Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial Day Barbecuing

I admit it - I had meat for Memorial Day. I have been craving carne asada (among other things) and decided it was time to break out what should be my world-famous carne asada marinade. I also made guacamole, mango salsa, grilled corn, and roasted vegetables.

And no recipes.

For the carne asada I used olive oil, white vinegar, fresh-squeezed orange juice, brown sugar, cumin, oregano, coriander, and salt. I placed the meat in gallon-sized plastic bags along with the marinade, and then added orange slices, onion slices, crushed garlic cloves, and fresh cilantro.

For the guacamole - nothing fancy. Avocados, onions, serrano peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. I've started adding coriander. To top it off I sprinkle with cotija cheese.

The mango salsa was a first. I used two large Roma tomatoes and three manila mangoes. Manila mangoes are the small yellow mangoes, and I think the texture and flavor is much better than the large red ones you see in most supermarkets.

I ended up with about equal parts tomaotoes and mangoes, then added some chopped onion, serrano pepper, cilantro, and plenty of fresh lime juice. Season with salt to taste. Man, was it good.

The roasted vegetables: red peppers, pasilla peppers, and onions cut into strips. Toss with salt and olive oil and stick it in a 500 degree oven until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. I like the edges to get a little brown.

And the corn - well, I kind of used a recipe. Bobby Flay's grilled corn recipe is really, really delicious. But I didn't feel like making the garlic butter. I grilled the cobs according to his directions, and then put out plain old butter with lime wedges and cotija cheese.

That was my Memorial Day!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Duh

What? You mean a Republican would lose the state of California in November! What a news flash!

Obama Would Take California in November, Times/KTLA Poll Finds

Friday, May 23, 2008

Countdown Commentary

No surprise that Keith Olbermann had plenty to say about Hillary Clinton's assassination reference. His commentary sums up everything wrong with that comment and everything that is wrong with Hillary's campaign.

The Long Shot

Why is Hillary staying in the race?

Apparently she's hoping that Obama gets shot.

After making that shocking comment, she offered a mumbling apology . . . to the Kennedy family?

Good luck getting on the VP ticket now!

Monday, May 19, 2008

On The Wilder Side

This was a Billy Wilder weekend. I'm trying to actually watch the DVD's I have, instead of settling for whatever crappy movies happen to be on cable. So I watched Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Sunset Boulevard.

For those of you who haven't seen any Billy Wilder films, rent thee some of his DVD's! Sunset Boulevard is one of my all-time favorite movies - I love, love, love William Holden in that film. Some Like It Hot has what is considered one of the greatest last lines of all time. And The Apartment - not your typical romantic comedy, which is why it's so wonderful.

The first film for this season's Cemetery Screenings is Wilder's Ace in the Hole. I first saw this movie at UCLA, when it was not available on DVD. Man, is that one dark movie. And yet . . . it's so funny. Best line? "I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you - you're twenty minutes."

And that's why I love Wilder's work - it's dark, it's sad, it's funny, and it's just so true. I don't know if I'll make the trek out to Hollywood for the screening, but I might have to go out and buy Ace in the Hole on DVD.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

What's in a Name?

For those who can't decide whether they should use Myanmar or Burma, this article will help shed light on the political implications of each name.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Finally!

Edwards to Endorse Obama

More Blended Stuff

I've added two more Blended entries to my photo blog - Adam and Annie are #3 and Mike, Candice, and Blake are #4. I've also added a gallery just for this project on my photo website. I recently purchased some books to help me learn Illustrator and Dreamweaver so that I can start working on my Project Blended website.

I'm sure that I can build a simple website on my own, but I'm not sure if I can do something really cool or complex. So I haven't ruled out the idea of collaborating with someone. But since this project is a labor of love and not generating any income, for now I will be flying solo.

Mortgage Meltdown, Demystified

So I know that the mortgage crisis has something to do with people getting loans they shouldn't have gotten, to buy houses that they couldn't afford. But I didn't really get it.

Which is why I really appreciated last week's espisode of This American Life. It's like Mortgage-Backed Securities for Dummies. It starts at the beginning and explains step by step how this all happened. Highly recommended.

Monday, May 12, 2008

China Earthquake

I woke up this morning to news of the huge earthquake in China. The earthquake's epicenter was in Sichuan Province near Chengdu, which is where I stayed when I was in China during the summer of 2006. It's strange to see pictures of the quake and have things look so familiar, even though it's happening so far away.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Papadakis Taverna

Last weekend I had dinner with a friend at Papadakis Taverna in San Pedro. We were greeted warmly at the door as soon as we walked in by one of the owners - hearty handshakes and big thank you's for joining them that evening. Large groups were in the restaurant celebrating birthdays, I suppose, which added to the jovial spirt of things. They had vegetarian entrees on the menu - of course my eye went immediately to the spanakopita. I was a very happy camper.

My friend, on the other hand, was not. She had been having a rough time at work. The restaurant was pricier than she had anticipated (which I concur with; meat entrees ran about $25 and vegetarian entrees about $16). And she had her heart set on this pasta dish made with ground beef. Except this restaurant did not use ground beef. The dish was made with ground lamb, which my friend was not interested in trying.

Our waitress was polite, but I could tell she was irritated that my dining companion would not try the dish with the ground lamb (they could not substitute ground beef). Then my friend asked for hummus - which was not on the menu and the restaurant didn't serve. Hummus, our waitress informed us, is not Greek food. It's Middle Eastern. Her irritation was growing.

Finally my friend settled on a pita pizza - pita bread topped with Greek cheeses and sausage. But she wanted everything separate: plain pita bread with the toppings on the side. I took this to mean that she wanted an unassembled pizza. Which is how I think most people would have interpreted our request.

So the food came. My spanakopita was delicious. I had a nice glass of Greek white wine. And my friend seemed to be enjoying her dinner as well. It was getting late, our waitress said she was leaving for the night. We thanked her. She left. We finished eating. And then the bill came.

There were a lot of items on that bill. What the waitress had done was charge my friend a la carte prices for each item on the pizza: the pita, the sausage dish, the cheese plate. Which totaled more than double the price of the pizza. So she called over another waiter, since ours had left for the evening, and eventually the owner came to sort things out.

Now, I just finished reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, and this man was a living embodiment of the principles in that book. He apologized profusely. He wanted to know what his restaurant had done wrong so that this mistake wouldn't happen again. He took all the a la carte items off the bill and did not charge my friend for the pizza she originally ordered. He hoped that we would come back and give them another chance.

I would definitely go back there again. The food was really good and, despite our slightly perturbed waitress, the customer service was excellent. Plus they have this flaming cheese dish that is really, really cool. Opa!
--
Papadakis Taverna
301 West Sixth Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
(310) 548-1186

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Mmmm . . . Peanut Butter

KCRW's Good Food is one of my favorite radio programs. It is, naturally, about food: restaurant reviews, cookbooks, chefs, cooking tips, what's in season, and other related topics. I listen faithfully every week.

I even get around to trying some of the recipes I hear on the show. I've had one recipe in particular stuck in my mind for nearly three years. Three years! I did make it back when the show first aired, but I was missing one key ingredient. Now that I've finally found it (okay, my search over the past few years has been very, very intermittent) I'm ready to give it another go.

The recipe is Peanut Butter Avalanche, from The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book by Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein. It calls for vanilla-flavored liqueur, which I finally found at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa. My friend recommended this store to my brother (both of whom are beer obsessed) because they have this giant walk-in beer refrigerator.

I, on the other hand, was excited to find that they carried three different types of vanilla liqueur. They did carry Licor 43, which is the one suggested in the recipe, but the store employee (very friendly and helpful) who showed me the different liqueurs said that Licor 43 had other flavors with the vanilla, whereas the one I got (Das Komet) was just pure vanilla. And it was only six dollars.

And now for the recipe: this is like a liquored-up peanut butter shake. It's very, very good, but not something anyone should indulge in on a regular basis.

--

Peanut Butter Avalanche
Makes 2 drinks

  • 1 cup ice
  • 2/3 cups vanilla ice cream
  • 1/4 cup (2 ounces) vanilla-flavored liqueur, such as Licor 43
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) vodka
  • 1/4 cup malted milk powder
  • 1/4 cup creamy standard peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup milk, preferably nonfat
Place the ingredients in the order listed in a blender; blend until smooth, making sure the ice cubes get crushed thoroughly. Pour into 2 glasses and serve at once.

The End Is Nigh

I remember when I used to think that the nomination process was completely unfair. That it was ridiculous for a few early states - Iowa, New Hampshire - to pick the nominee.

Now I'm longing for the good old days.

Well, almost. I still don't think Iowa and New Hampshire should get lavished with all this attention, but surely there must be some happy medium. If only to save the candidates from themselves: Clinton's campaign revealed that she has given six million dollars to a campaign that for the most part looks over.

I'm also getting tired of this new narrative - why won't working class white people vote for Obama? It strikes me as a bit racist.

And all that Reverend Wright coverage? Definitely racist.

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Incredible Hulk - Again

I watched The Incredible Hulk when it was a TV show. When they were just putting green paint on Lou Ferrigno. Then there was the movie Hulk with Eric Bana, which I never saw because it looked stupid.

Now there's another movie - a mere five years later - about the same freaking Hulk. That also looks stupid. With Edward Norton as the Hulk? What is that about? The lobby of the movie theater had this butt-ugly statue of the Hulk (above), which is how he looks in the new movie. The head is smaller than the feet! The people who do all this CGI animation stuff have just gotten carried away. They're too detached from reality.

I saw the trailer to the newest Incredible Hulk when I went to see Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr. (another unlikely casting choice) as Iron Man. He did a good job, but Christian Bale he is not.

Speaking of which, we also saw the trailer for the next Batman move, The Dark Knight. Now that's a movie I'll be seeing.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Project Blended


So it's official - I purchased a domain name for my mixed race/culture/heritage photography project: www.projectblended.com. Nothing's there yet. And nothing will be there for a while. But I am toying with the idea of trying to create my own website for this project. Or at least designing it and finding someone to do the coding.

I have posted some more pictures at my other blog. I photographed two couples and a family last weekend, and am just getting through all the editing. I don't have any more sessions scheduled - I have friends, and friends of friends, who have expressed interest, but haven't made a firm commitment. Which means it is getting time to putting an ad on Craig's List. I just hope that no mixed-race ax-wielders decide to respond!