Chocolate and Conversation: October 2009

Hopelessly Addicted

Behold this:

They came by way of FedEx this afternoon, just sitting there by my front door. Waiting.
Imagine me squeal in delight!
All FIVE boxes, 24 bars in a box. Total One Hundred and Twenty bars - All mine!

My Precious

Completely. Magnificently. Undeniably. So deservingly. So selfishly. MINE.
Not even gonna share one, not even a bite.
This is the best thing out of Utah. This is better than Lindor, yeah, imagine that!

This amazing truffle is best consumed at slightly above room temperature, so you can really appreciate its exquisite texture. The first bite is kinda dense, until you get to the center bottom where the soft velvety truffle meets your senses...it's truly a dream...

There are No preservatives, No hydrogenated oil, No trans fat. Right now, the only unnatural ingredient in this little truffle bar is the vanillin(an artificial flavor) but starting next year, they will be using real vanilla. By next year, this will be an all natural truffle bar, how amazing is that!

You Utahans, all is not lost, just drive to the nearest Macey's and your lust will be granted.

Foods Are...

I miss the little nooks and narrow alley ways back home, where you can always find some street vendor who is cooking up a delightful aroma. In Taiwan, you always hear someone recommending to someone else some small eateries in ambiguous places. Places you have to seriously remove two mountains to find. Back home, as long as you know how to cook, you can set up a shop even under the sea, and you will get people who will be willing to drown themselves just for a tasty bite. I remember a friend once took me going in and out and around and backwards like inside a maze before she finally brought me to this little hole in the wall place that sells freshly made tofu dessert. This place doesn’t even have a wall, just a ma and a pa and a few tables and a big old tarp on top to keep the sun and rain away. It was like going on an “expedition” just for a simple bowl of sweetened tofu. They weren’t the only ones know how to make the desserts either, in fact, such treats are easily found on the streets of Taiwan. But people come far away for them because they were dubbed the best! I tried taking other friends back again, but couldn’t find it afterwards.

When we were living in Monterey, California, we would go to the farmers markets on Tuesdays almost every week. I loved the varieties of tomatoes I saw there and was amazed at how many new ones I seemed to discover each week. But what really motivated me to go rain or shine was this fruit vendor – Goosens. It’s a family operated fruit farm that sells freshly picked peaches and nectarines. I am feeling a sense of loss right now to think it will be a very long time before I could hold those nectarines in my hands again. Since then, I have looked up and down, far and near for a fruit farmer who can produce peaches or nectarines like God intended them to be. The farmers I found all claimed their fruits are above the rest, but so far, none are comparable to Goosens, not even close.

After Monterey, we moved to San Diego and the craving for Goosen’s nectarines got the best of me, one weekend, we packed up and drove 6 hours ONE WAY just for a taste of Goosens’. It was worth the cost of gas, hotel and all the traveling expenses combined. I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Upon hearing that we drove 6 hours just to be there, Steve, the owner, threw in some green grapes as a friendly gesture. I wasn’t too impressed with how the grapes looked; some of them were covered with a few dark specks. But that is not the important part. The part that really mattered was how divine they tasted.

I remember browsing around the farmers market after picking up the nectarines and grapes. Naturally, walking around in place that has abundance of fresh food makes you want to eat something. So with the grapes sitting so conveniently in bag, I reached in, put one in my mouth, upon one gentle light touch of my teeth, the grape bursted open in my mouth, it was... oh, still, I am at a loss for words.
It was absolute perfection - something like a perfectly choreographed dance, a Beethoven’s 5th symphony inside my mouth. The fresh crisp skin combined with the slightly tart yet sweet, tender, plump flesh, never had I known grapes can have such complexity in texture and flavor…

I literally had a stand still moment; I think the world stopped spinning.

From that one little grape, I could taste the California sun, the earth the seedling sprouted from, I could taste the air, the rain…it was love, it was “This is how grapes are supposed to taste like!” “What have I been missing all my life!!”

I had a painful realization right then that I had not lived until that moment. I had experienced perfection from such a small and ordinary fruit and I knew I shall never be content again buying fruits from grocery stores. And I haven’t.

When I moved back to Utah, I wrote to the owner Steve Goosen, just to thank him for such dedication and pride for his work. He actually remembered me. He wrote me a nice letter about how he is getting old and no longer selling in Monterey’s farmers market anymore and how his kids are going off to college. And he sent me some pictures of his sinfully engorged peaches and nectarines. I secretly wish he had FedExed me the real thing instead, but felt better after he promised to “treat me right” if I ever come by his way. I like his all American boys’ heart.

As the weather is turning colder, I think of hot steaming tea, slow cooked ox tails with meat falling off the bones, red cooked fish, deep fried pork chops (unbeatable Chinese style), sweet and pungent duck, sticky rice cooked in bamboo, cumin lamb with mounds of cilantro, roasted lamb legs rubbed in exotic spices, braised lamb shank, basically anything lamb will do. And other dishes that I shall not name to keep your delicate American digestive system intact.

Notice the thin film wrapped around the rice? It's the coating from inside the bamboo and that is how the rice gets its distinct fragrance, it's the most simple and tastiest thing EVER!!

My heart hums with joy at the thought of holding a simple bowl of hot soup noodle on cold winter mornings, my favorite kind of breakfast.

Foods are that men may have joy!

A Fabulous Morning

I have this pile of laundry in my bedroom on my bedroom floor IN MY BEDROOM for a over a month...yep, did I mention it was IN MY BEDROOM? They WERE clean once upon a time. It got moved from the dryer to my bed then to the floor. Then the pile got sorted and it got smaller and the new clean piles got added on....Of course, none of the stuff on the floor is mine. They belong to my husband who is always so agreeable to help me, and my daughters' "leftover" clothing that they don't seem to want anymore.

I have been waiting patiently for my family to come back and proclaim what is rightfully theirs, like they do with cookies and brownies... I know for sure if they can remember the cookie they had asked me to "save" for them for over a month ago, they can remember the laundry in my bedroom that I've been saving for them to fold. I am a firm believer in "teaching them the correct principle and let them govern themselves".

Well, none of them came back and I've decided to attack the pile of beast this morning and put them back to the drawers where they belong with dust and all. Most importantly, my bedroom floor is CLEAN!!...until I wash some more, which is right after I post this. But right now, right this minute, I just feel so accomplished - my life again has meaning.

Also this morning, I "battled" with Sage and I WON!!! (Big Grin)
Let me say it again, I WON!!!! (Look, my blogging this early in the morning is the sure evidence that the wild Sage has been tamed!!)
This has been a great morning and it's not even 9 o'clock yet!

I had wanted to post a picture of the pile of laundry for you to admire but decided that I don't want you to know what disgusting pigs we were, but now you know anyway.
I will take any advice if you have one as to how to deal with my laundry problem.

More Sage ~S'il vous plaît

Some of you have inquired about Sage’s noticeable absence from the blog. Here she is as requested. You can tell she is well and very much alive…I think I need to find her a hobby. OR find me a different job!

Daily dialogue of a 3 year old and her mom:

9:00 am: MUMMMM, Can I have some candy please? Some candy please?

9:01am: I want some candy. I want some candy please.

9:03am: Can I have some bubble gum?

9:04am: No, Sage. You’re gonna die eating only candy.

9:04am: I won’t die, I will just eat one.

9:04am: Can I have some bubble gum? Pink! No, No, purple!

9:04am: I want some purple bubble gum….

9:05am: No, Sage. Let’s read some books…

9:05am: (Her eyes lit up) Then I can have some bubble gum?

10:00am: MUMMMM, I want some candy please.

10:01am: MUMMMM, I want some candy please.

10:01am: (Rolling on the floor in agony calling out) candy, candy.

10:01am: (Still on the floor, but arms reaching upward - must be seeing some candy hallucination - and crying out) candy, candy.

10:02am: (Fake sobs) candy, candy.

10:02am: (Being rocked by mom)...

10:03am: (With tears glisten on lashes and saying it very softly) Mommy, can I please have some candy? (And softer) Candy? (Even softer) Candy?

Below is a picture of Happy Sage who got her way

11:00am: Can I please have some peaches?

11:00am: Ok, you can have some peaches. (Much relieved at the change of conversation, mom takes out some fresh peaches from the fridge)

11:01am: No, no, not that peach. I want yellow peaches.(Referring to canned peaches)

11:02am: No, you can’t have those. You can have these.

11:02am: (Enter wailing and foot stomping) I want yellow peaches. I want yellow peaches.

11:03am: Sage, you can only have this kind. You can’t have yellow peaches. Do you still want it?

11:03am: (Sniffling, looking at mom with contempt)...

11:04am: Ok, I guess you don’t want any. (Putting down the peaches)

11:04am: (Silence)

11:05am: (Silence continues with furrowed brows and pouting lips)

11:06am: I want candy. No, No, I want bubble gum! Purple bubble gum!

11:06am: MUMMMM, I want purple bubble gum.

11:07am: (Mom puts herself in timeout.)

Such dialogue goes on All Day Long.

Every Minute!

EVERY!

SINGLE!

Day!

I was busy for a minute one day and forgot to keep my eye on Sage. When I turned around, this is what I found:

Luckily, I think I am out of candy... and then here comes Halloween!!