The good, the bad and the mediocre

Another cold and miserable rainy day.  It was a good day to have the oven on, so this afternoon I made a couple of quiches.  One for dinner and one for the deep freeze. 

Spinach/mushroom/onion/tomato/cheese with a breadcrumb/cheese topping.  Not great, but okay.   I was roasting some baby potatoes to have with it and if there's a trick to doing that without smoking out the house, then somebody needs to tell me.  Shirley dropped by just as the smoke alarm was going off and was still brave enough to stay for dinner.


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I was looking through some old photos this afternoon and came upon these.    The first is the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten and the other one is the best meal I've ever had in my life.

This is a night time street market somewhere in China.  (X'ian, maybe?)

  

 As we were strolling past the stalls, every once in a while a really repulsive smell wafted our way.  We finally traced it to the black stuff on a stick.  It smelled absolutely putrid (that should've been a clue),  but it smelled so awful that I just HAD to taste it.  They told me it was tofu - I love tofu!  How bad could it be?

Imagine, if you dare, charcoal briquettes, marinated in a heavily salted turpentine then brushed with tar, dipped in manure and deep fried in rancid oil.....Yes, really!

Eight years later and I can still taste it in the back of my throat.

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Fast forward a few years.  This is in Lima, Peru.



On our last night in Peru, Lesley, Dave, Dan & I splashed out and went to one of the best restaurants in town.  (Sorry, I can't remember the name of it.)  This little fishy came swimming in a heavenly-scented pool of squid, shrimp, scallops and tiny lemony/garlic potatoes.  Washed down with the local specialty - Pisco sours.  Ahhhhh!!!!  If I was on death row, this would be my last meal request!

P.S.

Too much of a good thing:     Remember the pickled beans?  They turned out pretty good.  Dan didn't like them, so I had the whole jar to myself.  At first I thought that was a good thing, but I've been eating them non-stop for a week now, and frankly, if I never see another pickled bean in my life, that'd be okay with me!!  Sometimes things are just better when they're a rare treat.