Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Cream cheese? No - something much better. This story starts last Christmas Eve, when my pseudo-step-brother-in-law Anthony brought some mysterious Lebanese "garlic sauce" to contribute to the fondue feast. It was the consistency of cream cheese but it had so much garlic that it kind of hurt to eat it, creating this pleasantly warm burn as it went down. I loved it. We devoured the stuff and garlic emanated from our pores for about 3 days afterwards.  A few days ago, I got a craving for this stuff. Since it came from a Lebanese deli in Portland, I was left googling recipes. I'd had a suspicion that the "sauce" was yogurt cheese, and sure enough, I found some recipes for Garlic Labneh (yogurt cheese) that fit the description.  There are many fancy variations on this recipe on the internet. I decided to start simple: mix lots of grated garlic and a little bit of salt into some yogurt, strain it overnight, and eat. It was so good that I don't see a...

And a few with seaweed salad, too. Sushi is one of my favorite vehicles for good ingredients. I try to stay open-minded when shopping for sushi fillings, so I can buy whatever looks best that day. I usually pick some kind of seafood, usually either avocado or mango, and usually green onion. Sometimes there's a special bonus to go on top, like kiwi or fish eggs. Recently, while scouring sushi fillings at Market of Choice, the guy at the fish counter convinced me to try the hot-smoked Steelhead. This was a revelation. It tasted a lot like your every delicious hot-smoked salmon, but it was less salty and had more salmon flavor. It's going to be hard to stay open-minded when shopping in the future; I'm going to be heartbroken if they're out of this stuff. This may look like a big charred tongue, but I assure you it's pure gold. I sliced this up with some green onions and avocado. I also got some Seaweed Salad from Fisherman's Market... it's the ...