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I've decided to make February the month during which I celebrate my love for food.

I know I've mentioned it before, but you've gotta check out the Samurai Delicatessen.

Looking at that site makes me feel better about life. This is why we at the Prickly want to share it with you.

Party!

Okay people.

No one else seems to be stepping up, so I'm having a Chinese New Year party. Aw, yeah! You're all invited.

But what to make? I'm not sure I can create a menu that everyone will enjoy. Don't want to go too authentic, as the masses won't be able to handle that (nian gao? Classic and easy to make, but not popular).

Here's my menu. Let me know if you think there's anything I should add or subtract:

Dishes:

• Potstickers, pork and vegetarian, with my own homemade special sauce.
• Egg rolls or spring rolls. I don't think I'll have time to make these in mass quantity, so I'll have to visit Sam's or Costco I guess. So much for food snobbery.
• Shu mai, probably shrimp. Classic dim sum fare, and I want to use my steamer.
• Lettuce wraps. This actually is a traditional snack, please don't give P.F. Chang's any credit for it! (p= poser, f= fake)

Small snacks:

• Wasabi peas. Eeee hee hee hee!
• Japanese rice snack mix.
• Wait, why are all my snacks Japanese?! Fine. Let's add some Taiwanese sausage with garlic on a table water cracker or toast points or some other carb vector.
• Veggie tray. Eh? Just in case. I'll make a Thai (Thailand, not Taiwan) style peanut butter & soy based sauce for dipping, along with the traditional ranch dressing.
• Kim chee. Maybe.
• Shrimp chips. For some color. Maybe.

Beverages:

• Soda. Duh. Maybe some Apple Sidra, if my guests prove they deserve to try it.
• Wine, one red, one white, just 'cause.
• Beer. Kirin and Tsingtao, and some ghetto Taiwan Beer if I can find it. Ha! And some Blue Moon of course, and maybe something more mainstream, but I don't know what.
• Tea. I have no idea how I'm going to serve it to people though. Making a big pot of it and pouring it into styrofoam seems so wrong.

So what do you think? Should I fry up some rice? Should I make noodles (a CNY food representing long life)? Or fish? Or black-eyed peas? I think I'm already too ambitious as it is. I don't knoooooow!

Al dente

Hmm.

So I got some pasta from a restaurant the other day, and though the flavor was good, the pasta was soft. Really soft. Soft enough that I didn't enjoy the dish.

This led me to consider the idea that I am spoiled. I am, I suppose. I cook pasta quite often, and it's always al dente. It's also always the same brand. And the parmesean (or romano) cheese I put on top is never powdered; it's grated. I don't eat the powdered stuff out of the slender green can, or from the shaker on the table. Not that I look down on it; I just don't eat it.

And sushi? It's so popular right now, and so many of my coworkers want to go out for it all the time. I daren't tell them that some of the places we go make dishes that seem rather mediocre to me, despite their trendy and mod ambience. Don't get me wrong, I adore sushi; I've just had so many lacklustre pieces lately. (Compared to what? I guess the sushi I had in Japan and Taiwan. Not a fair comparison.)

As I careen into maturity, am I becoming a snob? (Or, as I get long in the tooth, am I a snob for "firm to the tooth"?) Does this make me high-maintenance, and therefore difficult to be around or spend time with/go out to eat with? After all, when I look back on my life and the friends I've had, the friends I've been closest to have been the friends with whom I share meals. The last thing I need to do is become more fussy about my food.