Day 24 (3.27.12): Asian Buffet and Lotus Buns (Or Creepy Old Asian Men)

Asian Buffet (specifically, the red bean flower bun in the back)

Status: Restaurant (Tomi's Buffet)

Satisfaction: 10.

Associated with: The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

The red bean flower bun sometimes comes in lotus fillings, too--hence the thoughts flit to Lotus Blossum, the unfortunate concubine of one Wang Lung in The Bean Trees. Long story short, lots of disturbing age differences in relations and wonky Chinese-translated names for characters totals up to a pink-colored, artificially-flavored lotus bun.

Day 23: Chicken Teriyaki and Gyoza Bento Box

Chicken Teriyaki and Gyoza Bento Box

Status: Restaurant (Tomi Sushi)

Satisfaction: 7. Good gyoza, but not much to say for the chicken teriyaki.

Associated with: Sailor Moon

You all knew it was coming. Come on. Don't deny it.

Season R, episode with the cutest bento box ever. Sailor Jupiter, I may have despised you in my childhood, but you are now my culinary hero. I am going home and making bento boxes up the wazoo for my lunches.

Day 22 (3.25.12): Pan-Fried Salmon and Stir-Fry Green Beans (This. Is. Sparta!)

Pan-Fried Salmon and Stir-Fry Green Beans

Status: Made by Mom

Satisfaction: 8.

Associated with: The Spartans

 

This is madness. No, this is Sparta!

Yep, that was a meal for two (and one extra dish of vegetables--hooray!). That's what happens when it's just Mom and me at home. It was the Greeks yesterday, and the Spartans today. Granted, I ridiculously enjoy these kind of meals, but still. Spartan status. That's how we roll in this household.

Day 21 (3.24.12): Falafel Pita with Greek Side Salad (Food for the Greek Not-So-Gods)

 

Falafel Pita with Greek Side Salad

Status: Restaurant (this new Greek fast food joint at the mall)

Satisfaction: 7. Deep-fried the heck out of those falafel, though.

Associated with: The Aeneid

 

Greece--those are the people who had something to do with epic poetry, right? How stereotypical of me. Fortunately, I'm allowed to stereotype (it's one of the few meager rights still left to me after school has sucked the rest of those "inalienable" ones out of my soul), so Greek food means Greek stories. Poetry. All that jazz. Now I'm just sitting here trying to imagine a bunch of hungry Greeks sitting inside the Trojan horse, waiting, and eating--what? Why, falafels...of course.

Day 20 (3.23.12): Hot Pot City (Doesn't Have Bacon, But I Think Epic Meal Time Would Still Approve)

 

Hot Pot City

Status: Restaurant (Hot Pot City--of course)

Satisfaction: 7.

Associated with: Epic Meal Time

 

A bunch of men with too much extra testosterone. Or maybe they don't have enough, and that's why they need all that meat. Okay, so they'd probably throw me into the meat fortress and lock me away for the rest of eternity if they saw my plate (yes, that's a tofu puff and baby corn on the side--but there's a thingie of meat in the back right there, of which I am extremely proud). But I'm pretty sure they'd still approve of the idea of endless amounts of meat being seared right at their table. Maybe only after they introduce raw bacon to the buffet bar, though. (Their youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime).

Day 19: Tamago Inari Carrot Sushi

Tamago Inari Carrot Sushi Roll

Status: Restaurant (Cha Cha Sushi)

Satisfaction: 6. Rice wasn't sweet, and the carrots tasted like they had been dipped into the briny seas for over a decade.

Asosciated with: Fruits Basket

 

Recognize the rice ball in the center? Yup, that's Honda Tohru--compassionate, easily excitable, and slightly annoying heroine of the popular manga Fruits Basket. No, she's not actually a rice ball--she is, in fact, a girl--but that's her symbol, and eating anything Japanese with rice in it never fails to evoke in me the feeling that I am somehow accomplice in the crime of biting off Tohru's head with my maw, to put it indelicately.

Day 18: Assorted Salads (or Vernon Dursley's Definition of "Rabbit Food")

Assorted Green Salad

Status: Restaurant (Sweet Tomatoes)

Satisfaction: 10! You can never go wrong with a salad bar.

Associated with: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 

The diet sheet that had been sent by the Smeltings school nurse had been taped to the fridge, which had been emptied of all Dudley's favorite things - fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and burgers and filled instead with fruit and vegetables and the sorts of things that Uncle Vernon called "rabbit food."

Now, now, Vernon--don't be such a hard bloke on rabbit food. It really is quite pleasant if you're not persnickety about these things. And really, rabbits aren't half bad creatures. Some of them are even more pleasant to deal with than humans.

Day 17 (3.20.12): Orange Chicken and Stuffed Tofu (Go Skadoosh!)

Orange Chicken and Stuffed Tofu

Status: Take-Out

Satisfaction: 3 on the chicken, 7 on the tofu.

Associated with: Kung Fu Panda

 

Imagine that you're going to a typical Chinese restaurant tonight. What are you ordering? If you came up with an answer within five seconds, chances are that you have a go-to dish when it comes to good old Americanized Chinese-in-quotation-marks food. Orange chicken is one of the few meat dishes I'll deign to order from Panda Express--hence the panda association (plus it adds a nice touch that it's on a tofu box to go with the stuffed tofu theme--medium firm, hiyah!). However, this orange chicken disappointed as badly as a panda who keeps its butt facing you the entire time you're at the zoo craning for a glimpse at it. Guess I'll stick with the plain old tofu next time.

Day 16: Carrot Cake and Strawberry Shortcake (It's a Witch Thing)

Carrot Cake and Strawberry Shortcake

Status: Store-bought

Satisfaction: 7. On the dry side.

Associated with: Hansel and Gretel

 

Drawn-on carrots, for some reason, always kill me. Something about them seems plain wrong: it's as if the people making the cake want to remind you that a) there's a vegetable in your cake, which sounds gross, and b) that its presence probably makes it nominally healthier than your other cakes, but then that c) it's not really healthy for you, so d) we're going to draw on a fake carrot made out of pure sugar to make up for the fact that it's just a load of processed sweet stuff anyway, but at least it's almost like you're getting a real serving of vegetables. The association being that, if I was the wicked witch from Hansel and Gretel, I'd totally feed my children fake sugar carrots all the time. It seems like an appropriately perverse thing an evil witch would do. 

Day 15 (3/18/12): Tofu Veggie Udon (Will Get You Burned at the Stake)

Tofu Veggie Udon

Status: Restaurant

Satisfaction: 9. Especially on a sick day.

Associated with: The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

 

Any time I get any dish that arrives in something that looks vaguely cauldron-esque, witches inevitably pop into my mind and the hee haw voodoo chants of yore begin their mantra in my head. I was tempted to go with a picture of worms or snakes or other celebrated slimy creatures in a cauldron, but considering the fact that my stomach isn't taking up food properly as it is at the moment, I restrained myself to the fantastic witch hunts of The Crucible. Somehow I imagine the wives of Salem cooking udon in their tiny cauldrons and getting denounced by their neighbors with this "evidence" of their witchcraft. I bet Miller was seriously considering making that a key scene in the play.

Day 14 (3/17/12): Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes (in a Golden Afternoon Dreamland)

 

Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

Status: Wishful Thinking (i.e. not mine)

(3.17.12)

Since I was still sick on Saturday and basically ended up swallowing a combination of leftovers and insufficient meals, I made up for it by doing some research for the Edible Book Festival our school is hosting in April. As you can see, spirits are low but ambitions are high--and you might see a repeat of some of these cute themed cupcake (hopefully) next month!

Day 13: Apple Candied Nut Cranberry Salads (Make Any Place the Happiest Place on Earth)

Apple Cranberry Goat Cheese Candied Pecan Salad (with Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Status: Restaurant (Faculty Center at UCLA)

Satisfaction: 7.

Apple Gorgonzola Candied Walnut Cranberry Salad (with Mustard Vinaigrette)

Status: Homemade

Satisfaction: 6.

Associated with: The Happiest Place on Earth

 

Every time I get an apple cranberry nut salad or some variation of it, I am instantly and miraculously transported to the Happiest Place on Earth. I may be the only person in the world who goes to Disneyland in large part for Pizza Port's amazing salad (okay, I'm overemphasizing its amazing-ness--but being in Disneyland will do that to you). In fact, it's so good that when the opportunity comes up...yes, I will not only have it twice in one day--I will even make it again, knowing I already had it for lunch.

Day 12: Roasted Garlic Cauliflower (Stars in the Next Disneyland Attraction)

An Entire Head of Roasted Garlic Cauliflower

Status: Homemade (3.15.12)

Satisfaction: 8.

Associated with: The Singing Busts at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

Whenever anybody mentions a "head of cauliflower" or "head of broccoli," the haunting (quite literally) image of floating heads always comes into my, well--you get the point. The fact that I ate an entire head of garlic roasted cauliflower for dinner was a little sad (my palette is still a bit unsettled from the cold, hence the spartan choice), but it definitely provided some entertainment, since every time I started getting bored with it I'd just imagine my cauliflower springing to life and singing "Grim Grinning Ghosts" on my plate.

Day 12: Happy (Belated) Pi Day

 

HAPPY PI DAY! (3.14.12)

Pie for everyone!

As you can probably tell, I no more took this delicious-looking picture of pies than I actually had pie on Pi Day. Sadly, my day consisted of one big fat pot of vegetable soup with too-salty saltines. C'est la vie triste of a graduate student with a cold during the last week of papers.

 

Day 11: Homemade Vegetable Soup (Can Be A Blessing In Disguise)

Homemade Vegetable Soup

Status: Homemade (obviously)

Satisfaction: 8--but then again, any soup goes with a cold.

Associated with: Elie Wiesel's Night

 

It may sound like a strange association, but I distinctly remember picking up this book back in fifth grade and latching onto that memorable sentence on the back cover, in which he rhetorically asked, What is the secret to getting a potato in your soup? As a Holocaust and concentration camp survivor, Wiesel understands that which we often take for granted; so that even though I have made this vegetable soup while cursing the untimely cold that has clamped onto my immune system during the last week of the quarter, a moment of reflection reminds me that my situation, after all, is not such a dire one. Not by a long stretch.

Day 10: Tea at the Huntington (Consumed in a State of Semi-Madness)

 

English-Style Tea at the Huntington Library

Satisfaction: 10.

Date: 3/12/12

Associated with: Alice in Wonderland (of course)

 

As you can probably already tell from the nifty tag in the lower left-hand corner of the tea picture, I didn't take it. Didn't have the temerity to whip out my camera in the middle of a decent English tea room in front of our prospective students and department vice chair (but the food that I ate was essentially exactly the same, so there you are).

So. Mad tea parties. The only reason the madness of the tea party factors in here is my current psychological state. The event itself was quite, fortunately, un-mad. I was a much happier camper--not least of all because the tea was delicious and (for me) free. And did I mention delicious?

Day 9: A Very Dickens Dinner (with Herman Melville)

Just kidding about the Melville. It was a strictly Dickensian dinner with my fellow Dickensians.

Day 9: A Very Dickens Dinner

On the menu: 

Mini Spinach Quiche

Potatoes au Gratin

Classic Pasta Salad

Fluffy Biscuits

Duchess Potatoes w/White Gravy

Dessert: Caramel Flan (see Day 8) and Ice Cream

Associated with:

I thank you, Charles my dear fellow, for your approbation.

Happy Dickens Dinner Day!

Day 8: Homemade Creamy Caramel Flan (is Like a Taste of Heaven)

Creamy Caramel Flan

Status: Homemade

Satisfaction: 10. Creamy and delicious, as the title implies.

Associated with: Clouds (and some Michaelangelo)

I know what you're thinking: Another flan post in one week? Blasphemy! This repeat, however, merits sharing. It was my first attempt at flan--and frankly, it was awesome. Creamy, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth sinfulness in every bite I will pretend I did not take because this is technically for, er, tomorrow's Dickens party. (Did I mention that I'm hosting a Dickens dinner? I'm hosting a Dickens dinner--gee, I wonder what tomorrow's theme will be...)

Anyway, it's sort of what I imagine a mixture of clouds and heaven would taste like if you could take a bite of them. The picture above captures the general sentiment of hallelujah choruses that exploded inside of me at first bite.

It's recipe time! (Click "read more.")

Day 7: Sweet Potato Lentil Carrot Puree (Jabba Want Some)

Sweet Potato Apple Lentil Carrot Puree with Greek Yogurt Topping

Status: Homemade

Satisfaction: 7

Associated with: Jabba the Hut

I didn't want to go there. But I did. 

Tell me that purees don't look a glop of who-knows-what run through a who-knows-where. Say it with a straight face--I bet you three Yoda live action figures you can't do it.

If I've ruined your appetite, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that mine has been sufficiently ruined, too.

May the force be with you.

Day 6: Family-Style Tofu Eggplant (Speaks for Itself)

Day 6: Chinese Family-Style Tofu Eggplant

Status: Homemade (leftovers)

Satisfaction: 8. All tofu is good tofu!

Associated with: Sheer Bliss.

Tofu, eggplant, and deliciousness.

I have nothing more substantive to add.

Day 5: Spinach Enchilada (a la Corn Industry)

Spinach Enchilada (with Corn in it)

Status: Restaurant/Leftovers (Taberna Mexican)

Satisfaction: 6. Filling, but not terribly exciting after a trip to from the fridge to the microwave.

Associated with: Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma

When I ordered a spinach enchilada off the menu, I was expecting a spinach enchilada, like any reasonable person might--I was definitely not ready, however, for the spinach-and-canned-corn stacked-layers-of-corn-tortilla heap that actually arrived on my plate. But there it sat, screaming the four-letter swear word that Pollan discusses at length in his book: Corn. Talk about slipping this over-subsidized crop into everything imaginable--our bread, our cereal, our happy meals--and now, apparently, our enchiladas.

Congratulations, America's lobbyists, you have just managed to outstrip Taco Bell in redefining the meaning of Mexican Food on this side of the border.

Day 4: Falafel Wrap (Please Stop that Dynne)

Day 4: Falafel Hummus Tzatziki Veggie Wrap

Status: Restaurant (Panini Cafe)

Satisfaction: 8. A good, solid falafel fix.

Associated With: The Phantom Tollbooth (the Awful Dynne)

Try saying the word "falafel" slowly out loud. Falafel.

Now try saying it five times at a moderate speed (or, for that matter, try typing it five times in a row--it messes with your brain). Falafel falafel falafel falafel falafel.

What you probably got, if you were saying it right, was probably something like "flahhfull." Or, if you slow it down just a bit more like I do, you'll get something that sounds like "felt awful"--which, for a food name, is not a terribly appealing one.

Nevertheless, that's just what you get. Felt awful. And anytime anybody talks about anything being awful, my mind inevitably pops to the Awful Dynne. You know the one...

"What is a DYNNE?" asked Milo when he had recovered from the shock of seeing him appear.

"You mean you've never met the awful DYNNE before?" said Dr. Dischord in a surprised tone. "Why, I thought everyone had. When you're playing in your room and making a great amount of noise, what do they tell you to stop?"

"That awful din," admitted Milo. 

"When the neighbors are playing their radio too loud, late at night, what do you wish they'd turn down?"

"That awful din," answered Tock.

"When the street on your block is being repaired and the pneumatic drills are working all day, what does everyone complain of?"

"The dreadful row," volunteered the Humbug brightly.

"The dreadful RAUW," cried the anguished DYNNE, "was my grandfather. He perished in the great silence epidemic of 1712."

So there you have it. I wouldn't be surprised if, with such a terrible-sounding name, falafels make a din--excuse me, Dynne--all of their own.

Day 3: Greek Yogurt Fruit Parfait (You Americanists Will Appreciate This)

Greek Yogurt Parfait with Kashi Cereal and Fruit

Status: Homemade but repackaged in typical impoverished grad student fashion (i.e. a saved plastic Starbucks cup). Eaten at a Starbucks location without having purchased anything there, but still maintaining appearances of being a patron. Money-saving win.

Satisfaction: 7. Love parfaits. Solid start to every single day.

Associated with: Moby Dick

Holy whale! I can feel Melville rolling in his grave already. The connection here is (if you haven't already figured it out) not the food, but the packaging--cue Starbuck the sailor man. You know you're in a grad student when you have reused a cheap, not-made-to-be-reused flimsy plastic cup every time you need to make a parfait for on-the-go; and you know you're in the English department when the first thing it reminds you of is canonical nautical literature. 

And I will say now that no, I still haven't read Moby Dick and yes, I can still be a respectable English literature scholar without having done so. Take a shot at me with your harpoons if you dare, Americanists. I double dog dare you.

Day 2: Apple Walnut Mango Vinaigrette Salad...with Veggie Burger Strips (Makes the Vegetables Cry)

Apple Walnut Mango Vinaigrette Salad w/Veggie Burger Strips

Status: Restaurant (Novel Cafe)

Satisfaction: 8. Nutty and light, hit the spot.

Associated with: The Save the Vegetables Movement.

Every time I order a meat substitute at a restaurant, it reminds me of the poor voiceless millions upon millions of vegetables and fruits every year that are mercilessly slaughtered in the name of vegetarianism. Now, they're asking to be heard.

Save the vegetables.


And yes, I do own this t-shirt.

Day 1: Kahlua Flan (Gotta Catch 'Em All!)

Kahlua Flan

Status: Restaurant (Taberna Mexican)

Satisfaction: 10. Creamy and amazing.

From Saturday, 3/3/12

Associated with: Pokemon (Grimer and Muk)

Yep, that's exactly what I think of when the word "flan" pops up in everyday conversation. So the next time you want to take me out to eat dessert (an idea to which I remain completely unopposed), and the dessert choice is flan, not only will I associate our meal with the aesthetically pleasing Pokemon shown above--I will probably forever associate you with them, too. You might even find that you feel the same way after reading this.

As long as you don't mind that, though, I'm always down for some free flan.