This Weekend

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My whole dorm room is on a diet.

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There was some kind of party for international students on friday, and my Taiwanese roomie Antonia asked me to help her bake a cake like the blackberry one I made for Romina. She told me she wanted to add banana to it, so we mashed up some banana and put it into the cake batter. I used the same recipe as Romina's cake though. Inbetween the layers is a caramelized walnut mixed with a buttercream glaze and mushed up bananas. On top are those same candied walnuts, all cooled and hardened and two banana slices. Everyone was drooling in my dorm. We ate a big bowl of salad while staring at it... it almost felt like a weird ritualistic cult-ish meal. We didn't get to try it, but apparently it was a big hit.

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Meanwhile I've been making soups and salads non-stop. This is a chicken broth based soup. It has shrimp, broccoli, carrots, chicken, onion, garlic, mushrooms, blackbeans and potato in it. It's my mission to make our diet delicious.

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I made this for Jesse last night. It's a braised steak with a sherry-mushroom sauce. The asparagus has a peanut-curry sauce on top. Not exactly low-fat, but at least high-protein... for him! I'm trying to balance good fats with bad fats, so that's where the nuts come in. We also got two avocados that'll turn into guacamole sometime soon.

A little history

So, I'm from someplace where we eat this:

From OmNom

But I moved to Memphis when I was 4. All of my family is essentially Cajun or Creole... You could say that food is a big deal. Everyone in my family cooks. When I was in middle school, my family watched a lot of international tv and movies, mostly due to my sister's influence. The biggest influence to me food-wise was probably the food gangster from Tampopo.

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A paragon of beauty and excellence.


I already had an interest in Asia. My sister and I watched a lot of kungfu movies and anime growing up. The local Japanese restaurant, Edo, served up some pretty spectacular sushi. Especially their crunchy shrimp and louisiana rolls:

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And, our favorite chinese restaurant, Asian Palace, served what they called "Roast Pork with Wonton Noodle Soup". I learned later that this is basically "Wonton mien". Forgive the poor quality. This picture was taken several years ago with a much crappier digital camera.

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Memphis has a lot of excellent food. I like to eat well. Eating delicious food all my life has been a goal since a young age. Eating yummy food led to cooking yummy food. My dad always said, "there are those who eat to live, but we're not those people."