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.