Canela

Recently, I suddenly got the urge to drink some canela (I don't know why, but I like the way it looks in italics), so I was very excited in my search for cinnamon sticks at the market today. After mucho, mucho looking I was about to finally give up (toward the end I even thought there might be some hope in the "ethnic" (ohmygosh so problematic) Asian food aisle. "Hey," I thought, "maybe those Thai people use that stuff, too, I mean, you never know..." It wasn't there.). When suddenly I found it!

I was so excited I bought two packs! So I get back tonight, and you know, as things start to wind down, I decide to go make some canela to warm down the evening, and...






What the F is that?!









Serious! They call that a cinnamon stick?! That thing's not even as big as my middle finger! And what with all its curls nicely wrapped up into itself, how's any flavor going to find it's way off of this thing!? It's so hard! And thick! And unflaky! And the smell! Agh! It makes me almost gag just sniffing it! It smells like someone sprinkled cinnamon powder all over these things. Seriously, what can you do with cinnamon sticks like these?? Where's the mustiness? The subtle, almost-not sweetness (or even complete lack of sweetness!)? That woody, earthy taste? I don't want to drink a cake, for crying out loud.

Blegh. Well, anyways, I decided to give it a try. At ten minutes in, then's barely any brown in the water. At 15, the water's pretty brown, but tastes just like tap water. Let's see where we're at now.







Looks dubious.








Well, I'm going to give it a try. Will report back in the morning...

Ugh, I just tried it. It's going to take some real experimentation to make this work. I could've just boiled some tap water and sprinkled cinnamon powder in it for this...:'(

Oh well, back to The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, so I can feel like I'm reading one of the spooky stories my family tells whenever they get together. :)