Global Greenie

Via Lelo.

Note: I have been a pescetarian for more than a decade and would never consider eating some of the things I once consumed. I’ve italicized the ones I’ve tried.

1. Venison (My college friend killed the deer and made hamburger patties.  I found it pretty gross.)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (among my favorites)
4. Steak tartare (French class, high school)
5. Crocodile (no, but we served alligator at our rehearsal dinner)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue (as recently as a week and a half ago)
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (even make it)
11. Calamari (love it)
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (white? yes.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (was expecting a dessert — yuck)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (I “pick” them with my mouth because K likes to see me eat like a bear.)
23. Foie gras (bless me Goosey, for I have sinned)
24. Rice and beans (so many ways)
25. Brawn or head cheese (again, ick)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (my tolerance is HIGH)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (I will eat this now that I know about it)
31. Wasabi peas (Curse you Trader Joes for discontinuing the peanuts)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (mango lassi and sweet lassi)
34. Sauerkraut (love)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo (make it)
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (but I’ve seen light fixtures made from them)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (I’m from the South.  We sold them to raise money for the prom.)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (so incredibly gross on so many levels)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (as in — only one?)
59. Poutine (I was afraid to google this).
60. Carob chips (disappointing)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (ew)
63. Kaolin (rocks?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (on my list)
66. Frogs’ legs (I’ve heard it tastes like . . . )
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (all of the above, including a crab beignet)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (I am an expert cooking these)
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (overrated)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (one of my colleagues in NC brought in a possum dish, dyed green for St. Patrick’s.  I passed.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (my favorite is Man Pocky!)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (also my Halloween costume one year)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (I like my catfish like I like . . . )
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
101. Pie at the Portland Pie-Off (oh okay, Lelo added this one, but it should be on the list — I’ll be there!)

I’ve become a more frequent bike commuter in the past year and a half.  On the days that I ride, I combine my morning trip with TriMet or my employer’s free shuttle, both of which have bike racks.  That way I don’t get too wet and/or sweaty for the day.  I typically pedal the whole way home.  No matter what, I get to cross two bridges every day.

Once a year, the city of Portland closes most of the bridges for a few hours and allows cyclists to cross in a somewhat orderly fashion.  This was the first year I participated in Bridge Pedal and now I’ll be doing it every year.

Getting across the Willamette River on the Hawthorne Bridge to the starting line didn’t count as an official crossing.  Then it was time to wait awhile.

This is me and my wife, who does not normally feel comfortable riding in traffic.  We’re on the Marquam bridge, which is part of I-5.  They actually closed the interstate to vehicles and let the bikes rule the road.  In the background you can see the Hawthorne and the the Morrison bridges.  If you know Portland, you can probably pick out a few others.

I guess to make up for the old married couple, I’ll show this photo of the newlyweds.

The final official bridge for us was the Fremont.  We were both pretty excited about this one because bikes aren’t allowed on it normally, unlike some of the others we crossed, which share space with motor vehicles on a typical day.

We crossed this bridge going to the opposite side of the river from where we live, so to get home, we took another unofficial crossing: the Steel Bridge, which is having repair work on the upper deck.  But pedestrians and bikes can sneak across below.

We harvested our garlics!  These pungent friends have been in our raised bed since last fall.  We finally got to lift them.  It’s our second year growing garlic and I’m still not entirely clear when they’re done.  Most sites recommend a few dead leaves on the stalk.  One person scared me, saying that you have a 3-5 day window to harvest.  We have three or four different varieties and not enough patience to figure out what’s what, so we just gently dug below them and lifted.  Some are fairly small, but I’m telling myself they’ll make up for it with flava!

K cut the tops and beardlike-roots from each bulb and I tied a dried bamboo leaf around each cluster of three or four.  An hour later we were sipping Oregon wine and eating pasta with olive oil, and homegrown basil and garlic.  Lots of garlic.

We stringed the clusters up in our basement to cure.  Hopefully they’ll last us through most of the year.  I believe we planted about four times as much, so we’ll see.

Coming soon, we’re lifting our eight elephant garlics, but first I’ll let the hummingbirds drink from the flowers for awhile longer.

Have you ever wondered where vermicomposters live?  Now you can glimpse into the bins of your fellow worm fanatics with the map at Vermicomposters.com.  I’m embarrassed to say that I started getting hungry when I read the forum thread about what scraps worms like to eat.