The best part of jury duty...

Yesterday, I did my civic duty and spent the day at a courthouse in Los Angeles as a prospective juror. I got a chance to get caught up on some reading (Queen of Dreams by Chitra Divakaruni - not as good as some of her other work, like the short story collection Arranged Marriage, but it was better than the December 2007 issue of Time magazine they had laying on the side tables in the jury room). I was also able to entertain myself with my iphone by reliving my concert experience.

However, the best part of my day was when I got out of the air conditioned building and headed off (on a bus, no less) to the Central Market which is a farmer's market slash food court slash drug store.
I like the Central Market as it doesn't have that stereotypical LA vibe. People will tell you that the Central Market is "authentic" - which typically means poor ambiance, good cheap food, and lots of people of color. Bring it on, I say. Some people come for the shopping...


Like if you want chilies, this is the place to be.



Others like me, come for the eating. Lunch time fills up quickly as people from nearby buildings file in.



Most of the food here is Mexican, but there are some other stands selling Chinese and Korean food. There a wide assortment of agua frescas - horchata, jamaica, fresa, sandia, etc. A perfect accompaniment for a hot summer afternoon. I got my current favorite - tamarindo.



I ended up going with a tostada which was delicious - chicken, refried beans, shredded lettuce, guac, sour cream, and cheese on a crispy corn tortilla. A complete meal for $3.



That should have been enough to fill up a typical person. But I usually get hungry at around 3:30, so I also bought some taquitos to eat later.


I think I'm going to eat here tomorrow. Pupusas. Yum.

Radiohead!

If you recall, here is a crappy iphone camera pic from the concert I went to last week.  Not too shabby - nice detail, color, etc.

And here is a pic from last night... lol

The binoculars didn't even help.  But I can now say that sound wise, there really isn't a bad seat in the entire theater.

Here's the setlist - they played all the songs from In Rainbows and a smattering of work from previous albums:

Reckoner, Optimistic, There There, 15 Step, All I Need, Pyramid Song, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, The Gloaming, Videotape, Talk Show Host, Faust Arp, Tell Me Why, No Surprises, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, The Bends, The National Anthem, Nude, Bodysnatchers

Encore: House of Cards, Planet Telex, Slowly, Fake Plastic Trees, True Love Waits Intro, Everything In Its Right Place

Encore 2: Cymbal Rush, Karma Police, Idioteque 

Check out all these really good pics are from sweetcell:

Her (I'm going to assume that sweetcell is a female.  I suppose a male could be named sweetcell though... that would unusual - not that there'd be anything wrong with that...)  But anyway, her version:

Our version:

Her version:

Our version:

Her version:

Our vers- you get the idea.

Mr. Insomniac, bless his heart, kept snapping anyway even though every pic was a blue, red, or purple version of the same exact thing.  IRL, it wasn't as bad as it appears and I actually didn't mind much.  Thom ususally does a weird spastic movement that kind of creeps me out a bit, so I was happy that I didn't have to watch him tic through my favorite songs.  Is that shallow?

Random Observations:

• Mr. Insomniac and I are the only people who don't smoke marijuana in all of Los Angeles

• The Hollywood Bowl has really good food.  I had the OK Lasagna (one of the Radiohead featured specials - as opposed to the Kid A Veggie Pizza) and it was delicious - a three cheese hearty piece of grub with a generous slice of garlic bread.  Unfortunately, the concessions shut down at 10pm so I was prevented from getting a second glass of wine.  Kill joys.

• I really wish I knew how to concert whistle. Actually, I wish I knew how to regular whistle.

• What is up with that glowing white cross that overlooks the entire Bowl audience?  I would have taken a picture of it, but it's not like my no-flash having iphone would be able to pick it up anyway.  Let me describe it - it's high on a hill directly to the right of the stage that glows.  The hilly backdrop behind the Bowl features about three small lights - warning lights so that a helicopter doesn't hit radio towers...  It's very peaceful, relaxing, and sparse and provides a nice backdrop so you focus on your concert under the stars.  But then BAM!  The glowing white cross announces that it's Jesus time!  I don't mind religion, and some of my best friends are Christian (tee hee!) but the last thing I want to see in the dark when I'm sitting in a concert for four hours is a illuminated cross that is basically an advertisement for Christianity.  They might as well have a cherub faced plastic Bob's Big Boy up there.  It totally wrecked my marijuana contact high, bros.  Mr. Insomniac didn't see a problem with it and suggested that I write one of my characteristic "strongly worded letters" and sign it Satan. Whatever dude.  Reading this just made me hate the cross even more.  
  

   

T-minus three hours!

Tonight I'm going to Radiohead's concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  I'm so excited, I haven't been able to do any productive all day.

Last Wednesday we saw Jaime Cullum and the Count Basie Orchestra, as part of the Bowl's jazz nights.  Our seats were so great that even my crappy iphone camera made the performance look good.

He closed out the show with a great rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella", accompanied only by his piano playing.  He was much better than the improvisational modern jazz group that preceded him.  Just when you thought one of their songs was going to end, it kept going and going... and going.            And going.

We barely got tickets for the Radiohead performance and our seats are far far away.  But the acoustics of the Bowl are great, so I'm not concerned.  It promises to be an awesome show.  The only down side is that they won't let me bring in my own booze.  And I won't be able to post any pictures because Thom Yorke will be this size ->  .    And blurry.  

Recipe - Marrakesh Curry

I've been wanting to try some simple Indian/African vegetarian recipes...  I found this one for Marrakesh Curry on allrecipes.com and it fit the bill nicely.  Even better - I got the carrots, zuchinni, eggplant, bell/red peppers, spinach, onion, and potatoes all at the Culver City Farmer's Market.  I already had the raisins and the spices (the tumeric I got from my mother in a plastic baggie - it's her new miracle food that she's trying to get me to eat.  Apparently it has curcumin in it which contains high amounts of antioxidants and aids in digestion.  Whatever - it made my food look colorful).

At any rate, here's the recipe.  I thought it was wonderful - very flavorful and hearty.  When I threw the cinammon in the pot I said, hey!  This smells like Indian food!  And then I did a little dance of celebration.  And it tastes even better the next day...

Here's a picture of the dish as my lunch.  I ate it with some brown rice. Scrumptious!

INGREDIENTS:

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 tablespoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1 zucchini, sliced
2 tablespoons raisins
1 cup orange juice
10 ounces spinach

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large Dutch oven place sweet potato, eggplant, peppers, carrots, onion, and three tablespoons oil. Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes.
   
2. In a medium saucepan place 3 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, turmeric, curry powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper and saute over medium heat for 3 minutes.
   
3. Pour garlic and spice mixture into the Dutch oven with vegetables in it. Add the garbanzo beans, almonds, zucchini, raisins, and orange juice. Simmer 20 minutes, covered.
   
4. Add spinach to pot and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve!
   

Serves 6

Restaurant Review - Singapore Banana Leaf

Over the weekend we went to the Farmer's Market for dinner. Mr. Insomniac made a beeline for Loteria (the famous Mexican stand) and I went to Singapore's Banana Leaf, a stand that specializes in cuisine from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.



The Farmer's Market is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. It's great for when you're eating with people who all want something different on their plate. Feel like alligator? Korean barbeque? Fattoush? You can get all of these and more... and you get to eat outside and soak up that wonderful Los Angeles weather.



I choose Singapore Banana Leaf because I wanted a simple vegetarian meal. I began with a vegetable samosa which was delightful. The outer shell was flaky, light, and buttery while the filling inside was savory goodness. The accompanying sweet and sour sauce provided just the right amount of zip. I could have eaten three of these babies.


My entree, a vegetable stirfry was delicious as well and consisted of red peppers, carrots, chinese cabbage, and onions in a light curry sauce with just a hint of kick (I order mine mild, wuss that I am)... Very light, but surprisingly satisfying.

Another iphone post!

These are the apps I currently have on my phone (all are free, of course, unless otherwise noted):

GFCaller (Girlfriend Caller) - A pretty simple app.  Press it and it automatically dials your "girlfriend" - any number you want.  No hitting phone, then favorites, then the number.  I'm Mr. Insomniac's girlfriend, and he's my girlfriend.  I used to respond, "hey girlfriend!" when he answered, but that got old after the first five times.   And after doing some internet sleuthing, it appears as though there is a BF Caller.  Not as fun as having a girlfriend, but whatever.  One drawback to this app is that it leaves one of those red circles showing how many times you call your girlfriend.  Kind of annoying.  Another app You're #1 doesn't have the red circle, but it costs $.99.

Box Office - It gives you movie times at theaters located near your location.  And it has links to Rotten Tomatoes scores and reviews.  And I believe, but I haven't tried it yet, that you can purchase tickets through Fandango.

Midomi - This is kinda like Shazam.  You can sing, hum, or whistle a tune and search engines will find it.  It can also capture music while it's playing.  Then you can listen to the tune or buy it (I haven't tried this).  What I have used it for is singing/karoke contests with Mr. Insomniac - we sing tunes and then get points if Midomi correctly identifies it, an extra point if it's the top retrieved song, and double points if it's the only song retrieved.  (Typically, Midomi pulls up several songs).  I performed a flawless rendition of Whitney Houston's,"One Moment in Time" (in honor of the Olympics, of course) but was unable to get Midomi to recognize Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator".  It did however, get Elvis Crespo's "Suavemente" and Puccini's "Nessun Dorma".  

Listingly: Make lists and share them with people.  I had been looking for a free list maker that interacted with the internet (so I wouldn't have to type everything on the iphone).  Listingly does that and you can set due dates for your list items by simply pointing to a date on a handy calendar that pops up.

Miscellaneous apps:  Delicious lets you access your bookmarked internet sites (but I believe you can't add any new ones), Facebook is well, facebook, and Google Reader provides quick access to your feeds and blogs.

The rise of kid-cuisine

I have trouble sleeping (big surprise).  Last night was more difficult than most - I had taken a nap in the middle of the day (mistake #1) and watched the Olympics (mistake #2).  Once I'm up past 12:30am... it's over.  And last night I think I went to bed at around 3:30am.  Ugh.  A major reason for my difficulty in getting to sleep in that thoughts race around in my head at night as soon as I hit the pillow.  One of my sleeping techniques is to listen to a book on tape or podcast - it allows me to focus on something specific.  

So last night I was listening to a podcast from Stanford University featuring Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat.  She was speaking at Stanford as part of a series on Food and Ethics (I believe Michael Pollan was also a guest lecture earlier in the series).  

One part that really interested me was her discussion of the pervasive marketing that food companies do to kids.  But most interestingly was her discussion of the creation of "kid cusine".  Through marketing and branding, kids are given content about products so that they can prod their parents to buy items with reasoned arguments ("It has vitamins and minerals!").  They are drawn to the products with the cool cartoons that are helpfully positioned at eye level.   Kid food is visually different from adult food.  They have fun shapes and unnatural colors (e.g., "pink hearts, yellow moons, green clovers, and purple horseshoes").  This creates the idea that there are fun (crappy) things that kids eat and boring (healthy) things adults eat.  So what ends up happening is that kids become the experts in their diet as they know what is best for them to eat.

This reminded me of my love affair with Cookie Crisp.  I thought,  no scratch that, knew that this cereal was the best food on earth.  Each shopping trip became a battle.  I believed this is what the box looked like when I was growing up:

I even tried to point out that it had "8 vitamins and minerals" but my Mom wasn't having it.  "You're not eating cookies for breakfast," was the constant refrain.*  But check out the box: free baseball cards, smiling cookie wizard (?) spooning out cookies that have been enlarged to show detail out of an overflowing cookie jar, etc.  What kid wouldn't want this?

The new generation box of Cookie Crisp makes even more dubious health claims - "whole grain goodness!"  "100 calories per serving!"  "Calcium!"  and the ever-present "vitamins and minerals!"  But still, as my dear old Mom said, it's frigging cookies for breakfast.

So I ate my Raisin Bran and Cherrios and longed for the day when I grew up and could eat whatever I wanted.

*Last night I had Didi Reese cookies for dinner.  In your face, Mom!  hahahahhaha!