foodstuffs

Goodbye, ISE

I have three days left at my job at ISE. It's been three years, and I have learned a lot. But it's time to go. I have to say I was really surprised when I received this giant beautiful bouquet of callalilles from my office, and this thoughtful gift basket of goodies from Phoenix Concepts, my favorite vendor. I will miss them.

What's in the basket? Various tins of cookies, cheese straws, granola bars, and Vitamin Water. Kinda random, but I love Vitamin Water.

It's nice to feel appreciated when you go.

Dishwasher Fish

Hold the phone -- my coworker just told me that you can cook fish in the dishwasher! It totally makes sense to me, what with how hot the machine gets. Check out this recipe. Here's another recipe with a "piquant dill sauce."

This makes me wonder what other kinds of cooking you could do with appliances that generate heat. I have heard of people cooking meals under the hoods of their car. A few I thought of:

- ironing a quesadilla
- making small panini with the flat edge of a crimping iron. Or, they could be "waffle panini" with the crimping edge.

Sometimes my poor lil' iBook gets so warm from furious typing, I think it could heat up a small sandwich.

VACAAAAATION

I haven't posted for a week because I was on VACATION. Sweet, sweet vacation. We had a super wonderful time out west, putting 1800 miles on our rental car in the process. Since we were mostly camping, food mostly consisted of things that required water to be added to be made whole. However, I will mention a few gustatory highlights.

Los Angeles
- Superlative, ridiculously large brunch portions at The Griddle Cafe on Sunset and Fairfax. I could only stomach half on my "Cobb Omelette" (blue cheese, bacon and chicken, amongst other things, stuffed in what looked like a six egg omelette -- is that allowed?). Great coffee too.
- Forgettable fajitas at Baja Cantina in Marina del Rey. The steak was cooked in tomato sauce -- is this something I don't know about? Regardless, I did not like it.
- A soothing, if basic, brunch of soba noodles and shitakes at Axe, (pronounced AH-shay) on Abbot-Kinney Blvd in Venice. This place had a Pottery Barn/West Elm west coast vibe, right down to this strange chia-like plant on the counter. The waiter didn't know what it was either.

Las Vegas
There are no records of Las Vegas

Utah
As I mentioned, we were mostly camping on this trip, so we didn't get to try Utah's, uh, famed cuisine. A few items of note:
- If you are ever driving on Interstate 70 east towards Colorado, do stop at Mom's Cafe in Salina, UT. Really good homecooked food, cheap. We were treated to a hearty chicken dumpling soup and real warmth of character.
- Truly delicious fajitas at Fiesta Mexicana in Moab, UT. This place is located on south end of Main Street in Moab, and has no liquor license. No matter -- the chicken fajitas were savory, tender and wholly redeeming, after the fajita fiasco in California.
- Not sure if this is food-related, but twice while driving to Moab, we saw TWO Oscar Mayer Weinermobiles.
- One last thought about Utah -- it wasn't nearly as difficult to find beer or coffee as I had expected. I recommend the strong, refillable cup sitting on the front porch of the Eklecticafe in Moab, and the Scorpion Pale Ale at the Moab Brewery, home also of Polygamy Porter. Shows what I know.

An Appropriate Curse

I haven't posted in almost two weeks due to an on-again-off-again stomach ache, coupled with a number of afterwork commitments that had me debating the merits of yet another slice of corner pizza. So I've been eating selectively. Of course, that ended when I went to Chicago for the weekend to meet up with my family.