serene’s posterous

Unsurprisingly, while reading this article, I developed an itch on my
scalp. The brain is amazing.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

I had a leftover half can of coconut milk in the freezer, so I
thought, "time for some green curry!" I didn't have basil on hand,
but I thought it should still taste fine, if not quite authentic. I
was inspired by this recipe:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/in-a-hurry-green-curry-recipe.html

Mae Ploy brand of green curry paste is quite good. I stir fried
the paste and a bit of the coconut milk with red onions, ginger and
garlic. Then added the rest of the coconut milk and 2 cups of water,
as I was going for a lighter, brothy version of the curry. At the
end, I poured in a mixture of frozen peas, asparagus and broccoli and
silken tofu into the broth to steam until cooked.

We had a version of this salad, made by our guide/cook, Zac, while
"luxury" backpacking in Peru. I think it tasted particularly good
because we were starving after a long day of hiking.

This simple salad has chopped up carrots, red onions, grape tomatoes
and canned tuna (in olive oil) mixed up with some olive oil, freshly
squeezed lime juice and a dash of pepper.

For a long time, I had been a fan of Suede and the frontman Brett
Anderson. Suede was never too popular in the US, probably because
they were just too British and too fey. Perhaps Americans prefer
their rock stars to be alpha males and super masculine. Suede
disbanded in 2003.

I went to 2 of their concerts many years ago, second of which I
managed to squeeze up to the 3rd or so row in the mosh pit. That was
a fantastic outdoors concert. The performance was electric and they
sounded very good live (far better than the previous concert I
attended). Brett Anderson also has a very charismatic style in both
the glam rock bits and the slow ballad parts. He used to like
swinging his microphone (no wireless mics for him!), which seems
somewhat dangerous to his bandmates.

Recently he has become more mellow. Sadly, he doesn't do the swinging
mic thing anymore.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig-23359629-details/gigReview.do?reviewId=23417647
I guess even rock stars must grow up. This is his first solo single
from about a year ago.

I discovered recently how convenient miso paste is for flavoring one
pot meals. This is just some vegetables (spinach, bai chai, wakame),
enoki mushrooms, green onions, grape tomatoes and silken tofu cooked
warmed in a pot of water. I added some brown rice and a teaspoon of
miso paste at the end.

Another blurry picture:

I had some old eggs in the refrigerator. Time to use them before they go
bad. Hmmm...baked eggs, kinda like the fancy version of the soft
boiled eggs that I had back when I was a little kid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/dining/26mini.html

In my version, I used some olive oil, threw in some prosciutto, grape
tomatoes, and seasoned with pepper and dried "Italian herbs". Here's
the blurry picture:

If we were comparing superhero movies, I would say that Batman is a
better movie than Iron Man. Admittedly, I enjoyed Iron Man more
because Batman was too dark. I came out of the movie, admiring the
movie and the acting, but thinking it was such a downer. 

At least Christian Bale is still as hot as ever.

Sophie Ellis Bextor never made it big in the US, but this was a huge
hit (probably overplayed too!) in Europe. The video is really amusing
- what would you do to win a dance competition? She also has a posh
British accent when she sings...