Summer is a time of getting round to doing those things that you never got round to doing. Like eating better, taking a vacation, joining a CSA and of course, reading (and re-reading) those books that you've always meant to read. Here's my summer reading list:

White Noise by Don Delillo
fuwang lent me this book years ago, and I've been meaning to finish it ever since. I keep starting and starting over again. This time I think it will take. I'm in just the right kind of mental place for a snarky postmodern apocalyptic romp.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
I've always thought that I should read something by Octavia Butler, one of the more celebrated authors whose speculative fiction that deals with issues of queerness and race. I've started on Parable of the Sower and am liking it so far.

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
I read this during a phase in high school where I was reading almost anything I could get my hands on that was about or set in San Francisco. I was also going through a Samuel Beckett phase. I think I was caught in a place where I was delighting in the brutal fact that there was nothing other than this absurd life, but also sublimating my internalized need for a heaven (thanks largely to Christian primary and secondary school education) into a mythic San Francisco where gay beat poets made free love all day and all night in bay windows with views of the golden gate bridge. This book was one of my favorites from that period of my life, and I want to re-read it now to see how I react to it having now lived in the bay area for almost 10 years.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
I haven't read this since high school, and I want to revisit it. It was the first Shakespeare play that I read without taking a class on it, and I loved taking my own time and developing ideas about the play that I could keep to myself instead of having to trot them out for the approval of an instructor or my peers.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
One of the if not the biggest (in size) book in our house as a child. I was impressed that my mother read the whole thing, and even more impressed that somebody with a clearly Asian name could write such a huge novel and have it be a bestseller. I think it's time for me to read it. Also I think I might be ready for a South Asian/diaspora writers phase, and this and The Golden Gate might be just the thing to jumpstart that.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
I've loved everything else she has written, and also, South Asian writers phase.

Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
I'm almost done with this and just need to finish it. Some non-fiction also to round out my list.

Secret Identities edited by Jeff Yang, Jerry Ma, Keith Chow, and Parry Shen
I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this for a while. I like comics and I'm interested in the minds of straight Asian American men (I think these editors are all straight. Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Tags: book, list, lists, summer

Here's a first world problem. I'm on another nut milk making kick, which leaves me with tons of leftover nut meal which I have NO idea what to do with, other than bake into cookies somehow, and it is way too hot to bake.

In case you didn't know how to make nut milk, it's ridiculously simple, especially once you have a nut milk bag (really just some kind of fine mesh nylon made into a bag, I think). With cheesecloth, it's still not that hard, but cleaning the cheesecloth is a pain (or you could throw it out, which is not a pain, but gets expensive). It's a 4 step process:

1) Soak nuts overnight
2) Blend nuts with fresh water, a bit of salt, and some sugar (or other sweetening agent, or not)
3) Filter out nut meal
4) Chill resulting liquid & ENJOY

I got my nut milk bag last weekend, and this week I have made hazelnut milk, almond date milk (the tastiest of the lot), pistachio-cashew-date milk, and today I will be making Hazelnut milk again, because it is a good middle ground. The only thing in the milk is nuts, dates, water, salt and a bit of sugar (and in the case of the milks with dates, no sugar, just dates). With the nut milk bag, it's so easy it almost feels like cheating.

Added bonus: I'm sick and this is pretty much an entertaining, low physical effort, low mental effort activity I can do to create a food that is delicious and also good for me (I hope). Also, I can listen to NPR while doing it AND if I feel like I need to lie down half way, it's not like it will burn or spoil. Plus it takes about 10 minutes active time tops, so I haven't had to lie down half way.

Happily (or not?), the nut milk is so tasty and drinkable that I finish each batch soon after I make it meaning that at least one of my two bottles is cleaned and ready for my next batch as soon as I get the urge (which admittedly, then gets a 24 hour waiting period as I soak the nuts). I may have to go buy some TJ juice so that I can drink that up and have a third bottle, though.

Really I just made this post so I could write "nut milk" in the title.

Tags: food, no recipe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA&feature=player_embedded

Tags: lolcats, parody

Got a Calzone and chickpea curry in foodswap this week. Calzone below. I made lasagne. Pictures of other things to follow if I can get some sunlight.

Tags: food, photo, photos

Yesterday I went to bed at ten. What's that? Am I becoming a morning person? Perhaps, dear reader, but really I'm just excited to go to 6:30AM swim at the awesome Temescal pool. At some point the novelty will wear off and I'll go back to the nocturnal shabbiness we all know and love/hate. But for now, I'm riding the wave of early to bed, early to swim; makes a man full of win.

Tags: shameless self absorption, sleep, swim

Tried and loved the Temescal pool today. 25 glorious outdoor meters.

Also, wontons (from LS) and croquetas (from me). Woot! The croquetas actually were a little overbreaded. The recipe I used called for a flour-egg-breadcrumb breading, but I think next time I'll just do breadcrumbs (perhaps with some parmesan mixed in).

Tags: food, photos, swim

In this week's food swap I got:

Cheese and chive scones!

Homemade pork and cilantro wontons!

I made lentils n beef, which is much less glamorous, but I think tasty and nutritious nonetheless.

Photos to come if I can get some daylight hours.

Tags: food

Saw a short film program at SOMArts, Asian filmmakers who were part of QWOCMAP presenting short films. L. joined me. There was also a gallery with some fantastic art. Overall, a good evening in Asian art world.

Later we went for dinner at Daimo with C., after being thwarted by Spices! newly reduced hours (they close at 11p.m. now, not midnight!), then back to Shooting Star in Chinatown for dessert, sine Daimo disappointed.

Apparently there is this food in Spain called a croqueta that is basically a deep fried bechamel.

I had no idea that such a thing could be done. It seems almost as magical as Wylie DuFresne's deep fried mayonnaise, and doesn't call for any ingredients I'd have to go to a chemist to find.

Any guinea pigs? I do NOT want to eat this by myself. I think.

Tags: food, recipe

Inspired by this article I decided to try something new (making bagels) and revisit something old (a modified version of Alton brown's granola recipe).

Tags: food, photos