NicoNico Douga recording party!
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But yeah SPRING FORWARD, FML. My sense of time will be even more outta wack because of this. Oh god, someone punch me. hahahahaha.
So I looked up the blu-ray anime rankings. Man. Summer Wars went from 93(last week) to the #1 spot. DAYUM. Followed by Bakemonogatari: tsubasa cat. I WANT THAT LAST EPISODE AND ALL THE VIOLENCE WITH IT. VAMPIRE BATTLE TIME. FUCK YOU TWILIGHT YOU CAN SUCK ON A BIG GAY FAT DICK.
Oh look I'm Edward from Twilight and I like to suck Vampire dick. Yup that's him all right.
Okay, moving on from my absolute disgust of Towighlight, this weekend was the same. Played from Grand Fantasia and watched anime while surfing Youtube... 2 monitors dontcha know.
insert a bunch of random bullshit here to fill up the rest of this post cause I honestly have nothing to talk about. yup. thats it. laters.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Fatboy in the Kitchen
Shiang Garden, translated into Fresh Garden, was the restaurant that my father owned, and where my story begins.
It all started back in the sixth grade, my brother and I would visit my grandfather and grandmother almost every Sunday. For lunch we would go to my father's restaurant, Shiang Garden. The restaurant was located on the corner of W. Garvey Avenue and N.Atlantic Boulevard on the top floor of a business plaza that was literally red all around (red is a lucky color in the Chinese culture). Since I haven't been there for years, the only thing that it looked like a decently clean establishment. Tables were covered with bleached white linen that you would find in any other restaurant. Lacquered black oak chairs with red cushioning, that would creak a little whenever you tried to move, were at every table in sets of four. As you walked in, there were about four "private" rooms WITH A DOOR(!) along the right side, with another banquet room in the back of the restaurant. They were used for bigger parties or the occasional "business" meeting. Along the left side of the restaurant were the big glass panels for windows with Venetian blinds.
Whenever I went in with my family, we would always have a reserved table right in front of the cashier's booth. That was our special seat, nobody else was allowed there except us, man, I felt like a king. Unlike most of the other places, we never served dim sum, we left that to NBC, Ocean Star, or Din Tai Fung... which were all down the street. I guess you could say that we were considered "fine dining" compared to all those other places. Don't get me started about Ocean Star, I had a terrible experience there once, otherwise the food is really good.
So one day we were having lunch and I ran out of Sprite, so I got up and went into the kitchen. It was a really busy that day, so I just said, "Eh, why not? I'll just go get it myself." Best and most terrible experience of my life, folks! The soda machine was right next to the door of the kitchen so it was pretty easy access. As I walked down the hall, the bus boys and waiters were walking in and out of the kitchen with steaming hot plates of food like clockwork. Trying to get in through that doorway at the time was like dodging traffic, if you were off one split-second, BAM! You were on the floor.
After much thumb-twiddling, I managed to squeeze my way in, and believe me, at that time, I was a damn chubby little kid. Upon entering the kitchen, it was like sensory overload wonderland! Sounds of meat and vegetables sizzling the fan buzzing over head, pot lids shaking, banging and clattering of pots, pans, and plates. Not only the sound of our cooks busting dishes, but also the language; Spanish, English, Mandarin, Spanglish, Engdarin, Cantonese, you name it, it was being used.
At the time, I thought to myself, "Wow, this F**king epic! I wanna do this kinda stuff." I left the kitchen, and went up to my father and asked him to let me watch the guys cook. He told me, "Then go wash dishes or something." And that's exactly what I did, and spent 2 summers doing it too. Some stuff happened on the management side, not sure what, but we had to sell off the restaurant, and that's when everything went downhill... for the restaurant anyways. We also had side ventures, but they failed as well.
The thing about Shiang Garden that still strikes me are the recipes. Chinese food, it's all the same right? Not really, it all depends on the way its cooked and by whom. There was one dish that always made my mouth water, and it was the beef and bell peppers. It was cubes of beef tenderloin with some bell peppers sauteed and mixed together with the Feng family Black Pepper sauce. Well yeah, beef and green peppers, you can get that anywhere, but it was just the way it was cooked. It was put together so perfectly, every bite was like a feeling of beefy ecstacy.
And here I am in culinary school. You could almost say that me being here is like getting ready to infiltrate Shiang Garden and take back what is rightfully mine. I just want to get all those recipes back because I have yet to eat anywhere else that has had the quality food that Shiang Garden used to have... Well that, and my brother told me that Thomas Keller really liked the Shiang Garden, who knows.
It all started back in the sixth grade, my brother and I would visit my grandfather and grandmother almost every Sunday. For lunch we would go to my father's restaurant, Shiang Garden. The restaurant was located on the corner of W. Garvey Avenue and N.Atlantic Boulevard on the top floor of a business plaza that was literally red all around (red is a lucky color in the Chinese culture). Since I haven't been there for years, the only thing that it looked like a decently clean establishment. Tables were covered with bleached white linen that you would find in any other restaurant. Lacquered black oak chairs with red cushioning, that would creak a little whenever you tried to move, were at every table in sets of four. As you walked in, there were about four "private" rooms WITH A DOOR(!) along the right side, with another banquet room in the back of the restaurant. They were used for bigger parties or the occasional "business" meeting. Along the left side of the restaurant were the big glass panels for windows with Venetian blinds.
Whenever I went in with my family, we would always have a reserved table right in front of the cashier's booth. That was our special seat, nobody else was allowed there except us, man, I felt like a king. Unlike most of the other places, we never served dim sum, we left that to NBC, Ocean Star, or Din Tai Fung... which were all down the street. I guess you could say that we were considered "fine dining" compared to all those other places. Don't get me started about Ocean Star, I had a terrible experience there once, otherwise the food is really good.
So one day we were having lunch and I ran out of Sprite, so I got up and went into the kitchen. It was a really busy that day, so I just said, "Eh, why not? I'll just go get it myself." Best and most terrible experience of my life, folks! The soda machine was right next to the door of the kitchen so it was pretty easy access. As I walked down the hall, the bus boys and waiters were walking in and out of the kitchen with steaming hot plates of food like clockwork. Trying to get in through that doorway at the time was like dodging traffic, if you were off one split-second, BAM! You were on the floor.
After much thumb-twiddling, I managed to squeeze my way in, and believe me, at that time, I was a damn chubby little kid. Upon entering the kitchen, it was like sensory overload wonderland! Sounds of meat and vegetables sizzling the fan buzzing over head, pot lids shaking, banging and clattering of pots, pans, and plates. Not only the sound of our cooks busting dishes, but also the language; Spanish, English, Mandarin, Spanglish, Engdarin, Cantonese, you name it, it was being used.
At the time, I thought to myself, "Wow, this F**king epic! I wanna do this kinda stuff." I left the kitchen, and went up to my father and asked him to let me watch the guys cook. He told me, "Then go wash dishes or something." And that's exactly what I did, and spent 2 summers doing it too. Some stuff happened on the management side, not sure what, but we had to sell off the restaurant, and that's when everything went downhill... for the restaurant anyways. We also had side ventures, but they failed as well.
The thing about Shiang Garden that still strikes me are the recipes. Chinese food, it's all the same right? Not really, it all depends on the way its cooked and by whom. There was one dish that always made my mouth water, and it was the beef and bell peppers. It was cubes of beef tenderloin with some bell peppers sauteed and mixed together with the Feng family Black Pepper sauce. Well yeah, beef and green peppers, you can get that anywhere, but it was just the way it was cooked. It was put together so perfectly, every bite was like a feeling of beefy ecstacy.
And here I am in culinary school. You could almost say that me being here is like getting ready to infiltrate Shiang Garden and take back what is rightfully mine. I just want to get all those recipes back because I have yet to eat anywhere else that has had the quality food that Shiang Garden used to have... Well that, and my brother told me that Thomas Keller really liked the Shiang Garden, who knows.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
BRS
Homework under this.
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Exactly as it is. Can't wait until April 2010. BRS is gonna rock so much shit. It looks pretty epic, and I have complete faith in Huke and Ordet.
Huke and Ordet... who are they you ask? ITS TIME FOR A SUPERCRITICALLY QUICK EXPLANATION.
Huke(who-kay) was the creator of Black Rock Shooter.
ORDET on the other hand, is the animation company that will be working on this new series. Just from the PV it already looks promising. ORDET was founded by Yutaka Yamamoto after he got fire from Kyoto Animation when the production of Lucky Star ended. Notably, ORDET collaborated with A-1 Pictures on Kannagi... You (SHOULD) know, THAT Kannagi.
Fucking awesome. I just hope they don't shatter my dreams, my hopes have been rising for this series ever since it was announced last summer.
Anyways, gotta go watch BakaTesuto and OmaHima now.
----------------------------------------
Exactly as it is. Can't wait until April 2010. BRS is gonna rock so much shit. It looks pretty epic, and I have complete faith in Huke and Ordet.
Huke and Ordet... who are they you ask? ITS TIME FOR A SUPERCRITICALLY QUICK EXPLANATION.
Huke(who-kay) was the creator of Black Rock Shooter.
ORDET on the other hand, is the animation company that will be working on this new series. Just from the PV it already looks promising. ORDET was founded by Yutaka Yamamoto after he got fire from Kyoto Animation when the production of Lucky Star ended. Notably, ORDET collaborated with A-1 Pictures on Kannagi... You (SHOULD) know, THAT Kannagi.
Fucking awesome. I just hope they don't shatter my dreams, my hopes have been rising for this series ever since it was announced last summer.
Anyways, gotta go watch BakaTesuto and OmaHima now.
Stocks... You Mean the Market?
Stocks. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see that word? New York's Wall Street right? The stocks I'M talking about are the ones that chefs make and use in the kitchen... And I'm not talking about that oversalted canned "broth" you can get at the local market. Forget about that damned ringing bell and listen up.
Simply put, stock is water that has been infused with different ingredients, which is used for the bases of many soups and sauces. The ingredients are: meat, bones, mirepoix(meer-pwa), herbs and spices. Okay so the first thing you would probably ask yourself right now is, "What's mirepoix?" Simple. It's onions, carrots and celery. It can either be added raw, roasted or sauteed with butter, which can add color to the stock if you use the latter.
The main meats and bones used in stockmaking are chicken, veal, and fish. The process for making stock is rather easy, there are just 7 principles you need to keep in mind.
7 Principles of Stock Making:
1. Start with cold water
2. Simmer stock gently
3. Skim frequently
4. Strain carefully
5. Cool stock quickly
6. Store properly
7. DEGREASE
Sounds simple right?
First you add your bones, be them fish/chicken carcasses or any type of bone. Then you add cold water to your stockpot to cover the bones. You want to then bring it to a rapid boil then turn it down into a gentle simmer. This is when you add your meat or mirepoix. If you are adding meat, make sure you add that first and skim off any of the scum that rises to the top before adding any mirepoix/herbs/spices. The reason you don't want to rapidly boil the water is that all the impurities and fat will blend with the water. Once simmering, skim frequently to remove any other impurites and scum that float to the top.
Depending on the stock you make, you would leave it on a candy burner overnight and drop(strain) the stock the next morning. You will want to seperate all the mirepoix, bones, and/or meat by straining through a china cap with a chinois in it. The chinois will catching that's not small enough to pass through its fine mesh, and the china cap will catch anything that... "misses" the chinois. Stocks are usually strained into cambros and put over an ice bath to chill.
After it has been chilled, wrap it with plastic wrap and throught it into your walk-in or fridge, whatever is more convenient.
And there you have it. Stock Making 101, sounds simple enough, right?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Another Day...Wednesday to be Exact!
So nothing new really.... just got to school, gonna do a quick post, yknow?
Just pulled up the ANN website... looks like the official title to the Gundam 00 movie is going to be... *looks at the page*....A Wakening of the Trailblazer. And I do have to say, Setsuna's new QAN[T] suit looks sick. Well... it looks like the regular ol' 00 suit, but IT HAS A SHIELD. LOL.
That's pretty much it for now. Gonna go back to reading Kitchen Confidential muahahaha.
BTW if you haven't watched it yet, go watch Summer Wars now! Do it! Go open up Animetake and go download part 1 and 2... or torrent that shit, whatever floats your boat.
Next up: Wine and Lunch(?)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Oh Boredom, How We've Grown Close... Not Really.
If you're looking for the homework post, it's right under this one.
--------------------------------
Video of the Day
yukihiro is my fucking hero! ARE YOU FAWKING READY!?
--------------------------------
Today was just another day, as usual. Spent around $30 today. Good thing Adam is gonna be buying freaking lunch tomorrow or sometime this week to pay me back dayum. The other.. oh say... $17 of that was for Kitchen Confidential. I've only read part of it while sitting @ Borders a while back, but seeing as how it was the 'updated' version, I picked it up on the way to school. Rather convenient that there was a B&N on the way to west campus.
Gonna read that on the train while heading to school. Muah.Ha.Ha.
--------------------------------
On the Anime/Manga side of things, it's pretty much the same old things. Nice to have a new episode of Katanagatari this month. I wish they would translate the light novels into English so I could read them, but a 50 minute episode is good enough for me.
I'm pretty sure it's not this month, but Black Rock Shooter needs to come out! If anything it'll be out next month... if my calculations are correct... and believe me, there were no calculations involved at all. Just watching that 90sec PV for it, I have high hopes for it, with huke leading the designs and the quality of the animation, ITS GONNA ROCK. Not to mention the fanbase is fucking ridiculously huge.
that's pretty much it for now, gonna watch Katanagatari and Kobato now.
"Plate tectonics, sit the FUCK down." <---- win
--------------------------------
Video of the Day
yukihiro is my fucking hero! ARE YOU FAWKING READY!?
--------------------------------
Today was just another day, as usual. Spent around $30 today. Good thing Adam is gonna be buying freaking lunch tomorrow or sometime this week to pay me back dayum. The other.. oh say... $17 of that was for Kitchen Confidential. I've only read part of it while sitting @ Borders a while back, but seeing as how it was the 'updated' version, I picked it up on the way to school. Rather convenient that there was a B&N on the way to west campus.
Gonna read that on the train while heading to school. Muah.Ha.Ha.
--------------------------------
On the Anime/Manga side of things, it's pretty much the same old things. Nice to have a new episode of Katanagatari this month. I wish they would translate the light novels into English so I could read them, but a 50 minute episode is good enough for me.
I'm pretty sure it's not this month, but Black Rock Shooter needs to come out! If anything it'll be out next month... if my calculations are correct... and believe me, there were no calculations involved at all. Just watching that 90sec PV for it, I have high hopes for it, with huke leading the designs and the quality of the animation, ITS GONNA ROCK. Not to mention the fanbase is fucking ridiculously huge.
that's pretty much it for now, gonna watch Katanagatari and Kobato now.
"Plate tectonics, sit the FUCK down." <---- win
A Drill That Pierces the Heavens!
Unlike other action figures, the Revoltech line of figures are poseable. The object in question would be the Gurren Lagann from the anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The overall design of the mech is rather interesting. Remember the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' Megazords? Well, it's kind of like that.
There are 3 main colors on this robot. First, the Gurren Lagann is very... red, kind of like the color of a fire. Second would be its charcoal gray joins and armor plating. To finish off would be the kind of goldenrod colored plating just to balance it out.
The Gurren Lagann is made up of two separate robots. One is the head, and the other is the torso. The head has the features you would find on a human: a nose, mouth, eyes, and even teeth. It's kind of creepy how human-like it is in the show. Adding on to that is the samurai-like helmet it dons with a crescent moon crest.
One thing, unlike traditional mechs, the shoulder plates look like African tribal shields, with that kind of stretched out lengthy oval shape. On that shoulder plating is the emblem for the Gurren-dan(Gurren Brigade), with its flaming red skull wearing... let's just call them Kamina shades(named after one of the main characters that wears the same thing).
Like I mentioned earlier, the Gurren Lagann consists of two separate robots. The Torso is called Gurren, Lagann being the head. The torso itself is also another head, wearing giant Kamina shades, and bearing a beastly set of teeth. The hip area of the Gurren Lagann has metal plates like that of samurai armor. Two plates protecting the thighs, the front plate and rear plate. The two plates on the side have the charcoal gray lining with a ridged goldenrod being the plate itself.
Running down to the legs, it looks like the Gurren Lagann has a Queen Mary on each calf. It has two flame-red metal plates along the left and right side, and a charcoal gray shin guard. It's kind of hard to describe the feet, so the only thing close enough would be the shape of an egg cut in half length-wise.
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