I Microwaved Frozen Salmon and It Was So-So

UGH.

So, I microwaved a microwaveable salmon TV dinner thing from Trader Joe's with high hopes, because some of their microwaveable TV dinners are just magical. For example, their soup dumplings are wonderful for days when I want to spend about 50 cents per soup dumpling in my own home instead of over a dollar per dumpling in a restaurant, like at my beloved Din Tai Fung. (Seriously, though, I am of the opinion that everybody who can should go to Din Tai Fung and get the soup dumplings if you're able to. They're pork based and have flour and cost money, so not everybody can eat them. But if you can? They're totes a thing to go eat, and they have a bunch of branches in the Seattle area. Mostly in malls, but it's still a very nice restaurant to go to in the mall.)

This salmon dinner thing, though. It came out undercooked, I think? Like, perfectly steamed in half, but then squishy and tough in the other half, so I didn't eat all of it. I'll eat raw salmon under special circumstances, but not like this. At least, not like this today.

The orzo salad with mint and whatever had its heart in the right place, but freezing didn't do it any good, either. I think it it wasn't slimy, it may have been really nice? I don't mean to sound ungrateful for getting to eat food, but I wasn't able to finish this, in part because I can eat other foods later so it's not an emergency.

Of course, I should add that while I won't buy this again, I will still buy other frozen meals from Trader Joe's when I have the time and money to do so. Like, their palak paneer and tikka masala paneer meals make me really happy! And, like I said before, I like their soup dumplings. I also like many of their frozen pizzas.

Here is a photo of my shame. Shame in not finishing it, shame in eating so much even though it was kinda gross (except for the well-cooked salmon, which was delightful).

Milestone: I Ate More Kimchi Than I Could Handle

Today (well, June 22, 2017, although it's past midnight) goes down in my personal history as the day I over-ate these amazing kimchi pancakes with my friend Paula at a cool Korean restaurant in Lynnwood, Washington. I was then surprised to discover that despite my gusto, my body was not ready to digest so much fermented cabbage in one sitting. (I also ate a great deal of bulgogi and a delicious fried fish.) It was not literally my first time tasting kimchi, but it was my first time eating a ton of it in one go. I overestimated my abilities.

It's about time I get back to writing in this blog, so instead of just making this a private Facebook post, I'm making it a blog post. I'll then share a link to it on my private Facebook page, in the hope that it will pop up in my memories every year around this time, to remind me of what has been a life-altering learning experience. I was bested in the art I thought I'd mastered: eating delicious things in a casual setting with friends.

I still want more kimchi pancakes, but I might need to drink an Oreo milkshake first (for some reason, that's what my gut bacteria is perfectly calibrated to), and then eat smaller portions of the pancakes next time, so my all-dairy-all-the-time tummy can figure out how to eat healthy, fermented, probiotic, spiced plants.

Here is the fish I ate, after I ate most of it:

I ate uncooked alligator today and bought used vinyl

I attended a small dinner party tonight where alligator was served two ways (as ceviche and fried, topped with homemade pepper jelly), followed by wild boar ragu, followed by rabbit cassoulet, followed by strawberry shortcake. 

It was an evening of firsts! I had not eaten rabbit or wild boar before, and while I'd eaten fried alligator on a stick as a child, today was my first time trying alligator meat raw. (Well, sort-of "raw" anyway, because it was also sort-of "cooked" by the lime juice.) My life is broader for the experience, and I am grateful.

Now that I am home from the party, I am cleaning the cat boxes and playing the $3 Patsy Cline album I found at my next-door neighbor's garage sale. I played "Walkin' After Midnight" just a couple of minutes after midnight tonight.

I think I procrastinate very well, and I AM procrastinating a little as I write this, but I did reach almost all of my homework goals for the weekend. Just one paper left to write before Friday to finish the quarter properly. I am living as well as I know how to. 

HERE ARE THE PHOTOS

These are the records I bought! Six albums for under $20. Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence" is one of them, and Heart's "Dog and Butterfly," and an Al Green Christmas album, too! Willie Nelson's "Always on My Mind" (he covers "Whiter Shade of Pale" on it) and, heaven help me, I decided to buy "Sports" by Hughey Lewis and the News. Maybe I will throw a Patrick Bateman theme party someday? Although this was genuinely one of my favorite albums when I was a kid, it freaks me out a little bit nowadays, because it reminds me of American Psycho. But that's art, right? Art changing art.

The pink stuff is uncooked, cold alligator meat, made edible through the science of lime juice. It was delicious but unsettling.

This is the fried alligator topped with pepper jelly, which the party hosts topped with their homemade pepper jelly. I recommend it!

Here is a friend cutting the fried alligator with a knife and fork.

This pasta dish is the wild boar ragu. I appreciated it for being interesting and well-made. There was capsaicin in the sauce and it was too spicy for my weak mouth, but I ate about half of my portion and took the rest home to try again later.

This is the rabbit cassoulet! It was marvelous. I hope that the rabbit lived a comfortable life and had a very quick death, with minimal suffering. 

And there you have it! These are some photographs of my evening. And what an evening it was!

Eat an envelope of apple juice!

One of those rectangular envelopes.

Seriously, though, I am going through such a juice boxes phase!

Kona Kitchen Spam Musubi Is Delicious

I found a place close to my house that serves really good Spam musubi! And it costs less than $3 per serving!!! 

Kona Kitchen, on 5th, just a few blocks south of the Northgate Mall.

I am eating lunch here to satisfy my "eat really good food while writing final papers" requirement, because it's finals week in grad school right now. Two servings of Spam musubi, followed by a slice of rainbow cake. (I haven't tried the cake yet.) Getting Kalua pig and cabbage take-out (under $10!!!), for tomorrow's lunch.

If you know me (hi, Mom!), then you know that I visited Maui for a week last year. Like lots of people, I ate Spam musubi while I was there, and I loved it, and now I want to eat it often, because when it's good, it's really, really good. I tried the Spam nigiri at Uwajimaya, but found it too sweet. The Kona Kitchen Spam musubi is as of right now my go-to for it.

Yeah, you WISH you were eating this right now! (I assume.)

Pie Filling For Dinner!

Shepherd's pie filling for dinner, anyway.

I will serve bread rolls on the side, because I have not yet made potatoes, and it is late. I will assemble and roast the pie tomorrow.

Fanciest goddamn pizza rolls YOU've ever seen!

Lookit that, aww yeah.

Those are just Totino's Pizza Rolls that we had in the freezer, and grocery store limeade, but now it's SO GODDAMN FANCY! And I sliced the apple, cut out the core bits, and reassembled it JUST LIKE THAT! WHAT?