The Wordsmith's Forge

We have a friend visiting from out of town, so we went out today. The weather was sunny and mild, a beautiful fall day.


First we stopped at McHugh's for lunch. I got a hot dog; they do pretty decent ones there.

Then we went out to the lake. The trees had nice color, although some had already dropped their leaves. The park there has lots of red oaks and white oaks, some maples, then miscellaneous other trees like sycamores and willows. We took the shore trail partway around. We saw several turkey vultures overhead, a couple of bluejays flying away, a flock of geese, and a goldfinch that landed in the pollinator garden to peck at the seedheads. We got a good view of the lake and trees. It was a really nice hike. I took pictures, so hopefully those will turn out.

We had planned to get supper locally, but then my partner Doug remembered that Sepelas has a new Sunday buffet. So we decided to go up to Urbana for that.

On the way up, we stopped for a snack and picked up a mint chocolate Kit-Kat bar. Since we're aiming for low-carb things at present, it occurred to me that a low-carb version of mint chocolate could be done either as mole sauce or with extracts, because it's the milk and sugar of chocolate candy that make it high-carb. I figure that dark chocolate mint mole would go great with lamb.

To help kill time before supper, we also drove around Urbana a bit. We pulled into a nice little park, Ambucs Park. There's a road that goes partway through it, ending in a turnaround with an evergreen grove. Most of the trees are oaks and maples of varying ages. I was intrigued to spot an unmowed strip of grass, which seems to be a wetter part of the park. There were sycamores by it in a few places. I suspect there's a drainpipe under the main road that lets into the park, and the low end may be a marsh or small pond, but it's hard to see the ends through all the plants.

We also drove around some of the more picturesque neighborhoods. Champaign-Urbana has beautiful architecture, and it's especially pretty when the leaves are turning. There's the one street that's old brick, divided around a median park, with gorgeous houses -- a little bohemian nook tucked away in the trees, like it was just transplanted there. We saw a Little Free Plant Stand and a Little Free Library. <3

Finally we went to the restaurant. The Sepelas buffet was set up with a row of big double buffet dishes on a table. Offerings included grilled chicken, egusi, grilled fish, pondu (cassava leaf soup), peanut chicken, bean soup, red rice, fried plantains, and fufu. I tried most of that. The grilled chicken was my favorite, flavorful without being spicy. The egusi was spicier than I should really eat, but had an interesting flavor. The grilled fish was very fishy-flavored, but not overwhelming when mixed with other things; well worth trying if you love fish. The cassava leaf was very much a "dark leafy greens" dish, with a pronounced bitter note. I wasn't greatly fond of the flavor but my body immediately went MORRRE so I figure it's high in nutrients. It worked okay mixed with other things. I'm noticing a pattern in African greens where they have these very dark bitter flavors, and it makes me wonder if Africans find soul food bland, because it substitutes other greens (spinach, kale, turnip greens, etc.) for the African ones that weren't available here until recently. Also the African food pyramid is the only one I've seen with a whole base layer of dark leafy greens. I suspect that, like the moringa, cassava leaf would work very well in pork'n'beans. The bean soup seemed to use white or light brown beans in a tomato base, so that was nice. The red rice also used a tomato base and was very generous with the mix-ins, having large strips of onion and peppers. The fried plantains and fufu were familiar from previous visits. We were also offered a hot sauce that seemed to consist largely of pureed Scotch bonnet peppers.

I got to thinking about fufu, which is a soft edible dough -- it's cooked, but retains that texture, and it's very malleable. Normally you pinch off bits to use for picking up other food. It occurred to me that you could roll or pat it out thin and flat, spread a filling on top, then roll it up like a jelly roll and have a portable version. I may try that with leftovers sometime. I think we all overate this time, the food was so good. It's really teleporter food. A week later you're hungry again.

It's been a wonderful day.