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!