BiLOLogy: The taxonomy and phylogeny of Occlupanids

The Holotypic Occlucanid Reseseach Group has undertaken an ambitious effort to classify and phylogenize a recently discovered set of organisms dubbed Occlupanids, more commonly known as "Bread Bag Clips."

http://www.horg.com/horg/intro.html

Their work is nothing short of impressive, and their initial publications show a remarkable amount of attention to detail with regard to the anatomy and methodology of classification. Truly fantastic.

IRL: Take home exam due thursday. Ramen tour writeup coming. Will do writeup during study breaks. (LolFailEdit)

Eating out was expensive, but delicious.

So, I've recently had the privilege of being able to spend a large portion of my christmas money on various and sundry meals about NYC. Apparently, I'm one of few doing such an imprudent thing.

There's been two places I've had really good food.

1) Daisy May's BBQ: Best BBQ in the city, three years in a row, so they and Zagat say. I'd have to agree. Their pork ribs are tender, but not squishy, and they have an excellent, excellent rub that they put on both types of their ribs. Smoky, meaty, spiced, and with a lot of meat to the rib, it was a good buy for a half rack, bourbon peaches, and mashed potatoes with red eye gravy. I went with a bunch of friends and we managed to get 2/3 of their sides between us. We missed out on cole slaw (Not something I'd get anyway), creamed spinach, and beans (which I really, really wanted to try).

Of the sides, I was really disapointed in the dirty rice and beans. I was expecting a proper dirty rice, something with bits of leftover ground pork or beef or chicken bits (meat and/or liver and other organs), but I ended up with a fairly unimpressive rice+beans+peppers. Kind of feh.

The cornbread fell a little short too. It was dry and didn't have any of the kick that I was expecting from a "spicy" corn bread. Then again, I'm a little desensitized to spice, so it might just be an oversight, especially considering the tastiness of the ribs and other sides

The peaches were great (sweet, a little buttery, with a very pleasant tang), as were the mashed potatoes, and the corn was definitely a unique set of flavors. Corn, cheesy, peppery. It was a nice side, and added a touch of creaminess to a smoky meal.

I have to applaud them on their sweet tea. Wwith fresh mint, it was a decidedly refreshing counterpoint to a meal rich with savory and smoky flavors. If I could get the mason jar of tea again, though, I'd take the mint out halfway down the jar. It makes the tea a little astringentand overminty once there's not a lot of tea left. 

2)Kyotofu: Excellent dessert, decent tapas, lots of tofu. The restaurant by looks not unlike a tapas bar. Dim, atmospheric, upscale, looking, the place does a really unique set of desserts. In a sense, it's not at all unlike Chikalicious, a second favorite, in that the desserts are high-end, slightly gimmicky, but extremely delicious. 

In my first try, I had their soymilk soft serve sundae, which was a fairly standard vanilla/chocolate swirl garnished with Mochi and served with a side of mixed berry compote and kuromitsu (japanese brown sugar) whipped cream. It was not unlike a regular sundae, but with a slightly heartier feel and slightly more complex palate than regular ice cream, with relaly really good toppings.

I went again last night and I had a chance to try some of their tapas. I didn't find them extraordinary, but they certianly were tasty and deifnitely uniquely presented. I had a 4 sampler of Lotus Root, Smoked Salmon Onigiri, Unagi in Phyllo, and a Curry Puff. I found all but the Unagi tasty. The unagi was suprisingly fishy, or at least the piece that I had was kind of much. I didn't really sense any major flavor differences once I bit into the bit of sansho pepper, Overall, the tapas were pretty good, but a little pricey (really, 4 dollars for a Beard Papa cream puff-sized curry puff?)

Their strawberry shortcake is probably the uniquely presented dessert I've eaten. In essence, it's presented like a Strawberry Shortcaketini,  Base layer of shansho-spiced shotycake, one layer of tofu cream, sorbet, strawberries, and some gelatin. In a sense, it's a lighter version of the classic strawberry shortcake. Less cream, more fruit, better presentation (though, that's not to say I  dislike the clean, This Is Cake look that a wedge of strawbery shortcake has.) It's nice, but the cake itself is kind of dense. It's got a nice peppery finish to it, with a good creaminess and strong strawberry flavor. It's good, but I'm not sure if it's worth the 12 dollar price tag.

Overall, Kyotofu has very well-executed desserts. I think some feel a little lacking, but their use of ingredients is typically above reproach. I have yet to try everything, truthfully, and I would like to get around to eating their soft tofu, since it's their signature dish. Still, it's a good place to try something more extraordinary than standard dessert fare.

What next? Dunno. I might try something vegetarian, or scout out a decent Indian restaurant that's not Indian alley, and not overpriced. Or, I might go on a crusade to find cheap Korean in Manhattan.

I still have htat burger tour of mine to design, and someday, I'll write about Ramen Tour NYC Version 0.1.

All the things I needed to know, I learned at the farmer's market.

I've always enjoyed farmers markets a whole lot. The very idea of taking local (or regional) produce, and selling it where it can't normally be accessed is a capital idea. Though, for me there's always been two problems with them.

Price. Location.

So, it's just my luck that on the first Wednesday at school I run into a small, but well-stocked farmer's market right in front of my school. That solves the location issue.

The two mainstays of this particular market (99th and Madison) are Mignorelli (Tivoli, NY) and Breezy Hill Orchard (Staatsburg, NY), both about 100 miles north of the city, in NY.

Mignorelli is most obviously a greens farm, providing a good abundance of chards, collards, and root vegetables, including radish, carrot, and numerous other bulbous turnip analogues. They even deal in lettuce and salad greens, putting them in large styrofoam containers. toward the front is a variety of fruit, plums, peaches, apricots in the summer.

Breezy Hill seems more like a bakery than an orchard/cider mill. Half the stall is assorted pies, pastries and cookies (and the requisite apple cider donuts), the other half is large wooden crates filled with a variety of fruit (seasonal orchard fruit).

It's a rather underwhelming market, but it's got a good selection. There's usually a third seller (whose name I didn't catch), and on occasion, I'd catch a fourth, though they vary depending on season (the last one was concord grapes from the Niagara region).

Really, the farmer's market was a nice alternative to the usual produce I get from the local Associated, and lacking the unreasonable price bumping for mediocre goods (instead getting the standard higher price for local-ish food). The price aspect is, in aprt solved by a special program Sinai has with the greenmarket. Every Wednesday, students and staff are eligible to get $2 off anything at the market. It's pretty sweet, considering the quality of the produce there. 

As per the things I ended picking up from each:

Mignorelli: Donuts, Collards, Carrots, Chard.

All of these were fresh and delicious. The donuts were actually pretty good, though not apple-y at all (surprise surprise). I was actually kind of surprised to find a little grren caterpillar in with my collards the first time I bought them. I was a little grossed out, but not surprised, since they grow their stuff without pesticides. I was kind of charming. I let the little fellow play around on one of th ecollard branches before I set it free in Central Park.

Breezy Hill: Apples, apples, apples, and oh, did I mention apples? Also, apple cider.

At this market, the gallon of cider for 5 bucks is the best deal. I regularly indulged every week, and cleared out my gallon of cider by the end of the weekend. I mulled it regularly using the mulling spice blend from Penzey's. Good stuff.

Apples: I picked up a few varieties, but I was msot impressed by the Camille apples that they had. I'm normally no fan of raw apples at all, but these were fantastic. Softer skin, very juicy, a little tart, a little sweet, it was the best kind of apple I've had so far. It's a meh cooking apple (due largely to the enormous water content), but it's great with a little honey, or straight off the core.

The Market's gone now, but at the very least I stocked up on enough cider to last me for... two weeks.

orz

Pocky and Dew don't count as a meal.

So, News. Lots.

Med school is a bust. I got interviews at NYCOM and UBuffalo Medical, but neither of them panned out (Waitlist with no result and Rejection, respectively.

Instead, I'm taking my hand at a Master's in Biomedical Sciences at Mt. Sinai. It's research. No, I don't really like LIKE research, but given how things have gone, I think that might be less about the pursuit of new knowledge and more the sum of a rather mediocre to bad set of experiences in the field.

So, I'm back in school, and I've been doing well. Well enough. 

What does this mean for the blog? Well...

I dunno. I think there's still a lot of food out there, and now that I'm in the heart of NYC, I can actually start getting some primo stuff. I can't cook with it, seeing as my time is limited and the lab is demanding and the course work is pivotal and money is tight. The dog is in the kennel, over. (GO! GO! GO!) 

Still, there's cooking to be done, and a new way to do it. I'll try to update, and when I do, it'll be about good food that's easy to make, or about good food that's easy to buy. Regardless, it'll still be about food.

Dinner tonight is the post title. I have a midterm on Monday. I'm having a wonderful pairing of regular Pocky with a lovely 2008 Rosée De La Montagne in the quiet and comfy Levy Library.

Cheers!

Edit: I'm still bad a proofreading. orz

Breaking a promise, but making a point.

I know I promised myself and others that I'd lay off of the relationship heavy stuff, since this is strictly a blog about food and procrastinating, but this has been something on the mind of a close friend who recently broke up with hers, (and hence, sort of on my mind) and is slightly relevant (I think) to my own life at the moment.

Plus, I did this instead of writing MOAR ESSAYS (Also small update. Hold status from Upstate, and only 7 more to go, DO AND MD.

This is a slightly modified version of my response to this article that she posted on her community site (i.e. Myspace, Facebook, etc.).

For the e-mail folk, I'm sorry for the multiple edits. I'm terrible at proofreading for clarity.
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I'm inclined to agree in part with the article, as it goes along the lines of a central idea of "In all things, moderation." It's something we see in all parts of life, and love and affection are hardly an exception.

A proper relationship of any kind requires that both people be able to respect each other's boundaries and needs. Friends often fall apart because someone's too nosy, or too brash, unkind, or too clingy. Relationships can self destruct because it feels more like a chore to be with someone than a fantastic thing in itself

In a romantic relationship, that's a lot harder because people are de facto closer together. They share more, they're more emotionally invested, they... do more with greater meaning because everything is so tied together. Being capable of autonomy in a relationship means being able to step back and NOT be so entrenched in someone else that any form of separation is painful.

It's about being realistic, and it's maintaining individuality and autonomy even when it feels like you can pour your all into someone else. Some of the scariest relationships I've seen are when people say that "X is my all," and instead of celebrating them, they submit to them. It's a functional relationship, but that doesn't make it fulfilling, or even morally correct.

As much as a relationship is a union, it is a union of two unique, though similar elements. As much as the yin and yang create a circle, the yin-yang is also representative of two disparate elements containing an element of the other within them (The dichotomous Animus and Anima, if we're to be Jungian). To push the analogy further, the yin-yang is a symbol of balance as much as it is one of unity. Neither takes up more than the other, and neither dominates the other, instead fitting neatly in equal proportions.

One of the most important things I learned coming off my relationship was that I held my then girlfriend too close, and read too much into everything. I overreacted a lot because she was too precious to me, and relied on her too much to see me through things I should have taken on my own. Relationships can make us stronger, but they also leave open the possibility of leaning on people when we shouldn't, and expecting of them things we should never ask them to shoulder.

In a relationship, it's important to be close, but as a protein's function is enabled by its shape, as a molecule is held together by its bonds, there is only so much space everything can take up, and only so much distance everything can share before it flies apart by its own forces.

-----------
Most of me is posting this because I really like the analogy at the end. Part of me is posting this because it's got subtleties that I like, but only when juxtaposed with comments from others on the source entry. Part of me is posting this as a medal of my own growth and retro- and introspection. Just a little part of me is posting this in hopes that a specific someone I know will see it, and will perhaps clear up something I feel is important. Or, it could make things worse. It usually does. ^^

Slacking, Trader Joe's, Slacking, Hummus, Slacking, AMCAS woohoo

So there's been a lot going on in my life application and other stuff-wise.

Foodwise, it's been pretty tame. haven't been baking, roasting, or cookin' outside of the occasional boring casserole, stir-fry, curry or pasta dish that I stuff my face with every evening.

I picked up a cold two weeks ago, then got rid of it, and decided that i needed to reenter the real world to make sure I didn't step into a dystopian future wherein my cold became some sort of horrible bioweapon, and I managed to become the inverse of patient zero.

Plus, a new Trader Joe's opened up by where I live, and I wanted to get in on it.

I picked up some Chicken sausage (mushroom and herb), frozen artichoke hearts, honey, a jar of organic sauce, "Hawaiian Style" potato chips, a wedge of fontina, boxed chicken stock, organic pasta, one bar of valrhona bittersweet chocolate, a jar of pesto, mini pitas and hummus.

One of the more frustrating things I find about shopping in Large Chain Supermarkets is that the organic markup is HUEG, and usually they lack things that matter.

Hummus for example. I hate store hummus; I have since I was little.

I'll grant the folk that know me that I was a picky eater when I was young. (and sometimes still am, but for a totally different reason). I didn't like condments, anything colored black or brown, non-cabbage lineage vegetables or anything that remotely smelled: sour, spicy, curry, chocolatey, pickled, or fermented. Granted, it's not a terrible list but it was enough to make life difficult for my parents, who love things like Kimchee, pickled mustard greens, and eat spicy food like it was a vital component of their blood, lest they collapse and die from a lack of capsicin in their GI tract at any given time.

Hummus has the distinction of being one of these foods, but for a reason completely different from the above. It doesn't smell sour, or fermented, and unless someone decided to make some sort of diabololical hummus laced with pepper spray, definiely not spicy. Had I the chance to eat a proper hummus growing up, I would have loved it, and become much more annoyed at supermarkets much earlier.

Normal store-bought hummus has preservatives in it. Sodium Benzoate and citric acid to be exact.

As an aside, I know "Preservatives" is a big scary word in some people's minds. It's only becuase of their common use as "synthetic preservatives" (and even that's an arguable thing) that makes them associate it with cancer and mummification, and all manner of awful, horrible things, like chemical plants that make the surrounding areas smell like rubber cement for miles and miles, but not all of them are bad. Those are primarily relegated to the realm of nitrates, sulfates, and some benzoate compounds, which do actually make some nasty things in the wrong combinations. However, salt, sugar, oils, and good old Al Keehaul are technically preservatives, and aren't really all that horrible in and of themselves (unless you're diabetic, or have hypertension, cardiac, or alcoholism issues, respectively). Citric acid is a chemical found in, whoa, citrus that does a good job of preventing discoloration and funky oxidization of food.

Store bought hummus is actually pretty horrible, I think. There's a certain unpleasant tang to it, and almost harsh acidity that really makes me not want to eat it, and I notice it only ever happens when there are ever the duo of citric acid and sodium benzoate.

The latter of the two chemicals only works in environments with a pH of less than 3.6 (Starting at 7, Lower pH= more sour), while the former actually contributes to the sour flavor, which explains why I found the stuff so unpleasant. Store hummus HAS to be that sour, otherwise it just doesn't preserve that well. The other problem is that citric acid imparts a sort of dull, blanketing tartness that, when combined with the lemon simply runs over the more subtle flavors like a giddy steamroller operator over a family of cute, delicate, baby [insert cute mammal here]. For me, it's like someone put A chickpea on my tongue then mashed me over the head using a sledgehammer with a lemon on the receiving end.

Unpreserved store hummus commits the same crime of being a little too tart, mostly because I think that's how people are used to it. However, it seems that the absence of those two chemicals let some of the more subtle flavors of the chickpeas and tahini shine through, however small. It's like the aforementioned chickpea and sledgehammer situation, but instead of severe citrus-based cranial trauma, I have the luxury of having my knees kicked in by a midget in a lemon costume instead.

I realized this because within a one day span I came from absolutely hating hummus, to realizing that it was a fantastically tasty food, but horribly marred by the act of food preservation. The first hummus I liked was one that my sis bought from a Whole Foods in Chicago, wholly lacking in preservatives. Many years, much more hummus, some research, and one patently obvious logical deduction later, I figured it out.

Of course, the best stuff, fresh/homemade hummus, doesn't even require you to make it that sour, meaning that the stuff actually tastes like chickpeas and tahini, unless you're into that sort of stuff (Like my mother, who does things like eat lime juice straight from the wedge and smile.)

Back to application junk. I've been slacking off a lot lately; this is partly because I've been spending my days shaking off a cold, but also because there's no looming deadline at the moment, so I'm working leisurely on my essays. I should be done with the next bits by the end of the week, and most definitely by the 15th.

The great news, of course is that my AMCAS is done, and by definition so is my essay. Huzzah. Thanks to the folk that helped. What's next is pretty simpel and straightforward here. At this point, I recycle my old AMCAS essay and adapt it to my AACOM (D.O. school admission) primary and ship that off with 5 school choices or so. Shiny.

Edits: If you haven't noticed by now, I'm really bad at getting this stuff right the first time. Forgive me. Alternately, you can hunt me down and force me to put the effort into getting it right, most likely at knifepoint. Just make sure it's a chef, paring, or slicing knife, otherwise I'll smack you for not being ironic enough.

Mushroom, Mushroom: Lucky chance! Power Oak Tumble!

I live off a boulevard, near a really big park that's basically a small forest. There's a lot of trees around here, and in some attempt to make the area look greenish and friendly, trees are often planted along islands int he road. The boulevard I live off of has a lot of really nice oak trees. I woke up on Tuesday to find that a tree had fallen down in front of my house.



It looked like it was hit by a car, judging from fairly large scattering of window glass, and might have even caught fire at some point. You can see the inside is kind of rotted out at the base of the trunk, but for the most part the wood further up the tree is actually pretty okay.

So anyway, There were a few loose cut logs outside the yellow tape, and being entrepreneurial and an innate scrounger, I took one of them.

So, stories about fallen trees and scrounging wood are boring. The reason why I was completely elated at this opportunity is because it allows me to do a home science experiment.

I want to grow mushrooms, but instead of doing it with the pre-inoculated 30 dollar kit, I decided to do it the old-fashioned way; gill inoculated farming.

The methodology seems simple enough. Take some wood-loving mushrooms, cut out a section of their gills, and stuff them into the wood with a small amount of sawdust and seal them up. Keep moist, wait 6 months and watch for mycelium formation at the ends. Shock however and watch fruiting.

It's probably not gonna work, but I wanna try anyway, 'cause essays are dumb, and I wanted to do something involving sharp, pointy tools.

So I got to work on a 4 foot log I liberated from the whole mess and cut it into smaller chunks, with a little nub leftover to try doing a test log. I have three 15 inch-ish chunks and a 6 inch chunk.

Sawing logs is hard work, whoever thought of making the analogy to sleep based on the sound should be shot for not thinking it through.

I'm fortunate enough to have just about everything I need to get this done. There's an old drill in the basement, and a good chinese market up the road and then some where I could pick up fresh shiitake. I picked up a drill bit today, and decided to give it a shot on the small log to see if I could do the very basics. In about a month or two, I'll probably give it another go on the larger logs if this one isn't a complete failure. It'll also give me time to maybe grow some spawn in some of the sawdust I got from all that sawing.

I got just enough sawdust to pick up a few ounces of vomit. I'll save it for the next gnome kegger or for when there's a really really tiny snowstorm hits my front yard.

I didn't have enough batteries for the camera at this point, but the setup is simple. In the side of the log, I drilled holes 1 inch deep along the side. After each hole, I rotated the log about 45-60 degrees and drilled another hole about an inch to the left or right. I repeated this until I came full circle. If you're making another helix, holes on the same line should be about 6 inches apart. I did mine only about 4 inches away mostly becuase I didn't have enough log.

Prior to use I used 70% isopropanol to sterilize the sawdust, the chopstick and any work areas before I did the inoculations. There's not much can do for aseptic technique without a bunsen burner or autoclave.

I cut pieces of mushroom that contain the gills and any other structures that might trap spores. Unfortunately, the spores are white, like the gills, so it was hard to know if I had spores or not. Using a chopstick, I stuffed them pieces into the holes, then added sawdust and packed it fairly tightly. I used candle wax to seal it up, as that was the only thing available to me.

And there it is. Mushroom Log Zero. Not pretty, and there's absolutely no guarantee it'll work, but it's done. All I have to do is water it every few days and hope it doesn't grow anything but shiitake mycelia.

Concurrently, I'll be using the sterilized sawdust to try and grow some spawn from spores. It's not likely, but I'll see what i can get in about a month.

And yes, I was humming the log song throughout this whole adventure.