Sorry!

I have been seriously slacking on my posts up here. As you can imagine I've been spending 100% of my free time locked in the dungeon that is the old gutted post office. But it has all finally paid off! Last night I took the bike out for its first trouble free run!! I had it out Saturday for a bike show but I ended up blowing my chain off and ripping my oil pump in half, so that was not a good ride. The bike ended up puking oil everywhere and I had to ride home with a slick rear tire. Needless to say I went very slow. I will post some proper pics of the finished bike (not painted yet) when I get it outside.

In other news we have finally experienced the Puerto Rican week in our neighborhood. All I can say is that next year we are taking a vacation that week! It was nuts, cops, honking, music and lots of yelling and this was all hours of the day. We were taking care of John's dog Henry and he didn't know what to make of any of it. Luckily he is very calm and took the whole thing in stride, it also doesn't hurt to have a pit bull with you when that many sketchy people are around! I don't know how many people asked us if we wanted to breed him! Morons.

Its Alive!! Sort of.

After three years of tooling around with the Triumph I finally got it started yesterday! Not before a week of head scratching trying to figure out why it wouldn't fire. Turns out I was timing the magneto on the exhaust stroke and not the intake stroke. Stupid. So....after getting it started a couple times and checking all the lights I decided to put it in gear and check the clutch. Bad idea. Something went "boom" and now it won't shift into 1st, 2nd or neutral. I've decided to take today off from the shop and reassess the situation. I've almost reached the end of my patience with this transmission. I have now stripped and rebuilt it 5 times, and I think I might cry if I have to do it again. I'm at the point where I'd rather pay somebody to just do it right. Oh, wait. I already did that and it got me nowhere! But seriously I think I'm going to have somebody with more experience take care of the tranny. Say what you will about the British, but they should never be allowed to engineer anything. I've never seen a trans with so much slop and free play in it and one of the most ridiculous selecting mechanism. That being said the bike idles nicely and the mag is putting out a fat spark. Hopefully I'll have this little road bump fixed soon and I can road test it. So much for finishing this bike for the Mods Vs. Rockers Rally.



On the cycling front I screwed up big time. I was really looking forward to racing this weekend at the Subaru Cup, but it is not to be. With this event being so big they race on both Saturday and Sunday. Me being a little scatter brained requested Sunday off, not Saturday the day of the XC race. And like Mike put it "I'm not driving 4 hours to race a 30 minute short track race".

Sorry about the bad photos, the shop has very bad lighting and its even worse with the flash. Mental note: a tripod would help next time.

I'm Back!

After all the complaining I've been doing about no motivation, yesterday knocked some sense back into me! Ben and I hoped in the car around 9am and headed out to Palos for a little trail riding. Ben claimed his legs were sore from a ride the day before but I've that non-sense before! He left the route up to me and I decided to do some sections that Jason had shown me 2 weeks before. The had just recently been cleared and was rolling very fast. The trail is not very technical but real fast and flowing, the fact we didn't see another person was perfect. After taking the canal trail we hooked up with a rocky gully that took us back up to the main trail system. We hammered down my favorite section and the back up the hill to the car.

This all may sound very simple and easy for a training ride. What mattered about that ride was that it reminded me why I looooove riding trails so much! Thanks Ben for a great ride, and the White Castle "reward" was just perfect! Short post for a very momentous occasion.

Weekend

As usual I don't have much going on right now except for work and the bike. This past weekend was a nice little break from the norm. "Summer Camp" opened up at a fellow employees house in my old neighborhood. Leyla and I cruised down there with a nice supply of New Glarus and some Salt Cod Fritters I cooked up for the event (the theme was small plates). Well, needless to say the party was a blast, but what happens when you get to many kitchen people together at a party? You got it, drinking games. The ChoBlo has a signature game we like to play called Flippy Cup and of course chaos ensued. I hate to brag but I have to say I haven't lost my touch! But one thing I did learn is that cycling has dropped my beer tolerance to almost nill. Leyla took over my spot and represented very well indeed. Check my Flickr page for more shots.

In motorcycle news, we are sooooo close to being done. I don't know why but nobody in this city has any oil lines in stock! Other than that I need to time the mag and mount the exhaust. I'm also waiting on a little expansion pin that holds the kicker arm in place. Monday I spent till 2am wiring the bike, hopefully right! We'll just have to wait and see on that one. If all goes as planed I should be able to kick it over next week!!!! Prepare to read a ton of posts on how the engine won't fire.

Bad Got Worse

So as most of you know I not been keeping up with this blog for a very simple reason..and here it is! Although as of this afternoon the whole thing has been torn down in order to re-weld the neck and add some brackets. I am literally on the home stretch and every waking hours is spent with my hands covered in grease and a big grin on my face. The transmission went together fairly smoothly (I hope) and I fixed the timing gears which was not done by the guy who rebuilt the engine. The exhaust is still an issue but I think I have it figured out. I also broke down and bought another magneto, since the old one was lost in the move up here. Depending on when I get the frame done I should have the bike together, plumbed and started by middle of next week. Having it run is a whole 'nother issue!

As I expressed in my last posts, due to all the time I've spent on the Triumph there has been little time for training and this weekend it showed! I drove up to Lake Geneva with Mike and was actually pretty excited about racing until I hit the first hill. My body pretty much shut down and I started to ride like I had no idea what was going on. Worst thing you can do on a mountain bike is ride "scared". The second you start to over think moves, that is when you get hurt. I rode the brakes on a hill and didn't make my moves when I should have. I got about 1/2 way through the course and took a nasty spill. Normally I would blame gnomes but frankly it was all my fault. I know better than to go over a wet log at an angle while trying to pass, at least now I do! I went down hard and hit my arm on said log. When I tried to get up and ride I could grip the bars with my right hand and ended up walking out. Thankfully WORS supplies an EMT post and they gave me sling, ice and a suggestion to drink some beers, thankfully we have a tasty sponsor! Check out Ben's Flikr page for pics of the sling (not sure how to get pics off his page). Also, props go out to Adrian for racing his first MTB event!!! He did great and enjoyed every second of it, I think he's hooked! All in all it was a fun race. We had a great team showing, good cheering section, and Ben and Mikes race was one of the best I've seen in a while.

Of course no trip to Wisc. is complete (at least for Mike and I) without a stop for delicious local beer!!! I picked up a nice sampler from New Glarus and a Porter from Central Waters. I haven't tried the Porter yet but it looks amazing. Mike went on a can kick and got some great beers in cans. Summertime just screams canned beers!


Now I have to go find my "game face" since I seem to have left it in last season.

Motivation

Ever since the start of spring my motivation to ride has steadily gone downhill. The biggest reason is simply my yearly allergy attacks. When the pollen comes out I literally go through 2 months of hell which no medication can curb. Even if I did get out and ride I would be at a major deficit because of how messed up my sinuses are. I feel another factor is that I rode so much through the winter my body has decided that this is break time and not go fast time, kinda sad. There is a WORS race this weekend but according to Ben it may not happen due to the weather. If it does I'm just going to ride it like a hard training ride, just kinda sit back and work on some things.

Not much visual progress on the bike yet. Spent last night working on the seat and headlight. I'm waiting on a small part to get the tranny back together and then I can pretty much button up the bottom end and concentrate on the frame and brackets. More pics will be posted once I get the tank on.

It's Here!

After 2 years of f'ing around with this project I finally have the financial means and space to get this sexy beast finished! It doesn't look like much in the picture but I pulled a bunch of pieces off to finalize the tranny and timing gears. I was lucky enough to meet some great guys through Pablo that offered me a space in their shop. It's an old gutted post office where about 8 guys build mostly brit bikes. They have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome and help finish the project. Stuff that has taken me months to find was procured in 2 days with their help. I've been spending my days off just sitting in the shop staring at the bike and loving every minute I spend in that shop. I completely forgot how much I love working on that thing. I'll be posting pics as I move along.

A Good Sunday

Finally a nice day where I don't work! Unfortunately there was a race this weekend but due to the long drive and the fact I was still sore from the crash I decided against hitching a ride with Mike. My race being earlier then his would have required us to leave at 5am, and that's just not going to happen. That being said I ended up going out to Palos and just doing some nice base miles to get my sea legs back. It rained lightly the night before I was expecting a little mud, but it turned out to be pretty wet on the singletrack. I really don't like blazing through mud holes and destroying/eroding other peoples hard work so I did a fair bit of walking around the peanut buttery mud. All in all it was a good ride and perfect weather for it. The bike got pretty muddy so I found a local car wash (thank you iphone) and pressure washed it clean, smart move on my part.

I got a text on my way home from Gennaro (guy I'm splitting shop space with) that they were meeting up a the Matchbox. After a shower I rolled down there and they had already acquired a prime space outside in the sun. I ended up meeting some great new people (Gennaro knows everybody) and after plenty of Schlitz, fried chicken and general mayhem I gave Gennaro a ride home. There I had the pleasure to meet his two dogs, one of which is very famous in the motorcycle world. He is the dog that bit Russell Mitchell's leg while they were filming and episode of Biker Build Off for the Discovery Channel! This incident resulted in Russell falling off his bike and breaking his ankle (I believe)!! Needless to say I find Russell to be an arrogant prick and I gave the fat little dog a big hug for doing us all a favor!

Full Contact Commuting

I won't bother you with the details but I had nice little encounter with the side of a car on my way home today (yes, I was wearing a helmet). The girl turned into a parking lot with no signal while I was coming up the bike lane. Luckily I just bounced off the side of her car and lost control of the bike. I used my body to slow down after hitting the pavement and ended up with some nice road rash on my left arm and leg. I couldn't bring myself to get mad at the girl she parked the car and came running up literally offering to buy me a new bike! She was crying and kept apologizing offering to give me her info so she could pay for any damages. The Bridgestone appears to be ok except for the trashed bar tape. What made the situation worse was that she was carrying flowers on her way into the hospital! You just can't get angry at somebody in that situation. Oh well, I rode away; slowly. Now that I'm home and washed out the cuts the adrenaline is starting to wear off and its all starting to really hurt! Worst part is that it's a gorgeous day outside and I had a bunch of stuff planned. So much for a day off!

I'm Off!

Now that it has finally warmed up in Chicago I'm taking a trip to visit the family down in FL! But the weather arrived just in time! Sunday was my first MTB race of the season and I successfully rode it like I was on training wheels. I haven't been taking my riding to seriously and it also doesn't help I haven't been on a trail since October. I was feeling pretty good about this race but like usual I gunned it off the line and was in no shape to be doing that! About a mile in my legs decided to slow down to a crawl and I watched fat men with bandannas pass me by. Luckily I grabbed a second wind a litttle later on and I was able to drop said fat men on a couple climbs. That little effort did nothing to improve my standings and I ended up placing in the high teens, possibly worse. All in all the course was a blast, fast and muddy with nothing super technical, just how I like it. The bike is still covered in mud and sadly it won't get washed till I get back on Friday, neither will my cleats!

Sorry for the lame post but I need some sleep to get up early for my flight.

It's Alive!

As I mentioned in a previous post I got some pork belly from Arnolds Farm which I decided to cure half of and make some bacon. Well, the cure is over and I took it over to Bower's place yesterday and we (read as "he") smoked it for about 3 hours till it reached an internal temp of 150. We were a little worried that a good portion of the fat would render off, in reality there was a little shrinking but almost no fat loss. The cure came out to be a little salty and I think next time I'm going to cut 2 or 3 days off the cure and just smoke it longer. The other option is to get a new belly and divide it up equally and cure each piece for different lengths and come up with a good standard cure time. Once your smoking the meat the cure isn't so much for preservation but flavor. The smoke brings the internal temp up to a safe zone, so frankly you could eat the stuff raw. My next project is going to be some air cured meats. I've been aching to do this for many years, and I think I'm finally going to take the plunge. Funny thing is I told myself I'm going to start brewing again, not really sure where I'm going to keep all this equipment! I digress. I brought the bacon home last night and showed him where he would be sleeping. I then cut some very thin slices and fried them up to make a very sexy BLT. I had some cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, mayo and sourdough toast along with the thick and crispy bacon. Nothing to say but Wow. The lettuce cut the saltiness nicely, and it was just plain yummy.


On another note I finally found a great little neighborhood bar just down the street. Archie's looks like its been there for way to long and the sparseness of the decor would suggest they are not out to impress any hipsters. Mike, Leyla and I went after a great dinner at Glunz's Bavarian Haus. The fact that there were only 10 people in there on a Friday instantly makes it great in my book, it didn't hurt that there was Pit Bull running around playing with his ball. Hamms beers were $2 and some very stiff 7&7's were the same price. Free pool and nice jukebox make this my kind of place. Dark, friendly, no attitude and empty.

Days Gone Past

Just got off the phone with Ken a very good friend from FL and he tells me the Mighty Might Bosstones are headlining Sunfest this year! I figured they might be touring (not so) so I checked the site and found this little video



I never realized how much I missed these guys. They were one of the first shows I went to in FL (Pietasters, Piestomp Tour was the first) and I'll never forget how crazy they were live and how much energy bled off that stage. Its too bad I'm the old man at the show these days. Usually just standing in the back with a beer shaking my head at what the scene has become, yeah I'm bitter, so what. I made some great friends attending shows and I would trade any of them for the world. There were days when we would hit 2+ shows a week, mind you we were driving to Ft. Liquordale at the time.

Shows may not be the same but the friends are still by my side and frankly thats all that matters.

Bad Weather and Ribs

I never expected the weather to be perfect when I moved up here but this is getting a little ridiculous! Snow showers this coming weekend?! Come on. With all this rain I have yet to get on the mountain bike and my first race is coming up next Sunday, but even that may get postponed due to this weather. My original plan was to use my days off next week to go fly fishing around Madison but if the rain holds off I may just have to use those days to get on the bike and iron out the kinks. With a new fork, crankset, chain, cassette and rear derailleur there is bound to be some issues and I'd like to find those now instead of on race day.

So whats a guy to do with all this nonsense going on? Make ribs. For some reason I had 2 racks in the freezer and the day off. I started off by making a dry rub for them consisting of ancho chili powder, cumin, black pepper and cayenne. I then wrapped the racks in foil and added a little liquid which was simply a small amount of soy, hoisin and chicken stock to thin it out. I filled the packets with the braising liquid, put them in fairly low oven (300F) and allowed them to cook for around 3 hours. The result is what you see on the right. I looked at what was left in the foil packets and with the amount of collagen floating around that I couldn't just through it away! The leftover liquid was reduced slightly and then brushed on the cut ribs and put under the broiler to make them nice and sticky. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this since none of them came out. The glaze was so shinny that every pic looked awful.

Also had a great lunch with Mike, which probably lasted longer than it should have! We went out to Sun Wah for some Chinese BBQ. We both ordered the rice bowl topped with BBQ Duck and Roast Pork Hong Kong Style. Amazing. For 4.50 this was a ton of food, best part was it came with steamed Bok Choy and half a preserved goose egg. Once again no pics, but this time it was due to the fact that food didn't last to long! The pork at this place it heavenly. Real moist with a nice layer of fat and crisp skin. Same goes for the duck which is slightly sweet but literaly falling off the rib bones. My favorite aspect of Sun Wah is the large glass vessel at the counter that if filled with crisp fried chicken skin for 3.50/lb!

Presents For The Kitchen

Thanks to my job at the Chopping Block I get some very good discounts on some very fancy cookware. This past month's promotion was for Emile Henry, Mauviel and Rosle. For those not in the know all this stuff is usually waaaay out of my price range, especially the Mauviel. Most of their copper runs at insane price points (saute pan is 260.00!). Needless to say I jumped at the chance to get some new gear for the kitchen, considering I don't think I will every be able to purchase copper at these prices again! From Emile Henry I got a shallow brassier and a tagine, both are ceramic capable of taking some real high hear. The Mauviel pieces took many hours of deliberation to choose, in the end my order turned out to be exactly the same as Bowers', odd. I ordered the thickest copper wall they make with cast iron handles, all in all the pieces weigh about 20 pounds a piece. Out of 3 very classy boxes came a splayed side saute pan, large saute pan and a med. sautoir (or straight side saute). I don't have the heart to cook in these yet! I want to do something real special but I can't figure out what that will be.

On a side note I made one of the tastiest sandwiches ever yesterday. I got a whole pork belly from Arnolds not long ago with the intent of making bacon. One of the ends was nice and meaty so I figured there was no reason not to cook that right away! I cubed up the end and placed it in my new Emile Henry brassier along with some Shoyu, Dry Sherry, ginger, garlic and water. I let this all braise for about 3 hours and then I cooled it down over night. The next day I got some a baguette and placed two pieces inside with a nice dose of Siracha. The end result is not all that pretty but it was so good I had to take a nap afterwards. The cooled fat from the belly acted like butter on the bread and the meat was falling apart. Salty, sweet, fatty and spicy. You couldn't ask for a better meal.


The rest of the belly is curing in the fridge as I write this and should be done in about 4 days. I'm curing it in a mix of salt, sugar, black pepper (alot), garlic, and crushed bay leaves. Once its finished Bowers is going to smoke it for me and we shall see what we come up with. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Life Revolves Around Food

As most of you know I did not go to Hillsboro for the race due to a stomach virus. I decided against going and completely destroying my body for a discipline I don't even really compete in. Hopefully I'll make up for it at the end of this month at the Rock Cut race. Now that I mention that I need to get start getting up early and getting on the path.

A little before my bought with the flu Mike and I headed out for our first "exploring Chicago" lunches (part one in a series). We went down Grand to Bari Foods for their famous sandwiches. As is evident from the picture this was to be a curb meal and it made the lunch all that better. Right next door to Bari is Damato's Bakery where we stopped in for some cookies. I had the lady make me up a mixed box of her favorites. I must say that they where worth the trip on their own! Not usually a huge fan of the dry Italian style cookies but these were very well made and I'd defiantly go back. Next on our agenda is unraveling the mystery of the Jibarito, a sandwich invented here in Chicago.

This past weekend Leyla and I finally made it out to Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights after hearing about it for the past year. Mitsuwa is a Japanese supermarket with a built in food court. We had a little lunch before diving into the shopping. I hate to say it but the best part wast the green tea soft serve ice cream, although the food was not bad either. The market itself is amazing. Very clean and filled with packaging that I could not decipher, lots of big eyed cartoon characters telling me to buy, buy, buy! So I did. The fish section was very nice, we bought a couple pieces of salmon, yellowtail and chu-toro for nigiri later that night. I was finally able to find some nice high end Shoyu (soy sauce) along with good quality short grain rice. My favorite find of the day was something that I thought was 100% Brazilian. I used to drink this stuff called Yakult when I lived in Brazil. Its a small shot of a yogurt flavored drink, basically a shot of lacto-basilicas, but very tasty! Turns out its a Japanese/Korean product! Needless to say I bought about 30 of them! After making our way around the market and checking out we headed over to the booze section! Always bad news for me! To make matters worse there was a lady giving out samples of different sakes. Needless to say I bought some along with some plum wine for Leyla. While looking for a bottle I found this poster towards the back and proceeded to study it and figure out how sake is made. Well, all I got from it is that a cartoon bottle runs the production line and lays out flow charts, then POOF! Sake's done!

I'm Back!

After many arguments with Comcast I finally have internet access back! I'll be posting once again. REJOICE!!

Enough Already!!

I woke up this morning to snow. Snow. Please don't make me say it again, because this getting very old, very quickly! Almost the end of March and we have yet to see any real nice days, and I'm not talking warm, I just want sunny and above 48. Oh well, I guess waiting will make the summer that much better.

And yes, that is all I'm writing today because nothing else is going on because of the snow!

Shopping

Had my first experience with the megalith of Ikea yesterday. All I can say is "wow". That place has literally thought of everything to keep you in there for the better part of a week. They even thought of tie down straps and tarps for your car when you buy a whole kitchen and realize you drove your Twingo (French joke) there. After about 2 hours of walking around I was able to find a desk and file cabinet that worked for me and also managed to come up with umpteen billion other ideas for the house.

My plans of going for a ride yesterday with Mike went down the tubes. I was beat and the weather was just plain ugly (like today). Training is getting worse by the day. I've come to find out that a member of our team is a USAC certified coach. I've been shooting emails back and forth with Bob and he is currently working on a plan to get me ready for Nationals and the WORS season. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to improve my diet a bit. I don't eat very many solid meals while I'm working, just alot of small portions scattered throughout the day. I think this is a big factor in me being so sluggish lately (the weather doesn't help either).

I also just got another order from Arnold's Farm! Bowers got a whole pork shoulder and I got a whole pork belly to make Rillions and Bacon. I'll post some pics when I start the process. I'm sure Bowers will also have something to say about the shoulder when he get it. I'm looking forward to Pulled Pork Sandwiches!

Been a While!

Now that I have lost 80% of my readers, I'm finally back! #1 rule while moving is take care of Comcast first! One week to get my service installed!! What a joke. Otherwise we are almost moved into the new place and not living out of boxes anymore. That's not saying we have things put away but its getting there. I'm not going to post any pictures of the apt. since I know there are some real creepy people out there who read this, you know who you are!

As for cycling I have been slacking like never before. I keep telling myself that MTB season doesn't start for a while but that is no excuse. My 30 min. on the trainer today was a joke, I felt sluggish and just had zero motivation. Last Sunday a couple of us from the team headed down to Hillsboro to pre-ride the course. I'm screwed. After the first 22mile lap I got dropped like an ugly baby. I had never ridden hills and these were short and brutal. I'm hoping I can at least hang with the pack on race day but coming in DFL is looking very likely. Oh well, we'll be out sporting the new kits and it should be a good time.

Below are some pics I have taken while the blog was down. I've found that I delete more pictures than I take with the new camera!

Amazing burgers at Kumas! All named after Metal bands!

My first meal at the new place. Mangos with chili and lime and Mexican
Street Corn. Bought from a guys food cart!

Me+2 bikes+backseat=Not Comfortable!!

Gotta love scenic Illinois.

Not For The Kids!

Ok, so I'm on a You Tube kick! Those of you who saw the film "American Hardcore" will have seen a shorter version of this Negative FX clip. From what I gather they were opening for Mission to Burma when halfway through FX's set Burma got mad at all the kids on stage (worried about equipment). Patrick Raftery (guitarist) and Choke (vocals) along with some of the crowd proceed to take back the stage and finish their set. As you can imagine after watching this, it was their last show ever, the band just walked away and never spoke again. Funny thing is they never officialy released anything and only played 6 shows, Choke's next band Last Rights did one show and post-humously put out a 7". Still, these two bands are still considered one of the great 80's HC bands. Choke is still playing with Slapshot and Start and Stipes, not sure about the others.

Good Kids TV!

As I've posted on here before the kids show "Yo Gabba Gabba" must have some great writers as they seem to invite some amazing bands on their show. Here is another one I just found of the Aggrolites doing a bit! Its good to see that kids are getting exposed to REAL MUSIC, by real musicians and not the overproduced garbage on the radio. Big ups to the crew who puts this show together, makes me smile.


And speaking of the Aggrolites their new video for "Reggae Hit LA" is up:

Beer, Yum.

Now that I have finally acquired a proper camera you all are going to be subjected to some terrible photography! Cool thing about this camera is that it can take multiple exposure values with one shot (ie idiot proof), although the manual settings still baffle me.

I picked up some of this great French cider from Whole Foods on Tuesday along with some other beers. I've always had a thing for cider, not the the pucker sweet American/English variety but the very dry style typical of Normandy. I had some when I was there in high school and have loved it ever since. Funny thing is nobody else drank it! Typical! As you can see on the bottle the Alc. content is only 5.5% which makes for a very refreshing drink and an excellent pairing with fatty foods. The taste is almost like a sparkling wine but the alcohol is more subdued. I remember my first cider I thought had some olives on the palate and I got that same flavor again with this, not in a bad way, just slight saltiness. There is another cider I get that is an Organic brand also from Normandy, although that one I find a little sweeter and not as refined.


One of the other beers I got was this Taras Boulba from Belgium. I had never seen this beer before and I think they had just got it in. I was instantly drawn to the artwork on the label, easily the most eye appealing bottle I've ever seen. I did a little research on Beer Advocate about it and it is brewed by Brouwerij Sint-Pieters (gotta love phonetic Flemish spellings). Some of there other beers have equally impressive labels, but frankly I've never seen them around. The beer itself poured very nicely and had a nice eggshell head that stuck around. It had a nice malty nose and a little bit of pepper nothing to strong. I was lured by the bottles claim of "extra hoppy" (only English on the bottle), but it wasn't that at all. Not saying it wasn't delicious but I was expecting IPA hops. Great beer and very easy to drink for a Belgian pale ale, I hope to get another one before they're gone.

Who Woulda Thunk It!

Mike: Oh yeah I love watching Dirty Jobs, the host is such a smart ass. By the way did you know you qualified for the mountain bike national championships?
Me: (Jaw drops and nothing comes out)....What, wait, huh? How the hell did I do that?
Mike: You placed well at Alterra Classic.
Me: Huh?

This goes on for a couple minutes till it actually sinks in that I get to ride in USAC's National Championships in Mt. Snow Vermont!! I placed 7th in my age group at a race this past season that is apparantly a qualifier, who knew. Frankly ever since Mike told me this I've been bouncing off the walls and looking for any excuse to start training again. Up till Saturday night I was simply going to race in order to have fun and win a couple races, now I have a goal and something to work my ass off towards. Upon reading this I'm sure Zach will be jumping at the chance to wreck me on some interval rides.

In other cycling news, the Tour of California started today and I heard a terrible piece of news during the intro. From what I gather Team Astana is being banned from riding the Tour De France, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice and Paris-Tours. If this was the same team from last year I wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow considering their scandal. The thing is the whole team is new including managers, only thing that is the same is their financial backers. The worst part is that the team leader is Levi Leipheimer, who came in 3rd at last years TDF and is one of the best riders out there right now. Basically the Grand Tour promoters want to make an example of Astana not because of who they are but who they were! In that case why is Festina still a huge sponsor of the TDF?! If they are crucifying Levi for his sponsor then we should remember the Festina scandal and drop them as sponsors, tit for tat. Hopefully it'll work out for Levi but I doubt it. So please sign the petition and help a great American rider out!

Ah yes, and no more crappy Iphone photos! I got the camera and its amazing. Granted I don't understand 80% of its functions or manual settings. Time to start reading up on photography. Naz, Ben, I'm looking right at you!

Getting Amped

It looks like we are going to have a great crew out for the Hillsboro-Roubaix race! Ben and Mike from Killjoy have been convinced (like me) to ride on something besides single track. From Half Acre we have Zach riding with the Cat 3's since he's such a monster! In the 4/5 race there will be Adrian Silva, Kevin Clark, Tim Strege and yours truely. Our kits should be in by then and due to the delay they are waiving minimums for the next order, hello new skinsuit!

On another note I handed in my resignation to Gapers Block today (sorry Naz). I went into this project to write nothing but original material on food, food culture and not just repost other peoples links and events. What I came to realize is that I'm way to busy right now to get involved in anything like that (after only two posts!). Frankly my job is not one where I spend inordinate amounts of time in front of a computer so to actually sit down and be creative, ride my bike and work is to much for me to handle right now. I have enough hobbies as it is, I don't need to be awake until 3am to write a piece that I'm not all that happy with. I like my situation with this blog. I write when I want (usually after a beer, more on that later) and the only people who read it are ones I don't really have to impress. I can write what I feel and say what I want with no repercussions.

Speaking of beer, I've been buying a couple new ones every week at Whole Foods on North Ave. I will try and post them on here, I'm already a little behind. They have a great seletion of Belgians and some nice French farmhouse beers like this most recent buy. Forêt is brewed by Dupont who makes a very famous beer called Saisson Dupont. Both are classic farmhouse style beers but Forêt is all organic ingredients and uses only spring water. The color is a nice warm cloudy gold with a pretty lacy head. For an ale it is very crisp and the hops aren't to overpowering, just enough to clear the palate. We had this with some roasted chicken from Arnolds Farm (that was amazing), and it was a perfect compliment to the gamy/fatyness of the well raised bird (sorry no pics of that). Once again I have to apologize for not having better/any pics. I have a camera that I want but with the move coming up I'm trying not to buy it, although Bowers stole my thunder and bought one before me! Blast you expensive tastes!

Here are two pics from our trip to the bakery on Sunday, Zach is trying to stop the voice in his head saying "pork cookie, pork cookie".

It's Here!!

Ladies and Gents we have our first official cycling news of the year! I am now registered for my first two races! The first on March 29th is Hillsboro-Roubaix. Its not remotely as hard as Paris-Roubaix but I think there is some pavé as you roll through town. I can vividly see myself losing my breakfast very early on this race since I've never done a road race before and have ZERO confidence with this kind of ride. I'm going into it with the purpose of just having fun and seeing what I can do and how road races are.

The second is a little more up my alley, Rock Cut Challenge (I think thats the name). This will be the first MTB race of the season. Their justification for holding it so early is so they don't clash with the WORS series. This should be a fun time since all the heavy hitters will be out there shaking off the winter cobwebs. Like most non-WORS races there is no Comp class and there is no way in hell I'm racing elite. I guess I'm stuck with the Sport class again who don't seem to understand the concept of trail etiquette! God forbid anybody should pass you while you cough up a lung, idiot.

On another note Zach, Mike, Jason and I hit up a spin class on Sunday. With a high of 9 deg. there was no way in hell we were going to do a club ride. The spin class was fun but kinda brutal since the instructor focused in on us since we were wearing kits and the only cyclists in the class. It was great for strength training but not even close to a real world scenario. Those classes are a great way to destroy your knees, but in a fun way. After some spinning I took the guys up to Argyle for some food and then on to Chiu Quon Bakery. We bought some cheap baked goods (great egg custard) and Mike found it necessary to purchase a "pork cookie", no joke. I"m still waiting on the review of that one.

Vegetarians Look Away!

So I'm posting this here since it has nothing to do with Chicago hence I can't put it on Gapers. Explanations aside, this is just plain sexy! Its a freakin wall of suckling pig! I'm sure you've figured out by now this is not the US. Its actually an establishment in Madrid called Casa Botin. Apparently its the oldest surviving restaurant in the world (est. 1725) and was called the worlds best food by Hemingway. Obviously this has rendered it into quite the tourist trap, sad. That does not take away from the fact that a place like this would be shut down here, not by the health patrol but by people complaining that there food is looking at them. Hate to break it to you but thats what it looks like before they gas, inject, sterilize and shrink wrap the mystery meat you pick up at the stupid market.

Our attitude towards animal slaughter in this country is a don't ask don't tell policy. I'm not going to get into details but suffice to say we need to change our practices of factory farming, whether it's animal or vegetable. I guarantee the resources are out there for you to buy humane meets. I just did the other day and I'm not going back to my old ways. Granted this won't work out so well when I cook for clients due to the fact nobody wants to pay the premium associated with a good product! I don't get why people want to save a couple bucks and eat garbage.

Something else I just learned is that genetically modified (GMO) crops or cattle does not have to be labled as such in the US. In the EU it is clearly marked so the consumer knows what they are getting. Future plans for GMO cattle in the US include breeding them to withstand diseases and produce better marbled beef. The main purpose of these "experiments" is to breed a cow that can digest corn better (since cows naturally feed on grass their rumen won't handle corn well). Frankly I find this repulsive and will only lead to blander and more "sterile" meat. Hopefully the US will change its policy regarding GMO products but seeing as Cargill is one of the major supporters of this movement, I don't see that happening!

On a happier side note, I'm going to make my own bacon very soon. My new farmer/rancher said he can get me some belly! Yummmm!

Moving Along.

As some of you already know Naz asked me to write for Gapers Block food section on a regular basis. I have a feeling that it is going to make my postings about food on this site drop quite considerably! So I encourage you to check there regularly. Most of my posts will be fairly short but I'll try and piss some people off. I would like to think that I'm going to keep both going, but frankly nobody is going to fire me if I don't post here for a week. With racing season bearing down I'll have more to write about but as for now I haven't even been training for 2 weeks. Every time I have a break in my schedule the weather shuts any plans of riding down.

My first race this season will be my first road race, Hillsboro-Roubaix. Not really sure where it is but I know guys from the team are going and it looks like a fun time. Believe it or not there are actually cobbles in this race too! From what I gather the downtown loop is all pavé, pretty cool. I'm not looking for a win, just want to get a feel for the race and maybe do a break at a terrible time to piss everyone off (your with me, right Mike).

On the team front our kit order has been held up and is going to be a couple weeks late. Sucks because Zach and Kevin are going to race around the middle of this month (psychos). With some luck we'll get them in on time. We also have had a bunch of new people joining including some riders with a fair amount of experience.

Food wise, Bowers and I got an order from Arnolds Farm, a local pasture rancher. All his beef is grass fed and the chickens run around and eat cow poop like they should. We ordered ribeyes, short ribs, top round roast, a whole chicken, pork chops and country style pork ribs. The chicken looks nice and dark and lean, kind of like the ones I had on the farm while fishing with my Dad in Brasil. Tomorrow night I'm going to crack open the ribeyes I got and hopefully that will be my first post on Gapers Block.

I Love Mornings!

As most of you know (and despise me for it) my jobs don't require me to be out the door till sometime in the afternoon or late morning. This morning I decided to take full advantage of the present I gave Leyla for xmas. A killer Pro-Ject turntable with no bells and whistles. Just a jet black simplistic machine that screams music snob. I started the morning with a big gourd of chimarao (or mate for you Argentinian jerks). If you've ever had this stuff you'll know that the caffeine content makes Red Bull look like tap water. So while speed reading my latest issue of The Economist I played a pretty broad range of tunes. You gotta love that these three albums were played back to back! A 99 cent copy of Billy Joel's 52nd St., my mint condition original Blue Note recording of Dexter Gordon's Go and my favorite piece of vinyl, Vulture Rock's compilation of the West Side Boys recordings (ah, French punk rock).

On another note I'd like to praise The Economist for writing such a great magazine. Its nice to read unbiased news in this day and age. I mostly read it for the international coverage, since our American media could care less about what goes on outside our borders. "Oh, we're fighting a pointless war? Who cares! Britney just bought some Starbucks!" What a joke.

I think I also read The Economist because my Dad always has since I can remember. Its comforting just to have it around even if I can't finish an issue before the next one arrives!

More Stuff To Make Mike Hungry During Yoga.

I know I usually open with an apology about not posting enough but this time I really had no time. The ChoBlo has had me working a full week and I still have my regular clients. I can't complain though the money comes just in time for our move. As you can see from the pic on the left, Leyla went down to Argyle to our favorite Vietnamese establishments, Pho 777. Now, there are many Pho shops along this street but this one takes the cake. For some reason Tank (up the street) seems to be very popular but they don't hold a candle in my opinion. 777 uses REAL stocks in their pho as oppose to the base/mix most other places use. This stuff is so gelatinous and filling it literally puts you in a food coma while you are trying to pay the bill! I ordered a bowl of Bun Bo Hue which is a North Vietnamese version of Pho. I call this stuff the "Khmer Rouge Soup", its blazing hot and literally has chili oil floating all over it. Ohhhh, but its soooooo good. There are nice slices of pork and huge hunks of shin or tail (not sure) that just add to the ridiculous amounts of collagen already floating around the bowl. As with all Pho, you get a huge plate of "add-ons" (background of pic). This usually consists of bean sprouts, Thai basil, cilantro, shredded lettuce, sliced hot peppers of some variety and limes. All this food for 6 bucks! The Vietnamese really have all the flavors going on in their food and none of it overpowers the dish, just perfect. Hopefully one day I'll get to go visit and stuff my face in their markets!

On the cycling front I have fallen off the wagon once again. Work has not allowed any time for riding. I did my first ride in 2 weeks yesterday with Zach. I rode a bit up north to meet him and I felt great, but that didn't last long. I soon came to realize why I was moving so quick was the 40mph wind coming out of the south. Needless to say riding against if was like doing a nasty hill at full sprint, I just couldn't keep oxygen in my lungs. Needless to say we didn't go to far (as per my request) south. To let you know how bad the wind was, on the way back we traveled a half mile without moving the cranks and we were averaging 7mph with no effort.

New Blog

Please check out my friend and co-worker John Bowers' blog. He's keeping a record of foods he's preparing at home and trust me, its always good stuff!

Plants and Animals Blog

K.I.S.S

Oh how I love this city more and more! The fact that I live in between Little Vietnam and Chinatown makes me smile just about every day. Friday night I had my first experience with Chinese Barbecue at Sun Wah on Argyle St. We ordered Roast Pork Hong Kong style, Barbecue Duck and Salt Baked Chicken. The pork was a thing of beauty! Nice sized chunks with a slight smoke flavor and a big hunk of crackling still attached. The Duck (as you can see from the picture) is nicely lacquered with a sweet glaze and the skin is crisped up a little before service. You can see the duck in its first stage at the right of the picture. They blow air into the cavity to give the skin an even cook and allow heat to circulate inside. The chicken was good, nothing special, but moist and perfect.

One thing you have to understand about my taste in food is its not about how popular a place is, or how hip it is to eat somewhere. Simple food that is prepared the same way it was hundreds of years ago is always gold in my book. While I appreciate and admire most new cooks and what they are doing there is nothing in me that wants to pay 300 bucks for a meal that includes a "Scallop Foam". Yeah, its fun and exciting but 300 bucks can by me a whole bunch of Tiger beers and bowls of Pho! Simplicity is the key! Sushi is a great example, fish on seasoned rice, period. Two food staples and there are so many layers of flavor when you pop a piece of Hamachi into your mouth. This is not to say I don't enjoy expensive food, I'm just more at ease at a mom and pop joint where the clients know the staff and the food is being prepared by grandpa in the back.

Little things make food a visceral experience. Memories, smells and emotions all tie together to make the most basic meal more then something to just fill your stomach. Take my basic little lunch pictured here. To me this was pure heaven! Salami and butter on a baguette (btw air/salt cured meat proves that humanity is not all that bad!), and a Sprechers Cola. Nothing special by any means, but frankly it didn't need to be. The attitude that all meals should be extraordinary is an unfortunate backlash of the Food Network craze right now. Just because you saw it on Top Chef doesn't mean they want you to try it! We need to drop this idea of "cooking as competition", sure it makes for mediocre TV but its breeding home cooks who can't boil water. So please put down the remote, pick up Mastering The Art Of French Cooking and stop telling me you don't have enough time to cook for your family! If you can pick up the phone and call for take out you have time to make a meal. Just remember to keep it simple.

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention I haven't been on the bike for almost a week! So sue me, its cold out.

Slackers!

I don't really have anything constructive to say so I'm just going to post the only video The Slackers ever made. These guys are an amazingly talented band that made it through the whole 3rd wave ordeal back in the 90's and are still putting out amazing records. Vic Ruggiero is also doing solo gigs and has a great album out called "Alive at The Ladybug House" which sound like very early Dylan, good stuff.

Hot Pot!

Another week has passed and it's still very cold, although the snow has held off. We did our second group ride on Sunday with much fewer riders showing up which I can only attribute to the very cold temps. Zach took us on a different route down the Lake Front Path to Calumet Park. Good ride although sections of the road had some really nasty potholes that would have been a problem with a larger group. Once again Zach and Mike blew my legs off by constantly taking off the front. Don't worry Zach, MTB season roles around your going to be hurting! All in all it was a good ride and I needed a good beat down like that.

After the ride I took Leyla over to her Mom's and then dropped by Ben's so he could set the lower race on my SID WC fork with his fancy new race press. I then made my way out to Ukrainian Village to a my co-worker John Bower's place. Bowers has no formal culinary education and has never worked on the line but he is easily one of the most talented people I know for being self educated. John decided to "clean out the fridge" and do a Szechuan hot pot. Basically this is just a bubbling cauldron of red death in which you place random vegetables and meats till they are done. In the beginning it is not all that spicy but over time the broth reduces and becomes more concentrated! With the addition of Szechuan peppercorns (a mild anaesthetic) this becomes a face numbing/mouth burning experience. The beauty of the meal is that its not all wolfed down at once, you do it in stages with little breaks for beers and xbox games. Communal eating has always been my choice for meals. It allows for more human interaction instead of stuffing your face and mumbling in between bits. I guess that why we drive down to Chinatown so often where all the dishes are served family style.

On a side note our team kits should be in very soon!! I can't wait to get out off the mish-mosh of gear that I'm now wearing and get looking PRO again.

BTW, sorry for the crappy pics but I never have a camera with me so I use the iphone.

A Day Late...

I was all excited this morning to write a nice review of book I got for xmas. Thankfully I checked BKW and he beat me to it! Although I do have to admit he writes much better than me. All I can say is that you should pick up a copy of "Paris-Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell". The photos alone are worth the price.

Ok, now I'm going to have to just ramble on about nothing in particular!

We had our monthly team meeting on Sunday and had a great turnout along with getting some great business done. Being an "official" USAC team we have to hold some sort of event during the year. A road race is just waaaay to expensive and time consuming, we can't do a MTB race because the forest preserve will not allow it at Palos, and the track is strictly controlled by Northbrook! So our tentative plans are to do a cyclocross clinic at the beginning of the cross season. Thankfully we have multiple team members that work for the city in one form or another so they are going to take care of all the red tape to get a park. Our kits should be showing up very soon and I couldn't be more excited! The kit from my previous team is the biggest POS, I can literally see through the bibs like a piece of cheesecloth. Never again will I buy anything from Champ-Sys.

Otherwise the winter grim and salt has taken its tole on my Tarmac. The cranks are very tight and need to cleaned out. Granted I have been riding that rig through all kinds of gunk, you gotta expect these things to happen.

It's Here!

Well ladies and gents its official! Half Acre Cycling is now on the web with our temporary website. Once kits come in we will be putting up pics and bios so stay tuned.

http://halfacrecycling.org/

Death March on the NBT

Now I don't call this a "death march" because it was hard, but because we were dropping like flies with mechanical issues. What I'm referring to is our official team ride on Sunday morning! The weather was a balmy 50 deg. and the rain held off, although the roads were wet from all the fog and condensation. We had about 10 riders show up at Rapid Transit which we will be using as our departure point, and frankly we should have just stayed there with all the flats we had! All in all I believe we had 5 flats and a broken seat collar. Needless to say our pace wasn't the best, 16 miles in around 2 hours is pretty pathetic. We all ended up breaking up and heading home separately with me riding with Zach, Mike and Naz . We were able to keep the pace up nicely along Green Bay Rd. All in all the ride back was great although I got seriously dropped towards the end. My gear is sitting in a garbage bag waiting to be washed since I looked like a victim of Paris-Roubaix when I got home.


On another note I just picked up two of the best albums I've bought in a while, both by The Aggrolites (S/T and Reggae Hit LA). I've had friends tell me to check them out but I've been putting it off, and now I play these albums non-stop! They are so well put together and executed that they just don't get old. Check out the video for "Free Time" from Reggae Hit LA below.



BTW, thanks to Naz for the pics!

Long Time, No See

Yeah, yeah. I know its been a while since I've posted but I was on vacation and I have yet to mentally return! I figure I'll do a little post since Zach hassled me about it. I went down to FL for the holidays to see the family and some old friends. It was a good time but like all holidays everybody wants to see you and you only have so much time. Next time I head down I'm not going to announce it, might be a little more relaxing that way.

Nothing much new on the bike front. Got a killer Campy jacket for xmas that is very warm (finally). Otherwise I'm starting to buckle down and get ready for training to start. I've decided to try and go full out this season, with training and racing. I want rubbery legs every week after I race and I don't want to come off a training session saying "that wasn't so bad". I see guys throwing up and passing out after races, I don't think I ever put that much effort into them. Either that or they are just really out of shape! Hopefully spring will come early and we can start up our group rides to make it all a little more exciting.

That's pretty much all I got!! I'll get back in the swing and start posting again, I promise. Also check out this clip from a show on Nickelodeon called "Yo Gabba Gabba" (look for the Aquabats doll and Vespa in the room), according to Pablo its Hepcat doing the song and from what I hear they also had the Aquabats!