tidbits of food and games Yesterday I had my cousins over for a Chinese comfort-food brunch. Foodwise it was exceedingly easy to throw together, since almost everything came out of a jar or just needed reheating. Apartment-wise we spent a whole day trying to clean up. On the menu: Rice porridge with various toppings -- pickled cucumbers, pork sung, some sort of tinned fish, pickled mustard greens, wheat gluten, something labelled "8 varieties spicy sauce" Homemade soymilk, with the machine I haven't used in over 2 years Steamed pork and plain buns Scallion pancakes Turnip cakes I'll be doing this again, maybe as soon as next weekend! Now onto the game -- I bought a couple board games at a funny thrift store this summer, and we finally opened one last night -- SOLARQUEST. I'd never heard of it, but M. said she used to play it as a kid. It's basically monopoly except in outer space, and that causes it to have all sorts of complications such as keeping track of how much fuel you have left in your tank. It was rather difficult to figure out, but now that I have 60% of the rules down, I want to play it again! The outside of the box is tattered but everything inside is pristine -- not a single crinkled bill or deed. I guess the kids that got this couldn't figure out the instructions either.. The other game I got is "13 Dead End Drive" which has yet to be opened. Oh, the other cool thing about this thrift store was that they noted on the outside of the box whether the games were complete, or if they were missing any pieces!