Random Ends

1) Monkfish Liver is Good.

Tried this for the first time courtesy of #1 Commenter Amy, at a Japanese omakase place whose name and location I have sworn not to divulge. Omakase means you don't get to order - you eat whatever the chef decides to serve you. Monkfish liver is creamy and buttery and melts in your mouth. Highly recommended.


2) What Huili Would Do With The Money

At one point, Huili and I were driving around LA, and the subject of hypothetical sums of money arose. When I proposed one figure, he dismissed it, saying in an Argentinean accent, "I can't even pay for my vaginal rejuvenation surgery for that much." (He was reading the LA Weekly at that moment.)


3) How I Cheated Violin Practice

When I was a child, my parents mandated compulsory musical instrument practice (two instruments!), as is standard operating procedure for all Chinese parents. So in order to circument violin practice in my room, I would, using a small stereo, record myself practicing a piece for ten minutes or so, and then play back the tape, over and over. In the spirit of undermining Chinese parents the world over, I offer this shenanigan to their children.


4) Experiments in Poaching Eggs

Somehow, over the course of Huili's visit in Los Angeles, we (myself, my roommate GP, and Huili) became obsessed with determining the most convenient method of poaching an egg. To grant you a sense of how arbitrary this quest was, I don't even prefer poached eggs myself - I like them sunny side up. But somehow our discussion of what kind of eggs to prepare for breakfast catalyzed a valiant endeavor in poultry poaching.

We began by using a Microwave Egg Poacher. The problem with this method is that the microwave effectively cooks the egg from the inside, which results in a hardboiled yolk with relatively soft egg white. While this result is wholly acceptable as a cooked egg, it is not a true poached egg.


Then we moved to Huili's home method, which is to simply drop the contents of the egg into a pot of boiling water, cooking the egg white and yolk before both have time to disperse. Texturally, this method results in an egg that is indistinguishable from a true poached egg, but it lacks flair in its presentation. The poached egg resembles a mutated jellyfish, instead of the classic ovoid shape associated with a poached egg.

Next, we got creative. What if we used the Microwave Egg Poacher as a means of containing the eggs during Huili's home method? Unfortunately, of all our experiments, this was an absolute failure. The pods failed to fully contain the eggs, and prevented what remained from cooking properly. A kitchen catastrophe.

In conclusion, we believe the solution might be to simply purchase a Farberware Non-Stick Egg Poacher from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's only $20, and it looks like a relatively fast and easy way to poach an egg, with minimal cleanup. I hope to report my findings and analysis soon.