(e:Heidi) and I went out to dinner at the Tokyo Shanghai Bistro yesterday. It was a nice outing to wipe out a bunch of disappointments and catch up. Thank you, Heidi! :)

The food was great, the service was courteous, the prices were very reasonable and the ambience was perfect. I would certainly recommend this place for a nice dinner.

A bunch of people asked me to describe the menu and since my head is filled with snot, aches and gloom today, I am taking the easy way out:










We ordered the Agedashi Tofu and the Yaki Nasu - an eggplant dish.

The Eggplant dish was very rich, coated in sesame oil and I think, some soy based sauce and slightly sweet but delicious.

The "deep fried" Agedashi tofu was very lightly fried. It looked to me like freshly made tofu so the deep frying didn't leave much of a crust. It had a very soft rather than chewy texture. I liked it with the sauce it was served with; Heidi, not so much. The tofu could have used a nice dash of pepper or red-chillie sauce on top.

















We ordered vegetable egg rolls and the vegetable soup to go. I just had the soup for lunch - it was amazing. I am inspired to make it at home. Any food that makes me want to make it in my kitchen definitely makes the cut of "really delicious" in my kictionary. ;-)



We also ordered the Vegetable Mei Fun and Sesame Tofu - both of which were pretty good.

The Mei Fun was very noodle-heavy and could have been better with a few more vegetables - so I can't say it was entirely my kind of fun. Those who avoid veggies like the plague might have had a field day with this dish. We asked our waitress to make it spicy - but the spice was well below the mildest I have eaten. So I guess you could confidently spike that spice level up and still end up with a tolerable "American" spice level.

The Sesame Tofu was actually sweet but tasty - with a strong sesame flavour. It was served with broccoli and somewhat oily rice.











Overall, everything was a trifle too oily for comfort but fairly good with reasonable prices. Our waitress was very accomodating and pleasant. Since the Tokyo Shanghai Bistro is very roomy inside, it didn't seem crowded even if a constant stream of people came to check it out and have dinner. I would definitely go again to try other things on their gazillion-item menu. You should too. :)

I am determined to match all the glorious colours of the fall leaves in every dinner this month!


Vegetable Upma with Coconut-Coriander-Tamarind Chutney.


Here's to Fall!

I remembered this video when I read your message:



I don't buy Chili Flakes. I think the ones available here are wimpy and a BIG disgrace to all chillies across the planet. If you want the kick of Indian chillies for your seasoning, get a bag of dried ones from the Indian Store - Super Bazaar (Sheridian and Bailey).

Tear them apart with your hands and voila - you have some awesome chilli seasoning for peanut oil. You could also pop them in a pre-heated oven for a few minutes till they loose all moisture (Don't burn them, you won't be able to get rid of the insane burnt chillie incense from your flat in forever!) When they are dry, they become very brittle. You can either give them a very brief whizz in the blender/food processor or go the satisfying mortar and pestle way.

Bon chilli-flakit!!

by a rude network outage, I was going to post this poem. But now that the (E:strip) chat has revived, I guess the poem is somewhat out of context. Regardless, I seldom waste my poetic efforts at drama.

So endure, you must.

---

So, farewell then, (e:strip) chat.

---

So.
Farewell then
(E:strip) Chat

You were
a good
friend of mine

Figures. You
And I were
usually ignored

Except that
Unlike me you
don't go to grad school

(e:Jim) perhaps
realized this
and spoke

But mostly
it was
a lonely soak

The other woman
does have
more curves.

But then Keith's mom
thinks you
might revive again.



With apologies to EJ Thribb (17.5)

---

References
1.
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3.
4.

Felt like a really light supper today and threw this together in 10 minutes. It's so simple, it takes almost zero effort.

1. Heat 1/2 tsp of peanut oil on high heat - 10 sec
2. Throw in some whole cumin and black peppercorns
3. Wait for the cumin to sizzle - 20 sec
4. Roughly chop red onions, toss in seasoned oil for 2 min
5. Chop green bell peppers, toss with onions for 2 min
6. Add a generous tablespoon of red chillie powder. Toss well.
7. Chop one big tomato, toss with the rest for 5 min
8. Add chopped fresh mint, cooked black-eyes peas/navy beans. Mix.
9. Squeeze half a sweet lime in and toss.
10. Serve and layer with hot tomato juice from the pan.

Yesterday's Twitter stream made me realize that, though people (well, okay, I mean (e:paul)) talk about Kuni's regularly here, I have never actually eaten there. I considered this rather anomalous behaviour and a couple explanations came to mind.

I have walked past it innumerable times so given my defective mind, I must have checked it out at some point, not liked it and thus erased that memory from my consciousness. Or maybe like one of those Tralfamadorians, not chosen to focus on the experience because of the expense or just the blandness of the food.

But the fact of the matter is I really haven't ever been there. Since I can't justify going there today, I made this for lunch.


Steamed French Beans fast-sauteed with garlic, dried red chillie flakes, Thai green chillies, split yellow lentils, white lentils, homemade spicy hummus and soy sauce. Served with a light sprinkle of coconut and lime juice.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Around $3 for 5 servings

Yes, this is exactly why eating out feels like such an unsatisfactory and unacceptable rip-off.

In fair crazyland, where we lay our scene, medicine doth not exist. There exists only faith. Heal thyself.



Now, that's some strong stuff. Hahaha

My twitter experience started out as a slightly staggered instant messaging/helpdesk/news-update platform for the online services and news sources I use for my school/professional work.

However, quite inevitably it has spilled over into a duplicate twitter account for non-work-related interest areas such as (e:strip), Buffalo and then overflowed to other virtual Buffalo denizens not on (e:strip). My mind has an (almost certainly) inaccurate map of these crazy online connections I am making. They are all over the place:



The green ticks are the people I have met in non-virtual worlds and the question marks are the unknowns. The connections are people or news sources whom I have connected to online.

I am not sure where all this twittering and friend-feeding is going (an element of time-wasting is almost certainly involved). However, my school work is definitely benefiting through my twitter window. I don't like the whole Facebook culture of one-line breathless status messaging and will always prefer wordy run-on blogs but there is an indescribable quotient of "cool" in being able to message myself with a link or post an observation and have a focused, relevant, informed and witty social commentary tacked on to it.

There is also this thrill in being able to address anyone and everyone on the network with no prefaces. It feels like a huge party conversation in which you can join or from which you can drop out anytime. I am finding that some of these conversations (especially on the school front) are involved, funny and lead to insights that are quite impossible in a formal single-track interaction with just the source material (without added benefit of a social commentary).

Overall, I feel like I have a flashy but useful tool in my school toolbox. But the strange fact is somehow Buffalo is becoming even more intimate each day even as the whole area of unknowns steadily gets bigger.

I spent some time at the CEPA gallery in Market Arcade last evening and I was struck by this exhibit.

It takes me back to the time when that ignorant shrunken old hag "Mother" Teresa was alive and channeling money into her vile medieval dark age schemes in Ireland.



However flawed the Government at home might be, I am really glad they didn't let that loathsome shriveled monster take over health policies and reproductive rights in the country.



This issue strikes a very very raw nerve in me. How can you possibly know what it is like to look ahead at 9 months of unexpected depression and self-torture when you are so far removed from such scenarios?



It speaks volumes about your insularity when all you can think of is being aggressive about allowing continued division of a bunch of cells under the facade of being "pro-life" while completely ignoring a human whose life and future might be at stake.

Buffalo need to re-evaluate its scarce programs for safe and medically aided abortions. Is this all we have?

1. Sweet Home Medical
Phone: 716-691-1414


2. Buffalo Women Services
Phone Toll-Free: 1-800-598-3783


3. Planned Parenthood, Niagara Falls
Phone: 716-282-1221

This man has it right on so many counts.



Yeah, the video is 41 minutes long but the message is totally worth it.