OMG. Apparently lions HUG. How have I not known this?

Three Delicious Successes

I am 3/3 for delicious pasta dishes this week.

From what is perhaps my favorite food blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches, there's

fresh peas & zucchini with spaghetti
250 g spaghetti
1 T olive oil
1/2 t red chili flakes
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 baby zucchini, sliced thin
1 lb peas, shucked
salt & pepper
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
10 mint leaves, chopped
20 basil leaves, chopped
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet and add in garlic and chili flakes. Stir about until fragrant and add in peas and zucchini, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, season with salt and pepper and add in the lemon zest, juice and the basil and mint leaves. Saute for a few minutes more and then toss with drained pasta. Crumble feta over top and enjoy. Really, really enjoy.

And then two good finds from Cook Think, which I just discovered, and which is amazing.

Spaghetti With Strawberries
1 pound spaghetti
1 pound strawberries
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup pecorino

prep: 10 minutes
total: 30 minutes

1. Bring a large pot of water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Trim and dice the strawberries.

2. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. When it's hot and shimmering, add the strawberries. Season them with a light sprinkling of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they're falling apart, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar.

3. Add a little of the pasta water to the strawberries if necessary; the sauce should be just loose enough to coat and cling to the spaghetti. Drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce. Stir in the pecorino and serve.

This is amazing both for its novelty and because it complements pecorino more than anything else I've ever had with pecorino. And I am a pecorino fan.

Also:

Penne With Eggplant and Feta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, diced

1 medium eggplants, cubed
1/2 pound penne
1/2 cup feta, crumbled
2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram

prep: 10 minutes
total: 25 minutes

1. Bring a large pot of water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil. Prep all the ingredients.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot and shimmering, stir in the onion and eggplant. Season with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Leave the eggplant and onions alone, to brown, 2-4 minutes. Pour in 1/4 cup of the pasta water and cook until the eggplant is soft, another 3-5 minutes.

3. When the water boils, add the pasta and stir. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the onion and eggplant, stirring to combine. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the feta and marjoram.

speaking of favorite songs

Here's music from Pasolini's Hawks and Sparrows. (Which is one of the best movies, btw.) Disregard goofy graphics that someone's put it to.

Are you the most wanted or the most unwanted?

Go here to listen to the most wanted and most unwanted songs, courtesy of David Soldier, Komar, and Melamid. The most wanted is pretty great, but the most unwanted beats the pants off of the most wanted.

I think I like The Most Unwanted Song nearly as much as I like The Shaggs.

And I very much want an amusia-themed karaoke bar at which I could live out my greatest songbird fantasies.

More Lasagna Cat

Yeah, I've linked to Lasagna Cat before. But this nonetheless demands to be posted.

Sex and the City & M-C-M

So I read Jezebel fairly regularly and was psyched to see Moe (or her sister, actually) delve into a lil' bit of lit/film theory today. A drunken Marxist read of the new Sex and the City movie, actually. Which is an excellent idea. But so many people seem to think capitalism=consumerism. It is disheartening. And it makes the analysis of the movie not make much sense. Commodities aren't 'bad' because they're material! Quite the opposite actually! Marxism is into materialism, not so down with idealism. And commodity fetishism has to do with production not consumption. Or, rather, it refers to the obscuring of the labor power that produced the commodity such that value appears to inhere in the commodity itself. If you buy some cheap food or whatever, that is just as much a commodity as Carrie's shoes. The misinformed bourgeois idea that Marxism is an anti-consumerist thing, anti-materialist, anti-ownership thing--ugh, just totally wrong and harmful. Anti-materialism is a particular kind of bourgeois hippie thing itself. Not Marxist. Things that matter in Marxist thought are who owns the means of production and who gets the surplus value produced by the worker.

Though I still am most pleased this is being discussed on Jezebel. And, since I usually see boy movies and end up analyzing dude-rubrics, I am now totally going to see Sex and the City for similar kicks. I absolutely hate that shit, but I now feel dissociated enough to be curious how it functions.

Where Does One Eat in the Detroit-Metro Area?

I asked myself over and over again when I moved here. So, nearly a year later, I know some places. My suggestions, should they interest you:

Breakfast:

Toast. Ferndale. Absolutely luscious breakfasts, very rich, kind of overfilling but it's worth it. The menu is genuinely creative (beets in an omelet? so good!) as well as delicious. And, as you might expect, the toast (or any breaded thing) is really, really good. Lots of veggie options. (Also, they do lunch too--I've just never had it before.) Most of the entrees I've ordered have been around $10. My favorite breakfast place of all-time. Way way crowded most all the time but terribly so on the weekends (over an hour's wait the times I've inquired).

The Flytrap. Ferndale. Also a fantastic breakfast. Diner-style but a more upscale and way hipper. They have lunch/dinner too; the fried rice is my favorite thing. Also the flying salmon burger. Their whole pasta menu is great (if sometimes too rich), and they have vegetarian biscuits and gravy on Sundays. Also killer milkshakes. This place is ridiculously crowded on weekends too; go during the week to avoid a wait.

Lunch/Dinner

Slow's. Detroit, in Corktown. Barbecue. Has vegetarian options, plus all sorts of meat (including really good fish). Pretty fantastic, good bar atmosphere too. And it's a beer bar. They have a great beer menu, many many things on tap.

Inn Season. Royal Oak. All vegetarian. This one I've only been to once, but I had amazing curry there the other night.

Tripti/Gandhi. Hamtramck. These are two Indian/Bangladeshi restaurants located side by side with a shared kitchen. The Tripti side is more run down and, judging by the spiciness, I suspect the food is more 'authentic.' Gandhi is a way 'better' atmosphere, but perhaps less interesting. Also, Tripti is CHEAP. Like, unbelievably cheap for some of the best food I've ever had. You should go there. Gandhi is a bit less cheap, but still the prices are fine. Do the okra masala, a mango lassi, and one of these awesome pink doughnutty things.

Tokyo Sushi. Royal Oak. Good sushi, affordable prices, and way more authentic and better than any other sushi I've had in this area. (I.e., not designed for people to go there strictly as some sort of conspicuous consumption and where stupid clothing and want stupid giant rolls are named after American cities).



Cafe-Style

MOCAD. Cafe inside the museum. Detroit, midtown. Simple sandwiches and soups, but really good. And they have yerba mate. And you can sit there and read, in the sun, with art right nearby.

Goldfish Tea. Royal Oak. By far the best (and only) real tea place around. Chinese tea only, so you miss out on Gen Mai Cha and the like--but the tea is really good, so, no matter. Wu Yi Yan Cha, Lapsang Souchong. Or anything really, they're all good. Or go for the Ki Dong if you're feeling adventurous.

Bean & Leaf. Royal Oak. Lots of laptops. Good enough tea. It's pretty much the atmosphere that sells it, I guess.

Avalon. Detroit. A bakery mostly, of really really good bread. You can also get sticky buns, cherry bars, all sorts of pastries. And tea, maybe coffee (?). Not really a place to study, but a place you should pass through all the time.

Pinwheel Bakery. Ferndale. It's a bit of a toss-up between here and Avalon, but nonetheless the fare ends up being a bit different. Pinwheel is full of cookies and cupcakes (though lots else too). Cheddar and dill popover is my favorite, along with rosemary shortbread and chocolate chip cookies.

A classic

in case you haven't seen it. Also, this version contextualizes it. Perhaps should get a tv. Tv is good.

The Weirdest Sport

Making a horse dance--should perhaps be done ON a Nintendo game, in one's undies, while stoned and eating Fritos. But, I'm really into doing it in a top hat, in real life, too.

Special Effects Glazed With Rainwater Beside the White Men

Yes

Shashi pointed me to this, re: Lasagna Cat.

Rocket Highway, satisfier of all your Garfield desires.

Reading Books

I am oh-so-taken with the Jezebel feature Fine Lines, in which Jezebel writers review 70's & 80's children's & young adult books for girls. (I was particularly elated by the Little House in the Big Woods review, Little House in the Big Woods being the first book I ever read on my own. Alas, when I went home for Christmas I could no longer find my copy of it to reread. I did, however, hit some Baby-Sitters' Club.)

Anyone know anything about current Young Adult lit? I have a suspicion that class difference was represented more in popular culture in the 80's than it is now. And that there were all sorts of working-class characters running around my childhood reading. Actually, even the Baby-Sitters Club book I read while at home pointed out which of its characters were rich and which were kind of poor. And there seemed to be more stigma attached to wealth. Also, lots of single parents and discussion of raising kids alone. AND, I'm quite curious if kids' books now do the same thing. I just sort of doubt it.

This is not a class thing exactly, but just have a look at what 'they' have done to Paula Danziger's The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, recounted on Jezebel a few weeks ago.

The 1974 cover:




The 2008 cover:


Fuck.

Jezebel writers and commenters have pointed out that a lot of the books reviewed there have feminist characters or some sort of feminist bent. And I feel quite lucky to have been learning to read in the decades directly following 2nd wave feminism. Maybe all these books are still read by kids; I hope so.

Also, though, there's a lot of comment about the pioneer/stranded on an island/roughing it sort of strain in that lit. (The Little House books, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Caddie Woodlawn, etc.--not all necessarily written when I was a kid, but definitely popular then.) In hindsight, this inducing of fantasies of independence, isolation, living off the land, Jeffersonian democracy seems merely to have been ushering in acceptance of neoliberal economic policy. The model of class is 'ancient,' in Marxian terms--no one appropriates your surplus labor. That 'ancient' model as used to manipulate people into thinking that having no government controls on things is somehow good for them. Or that it allows for freedom, and that 'freedom' means anything and is desirable. So that Pa in Little House is free to hunt in the woods, be a real man, feed his family with very little abstraction of labor (supposedly), and people are free to exploit one another, and 'corporate citizens' are free to do whatever the fuck they want too.

This mini-analysis is totally painful, in that I really spent most of my childhood reading books about being stranded on an island, watching movies about being stranded on an island, or pretending that I was, in fact, stranded on an island.

Also, also, speaking of YA novels. There are a lot of still-more terrifying ones. E.g, this:


A few summers ago I tried to work for the Institute of Reading Development, the worst organization in the world. It's a corporation that rents out space in public schools and university campuses in the summer (which makes it look more legit) and teaches kids (& adults too) to read faster, more effectively, and with greater pleasure. I went through a few weeks of training and then quit because I didn't so much want to teach little kids to be racist and sexist. No kidding, all the materials they handed out to parents referred to students only as he. Because "she/he" etc. is "too awkward" and they didn't want to be confusing. Additionally, they hadn't updated their materials in a very long time and the examples of high school textbooks that they taught from actually referred to nations as she. Like, for example, Her people number 1 million. That kind of thing. Also, this book:



But the worst was the A Day No Pigs Would Die, which is about rural Quakers in Vermont and falls into the neoliberal/ancient rubric sketched above. It also is all nature-y and naturalizes rape and the idea that women's purpose is to bear children. It is very sucky. Perhaps I will write a more detailed description later.

The classes at IRD are taught by guilt-ridden grad students who are very hard up for money. I assume most of them work around the texts in some way, but there also seemed to be very intense surveillance of teachers.

I am glad that company paid me a lot for training and that I then left them with no employee, thus wasting their money. But I rather wish I'd gone through with it and just taught the texts in totally insurrectionary ways until I was fired.

I shall leave you with Cyndi Lauper, representing non-bourgie people in the eighties.

Pleasure Yourself With This-Here Lasagna Cat

yes, and there are many more of these on the U-Toob.

I have a special and sentimental loathing for Jimmy Buffett, 'cause I used to live just a few blocks from the Jimmy Buffett store, called Margaritaville of course. People who vacation in Charleston, SC love that shit. Actually, for that matter, many people who attend school in Charleston, SC also love that shit. The posturing of down-to-earth, just-love-havin'-a-good-timeness is one of the more nefarious things about South Carolina. I am glad we have Lasagna Cat to make it all better.

This will break your heart

This father is awful. But also, isn't this really the saddest thing? Much better at doing what it does than any Oscar-nominated flick.

Easy-Peasy

I have been making various pasta sauces longer than I have been making any other type of food. And only since I have been here in Detroit have I started to tame them: follow recipes, use only a few ingredients. (My Northampton style involved including the most. Of vegetables, spices, everything.)

And this new turn-to-simplicity has culminated in my making this recipe, which I highly recommend. Ingredients: canned plum tomatoes, butter, an onion, salt. That's it. And, really, I think it's my most successful sauce-making of all time. Do it up.

Two words of caution:

At risk of sounding like the overconsuming American that I am, this recipe really only makes enough sauce for a little less than 8 0z of pasta (not 16), two servings. If you like your sauce very saucy, chunky, etc. (It probably just coats 16 oz.)

Do not discard the onion, that onion tastes heavenly. We ate ours on the side. Or save it for a sandwich or something.

I like to roast things

because I just discovered roasting things, and roasted things are delicious. The two best things so far are beets and Brussels sprouts.

Beets:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Wash beets, chop off the ends, peel if you don't like the skin (I do like the skin).
3) Wrap the beets in aluminum foil.
4) Place them in the oven. Check them in 45 minutes by sticking a fork through the aluminum and into the beet. If the beet is tender, it's done. It may take up to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the size of your beets.

Brussels Sprouts:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Wash Brussels sprouts, chop off ends, and cut Brussels sprouts in half.
3) Toss with good olive oil and spread on baking sheet.
4) Roast 15 minutes on lower rack of oven.
5) Remove , sprinkle with 3 cloves minced garlic and good salt.
6) Roast 10 more minutes, till soft with crispy parts.

(I stole this recipe from somewhere, but can't remember where...)

Successful Receipts

There are very few delicious-and-affordable restaurants in Ferndale. There are, however, no fewer than four grocery stores within about 5 blocks of my house. Two of them are very good--one a produce place, one a discount health food store. On my way home from the coffee shop, I can stop into both and get ingredients to go cook dinner. So, in my quest for deliciousness, I have been learning to cook things. The best so far:

1) Minestrone Soup from Vegan Yum Yum

2) Pasta with Sweet Potatoes and Leeks from Real Simple

3) Chocolate-Chipotle Chili from the Urban Vegan

I subbed brown rice for pasta in the minestrone, rice pasta for wheat pasta in the sweet potato/leek recipe, and garden veggie tempeh for seitan in the chili. Also, had to leave off the tamarind paste on the chili (b/c I couldn't find any) AND, unfortunately, had to sub regular chili powder for chipotle chili powder (couldn't find any chipotle chili powder in Ferndale). All the recipes turned out fantastic, though I bet the chili's even better if you can find the chipotle powder.

Treat from LG

So I go to fmsbwtozau to look at this really rather a lot. And so I will post it here. So I can see it even more.

Sensual Seduction

So the new Snoop Dogg video is hot. As Anna points out.

Also, when I was at the Detroit Institute of Art today, looking at the really really amazing Diego Rivera mural, Detroit Industry, this guy who worked at the D.I.A. was cleaning up chairs and singing this song. Whistle while you work. Like Snow White and the Seven Snoop Doggs.



Oh, wait wait. The best part is that this is only the RADIO version and the real version is exactly the same but sub "Sexual Eruption" for "Sensual Seduction."

Hear Me?

So the other day I went on Kareem Estefan's really awesome poetry show, Ceptuetics, and read some poems, etc.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fijjnm0jcis

Some Tay Zonday