g a s t r o i n t e s t i n a l c h e c k
i used to have the glutton's guide to new haven. which was really more just me babbling about what i ate. what i liked to eat. what i wanted to eat. so i thought i'd be up front about what i really can write about. what's in my tum-tum

in the spirit of m, send me your g-i check. much love given for the least, the most, the cheapest and the most extravagant, AND those on their way to get their stomach pumped. but any and all received will be posted. this is as interactive as it gets, folks!




september 24
from charles

from memory (non-photographic) 

friday, 7:15am,  09-25-99 

soy milk (approx 16oz.) 

the stack: 200mg caffeine (vivarin) 
                25mg ephedrine (primatein mist tablets x2) 
                500mg l-tyrosine 

1 egg (chicken, boiled) 

1 tiger's milk bar (peanut butter)* ** 
*found in raincoat pocket on way out. 
**approximate age 1-5 weeks 
still tasty :) 

water 50oz (from the tap. cambridge isn't too bad) 

bannana 

1 spoonful of peanut (the all natural kind with no label) 

"the truth is out there"



me? oh dear god. how about a box of sunmaid raisins (not the golden kind unfortunately), a 99 cent bag of cheetos hot fries (what happened to andy capp? andy capp come back!), and most of a bad "peanut butter" cookie. i go in search of fruit today.



september 6
it does feel weird to eat one meal in illinois, and another in nebraska. brunch : at walker bros original pancake house (not the original, but the one in highland park), one blueberry pancake, slices of the dutch baby (i am not a cannibal) and on my plate alone, potato pancakes. dinner : combo pasta (three sauces, arranged colorwise like the italian flag, spicy marinara, alfredo, pesto. salad from the salad bar (with peas and hardboiled egg chunks, mmm). garlic bread.



i august 24
i'm fudging 29 hours into one entry. but hey, i'm tired, i'm trying to watch cyclo (ever try to type and read subtitles at the same time?), i'm going to training at 9 am. the dinners are the things.
dinner : meatloaf, roasted onions, garlic mashed potatoes all drenched in gravy. plus chicken satay (boston style....) as appetizers. breakfast : one bagel with cream cheese, one half bagel with peanut butter. lunch : pb'n'j and iced tea. dinner : ban chan (sprouts, two kinds of kimchee, and some kind of tofu thing), kalbi, kimcheejigae (with duk!), rice, a banana split with hard chocolate topping and peanuts.



august 17
i'm getting better about realizing that eating expensive food is really honestly literally money flushed down the toilet. $$$ does not equal good. still, we couldn't help second-guessing our lunch choices today when we were in rockridge and walked by some chi-chi joints while we digested our deep-fried wonton skins.
lunch : $3.95 lunch special at some chinese restaurant on college. chicken in hot garlic sauce with rice, a decent cup of hot and sour, and one of those chippie thingies dipped in "duck" sauce. dinner : at max's diner on third and folsom. KSW-Next folks completely unnecessarily and very sweetly (i'm using too many adverbs today, aren't i) bought me dinner. ernest and i discussed the truth about west coast diners (at least in SF they're madly overpriced and are missing some key dishes, like gyros and chicken parm subs). and i ate half a fat "jersey cheesesteak" hot sandwich [annie c. and i wisely shared one], fries, a bit of bad, over mayonnaised coleslaw, and a glass of pear cider.


from tj
B-fast- Grapenut cereal, toasted bagel (no toppings), and orange juice. Lunch- Kind of a blahblah Udon, with California rolls on the side. Dindin- This is where we get crazy. Damn, I don't remember the name of the dish, but it's where you get the slices of pork where you can see all the layers, right? The top layer of skin, second layer of fat, third layer of fatty flesh, 4th layer of fat, then the botton layer of less fatty flesh, which you wrap up with salted cabbage leaves and cucumbers and this tasty spice ggagdoogie sliced in long strips, and raw garlic and gochujang and this other gochujang like sauce, and that was just the appetizer! This is kind of a down home restaurant, understand. I then had sulrong tang, and my parents and little brother had haemul jungol (The dongseng also talked about the communality(is this a word) of Korean eating, and how it freaks out like "Western" (his word, not mine) folk, and my mom said it kind of freaks her out too, which surprised me. My hyung got nengmyun which I didn't quite understand because it wasn't a nengmyun house, but he enjoyed it enough.


august 3
i never can quite figure out why korean food has yet to become a trendy cuisine. i think it has something to do with true-trooper spiciness, de riguer pot/dish sharing, and the overwhelming quantity of side dishes. then again, i know that growing up with ban-chan makes me a horrible american eater. i can't deal with lack of choices at a meal. in the august 1st issue of the NYTimes mag, molly o'neill gives us a recipe for bulgogi and shi-geum-chi. (like how i romanize? tough shit if not)

lunch: they said the kitchen was closed, then they said they only had tuna, i asked for veggie, the cook said he could make it and when i unwrapped the damn thing it was a turkey sandwich. it was good, at any rate. dinner: late, at kokohouse. kimcheejigae.



july 28
grazing instincts. breakfast: peanut butter crunch clif bar, parmesan garlic potato chips (trader joe's) with mango salsa. lunch: 8 pieces california roll. 0.5 of an egg-salad sandwich (with mustard - c let me in on the secret on how to make it taste like deviled eggs). a cup of roasted tomato basil soup. mid-afternoon snack: a helluvalot of toasted onion and cheese chips (lays) dinner: veggie gyoza, rice, and spicy black bean sauce (from the jar).


july 14
in this land of cheap asian food and organic produce, i do not go hungry. s and i finally made it out to the berkeley bowl with a car and toted home some fresh fruits and vegetables. and bags and bags of granola. breakfast: one perfectly ripe mango. lunch: california rolls to go from a little chinese-owned japanese joint on the way from Montgomery Street to South Park. (the wasabi rush can be addictive.) a few handfuls of golden temple's apple granola. dinner: soybeans - straight outta the pod. miso soup. vegetable tempura udon. and popcorn with a bug's life


july 7
um. if i had done a gi check while in vegas it would have looked something like...b-fast: pillow lint. lunch: buffet. dinner: buffet. of course, like all school dining halls, lil me and my lil stomach end up subsidizing everyone else. anyhoo, brunch: jack in the box. that was a bad idea. chicken breast nuggets with buttermilk sauce. house buttermilk sauce. dinner: pretzels. scammed mixed veggies (i picked "the last disgusting thing you ate" as a get-to-know you topic for the APAture meeting and grossed out W.M. very sorry. the veggies were good though). one third of a burrito. and i wonder why my stomach feels all funkered up



may 5
way too many 'bucks' left on my student meal plan so i've been going bonkers at the student coffee shop. twixes upon rolos upon mentos upon cookies upon doritos upon many many bottles of fresh samantha. i'm kind of curious if their st. johns wort bev would actually work. b-fast: one eggo waffle lunchy-wunchy: a perfectly made ham and cheese sandwich, toasted in the toaster oven and made with chopped garlic and a dash of paprika, a handful of salsa verde doritos (i'm a dorito girl, i live in a dorito world) dinner: half a chicken parm sandwich, three slices of pizza.

honestly, i don't know what's gotten in to me. someone feed this girl some soy sauce!



april 3-4
i'm anticipating a blah dinner so i'm going to fudge a little and include yesterday's dinner with this morning's brunch.....dinner: beef sukiyaki (that was goooooood broth), california maki, spicy tuna rolls (too damn dry), yaki tori (so for some reason i was trying to be civilized and not eat the chicken straight off the skewer but all i really accomplished was startling the surrounding diners, launching pieces of chicken and onion all over our table, and generally smearing our table with sauce.) easter brunch: scavenged like a true slob from the leftovers of k's scrumptious affair. chicken salad (grapes inside! what a good idea!), ham and scallion quiche, potato salad, and apple cobbler. mmmmmmm.


april 2
'breakfast' (eaten at 3 am on ave a): pirogis, fried (should have gotten boiled - but i love pirogis anyway) and potato pancakes (kindly given to me by s who ordered too much). what can i say. i need potato products. lunch: leftover passover cake. if i gave you the gi for yesterday, i would get to write lots of things - but completely honestly, i don't think i can spell the sweet dish that resembles mortar and i'm enough of a cultural voyeur that this embarrasses me. it was yummy. there was brisket. that's all you need to know. dinner: an entire box of kraft mac-and-cheese. i've never done that before.


march 28

lunch: 1.5 donuts (dunkin), aloo saag and baigan bhartha on rice (leftovers). dinner: this is where it gets typical collegiate nasty. 1.5 brownies. doritos, 3D. doritos, nacho. doritos, salsa verde.


march 15

from tj. who needs to get some veggies into his diet. 

Ooh, this may gross you out.  Yesterday, GI check.

B-fast-bagel, cream cheese.

coffee in between.  No mints this time, the office is out.

Lunch- pretzels, two pbnj sandwiches.

This is where things get kind of weird.

Before dinner, seriously hungry- Old crackers, dusty tin of anchovies,
and wine.  No wonder my stomach hurts right now.  An empty house, this
was all I could scrounge up.

Called up friends, and had Vietnamese food for dinner.


nothing to be said from the peanut gallery, except, maybe, eeeeewwwwww. ack. that's hypocritical. thanksgiving 1995 retroactive gi check: 2 day old rice (that by itself would be sad but not disgusting), hershey's chocolate syrup (not on the rice mind you), sunflower seeds, whipped cream (could've had a mocha, except that would've been too much effort. after this fantastic repast, i lay in bed, sulking, and imagined families across america, gathering 'round tables laden with potato byproducts and slaughtered turkeys. needless to say, fall/winter 1995/96 was a baaaaaaaaaaaaad time.


march 14
problematic.
lunch: refried beans with melted monterey jack cheese, green mountain gringo salsa, and tostitos. dinner: black bean chili, with cheddar cheese; a hot dog; salsa verde doritos; hunks of sara lee original cheesecake.


february 20
this is a post-facto GI update. but in honor of lunar new year, cultural pride, and my every growing layer of winter pudge, f and i made vegetable dumplings. used up 3 packages of skins (actually ate some raw. just as yummy as raw ramen and uncooked oatmeal if you've never tried them 'au naturel' - as if ramen was ever natural). so, count me in for 2 dozen veggie dumplings/gyoza/mandu with soy sauce/vinegar/sesame oil/ginger/garlic/scallion/hot pepper sauce. mostly soy sauce but i did throw all that other stuff in.


february 4th
this was NOT a good day. nevertheless, i ate well. b-fast: two eggos (homestyle, the best, the only. if you step outside in the winter with them just toasted, you can have a special treat i call new hampshire eggos, where the outside is frozen like an eggo-sicle, but the inside is still warm. mmmm.) and peach yogurt lunch: a lot of tater tots scored off the absent roommate. (i'm sorry about the cheese too, i'll buy some more tonight! i swear!) first dinner: kashi or otherwise brown rice type thing with marinated veggies on top, rosemary bread, and the best durn salmon i've ever eaten that had been marinated in lime juice, miso, garlic, soy sauce and scallions, (all cooked by lara. who is an wonderbird. go talk to her in dagbani.) second dinner: rice with asparagus, mushroom, tofu stirfry AND most importantly, fried kimchi and spam. yes. i like spam. but its got to be cooked.


february 3rd
from the first lady of food herself, empress lee: (annie questions: what's neoguri? am i a bad asian for not knowing? and is canadian bacon really canadian?)
today i ate kimchee pancakes and neoguri which i make way too often


january 24th
a public service announcement from ben
too much cough drops (I mean lots) will drive your digestive system out of whack and you won't be able to digest anything and anything sitting between your stomach and your colon will just come on out in diarrhea form.

january 19th
today was a good day. senior yearbook pictures can be retaken sans pigtails. but in my belly rests: 1) 4.95 dollars of all you can eat thai lunch buffet. drunken noodle, pad thai, massaman chicken, chicken green curry, tom kar gai, and other more americanized things 2) 3.00 dollars of taco bell/pizza hut/TCBY. i know, i'm maintain a general anti-merger attitude but this one gets me everytime. gordita plus breadstix plus fro-yo! 3)raspberry iced tea with good conversation. s is a rock star!

january 14th
i've realized i've become something of a food snob. especially in regard to east asian foods. but going tonight to a perfectly fine american-japanese restaurant had me internally up in arms against 7.50 dollar udon and random 'inauthentic' veggie sushi. as if everything i eat is authentic and certified. anyway, since tj very kindly provided his GI check i will start actually putting stuff here. slowly.

past 24 hours: a double cheddar jalapeno bagel grudgingly bought at ABP to justify a pitstop so my ears wouldn't fall off on the way from my car to work, a very poorly made and overpriced hotchocolate (i hate it when all the chocolate syrup is at the bottom and the whipped cream thick and tasteless), miso soup, 7 veggie gyoza, 3 sweet potato sushi pieces and one shiitake piece AND three handfuls of bite-sized butterfingers and other chocolate wonders



january 12
this is gross. but its my first non-me GI and my second total. woo hoo! i got the explanation on the mints. office munchies and a gift. otherwise we'd wonder. i personally have eaten entirely too many butterfingers and bite-sized three musketeers due to office munchies. 
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 13:48:08 -0500
From: tj 
To: annie 
Subject: GI

Let's see...  This is a guess.  This is pretty gross to share, I think.
I'll start yesterday, since I've been constipated, and actually of late
have
been eating like a pig.

1.  Cinnamon-raisin bagel.  Toasted.

2.  3 or 4 Brach mints.

3.  A regular sized(as opposed to large) bowl of Pho, with raw eye of
round
steak.

4.  One jumbo onion sliced and doused in vinegar.

5.  Jasmine tea.

6.  More mints.

7.  Earl Grey Tea.

8.  Eight Orange Milano cookies (split a bag with my housemate)

9.  two more cookies, forgot the name brand.

10.  Swiss cheese on Toast sandwich.

11.  Lots of water.

Today:

12.  Mueslix in skim milk.

13.  Mints, some coffee.

14.  Just got back from New Saigon.  had some noodle dish with lots of hot
peppers, noodles, pork, shrimp, and an eggroll.

15.  Iced French Coffee.

16.  More mints.

---

Probably will have broccoli for dinner.  I need to eat some vegetables.



december 23rd, this side of the international dateline
last twenty four hours: frosted flakes (korean); leftover rice with sesame seed oil, salt n' pepper, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and geem (laver, seaweed if you will); chips, pepero, and much much cheese fondue the proper name of which rhymes w/ hey!, a potato, bread, 2 mini apple turnover-esque things, a 'russian' cookie, juice, and water.
you should really try the rice thing. i lived off this and cheese bap as a small child. no, silly, when i was even smaller than i am now.