I forgot! ...

Happy Hallowe'en!!!

I saw this last weekend on a stroll! It looks, however, like the spider had to make a small sacrifice for it's meal...

Tongue-tied

So a couple of weeks back I saw beef tongue at the market for a decent price. Well it was actually pricier than the beef shank, but still affordable at about $13 for 3.5lbs.

So I used the handy-dandy internet to help me with the next part but it basically went like this:

The tip of the tongue is really crazy. I'm not sure what the spikes are for except maybe to puncture the grass so the cow can lick it up.

1) Clean the cow's tongue thoroughly with nice cold water (I used a toothbrush)
2) Leave it to soak in cold water for a couple of hours. Change the water a couple of times during that duration. I kept it in the fridge during this time.
3) I used a pressure cooker, for about 1.5 hours to cook the tongue with some onions, jalapenos, Thai basil, salt, and water.
4) Prepare some ice-cold water and when you're done cooking the tongue, dunk it in and let it cool. At that point, you can peel the skin off the gonue and skim the fat from the remaining stock in the pot.
5) From there you can trim off the tendons and fatty parts that you're not interested in. I cut up the back half into chunks for use in a stew, and the front tip I used in a stir-fry. There was so much stew, in fact, that I had to freeze down half of it for later!

Give it a try! It's such an interesting organ to look at and very tasty!  More photos below!

The skin gets very wrinkly and comes off quite easily.

It appears very much like a regular tongue after the skin is off

Lots of interesting parts but it all seemed a little fatty and tough at the back...

So I trimmed it down, leaving mostly muscle.

Cut it all up and enjoy!

 

A "Bridged" version of my week?

Well I guess this is really in relation to the last couple of days but at the institute, I've got a sweet window seat. Usually I'm privy to seeing long lines at the Agua Verde, ravens having the run of the parking lots, rowing teams out on the lake, and the occasional parking attendant ticketing unsuspecting owners. This view also gives me full view of the two bridges that cross from the North side of Lake Union over towards what I think (not sure though) is the Capitol Hill area.

One of these bridges is known as University bridge and is a double-leaf bascule, which basically means it can open up when larger boats pass underneath. Luck for me, I finally saw the bridge raise! Unfortunately, the picture isn't very good but you can get a sense of the coolness.

Hopefully I can see it on a brighter day (not that there will be many here in Seattle for a while). Next on my list! I bought beef tongue today to see what I can make/Mok from it...?

I'm out!

Still learning to appreciate the little things (like RNA)

I've always been more of a DNA-guy myself but I attended a great seminar at work today on long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs)! Dr. Howard Chang is doing some very interesting work with lincRNAs and had a great example of how fibroblasts (skin cells) might give rise to different characteristics depending on where they are located on the body. The mechanism comes down to lincRNAs playing a role in the positive AND negative regulation of closely situated genes.

What I really keyed in on for the talk was that in some cases sequence means less than structure. lincRNAs (and other non-coding forms of RNA) form secondary structures and a lot of great bioinformatic work has been done to predict this aspect of RNAs. Some of Dr. Chang's work, however, also shows that only a few key residues are important to the apparent function of these lincRNAs. It poses a very interesting quandary in that a classic bioinformatic approach to finding important segments of the genome includes using sequence similarity. lincRNAs, on the other hand, could be liberated (to some degree) from these specific similarity restrictions so just comparing sequence between say zebrafish and human genomes to find these features won't necessarily be fruitful. In other words, discovering functional aspects of lincRNAs will require investigators to hunt "function orthologs" by more than just sequence similarity! Don't quote me on this, of course, but go check it out for yourself!

/end of nerdy thought

In other news, a neighbourhood church is helping to run a mobile clinic. I don't know exactly who or where they'll be going around to but I truly hope they can bring help to those in need.

Today I also learned that British Columbia does not have an official provincial police force. Well, they used to up until the 1950's but then it was replaced by the RCMP. I was used to seeing the OPP here and there in Ontario (always more often in rural areas). I think I only ever really saw Mounties at parades and special events, but I've been told by my new labmate that they run the show in BC. Kinda cool! Let's hope they can figure out what really happened at the border the other day.

/end of Canadian thought

Raindrops and Spiderwebs...

Working on a fellowship application can drive you a bit stir crazy and you think it's all worth the work until you get a rejection letter. It's been a while since I've had to seriously apply for money but a rejection letter still manages to sting a little. Let's hope for better reviews on the next one :)

In other news: FALL and more spiders...

The changing leaves definitely make me miss Toronto but despite the overcast weather, it's been relatively warm at about 15C. I wonder, however, how I will hold up against the rain?

Here I am, and finally comes the rain..

My first 43 days of Seattle have come and gone with nary a drop of rain. Until today that is - gloomy weather and wet leaves. I haven't even stepped out the door yet but I should be focusing on an fellowship applications anyways.

I've been told by many of the locals that the rainy season has begun in earnest and from here, there won't be much sunshine until next year rolls around. I've been lucky enough to participate in a couple of hikes since I arrived and last weekend was simply amazing. An 8-hour hike around Buckhorn mountain in the Olympics. The final summit was beautiful and I can't wait to head back to mountains, although I will need to invest in some nice hiking boots. Running shoes can only take you so far... My tip to avoid blisters: avoid wet feet with dry-fit socks. My first hike was on a cold and rainy day but I wore those and had no real problems. Last weekend's hike was dry, warm, and I had a crazy blister from wearing ordinary socks.

Oh, and if you are wearing a pair of Sauconys it's actually much easier to do a light run when coming down the summit. I've been told that you should put your weight forward to avoid slipping backwards so I adopted a dopey-looking style of running down the slopes. I may look like a giant penguin but I definitely made it down without any big issues.

The view from Marmot Pass, before our final hike up to the summit of Buckhorn Mountain

The amazing view from the summit of Buckhorn.

So you're thinking, "What's the deal?"

What are you going to be talking about all this time? I'm really not sure. Experiences from life in Seattle, and life in the lab I suppose. Observations, recipes, and foibles about life, like this one:

 

Spiders!

With the fall I've been noticing some crazy large spiders in the neighbourhood. The webs seem larger and their abdomens appear to be well-laden with something. Perhaps little eggs?

I'm starting to appreciate my phone's camera more and more for those unexpected moments :)

Cheers