Soupasana

I had an easy 5-second breakfast today – cereal!

This cereal is another winner in my books! A-mazing.

For lunch – I wanted to use up yesterday’s couscous paste leftovers and improvise just a little.

Buckwheat from yesterday, with some sunflower oil, spinach, and chickpeas, and some hot sauce!

New addition to the kitchen: sweet with heat mustard!

Last of couscous paste on a sandwich, with buckwheat on the side.

Last but not least…

Pear with peanut butter for dessert:

I did a hot yoga class in the evening…

Pre-hot yoga fuel:

For dinner, I wanted to try something really interesting that made a bit of a splash in the foodie blogosphere. Anyone know the name of the white carrot below?

Parsnips!!!

The dish that made a splash was parsnip fries! I had no idea what parsnips tasted like, but smeared in peanut butter, how bad could they be?

Seasonings (I improvised here): salt, pepper, garlic spice, brown sugar, cinnamon and olive oil.

Adding star player –> PEANUT BUTTER to the mix. I used a heaping tablespoon.

As I stuck the fries in the oven (400F, 45 minutes), I decided to sip on a carrot juice that was hanging out in my fridge for the past couple of days. I think it was on sale at Ambrosia (the local health food store), and I was lured in by a short list of ingredients (carrot juice, lactic acid).

Eeeeeek! YUCK! BLECH… I hope I made my point. This was disgusting. It tasted nothing like your regular run-of-the-mill carrot juice that I know and love. It was sour… (?). I had about half a glass. Kitchen fail #1.

After 45 minutes, the fries looked amazing, but were less crispy than I would have liked them to be. For some reason, I decided that to put them on broil would be a good idea. Oh, if only I had a dollar for each time I put something on broil, and burned it to coals as a result… I present to you kitchen fail #2.

I finished the plate anyway, throwing out the blackest ones… Sigh. Well, no worries – I am going to be back at it tomorrow. I WILL make these taste good if that’s the last thing I cook.

Slice of bread with hummus makes any dinner complete!

Chai tea with a splash of rice milk:

And few hours later – a beautiful dessert!

Off to bed!

The dinner was incredibly quick, as we had to go to a concert!

The box below is buckwheat - I buy it in a Russian grocery store, so it already comes in prepackaged baggies that you boil in a pot (it takes 15 minutes to cook). I bought buckwheat in bulk at a regular store few years ago, and it was stale and disgusting… I have never bought in bulk since… The boxes are incredibly convenient, but I think I will have to get over myself eventually, because it’s much more expensive this way.

Buckwheat with black beans, salsa and fresh cucumber – easy and delicious.

After inhaling the plate above, we were off to Gogol Bordello concert!!! It’s a gypsy punk band started by a few Russian immigrants. Check out one of their biggest hits here. They became quite popular after performing with Madonna at London Earth Concert in 2007.

What a crazy night that was!!! I actually did not realize what a high moshpit potential this band has. The nightclub at which they performed (Sound Academy) was packed, and the audience ranged from teenage punks to respectable couples in their forties. I guess we were in between.

There were two opening bands before Gogol made it on stage, and by the time they did, we were squeezed, pushed and shoved from all the different directions. I impulsively decided to remove my jewelery, and oh, how right that decision actually way. By the time, the main band actually appeared, our only goal was to survive one song, and then get out. At that point, I spent about twenty minutes with my cheek tenderly shoved into someone’s shoulder blades, and Vlad was being hugged by about fifteen limbs belonging to different individuals.

When we finally let go (meaning, we momentarily stopped clutching feverishly at the individuals in front of us), we were immediately sucked further into the crowd. People were getting increasingly rowdy, and as the pushing increased, the crowd swayed from side to side. My biggest fear was to actually fall, because I was not sure I would be able to get up. As we were trying to get out, and could not do so right away, I, being slightly claustrophobic, had a couple of panicky moments… As we finally emerged from the heart of the moshpit, both Vlad and myself were absolutely drenched in sweat, my hair was tangled into a nightmare, and my BlackBerry was slightly cracked. Good times.

My younger brother (who is much more of a concert goer than I am) commented that while this was not the most violent moshpit he has ever been in, it was definitely the most dense. I am definitely glad to have participated, but lesson has been learned – next time I am wearing track pants, running shoes and no accessories to something like this.

As for food and beverages, it was definitely strange not to be drinking at a concert. I was especially craving a cold beer after nearly escaping death in the lethal group hug of a moshpit. Ah well, beer will still be there a month from now. I was thankful for a clear head in the morning.