Asian snacks -- Pucca

These snacks disappeared pretty fast so I thought I would write about them before I forget. Pucca are salted pretzel shells that are shaped like fish (and possible octopi and jellyfish?) and filled with creamy white chocolate. I am normally not a fan of white chocolate (I prefer dark chocolate), but it was very delicious in these cookies. The salty pretzel component matched perfectly and balanced the sweet white chocolate within. I will definitely get these snacks again -- maybe in another flavor!

Shelfari widget

I was playing around with my blog a little while ago and found a cool thing called a "widget" that I have added to the bottom right side of my blog page under all the profile info and blog archive stuff.

This Shelfari widget is a little virtual bookshelf that displays the books that I am currently reading or have recently read. Really cool -- it even displays the covers of the books and everything!

Asian snacks -- Men's Pocky

Despite the inexplicable name, these Pocky are my favorites of the brand -- these are thin biscuit stick cookies covered in dark, almost bitter chocolate. Men's Pocky make a tasty, quick snack and have the perfect ratio of chocolate to cookie. The only thing I don't like about them is that they disappear too fast!

Baby mouse

While in La Selva over spring break, I was out in the field with my friend Danielle collecting my old fruit-fall traps. While cleaning out and dismantling one of my traps, I saw some movement in the leaf litter. My default when I see things moving on the forest floor is "snake!", but upon closer inspection, I found a lost little baby mouse. It was very recently born -- it hadn't even opened it's eyes yet! It was pouring rain and this little guy was getting soaked and pummeled by huge rain drops, so I picked him up for a better look. Danielle took some photos, but I still cannot identify him -- he is so little. After some photos, I placed him in a nearby hole which I think was his mother's burrow so that she could hopefully find him.

Asian snacks -- Gyoza

On Thursday (my usual morning to run errands before going to campus/home to work/write) I visited the Asian market to stock up on snacks and food items (e.g. curry, sauces, noodles, nori). So...now I have a few more Asian snacks that I can talk about!

I bought some frozen gyoza (little potsticker dumplings) and gyoza sauce at the market and this turned into our dinner that night (with some sticky rice). These gyoza are filled with shrimp and vegetables and are delicious. This is a very easy, inexpensive meal -- you just have to pan-fry the frozen gyoza until they are brown and crispy on one side, then add some water, cover, and cook until the water evaporates! Carlos and I really like these with the gyoza sauce -- it tastes like soy sauce with some citrus and spicy notes. These are so good!

Hot banana pepper

This morning, Carlos harvested the first full-grown pepper from our window garden! It was approximately 12 cm long and pale yellow. I don't like hot peppers so I won't be eating it, but Carlos is going to chop it up and prepare it as a fajita topping soon. Right now, the little pepper is sitting in the refrigerator, waiting for fajita night. It is nice to have a productive garden! Hopefully, we will have lots of tomatoes soon too -- if we can rid them of the fungus blight that is currently infecting them...boo.

Asian snacks -- Tree stumps

It's been a while since I've talked about Asian snacks, but I found some old pictures that I took during Christmas break so I thought I would write about this snack: Chocolate tree stumps! I bought these as part of my sister's Christmas present and after she opened them I got to try a couple -- they are really good. Basically, these are little graham-like cookies shaped like stumps with chocolate covering the base -- a really good combination and the cookies are super-cute! I should try these again and take a picture of the actual cookies this time.

Total Recall

I was just watching Total Recall (1990 sci-fi film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) with my friend Ana. While watching, I commented that some of the subway scenes really reminded me of the metro in Mexico City, which I visited about 3 years ago. Ana is from Mexico and she pointed out a neon sign in one of the scenes displaying a uniquely-Mexican brand of soda...then Ana started to remember that a famous movie was shot in Mexico City back in the day so we did a little internet searching. I found that almost all of Total Recall was filmed in Mexico City! This was to take advantage of the futuristic, harsh concrete and metal architecture that abounds in the city (a style called Brutalism). This was so amazing! After digging a little more, I found that some scenes were filmed in the metro itself (Insurgentes station on Line 1 and Chubacano station to be exact). I rode THAT VERY SUBWAY LINE and passed through the Insurgentes station!!! This was really exciting and had I known this while I was in Mexico, I most definitely would have taken tons of pictures -- I love visiting movie sites and I love movie trivia, especially for my favorite movies!

Flowering Tabebuias

The Tabebuia trees (Tabebuia chrysantha) around campus were in flower a couple of weeks ago. These trees are in the family Bignoniaceae and are quite striking and beautiful when they flower. Since they are deciduous, Tabebuias drop their leaves and at this time of year, display a crown of bright yellow flowers. Right now, these trees are dropping all their flowers on the ground, making for an equally-pretty ground cover! There is another species of Tabebuia on campus (T. rosea) that produces pink flowers -- these trees are really gorgeous.

Zoo Sunday

Yesterday, Carlos and I visited the Miami Metro Zoo again -- it is great to be members of the South Florida Zoological Association. This time, we visited the portion of the zoo that houses the Asian animals. My favorite exhibits of this trip were the Rivers of Asia (where we saw a clouded leopard, Asian small-clawed otters, and a muntjac) and the giant Wings of Asia aviary. There are so many different and beautiful species of birds within the aviary: doves, pigeons, pheasants, hornbills, mynahs, bowerbirds, cranes, and tons more walking on the ground, building nests, sleeping on railings, eating out of dishes, and swimming in a waterfall pool. I could have spent a couple of hours there trying to see every bird! Here are a few pictures from yesterday:
Baby moorhens at the edge of a pool

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) playing with a sprinkler!

Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) frolicking in their pool

Muntjac (Muntiacus sp.) resting

Wings of Asia aviary

Mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata)

Iridescent blue fish swimming throughout the aviary pond

Dove and friend

Cranes?

Carlos' new friend -- this little guy was not shy and was so interested in Carlos!

The zoo was great, but the sun gets so hot that it is hard to enjoy by the time the afternoon rolls around. I want to go back and spend more time in the aviary and visit the Amazon exhibits again!

Miracle fruit

A couple of weeks ago, the miracle fruit bush in the arboretum was fruiting so I picked a couple of berries to taste. Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a Sapotaceae native to West Africa and is very unique in that after eating a berry, all sour things taste super-sweet! I have tried miracle fruits before at the local Fruit and Spice Park down in Homestead and the effect is pretty amazing.

You chew on the fruit's pulp, letting it sit in your mouth for a bit before swallowing it, spit out the large seed, and start eating sour stuff. After eating this miracle fruit, I ate an unripe kumquat and it tasted sugary-sweet! People aren't exactly sure what the mechanism is behind this phenomenon, but it is generally thought that the protein miraculin (found in the fleshy part of the fruit) binds to certain taste buds and somehow this causes us to perceive sour as sweet -- it's pretty miraculous!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone. I am planning on taking a little break today -- playing some Wii (I just beat The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess this morning), paint some eggs, read, and hopefully eat some food (I've had food poisoning for the past 3 days)! I am going for a little walk now, but I will be back soon to relax. I hope everyone out there enjoys their day!

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

This past weekend I joined Carlos and the rest of his lab (known as the "Zebra Lab" named after the large stuffed zebra that greets you at the front door) for a trip to western Florida. We (there were 9 of us total) packed into two cars, loaded tents and assorted camping gear, and drove to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for the annual Plant Biologists of South Florida Meeting.

On our way, we stopped for a cultural experience at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Reservation of the Seminole Indian Nation. I really liked this museum that housed artifacts and exhibits depicting the lifestyles, traditions, and livelihoods of the Seminole tribe through history. The museum also had a nice boardwalk through a cypress swamp replete with indigenous Everglades flora and fauna.

After our museum tour, we stopped at the Swamp Water Cafe for lunch and to look at the variety of native (and some exotic) animals on display. The highlight of this place is the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). This is a critically endangered subspecies of puma that only occupies the Big Cypress region of South Florida and there are only about 80 - 100 individuals estimated left in the wild.

Continuing on to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, we arrived before dark and toured around the extensive boardwalk system, admiring alligators, birds, and tons of cypress trees. This was a really beautiful nature preserve!

We spent the following day attending the PBSF meeting and learning about the local botany research conducted throughout Florida (and beyond). The meeting was rather small, but full of information -- everyone in the Zebra lab gave great presentations as usual and late in the afternoon we packed up our gear and drove back to UM.

Overall, this was a fun (and educational!) weekend trip where I saw TONS of animals and my first ever Painted Bunting (a really colorful bird related to cardinals). I had a nice trip and got to see a part of Florida that I had never visited!