Fight 4 Taste

One of my treasured finds in the last decade is a cookbook by Bish Nga Burrill called Vietnam Memories.  Warmly written, Bish calls this a memory cookbook.  Each recipe has a memory that is woven into her very thought of creating it.  These memories run deep and will give even more depth and love to the food.  Quarantine has antagonized me to expand my cooking horizons.  What I do, I have done many times and I feel I am well practiced and that leaves me wanting new adventures.  I need another mountain to hike that I have not yet tried.  I know that just below the smooth as glass surface of inactivity lies new favorite tastes and experiences.  I was particularly moved by the Pork and Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe, that told the story of Bish cooking this recipe for a dear friend who was going to take her to Hawaii, in exchange for her making this dish.  She sat in the bus shelter on the side of the road for far too long holding the container...

The calm before the storm. Got coffee and a campfire on a beautiful Monday morning. It's late August now and, well, we all know the ride that is ahead. August for me represents change at different times of my life. 1979, a thriving Montfort road in Maine is instantly a ghost town and everyone walks away. 1974, the home I always knew changed suddenly and my parents who had been separated for a year and a half suddenly in this incredible conversation that was not even them, got back together. 78, that 13 year old crossover. Big coming of age changes in Sept/Oct, but in August you could feel them coming. When I used to write poetry some 35 years ago I had a term for this feeling: "in season, on the wind". In 82, August’s gravity was very strong on Chucks Circle in front of a campfire. In 83 I knew I was Texas bound. Can I ever imagine who I would be and the regret in my heart if I had not done that? August 86, as my migratory plan to leave Texas began. August 87 my decision ...

There is a war..... I remembered it when it was a friendly childhood companion. In the darkness of my room on Lillian Rd with the hallway light shining in. Simple childhood fears could be kept away by weaving a very detailed adventure from my mind that seemed to have an endless supply of material. It was a pleasant detour in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sort of way. One I often looked forward to. Beautiful pieces were added as new people, places and things were added to my limited experience. In 1972 when I was not yet 7, there was no internet. Television was still learning to crawl. So between Gilligans Island, top 40 AM Rock and all it came with, parental influence and stories, you put possible facts together. For instance, in Kindergarten, I knew a girl named Rhonda. She move to California. From my sources I figured out these details: It Never Rains in California (It Never Rains in Southern California- Song by Albert Hammond) California is the desert (My Grandfather’s brother Henry liv...

Dear Mike, I am thinking about getting an Instant Pot. Other colors were a lot more expensive, so I'm good with the cheaper color. Does it really matter?  Unless that color adds a certain special spice to everything you cook that makes it taste like it came from your favorite restaurant or food truck. Maybe I need to research how color affects your instapot, crockpot, and kitchen-aid mixer and what comes out of them. Thanks, Amber from Sunapee. Dear Amber, For years, in the military.  When PT time came around, I always tied the 5 foot long dark green army wool scarf around my head as a headband, ninja style and talked with exaggerated mouth movements like in the old Bruce Lee movies (like Jones on Police Academy). It was just my thing.  Everyone in my unit expected it.  It was my normal.   Many years later, we are stupidly running in the dark, as a unit, before the sun rose, like a bunch of idiots on a Sunday morning.  We have a brand new 1 st Sargent....

There is an underrated movie from 1967 called “The Presidents Analyst”. It tells the story of a presidents analyst who cannot talk with anyone about what he knows. This creates more anxiety than he can deal with. It leads to catastrophic paranoia. In the meantime, various government agencies are trying to kill him. The phone company (a unit with the same power as Facebook, google, and other large personal data collecting monsters) wants what he knows to further their cause of power. He ends up being  protected by a suburban “Liberal” family that has more guns the the “right wing wackos” they are protecting themselves from. With many crazy mind bending plot twists  that were  common in the movies of the late 60’s, the kind that Austin Powers liked to spoof, in the end, the main character realizes the “it’s the phone company” behind all of the evil in their lives, behind all the evil in the world. Hollywood was serious about their message in an insane package. This movie wa...

It is funny how airports can bring the humanity of humanity to the surface, but also pretend that it is not really there. There is a feeling of aloneness while being immersed in a sea of other people. I feel other people’s emotions without even trying, so this is a very serious thing I experience. It can be hard to sort out, but just like everything else I remember that each of them has their own brand of trivial stress. The trivialness is temporary because when sitting in an airport waiting for a flight, certain daily concerns peel away like an onion skin. This is because mortality gets sprinkled onto our essence like a deep savory spice. It’s just enough to make you appreciate you daily life. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked around at the people at my departure gate and thought, “if this were the series LOST, what roles would each of us take should we end up on that island." Searching faces, I perceive where they fit into the story. This is what happens when you acc...

I love Char Siu!  That delicious boneless roast pork that you get in the finer Chinese restaurants. The cheap takeout restaurants try to make their own version which is known as boneless spareribs, but the real deal is mouthwatering life experience. You can make this at home. There are recipes on the Internet and on YouTube that will show you how to make the most wonderful  Char Siu ever.  For the past couple of years I have been making a recipe that is posted on YouTube by Ci Ci Li.  It is a simple easy to make recipe and the young lady in the video explains how to do it very well. I have brought the results of this recipe to work a couple of times and people have just crazed how wonderful it is. I decided to try another recipe this week by Mike from Strictly Dumpling. His YouTube channel does a wonderful job of selling the excitement that a meal can give you he is very animated and he makes you want to make what he is making, which is a very nice talent. The recipe...