Sunday, January 2, 2011

Edamame, Quinoa And Other Hard-To-Pronounce Foods

So I just got done watching about 200 episodes (mild exaggeration) of American Dad on my Netflix on Demand thingy.  I somehow missed most of Season 4, apparently.

I was mindlessly munching on some deliciously bad chips and animal crackers and gummi bears and chocolate and had just realized I made myself rather ill.

My solution for curing post-crap-food-orgy nauseousness?  Eat more food!  Something green, though.

So I'm sitting here with a half-eaten bowl of edamame.  Kinda hard to call it "half-eaten" when it still looks full... Just that half the pods in there are properly violated and gutted while the other half stares in abject terror at their pending fate.












It's funny that I grew up in Missouri, surrounded by soybean farms and yet couldn't have cared less until I moved to California (nearly 5 years ago) and discovered a love of sushi and the delicacy known as edamame.

So yes.  Eat crap food, then settle the stomach with a bowl of something green.  Broccoli works well for me too, or spinach...

...Jello? Not so much.  Maybe some mint chocolate chip ice cream... ? ... No.  Gotta be a vegetable.

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You know, when I took my first nutrition class, the wonderful professor (love her, seriously) would spell it "vegie" instead of "veggie."  Since there's only one G in vegetable, right?  Drove me nuts.*  Even this spellchecker thinks "vegie" is wrong.

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*...back when I was in 5th grade, we had to do these "free-writing" assignments in English class.  (I'm still double spacing at the end of sentences, damn it.)  One day I was reading some of my previous entries in my notebook when I started busting out laughing.

Imagine it.  It's Quiet Time.  Everyone is writing diligently...or at least faking it.  Then, suddenly!  I am bursting with laughter.

Why?

Because I had accidentally written "that really drives my nuts" in a past entry.

Okay, this requires a picture.  Really.  Little Janae sitting in a car shaped like a pair of nuts...  Yeah, I've always had a vivid imagination.

....well that was an interesting Google search...  Here's the best I could do:

Driving my nuts...















I'm really getting off track here...  I used to call these subject-to-subject tangents "puddle jumping."  But I really think it's just ADD.

So, yeah.

Edamame is freaking delicious, but it's just steamed & salted soybeans.

Quinoa (keen wah) is a fantastic grain that tastes delicious, holds up well for multiple reheatings and has a great amount of protein and fiber.  If you've never tried the stuff, do yourself a favor.  It can replace anything you would normally have with rice.

Yes, it kinda looks like cous-cous.












As for other hard-to-pronounce foods?

Just go to your local ethnic restaurant and be adventurous!  Depending on where you live, this could be very interesting...

I just love the fact that I can go to a Japanese restaurant and ask the Korean behind the sushi bar for Sake and Sake and they know I'm not an alcoholic.


Raw Salmon = "Sake" as well.  It's all in how you pronounce it.

"Sushi" means vinegar rice (not raw fish).  And it's that vinegar that makes the flavor so special.




If you're considering going gluten/wheat-free, know that soy sauce has wheat in it, but there are non-wheat soy sauces available now.

Okay, that's all you get for now.  I'm gonna finish munching on these edamames and pretend I have sushi too. ^_^


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[Somewhere, there's someone saying; "Well now, that's not witty at all!"]



2 comments:

  1. Okay, these are so fun to read. Your mind works a LOT like mine! :) (scary, but fun)

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  2. I would much rather have the mint ice cream, thank you.

    ReplyDelete