Apartment Cuisine: Masaman curry

I've always loved Thai curries. In my mind, they're usually not as spicy or heavy as most North Indian curries and pack more flavor compared with Japanese curries. But I didn't know just how much I loved Thai curries until I actually went to Thailand in high school and ate at a hole in the wall shop in Ko Samui's main tourist drag. Before then, my parents and I would frequent at this place in Arlington that serves very creamy and mildly spicy curries with many pieces of chicken and very little of other ingredients. So when a huge bowl of potatoes, meat, and many vegetables swimming in a watery green curry arrived at our table in Thailand I was pretty surprised.

I can still remember my first reaction to that first spoonful of curry. It was SO flavorful and made me finally understand the phrase "party in my mouth." I paused, and just sat there, tasting all the different flavors. It was citrusy from the lemongrass, sweet and rich from the coconut milk, salty from the fish sauce, a little spicy, and so much more. Compared with really creamy curries, the lower fat content really allowed all the flavors (and trust me, there were many) to come through. The wateriness of the curry also made it a much lighter dish so you can eat more of it (another plus)!

Chocolate chip cookies + salt

Remember Sharples? The land of chicken croquettes, rubbery pasta, and free-flowing ice cream (especially if you accidentally grabbed a too-warm bowl)?

Actually, no. I think I've blocked it out of my head.

Except my stomach remembers some things all too well. Once in a while, I get a huge craving for chocolate chip cookies. I thought it was weird at first, then I remembered that on Mondays, when Sharples serves huge trays of cookies at lunch, half my day's caloric intake would be from those chocolate chip cookies. Now my cookie cravings don't seem so inexplicable.

Trader Joe's, explained

Even Barry Schwartz chimes in.

So many reasons to love Serious Eats

Here's one more.

This made me crack up. A lot.

Apartment cuisine: Boiled kale over rice

Not the most appetizing looking thing ever but it was exactly what I was looking for tonight: green, easy to make, and used up some leftover rice. I sauteed some onions and kale before adding some broth, let the whole thing simmer for a bit to soften the kale, put it over rice along with a fried egg. *edit* As per a reader's request (wait, I have readers??), I'm putting a rough recipe of this after the jump.

Apartment cuisine: corn curry

My eating habits have been changing almost as drastically as my living situation in the past few months. First, after coming home from college, I ate mostly fresh fruits and veggies which I felt so deprived of at Swarthmore. Then, on my trip to the Pacific Northwest, I ate almost constantly and the meals consisted of fewer green things. The backpacking trip after that involved more peanut butter and granola than I ate in months. And most recently, right after I started working and was doing that ridiculous 3 hour commute, I ate small breakfasts and lunches because I'd be in a rush and a large dinner (cooked by my parents, fortunately) because I was usually famished when I got home.


Now, having moved into a new apartment and reduced my commuting time by a factor of three, I have the time and energy to spend more time cooking when I get back from work. I can see myself making simple but filling meals for dinner when I get home each day and spending more time over the weekend making something big to bring for lunch over the week. For the past two dinners since I've moved in, I thought about what I wanted to eat during the day (and feasibly cook, of course!) and bought the ingredients at the conveniently located grocery store coming out of the metro stop.

Boy baiting

I was at a dinner party hosted by some NIH fellows this past weekend. Since I am absolutely clueless when it comes to choosing wines, I brought dessert instead. It's called a boy bait, named by a 15 year-old girl who submitted it as an entry to a Pillsbury bake off for its effect on boys, but a certain Australian thinks that it sounds like something a sex offender would make. I know I'd have a harder time protecting myself if those people baked like this.