soup's on

What do you do when a coworker brings you a squash the size of a small child? First you (kindly) ask, "What on God's green Earth is that?" Next you better find something to do with it, because you know they're going to ask. Kidding. It was a fantastic surprise. It turns out that I was gifted a Vietnamese Opo Squash.

Work squash delivery.

An image search of that makes it pretty obvious what is mostly used for. Soup! Off to Pintrest we go! We decided on this recipe. We made a few adjustments based on personal taste and unintended grocery purchases. When you visit and Asian market and English isn't on many of the packages, well, you learn that Eric sees a picture of a roasted bird as a chicken. Even if it is actually, you find out later, is actually duck. So when you see 'duck' in our recipe, feel free to substitute the word 'chicken'. Though, I will say, I don't know that we made a wrong choice.

Garlic. I know you can smell this picture.

I-don! Udon! We all don for Udon!

That one's giving me the side-eye.

Cut-o the opo.

Presenting the Adventures with Eric Canh Bau Tom (aka. Vietnamese Opo Squash & Shrimp Soup). Note that this will feed you for a week. There will be leftovers. 

Vietnamese Opo Squash & Shrimp Soup

Ingredients

• 1 Opo Squash (about 1 lb, peel, remove seeds, and cut into thick matchsticks
• 1 lb. fresh shrimp (peeled, devained, and save peeled shelves for broth)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stewed duck broth cube
• 1 package Udon noodles
• 1 green onion (thinly sliced)
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Make

• In a small pan, heat up vegetable oil. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 3 minutes).
• In a medium-size pot add water, duck broth cube, salt, shrimp peels, garlic and bring to a boil.
• Once water starts boiling, use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp peels.
• Add opo squash to the pot and cook until the squash turns translucent.
• Add shrimp and noodles to the boiling pot and cook for two minutes.
• Garnish with green onions and black pepper before serving.

It's looking ready!

You will find that the flavor is light, but satisfying and filling. The recipe could probably be tweaked a bit, but this was our first attempt at this. We didn't want to stray to far from the original recipe. Please give it a try and let us know if you added anything to the recipe that made it even better. We would love to try your take on the soup!

Get in my belly!

biloxi, part II - the adventures

If you haven't read part one of our Biloxi trip then please take a few minutes to give it a look. I'll wait...Now that we're all caught up with the food, onto Biloxi, Part Deux: The Revenge! Also referred to as the stuff we did in Biloxi. 

I captain my ship like a proper lady.

Torrential rains slowed us down on our drive, but we reached Biloxi a couple of hours before our scheduled sailing trip (cue the Christopher Cross). Those rains that we drove through, however, were following us. We stopped by Biloxi Schooners to speak with the captain. We wanted to know whether it looked like the weather would hold out and be clear for sailing. Did we need to come up with a plan B for our afternoon? The outlook was not good. We still had a chance to sail the following day, so we decided to try sailing the next day.

Picture this...

We returned to the beach after dinner (see part one) to walk along the beach and catch some pictures. You know what else we caught? A nice view of the schooner sailing by that we should have been on, because guess what? It didn't rain. Off they went sailing toward what was sure to be a picturesque sunset. I'm sure they passed around champagne flutes and gasped at the beauty of a sky one only sees in portraits. Whatever. I'm not bitter. 

A pelican glides over gulf waters.

We made the best of our good weather and beach time. It was early evening and we had the small section of beach practically to ourselves. Brown pelicans perched on remnants of what was probably a dock at one time. We're partial to the brown pelican, because it is our state bird. We snapped pictures of the pelicans and the other birds gathered at the shoreline. We watched shrimp boats coming into dock and hoped tomorrow would bring nice sailing weather.

Shrimp boat swarmed.

Feet dried and sand (mostly) swept away we called it a day and headed to our hotel. We stayed about thirty minutes east of Biloxi in Moss Point. Staying outside of Biloxi wasn't our first choice, but like things tend to do, they worked out. We were able to discover things that we would have otherwise missed. More on that later. After a late breakfast Saturday morning (seriously, check out part one for possibly the best donuts ever) we visited Biloxi's Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum. It's three floors of boats and history. In the early twentieth century, Biloxi was the seafood capitol of the world. Millions of pounds of shrimp and oysters were caught and canned. Entire families worked in the industry. Children included! It was a fascinating place to visit. 

Outside the Museum (Eric for scale).

The post-lunch shining sun outside meant that we were going to get our sailing trip! Unfortunately, Eric wore his "sailing outfit" the day before, but we would not be deterred. We arrived at the dock with our water and sunscreen. The two must-have staples if you go. And sunglasses. Three must-haves. Biloxi Schooners offers charters and walk on sails. The walk on sail means you don't need to charter. Whoever shows up goes out. They have boats that hold up to about forty people. There were eight of us and three crew members on our trip (a walk on sail). There was plenty of room for a dozen more. Our captain was as young as a captain was legally allowed; he was all of nineteen years old. His two deckhands were even younger. Combined, maybe they were the age of the captain we met the day before. Don't let that deter you. Our trusty captain knew his stuff and we felt very comfortable going out with him and his junior varsity crew. 

Totally sailing this ship.

Volunteers were requested for raising the sails as we headed out. I, of course, volunteered. More specifically, I volunteered Eric. He was a good sport about it and (eventually) hoisted the mast. Finished, he plopped down next to me out of breath and wheezed something about his shoulders burning and wondering if that's what crossfit is like. Catching his breath, we began our two hour adventure on the (not so) high seas. 

We lucked out in that we chose a spot that shaded us from the summer sun. Coupled with the wind, it was dare I say pleasant. We watched pelicans fly by and the crew work the sails their fancy knots. We passed the weekenders who pull their boats up to a long strip of beach a few hundred yards out from shore. Music blaring and drinks flowing. Everyone is out enjoying the sun and water. 

Captaining the vessel. No hands required.

When we get out a bit, our captain offers up the wheel for picture time. We were all about that. Once picture time was over, the captain ask for volunteers to steer the boat.  I once again volunteered...Eric. Eric took the wheel and managed not to sink us. No one else wanted a turn, so Eric steered for nearly twenty minutes. I think he's under the impression that he is now a captain. He mentioned needing to stop and get his license to make it official. The legend he must be in his own mind. 

The captain took back over as storms began looming in the distance. After checking the radar, he decided we would have to cut the trip a little short. We headed back a little quicker than we went out, but it was still so much fun. We docked before the storm arrived. We were out for about two hours of the scheduled two and a half hours, so no complaints. It was a great time. And we didn't burn! Yay, sunscreen! 

She's a lady. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She's a lady.

Our Sunday drive out included a few extra stops of those places we discovered between Biloxi and our hotel in Moss Point. Just off the main highway to Biloxi, in Pascagoula, the Jackson Country Port Authority and a couple of ship yards provided us photo opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't get very close, but a nearby boat launch and dock gave us some clear looks. Then we drove to the real reason we stopped. The Round Island Lighthouse. 

A lighthouse relocated.

The lighthouse is literally right next to the highway. Strange place for a light house. Next to a highway and not water. What? It was built in 1833, but was mostly destroyed by Hurricane Georges in 1998. As much of the original structure as possible was recovered. These remnants were to be used to reconstruct the lighthouse at the original site, but then Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. The lighthouse was eventually relocated and the light switch finally flipped on in 2015. So much history in a lighthouse on the side of a highway. 

Don't see everything from the highway. Next time, pull over and go see that thing you want to see. Whatever it is. You never know what you'll discover.

Until next time!