if there is no westernization, there's a bunch of ethnicities that don't make the rounds then, right?

No fusion here. We just get hungry and think what might taste good for the next meal. Pot lucks are a real adventure here. You never know what someone will bring. Especially if there is a new and "very mainland" type attending. Well sit back and watch...!

Oh yes, there is westernization here. The Hawaiian food is often served with rice instead of poi (I love poi - but it has to be sour). Potatoes are being used more and more but still much less than rice. I do not put shoyu in everything I eat, but my son does. Even on Chili and rice. I have asked the lady from Portugal if the local descendants were cooking the same foods as she eats. Not even close. Guess it is like Chow mein and chop suey - not really Chinese, either.

Whether the ethnicities all make the rounds, I think in general they do. At University functions, you would probably not find truly back-woods ethnic stuff. Conversely, at a baby luau, where all of the family and guests are mostly of the same origin, you find the most choice delicacies such as the pig blood and fern shoots. (I can still taste it!) In this case, we were the only Haoles (Caucasians)present. I am sure the plate was served to me to see my reaction. As a consequence, I did not react till much later, (I had a jug of peppermint mouthwash!)and I slid the contents into the rubbish when no one was looking. I think unless you invite Cambodian or Tibetan students to a party and ask them to bring ethnic foods (and we do that), there will always be interesting cuisines we do not have the chance to taste. It is sometimes amazing what people consider edible that we would not bring home from the store! Another time for that. Had chicken and rice and salad - finally - for dinner.

gotcha

Hiya Marcia! Nice to see posting from you in here! And I also enjoyed the pic in the gallery... I've had poi but the rest is unknown to me

I ate at Whole Food twice today. Lunch was cheese enriched mashed potatoes, tofu casserole and vegetables and I just snacked on a blueberry smoothie and a cookie. WF is just a short hop down Mopac from where I work.

animal crackers and coffee Spam chips and rice and pickle two tuna salad (with relish, mayo and onion) sandwiches water, water and more water + vitamins dinner??? Last night was Prime Rib for the Father in my life. Half of the people in here sound like they are on some sort of penitant mission to deprive (or is that deprave?!) the system of needed nutrients, and the rest sound like you need a mother to feed you better. But, since I have seen the children of some of the posters here, and pics of them, too, I know they are feeding the kiddies better than they are eating. Hey, big guys, eat what your kids eat. You'll feel better!

Hi Yourself, Stacey! Poi can be nasty if it is too fresh. You need to let it ripen at room temp till it gets a little "sour" which imparts a tasty tang to it. Very good with Lomilomi salmon (yeah, I can hear the gagging from here - and I got all sorts of static in Drool when I mentioned it), but I have no idea if it tastes like wallpaper paste. I have never tasted the stuff! Did you like it, Stacey, and what did you have with it?

Marcia, I had it several years ago and yes, I did enjoy it. There was nothing to go with it... an international festival with poi in paper cups! Lomilomi salmon?? Is that the kind of salmon or is that the way you prepare it? And about the eating problems round here... to me a well-rounded diet includes a weeks worth of meals so day to day I may be missing vital nutrients but I usually get plenty of whatever I need within the week... and I eat a lot! WER, on the other hand... needs help! *grin* Yesterday: bagel& cream cheese, coffee black bean burger (w/ mushrooms and Swiss), lemonade chocolate (still the German stash!) Phad Thai w/ tofu, Tom Yum Goong, Phad Eggplant, fish cakes and Thai iced tea This morning banana, cranberry juice, leftover Phad Eggplant always lotsa water!

Lotsa water is tops on my list, too. Coffee and animal crackers Spam chips and rice and pickle Stacey, I am much relieved to know folks there are eating better than they let on. The only things I know wer eats is kiddie cereal which is more sugar than anything else (but he and Zoe like it) and lots of coffee. Probably a libation to the gods of Cyberspace, now and again, too. While he is in the kitchen managing, he should snitch some samples! Gotta try Thai food one of these days. What do you suggest for a beginner? Lomilomi slamon is a methog pf preparation. All imported stuff got to Hawaii in a preserved state, including the salmon, which was salt cured. You massage (lomilomi)it in water (change often) until the flesh is tender and chewable. Dice. add diced fresh tomatoes and slices of green onion and standard onion. Let sit for flavors to mix. Chill. It is so Ono =) and is a great compliment to poi.

sounds like a gravlox extrodinaire!

*lol* That's one way of putting it. Ever massage a lox? Something else I discovered; when you buy poi at the grocery story it is in a plastic bag and about the consistency of silly putty. The first time, I tried to eat it that way and it would hardly go down! One is supposed to beat water into it slowly adding more until it is the consistence you esny - one finger, 2 finger or 3 finger poi. (Something else you never needed to know!) more water sunflower seeds more water sardine sandwich more water

"WER, on the other hand... needs help!" you have such a knack for understatement, Stace...

HEY WER! I thought I'd have to write something drastic to get you back in here! (and you DO need help with that oh-so-very-terribly-antinutrition-diet!) how was the kitchen weekend?? Marcia how do you fix a sardine sandwich?

Stacey, you had to ask, Huh! I take good whole grain bread and slather it with brown mustard. Lay the sardines (wedge-shaped without heads) alternating direction so the whole sandwich is covered. Add a crunchy dill pickle and some chips if they are available (ours tend to disappear as soon as they get over the back door sill). Eat and have plenty of water with it. Can you suggst other methods? I like things to resemble what it was when I got it, so I usually do not mash things - unless it is bananas f r peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Yeahm where is our Great and Fearless Leader?

I've never had a sardine sandwich -- I'll have to experiment and get back to you!

smoothie for breakfast. I thought I'd put enough stuff in it to fill me up -- two bananas, two pears, soy milk... I need to grab a breakfast burrito now. *rumble* *rumble*

Two eggs over easy. 2 pieces of white toast. hash browns. coffee w/ cream and sugar.

homemade or did you go out for breakfast? yummy...

I ate at the company cafeteria, where I'm headed right now.

pb&j egg and pepper jack cheese burrito

Coupla donuts Coffee

Coffee and Animal crackers 6" cold cuts (double meat) Subway sandwich I am convinced that this place serves to creat a hunger for something someone else is consuming (with the exception of tofubugers and the like). Right now I could kill for a burrito of any sort, but I am fresh out of them in the frig and miles from the nearest good one. And, it is only 9 am. Plotting my next move for the next meal. We will all be spherical when we finish with this board. BTW, Stacy, try your PB with mashed banana, It is ono-licious and so much better for you meatless wonders.

I LOVe PB& banana! ever try it with a bit of honey drizzled over it?

Ooooh, No, but I certainly shall. In case you had not discovered this little helper, bananas freeze very well. Peel, then and pop them into plastic bags. Whomp them on the counter to break off a few when they are frozen and let sit a few minutes or nuke for 10-15 secs and they mash and spread like butter =))

Or... take your frozen banana and pop it in the blender with some vanilla ice cream and milk for a YUMMY banana shake without all the ice chips!

Forget about the p-nut butter. Who needs the calories!!! You could always put Macadamias in with it as you are blending. Makes it nice and interesting. Then your shake will not stick to the blender or the roof of your mouth. Oh, that's right - we axed the p-nut butter! Had 'nuther sardine sandwich with mustard. Could not think of anything else which would taste good sardines beside mustard. Dinner I think will be left-over homemade spaghetti.

tuna fish on toast for breakfast and a glass of OJ

How do you fix your tuna fish? I can have it three ways here. Canned, saute'ed and raw. I think all three are wonderful. subway sandwich cottage cheese and peaches leftover spaghetti (dinner out last night) Lotsa water.

A tuna fish sandwich for me is canned water packed tuna w/ a bit o mayo. I made tuna steaks a month or so ago... pan seared (raw in the middle) with wasabi/ginger sauce I've never had it sauteed... do explain! today... I ate: pb&j sandwich yellowfish sashimi, unagi, and a caterpillar roll miso soup now I'm looking for sweets!

Really, after that heavy dose of salt (esp. miso) I had lunch at Whole Foods Northwest. Potatoes, broccoli and rice. Bottled brewed iced tea.

Love the way that sounds, Stacey. Sort of warm sashimi! Saute' has a little margerine in the pan, dredge in flour (add salt and pepper to taste to flour) and pop into the pan. Cover and cook about 5 min on each side - depending on how thick your steaks are and how cooked you like them. Coffee Spam chips and rice w/ pickle peanuts in the shell (now all over the keyboard) water and more water chicken with rice and veggies for dinner

I just got takeouts from Veggie Heaven on the Drag. I got the incredible peanut gluten dish with brown rice. Yum. I've been munching down on it while I watch Nightline's coverage of women's soccer.

Do you have any condiments to break up the monotony of the sameness of flavor while you munch on peanut gluten (!) with brown rice? It needs cranberry sauce or pickles or something! No?

No condiments! There was some kind of great peanut sauce on it though, and it did have bell peppers as well.

I am glad for the bell peppers. Either you are into punishment in a big way and your pictures do not show any sign of it, or you really do like this stuff. It is just so different from anything I have ever eaten. Here we boil peanuts in salted water with a little shoyu and a pinch of sugar and a little ginger. Then we put them in a ziplock bag and eat them at ball games. We do the same with soybeans. Cooked in the shells and pods. Much easier to digest and delicious!

Before all the clever minds get to work on that last message I posted, let me assure you there in nothing I know of to make peanut shells or soybean pods more digestable. Those go into the trash to make compost somewhere (under the bleachers!)

So you don't stuff 'em in the bag and take them home to enrich you lot? My, my... Hey, Terry, you into football (aka what nobody in the world but US citizens call soccer...)? The german women's national team is pretty good, but only on page 4 or 5 in the sports section here... Go figure... Tour de France the big thing right now.

I'm into football/soccer and I'll be pulling for NOrway in the match on ESPN2 on Sunday against Germany? I love roasted soybeans, Marcia! Fried and salted though. I'll have to try your way.

Terry, check the refrligerated tofu section of the grocery store. That is where th prepacked and ready to eat boiled Peanuts are here. The soybeans are in the veggies in a twist-tie bag. It is usually a good idea to taste the ready made ones first to have some idea of what you will be dealing with. I think you will really enjoy them!

Sure. They'll probably have these at Whole Foods.

I've not been able to find soybeans anywhere in Denver! One place in Bolder has them for about a month when they're in season. I love em boiled!

uh... that's Boulder

I just might have to make up some Care packages for the needy in Texas and Colorado. I'd love to hand deliver it! (Stace, we knew!)

*with my most needy look* soybeans... soybeans... soybeans... (how am i doing... trying to look like that invisible child you posted on the porch a few days back!) And... always goes with out saying (and I always say it anyway!) Marcia, you (oops!) will always have a place to stay out here -- we have TWO guest rooms now!

Wow, our prayers are answered. Stacey's our needy poster child.

uh oh.

this is where I come back into the conversation, right?

what did you eat today?

two cups of coffee, four cigarettes, a coke, some lemonade, some milk, and about a dozen sociables crackers...and you?

add a black cherry soda, another coke, and some more cigarettes and assorted crackers with a little peanut butter and or cheese... anyone want to jump in with something nutritious, go ahead...

Spam chips and rice do not count, I would imagine, but that was breakfast. Lunch was something chicken and unspeakable.

chicken and unspeakable go together alot...

If I can ever find my guest room (projects coming and going from the resident male has the entire place looking like the Gypsies just left the encampment and forgot to take it with them! Fetching poster child, Stacey! Works every time.

LOL! Don't they ever! (they told me in college that creamed chicken was where they hid the saltpeter! Know any nutritive value in that? I did not seem to work, BTW

peanut butter and raspberry sandwich OJ cheese and crackers (prepakaged-- acck!) blackbean burrito w/ cilantro rice fruit smoothie (blueberry, strawberry, banana) water

WER, I am (and have been for awhile) convinced that your body would go into some horrible sort of anaphylactic shock if you were to consume something from one of the food groups we learned about in nutrition class... I am on a junk food junkie kick -- explaining the incessant dining out! I refrained from mentioning my stop at DQ country yesterday or the box of See's Candy I poured through...

I just had some cheese and crackers just now, too, Stacey, I have a coupla boxes of them in my desk. I had a hearty breakfast at Waterloo Ice House, with over easy eggs, toast, oatmeal, and home fries. And coffee. Probably Pappdeaux for dinner.

yummy! A pappadeux in SE Denver should be completed by the end of August

Well, didn't make it, I had to go show the house.

do you have new roomies?

had Dim Sum for the first time today... at T & S Seafood Restaurant

Breakfast at the bar at Kerby Lane North. Fruit bowl, baked potato omelette, and toast. Free coffee.

Way to go, Terry. I have been eating (or not eating) in the worst way since getting my teeth into Geo Conference. Do all programmers eat odd things at odd moments while giving birth to topics and all that? Or am I having new-itis?!

So, wer, what did you think of your Dim Sum? Inquiring mind wants to know! (...almost afraid to ask) What is a T & S Seafood Restaurant...?

it is a Cantonese seafood restaurant... what we tried I liked!

Oh. I think I need a good map of Austin. I don't know the first thing about it except that it is in the middle of TX and has a river named Colorado running through it...curious, I thought it emptied into the Sea of Cortez...I really need a good map! Thanks for answering my question.

Wow!!! Terry, you are something else! Incredible, brilliant, and you carry everything a woman might need. Thank you for the neat map!

I need to take something to reduce this sudden head swelling I'm experiencing!

I think you are supposed to sit back and enjoy it. So little in life affords that luxury. Besides, you earned it! Poptart and Coffee, water, chinese noodle soup

OHs and soy milk nectarine banana two slices of mushroom black olive pizza cranberry/blueberry/spirulina smoothie water

Yesterday morning, a big bowl of fruit, cottage cheese and coffee w/ cream. Today, nuttin' honey. Not yet.

Brazilian coffee and yogurt so far... Brandon came home early... late last night so no need to eat really!

WOO-WOO! For me it's that cherry addiction time of the year. That and passion fruit. And champagne. Life is BEAUTIFUL!

I'm SO glad you're happy!!!

Thanks, Stace. You too - I can see that.

Whole Foods Cafe again. Raw tofu, rice, and beans. A brewed iced tea. Soem Cheez-Its for a snack.

yesterday: banana boca burger on potato bread Sprite egg burrito w/ pepper jack cheese gnocchi w/ mushroom sauce merlot chocolate w/ hazelnuts OJ mixed w/ cranberry juice handful of individually wrapped chocolate mints water water smoked herring garden salad w/ tomatos and croutons and pepperocinis more chocolate

Holy $hit, I'm glad I wasn't YOUR mother when you were a baby! Ugly stuff!!

I can't keep up with Stacey. She's eating me under the table today. I had three Mountain Dews, three egg and potato tacos and some strange designer lemony type brew. Thas' it so far, which is why I'm comtemplating Threadgills.

Coffee Granola sunflower seeds leftovers (don't ask!) potato salad pickle

Dinner at Central Market: great catfish with great crust, caesar salad, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Have you seen Dana Carvey's rendition of "Choppin Broccoli"?

it is very nice, yes

ooh, All this healthy living! I had: Coke berry muesli lots of French bread passion fruit vegetable soup ('twas cold and rainy yesterday) cherries champagne more Coke

berry muesli, how distinctive! What kind of berries?

blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries - all of them. It is a muesli that I buy in the local supermarket - pretty expensive, but extremely tasty, as it is freshly put together every morning. Do you like muesli, Terry-guy?

I love museli, ree girl, if I can find the good kind. And I certainly don't have a source of 'fresh' muesli. There is a mass commercial brand that isn't too bad, there is raw muesli in the natural foods store. I think I'll focus in on this part of the store next time I go to Whole Foods.

At least you HAVE shops like that over there. Here, if you see a shop like that, you take a big detour. They are usually inhabited by people wanting to convert you to religions to do with stones, instead of selling you food for the flesh. A guy in such a shop once tried to sell me a 'spiritual crystal', which would keep up my 'vertical energy flow' - and which looked exactly the same as the stones lying outside the outhouse loo on the farm where I grew up, a fact which kind of disturbs the spiritual ffectiveness . . . if you catch my whiff... �grin�

Check out http://www.wholefoods.com and you'll see the health food store we have in Austin. You can order stuff from there.

I had spaghetti for dinner.

No sauce? Thanks for the URL - see, I'm diggin' this computer lingo now!

Yes, it was saucy.

And what sort of sauce does a Terry-guy eat on spaghetti? Tomato?

Mmmm... how bout roasted red pepper and garlic basil...

We had soup last night I immediately named Spring soup since it reminded me of something Terry might eat.. Actually it was pretty tasty. Chicken broth was the base (does that leave our leader out of this soup?)to which seaweed was added, some rice for filler and loads and loads of firm tofu. It was very satisfying and I am sure nutritious. Oh yes, a whipped egg was swirled through the hot soup, too. Not bad!

miso/eggdrop/chicken&rice soup! wow!

That's about what it was. Not bad when your're too tired to make anything else and you are cold...and hungry. I wonder if he will remember how to make it!

Pizza, avocado, salad, water melon - without sauce, that is...