Improving the midnight snack since 2009

The quality of living in Room 116 just improved. Vastly improved. Instead of scrounging around for leftover Tarble snacks when the midnight munchies hit, Carey, my roommate, and I, just make fried rice in our own room.

The idea was inspired by a not-so-recent article in the NY Times about using the rice cooker for more than just rice. As soon as I started to see the rice cooker as a wok in addition to a unitasker that only cooks rice, the possibilities became endless. The first idea, however, was a simple egg fried rice.

You start by making rice as you normally would:

From Fried Rice

Remove the rice, oil the pan if the bowl isn't non-stick, and turn the cooker back on:

From Fried Rice

Drop some eggs into the wok (the general rule of thumb is 1 egg per cup of rice, but this is a personal preference):

From Fried Rice

Add the rice back in:

From Fried Rice

Voila!

From Fried Rice

The fried rice in itself has infinite possibilities. Scallions, obviously, can be used to make it more flavorful. I've recently started to add peas and spinach into the rice as well for a more nutritious version. Or for a sweeter snack, adding cream and spices and sugar to some rice for rice pudding! Aside from rice, I was thinking of cooking other grains in it (perhaps quinoa, for a breakfast cereal?). I recently bought some quinoa and will let you know how that goes.

About effing time

Obama!

In which Helen eats and eats and eats... and forgets her camera

Last weekend Chris (!) came (!) to visit (!). And we ate so much good food that I hesitate to post about them without picture evidence. But nonetheless, the food and company was too good to not blog about.

Our first stop was Mixto, a Cuban/Latin restaurant near Market East station. There was a lot of meat on the menu, and unfortunately, after a bad experience with burger bar earlier in the week, I had to go for the only meatless option, a vegetarian platter. Chris, on the other hand, ordered Churrasco Argentino Con "chimichurri," a grilled skirt steak with a zesty herb sauce. The veggie platter was surprisingly good and hearty, with lots of roasted vegetables and plantains and little cheesy polenta blocs, and rice and delicious black beans. Chris' steak was flavorful and done to perfection. And the sauce that came along with it brightened the meat up considerably. Awesome.

The service at Mixto, however, was quite shoddy. As soon as we didn't order an alcoholic beverage, our waiter turned on us and did everything in his power to rush us out, ending with the act of bringing us the bill before I even had a chance to wonder about dessert. But, that turned out to be a good thing soon after, since the bitter, bitter cold brought us into the Naked Chocolate Cafe. We were much smarter this visit than our last and ordered only their delicious drinking chocolate. I got the Aztec, which was very robust and full of spices. But my order paled (both literally and figuratively) in comparison to the rich, dark, almost-pudding like European Bittersweet sipping chocolate Chris got. It was served in a little espresso cup and you had to use a tiny little spoon to "drink" it.

The next day we gathered up a large crew for dim sum at Joy Tsin Lau in Chinatown. Despite the fact that our options were not as varied as other larger establishments, the food was quite good. Lots of meat and shrimp, but light on dessert stuff -- there were no egg tarts! And like all dim sum experiences, you had to look very carefully for anything green to fend off that scurvy you've been worrying about ever since entering Swarthmore. Regardless, it was pretty cheap for so much food -- about 12-13 dollars for a bunch of ravenous college kids. Not bad.

After dim sum we went walking around in Reading Terminal Market, bought a half gallon of apple cider from the Amish and wondered around a bit. We pondered buying an ugly fruit for the next meeting of the society of exotic fruits, but decided against it. After that, we went to the Northern Liberties to possibly check out galleries and such. But the only gallery we found was one that featured an exhibition called the "Obamarama" and another called "Guilty Pleasures." The rest of our time was spent walking around this slightly run-down but charming little neighborhood filled with interesting little cafes and shops. We walked by a Paraguayan restaurant with featured a prominent sign that said "NO MICROWAVES." As we were looking, a man beckoned us in for a lesson on microwaves. Inside, we found a lady who told us about a study where they watered two plants (great sample size, eh?), one with cooled microwaved water and one with regular water (at least they have a control...). And lo and behold, the plant watered with microwaved water died within a week. Moral of the story -- don't go near microwaves! Duh. She also told us that a hot "baked" potato cooked using a microwave will ruin the molecular composition of your stomach, or something scientific sounding like that. She used the word "molecular," and I was immediately sold. But despite their silly "science," the menu to cafe looked really good. Maybe next time.

Anyway, a light dinner happened at Soy Cafe (2nd st), where we ordered two delicious and filling salads (I got the grapefruit avocado, Chris got the crab and seaweed). Their signature ginger miso dressing was some of the best I've had. Plus, the serving size of a very large mound of fresh veggies was the perfect thing after a meat-heavy dim sum meal.

We got back to Swat fairly early since I had to study for macro. And Chris left the morning after. Despite how short it was, the weekend was probably one of the best I've had this school year. Definitely need to get into Philly more often.

Ice and Snow

Sometime last week Swarthmore woke up to a day of wintery-mix. It was warm (well, warmer), foggy, humid, and raining. As much as the rest of campus complained, I stand by my opinion that it was wonderful. Everything was iced over and you can barely see anything.

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

The slippery snow looked perfect for sledding.

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

From Swarthmore Jaunuary 2009

Even the bamboo outside Kohlberg fell and iced over.

But the weather changed for the (much) warmer yesterday. It was warm and sunny and spring-like. Being able to run in a T-shirt was spectacular, although the iced over sidewalks all through the borough was not.

Manila!

The first thing I said when I got back to Swarthmore was "Twenty-four hours ago, I was still wearing shorts, flip-flops and T-shirts and eating mangoes with every meal." Coming back to a freezing-cold Philadelphia wasn't the most awesome thing ever. But seeing everyone who was abroad last semester is fantastic!

Anyways, the Philippines was great. The country is going through what they call a "cold spell," which means that the temperature is absolutely perfect and 70ºC every day. The first few days were spent in the Cordillera mountains, near the city of Baguio (~150mi southwest of Manila). The American embassy maintains a compound there for expats to visit to get out of crowded and polluted Manila. It's gorgeous:

From Manila Winter 2009

And for you history buffs out there, the Japanese actually surrendered their control over the Philippines in this building:

From Manila Winter 2009

We went into Baguio city proper a few times (not that interesting of a city, unfortunately) and ate at this cute cafe one of these times. They served a lot of chocolate, such as hot chocolate made with Carabao milk. It was delicious.

From Manila Winter 2009

From Manila Winter 2009

And the sticky rice was really good too!

And back to Manila...

From Manila Winter 2009

Manila from our 53rd floor window. The large concentration of high-rise buildings is Makati, the major commercial section of Manila.

With the abundance of amazing mangoes, and still craving that sticky rice, I decided to make Thai sticky rice with mango, Kow neuw moon, as often as possible.

From Manila Winter 2009

The dish is super easy to make if you have a rice cooker. Just replace the water for the same amount of coconut milk and add a bunch of sugar (about a 1:2 sugar to rice ratio, but this is definitely personal preference) and voila! It helps if you have sticky rice (short grain), but plenty of people use medium or even Jasmine. This is definitely a recipe worth fiddling with since the payoff is so excellent.

Last bit of news. We got a puppy! His name is Leo.

From Manila Winter 2009

From Manila Winter 2009

Best pumpkin pie ever?

This past Thanksgiving, Roy and I went over to the lovely Uyehara household for Thanksgiving, and I wanted to bake a Kaz-friendly dessert for it. I ended up finding a fantastic recipe using coconut milk and a bunch of spices, and it was amazing! It turns out that pumpkin and coconut milk are extremely compatible. I'm making this pie again for Christmas dinner this year, but with a buttery pat in the pan crust instead.

This is a rather plain view of the pie. It looks so much better when it's cut into slices. You'd be able to see the layer of crushed walnuts between the crust and the filling that gives the pie a lot more texture and flavor. AND as a bonus, this pie is incredibly resistant to being dropped upside-down! (Not that I would know personally, of course...)

From Edacious Eatings

Roy and I made the pie using a 9-inch pie pan, and we ended up having a lot of batter left over, so we ended up making pumpkin muffins by adding about 1/2 cup of flour and tiny pinches of baking soda and powder to the batter, and baking at 350ºC.

From Edacious Eatings

And the best thing about those muffins was that we could eat those right away!

Not your typical college student's midnight snack

Bethanne and I went to Trader Joe's a while ago (a really long while ago, I just never got around to this post), and came away with some delicious snacks.

A little caprese:

From Edacious Eatings

And some fresh avacado:

From Edacious Eatings

Classy? Definitely.