nibot | from oscar wilde

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from oscar wilde

I'm sitting on the couch in the livingroom (there's wireless network access here now, and it works like magic). I'm drinking yummy black coffee made from ground espresso with cardamom and sugar. Kenny, JennyJoe, Alex, and another guy are playing bridge at a small table right in front of me. Diane is watching Kenny's game. A visitor is playing the piano, while Rebekah sings and Sun plays a trombone (sometimes switching to a trumpet). Another guy's at the house computer that we set up last semester. In the kitchen Tasha just hacked open a white coconut ("in my country, these grow on the sidewalk," she explained).

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Xiangwei was the fourth for bridge.

Sun was playing a mellophone (reshaped french horn for marching bands).

What does cardamom taste like? Is it something that I can purchase at a grocery store? I looked on Google for it and read about it on Wikipedia, but no word on the flavour or how to get it.

Hmmm. I'll have to try some more and see if I can describe the flavor in any other way than, ``it tastes like cardamom!'' It's a pretty basic spice and you should be able to find it without difficulty in the supermarket; here's a nice reference (http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Elet_car.html). I learned to put it in coffee while in Israel; in arabic it's called something like hell and my Palestinian friend put it into coffee and it was yummy.

It is expensive in regular supermarkets.
Try Cost Plus; they sell it in cellophane bags for reasonable prices.
Try your local market that caters to immigrant shoppers. My favorite market, which has a large Persian and middle eastern clientele, sells it in the cellophane bags and in large spice jars. A packet should cost only a dollar or two. You can buy it ground or in the pod. If you buy the pod, peel the paper husk off and then grind the seeds with a mortar and pestle.
Cardemom is widely used in Scandinavian baking. It tastes perhaps a little like Chinese Five Spice.

You have a piano at your place? I'm jealous!

I rented one for a while. Unfortunately, it costs money to do that. I'd like to be renting one again soon, though.

Yeah, it's a big house, part of the University Students Cooperative Association (http://www.usca.org/). Thirty-eight residents, something like 45 including boarders.

See, I lived with my ex- in our own 2 bdroom/2.5 bath apartment. I payed $54/month for the joy of having my own piano in my own living room! Orgasmic.

Then I moved out. Haven't rented a new one. Considering it. Finances are an issue, though.

Including freeloaders???!!!

previous note is to nibot. This is for forvrkate:
Kleinbottle hat: what color would you like?

no, boarders pay for food service and they do workshifts. long-term guests (more than a week) make similar arrangements.

tobin - its been ages but i'm going back to the old staple - beans and rice tonight; its like old times.

Drinking hell ("snicker snicker") is something that's popped out of my Israeli memories. Cardamom (sp?) is also found in some indian foods too, if I'm not mistaken.

There's an even greater spice that the Druze in Israel would use with their "druzi pitas". They call it 'Zattar'. You take one of the super large, thin druzi pitas and spread labaneh on it and then sprinkle the zattar all over. I'd be surprised if it wasn't something your tour-guides would have fed you.

Ah yes.. that was one of our staples. On our way out for each of our hiking expeditions, we'd stop at some random bakery and buy a huge bag of pitabreads, and somewhere we'd buy a huge tub of hummus, and somewhere we'd buy a big thing of Zattar, and then we'd put it all together and eat it. yumminess.

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from oscar wilde

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cardamom

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cardamom

Ahhh.

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