One of the best things about living in the Pacific Northwest, other than being in the company of beer nerds and self-confessed nerds of all sorts, is the hiking. The forests are lush with trees, ferns, bushes, frogs, wildflowers, and moisture. When we went backpacking last year, we drank water out of bubbling streams (after purifying, of course), and no hike is complete without snacking on various berries: blueberry, cranberry, thimbleberry, blackberry (invasive), huckleberry, even an occasional alpine strawberry. And there are so many hikes within an hour drive or less.

If you've watched those Man vs. Nature shows, you know how they survive on all kinds of foraged and hunted foods,  edible but just barely.  I've slowly become aware of a subculture surrounding foraging for food, it is the ultimate of sustainable, local, and seasonal foods. Sustainable because most people don't know these things are edible or are scared, thank goodness. We first started with berries, which were easy since Tim is from Alaska and has identified all kinds of edible berries, then we moved onto fiddlehead fern. There are actually commercial foragers who make quite a mint at the local farmer's markets and even supply to restaurants.

Then I took a mushroom identification class, and apparently, there are all kinds of edible and delectable mushrooms that grow in the area and some in great abundance: morels, porcini, chanterelle, TRUFFLE, matsutake, and oyster. Free for the taking. You just have to know how to identify them or know someone who can identify them. One of our class instructors harvested a huge basket of morels growing from landscaping bark used at a local park and the other instructor showed slide after slide of her car-trunk full of porcini mushrooms, both of which they cooked for us as part of the class. We learned a little about how to find mushrooms, but mostly about how to eat (and how not to eat) mushrooms. I've also learned a little bit of orienteering to help with not getting lost on the forays.

So anyways, two weekends ago, we went on a hike, not to look for mushrooms, but just to be out during the warm dry Spring weather. Since it's been so warm and dry, finding mushrooms of any kind to identify would be nice, finding edible mushrooms would just blow our minds. And on a well-used trail? Highly unlikely. So we went on a hike called Old Robe Canyon, as recommended by Tim's coworker's wife who works at the Washington Trails Association (Photos taken by Tim's coworker Dan and wife Rebecca):

In addition to the stream and log "bridge", there were also tunnels and old railroad ties since this trail is on a former gold rush mining railroad. Lo and behold, we came upon some dead trees bearing oodles of oyster mushrooms. Here's a picture of Tim harvesting oyster mushrooms:

We got around 4 pounds of oyster mushrooms. I had them positively identified by a coworker (trained mycologist) then we had a mushroom oyster feast at Dan and Rebecca's house:

The smaller oyster mushrooms were sauteed with garlic spears (unopened flower buds of elephant garlic, taste like slightly garlicky asparagus):

The larger mushrooms were brushed with herbed olive oil and broiled to brown the edges:

But foraged food can be found in your own backyard. We were weeding the garden this past weekend and Tim picked the stinging nettle, which are edible after brief parboiling. I made a stinging nettle pesto using this recipe:

Fat of the Land - Stinging Nettle Pesto

I really should be posting about Maui. But I've just been busy uploading pictures to Flickr, annotating and tagging them when I'm in the mood. Mostly I've been watching Battlestar Galactica and cooking. I made a chicken white chili last week in my BRAND NEW MARTHA STEWART DUTCH OVEN, Monday I roasted a chicken in the dutch oven, last night I made quinoa pilaf to go with leftover chicken, tonight I made a big pot of chili.

So anyhow, despite my reputation as an adventurous eater (growing up in Asia helps), there are a few foods I shunned:

Pineapple
Eggplant
Yogurt

Totally innocuous foods that turned my stomach. Probably because my initial experiences were with poorly prepared dishes or unripened pineapple, I did not eat these things for a really long time. I did eat pineapple if it was on pizza or on an upside down cake though. Gradually, it took a trip to Costa Rica and my friend's Eggplant Parmesan for me to eat the first two of the list.

Today, I have conquered the last food on my shun list.

Empty yogurt container

I haven't made new year's resolutions in years. For 2009, I'm not exactly making a resolution which usually has metrics on the level of success. This year, I've decided to:

Eat better

This could mean different things to different people, I could be eating more gourmet meals, low-fat, less processed food, more home cooking. What I'm primarily aiming for is:

More organic
More local - either produced locally or at the very least from a local store, not a national chain.
Less processed - less stuff from boxes and cans. Dried and frozen vegetables/fruits/legumes are okay. Less refined carbohydrates like pasta and white rice. My food should look pretty close to the way it looked when it was alive.
More natural - Less of ingredients that I couldn't/wouldn't use if I was making from scratch. More variety of grains.
Less waste - This is my main weakness. I waste a lot of food because I am driven by impulse. Fruit, vegetables, milk, and juices rarely get used up before they go bad in my house, I buy things for a particular recipe then I forget about the rest. I have piles of half-eaten snacks and candy. It's kind of like the whole "I am an adult now, so I can eat ramen noodles and ice cream for dinner if I want. Woo hoo!"
More sustainable/ethical - seriously, grass-fed beef/free-range chicken tastes better and do go on sale sometimes, and can be frozen without losing flavor. Why not stock up? Plus they're better for you. I like my meat to be happy before they're humanely slaughtered, less cortisones.

Action plan:
1) Join a local food co-op and do more than 50% of my food shopping there. They have really awesome bulk bins that rival Whole Paycheck but cheaper. You're also encouraged to reuse containers by weighing empties at the checkout before filling them. They do have less variety of vegetables. I am also highly skeptical of tree-huggery mayonnaise (homemade mayonnaise is really cheap and easy to make, but only for good for special occasions because it goes bad in less than a week). Despite the fact that Pike Place Market is really close by, I've had really mixed results from buying seafood there, there are so many frigging tourists and their hours suck. I'm not usually in Seattle on weekends to go to the farmer's markets.
 
2) Grow more varieties of vegetables. Tim and I grew a shitload of certain vegetables last year, and not enough of others. Note to self: 1 collard green plant is plenty, don't plant 15 next time. Less collard greens, swiss chard, and lettuce; more beets, carrots, beans, peas, spinach, and squash.

3) Plan meals weekly in advance. It'll help with waste and be more seasonal. I never took home ec, this is a pretty foreign concept to me. I may have to use Excel or some project planning software for this.

4) Get a CSA share or some other kind of local produce delivery for variety.

*5) Optional - Catch my own food. This may involve getting a yearly fishing license. But I'm ready otherwise, I have a pole and waders that haven't even been used. Good fishing weather = Cold and miserable. Tim and I have also been considering keeping our own chickens. Maybe take a mushroom identifying class?

*6) Optional - Learn food preservation methods. Mmmmm kimchi. Mmmmmm bacon. Mmmmmm jerky. We've been experimenting with smoking food. Not the healthiest, but certainly tasty and I guess more or less a primitive way to preserve food.

It's a pretty ambitious plan. But at least this will serve as some sort of guideline.

The Food tasting meme

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you.ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)
4. Optional extra: Post a comment http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

To make the filling out of this form and generating the HTML for it a bit easier, reddywhp has played around with some PHP.  Go to http://reddywhip.org/lj/foods/ and fill it out there.  After filling it out, you will be given the code to copy and paste into your blog.

Livejournal users, remember to use your LJ-Cuts!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frog's Legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I am feeling under the weather today, so I called in sick to work. Instead of being at work, I had a tasty lunch of carnitas at Casa Modera, with freshly made corn tortillas, it was really good and all for $9 including drink.

Then I saw Juno, I think there were maybe 6 people in the movie theatre. It was really funny and they're all hella sarcastic and total smartasses. Juno's parents are really awesome.

Came home to finish watching the bonus materials on All That Jazz, RIP Roy Scheider.

Took a nap.

I wasted the rest of my day surfing the web. Even though his music is really gay, that John Mayer guy is really funny, have you seen the "Two Guys One Cup" video? Here's another video he linked to in his blog, I think it's a Phillipino show called Weng Weng, it's a drawf crime fighter who is a cross between the martial arts bad assery of Jackie Chan and the suave technigadgetriness of James Bond. This little guy sure gets a lot of pussy. And the song accompanying this video is awesome:

There's a guy who invented a vending machine that will dispense peanuts if crows deposit shiny metal things (trash). Crows are really smart and they do some kooky things.

This is the cutest and coolest thing I've seen today:

What's your favorite kind of homemade cookie?  Share the recipe if you have it.

I like shortbread and mexican wedding cookies. So buttery and good.

Which foods do you eat a lot of? Too much of? 
Submitted by Allishandra.

I eat a lot of packaged ramen noodles. It's pretty unhealthy, but it's really tasty and filling when you're in a bind for time or money.  These are the ones that I eat most often:

Mama Tom Yum noodles - I buy these by the case. Spicy and sour.

Rice vermicelli, fried shallot flavor

Beef stew flavor, spicy

Beef stew flavor, spicy, Tung-I brand

Pork rib and chicken flavor

Sesame oil and chicken flavor

And there are some other ones I can't find pictures of on the web.

A slideshow of families around the world and what they eat in the course of a week:

Time Magazine - What the world eats

Thanks to Typefiend for directing me to this heart-stopping article.

Butter Fried Krispy Kreme Donuts