Strawberries and other food thoughts
We’re in the midst of a wonderful season for strawberries at the moment. Apparently it’s been the best growing season we’ve had in years. I’ve been buying large punnets lately and I’m nearing the end of the last one. I’ll probably have to buy more tomorrow and only hope I can get the same good price I’ve had on the last few. I also planted four strawberry plants in pots outside our kitchen. I’m determined to have a decent homegrown crop this year.
A week ago Sunday we went off to a local Malaysian place to get takeaway for lunch and it was mostly disappointing. Game Fanatic fared worst of all by choosing a dish he hadn’t gotten before. It turned out to have a sweet/sour sauce and lots of onions (which he usually doesn’t eat). The worst part was the Scientist and I ordered an iced kachang (dessert) each and found our serving sizes were half the size of the usual amounts.While waiting for our order, we saw two usual sized desserts go out to customers eating in. The owner was quite friendly to us when he started out. Then we didn’t eat there for a long while and when we started going back this year, we stopped getting good service. He’s been fairly rude on almost every visit there recently whereas he is almost always more friendly towards the east Asians. Needless to say, we won’t be going back for a long while.
Game Fanatic was quite upset about the whole meal and wasn’t at all satisfied. We did get him something else from the store later on but it wasn’t quite the same. So I promised him Id make something decent with the lamb in the freezer. I don’t eat lamb so it was an interesting experience to cook a meal that I would never eat. I ended up putting it in a chickpea stew with Moroccan seasonings. I thought about keeping out some of the stew before the lamb was added but it was too much hassle in the end. Anyway, reports from Game Fanatic and the Scientist were quite positive. Game Fanatic liked it so well that he wanted it again so I made more a few days later with the last couple of lamb chops from the packet.
Another meal disappointment was a sort of rice pilaf I made a while back with what were supposed to be chorizo sausages. I should have known they would be awful since they were a store brand and much cheaper than usual. They had absolutely no flavor and were downright soft and the meal was a huge letdown. I found some good quality chorizos a few days later and saved them for another try and it came out quite well in the end (aside from the rice being a little mushy). I think Game Fanatic has been spoiled for life. These were full of flavor and were quite spicy compared to even our usual brand.
