mangosteens on the left, rambutans on the right

I don't recall what these were called, but I needed lots of water after eating one

One of two Durians I devoured

You can almost smell the goodness

After yesterday's fungi adventure I had a craving for some mushrooms in my dinner. This morning I found this recipe from Lidia Bastianich for Bucatini with Chantrelles, Spring Peas, and Prosciutto. I watched her make it a couple years ago on PBS and it looked fantastic. I hit a few obstacles along the way however, apparently Wegmans pasta selection sucks and they don't have Bucatini, so I reluctantly substituted it with Spagettini. Chantrelles are also quite expensive, although not the same price point as Iranian Caviar, but the recipe called for a pound of them and at $20/lb I opted for oyster mushrooms instead. Despite my flagrant butchering of the original recipe it turned out pretty good, although next time I will use regular peas instead of sugar snap peas. I have no idea if this recipe is Tuscan but I had it with a cheap bottle of Chianti and some Tuscan bread. Allegedly this serves 6 people but I would guess more like 8. This was much better than the typical lunches I had this week, which was pretty much just olives, havarti and apple cider.



I love Sundays because I actually have time to cook. It's probably one of the most relaxing things in the world. Taking a couple hours to buy the ingredients and tackle the prep list is therapeutic really. It has to be awesome to be a chef in some great restaurant and have some of the rarest, most delicious ingredients at your disposal. I suppose if this whole school thing at UB doesn't work out I will just move to NY and go to culinary school like I should have 10 years ago.

I went to Delaware Park today to complete a Bio assignment. Actually it was for extra credit, but I could certainly use an extra 10 points averaged into my lab grade. I had to collect different species of Fungi for 1 point each. I found eleven that seemed to be different species, but I suppose I will find out Thursday. It was a pretty nice out when I got there about 11:30am. By the time I left around 1pm, I was soaked head to toe and had dirt halfway up my shins. But I still had fun, it's a nice park but really disappointing to find trash all over the place. It always seems to be shit like empty steel reserve bottles, lottery tickets, and McDonald's bags. I guess it tells you the kind of scum that don't really care to keep the park looking nice. I also found someone's drivers license and state benefit card lying on the ground. I did my good deed for the day and mailed it to him when I got home. I left my return address off though in case he thinks I nicked his wallet.


I feel like a dealer

I blame my brother for my love of older British TV, except for Doctor Who, I really don't like that show much. But I love this show the Young Ones and particularly like this episode that Madness was on.

This morning at about 1am I was awakened to obnoxiously loud forced laughing and screaming. It was the neighbors children and their friends being slightly too loud. I thought whatever...all part of living in this neighborhood I suppose. At about 1:30 one of the drunk assholes decided to chase one of the girls around my parking lot. I watched most of this unfold, I went back to bed and heard several bottles breaking. A few minutes later the guy in my building was screaming at them about how he called the cops, which I doubt ever showed up.

When I awoke at 7am I decided to clean part of the mess that was nearest my and my fellow tenants vehicles. I bagged the shards of alcho-pop bottle, wrote a note and left if on said neighbors porch. Now that I think about it I should have scattered it behind their car.

Today is a day I would like to forget. I had one quiz and two exams. I know that I really did shitty on all of them. I was banking on the calc exam sucking, but the bio exam was much harder than I was prepared for. I have the feeling of defeat right now. I almost want to curl up into a ball and buy a lotto ticket. I'm not accustomed to doing poorly on exams, so I suppose that I need to get my ass in gear and start studying harder. I have been blaming UB for my lack of understanding in my classes. I still think my calc prof sucks. But in another sense I feel like I'm being a pussy. I suppose this is one of those moments where I really need a god, a dog, or a girlfriend. Tomorrow is my physics exam. I feel somewhat ready for it, but after today I have no preconceived notions of how easy it will be. If I fuck this exam up tomorrow I am going to be so pissed at myself for being a lazy piece of shit.

So at Columbia University today Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a speech about various topics. It was a highly criticized appearance by many Americans, which I personally find to be lame. Not that I think the guy has anything worth saying that isn't as nutty as what comes out of the likes of Pat Roberston's mouth. But I am aware that one of the founding principles of this country is the right to free speech. So if that is still the case whats wrong with extending that privilege to our visiting(I use the term loosely) "dignitaries". I see nothing wrong with letting him speak and then questioning his logic and opinions in a good old fashioned American way.

So anyway he has made some pretty bold statements in the past that are just plain scary. He is also very misinformed about many things including the existence of the Holocaust. So I was very interested in what kinds of things would be said by such a crazed, although somewhat powerful guy. Thankfully he didn't disappoint. My favorite quote from today is definitely this:

In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that like in your country. ... In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this.

Imagine that! Not a single homosexual in all of Iran? I haven't listened to the entire speech yet but I'm almost certain there are plenty of other good ones yet to come.

So my first whole weekend off in a while and of course I have come down with something and feel fucking miserable. This may be a new record for me, only 4 weeks into the semester and I have already managed to stress myself out to the point of making myself sick. Usually I don't start feeling shitty till finals.

So in an effort to make myself feel better I shelled out $20 for a ton of spicy Korean Soups to get me through the weekend. I trekked to Seoul Garden on Niagara Falls Blvd, because they were the only Korean place in Buffalo I called that even had Jjamppong. I did however learn something today. Apparently Jjamppong isn't really Korean. It's a Korean adaptation of a Chinese Soup, although it's pretty popular in Korea. I also picked up an order of Yook Gae Jang for tomorrow.

So anyway Jjampong is a seafood soup with octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp, pork, kimchi, Spanish onion, green onion, carrot, and Chinese water noodles all swimming in a fiery orange broth. As far as I could tell it was pretty good, but in honesty I can't taste all that well, it didn't make me sweat like it normally does however. This was the first time I have had it with mussels and pork in it and I liked it that way. They give you so much for $8.00 that you can make two meals out of it. So I suppose its Jjamppong again for dinner. It did actually make me feel a little better for a little while at least.



As far as the restaurant goes I didn't eat there but it was packed full of Asians, which in my opinion tends to be a good sign. It's a pretty dumpy looking dining room really, but the kitchen they have is absolutely beautiful. You can see it from the front counter. It's massive, and from afar looks impeccably clean. You could squeeze 7 line cooks in there comfortably if needed. But the size of the "dining room" really doesn't merit such a behemoth. Any way I will definitely be going back for more, they have a whole bunch of Korean dishes that I have never had and a few Chinese ones as well. It's really a shame that its so far away from my place, I guess I will just have to stop there on my way home from school sometime.

So I guess instead of cramming for my exams coming up this week I will just lie here on the couch pretending that I have nothing that needs to be done. Maybe I will get off my ass just long enough to rent a few films to make it through the night. Any suggestions as to what I should rent.

My Mailman sucks! The dude has refused to pick up my mail the last two days, and today he delivered one piece and left the outgoing stuff! Am I missing something here?

As with all things food and drink related I have a compelling urge to try things that I have never had. Sometimes it sounds really gross and turns out to be awesome, as was the case I discovered with carrot juice this summer. Other times it sounds really good and is really good. Well today's little adventure turned out to be neither of these. At the kosher deli at UB I noticed Dr. Browns Cel-Ray in the cooler. Thats right celery flavored soda. It sounded gross but I had to try it. Sometimes my instincts are dead on. Celery flavored soda is fucking disgusting!


bleh!