ragingyoghurt » adventures in good eating etc.

gadzooks! it’s the mystery of the diminishing haemoglobin count. i have just returned from depositing some fresh blood at the blood bank, where the concerned nurse alerted me to the fact that at my first bleeding a couple of years ago, my haemoglobin count was a healthy 130, and it has steadily decreased each time to today’s borderline normalcy of 118.

furrowed of brow, she asked if i had changed my diet (more red meat than ever*) or if i was straining myself with exercise (ha!), but in the end thought that maybe i was just indulging too often in the bloodletting.

if only fixing it could be as simple as drinking more red cordial, for i have three kinds perched upon the fridge: rose, strawberry-lemon and pacific fruits crush — an exotic blend of lychee, guava and pineapple.

mmm… red cordial…

* it was pointed out to me by the other member of this household (who evidently would rather be eating more red meat) that my “more red meat than ever” is still only about once every couple of weeks, which apparently is less than what ‘other people’ eat… unless they are vego.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 4 December 2003 at 3:35 pm

permalink | filed under drink

feeling somewhat inspired by last night’s spur-of-the-moment “school of rock” excursion, my afternoon stroll to buy tickets for the radio birdman show evolved into a modest, gingerbread latte-fueled shoping spree that yielded the following minifest of rock: a pearl jam “lost dogs” cd, a jet “get born” cd, a bumper billy bragg best-of cd, and, um, the cd single of “hey ya” by outkast… evidently young urban black people are writing music which doesn’t suck. could it be that i am even considering that black eyed peas cd? um. i’ll get back to you.

the shiny tinsel on my tree of rock is this amusing pair of earrings from sportsgirl. look, there is black gothic type spelling out “rock”. a skull and crossbones. two dangly chains at the end of which are a heart and a star. all on the one earring! there is a price tag which says $14.95 reduced to $4.95, which in turn was reduced at the register to $3.95. having threaded it through my long-unadorned earlobe not fifteen minutes ago, i’m now feeling the first allergic reactions of warmth and itchiness around the piercing. it couldn’t possibly be more punkrock, yeah!

today’s purchases were made possible by the divine miss m, lady captain of the good ship artfiles, who turned around my invoice quicksmart, and suddenly my bank account had grown by like, 40%.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 28 November 2003 at 6:43 pm

permalink | filed under around town, shoping, soundtrack

it’s just that hamburgers should come with a slice of beetroot tucked into that greasy crevice between bun and meat patty. you shouldn’t even have to ask. the tang of the presliced-and-vinegared-in-a-can variety does wonders by lifting the overall stodginess of the burger, but when you patronise a slightly better burger place, say, burgerman, they put in a slice of crinkle-cut fresh beetroot, and burger-enjoyment goes up a notch or four (and if they also put in real horseradish mayonnaise… well!).

but today at lunchtime, when it seemed like it might actually stop raining for more than ten minutes — the first time in like, five days — i walked up the street to the local fried food place, and ordered a hamburger with beetroot please, just to be sure, and when i got it home and bit into it, there was no beetroot there.

that is all.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 27 November 2003 at 4:06 pm

permalink | filed under grumble, lunch

an unprecedented number of people arrived at this page today, like, 18, when usually it’s about four. it would appear that across america, a bunch of people almost simultaneously launched a search for “adventures in good eating”, and turned up… me. how very mysterious.

maybe aliens have landed on earth (and just like all those alien invasion movies, landed in the u.s.) and being hungry after the long journey, wanted to nourish themselves before colonisation begins.

ulp.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 22 November 2003 at 4:08 pm

permalink | filed under misc

off to the zoo!

posted by ragingyoghurt on 18 November 2003 at 10:43 am

permalink | filed under around town

this past weekend my visiting grandmother returned to malaysia. i spent the weekend before at my aunt’s house, where my grandmother was staying for the month.

my grandmother makes the best otak otak, and is none too shabby (read: really good) at chicken curry, acar and ang ku kueh, of which vast quantities were made on the weekend. happily, i was the young apprentice, relegated to such tasks as cutting decorative peaks on banana leaf packages and pressing balls of mung bean-filled dough into a wooden turtle-shaped mould, before knocking each little jade green turtle out onto even more banana leaves, for steaming.

everything took hours and hours. everything was damn tasty. when i caught the train back to the city on monday, i had packages upon packages of everything, as much as i could carry. and now i am torn between wanting to eat it all right now, please, and wanting to only nibble a tiny crumb each time, so that it lasts a little longer.

p.s. my grandmother gave me some birthday money, so now i have one of these. thanks, yinma.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 17 November 2003 at 5:13 pm

permalink | filed under misc, snacks

a bunch of birthday flowers that nellie sent showed up in the arms of the delivery guy, a couple of hours after i returned from birthday breakfast at cafe mint with ms wooster. the breakfast was tasty and good, in the way that a mound of very garlicky hummus at 9.30 in the morning is good.

the flowers were good and surprising, in the way that a four-and-a-half-foot high arrangement of flowers and foliage that surely must have decimated a great swathe of tropical rainforest and dehoused several species of wildlife… is surprising.

the day passed quickly — a blur of designing order forms (a tetris-like exercise which gives me a significant and strange feeling of quiet pleasure) and print deadlines — and ended in bbq king with a plate of soya chicken noodles, a plate of chili salt prawns, a hotpot of stuffed eggplant… and then home to an entire triple chocolate cake from david jones food hall, about which all i can say is that they call it triple chocolate, but i counted about five or six.

sometimes a boy can surprise you with a slap-up feed and a whole cake, and a comic book wrapped up in pink stripes and ladybugs, and above all, by miraculously being in the same country, and city, as you, on your birthday.

sometimes a floral arrangement can surprise you by yielding, when carefully taken apart, a vase of orchids for the bedroom, one of gerberas above the kitchen sink, another of birds of paradise for the bathroom, an exotic mix of waratahs, lotus stems and anthuriums for the dining table, and a sculptural mass of the original base of tropical greenery and bamboo (oh yes!) for the lounge.

thirty-one was much better than thirty.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 14 November 2003 at 11:05 pm

permalink | filed under around town, boy, breakfast, cake, dinner, nellie

thirty-one.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 13 November 2003 at 7:18 am

permalink | filed under misc

bloody hell i’ve been whingy of late. but look. here, bringing cheer, is an amazing smiling flower biscuit, which came out of a packet that nellie brought me a few months ago. that these biscuits came from nellie is noteworthy, because she generally leaves a trail of smiling flowers wherever she goes.

you see? … … …

however. after i got extremely excited at the sight of amazing smiling biscuits falling out of the packet, it was pointed out to me that in fact the smiley face was just a U with an umlaut over it. i guess it made sense. &#252lker is a turkish company who make, amongst other tasty treats, a damn fine banana wafer and an even finer pistachio chocolate bar. they sure added a sugary sparkle to those dusty days in turkey all those years (three) ago. [sigh]

despite the fact that amazing smiley biscuit is now just a routine branding exercise, i still feel a bit regretful every time i bite into one; it’s hard to eat something with such a happy disposition. they just keep smiling though, the little troopers!

posted by ragingyoghurt on 7 November 2003 at 10:56 am

permalink | filed under nellie, snacks

“ok. when i reach C i’ll go out and get the paper and some strawberries.” “ok. when i reach M i’ll make a crumble.” today has been broken down into alphabetical subdivisions, because i’m working on (still!) the index for previously mentioned directory layout job.

the directory layout job has taken many turns of late. more accurately, in the last couple of days it has lurched towards being finished, and then lurched to a halt, and then lurched back on track… something to do with deals struck with the sales rep at the printer who went on holidays without telling anyone. to cut a long and stupid story short, it’s still due at the printers tomorrow, and when i think about it i laugh and then i cry. then i laugh, bitterly.

and then i get to S and dammit it’s time to make that crumble. right now i can smell rhubarb-pear-strawberry-oats-brown sugar-butter-cinammon wafting up from downstairs. when i reach V it may be time for crumble!

posted by ragingyoghurt on 4 November 2003 at 5:49 pm

permalink | filed under cake, werk

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