I know, I promised to write about my Korean and Thai food experiences. But, the idea practically bores me to death. Now I remember why I hated food writing. I hate paying attention. I hate trying to remember the names of everything. I can manage photos at home, BEFORE I start eating. But to pull out a camera at a restaurant each time something new is served just kills the fun for me.

Instead I'm going to show you the lovely (and lovely smelling!) peony I bought at the market today:


And fillo triangles I made. They look exactly the same, but there are two kinds: one stuffed with ricotta cheese mixed with parsley, an egg, and a teaspoon of baking powder, the other filled with finely chopped walnuts mixed with cinnamon and sugar with an orange-flower water syrup on top. I got these recipes from an Armenian cookbook we have at the library. The cheese was supposed to be mixed with munster, but I just couldn't see how this was authentic and left it out. The syrup is supposed to be lemon. Yawn.

The fillo is store-bought. I've tried to make it before, but I can't get it anywhere close to thin enough (puff pastry is worth making at home, but not fillo, I've decided). You just spread some melted butter in between each layer and the stuff is amazing, no matter what you put in it. I had some left-over orange-flower syrup and mixed it with sparkling water for a tasty little soda.


I went a little nuts shopping today. Food is the only area I really have a lot of trouble controlling my budget on. First, everything looked so good at the farmers market. All of the stone fruit is out...and it's not cheap. I had to buy plums and peaches, bare minimum. Then, I couldn't pass up Harry's Barrys strawberries. They are outrageously expensive : $4.75 for one basket. However, they are the only people in the universe who pick their strawberries already ripe. I stopped by Ralphs and bought Organic Valley cream and have been eating my strawberries with it all day.

Later in the day I realized I had most of the ingredients for another Armenian recipe, but was missing scallions. So I went over to the Korean market. And next to the scallions, they had sesame leaves, three bunches for a dollar. I haven't a clue what they are for, but I couldn't pass them up. I made the mistake of wandering the isles after that. I had just been talking to Annalaura who taught me to make sticky rice and eat it with mangoes and cream. And when I got to the isle with 500 different kinds of sticky rice, I had to get a bag, since I already bought cream at Ralphs for the strawberries. So I went back for a mango and ended up finding some interesting green tea. I did FORCE myself to put the salmon roe back even though I had just read a recipe with cannellini beans and caviar and I had already-soaked cannellini's on my counter.

Now I have food for about 20 at my house. If anyone's free for dinner, you're invited.