Feeding My Passion

One of my favorite things to make from my favorite cuisine in the world, Vietnamese goi cuon. The filling ingredients are pretty flexible, though I’m partial to these: red leaf lettuce, hothouse cucumbers, green onions, rice vermicelli, cilantro, bean sprouts, poached shrimp (cut in half and place in the wrapper skin-side out so the pink shows through like it does here), and mint. We added carrots for a little color, and you can put in other herbs as well, red parilla, thai basil, rau ram, watercress, poached pork, vietnamese chicken or pork sausage (a delicious and subtle forcemeat).

They’re so easy and inexpensive to make, that you can play around with them, people can make their own (I’ve taught classes and friends how to make them several times now.).

We served them with hoisin peanut dipping sauce and Thai tom kha gai (chicken coconut milk soup). Actually, “tom” means boiled, “kha” is galangal, and “gai” is chicken. Since the important thing is the galangal, you can actually vary the protein. The recipe I’m using now is from the inestimable David Thompson’s Thai Food, and he gives a couple two major variations of “dtom khaa” (his Anglicisation), the other with trout which I’d like to try sometime. Here are his head notes for the dtom khaa gai we made:

Although this soup’s name means ‘boiled glalngal’, it has become associated in most people’s minds with chicken. However, many othe ringredients can be used in a dtom kha: fish, shellfish, mushrooms of all kinds, quail and pork are some possibilities.

He also has five variations of tom yum (dtom yam in Thompson, hot and sour soup, made most often with shrimp in the US).

There is a pair of bald eagles nesting at Yosemite Lake, a man-made reservoir and recreational area about 3 miles away. Occasionally they tour the neighborhood, and I ran outside with my camera when I saw one fly by.  It was perched on top of an electrical pole eating a rodent. The longest lens I have is an 85mm, which converts to a 127.5mm on a Nikon D200. So yes, this frame is very, very cropped.

The sky and field behind the after a strong Spring rain.

Columbia, Calif., is a state park, an old gold rush town in the foothills that’s either been very well preserved or very well re-created (or imagined).

I used to go there as a kid both with my family and with classes on field trips. I remember really only two things, the candy shop, and from the candy shop I most remember the gigantic jawbreakers they sold (don’t know whether they made them there), and I remember the blacksmith shop where I once bought a ring made from a horseshoe nail. Which I promptly lost, on a flight I think. Bummed me out for days if I remember correctly. Anyway, the candy shop still sells gigantic jaw breakers (and I saw more than a few kids with them) and I bought a new ring made from a horseshoe nail. Still have it.

The last few pictures are of a very rare stone corral that’s one of two stone corrals on the road to Sonora.

Kamila, on the beach near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Day 2 on Shumei’s Santa Cruz Farm, where they use natural methods to grow produce that is beyond organic, at least organic as it is known and certified now. The friend I visited Santa Cruz with, Kamila, is a part of the Shumei organization, and I was fortunate enough to gain access and make pictures there for one of the four sections of my photo essay that is a kind of visual companion to The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

What can I say about UC Santa Cruz? Hmmmm…how about WOW! Definitely not a traditional-looking campus, it’s more like a nature preserve set on a hill above Santa Cruz where someone has sprinkled buildings here and there. I might go back to school someday just so I can go to school here.

The Shumei organization’s natural agriculture farm in Santa Cruz, Calif., part of my photo essay on food.

Easter Sunday! Sure didn’t feel like it though, it was probably sunnier and warmer in Michigan, but hey, it’s a very small price to pay to be with family in this setting, eating delicious free-range chicken and irresistible potato salad, both mom-made. Plus the wild flowers were blooming, especially prolific after a wet Winter and Spring.

…when wedding photos actually come out.

This is the second wedding-type event I made pictures at in 3 days, both times completely unplanned events, about as close I’ve get to spot news except for maybe the practice fire I came across a couple of weeks ago. Because this was indoors, and I only have an on-board, pop-up flash, I wasn’t very happy with my pictures.

Wedding photography is tough work for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the stakes are very, very high, so props to my peeps who are wedding photographers, I’ve seen their photos and they’re doing great work!

So my mom spotted a wedding in Fairfield at the county courthouse on Thursday, and then today I spot a wedding reception in downtown Merced, just driving by, minding my own business, and I thought, “Can’t possibly resist this opportunity,” even though I had today’s photo in the bag.

Two weddings in 3 days, hmmm…Give me a call! I’m your friendly neighborhood volunteer after-wedding photographer! (Pictures to come, hopefully before I go on an Easter picnic with my family on Sunday and Santa Cruz Monday-Thursday.)