Duck and bamboo soup with homemade noodles

The broth is actually turkey broth made from Thanksgiving turkey carcass. The bones were broken open and cooked in a pressure pot for an hour. The container is pure aspic. Very rich. It is diluted here X2, and still very rich. 

The duck is from the Chinese market, rather randomly chopped so that individual pieces are difficult to pick. 

Bamboo is an experiment. I like it a lot.

Juice, baby bok choy, burdock, cucumber, rambutan, Asian pear, kiwi fruit

The amount went halfway to the second pint so I added an Asian pear and a kiwi. That sweetened it considerably. 

And I added a cluster of mint. Surprisingly, the mint is not very strong. I ate a leaf before buying it 

and could hardly tell that it's even mint. 

I am totally digging this juice. It's spectacular.

Juice: pineapple, orange

No vegetable this time. For once, I want pure mixed fruit juice as I know it. And I didn't want its color messed up.

Coconut

This is a lot of work right here.

One of the three eyes is easy to poke a hole into. The other two eyes are not. One can be gouged with a Phillips screwdriver, another hole is hammered with a thinner Phillips screwdriver.

The coconut is drained into a cup. Yesterday the coconut water filled 1 cup. This coconut filled nearly 1 pint.

The coconut is held in one hand and struck with a hammer at its equator, rotated around the equator and struck repeatedly while turning.

When one half is larger than the other, the larger half is more difficult to separate the white part out. Because it's being held in there as a more complete ball.

And as you struggle with this, you cannot help but admire its construction by nature. Coconuts are awesome. They're so awesome it makes you want to handle them more. It's tedious and thoughts become prayers, to God or to the natural world for designing such wonders. And you go, "Holy shit! All the things that can be done with these parts! The water, the meat, making coconut milk, its fat, its shell, its protective coating. Trees did this. I can drink its nutrition, I can use its fat for various purposes including cooking and skin treatment. The meat can be shredded and turned into Almond Joy bars or cake. I can even make a monkey face out its shell."

If I was no Gilligan's Island, I could make a bra out of the shells, but that's just being ridiculous.

A seaweed bra would be more comfortable.

Both cups are loaded with coconut shreds. 

So is the Cuisinart mixing bowl. Wasting that seems obscene. I know people strain it, but there goes a lot of nutrition. I hate the idea of throwing it out. But that's what people do.

I drank one of the pints and it is delicious just as it is. The shreds coming through with each sip do not bother me. Then, when the liquid is gone, 1/4 the cup is filled with used shreds. I ate them with a spoon and they are delicious too. 

I'm thinking of ways to use them. I think they can flavor bread or biscuits or cookies very nicely. I see no reason to discard them.

And here, as political conservative, I can easily out-liberal the political liberal conservationists merely by saying to them, "I think it's wasteful to discard the flavorful shredded copra, just because it's been used to make coconut milk. Use it again, like a used tea-bag, or discover new uses to maximize its recycling besides composting. These are gifts from the Earth and we mustn't be careless." 

Then turn aside and wheeze-laugh like the cartoon dog Muttley. 

Juice: celery, water spinach, lemon grass, green apple

I chopped the lemon grass to bits so far as the white part goes up the stem, and I caught the scent of lemon as the bits were smashed in the juicer. But the taste is not so strong in the juice. 

Conclusion: more lemon grass!

The taste of the juice is not that great. Another green apple would fix it. 

I marked and scratched the plastic receptacle at the 1 pint and 1 quart spots. Can you see 'em?

Know what goes with celery?

Peanut butter. I should try that in juice form.

Pacific Ocean Market

This is the first thing you see when you enter and turn right. 

This is what I came for; to experiment with bizarre fruit and vegetables. 

To put in the juicer and see what happens.

It's an impressively long series of aisles. But they were out of water chestnuts at the far end. They did have abundant regular chestnuts. 

See that? 

Do Do Fish balls. 

There is an entire long case of these various packages with some kind of dumpling, or non-dumpling  meatball of some type, beef, pork, chicken and mushroom, for example. Every combination imaginable. Amuse-bouche sort of things, or possibly meat balls to put into soup. Maybe salads or side dishes. Who knows?  Both sides of a very long case with glass top that you walk around. I was tempted. Maybe next time. They look interesting.

But then, I don't buy prepared American meatballs either. That's ridiculous.

I bought one of these. The guy chopped it up. I spoke with a woman while waiting for hers to be chopped and I spoke with a young family while waiting for mine to be chopped. 

And that guy is a dead serious chopper. 

Rolls that would be three times as much at the regular places I go.

Durian. This fruit is the inspiration for the name of the rock band Durian Durian.

White bean dessert

They make their own tofu. 

My shopping cart.

Unloading at home. This is half. I can't fit it all on the butcher block cart.

Juice: bean sprouts, celery, cucumber, burdock, some kind of weird Asian pear, green apple

I used a lot of bean sprouts and that is the predominant flavor and I'm still a bit uncertain about the taste of burdock. A bit sweet, somewhat chalky. I haven't pinpointed it. 

Weirdly watery. So I added a green apple to jazz it up. And still it's the bean sprouts that come through. 

Next time: less bean sprouts. 

Juice: pineapple, pomegranate, Asian pear, kiwi, celeriac

I must say, this is the most delicious juice concocted so far. Because it's all delicious things. The celeriac is the only vegetable and that's fairly benign and there wasn't much of it.

* 1/2 large pineapple including the core

* 2 fairly small pomegranates

* 1 Asian pear

* 1 kiwi

* 1 small section of celeriac bulb

Man oh man, I sure am going through a lot of vegetables and fruit this last month. Wow. I used all the new kiwis, 12 of them, and all the Asian pears, all the celery and both batches of cucumbers, all the spinach, all the kale, both batches of bok choy. All the red apples both times. All the purple cabbage. 2+1/2 pineapples. A bunch of kale (gross) it has to be used sparingly and turns juice dark green. All 6 of the bell peppers. All both batches of regular pears. One whole celeriac.  

But not all the 2nd batch of carrots. And I still have some grapes but not much and some green apples are still left.

Now today I must go out and buy another whole trolly. It's fun!

I notice when I stand up my muscles work more cooperatively and I'm no longer creaky or achy. 

rice and beans and bok choy with shrimp

* Hard dried beans were pressure cooked in water for 1 hour.

* Removed from pot to a bowl

* Bacon fried in the original pot without the pressure lid

* Onions added

* Garlic and seasonings, cumin and cilantro

* Brown sugar added

* Rice vinegar added, BOOM! sweet/sour balance right there.

The bok choy and spinach were intended for juicing but I wanted to eat them instead.

Actually, spinach has more nutrition available when it's cooked. Juicers use it because its flavor is not so strong as such things as kale, which can get overbearing.

The customary 7 magical Asian flavor ingredients turn simple flavorless cabbage into something spectacular. I mean it. You should just copy them, buy them and use them and up your game to a whole 'nuther level. People will be all, "What? What? Where did these mad chefery skills come from?" And you'll go demurely, "The internet." 

Okay. What we have here is beans cooked rapidly and flavored fantastically, and bok choy with spinach and an abundance of shrimp flavored incredibly, against plain white rice not flavored at all. 

That's because the rice itself is stupendous. Its flavor really is outstanding. But simple. It's simply outstanding. This is not ordinary careless rice. No. This is careful rice. Each step of cultivation and processing is carefully curated, thoughtfully attentive to every detail. Japanese people say, "Since I've been in America, this is the one rice that comes close to what I know back home." But you wouldn't know about that unless you've already had a lot of really good rice. And poor rice, to be able to assess the differences between them.

And ah pity da foo who can't tell the difference.

Juice: pomegranate, celeriac, tomato, red bell pepper, Envy apple

The Asian pear wasn't used.

I must buy more celery and more cucumbers. Also a good coconut. 

And I'm nearly out of kiwis.