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!