Weird Foods But No Chicken Feet

For the first time in the years since I noticed its existence, yesterday I went to the Tai Li Asian foods grocery store. I found pre-fried tofu, not wanting to try frying it myself as I haven't figured out the proper technique. I was looking for Kombu, the sea vegetable mentioned in cookbooks for making cooked beans come out tasty and tender.

There was a surprising number of varieties of dried seaweeds available, as well as dried chilies and dried sea creatures, and so on. I asked the proprietor for Kombu, but he did not recognize the name. I did buy a package I found towards the back, which answered the description of flat leaves. When I took it home and showed Pearl she said, yes, that's Kombu. Yes!

Just cooked some beans in the pressure cooker, still a relatively new process to me, and working on some beets [they're off the heat.] Will see if the beans taste any differently with the Kombu.

The first time I went to an Asian market in my old neighborhood, trying not to look like the curious white geek that I am, the gross-out item was chicken feet. I learned many years later that in China, at least, they are fried and sold on trains [along with duck feet] as a snack, similar to the pork rinds concept.

One year we took our troop of Junior Girl Scouts on a field trip to the Lincoln District of 38th Street in Tacoma, looking at Weird Asian Foods such as little packages of wet jelly-like candies and so forth. We ended up at the Vien Dong Vietnamese Restaurant eating egg rolls; both recognizable and affordable for a troop of girls. I think it was one of the best activities we did with them.

Later yesterday as I shopped at the Fred Meyer in the Natural Foods section, reading labels and seeing that the interesting chik'n [fake chicken] patties actually contain egg yokes, I felt like a foreigner in my own land. [When the Cambodian refugees first arrived, unable to read English, they had to wonder what was sold in jars with pictures of babies on them.] I conceived the idea of an alien confronted with the odd concept of eating animal products. They're so pervasive. I'm not "there yet" but the idea of eating meat and dairy products is becoming progressively stranger as time goes by.

Coda:Leeks All Week/ Soup For Sniffles

I didn't have that much of a runny nose, but I liked the alliteration.

I ate that Aphus of the Glaphus soup all week. It kept getting better; by the end of the week I was adding a carrot, mushrooms, and stirring in an entire bag of spinach [funny how spinach just melts into a soup] and adding lime at the end, even sweeter than lemons. I was using not just 3-4 but eight or nine cloves of garlic. And kept on with the delicious buckwheat noodles. Just better and better. Grating all that garlic and chopping all those onions cleared out my sinuses well.

Enayat loved it too.

Back to work with only a weaker voice than usual, still a bit feverish, a few sneezes, but not such a sore throat and less of a cough.

Don't worry, it can't be caught online.

Hot Aphus of the Glaphus Soup

Felled by a cold. Yesterday I worked sick. I slept in too late to give two hours notice calling in, and knew that staffing is hard anyway on a weekend. So here I am sick on my day off. Phooey.
Whenever my maternal grandfather was ill he had "some kind of aphus of the glaphus."

I made soup with all the best healing ingredients: garlic, onion, lemon and so on.

Hot Aphus of the Glaphus Soup:

3-4 cloves garlic, grated--as much garlic as you can stand
1 cubic inch ginger root, grated
one entire onion, chopped
one leek, chopped
a sprinkle of dill, coriander
two tablespoons miso
two bundles of Japanese wheat and buckwheat noodles
5 cups water
juice from one lemon
salt to taste

Saute the garlic, onion, and ginger root in olive oil, then add water [gently] and leek. Bring to boil, stir in dill and coriander, miso and noodles. Simmer until noodles are soft. Turn off heat and stir in lemon juice, fishing out the lemon seeds that fall in. Salt to taste. Good for what ails you.

Me and Rosie

Two major triumphs for my blog, for a technosaur such as myself: Pearl helped me load photos from our trip to Neah Bay onto my computer, and place the photo of Arlene with Rosie the Sekiu Salmon as my photo. No more shadowy head profile! She also helped me complete the process with sitemeter which will now show accurately my adoring hundreds or thousands ; > of readers, rather than periodically sending me an email with "visits to site: 0," which was somewhat disheartening.

I'm considering actually posting photos, which I have mixed feelings about. I like my text to speak for itself, but photos do add a lot of richness and I know lots of people like to see colors and images on a blog. I remember my initial disappointment with adult books which were not illustrated, until I realized that the images I formed in my mind were pretty good, too.

Guess I'll think about that on the rest of my second day off.

Yay for Pearl!

Leaves and Branches

We attended Feast yesterday evening at Jefferson Park in Tacoma, in the traditional south end of the park beneath the two trees. Usually at least once every summer, Feast, usually held in homes, is held in this park. The Bulletin advertised this as a potluck, so I tried out my pressure cooker to make beans and a dish called Coriander Carrots, from the cookbook by Lorna J. Sass, which I served together over brown rice. I was the only person who knew it was a potluck.

The weather, which has been warm all summer, turned cool and breezy last night, so that by the end of Feast we were quite chilled. I was happy to have a nutritious dish to serve, along with the hostess' nutritious and delicious zucchini bread.

We sat in a circle of chairs, reading from Baha'i Writings and prayers, people I have known for many years, and some I have just met, a circle of unity. Then I looked up and saw the branches of the trees intertwined overhead, so that it was impossible to distinguish which branches and leaves belonged to which trees, although the trunks were far apart on the ground.

It seemed to me that this was our unity, that we "eat with the same mouth"; the unity of the early believers in Iran who never knew whose cloak or shoes they donned before going out of the house to teach.

I'm Here, Aren't I

One of the techniques in long term care for administrative staff to keep "control", consciously or not, is to keep staff off balance by making changes and threatening people's positions. "Homeland" just announced a "Staffing Model Adjustment." Currently there are a charge nurse and two medication nurses [plus a treatment nurse straddling both shifts] for both day and evening shift. The plan is to have two charge nurses work twelve hour shifts together during the day, and leave the evening shift after 8 PM [a busy time] bereft of their charge nurse.

It was also announced that current charge nurses, such as myself, are required to reapply for their positions. For nearly four years I have worked my tail off perfecting my skills, and getting the work done as efficiently as possible. It would seem I have proven myself in this position. Now I am required to reapply.

I asked the DNS if she was trying to get rid of me, and what reapplying would look like, and was instructed to write a "letter of interest." Here is my letter of interest:

"At 'Homeland' the charge nurses are privileged to work with the finest professionals in the field, and the bedrock of nursing care--our nursing assistants. We also serve together with some of the most caring, passionate, experienced and well-trained nurses in Pierce County. We are all selflessly devoted in our service to one common cause: the comfort, healing, recovery and wholeness of the residents and families entrusted to our care.

This is my Letter of Interest: that I am here.

'Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.'

~Baha'u'llah.

Sincerely,

Arlene Sobhani,
Registered Nurse"

Immerse Yourselves

United Spiritual Gathering Councilfire Part 3:

Part of my attraction to the ocean, the reason I don't want to live in Montana or somewhere away from the ocean, is looking out to an apparently infinite horizon. It's very relaxing. I also, though not a great swimmer, like to wade in up to my waist or so and let the incoming waves hit me. I got to wade in the ocean on Saturday at Neah Bay.

The ocean is cold, and wading out takes some fortitude, but in about ten minutes my legs become numb, and I can stay out for awhile, letting the waves come in. [Later I need some hours to thaw out, sitting in my great solar collector, the car, or in the tent.] There's a sense of purification about the waves. Usually any emotional pain I've been having comes to the forefront; this year I wasn't feeling so much. I'm speculating that, rather than some deep well of emotional pain that I carry sloshing around, pain is something that used to be continually created by bad relationships.

Another person was out in the waves a few yards away. I saw her turn her back, and was thinking that I wouldn't turn my back to such a powerful force. I would be focusing my attention on it. This led to a meditation on devoting myself to Baha'u'llah in whatever occupation I find myself.

"Immerse yourselves in the ocean of My words, that you may unravel its secrets, and discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths. " ~ Baha'u'llah