Another Food Entry

I think it's best to write about food now, because the other experiences in Vietnam are best told in pictures (and I haven't uploaded the pictures yet).  This one's great.

 

Last night, my cousins made it a point to take us to something exotic.  The food was the type typically served in the countryside, away from the city.  My mother who grew up in the city, actually never had these meals either.

 

The first course involved skewered fish on a tabletop grill.  However, these fish were still alive on the skewer and there was a risk they'd actually jump off the grill.  Looked cool and tasted good; very fresh.  Next was what appeared to be shrimp and noodles, but the noodles were actually a starchy cabbage sliced thin into a fettucini shape and tossed in oil and garlic.  Other dishes included fried frog legs, hot and sour soup (different from what you get in the states, because the fish and veggies are different), and rice and eel porridge.  Over all good stuff.

I'm Allergic To Jackfruit

I love jackfruit.  In the U.S., I always order the jackfruit shake at noodle restaurants.  When I get the chance, I even eat the canned variety.  Upon arrival to my hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, I was pleased to find that my cousin had left some fresh sliced jackfruit in the fridge for me.

 

Well, after one bite, my tongue began to itch and my throat started swelling up.  Megan immediately gave me some Benadryl and thanfully I'm better.  However, there was this moment I became concerned that I would have to go to a Vietnamese hospital.  I heard how Hep C was epidemic here and I dreaded getting an IV or an epinephrine shot.  Luckily, that stuff didn't happen.

Amendment to the Desert Island Entry

Ha! 

It's a little over 24 hours later and I've already changed my mind on the 10 albums.  I'm replacing the Interpol album with Funeral by the Arcade Fire.

If You Were Trapped On a Desert Island...

Hue (of the Wangsters)  used to raise this topic as an item of discussion: If trapped on a desert island, what albums would you want with you?  Well, I'm sort of faced with that decision.  I'm going to Vietnam soon, and of course, I'm taking my iPod.  However, occasionally, but rarely, it crashes and the entire hard drive gets wiped out.  Well, to avoid a 25 hour plane trip without music, I decided to upload 10 albums onto Megan's iPod as back-up.

So, if trapped on a 25 hour plane trip, these are the 10 albums I want with me.  It contains all-time favorites as well as what I'm listening to the most right now.  Of course, lists like this change all the time, and this one reflects what I'm feeling this morning at 2:15 AM on May 22, 2005.

Doolittle by the Pixies

The Low End Theory by A Tribe called Quest

Loveless by My Bloody Valentine

This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About by Modest Mouse

Emergency & I by Dismemberment Plan

Turn On the Bright Lights by Interpol

One Beat by Sleater-Kinney

Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious

Inches by Les Savy Fav

The College Dropout by Kanye West

Homage to Megan's Green Thumb

I wanted to blog this for weeks, but I held back because I was waiting for a good set of photos. Now is a good a time as any, since we're going to Vietnam and will be unable to manage the yard. The work, outside of some early rotatilling, is primarily Megan's. The pictures tell most of the story. Hopefully, when we get back the plants will still look pretty good. I'm also hoping on a more substantial vegetable garden. Megan's planted lettuce, tomato, green peppers, jalepno peppers, brocolli, eggplant, cucumber, green beans, and some herbs.

I organized the pictures into three sets. The best way to view them is to click on the photo to get to the flickr site. Enjoy.

Front Yard Islands

DSC01165
Originally uploaded by mykng.

Vegetable Garden

DSC01185
Originally uploaded by mykng.

Porches

DSC01177
Originally uploaded by mykng.

Second Audio Post

Begging Bandit

A Recommended Blog

Working at Milford Memorial Hospital right now, so I don't have much time to write a long entry. However, I wanted to recommend another person's blog. It was the actual the blog that led me to discover blogspot.com.

I work with this doctor named Mark Roberts, a Scottish guy who apparently came to work in Delaware because the of affordable waterfront living. Anyway, he knows this fellow Eric Liu who is travelling around the world, working in various clinics. He's basically published short entries on what he's been up to and he has tons, I mean tons, of pictures (some of them pretty fascinating).

Here's his site:

Where Are You, Eric Liu

I Love This O. S.

I really didn't think I was a computer geek, but then I muttered the
above words several days ago. I guess the declaration of love for an
operating system really does make me one. I just purchased an Apple
computer, by the way, and after using the Mac O. S. there is no way
I'm going back to Windows. However, I really can't go on about this
subject because... it's only worsening by tech geekiness.

It's 3:30 AM tonight and I just finished the worst E. R. shift ever.
I'm usually inclined not to complain or praise anything about work.
Just ask Megan. Every time she wants to know how my day went, I
usually respond with "It was O.K." no matter what the shift was
like. What makes this an exception? Well, it wasn't the workload.
I've definitely seen busier nights than this. No one was
exceptionally sick, either. It just seemed that every patient and
their family member was pissed off or had an attitude. Even one of
the consultants was a prick to me. By far the most common diagnosis
I made tonight was "Assholism" I don't know what it was. No one
seemed to like what I had to tell them and I wasn't exactly breaking
bad news.

Typical conversation:

Me: "We're going to have to get an EKG"
Patient: "Well, what the hell for? I just want you to treat my high
blood sugar and then I can get out of here. I don't need an EKG.
How many times do I have to tell you I just had one last week? Why
are you pushing these tests on me? I'm not waiting here all night so
you can do an EKG" (The test takes less than a minute)

or

Another patient: "I hate this hospital. People should only come to
this hospital if they want to die, because they can't take care of
you at this hospital." (Why did this patient even come here tonight?)

Anyway, it's not uncommon to get comments like these once in a
while. That's the nature of emergency medicine and you have to have
tough skin in this field. However, it seemed like everyone I saw
tonight had an attitude. You see most people don't know this but
doctors are sensitive people. We went into this field because we
like to think we are good with people and we get a kick out of
helping someone. So, it's just part of our nature to be hurt by
comments like this, even though we shouldn't.

Well, at least I have my Mac operating system to love me ; )

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Megan and I are having BBQ ribs tonight. I just used a standard BBQ rub on the meat, but I really wanted to make my own sauce for the glaze at the end. She's out grocery shopping now, so I haven't started the grill yet, but I did just make the sauce. It's very spicy and tangy. There's also a freshness to it that's missing from store-bought brands. The recipe is actually influenced by three cookbooks: The Joy of Cooking, the Weber book that came with my grill and another BBQ cookbook.

1/2 finely chopped medium onion
2 tablespoons of butter

On medium heat, heat butter until it bubbles. Add onions and sweat them until they are soft. Then add:

1/3 cup of ketchup
1 tablespoon of brown mustard
2 tablespoons of balsalmic vinegar
2 tablespoons of orange juice
1 tablespoon of worchester sauce
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (I prefer Maggi)
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cumin

Stir on low heat until desired consistency.

Brush this sauce on whatever meat you are grilling for the last 15 min. Like I said, it's a little spicy and tangy. Several books recommend freshly grated ginger, but alas, I don't have any.

Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard

I'm at Milford Memorial Hospital tonight and the nurses are ordering from Dairy Queen. It is usually not my habit to order food while at work, because (1) ordered food is usually unhealthy and (2) it's an unnecessary expense. However, the thing that stimulates the appetite the most when I'm in the E. R. is inactivity. Normally, I'm much too busy to even notice I'm hungry, but now a patient hasn't come in in over an hour. It makes me a little suspicious actually and I'm anxious that a rush is coming later (like a bus full of school children is going to crash into a nursing home and explode).

Ha! While I was writing this the radio just went off. Looks like another patient is coming.

Anyway, I decided to order tonight because I thought I would actually have enough time to eat an ice cream before it melted and well.. the inactivity gave me the munchies. I could not think of anything on the DQ menu, but someone mentioned the Straberry Cheesequake Blizzard, so guess what I'm having...

There is a town in New Jersey named Cheesequake, by the way. I know I was there. Personally, I'd like to know what a cheesequake is. It sounds both destructive and delicious.