glass noodles

I'm annoyed at NBC, calling the election less than 1 minute after the poll closing time, with no votes even officially in yet. They'll probably end up being right, but still. I've never once even encountered an exit poll at my polling places, so how can they really know what people have voted?

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After voting, I stopped by an Oriental grocery, hoping to find some mung bean thread noodles, which I haven't had in ages. I didn't see any on the shelves, but did find some good-looking sweet potato and acorn starch noodles. In the vegetable section, I got a bag of an unfamiliar looking green, which per Google Lens turns out to be crown daisy, aka edible chrysanthemum. It now occurs to me this may be what a local Korean restaurant uses in their "Korean salad", which was always more memorable to me for the spicy salad dressing they put on it than the greens themselves.

While paying, I asked the owner if she knew where I could find mung bean noodles, and it turned out that the store had them after all. The package said "bean vermicelli" on it, which I must have mistaken for "rice vermicelli" while scanning the shelves. So then I bought that too. [ ETA: But these aren't as good as the ones I remember from the past. I prefer thicker noodles rather than these very fine vermicelli ones. ]

There was also a Mexican supermercado next door, so I browsed it too. I got a box of "shavegrass tea" (aka horsetail) because I'd never heard of it before, and some fresh epazote which is another leafy green vegetable unfamiliar to me. I'd seen the latter in dried form before, but not fresh. The leaves don't smell good, but they taste ok. I'd planned to stir-fry it, but apparently eating it all at once like that may be a bad idea.

Ingredient Spotlight: Epazote:
"Be aware that too much epazote can overpower a dish and even lead to nausea."

Epazote: Mexico’s Mystery Herb
"In very high amounts, epazote can be toxic: It is a vermifuge of the highest order, which means it will kill any intestinal parasites you might have living in your innards."

So maybe I'd be better off making a pot of beans and adding the epazote to it near the end. That could let me use up some of those ancient beans in the cupboard... but then again they are so old, they might not get soft even using the pressure cooker. I'll try it anyway; if the beans don't turn out well then I won't add the epazote.

So. Plans to cook tonight, which might be overdoing it: bean thread noodles, stir-fried or maybe blanched crown daisy, and a pot of beans which will take forever to cook. Oh darn it, they aren't even soaked. That won't work, will it?...

I know! I'll instead take all the canned beans from the cupboard, cook them with some spices and the big can of fire-roasted tomatoes... maybe add that can of pumpkin which I can't figure out what to do with... and then put the epazote in it. And then hopefully I won't get nausea or throw up from it.

I'm glad I didn't buy 2 bunches of the epazote, which I contemplated in the store. Even this one bunch must be at least 2 cups worth, while most recipes I see say to only use a few sprigs of it.

ETA: On further thought, I'll probably throw the epazote away. There's no point in mixing it up with good food and possibly ruining the whole lot, and no point in eating something that may make me feel sick. I wasn't originally planning to cook beans anyway, and to got through that trouble only to use up a couple of sprigs out of the whole bunch, which I then won't even be able to taste? Not worth it.

The stir-fried crysanthemum turned out good.