Raicha stood on the terrace and stared at the crocodile.  It was a gift from Kanjire.  Apparently Kanjirians considered ill-tempered predators an appropriate gift for foreign royalty.  Crocodiles were the symbolic guardians of their royal family, fine.  Still.  It was fifteen feet long and had made a spirited attempt to kill the men who had unloaded it; Camilia had been extremely impolite privately about the need to find somewhere to put the damn thing.  It was also, very clearly, a statement about the relative fitness of the ruling families of Kanjire and Tacar.  Tamedijl, who had been Kanjirian royalty before her marriage, had looked smug all day.

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If loving salty fried foods is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

It’s time for this month’s blog round with Let’s Lunch!  I’m happy to be back after a couple of months of kitchen catastrophes and life crises, and just in time to celebrate the release of The Marijuana Chronicles, the brand new anthology including a short story by Let’s Lunch’s own Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan!

Despite the fact that I went to plenty of parties during college, I managed to never lay eyes or nose on marijuana at any of them, so my experience with munchies is limited entirely to the eternal non-chemical allure of a good French fry.  (I would say that the lack of non-alcoholic recreation was because we were all so law-abiding but I suspect it was largely because we also took ourselves way too seriously.)

I do, however, feel totally confident in recommending scallion pancakes for anyone feeling the urge for a little snack.  Hot out of the pan, they’re crisp, salty, and entirely delicious.  I use Martin Yan’s recipe because a) Martin Yan’s good cheer and enthusiasm for cooking never fail to delight me, and b) it’s a damn good recipe.  I have made these many times for parties, and they always get eaten down to the last crispy triangle.  Always.

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