Archive for category Gluttony

Date: November 15th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Family, Gluttony
3 msgs

Move Over Internet: It’s Cooking

Nowadays, on-campus college living means my own [big] room, clean bathrooms, functional living room and private kitchen. Now, instead of studying, I spend just as much time cooking (and thinking about what to cook) as I do surfing the web. More procrastination!

Ever since my sister kindly let me know that Mother made green curry for dinner one night (she always makes the good stuff when I’m away), I’ve been eager to try it myself. Since the Ranch Market here around school sucks, I was expecting the curry paste I bought to suck. But it was okay! The batch I made lasted, unfortunately, for three meals.

My college cooking resume consists of:

  1. Thai Green Curry
  2. HK Style Spaghetti Bolognese
  3. Faux Chicken Cacciatore
  4. Spicy Garlic Eggplant (via Lee Kum Kee packaged sauce)
  5. Self Magazine’s Market Sandwich

along with the standard ramen, fried rice, frozen dumplings, smoothies and tea. My favorite things to cook and eat are the friend rice and the spaghetti because they taste good eaten fast and stuffed into your mouth. Of course I still have a load of green curry paste and chicken in the freezer, plus a package of tofu I’ve yet to use. It’s really hard cooking for one.

How do you think Mothers do it? How is it that they can think of something cook every night for dinner? It’s like they always know exactly the correct groceries to buy and have an endless database of recipes in their brains. I have a really hard time figuring out what I can do with the things I have in my refrigerator.

I wish my Mother would just freeze pack food and send it to me.

Date: October 28th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Gluttony
1 msg

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?

One of the greatest dilemmas in my life is trying to reconcile the simple joy of eating with the aesthetic of being thin. I find it more and more difficult to curb cravings and resist temptation. When the only exercise I get comes from walking to class, it is dangerous to give into late-night ramen, after lunch ice cream or Mexican food.

For some of us, food fascination is trying the new snack wrap at McDonald’s. For others, it could be watching Andrew Zimmern put down a beating cobra heart on the Travel Channel. It could be trying all the flavors at Baskin-Robbins (notice that the re-branding left out the 31?); finally getting reservations for El Bulli; getting something besides orange chicken at Panda Express; enjoying kaiseki that tastes just as good as it looks at Ursawa; having hummus instead of mayonnaise on your sandwich. The foodie culture and rise of foodie blogs has left me wondering: is what I eat a worthwhile utilization of my daily calorie intake?

more))

Date: August 31st, 2008
Cate: Anger, Complaints & Confessions, Gluttony
1 msg

“and it made the whole toilet brown…”

…said my sister about the time she vomited in our cabin after having too much dessert on our Caribbean cruise.

On the theme of disgustingness, see the above photo of the cake I made for my mum’s birthday recently. It is the Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake by Martha Stewart, which I encountered several years back in an issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Needless to say, this and every other thing I make was gross. I already knew before I finished making it of course, but I said that if it at least looked good, then I was set. Because my mom already went out and bought an ice cream cake and custard cream puffs; I was just wasting my own $15 and sleeping in time.

If only I had watched Martha’s video on the recipe website! Then I would’ve known this cake was based on Madison Avenue’s Lady M Confections’ Mille Crepes, which looks much more edible (i.e. less sweet). And I would have found Cream Puffs In Venice’s post on crepe cakes, about Stewart’s tasting mediocre for such an onerous recipe and a recipe for a cake like Lady M’s! So anger, so anger.

Date: March 9th, 2008
Cate: Gluttony

Review: Ultra Slims and 85%

For some reason, college has rekindled my affection for Glico Pocky snacks. You remember the Limited Edition Meets Wine Pizza Flavored Pretz in my Care Package? That was a disappointment. Pretz always leaves that MSG after taste in my mouth anyway.

This time, I got Ultra Slim 極細 Pocky. I liked it a lot. It’s a much lighter chocolate snack than regular chocolate Pocky, which for me gets too heavy and sweet after about 5 sticks. I still haven’t had the Green Teat Mousse Pocky, which really irritates me because my sister has had it. The Mango Mousse one is pretty good.

I finally picked up a bar of Valrhona when I went to Trader Joe’s when my aunt came down from Cupertino. I chose the Le Noir Extra Amer 85% Cacao Dark Chocolate. I’ve had 70% and it was still quite sweet. I love Dark Chocolate for it’s rich flavor and amazing smoothness. To me, Milk Chocolate can taste cheap a lot of the time. I don’t understand why Ghirardelli makes it Caramel Chocolate squares with Milk Chocolate. Caramel and Milk Chocolate is just too sweet! Back to the Valrhona, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. But I’m not a gourmet, so there is not much credit to my opinion. It has very fruity overtones, and pretty much no sweetness at all. I found it a little bitter and without much depth of cacao flavor. Maybe next time I will try the other bar they stock, Le Noir 56%.


I don’t think you can tell how thin these are compared to the original, but they are pretty slim.


The famous Valrhona chocolate.

Date: March 9th, 2008
Cate: Gluttony
2 msgs

I’m Such a Carb Whore

Ever since my whole 1 and half bags of cinnamon raisin bagels molded (everything seems to mold here in 3 days if not kept in the refrigerator), I’ve had the most pressing cravings for carbs. Which scares me a lot because I recently read an article concerning carbohydrates and starches and curbing hunger (it was on my Yahoo! Headlines home sign-on page weeks ago, and I still can’t the article). The article talked about healthy ways to fulfill your hunger and the terrifying fact that carbohydrates make you hungrier! If you satisfy your hunger with carbs, you will feel even hungrier later. I think this phenomenon is due to a spike in some bodily chemical caused by consumption of carbohydrates.

I’m trying to stay on this salad-and-sandwich diet. I only eat two meals a day, really. I tried a while ago to only have salads, but that failed. Actually, it was going well for about 2 weeks, but once I had real food, I couldn’t go back. Then I decided sliced wheat sandwiches are pretty healthy too, so salad and sandwiches would be fine - you know, to switch it up a little. But then they had fried chicken one night - I know it’s disgusting, but I can’t resist fried chicken, especially because I hadn’t had it in a loong while. more))

Date: March 5th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Gluttony
1 msg

Boiled Potatoes, Ben & Jerry’s and Bad Weather

Today I had a bowl of tater tots for breakfast. So Napoleon Dynamite status - nah, it was so unhealthy and bad for me. But I knew I had to eat something or else my stomach would make horrible noises during MMW lecture. Wouldn’t want to get in the way of Professor Chang’s jokes!

So I thought my breakfast food was bad - but then Lisa and I saw this even weirder breakfast being eaten on the shuttle as we went to Pepper Canyon Hall. Some girl was eating - get this - an f-ing boiled potato! Like right out of her hand! Like as an she threw a potato into a pot of boiling water and then picked it up cooked on her way out the door to class! And then she was like squeezing butter and sour cream into her mouth. Okay, just kidding about the last part. But that’s some way to gain 5 pounds. (Lisa just informed me that her friend was eating one too. Spud buddies, hah.)

more))

Date: January 27th, 2008
Cate: Gluttony, School
3 msgs

Care Package

At UCSD, dining is a la carte; small portions, oily food, 75¢ bananas and gradually improving pizza-by-the slice. That’s why I’ll never forget my first time (and so far only) visiting UCLA.

How come every other UC gets to be buffet-style? To college students, the only thing better than free food is endless eating for one low price! M told me not to bring a purse, or I’d have to leave it in the [inoperable] lockers outside. Inside, it was like a hotel buffet (okay, think Sheraton): an omelette chef, pastry display, cocoa machine complete with cute clear glass handled cups, among many many other things (why does N not like tater tots and ketchup).

It’s a good thing Mom sent me a package! This was a real care package, not a box of candy and junk/instant foodstuffs. I was running out of soap and Brita filters, but I didn’t expect my mother to send a box worth twenty-something dollars in shipping fees! She is too good to me - when I’m away. more))