Cutting Fruit is About All I Can Muster Up

Folks, I have been really struggling with keeping my interest in cooking. It feels very tedious a lot of the time. And when I do get inspired to make a new dish, well, it doesn't seem to turn out right. I am not zenning it.

(Note: "zenning it" is to be in zen. Zenning it is absolutely essential for, say, grilling a steak. Zenning it really makes food turn out well. And if you don't have it, well, you don't have it.)

It's just been so hot. I don't really want to sweat while working in the kitchen, or to faint and hit my head on the granite island. Ouch! So, I have been rather lame and neglectful of this very important part of my life and my identity. Oh, well!

I am, however, making a better effort at taking pictures. Today I display for you some recent results. Also see my friend Jeanette's picture of cute bento rice balls, which she made for her child's entire classroom. Wha?!

Creative Gruel, plus Restaurant Web Sites!

I have continued to experiment with rice cooked in water. I have made a variety of broths and ingredients for white rice porridge. Deviating from the simple is usually a mistake. I have not tried brown rice (I just think, yuck!) I WILL try Wild rice one of these days. I tried purple rice, which used to be available at the United Noodle. It made a gruel that was delicious, but just kept puffing up and getting bigger and bigger. Too much too eat.

I first had purple rice at Nokomis Restaurant on the North Shore. It was paired with a lake fish in coconut milk. It was so great, that every bite I took, I just relaxed and went, "Ahhh...." I was amazed and delighted. Have you ever been to a restaurant and had a dish that you never forgot? Like, you were just sent to Heaven for a little while and never wanted to leave? Nokomis gave that experience to me. Not only was my food fantabulous, but so was the atmosphere. It was low-lit, and calm, with diners who were vacationing on or around Lake Superior.

I tried to recreate that dish at home, with some success. I wish the chef would publish the recipe. Their website was no help.

Lately, I have been looking at restaurant web sites. Mostly because I want to find good places to eat. Since I don't get to go out to eat very often, and I LOVE to go out to eat, I want to find the places that are going to satisfy me the most. I don't want to do a restaurant review blog, but I'm starting to think there might be a need for a blog that compares restaurant web sites with the actual restaurant.

First of all, what browser are these web sites created with? I know I need reader glasses, but seriously! I have to push Command + about 4 times just so I can read them. And why is it hard to find menus on some sites, and reservations on others?

Plus, as a mom, I have to find out if this place is kid-friendly. PLEASE, people, just state that up-front.

Lastly, the photos on restaurant web sites are always so elegant. And then it turns out the place is just like a diner or food hall.

Oh, well, what do I expect? This is America.

Oh, BTW, I just watched the documentary movies "Corn King" and "Food, Inc." It's no wonder my Grandpa got out of farming.

Rice & Tuna

No one knows what they want for dinner. Quick fix!

White rice
Canned tuna
Mayo
Soy sauce
Jalapenos
Tomatoes (optional)

Don't mix it all together!!! Each forkful (or spoonful) should be an individual creation of mouth watering sensation.

We used to eat this dish quite often. Then I read "Bottomfeeder" by Taras Grescoe. It broke my heart. It is very bad to eat tuna. I have too much knowledge about the woes of poor Mother Earth. The ocean is... well, you don't even want to go there. It hurts. It makes you have to make really tough decisions about what you eat.

I have always liked my tuna in a can. I don't really like tuna steak, or tuna sushi, but I can totally go for tiny morsels of seared tuna on a bed of micro greens.

Alas, I found myself at the grocery store just missing my canned tuna so much. I said to myself, "Should all the ignorant people eat all the food that is available without so much as a wince, as the oceans become depleted and our planet is destroyed, while I, with all my stupid knowledge, go without the splendors of seafood on my table?" I shrugged. I bought the evil food.

Congee (The Village of Gruel*)

I love congee! I first encountered this soupy rice (or ricey soup) porridge in China a year ago. It was served at breakfast buffets with an assortment of strange-smelling condiments, including dried fish flakes. Dried fish, especially dried scallops, are a delicacy in China. I didn't enjoy the bland gruel or its condiments. But now I am learning to cook it my way.

I got a new cookbook, "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing" by Grace Young, who grew up in San Francisco's Chinatown. The first section is on the importance of rice and congee (pronounced "kahn-jee." I think.) I have a bad cold right now, so I promptly made myself some healing congee. It was good! Here's how I do it:

Combine 1 cup of white rice with 3-4 cups of chicken stock and 4 slices of ginger. Bring to a boil, then simmer for hours. Yum yum! It was like risotto at first (without all the butter and cheese), and then changed to a soupier texture, especially when I added more water. Why congee is better than risotto: you don't have to stand there and stir it for 45 minutes! Ariel likes it too, and she likes toast with her soup. I walked away from her for a minute this morning, and she was spooning her congee on top of her toast, folding it, and calling it a congee sandwich. Too cute.

Oh, and I must tell you (I must shout it on the internet for all the world to hear), my daughter said, "I love you Mom," for the first time! Yay! Happy New Year!!!

*The Village of Gruel is a restaurant we drove by in Guangzhou. I'm pretty sure it was a congee house, with a really bad English translation!