Wednesday, November 15, 2006

A Few of My (New) Favorite Things


1. Shabu-Shabu: Shabu-shabu is the Japanese version of hot pot. What is hot pot, you ask? It is only the funnest way to eat slices of uncooked meat and raw veggies! In a nutshell, there is a pot of boiling broth in the middle of the table (can be communal or individual), and you put your uncooked meat and veggies into the boiling water to cook it. The meat is sliced very thinly so it cooks in minutes. Naturally, because I am in the field that I am, the idea of touching raw meat with chopsticks and then putting those same chopsticks in my mouth to eat is not very agreeable. As far as I know, no one has gotten sick from the shabu-shabu place I go to, but I believe it is better to be safe than sorry. I overcome this by keeping my chopsticks in the boiling water while my meat cooks. While my favorite food will always be Indian cuisine, I have to say that shabu-shabu comes in a close second.

2. Stranger than Fiction: I just saw this movie over the weekend, and I really loved it. I thought it was the smartest film I have seen since Little Miss Sunshine. I never thought Will Farell could star in the same movie as Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Queen Latifah. I was very pleasantly surprised.

3. Re-reading old books: As I have admitted all ready, I am addicted to reading. I actually devour books so quickly it is simply not cost-effective or convenient to get my hands on new ones all the time. Therefore, I have resorted to re-reading my old favorites. Anything by Jane Austen, Alice Hoffman's "Practical Magic", and Ayn Rand's "We the Living" have been read almost a dozen times. Right now I am re-reading "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. It's like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in a while. You notice things you've never noticed before, and you appreciate all the things you loved about them in the first place.

4 comments:

J-Funk said...

I am reading The Poisonwood Bible TOO! (for the first time)

It's SO GREAT!

I may have to read it again.

Fixen Vixen said...

Which character do you like best? I love the way Adah's half-brain works, but I think I am the most like Leah (a bit of a tomboy at heart). If you like the book, you should also check out her book Prodigal Summer. I really enjoyed that one too.

J-Funk said...

This is a good question, I had to think about it. I like Leah the best after she changes, but before she changes I found Leah, Adah and Rachel all to be too stressful in each of their own ways (Leah you knew was going to have her heart broken by her father, Adah's writes too densely, and Rachel is too blonde), so in the beginning I liked Ruth May the best.

The book is very good!

I have only read one other book by Barbara Kingsolver, and it was The Bean Trees, which was also extremely good. I may have to read some more of her stuff - I'll start with Prodigal Summer.

Mandy said...

Bah! I tried reading BOTH The Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer - and couldn't get through either! Oh well - back to my Nora Roberts! ;) I did take your advice, however, and picked up The Time Traveler's Wife - it's up next after the new NR book I picked up at the same time!

Yea for Stranger Than Fiction - it rocks!