Zombies! Vampires!!

I read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith in the past four days. I preferred the Abe Lincoln/vampire hunter mash-up. It read more like a drama/biography, and I liked the photographs of 19th century vampires thrown in for good measure. It had a little bit of a conspiracy theory plot thrown in too. I can understand why people liked it so much. I think I reserved this book from the library in March, and I just picked it up on Friday.

P&P&Zombies felt kind of over-the-top because the author threw in ninjas and Shaolin kungfu, but the original book was pretty light-hearted and Mrs. Bennett was pretty over-the-top as a character...so maybe it does fit. It was still a fun read, especially because I imagined Colin Firth's version of Mr. Darcy slaying zombies. teehee.

Both books were pretty fast reads. Maybe 3-4 hours each day over the course of 4 days, with a good chunk of that reading occurring during my bus commute and lunch breaks.

The Nom-of-the-Weekend: Chinese desserts

Black sesame paste (black sesame seeds blended into a paste and then cooked in a pot) with glutinous rice balls

From the establishment's Yelp.com page

Mango sago with fresh mango cubes:

From the establishment's Yelp.com page

It's basically a mango slushy (crushed ice, mango juice and mango bits blended) with fruit and sago. I had to look up sago to find out where it comes from. In desserts, they're small transparent pearls. Apparently, it's made from the starch extracted from the spongy centers of tropical palm plants. They don't taste like anything, but I like to have it in these desserts.

These can all be made at home. It's easy, just time-consuming.