spacekadet

We had an amazingly good meal on our last trip to Rasa. Their dal in particular was scrumptious - why can't I make dals like theirs? So inbetween bites I studied the dal: yellow lentils, mung beans, finely chopped tomato and spinach, but what were those black specs? Onion seed? I asked the waiter: mustard seeds! I've never used mustard seed in dal so I bought a pack and hit the stove. This combination of ingredients resulted in my best dal yet. I'm recording the recipe here so I don't forget it. Too busy eating to take pictures, I'm afraid!

Posted by monica at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rootmaster Sunday Lunch
Originally uploaded by lucy_copping

This afternoon I used my lunchbreak to look for a brew basket so I can enjoy loose-leaf tea at work. "Tea Smith" is a trendy tea shop nearby that seems born to sell brew baskets, but all they carry is a £21 procelan mug-filter combo thing to go with their equally expensive tea. To their credit, the 2-person staff really care about tea and proper brewing and have lots of good reasons for preferring the ceramic basket. They even tried to help by suggesting a few places I might try but whose names I forget because they are too far away for me to bother.

So I decided to use the time to shop for a winter coat. I tried a few shops around Brick Lane but they left me feeling either poor or way uncool, so I thought I'd listen to music at Rough Trade Records, but felt even less cool there.

I don't know why I was feeling like such a square this afternoon but I was.

In the end, I didn't find a tea basket, but I did see something cool - someone has turned an old Routemaster bus into a restaurant (called Rootmaster), and it's parked behind The Old Truman Brewery. I doubt I'll ever dine there because it's probably overpriced and we cook better food at home (a general rule when it comes to dining out in London). I'm glad there are people in the world who think "wouldn't it be cool to turn an old Routemaster into a cafe?" and then they go and do it.

Read TimeOut's review of TeaSmith

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Since writing the above I found the Rootmaster's website. Turns out it's a travelling gig, whose goal is to promote "healthy living and respect for the environment". Their website was clearly created prior to its inception:

A traditional London Routemaster bus will be transformed into a vegan restaurant and wine bar. This conversion will offer dining both upstairs and in front fo the bus beneath an awning, as well as takeaway service. The bus will feature a restaurant grade kitchen serving original recipes made with fresh, locally sourced produce.

Green issues are a priority for us and so the bus will undergo all necessary conversions to make ita s environmentally friendly as possible. We hope to offer an innovative, healthy product at a fair price that will appeal to all.

The food is in the £10 range, which isn't cheap, especially when Story Deli is just a few steps away and has the best pizza in the world. But that's another story.

Posted by monica at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's actually really easy, and you don't need a yogurt maker.

Ingredients:

• 1 Liter of soy milk


• 1 Tbsp of sugar (if using unsweetened soy milk)


• 2 Tbsp of "live" yogurt (soy or milk-based)


• 1 Liter glass jar and lid


• 1 metal spoon

1. Boil some water and scald the spoon and the glass jar


2. Bring the soy milk and sugar to a boil


3. Remove the soy milk from heat and let it cool down just enough so that it's not painful to touch


4. Mix the yogurt into the soy milk


5. Pour the soy milk into the glass jar and cover


6. Put the glass jar in a warm place like a hot water cupboard or a gas stove with the pilot light on


7. Wait 8-12 hours.


8. Remove the soy "yogurt" from the warm place - it should now look like yogurt!


9. Chill in the fridge before serving

• This recipe results in a very mild, creamy soygurt that is less nutty than the yogurts I've tried by Alpro and Sojasun (a good thing, IMHO)


• I used Whole Foods' organic unsweetened soy milk


• I tried this for the first time over the weekend; it has yet to be seen whether future attempts will be as successful


• If you've had soy milk, then you know it doesn't really taste like real milk. Same goes for soy "yogurt", so don't try to pretend it's anything else


• People who like cow's milk yogurt will probably not like soy yogurt, so don't get too upset when they cringe at the flavor


• This yogurt tastes best when paired with something tasty like fruit or Bircher Muesli


• This vegan lady uses the stuff to make "Greek-style" soy "yogurt" and vegan "cheese" - it looks pretty good, even if it's not really cheese

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Posted by monica at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend's been so good, it's impossible to not have the Sunday blues a little bit. Sunshine. Crisp, cool air. Uncharacteristically blue skies. No where to be. Nothing to do for a change. There's a warm, autumnal vibe in London. It makes me happy to be here.

Here's a summary of some really happy things that I've enjoyed these past few days. Reading through them I see they mostly revolve around food, but no surprises there....

• Made my first batch of homemade soy yogurt with soy milk and a spoonful of dairy yogurt - the results were successful if, that is, you don't mind the taste of soy yogurt

• Enjoyed the arrival of apple season by indulging in a few of my favorite apples, the Egremont Russet
  
• Went to a gastropub for some fairly average tall food with some way better than average people

• Decided more or less that I want to move on from London before Christmas 2009
• Started a soughdough starter with water and rye flour
• Enjoyed some of the sunniest (and coolest) weather of autumn by walking around Clissold park a few times, cycling to the pub, and sitting on the couch by the window

• Cooked two recipes from the Rasa cookbook, a mung bean curry and savoy cabbage - both dishes made us go "mmmm"
• Rethemed the SmarterFitter blog, with the addition of a few monetizing features, plus a couple blog posts
• Listened to Neil Young's Prairie Wind a few times in a row
• Decided that Wordpress is "the business" and set up a DB for the wordpressified spacekadet blog of the future
• Watched the Science of Sleep - weird weird movie, maybe wonderful, too, but haven't decided yet
• Started A Million Little Pieces by Opera's nemesis, James Frey
• Took a few pictures
• Decided no more chores on the weekend

Posted by monica at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm really glad I read the synopsis of Macbeth on Wikipedia before going to see the performance last night. Otherwise I would not have enjoyed the show as much as I did.

The witches were really creepy, Lady Macbeth was a psycho bitch, and the blood and gore was tangible; but the best part for me was seeing Patrick Stewart in a role true to his Shakespearean roots.

The next best part was going to the stage door after the show and having a mini-conversation with Patrick Stewart while he signed my ticket stub. He asked if I enjoyed the show. Of course I said and I did, and that I also saw him in "A Life in the Theatre" and that was really awesome too. And he said "Oh! Good! I've been wanting to take that one to New York!" And I said "Oh you should!" And then we thanked each other and I in turn thanked Tim and Lucy for waiting on me.

I also got Kate Fleetwood's (Lady Macbeth's) autograph. She seemed nice, too, but very tired!

Posted by monica at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

lolcat
Originally uploaded by indietim

Weird but funny.

Posted by monica at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

mercado.jpg
Originally uploaded by wotanseyepatch

Went to our local Mexican cantina, Mercado, on Stoke Newington Church Street last night. There I was given

• a warm Negro Negra Modelo for £3.50 ($7 US)


• a surprisingly flavorful sizzling veggie fajita plate with fresh tortillas, decent guacamole, and fantastically fresh sour cream for £9.50 ($19 US)


• a side order of extraordinarily bland black beans for £3.50 ($7 US).

I want to like Mercado. But it's hard to go there and not think about the awesome $8 plate of enchiladas I used to get at Julio's in Hyde Park, or the salsa at Trudy's, or the insane array of cheap mexican ingredients at Fiesta. I'm also really disappointed that they changed their menu since I was last there - they used to have mole enchiladas! Now it's all boring tacos and burritos and fajitas, all with the same basic fillings. I guess that makes it easier for them to make lots of food which they can then charge lots of money for but serve lots of customers at the same time.

Their ingredients - at least their veggies and guac and stuff - are very fresh. The black beans were disappointing. And Tim's meat-based dish was dry. We probably won't go back. Tim's been honing a pretty mean refried bean recipe here at home. And I've got a few enchilada tricks up my sleeve. Still haven't mastered the corn tortillas yet. But practice makes perfect. And I've got a bunch of jalapenos growing in the parking lot (albeit, all too slowly). But I'm ramping up for some serious Mexican home cooking of my own. And I can guaruntee this: the beer will be ICE cold.

Posted by monica at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I often forget, which is sad because I took three years of Latin in high school.

i.e. = id est, "that is"
e.g. = exempli grati, "for the sake of example"

"Tim W"'s explanation on Mother Tongue Annoyances is more entertaining than mine, especially the part where he explains why you shouldn't use either in spoken English:

I'm not sure about you, but whenever I listen to a man or woman give a talk and they say something like "Italian Renaissance painters, eye-eee Donatello and Alberti..", I instantly feel a queasiness in my viscera that mandates my hasty exit from the venue. As we'll soon learn, this example speaker (a) should be using e.g. instead of i.e.; and (b) he or she should never commit this speech usage atrocity in the first place. This practice (in my humble or not-so-humble opinion) is alternatively ignorant or pedantic—your choice.

Link

Posted by monica at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's funny that today's spanish word of the day is "veinte". not funny haha, just funny in a coincidence sort of way. it would have been better if "treinta" (30) were the WOTD. i started counting the laps when i swim. in Spanish. i'm not swimming in Spanish, just counting in Spanish. so i guess it's only funny because for 10 minutes this morning i had "veinte" in my head... Veinte Uno... Veinte Dos... Veinte Tres. I guess I see veinte laps as kind of a hurdle. Up until then the swimming feels like a warm-up. But by veinte, I've invested a bit of time in my swim, and I have to decide if I'm going to keep it short and sweet, or go the distance. This morning I went the distance: treinta y tres (33) laps. There are 32.2 laps in a mile. So I feel pretty good about that.

Posted by monica at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October must be my muesli month. It was October 2006 that I first wrote about Bircher muesli, a breakfast dish of soaked oats, fruit, and nuts. Here we are in October 2007, and I'm at it again. This time with added omega 3s!

Oats soaked in water is not an immediately appealing meal - I mean, oats should be hot, right - and yet this to me is one of the most satisfying breakfasts out there (aside from maybe one of Tim's omelets, but that's another story). My current muesli blend is a bit simpler from the last recipe, and incorporates flax seeds for some Omega-3 goodness. I enjoy mine vegan-style, but I've been told that yogurt and honey make smashing accompaniments.

Posted by monica at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ivy Cat Stretches!
Originally uploaded by spacekadet

I miss my cat....

Posted by monica at 03:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I had all the time in the world, I'd spend a weekend redesigning my website. Then again, I've done this before, and I've never been really thrilled with my creations (this current iteration is too cramped, the content column too narrow, the random photo banner doesn't have enough photos).

I'm just not a web designer. Sure, given the time, I could make a kick ass webpage. But I kind of think that time would be better spent baking bread and writing and going to the theatre (I just bought tickets to see Macbeth - starring Patrick Stewart!).

So that said, I'm thinking of switching from Movable Type to Wordpress. I'm not entirely sure why. I've been faithful to MT for the past few years. And now it's what I know. Then I started using Wordpress on SmarterFitter, and WP seems so clean and simple in comparison to MT.

Fear: could switching from MT to WP be a nightmare in itself?

Does any of this matter given how many people read blogs through RSS readers nowadays?

Random thoughts of the morning. Maybe I'll just go bake some bread instead.

Posted by monica at 02:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)