Hot Weekend Things

I had grand plans for squash blossoms and tapas with roasted pepper relish livened up with raisan, capers and parsley. For a simple tomato salad with fleur de sel and peppery olive oil and pasta bianco with shavings of pecorino and black pepper.

But I did none of that. Zero. In fact, I could barely move this whole weekend. When is this heat and humidity going to stop? Earth please have mercy on us cooks!

After late escapading til 5 on Friday, I woke up Saturday mid-morning contemplating whether to head over to the Santa Monica farmer's market. But it was already hot and I thought about my previously made plans to deep fry some squash blossoms. Hmmm... stay home and watch tv and nap. Or goto the farmer's market so I can deep fry on one of the hottest days of this season.

I stayed home. Ate a bowl of my mom's turnip soup made with a light beef broth, mixed grain rice, and kimchi. This is my ideal breakfast anytime - Korean soup that is. So then I napped, watched TV. Rolled around my living room as the day got hotter and hotter. I watched 4 episodes of a Korean drama called Dae Jang Geum. It's about a royal cook way back in the days. It's frickin awesome and there is a lot of food shots in there. I believe there is a dvd version of it with subtitles. Really educational and so intriguing. Anyhow, that is what I did until Boy came over around lunch time.

Then we ate spicy chicken and potatoes with mushroom and red peppers. Rice, scallion salad, and a bowl of the turnip soup. Ahh, life is good when the fridge is stocked with previously made food. Then we watched Miller's Crossing on IFC as we tried to cool down unsuccessfully. Oh did I mention that the AC is broken? Yip.

Instead we sat in front of a plug in air conditioner named Narita. Narita really did try her best but dammit, we were melting and melting. It was horrible.

Then it was time to eat again. We ordered Korean-Chinese food from Mandarin House. Some Chinese meatballs, yaki dumplings, and jiajangmyun. I got full. It was still hot. I could not move. Bleh.

Then Sunday came about. Boy and I headed over to Cactus Tacqueria for lunch. Ate on one of their benches. It was hard to breathe but the tacos were so good I survived. Then off to see Strangers with Candy at the Sunset Laemmle. Hallelujah! The theater was so well air-conditioned that I almost even got goosebumps at one point. The movie was funny, I was nicely chilled and happy. Until we left that is. I told Boy maybe we should go back inside for another movie since neither of our places are air conditioned and at $10/2 hr it's probably the cheapest thing we could do.



Instead we headed over to Santa Monica to get a drink at Father's Office. It was hot, but a tiny bit better on the oceanside of town. There was a short wait but we got in and got ourselves bar seats. Chilled glasses of Russian River's Pliny the Elder brought back a bit of happiness to our lives. We sipped and ate their soft-shell crab with corn relish, which was excellent by the way. Then a basket of the sweet potatoes fries with roasted garlic cabrales aioli came our way. It was excellent as usual. Unfortunately, with the heat and the exhaustion that comes with it, the glass of double IPA did not sit well with my head. Pounding ensued. Sigh.

So we headed to Boy's place to watch Deadwood. It was 89 degrees in his place. Ai yai yai. I am really looking forward to this week of cooling down. The food this weekend was excellent and delicious but I want to cook for a change without melting away!

How was everyone else's weekend?