shiova’s Neighborhood

Jeff was in town the last week for work and we got some quality hanging out done.  Lots of delicious food was consumed thanks to some newly discovered restaurants (Rotee, Maru Ichi, Mandalay) and several trips to SF equaled much enjoyment. 

Friday Night

• The Format concert

• Visited the Golden Gate Bridge
• Dinner at Rotee with Cathy, Owen, and Erika (best Indian food I've ever had and best meal I've had in a long time)
  
• House Party with Chrissy's friends in Mountain View

• Breakfast at Country Gourmet
• Mini Golf with Josh
• Exploring Castro Street in Mountain View
  
• Dinner at Maru Ichi (best Ramen I've had in the US)
  

A couple weekends ago, I went to see The Format at the Great American Music Hall with Jeff and Chrissy.  Jeff's flight from the 'Burgh was delayed so he didn't get into SFO until around 10 (originally scheduled for 8:30).  Fortunately there were 4 opening bands, so we still made it in time for nearly all of The Format's set.  Our timing couldn't have been much better because just as we arrived they started playing Snails, which is one of Chrissy's favorite songs.

The floor was pretty crowded, so we made our way up to the balcony and had a great view.  The Format played a fantastic set.  I loved the flow and ordering of the songs.  And I am always impressed with Nate's vocals.  He's got a great singing voice and then he's also go the melodic scream mastered.

They closed the show with a new song called Caravan.  It had a really catchy sing along chorus and lots of horns.  Good stuff!  Highlight of the show for me was hearing my favorite two songs back to back: On Your Porch followed directly by If Work Permits.  Hearing the emotion in vocals for these songs live always gives me chills.

If you get a chance to see these guys live, do it!

Set List:
Snails
Timebomb
Tune Out
Janet
On Your Porch
If Work Permits
Tie the Rope
The Compromise

I'm Ready, I Am
Inches and Falling
She Doesn't Get It
Caravan (new song)

I was connecting the new alarm clock radio I got for my birthday and happened to hear an announcement about the O-bon Festival in Japantown San Jose this Saturday and Sunday.  Fortuitous!  I had gone last year and it was a lot of fun, so I was excited to take Chrissy there and have her see the San Jose Taiko drum group.

We started the day by heading to Tanto for delicious Pork and Kimchi donburi.  Following a few errands, we headed over to the O-bon Festival and got there just as they were setting up the Taiko drums.  They played for about an hour and...it...was...awesome.  Photos here.  Chrissy totally wants to join a taiko drum group now (and I kind of do too for that matter).  We ended our Japan Day by hitting up Azuma Japanese Cuisine for some tasty sushi.

I turned 25 on Friday (the 13th!).  It had been awhile since I'd fired up the grill, so rather than going out to eat I grilled 2 New York Strip steaks for Chrissy and I.  We also had one of my favorite summer foods, corn on the cob, and fresh sourdough bread.  Yummy!  For dessert, Chrissy made me brownies with vanilla frosting and we also had ice cream sandwiches.

As for presents, my parents and grandparents sent me some packages so I fired up iChat so that they could watch me unwrap them.  This is the first time I haven't been home around my birthday to celebrate, so it was cool to still be able to celebrate that way instead.  From the homefront, I got Scrubs Season 5, Write Great Code Volume 1, Sony Alarm Clock, an iron, Planet Puzzle League for the Nintendo DS, and kitchen tongs (requested for corn on the cob).  From Chrissy I got (wrapped in Transformers wrapping paper no-less) corn trays, kitchen tongs (yes, I amusingly received two sets of kitchen tongs), new socks (they're ankle socks so she doesn't have to be embarrassed when I roll down my longer socks when we play tennis or go to the gym) and two Lego sets!  I was really excited about the Lego sets...in fact I already built a racecar and then rebuilt it into a Delorean:

P1020526

Chrissy and I took a roadtrip to San Deigo over Fourth of July weekend.  We'd been wanting to take a roadtrip at some point this summer, and the lengthy weekend (since we took Thursday and Friday off) combined with the fact that her sister, Susan, lives in San Diego provided the perfect opportunity.

We left around 5 pm on Tuesday evening and took I-5 all the way to San Diego.  Traffic was smooth the whole way (even through LA!), and we arrived in San Diego around 1:30 AM.  We also stopped for over an hour for dinner.  First, we went to what must certainly be the slowest Taco Bell ever.  Then we went across the street to TCBY, which was connect to a Subway.  And not just the buildings were connected, there was only a single person running both stores!  So we had to wait for the cashier to finish up a Subway order.  There also a fireman waiting in front of us at TCBY, but unfortunately, while we were standing there his radio went off about a fire or accident on I-5 N, so he went running off.  I felt bad for the guy, all he wanted was some tasty frozen yogurt.

We had originally been planning to only drive partway down on Tuesday and then finish the drive Wednesday morning, but Susan warned us that she lived in the main party area of San Diego, and parking on Wednesday would be crazy.  So when arrived Tuesday night, she had saved us a spot on the street.  Earlier in the evening when she saw someone parking she went over and offered them $5 to come over to her apartment and let her know when they were leaving.  They said, "We're Canadian, we won't take your money, but we'll come get you when we leave." And they did.  Rock on!  Then when we had the TV News on at Susan's place that night, they were running a story about how bad parking on Wednesday was going to be.

We started the Fourth off right, by hitting a local breakfast joint and having mimosas (champagne and oj).  We then spent the afternoon at Mission Bay Beach, just block's from Susan's apartment.  Later we went back to Susan's to grill some burgers and hang out until heading back to the Bay for firewoks that night.  Good times.

The remainder of the trip was split between Seaworld, Legoland, and Hollywood (links are to photosets on Flickr).

Highlights:

Thursday

• Chrissy bought an 8 GB iPhone at the San Deigo Apple Store.  After playing with Ricci's, she'd been desperately searching for one, but was finding only a few 4 GB models in stock around here.  Favorite moment: Chrissy upon entering the store, immediately sees an employee and says very excitedly, "Do you have any 8 gigs?"
• Spent the remainder of the day at SeaWorld.  I hadn't been to SeaWorld in at least 10 years (I've been to SeaWorld Ohio, which doesn't even exist anymore)  Favorite shows were Cirque de la Mer and the Sea Lion show (because it made fun of all the other SeaWorld shows)
• Rekindled childhood desire to be a whale or dolphin trainer

Shamu Believe Show

• Had Puerco Pibil on the beach with Chrissy and Susan.  That stuff is so tasy, and made a great beach meal.
• Drove up to Legoland and spent about 4 hours there.  There was actually more to see there than I was expecting.  Miniland was fantastic.  There was so much detail in all the city scenes.
• Drove up to LA, stopped at a Wendy's (thanks GPS!) just before getting to our hotel
• Slept in the most comfortable bed, ever!

Mariachi

• Self-toured Hollywood using public transit which was made all the easier by having Chrissy's iPhone
• Visited Grauman's Chinese Theater
  
• Took pictures  of the stars for slightly more obscure celebrities on the Walk of Fame: Forest Whitake (Ghost Dog, The Shield), Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica), Spike Jones (lots of music videos), Herb Alpert (musician)
• Ate a delicious sausage and rigatoni dinner on the Sunset Strip

Say What Again!

• Enjoyed the hotel's breakfast buffet for a second straight morning
  
• Headed home via Highway 101
  
• Stopped at Pismo Beach for fuel (both for the car and us) and happened upon the Rock & Roll Diner made out of an old train car.  Perfect roadtrip stop! Also waded into the Pacific Ocean for a while before resuming our journey
• Arrived home around 7:30 and unpacked
• Went back out for Panda Express
• Went to see Transformers and rather enjoyed it

Rock & Roll Diner

Roadtrip == complete success!

Last night Chrissy and I made the Puerco Pibil (slow roasted pork) from Once Upon a Time in Mexico using Robert Rodriguez's 10-minute cooking school recipe.  Damn was it tasty!  Tender, a bit spicy, and just all around delicious.

Ingredients for Puerco Pibil marinade

All of the ingredients were readily available at Safeway except for the Annatto (Achiote) seeds.  Fortunately, Chrissy was able to find them at a Mexican grocery store.  We also weren't able to find banana leaves, but based on Rodriguez's comments, they're mostly for appearances anyway.

I had to purchase a coffee/spice grinder,  a blender, and a knife set to make the meal, but I've been cooking more and more recently so I expect they'll be getting plenty of use.

The dish itself was dead simple to make.  Grind up the spices, blend with OJ, vinegar, garlic, salt, and habanero peppers.  Cut up 5 lbs of pork butt and put it in a large ziploc bag with the marinade.  Shake it around a bit, then put it in a pan and slow roast for 4 hours.  There really isn't any way to mess it up.  I'll definitely be making it again!

No Knife Required!

My one bit of advice is to use latex gloves when you work with the habanero peppers.  I was cleaning the seeds and vein out of the habanero peppers, and I inadvertently ended up touching the area above my upper lip.  Needless to say there was a bit of burning for a while (though rubbing it with a milk-soaked paper towel helped).  Next time gloves will be used.

As you can see from the lack of knife being used in the photo, our pork turned out extremely tender.  We served it over couscous and yes, it tasted as good as it looks.  I posted a few additional photos on flickr.

Even if you're not much of a cook, I highly recommend you try making this meal.  You won't regret it.


At the end of the cooking school video Rodriguez suggests learning to cook a few dishes really, really well and then creating yourself a "house menu".  Then whenever someone comes over, they can pick anything off the menu and you'll have a great dinner.  Consider a menu for JMarr to already be underway and despite the risk to my own life you can rest assured that Puerco Pibil will be on the menu.

So good the cooks had to cap each other

Soundtrack Pro 2, a part of Final Cut Studio 2, was announced at NAB last week and I was in Las Vegas for the announcement.  Working the booth, talking to customers, and seeing how excited people were about Soundtrack Pro 2 was a very rewarding experience.

Fortunately, I also had time for some enjoyment this time around.  Made it to a couple shows (Zumanity and Penn & Teller), hung out in some clubs, partook in some fine dining (mmm, $30+ steaks), and even took a trip to the Hoover Dam.  Making all of this more enjoyable was the fact that my friend Jeff was able to take a couple days off work and hang out in Vegas with me.

We had a midnight flight home on Tuesday night, and it was one of the worst flights I've been on.  The plane was hot as hell and we had to sit on the runway for 20 minutes while waiting for the bags from a connecting flight, the seats we were in (right in front of the exit row) did not recline, and I was just really exhausted from the whole trip.  Needless to say, I was quite grumpy faced by the time the plane landed.

Fortunately, Ricci and Chrissy came to pick us up at the airport and had a tasty surprise waiting for us upon our arrival back at The Barn:  Sin City Breakfast Tacos!!

One night before our trip to Vegas, we had watched the Robert Rodriguez 10 minute cooking school videos on Puerco Pibil and Breakfast Tacos.  So, Chrissy had the wonderful idea of making the breakfast tacos for my return from Vegas.  How cool is that?!

What was your worst cooking experience?

Probably some of the concoctions I made when I was single.  I probably tried to hard becuase everything I made was just over done.   I tried to make pizza, it was awful, I tried to make stir fry, it was allright but I forgot to make rice with it, and there were countless others that weren't leftover worthy.

For some reason I got better when I met my husband.  I didn't try anything different, it just started tasting better.  He thinks I'm an awesome cook, but really I must have him to thank for that!

Chrissy gave me a couple mix CDs last night, one of which was filled with music from the local Delaware (her home) scene.  The first song is Sober by Omnisoul and is absolutely fantastic.  The track is really well produced and the lyrics are super catchy.  Have a listen:

01 Sober

Omnisoul

As I (to steal a word from Iroro) marinate in the albums a bit more, I'm sure I'll be sharing some other hidden gems.

What is your current obsession(s)?
Submitted by eijsr.

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