Living It

A few things that caught my eye yesterday.

Especially the complimentary beards.

To end my holiday cooking run I made a red salsa with 5 types of chiles: chile de arbol, chipotle, serrano, poblano, and 1 habanero. Yes, it’s hot :).

You know I love dumplings, so when the Minimalist did a video on making your own Shrimp and Cilantro Shu Mai, it was only a matter of time before I tried it out. 

Overall I was pleased, but I could not claim that mine were so superior to those in a restaurant. More delicate at least.

Notes on the recipe:

• I bought mirin, but I think normal rice wine would have been fine
• Could not find dumpling wrappers at Whole Foods, but did find them at an asian deli. NYC advantage.
• I halved the cilantro. That was enough for me.
• The 4-fold dumplings were easy to make. 6-folds was a little harder. I ended up with 16 dumplings.
• The dipping sauce was too salty from the abundance of soy sauce. I took a portion of the original sauce, and re-balanced it with rice wine, water, and lime juice. You could probably halve the amount of soy sauce called for.

Last time Prince was in town, in 2004, I had tickets but missed the concert because I forgot to put it in my calendar!

Starting from going up to my roof, through the courtyard, trapped bus on 1st ave, along 15th, through Stuyvesant Square, around Gramercy Park, and up Park Ave.

Sure I could have taken the subway, but where’s the fun in that?