Yum!

we just had the Atkins Diet award reception for two rockstar catalogers at the library. no bread, no chips; just raw or pickled veggies and cheese. quite tasty, actually. and if desperate for carbs, one could always have a glass or so of wine.

i would like to confirm, on an unrelated note, my commitment to popcorn with vinegar (plus nutritional yeast and basil). not any vinegar but rice wine vinegar, ever so lightly sprinkled over the bowl. this tasty treat, created by a former roommate, gives the popcorn a lovely zing! those who criticize it clearly lack in culinary sophistication. and while i mourn their sophomoric concept of tasty, i celebrate the fact that it means more for me!

ocb

and off in chicago, the folks are heading to ocb. note that Old Country Buffet is actually part of a Buffet conglomerate boasting five buffet restaurant chains!

sadness

last thursday, i came home, wanting nothing more than a big bowl of popcorn for dinner. but i also wanted to make something to take to lunch the next day. so i whipped up a fabulous batch of dal with fried tofu, to be eaten over basmati rice. no recipe, no original plan--it just happened. even though i had initially planned to eat it only for lunch, i decided to have a bowl for dinner. yum! two hours later, i'm still a bit hungry, so i make a bowl of popcorn, sprinkled with rice wine vinegar, nutritional yeast and basil, a combo that i'll swear by, it's so good.

as i was finishing up the popcorn, i began to feel a bit queazy. maybe, i thought, i was just feeling dehydrated. maybe i just had a wee stomach ache. i have what many consider to be an iron stomach and i can't remember the last time i got sick (not including the time last year that i drank too much ouzo). i decided to go to bed and sleep it off. several hours later, at 3am, i woke up, rolled around in agony for a bit, got out of bed, walked into the bathroom and threw up. how ill bred. then i did it again at 6am. tacky. and, to be graphic, it was ALL popcorn. so i figured it was something in there--perhaps the vinegar?--that had set me off.

i was supposed to be at work at 8am that morning and could barely drag myself out of bed, so i called in sick. by the afternoon, i felt better.

time passes. i eat no popcorn. yesterday around lunch time, i went into my fridge and got out the remaining tofu and dal and had a nice big bowl of it. after eating, i went for a lovely bike ride, came home and prepared to go to yoga. just before leaving the house, i downed a glass of water. about halfway through the glass, i felt my stomach ache returning. i ignored it and started down the stairs. by the time i'd reached the out-of-doors, i felt like i was on the brink of barfing. sigh. damnit. so i turned around, went back upstairs, took off my coat, and got into bed, resigned to eventually throwing up, glad that i wasn't halfway through my first bikram yoga session when the tummy ache hit.

luckily, having already familiarized myself with this particular stomach ache, i was able to prevent another session of puking by putting nothing into my system except the seltzer water that my sweetheart of a co-worker brought by. and, oh yeah, it was definitely the tofu. looked at the date of the container i'd bought with the one i'd eaten--Use By Sept.26th. ew. oops. that'll show me!

visits

what with my mom in town, we have done much dining out here in lovely scenic eugene. while i initially feared that i was moving to a culinary wasteland, i've been quite pleased with the options. no, it's nowhere near the bounty that chicago has to offer, but it's much better than ann arbor, that's for sure. so far, we've eaten at, in no particular order:

Marche, located in 5th Street Public Market. this is probably the fanciest restaurant in town. it is french-inspired cuisine using local seasonal ingredients. we had fantastic oysters from Hook Bay here. they were buttery and sweet and perfect. we thankfully got a dozen (original plan: 1/2 dozen). i was going to explain the other dishes, but thoughts of the oysters has completely shoved out my memory of anything else we ordered. needless to say, it's pricey but quite good.

Cafe Soriah, up on 13th street, is a sort of middle eastern-style restaurant. we split "paella" which we found to be, in reality, a tasty boulliabase, and scallops which tasted too much like cream for me. also some decent appetizers. it's one of those places that's heralded as the ABSOLUTE BEST and it was good, but i wouldn't rush back. oh, the dessert, a chocolate mousse cake with a layer of whip cream and topped with ganache was rather divine.

Pizza Research Institute from which we ordered the vegan chef special pizza, complete with slices of corn (cob included) and peaches. we were weary of the tofu "cheese" going into it, but it was so tasty and garlicky that i think i prefer it to cheese. and you can't get more eugene than PRI. it's such a good example of the ethos of this town.

the sushi place on 13th which is a quick cheap place for lunch. 'nuf said.

Red Agave, near downtown, with latin american-inspired menu with local seasonal ingredients. and pint glass-sized margaritas. not for the weak of heart.

Cafe Xenon tasty for brunch. quite enjoyed the pate, which was more of a pot de chicken livers. would've been good slathered on a hunk of challah. yum!

okay. enough for now. must get back to work.