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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Trader Joe's Quinoa Duo


Saw this at TJ's the other day and thought it would be a good side dish for some fish or something. However... it was the weekend, I was hungry, lazy and impatient, and ended up cooking and eating the entire bag by itself.

If you've never had quinoa before, it's like a grain-rice-corn hybrid thing and is fluffy and slightly crunchy. It's one of those things that you probably never had unless you have a vegetarian/vegan friend, or are one yourself.


As you probably see, this has bits of zucchini and sweet potato mixed in, as well as a bunch of seasonings. I swore I tasted a hint of cinnamon, but there wasn't any. Funny thing is that I think the same exact thing every time I make TJ's penne pasta... which makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, this Quinoa is super easy to make, just dump it in a covered bowl and microwave. If I recall correctly, quinoa is one of those things that takes awhile to cook normally, so this is much better. Also, I don't ever see myself cooking it from scratch in the first place.

I would recommend it though, just don't eat the entire bag by yourself like I did.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Doctor Strangebrew or: How I Learned To Stop Complaining and Love Tea [part 2]


 Again, all I have to say is thank god for Wegman's... if it weren't for their insane mission to stock as many amazing food products as they do, I wouldn't have become the avid tea drinker that I am. They're planning on opening new stores in Maryland and a bunch of people were complaining about how "un-green" they are and that they're trying to muscle out competition, but all those people need to shut up. To my knowledge, they were one of the first chain stores to not only carry Ito En products, but to sell them cheaper than anywhere else ($1.50 per 16.9oz bottle... suck on that Whole Foods!)


Friday, June 3, 2011

Curry Rice On The Go

Today I decided to make some Japanese curry rice (kare raisu) at my office for lunch. For those of you not familiar with the dish, here's what it normally looks like:
As you can (kinda) see, it's not really anything like Indian curry, except it does use curry powder/garam masala. It's more like a thick stew with curry spices, apparently it's based on "English curry"... I could Google it to better inform myself, but I don't feel like it.

Normally kare raisu is made with potatoes, carrots, onions, some kind of meat, various spices and quite often something sweet like apple and/or honey. It's very popular in Japan and is eaten in restaurants and made at home; families and restaurants usually have their own secret recipes. Per the name, it's served with short-grain sticky rice, or sometimes over a big piece of fried pork (tonkatsu). And... sometimes over spaghetti... the Japanese have some interesting takes on Western food, but I'll talk about that some other time.