Eating Seasonally

It is commonly lamented that the best dishes at Chinese restaurants are not on the menu. Of course they are not. Why would they print foods available only at certain times of the year on the year round menu? The best stuff is written on the wall, in Chinese. If you are like me and don't read Chinese very well, you can always ask the waiter, "What's fresh?" Sometimes, they will take pity on you and tell you about the good stuff.

Like right now, the snow pea shoots are in season. When they thin out the snow peas, they save the tender greens and fry them up quickly with oil and garlic. Delicious!

Iris likes to pair the sweetness of the shoots with the salty crunchiness of Salt and Pepper Squid.

Speaking of seasonal foods, we attended a Burn's night party a couple of weeks ago. We ate all sorts of characteristically Scottish foods like Haggis, fried Milky Way Bars and a cake called Spotted Dick.

It comes out of a can. Don't ask the identity of the charming reveler posing in this photograph. There was a blind taste-testing of several varieties of Scotch...

The host describes the evening.
Wikipedia explains the Burns night supper.

When we first arrived, I chatted with a very nice young man who introduced himself as Brad. He spoke so knowledgeably about so many subjects, I asked him what he did. He said he was trying to sell an idea for a TV show. Every other person in LA appears to be doing that.

So I asked him what he did to earn a living while trying to produce a TV show. He said he was fortunate enough not to have to do anything because of a stint on a TV show early in his adult life. He's not just nice, he has his own wikipedia entry. That explains everything.