I don't have any pictures. Nor do I have any baked good. Hell -- I don't even have any food to post about. Today, I just wanted to write.
Its been a while since anything has inspired me. I haven't gotten excited about food, haven't had any wild cravings, and I haven't even had much of an appetite. If food is in front of me, I'll eat it. But it's nothing extraordinary.
Suffice it to say, when a spark of inspiration hit today (twice actually!) I wanted to jump right on it. The first was using leftover mashed potatoes and creating a croquette. Mind you, I've never made a croquette before, nor did I remember that I had put all sorts of delicious goodies INTO my mashed potatoes (like cheese). These...did not turn out. They disintegrated into my oil and I was left with a very gooey mess. Ah well. nbd.
The second was a bit more planned. Due to recent events I've been feeling quite lonely; some may even say that I am homesick. Weird, because technically, I am the one at 'home', but I was homesick nonetheless. I started looking up recipes for Filipino foods that I haven't made and found promising recipes for Lumpia, Pancit and Tocino. If you know anything about Filipino culture, you might think Im crazy. These dishes are some of the most popular dishes from our culture and I've never even attempted to make them!
So off I went to the land of food -- the grocery store. I remember my mom getting everything she needed from our local market whenever we were in a pinch so I didn't think twice about heading to mine. Now, I'm not talking about a mom and pop grocery store -- I went to a fairly large chain for my area. So, much to my disbelief, I had to leave the grocery store only partially fulfilled. They stocked cabbage, carrots, snap peas, sure. But the second I tried to buy anything Filipino -- no -- the second I try to buy anything Asian, I was hit with a wall of realization. They had ONE aisle -- no...let me rephrase. They had ONE side of ONE aisle for anything and everything deemed 'international'. Half the section was reserved for Hispanic ingredients, a quarter for Italian, and the other quarter for both Asian and Jewish food.
fine. they dont have a big selection -- whats the big deal??
No. It's not that they didn't have a 'big selection'. It's that they had NO selection. Half of the Asian section was nothing but various soy sauces and vinegars. There was a section filled with a few small bags of jasmine rice, and the rest was nothing but Top Ramen and instant noodles.
Wut. the. f*ck.
How is it that the international section a grocery store (in LA of all places) is this....what's the word...empty? Sad? disappointing? lack luster? useless? pathetic? All of the above?
And hence, my rant. How is this even possible? It felt like somebody knocked the wind out of me. It's 2017. In America. In California. In Los Angeles. 15% of your population is Asian and all you can give them is an eighth of an aisle. Wait, lemme back up a bit and not even talk about Asians -- Hispanics and Latinos make up 50% of our population, and they only get a quarter of an aisle?!
again. Wut. the F8ck.
Needless to say, my inspiration to cook has dwindled and has been replaced by anger and disappointment in my neighborhood.
*sigh* I just needed some damn rice noodles...
Its been a while since anything has inspired me. I haven't gotten excited about food, haven't had any wild cravings, and I haven't even had much of an appetite. If food is in front of me, I'll eat it. But it's nothing extraordinary.
Suffice it to say, when a spark of inspiration hit today (twice actually!) I wanted to jump right on it. The first was using leftover mashed potatoes and creating a croquette. Mind you, I've never made a croquette before, nor did I remember that I had put all sorts of delicious goodies INTO my mashed potatoes (like cheese). These...did not turn out. They disintegrated into my oil and I was left with a very gooey mess. Ah well. nbd.
The second was a bit more planned. Due to recent events I've been feeling quite lonely; some may even say that I am homesick. Weird, because technically, I am the one at 'home', but I was homesick nonetheless. I started looking up recipes for Filipino foods that I haven't made and found promising recipes for Lumpia, Pancit and Tocino. If you know anything about Filipino culture, you might think Im crazy. These dishes are some of the most popular dishes from our culture and I've never even attempted to make them!
So off I went to the land of food -- the grocery store. I remember my mom getting everything she needed from our local market whenever we were in a pinch so I didn't think twice about heading to mine. Now, I'm not talking about a mom and pop grocery store -- I went to a fairly large chain for my area. So, much to my disbelief, I had to leave the grocery store only partially fulfilled. They stocked cabbage, carrots, snap peas, sure. But the second I tried to buy anything Filipino -- no -- the second I try to buy anything Asian, I was hit with a wall of realization. They had ONE aisle -- no...let me rephrase. They had ONE side of ONE aisle for anything and everything deemed 'international'. Half the section was reserved for Hispanic ingredients, a quarter for Italian, and the other quarter for both Asian and Jewish food.
fine. they dont have a big selection -- whats the big deal??
No. It's not that they didn't have a 'big selection'. It's that they had NO selection. Half of the Asian section was nothing but various soy sauces and vinegars. There was a section filled with a few small bags of jasmine rice, and the rest was nothing but Top Ramen and instant noodles.
Wut. the. f*ck.
How is it that the international section a grocery store (in LA of all places) is this....what's the word...empty? Sad? disappointing? lack luster? useless? pathetic? All of the above?
And hence, my rant. How is this even possible? It felt like somebody knocked the wind out of me. It's 2017. In America. In California. In Los Angeles. 15% of your population is Asian and all you can give them is an eighth of an aisle. Wait, lemme back up a bit and not even talk about Asians -- Hispanics and Latinos make up 50% of our population, and they only get a quarter of an aisle?!
again. Wut. the F8ck.
Needless to say, my inspiration to cook has dwindled and has been replaced by anger and disappointment in my neighborhood.
*sigh* I just needed some damn rice noodles...