Like Hulk Hogan, I Am A Real American

I won't pretend to know why Palin quit now but one thing I know is she won't start complaining about unfair treatment because as she told us in response to comments from Hillary Clinton about the way the press demeans women:

PALIN: When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism or you know maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, “Man that doesn’t do us any good — women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country.” I don’t think it bodes well for her, a statement like that. Because, again, fair or unfair, it is there, I think that’s reality, and I think it’s a given. I think people can just accept that she is going to be under the sharper microscope. So be it. I mean, work harder, prove yourself to an even greater degree that you’re capable, that you’re going to be the best candidate, and that of course is what she wants us to believe at this point.

As for her future on the national stage, some keep insisting that her "Real America" bonafides are being underestimated, yet as David Weigel notes at the Washington Independent:

"Famously, the county in North Carolina that Sarah Palin pegged as an outpost of “real America” went for Barack Obama over John McCain, by 18 points.

By every metric, Palin is one of the less popular Republican politicians on the national stage: her ticket even carried less of the vote in Alaska (59.4 percent) than the Bush/Cheney ticket carred in 2004 (61.1 percent). And yet mainstream pundits insists that she represents more of the country than the people who won the 2008 election. It’s quite extraordinary."

Time Flies

June has been productive in every regard except blogging. Some "highlights" from the past few weeks:

• Plenty of eating, obviously. Recently made baked tostones and felt they compared favorably to the standard fried version. Recipe here. Other food experiments were not as successful, especially my cheddar garlic biscuits. Am planning to make homemade carnitas the coming long weekend. As a renowned Empanadero, I have this notion of using some of the carnitas to make "Cuban Sandwich Empanadas." Check in for a blog post next week to see the results.
  
  
• Restaurants this month included: the Times Sq. Sake Bar, Hagi; neighborhood faves Olea (Ft. Greene), and Tacos Matamoros - accompanied by Kwotebel loyalist traB and his family (Sunset Park); Park Slope's Blue Ribbon Sushi (a splurge but worth every penny, particularly the fresh mackerel sashimi), as well as the wing platter at 200 5th; some homemade tofu and glass noodles at Seoul Garden in Koreatown; and drinks at Lillies in Union Sq., and Fort Greene's No. 7.
  
  
• In other eating news, stuffed my face at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party. The Big Apple BBQ features top pit masters from across the country. A friend of Sachiko's inadvertently purchased two "Fast Passes" each of which is worth $100 and allows the bearer to use the express ordering aisles. We took one off her hands and invited Stan and his kids to share in the bounty. My favorites were the homemade smoked sausages from Jim and Nick's B-B-Q, and the baby back ribs from Baker's Ribs. As you can see from the fully punched out Fast Pass, no little piggies survived.
  
  
• Caught the Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza, before it packed up for the summer. My first Cirque experience and a real treat.
  
  
• Had freakin' awesome seats to the the thrilling Cotto/Clottey fight at Madison Sq. Garden. As usual, the seats were courtesy of the one and only Kurt Emhoff. Thanks Kurtis!!! Cotto was not dominant but gutted out a tough and impressive win in front a supportive and star studded crowd.
  
  
• Became an Apple fan boy. Despite a back injury several days earlier that made standing in place for more than 10 minutes extremely painful, I stood in line for two and a half hours to get the newest iphone 3gs the day it was released. I've been a Blackberry man for the last few years and though I was completely happy with my phones (first the pearl, then the curve), being out of contract and itching for a new toy, I sort of lost my mind. It was inevitable I guess. Completely satisfied so far.
  

That's What I Call Hustling ...

Several years ago when I briefly considered moving to Chicago I would periodically browse the real estate listings of a couple of online real estate brokers to get a sense of neighborhoods, property styles, and prices. One site in particular, Dream Town, seemed to have the best combination of listings and easy to use interface so I created an account in order to fully use their site. I go back to Dream Town periodically to get a sense of how Chicago real estate is faring post bubble (not very well). A couple days after my last visit I received an email from a broker at Dream Town. Based on my search criteria he suggested several listings I might be interested in as well as a couple of upcoming open houses. I was impressed. It was the kind of followup that seems obvious, particularly in a commission based industry, but I haven't experienced it before. I actually wrote the guy back to let him know that I wasn't in the market.

Tilt Shifting Fun

Tiltshiftmaker is a website that simplifies and streamlines the process of creating a tilt shift image. Tilt shifting is a photographic process where parts of an image are intentionally blurred creating the illusion of miniaturization. With tiltshiftmaker all you have to do is simply select the photo you wish to tilt shift, upload it, and adjust the sliders until you get the result you're looking for. Pretty nifty!

Here's a before and after of a photo I took in Prague (enlarge for full effect):



Here's a before and after of a picture I took on a beach in northern California; the effect is more subtle but pretty interesting I think:



Click for a gallery of images.

3-1

On Sunday May 31, Sachiko and I battled the husband and wife team of Dave and Carol in Battle Onion. Though it was awfully tough staying in and cooking on such a beautiful day, as reigning champs we had a title to defend.

Unlike previous battles, we entered Battle Onion calm and unstressed. Though Sachiko and I prevailed in Battle Egg, our overly complex dishes had us worried and stressed before and during that competition. As a result, in the heat of battle, several missteps were made. For Battle Onion we stuck with interesting but less technical dishes. Dishes that we hoped would win on flavor, creativity, and presentation, as opposed to difficulty.

We started with the perfect appetizer, a panko crusted, pork and seaweed negimaki. Served on a Shiso leaf, this derivation of beef negimaki was crispy and tasty. Most judges liked the negimaki more than they liked the accompanying sauce; Tonkatsu with mustard and crushed sesame. Despite mixed reviews for the sauce, this dish was a great first course for us.


Our second dish was a creamy leek and brie soup served with a garnish of fried leeks. Once again, we scored on flavor and presentation. Being lactose intolerant, I stay away from creamy soups, however, a box of lactaid pills allowed me to dive in without fear. A heavy hand with the salt cost us a few points but wasn't enough to temper the judges mostly positive reactions.


Our third dish an Italian styled prosciutto wrapped stuffed onion. We filled the onions with a mixture of mushroom, cubed prosciutto, onion, garlic, Parmesan, and breadcrumbs. Accompanying the onions was a homemade basil tomato sauce. Our opponents also served a stuffed onion, theirs with a creamy and spicy filling in a Vidalia onion. This dish received a wide range of scores. We worked on this dish in the weeks leading up to battle tweaking the recipe and perfecting our technique and were happy with the results, the comments of a couple of the judges notwithstanding.


For desert we served a savory pumpkin and caramelized onion muffin with toasted pumpkin seeds and a homemade mascarpone and maple frosting. Since the muffin was more savory than sweet, the addition of the frosting proved to be critical. Although this dish turned out well, our opponents really nailed their desert and thus beat our score on this course.


We beat Dave and Carol by a score of 327 to 321. It's gratifying to win, however, going into this battle Sachiko and I had decided that if we won, we'd forfeit our next turn. We needed a break. As fun as the competition is, it is also a ton of work, expensive, and preparing for each battle consumes big chunks of precious weekend time. Fortunately, the judges and other participants all agreed that a break was in order; summer everyone realized, was not the time to spend indoors cooking. The next battle - Battle Chicken - will be held in late September. Until then, Sachiko and I look forward to cooking for ourselves and enjoying a summer free of battle.

Photos and descriptions of our competitor's dishes are posted on the Iron Chef Brooklyn Blog.

Coolness

Make music with this

To All Aliens Watching Us, Hi!

Time lapse video of the night sky. Cool!



Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Time For Some Answers Mr. President

I have a lot of faith in the long term strategies of our President but that doesn't mean my tolerance for short term BS is unlimited.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Moral Kombat
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

With The Money We Saved on Dinner ...

Isn't Stuart Little cute? You know what's not cute, real mice joining you for dinner at a restaurant. Not cute at all.

After enjoying the new Star Trek movie on Friday, we headed to dinner at Spice on 4th Ave and 10th Street in the Village. Unfortunately we got more than Thai Fusion. Instead of turning on the air conditioning, the workers at Spice opened two street-side doors. That is how, I suspect, our furry little germ bucket got close enough to pay us a visit.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted him; Stuart Little's ugly cousin calmly walking along the top edge of the banquette where Sachiko sat. He was about 4 feet away when I told her as calmly as I could something along the lines of "get up right now and come to me." My tone apparently conveyed the proper sense of urgency because she was up and several feet away from the rodent in a flash. Though it seemed clear to us that the mouse came from outside and not the kitchen, it was hard to shake the disgust that was rising within us; we had already eaten most of our meal. Management was profusely sorry and tone deaf-ly offered us desert (as if we'd touch it), but after a few minutes to collect ourselves, we quietly left. A bottle of seltzer water and a walk down Broadway helped soothe our stomachs but did little to ease the assault taking place in our minds. You can't help but deal with the fact that as disgusting as that was, that and worse must go on all the time unseen.

With the money we didn't spend on dinner we decided to treat ourselves to some of the highfalutin drinks served at Pegu Lounge. They were what the doctor ordered; tasty, soul southing, and mind numbing. We felt so much better after our drinks that I didn't feel bad about paying $13 a cocktail - a sentiment that I will likely never feel or utter again. Pegu is located at 77 Houston St. near W. Broadway.

Funny Headlines

• Afghanistan's only pig quarantined in flu fear
• Priest in woman-liking scandal

2 and 1

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to find out how we fared in Battle Egg. The 'we' being Sachiko and I, Sachiko subbing in for my original partner Cybele who couldn't participate due to family illness. Battle Egg being our first defense of the Iron Chef Brooklyn title we earned by winning Battle Pork. Well I won't torture you anymore, because for one, I don't approve of torture, and secondly, if I go on and on and on without getting to the point, how many of you will even be around to find out that WE WON!!!!

In an unprecedented moment in Iron Chef Brooklyn history, the judges scored the battle a tie but with neither team particularly interested in a 'scramble off' or a rematch, we decided to let the battle be decided on the strength of each team's best dish; the highest scoring dish of the day would decide the winner. And the winner was our cilantro infused egg, chorizo, and cheese empanada. Our competitors, Sam and Beth served up some tasty fare and we felt fortunate to win, especially considering that our ambition on a couple of dishes was not matched by execution.

We started with a spicy egg salad (featuring Japanese mayo and mustard, chives, and pecans), topped by a homemade mango chutney with macadamia nuts, which was served on a cocktail cracker that we covered with a piece of Canadian bacon. I'm not an egg salad fan but I thought this tasted pretty good, the judges, however, were not all that impressed.

Our second dish was the most challenging, Ponzu ginger steak with poached eggs. The steak was marinated in ponzu, ginger, and honey, and was topped by a green salad of asparagus, green beans, and chives that had been dressed with a citrus vinaigrette. The key to this dish was the poached egg which was to rest on top, unfortunately, cooking six poached eggs at once proved tricky and our eggs were over cooked. What should have been a home run for us turned out to be a scoring also ran.

Thankfully we hit all the right notes with our empanadas. They were accompanied by a spicy pico de gallo, and a cool and creamy avocado sauce. The recipe for these has been posted on the Iron Chef Brooklyn Website.

Our desert was another dish where ambition and execution clashed. We made orange and mixed berry Sabayon, with amaretto cookies. These came out wonderful in trial runs at home but under the pressure of battle we let our eggs overcook slightly resulting in a less pleasing dish.

Despite the hiccups, we pulled out the victory. Our reward? Besides fame amongst the foodie community of Brooklyn, we get to defend our title later this month in Battle Onion. Stay tuned!

I'm On The Left

Sachiko and I unwound at Excellence Playa Mujeres in Mexico last week. EPM is an all suite, adults only, step up from your average all inclusive sort of place. We sunned, ate, and drank plenty - and returned swine flu free! For those not on Facebook you can see more photos here.

PC Bullshit

Personally I'd rather head down to the Flea Market

Umm, Yeah ... More Food

Friday night was wing night at Big D's. I rarely deep fry so I was happy to catch an episode of Good Eats a while back where Alton Brown demonstrated his steamed-then-baked wing technique. It's the best alternative I've found for producing crispy baked wings without filling the entire house with smoke. I've used this technique several times and have adjusted cooking times and temperatures for my oven; I usually need 5-10 minutes more cooking time than the recipe calls for. For sauce, I went traditional - Franks hot sauce, butter, and garlic. Cannot go wrong with that!

On Saturday I competed in my second round of Iron Chef Brooklyn. With battle partner Cybele, we challenged reigning champs Jeff and Danielle in Battle Pork. As you might recall, Cybele and I fought valiantly but lost in our first battle - Battle Cheddar. Wizened and better prepared, we took our amateur cooking chops to new heights and sliced and diced our way to victory!

Cybele and I each prepared two dishes. Cybele started us off with a Cordon Bleu Tartlette. Her second dish (served third), was a traditional German sauerkraut with three types of pork sausages. For my first dish (served second), I prepared a Chinese style Mapo Tofu with mini pork meatballs. This dish packs a lot of heat so I served it with rice and a dry Asian beer.


My second dish (served fourth) was desert: candied and spiced Berkshire bacon, dipped in white chocolate, served over a coffee liqueur infused dark chocolate sauce, and garnished with maple glazed walnuts. A mouthful in words and real life!


Our competitors served a series of incredibly tasty sandwiches including a Banh Mi, a Cuban sandwich, and a BLT. Though each was delicious, the judges stated that our creativity and presentation pushed us over the top. For images and detailed descriptions of all of the dishes check out the the Iron Chef Brooklyn blog.

Though I stuffed my face with Jeff and Danielle's sandwiches during the battle, I was ready for another good meal later that night. Sachiko and I both had the urge for Italian so we headed to Smith Street in Carroll Gardens. I had a couple of places in mind but figured (rightly so), that once on Smith Street we'd have plenty of choices to consider. Savoia's dimly lit interior and menu that featured pastas as well as Neapolitan crust style pizzas won our business that night. We shared a decadent meat lasagna, and a mushroom pizza, and washed it down with a pricier than average (for Big D), but supremely tasty bottle of Italian red wine. Dinner for two, with the wine accounting for more than half the bill, came to $81 before tip. Savoia is located at 277 Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

But wait, there's more. Brunch at Jane Sunday morning. See their menu here. You can't go wrong with any of it.

Get out there and eat, people!

Ha

I Hear It, You?

Created by Train Horn

All I Do Is Eat (Home Cookin' Edition)

Lest my stories of dining out give the wrong impression, I wanted to make sure that it was clear that most of my eating these days occurs at home. The occasional dining out splurge is balanced by weeks of meals at home. Here are a couple of successful recent home cooked meals.

I have tried in the past to successfully replicate Jamaican styled ox tails and I finally "nailed" it. I combined a couple of recipes I found online to give it "that" taste - in this case the key ingredients were thyme, ginger, soy sauce, a jalapeno (couldn't find scotch bonnet), and all spice (in addition to things like garlic, onion, pepper, scallion, tomato, carrots, and beef stock). After browning the ox tails, I added the stock and vegetables and started the slow process of reducing it all.


Four hours and a can of broad beans later and we're home. I served this with coco rice and peas and was a happy camper.


Inspired by the deep dish pizza stories of a friend, we decided to make some of our own this past weekend. Ours were thin crust (we let our dough rise for two hours) and cooked in cast iron cookware. The first was a vegetable pie featuring mushroom, jalapeno, tomato, garlic, onion, fresh mozzarella, and fresh grated Parmesan. The cast iron skillet I used for this pie is about 15" across so the crust was a little thinner than originally planned.


We cooked the second pie in a cast iron enamel dutch oven that has a diameter of about 12" so the crust came out slightly thicker than the first pie. This was our meat pie but aside from substituting pepperoni for mushroom and omitting the jalapenos, the toppings were otherwise the same. The cast iron cookware we used contributed to great crisp crusts on both pies. Though my sauce came out sweeter than I had planned, there were no complaints and nary a slice remaining when all was said and done.

All I Do Is Eat (But You Already Knew That)

I also saw a play!

Friday night at the Bam Harvey Theater we saw the Sam Mendes (American Beauty) directed production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Great cast, great direction, and utterly enjoyable. Also a great value at $35 a seat.

A brisk walk after the show led us to the always reliable and stylish Clinton Hill Latin restaurant, Luz. We shared the empanadas - I've been told that my baked turkey empanadas are just as good :-) - and ceviche appetizers, and the roasted pork and rotisserie chicken entrees. The pork was tasty but a touch dry, however, everything else was spot on and delicious. The only let down in my meal was the beer I ordered, a Kasteel Cru. A French beer brewed using champagne yeast for a fine, crisp lager with a sparkling finish. Not much flavor or sparkle if you ask me, however, considering this bottle often sells for $10-$12 in Manhattan restaurants, the $7 I paid was a bargain. Dinner as described above with two drinks (including the Cru) came to $62 before tip. Luz is located at 177 Vanderbilt between Myrtle and Willoughby.

Saturday we headed to Petite Crevette for dinner. This French inspired seafood restaurant is highly regarded and BYOB - a real bonus during these dark economic times. We brought an inexpensive unoaked New Zealand Chardonnay - kind of got what we paid for on that one. Petite Crevette doesn't normally take reservations so we were surprised when asked if we had one. Reservations, we learned, are accepted/required on holidays and special occasions. Fortunately, and I mean damn fortunately, there was an empty table when we arrived and we were immediately seated. Within minutes a swell of would be diners, all like us, unaware of the special occasion reservation rule, crowded the door of this tiny bistro. Though the full menu appeared to be available, we were directed to the price fix menu ($49), an acceptable trade off for having snagged the last free table we'd see for the next hour and a half or so. For the appetizer course we chose the crab cake, and the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad. For our entrees we choose the Bouillabaisse, and the roasted Cod. For desert we chose the apple tart, and the poached pear. The owner and chef is quite the character and because his tiny kitchen is in the tiny front dining room where we sat, you could say his "colorful" personality was the final ingredient in our meal. Not a bad bite all night. Dinner for two came to $98 before tip. Petite Crevette is located at 144 Hicks Street on the corner of Union Street in Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn. Cash only.

Motivated by last week's successful Jamaican style ox tail stew, we decided to try our hands at jerk chicken. We marinated our chicken overnight and were actually concerned that it might be too hot as a result. Wrong! Though flavorful in its own right, our chicken was as jerked as George Bush is scholarly. The jalapeños we used in lieu of scotch bonnets had no fire. None. I knew jalapeños weren't as hot as scotch bonnets, but I didn't realize how much milder they are; scotch bonnets are 15-40 times hotter than the average jalapeño. Oh well, dinner was still tasty. We finished with some incomparable Teuscher Champaign Truffles and a bottle of Lindemans Framboise.

We decided to finish the long weekend on a strong note so we headed into the city for what I was told - by someone who knows! - is the top Ramen Noodle in town, Ippudo. Unfortunately, the place was packed. Despite the temptation of the rarely sighted Yebisu beer, having not eaten since breakfast we couldn't justify the hour wait so we headed to the nearby Menkui Tei. We ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen and a miso based pork ramen, the Mabo Tofu, and washed it down with a 33.8 oz Asahi (which came with a spicy shrimp appetizer for a budget pleasing $12!!!). Filling, delicious, and the perfect way to finish a weekend full of great eats. Dinner came to $37 before tip. Menkui Tei is located at 63 Cooper Sq., between 7th St. and Astor. Cash only.

Iron Chef Brookyn - The Blog

As you may remember I participated in an Iron Chef Battle a couple of months ago - Battle Cheddar. Since then I've judged a couple more battles, Battle Cereal, and this past weekend, Battle Pasta. The host, and until this past weekend, reigning champ, has set up a blog chronicling the battles thus far. It's still under development but I can see it becoming a good resource - several of us will be adding our recipes to the site. This is timely stuff because my battle partner Cybele and I will be battling the new champs on March 21 in Battle Pork. Who can resist pork?

Buy And Hold? Not So Much

This snapshot shows the Dow's performance over the last 10 years or so (roughly the amount of time since my graduation from law school). Without even adjusting for inflation, the Dow is netting a big fat 0% return over that period. I don't think many people "buy and hold" these days but I remember when that was considered good advice. Or maybe it still is? I don't have much invested but what I have was saved by pure luck. Early last year I rolled over an old employer 401K into a new IRA but neglected to complete the instructions indicating how I wanted the rolled over funds allocated. Absent instruction, the funds were placed in a money market account. I forgot all about it until the current crisis started to really snowball. When I finally checked on my account, imagine my surprise to find out that instead of losing most of my money during the last year, I'm up a killer (in this market) 1%. Me, your new financial genius.

What Don't You Fuckin' Understand?

The remix. If you have no idea what this is about, check here.

Where's Urkel?

He probably told them he was busy ...

My (Foreign Policy) Man Crush Finally Shows Some Leg

Gregory Djerejian, author of the Belgravia Dispatch, has stopped playing hard to get long enough to pen another gem of a piece on foreign policy; in this case, his foreign policy prescriptions for the Obama Administration. It's a lengthy piece (10 pages when cut and pasted into MS Word - Tahoma size 10 - so you may want to print it), but worth the time and effort to read and digest.

On effectively resuscitating the Middle East peace process:

What is nonetheless clear, however, as much as some would like to wish it away, is that the Arab-Israeli conflict acts as a toxin materially hampering forward progress in the wider region—while radicalizing tens of thousands, such as Mohamed Atta, to take one prominent example. Meantime the outgoing Bush Administration’s obsession (born of insecurity) to follow ‘ABC’ (“Anything But [Bill] Clinton”, e.g. no robust peace-making), isolate Arafat, forsake more of an ‘honest-broker’ role—while simultaneously airily obsessing about ‘free’ elections—all helped usher in Hamas’ rise to greater power in Palestine, with such radicalization further fanned by the war in Iraq.

On why the "good" war in Afghanistan should be re-evaluated:

Here’s why it’s not such a no-brainer to march tens of thousands of reinforcements into the wilds of Afghanistan ... Why? First off, it’s a losing battle. The presence of foreign troops (like it or not, they are widely viewed as occupiers) only serves to further radicalize local Afghans (have the experiences of the Soviets, and before them, the British—thought us nothing?). Second, al-Qaeda is mostly scattered in parts Pakistan, rather than portions of Afghanistan where Marines are operating. And, even if not, or they move too freely back and forth, query: what was it about the 9/11 hijackers, say, that made it so critical that they’d enjoyed a safe-haven in Afghanistan? Was this safe haven needed to allow some of the hijackers to attend flight school in Florida, say, as former UK diplomat Rory Stewart has quipped? Can one only learn the finer usages of box-cutters—or more ambitious chemical and biological schemes for that matter—in far-away Afghanistan (to the contrary, one might argue it’s much harder in such parts, rather than in more advanced societies with easier access to the relevant technologies etc.)?

The full article can be found here.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

Satellite pic of the inauguration. Dem is people, not ants. Click here for larger version.

Sneak Preview

The new Wii Fit Ad:

Vote Or Just Browse

The 2008 weblog awards are now being voted for. If you have a favorite and want to show love, now's the time. If you're looking for new blogs, the list of nominees is a great resource. Check it out.

Daunting