White trash margarita

As I'm sure most of you would agree, there is almost nothing tastier or more vegetarian than a margarita. Being the awesome hostess that I am, I always have tequila and triple sec on hand. Unfortunately, I don't always have margarita mix. I do, however, always have Kool-aid mix and sugar handy. You see where this is going.

fill a high ball glass about halfway with ice
add 1 to 2 oz tequila
.5 to 1 oz triple sec
top with favorite flavor Kool-aid
stir and enjoy

don't bother with the salt, it only detracts from the white trashiness of the drink. Really, what were you thinking?!?

The endless possibilities of yogurt

Since I don't go out to eat much anymore, I thought I'd share some of my more awesome homemade creations with you.

spoiled milk alternative

a short back story:
I don't drink a lot of milk. The only reason I buy it is for my morning/afternoon coffee. At this rate of consumption, I am often greeted by curdled milk in the morning. Its so sad, as often I don't realize until I pour it into my coffee. This morning, faced with either black or rotten coffee I was hit by a stroke of genius: I could scrap the congealed cream of the top of the yogurt. Its cold, its dairy, it simply had to work.

one cup hot coffee
two spoonfuls of yogurt cream
stir like you've never stirred before and enjoy!

sidenote:
upon finishing the second cup, I noticed that the last few sips are a sort of coffee-yogurt sludge. While it doesn't taste bad, it doesn't go down that easily either. I think its a texture thing.

Some interesting questions

A reader, who appears to be outside my vast circle of friends, asked some interesting questions. Since I’ve been too lazy to write about any of my latest dining experiences, I thought I would take the time and answer them.

Inst said...
hay just out of curiosity, if such products were available, would you be willing to pay for "ethical" meat that was grown in a vat? And do you eat jellyfish, since jellyfish can't really be said to have a brain, or assorted insects, since they're not really sentient?
11:08 PM, April 26, 2005

Ethical meat? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Firstly, I’m not a big fan of genetic engineering and to explain myself properly I would have to do some research, which I’m not going to do right now. (But genetically modified food is a good idea for a future article.) The idea of a brisket growing in a gigantic petri dish seems like something out of a B horror movie. (If this scene does exist, please, please let me know.) Secondly, through the years I have lost the taste for meat. I think roast beef smells like old band-aids. The closest I get to meat is soy based products, which I’m told tastes nothing like the real thing, but damn they are good.

I don’t eat jellyfish because I don’t care for the taste. According to Buddhist vegetarianism they are okay to eat. Also, jellyfish are way too cool to eat. I saw this thing on the TV that said some scientists think jellyfish are actually two animals living in perfect harmony. The dome part and the tentacles are separate. Far too rad to be eaten. Insects also fall into both the categories, free of blood but neato.

Thanks for the questions, mysterio. Please feel free to keep them coming. To the rest of you, what’s the hold up?

Bangkok Gardens

172 York St, New Haven, CT

Atmosphere: like being outside without all that bothersome vitamin D.

We went here for lunch, so they were only seating in half of the restaurant. The area we sat in was pretty nondescript, except it was almost all glass. In the entrance way there was this really cool bamboo plant that was woven into it.

What was eaten:
Vegetable massaman curry
To drink:
Thai teatini

Vegetable massaman curry – Yum yum yum. Coconut milk and all the wonderful and mysterious things that make curry so great, with peanuts, onions, carrots, baby corn and mushrooms all mixed in. I’ve never been quite clear on the proper way to eat curry, but I just like to mix the rice into it, making it a giant mess, or like an ultra thick stew. Mushrooms aside, this was really good.

Thai teatini- I probably should have just gotten a regular Thai iced tea. It was good and it did actually taste like a Thai tea, but it was really strong and I couldn’t finish it. Like watching someone kick a puppy.


Overall:
Rotating wait staff- I know that restaurants have a high employee turnover rate, but come on. Through out the course of our meal, I don’t think the same person served us twice. Kinda like speed dating, but with food.
Value- Freakin cheap. Goddamn. A good friend of mine pointed out that at some places its actually cheaper to eat there than to grocery shop and cook for yourself. This is defiantly one of those places.
Veg selection- awesome. It’s always a good sign when I don’t know what to get because there is so much to choose from.

Lhasa Cafe

159 Main St, Northampton, MA

Atmosphere: Damn you, memory!

This was my first time eating Tibetan food. If I remember correctly, which I probably don’t, we didn’t even study it in school. I also know pretty much nothing about Tibet, except that it’s in Asia and the Dalai Lama lives there. So, with the newness of the experience and the (pleasantly) distracting conversation on exposed brick, I’m having a hard time recalling what the inside looked like. I see plants and a handful of tables, that’s about it. Sorry.

What was eaten:
Phing alla
Tse shogok
Tsel Thenthuk
To drink:
Bocha
Chai

Phing alla –Spring roll = good. Vegetarian spring roll = great. These were filled with bean thread, carrot, cabbage, onion and I’m going to go with…stuff. They were hot, but not too hot to eat and they were already cut for us!

Tse shogok – Potatoes, spinach and peppers covered with a mysteriously delicious brown sauce. This was served with a pretty steamed roll. Very good and very filling.

Tsel thenthuk – Pulled pasta, daikon and spinach in another mysterious and even more delicious sauce, almost like a soup. Not knowing how it was meant to be eaten, we just mixed the rice into the dish. I don’t know if this was proper, but it was yummy.

Bocha- Buttered and salted tea with milk. “Wait, don’t you mean popcorn?” While that is what it smelt like, it’s not at all what it tasted like. It was pretty much like drinking watered down, melted butter. Defiantly not yummy.

Chai- Chai tea. I enjoyed this one, but it might have just been the contrast of the Bocha. This, too, smelt better than it tasted, but at least it was drinkable
Overall:

What would Dionysus say? No alcohol! I really don’t know what to say about this. Not being able to order a drink did force me to try the tea though, which is a lesson I’m glad I learned and can share with others.
Value- I didn’t pay for this, so it was great. The portions were big without being ridiculous.
Veg selection- Mostly vegetarian menu!!! Just about everything sounds good. Hip hip hooray for the Tibetans!

The Castle Restaurant and Pub

143 Chase Ave, Waterbury, CT

Atmosphere: What up, tacky?

The front of the restaurant is completely glass. The windows bend to be part of the ceiling, making it look a lot like a green house. “Oh, a green house? That must be pretty?” No. These windows let in beautiful natural light only to be wasted on cheap, fake flowers. “That doesn’t sound that bad.” Well, in the spaces where there weren’t plastic plant sex organs, there were Easter decorations most likely stolen from a kindergarten classroom.

What was eaten:
Bread and salad
Broccoli ravioli
To drink:
Diet coke, no ice

Bread and salad- I usually use the bread and salad as an indicator for the rest of the meal. The bread was good. The salad not so much. No tomatoes! What is that? I prefer cheese instead of dressing, which was an easy enough switch, but I think there was a piece of moldy feta. That is simply the work of Satan.

Broccoli ravioli – Homemade ravioli filled with ricotta cheese and supposedly broccoli. They were quite delicious, but I really hope I was served the cheese by mistake, because the broccoli was nowhere to be found. So very sad. The marinara was also enjoyable; I would wager it was homemade as well.

Diet Coke with no ice- I only mention this because actually getting a soda without ice is a crapshoot at most places. Here, it was delivered without fail.

Overall:
Kafka’s The Castle- Sadly there was nothing Kafka-esque about this place. I could be wrong though; I only made it about thirty pages into The Castle.
Value- about average for Italian places, roughly $10 a plate, and on par with most Italian places, there was enough left over for lunch the next day.
Veg selection- not great and not horrible. If, like me, you were lost, starving and a vegetarian, you could do a lot worse.

Truck Driver

My father likes to take day trips to places I couldn't find with a sherpa. On his latest adventure he brought back one of life's most precious gifts: cheese!! Fresh, locally made, cheddar cheese. This one was called the Truck Driver (I have no idea) purchased at a place called The Cheese House, which I can only imagine is heaven on earth.

This cheese is incredible. It is so sharp and ooh... It has a flavor that doesn't hit you until it's been on your tongue for a second. I'm honestly at a loss for words.

I heart you, cheese.

*a note on the link: keep scrolling I promise it's there.