Discoveries In Food

I have no pictures for this blog post, so here's my current computer background. Discovery?

It's been a while since I've blogged. That's because I haven't done a whole lot that's blog worthy this past month. Oh I went and hiked up Mount Hood with George a few weeks ago, but other than that I've been largely holed up in my room trying to get a ton of work done, putting in 10+ hour work days to offset the relative lack of time I'll have for Skritter work in October.

But work isn't strictly all I've been doing. I do manage to set aside time to put together proper meals and eat well. And so I've been having all sorts of fun learning how to put together single person meals better, and generally improvising and trying out new things. Here are a few of the things I've picked up on.

Trader Joe's: Liking It More And More

Now, some of you have already heard me fanboy out over Trader Joe's. You know who you are, so go ahead and skip this section. You've heard it all before. This is the last time, I swear.

So until recently I've never really done a lot of shopping at Trader Joe's. Back in Oberlin, they were not walking distance, and I was thrown off by the general impression I got that they were expensive. My Dad's a big fan though, and he told me their prices are actually pretty good, because they sell everything with their own brand. The prices are not bargain basement but not above average either. Even so, I was not keen on regularly commuting by car to my source of food so I usually went to our local IGA. And I also didn't like having to go to a separate store to purchase certain basics that Trader Joe's lacked. It was more a specialty store than a general grocery, at least the one in that particular shopping center.

When I was in Oakland, though, Trader Joe's was the closest thing there was. And for three weeks I had the place to myself (I was staying with Ralph, and he was off elsewhere). So I went to Trader Joe's and got myself just enough food to cover me for that time, during which I became thoroughly hooked. The food quality is generally pretty good, lots of interesting specialty items, and some of their one person meals work pretty well (though it's often hit or miss). And more surprisingly, the cost was very low. I managed to live off two dollars a meal for those three weeks. That's good. I later compared some of the prices between that and the nearby Safeway, and even with Ralph's discount card the items were on average 20% more expensive there than Trader Joe's.

The last concern was that they didn't have the full selection, that you couldn't get things like certain spices or basic ingredients that you needed, That it was mostly specialty items. But I think that's changing. I've been going to more and more Trader Joe's while I've been traveling, and they seem to be getting bigger and more complete. There may be a few odds and ends for particular recipes you still can't get there, but if you find one of the larger ones it's pretty much a one stop shop.

Anyways, regarding improving the food I eat, Trader Joe's does fine at providing healthy ingredients, but it really shines when I want to easily expand my meal with extra goodies that take little to no time to prepare. Their pre-prepared foods, mostly sides and desserts and beverages, make fine supplements.

Mixing and Matching

Up until recently I've largely stuck to recipes. This has been a good way to get the lay of the cooking land, but you can only learn so much. So lately I've been trying to strike out and try new things, and also making my own variations of recipes I'm well familiar with.

Probably the best example of variations on a theme is boxed Mac n Cheese. Oh, before I would occasionally add diced ham and maybe some special salt but nothing too out of the ordinary. I was first introduced to the idea of really messing with the formula in Tim Ferriss' book, the 4 hour body, where he gives the following recipe:

Make the pasta as normal
Instead of cheese and butter and milk, add in just a third of the cheese packet, and then a can of chili and a can of drained tuna. Heat.

Honestly, it doesn't look good. Tim says so, and so did my parents and grandmother when I went ahead and had some right in front of them. But it does taste pretty good. And it's got a good amount of calories and protein for those who are trying to put on muscle. So I tried it out and generally liked it, more for the fish than the chili though.

So I threw out the chili part and started messing with the fish. I discovered just adding in drained tuna doesn't work well; it comes out too dry, which the chili had kept from happening in the Ferriss version. So, while the pasta is cooking, I lightly pan fry the tuna fish in a good heaping of butter, letting it soak in. As we all know, butter makes everything better. I went easy on the butter that typically goes in with the rest of the meal, so it kind of evened out health wise (not that mac n cheese is ever very good for you, even with fish added). Throw in some seasoning on the tuna while it's cooking (Trader Joe's 21 seasoning salute, anyone?), mix it in once the mac n cheese is done, and you've got a solid and easy variation.

But tuna isn't the only canned fish, is it? Just the other day I tried out putting in some canned sardines in tomato sauce instead of the tuna, and that gave it a rich burst of fishy flavor too. Bonus: I didn't need to add the extra butter to make sure the fish was moist. The tomato worked well with the cheese sauce, reminiscent of having chili added to the meal but it wasn't so overpowering. Next will be herring, and then perhaps anchovies after that?

And that's just variations on one part of the meal. Two other favorite things I like to try adding are real shredded cheeses, which take more time than the packet but can really lend more flavor, and various spices, like throwing in some hot sauce, mustard, and herbs in general as well as seasoning salts. Point is, if I'm in the mood for somewhere between easy mac and a full blown made from scratch mac n cheese casserole (the epitome of the meal, in my mind), this is a great way to be somewhere in the middle.

Now I'm hungry. But there's so much more.

Pan Frying

I never really understood the difference between pans. I just kind of went with non-stick for everything, except for the occasional stir fry when I'd try using my wok. And when cooking meats and not following a specific recipe, I would improvise, cooking on either side and flipping however many times until it was cooked all the way through.

But now I know better. Thank you Gordon Ramsay!

Click to Watch Video Because They Won't Let Me Embed It

I tried this pretty much right after I found it. It didn't come out quite as well as the one in the video, but I'll keep working on it. In particular, I like learning that you can press on the meat to test doneness, that meat should be brought to room temperature before cooking, and that it's really easy to make a butter sauce right afterward. Again, butter, so tasty. Watch more of those videos for further cooking tips.

Now, that video has a lot of general advice packed into one quick video, where he just fires of nuggets of helpful data at a rapid staccato. For more in depth and slower information about pan frying, I found this site via reddit:

Pan Frying Lessons

This really brought home the importance of the fond. Since seeing this, I've cooked all my chicken, pork and beef on my cast iron (I think) pan, and in such a way that it doesn't stick. Every time it tastes so good. Thanks, Dad, for giving me that particular pan; it's made all the difference.

Balanced Meals

I've also been working on being more healthy in general. Vegetables or greens of some sort or another are included in pretty much all my dinners now. I've become a big fan of asparagus (only wrapped up in prosciutto sometimes, I swear), and have played around with kale as well. I'm trying to cut down the percentage of the sugary carbs like cereals and toast for breakfast, which tend to upset my stomach anyway, so I lean more on things like yogurt, grapefruit, and eggs. And who needs white pasta, white rice, or white bread? I don't know what my weight is (my jeans still fit well at least), but in general I feel better, and the various signs of digestive health have improved. Such is getting older I suppose; I have to be more careful. Progress is being made, though.

Putting It All Together

So here is the kind of meal all this experimenting has lead me to make. I had this last night, and not drawn from any particular recipe.

• Pan Frying Meat: salted and peppered skinless boneless chicken breast, pan fried in the iron skillet with grapeseed oil which had been brought to the right temperature first. Flipped only after the sides could easily come off the pan and were deliciously crispy.
• A Good Dose of Health, With Flavor: Chopped up some onions and asparagus and cooked in olive oil in the non-stick pan, moving them around occasionally. Added a handful of canned chickpeas and freshly minced garlic at the end for extra nutrients and flavor, respectively.
• Trader Joe's Supplements: I also had one spring roll heated in the oven and a small glass of wine on the side, and finished it all of with a couple chocolate covered orange sticks for dessert. Dead simple additions, but they really take the meal from good to awesome.

A healthy, full, tasty, freshly cooked and varied single person meal that took about twenty minutes to make, and wasn't too expensive.

I realize now I should have taken a picture.

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Photo Ref: 28 Hi-Def Calvin and Hobbes Wallpapers

August Retrospective

The past month I've still been doing stuff, but I've also gotten hooked on Google Plus so all my pictures and stories have been going there while I decide whether or not I like it. Not yet using G+? Let me know and I'll send you an invite.

Anyways, a summary of the last month's activities:

Went to Lake Tahoe to go kayaking, minigolfing and mountain climbing with Nick and Chloe and Stephen. Pictures. Mount Tallac, which we clambered up and down for pretty much a whole day, was probably the most challenging mountain I have climbed yet, especially the middle part with the rather steep pile carpet of big rocks. Also, snow was still there, which I don't think is something I've ever handled in August before...

Went home to visit my parents in Rhode Island. Had my obligatory annual clambake with delicious clam chowder, clamcakes, steamers and corn on the cob, a feast which I've only gone without for two summers of my life. We would have had fresh lobster but by the time we got there we were too stuffed to go on so we saved the meat for lobster salad sandwiches the next day instead. If you've never had this seafood fest I highly recommend it! Particularly with my Dad's stellar clam chowder.

After I got back to Oakland, I went up to Sonoma with Ralph for some wine sampling, thinking about the movie Sideways all the way. We checked out a couple places and tasted some very good wines, particularly a late harvest wine which is made from grapes that were left out in the fields for about a month more than normal, and so resulted in a very sweet flavor. We ended up purchasing a particularly good wine from the Jacuzzi family for dinner later.

Other than that, things have been relatively quiet! I've been picking up on the work side of things, and also I recently set myself up with Mint, which has successfully placed financial order on my life and so has kind of put limits on how much I go about and do. It will be worth it though when later this year I will have saved up for a shiny powerful new laptop...

Hiking in the Rockies

I went out to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Nick's father recently moved to. He got this amazing house on the side of a mountain with a glorious view of the city below. Pretty much all of the house that faces the valley is made of glass in fact. There's also a hot tub and each bathroom is equipped with a jacuzzi. A great place for a little hiking and business retreat with the Winter family and George!

We spent a good portion of our stay climbing up the enormous mountains surrounding the city. These mountains are intense, at least compared to what I'm used to; they're much higher above sea level and steeper than the Appalachians I grew up with. Mount Olympus was particularly rough. It was a four mile hike that climbed from 5000 to 9000 feet. I got most of the way up, to the point where we could see over into the next valley, but I skipped out on the final scramble up an almost sheer rock face, feeling thoroughly exhausted and needing to husband some energy just to get down the rocky and slippery path. Even so, I got some great pictures, particularly of the curtain of rain that was at that moment pouring down onto the other side of the city.

See them pics

I discovered though that I do not in fact want to use RAW photos. On a lark I switched my camera to save all pictures in RAW format without realizing how much longer it would take me to process the photos. Back to JPEG I go.

Besides hiking the mountains, swimming in the pool, and eating tremendous food provided by our hosts, we also got in a few good games of Dominion, playing online. If anyone wants to join in a game sometime let me know!

http://dominion.isotropic.org/

And finally, for about the last month I've been steeped in the western/fantasy epic series The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I have only one half of a book left to go and I'm really looking forward to seeing whether or not the plucky heroes can save all the universes from destruction. I recommend checking it out; listening to it via my Kindle's electronic voice while driving a two day car trip really made the time fly by, let me tell you.

Kerrville Folk Festival

 

About a week after I arrived in Austin I was brought along to the Kerrville Folk Festival for its final three days. It's about two hours drive away, and is basically a two and half week long jam session on a ranch. Thousands of people, many from Austin, go there with tents, RVS, and other more creative forms of shelter and camp out around the main performance area, setting up their own common areas where people go to hang out and share music, food and beer with each other.

There were five of us, only one of whom had been there before, and this veteran assured us that we wouldn't have to worry about room and board as volunteers. And he was right. We got there at the last moment and signed up on the spot as peacekeepers. For volunteering not only did we not have to pay to be there, but we also got two free meals a day, so that essentially we didn't have to pay for anything if we didn't want to. And I got a particularly good job: roving. I spent four hours a day wandering around among the camps, wearing a radio and drinking lots of water, and then regularly breaking to just sitting down and talk with people

Everyone has to drink a lot of water. These guys were indispensable.

It was very dusty on the ranch. There has been a drought in the area for the past year or so, so the festival staff was doing everything they could to keep the dust level down. Vehicles had a strict speed limit of 5mph. There was a truck driving around spraying water on the roads. Many people wore hankerchiefs over their faces, especially those working in the parking lot which was quite the dust factory. And the communications building (which was next to said parking lot) had a strict closed door policy; you had to sneak in quickly, letting in as little dust as possible to protect the sensitive equipment. Despite all the precautions, one could say the dust was winning based on how all the vehicles looked after they had been there more than a day.

While I was wandering around on the job I explored the maze of camps and tents. There were several people who brought teepees, and a good number of buses. One camp was simply four buses that were parked in a square. Off the dirt roads, the camp areas were labyrinths of tents and overhanging canvases with all sorts of cooking and general living equipment sitting around. Lots of coolers, lanterns and rugs, and various ornaments and decorations, even some couches and mattresses just sitting on the grass. All the big camps had names; some of the names were nostalgic, most were silly. The Halfway House, Mix'd Nuts, Camp Stupid, Camp Estrogen + Ed, Camp Ducttape, Shutup and Camp, Camp Kerrfuffle, Camp Fork in the Road. On one truck sat an appropriate sign: "In camp we dust." And to cool off, one of the camps had a slip and slide with an inflatable mattress on one end, and a kiddie pool on the other. I watched several people try unsuccessfully to surf the mattress into the pool.

It was hot and dusty during the day, but once the sun went down it was pleasantly cool. The wind went from hot to slightly chilly and the tempurature dropped to a very comfortable level. We had originally thought we'd just be sleeping on top of our sleeping bags, but it turned out to be cool enough to warrent sleeping inside them those nights. We didn't bother with sleeping in our small tent though. The five of us just slept under the stars, which were plentiful out there well away from San Antonio and Austin.

Resting up for another music filled day.

I've only been to one other folk festival: the Old Songs Festival which takes place in upstate New York. I went there as a kid with my parents and sister many summers when I was little. It struck me how different these festivals are. In Old Songs, there are a wide variety of performers, not just musicians but also jugglers and magicians, and there are many workshops for kids and adults to attend, doing crafts and alike. But that was all official, scheduled stuff. Though my parents tell me there was camping, we never really went to that part of the festival. But in Kerrville, camping is actually the main event, the real reason for being there for most people. There is a large stage where various bands perform every night, surrounded by shops and stores selling artwork and food and cowboy hats, but the camping areas are where people spend the most time. Some people never even go to the main show; they prefer instead to just stay in the camps and play music among themselves, and just hanging out. Once the main show is over around eleven or midnight every night, the crowd goes to the camp and the real nightly party starts, with people playing music in the roads and in the camps for several more hours late into the night until everyone collapses with exhaustion.

The people there are proud of what they do, too. "We talk shit about Texas all the time but we here do it better than anywhere else" one performer told me while he was strumming on his guitar during the late night sessions. Austin and the Kerrville folk festival have a lot of good musicians, and they love their music scene. Kerrville's a great place to get a taste of it, meeting a lot of the people who make it happen.

How to Couchsurf

For the uninitiated, couchsurfing.org is a social network basically, which is built toward connecting travelers with hosts. Everyone has a profile, which you fill out with your likes, dislikes, hobbies, all that standard 'about me' stuff with a particular emphasis on travel related details, such as listing where you have lived, where you have traveled, and what languages you speak. The more good detailed writing in your profile the better your chances of hosting and being hosted; what you put on there is going to be scrutinized.

Then when you are traveling, you search in the area where you want to spend a night or three (or more). You look through the profiles of people living there and send out requests. Then those people look at your profile and respond saying if you can come or not. I usually get about a 25% acceptance rate, and the most common reasons for getting rejected are either they already are full with couchsurfers or the hosts are on the road themselves!

Then, after host and traveler have parted ways, they usually write a reference for one another. The more references you have, the better, because these are key to a solid profile. If you've got a lot of good references, other couchsurfers can feel safe in the knowledge that you'll be a kind guest or host. This system works; thus far, everyone I've met who's a couchsurfer has been nothing short of friendly and hospitable.

I've been using couchsurfing.org a lot since I began traveling in May, and it is just the gift that keeps on giving. I've been telling people about it all the time, and I usually get one of two reactions: either "That's so cool, I want to try!" or "I don't want a strange man in my house...". To provide a few examples of what sorts of things happen when you use this site and to try and convert those who are wary, let me describe my three day trip from Raleigh to Austin earlier this month.

The first night I stayed over with some grad students in Troy, a small college town outside of Montgomery, Alabama. My host was Indrani, who is from India and she cooked biryani for dinner, which was just delicious (I love Indian food). We ate and hung out with her friends, and after dinner we went out and had ice cream, then grabbed a sweet tea for me to try (a popular beverage around these parts I have learned).

The second night was spent in New Orleans. I got there in time to join my hostess, Megan, for dinner with her friends, including her first couchsurfing visitor ever (I being her second) who was from France and was wrapping up a year and a half long trip around the world. The restaurant we went to was just outside the French quarter, so it was one of the places the locals go (no one who lives in New Orleans goes to the French Quarter, I was assured). I enjoyed my first Po' Boy sandwich and Boudin sausage there, which were delicious. The restaurant also served us tater tot nachos, which are nachos but with tater tots replacing the chips, which is as bad for you and tasty as it sounds. Then they took me to get snowballs, which are these special sort of crushed ice balls that are loaded with various flavored syrups. My palatte has expanded a great deal lately.

 Just outside the French Quarter

These were really good

Couchsurfers unite!

Though I had a great time out and about in New Orleans, I was worrying a little about the following night in Austin. I hadn't gotten an acceptance yet from all the couchsurfing requests I had sent out, and also my search for a room to rent for a month had been fruitless thus far.

I need not have been worried though.

I checked my mail after we returned from getting snowballs, and I had an acceptance from one Igor, a Russian fellow living with another couchsurfer and two others in a big house, which had seen a lot of couchsurfers. They had over a dozen people staying over during SXSW, so there would no doubt be room for me. He mentioned also there was a big party of couchsurfers going on the night I would arrive, so I would get to meet a bunch of the locals, oh and by the way Igor was leaving the following day for a two month jaunt through Mexico, so would I like to rent his room?

My very first night in Austin

Long story short, since I got here I've been hanging out with Igor's housemates and their friends, being brought along to do all sorts of stuff in and around Austin. But that's story material for another blog post.

Give couchsurfing a try sometime, you will not regret it!

A Rude Awakening

While I was in Atlanta I was introduced to one of the largest varieties of household cat: the Maine Coon. These are biiiiiig kitties, fairly larger than your standard cats and sporting a good amount of fur as well. The place we were staying at housed two of them, and they were a handful in a couple ways. 

 

While we were up and about they acted normal, for cats I guess. They rubbed against our legs, they let us hold them for a little while, they went out onto the balcony and from there climbed up and down the roof of the house.

But when we went to sleep is when they really became active.

There were about half a dozen of us sleeping in various places in this small living room. I was sleeping peacefully on an air mattress when in the middle of the night I became vaguely aware of the cats existing near me. I woke up a little more when I heard noises and realized one was clawing away at the plastic of my bed. I pushed them both off. They of course pretty much immediately returned, resuming the destruction of my bed. We went on like this for a while, me pushing them off and them jumping right back on very defiantly.

After a few rounds of this I realized I was sinking into the bed pretty quickly. Retreating, I moved to a comfy chair next to me and settled in to hopefully get the rest I very much wanted, but it was not to be. One of the coons jumped onto the vacant airbed like always, but this time without my weight pushing down on it keeping it firm, the cat pretty quickly sunk into it. The cat was not prepared for this. It panicked and jumped several times across the bed in a loud wild frenzy, then jumped off the bed and onto my bare legs, claws out, and launched onto the floor from there.

With mild lacerations stinging, I thought, "Alright, now they'll leave me alone, since they fear the bed."

But it was not to be.

I was right next to the foldout couch where two other guys were sleeping, and just as I was drifting off I heard in rapid succession:

"OW!"

"WHAT THE?!"

from that direction immediately before claws and fur attacked my face. The cat, for unknown reasons, decided to redo the berserk jumping claw dance, but this time across our heads rather than the half deflated airbed. Those of us who were not victims of the wanton destruction were awoken by the cries of pain and surprise. The cats fled.

After that we slept fine. Maybe the coons realized that their welcome was well and truly worn out.

Atlanta: The Temple

Back in May I couchsurfed my first few days in Georgia with Dan Berry of the Savannah College of Art and Design. I hung out with him while I looked around for a more permanent place to stay for my two weeks there.

A couple days after I arrived I tagged along with him for a weekend with other SCAD students up in Atlanta. We drove up one Friday night, four of us in the car, listening to music, windows down, speeding along in the dark only stopping along the way to grab some much needed late night grub at a Steak 'n Shake. We arrived at his friend's house where several others were staying over as well, and so about a half dozen of us ended up sleeping on a fold out couch, some airbeds and a chair in the tightly packed living room.

The next morning we set off to get to work on art projects. The latter part of the day was spent in a place they call the Temple. It's this large abandoned factory near a railroad yard outside of the city which has had its insides pretty much covered with graffiti everywhere. With spray cans aplenty, they set up shop in one of the larger and more well lit rooms and began doing their thing, replacing old artwork with new.

I spent my time wandering around, figuring out the layout of the place. It's an immense building, and graffiti artists have painted pretty much every corner, to a more or less extent. Most of it was brightly lit from the sun through broken windows high up on the walls or gaping holes where doors and panes of glass used to be, but there were lots of dark, dank places as well, with sagging ceilings that have been collecting rainwater for some time. I tried to figure out what it was they made at this factory exactly but it was anyone's guess, really.

This is just the entryway. There's way more around the back

The poster in the back says "Please keep this area CLEAN"

Natural light gradually making its way back into this place

While I was running around, Dan was drawing a trollface. He recently discovered the site reddit, and he pretty quickly fell in love with rage comics and started making his own. So he decided to practice his art by trolling previous artists, spray painting a trollface over their tags. At one point he called me over and had me shoot a video with his iPad while he did some finishing touches. Notice my expert steady holding of the camera in the second part of the video.

As the sun was setting we packed up our things and headed out. With no electricity or lights I would imagine the Temple is an eerie place to be in the night time, even more so than in the day time. If I pass through Atlanta again I'll stop by, and see what the artists of Georgia have been doing in their spare time.