October 8, 2005
living on chocolate
After class on Thursday, I didn't know what to eat, or whether I was really hungry. So naturally, I ate way too much.
I went to the Korean food stand on the second floor of Cafeteria 61 for jap chae (potato starch noodles). Having eaten there once before, I knew that the portions were huge and hot (temperature-wise), probably not meant to be entirely consumed by people like me (short, female people). I've never actually ordered made-to-order jap chae before and this might be weird, but I like it a lot more when it's cold after sitting in a fridge case (which is the first way I had tried it); the texture is really chewy and the flavors in my opinion taste stronger. When it's cooked, it just seems too soft and almost mushy, except not really mushy since the strands don't break apart easily. I guess my perception of jap chae has been messed up since I first ate it cold.
There wasn't anything wrong with the jap chae, of course--it's just my perference. The noodles were topped with some vegetables and sliced beef, with that whole mixture put atop rice. Yes, lots and lots of starch. Yes, I like starch. Yes, I ATE ALMOST THE WHOLE THING, and I thought I was going to die afterwards because it was so much food. You could ask why I didn't stop earlier but I have no idea. A part of me used to think that hot food fills me up more and would prevent me from overeating (you can't shovel it into your mouth, at least) but that doesn't seem to be the case. Oops.
I felt weird for the rest of the day. Indigestion. It's like my stomach was always at risk for upheaval (I wouldn't want to see a rice/noodle mixture come out) but luckily, nothing like that happened. During my class after lunch, I had the strangest feeling of being unable to stay awake, something I surprisingly haven't felt in a long time. My eyelids literally felt like 100 ton weights and I fought ("Fighting Eyelids"...that sounds like a really bad football team) to keep them open. My class isn't boring, so it had nothing to do with that, and it's not like I get that little sleep that I'd flump out of consciousness during a class. Coupled with the feeling of being overly tired, I had a weird feeling in my head that I can't describe besides being abnormal. It wasn't explicit nausea or dizzyness, just...something. Something to say "hello" and bother me incessantly, like a nagging kid who won't shut up about wanting a popsicle.
The weird feelings lasted maybe half an hour, not the entire duration of the class. Odd. I'd say that they were a bit like dehydration symptoms, except I've been dehydrated before and they weren't the same. But anyway.
I didn't feel like eating after that. Yes, even I have my limits! I went to the library to watch "Tortilla Soup" as assigned in my film class, not knowing that it was a "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" remake. It was really interesting to see a movie totally remade to fit another culture, in this case from Chinese-Taiwanese to Mexican-American. The story was changed in minute ways, although the feelings of the two movies were very different. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese version felt more subdued and not as playful. It's not a bad thing, just different. If you liked EDMW/"Tortilla Soup", be sure to watch the other movie also.
After watching the movie I got the urge for chocolate, in particular the milk chocolate creme brulee bar from Jacque Torres. I didn't have enough time so instead I went to Life Thyme and got a Green & Black's mint dark chocolate bar. Yes, that's totally different from caramel and milk chocolate, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try something new.
...except it did. I didn't want dark chocolate and I wasn't very fond of the mint filling (on the upside, it's ORGANIC!). Don't get me wrong--I ate most of it--but I threw out the last 1/5th of the bar since I just didn't want any more dark chocolate. I distinctly remember a time last year when I had such a strong dark chocolate draving that I practically inhaled a pack of dark chocolate Valrhona dics. Funny how tastes change so much.
Oh, I got the chocolate craving from my period, I'm assuming. Mmm, sugar.
The next day, I felt more tired than I had the day before (although in this case, I was doing really boring work) and I didn't have much of an appetite. My appetite waned even more (even more than "none") when I went into a deep state of depression and "I suck"-ness, which I don't have to get into now. Basically, I walked to the Shake Shack and wasn't hungry at all, so I just napped on the bench in a hobo-like fashion. A clean, young hobo with a handbag, at least.
I decided though that I should eat something since I hadn't ingested anything that day and I'd have a long night ahead of me (for Beck concert-ness). What to get?
...CHOCOLATE. That's all I wanted and even though I know it's not healthy, I figured I'd give my body what it wanted. This time I went for milk chocolate labeled as having nougat, but instead was more of a creamy hazelnut filling (like I care; it's still delicious).
I ate a bunch of pieces while waiting outside for the show, waiting which went for the next two hours. In some rain. Hammerstein Ballroom is not an accomodating place, so you can't bring water bottles in. Yeah, it's understandable, but so is...hydration. Oh well. After the show, the floor of the venue was a mess of plastic beer cups, with mounds of them collected at the base of the stairwells. Lovely. I also noticed after the show that my pants had become strangely loose, which my mum attributes to dehydration (uh..whoa?), although this also happened after eating dinner at around 11:30PM.
...yes, I ate at a diner with a bunch of people! Funny though that it's still not in NJ, aka "the place saturated with a gazillion diners". Janet (fellow reader of this blog and a writer!) accompanied me to the Beck show and afterwards we met up with two of her friends and one of my friends, Erika (another food and Beck lover) all who were also at the show, at the next-door Tick Tock Diner. What did I get?
Pancakes. It was a tough choice between pancakes, cake, or pie. Actually, tartufo was also on the menu (which is something I ate a lot as a kid, although I haven't eaten one in many years) but you know me; I like pancakes. Although the selection isn't huge, I went for the Tollhouse Cookie Pancakes since I've never seen "cookie pancakes" on a menu before. They were good, fluffy with lots of chocolate chips, a little blobbly shaped, but it's the taste that matters (and the smell). It didn't really have cookie bits in it but it had some "non-pancake dough" bits, if you can imagine that. No pancake-enlightening moment took place but it was a nice end to my day after only having sustained myself on 400 calories of chocolate (400 really good calories) for most of the day. I also nicked some of Erika's wide, thin french fries that she couldn't finish. *cough*
So once again, I followed a Beck concert with food. Oh, if only we had been near the Donut Pub...
Posted by roboppy at 2:16 PM
Comments (3)
I think your condition in the afternoon was a food coma. I used to call it pasta fatigue until a friend turned me onto the notion of the food coma and I like that term better. I get really sleepy an hour after eating a huge bowl of pasta. I think it's a blood-sugar swing: way up from the carbs, then crashing down after they're absorbed. Or something. It sucks.
You threw away the last 1/5th of a chocolate bar? Fie! Sacrilege!
Just kidding.
Whenever I'm hungry, I have to stop myself from caving in to what is undeniably a soul deep need for dimsum. I just love deceiving myself---this dumpling is tiny, it fits in such a tiny steamer, and heck it's steamed so it's not THAT fattening---crap, just thinking about it making me hungry.
I hear 10 minutes of just waiting is enough to make a craving subside. Does that work with you?
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I hope you are feeling better! I've walked into Lify Thyme before and tried their granola which was good, but nothing out of the ordinary - though I could totally go for a mint dark choco bar now! How are the other dishes (and prices) at Cafeteria 61? I usually go to random Korean supermarkets on 32nd (?) street to pick up my jap chae. Oh! Now that I think if it, there are a couple of Korean bakeries (think upsacale Chinese bakeries!) in K-town...perhaps worth checking out? :)
Posted by: Kathy at October 8, 2005 5:36 PM [#]