In the future everything that is square is round.

Well you can go shit in your hat.


menu

• Bahn Mí Sandwich


• Baby Spinach sauteed in Garlic


• Asparagus and Crabmeat Salad


• Cassava Cake with Creme Fraiche

movie
Cherry 2000

Yesterday I couldn't spell internet, today I'm right smack dab in the middle of it.

Bahn Mí Sandwich

I had read about these sandwiches several times over the years and had tried a very unspectacular one from a restaraunt in downtown Chicago. I had a clipping from NYTimes that described a what they called a traditional Bahn Mí sandwich:




The classic banh mi filling is a combination of pork roll (essentially Vietnamese bologna), pork pâté, daikon and carrots pickled in vinegar and sugar, fresh coriander and mayonnaise. The sandwich is usually toasted, mayonnaise included, before the cool pickles and coriander are added.



So this is what I used to create my Bahn Mí Sandwich, first to find out what Vietnamese pork roll is called which is cha lua by the way. So off I went up north to the Vietnamese grocery for for some cha lua, pork pâté and others tasty items.

Sandwiches are pretty much as hard to screw up as making toast, (which is part of this sandwich making process) so there was not really anything exciting here except for some attention to the assembly process. There was a subsitution in the my sandwich from the one described above. On my way home I stopped by Whole Foods from some crabmeat and other vegatables. I came across some duck mousse, a contest in mind head immediately started and subsequently ended in a flash. Duck mousse vs. pork pâté, duck mousse wins out every time, which couldn;t have been a better last minute subsitution. I made another bahn mi later with the with the pork pâté and not nearly as good as with the duck mousse. Also if you can find the pickled daikon radishes that are carried at most asian groceries stories, those things are the best just plain straight out the bag!

Baby spinach with garlic

I decided to keep the rest of the menu in tune with the bahn mí sandwiches so I dug up some more vietnamese menus. this one is pretty much sauteed spinach (they called it stir-fry) with garlic. The big vietamese part was adding fish sauce (Nuoc Cham). Nuoc Cham is very salty and extremely aromatic kind of a soy sauce that's been drinking down at the docks all night. Again this was a no brainer to make and the nuoc cham gave the spinach a salty tang that was wuite pleasant.

Asparagus and Crabmeat Salad

Another vietnamese item, this one a cold noodle salad and once again a very basic salad. Cooked til tender asparagus with crabmeat and noodles. The noodles however, were no small feat, they are called bun bo hue or rice stick noodles. They are several different varieties of rice noodles that are rice noodles(at least at the vietnamese grocery store) but they are the thin ones. After figuring out which noodles to buy I then had to cook them. First you soak them in cold water for about a minute, then cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes, soak again in cold water and finally let them dry. When that is done and toss the asaparagus with the crabmeat, noodles and spices(including nuoc cham).

I like this salad, I took the leftovers to lunch the following week. The only problem I think it was the crabmeat it gets a little juicy in a way that I didn't care for but otherwise I think it's a great summer salad.

Cassava Cake with Creme Fraiche

Working on my new mantra "focus on dessert" I attacked with a Cassaca Cake with creme fraiche. Cassava is a starchy, potentially poisoinous root vegetable. I not sure who can lay claim to this but I found Filipino and Vietnamese recipes for this, so it cam eclose enough for me. If anybody is looking for a flour-free dessert to make I highly reccomend this. It could even be made [gasp!] vegan with an appropiate egg subsitute. When it is done you will have a thin dense, moist, almost custard-like cake. I love creme fraiche so easy to make and soooo good to eat. It still scares me that your basically leaving milk out to curdle, but who cares its awesome.

Cherry 2000


Why? Why are all the movies from the 80's so damn politically incorrect? I don't mean bad PC, I mean it makes you cringe to think people watched this and thought, 'that's fine, I'm cool with that'. Maybe I've become more sensitive to these things in my wiser, older age. But it's hard not think WTF? in a movie where all the women are robots, act like robots or to paraphrase one of the more enlighten gentlemam that I used to work with 'Just ain't been fucked right'.

This movies starts where every movie like this starts in the not to distant future. Sam Treadwell David[looking especially creepy] shorts out his sexroid by having sex with it in the kitchen when the dishwasher overflows. O.K., problem number #1. Why would you have sex with something that, a. is that eays to blow a fuse and b. carrying around that much electricity! Anyway, cheery is more than a robot to bang when you come home he's in love. He finds out that she's the last of her model and can't be replaced, except for a rumored warehouse in the middle of the forbidden zone. Ah, the forbidden zone, what every movie set in the not to distant future needs, a Mad Max-like area of lawlessness [which by the movie's calculations starts about 10 miles after the Glory Hole] where only the fearless dare tread.

So what's a everyday salaryman like David supposed to do? Hire a tracker of course. A no joke mercenary that knows all the tricks and traps of the forbidden zone. Of course only a strapping he-man like E. Johnson can handle this job. What?!?!? The 'E' in E. Johnson stands for Edith? That's right to evryone's surprise he comes Melanie Griffith as the tracker that will take David across the forbidden zone to reclaim his treasured 'bot. Of course underneath her tough as nails exterior is a soft as silk woman that wants to be held. But in between that love story there is improbable chase and escape scenes a band of social extremists who are out to eradicate all trackers.

This is the last 80's movie for a while there are plenty crappy movies from just last week that we can graze over. I apologize for this being like 5 years late I've been busy, really busy.