Full flavour. Long aftertaste.

This article is a birthday gift to my dear friend Ed. He and I bonded during our university years over a strange shared love for instant ramen noodles. I say "strange" because this was back in the 1980s. To find said food you had to travel to the East end of town and visit the only Chinese grocer. Times have changed!

And in more than one way. Though I still sometimes resort to ramen packs, I am no longer a starving student and my tastes have become more refined. Here I share a far superior instant noodle that you might be lucky enough to find locally.

Real Malaysian food at KTS Food & Bakery

Limerick's Wickham Way was once a disused driveway and warehouse area between two grungy city blocks. Now it's a semi-thriving food and culture spot. I say "semi" because the biggest problem with this assemblage is knowing when any of the stalls will be open. And while this small area can't compare with the sprawling markets of larger cities, it's got character. For one, it's enveloped by the grooving Downbeat Records with their giant reggae sound system. Though I'm not here to talk about where to buy your vinyl... this is where you buy your vinyl. 

Food blogging begins!

Not that I have the time, but I've been encouraged to blog about food. Why?

First, because it can be hard to find decent cuisine in Ireland. This island is not known as a hot-bed of delightful meals. Yes, we have the famous spice bag. Yes, we have fish and chips the size of your face. And the curiosity that is curry chips. But notice that all of those have something in common... often rather soggy, flavourless potatoes.

This is the food that most people encounter. What else can we eat?

Beef Rendang recipe

I had enough time today to try my hand at a new dish. I have cooked rendang exactly once before, but didn't have a recipe. Instead I relied on my memories of food prepared by others. For a short time there was an excellent Indonesian cook here in Limerick... his rendang was to die for. Of course, places that serve good food (prepared by hand, honest ingredients, no compromises) never last... so we need to cook for ourselves!

Angst and Beans: How Food Ideology Feeds Despair

We live in the Anthropocene, an epoch named for the decisive changes our species has made to species diversity, biogeochemistry, geomorphology, and climate of the Earth System [Crutzen and Stoermer 2000]. It is long past time that we questioned our assumptions about our place in this system. Each of us needs to start with their own discipline, to perform a radical ("from the root") reappraisal of fundamental beliefs and assumptions.

For myself, this starts with interrogating ideologies of nature. I am currently writing a paper on acoustic ecology that critiques the foundational text of this discipline. It's not easy work, but it's necessary.

So what should arrive in my Facebook stream but an article from The Atlantic, "If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef" [Hamblin 2017]. While I am sympathetic with those who call for a re-appraisal of our diet and land use, it is regrettable to read arguments such as these, which feed the very system they mean to challenge.

Delicious Beef Stew Recipe

All you have to do to start an argument is to bring up the topic of "traditional" Irish stew. Everyone will think they have the correct version, usually based on what their mother cooked. But of course there is no permanent tradition. A stew is any combination of meat and vegetables cooked in liquid over time, and even in Ireland there are many variations. Some are served with a broth, others are thick. Some made with lamb, others beef.

What follows will be my own version, which is hearty and delicious, the perfect autumnal food. (Even for those, such as I, who would eat red meat rarely.) Before getting on to the recipe I will write a bit about the history of this dish in Ireland.

Sesame salmon stir-fry

It's been a while since I shared any food. Here's something delicious and healthy you can make in a wok. It starts with fresh salmon fillet, skin on (of course -- that's where much goodness is).

lunch at L'Antic Forn, Barcelona

It's time for a quick restaurant review, through photographs. This July I was lucky enough to be in Barcelona for a week. So many events stand out for me, including a fantastic lunch at L'Antic Forn, a place where the waiters are attired in white aprons and everything is just so. Barcelona can be expensive, but it has a tradition of "menu del mercat", where you can eat a filling lunch for the price of a single dinner item. Susannah and I did just that, picking the place randomly after a short walk in Raval, near her apartment.

L'Antic Forn means "old bakery", which is pleasing from the get-go. Bread is essential. Crusty, fluffy white rolls that go stale in a couple of hours, so you know they are not made with junk. That's something I cannot get in Ireland, so I do not eat bread when at home.

Secret Thai Green Curry

There are a lot of things I could be writing about on this blog, only for lack of time. And one of them is food. Sometimes I think there are two types of people in this world... those who love cooking and those who think it is a chore. I am glad that early on in my life I took the positive path and decided to have as much fun making a meal as I do eating it. This doesn't mean that every day I cook a gourmet feast, though every now and then I have the chance to come close.

You can't get real Thai food in Ireland. In fact, I think it's getting almost impossible to get real Thai food anywhere. I can recall with clarity when the restaurants in Toronto -- one of the great food capitals of the world -- figured out how to dumb down the ingredients for white folk. (Not my words, but a paraphrase of what a cook actually told me -- though I don't think they said "dumb down".)

BBQ Sea Bass Recipes

Tonight I fired up our little BBQ to cook some fresh fish. Of course fresh fish is the only kind worth dealing with. You either have to catch it yourself or be sure someone else has caught it very recently. Same day is the best, but that's not always possible.

That said, there's nothing that wrong with frozen fish. In fact flash-freezing on the boat immediately after a catch is one way to ensure it stays decent until it reaches your table. Many fishmongers thaw out their fish for display, so if you buy it from them it's less fresh than buying it still frozen -- sometimes nowhere near fresh at all.

Soy Pork AKA "I Am Stir Fry"

I keep saying I'm going to write about food, but never find the time. Well, tonight I scrounged up a meal for the family with no advanced planning and figured I'd take some photos along the way. It's simple and healthy, depending on your definition of that contentious word. For me, a meal qualifies if it has minimal fat, sugar and dairy content with all the ingredients cooked to preserve their natural goodness. More or less. This dinner contains meat and gluten so warnings to all those who can eat neither.

Official Beer Protocol of Canada

It's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. But that doesn't stop Canadians from indulging in what they love best... beer. A hilarious photo on a photo forum inspired me to list the rules Canadian beer drinkers live by. This was off the top of my head so if you have any more, please contribute in the comments!

Here follows the Official Beer Protocol of Canada:

1. There is always time for one more beer.

Myths And Fundamentals Of Indian Food Part 2

Continuing on from my last article, a general ramble about Indian cuisine, this post will cover some fundamentals ingredients you will need to make your own Indian dishes at home.

First, there is no such thing as a "curry", properly speaking, and neither is there any such thing as "curry powder". If you see a mixture advertised under that name, avoid it entirely. It is probably mostly stale turmeric. Curry is a leaf that gives flavour in combination with other spices. But for the sake of convenience we do indeed call a dish that has a certain mix of spices and a rich gravy a "curry". Even I do that, realising the simplification I am making. No-one is going to get called on orthodoxy here!

Myths And Fundamentals Of Indian Food

Indian food is popular the world over. Certainly it's one of the best-prepared options here in Ireland, just about the only thing worth going out for. Perhaps due to this popularity, there is a great deal of misinformation surrounding this cuisine. Here I will cover some general points, but must first declare that, though I am half-Indian, I have never been to that country. All my knowledge comes second-hand -- a pretty close second-hand in some cases, but still.

My First Foodie Post

I don't think I've ever shared a recipe on this blog, due to some strange oversight. I love cooking, especially healthy, spicy food. For years I was vegetarian and love good hearty dishes that would fit that diet, though now I am happy as a meat-eater. I have never been one for excess additives, sugar, dairy or baking -- I generally skip dessert entirely.

In future posts I will present recipes and food lore for your enjoyment, based on what my family and I enjoy. Recipes won't be too formal and won't be too complicated. But they will be tasty!

Blog Action Day and Some Random Links

October 15th is Blog Action Day, an arbitrary date on the calendar when over five thousand blogs will post on one topic: the environment. I've signed up for this initiative.

Now someone please remind me so I do not forget!

Meanwhile, you may want to read about Teochew Preserved Crab, a dish made by drowning live female crabs in soya sauce, letting them sit for several days and then bathing them in liquefied red roe.

Sounds like the sort of thing a touring rock band might be interested in. If so, you might find it mentioned in their "rider", a contract that stipulates all the stuff they want to be provided with. Chances are you have never read anything as funny as the one provided by Iggy Pop. Spinal Tap's got nothing on this!

If you need to mic yourself up, on stage or off, this guy has a purportedly great-sounding mic preamp that costs only 100 bucks. Catch? You have to build it yourself.

If your audio tendencies run in the direction of scaring customs officials or gallery patrons, you may favour the Suspicious Looking Device, a reactive instrument designed to "appear as suspicious as possible".

If reading is more your thing, you might love curling up in a nice library or searching out a bargain in a back-street book shop. One of the sensory joys of this experience is the distinctive aroma of aging paper. Well, now electronic books can have that musty smell too!

It's a swirl of fantasies and fears, of silly haircuts and ill-chosen snare sounds, of razor guitar and delicious sing-a-long melodies, yes, its Scars first and only album, Author! Author! And it's available to you finally on CD, with a whole slew of bonus tracks previously only available to those, like me, who searched out their each and every single. Actually their very first effort, the delightful "adult/ery" / "Horror Show", is missing, but you can find that elsewhere.

Fans of Gang of Four, Skids, Fire Engines or any of these new young bands that think they know what they're doing (Franz Ferdinand I'm looking at you!) had better run, not walk, to their local retailer to grab this.

Or, if you have no such joyous option, help me out by clicking on the following to patronise Amazon. (Personal takings to date: zero. I guess I'm just not appreciated. Boo hoo.)

 

Sweet Potato Noodle Soup

I am quite adventurous when it comes to food, and like nothing better than walking the aisles of a Chinese grocer looking for something different. Sometimes this is spurred on more by my delight in the sheer lunacy of some of the foodstuffs than it is by the enjoyment of the foods themselves.

I have also been a huge fan of packaged noodle soups since my university days when, out of desperation, time constraints and poverty, I used to buy them by the box. Well, I've just come across a remarkably strange noodle pack I thought I would share with you.

The soup package pictured above is something extraordinary. The image is, at best, foreboding. A figure faces away from us, wrapped in a cloak, billows of steam issuing from some unseen volcanic vent. Barely visible is the edge of a bowl, lifted towards what we can only assume is a shrouded face. From this one must decipher as best one can what might be inside.

Opening the wrapper reveals a hockey-puck sized disc of dried noodles accompanied by not one, but three packages of flavouring. The first is the usual powdered flavour pack, containing MSG plus whatever else the manufacturer deems worthy to turn water into broth. This is augmented by a second containing a thick paste. Finally there is a transparent package of dried white peas, soybeans, or something similar.

As this stewed in boiling water I was reminded of the film I'd just watched, the flawed but nonetheless intriguing The Brothers Grimm. With this in mind I named the spicy and thoroughly peculiar flavour "Terry Gilliam".

I may as well, since the only English on the package was the less than helpful label "Baijia". The ingredients are incomprehensible, though a sticker helpfully translates them into Dutch. However, a web address was provided, so I could do additional research.

Or at least I tried. The site hides itself, flashing a home page and then saying "This site is in building..." before going almost blank. However, a link leads to a temporary site, or the new one, I'm not sure.

From this I discovered that the flavour I had purchased was Spicy Fei-Chang Flavor. Spicy it was too, but no further info on the flavours was forthcoming, though they are based on Szechuan cuisine.

There is a description of the company's manufacturing facility, which starts its process with the "rude sweet potato" and ends up with instant sweet potato noodle soup. If you keep reading you will be assaulted by the phrase "sweet potato noodle" every second or two.

It seems the firm is popular, exporting all over the globe. They are accomplished too:

We take the lead in adopting the technique of "Freezing and Aging", changed the "hundred year's problem" of sweet potato noodle industry.

Indeed, I have no doubt that these noodles can last one hundred years, especially the Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavor. In the current political climate they may have trouble with Islamic Hot and Spicy Flavor -- perhaps this is why they label only in Cantonese?

My favourite name has to be the Single Noble Dark Chicken and Delicacy from Mountain Flavor, which I hope to try if I can.

But what did I think of the noodles in hand? I must say that sweet potato based noodles are not likely to be a favourite if you are used to those made of rice or egg. They have a totally different consistency, sticking together in a more glutinous manner while at the same time being more toothsome.

I enjoyed the heavy spiced flavour but would have a difficult time recommending it to others who might prefer a lighter broth they can augment themselves. Certainly this is a singular noodle experience and not one to be missed by those bored of your standard ramen or udon fare.

Please let me in on some of your favourites in the comments!

Bristol in Two Days: Part One

In this article I will give you a visual guide to Bristol, illustrated by some of the photos I took. Bristol is well worth a weekend, especially if you are in any way interested in Victorian engineering. This being the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's birth, there are special events laid on, though none happened to coincide with our visit.

Our flight, via Ryanair, the cheapo airline everyone loves to hate, was uneventful. Cutting corners wherever they can, Ryanair have a brand new policy which charges you for every piece of luggage you check in. Your carry-on is still limited to a single item of under 10kg in weight, so unless you are a very light traveler indeed you should expect to pay extra.

It is impossible to parody this company. If someone jokes that next month passengers will be expected to share driving duties, then sure enough flying lessons become an optional part of the ticket price.

Bristol airport is a small place. Grabbing a coach gets you to either the train station (20 minutes) or the bus depot. Which is better for you depends of course on where you are staying. The ride into town offers a mostly occluded view of the city from an elevated vantage point, viewed from the south. What you can see of the streets themselves is hardly promising. We tried to be kind and ended up describing the cityscape as "motley".

At the Temple Meads train station is the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum [map], which we skipped in favour of lunch. It was about a 15 minute walk to our hotel, the Premier Travel Inn located on the spectacularly Welsh sounding Llandoger Trow [map]. The location couldn't be better: right in the old city with a view of the river. For a discount hotel the rooms were great and service friendly -- nothing to complain about for £59 a night (double room).


Anyway, back to lunch. Starved we were and went to the first place we saw. Pictured here later in the evening, Obento proved to be one of the highlights of the stay. My partner is a new convert to Japanese food, so in order to experience the range of the kitchen we decided on their most extensive set meal. After some edamame (warm soybeans one pops out of the pod directly to the mouth) and miso soup we received a generous portion of sashimi: four thick slices each of maguro (tuna) and sake (salmon). I was glad to see the restaurant stuck with what they could get fresh, even if this meant a fairly standard assortment of fish.

Then arrived a selection of ebi and vegetable tempura, followed by gyoza (fried dumplings) and then tonkatsu (pork cutlet), each with their own distinctive sauce of course. Each was a full-sized serving, deliciously prepared and presented.

By this time we were feeling more than a little full. But the meal was not over yet. Yakinasu (grilled aubergine) made its way over to us, piled high on the plate and topped with dancing bonito flakes. A full serving of yaki-udon joined the steaming table and, finally, a steak in a sticky teriyaki sauce. This was the only mis-step, as the meat was cooked completely through instead of being rare inside as is customary. Perhaps this was in deference to local preferences, but I would have rather been asked.

I was also surprised to see that green tea was not freely included with all meals, though our set dinner had it indicated. I find it unwelcoming not to have tea on tap throughout the whole meal.

This feast defeated us entirely, and we were forced to take home two of the dishes for breakfast. I heartily recommend Obento to anyone wanting value for money, though I recommend you invite a third person to your dinner for two!

For more on Japanese food, you will want to visit The Tokyo Food Page, one of my favourite sites.

While I am talking food, I should mention that we were discouraged that on several occasions we missed kitchens entirely. One pub stopped serving at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, an almost incomprehensible move. On other nights menus stopped being available at about 8pm, which I would consider to be early. On another day we showed up at one of the city's best Indian restaurants for lunch, only to be told they would not be opening. Strange practices indeed!

Lobster Remix

I suppose I should say something about the phrase "lobster remix" in this site's header. It is something to do with the colour red and something to do with a fascination with creatures which look like a typical fifties science-fiction bug-eyed monster. It's also something to do with the following links which I hope you will find tasty with a bit of butter sauce and a dash of pepper.

But first, a disclaimer. I know lobsters are not red until they are cooked. This is because all of the other pigments in their shells change chemically, but not the red. This makes red something special: more persistent, more durable. Maybe that's why I chose it for this site.

The first place I lived when my parents brought our family to Canada was Halifax. We could go down to the pier and buy lobster directly from the tanks. You can still do that some places, but not in the city.

An idea of how long ago that was can be determined from the fact that these were huge tasty creatures, and not the little scrawny things you see today. While there is a minimum size constraint in effect for lobster fishers (as you can read if you carefully follow these links), this is still too small for my liking. So I have refused lobster, not liking to eat the babies of any species. And for a creature that can live to well over one-hundred years, a little one pound monster is certainly still youthful.

Now this is a problem, because lobster is likely the tastiest food on the planet. I am of course not talking about the spiny lobster, which is nowhere near as nice. I'm referring to the typical rock lobster of song and legend, found along the north-eastern coast of USA and Canada.

To dispel another myth, with fresh good-sized lobster the addition of melted butter is completely redundant. The butter really only helps make small or stale lobster taste like it should in the first place.

I once ate seven lobster in a sitting, and only stopped because the all-you-can-eat fundraiser ran out. In fact, I had somewhat more than seven because squeamish eaters will leave the head and body. The fact that they ate only the claws and tail meant that I had a whole table of people passing me the other parts to finish off.

I say this not to impress with my gustatorial stamina, or my strength of will in my subsequent abstinance, but rather to make this one simple fact clear: I love lobster.

One of my favourite meals in my life was shared with friend Nadir Ansari in Bar Harbor, Maine, sometime in the mid-eighties while travelling to see two of our friends get married. We enjoyed the food so much that staff gathered to watch us eat. We were asked, more than once, if this was the first time we had had lobster, and I kept explaining that no, I had lived on the east coast and was no stranger to a claw cracker and meat pick.

The Chinese also know how to cook lobster, and I have had some fine variations in Toronto. Personally I like the ginger and onion variant, but the sticky BBQ one is good too. I'm not so keen on black bean with lobster. By all means though please avoid the horrid "Shrimp In Lobster Sauce" which is actually a sauce of ground pork and egg. I still have nightmares about that one!

Parenthetically (as if this article is not divergent enough) the Chinese character for lobster may come in handy when surveying menus for something worth eating. But generally it's better to just point at the tank and gesture wildly.

OK, now on to the links.

"Most developers do polysilicon micromachining," says Nicol McGruer. Well, I'm not at all sure if I've ever done any polysilicon micromachining, but I can imagine his attitudes stem from long hours spent developing a robotic lobster. [link dead]

Over at another robotics site there is an animation of lobsters actually moving. I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove, except that lobsters can avoid large inanimate objects on the sea bed. As if we didn't know that!

This furry chirping lobster was the first of its kind to be captured. Well, in fact it was the second, but someone ate the first. I wish I was joking.

Always check that the handgun is empty before giving it to a lobster. That's because, "eating lobsters and other sea animals is like playing Russian roulette" according to this hysterical (in both senses of the word) site.

A company with the unusual name of Stump Preacher have a lobster guitar. But I think maybe they have gone out of business, judging by their dead web site. Hmmm... imagine developing a product like that and then finding that there is no market for it. They must have been dumbfounded.

Here's some strange talk of "spousal units" in an everyday account of lobster fishing. This is one of those few times I will actually link to another blog. Because most blogs are so crap and whiney aren't they? (That last sentence is a great example of a blog being crap and whiny. [Yeah, but that last sentence there gets you off the hook for being so self-referential. {Not to mention referring to yourself in the third person. That's good for points too. /*Ok, you'd better unwind this stack before someone mistakes you for a Lisp programmer.*/}]) Done! Whew! That was close!

Illiterate lobsters have been a plague on society for years, so I'm glad that this fine organisation is empowering them with a Lobster Literacy Program.

Virgin Mobile have a cell phone called the LOBSTER 485 which I include only because the site colours are so... crustacean. [link dead]

Lobsters mate for life? Er, no, actually. Instead they might bite off all their lovers' legs, dominate each other for sexual favours, and sulk in the corner. Not so different from us, then.

One reason lobsters likely gave up on monogomy was that, with a lifespan extending past one hundred years, it would be all too boring. Did you know that the largest lobster ever was a Canadian beast at 20kg? But this USA lobster FAQ claims a USA lobster as the largest. Well, they would, wouldn't they? Someone should tell them that 37.4 pounds is less than 20.14kg.

Finally, in case you are not following every link here diligently, I should point out that there is a very strange reference in the B-52's song "Rock Lobster" which resonates for me. So here it is:

Here comes a stingray
There goes a manta-ray
In walked a jelly fish
There goes a dog-fish
Chased by a cat-fish
In flew a sea robin
Watch out for that piranha
There goes a narwhal
Here comes a bikini whale!

"Sea robin"? What the heck is that?