Time and Oak Test

Whiskey is _______. I'll let you fill in the blank. For me its an acquired tasted. Bourbon. Scotch. Sour Mash. Irish. Blended. Single Malt. They all have so many subtleties. I could write about them forever and never finish. Sometimes though, you want that 10 or 12 year old scotch but you only have the scratch for a bottle of Johnny Red. What to do? Well some fellows out in Portland decided to figure it out. Using science and their own taste buds they figured it out. You can check it it their Kickstarter project here.

So once they got their funding they setup and started producing thier "whiskey elements." Somewhere along the line I found their website and ordered the Multi-elements pack. 2 Maple or Signature elements, 2 Smoke and Oak, and 2 Wine cask elements. If you want you can order yours here

They came in today's mail and I just had to give them a try. I bought a bottle of Wild Turkey 81 proof and set the elements to work.

Then as I sat here listening to Jamey Johnson and, well "testing" the Wild Turkey "gobble, gobble," (I needed a good baseline to work off of...) I thought "What if I tried these elements in some gin?"

I keep a bottle of relatively inexpensive gin in the house... I do have the Tanqueray for martinis, but a good gin is no use in a gin n tonic. New Amsterdam is a relatively inexpensive gin however not cheap like Seagram's. It has a decent enough juniper flavor and some nice enough citrus flavors that it works with tonic.

In a couple of days I'll have an answer to my "What if..."

I'll keep you posted...

The Alibi

This is pretty good. If you ever wanted to be a reporter this is the kind of story you want.





The Alibi:



'via Blog this'

Monday!

This is about the long and short of things...

Thankfully this is a short week.

Stories We Tell...

The documentary Stories We Tell written and directed by Sarah Polley was intriguing. It really had me thinking about the stories we tell...

Each of us has our own stories, some we are afraid to tell and we have others that everyone knows. I think I am the latter. I have my stories and I am proud to tell them, not because I'm part of the story, it's more that I look back at the stories and I share a lesson, a laugh, or a tear with the person that is listening. A good friend that reads my blog mentioned that a lot of my posts are stories are about my parents. At first I denied it, but then I realized that it was true. I can't help but talk about them, or my grandparents, or the things I did as a kid. I look back and think I had a good childhood. But I also had my share of fights inside and outside the home, I didn't do as well in school as I should have or as well as my parents expected, but I did have all of the things I needed in life, I had parents and grandparents, I never went without a meal, I had support most of the time when I needed it. Now as I look around I see that so many people never had that...

Now I look back and I realize that I had so much more. This is why when I look at my life I know I need to be the best person I can be, I need to be there for my family and friends and for their kids. If I didn't have good people in my life I would not have turned out the way I am, I try to be conscientious, I try to be nice, sometimes I just try to be a sweet person. That is who I was raised to be, but that wasn't just my parents, friends like Bill, Billy and Jeff, taught me to be conscientious. Doreen, Nancy and Debbie, all taught me to be nice and sweet, and so many others made sure to tell me when I was sweet. That positive reinforcement helped me in so many ways. Those days when my dad decided to leave and do drugs were the darkest days for me, and all those folks were a ray of sunshine that I so desperately needed. Looking back at them and what they did for me I see why I try so hard, when it comes to my friends and their kids. Especially when I see both parents and kids try so hard to be good people. Even with all of the support I had, I had to try hard.

On to the stories we tell...

"Dinner & Drinks" or "Drinks & Dinner"?

Sometimes I have a drink with dinner and sometimes I have dinner with my drink...

It might sound a little funny but what we drink has an influence on what we are eating... and vice versa! The textures and flavors of our food have so much to do with the experience of eating why not the aromas and sweetness of a drink, floral spiciness and aromatic brightness of gin or the oaky mellowness of a good rye or bourbon?

Sometimes the medicinal tangy-ness (is that a word?) of a gin and tonic while refreshing on a warm summer day is also the perfect foil for a well seasoned skewer of shrimp, or just right to cut through the fatty aftertaste of a grilled halibut steak.

A good friend of mine an Irishman (bless his heart) thinks Bushmills is perfect with everything. Is that because he likes Bushmills? Or because he just has a diet that pairs well with Bushmills? I'm not sure but I do know (thanks to him) I'm more of a Power's man myself...

Cherry lime caipirinhas

Recently my summer cocktail has become a variation on the Caipirinha. As I enjoyed these before with the grilled meats of Brazil & Argentina known as churrascaria I automatically associate caipirinhas with grilled meats and even barbecue. When you think about it, that makes sense. Consider the smoky flavors of the oak grilled barbeque of Texas or the mesquite flavor imparted to the sirloin the Brazilians call Picanha. Here in California we can get passable examples of both, but the caipirinha is the cocktail that bridges the gap in my mind. There is a slight smokiness that the liquor Cachaça imparts to the drink, then there is the fruitiness of the drink no matter the variation makes it a great set of flavors to enjoy with any kind of grilled meat.

Another drink that has been one of my favorites is the Negroni. Equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, it truly is one of the simplest drinks to make yet it has some of the most complex flavors. I recently had this at Fishbar in Manhattan Beach, while it was a little disconcerting that I had to explain what was in it to the waiter, as I said it is simple enough to make, and easy to remember. I made this choice of a drink with my choice from the menu already in mind. As an appetizer I ordered the fried calamari, and for my entree, the grilled scallop skewer with garlic fries and sauteed spinach. Basically everything I ordered would taste good with my drink. The spice from the gin and the bitter of the Campari would offset the slight greasiness that comes anytime you have fried food, but the underlying layers of flavors in the drink, spice, bitter, and sweet, pair so well with fish that this is my go to drink when I'm having a dinner down by the bay or the beach.

Manhattan made with Knob Creek Bourbon

One of my all time favorite drinks is the Manhattan. This is another simple drink, bourbon or rye, sweet vermouth and just a splash of bitters. This drink goes so well with beef, but why? For me it's a memory, having dinner at Val's Steak House in Daly City or Joe's of Westlake was a short-lived tradition for me and some of my close friends. At the time Val's had one of the best bartenders, I never got his name but he knew mine and he knew my drink was a Manhattan. At the same time a rib eye was and still is my steak of choice, along again with some french fries and some steamed broccoli. The steaks at Val's were fire grilled, this grilling was a little different from the outdoor grilling that I talked about earlier, Brazilian and Argentinian grilling is often done on a spit, where this was hot direct heat with just the grill between the meat and the heat. Because it was cooked perfectly medium-rare this steak went so well with my drink, the smokiness of the oak of the bourbon and the spice in the vermouth went right along with the simply seasoned, perfectly seared steak. My mouth is watering just thinking back to those days. Around the same time I would regularly go out to Joe's of Westlake and have a Manhattan there with the Veal Parmigiana! Even if we were there for lunch we ordered the dinner portion with ravioli, or spaghetti! With the crusty French bread it was a wonderful carb on top of carb experience. But the Manhattan with the veal! To his day when I think of pairing food and cocktails, this is what I think back to. The ice cold, sweet, yet bracing bourbon, along with the breaded veal, and the barely acidic marinara... the creamy mozzarella... One set of flavors to sip and enjoy and the other to chew over and savor!

The last pairing I would think about is dessert and a cocktail. I'm talking more than adult chocolate milk here! About 10 years ago when I worked for Bevmo (back then it was Beverages & More) I was sent to a seminar at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, the seminar was on pairing food and cocktails. This seminar opened my eyes to the idea that food and cocktails could be paired. At the beginning the pairing of a gin and tonic with some pan seared salmon and sea beans got my attention, but the clincher was the dessert. A warm rum toddy, paired with the most perfect creme brûlée I had ever had. The rum toddy was warmed just to around 110 degrees and a stick of Ceylon cinnamon was used as a stirrer, the creme brûlée had the perfect balance of sweet and cream, along with a generous amount of vanilla that could clearly be seen as I took each bite, on top of it all the brûlée, the crust of melted and slightly scorched sugar. The rum, a spiced rum was the perfect partner and palate cleanser. As soon as I finished off the creme brûlée I realized that I had had the presence of mind to ration the toddy so that I had just enough to sip right through to the last bite of dessert. For me that was the most successful pairing of food and drink possible, one that brought out the nuances of each part and made it a whole and wonderful dessert.

So that is it, the pairing of food and drink might not be your priority, if you're a Bushmills type that eats meat and potatoes for every meal this doesn't matter! But if you want to try and pair the perfect cocktail with your meal think about why mimosas are so good with brunch, or why margaritas taste so good with that Mexican food. Or even why that light crisp lager tastes so good with Thai food? It's because the flavors were meant to go together!

So the next time you decide to have cocktail, ask first should I have dinner with my drink or should it be the other way around?

Why I write?

I have found myself asking this question... Is it because it's cathartic? Is it because I think my opinion is so important? Is it because I think people don't really listen? Probably all of the above... But I think the biggest reason I write is because of my mother.

My dad has been a subject of many of my posts on this blog, because he is gone I ponder over what he has left me, the legacy of hard-headedness, pride in myself, being a protector, and the 'nothing can hold me down' attitude. While those were all qualities tied up within my dad, they were not exclusive to him. My mom has all of those qualities... I sometimes forget, that part of the gene pool is pretty deep. What I'm saying is I get those qualities from both my parents. While my Dad showed us kids what those qualities were, my mom showed us how we could make the most out of those qualities in us, and not let them get us into too much trouble. That she has those qualities too is something, but I can honestly say she has truly mellowed over the years... But if you confront her or tomorrow you threaten one her kids you take a chance that it will all come back to the surface!

You might ask "What does all this have to do with 'Why I write?'"

Well, me personally I know I am always one wearing my feelings on my sleeve for everyone to see, but I have often figured if people knew why I felt the way I do they might understand me better. I learned that from my mom, if people can understand you and why you feel a certain way about things it is easier for them to accept you. She has always known how she has felt about things and she has always stood her ground. That came about because she wrote what she felt, I remember reading her poetry about what she felt and why. I think for her it was an exercise in self-examination and a means to reinforce what she knew to be true. And for me my writing has become just that. It has become a way for me to share with people what I feel and why, but also reminds me why I feel that way about things.

It might seem simple that you believe what you believe. And that should never change. But there is something about time and where you are in the stream of your life that changes what you believe and why you believe it, and that viewpoint can change. That undeniable shift in our paradigm, our viewpoint, is most often responsible for a change in our beliefs. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I write to convince myself of what I believe. That you all get to read it is just gravy

But more about my Mom. My Mom is an awesome individual. Irma Arias Hood, is the second of five children, she was born at home in the Santa Julia neighborhood of Mexico City, the family emigrated to the US when she was about 6. The family settled in San Francisco and as a family of 7 they had no choice but to be poor. But you would never know any of that from looking and listening to her today. English is her second language, she skipped 2 grades when she got here from Mexico, while she was never a 'chola' people didn't mess with her, and she was stubborn. All of that you wouldn't know today. My Mom and Dad met and married in the span of three weeks, they met at Thanksgiving 1974 and were married before Christmas.

I write all of this down so you understand where I come from, too many times people look at me and go, "What does this white guy know?" They look at me and laugh, "Oh you're Mexican American, I would have never known!" Or without thinking they dismiss or disparage the Mexican culture, that's a little insulting not because I think that Mexican culture is more valuable than another, but because I know for me being multi-cultural has value. All of that comes from my parents, my mom and my dad equally. All of this is why my mom is cool! Of course that's what I am going to say! Right! It's my mom! But one of the things I had to remember as I wrote about my Dad was that I shouldn't regret anything that I didn't say, regret over the things left unsaid is almost poisonous. And that is why I want to tell you why my Mom is the coolest. I never want to regret NOT saying these things about her, if she should ever read this I want her to know that I am proud of who I am because she is one of the people that has helped me be the man I am. I am proud of her and I will never regret that!

She has always been the strong one in the family, as it should be, Mom is the glue that has always held the family together. Seriously though Mom is cool, It's the combination of little things and the big things that make her cool. I talked about the big things how and where she grew up. But the fact is my Mom is always growing, her favorite song from Linkin Park is "Faint", c'mon does your mom even listen to Linkin Park... In the last few years she became a vegan, even though she is a vegan, she will still have a taste of something with meat in it and she knows when something is good. Speaking of which, give the LoCali Conscious Convenience on Lincoln Blvd a try... But I digress, why is Mom cool? She has been the one with the even keel, she has been the one that knew us all as kids and knew what could make us happy. When I was ten and I wanted to try something different when it came to religion my mom didn't discourage me. She knew even then I did need and would need God in my life, and I thank my God everyday that she had the courage and insight to let me make my own choices. Today she is the one that knows when each of her kids is doing okay or when they are not. Mom is cool cause she can do that with a look. She could always read us like a book, and then tell us how the story should end.

And even as I write this I know my Mom will deny most if not all of this. That is the other thing about my Mom that makes her cool, she will never make a big deal about it. But there is one last reason why my Mom is so cool. Over time I have made sacrifices in my life and tried to help her take care of the family, and when the time came for me to start my own family she never held me back, she knew when those sacrifices were done. Now when I go through issues and problems I think back on how my Dad would have thought to do things and then I think about how my Mom even now encourages me to do things, and then I find the balance that makes me happy and because I follow my parents advice I know it's the right thing.

Through everything in life Mom's goal was for me and my sister and my brother to be happy. Whatever we were doing, she wants us to be happy. That is why I write. I makes me happy, it reminds me of those who are no longer with us, it reminds me why I feel the way I do about everything, and it makes me think of my Mother, who taught me that there is more to writing than just words and facts, it is the what, when, where, and why of how we feel and who we are. And that is one of the most important things we can preserve.

It's Been A While

This coming weekend, Saturday as a matter of fact would have marked my Dad's 64th birthday. Not that we would have celebrated or anything but it would have been out there on the calendar. I usually look back and think of him every year around the time he died in early December and miss him!  This year for some reason this crept up on me and I didn't realize what was bringing me down. I miss my dad!

I am unique because of him and my mom! Somewhere in the mix of those two personalities I came out just right! I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am saying that more than I am now and I would probably not be happy, less than I am and would likely be sad, other than I am, I would not be me. And I am content with who I am! 

So who am I? 

I am the the person...

You go to, because I won't hesitate to smile.

That can't stand a bully or a jerk, mostly cause I have to fight the urge to beat them up!

Takes pride in knowing just a little about everything. I try to be "a jack of all trades, and a master of none!"

Who won't be shy about admitting "I don't know!"

If I make a mistake, I own it, and in that ownership, I beat myself up for it!

While I might not like you, I'll still smile, I'm not being fake, I just know my maturity outweighs any dislike I may have for you.

While I might seem serious, I try to be a goofball!

And finally I am the person that if you have the good fortune to call a friend you know "I am your man forever!"

Oh and I'm the person who will not stop speaking the dialogue of the movie we are watching!

So now the question is who are you?

Drinks for the Weekend -The Caipirinha

This weekend what are you planning on drinking? I don't experiment with cocktails too often, but the caipirinha is one that you can experiment successfully with to no end...
The basic caipirinha is made of the following:

• 2 oz Cachaça
• Half a lime, quartered
• 2 tsp sugar (raw sugar is best) or simple syrup
• Ice

The lime and sugar a put in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass and muddled. Basically you will have a syrup from the juice and oils from the lime and the sugar mixing together. Then you top that with ice and pour over the cachaça. Stir and serve. I love this drink just as it is, but you can do so much with it. You can substitute just about any fruit for the lime and it will be great. Orange, grapefruit, mango, and passionfruit are all combos I have tried.

Another variation is to put the fruit and sugar in a tall glass add the cachaça and then add some seltzer water or club soda. On a hot summer day, or an unseasonable warm spring afternoon these are great. 
Another thing I like to do is to add a maraschino cherry on top, and if you or your guest like some more sweetness you could easily add some of the cherry syrup for sweet color.

Where so many folks like the citrus and sweetness I tend to like things a little spicier. My most recent variation included ginger beer instead of club soda to fill the tall glass. To some it might be more like a Moscow Mule, for me the cachaça with it's sweet and spicy almost tequila meets rum flavors makes this a caipirinha variant.

So that's an idea for drinks for the weekend, I'm not sure when I will make caipirinhas again, but I will say I always try to keep the ingredients around, because they always taste good!

The AntiHero

The other day I was reading an article about an upcoming movie, a remake of a classic monster movie. The monster was considered by the director to be an 'antihero," I thought that was an odd choice, but for the director the monster represented Mother Nature and the consequences of the way humans have damaged Earth. The monster was an antihero because it's actions while destructive and atrocious bring a sort of balance to the Earth. Still for me that idea was a stretch...

I grew up enjoying the X-Men comics and seeing one of the great comic book story-lines come to the silver screen has recently got me thinking about antiheroes and why they are so popular. Magneto, The Wolverine, DCI John Luther, Raymond "Red" Reddington, Malcolm Reynolds, all three of the current incarnations of Sherlock Holmes. All of these characters are antiheroes, and rightly so, none of them have the qualities that you would associate with a classic hero. Interestingly each of them rather have major character flaws that both endear us to them and quite honestly can repel us.

Magneto, Wolverine, and Reynolds all have been or continue to reside in the grey area of doing good when it suits them or having good come about as an unexpected side effect of some action they have taken, on the other hand Luther and the "Sherlocks" exhibit nearly psychopathic behavior that brings down those on the wrong side of them or the law, whichever is convenient. In either case, the good that comes as a result of the bad in them outweighs the bad that they cannot or will not distance themselves from.

"Red" Reddington is one of the most recent additions to the list of antihero, in his case Red falls into the "grey area" antihero, his actions, giving the FBI information leading to the arrests of the worst criminals they don't know about, at first seems to be for the greater good. We slowly begin to see that his motivation appears to be first, to protect himself and second to protect FBI agent Elizabeth Keen. The connection between Keen and Red has not been made clear however that connection is what makes Red an antihero! Whether he likes it or not, and whether Keen likes it or not, Red has done good, he has protected Keen, and so far as we can tell he has never lied to her. What makes Red an antihero is the fact that he is a bad guy that you can't help but love. He has his moments, all I have to say is Swan Lake...

But knowing all these characters are antiheroes still begs the question, "Why?" Why are we drawn to each of these characters? In my own experience I think each of us has an antihero, someone that despite their imperfections, their flaws, sometimes even harsh attitudes has done something heroic for us. In the face of the bad that is a part of them, the good they have done has outweighed that.

For a long time I have known that my dad is my antihero. There was no question that he did good in spite of the bad that was a part of him. He knew he had his demons and he worked hard to fight them off. He knew that he needed to put on a good face to help bring us up, he did that for years, and then after years he couldn't keep up the hero act. He went off and indulged in the drugs and alcohol that threatened to overwhelm him. Then because someone told him he couldn't do it, he kicked the drugs and the alcohol and even the cigarettes.

I sometimes think he knew he was my hero, I know that he knew he was my hero. But kicking the crack and booze and smokes wasn't why, it was because he made the decision to try even when the odds were against him... He knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but the fact that he thought someone said it was impossible for him made it worth trying to do. That was part of what made him my hero in the first place. His grandmother told him his black friends had to come in the house through the side door, rather than the front door, my dad's response, "They are my friends and they will come in whatever door I damn well choose!" There was never a word about it spoken again. My dad taught me to believe that I was no more or less than any other person, and because I could see he lived his life that way it made an impression on me.

I knew the scar on his face came from an Afro-pick that was jabbed into his face while on a bus after hearing about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. His best friend at the time Bodey Tilley, (the same one that Grandma got upset about coming through the front door), pushed him out of the window of a moving bus so my dad's attackers couldn't finish the job. Bodey knew what kind of man my dad was, and Bodey stuck his neck out to save him. Those two incidents in my dad's life cemented the kind of man he would always strive to be. And those incidents have been for me the touchstone by which I have measured my life. Would I be able to stand up for people around me? Would I be able to take the punishment handed out by the ignorant and the foolish? Would I be undeterred by the fact that I was told it was impossible?

Sometimes it takes time to realize that those are questions that you ask yourself. Sometimes it takes time to consider that who you are is shaped not just by the good that people do but also the bad, and that to embrace that good you have to forgive the bad. Doing that we don't just remember our heroes or antiheroes, we celebrate them, every time we protect someone, every time we take one on the chin, every time we look in the mirror and see them looking back at us.

Unlike the monster remake antihero I talked about earlier, my antiheroes have a purpose, my biggest antihero had a purpose, he protected me from the worst that was in others and he sheltered me from the worst that was in him.

My Weekend Adventure - Grand Central Market

Downtown is not someplace we go very often, Chinatown sure! San Gabriel Valley definitely! Out to the South Bay of course! Downtown though not highest on my list of places to go. My weekend adventure at the Grand Central Market is a place I plan to go back to.

At first you might think, "What's another market in a city like Los Angeles?"
In my one visit I can say that it isn't just another market. While the layout of the place is something you can find on the internet it doesn't really do it justice, the open air stalls and the smell of food add something to the atmosphere that reminds me of similar markets I visited in Mexico City. I think that similarity was cemented in the first couple of minutes into our visit.

Las Morelianas

As you enter the market on Broadway you are greeted by the Las Morelianas. Roughly translated it's The Ladies From Morelia, Morelia is the capital of Michoacan. This is meaningless unless you realize some of the best carnitas come from Michoacan! But I digress! As we stood looking up at the menu the fellow behind the counter offered us a sample.

In this one bite I relived all of the meals in my Uncle's restaurant in Mexico City. It was the simplest of samples, the shredded carnitas, just enough to have a bit in every bite of a warm tortilla. Carnitas is one of my favorite foods, it is a bit of my heritage that I am most appreciative of. Every time I see carnitas on a menu I look to it for some comfort. I had come to the market to eat, so I only ordered one taco. Elena loves chewy textures so when the cook asked if we wanted skin (cueritos I knew she would enjoy it. 
Tasty doesn't cover this. The meat I can't say enough about, the fire of the onions mellowed in some vinegar, with the great floral bite of Mexican oregano, and to top it all off, literally, the cilantro and chopped onions. And then just like home I added some salsa made of red chilies. Most of the time I say "That was the best I ever had!" I try not to exaggerate, this was some of the best carnitas I have had in years.

DTLA Cheese

At first if you walk up to this counter it looks like a 8 foot section of a cheese counter. Some of the cheeses in there looked really good, I probably would have bought something if the couple in front of us didn't want to talk about all of the different cheeses in the case.


But I digress... I'm going to do that a lot in this post. What got me to stop was the menu, when the menu starts with "Cheesey Potatoes" as the first item, I'm hooked. There are two choices, Manchego or Cheddar...  I chose the Cheddar mostly because of the bacon... and the creme fraiche... and the chives. It is such a classic combination that you can't go wrong, but the roasted baby potatoes were cooked perfectly and that elevated the whole thing. Each bite of the potatoes may not have had every element that was slathered on top of the wonderfully roasted potatoes but each potato was done just right and that is not an easy task... I know this because I ate the potatoes by themselves, then I would savor the starchy sweetness, then take a bite of the salty, tangy, cheesey, bacon, creme fraiche goodness. Can you tell I liked this? Can you tell I'm going to get it again?

A&B Coffee

Like the Grand Central Market website says "Don't let the name fool you!" What this place is, is a one stop shop for just about an Latino seasoning.

What I really enjoyed here was the selection of mole. Typically what mole that we find here in the store is muddy flavored and sometimes rancid because the oils from the nuts don't keep for very long. What A & B Coffee has is fresh mole trucked in from Oaxaca on a regular basis. 

As you can see the mole when it is fresh stands up on its own. 

As we stood at the counter and talked to the young lady about the moles it was clear she knew what she was talking about. Each mole has it's own characteristics, each one has an individual flair that separates it from the other moles. From the earthy chocolatey flavors of the mole negro, to the nutty sweetness of the mole verde. There were seven different moles in the case, and we were able to sample several of them. In the end we took home the mole verde and the roja. 

Look for this sign to find the mole!

Sun's Produce

Our second to last stop was Sun Produce, really this is what people expect, fresh produce fairly inexpensive prices and really some lines. The cramped space was filled with fresh produce, some of it on the edge of freshness, our avocados for instance were on the back end of fresh. I mean what did I expect when they were 2 for $1? But I digress, again. It seemed like an anomaly out here in the middle of the kebabs, Mexican, and Chinese foods. But there on the other side of the aisle stood another small market with the same long lines and fresh produce. 

Walking Around the Market

We actually made more than one circuit around the market. The first time around the line at the Ana Maria taco stand was down the aisle, the second time it was nonexistent!  Then on the far side of the market was Belcampo Meat Co. I'll just show you what caught my eye there.

Granted there were beautiful cuts of meat, smoked meats, sausage, and like DTLA cheese there was a kitchen. The Twice Cooked Duck sandwich and the Belcampo burger were enough to keep me there.

As we walked back to towards Broadway, we saw the Better Booch, fresh kombucha was sounding pretty good as I got more and more full. And La Huerta, basically a dried fruit and nut stand, there was fresh seafood at Lupita's Seafood. But what we both wanted was more carnitas, at this point I was too full to eat another taco, really what had I eaten, a monster taco, and some awesome Cheesey Potatoes. I figured we spent a little more than $25, but it was worth it. Elena didn't eat any potatoes so she had room for more tacos. And she did enjoy them.

On down the road the mole became a couple of meals, while the avocados didn't pan out the mushrooms were a topping for a steak. And the carnitas, will be something I keep going back for. The lardo butter... Definitely in my future, just like the Twice Cooked Duck sandwich from Belcampo.

This was my weekend adventure, downtown traffic, the memories of my visits to Mexico City, and Cheesey Potatoes. All rolled into a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Something I plan to do again? For sure and for certain!

Classic Cars

This last Sunday a bunch of weekend cruisers brought their cars out and gathered at the parking lot near the Ralph's on Lincoln and Mindanao.

All of them were pristine, many were restored to factory condition. 

I think this was a '49 Chevy Sedan. It was a beautiful thing.

Corvettes are always beautiful cars. 427 is all I can say!

'47 Chevy Fleetline. 

This "Car Cooler" was on the Fleetline, cool piece of equipment!

This Dodge Coronet (red) and Chrysler Imperial look like they are parked side by side...

... until you see how long the Imperial is!

This one was just sweet! It was like one of those models you built as a kid...

This picture doesn't do the detail in here justice.

These old cars had BADGES!

My Weekend Adventure!

Starting this week, and then every other week, I'm going to write about some of the places that I have really enjoyed on my weekends. Every other Friday I'll share a local food adventure. Hence the name, "My Weekend Adventure"! 

This weekend adventure was Pork Belly out on Abbot Kinney Blvd, needless to say pork is on the menu. Smoked and barbecued pork in its various and wonderful incarnations makes up the bulk of the menu. Normally I write about a place after a couple of visits. Pork Belly is probably going to be the exception.

I'll start out by saying don't expect to find parking right out front! Abbot Kinney on a Sunday morning was not the best time to go, but the Groupon in my pocket was going to expire, soon!  When everything was said and done we managed to find some parking relatively close, four blocks away. Another thing you shouldn't expect is someplace to sit, there isn't anyplace to sit, there is room for a line to walk in and up to the register, then down the counter and then to walk to the Coca Cola Freestyle machine.

I'd like to talk about this machine for a minute. I LOVE THESE MACHINES! You have to understand this will spit out 100+ different Coca Cola products... I mean who knew they made Peach, Cherry or Lime Fanta? What about Grape Mello Yello? Who knew they still made Mello Yello? I am not a big commercial soda drinker, but if I had one of these machines nearby I might have a serious problem.

Now while you wait for the Freestyle machine or you're just waiting for your food you can watch as the food is put together on the griddles right out in front. The hairy guy with the glasses that prepped our food was nice, I'm sure he was tired of seeing people drooling each time he put together a sandwich, I'm sure he was used to the looks of anticipation as he bagged each order, and then the sure disappointment as folks realized it wasn't their order just yet.

There was an advantage to going at 11:30 on a Sunday morning, there are two small tables just outside the doors, where you can hunker down and tear into your food, this is only if you don't have a problem standing while you eat. (Just a little of my own personal commentary here, I personally hate it when people stand to eat. But "When in Rome...", right!) Now the couple next to us had ordered what looked to be a rack of ribs, plenty of sides and a couple of sandwiches. In some places it's polite not to stare, the cooks will look from the safety of the kitchen, the rare  maître d', will look while pretending not to look. Not us, we ooh'd and awed, as the meat fell off the ribs, as the man unwrapped the sandwich we could see the darkly colored char on the brisket and we silently drooled as we waited for our order to come up.

When it did come, it was worth the brief wait, and the napkins that we used to clean up the mess from drooling as we watched our neighbor at the other table eat. Our lunch was simple, two combos for the three of us, we had a friends daughter Sophia with us, a Belly Up sandwich with fried pickles and The Chop sandwich with a side of mac n' cheese. And two sodas!

The Belly Up I ordered was a thing of beauty! I had seen it previously thanks to Venice 311 and heard about the place from a coworker so I really had been looking forward to this for some time! Rarely does something like this live up to the anticipation. On this day it did! Each bite of the brioche bun along with the perfectly cooked, but not too fatty pork belly was complemented by the creamy tang of the coleslaw, and the subtle crunch that homemade coleslaw should have. The fried pickles were also so worth it!

Each pickle slice held on to the breading, the spicy aioli dipping sauce that came along with the pickles also tasted good when I dipped the edge of the brioche bun in and then took a bite. Sophia and Elena my wife enjoyed The Chop and while I got just "a bite" of the mac n' cheese I would order it again. Ooh, I almost forgot the cookie, each sandwich is wrapped in brown wax paper, and in that final fold, just before the "Pork Belly" sticker with the logo on it is put on, they place a small but tasty and sometimes very warm chocolate chip cookie in there!

So that was it, "My Pork Belly Adventure" you might ask where was the adventure, those that know me know I love pork, so getting me to eat this wasn't much of an adventure! But the adventure lay in getting out to Abbot Kinney, a place I can say I never frequent, I only go for the occasional First Friday, or an early morning trip to GTA, a future "My Weekend  Adventure" subject. The adventure came at the idea of feeling like this is a place I might go back to, before I even took that first bite of my Belly Up sandwich! The adventure was finding parking and eating standing up, the whole of the meal is seared into my memory. That is what made Pork Belly my adventure!

What Makes a Hero a Hero?

Before I start this is not a movie review or a set of reviews, this is about perception.

What is your perception of a hero? What makes someone a hero? How and why can there be a fine line between hero and villain?

Last year there were a crop of what I'll call "Hero Movies", ranging from soldiers fighting international terrorists to pilots in machines fighting monsters to superheroes and anti-heroes. Not too long ago I saw Man of Steel, now that the DVD is available I don't feel bad about spoilers. And while I know that this has been written about so much already, this is my view of the subject. Man of Steel made me think, "Are you still a hero if you cross the line between good and bad? And where is that line?"

In the climactic fight between Superman and General Zod, Superman is "forced" to kill the General by snapping his neck...

To put it simply Superman became a killer! I understand that to make movies nowadays you need to be "edgy" but in my mind and heart that wasn't edgy, that was crossing a line you can never go back on. Michael Shannon in the role of General Zod was fantastic, his over the top, at times, portrayal of the villain brought an inspiring edge to Zod, his one line I will remember sums up that inspiration, "I was bred to be a warrior, Kal. Trained my entire life to master my senses. Where did you train? ON A FARM?" That line sent a chill up my spine and cemented Michael Shannon as a great villain in my eyes!
On the other side already great actors brought an edge to this film I really enjoyed, Kevin Costner's selfless farewell as Superman's adoptive father Jonathan Kent was edgy stuff. Russell Crowe as Jor-Ell did an awesome job as Superman's estranged father (so much better than Marlon Brando and his ambivalent portrayal) . Even Laurence Fishburne and his single-minded efforts to save Jenny the secretary engendered a desperation that was clearly different than anything in a Richard Donner or Christopher Reeve Superman movie.

While Zack Snyder is touted as one of "The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood" smart isn't as good as heart. In my heart and many others Superman is the hero that despite his strengths doesn't unleash them to the full on his enemies. That was what made him "Super" he knew that strength wasn't everything, and that using that strength wasn't always the only way to win. Superman has always been that hero that finds the human way out of a situation. Unfortunately in killing his nemesis it seems that he became a bit too human.

On the other hand The Wolverine despite his bestial nature showed a despair and regret that belied his "nature " while critics panned the slow pace of the movie it was calculated and precise in showing that side of Logan. While Logan struggled with what seemed to be his humanity slipping away he was reminded that it was an inherent part of his nature. The desire to do the right thing despite the personal cost is what separated the "animal" Logan from Superman.

Case in point, how many people died in the chaos stemming from the use of the world engine in Man Of Steel, or how many were killed as Zod and Superman raged accross the city in the battle that culminated in the killing of General Zod. Was it the personal cost of seeing those people dying in front of his eyes that made Kal decide in that moment to kill Zod? Was it the "humane"thing to do? Or was it the "human" thing to do?

On the other hand even as yakuza were trying to kill him, Logan struggled with the ease of dispatching his opponents by simply killing them, more than once he gave his clearly overmatched opponents a way out, sometimes only for them to try and take advantage of his mercy. Logan's fights during the film showed not a weakness but rather strength of his character, despite the fierceness of his rage, it seemed to be tempered by his desire, his long desire for inner peace. As Logan fought his way throughout the film he did his best to preserve life. 

I supposed I am jaded by the fact that in the Superman movies of my youth, Superman did his best to personify the best of us, and Logan as The Wolverine in the comics was practical, brutal, unforgiving, the epitome of human! Now it seems those lines are forever blurred. The original "anti-hero" has been softened, while the Man of Steel has found a hardness that I still cannot reconcile in my heart!

Food Memories - Grandpa's Picadillo

Picadillo

I haven't posted anything for a while mostly because I have been so busy, but over the weekend my wife asked me to cook for some friends and I decided that this was the perfect time to write another post about my food memories. While I looked forward to cooking for our friends I wasn't invited. Well I was invited but movie night with "the girls" isn't my thing...

For movie night my wife planned tostadas. While it can be a classic Mexican dish I gave it the spin my Grandfather (Papi) taught me, that spin is to "make each dish your own."

Classically picadillo is ground meat with a sauce with bits of bell peppers, olives and what are generally considered warm spices like cloves, cumin, and coriander. My version is a little different I am not a big fan of bell peppers and my wife is not a big fan of olives. That is the biggest part of making a recipe your own, finding a way to add in the things you like or replace the things you might not like.

My version of picadillo uses potatoes to add a little filler to the dish, another change was the use of oregano and red pepper flakes for the seasoning. The technique of cooking the tomato paste in preparing the sauce for the picadillo is relatively simple but is also the key to developing flavor in the dish.

That being said, this is not the healthiest dish and it's not something that we eat on a daily basis. While this post is not about the tostada dish as a whole the picadillo is the star of the dish. Everything else, the guacamole, salsa, cheese, sour cream, Mexican crema casera, all of that is something you can pick and choose. But the picadillo can be unique to each cook. Part of this post comes from the fact that some people think that if it's not the way their grandmother or mother made it, its not right. There are some things where this is so true. Home-cooked dishes are the times you can give things a little twist. After all when you make something your own you are more likely to cook it again. At the same time, when you make it your own you can inspire others to cook and make each dish their own!

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs ground beef
6-8 medium white or red potatoes medium dice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium white onion finely chopped
4 - 6 cloves of garlic crushed
6 oz tomato paste
1 small jar of capers, drained
1 qt beef stock
2 -4 cups of water
2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
3-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste

Directions

Sauté the onions and garlic in 1 1/2 tbsps the olive oil, lightly salt the onions and garlic, this will add a layer and depth of flavor. Once complete set aside, and brown ground beef. Drain the fat from the beef and set aside. Add remainder of olive oil and return onions and garlic to the pan and add red pepper flakes just barely toasting the red pepper. Add tomato paste to cook the raw flavor out of the tomatoes. Now you can add the beef stock, oregano and Worcestershire sauce and bring the sauce to a simmer. Return the ground beef to the pot and add the potatoes to the mixture.

Let the picadillo simmer and add about 1 cup of the water, bring to a simmer, keeping an eye that the water is cooked into the sauce and absorbed by the potatoes as they cook. Keep stirring every few minutes. Continue adding water and checking if the potatoes are done. Depending on how large you cut your potatoes you will need to cook them a bit longer adding more water.

Once the potatoes are finished cooking, add drained capers to the picadillo and taste for salt.

The Dish

Once you have finished the picadillo you can use this for more than just tostada's, when we were kids this was my Papi's go to dish, this became a filling for tortas, enchiladas, or just something to put on the plate next to the beans and rice eaten with tortillas.

Anytime Papi stepped into the kitchen I remember my Grandma would call his food "pig slop," but to us kids the pigs wished they ate as good as we did. Through his dishes Papi opened a world of cooking to me that I will always enjoy. He made me try dishes as a kid that I probably would never have tried he reminded me all of the time that just because someone cooks differently doesn't make it wrong, and he awakened in me a desire to share with others the gift he shared with me. It all started in his kitchen standing on a milk crate learning how to make a simple breakfast for the family.

Local Eats Part I

Local eats are one of those things...

Either you know where to go or you don't. Personally I like the local joints near my place. Within walking distance from my house I can find cocktails and plenty of good grub, not just ethnic food but a variety of ethnic foods, tonkotsu ramen, vegetarian Indian curry, pho, teriyaki, Japanese curry, Hawaiian plate lunch, Korean fusion, did I leave anything out? Oh yeah Mexican, Cuban, Pastrami, Salvadoran, oh sushi, and several others that I can't even recall as I type this. 

Really my thing is your local eats are YOURS! Just like anything that is yours take care of it. I really do love going to Chinatown or Monterey Park for Chinese food or dim sum, or I love going across town for something that I think is funky or sounds tasty. The Oinkster in Eagle Rock has some great pastrami. But I have Johnnies right around the corner from me. I'm not saying it's the best but it is Westside and that makes it mine.

What really toasts my cookies is when neighborhood people tell me, "Oh that place is okay but this other place halfway across town (in a place YOU never go).... is better!" There is nothing wrong with that per se, I love to hear about new places, what is wrong to me is telling me without even trying the local place that your taste is better than mine!

Listen up its not!!!

All of that being said thanks for listening, now on to the restaurants!

My favorite local spot is near the corner of Washington and Sepulveda. Yamadaya Ramen is some great food. Tonkotsu Ramen is the be all and end all of ramen in my world. I grew up eating that ramen in freeze dried form with the packets, that was probably where I decided that I could be creative with food, I mean what 12 year old thinks, "Lemme boil these noodles then stir fry them." Yamadaya Ramen brings this to a whole other level for me. The 'tonkotsu' broth is made by taking pork bones and boiling them for hours and hours and hours before draining off the broth and using that as the base for your ramen noodles. The KICKER for me is the 'kakuni' braised pork belly cut into 4 oz slices. I won't even go into detail about the different versions of broth that you can get, needless to say its not your simple cup o' noodles.
Here is the link to my Yelp review so I don't get too verbose in here:
Yamadaya Yelp REVIEW

Samosa House
Let me begin this review by saying I am not a vegetarian! I have been in the past but I love meat too much. That having been said, this vegetarian food rocks. Every once in a while I go on a vegetarian kick, when I do this is where I go. Granted it can be expensive, but that's cause when you walk in you see all the stuff that looks good, Chile Pakora, Naan, Samosas, then you look at the steam table and end up ordering the combo plate on top of everything else I just mentioned that's when the bill adds up. The samosa here are the signature item. And the Naan is especially awesome when they take it right out of the oven.

Super Pho & Teriyaki

Yes pho and teriyaki in the same place. They also have some killer kim chee and Korean grilled pork, but I digress. For a good bowl of soup this is my second choice. The only reason it's second is that I don't like the "green medicine dispensary" next door. The pho broth is light and tasty here, it is the very opposite of the tonkostu broth at Yamadaya. The flavor of the herbs and spices permeate this dish. The star anise and pepper aren't overpowering but you know they are there. The teriyaki is done pretty well here too. The service did go down hill a little but the last time I went through there it was pretty good.

Mitsuwa

This place isn't a restaurant in and of itself but the food court is a good spot to get some grub. The vendors provide some decent variations on Japanese fast food. Santouka, Misasa, and Sanuki each do something a little differently, ramen, curry, tempura are the staples of the menus. Plenty of food but it's only for cold hard cash.

Rutt's

This is just a good place for what we imagine as Hawaiian food. The roast pork with gravy gets an honorable mention as one my favorite dishes. Not the best but right up there in the running. Royales (stir-fried rice dishes) are the breakfast of choice and the fench toast made with Kings Hawaiin bread is great. But the spam musubi is the best here.

Tito's Tacos
For me I often wonder what I did before I discovered Tito's! This is NOT Mexican food. This place is LA food! The greasy tacos, the blenderized salsa, the white paper bags filled with chips. As a little kid my Grandfather would take me to Jack in the Box for the tacos along the way to the Marina in San Francisco. Back then they were 4 of $1. It was a great memory that resurfaced the first time I ate at Tito's. The fried taco shell with the melted (or not so melted) American cheese slices. The chili with the chunks of beef, and then the burritos filled with that same chili and cheese. 

I'll continue this down the cause as you go down the road there is always a better place to eat!

Grandma's Posole - Memories

"When daddy's quit staying

And the mommas quit praying

Even the children quit tryin'

God must be crying

Cause even the skies are blue"

Instantly classic lyrics but that's not my point in putting them here, I put them there cause when I heard that song I was reminded of memories. What the heck do memories have to do with Grandma's Posole? Grandma's Posole is one of the few recipes I can recite by heart. Posole is a Mexican stew with chunks of pork (or chicken) in a broth seasoned with red chilies, and made hearty with hominy. If I haven't lost you by now, please keep reading. 

Grandma has a few recipes that I just love to cook. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to find out from her how she makes them and make some of those recipes my own. Rice soup, sopa de fideo (Pasta soup), sopa de albondigas (meatball soup) and her posole are the few that I am proud of. The recipes for soup are the most forgiving (in other words I couldn't mess them up), and the posole is closest to my heart. The chunks of pork, the hearty broth, finely chopped onions, shredded lettuce and tostadas or even tortillas make this something I will never tire of, just like a classic country lyric.

The version below (with the exception of the hominy) is from scratch. In place of the scratch made chili paste you can use a 10 oz can of Las Palmas chili sauce, it works in a pinch, everybody knows my Grandma did it!

Grandma's Posole

Ingredients

Pork and broth

1 1/2 - 2 lbs pork country style ribs cut into chunks

2 tbsp oil

3 quarts water

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

salt to taste

2 large cans of hominy

Chili paste

4 cups water

2 oz dried Pasilla chilies

2 oz dried New Mexico chilies

2 oz dried Ancho chilies

Remove the seeds from these chilies for a less spicy sauce

1 chipotle pepper w/ 1 tsp of adobo sauce

1 onion sliced

Accompaniments

Red pepper flakes

Chopped white onion

Mexican oregano

Sliced lettuce

Limes

Tostada shells

Broth

Begin by heating a large soup pot and add the oil, sear off the chunks of pork meat after searing all of the pork add salt, onion and garlic to the pan and sweat until translucent. Return the pork to the pot and all 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to about medium low to achieve a slow boil. Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Chili paste/sauce

In a large sauce pan bring the water to a boil and add the dried chilies without the stems and the onion. Boil until the chilies are soft. Remove the chilies and onion, these ingredients to a blender and add about 1 1/2 cups of liquid from boiling process and chipotle chili and sauce blend until smooth. Taste for salt, if you like the smokiness of the adobo sauce you can add more. Put this sauce in the refrigerator overnight so the flavors can marry.

After the pork has boiled for one hour turn off the heat and place the pot in the refrigerator overnight. This will coagulate the fat on the top of the broth making it easier to remove. The next day bring broth to a boil and add the hominy and chili paste, boil for about 30 - 45 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Accompaniments

At this point the stew is ready, however there are some cold ingredients that accompany this that bring all of the flavors to another level. All of these accompaniments can be added as you like. The spice of the red chili flakes and onion go right along with the broth making those spices blossom with each spoonful. The shredded lettuce work great to mellow those flavors, and the oregano, the floral oregano makes the pork taste even better. As for the lime, what Mexican soup whether it is chicken soup, posole or menudo doesn't taste better with lime. The tostadas bring along another element of crunch that brings the whole stew together.

This is it, you might find the task of making your own scratch made chili sauce daunting, but it really does make a difference, if you add another 1/2 cup of water and tweak the variety of chilies and you would have your own homemade "enchilada sauce".

Memories are like the cool evening breeze in L.A., you can count on them to be there just when you need them!

Shrimp & Mushroom Etoufee

I'll start this one out by saying thank you to Chef Andrew Zimmern! You posted a link to your shrimp étouffée recipe on Twitter a while back and you inspired me to make some of my own.

 First off, if you have access to fresh shrimp take advantage of it. Frozen shrimp will work. The only requirement is that you get them with the shell on. The shrimp stock is the key to this dish!

There isn't much stock but the flavors
you get are worth the time and effort

Shrimp & Mushroom Etouffee

1 lbs of shrimp
1 lbs of mushrooms
1 medium white onion chopped
3 tbsp oil
6 cloves of garlic sliced
2 celery stalks
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Harissa paste
4 tbsp butter
¼ tsp basil
¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp oregano
1 tbsp cornstarch ¼ cup water (for slurry)


Shrimp Stock
shrimp shells from 1 lbs of shrimp
stems from mushrooms (optional)
¼ medium onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups vegetable stock (water is also suitable)
1 large pinch of salt
½ tbsp cracked black pepper

In a sauce pot combine “Shrimp Stock” ingredients add a large pinch of salt and using a steaming rack place the rack on top of all of your ingredients to ensure they are submerged, bring to a boil. After boiling turn heat down and simmer for at least 2 hours. Check for seasoning and strain solids from stock. Hold aside for later.

I used my steamer basket to keep the shrimp shells submerged

In a large saute pan heat over medium high heat add 2 tbsp oil, when hot add mushrooms, onions and season with salt. After onions have softened and become translucent add garlic and and lower heat. After sauteing garlic add Harissa and tomato pastes cook until tomato paste has changed color slightly and add herbs. Set aside for final ingredients to cook.

In another saute pan melt butter and on high heat cook shrimp in one layer, avoid overcrowding the pan, and get a good sear on the shrimp but do not overcook them, actually it would be best to under-cook them.

After shrimp have cooked, add shrimp to mushroom onion tomato mixture, and add shrimp stock. Cook for about 2 minutes bringing it to a boil and breaking up tomato and herbs. Make sure there are no lumps  in your slurry and your sauce is boiling, then add the cornstarch slurry and stir continuously. You will notice the sauce thicken and get a nice sheen on it. That's when you shrimp étouffée is ready.

Serve over rice or potato celery root mash. Recipe to follow.

Potato Celery Mash

1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1 lb celery root
6 cups of water
plenty of salt
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley

Quarter the potatoes, and peel and cube the celery root, once that is done add to water and salt water well. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, in other words, you can poke em with a fork and they slide right off. Drain the water.

While the potatoes and celery root are boiling, in a separate pan melt the butter and saute or gently cook the garlic in the melted butter. Do not toast the garlic it could turn bitter very fast.

Add the melted butter and cooked garlic to the drained potatoes, add the half & half and mash the mixture, just as you finish mashing add the parsley and taste for salt.

So there it is. If you try it let me know, if you like it let others know, if you don't like it, well just keep that to yourself! Just kidding about that last part. Comments and questions are welcome! 

Barrel Aged Cocktails

I sometimes laugh when I ask myself things like "Why am I the last to know about these things?" or "Why didn't anyone ever tell me about this?" And there are times when I just don't care, if its about fashion/style, you'll probably never get my attention, or even something like photography it might not even phase me that I don't know. But if its about food and drink then I have a problem!

All of that being said, why did I not know about "Barrel Aged Cocktails?" Or that they could be homemade?

One of my best friends gave me a Hudson River Barrel Aged Cocktail Kit (the kit from here on), and the results have been pretty cool. Not only that but it has given me some interesting ideas. The kit is an empty 375 ml bottle, a cork stopper and a honeycomb oak stave that has been charred. For $12.50 and shipping its a great gift. As the recipient I can say it's an awesome gift.

Now for the recipe, I use water for reasons I will disclose later, keep in mind the bottle is about 12 oz so you have space for the recipe below times 4 if each part is 1 oz. The recipe follows and I'll write more about the hooch later.

Barrel Aged Manhattan

1 part White Dog Mash #1
1 part water
1 part Cinzano white vermouth
4 dashes Fee Brothers barrel aged bitters
After thoroughly mixing the ingredients you pour the mix into the kit. Then comes the wait.
I noticed an amber hue after about three days, and the aroma began to resemble a "regular" Manhattan.

After about a week I poured the mix into my flask and have nipped at on occasion. 

To make my Barrel Aged Manhattan I decided to use Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash #1. It is a mouthful in more ways than one. At 125 proof I decided that water was needed to cut the proof of the White Dog.  Along with the "white whiskey" I decided that Cinzano White Vermouth was appropriate, too many times the sweetness of sweet vermouth overpowers the oak flavor of any bourbon. I just wanted a little sweetness to see how the charred oak would taste. Finally I used the Fee Brothers Barrel Aged bitters just for the heck of it.

That is basically it for the cocktail, but the whole process did give me other ideas.

I'm a sucker for a good cocktail but also for a good hot sauce. In the past couple of months I have been making different batches of hot sauce. Since I got the kit I thought, what would a barrel aged hot sauce taste like, should I use a fresh oak stave? Or should re-use a "white Manhattan" stave? What kind of peppers would work to make that taste good.

More cocktails came to mind, what about an oak aged martini, the earliest examples of jenever (the predecessor to modern gin) were aged in oak before being bottled. The only thing you shouldn't do is use acid or citrus to soak in the oak as it were. Another idea that came to mind was re-using an oak stave from the "white Manhattan" to flavor some tawny port or Marsala.

In any case, there are plenty of other ideas and I plan to buy some more oak  honeycomb staves to use in future projects. Please let me know if you decide to try this product and how you feel about the results in the comments area below.

It's funny how standing in line you see so much...

I have tried to make this blog about food, travel, and fun and today I'm going to the source of our food, at least the source for a city-boy, living in the 2nd most populous city in the U.S. The grocery store is just where we have to go to get our groceries. Unfortunately the problem that I'm gonna write about is something that I see all over, not just the local Pavilions, but every other grocery store that I have stopped in, not to mention coffee shop, gas station, restaurant, hardware store, and wholesale outlet. I'm not trying to be harsh, but you know you have noticed it too! Customer service is terrible at so many places, why else do we go places like Trader Joe's? I mean they have great products, but they generally have good customer service. Why do I choose a place like George's Diner over any of the other dozen diners in my area? I mean the food is good, but the service is consistently good! Why do I go to Thyme Cafe in Santa Monica instead of Champagne French Bakery? Well to start I love the fresh seasonal beet salad Thyme has, but Thyme goes the extra mile to provide great service!

Just so you understand I'm touchy about customer service, standing in line today at Pavilions I was kind of annoyed! I mean I totally understand having to stand in line... I understand that one cashier might be slower than another, or that a customer has decided that they are going to shopping after their around the world cruise and buy three carts full of stuff, and that I just happened to be that guy who saw that they only had three things left in the cart and jumped in line right behind them, without seeing the other million things that haven't been scanned and bagged. 

That isn't the stuff that annoys me. What annoys me is knowing there is a rush and at least 10 people waiting in each line, and there are 3 employees not doing anything to help right in the front of the store. Okay let me rephrase that, one guy was eating chips by the time clock, another guy was taking return items back to the shelves and another guy was emptying the trash bins at the cash registers. I've been going to this store for the better part of the last 5 years and you start to know the people that work there and what they do. These guys were baggers, and they weren't bagging!

At this point I will say this, I'm old school, if you work in retail you don't take breaks or stand around and do nothing in front of customers. When you do that then people e.g. people like me look to see who else isn't working and when I say working I mean not helping me get out the store faster, or with less of a headache. I understand stuff needs to go back on the shelf, every shift has "go-backs," and granted trash bins need to be emptied. But this is stuff you do when things are slow or you have a full staff. I know one of the other cashiers was on break because I saw her in the back of the store going to the warehouse. Obviously "Chip" was taking a break, but right by the time clock? I know there are perishables that need to be taken care of, and trash bins need to be emptied. But none of that takes precedence over this next thing!

Every customer should be made to feel like YOU are doing YOUR best to help them out...

 I'll just say most of my recent visit to Pavilions didn't make me feel like that!

I think what made me feel better is what I noticed about the cashier, I'm not going so far as saying that he was handicapped or disabled, but he was definitely not completely able. If you've gone to the Pavilions in Marina Del Rey in the evening you have probably seen him or waited in his line. I admire him for holding it down and working such a physical job, what I didn't admire was his coworkers standing around, even the front-end supervisor this evening wasn't there supporting the front-end. The "supervisor" showed up and opened a cash register to ring folks up just as our cashier was finishing ringing us up.

Customer service is bad nowadays because "supervisors" and "managers" let customer service be bad! Each of them has it in the power of their hand to make it better for customers. I say this from experience, every job I have had has involved some form of customer service, over the last 15 years as a front line employee or as a supervisor or manager I knew it was my job to make the customer feel like I was doing my best. I didn't have to jump through hoops, or do an extraordinary job, I just had to do the best with what I had. 

So "Thank You" to our cashier tonight. You did a great job making me feel like you were doing your best. You could teach your coworkers and supervisors a thing or two.

Duck Prosciutto 4.0 STEP 2!

The finished product!

Before I get into the next step of my Duck Prosciutto recipe let me make one thing clear. There are some things I didn't cover in my last post.

I hate to say it but I made some assumptions about YOU the reader. I have to apologize! Don't take this the wrong way, I'm going to cover some basic stuff that you need to do or you could get sick. A couple days on the ceramic throne sick! On to the serious stuff.

Please keep your stuff clean! I mean, your cutting boards, knives, your scale, all of it, but most importantly keep your hands clean! I know it's a pain but of all things, we cross-contaminate more with our hands than with any other possible utensil!


The best way to clean your stuff? About a half a gallon of water with 2 tsp of bleach! That's it, cheap, easy and right there under the sink!

Okay now that the health and safety is taken care of on to part two of our recipe!

Things you will need:
2 salted duck breast
paper towels
butchers twine
digital scale
a small plate
refrigerator or cold dark basement
cheesecloth (optional)
between 7-10 days or 2 weeks
Plenty of hot water and soap (not OPTIONAL)

Now that your duck breasts have cured in the salt and pink salt for at least 1 day and not more than 2 days (I like 36 hours) you can take it out of the fridge and clean off the salt and spices. I wash it under warm water to clean off the salt and stuck on pieces of herbs. As you handle the it you will notice that the duck has sort of stiffened. That is the wonder of salt both the pink and regular salt doing its job!

Salted and seasoned!

Once I have cleaned off the salt dry the duck with paper towels and set them aside I move on to the scale... 

NOT! I wash my hands!

Please keep washing your hands throughout this process! You'll feel so good knowing you didn't poison someone!

After you have washed your hands, get the out the scale. I like to weigh my duck before wrapping and trussing. In doing so I find out if the right amount of drying is happening. Some recipes simply call for 7-10 days of drying. Others call for 30% of the weight to be lost in hanging and drying.

I'll be honest both ways work. I have tried each one and each one works as well as the other.

Note the starting weight of the duck breast

Moving on, using the 'tare' function place a small plate on the scale and hit the 'tare' button to zero out the weight of the plate. Note the weight of each piece of duck and record that weight. If your duck starts out at 124 grams then your duck should lose 37 grams (30% of the weight) during the course of drying.

The next step is to truss the breast, basically you are wrapping it with string to make it easier to hang, this video shows the easiest way to truss a piece of meat in the range we have with a duck breast, http://youtu.be/iDtLRqoHb9A I know the graphics and intro are hokey but the technique works.


Before you truss the duck there is another option you need to choose, cheesecloth or no cheesecloth? I am trying no cheesecloth this time around. But as with everything everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Now that you have wrapped and trussed the duck, or not! You can hang it in the fridge! How you do that is up to you! I have glass shelves in my fridge and have a hanger that I have bent into a special rig to hang my duck.






Now comes the test of your patience! You might need to wait up to 2 weeks for this to cure. If you decide to weigh your duck, the first couple of days you will see quite a bit of weight coming off your duck breast, then about 5 days into the process it will slow to a crawl. My buddy Brennan likes to feel the difference in his duck. It seems that when the duck stops feeling "squishy" it is ready, that happens in about 10 days. 

Now go wash your hands!!!