Adventures in new food: Ñame blanco

I was picking up a few last ingredients for the Snapper Veracruzana that fennel and I were making last night, including a starch to complete the meal (why do I have this idea in my head that when I'm Making Dinner I must make a protein, a veggie and a starch? This is silly) and when there were no organic potatoes (how can they not have organic potatoes??), I wandered to the area in the tubers section with the strange and unusual items. There were several I'd never heard of, including ñame blanco, which was described as being like a potato but with a nutty flavor. Sounds good! So I got a small one (probably 3 pounds) and off we went.

Now, it looked like your basic tuber, and we looked it up online for ideas about what to do with it, and in the end, we figured boiling it in preparation for mashing with butter, salt and pepper was a safe route. The texture was "brighter" than potatoes -- somewhat crisper -- but once cut, it developed an oozy slime. Fortunately, boiling took care of that. When mashing, it was almost powdery until we added butter.

As far as eating it goes, it was disappointing: the texture was a bit grainy, and the flavor was unremarkable: starchy and very slighty sweet. Whoever described it as nutty was far from the mark. It wasn't awful, but I won't bother to seek it out again.

(no subject)

One of the problems with working from home is that sometimes the neighbors have big construction vehicles making lots and lots and lots of noise outside my window. Some days, I can tune this out. Today, for whatever reason, not so much.

Roberto Juarroz: El Silencio Que Queda Entre Dos Palabras

El Silencio Que Queda Entre Dos Palabras por Roberto Juarroz

El silencio que queda entre dos palabras
no es el mismo silencio que envuelve una cabeza cuando cae,
ni tampoco el que estampa la presencia del árbol
cuando se apaga el incendio vespertino del viento.

Así como cada voz tiene un timbre y una altura,
cada silencio tiene un registro y una profundidad.
El silencio de un hombre es distinto del silencio de otro
y no es lo mismo callar un nombre que callar otro nombre.

Existe un alfabeto del silencio,
pero no nos han enseñado a deletrearlo.
Sin embargo, la lectura del silencio es la única durable,
tal vez más que el lector.

[Note: I'll translate this later and put it behind a cut unless someone wants to take a stab at it before I get to it.]

(no subject)

I've spent too much of today reading about people who really seem to think that women just aren't as smart or capable as men or who swear they think women are just as smart but behave in ways that show they don't. This is doing little for my overall level of cheer.