Wednesday, July 14, 2010

14. Oops + Deliciousness

So I messed up a little bit. Once consciously and once unconsciously.

The conscious one I don't feel bad about at all. My partner Jordan, my friend Liz and I brewed our first batch of beer a little while ago and it was time to bottle it last night. After the bottling was done we all tried a little of the beer to see what it tasted like. I figure that I will never again have the chance to have the first sip of the first beer I brewed. I just had one sip and that was enough. The beer obviously needed more aging but it tasted like it was supposed to.

The unconscious one happened at work today. I'm taking vacation from my day job to work at my second job while the owners are on vacation, which is at a gourmet chocolate shop that also sells beer and wine. Everything is amazing, but so far it hasn't been too tempting. If anything I was craving feta or something equally as salty and cheesy. But this afternoon as I was standing around talking to my coworker, I just popped a chocolate in my mouth and didn't even realize it until I started to swallow. My coworker was like 'I thought your weren't allowed to eat that' and I'm not.

It's not really a big deal, not the end of the world. But now I can't stop thinking about the chocolate, I'm craving more. It's crazy how much of an effect that one chocolate had on my brain. For dinner I was eating some amazing garlic-y shrimp and all I could do was think about that chocolate. My tongue is tingling and the thoughts won't stop. It's interesting, because normally I don't even really like the chocolate that much and the chocolate I ate didn't taste that great to me (it was filled with salted caramel which tasted so salty). I guess this is a very visceral reminder of the pull food has over me.

On a happier, more delicious note, I made the most awesome shrimp today. I want to eat them for every meal. I had these when I was in Nicaragua and they were amazing then and they they are amazing now. I have been searching for a recipe that recreates them for two years and this morning I improvised almost a perfect match. Here's a recipe:

Camarones al Ajillo
Garlic, the fresher the better. I used a head from the farmers market that still had the greens attached.
Shrimp, frozen is fine maybe even better than fresh/thawed
Olive oil, if you so choose

  • Chop up a bunch of garlic, like seriously a ton. I used an entire head of garlic for about 1 lb of shrimp.
  • Heat up a pan, add a little oil if you're using it. I didn't and it was great.
  • Add garlic, stir it around until it gets a little bit of golden coloring
  • Add shrimp, and stir them so they get all coated with garlic. Maybe add a bit of water if your shrimp are not frozen.
  • Cover your pan and let the shrimp cook through and then uncover and let most of the water evaporate.
  • Eat! Yum! I ate mine with brown rice and asparagus. Add a little of the cooking water for extra flavor.
  • Pack a tooth brush if you're eating this at work

5 comments:

  1. Seriously, watch out for these slip ups in the first few weeks, they'll really get you and make the craving/withdrawal stage longer.

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  2. Mmmmm....beer....

    I can't believe you work in a chocolate/beer/wine shop! You're like Willy Wonka!

    Anything/everything al Ajillo is awesome....

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  3. It's surprising, the beer didn't have any effect on my cravings. Probably because I had it in a totally rational and measured way. But that chocolate, man it did a number on me. I'm going to be hyper-vigilant from now on.

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  4. Sounds like the slip-up is making you think about things, so that is actually kinda useful! Not that you should keep eating chocolates or anything... ;)

    Thanks for that shrimp recipe - i made shrimp this week too, but i wasn't sure how to cook it so it was just ok. Gonna definitely try the GARLIC!

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  5. mmmmm beer...

    That's been the toughest part of this for me, is cutting out the alcohol, mostly because it went hand in hand with a social scene fer me (me and my co-workers drank a lot together). But man...yer shrimp sounds AWSOME....gotta use garlic more.

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