turtles

GUESS WHAT I JUST ATE

SHRIMP STIR-FRY

Okay maybe this is not all that amazing to you? But the thing is I ate it at school right?

See, I'm a huge seafood fiend. If I could afford it, all of my protein intake would be seafood (any and all of it. the only I don't like is really white, flakey fishes; and I've developed a distaste for scallops because my body is now not too fond of anything that tastes like it's made of butter. Also, I've never had proper crab, so I can't comment on that) with the occasional pork or chicken. Free-range. Also some egg, if I can ever figure out how to do egg-fried rice like I had in China.

Oh god fooooooood

Okay so anyways I love seafood. But despite living in MA, I don't get it often, especially in winter, because mom is not as big a fan of seafood except for clam chowder (which I hate, ewww, I would like some plain clams pls). Basically I get to binge on fresh seafood in the summer when we usually take a trip or two into Maine and eat every single meal at a restaurant that specializes in fresh-caught lobster and other seafoods. And I have lobster and fish FOR EVERY MEAL

those are the best times

And at school I have no access to good seafood because up until now the only thing they had that could be charitably described as seafood were these fried-fish-fillet sandwiches. 'Fish' fillet. I tried them. IDK what that is but it tastes terrible and not at all like fish. Probably because it was fried, frozen for god knows how long, then grill-fried.

Also I love stir-fry generally, but the school stir-fry I always end up regretting ordering because they dry the meat out terribly and ugh. Like inedibly. Also the sauces are super strong, like I'm pretty sure the sauces they buy are meant to be watered-down and they don't. I have to scrape my broccoli (omnom stir-fry broccoli) around my plate to get the sauce off it so it tastes like broccoli and not like sponge-full-of-oddly-strong-tasting-sauce. And the thing is they have SEVERAL SAUCE CHOICES and I have tried most of them (except 'black bean and garlic' because ewwwwwwww, beanssss) and they are ALL TOO STRONG. They are tasty but just...too much.

But now there's SHRIMP. As of this semester.

SO I got the shrimp stir-fry and I didn't even regret it! I had to abandon a few pieces of broccoli because they sat in the sauce too long (still too strong) but omg SHRIIIIMMPPP and it cut the taste of the sauce nicely. Also LOL um, I think most people would prefer they fry the shrimp a bit longer, as my shrimp was warm rather than hot; but I really do prefer warm shrimp as it is much shrimpier-tasting. Nom nom nom. Otherwise I might not have been able to taste it through the sauce at all.

I find it a bit odd that they chose to stir-fry the shrimp...with the tail on. So you have to get sauce on your fingers, holding it by the tail while you suck it out. But whatever. I get sauce all over me anyways, I don't know how to eat like a civilized person.

Anyways it's not perfect (I really wish they offered brown rice, I prefer the texture, especially as they overcook their white rice a bit, I like them a bit harder...I prefer spinach/garden pasta to regular pasta for this reason as well) but now I can get seafood on campus. And shrimp is what I end up craving the most often TBH. Although once I have shrimp I usually want more things...mmmmm, tilapia. Have y'all ever had grilled tilapia with BBQ sauce? This is NOT great for people who are not fans of fishy taste, as it tends to bring out the taste of the tilapia rather than mask it as one might expect.

If you are not a big fan of fish but do want to try a grilled fish steak - my suggestion is to go with a more salty sauce. Dad does a home-made soy sauce (goes on any fish steak, most often tilapia or salmon since that's what we tend to buy) that completely overpowers the taste of the fish (...I do not eat it, I have him grill up a few plain, I am not a huge fan of soy sauce). It doesn't have to be soy sauce. Any marinade with high salt content - or pepper, the sharpness covers the taste as well - should please you. Experiment with your favorite tastes c:

Seafood lovers...some things I really enjoy that you may not have tried...some grocery stores (and many health food/specialty stores, we get ours at Trader Joe's) sell these bags with a sort of random assortment of bits of seafood - things like little mussels, clams, chunks of lobster tail, slices of octopus and squid - all mixed together and frozen in a bag. I think what it is is cast-off bits that were too small to sell in, say, bags of pre-shelled mussles and so on. What we like to do is take this, sort of stir-fry it in a garlic/butter sauce (just enough to coat the seafood), mix this in well with some cooked rice, and put it in the fridge. You can also eat it hot I suppose, but sitting cold for awhile does good things for the taste. Then we can take single servings whenever, and heat them up to taste...dad heats his up a lot more than me; I only microwave it to around room temp.

So today I got up at 6:20 in the morning like an adult or some shit and then I put on nice clothes and slicked my hair and took the commuter rail with a gaggle of cohorts to present a presentation in the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

Let me tell you, that place is built intentionally like a fucking maze, it is amazing. I don't mean like those old buildings that have narrow corridors and were added on to over the years. It's a very new building, they just INTENTIONALLY HIDE EVERYTHING DOWN TINY HALLWAYS AND MAKE THE DOORS BLEND INTO THE WALLS like it's impolite to have an elevator or bathrooms or a conference room. Or maybe they just wanted to make people in the building feel like James Bond, since that is the effect it had on us.

We found a bakery after exploring some of Boston's odd two-level streets and I got a 'lime soda' that tasted like ACTUAL LIME and a molasses cookie that was like a soft ginger snap and I absolutely HAVE to find a recipe for that sort of thing. Then we went back to the Fed Reserve and they were serving a terrible 'boxed lunch' which I guess most people would like but I still do not understand the concept of putting a salad on a sandwich or inside a wrap so I would have none of it and just ate some sun chips.

Then we lost to Bentley U (but so did MIT) and then I met ocelotofdoom after I managed to escape the building (escaping the building was surprisingly adventurous and the most embarrassing thing that happened to me all day but not interesting enough to repeat). And ey brought me to get REAL FOOD (spaghetti and meatballs nom) and then we escapo'd because of noisy children and ey took me to see THE SEALS AT THE AQUARIUM who then showed off their handsome necks at us.

SEALS ARE THE BEST they are dogs that live in the water and hunt fish. And have handsome necks apparently.

Also I now have $15 in quarters.

And then I failed at commuter rail on the way home, but got myself on the right train within a reasonable time.

And now I am tired out and pleased c: also naked, but that's somewhat incidental. And I have NOTHING DUE TOMORROW so I think I will shower and then write some more of the actually SHORT fanfic I am working on and then go to bed early because I got rather a lot of sun today and then tomorrow I get to drive home and see Tripper and take more videos for Topher (am mad at myself for forgetting to bring camera on campus this week, but I wouldn't have had time to do any videos anyways) and then I might do a post for all of you on retouching photos?! In case you have ever wanted to do that sort of thing.

OKAY SHOWER TIME IS NOW. ?? YES GO