Guest blogger, bashhacker, will be recounting his Panamanian culinary experience of taste-testing all locally-made lagers. Welcome, bashhacker.
1. Atlas: 3.8% lager
Beer-flavored water. Refreshing on a very hot day because it won’t get you too lazy. The best beer-flavored water in all of Panama.
2. Soberana: 3.8% lager
Another excellent beer-flavored water. Crisp. Refreshing. The name Soberana says it all: 3.8% alcohol. I had to slam it just to feel a buzz. Perfect for hot days when you really should be drinking water.
3. Balboa: 4.8% lager
More alcohol than Atlas, but not any more flavorful. The advertisement of “intense flavor” is misleading.
4. Panama Lager: 3.8% lager
Riding on a bus sixteen hours from San Jose, Costa Rica, was worth it just to taste this beer. Oh wait, Costa Rican beer is better.
To see more pictures of time in Panama, go here: tinyxl /gallery
My favorite new thing: cooking videos on youtube. Manjula is my favorite, so far. Her videos are great, 7-10 minute how-tos for various Indian foods. One reason I like it so much is that she does the tutorials in her kitchen with a regular electric stove and frying pans and whatnot. I mean, I don’t have a clay oven or giant iron outdoor griddle. I’m not a commercial Indian kitchen. Neither is she. Plus, I think her son does the camera work. So great. Here’s her naan video:
I just don’t feel like cooking. When I don’t feel like cooking, I usually don’t have any food in the house that doesn’t require cooking. Therefore, I float along nutritionless until my hunger outweighs my laziness. Once it does, I have about five minutes to concoct something or I’ll drift away…metaphorically or something. This is cheesy toast; my mom used to make it for me.
Cheese Toast, serves 1
Ingredients:
ONE slice of bread
cream cheese
shredded mozzarella
salt
paprika
Do you really need instructions for this? Fine.
spread the cream cheese of the bread. I suggest using a knife.
Bashhacker and I found the greatest place in Omaha today: New Asian Supermarket. (That’s their business card, up there.)
As soon as I walked in the store, the smell I have fondly associated with Chinatown in San Francisco hit me, and I smiled. Then, I pretty much kept smiling during my entire shopping experience. I guess these past few weeks, my thoughts have been a little hazy regarding our decision to move to Omaha, but when I discover a place like this, I am filled with comfort and happiness. Nevermind we have to drive to get to the store; it should be a nice bike ride in the summer. This place is a mighty exception to the “don’t buy anything from China, ever, or you’re a benighted ass” rule.
I picked up a couple of my favorite things:
Other highlights include 100+ varieties of noodles, fresh lemongrass, $1.50 tofu, grass jelly drink, live crabs in a box and 50-pound bags of rice.
*To whom, may I attribute this headline? Maybe google, since they have it on their site 231 times.
To really appreciate it, you’ve got to click the image to see the larger version. Let it take over your screen. Let it take over you. Just let it. Then go have a cup of tea to calm down.
