The Yuzu

How to explain the taste of a yuzu? It's lemon-limey with an orange-influenced grapefruity finish. Let them float in your bath or infuse in hot water with some Manuka honey for a healthy winter tonic (thanks Cinny!). Ground up with chili peppers it makes and wonderfully sinus-cleansing addition to ramen. Last night we squeezed it over cod baked in sesame oil.

I'd give anything if they'd let me bring my little 4-year old yuzu bush to Australia.

Product Placement from HELL

I bet you thought America was the worst in the "how many products can we sell through one of our crappy movies" category. Well, Hollywood is king no longer. Here, the tie-ins are so complexly woven together it's difficult to differentiate between entertainment and advertisement. In fact, the only real difference is that the ads are more interesting.

Check this out: the new film "Archipelago of Contagion". It's about some super-flu wiping out the entire population of Japan... and don't forget to buy your anti-virus mask as seen worn by famous actors in the movie! But waitaminit... they all died in the story so doesn't that mean their product is crap???

Kind of reminds me of 9/11 when I was watching the towers falling on Japanese TV and messages kept scrolling across the screen reminding you that Sony and Mitsubishi were sponsors of the program... disaster sells!!!

Arts and Craps

The holiday spirit got into me one day and made me go out and buy a bag of oranges and loads of Christmassy spices. I stuck one orange full of cloves, but got bored so stopped there. I wrapped the sticky bugger in butcher's paper and stuck it in a cool dark place - the shoe closet. Welp, one month later I pulled the thing out and it had molded. Bah humbug. Oh - but my shoes now smell of citrusy feet.

Intoxicating Burmese Milk Tea

Helen sent me a coupla packs of instant Royal Myanmar Tea that I tried yesterday at work. The color was just right and it had a deep, smoky, fermented smell. Unfortunately, it was way too sweet for my taste so I just used it to warm my hands and breathed in the evaporating caffeine. This seemed to work - I was super hyper in the following class... so much so that I heard a student ask their partner "Is the teacher drunk?"

Blog Stalker Part 2: My Robot Is Pregnant

Some time ago Cindy sent me a link to a video about urban beekeepers. The featured honey-lover mentioned his blog and now, although he gave away his colony of hard-working girls, I still check My Robot Is Pregnant nearly every day.

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Fantastic stories about dumpster-diving, bar fights and hitchiking to New Orleans via Craigslist. Philisophical randomness I find inexplicably pleasing. Some of the comments elicited are the best part. Enjoy.