Doctor Who and the Tesco Spinoff
Fish fingers and custard, fish fingers and custard! It was all I could think about today. Never has a fandom had such an influence on my life. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. X-Files had me eating sunflower seeds (with the shells on- I de-shelled them myself and made a big pile) and trying to stick pencils in the ceiling. When I saw The 11th Doctor chowing down on fish fingers and custard, I knew it would become the new Doctor Who food, the way bananas and satsumas were for 9 and 10.
We have a new market popping up all over L.A. - Fresh and Easy. They're a subsidiary of Tesco, the major supermarket chain in the UK. I've checked it out a few times so far and it's a charming little place. The prices are decent and it doesn't feel overwhelming the way a Ralphs or Vons does. You can't possibly try everything in those supermarkets, but for some reason, I feel like at Fresh & Easy that I could, or that I even want to. It's a little like Trader Joe's in some ways, with their fresh prepared foods and tasting section. The best part are the British food items placed right beside the ones we're familiar with in the U.S. It's like finding hidden treasure right out in the open (if you're an Anglophile like me). I've heard Marmite is foul, but I still like seeing it on the shelf. They even have the dessert with the most hilarious name- Spotted Dick! Today I made a special trip over to get some custard and fish sticks ("fingers" in the UK). I don't think they really sell custard in a can in regular U.S. grocery stores.
I bought the Ambrosia Devon Custard and the Fresh and Easy brand fish sticks. Off the bat, I have to to say I liked their fish sticks a LOT more than Trader Joe's. They're meatier and there's just more to them. I know I've had custard at some other point in my life because it tasted really familiar. Maybe in pie. It's pretty much pudding, really. Dipping the fish sticks in the custard was hilarious fun. The combination didn't taste very unusual. The fish didn't take on the flavor of the custard, and the custard didn't take on the flavor of the fish. That was the amazing thing. It was like the two different items were keeping their distance so that even while eating them at once, there were still two distinct flavors. I ate all the fish sticks that I cooked (I am well satisfied) and have some custard left over for tomorrow. I'm gonna have it for dinner again tomorrow night! Because I can!
Three other Who-related things that happened today:
-I'm pretty sure there was a guy on the Metro this morning with a Dalek shirt. Didn't get a chance to look real hard because I didn't want to look like a creepy stalker.
-There was a guy on the Metro on the way home who had a haircut and a walk/stance like Owen Harper.
-The license plate of an SUV in the Fresh and Easy parking lot said "Drum".
So besides all that, I'm supposed to get braces on my upper teeth tomorrow morning. I think Dr. Dougherty may be making a splint for my bottom jaw to replace the one I wear on top. He doesn't want to impede the movement of my upper teeth from the braces. The upper teeth look pretty straight already, but we're just moving them into position for the surgery. With every step I take in this, I feel the need more and more to start that jaw blog I keep talking about. I'm going to have to figure out a way to balance all my social networking outlets. I am exceedingly unfocused.
Very tired now, but I'll go watch the most recent Desperate Housewives with John Barrowman in it and then go to sleep.
We have a new market popping up all over L.A. - Fresh and Easy. They're a subsidiary of Tesco, the major supermarket chain in the UK. I've checked it out a few times so far and it's a charming little place. The prices are decent and it doesn't feel overwhelming the way a Ralphs or Vons does. You can't possibly try everything in those supermarkets, but for some reason, I feel like at Fresh & Easy that I could, or that I even want to. It's a little like Trader Joe's in some ways, with their fresh prepared foods and tasting section. The best part are the British food items placed right beside the ones we're familiar with in the U.S. It's like finding hidden treasure right out in the open (if you're an Anglophile like me). I've heard Marmite is foul, but I still like seeing it on the shelf. They even have the dessert with the most hilarious name- Spotted Dick! Today I made a special trip over to get some custard and fish sticks ("fingers" in the UK). I don't think they really sell custard in a can in regular U.S. grocery stores.
I bought the Ambrosia Devon Custard and the Fresh and Easy brand fish sticks. Off the bat, I have to to say I liked their fish sticks a LOT more than Trader Joe's. They're meatier and there's just more to them. I know I've had custard at some other point in my life because it tasted really familiar. Maybe in pie. It's pretty much pudding, really. Dipping the fish sticks in the custard was hilarious fun. The combination didn't taste very unusual. The fish didn't take on the flavor of the custard, and the custard didn't take on the flavor of the fish. That was the amazing thing. It was like the two different items were keeping their distance so that even while eating them at once, there were still two distinct flavors. I ate all the fish sticks that I cooked (I am well satisfied) and have some custard left over for tomorrow. I'm gonna have it for dinner again tomorrow night! Because I can!
Three other Who-related things that happened today:
-I'm pretty sure there was a guy on the Metro this morning with a Dalek shirt. Didn't get a chance to look real hard because I didn't want to look like a creepy stalker.
-There was a guy on the Metro on the way home who had a haircut and a walk/stance like Owen Harper.
-The license plate of an SUV in the Fresh and Easy parking lot said "Drum".
So besides all that, I'm supposed to get braces on my upper teeth tomorrow morning. I think Dr. Dougherty may be making a splint for my bottom jaw to replace the one I wear on top. He doesn't want to impede the movement of my upper teeth from the braces. The upper teeth look pretty straight already, but we're just moving them into position for the surgery. With every step I take in this, I feel the need more and more to start that jaw blog I keep talking about. I'm going to have to figure out a way to balance all my social networking outlets. I am exceedingly unfocused.
Very tired now, but I'll go watch the most recent Desperate Housewives with John Barrowman in it and then go to sleep.