Would my soup baby be a delicious umami angel, or a revolting demon that tasted of sweaty, burnt feet?
Hello Dear Reader! Normally People Eating Together posts at Late to the Theater discuss that age old tradition of cannibalism, but today we’re going to discuss cooking. RAMEN cooking, to be precise! So grab a snack or a drink and settle in for a long, rambling ramen-ing kind of time as a novice takes on a classic of Japanese cookery. Note: this recipe is an amalgam of methods taught by Adam Liaw and Joshua Weissman. Please watch their videos to learn properly! Also, I’m not being paid by anyone to write this post. All opinions expressed are my own.
This, too, can be all yours for the low, low price of 24 hours of labor!
Everyone was sitting outside on the patio as if it was Tuesday, June 9th 2019 instead of Tuesday, June 9th 2020. Imagine my shock at realizing that if we ignore a deadly disease, it just goes away.
Join me, won’t you, on a strange little journey that functions as a peculiar microcosm of everything going on right now.
So I eat bread sometimes. Not often, because carbs and blood sugar and blah blah blah, but once in a great while I get an Urge.
Lately, meaning in the time of COVID-19, I have been listening to my Urges. This is because Urges represent bright flashes of effervescent excitement in what has otherwise become a slog through a gray, repetitive world. Urges are a sign that I’m alive.
Put the pomegranate seeds out on a rimmed tray, roll the cheese ball gently over them, and try not to sing the Katamari Damacy song. Plot twist: You CAN’T.
Howdy!
Today’s entry is all about what I’ve been cooking lately. If you’ll recall, some friends of mine (who are THE BEST) got me Janice Poon’s Feeding Hannibal book for Christmas. Within its glossy pages are essays on cooking, entertaining guides, food styling anecdotes from the show, and best of all, recipes! There’s also some absolutely stunning photography of the food and settings. Just the thing to get a depressed food nerd through the holidays!
Below the cut* you’ll find pictures of some of the meals I’ve made recently, including recipes from the book and elsewhere. All the meals were made for me, my significant other, and my friends – just so you don’t think I’m making these and then eating them alone. I haven’t managed to ask my friends if I could post images of them for the feature, because ‘Can I take a picture of you for my blog entry on cannibalism’ just sounds wrong no matter how you slice* it.
In Which The Author Leaves The House in the Company of Friends, Good Food, and Post-Apocalyptic Cannibal Cults.
[The Enzian did not pay me to write this entry, I just love going there and have for years, and wanted to spread the word!]
Last night I scurried forth from my bolthole for a special occasion: Orlando’s own local independent theater The Enzian was showing Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Rejoice!
The Enzian’s been around since 1985. I saw my first film there in 1997, Ma Vie En Rose, so right away you can see it has quite a variety. It’s the kind of place for people who just flat out love movies and good stories, like the Alamo Drafthouse. During the Florida FiIm Festival (yes, Florida has a film festival and it’s not just police dash cam vids of drunk people falling down or setting things on fire) the Enzian becomes a nerve center of activities: they show a lot of films there, and they have discussions with filmmakers and actors. Gabriel Byrne and Helen Mirren have attended, and I believe my former Creative Writing teacher Pat Rushin did an appearance as well.
The Enzian has a sweet bar outside with all kinds of drinks from domestic beers to cocktails containing absinthe, flavored whiskey, and moonshine. Inside, they offer a full menu of oodles of goodies, like sandwiches, tomato cream soup, and/or truffle parmesan fries. They also do free movies on the lawn sometimes, or other film events around town. The bar/patio is shaded by gigantic live oaks and has a fountain, so it’s a nice place to unwind.
Films I’ve seen at the Enzian:
Ma Vie En Rose
The Dinner Game (French)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
What We Do In The Shadows
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Aliens (on birthday last year- they do horror movies in October!)
Pumpkinhead
The Host (Korean horror/sci-fi, not the Twilight thing)
A Very Long Engagement
Let the Right One In (Swedish)
Micmacs
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Babe: Pig in the City (I have no shame about crying in front of people during this movie)
Mirrormask
Gone With the Wind
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Oldboy (original)
Big Trouble in Little China
Primer (the science fiction one)
Film festival shorts
The Troll Hunter
And so many more! I can’t list them all!
As mentioned above, the Enzian does horror movies during the month of October – I’m already planning to see Shaun of the Dead and probably Beetlejuice, too.
I met up with a bunch of friends who are movie nerds like myself and we had a damn good time. I thought I saw Road Warrior like 20 years ago but apparently I was thinking of the first Mad Max, when he’s a cop. Ah well!
In lieu of a real review, here are my thoughts:
More in line with Fury Road than Thunderdome, although I still love all three
More feminist than I would have guessed (the female warrior was badass; there was also a chick who had the option to escape and did the honorable thing by staying with her people; women sat on the council and took up arms)
The Feral Kid was the best
Lord Humungus’s thighs needed their own credit. That dude was walking beef.
One complaint – I couldn’t get over the assless chaps the raiders wore. Hell, just wearing shorts in Central Florida summer can get you burned on a cloth carseat, so Australian post-apocalyptic desert-wear should offer more protection from leather motorcycle saddles baked by the sun. Just a thought. Also I imagined the actor playing Wez was having fun as he flashed his cheeks at the camera with joyful abandon. It was a full moon at noon over the Aussie desert, y’all
Jedidiah The Gyro Copter Pilot was also the best
SO! If you find yourself in Orlando, consider taking a day off from a theme park and hitting the Enzian for some REAL Central Florida flavor. I like roller coasters as much as the next person, but sometimes need a break from the sweaty throngs.
[EDIT: It only hit me this morning, the delicious irony of going to a high art movie theater to watch nitro-cannibals ride around on flaming motorcycles in assless chaps. But whatev- they wouldn’t show it if they didn’t love movies!]
