i ate the holidays!

< My sister's back porch. Snow is one of the things I miss living on the west coast. You don't ever get beauty like this in L.A. It was a wondrously white Christmas for us all.

In the 3 weeks I spent in northern Illinois and in Chicago with family and friends, I have to admit that the chosen activity out of it all was eating and drinking. Really, isn't that pretty much the nucleus of most gatherings, socially and symbolically? That eating together gives comfort and the feeling of inclusion. So that part wasn't a problem for me at all.

I had some of the most amazing times of my life from the 17th through the 7th. As I had posted on Twitter, I adore my family, that if I weren't related to them I'd want to be adopted by them. When we all get together it's one of the most chaotic and culturally diverse and existentially kooky events.

^ My middle sister's tree in the living room. Bishop, my oldest nephew's bulldog blend, is sweet, funny, massive, and packs about as much force as a Peterbilt truck. It was hilarious watching Chestnut, my younger niece's tiny teacup chihuahua, following him all around the house.

Several points of activities happen simultaneously. There's often karaoke singing once my brother-in-law cranks up the machine, and it's mostly him and my brothers who perform, all of them completely drunk. The teenage nieces do nearly nothing if not text message their friends the entire evening.

> The social and emotional nucleus of it all: food. I was actually good pacing myself all evening, eating just enough each time to be satisfied for the moment, then coming back for more a bit later.

The older nephews actually cook dishes to bring. All the women converge in the kitchen to cook or heat up the huge amounts of potluck smorgasbord of foods, the cuisines of which often span several ethnicities - American, Filipino, Korean, Turkish, Chinese, and even Italian and Japanese or, this year, Spanish as one of my nephews made paella from scratch (it was tasty, not at all dry like some I've had). I myself made pot roast, though it tasted a bit more like braised beef because I marinated it in red wine for hours. My oldest niece also brought a large strawberry cheesecake, which was companion to my middle sister's pistachio funnel cake.

My karaoke-in-law got hold of a pig's head, which freaked out my Turkish brother-in-law and he refused to go to that end of the dining room table. My Korean sister-in-law (wife of my physicist brother who loves to karaoke when he's drunk) brought some pickled things including the smelly kimchi (not a huge hit with most of us but I like it) and, one of my favourites, dried salted seaweed lightly fried in peanut oil; I totally whored out eating it.

^ What's the holidays without an intense fight of survival against huge numbers of the undead?

Upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms I set up the Xbox 360 and the nieces and nephews and I camped in the dark with my niece in California joining in online to shoot, hit, decapitate, dismember, blow up, and otherwise try to rid a virtual world infected with literally thousands of zombies. It was an intense fight - intensely violent, chaotic, and funny...and intensely tasty, as one of us would occasionally leave the room then come back minutes later with more food to share.

^ The gift exchange happens at midnight, a tradition in my family stemming back from when we were in the Philippines where at that time fireworks were the norm and everyone went to midnight mass at the church wearing their best clothes.

And all this was just Christmas Eve. I still had yet to do New Year's with everyone as well as head into Chicago to meet up with old friends I hadn't seen in a few years.

how bloody

Bloody Maria

1 oz. Tequila
2 oz. Tomato juice
1 dash lemon juice
1 dash Tabasco sauce
1 dash Celery salt

Shake all ingredients with cracked ice. Strain into old-fashioned glass over ice cubes. Add a slice of lemon.

- from the Mr. Boston Official Bartender's and Party Guide (Time Warner 1997 re-issue)

It's Friday, if that means anything to anyone. Okay, I didn't have any Tabasco sauce or celery salt in the house so just used a bit of crushed cayenne peppers and table salt. I do have lemons but I used lime juice instead because I prefer the sharper sourness, particularly to balance out the tequila. I pre-chilled the rocks glass (sorry, don't have any old-fashioned glass) and instead of straining it into the glass I just poured everything in. I used a cucumber and lime wedge to garnish, then took the picture.

How is it, you ask? It's pretty good.....and quite different from the Bloody Mary (which of course is made with vodka and a dash of Worcestershire sauce), if you want variety. This version of Mary definitely has a bite, thanks to the tequila (I used golden), and the cucumber actually works well with it. Cheers!

audio blog: vegetarian hypocrisy?

^ Altogether now. 1...2...3... WTF?!! I snapped this picture at Trader Joe's the other day. Hmm, I should pick up a package of Tofurkey or Beef-less Strips just out of curiosity.

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

samedi de cette façon

> Buster's Ice Cream Stop, 8.30am Saturday. Coffee, warm ham & cheese croissant, and a most perfect vantage point, don't you think?

This is strange. Wonderfully strange. I've had this habit, in the past several months, of sleeping until noon or so after staying up very late the night before. Then suddenly I find myself awake early in the morning. Is it time for some change?

There is what I refer to as an ice cream café around the block from me. I've rarely ever gone there, regrettably so. But this morning I found myself enroute, gingerly walking with my book to go in, order my coffee and warm ham & cheese croissant, and plant myself at one of the best spots in the place (as the photo clearly shows), a tucked away corner next to the counter that afforded a good view out the window. I love mornings like this where it's still overcast, maybe even a bit foggy, and you can smell the dew and feel the nippy crispness before the sun breaks an hour or two later. The crowd at this time was mostly young attractive married couples with their babies, older couples with their BMWs or Mercedes parked right at the curb, serious cyclists in their tight spandex gear freshing up with coffees after their constitutional early morning group ride, and the occasional hipster geek type. It was mostly whites and Asians who, from what I can glean, most likely had university degrees and were reasonably successful in their lives.

I surprised myself by actually getting back to reading my book (after a couple months not touching it), Christopher Hitchens' The Portable Atheist, a rather fat anthology of writings from great minds like Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, Spinoza, David Hume, Anatole France, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Dawkins, Elizabeth Anderson, Sam Harris, George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Carl Sagan. This stuff is as stimulating for me as the hot cup of coffee I sipped along with it. Now I want to go the public library and hunt down some more Carl Sagan (thankfully the library is literally across the street).

< Then some time after I came home I said 'Fuck it!' and ran out to the French café half a block down and ordered up a light yet 'pouffy' lunch to bring back - albacore tuna with spicy seed mustard, herbs and red onion, lettuce and tomato on a fresh baguette, celery rémoulade with cornichons on the side, Orangina on the rocks, and for dessert, sea salted almonds in milk chocolate.

It was early enough that the place wasn't packed at all and everyone looked very approachable. Europeans live in the area so it wasn't surprising that a goodlooking young couple briefly sat near me by the window while waiting for their order. I detected what sounded like a French accent from the man, and the woman was so very cute and tall and willowy like a model, but she was very different in atmosphere from your typical flippant and trendy L.A. flake (like I stated, most everyone here looked like they had a university degree or two under their belt).

I was then aware that this, all this - the neighbourhood, my book, the dewy overcast morning, N. back at home just around the block - was precisely why I moved here. I could thrive here, though in a way different from how I did in Chicago. I could cultivate a quiet, culturally dimensional intellectual and emotional life here. And I am, I've been, even if only incrementally. The surroundings have changed, the details changed, but I'm the one who is adapting, all while grounded in the fundamentals of who I've always been.

window treatment

A panoramic view of the farmer's market right outside my window, taken just now (click each pic for a big version). I was planning on heading out for errands of grocery shopping, banking, and the pharmacy but got lazy. N. volunteered to step out and get me dinner.

At the farmer's market (which is every Thursday), among all the vendors with organic produce and stems of flowers or pouffy cheeses, expensive honey, and gourmet nuts, are food sellers who offer good things to eat, cooked right there on the spot for you. There's a booth that serves crepes stuffed with meat, fruit or sweets, another booth selling hot pupusas cooked by short nut coloured ladies, a rotisserie chicken vendor, barbecue stand, hot fresh Peruvian food, gelatos, snow cones, corn on the cob cooked over an open flame, and of course a Mexican taqueria making tacos, tortas, and other goodies.

The market is hugely popular and you can rely on great crowds of families, young and old couples, and generally good local people of all races coming for their weekly stocks. I can see it all out my window and it's very warm and grounding, a comforting sense of neighbourhood and community.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five

There are musicians who play as well, with the requisite cup or basket for your donations. One of them is a saxophonist who uses some kind of Casio keyboard for backing percussions and accompanying melody. She sucks. She usually tries to play Brubeck Quartet's Take Five but can never get it right. I feel badly for her and all but I have to keep my window shut and turn up my music whenever she happens to be there.

That building across the street houses apartments on the upper floor, a friendly looking hair salon (for friendly looking haircuts, I'm sure), and a marvelous indie cafe with a cool laid back young staff. Local hipsters hang out at the cafe all the time, often into the evening and sometimes if I'm lucky someone brings his guitar and the music travels to my window. They have free wi-fi but I'm so damn lazy and stupid and never take advantage of it. I swear once I'm feeling better I'll go there at least twice or so a week to do my writing and blogging, and read lots of books, like I used to do in Chicago years back when I had my own digs.

Every few weeks or so a large film crew takes over the whole block just to shoot a scene at that cafe (the owner must make a shitload of money from it), for a television show or a commercial. Sometimes they camp out for a few days' worth of shooting, the white and silver vans and trailers taking up all the parking spaces nearby and the power cables snake all over the pavements to their sources. I've seen a few famous actors in the group but I don't recognize them because I never watch television.

Sometimes the aroma of the hot foods wafts into my window and distracts me from my laptop. I asked N. to buy me a beef burrito. Can't wait. In the meantime I'll have a glass of Merlot.

edible summer

Evan Sung for The New York Times

No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Bars (streaming video) | The New York Times

IT has been years since I produced an old-fashioned cheesecake — a real cheesecake, the kind that people call “New York style” — and it may be that the last time I did so was to be sure I still knew how. But a suggestion from a friend, a craving for graham cracker crust — it had been awhile — and the annual search for ways to use blueberries when they’re abundant, led to this simple, no-bake dessert. I think it qualifies as a cheesecake, even if it’s not the paradigm....

- Mark Bittman | The Minimalist

Summer Cheesecake, Without the Stove | NYT (article)
No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Bars | NYT (actual recipe)

Whoah. I must absolutely make this! A treat so easy to make any dim witted alien can do it. *points finger at self*

recession conscious dining

Tonight's dinner for this alien, just finished eating (yes, this is a picture I took of it before chowing down, lol!). If you are a poor starving student (or just poor and starving anyhow) in these depressing economic times but you're reasonably creative and resourceful, this would be something you'd come up with - instant Vietnamese style pho noodle soup bought for 25 cents a pack (at most oriental food stores or if you're lucky, from a selection at your local big chain grocers), then reinterpreted by you with custom add-ons and served piping hot.

To start I boiled about 2 cups of water (or whatever the directions say). At the bottom of the bowl I threw in sliced onions and tomatoes, crumbled dried mushrooms, small slices of roast beef (or any kind of sandwich meat if not actual thinly sliced raw beef, as authentic pho soup usually features raw beef that's then cooked to rare by the boiling water poured in, which makes a delicious stock), a couple tablespons lime juice, a dash of soy sauce, a teaspoon of hot sauce, and the small packets of powdered flavourings that come with the noodles; then I placed the (as of yet) dry noodles into the bowl. Once the water is boiling I pour it into the whole thing and cover it with a plate for at least 3 minutes, and finally top it all with more sliced tomatoes and onions, sliced hard boiled egg, and mint leaves.

A creative and resourceful starving student knows to invest in a few key spices and ingredients - oregano, sugar, dried or crushed chili peppers, bag of dried mushrooms, soy sauce, dried parsley flakes, beef and chicken bouillon cubes, olive oil, cooking sherry, etc. It's good to keep at least 3 kinds of vegetables in the fridge all the time (onions, potatoes, etc.), and to always have some kind of sandwich meat as well as eggs, milk, and bread (basically all the staples). When you're on a very limited budget combining these ingredients in different ways creates some really good home cooked meals that are as healthful as the budget allows. And you'll usually make enough to have leftovers to last the next day or two (or the rest of the week!), which saves money over always relying on junky fast foods or processed crap.

Caramelized French Onion Soup, perfect eats for today's recession conscious dining and so easy to make even a poor dumb alien like me can do it.





For example, combining the onions, sugar, beef bouillon, olive oil, sherry, and water will make you a hot steaming pot of hearty French Onion Soup (what the poor and struggling farmers in France created out of humble stocks). You can toast some bread to be extra crispy and crumble it over the soup as croutons, and if you happen to have some cheap chedder or mozarella cheese, melt it on top of everything for a more French version (though the authentic version uses expensive Gruyère cheese if you can spend a couple or more extra dollars). Google up for exact recipes. Bon apetit!

Related stuff

How to Survive in New York on 99 Cents
Mark Bittman: The Minimalist
What to Do With Leftovers