Endoc'ed / The Fish Lady / Farmers Market / Tilapia
Last time I visited my doctor, I'd lost about 10 pounds, and this time I'd lost another 10 -- she was a little alarmed. I don't blame her as weight loss is a sign of hyperthyroid and could have meant my meds were adjusted wrong. But I was able to explain that my weight loss was intentional and I talked about my diet with her -- my iPod app came in handy as I could pull up out of it stats she was interested in, like average carbs, fat, and protein per week. She figured out my BMI (which I haven't done for a while) and doesn't want me to lose any more weight. Me: "But... I wanted to lose another pound and a half so I'd come out to a round number on my scale!" Her, very firmly: "NO. You are going to stay here." Me, meekly: "Okay...." I had a little chat with my OCD, which suggested gaining back a few pounds to the nicely round number of 120, and then Codrus suggested that I convert my weight into kilograms, and it came out to 53 which is a PRIME NUMBER as well as a whole number, so my OCD is now happy again. (Yes, I am slightly broken.) Now I have to figure out how to eat 200-300 more calories a day. This wouldn't seem like a hard problem but when I eat enough protein to have enough energy, my appetite goes way down. So there is tweaking in my future. Alternately, I could eat an avocado a day and call it done. But it's probably more nutritionally correct to raise everything in proportion.
My thyroid numbers are good. She doesn't like natural thyroid "because it's variable" (which I don't think it is, any more than synthetic, as long as you have a trustworthy compounding pharmacist or someone reputable like the NatureThroid makers making it) but we can agree to disagree and she supports my being on it because my TSH has been REALLY GOOD for years on it now. In fact my TSH was exactly the same as last time, which is actually a little weird since I've lost ten pounds, but Armour is reputed to absorb less now, so yadda yadda yadda. Because I want to switch to the compounded, which may absorb better, she'll test me in three months and tweak the dose if need be. Getting the prescription is a little annoying as natural dessicated thyroid (the base form) is not in the computer, so I have to play phone tag. And drive to Walnut Creek, later this week. But it is better than going to Synthroid and then having to worry every time I get tired if it's the lack of T3. (I guess I could get Cytomel too.) But since she won't allow generics for the very excellent reason that they're variable from batch to batch based on which random maker is cheapest this time, that means paying money to evil, evil, Forest. So there are more hoops to jump through, but at least the end is in sight. Phew!
My doctor's appointment was right by the Fish Lady, which I've been meaning to stop by since it sounds like a fun local place. That's also right next to Sunnyside Produce, a store specializing in guess what.
I cruised through Sunnyside Produce first and I have definitely gone from yuppy to hippy: it was just surreal seeing foods like peaches flown in from Peru. Most things looked too shiny, too. While we get some globetrotting fruit at the New Leaf and Staff of Life, too, local produce is more emphasized. I'm also used to seeing place of origin prominently displayed on the signs, and missed that here, though it was on the stickers on all the fruit so you can read the fine print to find the place of origin. They also mark fruit where it's organic. Given that the farmers market was due later, I didn't buy anything, but it was an interesting stop and the quality looked good; it'd be a good place to go if I couldn't find an somewhere else and really wanted it right now. I'm trying to do that less, and eat with the seasons, but, you know, sometimes you just want a papaya.
I liked the Fish Lady a lot more; the proprietor was super nice and helpful with my wacky questions. When I asked him what the ceviche was marinated in, he volunteered the information that so many people are wheat-sensitive now that he's brining all his smoked salmon in wheat-free tamari. Woo! Given that there is a lot of interesting marinated food there, this knowledge of the ingredients is wonderful. All the vacuum sealed marinated foods in fact made me think of sous vide, which I've been reading up on lately. My major objection to it as a cooking method is that you have to bag, in plastic, every single thing you cook. I'm trying to use less plastic! But typically if I buy a cut of meat, it's going to be wrapped in... yes... plastic. So using these pre-bagged marinated meats doesn't introduce new plastic to the equation, other than the extra plastic used for bagging individual cuts rather than buying in bulk. But given that I'd wrap the excess in... guess what... plastic... and freeze it... yeah. Anyhow, it's interesting.
I didn't ask him about his garlic marinade because I was focused on the fish, and I ended up getting some of their homemade ceviche salad, made with shrimp, crab, and scallops, bacon ends (useful for the kinds of recipes that demand pork fat), a filet of tilapia, and some pomegranate soda in one of those nifty flip-top bottles (no, I shouldn't have, but I lusted after the bottle for re-use and I didn't get my RDA of pomegranates this year). We had the ceviche for lunch and I really quite liked it; it was light and tangy and even the marinade was so good that I spooned it up. They're going to start doing lunches because his wife is a great cook, and I heartily approve. And really they're super nice: someone came in wanting a sandwich while I was there, and even though they're not geared up for serving lunch yet, he amiably made him a sandwich, and when I got the bacon ends and mentioned that I felt weird always buying an individual slice of bacon he said that if I wanted only one piece out of a pack, he'd happily sell it to me and then re-seal and re-label the bag. Have vacuum sealer, will accomodate, apparently!
The smoked salmon looks faaaabulous but includes apple juice in the brine. Ah well! I love that he's making it with wheat-free tamari, though, and he might be willing to do a batch with some other juice maybe.
Most interesting item sighted: halibut cheeks! I am going to have to try those; they looked good. Also I want to get some crab before the season ends, but I need to do it at a time when I have the energy to make stock from the shells, because it feels like such a waste to toss the shells. I liked the look of the clams and mussels, too, and I've never tried cooking those.
Farmers market report: I was migraining and had left my medicine at home so we stopped at Asana and I drank at least a pot of yellow something oolong (which was delicious) and caffeinated the migraine into submission.
The sauerkraut stand was selling Sonoma sea salt! They said it was the only sea salt harvested in the continental US. Also stocked up on yummy TLC eggs, got salad greens and a cucumber for the remaining salads this week, watermelon radish for salads and monching, apples for Brad, and those gorgeous dark orange tangerines for both of us, and kiwifruit. Nom nom nom.
Came home and fell over for a while.
Then I was hungry so I cooked up the tilapia: a little sambal oelek and some galangal coconut sauce from a jar. Almost non-cooking. I had it over leftover quinoa. I find tilapia not nearly as interesting as catfish, because the flavor is so much milder. Oddly I usually find catfish sort of unpleasant unless it's made spicy, and it just works really well in southeast Asian food for me, so I tend to eat it with curry sauces a lot. I think if I were baking fish with a milder presentation I might like tilapia more, and it'd probably be fine in a fish chowder, though I'd rather have fish from the sea for chowder.
My thyroid numbers are good. She doesn't like natural thyroid "because it's variable" (which I don't think it is, any more than synthetic, as long as you have a trustworthy compounding pharmacist or someone reputable like the NatureThroid makers making it) but we can agree to disagree and she supports my being on it because my TSH has been REALLY GOOD for years on it now. In fact my TSH was exactly the same as last time, which is actually a little weird since I've lost ten pounds, but Armour is reputed to absorb less now, so yadda yadda yadda. Because I want to switch to the compounded, which may absorb better, she'll test me in three months and tweak the dose if need be. Getting the prescription is a little annoying as natural dessicated thyroid (the base form) is not in the computer, so I have to play phone tag. And drive to Walnut Creek, later this week. But it is better than going to Synthroid and then having to worry every time I get tired if it's the lack of T3. (I guess I could get Cytomel too.) But since she won't allow generics for the very excellent reason that they're variable from batch to batch based on which random maker is cheapest this time, that means paying money to evil, evil, Forest. So there are more hoops to jump through, but at least the end is in sight. Phew!
My doctor's appointment was right by the Fish Lady, which I've been meaning to stop by since it sounds like a fun local place. That's also right next to Sunnyside Produce, a store specializing in guess what.
I cruised through Sunnyside Produce first and I have definitely gone from yuppy to hippy: it was just surreal seeing foods like peaches flown in from Peru. Most things looked too shiny, too. While we get some globetrotting fruit at the New Leaf and Staff of Life, too, local produce is more emphasized. I'm also used to seeing place of origin prominently displayed on the signs, and missed that here, though it was on the stickers on all the fruit so you can read the fine print to find the place of origin. They also mark fruit where it's organic. Given that the farmers market was due later, I didn't buy anything, but it was an interesting stop and the quality looked good; it'd be a good place to go if I couldn't find an somewhere else and really wanted it right now. I'm trying to do that less, and eat with the seasons, but, you know, sometimes you just want a papaya.
I liked the Fish Lady a lot more; the proprietor was super nice and helpful with my wacky questions. When I asked him what the ceviche was marinated in, he volunteered the information that so many people are wheat-sensitive now that he's brining all his smoked salmon in wheat-free tamari. Woo! Given that there is a lot of interesting marinated food there, this knowledge of the ingredients is wonderful. All the vacuum sealed marinated foods in fact made me think of sous vide, which I've been reading up on lately. My major objection to it as a cooking method is that you have to bag, in plastic, every single thing you cook. I'm trying to use less plastic! But typically if I buy a cut of meat, it's going to be wrapped in... yes... plastic. So using these pre-bagged marinated meats doesn't introduce new plastic to the equation, other than the extra plastic used for bagging individual cuts rather than buying in bulk. But given that I'd wrap the excess in... guess what... plastic... and freeze it... yeah. Anyhow, it's interesting.
I didn't ask him about his garlic marinade because I was focused on the fish, and I ended up getting some of their homemade ceviche salad, made with shrimp, crab, and scallops, bacon ends (useful for the kinds of recipes that demand pork fat), a filet of tilapia, and some pomegranate soda in one of those nifty flip-top bottles (no, I shouldn't have, but I lusted after the bottle for re-use and I didn't get my RDA of pomegranates this year). We had the ceviche for lunch and I really quite liked it; it was light and tangy and even the marinade was so good that I spooned it up. They're going to start doing lunches because his wife is a great cook, and I heartily approve. And really they're super nice: someone came in wanting a sandwich while I was there, and even though they're not geared up for serving lunch yet, he amiably made him a sandwich, and when I got the bacon ends and mentioned that I felt weird always buying an individual slice of bacon he said that if I wanted only one piece out of a pack, he'd happily sell it to me and then re-seal and re-label the bag. Have vacuum sealer, will accomodate, apparently!
The smoked salmon looks faaaabulous but includes apple juice in the brine. Ah well! I love that he's making it with wheat-free tamari, though, and he might be willing to do a batch with some other juice maybe.
Most interesting item sighted: halibut cheeks! I am going to have to try those; they looked good. Also I want to get some crab before the season ends, but I need to do it at a time when I have the energy to make stock from the shells, because it feels like such a waste to toss the shells. I liked the look of the clams and mussels, too, and I've never tried cooking those.
Farmers market report: I was migraining and had left my medicine at home so we stopped at Asana and I drank at least a pot of yellow something oolong (which was delicious) and caffeinated the migraine into submission.
The sauerkraut stand was selling Sonoma sea salt! They said it was the only sea salt harvested in the continental US. Also stocked up on yummy TLC eggs, got salad greens and a cucumber for the remaining salads this week, watermelon radish for salads and monching, apples for Brad, and those gorgeous dark orange tangerines for both of us, and kiwifruit. Nom nom nom.
Came home and fell over for a while.
Then I was hungry so I cooked up the tilapia: a little sambal oelek and some galangal coconut sauce from a jar. Almost non-cooking. I had it over leftover quinoa. I find tilapia not nearly as interesting as catfish, because the flavor is so much milder. Oddly I usually find catfish sort of unpleasant unless it's made spicy, and it just works really well in southeast Asian food for me, so I tend to eat it with curry sauces a lot. I think if I were baking fish with a milder presentation I might like tilapia more, and it'd probably be fine in a fish chowder, though I'd rather have fish from the sea for chowder.