Xanax For Sale

Today at work I ate 2 "hormiga culona."

These are giant queen ants, brined in saltwater and then deep-fried. The literal translation for hormiga culona is "fat ass ants." They certainly have fat asses. 

These were brought back from Bogota by one of the grad students I work with. There was no way I wasn't going to try them. Each one was about 1 - 2 inches long. They tasted like salty, burnt popcorn pieces.  The ant butts (abdomens) had the most acrid flavor, and the thorax/head part was pretty much just crunchy bits.  These were missing their wings, which I'm assuming were burned off during cooking or fell off during transfer.

I'm pretty stoked that I got to try them, though, since they only appear once a year.  And seriously, when else was I going to get a chance like this?

As for their aphrodisia -inducing properties, I can only say that my tongue and mouth went numb for a short period of time.  Nothing too spectacular, other than me having bits of ant stuck between my teeth for the rest of the day.  Mmmm...

More info here.

Link: Report: Seafood faces collapse by 2048 - CNN.com.

Holy moly are these good.

Arrrrrgh.

So I've been trying out different soy-based fake meat products for the last couple of weeks.  Why?  Um, curiosity I guess.  Also, they have a much lower fat content than the genuine meat version.  But since I wouldn't normally eat frozen sausage patties or chicken nuggets on a regular basis, it doesn't really matter does it?

So here's the rundown on the soy-sage results:

• Boca Breakfast Patties - Um, yuck.  The taste was somewhat okay, but the texture was a big turn off.  Very granule-y and unappealing.  The smell seemed about right.  Looked okay.
• Morningstar Farms Veggie Breakfast Sausage Patties - Tasted okay.  Like a bland sausage, with a spicy aftertaste.  Doesn't smell like sausage, but looked okay and the texture wasn't as bad as the Boca patty.
• Publix Greenwise Veggie Sausage Patties - WINNER.  This generic Publix brand looked, smelled, and tasted like sausage.  The boy couldn't even tell the difference.  Great taste with enough spice.
• Morningstar Farms Breakfast Sandwich with Cheese - Good lord, this was a mistake.  The patty itself was okay (same Morningstar patty), but the frozen neon orange cheese and iced egg should have been a big "no" sign to myself.  The muffin part and patty were the only edible things, which is surprising since both the cheese and egg were real and not soy.

And, for shits and giggles, I figured I'd branch out a bit and experiment with fake chicken, so I tried the Morningstar Farms Buffalo Wings.  Yes, I know.  You can't actually have a fake chicken wing.  These are pretty much nuggets with a buffalo sauce taste and slightly red coloring.  The boy and I took a few bites and we both agreed:  it tastes like ALLIGATOR!  Okay, that might be weird if you're not from Florida, but alligator pretty much tastes like old chicken.  You can get gator bites at a lot of restaurants and bars, and apparently fake chicken also tastes like alligator.  The only problem with this is that there really isn't a "buffalo" taste to these things, so why bother?  I poured Frank's Hot Sauce on them and they were perfect.  But then again, anything with Frank's is better.

I also tried a few of Amy's Kitchen Organic products.  I give a big 2 thumbs up to the veggie lasagna, chili with cornbread, and mac n cheese, but a big no to the black bean burrito.

So there you have it.  I don't think I'll be venturing into the soy crumbles or strips because of the texture thing, but I've stocked up on those yummy Publix patties and Amy's products.  Hmm... I think we'll have steak tonight...

Last night I made Japanese Clam Soup (hanaguri-no-ushio-jiru) from a recipe on da*xiang.  It was very easy and quite tasty.  The sake and soy sauce give the broth a tangy flavor, yet it's light.  I doubled the recipe and added additional spinach and sliced button mushrooms to make a heartier meal.  We had plenty of broth leftover.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh clams
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups water
• 1 tbsp sake
• 1 tsp soysauce
• 1/4 cup chopped spinach
• fish stock (optional)
• sliced mushrooms (optional)

Soak clams in a basin of salted water until they "spit" out dirt and sand. Scrub the clams well. Put the 3 cups of water and clams in a pan and heat until the clams open. Remove the clams and strain the soup. Put the soup in a pan and add sake and soysauce (add a little fish stock for extra flavor). Add chopped spinach in the soup. Place some clams in a soup bowl and pour the hot soup over them.

Makes 4 servings.