Dinner at the UN

July 21, 2006

It is definitely time to go grocery shopping over here. It’s not so much that the cupboard is bare. It’s simply at low tide. All the real food is gone, and what is left is the sort of things you find washed up on the beach of “good intentions to maintain a stocked larder”. Not only can I not combine the ingredients to create a meal. I can’t even raise a side dish.

Looking at them, I start thinking that I don’t need canned tuna or chicken broth or a more versatile cookbook. I probably need strong psychotropic meds to control the mood swings that brought me to this point.

The beignet mix from the Cafe du Monde makes sense. It’s not food. It’s a souvenir.
Of course, it’s a souvenir of New Orleans before Katrina.
Approximately three years before Katrina.
But for beignets you need a deep frier and a sense of initiative. I might manage the first part of that, but I haven’t had initiative in years.

And then, there’s the cactus. I try cactus every so often, trying to recreate the salad recipe from one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Milwaukee. It never works. I think the fact that I am Polish does not give me the correct cultural heritage to do nopalitos. Something is missing. flavor-wise. I am now stuck at a point between cactuses, afraid to move forward and try again, but equally afraid to admit failure and throw the can away.

I have no explanation for the yucca. I am not sure exactly what it is. Or what to do with it. But it was on sale, and when I saw it, I was gripped with the feeling that I would never see yucca again, and carpe diem, it went in the cart.

This is the same reason I bought the stuff next to it.
Name.
Its name is name, N A M E, but with a tilda over the N. Not only can I not cook it, I’m not even sure how to pronounce it. And you get exactly the kind of useless results you deserve if you start googling for “name” recipes.

To top it off, I have two of everything, because I was convinced that, if I liked it, I might want another one right away. Now I’m stuck with a pantry that looks like what’s left in the fallout shelter, right before you eat the dog.

Tonight we had pizza. Who can blame us?

6 responses to “Dinner at the UN”

  1. cherryredd says:

    It sounds like the stuff people would donate when we had the yearly canned goods drive at the library! Well, not everyone, but some people.

    Pizza was a smart move.

    Napalitos? And here Abner was saying you might enjoy authentic Mexican food when you come here because you probably don’t get any where you live. I’ll have to tell him you have canned cactus in your pantry. 🙂

    If you’re anything like me, you hate to throw away perfectly good food anyway. I’d probably still try to make the biegnets…

  2. cherryredd says:

    It sounds like the stuff people would donate when we had the yearly canned goods drive at the library! Well, not everyone, but some people.

    Pizza was a smart move.

    Napalitos? And here Abner was saying you might enjoy authentic Mexican food when you come here because you probably don’t get any where you live. I’ll have to tell him you have canned cactus in your pantry. 🙂

    If you’re anything like me, you hate to throw away perfectly good food anyway. I’d probably still try to make the biegnets…

  3. Anonymous says:

    Intrigued

    So after I read your blog I was quite interested to know what ñame is. So-o I put my skills to good use and found this:

    ñame = A starchy root often used in soups. Used to refer to someone who is crazy
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_Spanish

    and this:
    Sancocho
    Sancocho de Gallina is a popular chicken soup found in Panama as well as other Latin American countries. Simple in preparation and texture, yet is very flavorful and quite filling. The ingredients are basic and include chicken, cilantro, and a root vegetable called ñame which is similar to a potato.

    Learn something new everyday!
    Vanessa

    • admin says:

      Re: Intrigued

      Chicken soup.

      Hmm.

      You can put anything in chicken soup. Even if you’re not sure what it is. Especially when you’re not sure what it is.

      Hey boys! Eat this! It’s Panamanian.

      No. Really. You go first.

      (Actually, it sounds pretty good. I like cilantro.)

  4. Anonymous says:

    Intrigued

    So after I read your blog I was quite interested to know what ñame is. So-o I put my skills to good use and found this:

    ñame = A starchy root often used in soups. Used to refer to someone who is crazy
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_Spanish

    and this:
    Sancocho
    Sancocho de Gallina is a popular chicken soup found in Panama as well as other Latin American countries. Simple in preparation and texture, yet is very flavorful and quite filling. The ingredients are basic and include chicken, cilantro, and a root vegetable called ñame which is similar to a potato.

    Learn something new everyday!
    Vanessa

    • admin says:

      Re: Intrigued

      Chicken soup.

      Hmm.

      You can put anything in chicken soup. Even if you’re not sure what it is. Especially when you’re not sure what it is.

      Hey boys! Eat this! It’s Panamanian.

      No. Really. You go first.

      (Actually, it sounds pretty good. I like cilantro.)

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