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Archive for May, 2006
The food.
I was all set to write about the great food in Austin when I was suddenly offered a free lunch with my workmates at “Wan Fu, Too”, a Chinese restaurant on Barton Springs Road. The restaurant looks like an old-school diner and doesn’t seem to actually employ any Chinese people. I was skepticle. Still, it scored a 9.4 on citysearch, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
I ordered the Soft Schezuan Bean Curd with broccoli, which came with a cup of hot and sour soup and spring rolls. The soup was fairly good, though I have never had hot and sour soup so I have nothing to compare it to. The spring rolls were soggy and fell apart when I tried to pick them up. What fell from the rice wrappers was not terribly interesting: shrimp, iceburg lettuce, and rice noodles.
Weak.
When my meal came, the tofu was fried (rather than steamed, as the menu stated), and there was not a broccoli in site. The flavor was ok, though not as spicey as I would have liked. I was there with 9 other people, so I didn’t really want to send it back. I felt depressed as I waded through the fried for the few celery and carrot bits that mingled (drowned?) in the sauce. At the end of my meal, I also discovered that the brown rice I thought I was eating was actually their rendition of the most boring fried rice ever.
I really dislike fried food. There are few exceptions, and even fewer occasions, when I enjoy a bit o’ greasy goodness (the fried spinach leaves at The Bistro in New Orleans, or the breaded-and-fried eggplant in a good eggplant parmesan). When it comes to work lunch, heavy foods generally makes me want a nap. So instead I opt for light, energizing foods, especially veggies - how I yearned for that broccoli!
Alas, I’ve learned nothing new today: Asian food in Austin is generally lacking. And I’ve never even been a big fan of Chinese food to begin with (except for Moo Shoo Pancakes). This is a reminder to myself that I almost always prefer my own cooking to that of restaurants. Best to stick to that as much as possible. Even free food has a price.
The music.
Where else in the world can you find a line-up as amazing as that of this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Massive Attack, String Cheese Incident, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, the Flaming Lips, Jose Gonzales, John Mayer, the Raconteurs, the Shins, Ween, Los Lonely Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band, Secret Machines, Gomez, Kathleen Edwards, Wolf Parade, Jack Ingram, Sparklehorse, Thievery Corporation, Ben Kweller, G. Love and Special Sauce, Matisyahu, Damien Rice, Kings of Leon, Iron & Wine, Kasey Chambers, Aimee Mann, Nickel Creek, Damian Marley, Calexico, the New Pornographers, Son Volt, Guster, Galactic, KT Tunstall, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Centro-matic, Marah, Nada Surf, I Love You But I
An interesting article in today’s NY Times about lactic acid, the stuff that builds up in muscles when we exercise and supposedly leads to muscle fatigue…. many “pros” advocate running below the “lactic threshold”, that is, running anaerobically (i.e. slowly) so that the muscles don’t produce lactic acid. This article suggests that the “lactic threshold” is actually a myth. In fact, muscles actually burn lactic acid as fuel. Not to say that the pros are wrong… turns out endurance training may actually help our muscles make better use of lactic acid as fuel.
Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel
The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen
to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by
mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.
Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the
substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a
difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial
mass.
…even though coaches often believed in the myth of the lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way possible to increase their mitochondria. “Coaches have understood things the scientists didn’t,” he said.
Through trial and error, coaches learned that athletic performance improved when athletes worked on endurance, running longer and longer distances, for example.
That, it turns out, increased the mass of their muscle mitochondria, letting them burn more lactic acid and allowing the muscles to work harder and longer.
Just before a race, coaches often tell athletes to train very hard in brief spurts.
That extra stress increases the mitochondria mass even more, Dr. Brooks said, and is the reason for improved performance.
And the scientists?
They took much longer to figure it out.
I love lunch time. At the moment, I’m enjoying an apple-celery-raisin salad mixed with yogurt-tahini-lemon dressing, nested in a bed of red leaf lettuce and carrots (silly me forgot the almonds that are usually sprinkled on top!).
I am one of the few who habitually bring lunch to work every day. Though it is a little time consuming, it is actually cheaper and less time consuming than leaving work every day to pick food up or eat out. Not to mention, my lunches are infinitely tastier than the options near the office. And when I’m in the mood to get out, I take my lunch with me and picnic at the capitol.
I’d like to write a book on the work-lunch thing including both recipes and a how-to on developing the habit. Maybe I’ll start by documenting MY work-lunch recipes.
Sadly, I’ve now finished my lunch, and must get back to work.
Last week I went to Houston and came back with a wonderful new tattoo: a poblano pepper integrated with the lightening bold on my right shoulder. I like to think of it as a farewell tribute to Austin.
I was bored with the old design.
06:50 PM to 09:20 PM
Austin, TX (AUS) to Chicago-Ohare, IL (ORD)
2hrs 30min - nonstop
I’m kickin’ it M&S-style in Houston this weekend. It’s been way too long, hasn’t it? Last night: after a long day at the tattoo shop (another story in itself, but one I will forgo until the pictures are uploaded), we had a late dinner of omelet, toast, and beer. The meal was an inspiration on several levels.
Revelation #1: Jack Daniels Old No. 7 spicy mustard. Great on polish sausage, but even better in an omelet?
(Reminds me of an idea I had for a fake meat product that is currently lacking in the vegetarian marketplace. While I’m aware that vegetarian sausages do exist (Tofurkey makes a delicious bratwurst), the range of flavors is lacking. I admit, I’m a little jealous of carnivorous folk when I spy the Whole Foods Sausage case and its myriad of meaty choices. Where’s the vegetarian counterpart to the blueberry breakfast sausage? Or the olive and feta meat stick? There’s a niche here. And I volunteer to be a taste-tester.)
Revelation #2: Color is key in the art of omelet-making. Why have I always hesitated to combine green pepper and spinach, or peas and broccoli, or tomato and red pepper? Do omelets of spinach and red pepper, or pea and sun dried tomato, taste better because they look better? I couldn’t find any scientific articles that would answer this question, but speaking from my own experience, the mind seems to prefer a variety of colors and textures (why else would autumn be so beloved). So when it comes to food, why shouldn’t sight be as influential as smell?
Conclusion: mix colors when making foods.
Revelation #2a: The orange bell pepper is the missing link. When brainstorming an omelet, the color palate is saturated with green, red, and gray: spinach, onion, tomato, green pepper, red pepper, mushroom, zucchini…. then in walks the orange bell pepper and says, “hey guys, over here, and don’t forget my pal in yellow!).
Revelation #3: Old lady pickling an underappreciated, sparsely documented art form. I did find this recipe for “chow chow”, a pickle relish of cabbage and peppers. For some reason, the words “pickling salt” and “mason jar” scare me.
For now, I’ll stick to what I know.
Red Green and Orange Omelet with Mustard and Feta
2 Eggs
Splash of milk
Spinach
Orange bell pepper, chopped
Grape tomatoes, halved
Feta cheese
Jack Daniels Old No. 7 spicy mustard
Lightly saut
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