Ube Halya

We had quite an adventure trying to make Ube Halya.
First, we grated purple yams.














Then we boiled them until tender.
Next we boiled the purple yam, coconut milk, evaporated milk, sugar and 2 tablespoons of butter.














It was soupy and boiled out everywhere making a mess. You have to stir it constantly for 30 minutes.














It ended up pudding-like. Didn't taste too bad. Strong coconut flavor to it. If I had to make it again I wouldn't use much coconut milk.














I have a whole pot of it and we hope to bake it into a cake soon!

Share

The Yams

Ariel & I discovered that a mysterious purple yam exists that is SUPER sweet so we set out to find one! (Along the way, we were also looking for a specific tomato and plum jelly)
We went the Farmer's Market and searched around. Found an heirloom tomato which I was told is sweet. Haven't tried it yet.
While searching for a really sweet jelly, we talked to a gentleman who made Muscadine & Peach Cider Slushies. "I'd never like that!" I thought to myself, but he wanted to give us a sample, so I tried the Muscadine first so as not to be rude. It was sweet & tart, but not too bad. Then he wanted us to try the Peach one and I just knew I wouldn't like it. But I was wrong. It was sweeter with just a little tartness. I ended up buying a cup of the slushie and the cider itself as well as some plum jelly. I left with a huge smile on my face! I couldn't believe I liked anything with real fruit in it!
In our search for purple yams, we went to the...wait for it... Purple Yam Cafe, a Filipino cafe. We were hoping they would have purple yam cake we had read about. They said they had purple yam rice and purple yam ice cream. We got both.
Purple Yam Rice is interesting. The rice part threw me off. I wasn't used to eating flavors in my rice, but it didn't taste bad. I let Ariel eat the rest; she loved it.
Purple Yam Ice Cream is amazing! Loved it. It was so sweet it tasted like cotton candy ice cream.
They were all out of their cake, but we'll be going back next Wednesday when they said they'd get a new shipment.
We went to the asian market and were surprised to see fresh purple yams there. We snatched some up as well as some Purple Yam "potato" chips. (The chips are very hard and taste like candy. I didn't like the texture, Ariel liked the chips.)
We got a Jewel Yam from The FreshMarket because that's the next sweetest yam, to my knowledge.



The Purple Yam is the long, tan one on the left.
The Jewel Yam is the smaller purply one on the right.






I baked both the Purple & Jewel yam in the oven like a regular potato.


The Jewel yam is bright orange and the Purple Yam is obviously a dark purple.








The jewel yam reminded me more of a regular potato. It was sweet, but still had a strong potatoy flavor. I liked it.
The purple yam was so sweet it was like candy and masked the potato flavor. If you can see in the picture, it was kind of stringy as well. I decided I preferred the jewel yam instead.

Share

The Cornucopia

Today I had a ton of different kinds of foods at Lauren's house.
Steamed cauliflower is potatoy/starchy, but bland.
Mashed cauliflower however is not so good. I thought it would be like mashed potatoes, but it's still got little chunks in it and it has that vegetable taste to it. NOT yummy at all.
Sugar Snap Pea - slight vegetable taste, sweet, crisp/crunchy. Something I could possibly tolerate
Cherry Tomato - acidic/bitter, sweetish. Not something I like
Baked Apple (w/ sugar and cinnamon) - sour & sweet at the same time. Not good
Red Bell Pepper - overpowering vegetable bitterness, very slight sweetness. Not good
Strawberry - sour, slight sweet. Too sour for me
Elephant's Heart Plum - chewy, watery, sweet & tart. Pretty good
Yoplait Light Cinnamon Roll Flavored & Red Velvet Flavored Yogurt - strong sweetness & strong bitterness at the same time. Will give it a couple more chances before making a decision.

I really want to like yogurt, so I'm hoping that by trying it over and over I can train my taste buds to like it. Not sure if that's possible, but we'll see. I really want to like salads as well, which is why I want to like tomatoes so much, but I can't get past the acidic taste. It's unpleasant.

Share

Pluots & Saffron

I never really liked any fruits because they are all so sour to me and I hate sour. The only fruit I could stand was watermelon and I didn't care for the texture.
Today I tried a Pluot, a natural hybrid between a plum and apricot exhibiting more characteristics of a plum than an apricot (as opposed to an Aprium). It was sweet, juicy/watery, mushy, slimy and had a gel/gummy texture. In short, it tasted good. The texture will take a little getting used to, but I actually found something I like!
The variety I tried is called a Dapple Dandy Pluot. There are apparently many different kinds.
Ariel recommended Saffron Rice since I like white rice. She gave me a packet of some with the rice and saffron already mixed together, Mahatma Saffron Yellow Rice. The bright yellow color of the rice threw me off. The taste of it was unpleasant and hot. Turns out it had onion and garlic in it and I think that might have been the problem. All in all, I didn't like it.
But I found something that I could possibly learn to like, the pluot and that gives me some hope!

Share

The Beginning

All my life I have eaten potatoes for almost every meal. I like them mashed, baked and fried. I like a few other things, but potatoes are the main course for every meal. Why? I don't know. I've just always been like this. It's Adult Picky Eating Disorder. I never wanted to try new things...until now.
Tired of being limited and feeling like a 'freak show' I decided to finally tear down some walls, step out of my comfort zone and explore the world of food.
Regular doctors and nutritionists had failed me, so, being desperate, I called a hypnotist. My first appointment was August 2010 and even she was baffled by my problem, but she thought hypnotism could help me. As of today, I've had one hypnotism session and will have another on August 30.
With the help of two friends, Lauren & Ariel, I have been slowly exploring the world of food.
I was sitting at Lauren's kitchen table one evening glancing through a book on natural health remedies when I came upon a list of foods. Next to each one, the taste, appearance and texture was described. I went through the entire section and made a list of what I thought I might like. The next day, we went to Fresh Market and picked out things. I started keeping a Food Diary to write down my thoughts on everything I tried. This blog is my extension of the food diary. I want to chronicle my experience with a picky eating disorder that has not been studied enough to find a treatment for. I hope to one day be able to eat a variety of foods and help others with this same problem.

I was featured in an article in a newspaper that gives an explanation of my food issue & problems it causes. You can read it here.

Share