11/52 Pho Hoa pho

11/52 Pho Hoa pho
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Week 11. Taken March 18, 2011.

364/365 Soupy San Ji Bao

364/365 Soupy San Ji Bao
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We usually expect our xiao long bao to have a bit of broth, but even the guo tieh and san ji bao (shen jian bao?) dumplings at "Shanghai Restaurant" in San Gabriel are soupy enough to squirt on your shirt, into your teacup or up your nose without proper eating technique. All dericious, but our favs were definitely the pan-fried guo tieh.

363/365 Tempura at 1000 Cranes

363/365 Tempura at 1000 Cranes
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

359/365 Holiday Treats

359/365 Holiday Treats
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

351/365 Too Many Cheesey Choices

351/365 Too Many Cheesey Choices
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Picking out cheese and cured meats at Formaggio Kitchen in Huron Village for a birthday meal. Really, it's more difficult to go wrong than it is to get carried away.

350/365 Candying Oranges

350/365 Candying Oranges
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

UPDATE: The dried oranges were actually more photogenic, but you take what you can get on a given day.

345/365 Bad Nuts

345/365 Bad Nuts
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Yes, apparently I AM f'ing nuts as I'm at it again. While still excruciatingly time-consuming (1 hour to shell 100 nuts, before even dealing with removing the skins), overall the process has been slightly less frustrating due to better nut selection, despite having to pick out a few bad ones like those shown above.

Probably won't get to the finished product until next weekend, but I'll post something when all is said and done.

343/365 No Charge

343/365 No Charge
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

...for fish frames. It's hard to say no to free, especially when you can make delicious fish soup with it.

335/365 Tasty Star Cluster

335/365 Tasty Star Cluster
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

I may or may not have made a (sadly inadequate) late lunch entirely of these cookies today.

330/365 A Full Plate

330/365 A Full Plate
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

The tradition continues, and the results improve year after year...which we didn't think possible.

323/365 I must be F*$%ing nuts

323/365 I must be F*$%ing nuts
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

So, I was encouraged to try and make acorn flour by someone who stumbled on some of the pictures in my Flickr stream. I was sucked in by her enthusiasm, the apparent ease of the process and the success of her result (pancakes!), but I'm beginning to regret that decision.

I had actually considered it a few weeks back when it first became clear that we were getting overwhelmed with acorns and it seemed like a waste to simply throw them all away. I poked around the interwebs and found a few descriptions of acorn bread made from acorn flour, but it seemed like a lot of work to leech the tannins out of the meat and then realizing that we were dealing with tannin-rich black oak acorns pretty much killed it at the time.

My mind was changed when the correspondence effused about the tastiness of black oak acorn meal, but after investing several hours of selecting, hammering, shelling, sorting, skinning and sorting again and then ending up with maybe a cup of acorn meat is making me reconsider. I may go through one more container of sorted acorns just to have enough to bake or cook something, but I think this is going to be a "learning experience" kind of project. (i.e. I've learned that I never want to do this again, unless maybe if I'm trying to torture some hypothetical future children with their own "learning experience" or something.)

If I had to do this back before colonization/industrialization to feed myself, I'm pretty sure I would have already starved to death by now.

319/365 Targeted Snack

319/365 Targeted Snack
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

I am weak in the face of overwhelming olfactory popcorn assault.

270/365 Damp Weather Salve

270/365 Damp Weather Salve
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

265/365 In Season

265/365 In Season
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Truly frightening oreos with orange-colored creme filling... which didn't actually stop me from eating them.

262/365 Cookie care

262/365 Cookie care
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

fresh-baked cookies on all MidWest airlines flights after 10am. I was confused every time I heard somebody nearby turn them down. Seriously, what is wrong with these people?

258/365 Peaches and (Ice) Cream

258/365 Peaches and (Ice) Cream
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

more late night treats.

257/365 Compost Treasure

257/365 Compost Treasure
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

We were entertained to discover volunteer tomato (yellow pear) and potato plants in our compost pile. Both were robust plants that seemed to avoid the blight that we've seen affecting some of our other plants this season.

255/365 Beans, Beans they're good for your heart

255/365 Beans, Beans they're good for your heart
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

253/365 Late-Night Snack

253/365 Late-Night Snack
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Last thing to eat right before midnight because I had a cholesterol test in the morning. Not the worst thing to eat, but maybe not the best thing either. Especially the 1/4 stick of butter.

252/365 A Small Post-Meal Snack

252/365 A Small Post-Meal Snack
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Just a medium banana split at Lizzy's on Moody Street. (there is no small)