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.