Letter to Julia 20140731

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

There is a feedback loop going on in my cooler.  At the same time, my cooler is a dead end for food.  My cooler is like one of those fractal deep zooms, but not as pretty.  I live alone with my cats, so if I don't eat it, and the cats don't eat it, then it goes into the trash.  Perhaps I could give it away, but that's easier said than done, especially since I already give away much food in the form of raw foods.  I don't have many friends.  And I accumulated a lot of food over Ramadan.

My cooler isn't very big, about 3/4 or less the size of a typical one door cooler you would find in a modern home.  So what's in the cooler?  Let's see: steak, chicken breast, a snapper head, 3 chicken ribs, 2 containers of sambal udang (prawns in a hot pepper sauce), rendang (beef in spicy coconut and lemongrass sauce), snapper roe, burgers, butter, coconut milk, pastry dough, sliced cheese, fried anchovies, chocolate chips, bamboo shoots, tamarind, 2 containers of mole sauce, sardine dip, soybean milk, chrysanthemum tea, rose tea, 3 big bottles of water, 2 containers of Mom's sweet pickle, ginger, turmeric, hot peppers, oyster mushrooms, yeast, sourdough starter, 2 containers of salted fish, leftover shepherd's pie, 2 eggs, a bottle of Worcestershire sauce, a bottle of dipping sauce for fish crackers, home made mayo... is that it?  Oh yeah... a kilo of sugar,  5 kilos of rice, and 2 kilos of Atta flour which I have to keep in the cooler because the bugs have figured out how to get through the packaging.  I'm sure I missed some items.

So I had to stop accepting food, and start eating all the food in the cooler, or it would go to waste.  So for dinner just now, I made a stew of most of the bamboo shoots with garlic, onions, seaweed, mushrooms in anchovy broth.  I put the snapper head in there, and let it simmer.  Then I took the fish head out, and added ramen noodles and chopped hot peppers.  I dismantled the fish head and removed the flesh.  The stuff behind the eyes is awesomely tasty.  I put the stew in a large bowl, then sprinkled the fish meat on top.  Oh no!  I made too much food!  I have leftovers!

You must join me regularly for eating.  Please?  I love you, I love you!  And I need you, I need you.