I'm very good with pain

[sovay]

Most of today was exhaustion and laundry. (That sounds a lot like Boober. Remind me to rewatch Fraggle Rock.) I wrote a little about politics and worked some of my job and did not think I had the wherewithal to go anywhere. Then in the late afternoon I called rushthatspeaks just as they were preparing to e-mail me and they came over with a car and the day got a lot better. The Michaels in Porter Square has, improbably, an excellent aisle of stuff for professional cake decorating. I bought a box of picture hangers from Tags and we went home to make gadon tahu (coriander-and-cumin-spiced tofu with coconut cream steamed in banana leaves) out of Andrea Nguyen's amazing Asian Tofu (2012). We had no kaffir lime leaves, but we chopped Quorn into the tofu mash for extra protein and results fed me, Rush, and gaudior more than satisfactorily. I keep calling Nguyen's recipes amazing, but I think that is really their proper epithet. We were dubious about the spice proportions as we were mixing them: too much coriander, too little cumin, too little pepper, too much salt. The garlic and the shallot seemed fine, but we'd have used more palm sugar. And then somehow it cooked out beautifully, not at all insipid and not overspiced. We used fresh ginger and a little cider vinegar to substitute for the brightness of the red chili we had to leave out and kept the sriracha on the table just in case. The banana leaves themselves are part of the flavor, tea-smelling without bitterness (or caffeine); I recognized it from sticky rice in dim sum restaurants. They turn a deep, translucent green when steamed. Honestly, thawing and cutting the leaves into the correct size for folding into little tamale-packets was the fiddliest part of the preparation. From start to finish, including the steaming, maybe forty-five minutes? I love Nguyen's book so much.

The rest of this post is a placeholder for me talking about Lexx (1997–2002). Rush showed me the first two episodes of the third season tonight. It came up in conversation; somebody thought to check Netflix. Before playing the first one, they warned me that I would hate it: that it takes a second viewing (sometimes of the same episode) for a person to develop any kind of taste for the show and their only explanation for this phenomenon is that in between the two experiences the brain must grow an extra lobe or something in order to process the indescribable weirdness that is any given episode of Lexx.

I loved the first episode I saw, but I also love Barbarella (1968) and M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract and there is nothing wrong at all with Nigel Bennett in a long black coat with a lip ring, I am just saying.

I loved the second episode, too.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Note to self (1) Parsnip Cake [this note to self does exist as a paper sticky on the side of my computer now]

(2) Andrea Nguyen's Asian Tofu (which soon also will)

[sovay]

(1) Parsnip Cake [this note to self does exist as a paper sticky on the side of my computer now]

Yay! So the cult grows.

(2) Andrea Nguyen's Asian Tofu (which soon also will)

It's a brilliant book. I've cooked out of it less than rushthatspeaks has, but my two experiences—the twice-cooked coriander tofu and the coconut tofu in banana leaf—have been straightforward, a great deal of fun to prepare, and ridiculously delicious. It's not a meat-free book, because it treats tofu as an showcase of its own, not a substitute; it is also full of great vegetarian and vegan recipes, because of the different cuisines they come from. It doesn't talk down to its audience; Nguyen assumes that her readers will either have banana leaves in their freezer or know where to get them and not be fazed either way by mentions of palm sugar, galangal, or tamarind pulp. And a great deal of practical information about the chemistry and aesthetics of tofu-making, again never presuming it's something the average home cook can't do. We really want to buy soybeans from the Reliable Market in Union Square and make our own soy milk and tofu so that we can have yuba and okara. I recommend Nguyen's Asian Dumplings (2009) with the same level of enthusiasm and Pavlovian response. Her char siu bao are a staple around here, her Tibetan momo are the first dumpling I ever learned how to fold, and the onde onde (glutinous rice dumplings flavored with pandan and filled with palm sugar and coconut) are one of the simplest and most compulsively edible desserts I have ever encountered. The glutinous rice dough is insane, I will warn you; Rush and I were convinced we'd screwed up the recipe and would have to throw the whole batch out right until it turned suddenly from choppy oobleck to a smoothly celadon-green workable dough with no intermediary stages whatsoever. (I don't know if it would have behaved any differently with pandan extract steeped from scratch in Rush's kitchen rather than pandan extract in a bottle that turned our fingers green, but I doubt it.) But I think the fact that I can still talk in detail about these recipes months after making them is a good sign. I covet multiple dishes from the tofu book at this point.

[edited for superfluous adverb]

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm going to put out an interlibrary loan request NOW.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

My local library has a copy, but its online status is "Mending" (as opposed to available or out). I have the mental image of of a borrower using it so thoroughly that its pages are already falling out.

[sovay]

I have the mental image of of a borrower using it so thoroughly that its pages are already falling out.

Er, the real danger is covering the pages with rice flour, tofu liquid, and random spices.

[sovay]

I'm going to put out an interlibrary loan request NOW.

If you make the kitsune udon before I do, please report back: it's one of the recipes I've had my eye on. Also the cashew and cardamom fudge, the okara donuts, the fermented tofu and grilled lemongrass goat, for some reason the chilled tofu with crunchy sardines (it looks texturally interesting), and the savory kelp relish. I would like sometime to try the mock eel for myself; rushthatspeaks made it over and the winter and it was surprisingly eel-like, but I don't know how it goes together beyond reading that page in the book.

Oh, what the hell, I'd cook most things Nguyen suggested, if only to see how they work out.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I most certainly shall--it's available at several western Massachusetts libraries, so I should have it in my hands very soon.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Lexx also has an excellent opening theme.

[sovay]

Lexx also has an excellent opening theme.

It does that.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I loved Lexx. It is a weird, weird, weird show, but it does have a certain internal consistency. I might have been a wee bit obsessed with Kai and his song (and his voice, yum) when I first watched this show; the male choir version that serves as the opening theme is particularly awesome, but lots of different other versions turn up as the episodes proceed.

[sovay]

It is a weird, weird, weird show, but it does have a certain internal consistency.

I'm impressed by the worldbuilding and the character work after only two episodes, when reasonably I should be saying things like, "Giant bug spaceship. Moth breeders. Fire planet. Water planet. Atmospheric vortex what? THOSE GUYS ON THE CONVEYOR BELT WITH HOOKS IN THEIR HEADS." I used to see trailers for it on the Sci-Fi Channel (when it still was the Sci-Fi Channel) when I was watching Babylon 5 and it never looked interesting enough to be worth trying, much less completely batshit insane. rushthatspeaks has informed me there is absolutely no way to excerpt Lexx in ways that make it look good, so it's not my fault for not noticing.

I might have been a wee bit obsessed with Kai and his song (and his voice, yum) when I first watched this show; the male choir version that serves as the opening theme is particularly awesome, but lots of different other versions turn up as the episodes proceed.

I like Kai immensely. I also like Xev and Stanley, which means this show is about three hundred percent ahead of most series in the protagonist department for me. (I don't like the robot head, but I don't think anyone is supposed to.) But the different shades of Kai's deadpan are a thing of beauty and the fact he doesn't look like a complete and utter twit with that hairstyle is possibly the most badass thing about him. And he's pretty much introduced in this season base-jumping from non-geosynchronous orbit, so he has a pretty high bar to live up to.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm glad for the tofu goodness. Hope you'll be feeling less exhausted soon.

... their only explanation for this phenomenon is that in between the two experiences the brain must grow an extra lobe or something in order to process the indescribable weirdness that is any given episode of Lexx.

I think they might be onto something there. I saw bits of Lexx when it came on after Farscape, and could never quite decide what to think of it. That said, the theme song* has shown up in my dreams a couple of times.

Any road, I'm glad you're enjoying the show.

*The Brunnen-G war song, or whatever it's actually called.

[sovay]

Hope you'll be feeling less exhausted soon.

Frankly, I'm on a ten-day course of antibiotics; I expect to feel awful until one morning I wake up and don't. But I am hoping the infection clears, which would go a long way toward that possibility.

The Brunnen-G war song, or whatever it's actually called.

I don't know that it has another name. I asked rushthatspeaks about it and she said it was sung by Kai's people when they went into battle, expecting to die. And then I fell into the obvious trap of the writing and said, "What happened to them?"—"They died."

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

That sounds like delicious food.

Hearing you talk in comments about the recipe book, it may be a little over my head. I would still be interested in checking it out sometime though. Thanks so much for going into detail.

[sovay]

Hearing you talk in comments about the recipe book, it may be a little over my head. I would still be interested in checking it out sometime though. Thanks so much for going into detail.

If you cook even a little, I don't think it would be over your head; it's a very forgiving and very informative book of recipes. You can learn as you go along. The tofu-making tutorial at the front is not compulsory, it just looks like a lot of fun. The most daunting thing about the tofu steamed in banana leaves was procuring the banana leaves in the first place, and we got ours from Market Basket. rushthatspeaks impulse-bought them a couple of months ago, knowing eventually there'd be something to do with them. Everything else in that recipe was assembly, food processing, and owning a bamboo steamer. And we didn't even need a bamboo steamer in specific, that's just the kind my parents had on the kitchen wall for years before long-term loaning it to Rush and gaudior on the grounds they'd use it more often. It imparts a very lovely smell to whatever is steamed in it.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

You have me wondering about where I would find those leaves around here. I imaagine there are a few places I could try. The bamboo steamer sounds interesting since it adds aroma to the meal. Thank you again for sharing your adventures in cooking. I am going to see if our library has that book. If it doesn't, then it is going on my wish list. I want to learn how to do more things with tofu, so this is perfect.

ETA Oh my gosh! My local branch has it! This is awesome. Thank you so much.

[sovay]

Oh my gosh! My local branch has it! This is awesome. Thank you so much.

You're very welcome! I'm glad your library has the right approach to cooking. Let me know how it goes!

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

I definitely will. I would like them to get Fabio Viviani's new book, but so far they are 2 for 3.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I liked Lexx very much (I was quite the Kai fan), but I gave up in the last season. My batshit tolerance is very good, but. I am trying not to think what might have happened if Harrison had written for the show... Nigel Bennett is great as Prince.

[sovay]

I am trying not to think what might have happened if Harrison had written for the show...

The absurdism reminded me, and the level of casual body horror (enacted or implied: the moth breeders), and a lot of the ways in which the science works without anyone really bothering to poke at it. The organic tech is disturbing and Stanley, who as far as I can tell doesn't . Fire and Water never seem to have developed conventional spaceflight because with that weird umbilicus of atmosphere they don't need it: just airships to send raiding parties from one world to the other. I just felt like you could stick Stanley and Ed Chianese in a bar somewhere and they would share a lot of the same wrongheaded philosophies about what went wrong with their lives. Xev with her splice of lizard DNA and sexual hard-coding could almost certainly find someone to talk to in Saudade.

Nigel Bennett is great as Prince.

I imprinted on him in Forever Knight. He's not erasing my memories of LaCroix here, but he's encouraging my belief that I should watch him do anything, including just talk.