So, after dumping the crawfish into the big sink in our church's kitchen, I tossed in some salt. I read before that salt water causes them to purge themselves. I don't know how much of a difference it makes, but I didn't think it would hurt. I thing I did notice is that they were a bit more lively after that!

While we waited for our two big pots to boil on the stove, we prepared the potatoes and corn. We cut some of the larger potatoes into smaller pieces and poked them with a fork. Next time, I'll at most halve the potatoes. They cook too fast and fall apart when they're too small. When the water was close to boiling, we added them to the water. These take longer to cook than the crawfish, so they needed some extra cooking time. I think the timing was right since they were also able to soak in some of spices. In hindsight, I should probably spend more money on these.

Finally, when the water returned to a boil, we tossed in the crawfish. Just like regular shellfish, they cook super fast. We added the crawfish in batches ..]]> http://www.overfood.com/blog/index.php?id=20 Arandas Bakery is next door to Doña Tere, the place where I buy monster sized tamales. I haven't been to a panaderia in a while, so it was good to back.

When I was there, I noticed a few people waiting in line next to a bin where there were some bolillos, which are like the bread you'd get in a po-boy. There were some rolls still in the bin, so I wondered why they were standing in line. In a few minutes, I knew why there were waiting. Out of a chute came a new load of fresh rolls. The first guy in line grabbed probably 2 dozen rolls! Other people grabbed at least 5 each, and I figured I'd take advantage of the fresh rolls too, and I grabbed 4 of them.

Before I drove away, I sampled a bolillo, and it was awesome! How should I describe it? Pillowy softness! After that, I figured I might as well have more of what I bought at the bakery, so I also tried a churro. The churro was good, but it wasn't warm, so it was a little hard. I probably should have waited to warm it up so that it would be software. Anyhow, it was delicious. 25 cents for bolillos and 50 cents for churros! I should go more often!

Today, I brought the first one to lunch. As I was microwaving it, I was talking to someone in the office next to the kitchen area. I told her I was breaking my usual tradition and eating a dinner with 720 calories instead of the usual 300 calories of a Healthy Choice dinner. Then, she asked me how much sodium was in it. I usually am pretty conscious about sodium when I buy some things, like lunch meat, but I didn't even think to check these meals before buying them. I was shocked to see that one meal was a massive 2100mg, 88% of the daily recommended allowance! Ouch!

After the next 2 dinners, I won't be buying anymore Boston Market dinners, even with free ice cream!

I have never eaten "family style" at a Thai restaurant before, so this was a first. I started the meal with a spring roll and a small cup of chicken soup. The soup was flavorful, but I did notice there was a layer of oil on top. I would have liked it better if the oil had been skimmed off, but at least it told me that they made the chicken broth themselves rather than with just bouillon cubes. It actually was closer to a chicken noodle soup since there were some noodles at the bottom of the cup. They were hard to get at in the small cup, which was like a large teacup, so I didn't finish them.

We shared 4 dishes among the 4 of us. One was a noodle dish with glass noodles, another was green curry, salmon salad, and cashew chicken. I liked all of them, but the cashew chicken was a little plain. "Cashew chicken" is more of something that I associate with a chinese restaurant ...

For dessert, I had a creme brulee, which was great; I haven't had creme brulee in a while. My client had "mango with sticky rice", which was a whole sliced mango next to a small disc of sticky rice. Heh, she didn't touch the sticky rice. The other two had fried bananas with ice cream.

It was a pleasant lunch, so hopefully they'll take me lunch again =)

Does anyone want me to ship them a bag to taste? =)

I like the article's blurb about its acceptance: "And they worry little about customer acceptance, given that fast food's target market – hungry young males – is filled with technophiles."

I didn't write earlier that I had lunch on Friday at Lupe Tortilla, which means that I had Mexican food three days in a row. I am definitely not getting $1.99 fish tacos at Berryhill Tamales tonight. That's just too much Mexican foo. I'm sure I'll eat plenty of Mexican food when I'm in Mexico next month. But, as they say might have said in Friends, to them it's just "food".

Lupe Tortilla definitely has good tortillas, and they are monstrous. Most restaurants give you small plate sized tortillas for your fajitas, but at Lupe Tortilla, they give you the huge ones, like you'd get at the big burrito places. The tortillas are also the "chinese style" ones that I like instead of the usual kind I'd find at the grocery store. I didn't order the fajitas, but my friends did, and they seemed pleased. The fajitas did seem rather pricy at $25+ for an order for two people.

Jesse and I got the "The Original Beeg Sucker Burrito". It was big, but not once you've been to Chipotle and Freebird's, it's not that big. However, it may still be the "original". Before I took a bit of mine, Jesse said it tasted salty. As soon as I had my first bite, I agreed with him. The meat inside was a little on the salty side. It was good, otherwise.

If you order a burger there, your first choice is to decide on which meat you prefer, buffalo or beef. Their menus says they are "Home of the Buffalo Burger", and it's got a reputation as one of the only places in town to get a buffalo burger, so I opted for that. They state that buffalo has 70% less fat, 50% less calories, 50% less cholesterol, and 30% more protein than beef. Those are some nice stats.