Market day!

One of the benefits of not living in the States is the easy access to local markets. I really enjoy going to my market - I probably don't go nearly enough, honestly, but golly, it is nice.

I really enjoy being able to choose the vegetables I want, from the seller I want - and then the fun of just walking around looking at everything that's out there. Small, old, Korean women sit on the ground, basically, and have a blanket in front of them with produce from their own farms. It's a cool system. Plus, you immediately get a really good sense of what is in-season, and what isn't.

One of my goals for this year is to consciously consume less meat, and eat more locally. I've become more and more convinced that current consumption modes are unsustainable; I'm trying to be more conscious of my consumption patterns, and one of the main products in unsupportable agribusiness is meat. As a result of that, going to the market, buying local produce, and eating in-season locally produced vegetables seems to make sense. Plus, I get to act all superior without needing all that much change in my own life...

So, I've been rocking the local produce. It's also kind of fun to challenge myself to use a new vegetable in my cooking, and try to expand my cooking ability. I've become somewhat stagnant in the dishes I make; curry, pasta (sauce), stir fry. Rinse, cycle, repeat. So, I've begun to look for more innovative things to do with a microwave, 2 burners, a toaster oven, and roughly 4 inches of usable counter space. :-)

On a totally unrelated topic... after finishing dinner (curry - surprise surprise, but I did try it with cabbage - not a winner, fyi) C and I watched Frost Nixon. I was surprised at how good it was. Oddly enough, I was actually rooting for Nixon. Not because I support him, but because I enjoy good debate and watching him dismantle Frost for the first 4 days was really entertaining. On the denunciation day, I was a bit disappointed - C and I actually paused the movie to complain about the tactics - but overall I was really satisfied. Thinking about the overall thrust of the movie, it just made me quite sad about the state of American politics for the last 30 years. There really hasn't been much in the way of light coming out of the marble halls of power lately... More then anything, it just made me sad. There's a strong sense of resignation and just plain fatigue that you leave that movie with. It's excellent, no doubt. But sad.