Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Okay, if I heat the Tangy Spicy Shrimp and add a little salt to cut the sesame oil taste THAT IS THE AUSTIN SUPER CHINA MEAL! 😃

Wow, ever since I reinstalled Linux Mint the Gourmet program has been super borked. It looks like it's been superceded by a program calle Gourmand. Which is slightly less borked. At least it can read my recipe file, and do the meal scaling I need. But for editing or calculating the nutritional info I need, it's a no go.

The Windows version is still working, though, so ::fingers crossed::.

"If you have responded to the summons at least 7 business days prior to your report date and are not contacted by a bailiff through email or telephone by 4:30 p.m. on 2/21/2023 you were not selected to a trial and your obligation for this jury term has been completed."

Well, I'm off the hook. Hopefully for another twenty or so years....

I want to post something, but if I do, I will jinx it, so I'll just post this, and wait the last hour or so.... :)

Oh, man, whether or not this Tangy Spicy Shrimp is the actual dish from Austin or not, it's good. Super spicy, but goooooood.

Those burps, though.

I've been kinda stuck at home all day since the layoff, I finally got out and took an afternoon drive. I live on a town at the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range. I decided I'd just hop from foothill town to foothill down. There was a little bit of dissapointment that the pizza place in Darrington, which made the best pizza I'd ever had in my life, was closed. I made it all the way out to Concrete before sunset, and came back.

When driving in rural towns, you don't know how wonderful it is to see a pride flag (including the trans colors), in the middle of nowhere. <3

I didn't really want to burn all that fuel, but I have had some serious cabin fever. And I ended up enjoying my day. Hope to do this again, but I need to really watch my cash flow while I still have a cash flow.

LIGHTNING!

Trying to get Jenn's Great Reset off and running despite all the stuff going on this year. Getting the streams back up and running are happening soon. Comics streams this week on Discord, eventually. Need to get started on the scripts.

I'm trying to get my creative butt off the floor, I just keep getting knocked back down....

Ah, rural America. Where if you get misgendered, you're not sure if you want to correct them. Even if they're young.

Music Before Bed: https://youtu.be/oWevOhV1PIg

This Week's Meals (1/4): Tangy Spicy Shrimp

This meal kind of has a story behind it. Heck even the making of this meal has a funny story behind it.

Right off the bat - I LOVE SHRIMP. De-vein and boil the heck out of it, and I'll eat it all day long. So when I order Chinese food, and something has shrimp in it, if I'm in the mood, I'll pick it up.

My main years in Austin were 2001-2006, and again 2014-2015. During those years, my main source of Chinese food was Super China - Austin and one of the appetizers I love love LOVED was "Tangy Spicy Shrimp." Oddly, I've never seen this offered anywhere else. After leaving Austin, I found my local Chinese place, Twin Dragon Chinese Restaraunt, pretty darned good but they didn't have it either.

Over the years, I've tried to make my own version, or look online for a recipe (I found stuff that seemed close, but when I got it, it wasn't). One seemed VERY close, but it was served cold, and mine wasn't cold, so I never made it.

Finally, I just got fed up and decided to go to the source. I actually called up Austin Super China and decided to ask them what the heck it was. I wasn't expecting an answer, honestly, but I just called in and laid it out on the line "I loved your Tangy Spicy Shrimp, but I live in Seattle now, and no one out here has it. Do you know if it goes by another name, or if you know the name in Chinese?" And the guy on the other end says "It's sometimes called Cold Shrimp." I asked if he had a recipe, and of course they said they couldn't give that out, which I was fine with. I had another name I could look online for....

..."cold shrimp." That reminds me that I saw a recipe for "Tangy Spicy Shrimp" served cold. What if THAT'S actually it? So I tried to remember the search terms for the recipe, and found it! From the New York Times of all things, in 1975! https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/29/archives/three-specialties-from-chef-wang.html

So, I decided to give it a try. And when I calculated the nutritional info, the recipe he gave was pretty miniscule, making barely one serving of what I'd want out of a meal. So I scaled it up to five meals, which lead to some ridiculous measurement.

Scaled up, I needed five cups of chopped scallions. I bought three bundles of scallions, which was about 21 scallions. That made only three cups. Holy cow. A third of a cup of garlic chili paste AND Hot Oil. And 7 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil.

Except it wasn't 7 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil. It was TEASPOONS. But when I saw "5 tablespoons garlic chili paste" and hot oil, 7 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil didn't sound ridiculous.

That said, even with FAR too much sesame oil, it still tastes good, and is far far FAR closer to what Austin Super China had as Tangy Spicy Shrimp. I'm not gonna call it just yet, but instead, I'll make it again with the right amount of sesame oil, since I think more of the garlic chili paste flavor will come through, which was the main flavor in Austin Super China's Tangy Spicy Shrimp.

# Tangy Spicy Shrimp

The New York Times
1.0 servings

0.5 pound raw shrimp
1.0 cup scallions (finely chopped)
1.0 clove garlic (minced)
1.0 teaspoon fresh red chili pepper (finely chopped)
1.0 teaspoon fresh ginger (finely chopped)
1.0 teaspoon dry sherry
salt
0.5 teaspoon ground white pepper
1.0 teaspoon five spices powder
1.0 tablespoon garlic chili paste
1.0 tablespoon hot oil
1.5 teaspoons sesame oil

1 - Shell and devein the shrimp. If the shrimp are large, cut them in half.
2 - Bring enough water to cover the shrimp to the boil.
3 - Add the shrimp and cook about one minute.
4 - Drain the shrimp and run under cold running water.
5 - Pat the shrimp dry. Refrigerate.
6 - Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the shrimp. Serve cold.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

So here's my pitch, Rti 中央廣播電臺 and/or TaiwanPlus

I'm a gal from Texas. I know very very little Chinese. I can read some of it (enough to at least pick up a character here and there and deduce the rest), and I can speak very very bad and primitive Chinese (like "I don't speak Chinese" and "where are the [whatever]"). What I know of Taiwan comes from RTI, Taiwan+, my old pen pal from the 90s and the American Media (which that last one is fairly little).

Put me down in the middle of one of Taiwan's cities with a camera and/or audio person and a producer (to provide some safety, translation, and things to see), and we walk the streets of various cities in Taiwan, going from famous place to place, but also check out whatever is in between that catches our eye.

It's not an original idea, it's something that NHK does with their "Somewhere Street." The difference is, I have no idea what I'm doing, seeing or going. The surprise of what I'm seeing, learning, doing is genuine. Not to mention I don't know the culture, expectations or specifics. But I'm willing to learn, be educated, and in turn teaching and educating the listener/viewer.

I'm currently unemployed and could use some cash to keep the apartment in my name until the lease runs out, so you can have me for the whole summer if necessary. :)

Whaddaya say?

Watched a good deal of the new Urusei Yatsura series today with the girls. "My" Lum is the later 80s early 90s version of Lum with the fuller hair and more angular face.

But after watching the new series, I think the new lum is my fave Lum design. <3

How old was this chicken, KFC?

Oh no. Oh no no no.