Day 8 on day 9 - and this is why I need to keep counting down

I missed yesterday. I completely missed posting. And I blame the fact that I am not counting down. The same way that if I don't count the eggs and put them in a separate dish away from the carton, I will lose count and end up with too many eggs in the dough, or too many drops of vanilla essence, or scoops of flour. I need lists (even if I ignore them - see recent Trader Joe's incident) and I need countdown.

Yesterday was spent grading midterms, an exhaustingly depressing exercise. Then I walked 3 miles to meet friends a chinese place that's become our place. It's chinese in a very American way - this ain't no Lucky Strike - Portland's rebuttal to precisely the kind of place Hunan Taste is. I don't think there's an attempt at authenticity here, unless the authenticity you crave is that of the chinese-american cuisine of pre-1982. Slippery shrimp in a silky eggy sauce with water chestnuts. Orange crispy chicken. Soggy moo-shu. Everything is sweet and soft, and when you are in the mood for that kind of nostalgia, there's no place like Hunan Taste (it's at 6031 San Vicente Blvd almost at Fairfax in LA, just in case our one reader is in the neighborhood).

Would I take Mark Bittman there you ask? Only if he shares a nostalgia for chinese food that may not exactly be chinese.

Am I going to enjoy the leftovers today? Absolutely!