Eggactly

Why aren't fried eggs oval?

The perfect over-easy egg is

a perfectly symmetrical circle,

rather than an oblong shape.

While the science behind it

is unknown to me. I am drawn

to a fond egg-frying memory.

Somewhere in desert America,

among parched vegetation, endless sunshine,

and sweat-drenched clothes, preparation

for a food competition was underway.

Being outside was a necessity for the

local and guests participants, alike as

the eggs were to be fried using only solar heat.

With camera crews and a C-list

chef celebrity, I am sure the judges

felt a bit obligated to proclaim him

the winner of the food competition.

I admired his outcome with surprise.

His piece de resistance was frying

his egg inside of a chicken cookie

cutter; it made for the cutest presentation

after the egg was cooked all the way through.

Various internet searches later

I can't recall the program name

or the host. Still, it left a memorable

culinary impression. Soon after the show

I set out to create a shaped fried egg.

I truly enjoyed the outcome.

And off I went to the kitchen to

experiment with my own.

Where my first attempt was

a heart shaped.

As I searched online for elusive

chicken fried egg from the show,

I clicked across cool other shapes...

Like flowers.....

And star shaped eggs

Why stop at basic shapes?

I found a collection of fried eggs,

inspired by gun models.

The first one on the upper left corner looks like a machine gun.

And diagonal from that one to the lower bottom right corner,

that gun looks like a silencer.

One of the things that fascinates me is how everyday foods

can be transformed into something different and unique.

I am up for new atypical presentations.

Tuna Slider by Pesce

A little over a week ago, I had a meeting about our trip to Puerto Rico.

I chose Pesce over the Downtown Aquarium, because the name and food

seemed oceany enough to fit the theme. I was initally very pleased

after I read the happy hour menu. I was imagining beef and tuna sliders,

at $5.00 a pop, healthy and a bargain, a way of experiencing the food

for less money. You can imagine my disappointment when I received this.

How small do you think each tuna slider is?

2'' diameter? Try just larger than a quarter.

Small items can be cute, so this is what saved it.

While it was little in height and width,

it made up for it in fillings. Bean sprouts, raw ginger,

tuna, and other stuff was put into it. I did not like it.

Underwhelming, disappointing, unsatisfying,

all these words describe what I thought of this.

Kudos for using a leave.

Kudos for having brown fibers in the tortilla chips for novelty.

I'll write about mercury and tuna later.

Perhaps how different ginger tastes when its raw.

Petite Pineapple

My normal walk around the produce section,

at the grocery store was thrown an odd ball.

Hiding right of the organic produce section was an

itty bitty teeny weeny pineapple, so small, so cute.

I just had to have it, at a $1 it was a steal.

This pineapple may not have thorns, like roses do,

but its prickly leaves can certainly make their

presence known to unsuspecting fingers, as I

learned when I handled this tiny pineapple.

I put my cell phone next to the base;

my cellphone is actually taller than the

baby pineapple, by 1/2 an inch. It's tiny!

The mariachi is playing, let's sing....

"If you like pina coladas,

getting caught in the rain."

On the other side of the size spectrum, I set out to

find out the largest pineapple in recorded history.

My search for the largest natural pineapple was fruitless.

Wikipedia taught me that p-apples originated from Brazil

and Paraguay, in South America. It is pollinated by the

none other than the delicate ever-moving hummingbird.

Interestingly, South America comes in third place for

number of tons exported pineapples worldwide.

Thanks wikipedia!

In the cartoon Sponge Bob Square Pants, he lives in

a pineapple under the sea, this structure above must

have been the prototype for it, made in Australia it

is one of the largest pineapple roadside attractions.

Imagine if someone actually lived there, well it wouldn't

be the first unusual home. Plenty of brave eclectic people

have made homes from atypical structures. The leaves are not

as realistic as I would like them to be, skimpy incomplete looking.

Pineapple is one of the strongest fruits, with its tough outer shell.

The leaves make a nice roof, and if you carve the inside there is

space to live. Perhaps it's not a bad idea after all to live in a pina.

About my Zest for Food

Those closest to me know that I love to cook. I have telling folks for the longest, I want to start a food blog someday. Someday has finally arrived. I didn't deliberately set out to start my food blog today. It just so happened to be today. This day has a special meaning for me. My father passed away 13 years ago, April 9, 1997

My love of food goes all the way back to my father's cooking. Without exaggerating, he was the best cook in the family, better than my mother, than my maternal grandmother, than my paternal grand mother; he left them in the dust by hundreds of miles.

He took so much pride in the seasonings he created, offering a sniff to anyone willing to give it a smell. Though who sniffed agreed, the aroma of the spices was delicious. No one has been able to replicate the seasonings or flavors he created with food.

When we were called to the kitchen it was usually to make one of two things, a large batch of sofrito or a large batch of beans. If it were beans, it would be made in a ginormous container, capable of holding 3-4 gallons worth of beans; I kid you not. After it was cooked, it was packaged into improvised tupperware--old containers of butter.

The kitchen wasn't a pleasant place to be. There was lots of chopping and mixing. It was just hot in the kitchen also. I didn't appreciate being called into the kitchen for what I thought was a cooking chore. It was a process that seemed to take over an hour; it seemed so long, so complicated, and all I could think about while doing it was getting away to have fun. I was about 12 or 13 at the time. My Honduran step-sister endured these cooking chores with me. Ahh that was such a long time ago...

Fast-forward 13 years, no one has recreated those delicious flavors my father created in his kitchen. My grand-parents and mother surely were not the source of his culinary prowness, without a shadow of a doubt I can say; he was completely self-taught, and I do regret not writing his recipes. I hope one day my own experiments in Puerto Rican cuisine will push me towards what my father created...

Zest for Food. Cooking is one of those things that excites, invigorates, and energies me. Learning about ingredients, observing cooking techniques, obtaining kitchen gadgets, and just making new recipes are things that energize my creative energy. It is a play off of "lust for life." This ever-popular expression does summarize

What do I want to accomplish with my blog? I want to share the things I eat. I want to share the things I cook. And along the way I want to share random fun facts related to food.