Like a Dream

That's the thing about vacations: once they're over and you're back in your regular life, they're much like a book or a movie: you remember what happened, and how you felt, but they're distant memories and there's only so much retelling your friends can stand.

This is the picture that caused the hand-luggage semi-fiasco.

 It looks really good in my family room.

So a couple of years ago, Phreadde introduced me to these:

 And I've managed to get a few people addicted myself. I love to spread the joy.

Then one of my students introduced me to the coffee version:

 It's surprisingly good.

When we were in Melbourne, we ate a dish which we loved (Shanghai rice cake stir-fried with spicy pork and spinach), and which I have decided I must recreate, so off I went to my favourite Asian grocery store to find these rice cakes which are really a round or oval flat rice noodle with a most excellent chewy consistency.

I found a dried version which I think isn't working (you're supposed to soak them for ages and ages) and next I need to look for fresh or frozen rice cakes, but in the checkout, I spied these:

 Which are (not entirely surprisingly) rather good too. They have less up-front ginger taste, but after you're lulled by the mango, the spicy ginger burn sets in.

When I go back for the fresh rice cakes (or frozen) I'll have to pick up the orange-flavoured version.

Apart from the focus on food today, and taking my primary cat to the vet to have her staples removed (she was very good. She spent so much time there while I was away that she wasn't even slightly freaked out at being there like she usually is), this is the bulk of the beading I did today. It's a sample for tomorrow's class.