Food Allergies

Anyone want to read a list of things I've developed allergies to over the years? I thought so!

In no particular order:
Watermelon
Avocado
Canteloupe
Honeydew melon
Cherimoya
Kohlrabi
Mango
Papaya
Pineapple
Persimmon (the hard variety, not the soft one)
Walnuts
Pecans
Brazil nuts
Hazel nuts
Wheat flour

All of the above result in some sort of throat-constricting, mouth-itching uncomfortableness. If my lips are even slightly chapped, avocados make me swell up like Angelina Jolie. Raw cookie dough? Can't. Even some chocolates (e.g. Fannie May, Ghirardelli) make me itch, no idea what ingredient causes that. And the nut thing? I can't eat a cashew that's even come into contact with a pecan.

Interestingly, once any of the above are cooked (although I've never cooked watermelon), I'm fine.

Also a little strange, I have no problem with peanuts, strawberries, shellfish - all the typical allergies.

However, allergies be damned, I say! I just finished a BLT with overeasy egg & avocado. And later on for a snack I may have some canteloupe. Yes, the itching and constriction is annoying (and a little scary in the case of watermelon). But it's never been so bad as to require medical attention. So I'll continue to get a little satisfaction by eating the bastards.

Asado de Puerco

I bought some country-style pork ribs a little while ago, but had no idea what to do with them. Through the wonders of the Internet, I found this recipe from The Spice Must Flow, and decided to give it a go.

I halved the recipe since I had 2 lbs of ribs instead of 4. Because of that, 2 hours was a little too long of a cooking time, and the sauce got slightly dried out and burnt around the edges, and way too bitter. I salvaged the sauce by scooping up the non-burnt parts, adding a little water, then mushing through a sieve. Still bitter, so I added a little sugar - success!

I also had to rinse the bitter sauce off the ribs (yes, I rinsed off my pork).

After all that, this was hands-down the best hunk-o-pork I've ever cooked (except for Robert Rodriguez's cochinita pibil). I roughly shredded the meat, and we made mini-burritos with some of the salvaged sauce and some guacamole on flour tortillas.

I highly recommend this recipe, but make sure you don't burn your sauce!

Cucumber, Tangelo and Radish Salad

My go-to no-cook side dish is sliced cucumbers tossed with chili powder, Lawry's and lemon juice. Tonight I decided to experiment by adding radishes and tangelo sections, and replacing the lemon with lime. (Tangelos could be replaced with oranges or tangerines, depending on what's available.)

The verdict? A winner!

Cucumber, Tangelo and Radish Salad

• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 2 tangelos, cut into sections, sections cut in half, obvious seeds removed
• 4 radishes, cubed smaller than the cucumber
• chili powder
• salt
• juice of 3-4 limes

Mix everything together, seasoning to taste with salt and chili powder.

Egg Salad & Cheddar Cheese Quesadilla

I love egg salad.

I love quesadillas.

Never did I think the two would go well together. It sounded strange. It sounded a little gross - hot egg salad? Bleh. Or so I thought.

The first bite (dipped in Tapatio of course) was startling. Cheesy egg salad in a crisp tortilla is yummy! Eldest child and hubby each had a suspicious taste. Suspicion was quickly dispelled and replaced with "Can I have another bite?"

Thanks to Kalyn's anonymous reader for the inspiration.

Post #100 - Hot Wing Sandwich

I don't do hot wings very often. But when I do, they're from Wings 'N Things. And they're not really wings, they're the Boneless Chicken Strips. They offer mild, medium, hot, and extra hot. I like hot, my husband likes medium. I've never had the extra hot - I'm sure I can handle it, but at the same time, I'm sure it would be extremely uncomfortable.

Note - the sauce uses what hubby calls "white people chilies". For some reason, he can eat serranos or those hot yellow ones with no problem, but give him a vinegary cayenne sauce, and he's burning for hours.

Anyhow, if you go to Wings 'N Things, order some chicken strips, celery/carrot and blue cheese, and some garlic breadsticks, and bring them home. Also make sure you have some cilantro and some kind of cucumber or pickle on hand (but go easy on the hot pickle because of the sauce).

Now, to make your sandwich, kind of a bastardized banh mi:

Slice open your breadsticks. (I scoop out some of the bread in the middle. Carbs are bad, y'know.) Slice the carrots and celery lengthwise, kind of julienned. Into the bread, layer in your chicken, celery, carrot, cilantro, cucumber/pickle, and blue cheese dressing.

Damn, that's good.

Post #99 - Pearl Chinese Cuisine, Rancho Bernardo CA

We went to Pearl for dim sum on a recent Sunday. It was our fist San Diego dim sum experience, and it was delightful. The clientele was about 70% Asian, which was a good sign. The layout was the typical banquet dining style. All the cart ladies were friendly and willing to explain (though not in any detail) what the various items were to us white people.

Here's what we had:

Fried chive and shrimp dumplings - little balls of noodle wrapper filled with a lightly seasoned shrimp and chive mixture, then fried. A little greasy, but very good, probably my favorite.

Fried coconut shrimp ball - chopped shrimp, breaded with coconut, and covered in wonton strips. Messy, but worth it.

Sugar cane shrimp - shrimp dumpling skewered on a piece of sugar cane, then breaded and fried - husband's favorite, I wasn't as impressed.

Chinese broccoli - simple, the only green vegetable not enclosed in some sort of wrapper. The greens held up amazingly well throughout lunch, and were even good cold (but I'm of the opinion that anything can be good when dipped into Chinese hot mustard).

Barbecue pork pastry - Sweet barbecued pork wrapped in a bun, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and baked - a bit strange to the American palate, but very tasty.

Pork shu mai - the wrapper texture was perfect, the filling nicely spiced. I could live on these.

Pork potstickers - these probably would've been good if they were hotter than room temp and less greasy. The only disappointment.

I wish I had tried the shrimp cheong fun (shrimp in noodle, in sauce) and the fried taro ball, but we were too full. Oh well, just one more reason to go back.

Pearl Chinese Cuisine
11666 Avena Place
San Diego, CA 92128

My 3rd Chunky of 2008

My 3rd chunky of 2008 for the Chunkster Challenge (hosted by Dana) was The Art of Eating by MFK Fisher. (See here and here for my first two.)

I had been hearing references to Ms. Fisher for years, and finally decided to get The Art of Eating, which includes 5 books, Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets.

I'm so glad I finally picked this up! On the surface, the books are about food, but they're more of an autobiographical culinary journey of a woman who lead a very interesting life.