Before we get to the greatness that is Scotland, I’d like to thank all of you for your insightful comments in my last post about eating “real” food. I enjoyed reading about your food philosophies – a selection of comments (bold by me):

While I am a huge fan of many processed foods (ahem, peanut butter, canned beans, canned soups, etc) I thank my mom for getting me started young at taking whole and fresh ingredients and cooking with them and using them any recipe. I honestly think it’s lack of cooking skills that prevents so many people from buying fresh foods, and resorting to packaged pre-made foods. It’s tough when you’ve never learned how to even use a stove! (The Candid RD)

I heard [Michael Pollan] speak about two years ago, and I really liked that he was “real” and admitted to not being “perfect.” He also made a real big point about cooking real, healthy, and cheap foods like beans, etc. I think too often people say eating healthy foods is too expensive and too difficult. But it really doesn’t have to be. (Andrea’s Wellness Notes)

I have something more to add in the food philosophy question: eating while relaxed and calm is hugely important to me. I never have lunch in a hurry or standing or at my desk while working if I can avoid it (and I am planning my day in a way that I can), because the time pressure and stress make me not eat well at all. (Christa)

Keep the great comments coming!

On to today’s post: Many moons ago (and by “many”, I mean “three”), my family and I traveled to the west coat of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides. Why did I wait three months to share my pictures with you, dear reader? I’d like to write that in the midst of various projects of dubious importance and uncertain relevance, I lacked time; but, the truth is … I forgot. Oops.

Let’s look at those pictures!

I didn’t realize that the knee-high leather boots I brought to hike in were so unusual until we were hiking down Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the British Isles) and a man who had passed us earlier in the day came up behind us and commented, “There’s the lady with the great boots!“  I thought I looked pretty snazzy myself – or, as my sister D said: “You look like a 1890s mountaineer.”

[source]

[source]

Yeah, okay, I guess I can see her point.

A few more highlights of western Scotland and the Outer Hebrides:

Gallan Head, Isle of Lewis:

Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris (yes, Scotland has wonderful beaches!):

“Cave” on Uig Beach, Isle of Lewis:

Near the Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye:

On the Isle of Lewis:

Yes, I went inside the abandoned stone house – in retrospect, perhaps that was a poor idea (note the collapsing stone roof – I won’t post pictures from inside the house, because I want to preserve the illusion that I have some common sense (hint: see gallery below for evidence that I do lack sense)):

Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis – unlike Stonehenge, you can actually walk up to these (as evidenced below):

A gallery of more Scotland images (Note: The pictures should have captions, but apparently they don’t show up unless you click the “i” icon in the upper right corner of the gallery):

And, a gallery of what I’m sure you’re most interested in: FOOD! I’ve noticed that whenever I travel to a new place, many of my travel plans revolve around trying local foods – what better way to learn about a new locale than to sample its delicacies? For more examples of eating my way through new locales, check out THIH’s Travel Page.

As seen in the album above, I sampled several Scotch whiskies at the Talisker and Edradour distilleries and found that after a dram or two, all whiskies taste pretty much the same. I also had the opportunity to try both black pudding and haggis (black pudding = delicious! haggis = okay). Recently, I acquired some canned haggis (yes, canned) so that I can cook it up over the holidays with some neeps and tatties (that’s rutabaga and potatoes, cooked and mashed separately). Stay tuned for my disastrous attempt at cooking haggis!

In the meantime, click through the album below for some delicious meals I enjoyed while in Scotland:

Finally, during our Scotland trip, I had the opportunity to swing down to London and meet a dear friend with whom I’ve corresponded for seven years, but never met in person until this past summer.  Hi, Christa!

Hugs!

Take care, gentle reader!

Q: Have you been to Scotland? (I know YOU have LeQuan ;) ) Have you ever tried black pudding or haggis?

AND

Where is your dream place to visit?

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A few days ago, Peter and I had the good fortune to participate in a foraging tour of a local park with “Wildman” Steve Brill, an environmental educator who was arrested for “eating” NYC’s Central Park back in the 80′s. Peter and I have been trying to go on his edible tour for the past three years, so I was eager to jump into it. What new gustatory delights awaited me?

Well, I did a lot of this – facial expression and all:

Just so I don’t give you the wrong idea, I had a fantastic time on this tour! Who knew the park was full of such diverse and unusual tastes? In the picture above, I’m chewing the branch of a black birch tree, which besides having analgesic properties, also tastes pleasantly of spearmint – once you get past the prospect of chewing on a tree branch. (Caveat: Please don’t forage in your local park based on what I write on this post, then get sick and come after me, all that and such. If you want to eat your park, go buy a book or go on one of the Wildman‘s tours.)

What else did we try?  Here’s a common one: dandelion greens.  These greens are best when young, before the flower emerges.  You may have tried dandelion greens before – I’ve even bought them by the bunch at a farmer’s market.

Acorns. These tannin-filled seeds are extremely bitter to eat unless you stew them for a long time (like, days), but Wildman Steve has a theory that the long winter months will dampen the bitter flavor.  Based on my face while tasting it, this acorn could have used a few more months in Antarctica.

Here I am standing in a field of last year’s Japanese knotweed:

The new shoots are very noticeable amid the dead leaves of early Spring:

Here’s the Wildman himself, cleaning off a specimen for us to try:

The Japanese knotweed shoot should have a sour taste, a bit like rhubarb.  I didn’t taste rhubarb, but I did get a pleasant mild taste. In general, I found that the foraged food had a much milder flavor than the conventional produce we buy in the grocery store. I can understand why people chose to cultivate and engineer edible plants over many years to yield stronger and more consistent flavors. Did we lose or gain in the process? I’ll leave that for the agriculturists and anthropologists to decide.

“What now??”

“Urg.  You can try this one.”

My favorite find of the afternoon? Field garlic – lots of it!

Wait, Jessie! Don’t eat it raw! This delicious allium that tastes like a mild cross between garlic and onion deserves a special dish of its own!

Cleaned and ready to be chopped:

“Wildman” Field Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms (boring title, yes – all my energy went into cleaning that danged garlic)
Serves 4 for appetizers

Ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped field garlic (bulb and white part of the stem)
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper
8 large white button mushrooms (wanted to forage some, but it’s too early in the season)

I know this seems like a lot of garlic, but the flavor is mild, I promise!

Peter found this wonderfully fresh and grassy olive oil from California:

Combine field garlic, panko, and parsley.  Pour olive oil over all.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Hollow out the mushrooms with a spoon.  Stuff with the … stuffing.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes, or until the panko is browned.

The field garlic does not have a strong flavor, so feel free to add more if you like a stronger flavor.  (Incidentally, this recipe also works great with regular garlic.)  For me, the flavor of these field garlic stuffed mushrooms was perfect.  Mild in taste, crunchy on the top, soft on the bottom.  Anyone want to come over for a dinner party? ;)

Q: Have you ever eaten dandelion greens?  How about any other “wild” or “foraged” food? (Safely, of course!)

and

What’s your favorite party appetizer?

No related posts.

While I was in China, Peter raved about this meal that he made twice in two weeks.  TWICE! With a husband who loves to cook a new dish every day, I was intensely curious about this particular meal.  I was even more shocked when I learned that my carnivorous husb was enjoying a vegetarian dish – veggies, grains, the like.

No.  Way.

I knew we simply had to cook this meal again, soon.  With a fridge full of veggies, we decided tonight was the night.

Polenta Gratin with Mushroom “Bolognese”
Adapted from Think Like A Chef

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 small yellow squash, chopped
3 garlic gloves, minced
3 cups mushrooms, any kind, chopped (We used white button and cremini)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme
1 cup veggie stock
Salt and pepper

Polenta:
1 cup cornmeal (polenta)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt

1/2 cup fresh-grated Parmesan

Heat peanut oil over medium heat in large skillet.  Add onion, carrot, zucchini, and yellow squash and saute for 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Toss in mushrooms and thyme and cook for three minutes, until mushrooms are soft.  Add tomatoes and veggie stock and simmer the Bolognese until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes.  Set aside.

For the polenta, bring 4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add a pinch of salt, then add polenta VERY slowly – a spoonful at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Stir constantly while bringing the polenta to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook the polenta (stir occasionally) for about 30 minutes, until smooth.  Stir olive oil into the polenta.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spread half the polenta in the bottom of a 9″ x 9″ baking dish.  Spoon 1/2 – 2/3 of bolognese onto polenta, then top with the rest of the polenta.  Reserve the rest of the bolognese.  Top the whole gratin with Parmesan and bake for 40 minutes.  Turn the oven up to broil and brown the cheese for 3 – 4 minutes.  Warm the reserved sauce and serve with the gratin.

Inhale!

I can see why Peter loves this dish – yum!  The warm polenta is so filling, but not at all heavy.  And stuffing the gratin full of veggies is a great way to enjoy them in a nontraditional way.  Veggies can be filling!

While we were grocery shopping this weekend, I spied a new fruit that I’ve never seen in the flesh: mangosteen.  I’ve seen the juice in fancy antioxidant blends, yet I was unprepared to see this unremarkable little purple fruit.

Mangosteens are about the size of a small apple and apparently are wicked hard to grow due to the temperamental mangosteen plant. Food companies have generated a lot of hoopla about the supposedly high antioxidant content of mangosteen. The fruit appears to have some antioxidant effects, although it’s not any more of a “miracle fruit” than any other delicious (and more easily-accessible) fruit.

Mangosteens have thick, extremely bitter hulls (trust me, I tried it and it tasted … whew :O ). The edible fruit is creamy white and segmented like an orange:

How did it taste? Like no other fruit I’ve ever tasted. It wasn’t as sweet as, say, an orange, but the flavor was a rich combination of lychees, strawberries, and plums. The flesh was super creamy … and gone in three bites!

Gussie says: give it a try! :)

Q: Have you ever tasted mangosteen? What’s the most unusual fruit you’ve ever tried?

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Hello again, everyone! I’ve now been in Beijing for three weeks and I feel very comfortable in the city – at least in the section around the University! I’ve navigated subways, buses, and taxis by myself in a strange city where I don’t speak the language well, and have even had (very) short conversations with sales people and taxi drivers (as long as they don’t speak too fast, of course). I miss brown rice, which doesn’t seem to exist here. Fried rice is found in abundance, however ;) I’ve also experimented with some new breakfasts, such as this delicious yogurt:

Most yogurts here are drinkable, such as the one I featured in my last post. This yogurt is not for fat-avoiders – there’s also no such thing as low fat or nonfat yogurt in the grocery stores. Small portions, people, small portions.

I’ve also gotten used to the “special” toilets found in China (and elsewhere):

I won’t go into more detail about them. Suffice to say that I’m glad I’m a fairly strong runner. Feel free to ask me about them if you’d like :)

I thought I’d show you a bit of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I won’t give background on this ancient practice, so check out the link above for a great summary.

We had the opportunity to visit one of Peking University’s hospital to watch our professor practice TCM on his patients. As usual, this will mostly be a photo essay/montage.

Inside the hospital. No air-conditioning, so it was HOT.

Collection of physicians’ teas. If we were in the U.S., this cart would have a collection of Starbucks coffee cups:

Cupping cups:

We watched our professor perform acupuncture on some patients. The patient I saw had been suffering from insomnia. After receiving acupuncture, he fell asleep very quickly and was heard snoring in the hospital room! Of course, he may have just been exhausted :) Our professor gave one of us acupuncture in a “safety” point (note: this is NOT my arm – also, if you’re squeamish at all about any kind of needle, avert your eyes from the next picture):

Our professor also performed acupressure on some of us. One important TCM theory states that problems occurring in the body will often show up on your surface (i.e. your skin), and that they can also be treated from the surface. For example, different parts of the ear correspond to different area of the body. By applying pressure, internal problems can be resolved.

Tiny seeds that will help create pressure at certain points in the ear when taped to the skin:

Our professor treating a woman suffering from constipation:

Like I mentioned in this post, TCM is a slower medicine, so patients often return several times for treatment. For people with mild conditions who prefer a non-drug approach, these TCM practices can help. (Of course, herbal medicine is a different story. I might devote a whole post to that later.)

When the professor looked at my ear, he said I looked very healthy and that there was nothing to treat (yes!). He ended up applying a pressure point to the area that prevents/relieves headaches.

Cool! I walked around with the tape on for a few days and blended right into the crowd :)

Some pictures of an herb-collecting trip on Ling Mountain in the Beijing countryside (no, that is not an oxymoron):

Yes, we hiked to the top of the mountain.

At the top!

A few random images from nighttime in Beijing:

Who knew a city could have such beauty?

Finally, one for fun:

In our local grocery store.

I’m signing off for now – stay tuned for a personal Jessie-led tour of some of Beijing’s most thrilling sights, a (possible) introduction to herbal medicine, and, of course, FOOD! I hope everyone is doing well in their parts of the world! :)

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Hello again from Beijing, China! I realize I haven’t talked about food much yet, so I thought I’d share some with you. A typical breakfast I’ve had here looks like this:

This pancake is some sort of hash brown with a fried egg in the middle. Very oily.

A mild spice cake-like thing that unfortunately tends to have hard seeds in them that look like olive pits (?).

While I don’t mind the mass-produced cafeteria food during lunch and dinner so much, I just couldn’t stomach this for breakfast every day, nor the refined-flour greasy buns and pancakes that make up the cafeteria breakfasts. My heart was racing from all the refined carbs. After a week and a half of this food, I’ve switched to this for breakfast:

Yes, that would be banana and peanut butter! If I can’t have my oatmeal, at least I’ll have some of the ingredients. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Skippy peanut butter here in Beijing.

Skippy PB and chocolate swirled together! Why don’t they have this in the U.S.?! I never eat Skippy in the U.S., but still.

Lame? Maybe, but at least I enjoy my breakfasts again :) I DO miss Saratoga Peanut Butter Company PB. I know what I’ll be eating first when I get home!

Moooving on … the weekend before last, I arranged for my group to experience a Beijing food tour! The tour traveled through the Beijing hutongs (“Old Beijing” ). Hutongs are narrow alleyways bounded by traditional Chinese courtyards, many of which are several centuries old. For those of you who have checked out the blog I set up for my University, you will have seen some of these pictures already. That’s ok – nothing wrong with ogling food twice!

(I’m going to keep the text short because I’ve not had nearly as much time to blog here in China as I thought I would!)

Famous chestnut roaster in Beijing:

Long line!

Have you ever tried a roasted chestnut? I hadn’t before this tour, but I loved it! Meaty and smoky and delicious :)

We began our tour at a local Hakka restaurant, where our first dish featured wild vegetables picked fresh from the hills around Beijing:

Spicy, salty perch:

Flavorful green beans in a light sauce:

Sauteed mushrooms. I had never seen this kind of mushroom before.

Crackly roasted corn. This dish was definitely my favorite dish.

Sticky rice:

Sauteed shrimp with tea leaves:

I don’t remember exactly what was in this dish, but I do remember that the green circles in the middle were bitter melon. It tasted exactly how it sounds.

Some images from the day:

A beautiful lake by the hutong area:

Hutong images:

A tea shop menu written in chalk on a brick wall:

A look into a hutong courtyard. The number of boxes on the upper left indicates how many families live in this tiny area (!):

Transportation:

See those cardboard pieces covering the wheels?  Those are there to prevent little dogs from peeing on the tires :P

The number of posts above a door indicates a family’s status.  A family with a”four post” door is ranked higher than a family with a “two post” door.  Girls could marry into higher status families, but boys could only marry within their rank or lower.

As the awesome Aletheia reminded me, this innocuous looking egg is what’s known as a “Thousand Year” egg. It has been soaked in brine until the brine penetrates the egg and preserves it.

Here I am cracking the egg …

… and my face when I see what’s inside.

The egg is BLACK!  When you break the egg open, it always has layers of colors and textures.  I hope to try this type of egg in a dish before I leave China.  Gotta stretch my food boundaries! :)

This sweet man owns a Muslim bakery:

Some of his delicious vegetarian treats:

I even got to take a picture with him!

This fruit tastes like a cross between a raspberry and a strawberry – hen hao chi! (Very delicious!)  I don’t recall the name of it off the top of my head, but I’ll find out and edit the name into the post.

A Beijinger taking an afternoon siesta:

Our last stop was in a Taiwanese tea shop.  We didn’t actually drink any tea (the weather was very hot), but we did try some Taiwanese snacks.

This omelet was supposed to have oysters in it, but still tasted great with shrimp instead.  I don’t even know what the sauce was – a Taiwanese version of ketchup, maybe?  In any case, it was fabulous.

One of my favorite treats of the day was a lightly-sweetened yogurt/soft cheese that’s very popular in this section of Beijing.  The yogurt was topped with black beans or oatmeal.  Who says I can’t get calcium in Beijing??

I miss reading all your blogs!  I can’t wait to catch up when I get back.  Have a great rest of your week, and I’ll talk to you all again soon!

Jessie :D

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