short takes

[cellio]

I broke in the new grill tonight. I think I will like this gadget quite a bit. Tonight I made tuna steaks; I had previously had no success with tuna in that form, but this came out ok. I overcooked it by a minute or so; next time I'll know that.

This morning I had lox at breakfast (at ToL), and then the last of the fish stew for lunch, and then this tuna for dinner. One thing is evident from entering this into the what-exactly-do-I-eat tracker: you can't beat fish for protein per calorie, let alone protein per gram of fat. Wow. I wonder if there is such a thing as eating too much fish; I currently eat it several times a week, because I like the taste and I like the fact that it's not meat, halachically speaking. I rarely have it more than once in one day, though; that was me not paying enough attention. (Though, to be fair, the lunch decision was made before I got to ToL and found out we were having lox.)

Unpacking continues in the new office. This setup works much better than the old one. And I now have optimal lighting, which I never quite managed before. Now if I could just convince the cats that the keyboard isn't any more permissible now than it was before, I'd be set.

For new year's eve we went to two parties, both of which were smaller than I expected. We had fun, even though we managed to miss seeing some friends because they were at different parties (or not doing parties).

On new year's day we went to the traditional brunch and day-long party at Johan and Arianna's. Johan is a good cook, and the party was fun. We left earlier than we usually do, before 8pm. There was less gaming than there usually is.

Tomorrow night I am leading services at Tree of Life.

I see that one of my coworkers has found me on LJ, and that he has also found a few others I didn't know were on LJ. Hi anukul. When are you going to post something?

Comments

"Sole" sourcing your protein

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

I was just reading about a recent study suggesting that you get the majority if the special benefits from fish (omega-3 oils, that sort of thing) from one serving per month, and more is overkill in that respect. But nothing that I know of that suggests there's anything wrong with fish being your primary or only animal protein source. I believe that's generally cited as one of the particular strengths of a traditional Japanese diet, for example.

I can look up the reference, if you're curious, although it was a laymen's news story - and even in that context the study sounded way too preliminary for anything except an interesting avenue of continued research until it gets more independent confirmation.

Re: "Sole" sourcing your protein

[cellio]

Thanks for the information. The once-a-month statistic surprises me; I somehow assumed (based on no real data) that for nutritional reasons you should eat fish about once a week. I'm suprised there are nutrients that are important enough to rate that only require attention once a month. (No need to fish out the article, though, given your description. It sounds like it doesn't get much more detailed.)

[eub.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with fish every day AFAIK, but tuna steak in particular every day might carry more mercury than you want.

[cellio]

I think I have tuna steak about once every 2-3 months (until now it's been a restaurant-only experience), and canned tuna once or twice a month. So I should be ok on the mercury front.

[chite.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was about what I was going to say. And since I suppose you don't eat shellfish, you don't have to worry about that issue either.

[cellio]

Yup, you're right about the shellfish.

Most of the fish I eat is salmon or white fish (orange roughy, cod, flounder, that sort of thing). Tuna is less frequent, and other fishes are rarer still. (I had sea bass for the first time not long ago and it was good, but I wouldn't know how to cook it. I don't much care for trout. Catfish turns out not to be kosher. I think that covers pretty much all the fish types likely to appear in a generic American supermarket.)

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten it until eub's comment about waste mercury getting into some species reminded me, but on a somewhat related note, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp), an amazingly-thorough (but sometimes a bit slow) website with information on species that are being overfished or who's collection otherwise presents environmental issues.

[cellio]

Thanks! This will be useful.

Fish

[lefkowitzga.livejournal.com]

In addition to the omega-3, which is an important part of nutritional requirements, fish has the best ratio of protein to fat of any 'meat' (OK, I know it isn't meat. You get what I mean.) The benefits of eating fish several times a week is that it usually replaces red meats that have more fat and cholesterol per serving.