Mark is on vacation this week. We took some friends to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, India's Rasoi, located in the Central West End district of St. Louis. The local Indian buffets vary their menus from day to day, rotating their daily selections in an unpredictable pattern. The food was great, but none of my favorite dishes were available today. In particular, I missed the Palak (Spinach) Paneer and my favorite Indian sweet: Gulab jamun. The food that was available was good, as always, and the staff was happy to see us.
When we left the restaurant, I still had a craving for sweets, and a doughnut or piece of cheesecake wasn't going to satisfy me.
We headed for the Global International Food Market on Kirkwood Rd / Lindbergh Blvd.
Near the entrance of the store is a cooler with Japanese refrigerated foods.
We picked up a pack of Rice Cakes with Fruit-flavored Bean Paste (Fruit Daifuku).
We love those things, but Mark has a small problem with them. He is phobic of the cornstarch that is used to coat them. Their texture definitely isn't 'American', which single-handedly mkes them an 'adventure' ! As far as that goes, Mark can't take the cotton out of the tops of pill bottles, either - but that is another blog, altogether! :)
We went through the produce dept., and picked up some fresh Mangosteen fruit: (old habit!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen
and some fresh Rambutan fruit: (new adventure!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan
We also got some Fresh Dosegai, which is a yellow Indian cucumber (New adventure!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosakai#Varieties
Global Internal Food Market is the largest International grocer in the St. Louis area. The isles are labeled with flags - one or two flags for each ethnic food group located in that isle: Mexican, England, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Indian, and so on.
We passed the cooler section of the store, and I had to pick up a couple boxes of (Indian) Rajbhog Dry Mix Sweets. Those damned things are addicting!
http://rajbhog.com/get_category.asp?catid=1&cat_name=Sweets
Back to the Indian isle (OF COURSE!):
Remember. the Indian restaurant wasn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert today. Those little things are one of my guilty pleasures! Most people will describe them as "little pancake balls" or "doughnut holes" soaked in rose water syrup, when in fact, they contain no flour or leavening at all. Their main ingredient is powdered milk! Thankfully, I am good at improvising. If your favorite Indian restaurant isn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert on a day that you are having a craving, you can go to your local International Market, and either get a dry mix,and make them yourself, or you can get them in a can!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulab_jamun
I have this can sitting on my desk:
While we were in the Indian isle, we picked up another Indian sweet - another guilty pleasure! Sonpapdi:
This stuff is flaky, sweet and tastes strongly of cardamom. And I love it!
We also bought Conrad (the African Grey parrot) some 'cookies' - they look like quarter-sized bagels (Salted Biscuits) with Pineapple jelly between them. They are human food, but Conrad loves them.
The next adventure? The Greek Festival? .... No. That's more of a guilty pleasure and a habit than an adventure. The Japanese Fest? No. that, too, is a habit, and not exploratory in nature. But so is 90% of the items that I listed in this blog. I love it! I can't possibly imagine how boring life would be if I lived just to see another day.
Wasn't John Barrymore's last words, "I'm dying? THIS is dying? How boring! I'm glad I only have to do it once!" The same thing can be said for life. To live just to exist is more boring than I care to let my mind dwell on. If I am going to be on the face of this planet, I need to do more than... simply exist. How lazy.....
A video for you. Larry Gatlin, "I've Done Enough Dying Today"
Do you seek a different pace? This song says the same thing - just a different speed. I love it!
Enjoy!
Care to join me? Mr. Toad's Wild Ride = LIFE
- Michael
When we left the restaurant, I still had a craving for sweets, and a doughnut or piece of cheesecake wasn't going to satisfy me.
We headed for the Global International Food Market on Kirkwood Rd / Lindbergh Blvd.
Near the entrance of the store is a cooler with Japanese refrigerated foods.
We picked up a pack of Rice Cakes with Fruit-flavored Bean Paste (Fruit Daifuku).
We love those things, but Mark has a small problem with them. He is phobic of the cornstarch that is used to coat them. Their texture definitely isn't 'American', which single-handedly mkes them an 'adventure' ! As far as that goes, Mark can't take the cotton out of the tops of pill bottles, either - but that is another blog, altogether! :)
We went through the produce dept., and picked up some fresh Mangosteen fruit: (old habit!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen
and some fresh Rambutan fruit: (new adventure!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan
We also got some Fresh Dosegai, which is a yellow Indian cucumber (New adventure!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosakai#Varieties
Global Internal Food Market is the largest International grocer in the St. Louis area. The isles are labeled with flags - one or two flags for each ethnic food group located in that isle: Mexican, England, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Indian, and so on.
We passed the cooler section of the store, and I had to pick up a couple boxes of (Indian) Rajbhog Dry Mix Sweets. Those damned things are addicting!
http://rajbhog.com/get_category.asp?catid=1&cat_name=Sweets
Back to the Indian isle (OF COURSE!):
Remember. the Indian restaurant wasn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert today. Those little things are one of my guilty pleasures! Most people will describe them as "little pancake balls" or "doughnut holes" soaked in rose water syrup, when in fact, they contain no flour or leavening at all. Their main ingredient is powdered milk! Thankfully, I am good at improvising. If your favorite Indian restaurant isn't serving Gulab Jamun for desert on a day that you are having a craving, you can go to your local International Market, and either get a dry mix,and make them yourself, or you can get them in a can!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulab_jamun
I have this can sitting on my desk:
While we were in the Indian isle, we picked up another Indian sweet - another guilty pleasure! Sonpapdi:
This stuff is flaky, sweet and tastes strongly of cardamom. And I love it!
We also bought Conrad (the African Grey parrot) some 'cookies' - they look like quarter-sized bagels (Salted Biscuits) with Pineapple jelly between them. They are human food, but Conrad loves them.
The next adventure? The Greek Festival? .... No. That's more of a guilty pleasure and a habit than an adventure. The Japanese Fest? No. that, too, is a habit, and not exploratory in nature. But so is 90% of the items that I listed in this blog. I love it! I can't possibly imagine how boring life would be if I lived just to see another day.
Wasn't John Barrymore's last words, "I'm dying? THIS is dying? How boring! I'm glad I only have to do it once!" The same thing can be said for life. To live just to exist is more boring than I care to let my mind dwell on. If I am going to be on the face of this planet, I need to do more than... simply exist. How lazy.....
A video for you. Larry Gatlin, "I've Done Enough Dying Today"
Do you seek a different pace? This song says the same thing - just a different speed. I love it!
Enjoy!
Care to join me? Mr. Toad's Wild Ride = LIFE
- Michael
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