Sun, July 20 - Cod Worm

11.44am - fresh strawberries w/ hemp seeds and black sesame seeds, at home14.19h - fresh coconut, while checking out the pictures from Laurence's and Jacob's recent trips to India and Morocco, at home, with Ritesh

16.36h - avocado-scrambled egg burrito w/ salsa, before being rolled up, at home, with Ritesh. He made another yummy one with turkey, too.

17.45h - ok, so if you're squeamish, scroll past the next picture fast. If you're into this kind of stuff, you can just double click on the picture to enlarge. This, to the uninitiated, is a cod worm, that crawled out of the cod I was chopping up for Cambodian amok, the spicy fish curry we like to make. Below, it is still at the marinade stage. This was fresh cod, purchased yesterday at Whole Foods (the one on Wilshire, if you want to avoid it from now on...). Now apparently, from what we learned online, these cod worms are very common and are removed as far as possible by your fishmonger so you don't have to have this experience. Some, however, are not detected, since they actually live inside the fish. When you fry or otherwise heat the fish, the worm dies, and you enjoy it along with the fish, without knowing it was even there (especially if you prepare the fish whole). Apparently, there's no problem in eating this worm dead (although it's likely to settle in your gut if swallowed alive) and apparently, if you find one while preparing the fish, you can pick it out and toss it and still enjoy the fish, since apparently it is no reflection on the quality of the fish. In fact, if the worm is still alive it means the fish is really fresh.

Couldn't do it though. I've brought home my share of parasites from various exotic locales and can tell you, it's no fun. Couldn't even conceive of eating this. In fact, I was so freaked out by the idea of worm eggs that I washed my hands with alcohol and soaked them in a hydrogen peroxide solution, just to be on the safe side. And the prospective amok was unceremoniously flushed down the loo. We did get our money back from Whole Foods, but I don't think I'll be making fish again any time soon...

18.28h - home made Jamaica (Mexican hibiscus flower tea w/ agave nectar), at home, with Ritesh

18.56h - We were making the amok for Lissy, who was supposed to come over for dinner, but then wanted us to come to her place, as she was getting the kitchen and dining room painted and needed help moving stuff. So instead of amok, we brought honey glazed prawns (these are Lissy's favorite, so we had to get them, but were trying really hard not to think about what may have been living inside them) w/ caramelized pecans, lemon chicken and rice from California Wok, on Lissy's balcony with a lovely view of the setting sun, with Ritesh and Lissy.