Sunday, January 13, 2008

mi mexico

the meeting with the recruiter went fine. i'm still learning job titles here--what they translate to in american speak. i've emailed a couple more people, so i'm hoping some jobs/interviews present themselves soon.

we went flat hunting in london yesterday. yikes. funny how amazing a place can look in photos online, and then turn out to be a total dump when you walk in the door. we saw one place that was 1/2 fantastic--big lounge, bright, lots of windows in the front, but then the back half was dark, smelled of cat pee, and was really cramped. so we're still looking. places here often come furnished, which is great for student living but horrible for us. landlords can be rather inflexible on options of removing everything. one guy we called suggested that, if we liked the flat and didn't want the furniture, we should rent out a storage space for his furniture. hmm, no.

i really miss mexican food, and had a big craving for tacos last week. i have a great recipe from cooks illustrated, but the chili powder concoctions here aren't quite the same. i'm used to finding chili powders that are solely made of chilis, and i didn't check the contents before dumping a couple tablespoons in the sauce. we soon smelled that british chili powders are mostly cumin, corriander, garlic salt, etc. i already added those ingredients. our taco (fake) meat tasted fine, but smelled like an indian curry. was odd. i need to find some plain chili powder.

4 comments:

Cate said...

Even though your christmas gift was a few weeks late, it sounds like it arrived just in time!

Unknown said...

That's too bad...one thing i've used as a replacement before is plain cayenne pepper. I think most chili powders here use that as a base.

Unknown said...

Oh I should add...a little goes a long way with that route. A very long way.

Betty said...

in the chili recipe tonight, i used extra cayenne because, surprise! england doesn't sell crushed red pepper flakes--at least not at the store near me. you're right, it does go a long way. but a tasty long way, especially with sour cream and cheddar cheese... mmm.