis of fries.

No, actually, this is a statue outside a Micky D's in Thailand, with Ronald giving visitors a traditional Thai welcome greeting. Because nothing says "Welcome" in Southeast Asia like a life-sized fiberglass clown hawking fast food.

Reading List Entry #1 - Wreck of the Penn Central

One of my new lists is my running list of books I've read (starting now). The first one on the list - that is, the last one I've finished - is The Wreck of the Penn Central by Joseph Daughan and Peter Binzen. I picked this book up at an estate sale for 25 cents a few weeks ago, and discovered it to be fascinating. The book is a non-fictional account, written by two newspaper journalists, of the disastrous 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads, and the ensuing failure of the combined Penn Central slightly over two years later. At the time, this was the biggest business failure and bankruptcy in American history, caused largely by horrible decisions and personality conflicts between senior executives, corporate greed, bad planning, destructive U.S. government policies, petty politicians, and lousy economic times. Change the name of the company to AIG, Countrywide, or IndyMac, and you have a book written in 1971 that could just have easily have been written in real time in 2008. Alas, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Early Moon in Montana

On the drive to Glacier National Park, Montana - October 2008. The sun is going down, and the moon is rising. And lots of sky.

Today's numbers:

10

6234.05 (up - not good)

680 (up! - very good)

178.5

Wu's Chinese-Canadian

I love Chinese food. Good Chinese food, that is. I'm sure I'd love Canadian food, too - if I knew what really qualified as
"Canadian".


So, "Chinese-Canadian" cuisine? What's up with that? Egg Foo Young with Maple Syrup? Bacon Dim Sum in Molson? General Tsao's poutine?


I got nothin'.

Today's Moment of Zen

Nebraska - after the freak snow storm, on the road to O'Neill.

Todays numbers:

9

? (no change)

673 (still good)

178.5

Air-tight Security

This is the city jail in Interior, South Dakota Population 77 (last census, probably a bit less now), located about a mile outside of the Badlands National Park. Not much else to the town - one open grocery store, a gas station, a few blocks of not-too-pretty houses, and a one block "downtown" area with a school. There are a couple of tourist camps nearby, but that's about it. Frankly, the place was more than a little depressing. And, apparently, if you screw up there, this is where you end up. The escape-proof, modern, correctional facility.

OK, I've Got It - But Where's the Sonic?

Not exactly a tourist haven, but a nice diversion. But definitely on the list of weird places to visit. Located on Route 385 in South Dakota, the "town" of Sheridan was probably, at one time, a really cool place. Now, however, what's left of the town is sitting at the bottom of a lake. (the photo of the lake is, presumably, where Main Street used to be). It seems that in 1942, the U.S. government wanted to build a reservoir to supply water to the area. Only one problem - the town of Sheridan was in the middle of the desired reservoir area. End of story - town gets bought out and abandoned, proposed reservoir becomes Lake Sheridan, and the town is now at the bottom of the lake. Not a horrible story, really - but I bet the high school reunions aren't any fun.

Kamp Katie

Katie - this one's for you. From western Nebraska -October 2008.,

Would You Like Your Coke Grilled or Fried?

Grilled Coke? Fried Coke? OK -of course I realize there is a much simpler common-sense explanation for these signs. I just found these signs a bit, well, odd. Another sign from Pattaya, Thailand, where 'odd' abounds.

Gripe Water

I first ran across this stuff when I was living in Hong Kong. It's ostensibly kind of like a British Pepto-Bismal. It's clear and has a kind of licorice and peppermint flavor to it. It's supposed to settle babies tummies. I don't think it actually worked, from my experience. I tried it - at least it didn't taste too bad or kill me.

But I loved the name - "Gripe Water". To keep the gripes away, I suppose. Another one of those quaint British-isms I find so fascinating and/or amusing. Anyway, it reemerged during a trip to Thailand. I had long since disposed of my original bottle from Hong Kong, so I just had to snap a photo of it's reincarnation.