therese

Lunch quandary: Pack my own? Or risk eating what's provided by the vendor? The latter option means that I'm forced to attend the meeting, which would actually be a good thing, as I like the people there and it's an easy way for me to get face time with a lot of them at once and create good will yadda yadda. And it also means that I don't have to try and find my lunch box. I couldn't find it yesterday and so packed it in a small shopping bag from some chi chi boutique. Where the heck is my lunch box?

You and me both, believe me. I have been to this restaurant before, once in person and once or twice for take out. Back when we were remodeling our house and kitchen we lived in an apartment in the same neighborhood as the car dealerships and Indian restaurants. I didn't cook too much in the apartment, and when the family tired of Indian we tried Maddy's. It had previously been called Rockin' Robs, a place that featured some excellent bbq but questionable hygiene. I will give Maddy's credit for consistency. We keep hoping it will get better. But as my husband pointed out last night as we were getting ready for bed, "Pulled pork should have some, um, texture."

What is the difference? ← There are lots of recipes for chess pie out there, but most call for a little bit of cornmeal in the filling (which cooks as the pie bakes and gives the filling some body), more sugar, and lemon juice (or sometimes vinegar). It's not as intense as the filling in a lemon meringue pie, but not as delicately flavored as usual custard pie. Although the pie was the best part of the meal, it was definitely not the best chess pie I've ever had. Were Miss Mary Nell to serve this pie to my family, perhaps having brought it to a church supper or holiday meal or wake, they would politely take small portions and then somehow manage to not actually eat it.

Since we've now had a number of definitions for dishes that were not quite as common I'll go ahead and mention details about some of the others: Nothing too obviously interesting about these actually, apart from the fact that I can never remember the name of this slippery rice noodle, but these were actually a bit different. When I asked the server what was inside she had difficulty telling me, shaking off my suggestions of beef or pork, and finally writing the word "OX" in the palm of her hand. So possibly made with oxtail? Nobody remarked on the jellyfish, and perhaps that's because everybody else orders jellyfish as a matter of course. I've only had once or twice before, at big banquet Chinese dinners in California where a Chinese host is ordering, and neither my husband nor kids had ever tasted it before. We all liked it, and they found it less weird than expected, more like a vegetable than either fish or meat. These were very good, each stuffed with a large shrimp. The casing was a very sticky starch, very similar (or that same as) the one used for sesame balls. Very mildly sweet, steamed dough layered with perhaps sweet potato and dried fruit? A bit heavy, and we didn't finish it.

Do you know what the jelly matrix is flavored with, if anything?

I thought it might be the same pastry as the tarts, as it was super flaky.

Important additional info: 1. The band was decent. 2. I only managed to make it to the Infiniti dealership (my present car is an Infiniti) and can't make up my mind between the big luxury car and the sporty little coupe. The color I like best is only available in the sporty little coupe. And I still have to check out the other dealerships.

So, I looked at cars before dinner. Why? Well, because I was definitely going to have a beer (or two) with dinner, and it just seems like appallingly poor form to take a car out for a test drive after one's had a beer (or two). So husband and daughter (who went to swim practice this AM and didn't feel like practicing twice in the same day, though she should) and I set out for the closest nidus of car dealerships to our home. To give you an idea of just how little I care for Atlanta traffic I've already decided that I will pick a car from one of these dealerships (Infiniti, Nissan, Subaru, Isuzu, and BMW), as the next closest nest of them is irritatingly distant from my abode and/or work (which are walking distance from each other, for those of you who didn't read my last blog). We still didn't know where we'd be eating when we left the house. There are lots of good Indian restaurants near the car dealerships, but in the interest of providing eG's readership with the "southern" experience it craves we decided instead to go to: This place has all sorts of street cred: Note the outdooor dining area on a busy intersection, next to a gas station. Note also that the guy in the black T-shirt sitting with his back to the camera is the lead musician in the band. The woman sitting opposite him was both extraordinarily attractive and extraordinarily enthusiastic. Or at least she managed to look extraordinarily enthusiastic. The inside is pleasant enough, and because there's no smoking in restaurants (and many bars) here that's never an issue. The table in this photo is for a large group of about 12. The woman in the white shirt is holding an 18 day old infant. Later on, about halfway through the first set, we realize that the group is there for a party of some sort, very possibly a baby shower for the infant: You place your order at the counter: From this menu: You take your beverages to your table and wait for your food. Here's my husband pouring me a Shiner Bock (it's okay, he's from Texas): We sat right next to the band stand. I didn't take a picture while they were playing, but here's the stand: Our food arrives in good time, and here's where things get dicey: I've got pulled pork, which is cooked beyond done to mushy, and the sauce on top doesn't help. The cole slaw was clearly made in a factory someplace far, far away. The mysterious item with a plastic spoon sticking out of it is Brunswick stew. In addition to pulled pork (non-mushy pulled pork) it should contain corn, tomatoes, and (often) lima beans. This picture actually makes it look better than it really was---those yellow specks are appear to be corn, but in fact they cannot be discerned by either taste or texture from the background mush. You can see a little bit of char on the meat in the foreground, but its mostly so mushy you could use it for baby food. This tastes of potassium benzoate, not cabbage. The ribs (my husband ordered these) are the best meat option. I find them a bit flabby, but at least there's a bit of char. The best thing in the place, apart from the beer. The menu (vide supra) describes these as made by "Miss Mary Nell" and offers both sweet potato and egg custard. We all got egg custard, which is actually chess but of course so few people actually know the difference that they describe it as egg custard and call it a day.

I'm more likely to make a rash alcohol-fueled decision.

No. But I have decided that I'd ideally combine dinner out with the purchase of a new car. Wish me luck.

"crap in a glass" wasn't working out anymore, huh? ← As tryska knows, I've been known to include these in a yet more generic category called "crap in a glass." This includes not only shave ice desserts but basil seed drink, bubble tea, falooda, and about a million other interesting beverages.

Kudos to mizducky, who summarizes the uric acid/urate issue very nicely.

Is that related to Halo Halo? ← I've never specifically had halo halo (which I think is the Filipino version of this dessert), but since there are similar dishes in Vietnamese and Malay and almost certainly every other cuisine from that general part of the world I'm going to go ahead and say yes, it's the same (or very similar). I call these dishes "shave ice" sweets generically.

And I'm sure a number of people here at eG have the condition that's caused by joint deposition of this substance, as the term "gluttony" is almost synonymous with it. [edit to add a word]

Arthritis refers to inflammation of a joint or joints, and there are lots and lots of different sorts (infectious, autoimmune, etc.). When the inflammation is the result of crystal formation in the synovial fluid the generic term (one of them, anyway) is crystal arthropathy (which just means joint disease). Oxalate can do this (as was suggested upthread in our discussion of kidney stones) but there's a much more common substance that typically does it. So, what is that substance?

Excellent point re gout (or as we call it here in the south, "the gouch"). I've got to go to a meeting (where I'll have the pleasure of freaking out my colleagues with Korean fish cake), so how about you construct a trivia question that addresses the connection with gout? ← Okay, looks like rooftop1000/tracey is doing something else at the moment, so I'll keep going. The most common type of kidney stones are oxalate stones, formed when the fluid (urine in this instance) has such a high concentration of oxalate that it will no longer stay in solution and so forms crystals. Urine is not the only fluid in which crystals may form, however, and there are instances in which oxalate can form crystals in the synovial fluid, the liquid that's produced by the membranes lining joints. The crystals are very irritating (sort of like sand) and the joints become swollen and painful. The most common disease-causing crystal found in synovial fluid is not, however, oxalate, but something else. What is it?

Yeah, except for the part about being really, really exhausted and anxious all the time.

Excellent point re gout (or as we call it here in the south, "the gouch"). I've got to go to a meeting (where I'll have the pleasure of freaking out my colleagues with Korean fish cake), so how about you construct a trivia question that addresses the connection with gout?

This came from California, so I can't take any personal credit, unless you count careful shopping. So, yes, Oxalobacter formigenes turns out to be a nice addition to ones gut flora (or is that fauna? whatever), as it turns oxalic acid into formic acid. Apparently we're almost all colonized by this critter early in life, but some of us lose it, and it turns out that there's some evidence that antibiotic use is associated with this loss: the more antibiotics a person has had, the more likely that this bug has been eradicated. It's difficult to introduce (presumably re-introduce) it to somebody who doesn't have it---even if it proliferates for a while it eventually dies off. There is evidence to suggest that people who lack it have more oxaluria and more risk of kidney stones.

Okay, more about our bodies and food. Remember this? I'm having some for lunch today, in the small cup on the upper left, along with the vanilla yogurt. The contrast in flavors and textures is very nice: Upthread I asked what medical condition would make a person avoid the consumption of rhubarb, and saskanuck provided the answer: I provided the additional info that oxalate is one of the few nutrients that's primarily absorbed in the large intestine. Decreasing dietary oxalate is a pretty effective means of reducing the amount of oxalate in your urine ("oxaluria") and thereby making one less likely to form stones in the urine collecting sytem (kidney, ureters, bladder), but there are other things that affect the amount of oxalate you absorb relative to the amount you ingest. One of them is closely related to the queries I've posted about inulin and fiber and probiotics and gut bacteria so far in this thread. So, what's the connection between gut bacteria and oxalate?

Okay, not to put too fine a point on this, but poached eggs with baked beans on toast is a pretty good description of the meal I might prepare just immediately prior to commiting suicide. I despise baked beans, and particularly despise the idea of them with something else soft (like eggs, and toast after it's been around eggs and/or beans). So, no, not tonight. What I'd really like to do is eat out, so I need to somehow figure out how to manage it. Maybe somebody will have perfected cloning by later this afternoon.

A hassle to get my kids to eat it. Too high calorie, and somebody will have to schlep there and get it. The peaches would be fine for sangria, but you need to get them now and let them ripen at home so that they'll be nice by the weekend.

Okay, here's a non-trivia question: What should we do for dinner this evening? Bear in mind that my husband has not moved the grill back onto the deck, and said deck still smells like stain (and will likely smell even more like stain after a day in the Georgia sun, unless it rains today). Also bear in mind that I've got another ickily busy day in front of me. Oh, and my daughter has swim practice at 6:00 this evening... Please, somebody help. Or better yet, maybe somebody could come over here and just cook something.

Black, but sesame this time. There's a thread on black sesame desserts that mentions this item.

My breakfast (with skim milk): When topped with milk this cereal is not photogenic. It is, however, pretty tasty, and does contain 14 gm of dietary fiber per 1/2 cup serving. I get very hungry very quickly, and this is one of the few cereals that keep me from getting grumpy and headache-y too soon after I've eaten. My lunch: Bottom left is Korean fish cake, bottom right is Korean cold veggies (sprouts, spinach, and what I think are fern brackens), top middle is fat free yogurt flavored with vanilla, top right is a peach, and top left is rhubarb compote (that I made ove the weekend, goes on top of the yogurt). I pack my lunch whenever possible. I've got access to free lunch every day, either in a special dining room at work (where the food is not hideous, but can get very monotonous), or at whatever noon meeting I'm expected to attend that day (where food can occasionally be pretty good but is usually caloric hell). People spend a lot of time asking me just exactly what the hell it is that I'm eating, and it's not just Asian and other ethnic foods that attract the questions: if it isn't a sandwich or a salad made mostly of lettuce it's considered pretty odd.