London Food Update!

Attention, all Americans living in the UK and wondering where to get garlic powder... Asian markets. There's two that I went into in Chinatown (London:Soho) that had big bags of it for sale.

Chicken Taquitos... Of a sort

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to make the Baked Chicken Taquitos posted in Foodgawker.

I had to make some alterations in the recipe as London is not generally known for being the bastion of Mexican food ingredients.

Green salsa (salsa verde) is not easily obtainable at supermarkets so I used standard salsa. When tomatillos come in season and are accessible via Borough Market, I'll grab some of those and some Anaheim chiles and make a damned fine roasted salsa verde for future use. The good news is that salsas generally freeze well.

For all Americans living in the UK (or UKers using American recipes), be aware that when cilantro is called for in a US recipe, it can be found in grocery stores as coriander in the UK.

Instead of shredding the chicken, I poached 6 chicken thighs (approximately 1 pound/450 grams/2 cups) in chicken stock with some onion powder and garlic powder. When I make this again, I'll probably put some taco or fajita seasoning in the stock. After the thighs were poached, I pulled the additional fat from the meat, put it in the food processor and pulsed until the chicken was akin to mince. Not the same as shredded, but with the mix of cream cheese and spices, I figured it would give more even distribution of meat protein through the filling.

Mexican cheese was another one that isn't exactly ubiquitous over here. I used shredded Monterey Jack (available at Waitrose/Ocado and Sainsbury's), but another substitution would be half cheddar and half a mild, soft cheese like Edam or Mozzerella. I would avoid Gouda. In a pinch (and if I didn't care about plastic cheese), I might use jarred nacho cheese. But only if I were desperate.

Topped with sour cream and store-bought guacamole, these were quite nice. I have four in the freezer for leftover eating this week. They should be quite good.

I wouldn't call them taquitos or burritos. More like sauceless enchiladas.

Accent on Youth

Unlike professional reviewers, I don't have an editor breathing down my neck. (Just a boyfriend.) I also don't get paid, so it doesn't behoove me to be bitchy when something is good or gush when something is bad.

I also don't care if the show is still running by the time I get the review up!

TheBrit and I were in New York to give him some time to see his grandmother. (She passed shortly after he saw her. I'm very glad we went to New York so he could see her.) Accent on Youth came up as an option because TheBrit knows I love seeing shows (though he's not as in love with musical theatre as I am) and suggested that we catch a Broadway show and sent me a short list of what he thought we would both be interested in.

I admit that I am a David Hyde Pierce fangirl. No, he doesn't solve poverty in his spare time (that I'm aware of) but he's an actor of the old school, when it felt like a craft, not an industry.That, and DHP has awesome comedic timing while still being erudite. I love that.

The play consists of one of the standard plotline setups - discovery of young ingenue, love found, love lost, bla bla bla...

It's formulaic. It's ancient. And it is the easiest storyline to write and screw up. This was not screwed up. I liked it so much that I actually want to own the script so I can look at the lines and the stage directions.

The stage opens on a late 1920s/early 1930s New York City brownstone (or so I assume) sitting room. To the left is a double desk (the type where two people sit opposite each other) with a secretary. To the right is a couch, chair, and the ubiquitous wall bar with a decanter of scotch/whiskey/bourbon. Charles Kimbrough (Jim Dial im Murphy Brown) is playing the sidekick/butler. DHP comes on stage from what is inferred to be the bedroom and the audience applauds. (I will comment on this later.)

The play was rife with commentary on the duplicitous nature of theatre/film and how people will say anything to have the sensitive actors think they're loved and impressive and to soothe the egos. And then, out of nowhere seems to come a snide but completely accurate comment about the audience. (I believe it was "theatre would be fantastic if it weren't for the audience" or something similar.) The whole thing was suitably meta and probably broke the fourth wall a little too much for people during the original run in the 1930s.

In a lot of ways, it what your typical May/December romance theme has been since the origins of theatre. It has the additional flavour of the young love theme so popularized in Romeo and Juliet and the like.

Reviewers hated this play. They considered it to be humourless and stilted. The audience I saw it with found it suitably amusing. I liked it. So neener, professional reviewers.

(I secretly suspect that professional reviewers are supposed to hate everything that I'd love and love everything I'd hate. At least in the US.)

Well, that did it...

I've been wanting to cut my hair short for a while. I figured that I'd go back to my a-line short bob style that I had a few years ago. But then I sorta changed my mind.

Not in that "oh, no, I'll keep my current non-style" way, either.

No. I decided that I had to do this...
<---

Yeah. That's me with my hair, at it's longest, 6 cm.

Awesome.

I'm so loving it. It's somewhere between Alyssa Milano in her Phoebe cut from Charmed and Mariska Hargitay from SVU during her supershort days.

TheBrit likes it because he will no longer get a face full of hair when nuzzling my neck. Or having to deal with trailing wet hair everywhere. It dries in 10 minutes. YAY!

The downside of the hair is that it kinda requires styling and makeup if I'm going out. I think that as I get used to the hair then I won't feel like I have to do everything and can pare down to mascara and lipgloss on the down days.

But I'll still need to put goop in the hair.

But it is awesome. Any woman that dreams of going supershort? Don't dream it, be it. Find a style you like, take it into your stylist, have them do you up right.

Proof that there are people more wrong than me

Overheard:
'So he went up to the guy and said something along the lines of “I don’t care how much, how hard, or how crazy you’ve fucked my mother. I’ve been deeper inside her than you’ll ever be.”'

Apparently, the guy is not a fan of his mother's new partner.

How long did it take you to go from "ew" to "well, that's true" to "bwahahah!"?

Oh, America, how you amuse us

Because, just in time for Easter, we give you...

Milk Chocolate handguns! Is it wrong that I want one and would "eat it" just to watch people freak right the hell out?

What would be the best way to eat this confection? Barrel first? Trigger and trigger guard? Lick the hammer? Suck the grip?

Does the magazine come out? Are there chocolate bullets of pure love?

I'm a sick and twisted fuck, but I am so tempted to get a slew of them and hand them out for the festivus.

Ahh. Chocolate handguns. America, you make us proud.

"In the news today, an 8 year old shot herself with a caramel bullet when eating her Easter chocolate handgun. More news at 11."

Here's the kicker. I'm in support of responsible gun ownership and safety. But how the hell are we going to convince people that we support handgun safety when we make CHOCOLATE in the shape of guns?!

Out of the mouths of the Interwebs..

From a conversation dealing with the medical/healthcare situation in the US

“Ha ha ha! You have a sinus infection? Only the wealthy nobles can afford to see the mythical healer.”