Sweet face

Appendicitis!

My next post was going to be about the skincare I won from Sephora on Twitter, or about the long-lasting Japanese gel nail manicure I had, but then I was struck with appendicitis at the beginning of the month. Usually, when I get sick to the point where I need to be hospitalized, it's around my birthday, so my present from my body to myself came a little early. (Don't get me started on what I believe to be the Bang Curse--every time I've been very ill post-college, it turns out I'd just gotten bangs!) So instead, here's a picture of my collection of breathing implements I've amassed, which will hopefully stop immediately! I do not recommend starting a collection. The first was from the mysterious lung collapse a few years ago. The second was from this appendectomy--they told me to use this to regain my lung's strength after general anesthesia and to prevent pneumonia. I like how my ailments are all mysterious and no doctor ever attempts to even investigate a cause. It's also nice (and more important) how I don't suffer in the long term as a result of them; the only evidence left behind are light scars on the torso.

I don't know why, but I feel like writing briefly about my experience here. Appendicitis is cripplingly painful; not even morphine could ease my pain. When the ER nurse told me they were giving me morphine and that the pain wouldn't go away until they removed the useless organ, I didn't fear surgery or general anesthesia. I just wanted the appendix out of my life. But what was a bit jarring to me about surgery was being brought into the bright, spacious operating room. My immediate thought was that it looked just like in the movies or TV shows. They hadn't administered anything to me yet so I was fully conscious, which seemed a desired state so that I could announce clearly my name, DOB, and what I was there for. I had never experienced surgery before; all I've experienced are a bunch of residents and young doctors coming to see me in my room, sometimes the chief of their staff (i.e., an older doctor, usually in a suit) dropping by for a special visit. When the many doctors come to see me in the room, there is at least one doctor who does all the talking, and others observe. Sometimes, when different doctors ask different questions, it's clear to me that they all have a general idea of what the problem is, but that each person might have a slightly different idea of what the details are or would defer to the speaking-doctor. They'll then get word from their "chief" or whoever is highest in the hierarchy; they may (or may not!) pass that down to my nurses and to me; but that higher word confirms the details--the diagnosis, treatment, and followup care. This is what I'm used to. But in the operating room--and I realize this is what you would hope and expect--I saw that every single person in there is on the exact same place of the same page. Obviously, the surgeon is the director of everything. And of all the doctors and residents and med students I met, only one of them ended up in the OR with the surgeon. But when I was in there and conscious, I remember that the nurse \seemed to oversee or manage a lot of things. I appreciated it, or found comfort in it. After that, I only remember being the breathing mask already in place and being told the anesthesia would kick in. But I was just so struck by how different things are in the OR compared to the ER room or the hospital rooms, even if I was only awake to observe things in the OR for a couple of minutes.

So anyway, it was interesting to see the dynamics of medical hierarchy in a slightly different light. As usual, I noticed again how important nurses are as much as doctors; I always strike gold with nurses. This is a cliche moment, but this is the kind of cliche moment you should want--I have always been and it seems like I continue to be given the best medical staff to help me get back on my feet when something has gone terribly wrong. Appendicitis is a straightforward problem you want to have if you have sharp, crippling stomach pains, rather than, say, some long-term stomach-related disease, but it still requires surgery and thereby general anesthesia. To be able to recover as well as I have been, you need a good support system, both in and out of the hospital. This time, my experience at UIC was near-impeccable. (Sorry, cannot say the exact same of U of C!) I am beyond grateful for each and every person involved, all the way from the ER staff, the transport staff, the nurses, to the chief and her budding underlings.

Kamakura December 2012

I guess I wasn't done with the people-and-dog-watching pictures! Here are more shots from Kamakura, but this time with my DSLR instead of iPhone.

It seems that a common thing to do on New Year's Eve is visit shrines. If they don't want to face Times Square-like crowds then, then people go within the first week or so of the new year, but still face hefty crowds. On the day we visited in mid-December, the police were practicing their speeches for the throngs of people. It was endearing to watch them nervously read announcements about being orderly, which people do anyway. 

I don't know what these boys were doing in their baseball outfits, heading towards the shrine. Maybe they wanted heavenly protection for practice or the coming season. One thing I love about Japanese kids is their dedication--whether genuine or socially constructed or both--towards their extracurricular activities. I like seeing them on the train in their uniforms, with their bags full of equipment, and how I sometimes catch the young yielding train seats to the older kids. 

This woman was taking a picture of the sun setting, right by the train station. Again, she has that nonchalant Kamakura style I love so much--her hair, her cozy sweater, and her tote bag! I noticed the tote bag first, and then I realized the person carrying it was noteworthy too. What noteworthy person wouldn't choose to carry that bag?!

Here is a second teddy bear poodle, who senses someone watching them. As if this one wasn't enough. This teddy bear phenomenon will likely wane, so I think Bisou should go to Japan soon and show them how silver is done right!

I can't remember if my mom noticed a Shiba across the street, or if I did--one of us had a functioning Shiba-dar. In reviewing these pictures just now, I realized that a woman comes up to the Shiba in the man's arms and SMELLS ITS BACK. I smell Mitsu all the time (I don't know what it is, but she doesn't smell like dog!), but it'd be funny if a stranger noticed this habit and photographed it in sequence.

I kept taking pictures as they crossed the street. Maybe the dog doesn't like crowds? Anyhow, I like its scarf/handkerchief--we've been looking for something like that for Mitsu but have been having trouble--but then look at its leash! It's just a piece of yellow rope. That Kamakura flair.

Japanese people continued

These pictures took less guts to take--the people are facing away from me, but they deserve no less recognition than forward facing subjects.

Some cool older men on the train. The first man seemed to have more character and flair than the second, but maybe the second guy is still developing his. He at least looks stylish. His stylishness seems to me uniquely Japanese in that everything is carefully calculated. Japanese fashion never seems to me whimsically put together, in that ubiquitous Olsen/Fashintoast "I just threw it on on my way out" sort of way (maybe that style is fading out now though). This man put more thought into his ONE outfit for this ONE day than I have for my own clothes and makeup in the past couple of weeks since I've returned from Japan. I mean, I put more effort into my clothes while I'm there, but I cannot look that well-edited when I go out.

This man below is delivering Kiyoken bento boxes to their counter at the basement (i.e. food) level of the department store Takashimaya. I always see pre-made bento boxes in grocery stores, train stations, and Haneda airport, and they usually look good. But ultimately, nothing beats a Kiyoken shumai bento. Luckily, there's a Kiyoken lurking at every corner everywhere, so you can have one whether you're on the go or not.

Here's what a shumai bento looks like. 

Shumai are steamed dumplings, not unlike like gyoza. There are other forms of meat: cooked tuna, kamaboko (the pink and white fish cake), and a piece of karaage, or fried chicken (has more soy sauce and ginger flavor then their American counterpart). There's also sweet egg (the yellow slice), a piece of dried apricot, and the best part, which I remember from my childhood: chunks of sweetened bamboo (very top left). I had this particular bento on the way to the airport, so it was my last meal. I rarely finish meals (I order too much and am picky) but this, aside from the tuna (not a big fan--can I get some more bamboo instead?), I finished. I felt like I won something! So anyway, my love for the shumai bento is why, when I saw the delivery man in his Kiyoken jacket, I took a picture of him. Thank you for your hard work!

I know I shouldn't make fun of "Engrish" or anything like it, but I can't help it. This sweater is delightful.

And finally, this is from my first full day in Yokohama. This is past the West Exit of the Yokohama train station, between Bic Camera and Vivre. This is where cars can't pass through, so it's just people. I wasn't doing any particular people-watching (or am I always doing it?), but I noticed this man walking in front of me. When I realized what was going on with his bag situation, I frantically pulled my phone out and started taking pictures. It's a miracle I got this shot where everything but him and his bag are blurry.

He's got a FANNY PACK AROUND HIS NECK. This is not normal, right? My first couple of days in Japan always feel strange, mostly because of being in a completely different time zone. Sometimes it's something like cultural shock that sinks in harder than it does later in the trip. But is this culture shock? This guy is just doing it wrong! But that's okay, he's got it figured out. I probably shouldn't be taking these pictures and posting them on the Internet, either, but it's okay, I want to share them and I mean to do it with love.

Japanese people

Every trip to Japan calls for a trip to Kamakura. Currently in Japan, there seems to be a big boom in miniature poodles of this brown color, I think because they look like teddy bears. My mom wants one (I'm not sure to what degree she's being ironic-funny because Oji is so huge [friendly, but huge]) so she coos at them when she sees them. This woman seemed kind of social, like she wanted people to notice her teddy bear dog, so my mom asked if it was okay to take a picture (so this is not a "stolen image.") I wanted it to be a shot of the two of them but the woman held herself back a bit. I loved the woman's look--compared to other people, she had the aura of a "celeb." When we took the picture, she said to dog, "Aren't you lucky, they wanted your picture!" Somehow this strikes me as classic Kamakura. People are naturally cool about everything, including their wealth and dogs and the city's rich and long history. Just a giant Buddha statue and tons of old shrines and temples people love to visit, no big deal.

Halfway through our trip, my mom and I remembered we needed to visit the family grave. We spoke with the temple's aging priest, wandered around my mom's childhood neighborhood, and stopped by this lovely little coffee shop, "Coffee Yama," right around the corner from the Koganecho train station. They love their cigarettes--a sign at the entrance almost boasts that there are no non-smoking seats. (Non-smoking areas are increasingly more common these days; GyuKaku was all non-smoking!) They sell them at the register, too, including some Che Guevara variety. When we walked in, we were greeted by Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator." The interior is very Showa--1970's-80's, dark, kind of comfortably cramped. I thought it provided the perfect scene for strange characters to meet in a Murakami Haruki novel. Most customers were by themselves, but these ladies were chatting away. They had apparently ordered Coke floats and were delighted by their arrival. 

This lady, even in her train-nap, is not pleased. This was on the Keihin Kyuko (KeiKyu) line, which is *so cheap*! How could this woman still be mad? She even has an end seat and no one next to her! Just an obnoxious weirdo across from her, taking pictures of her and posting them on the Internet.

While waiting for Naomi at Sakuragicho, I noticed a kid on a payphone. That means he doesn't have a cell phone. I loved the expression on his face while he waited for someone to pick up on the other line. He seems serious and earnest. Also, the Japanese always carry extra bags in addition to their main one (like purses, or in this case, a "randoseru," or the bulky, square backpack elementary school kids carry). I imagine in this kid's case, at least one of the bags is for "juku," or cram school. But that doesn't fit in the giant box-bookbag thing he's shouldering? The other thing is that people always carry "omiyage" or gifts to their destinations, especially if they are seeing or visiting someone. I can see that giving gifts as often as the Japanese do might require extra bags. But what's in the TEPRA bag? 

More stolen images to come.

America is big and dirty!

This isn't quite a fair comparison; it might be like "comparing apples to oranges," which I've noticed my students like to say (which is code for "Why are we talking about this?" to which I want to exclaim "Because it keeps philosophers employed!"). But these are the streets with which I am familiar.

This is a small, two-way street deep inside of west Yokohama. There's a bus route that stops along here. I don't like it when my grandma jaywalks on this street. 

And here is Chicago's Fullerton Avenue. There are two lanes for each direction. Again, the 74 Fullerton bus is probably not the same as the 53 route that runs by my grandma's apartment, but still, we're talking about bus route streets. I don't like it when big families jaywalk on this street.

Since about high school, when I'd return home from Japan, the first thing I'd really notice and appreciate was the high ceilings of American homes. Lately when I return home from Japan, I feel like in addition to things like ceilings and streets, the sky seems bigger, too.

I walked with Mordecai and Mitsu on Christmas morning. We walked along Fullerton, where I took these pictures. Looking at them walking ahead of me, I remember thinking, "Damn, it's dirty here." Still, it is nice to be back home. 

Japan - December 2012

Totsuka, Yokohama

My mom and I visited my grandmother for two weeks this past December. I rarely go to Japan during the winter so some of the experience was rather novel. Naturally, the soundtrack was George Michael singing "Last Christmas" and Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Reservations were being taken for Christmas cakes, cooked chickens and turkeys, and KFC (I couldn't get fried chicken on the 23rd because they were only fulfilling reservation orders!). It's quite festive, except there's no religious or any real meaning behind it all so it felt a bit surreal. I wanted to see Santa on a cross, but I think they got past that gaffe a while ago.

Aside from experiencing the Christmas spirit, I ate a lot of steamed buns and udon noodles. Other noteworthy components of my experience was the weather--it rarely gets below 40 degrees (F), so it was kind of confusing. I'd get hot while walking or on the train, but it'd be freezing at night. I was also there during the elections and saw the changeover of power from the Democratic Party of Japan to the more conservative Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. I was amazed at the reality of political third parties--some people I know voted for the Communist party; I was rooting for the doomed green "Future Party." The elections made me think about Japan more generally: its (homogeneous) population as a whole, its relation to foreign countries, the war's ongoing effects, the current generation, potential directions for the future. I often think about these things here and there, but it wasn't until this trip that I've been able to better collect my thoughts.

I'll be posting some pictures I took, mostly with my iPhone, and which were edited with an app called Camera+. I've got more "stolen images" of random people! :D

Next - Autumn Kyoto Kaiseki Menu

A few nights ago, we went to Next for the first time. The fall menu for this year is "Kyoto," or their take on the kasieki meal. Most of these dishes are the chef's interpretations of kaiseki ryori. I was a little nervous since I had never been to Next, I've never had kaiseki, and a lot of fancy Japanese food has historically repulsed me. But I was brave, and I was rewarded well for it. Photos, descriptions from their menu and my own elaborations, and some thoughts below.

"chestnut, apple, white miso, hay aroma" -- the little block is chestnut tofu, and the sauce was described to us as white miso with apple butter. 

"japanese maple forest" with many shrimp and roe hors d'oeuvre type things

The "trees" are crispy shrimp heads.

Maybe these were supposed to represent toadstools? Roe and (salty!) corn pudding in a little yuzu rind.

Skrimpf eyes! It's like fancy kappa ebisen. 

"sashimi, shiso, tamari": kampachi, salmon, medai with gold flakes and fresh wasabi (there were two dipping sauces: tamari and shiso)

"abalone, cucumber, red sea grapes" featuring kinome leaf, which make tongues tingle

"anago [saltwater eel], maple dashi, shimeji mushroom"

"matsutake chawanmushi [savory egg custard], pine" 

I eat my chawanmushi like Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies (the ones with the jam in the middle)

Ayu. Dipping sauces were soy sauce with cured yolk, and wasabi puree.

The ayu was reportedly from a river in Kyoto. I still don't understand how that is true. Our server said that this wouldn't be available in a couple of weeks since they'll be out of season, so I guess in November, people will be getting another kind of fish.

Fried chrysanthemum, eggplant, and shiso leaf. Flower was edible but this was an item I had trouble eating. 

Red miso soup with wagyu beef and vegetables. This was served with rice (Tamaki Gold, available at Mitsuwa [I asked]). There were pickled vegetables with this dish but they were too wasabi-y for me.

Dessert: roasted fig, yuba (tofu skin), and grapes on a little bed of reduced soy milk. This was a little salty to me but whatever the grapes were, they reminded me of tiny kyoho grapes.

Shime (closing): warabi mochi (childhood favorite of mine, but the ones I know are the ones from convenience stores) with red bean paste/jelly inside and macha green tea.

We had a non-alcoholic beverage pairing, so that many of the courses came with some concoction of strange flavors. For instance, we had a yuzu, pear, seaweed, and bibb lettuce puree drink with the forest course; the sashimi came with a ginger, soy, cucumber and lime drink; the soup came with an apple-barley-licorice drink. There were a couple more of these strange, what were ultimately, juices. This might be a bit of a backhanded compliment, but they reminded me of juices sold in PET bottles in Japan. Like Natchan and Calpis. Subtle in flavor (at least compared to American juices) and kind of thin and watery in texture. They were interesting combinations, never unpleasant even if one was suspicious of an ingredient. I was happy we went with that rather than just water or alcohol.

My favorite dishes were the following: anago maple dashi soup (reminds me of Yokohama's Wakana, an eel establishment from mine, my mother's, and my grandmother's childhoods), the red miso soup (reminds me of what sumo wrestlers eat; it has a very home-y feel, but still special because of the buttery wagyu), and the warabi mochi at the end. It was better than Japanese convenience stores' warabi mochi, lol. Aside from flowers and wasabi being a weakness of mine, there was an uni-mayo dipping sauce for the fried lotus rings in the "maple forest" course that just straight up tasted like what I imagine licking the bottom of the ocean to be like. For similar reasons, the abalone course was a little tough for me to get through. For similar reasons, I thought I'd have difficulty with the sashimi, but I did not! It was the prettiest dish and very much edible by my standards. I'd even say I liked it a great deal. 

Eating at Next feels like getting exclusive seats at a show or concert, or like getting an exclusive and personal tour of a rare art collection, only you're eating everything. I felt a little guilty, enjoying this exclusive and expensive meal as a mere grad student, but my grandmother has some saying about there being no such thing as wasted luxury. This is a meal I will always remember, undoubtedly a point of reference in years to come.

French Macarons in Japan

Part of Labor Day was spent cleaning the house. My incentive was to vacuum the area rugs to get rid of Mitsu's fur and the confetti she makes from neglected paper products. Mordecai's was for me to put away the last suitcase from our trip to Japan, which had been left out in the dining room since the beginning of June. One reason why I don't like to put the suitcase away (aside from laziness and an unwillingness to accept that the trip is in the past) is because there were a lot of paper products in there, and I didn't know where to put them. Then I noticed a trend in some of the brochures: French macarons. I have what are little menus of the various flavors offered recently by Pierre Herme and Laduree, and a bigger, thicker flyer of a new flavor from Laduree to celebrate their 150th anniversary. I also kept the bag that contained what I thought were the best macarons I had in Japan, the unassuming ones from Kagoshima.

The front and back of the bag from the little pastry place in Kagoshima. It was in a "depa-chika," or the basement of a department store (where all the food is located, not where bad children and stores go).

"Les Incroyables de Laduree": Strawberry Marshmallow!  

Laduree menu (not sure why the last one is oriented differently from the rest or what a Kalamansi is)

Pierre Herme menu

I'm noticing that Laduree has a more Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst- and Sofia Coppola-style) aesthetic--bright, rich, decadent colors and graphics, while Pierre Herme has a softer, pastel-based palette. I think I like the Laduree look for the moment, especially since they use colorful stacks of macarons as a border on the other side of this little square pamphlet.

And now, to decide what flavor to try next in my kitchen in the near future (it's still pretty humid). So far, I've done green tea + sweet red bean paste, and raspberry + cassis jam. I've been interested in making desserts with a taffy-like quality to them, and I wonder if the chewy meringue (I like it chewy, at least) and a taffy inside of CARAMEL (fancy sea salt optional) would have my name all over it. The other candidate, to borrow from Laduree, would be chocolate banana. I'll be sure to post hopefully successful results here! The macaron love continues here at KPN.

Ratatouille

I do not like eggplant and am suspicious of tomatoes that aren’t in a hamburger. But one recent day when he was in town, Mordecai’s dad offered to make ratatouille. From experience, I know to trust his dad with ingredients I dislike (his cole slaw, a dish I don’t eat unless it’s from Long John Silver, is gooooooood, and pretty, he uses purple cabbage), so I went along with the proposed menu. I could smell the eggplant in the ratatouille and was looking forward to eating it. It was delicious! And it’s super easy to make. So here I am, making my own ratatouille with CSA eggplant and tomatoes. What would my 25 year old and younger self say of me now? I don’t know, but I’d tell her, Your life is only getting better, just you wait. 

A Week in Food

In an attempt to keep better track of what I can cook--well, not so well, with what seasonal ingredients, given certain time frames or lack of time limits, when we go out, and so on--I tried to keep track of what I made and consumed this week.

[Imagine French Onion Soup as you wish]

I had recently seen Laura Calder make French onion soup on her show, which I'd never made, so I decided to try it out on Monday. Everything about the soup is pretty straightforward, but I found there were two big "excepts." Except you need, as Ina Garten likes to say, "really good" beef stock (when she says that, she claims to mean that you try as many whatever product you're testing as you can and decide which one you like best; in the case of stock, I think she means "make it yourself; how easy is that?"). I could understand this point, as the instant beef stock thingie I used tasted fine, but perhaps simple, so I might try making my own stock in the future. The other big "except" is producing the signature French onion soup look--broiling the cheese sprinkled on top of the soup. You need soup bowls that can withstand broiler heat, and I couldn't find any at Bed Bath & Beyond or at Crate and Barrel. So I just melted the cheese in the soup, and bought these for future use. One other "except" might be that you're supposed to have some good bread to layer on the soup before the cheese, but if one follows this bread recipe religiously as I do, it's not so bad. I know I vowed not to use this updated version of the bread but it's been fine and I try my best not to dislike people, including Mark Bittman. I watched Alton Brown make this soup, and he put slices of bread under the broiler to toast, placed them toasted side down in the soup, and then layered cheese on top. My mom warned me not to use regular white bread for this (some experiment of hers in high school went awry and she's never made French onion soup again), so I stood by Brown's advice and it worked out. The bread isn't as soggy as you might expect. So, the soup was good, but not at all photogenic, so we'll just skip Monday's photo. For our "green" food, we had a Green Monster smoothie, but Mordo adds random things on hand to make it better--this time, frozen pineapple and watermelon. Delicious!

Tuesday's menu was white bean and kale soup and grilled pesto sandwiches. I like this soup because it's easy to make, though I adjust it by cooking the vegetables longer (I haven't tried using canned vegetables with this recipe; I just use tomatoes and carrots), and I also add as much cilantro as I have on hand. The cilantro gives a little bit of a tom-yum effect, which I don't consider a bad thing, but some might if you want to keep that "Tuscan" theme going. I wanted to make pesto, and planned to make pasta, but Mordo suggested grilled pesto sandwiches using Hippo bread. Grilling anything in Hippo bread is always a winner.

Wednesday was our third wedding anniversary. We went to Four Farthings in Lincoln Park for dinner. The inspiration behind this dining choice was Andy's wedding--there was a pit stop at Four Farthings to watch some college sporting event after the ceremony and before the reception and the location was selected because of Melinda's parents having gone there since forever, or something like that, being Lincoln Park locals. Mordecai and I did not go to Four Farthings then, but I liked the idea of there being some local joint for the people of Lincoln Park. I like to rub my butt in places where I don't quite belong, even if it doesn't matter in many ways. I liked the place a lot though--it's somewhere between slightly-fancy (for me) and casual, and seemingly reliable. Here's my softshell crab, which I'd never had, and whose flavor reminds me of something maybe-Japanese, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. That sweet potato with brown sugar on top was a gem, too. 

On Thursday, for the second time in my life, I made gyudon. I mostly followed this recipe, adding as much mirin as sake and using about a tablespoon of Ninben soup base instead of worrying about dashi. I produced my mom's gyudon in terms of flavor, but I should've let it simmer for longer so the taste would be a little stronger. I'm afraid of failing any donburi dishes, as it seems a cultural crime to be a Japanese woman and fail to make what children love and remember forever, but I think I just need a few more rounds of practice and I'll be okay. 

On Friday, we went to a White Sox game. It was a nice way to end the week--I'm done teaching the summer course and can try harder to focus on my own work. The Sox won in extra innings with a beautiful walk-off home run by Alex Rios. I was mostly looking forward to a White Sox game because Shaun always gets a bratwurst, sometimes two, and I wanted to try one. It was delicious! Why would anyone ever get a regular hot dog?! Even I could've had two. 

Last night, we met up with Kentaro, his wife, and his ever-growing young son. Hibiki is almost two years old, and apparently, all he does is eat rice balls, edamame, and citrus fruits. He may eat more than I do. We all went to Wasabi in Logan Square. That tonkotsu ramen was goooooood--I prefer it over any variation of Takashi's (Slurping Turtle and his station in the food court above Macy's) and it gives Mitsuwa's Santouka a run for its money. It's a little pricey, but it's nice to have that option so close by. We also tried Heavenly Gelato near the Blue Line; they offer vegan flavors, which is good for little ones who are allergic to dairy products. I was disappointed that the gelato is not really gelato--at least, it doesn't have that sticky texture I like. I obviously don't know what the necessary and sufficient conditions are to be gelato, but I know what I like.

And today, because of having too much zucchini from our CSA farmer and not even being a big fan of it in the first place, I made zucchini fritters using Korean pancake and "flying" (frying) flour mixes. For reference, I used this recipe, but it was mostly useless. Whoever wrote it is right that you just have to eyeball it and you most likely can't fail if you know what to look out for. I also used more onions, because fried onions make everything better. I like the chewy texture of the Korean pancake mix, but adding the frying flour mix helps to achieve that crispy texture. I think you're supposed to make these kinds of pancakes when it's rainy and cool, not when it's hot and the last thing you should do is turn the oven on.

This coming week may be raspberry week, since Smitten Kitchen has a pink lemonade bar recipe, and I'd like to finally try Giada's raspberry vanilla smoothie. I really like the flavor of raspberry, even when it's sour to the point of cruelty, but why hasn't someone engineered them to get rid of the seeds?!