Friday, July 18, 2008

Anyone Hungry?

Really, that was just a rhetorical question. I'm not sharing. Well, actually, I am sharing, but not the food pictured below. That food is what I won from Parking At Home's Pay It Forward contest! It arrived yesterday, and I'm so excited!

I'll admit that there are a few items that I'm a little unsure of what they are, but I've sent the images to a friend of mine who's mom will know and can give me cooking instructions that aren't in a language that doesn't share characters with English. Were I not headed to Cirque du Soleil tonight and then out to dinner with some friends, I'd be eating one of these tonight!

It looks like the Mother Lode, doesn't it?

When I spread it all out on the floor (with Meow's help, of course), I realized that it really is the Mother Lode. And yes, I'm anal retentive enough to unpack it and organize it. It didn't do this just for the picture. I'm aware that I have isues.


This is some roasted corn tea and some green tea with roasted brown rice. I've never tried either (green tea, yes, but not with the roasted brown rice). The friend I sent the pictures to said the corn tea tastes vaguely like popcorn. Basically, I'm all in on that one!


Next came the Cups of Instant Rice Noodle Soup. I'm imagining it like the Lipton Cup 'o Soups, but man these are huge! Two meals at least, I'm thinking!


This is the first of my mystery items. There is no English translation anywhere on this, although it appears to my untrained eye to be some sort of breakfast item. If I figure out how to cook it.

We move on to my lifetime supply of nori! The good news is that nori never goes bad. If you've had it for awhile and it gets a little soft, just pop it in the microwave, and it'll crisp right up. These are the whole sheets great for making all kinds of sushi (and snacking).


The lifetime supply also comes in mini-snacking size. This is 24 packages of precut nori. I think I need to have a sushi party someday soon!


This is another soup, anchovy flavored. And yes, I do like anchovies. Salty, but yummy. The cooking may be a slight challenge, but I'll figure it out. This is a front runner for dinner tomorrow.


More mystery items with no English translation. They appear to by ramen noodles, however. I just have to figure out how to cook these, too!



And lastly, who can complete a meal without some candy? Really.... I'm still trying to figure out how I have yet to dive into these. My only excuse is that I was exhausted last night when I got home after work and the wake and watching my friends' kids (we brought them home from the wake because they were SO done -- including the younger one jumping up to grab his grandpa's beard) that I forgot I had them and just went to bed.


So now that I have my treasured Mother Lode, it's my turn to run another Pay It Forward contest. This one starts once the post goes up. I'll run it until Wednesday around 4pm (CST) next week and post the winner that night, the 23rd I think.
My prize is again a mystery, but hopefully it will be somewhere in the league of the Mother Lode, although I don't think I can be quite that cool.
Rules:
1) If you are entering, that means you are committing to run a Pay It Forward contest on your own blog once you receive your prize. Don't disappoint me!
2) To enter, comment below between now and Wednesday July 24 at 4pm CST. Your comment should include guesses on what my mystery items are and how I should cook and eat them. Hopefully I'll have the real answer from my friend's mom by then!
3) Enter only once, and please have a blog so that you can carry on the torch.
4) I'll use a random number generator on Wednesday to pick the winner and post. I'll also email the winner, so be sure you reply by Saturday the 26th so I can get your prize out to you.
Good luck! And THANK YOU again to Parking At Home!




13 comments:

Anonymous July 18, 2008 at 11:24 AM  

The first mystery food is essentially the korean version of putting crackers in your soup. You crinkle those up and put them in your ramens, or cup-o-noodles, and it adds that crunch. They're like fried rice patties. They are what CiL sends home-made in McDonalds bags. Also a good snack.

I'm not sure how to cook the anchovy meals, but I assume you just stick water in them and microwave for a bit.

The ramens have an extremely spicy taste, so I recommend putting more than enough water in there to dilute properly. Once you eat them though, american ramens seem like crap in comparison.

Enjoy the candies, everyone who I've given one to has been disturbed at the real-life apply-ness of them.

I suppose I've ruined it for everyone else now. Umm....some of these are LIES, figure out the TRUTH! There, now everyone else can guess too.

Hope that helps...ha ha

Karen July 18, 2008 at 12:42 PM  

How fun! And what a great treasure to get in the mail.

Which reminds me that I have yet to pay it forward. I think at this point I'll wait until the craziness of summer is over and do it when everyone else has forgotten.

Angie's Spot July 18, 2008 at 6:54 PM  

Wow, Michelle, that's awesome! I'm itching to host a contest this summer, so this might be a good opportunity for me to enter and hopefully pay it forward. ;-)

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm going to host a contest whether I win or not. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

Angela July 18, 2008 at 10:26 PM  

Oh WOW! This is definitely an interesting collection of food. I can't wait to hear the official verdict on how - and what - everything is!! Sounds like fun!

-Bridget July 19, 2008 at 11:01 AM  

I spent some time in Japan and recognize some of thos items, but some I don't have a clue either. Enjoy them!

Anonymous July 19, 2008 at 11:43 AM  

i think one of those is kimchi. god help you.

ya ya's mom July 19, 2008 at 12:32 PM  

oh pick me!!! i have no idea about your mystery items, but good luck :)enjoy cirque...i loved it!!!

Anonymous July 19, 2008 at 1:34 PM  

Maybe it's all different flavor of rice. You know--like peanut butter rice, pickle-flavored rice, and everybody's favorite, buttered popcorn flavored-rice.

And if you have strong teeth and are low on time, maybe you could just gnaw on them raw, and then drink the water separately.

Secret Mom Thoughts July 19, 2008 at 8:32 PM  

I have no idea what the mystery items are. Maybe noodles.

Anonymous July 19, 2008 at 8:42 PM  

Wow, what a haul. Hope you enjoy.

(I came here thru Swistle)

Mommy Daisy July 19, 2008 at 10:14 PM  

I have no idea about any of that food. Good luck. I'd still like to sign up. It would be fun to try all those new things. I hope you enjoy it!

Unknown July 20, 2008 at 8:09 AM  

My grandmother is Japanese and a lot of the stuff you recieved I've seen in her home and at the asian food markets here! As for the cup of noodles they usually take anywhere from 4-6 min in microwave unless they are the ones where you add boiled water! The ramen type noodles you just boil with 2 cups or less of water to your tasting until the noodles appear done, no different than Ramen and yes they tend to make these spicy!



I'm willing to Pay it Forward, I have tons of stuff!

phillipsonlygirl at gmail dot com

EL July 22, 2008 at 11:56 AM  

i have no idea what most of that is, but when i use to shop at the asian markets in pensacola i would just buy stuff and hope for the best. one of my favorites was the dried squid, makes for a deliciously fishy snack.

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