Weekend Report (Ethiopfneh!)

On Sunday for lunch, I had Ethiopian food for lunch with B. We got a vegetarian platter for two, seen above. I was introduced to this cuisine years ago, and I really liked it, the spicy flavors, the weird consistencies, the practice of eating everything with soft spongy flat bread instead of utensils. I had many early dates with Ethiopian food, to see how the women reacted. The NY Times had an article recently explaining why African food in general has never taken off in NYC, despite the fact there are more Africans here than all Asians of different ethnic groups (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc) combined. I remember taking my friend from England to Ethiopian and her being shocked by a platter of 'baby sick'. I took my parents, who I had previously introduced to Indian, Thai and regional Italian food, of which they all loved -- Ethiopian, they turned a little green.

So it pains me to say that I think I don't like Ethiopian food anymore. In school, I'm learning not just how to cook but how to eat, too. For what reasons does food become thought of as 'good'? Unthought about, you can go strictly on emotional ties and the nutritional value. But now I'm thinking, ugh, there is no variety of texture on this plate, the injera isn't nearly as fresh as it could be, the spices of the two different looking things are way to similar, but not complementary, the kale is oversalted, the cabbage is undersalted and the stuff should not be soaking the platter with oil. FNEH!

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 7pm, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, ginger, blueberries, cherries, grapes, kiwi, good milk, good yogurt. Had to make another vegan smoothie while this sat, and when I got back to it, its beautiful pink color turned a weird light-cement brown. Still delicious.

AM SNACKS:8:30am, pretzels, chocolate vegan cookie thing, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACKS: 11am, pretzels, chocolate vegan thingie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 1pm, fries, cherry ice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bad food at Asbury Park. The birds would fly really close to the HVS's head and snap up fries thrown in the air.

LINNER: 4:30pm, bad fried fish sandwich on puffy white roll, small bag of chips, 2 cans of beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, beet pasta with talegio cream sauce and pears, 2 meat balls, mint chocolate chip ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
When I got home from riding along beaches all day, was going to go out for Ethiopian but B had fallen asleep. Tempted to order a Chinese brick but when I went into the fridge, remembered I was a culinary student who is wearhousing some really good food in the fridge and freezer....

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:15am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up hungry, always a good thing.

AM SNACK: 11:45pm, chocolate bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry, lazy, easy in. It just kinda jumped out of the wrapper and down my throat.

LUNCH: 1pm, Ethiopian vegetarian platter, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 6pm, samples of 8 different sausages, 1 piece of dark bread with quark cheese, one dark beer, .75 bowl
It was the last day of Sausage Week at Blau Gans, so I shared a multi-tiered sausage platter with a close friend of mine and close friend of B's who I suspect were hitting it off quite well. It's hard not to think of sexy-times when eating a huge platter of sausages. I left when they started their second drink.

EVENING DRINK: 7:30pm, 1 dark beer
Another bar with Cousin J, who is leaving soon and had to celebrate/commiserate with some of her friends.