Friday, August 29, 2008
good for you
A while back, me and Staggs went to the HaHa Cafe in North Hollywood, and there was this really good comic there who did a really good set that included relationships, sex, people showering together, etc. He also did a really short joke on how when people say "good for you." In short, he said that when people say "good for you", it's just like saying "fuck you. i don't care." I totally agree with that, especially when the "good for you" is accompanied by a smug look on the face.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Top 5: Breakfasts
I was pretty hungry on the way to work this morning and was inspired to do - Top 5: Breakfasts. It was interesting that all of my top choices included eggs. It made me wonder if that is because eggs have become synonomous with breakfast, and we are engrained with that combination since birth. Without further adieu, the top 5 (in no particular order) - 
Corned beef hash with eggs and garlic fried rice
Steak and eggs with hash browns
Longsilog, eggs and garlic fried rice
Spam, eggs and rice
Corned beef hash with eggs and garlic fried riceIn my opinion, the best way to have this is with the eggs on top of the corned beef, over easy. Then you pop that yolk and let it run all over the corned beef. The odd thing is that I prefer canned corned beef versus the real deal.
Steak and eggs with hash brownsI'm not too picky with the kind of steak that is used in this meal. T-Bone, NY Strip...whatever works. But you do have to either get the eggs over easy or sunny side up, so that you can poke the yoke and let that sucker drip all over the steak. And it goes really well with either a steak sauce or good ol' red rooster hot sauce.
Crab Benedict
The first time I had one of these was in Santa Barbara and they did something that was like a crab cake benedict. The second time I had one was in Toluca Lake and Chez Nous and they used dungeness crab and piled it over a croissant. Both ways were really good, and it's probably the perfect Sunday Brunch choice.
Longsilog, eggs and garlic fried riceYou can get this at places like Max's of Manila or Lucky Chances Casino and Restaurant, and it's good, but it never has that same taste as when your folks cook it. This is probably one of the worst things to eat (health wise) because the longanisa bathes it it's own oil and you have to either get the eggs over easy or over medium. I would say over easy if you don't have the salsa to go with it, but over medium if you do. And you have to have a side of vinegar to dip the longanisa in. Definitely.
Spam, eggs and riceThis is classic if you were brought up in a working class family. I remember my dad used to make this (and still does) and it would be awesome on Saturday mornings. I still find myself making this, but has anyone noticed that the price of Spam has gone up quite a bit? Sometimes I have to opt for the Champ when I'm in a budget crunch. Nonetheless, this one pretty much stands the test of time. I figure I'll be cooking this for my nephews sometime soon.
I just noticed that after writing this, my breakfasts consists of meat, eggs and rice. Interesting.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fun stuff about China
I was in China last month for a business trip and have some fun tid bits that can be interesting or at the very least, some things you can bring up when shmoozing with co-workers.
Firstly, the Great Wall of China is unreal! It's a crazy feeling to just stand on a piece of history that has really stood the test of time. Just to think that hundreds of years ago, there were battles fought on this wall, and a bunch of people died defending it or attacking it. It's nuts. When we first got there, I thought we were going to hike up to the wall, but our guide told us it would take at least 2 hours. So instead, you take a lift (like a ski lift) up to the top.
From there you're free to walk up and down the wall and take pictures, and all of that jazz. Now walking up and down the wall is no stroll in the park. Since it follows the ridges of the mountains, it's like hiking up and down rolling hills. I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. I've never sweat so much in my life.
I think we only walked up about a mile or two and walked back. You can't tell in this picture, but my shirt is pretty much drenched. The wall itself is about 4,000 miles long and is the only man-made structure that you can see from space.
Instead of hiking back down the mountain after an exhausting two hours of walking the wall, the Chinese have come up with a clever way to get back down. You can either a) take the same lift down, that you took up or b) tobaggan down! I did the latter which was really fun, but could have been funner if you were allowed to go really fast. Unfortunately, I have zero tobagganing pics.
Another awesome thing to see in China is Forbidden City. It is right across the street from Tianmen Square. Forbidden City is where a lot of the royal families built their temples, houses, gardens, etc. This place is huge! I started taking a lot of pictures, but figured that when I looked back at them, I wouldn't remember were I was since they all look very similar. I think that I heard that none of the peasant people were allowed in the Forbidden City, and it was restricted to just royalty and their servants. That's a big place for just those folks. Here's a picture of the moat that surrounds and protects the city. Again, this was during a really hot and humid day in
China, and my shirt is drenched in sweat. But you can't complain because all of that sweating has to be good for the baby bump. Oh and if you ever go to China and you pick up one of the maps from the hotel, the scale is really odd. On the map, Forbidden City looked so close to where we were staying, but it ended up being like a 30 minute walk!
Other than that, there was Olympic fever everywhere, seeing as we were there right before the Olympics started. One of our guides said that they made all of the people and businesses around the Bird's Nest vacate for the weeks that the Olympics were in town because they didn't want that extra traffic to be there during that time.
A few last notes. A lot of the people that I encountered who spoke good English there had hidden agendas. They might try to get you to come to an "event" that their "university" is throwing, or they might want to give you "English/Chinese lessons". Be weary of these people. I was naive and thought that people in China were just that nice. And definitely try the Beijing duck (also known as Peking duck). You can either put it in this English muffin type bread, or wrap it up in a this thing that looks like a tortilla, but it's made out of egg roll wrapping. Oh, and if you're thinking of watching a movie, it's a totally different experience. The ushers there seat you, and you don't have to worry about following along, because most of the movies are subtitled in Enlgish. How awesome is that?!?!? We watched Red Cliff which can be described as Kingdom of Heaven meets Lord of the Rings.
Next up: Japan
Firstly, the Great Wall of China is unreal! It's a crazy feeling to just stand on a piece of history that has really stood the test of time. Just to think that hundreds of years ago, there were battles fought on this wall, and a bunch of people died defending it or attacking it. It's nuts. When we first got there, I thought we were going to hike up to the wall, but our guide told us it would take at least 2 hours. So instead, you take a lift (like a ski lift) up to the top.
From there you're free to walk up and down the wall and take pictures, and all of that jazz. Now walking up and down the wall is no stroll in the park. Since it follows the ridges of the mountains, it's like hiking up and down rolling hills. I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. I've never sweat so much in my life.
I think we only walked up about a mile or two and walked back. You can't tell in this picture, but my shirt is pretty much drenched. The wall itself is about 4,000 miles long and is the only man-made structure that you can see from space. Instead of hiking back down the mountain after an exhausting two hours of walking the wall, the Chinese have come up with a clever way to get back down. You can either a) take the same lift down, that you took up or b) tobaggan down! I did the latter which was really fun, but could have been funner if you were allowed to go really fast. Unfortunately, I have zero tobagganing pics.
Another awesome thing to see in China is Forbidden City. It is right across the street from Tianmen Square. Forbidden City is where a lot of the royal families built their temples, houses, gardens, etc. This place is huge! I started taking a lot of pictures, but figured that when I looked back at them, I wouldn't remember were I was since they all look very similar. I think that I heard that none of the peasant people were allowed in the Forbidden City, and it was restricted to just royalty and their servants. That's a big place for just those folks. Here's a picture of the moat that surrounds and protects the city. Again, this was during a really hot and humid day in
China, and my shirt is drenched in sweat. But you can't complain because all of that sweating has to be good for the baby bump. Oh and if you ever go to China and you pick up one of the maps from the hotel, the scale is really odd. On the map, Forbidden City looked so close to where we were staying, but it ended up being like a 30 minute walk!Other than that, there was Olympic fever everywhere, seeing as we were there right before the Olympics started. One of our guides said that they made all of the people and businesses around the Bird's Nest vacate for the weeks that the Olympics were in town because they didn't want that extra traffic to be there during that time.
A few last notes. A lot of the people that I encountered who spoke good English there had hidden agendas. They might try to get you to come to an "event" that their "university" is throwing, or they might want to give you "English/Chinese lessons". Be weary of these people. I was naive and thought that people in China were just that nice. And definitely try the Beijing duck (also known as Peking duck). You can either put it in this English muffin type bread, or wrap it up in a this thing that looks like a tortilla, but it's made out of egg roll wrapping. Oh, and if you're thinking of watching a movie, it's a totally different experience. The ushers there seat you, and you don't have to worry about following along, because most of the movies are subtitled in Enlgish. How awesome is that?!?!? We watched Red Cliff which can be described as Kingdom of Heaven meets Lord of the Rings.
Next up: Japan
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