Posts (page 2)
Ok. So it isn't really a picture of Khao Soi. It' a picture of some of the ingredients.
Try this one:
Listen. If you want to see a sexy picture of Khao Soi, the "National dish of Chiang Mai", then go to Pim's wonderful blog: "Chez Pim" (http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2003/11/khao_soi_northe.html). That's what Khao Soi looks like. She also has a recipe for the dish, and I'm mentioning it here because when I get a craving for Khao Soi (which is often because it is mind-blowingly-stunningly-fantastic) but don't happen to be in Chiang Mai (which is sadly also as often as my craving) I turn to Pim's recipe because it's a good one. I don't follow it exactly because I can't follow a recipe exactly to save my life (which is why I am a better cook than baker), but you can make a great Khao Soi, just do what she tells you. (I add more of everything and then wrestle it back to what it's supposed to taste like, but it is a "to taste" dish anyway).
My only complaint is that I thought we had red curry paste here, but it was actually yellow curry paste. If I didn't tell you, you probably wouldn't have noticed, but that's just the deal. Use red curry paste. Also, I had a hell of a time frying the noodles which almost blew it for me, but again, see above. As a note, don't buy those awful crunchy paste-y noodles that are commercially available. Get extra of the fresh egg noodles and fry them. That's just the deal.
Lime. Add more lime, and add more fish sauce. You'll have to add more palm sugar (dissolve in hot water), at which point you'll have to add more fish sauce again. Add some more coconut milk and realize that you need more lime. Repeat as necessary until Curtain Call.
Sorry, Lucy; sorry, Annette.
I had wanted to send you on your way with a good loaf and Essential's Sweet Perrin, with pear, figs and hazelnuts would have carried you to NY in style. I put in just slightly too much salt, and the crust was bit chewy, but it was one of the better breads I've made so far. Do track down a copy of the book and make a loaf of Brown Bread for me when you get to London, and don't forget to find my friend and take him out for drink.
Books I have read while at Elsewhere
- Catch 22 Heller
- Stranger in a Strange Land Heinlein
- Artisan Baking Across the United States Glezer
Books I have not read while at Elsewhere
- The Experience of Nothingness Novak
- The Audible Past Sterne
- Michel Foucault: Power Faubion (ed.)
- Relational Aesthetics Bourriaud
- Archive Fever Derrida
- 1000 Plateaus Deleuze
- Key Concepts Deleuze
- Images Music Text Barthes
When I was a kid, I had alot of toys. I could, and did, spend hours alone in my room orchestrating whole adventures: with my Micronauts, my G.I. Joes (mostly given to me by my brother), my Legos, my stuffed animals, and whatever else came to hand. Often the actions, and stories, involved conflict (naturally) and combat (naturally) and mainly kept the different kinds of toys separate (a GI Joe adventure didn't often stray into the Micronaut world, although Micronauts could interact with Star Wars figures, but tended to trounce them unequivocally). I suspect that the adventure narrative is connected to the urge to heroism, which I maintain is the same thing that drives me to make art.
Funny then, that I find myself off in corner (figuratively) playing with toys (literally) attempting to create dramas, of a sort. I've avoided directly confronting what I am in fact doing here artistically, and also have skirted around telling you what my work has been, out of a difficulty in getting a conceptual handle, or a clear way of presenting what is going on. I'm still waiting for that moment when everything makes sense and I can talk about it without second-guessing myself and my work, but I'm getting nervous, because I thought I'd be able to do that two weeks ago.
Technically, I am creating an Opera, although it's photographs, and there's no music.. The basic premise is that the objects here at Elsewhere stage a form of Community Theater, where they get together and (re)enact tales of adventure, drama and a form of Hero's journey, in a language all their own. That's been a fun premise, but when I start to run with it, I begin to try and create narratives that quickly become forced and a bit stale. I'm not clever, and more to the point, I'm no Dramaturge. I'm a photographer for good reason, because my narrative muscles never quite developed to the degree that my visual sense did. This, I suspect, is a fair criticism of much of my more concept-driven non-photographic work. Much of my personal favorites in my work are about beauty, and I find that when I try too hard to make something meaningful, it flattens out.
Of course that's a nervous-making position when faced with the urge to create something that may very well never be something that is easily defined in a few sentences: "I'm creating an Opera out of miscellaneous items leftover from a thrift store in North Carolina that is part performance and part photographic series running across operatic, theatrical and cinematic conventions, with autobiographical overtones, some (but not many) recurring characters and a Surrealist object-collage aesthetic." Hmm, doesn't sound too bad, actually. Now if that is in fact what I am doing, I might be alright.
Tune in next week for "Beauty, the urge to Heroism, and the Void"...
I'm off my game.
I wanted to make the Essential Sweet Perrin bread today before Lucy and Annette left. I had to go out yesterday and hunt for the pear baby food, which is a story in itself. I prevailed, and soaked the rye (had to use flakes instead of cracked rye) overnight. Now I go to get to work and realize I forgot to start the pre-ferment.
Yesterday's bread (I wasn't going to mention it) was HiRise's Brown Bread. Rather than follow the instructions and bake in two coffee cans (who has two 16oz coffee cans sitting around these days?) I put the whole batter into the Dutch oven. That may or may not have been a mistake, but we'll never know since I forgot the baking soda, and the thing, tasty as it was, resembled something you'd build a house with, if you built houses with small round dense heavy things that nearly crack a tooth when you try and eat them.
Friday when I went to get the Polaroid cameras Jay sent me (Thank you Jay and Dionne!) I forgot my Driver's license at the Post Office. I hadn't done that the day before when I went to the Post Office to get the Polaroid cameras Jay sent me (Thank you Jay and Dionne), since I forgot the get the package. I got distracted trying to get an envelope to mail a letter, and by mailing the letters for Monique. I didn't realize I forgot to get the package until I returned to Elsewhere, at which point the Post Office was closed. On Friday, I didn't realize I'd lost my ID until I went to the liquor store, at which point the Post Office was closed. I haven't been sure of who I was for two days until this afternoon, when Monique was sweeping up and found the letter on the floor and almost threw it away. She caught herself at the last minute, and saved my identity for me. Score one for the Dutch. Seems the Post Office found my license and mailed it here, which makes sense because this is where I am. Score one for the Post Office.
The real problem is that I am spinning around in circles. All I want to do is to take advantage of the time I have here to make some good work, and I'm floundering. It is tricky to get everything in place in any event, and having to generate both the work and the understanding for the work is nerve-wracking and difficult. I could tell you what I think I am doing, but I don't trust what comes out of my mouth for the most part. Some people can decide what they are going to do, even in advance of doing, but for me I always find my direction in the process of making the work, charting a course in the middle of the ocean, with hand-drawn maps, here-say and intuition to guide me. It is a process full of frustration, disappointment and gnawing self doubt, and it hasn't changed in twenty years. The only things that give me courage is the knowledge that I have occasionally made work I've been happy with, and the inspiration that comes with seeing the work unfold.
Friday's film was lackluster, and much of it was over-exposed to the point of ruined. I was trying a new tack, and wasn't listening to my light meter. I've been anxious all weekend, and missed going to the lab today so I'll have to continue shooting in a guessing game until I get results back tomorrow.
The internet is down, which makes a number of things complicated, including keeping up with these postings, which is probably just as well, since I'd just continue to whine...
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
