Soursop / Guanabana

I had nectar of guanabana (also known as soursop, gaviola, etc). The Wikipedia article says "The flavour has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus flavour notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavour reminiscent of coconut or banana." As far as I could tell, though, there wasn't much taste difference between that and pear. A hint of citrus, perhaps. But it's a New Thing which has been tried.

Mannino's

Diana really enjoyed going to Mannino's for her birthday last year, and had mentioned several times that she wanted to go back there. So, for her birthday, I told her to be ready to go out--but didn't say where. And  I drove to the oceanfront, which is opposite of where she knew Mannino's to be.
Except they opened another one last month, at the beach. Win.

Anzac Biscuits

I've made Anzac biscuits for the first time. Slightly burnt, which may be from cooking too long, or not using real butter, or a combination; nonetheless, still quite good.

Dinner at the Nawab

Dinner at the Nawab: Bewali chicken, chicken subz salna, Peshawari naan, and mango kulfi. The Peshawari naan, with coconut and cherry, was particularly good, and I enjoyed the bewali chicken. I'd have enjoyed the kulfi more if it had been a different flavor; the texture was a bit heavy for "ice cream" but if I'd expecting "frozen custard" or something along those lines, I'd have been okay.

Blueberries

We got a pair of blueberry bushes last winter, and we've just had our first blueberry harvest. Most of them are a paler blue than what you'd see in a store, but some of them are as deep and intense as you could ask for. I have no idea why the birds and squirrels haven't gotten them.

Nashville

After a leisurely morning which included crepes, honeyed Greek yogurt and strawberries, and then watching Jon's video from their Belize expedition, we went into Nashville. First order of business was lunch at House of Kabob, which we'd been to before. Kubideh, felafel, hummus, and doogh. Kabob kubideh is minced beef and onion with spices, and was excellent; doogh is milk-consistency yogurt with mint, and would be more to my taste if it had a bit of sugar, and less mint.

After that we went to the Frist Museum for an exhibit of animation, showing clips from early kinetiscope shows Sailor Moon and CGI parts of Hulk.  There was also a gallery of photos from Marty Stuart, about half being country music stars an fans, and the rest from the Lakota reservation.

Cuisine

We went to a wedding for a friend of Josh's; at the reception they served oysters Rockefeller. First time I've had that. I also had a sip of a gin and tonic, with Tanqueray, which was also a first time. Both were better than I expected.

Horned Melon

I was in the grocery, and so was the horned melon. I said "I've never had one of those before!"

The inside is a lot like a pomegranate. You've got a lot of tiny capsules with seeds inside. The seeds are edible and a bit more noticable than cucumber seeds, but less than watermelon--about the same as the white seeds from a watermelon. The rest of the capsule is green and has something of a tart taste, although not as much as a citrus fruit. If you cut open the melon and scoop out the insides, you'll have essentially a green jelly with seeds mixed in.

Nawab

Today was another "fix yet more stuff around the house" day, with cleaning the oven, changing a light switchplate, painting the stairwell, and a few other tasks. Particularly difficult except getting the touchup paint to be the same amount of matte as the original. Apparently there are half a dozen levels, something like high-gloss, gloss, satin, eggshell, matte, and flat. Possibly not in that order. And I don't know what the painter used six years ago, so it was trial and error to match it. But it's done and there are no oddly-shiny patches on the stairwell walls now.

Took a break to have lunch at the Nawab, our local Indian restaurant. Beef with fenugreek, dal makhani lentil curry, basmati rice, and kheer rice pudding for desert, all quite good.

Mother's Day

We went to the mountains for Mother's Day weekend, to visit Josh & Gwen in Blacksburg and Mom and Dad at the farm. Josh and I unwrapped Command and Colors: Austrians on Friday and got in a 4-man game of OGRE with a couple of Josh's friends on Saturday.
Sunday afternoon we went to the farm, where Dad and James and I tried out the .22 Dad had gotten for Christmas, and I also tried James' 9mm. None of us are exactly prize-winning marksmen, but I did manage to tag a potato with the .22 at about 15 yards, after a couple of rounds.
Restaurants for this trip included the London Underground Pub, where burgers with baon-onion marmalade were the unanimous choice; Boudreaux's, for drop biscuits with andouille sausage gravy; and in Clarkesville on the way home, The Lake House--which is a renovated house, although it's not actually on the lake--for the California bacon burger with carmelized onion and avocado.

Chayote

Following up on my resolution to try new foods, we made Costa Rican Beef and Chayote, which is not actually a dish I saw in Costa Rica, but we tried it. Mostly ground beef and onions, plus garlic, parsley, curry powder, diced tomatoes, green pepper...and chayote squash. Chayote looks like a pear but tastes more like cucumber, maybe with a taste of celery. If you're out of zucchini, and you happen to have a chayote laying around, you can use it as a substitute. Not the sort of taste explosion that would cause anyone to weep for joy; on the other hand, it isn't a lutefisk-and-kimchee sandwich.

Sugar Cane Juice

Available in canned form, from the Asian market. Back 40-some years ago, I could get it straight from the cane, which (according to my 40+-year-old memories) was better than this. But it's something new to try.

Tamarind

I say tamarind juice in the Asian market and brought some home. Tastes something like quince, something like guava with the grassy taste. I was thinking of Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica, when I got it; however, it was originally native to tropical Africa.

Tortas de Aceite

Diana saw tortas de aceite and decided we should try them. They turn out to be sort of flatbread with a bit of sugar, almond, sesame, and anise. I don't know if they're supposed to be bitter, but the ones we had were, quite.

Birthday

We went shopping on Sunday and got a couple of things for Diana's birthday. Then on Monday, I knew she'd be at the pharmacy around lunchtime, so I left work, got two dozen roses, found her car, and left the flowers in her front seat.  Surprise #1/
Then I told her that I'd take care of dinner, and with the cold wet weather, I was thinking of Italian. Came home after work, told her to get dressy, and went to Mannino's on Pleasure House Road, which is currently the #1 rated restaurant in Virginia Beach according to Trip Advisor. Diana said the veal cannoli was superb, my lasagna was excellent, and our server Christine took good care of us. Surprise #2, and a very successful birthday.

Korean food

Josh brought home Korean food: beef bulgogi, barbecue chicken, rice, bean sprouts, garlic broccoli, and macaroni salad. I have no idea why macaroni salad is Korean, and neither does my Korean co-worker, but she says that it is typical of Korean restaurants. The beef was thin sliced beef, a bit gristly, no particularly unusual flavor. The barbecue chicken was barbecue chicken, a bit on hot side, but nothing distinctive (other than being overcooked and dry).

Josh wisely did not bring home kimchee.

Dragonfruit

I expected dragonfruit to be a little more colorful. The outside certainly lives up to that; it looks like a red and green flame. The inside, however, is fish-white, with a speckle of black seeds. The taste is bland--something like a mix of cucumber and kiwi, but watered down.

Mead

Mead is wine made from honey. Until recently, there wasn't anywhere around here to get it; however, now that Total Wine has opened a shop that carries so many varieties of alcohol that my boss, a foodie and former bartender, got overwhelmed and couldn't pick anything out. And they carry three different types of mead. And it turns out that "wine made from honey" tastes like...wine.  Quite a lot like wine. Wine with a little bit of a honey taste to it.

Labeled as "micro adventure" because I tried something new and different, even though it didn't turn out to be nearly as new or different as I expected.

Willa's Red Pepper Jelly Cheesecake

As soon as Willa put this out, Josh and I claimed it for our own. That is, he claimed it as his, I claimed it as mine. We worked out a detente without bloodshed, and we even agreed to save some for Gwen. Not sure that Gwen ever actually saw it...


8 oz. package cream cheese
1 egg
2 (or more) cloves garlic crushed
5 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese ( use ½ to ¾ pkg. Imperial cheese)
4 oz. (1/2 cup) spicy red pepper jelly


Mix all ingredients except jelly in food processor.
When ingredients are well mixed, add in red pepper jelly.
Pour into an oiled 6" spring form pan -- or use two large ramekins).
Set into pan of water and then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until browned on top.
Cool in refrigerator for several hours.
Drizzle additional pepper jelly over top
Serve with crackers.

PS. Freezes well

Columbian Food

Some of my coworkers are Columbian, and they provided the office with lunch today. One dish was essentially fried rice with chicken; one was fried plantains and bananas. Both of those were okay, and as expected. The one which surprised me was the meat dish, which was bits of pork and banana which had been deep fried until they were dry and crunchy. It wasn't bad, just...unexpected. When you bite down on a chunk of meat, you're expecting squish, not crunch. Once I got past that, it was fine.