the other day i mentioned that it must be the start of spring - with the invigorating morning weather and the agreeable temperatures we've been experiencing lately.

another sure sign that winter is out and spring is in, is the blossoming of the sakura. hunh? oh, cherry blossoms.

this year, the last day of march inaugurates the 2006 national cherry blossom festival.

cavin and i are fortunate to live so close to the tidal basin, which homes a large portion of the 3,750 cherry blossom trees in the district. last year cavin's ma & pa came to visit during the festival. it was a fantastic time that included fireworks and homemade crabcakes, despite the gray skies and ultra-breezy weather (though, we did see just a couple of paddle boaters braving the turbulent waters of the tidal basin).

besides the cherry blossom trees, something else i did see last year was the large amounts of (idiotic) people holding branches of the cherry blossoms they picked, and kids swinging on the delicate branches of the trees. seeing things like this really irks me, and if cavin's parents weren't with us last year, i would have given these kids (and adults) a piece of my mind (which if you know me, could definitely have gotten ugly).

in today's washington post's express, there is a timely article entitled, "cherry tree etiquette emphasized". one of the questions posed: ...how do you sustain the trees so we can continue to sustain the festival?

it's a great question, with very common-sense answers:
-don't snap branches off the trees to give to your SO
-don't let your kids climb the limbs because you are too lazy to keep them in check
-don't place your kids in the limbs of trees for photo ops to send to all your relatives
-don't trample the roots of the cherry trees

april 3-5 is the expected peak bloom of the cherry blossoms this year. this is good news for cavin and i because this falls in the middle of a work week. we'll probably take a stroll down there during the peak to soak up the picturesque views. but because the peak will fall between tuesday and thursday, i'm hoping minimal crowds (yeah right) will result in less exhibits of selfishness and cruelty to one of our nations most beloved trees.

this morning as i was crossing the street to start my day with a metro ride, i came across a familiar aroma. while the beautiful weather has proven that indeed, spring has finally arrived, it wasn't the crisp, fresh air that was grabbing my attention.

in the safeway parking lot, wafts of just-brewed coffee and fried eggs & sausages (or something like it) made their way to my olfactory organs, and then up to my cerebrum. as i looked around to find the source, there in the parking lot, was a pick-up truck with a large metal cover on the cab, and a man prepping to sell morning goodies to passersby. it was then that i experienced a sort of deja vu and was immediately transported back to my grad student days at rutgers.

rutgers may not be well known for its awesome athletics or its famous alumni. but what it IS known for are the infamous grease trucks.

the grease trucks are on the corner of college ave & hamilton st (behind the bus stop) and consist of about 4 or 5 stationary trucks that cater to students, faculty, new brunswickers & highland parkers on a strict schedule (and tight budget), as well as the heavyweight drinkers (and eaters) leaving the bar on any given night. the grease trucks sell the famous "fat" sandwiches, which essentially are big sandwichs stuffed with as many heart-unhappy things as you can imagine.

apparently the fat darrell is the most famous sandwich (deemed by maxim), consisting of chicken fingers, french fries, mozzarella sticks, and marinara sauce. it was name by darrell butler (pictured on the left with his famous sandwich, though, i'm not sure what that long, lightly colored hot dog looking thing is). if you're thinking, 'hey, that's a lot of stuff to have on one sandwich!' you would be absolutely right.

during my two year (and too short) stint in new brunswick, i can proudly say that i have eaten two fat sandwiches. i believe both times were on occasions where alcohol had been involved, which, in my opinion, is really the best time to eat them. i think my state of mind prevented me from physically feeling the ill-effects of finishing an entire fat cat, but i'm still alive today, so how bad could it really have been?

so this morning, as i walked by the not-even-close "grease pick-up", i remembered the grease trucks, and felt a little choked up. although the sandwiches are more novelty than culinary discovery, to me the fat cats represent more than just a food item. it is a window to my former life. whether it be waiting for the H or the A buses, walking to work at the phoenix foundation, dealing with pepe's bullshit at some trashed undergrad house on hamilton, late night study sessions with sung hee at sojin's, watching sopranos at the wich, running into ashwin all over town, or taking random walks with cavin, it only takes a quick whiff of a fat darrell in the morning to bring me back...

Labels: random

1. beer sampler cases are for suckers. we got a case of yards this weekend while in the hood. we picked up the sampler thinking that it would give people options while drinking. well, we were wrong. only two of the beers were consumable (the saison tasted like soap and just plain skunked beer, though i bet it wasn't); and the IPA wasn't terribly bad, but jano didn't particularly care for it. so to avoid getting beer that breweries might possibly try to get rid of by putting it into a "sampler" pack, we picked up troegs dreamweaver. tastes like a more concentrated wittekerke. i'm down with that.

2. michelle's wedding shower was a really nice time. even after the bit of stress in the planning stages !P, everything turned out really nice, and i have to thank jay's sisters, kristen and amy, for putting this together for michelle. (and damn! i would bet she got most of her stuff from her registry!)


3. apparently, i now make an award-winning chili. after going out for dumpings at china bistro, i dragged my tired ass into the kitchen and made a white chicken chili (chicken thighs, red & yellow bell peppers, onion, white northern beans, cannelloni beans, anise seeds, cumin, oregano, chipotle peppers, and amaretto) for my office's chili cookoff. later that night i couldn't fall asleep and was obsessing over the chili. well, i can now justify my obsessing - my chili earned enough votes to place first in the poultry category! here is my trophy, which is currently residing on my bookshelf in my office. hahahah.

4. it's a done deal. this week i completely committed to our cruise vacation. i just have to pay the credit card when it comes...yikes.


5. i heart cavin.

Labels: beer, domingo, event

last night cavin and i braved the supposed bad dc metro area traffic and drove ourselves to another $20 tuesdays (which was held on a wednesday this time around). the destination? china bistro in rockville, maryland. in a 4 or 5-store strip plaza that also houses a liquor store, dry cleaners, and unrented commercial space, you would practically miss it if you weren't paying attention.

the menu? all dumplings. it is always nice to dine with other people, especially if your goal is to try as many things on the menu as possible. although cavin and i have big stomachs (though, our eyes are much bigger), if we had gone there by ourselves, we wouldn't have been able to taste the flavor profiles as we had last night.

the others that were there ahead of us (and that put the event together) chose some appetizers that were already on the table by the time we arrived. mama's mixed vegetables consisted of woodear mushrooms, dried bean curd, and some sort of gluten product. this was my favorite, as i love that thin cartiledge-like texture of the black mushroom. pickled radish and spicy cucumber were reminicent of panchan we would get in any korean restaurant. we also got baby fish and peanuts (more of a finger food than an appetizer), and five flavors of beef (the beef was bland and looked like head cheese).

we sampled almost all of the dumpling flavors china bistro offers (they were out of the fish meat dumpling). i shouldn't even use the word sampled. it was more like stuffed our faces. here's a list of the dumplings we tasted:

vegetable
vegetable triple (chive, shrimp skin, egg, bean curd)
pork w/green squash (zucchini)
chive shrimp
beef w/ celery (fried)
ji cai pork (fried)
mama's special (pork, shrimp, chives, nappa cabbage, fried)

my favorites were the veggie triple, the beef w/ celery, and the fried ji cai pork. (the chive shrimp gets an honorable mention.) i think the veggie triple was rather interesting with the scrambly egg inside, though i tasted no shrimp flavor. the beef dumpling was quite different than any beef dumpling i've had before: with each bite, i was pleasantly treated to crunchy bits of celery.

were these the best dumplings i've ever eaten in my life? probably not. but i'd safely bet that these have been the best i've eaten in the metro area. if we venture out to the md burbs again, maybe we'll stop by and pick up some dumplings for a quick and cheap meal, though, i'd probably pass on the ordinary americanized chinese food (so i hear) and just stick with the dumplings.

(did i mention that we each paid $13 total for the appetizers and about 16 dumplings per person?)

china bistro
755 hungerford drive
rockville, md 20850
301.294.0808

Labels: event, pork, restaurant

since being in my new office for the past two weeks, i've noticed that i barely have enough time to browse the interwebs at work, let alone blog about what's going on in my life.

so i'm starting my "domingo cinco" posts: five things i've been learning/figuring out that i haven't had time to write about in the past week. happy reading!

1. 2.5 beers + mediocre thai food + 29 year old sachi = old geeza. since the weather was so nice out for a total of two days this past week, cavin and i decided to hit rfd for some happy hour drinking. after only having a couple of beers and chowing on take-away thai at kanlaya, the following day i ended up having to nurse my delicate condition at work. work was flowing, so i wasn't able to take sick leave, but i was pretty much headache city / achey body all day. man, i'm getting old.

2. walking to chinatown from work isn't really that far. i've been doing a little exercising during the lunch hour and recently discovered that chinatown is the land of $4.95 lunch deals, including house-made noodles and dumplings at chinatown express. once the weather gets nicer, i think cavin and i will have our lunch time rendezvous here and the like for some cheap eats.


3. using a crock pot to cook corned beef is really the best way to go. in honor of the great saint patrick we made corned beef and christened our $7 crock pot (clearance bought by my mom). using a 16oz. can of guinness, half an onion, 1 head garlic, cloves, bay leaves, and the package of spices that came in the point cut corned beef, ~5 hours later the beef came out most tender and very flavorful. cavin also made irish soda bread. i feel like i'm an honorary irishwoman.

4. even though i saw super size me, i still have a soft spot for mcdonald's chicken mcnuggets and french fries. while i don't doubt that there are healthier alternatives to mcdonald's, there's just something about the fries. oh, and using the $3.39 coupon for 20 nuggets (which we got in the mail), how could you go wrong? (remember, everything in moderation...)


5. i prefer saan soju to kombawoo. apparently, kombawoo is "korea's original soju". saan soju (mountain flavor) is distilled from sweet potato with green tea extract, and kombawoo is distilled with barley, rice, and tapioca. well, whatever it's made of, i still think kombawoo tastes like burning (go to 3:25), and by burning i mean drinking popov straight up. blech.

---

regional food and drink (rfd)
810 7th street, nw, dc
202.289.2030

chinatown express
746 sixth street, nw, dc
202.638.0424

kanlaya thai cuisine
740 sixth street, nw, dc
202.393.0070

Labels: beer, cooking, domingo, french fries, restaurant

i'm sure most of you are painfully aware that i don't have any writing skills. while i do believe i have technical writing skills, as evidenced by the A i received in english 202C (uh, summer session :) ) as well as the published paper i wrote last year, when it comes to creative writing i'm as out of luck as a, er, hmmm...let's see, um...well, you get my point.

part of the reason i started this blog was to advance my writing skills. or what i really should say is to start writing. i did write in a journal once upon a time. it was a great thing, but when i'm the only one reading it, i'm not as aware of sentence structure, my choice of words, active/passive voice, etc. basically i just didn't care about those things, as i was writing for self-therapy.

writing is just so hard for me to do (well, creative writing, that is). even just saying (or typing) "i am going to start writing" makes me cringe. when i read margaret atwood, i long to have her talent. some of the things she writes are so perfect - she gets the point across in a way that i wish i could do sometimes, even when talking. (i wish i had an example here with me now, but i am currently reading tolstoy's anna karenina - no m.atwood until i 1) finish tolstoy and 2) pick up another m.atwood book.)

i think part of my problem is that i don't have a good enough handle of the english language. i don't really "get" those sayings - you know the ones: "the pot calling the kettle black," or "counting your chickens before they hatch" (or whatever). that's not to say that if someone understands them they are a good writer. (and probably, i would bet that using those sayings leads to using cliches, which i know are the bane of great writing.) and having a limited vocabulary doesn't help either.

i remember being in seventh grade. our assignment was to write a story. afterwards, we were supposed to get up in front of the room and read our story to the rest of the class. i remember being completely stressed about the entire ordeal, meanwhile all the other students were sharing their ideas and stories with each other. i, of course, sat at my desk by myself thinking of something creative to write about. in the end, i got through it, though i was very aware that my story made the least sense, and had no YO factor. i'm sure my classmates were wondering what the hell i was talking about and i could feel their stares as i read aloud my (dull) story. i was quite embarrassed about the whole thing.

i still harbor these same insecurities to this day.

when i write, i am reluctant for people to read it, because i am so aware of my inability to be creative with words (i'm more of a "numbers" person, i suppose). blogging (though, i do not know how many people read this) hopefully, will help me overcome my shyness. in the near future i want to take a creative writing class. if i don't push my boundaries, i'll never know how good i could really be or become. i'm hoping that if i practice enough, i will be comfortable enough to show my writing to others, and eventually lead to a gig in food writing.

we'll see.

Labels: blogging, random

today is the beginning of day 4 in my new office (i'm in the same bldg, just down the hall working for a different supervisor on different data).

it's been pretty chaotic so far. i told cavin yesterday at happy hour that i think i've done more work in my first 3 days than i had in the past 3 months i was in my old office. woah.

well, as a result of being uber busy, i have not been keeping myself abreast of the latest developments in the dc area. and this morning as i'm perusing dcist, i'm kicking myself in the nuts for being totally out of the loop.

why do you ask? well, i'll tell you freaking why! apparently the dismemberment plan - only one of the best bands to come out of the dc area, but broke up several years ago - is reuniting for 2 shows in dc at the end of april to raise money for callum robbins who has spinal muscular atrophy.

apparently once the tickets went on sale for the first show, they were sold out in 3 or 4 minutes (damn you, ticketmaster!). a second show was added, and again, it was sold out in mere minutes. (apparently i'm not the only fan...)

tonight at 8pm the black cat will be selling a limited number of tickets at their box office (2 ticket limit per person). if i could, i would go there right now and wait all day in line, but alas, i cannot. like i said above, i'm super busy getting a project off the ground, and cavin and i are already committed to going to a wine 101 class tonight at 7:30pm.

i doubt anyone in the dc area reads this, but in the off chance that someone does, i'd get my ass to the black cat pronto and try to snag two tickets for the event. i mean, the tickets are only $15, and 100% of the proceeds will go towards treatment for callum robbins. plus, seeing dplan one last time is a treat in itself.

oh, and have i mentioned that i seriously have a crush on travis morrison, ever since i saw him at macrock back in 2000? what a smokin' hot performer.

Labels: event, music, work

on my quest to cook as many recipes as possible from molly steven's art of braising, a few weekends ago cavin and i decided to make this dish after i spotted pork riblets at h-mart.

what are pork riblets? essentially they are pork ribs, but sawed across the bone to make half ribs or "riblets". and because we have an abundance of patis and all other ingredients handy, it seemed like an appropriate sunday afternoon cooking adventure.

while i've never really used that much patis (fish sauce) in a recipe before, i wondered if the riblets would come out salty. but because a caramel is made as the base of the sauce, the patis melded together quite well to create an extremely savory, though thin, sauce. (if i was served this dish, i don't even think i would have been able to pick out fish sauce as an ingredient.)

molly stevens suggests serving these as an appetizer before the main course, but cavin and i thought highly enough of the riblets to eat them as our main, served over rice, of course. we'll definitely be making this again the next time we see the riblets at h-mart.

pork riblets braised in vietnamese caramel sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
1/3 cup asian fish sauce
1/3 cup sliced shallots
1 tsp pepper
~2 lbs (we used 2.66 lbs) slab baby back ribs sawed lengthwise in half (2.99 lb h-mart)

spread sugar in the bottom of a wide heavy-based skillet (12-13"). pour over 1/4 cup water and lime juice and let sit for a minute to soak in. heat over med heat until sugar begins to liquefy. you can shake or swirl the pan or stir with a wooden spoon once or twice so the sugar melts evenly, but don't stir constantly, and stop shaking or stirring once the contents of the saucepan have liquefied entirely. (if you stir too frequently you risk crystallizing the sugar.) reduce heat to med-low and let caramel boil until it turns a deep reddish-brown, but not black, ~10 min.

remove caramel from heat and standing back, add the fish sauce slowly and the remaining 1/4 cup water. (don't worry if caramel hardens.) return caramel to heat, stir and boil until you have a smooth, thick sauce, ~4 min. add shallots and black pepper and simmer for 2 min. remove from heat and set aside to cool to warm. (the caramel sauce may be made ahead up to this point and kept refrigerated for a week.)

separate the pork ribs into individual ribs by cutting down between the bones. add to caramel sauce, stir to coat, bring to simmer over low heat. cover and braise, stirring and turning every 10-15 minutes so that ribs remain evenly coated in sauce for about 1.5 to 2 hours. ribs are done when they become tender enough to pull easily away from the bone and are a deep mahogany color.

remove as much fat as possible from caramel sauce (which will be rather thin). pour some sauce over riblets to moisten. serve over white rice.

Labels: cooking, pork

this past saturday was the craft beer festival in philly. after we learned that poot & co. were going to be there, we decided to pony up the $40 (per person) and tag along.

after waiting in a long line that moved rapidly towards the entrance, we were carded and each given a plastic beer glass. [i forgot my camera (darnit!) so i took these pictures at home and didn't have great lighting or space so they didn't turn out as i had wanted.]

in the large warehouse-type room, there were about 50 breweries around the perimeter of the room where the 1000+ drinkers were able to roam about trying different beers. somehow in the packed room, we managed to run into trish, jason, meg, and peter, and 2 of their other friends. it was fantastic. i hadn't seen them in such a long time so it was great to run into them where we'd get to hang out during our 12-4pm beer session.

i wish that a map and a list of breweries was handed out when we got there. that way i could have kept track of what i tasted. i drank quite a bit, and can only remember a fraction of what breweries i visited: triumph, yards, magic hat, iron hill, ithaca, rogue, brooklyn, dock street, independence, nodding head...i have an even harder time trying to recall the types of beers each of these places had, though i do remember a few.

magic hat had a vanilla porter that sounded like it could have had potential, but it fell a little flat and tasted flat as well. monk's was there serving a sour ale which reminded me of the sourness buttermilk has. it wasn't something that i could chug or even drink more than one beer of, but it had an interesting taste. i heard people not liking it too much. i guess it's an acquired taste. ithaca served an apricot ale which was very popular with the crowd. as i stood there getting my sample, i overheard this lady saying that the apricot ale was the only beer she was drinking the entire time (she must not have been drinking that much!).

i was most pleased with the smoked weissbock and local 1 that brooklyn brewery was serving. cavin and i tasted this at the brooklyn brewery dinner last month and while i thought it tasted different from when we first tried it, i think it was partly due to the fact that the first time around the beer was paired with food. plus, we hadn't been drinking all sorts of beer for hours beforehand.

next time i do a beer festival, i think i might try to keep track of all the beers i tried, and maybe even try to go in order from light to dark (though, that may be hard). oh, and i definitely would bring my camera. one last note: the shuttle ride back (aka big yellow school bus) to broad & patterson was hi-larious. just imagine how entertaining a bus full of drunk 21-35 year olds could be: "NICE SHOES, TWO SHOES! WHAT IS THIS, A GAP COMMERCIAL?!?!"

i guess you had to be there.

Labels: beer, event, philly

i've been patiently waiting out my final days (1 day left!) in my current work rotation. during this time i've been a hard-core slacker, reading anthony bourdain's rants about the food network, debunking food and kitchen myths, taking walks to chinatown and back, finishing alias grace by margaret atwood and worrying about the 3/4" bug i saw crawling on my desk late last week (ugh - don't even get me started - i do NOT leave any food out whatsoever by my desk so it must be the other slobs in the office attracting the creatures).

when i saw a cpr (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) & aed (automated external defibrillator) class being offered for free here at work during my last week in my current office, i jumped on the chance to take it. besides giving me a reason to leave cubby hole land it more importantly gave me the opportunity to pick up important skills that i could use for the rest of my life and maybe even help to save a life.

it's probably ignorant of me to not even know the basics of cpr, considering my mom is a nurse. in the past we've talked about it and she's told me how it's done, but this was very long ago and the only thing i could remember was having to push on the person's chest (compressions).

fortunately i've never been in or near a situation where someone was having cardiac arrest or been in an accident that would require cpr, but i'm really glad that i took this class. after this morning, i think it's important for people to know what to do in a crisis and i'd like to share what i learned this morning in my class.

click on the picture for more information.

Labels: random, work