Position Paper Blues and The Great Ethnic Food Quest

Greetings, readers! It's been a little while since I last updated, so I know you're all just dying to find out what I've been up to all this time...right?

Guy Fawkes mask...why so creepy?

Well, as it turns out, not too much, at least in the last few days. I had my first real piece of writing due this morning, so I basically spent Friday and Saturday in the Bod with my books and Sunday click-clicking away on my laptop to the tune of history and the commons in Richard II.  It was Guy Fawkes Day on Friday, so I watched the fireworks out my window while I slaved away over Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare.  Ah, the exciting life of an MSt student. The kicker is, this paper isn't even marked...actually the whole class isn't marked.  You may be wondering, and Kenny has asked me several times, "Is anything you do marked?" Why, yes; yes it is.  I have a rather daunting 15-20 page paper due at the end of the term which may or may not be on critical responses to Middletonian collaboration in Macbeth...and that will certainly be duly handed in to the Exam Schools and judged most strictly. But that's for later.

Bodleian Upper Reading Room, where I spent my weekend

So this paper that I just finished today is what we're calling a "position paper": my course has weekly themes, and every week 2 or 3 people take up the theme and write 2,000 word "position papers" which theoretically everyone in the course will read before our Thursday seminar so they can come in bursting with ideas to spark serious and scholarly discussion.  In practice, I'm not sure exactly how many of us are reading the position papers every week (I am, obvi, since I'm such an overachiever)...but you know who WILL be reading them? Our professors. And considering one of my professors assigned his own book as a critical text this week, and that I was forced to quote said text in my paper to make one of my points, I would love not to suffer his academic scorn when I sit across the table from him on Thursday. Whenever one does one of these 'write a paper and hand it out for all your classmates to read' things it always make me super self-conscious...like I'm letting everyone in on how stupid my ideas are. On the other hand, I feel kind of more legitimate now since I have actually completed some written work, as everything I've done up to this point has mostly consisted of reading a bunch of material and then sitting around a table discussing it.

Early modern studies can be sexy too!

Although speaking of written work, somehow my dissertation is already creeping up on me even though it's not due until June. I had a meeting last week with our course convener to discuss dissertation topics and I feel like the pressure's already on. I think I'm going to focus on the epyllia of the 1590s, by the way, if anyone cares. Marlowe and Shakespeare and all that.

Ah yes, I see the yawns. Yes, I know my work is boring to those of you who aren't early modernists (aka everyone). So let's move on, shall we? I think it's time to share some of the results of a personal challenge I have embarked on here in Oxford: The Great Ethnic Food Quest. Here we will define "ethnic" as anything that's not British, American, or western European (although my friend Meagan from Canada has informed me that in Ontario Italian food is considered "ethnic"...America's hat indeed). So far I have sampled the cuisine of three establishments that could fall under this category, so let's just get to it:

The Great Ethnic Food Quest

1. Mexican food: The Mission
This place touts itself as "the best burrito in Oxford." Actually, as they themselves are forced to admit, it is the ONLY burrito in Oxford. Self-described as "Cal-Mex," what it actually is is a poor man's Chipotle. And I mean a very poor man. Like, broke, 1929 status. Everything in the restaurant is a rip off of Chipotle: the menu, the tortilla press, the assembly-line style service, the little red baskets, even the font on their sign looks like the Chipotle font. The only thing that was not a carbon copy of Chipotle was, unfortunately, the taste of the actual food, which was mediocre fare at best. During my first week in Oxford someone actually pointed this place out to me and told me there was Mexican food there, but it "wasn't as good as Chipotle." I was like, dude, if Chipotle is your standard for great Mexican food I am going to be sorely disappointed by this place. And so I was. The pathetic thing is I'd totally go back anyway because I miss tortillas and this is literally the only place in Oxford to get them.

hmmm...similarities?

2. Chinese food: Cafe Opium
I was really missing potstickers so I decided to check this place out a few weeks ago. The upside was that it seemed fairly authentic and there were real Asian people in it.  On the downside, I didn't love the food. The menu was huge but a lot of it was seafood, and Chinese seafood and I aren't the best of friends. And you know what was not on the menu? That's right, potstickers. Frickity frick. Also, they didn't include steamed rice with entrees...what the heck!? AND, the rice was kind of soggy. If you're a Chinese restaurant and you can't even get the sticky rice right, I can't approve of you. I probably won't go back here, so my quest for some legit Shanghai-style Chinese food continues. If anyone knows of anywhere in Oxford where I can get some xiao long bao, please reveal your secrets.

3. Pan-asian noodles: Noodle Nation

Meagan and I checked this place out last Thursday, and I was hoping for some quality noodles, since I'd heard good things about this place. I finally got my potsticker fix here, though they called them by the slightly less appetizing title of "meat dumplings," and they were deep-fried...why do the Brits love to fry everything? I also had beef udon. Pros: potstickers were surprisingly delish. Cons: udon was bizarre. Instead of having things I expect in my udon, like mushrooms and seaweed and fishcakes, it had shredded carrots and cabbage: what the what? It wasn't really udon, but it was still decent I guess. Oh, how I miss Noodle Planet! Meagan had something called "chicken balls" in sweet and sour sauce--that's right, I said chicken balls. Apparently this is something that passes as Chinese food here and also in Canada, the land where Italian food is considered ethnic. Basically they are little chicken nuggets that are battered and fried, and then covered in sweet and sour sauce and called "Chinese." I didn't believe they were real when Meagan first told me about them, but having first looked them up on Wikipedia and now having witnessed them with my own eyes, I have to concede their existence. You win this time, Canada. But I still don't think it counts as Asian food. 

"Chinese" chicken balls, apparently.

Basically, ethnic food in Oxford is so far a massive FAIL. The next thing to try is this Japanese place down the road from me called Edamame, which is supposed to be really good, but that's also what people told me about The Mission and Noodle Nation. I'll let you know how it goes.

♫ ...we built the pyramids! ♫

In other news, I may or may not participate in the termly "Geek Quiz" taking place later this week since it's happening in the place of Doc Soc this Thursday. It's basically exactly what it sounds like: all the geeky societies, like the Tolkien Soc, Star Trek Soc, SciFi/Fantasy Soc, &c. get together and battle for geek supremacy. I kind of want to go just because it sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory. I'm not sure how much of an asset I would be if I went, and obviously my loyalty would be divided between Doc Soc and Anime Soc (boohoo). But I've been getting emails about it, and in honor of the occasion, I think I'll host my own Geek Quiz here on the blog so my readers can participate in my geeky life here at Oxford. I came up with five geek questions, so gold stars (or maybe a postcard?) for anyone who answers correctly in the comments (and googling = cheating!).

1. What are the first names of all four Hogwarts founders?

2. When confronted with a Weeping Angel, what is the one thing you should  absolutely NOT do?

3. "Hagaren" is an abbreviation for the title of what popular anime/manga?

4.  Name Andrew Wiggin's two siblings (and, for bonus points, their pseudonyms).

5. Who shot first, Han or Greedo?

Bonus: Name Asimov's three laws of robotics in order.

Hopefully some of you will take a stab at those, or else my feelings will totally be hurt since I went to the trouble to make them up JUST FOR YOU (*sniffle*). You know you guys miss me being all kinds of geeky around the House o' Pi ;). And speaking of Hogwarts founders, the seventh movie is coming out soon! Who's excited? 'Cause I am!

Well it's about time I wrapped this thing up and got back to stuff I actually should be doing, like researching. Same time next week?

KQ

I know I usually put Takuto here but this week was all about Sugata. I also realize none of you know what I'm talking about.