Stupid laryngitis!

[annathepiper]

solarbird woke up this morning coughing up a lung, which was rather alarming to hear and which woke me up out of a rather sound sleep. Turned out Dara'd come down with laryngitis, too. She otherwise feels fine, but her voice has been trashed all day, so I've been having to watch her computer screen over her shoulder while she types stuff, and/or break our usual habit of Damn Well Not Communicating By Computer If We're In The Same Room, since right now she can't help it.

Walking down to Lake Forest Park Town Center for our last visit to the Farmer's Market this afternoon was a bit more amusing than usual, though, what with Dara being unable to talk. We managed to communicate anyway. My beloved can say a lot just by whapping me with a bag of cough drops, and then balancing them on my head.

Tonight, Dara, spazzkat, and I went down to MurkSouth to meet up with mamishka, darthhellokitty, kingchiron, tiggymalvern, and her spouse for tasty pho and a viewing of Corpse Bride. The pho was tasty enough--though we wound up not being able to go to our old favorite, Thanh Brothers, because it was just too jam-packed full of customers. We went to a new place instead, which was actually right next door. Their pho was not bad at all... but not spectacular like Thanh Brothers is. All the same familiar ingredients, really, so it's kind of hard to say exactly what was different. I think perhaps it was that their broth wasn't quite so rich and flavorful.

Corpse Bride... enh. I didn't really dislike it per se, but I didn't even really work up enough enthusiasm about it to be even bored. Which, after I told Dara this, I realized is actually a lot more damning a reaction than I meant it when I said it. But it's also true. There just wasn't much in that story for me to latch onto. Neither the hero nor his beloved were very interesting characters to me, and while the Corpse Bride is the most interesting character of the lot, she doesn't get nearly as well-developed as she should have been either. But Meems was very good to give Dara and me passes, so hey, for a 40-cent movie, it wasn't a bad experience at all. :) (THANKS, MEEMS!)

No writing tonight, but that's okay, since I still need to mull what's next for Chapter 15 in Lament anyway.

Tomorrow, I start the last full week of this contract. Gleep.

Time to feed and medicate the cat, and then bed!

Sunday miles: 3.1 (walking)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 360.35
Miles to Rivendell: 97.65

Comments

[solarbird]

amusing in the sense of GODT DAMMIT THIS IS ANNOYING, maybe.

[annathepiper]

Awwwww! *glomp* I GOT YER HEAD!

YAY!

[solarbird]

Head glommies!

[king-chiron.livejournal.com]

Plus, no cream puffs!! I mean, Rice Crispies are OK, but not even a close substitute.

[annathepiper]

Not in the slightest. I missed the cream puffs! Sniff.

I think it's probably telling, though, that the place next door was practically empty, while Thanh Brothers was packed to the brim.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

mmmm pho ;)
-=Jeff=-

[annathepiper]

In-DEED. Thanh Brothers Pho, which has three local locations, is especially tasty!

[kissare.livejournal.com]

I still need to take you to 5 Star Pho. They have great pho, and cream puffs too. When I was sick once, my boyfriend actually ordered everything as take-out from them! We had pho and cream puffs on the bedroom floor, like a sick person picnic.

Later we made our own pho - and let me tell you, the only thing better than pho is homemade pho. Especially when you simmer the oxtail for 6 hours instead of four. I am also a self taught semi-expert on fish sauce now, to make sure I got the good stuff and not the bad stuff. Which is funny to think about - that there is a 'good' and 'bad' version of rotten fish juice. ;)

[annathepiper]

Mmm, cream puffs! I missed that about Thanh Brothers last night; the other place we went to didn't have them.

Homemade pho sounds kind of fun, actually, and LOL! Yeah, how can you tell the difference between "good" and "bad" rotten fish juice?

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! "Good" rotten fish juice is made from the best sardines, and has few extra ingredients added, and preferably no sugar added. The "top" brand of fish juice does have sugar added, however, so apparently the sugar thing is just a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. ;) The good stuff generally comes from specific locations, also. The "bad" rotten fish juice comes from other places, uses low quality fish or other fish besides sardines, and has lots of other things in it, including sugar. I can tell you straight up the "Cock" brand fish juice is FOUL and to avoid it like the bubonic plague. And if you taste ANY kind of fish juice straight from the bottle, it will be foul. But it is absolutely critical to proper-tasting pho - strangely, it doesn't make the soup taste like it has fish juice in it, it just makes it taste RIGHT.

My bf and I are flying to visit my sister and her hubby the week of Halloween, and we want to cook some for them. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get what we needed there, if they'd have a good Asian grocery, and said maybe we could bring our own fish juice. The bf arches an eyebrow at me and asks, "You want that bursting in your luggage?" Oh. Good point. So sis only gets pho if she has an Asian grocery. ;)

[annathepiper]

Wow. I had no earthly idea that fish juice was a component of pho. That's quite cool. And thanks for those extra details! :)

Hee! No, no, I don't think you want to fly with fish-fragrant luggage.

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! More than you ever wanted to know about fish juice, I suspect! And yep, it's a critical ingredient in pho. It gives it that special 'pho' flavor that the spices alone can't complete. When we were making our pho at home, we were afraid of the fish juice. We only put in a tiny bit. "It doesn't taste right." So we dished out a bowl of broth, added more fish juice, braced ourselves and tried it... and it was perfect. It takes 2 days (or one really long day) but the end result is worth making it at least once if you ever get the urge to tackle it.

[annathepiper]

We shall see. It seems like a fun thing to try to play with, but my problem is that I have absolutely no cooking fu whatsoever. I mean, solarbird actually banished me from the kitchen! ;)

This is not to say that SHE might not want to try playing with pho at some point, though...!

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Pho takes less cooking fu and more patience than anything I've ever cooked. Once you actually have all the proper ingredients, it's mainly a matter of putting them all in a big pot, and wandering away for 4-6 hours. (There's a point early on where you have to come back and skim the scummy stuff off the top, and of course like anything else on a live burner, you probably want to check on it periodically, but that's about it). Then you come back, scoop everything solid out, and separate it into "I want to eat this" and "I definitely don't want to eat this" (tasty meat bits vs. bone and disgusting other bits). Then you put it all back together and you're almost all done. It's a very intimidating looking recipe, but now that I've done it once, I realize that it's not actually HARD - just time consuming. :)

You were actually banished from the kitchen? I haven't been banned yet... though I almost was when I cheerfully stood over a pan and watched my boyfriend's breakfast sausage shrivel into hard black hockey pucks... it's his own darn fault for telling me about parasites in pork right before leaving me to cook sausage alone, though! All his fault!

[annathepiper]

*giggle* Yeah, Dara banished me from the kitchen because I am singularly unimaginative when it comes to cooking dinner. I don't actually generally wreck anything I'm cooking, I just am not good at thinking of interesting things to cook and just don't care for the activity in general.

We made a deal--she cooks, I wash dishes. This works out well. ;) (Though it's been eased off a bit lately as risu also washes dishes a lot, and spazzkat is doing some of the cooking now too!)

[lickingtoad.livejournal.com]

As a wee bairn, I loathed anchovies. As I came to a love for Asian cuisine, I have determined there is a place for decent fish sauce in many a delicious dish. (No different than the Roman 'garum,' which is fermented anchovy paste.) Also, I occasionally now have anchovies on pizza. Never used to.

Be all that as it may? After three or four tries, I still have yet to sample knock-my-socks-off pho. I am sad.

[annathepiper]

I sorrow for the lack of good pho in your vicinity!