Food, Glorious Food

Oh, jeez, I think I’m going to have to quit eating or something. Three days worth of alma maters events, and I’m just stuffed. These things are so good about good food – especially since my undergraduate alma mater was going above and beyond its usual cheese-and-wine (well, they always did have good cheese, so I won’t complain about that)…

Thursday night was a nice dinner at my undergraduate alma mater, honoring achieving alumnae (theme: honoring them for their achievements in academia, as professors/scholars in areas of history, sociology, and other humanities areas); so nice that we did this dinner instead of the usual cheese-and-wine offering. The food: grilled vegetables-with-cheese as appetizer; slightly overdone, yet flavorful chicken atop of a mango-like salsa, with pasta and some vegetable sides; and dessert – ooh-la-la, mousse between meringue/biscuit slices. Mmm. Worth the nominal donation to enjoy.

And, of course, Friday night was the law school alma mater alumni dinner – you know, that seminal event that brings in all the Asian foods that you can eat, for free (always good). And, dessert – ooh, the association has outdone themselves this year – spongy cakes with creamy goodness; cheesecake-y goodness; cookies; mmm…

And, Saturday – I went back up to undergrad alma mater for the Dean’s day stuff, wherein the very women we honored made lectures in their areas, along with other alma mater profs. I had a great time – the overview lecture on African-Americans of NYC of 1626-1865 was so good; the lecture on the colonial origins of the Old South made me re-think issues of race and slavery in this country; and the lecture on 18th and 19th Centuries Siberia’s attempts of using (exploiting) the domesticity cult to make undesirable convicts settle down in Siberia (yeah, like a good Christian marriage will really make a vagrant/theif/political dissenter love Siberia; no wonder the Russian government never convinced people to stop seeing Siberia as a convict colony) – why, the lectures all reminded me why I loved being a history major (especially the ones about American history) and made me so proud that alma mater has produced some really amazing alumnae (yes, co-education was really great for alma mater, even if it meant that the gender demographics are really skewed on campus, since the all-women’s school is across the street – but I think it’s worked out fine, really). Oh, and the dean – I love him, but it’s pretty obvious that I’ve attended enough events that I almost know what he’s going to say before he says it. And, in the middle of all of this, I signed up for the luncheon at the last minute – grilled salmon, some kind of vegetable roll, and salad side. Dessert: chocolate covered nugget of chocolate and vanilla mousse-y goodness… mmm. (I’m like Homer Simpson, drooling…)

What this means: I ought to work out to burn the calories. Perhaps it will only happen in my dreams. Do we even burn any calorie when we dream? And, when will the warm weather/sunshine come? Pretty please?

Watch out – one hour forward; lose one hour’s sleep. Aargh….

Midweek time…

Some interesting remarks about “American Idol” on Slate.com – personally, I still can’t believe that the red-headed young man from upstate NYS is still on “American Idol” after yesterday’s weak performance.

– Tonight, other than “American Idol,” I’ve also watched the full hour of “The O.C.” on FOX. Interesting show. I’m impressed that they managed to do a little Passover in their episode today. Nicely acted and tightly written (or certainly feels like it is well-written). But, if this is California, where are the people of color? (there seems to be some indication of Latinos, I suppose). Where are the Asians? (well, they weren’t on “Dawson’s Creek” and had limited appearances on “Friends”)…

– Alistair Cooke recently passed away. He was host of “Masterpiece Theatre”; it was before I started watching it (I’ve been watching more of it since Russell Baker became host), but I grew up appreciating and enjoying Alistair Cookie of Monsterpiece Theatre of Sesame Street, as Muppet-inspired as it was. Cooke has an impact, I can say that much and I liked all the articles on Cooke’s style and work. Slate.com has an interesting article, reflecting how the British saw him as the Americanized chap who could report on Americans while the Americans saw him as an English gentleman – when he was an American citizen who still reported for BBC all these years.

NY Times’ Dining Section profiles this guy who takes digital pictures of his food, to keep a food diary. Kind of scary to think about – do you really want to keep that good a track of what you eat, visually anyway?

– And, in Asian-American news:
Asia Society appoints an Asian-American female art historian to be its president
. Vishakha N. Desai, a scholar of classical Indian art, will be in charge in July 2004. Yay for Asian American women!

Beware the April Fool’s Day thing.

Time after Time

Right now we’re at P–‘s friend Steve’s place in San Diego. We went to Newport Beach, Pasedena, LA and then down to Mexico – Ensenada and Puerto Nuevo. Awesome seafood. 90 degrees! More details when I get back on Wednesday.