Lunch! What'd ya have? (2018)

liuzhou · October 5, 2018

1 minute ago, Anna N said:

I should hope so. What were they thinking?

Sadly, they think that's how fruit salad is decreed to be served. It always comes slathered in that white muck.

Kim Shook · October 5, 2018

@liuzhou - What was wrong with the fruit salad?

liuzhou · October 5, 2018

11 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

@liuzhou - What was wrong with the fruit salad?

It was swimming in sweet mayonnaise. As usual here.

Kim Shook · October 5, 2018

54 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

It was swimming in sweet mayonnaise. As usual here.

Ah! The mayo does look a bit heavy. Just wondering - our traditional Christmas fruit salad has mayo, but it's just regular mayo and no sugar added.

robirdstx · October 5, 2018

Spinach Salad

liuzhou · October 6, 2018

Lunch today was reheated doggy-bag from lunch yesterday. Goose liver fried rice, grilled pork and grilled shiitake.

BonVivant · October 7, 2018

The pride of Taiwan (this soup).

Most people add these extras to their meals.

Mine.

I call this Taiwanese salteña.

Shaved ice with 2 kinds of seaweed jelly.

Anna N · October 7, 2018

Japanese-style cabbage rolls. Really not too different from any other cabbage roll. The Japanese have adapted many western dishes to their own liking. The filling for these is not much more than pork and beef, salt and pepper, and egg and some corn starch. The cooking liquid/sauce is very mildly flavoured chicken stock. They are cut to make it easier to use chopsticks. The recipe that I followed called for nutmeg as a seasoning but I omitted it. It just felt too, too western. 😂😂

HungryChris · October 7, 2018

The forecast for today was 80 F and sunny, when we went to bed, but had turned to overcast with a light rain when we awoke. Our plans for a picnic lunch at the beach went in the same direction as the old forecast. Corned pork tongue with Dijon mustard on Aldi saltines that must have had a rough trip to the store, as finding a single whole one is cause for celebration.

HC

Edited October 7, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

MelissaH · October 7, 2018

@Anna N, what does the cornstarch in the cabbage stuffing do?

Anna N · October 7, 2018

18 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

@Anna N, what does the cornstarch in the cabbage stuffing do?

Search me. It is only a tablespoon to 400 g meat so I’m going to assume a thickening agent?

Edited to add: I just rechecked the recipe to make sure that I had not misunderstood the use of the corn starch in the feeling rather than in the sauce. I was correct it is part of this filling. It is from a site where the blogger is very responsive so I will ask.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Anna N
To add additional information. (log)

scubadoo97 · October 7, 2018

25 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

@Anna N, what does the cornstarch in the cabbage stuffing do?

I would think as a binder for the filling

Anna N · October 7, 2018

5 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

I would think as a binder for the filling

Indeed you are probably right (I said thickener but I meant the same thing). But it’s still a bit odd and I didn’t realize that until I was questioned about it. I have sent off a request to the blogger to explain it but I do believe she’s travelling in Vietnam at the moment so I may have a while to wait.

There is no filler in these cabbage rolls such as rice which seems to be pretty common otherwise.

Anna N · October 8, 2018

19 hours ago, Anna N said:

Indeed you are probably right (I said thickener but I meant the same thing). But it’s still a bit odd and I didn’t realize that until I was questioned about it. I have sent off a request to the blogger to explain it but I do believe she’s travelling in Vietnam at the moment so I may have a while to wait.

There is no filler in these cabbage rolls such as rice which seems to be pretty common otherwise.

So the blogger responded and said yes that it was a binder but that it was said to be also something that kept the flavour in the meat. Seems to be based largely on a tradition. They were quite delicious so I am not inclined to question its inclusion.

Anna N · October 8, 2018

Korokke (croquettes) which are traditionally made with potato and ground meat. They are occasionally made with kabocha squash. I had no kabocha but did have a number of small winter squash that had been given to me. I also had another leftover nikomi hamburg. I roasted the squash, combined it with the crumbled hamburg, shaped into patties, dipped into flour, egg and Panko and deep-fried. Very satisfactory.

Thanks for the Crepes · October 9, 2018

Yesterday, Sunday, my nephew and his wife came to pick me up to go visit my husband in the nursing home in Raleigh. We picked up Little Caesar's pizzas on the way and had to wait a few minutes for them to be cooked. They were so hot that I had to place my backpack on my lap between the corrugated boxes and my lap after initially trying to carry them with no barrier. Hot pizza is a good thing to me, but it was trying to burn me.

So we got to the nursing home and I got to see my husband again after months of not seeing him. He's the same, but seems to be in good spirits and was delighted to meet our grand niece. One of the residents that I know from there from my stay and from visiting with my husband, and from my brother taking the time and effort to pick her, my husband and one other nursing home resident over to his house for a party, was smitten with the baby. She is in her very late 80's and had the first episode of forgetting where she was or how she got there that I have witnessed. She suddenly didn't recognize me, but when I walked up to her and spoke, she immediately did. I think she is almost blind, but thanks to a hearing aid, she can still hear. That calmed her down. SIL brought the baby over to her, and that further calmed and engaged her, and she was fine after that.

Several other of the residents and staff there were also delighted by my niece. It was so good to see my husband again, and how good is my nephew to take time to do this for us old farts? He is the best!

I went and coaxed some paper towels out of the bathroom paper towel dispenser, one of those motion sensors, but it works only if you actually smack it, for plates and napkins. He he, I found this out in an episode of frustration while a "guest" (prisoner) there.

The pizza was still hot and I ate three slices, the only thing I ate that day. Quite acceptable. They were both pepperoni after a sausage and a pepperoni one was suggested. I hate the rabbit pellet sausage they have at Little Ceasar's so suggested a mushroom one, but that was nixed and we ended up with two pepperoni pizzas. It worked.

Ex SIL met us there on her way to the airport to fly back up to NH. She also brought a DVD of Stephen King's "The Stand, Golden Years and The Langoliers" that I had loaned to my nephew the last time he was here and book he intended to give me, also by Stephen King, "Eyes of the Dragon".

This was a really good experience for me who spends so much time alone, and also for my husband who endures the endless boredom of the nursing home where there is nothing to do 24/7. My husband actually called me today on Monday. It's been months since he called me, so this lunch was a very good thing.

liuzhou · October 9, 2018

On 10/8/2018 at 2:17 AM, Anna N said:

The recipe that I followed called for nutmeg as a seasoning but I omitted it. It just felt too, too western.

Er, nutmeg originated in S.E. Asia, specifically the Banda Islands in the Moluccas or Spice Islands in what is now Indonesia. It is widely used in Asian cuisine, although I'm not sure about Japan.

heidih · October 9, 2018

52 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Er, nutmeg originated in S.E. Asia, specifically the Banda Islands in the Moluccas or Spice Islands in what is now Indonesia. It is widely used in Asian cuisine, although I'm not sure about Japan.

It is an ingredient listed in my S&B Japanese curry powder

Anna N · October 9, 2018

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Er, nutmeg originated in S.E. Asia, specifically the Banda Islands in the Moluccas or Spice Islands in what is now Indonesia. It is widely used in Asian cuisine, although I'm not sure about Japan.

I wasn’t questioning the origin of spice. I am fairly certain I know that it’s not a western cultivar. And my attempt at a joke apparently fell flat. Cabbage rolls are what the Japanese call “yoshoku” meaning foreign or very specifically western foods. So I was laughing at myself. Hence the emoji.

Anna N · October 9, 2018

2 hours ago, heidih said:

It is an ingredient listed in my S&B Japanese curry powder

You, too, must have missed the emoji.

liuzhou · October 9, 2018

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

So I was laughing at myself. Hence the emoji.

Apologies. My mind blocks emojis a lot of the time, and even if I notice them, they are too small here for my tired eyes.

Several foods are also called "foreign" or "western" here in China too - onions, tomatoes, etc. In fact, the 'yo' in 'yoshuko' seems to be borrowed from Chinese.

Anna N · October 9, 2018

13 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Apologies. My mind blocks emojis a lot of the time, and even if I notice them, they are too small here for my tired eyes.

No worries. I know you have a good sense of humour. I’ve seen it many times.