Saturday, August 24, 2013

Traditions and gluten-free insanity

No matter what anyone says, everyone will always attest to the delicious first-rate food their mother makes. You're probably familiar with the common conversation of "no seriously, my mom makes THE BEST..." It's about another week until I go back to my hometown to spend Labor Day weekend with my family and I couldn't be more excited. Usually, a trip back to see my family entails this great tradition of eating large family-style meals. Things like claypot caramelized catfish (ca kho), lau canh chua (sweet and sour hot pot), and seafood noodle soup (hu tieu) are classics that frequently circle through family dinners every month.

Ca kho to - a favorite in my book! (photo courtsey of T. Haynes)
My visits to see my family, though not often, are filled with lots of catching up with both personal news, as well as catching up with eating good food. For us, eating at the table together just generates good conversation - there's something about everyone being present, sharing a meal, that really brings people closer and creates this great intimacy. When I was growing up, no matter what you did in the day, whether you had math tutoring, or went fishing with family friends, or went to hang with friends to eat, you HAD to be home for dinner. If you ate already, no one cared, you had to sit at the table and be present for the conversation. Because in my family, the dinner table was where most of the conversations happened - conversations of laughter, heartache, love, loss, teen angst, to family drama. These conversations happened around an old school 6-person wooden table that had newspapers strewn across the table top instead of place mats (ghetto-ish, but highly effective at absorbing any fish sauce spills).



The only downer about this visit is I happen to be in the midst of a gluten elimination diet to try to pinpoint some annoying symptoms that I've been experiencing for the past year. A year ago, I decided for health reasons to cut out meats from my diet and switch my diet to a more plant-based, grain diet. As a result, my body started to react weirdly to it, and I think it may be a gluten reaction. So I just saw a physician about this and am doing a two week elimination diet as one method of trying to figure out what's going on with my body. I've also done two other tests, so hopefully a result will come out before I head back to Stockton. Either way, this gluten-free diet has been a major bummer - I never knew just how much "wheat" by product there was in food - it's in EVERYTHING. It was bad enough trying to get over not eating bread (I love eating bread with avocado on top, yum!), but wheat flour can be found hidden in many asian sauces (hoisin, oyster sauce, etc.). Needless to say, I've been going through a rollercoaster of emotions because of this dietary adjustment - I'll be happy after a day of not experiencing stomach pains, headaches, or bad gas and think wheat may be the root of my problems, but then I'll be sad the next day when I realize that I can't eat my rice dishes with oyster sauce because there's a wheat flavoring thing in it!

My favorite brand of oyster sauce (photo courtesy of K. Louie)
Anyways, MOH, supportive as ever, has been noticing my sulking around the apartment, sadly reading labels of all my favorite food seasonings, sighing whenever I look at bread, and has concocted a delicious little gluten-free dessert for me - before you question the validity of my statement "delicious," especially for something gluten free, keep in mind that the batch is all gone and it's only been two days. I came back from a run and smelled this yummy wafting coconut-crispy-cookie goodness and immediately thought of this cookie I had at the australian bakery, Pie-not, the digger. 

The digger, otherwise known as the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) biscuit, was a baked delight that was used during WWI as a main source of sustenance for the soldiers on the warfront. Baked with love by wives, aunts, grandmommys, sisters, friends, these biscuits were created as a healthy source of sustenance for soldiers, with an added bonus that the cookies would withstand storage for long periods of time. The basis of this biscuit involves oats, flour, sugar, butter and this great honey-alternative, golden syrup. One thing you'll notice is there's no eggs in this cookie, adding to how well it stores for long bouts of time. The cookie to this day, is still considered a traditional biscuit and can be found in many specialty bakeries as homage to its great historical significance. 



MOH's rendition of the ANZAC was modified from an online (site featured below) using gluten-free flour. He was super worried about the results, but the cookie was so good!

MOH's ANZAC:
- 1 cup flour (Red Mill, gluten-free all purpose flour)
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes
- 9 tbsp of butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 325 degree F
2. Stir in flour, oats, coconut, and sugar  in a mixing bowl
3. Melt butter and add in syrup to water
4. Add baking soda to butter mixture
5. Add dry mixture (1) to liquid mix (2 and 3)
6. Scoop walnut size balls of the mix and bake onto baking sheet for 10 minutes - be careful, the walnut size is small, but the cookie spreads A LOT! The end product is this cookie crisp-like biscuit, so make sure the dough balls are 4-5inches apart!

I think the only thing to watch out for is how thin this cookie gets - it's very sweet and tastes like a crispy oatmeal galette. Really tasty and goes great with coffee and tea. If you like your cookies more rounded out, many gluten free sites suggest using xantham gum as a solidifying agent.

Needless to say, MOH's little surprise has greatly lifted my spirits in the wake of this gluten-free personal challenge. This blog has been about keeping up with traditions, and MOH's staying true to his form. Ever supportive, my little baker has managed to find silver linings through anything. Awesome end to a long week.

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend. Happy eating all!


Interested in making your own ANZAC? If so, use the following recipe:

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Will you be eating alone, or meeting someone?

This week marks Costa Mesa's restaurant week, which means it's time for MOH and I to venture out of our favorite food spots and try some of the hidden gems of Costa Mesa. Restaurant week happens in many cities, often highlighting great food from awesome restaurants at an affordable lunch or dinner prix fixe menu.

Yesterday MOH and I went to Pie-not, this Australian bakery that serves delicious savory pies.

Beautiful pies (courtesy of J. Spengler)
Pie-not had this awesome special where you can have their signature pie with a cookie and coffee all for 8 bucks. I would definitely recommend this place - the pies are crusty, have a great buttery taste, and have such a decadent savory filling. The pie that I had was the gandhi which had curried chickpeas and vegetables - super good! And if you're not into pies, get the Digger biscuit, which tastes like a crispy oatmeal cookie - really delicious and great with a cup of coffee. Our experience yesterday was a great start to restaurant week, and we're excited to try other places. We've compiled a list of a few places, but we'll be lucky if we can hit all our spots. Fingers crossed!

The great thing about restaurant week is you can plan girls' nights or date nights or catch-up with friends and family at great places to eat. It's always a lot of fun when you can spend time with loved ones, especially over good food. And if you're like me, a total "awkward turtle," a new study recently published in Plos One (Sommer et al., 2013) has shown that eating in the company of another person compared to eating solo helps you become more in tune with reading other people's emotions and serves to enhance your mood. Talk about being productive on all ends.



This study was conducted by researchers in Madrid and Germany and looked at the cognitive and emotional consequences of eating alone, or eating with another person in a restaurant setting. While there's been mounting empirical as well as anecdotal evidence for the benefits of eating with company, no studies have actually explored the realm of how cognitive processes are affected between the two eating habits. Here, they compared two types of groups: eating restaurant prepared take-out inside an office cubicle versus walking to said restaurant with a coworker and having a meal inside the restaurant. Only the social factor of eating with company was considered different between the two groups.

In this study, researchers looked at effects on mood, memory and emotional context between the two groups using an imaging technique known as electroencephalography (EEG). EEG works by taking a summation of all your brain's electrical activity as a way of figuring out which parts of your brain are being stimulated during particular activities. EEG is a really great way to measure brain activity in humans in particular because it's non-invasive and subjects only need to wear a cap with little electrodes (look like plug extensions) that will measure electrical activity.

EEG in action - tres stylish? (photo taken from P. Kallioinen) 
What they found was that people in the experimental group (named EG, the group that dined with a coworker) had a better mood than the control group (named CG, solo eaters). In addition, EG people had an easier ability to detect negative emotions on faces - what they did for this test was present random faces and had the subjects indicate the emotion presented on each face. The EG people responded much quicker and correctly than the CG group. Memory was looked at too, but both groups had similar responses.

Now, crunching down the findings, the mood results seem plausible and even make sense. Think about how great you feel after dining with a friend, or coworker. Maybe you get to vent out your frustrations regarding work or get some sound advice about life; maybe you become inspired to take your research project in a different direction after bouncing off ideas with a fellow colleague; or even maybe you feel secretly excited and happy when you hear from a friend that your ex is wishing they never broke up with you. Either way, dining with another can be a great experience and serious mood uplifter.

Photo courtesy of T. Monto
But what about the results of reading emotions? This came across really interesting to me. If I'm assuming that reading emotional context on faces can be extended to being able to socialize better with various groups, presumably, by eating out with my few select friends, I can potentially enhance my social skills... This sounds like a win-win situation to me. Not sure if we can extrapolate and make this stretch, but if it justifies eating out more, trying different foods, and spending quality time with friends and family, why not?

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend - until next time, happy eating!


Reference:
Sommer et al., 2013. How about lunch? Consequences of the meal context on cognition and emotion. Plos One.






Saturday, August 10, 2013

Izakaya and Sandman love this week

Happy weekend everyone!

MOH and I haven't had a date night in awhile, so we decided to have a spur of the moment, mid-week celebration of archery, comics, and IZAKAYA! Archery, comics, and Izakaya? Maybe the first two things sound familiar, but what in the world is izakaya?

Izakaya refers a Japanese eating style that reminds me most of a combination of the bar scene where tapas are served in great varieties. If you're into guzzling down sake, or munching on apps the entire night, or scarf down sushi bits and pieces, eating izakaya-style is something that you should definitely try at least once.



MOH and I went to this newly opened Izakaya hotspot in Fountain Valley, CA called Kappo Honda and had a great time. The thing about izakaya that's so wonderful is there's something for everyone here. Ever tried to set up lunch or dinner plans with friends and get frustrated with trying to choose a place that fits everyone's dietary needs? The beauty of Izakaya is it offers a wide variety of tapas that can cater to anyone - sushi, sashimi, salads, tempura, takoyaki (ball-shaped snacks filled with octopus, squid or shrimp), yakitori (skewered meat or vegetables), udon, ramen, and sukiyaki (japanese hot pot). There's something here for everyone. Or if you just want to try everything, no shame in doing that either! Typically, MOH and I love to get a little bit of everything, like an informal prix - fixe menu.

Yakitori: squid legs, quail eggs, and pork belly!

Our meal was so delicious. MOH had worked up an appetite shooting his new bow at Orange County Archery and we were so excited about trying out this place. We ordered a few rolls, some yakitori, sashimi, takoyaki, and wasabi flavored sea snails. The sea snails were probably my favorite dish. It had this great kick to it - the snails had a real kick to them. The snails are braised or boiled (?) and then coated with this great wasabi paste that makes it taste like this great antipasto to a delicious meal of sushi rolls and sashimi-galore. I could probably eat two more orders of this, and for people who are kinda ehh about eating snails, it tasted like squid or octopus! The rest of the meal was really good, but by far my favorite was the wasabi snails.  

Bit blurry, apologies - but SO good
On top of a great meal, this has been an amazing week for me. I've fallen in love with the beauty of comics.

I've started the Sandman series written by Neil Gaiman and it is AMAZING. Yes, I know - comics? You?!?! Read COMICS?!?!?!? The series is a revival of the Sandman series retold by the hit writer behind Coraline, Neil Gaiman. He manages to infuse rich mythology, classic comic heroes / villains (the appearance of Scarecrow and Dr. Destiny) into this really deep story of the Lord of Dreams aka Sandman. I was hesitant to read this series, but I've already finished the first volume (ten total) and find myself thinking about it constantly. It's kind of like food dreaming - ever dream of this dish that you NEED to have? I'm experiencing that currently with a book series. And did I mention the artwork is amazing? Needless to say, I've enlisted MOH's great ebay/internet scouring skills to helping me find the best deal on the rest of this series. Excited!



Hope everyone's doing well this week - happy eating all!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Addicted to the taste

This week has been filled with lots of indulgences - I've eaten four batches of kale chips, scarfed down some double-stuffed oreos, and eaten through more than my fair share of kettlecorn chips. Ay. If it weren't for running and cycling, I think I'd be looking like jabba the hut instead of sporting a soft "maca-doodle." (MOH likes to poke at my belly and call it a hybrid between a macaron and snickerdoodle- induced belly, hence "macadoodle")



There's just something about certain foods that just make even the strongest person cave in. For some people, it's a rich german double chocolate cake. For MOH, it's mint oreos. I think for me, it's salty chips. I love chips. Whether it's kale chips, potato chips, shrimp frys, hot cheetos, any chip variety will do me in. But for some people, that special craving, or pang to "just have it" goes a little more than just giving into temptation and having a snack. For some, food addiction is a very serious disorder, and often leads to several health concerns, the most important being obesity. Obesity, especially that in the United States, is ever increasing, affecting 30% of the population. As a result, food addiction is something that's a hot research topic in neuroscience, particularly because there are parallels of food addiction to drug addiction. What do I mean by this? Food addiction shares similar pathways as drug addiction does, in which many of the brain regions that are activated during food intake are the same regions that are activated during drug ingestion. While taking drugs "hijack" our brain's natural reward pathways, food addiction has been linked to activating many neural networks, making it extremely complicated to study.

DiLeone RJ et al., 2012 Nature Neuroscience

The diagram above shows the dual pathways of both drugs of abuse, and food addiction. Each site represents a brain region. The lighter shaded areas represent areas that are activated during food addiction. The darker shades are activated during drug addiction. While drugs of abuse activate the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and intake of food activates the hypothalamus, the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) serves as a site that integrates both food and drug intake.

So that leads to the next pressing question - do oreos hold higher power than a cigarette? While no studies have actually been done in humans to compare this (drat), rats when given a choice of either a sugary compound or a cocaine hit actually opt for the sugar high rather than the drug high. Even in a situation when the animal isn't hungry, a rodent will still choose sugar rather than the cocaine.



Why does food hold such high power? Some researchers hypothesize that the intense desire and evolutionary advantages to seek out and consume foods of high quality fat and sugar has led many brain pathways to respond positively to food intake.



References:

DiLeone RJ et al. 2012. The drive to eat: comparisons and distinctions between mechanisms of food reward and drug addiction. Nature Neuroscience.