FoodNerd!

mood cure

How much of mood can be attributed plain and simple to vitamin deficiency? I just had a weird and sudden attack of the Oh My God Everything Is Pointless and Can't I Just Go Watch TV blues.

Trying really hard not to eat my way out of it, I went and took a multivitamin and a fish oil capsule, and half an hour later I am feeling significantly better (though I still kind of want to curl up and watch a couple hours of Tony Bourdain). Last night I drank one of those energy/vitamin packets and had a similar rise in energy and willingness to deal with my fellow humans.

I always assume that because I eat a varied diet full of vegetables and proteins that I'm unlikely to be deficient in anything particular, but I am really starting to wonder now.

I never remember to take the damn vitamins though they are right out on the kitchen counter. Morning head is a problem for me. Maybe I should bring the bottles up and sit 'em on my desk near the computer, so when I get all mopey and unfocused I can immediately squash the problem with NUTRIENTS.

lawdy, why am i so HUNGRY?

OK, granted, I did actually exercise for 45 minutes or so this morning, but why am I on constant hunger alert today? I ate granola and yogurt and black tea for breakfast right after the workout, then brown rice and smoked salmon and broccoli for lunch, plus some dark chocolate when I was still hungry afterward, and then some leftover chicken hash with turnips and sweet potatoes because I was hungry AGAIN two hours later, and now again two hours later I am STILL HUNGRY. I am drinking water, even. Healthy food, reasonable portions, lots of fiber and protein. WTF?

Sigh. I am going to go drink some more water.

another reason I love the internet

LOST characters explain how to make a sandwich. Awesome.

winter fruit treat

A friend makes a cranberry-orange relish at Thanksgiving that is to die for, and all she does is throw cranberries and oranges in the food processor to chowder them up. So good!

And I had a handful of leftover cranberries from the last upside-down cake, and one lingering clementine, so I figured I'd just grind 'em up and eat them with something. But the pork roast I envisioned is getting delayed by all the other leftovers in the house, so I threw some of my ground-up goodness into some yogurt with a splash of the orange syrup left over from candying oranges at Christmas.

Yum.

Matt the farm-fresh cocktail man

While in LA we went out for drinks with our pal hedge and wound up at the Library Bar in the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. Hedge met Matt the bartender at the farmer's market that morning by happenstance and when we suggested drinks she had just the place to try.

A sampling of Matt's creations:

- umami manhattan: shiitake infused Basil Hayden bourbon, bitters, italian cherry

- arugula gimlet: arugula, mint, lime, sugar, Hendrick's gin

- Last Tango in Modena: strawberries, balsamic, Hendrick's, with St. Germain foam

- vanilla Basil Hayden, ginger beer, lime, sugar, mint

- wo kaffir lime drinks.... one with cherry liqueur foam -- we'd prefer an orange foam or no foam in that one. I much preferred the kaffir lime, Hendrick's, coconut milk thing he whipped up for the folks next to us (he gave us a sample).

We got a couple tastes of his saffron vodka and fresh coconut/pineapple rum, both quite interesting and complex.

And then he whipped up a new drink on the spot based on a single phrase: Just The Tip. This ended up being a multi-part extravaganza in a nipped-waist vessel, with a 20 yr Pappy Van Winkle old fashioned in the bottom, followed by a cherry to block the narrow part of the glass, then lemon, sugar, aperol, and possibly vodka in the top section, with cherry foam on just the tip. Insane. Awesome.

tempura sifu

We went to the fancy tempura bar here in LA at the Kyoto Grand hotel, where they sit you at the bar and the tempura master brings you morsel after morsel.

The master barked orders at the waiters just like in the sushi bar scene with Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill, which we found entirely charming in its absurdity. We got a bit of sashimi and some jellyfish and mountain vegetable in sesame sauce to start, and then the parade of fried goodness began. There was a lemon wedge and some green tea salt to dip in, which I rather enjoyed as an occasional break from the delicious ponzu with daikon.

The best of them were the astonishingly tender squid and the delectable orange roughy with green onion, though I enjoyed them all, from the asparagus to the eggplant to the lotus root to the crab claw to the unagi to the shiitake. Nom nom.