Haha, I almost had 5 for 5, but yesterday was a bit crazy, so we’ll settle for 5 out of 6. So I just got the wordpress ap for the iPhone. Not sure how much I’ll use this, but it’s a kinda neat thing to have. I think that it works offline so it could be cool for some rough drafts.
This will have to be continued after this weekend’s festivities…
I-tai dinner pics still coming…
-J
4 posts in 4 days? Hahaha no joke!
These are some things that I’ve made recently, along with the accompanying food porn photos…
Vietnamese Noodle Bowl:
This is my take on what I guess is called Bo Ngu Vi Huong or Bỏ ngũ vị hương which Google translates to “Remove these five directions.”
I first tried this at the New Saigon here in Denver (voted best vietnamese food in Denver and often referred to as some of the best in the US), and I have made it a few other times. I’m really pleased with the way that the textures and flavors combine to form a great dish.
Ingredients:
Rice noodles (vermicelli), flank or skirt steak, lettuce (this time I went with butter lettuce) , mint leaves finely chopped, cilantro loosely chopped, shredded cucumber, shredded or finely chopped carrots, sliced serrano peppers, chopped roasted peanuts, lime slices for juice and garnish.
Meat Marinade:
Soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame seed oil, Mirin (sweet rice wine), lime juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed red peppers.
After salting and peppering the flank steak, cut it into small thin pieces. Add in the rest of the ingredients of the marinade, let the meat sit, and get to chopping the vegetables. I like to use a coarse cheese grater on the cucumber and I go back and forth with using it on the carrots or just chopping them thinly.
Get the rice noodles out and fire up a pot of boiling water. Once you have it a a full boil throw them in for 2-3 minutes and immediately strain them.
The meat you can grill if you want to on skewers, but I ended up frying mine in a pan with the marinade, because my grill has been a real bitch lately. The meat is already very thin, so it shouldn’t take long to cook to the middle, keep stirring it to try to get some level of consistency in the cooking.
To build each bowl, put down a base of torn lettuce leaves, a couple pinches of cucumber, carrots, peppers, mint, and cilantro. Fill out the majority of the remaining space with the rice noodles. Top it off with another round of vegetables and herbs, followed by meat, drizzle lime juice over it all, add the chopped peanuts, and some soy sauce to top it off.
BOOM!
The amount that I made, works out to about 4 bowls worth. Enjoy and beware, those peppers are spicy !
I will follow this up with the Italian (I-tai) feast pics, but til then I’m out.
-J
So I have been bad, and ended up starting yet another book before I have finished one of the multitudes that I am partially through, but I finished this 400+ pager in two sittings. It’s so fuckin good. Not only is this book sick in it’s own right, but knowing the exploits and total badassity of Neil Strauss it makes it all that much sicker. It is equal parts terrifying, inspiring, bad ass, eye opening, and heart warming. I think that it is even better than The Game, and honest to God could save my life now that I’ve read it.
I was going to write a quick synopsis, but the fact of the matter is: Read it. Now.
This book has truly inspired me to take some steps towards improving my life skills both for my personal growth/inner badassness and as part of that Just In Case scenario. Besides, if nothing else, it has some really sick info on some ninja ass shit.
I also helped kickstart some of the rest of the reading I need to get done, so hopefully I’ll figure out a time to get that wrapped up as well.
Holla!
-J
Well it has been some time since my last maneuver on this old deucester fo’ster but I think that it is probably about time to get back on the wagon and relate some details of the good old life story. Some of my friends have been getting into the tumblr thing and I actually enjoy a few short updates rather than sloggin through a massive post. I think I might have to try this out, but here comes a what will probably turn into a massive post anyways.
The summer is fully upon us. My sunburnt shoulders are proof of this. A few weekends ago I managed to get in a camping trip to the old spot. It’s far enough away that you can do whatever, and be as crazy as you want, but it’s also pretty easy to get to, has a lot of room, and leads to awesome times. Bobcat, Coco, and myself, rode up together and met up wtih a good 30-40 of our friends and had a wild night that lasted easily until the sun came up. We did cook some hot dogs over the open fire and combined with some chili and cheese (well technically cheez-its, since we left the cheese on the counter when we left) provided a truly delicious camping treat!
Our fire started off pretty small, but we built out the enclosure and cranked things up a few notches!
Also that weekend I had a great meet up with some old friends, and played some volleyball, cooked out, had some drinks, and all the other wonderful summer stuff that people do. This was the same crew from the classy Christmas party, and I was once again reminded that I really should get my ass into shape. So now that things are reverting back to normalish, it’s time to start running swimming all those things again.
Some other shit happened in my life, but since it’s been to long since I’ve been blogging I’ll cut to the chase and get right into the goodies like BONNAROOOOOOOOOO! A hundred thousand dirty hippies in the middle of an old airfield in the middle of Tennessee with multitudes of bands and comedians. I flew into Nashville Wednesday night after pulling an all-nighter, got picked up by our friends who caravanned down from the NYC area. We stocked up on supplies (aka beer1) and headed down towards Manchester. Barely slept again because the gates open at 7am and we wanted to get a good spot. 
Turns out that we got looped around and ended up really far away, which sucked but whatever. It ended up creating an interesting dynamic where if you’re going to head into Centeroo (where the shows/activities are) then you’re going to have to make a trek of it and probably stay there for a while. So instead of wandering back and forth a lot there was a lot of time spent at one or the other. It ended up being about a 20 min walk from our camping site to the middle, but you get to walk the road that goes by all of the food vendors and “Shakedown Street” where there are booths selling glass, veggie burritos, posters, lithographs, hula hoops, all sorts of hippy clothing, and a bajillion other festival/concert things.
Through a slew of shows, beers, more shows, sun, sweat, mud, rain, more beers, a brief run in with Triumph the insult comic dog, bugs, poopin’ in the woods, banana peppers, and friends, I managed to survive the weekend and make it back some at some point mid monday morning after pulling another all-nighter getting home2.
My personal highlight of the trip was getting to see all of my friends from NY and the places that they have since dispersed to. I really miss the good old days, but it’s sweet now that we still have the resources/motivation/cool shit to do to bring us back together. A secondary highlight that is always a favorite of mine is the Brooer’s Festival aka Beer Tent! They have a bunch of sweet breweries that come down every year such as Magic Hat, Abita, Rogue, Sweetwater, Brooklyn Brewery, and probably about 15 others. Rawrrr! Delicious!
The whole experience of Bonnaroo is really cool and I am always amazed that they pull it off every year. It’s truly a magnificent feat. I would recommend checking out some of these sweet aerial pics and these sweet pics of various places, happenings, and performances. And you can always come next year!
life…
-J