Krunk4Ever!

Why is it so freaking hot?!?! Last week we were still in the high 60s low 70s. Last night I went to bed at 6:30am and guess what, I woke up at 11am because I was sweating. I guess I can’t really complain:

krunk4ever: it’s so freaking hot
ungsunghero: )(#*%()#*$()*!(#@$*())(!$*!)(!*!!!
ungsunghero: DIE
ungsunghero: NOW
krunk4ever: haha
ungsunghero: it is ONE HUNDRED AND THREE FREAKING DEGREES HERE
krunk4ever: good thing i didnt tell you our temp
ungsunghero: let me guess
ungsunghero: 83?
krunk4ever: close, 82
ungsunghero: DIE
ungsunghero: you are banned from IMing me
krunk4ever: haha
ungsunghero: for the next three minutes

I did my biweekly (that’s every 2 weeks) Costco run today and there was a section where there were fans and air conditioners and that area was crazy! I swear practically every 1 in 3 shopping carts had either a fan or a/c unit. The drink area was crazy too. I guess if Costco had anticipated this heat wave, they wouldn’t have discounted their Snapple and Gatorade. I also picked up so Lipton iced tea and Sobe Orange Carrot Elixir (both were 10 for $10 at QFC). I also picked up some Dibs ice cream since my sister recommended it to me. It wasn’t on sale, but I needed ice cream and those darn bite-size ice cream is awesome!

So back to the main to topic. Valerie had invited us to a potluck dinner party over at her place and I was contemplating to go or not since I had to put a couple more hours at work this weekend. I decided since I had to do my Costco run and do my laundry this weekend, I would try to complete the work on Sunday.

On my way over there, the 520 floating bridge came to a complete halt. Apparently there was some motorcycle accident in front and given that the bridge doesn’t really have shoulder space, a lady came and told use to move as close edge as possible so emergency vehicles can get through. We literally sat around for 15 minutes enjoying the beautiful setting sun and lake. People were taking pictures so I thought why not:

When I passed the accident, both parties seem to be okay. The guy in the leather suit (I assume is the motorcyclist) was standing there was some young Caucasian guy, which looked very scared (presumably he was the one who crashed into the motorcycle).

I finally get there and there’s tons of delicious stuff! I also met some new friends. Monique made these fried yucca and fried bananas and they were delicious. Valerie also baked some bread which was yummy. There was awesome fried battered corn which was actually really good. Now I have new ideas to try with my deep fryer. I discussed this over with Ungsunghero and here’s a set of new things I might try:

• yucca
• banana/plantain
• taro
• chicken wings, drumsticks, thighs

After dinner, Stanman got around teaching some people how to play BANG, a card game which is similar to Mafia in some way, but not really. We played several rounds of it and I was surprised how sneaky Anja was on her initial game. I was completely stumped.

Afterwards, Sathana insisted on playing this drinking game called Bitches Bitches (which appears to be a combination of Tap Tap and The F*ck Game). The rhythm was tap tap clap clap. While you’re tapping, you say your assigned name (which could be Bitches Bitches, Fuck Me Fuck Me, On The Table, Doggy Style, etc.), basically a naughty 4 syllable phrase. When you’re clapping, you say anyone else’s name and they have to continue. Whoever breaks the flow or screws up has to drink. It was rather hilarious to watch. I declined to play since I had to drive home and don’t exactly like to drink, but they said I could play with ice tea, but I felt a drinking game isn’t really fun unless you’re drinking (sort of like playing poker for “fun”).

And therefore my night ended there.

Here are some pictures from the photo album:

So last weekend, I went to Costco and picked up some chicken nuggets (or as they call it, Breast Nuggets) and also some Minh egg rolls. I was thinking about picking up some Ling Ling egg rolls, but once again their box didn’t have any instructions for the deep fryer. I think Ling Ling has something against using the deep fryer. Oh well. The most shocking of all, is that apparently Costco doesn’t carry frozen french fries. The closest thing resembling frozen french fries was either the hash brown or the potato wedges. They also had some battered fish and shrimp that I’m thinking of trying out next time.

Here’s how they turned out:

I had also baked some cookies to put it into the penguin cookie jar that Cari had given me. Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies are just so awesome!

I also found it interesting that the hot oven rails get captured as magenta color.

Last bit about food. I had just started watching the 3rd season of House, M.D. and one of the earlier episodes was a case about twins. How does this relate to food. When I was about to fry some eggs for dinner tonight, I cracked open an egg found this:

I guess chickens can have twins too!

So after enjoying my 1st deep frying experience, I’ve been itching to use it again. However, my fridge is lacking in things I could deep fry. Ungsunghero has recommended that I DO NOT deep fry eggs. I’ll heed his advice for now, but I’m interested in see what the outcome is.

Anyway, he’s suggested a bunch of things such as cream cheese wontons, breaded chicken breast chunks, breaded vegetables, spring rolls, etc. I said those seemed like a lot of work. He said then I should just do the whole chicken breast. Haha. The topic of deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Snickers also came up. I actually had a deep fried Twinkie in Las Vegas. It was pretty good, though for those that know me, I have a sweet tooth that can’t be satisfied. You’ve probably heard me say there’s no such thing as “too sweet”. I also asked Ungsunghero about deep fried tofu (mmmmm 揚げ出し豆腐 Agedashi Tofu), but he said those were messy.

Anyway, I recalled I had deep fried gyozas at Sushiland and they were pretty good, so I asked him about deep fried pot stickers and he said those are amazing. I had a big bag of Ling Ling’s Pot Stickers, but unfortunately they didn’t have instructions for deep frying, just pan frying. Ungsunghero says as long as the outside turns golden brown, it should mean its ready.

I didn’t want to over fry the outside and not have the inner get hot enough, so I tried frying at 325°F for 5-6 minutes, which the outside had started to turn a golden brown. Tried one and it wasn’t as good as I expected. Ling Ling’s Pot Stickers skin is a bit too thick to be deep fried, but it was still pretty good. Next time I’ll pick up some pot stickers or dumplings with a thinner skin.

(from Food album)

Hmmmm, I think I may have eaten too much fried food lately as my throat is starting to feel dry and irritated.

Awhile back, I picked up a Euro Pro deep fryer from Linen ‘N Things for either $10 or $20 after rebate. I never got a chance to use it till today. When I first wanted to use it, I noticed it said not to use olive oil, which was the only type of oil I had around. They said corn oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil , canola oil, etc were all fine. So later, I picked up a giant jug of canola oil from Costco, since that appeared to be the healthiest of the bunch. Speaking of which, did you know that canola stood for: “Canadian oil, low acid”? I had always thought canola was a plant! Also, wouldn’t the world oil be redundant here, sort of like ATM machine (automated teller machine machine).

Anyway, I had the giant jug of oil and it just sat around as I was too lazy now to test out the deep fryer.

I was talking to Xyon today about how even if we had a bread maker, we’d be too lazy to use it. I then said that’s probably why I haven’t used my deep fryer ever since I got it a couple months back. He commented and said aren’t deep fryers meant for lazy folks. That got me thinking… how do I clean it up? Is it messy? It turns out that I can leave the oil in there for years and reuse it. If it starts turning brown or black, I should change the oil, but given that I won’t probably be using it that much, it might even last a lifetime.

Anyway, I got hungry tonight and decided to give it a try:

(from Food album)

I have to say, these deep fried fries are 100x better than anything that can come out of the oven, microwave, or even pan fried! Mmmmmmm. Now I just need to find more things to deep fry!

Speaking of which, I guess now would be a good time to put in a word about a new photo service my friend Derek and Tekman have started: photosleeve. If you look at my sidebar, you’ll notice I have a new link: PhotoSleeve which has all my digital photos from 2002 to 2008. There are problems with my 2001 digital photos which I’m fixing before I upload them. It’s still being beta tested, but you can sign up on their homepage or if you send me a message, I can probably speed up your application. Maybe I’ll delve more into their features when I get a chance to write a dedicated post for it.

So while drinking my 3rd bottle of Lipton Green Tea with Citrus, it finally hit me what it reminded me of. Previously when I mention it reminded me of ice pops was due to desperate measures. The taste was so familiar and my brain was aching to make an association, and it finally did, but even after that, I wasn’t too sure that was what I was looking for.

When I popped open my 3rd bottle today and I took my 1st sip, I knew exactly what it reminded me of: Lychee Jello Cups

They also go by other names such as Lychee Pudding, Lychee Jelly, Konnyaku Jelly, Konnyak Jelly, etc. They’re those little jello cups that have a small chunk of fruit inside it. It started out with Lychee, but later on, other fruits like grapes and mango were also added to the variety. I believed coconut was also involved, but I forget if that is true or not.

Apparently it was later recalled due to chocking hazards.

Here’s some pictures of it:

(from The Gluttonist)

(from A Lot About Nothing)

So Costco had a coupon for this month for Lipton Green Tea with Citrus and I’ve decided to give it a try. The idea of mixing citrus (orange and lime) with green tea was an concept that didn’t originally sit well with me. I’ve had fruity teas before. They were okay, nothing spectacular, and I’d prefer just regular tea or with honey/milk+sugar. Anyway, since it was on sale at Costco, I decided to give it a shot. I got to try one today and boy was it tasty.

It had a very familiar taste, which I couldn’t quite get ahold of. I went through ice cream flavors and even started thinking about Capri Sun flavors, but nothing quite hit the spot. Honestly, the citrus taste really overpowers the green tea taste, but you can still taste a hint of the green tea. Finally after hours of contemplation and many sips of the drink, savoring the taste each time, it finally it me. It reminded me of those popsicle juice sticks my mom would purchase at the Chinese supermarket when I was small. I can’t exactly describe it further besides saying they’re sticks filled with fruit juices (probably non-natural) and you freeze them and then you suck on them. I tried searching for any image, but couldn’t find any. Here’s my quick attempt at drawing one:

Update:
Thanks for Ungsunghero for pointing out those things are called ice pops:

So a few days ago I retracted my comment of how chewing delays the hunger signal, but I am not so sure anymore. While I was in the shower, the study of how smelling a banana instead of eating it was able to reduce hunger popped into my head. And if what RayAlome tells me is true, then the scent of banana should also have told the stomach to get ready to ingest some banana.

A quick search on Google with the keywords chewing and hunger returned conflicting results.

Here’s a few excerpts from articles I found from the first page of results:

The researchers, led by Marion Hetherington, D.Phil., Professor of Biopsychology at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow, found that chewing gum can help reduce cravings and control appetite.

Hunger and desire to eat were significantly suppressed by chewing gum at one, two and three hour intervals after lunch.

- Thaindian News

An easy way to control those hunger pangs would be to pop a chewing gum into your mouth before an afternoon snack, say researchers.

- My-India.Net

A research study to be presented at the 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting of The Obesity Society, found that chewing gum before an afternoon snack helped reduce hunger, diminish cravings and promote fullness among individuals who limit their overall calorie intake.

- Newsmax.com

Of course all these are based off the same research and I came to the conclusion that either chewing gum helps control hunger or that India really wants to sell gum.

So a few days ago, I read this article on Consumerist: Don’t Chew 15 Sticks Of Sorbitol-Sweetened Gum Per Day. From the article itself (Chewing Gum Sweetener Can Cause Dangerous Weight Loss):

Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. An article in this week’s British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake.

The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with sorbitol.

One of the patients, a 21-year-old woman, had been eating the equivalent of 18-20g of sorbitol each day. The average stick of gum has about 1.25g sorbitol - so, she was chewing through 15-18 sticks of gum each day. The other patient, a 46-year-old man, was chewing about 20 sticks of sorbitol-containing gum plus approximately 200g of sweets (candy) each day - his total sorbitol daily intake was about 30g, the authors wrote.

So I was talking to Ungsunghero the other day and with all these commercials these days targeting people who want to lose weight, but don’t want to have a restricted diet or exercise, this sounds like the perfect plan. Basically, you just have to chew 10-20 pieces of sugar free gum each day and you’re almost guaranteed to have weight loss. I guess this isn’t much difference than people ingesting laxatives directly, but chewing gum provides some exercise too! Chewing 10-20 pieces a day is almost guaranteed to give you a sore jaw for the 1st few days, so you might want to start off slowly.

There’s also other benefits. Since you appear to be chewing, your brain will think you’re eating, delaying the hunger signal. Sugar-free gum also has 0 calories (sugar free) so you won’t be gaining anything from chewing sugar free gum, but will get the benefit of jaw exercise. Plus don’t forget the nice minty breath you’ll have (or whichever flavor you decide to choose).

Maybe Ungsunghero and I should patent this weight loss strategy. Or maybe it’s already patented…

UPDATE:

Had to make a retraction after RayAlome provided some more facts that chewing does not delay the hunger signal, but in fact induces it.

Ray AlOm3: actually this initiates the cephalic stage of digestion
Ray AlOm3: when your stomach does not receive any food it will start making all sorts of noises and signals
Ray AlOm3: the acid is pumpin, the muscles are contracting but nothing is arriving
Ray AlOm3: and remember the olestra chips
Krunk4Ever: so chewing gum makes you hungry?
Ray AlOm3: it will induce your digestive system
Ray AlOm3: so at the very least
Ray AlOm3: it will make you aware of your GI tract
Ray AlOm3: actually it will make you hungry
Ray AlOm3: because it’ll start the release of insulin from the pancreas
Ray AlOm3: but you won’t be getting any glucose
Ray AlOm3: so if you haven’t eaten in a while it could even cause minor hypoglycemia

However, this does not contradict the fact that you will be losing weight.

When I was finishing up the Oberto beef jerky the other day, which I had gotten from Costco, I notice one of those preservative packs. Usually they’re filled with silicone silica beads (corrected by Ungsunghero) and is used to absorb water, however this one said:

Oxygen Absorber
O2 - ZERO
DO NOT EAT

Anyway, I didn’t think silica beads would absorb oxygen too, so when I wikied it, I found: Oxygen absorber

Oxygen supports the growth of microorganisms and causes changes in color and rancid odors in packaged foods. Plastic packaging is less able to exclude oxygen from packaged foods than are the older glass and metal containers. Oxygen absorbers collect any oxygen that might diffuse into a food package.

An oxygen absorber is a packet filled with iron particles and salt that works to retain oxygen. Moisture absorbed by the package combines with iron, salt, and oxygen to rust the iron. This traps the oxygen and usually lets off a small amount of heat. They are used in food packaging to prevent spoiling.

Oxygen absorbers are made in different formulations to match the water activity of the foods they are protecting. The FreshPax Type-D, made by Multisorb Technologies, is designed to be used in dry foods such as nuts and dried grains. The FreshPax Type-B is designed to work with moister foods such as bread and processed meats.

Other technologies are used as well. The Ageless oxygen absorber, as developed by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, is a sachet of iron (II) carbonate rather than the actual metal powder.

Interesting… guess this is a new type of preservative.

When transferring the elliptical images over to my computer, I noticed a few images that I hadn’t talked about yet:

I also got these from Costco and they’re super yummy. They’re called spanakopita and the description states: spinach and feta phyllo triangles. According to Wikipedia:

Spanakopita is a Greek spinach pie with a filling of spinach, feta cheese (usually), green onions, egg, and seasoning (often including dill). The filling is wrapped in layers of phyllo pastry with butter and/or olive oil, either in a large pan from which individual servings are cut, or rolled into individual triangular servings (see burek). Once baked, it is golden in color.

In Greece, it is mostly eaten as a snack, an alternative to tyropita.

In restaurants it can be served with tzatziki sauce and a Greek salad. It has become a popular item in Greek restaurants worldwide, and is served as either a light meal or an appetizer.

After it leaves the oven, the outside is crispy and the insides are soft. The only unfortunate thing is that each dish comes with 12 triangles and I can’t possibly finish all of them in 1 sitting, and after you leave it out for some time, the crispiness disappears. It’s also on sale this month (from the coupon booklet).