panthay noodles

I was grabbed right away by this recipe for Burmese noodles in they nytimes, mostly because I bought a bottle of fish sauce like a year ago that I have never used. Jason D. talked me though buying it (there are different types and grades, kind of like olive oil) and maybe he could reprise that in the comments, but he might be in Vietnam as we speak?

There is quite a bit of prep for this recipe, as you can see.
I recommend using waaayyyy more bok choy than they advise, it shrinks up to amazing tiny bits no matter how much you throw in there.
Also, use extra fish sauce and curry! And make sure you add enough salt. And squeeze some lemon over it at some point instead of just squeezing it over at the end.
I've made this twice in the last week. The combo of fish sauce and curry is a dynamite flavor bomb. I made it without chicken the second time because it didn't add a lot. The next thing I want to do is grill the chicken thighs and then add them. I used both bunh noodles and vermicelli and they were both good.

Delicious! I'm having the leftovers for lunch. Also, it costs about 4 bucks to make a big pot once you have the fish sauce and spices.

Speaking of southeast asia, Dengue Fever was on Fresh Air!

you've got the right idea

The time has come for me to finally reveal my identity. To come out. So, without further ado, here's what I look like:
psych! it's just albumface, or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

I don't have a lot to squawk about. I have tomorrow off. The search for Phil Lesh continues (see post below). I'm listening to Nar at work. Man, are they good or what? j.k., here's the real link

kimchee and ramen, brilliant

Looks like someone forgot to tell the ohsees that they were playing at the Press tonight, so consequently they are not playing at the Press tonight. That really sucks. Maybe I will go see the Mantouls, who knows? I was really, really looking forward to that show. I guess Agent Ribbons are still playing? How was that show at the Stag?

I give thumbs up to this play. Only 22 bucks for a ticket, so it's as much as seeing two crappy movies, and do you really need to see the eye or 27 dresses? Plus, you can get a brew on the Delta King and bring it into the theater with you. The next play this company is putting on is Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love", which I'm stoked to see.

I also give thumbs up to Japantown in SF. I went to Sapporo-ya to get ramen.

They offered kimchee, natto ramen, which is a pretty unusual combo. The natto didn't add much, but kimchee in ramen is a great idea! It was really garlicky and the broth was delicious and not too rich or too salty. The pork was tasty, too.

why?

Mike Dunne recently took a brief break from writing about wine to post something on his blog about food. No big deal, just an expansion by Mulvaney's, but then when you read to the bottom you see that Mulvaney has just hired the lady that used to own Real Pie co. to be his pastry chef. Say what?!?!? If she was just going to back to work after two weeks anyway why oh why couldn't she just hire some people to run her awesome, awesome business that everyone loved? That makes me sad. She must have some good reason that isn't immediately apparent.

p.s.-I'm going to Mulvaney's next week and I'm stoked!
p.p.s.-I finally ate at the Los Tigres Del Taco taco truck at the Del Paso Thrift Town. That's A Lot of Capitilization in that Sentence. I got the al pastor taco. Great! It was made with teeny tortillas and cost $1.25. That hit the spot. Thrift Town did not. Thrift stores are failing me lately, but luckily Bows and Arrows can fill the void.

weak as fuck

There's been a lot of grateful dead played around the house lately because smiller is getting ready for the Halloween show, and I must say, they are pretty weak. I want to like them, but jeez, meandering songs sung in reedy hippy voices? There are a couple of country rock good ones from American Beauty but even the best of those can't hold a candle to Gram Parson's worst song. Also, the worst day fishing is better than the best day working. Are other people practicing for this show? Or is that a secret?

Don't forget that four eyes/rtl show on saturday, and also Neil Hamburger is mc'ing the All Sketch Comedy Fest on 24th (and broadway, right?).

Sunday is the Oscars but I can't really rouse myself to give a crap so far. And then monday the very exciting show at the Press Club (yes?) with the Ohsees and Agent Ribbons.

vote for a boring thing

aaugh! so bored. i wish i knew how to set up a poll like movie city so i could get you to vote on whether I should go return something at jcrew after work or go to pilates or go buy a crab. those are the boring thoughts swirling through my brain.

lots of shows are coming up. the four eyes and rock the light are playing at the stag in woodland on saturday night. that sounds fun, except for the tracking down a designated driver bit, but i'll be out of town anyways.

monday we have a sophie's choice type situation, in which I could go see the ohsees and agent ribbons at the press (is it at the press?), or go see the mantles and rantouls (the mantouls? the rantles?) at the knockout. fuck! why do I have to choose. ok, the place i can bike to probably wins.

hey, did you know that local burger afficionado and all around nice guy, cody, is interested in getting to the music biz? i've seen the release he did for jay, and it's totally pro

oh sees song

Pitchfork wrote something typically snotty about the new oh sees track, and Wuhouse gets a mention for producing it. Do you guys get that Planet Clair reference? If so, can you translate the last sentence into regular speech?

william utermohlen

So, when I was perusing last weeks news and review, I tore out a little blurb about this art show at the foundry (10th and R). Self portraits by this guy as he descended into Alzheimers. Grim, I know. It sounded familiar, and then I figured out why. The nytimes wrote it up like five months ago. It's so cool that this is in sac! Don't look at the slideshow on the article or you'll ruin it for yourself. Anyways, the foundry is open every day except sunday and monday, including today until 6.

the gory aftermath

On friday I had another delicious dinner from Joshua Ploeg, the vegan chef. Don't forget to book any and all events with him. Unfortunately, he's kind of hard to get ahold of. Maybe if you message him on myspace?

The show at Old I was fun, fun, fun. Well, until the Yuba City hecklers ruined it for everyone. What about that asshole, who, when Al peeled off his outer layer of shirt (not the other layer, boo) yelled out Al's mom's name, and then said "like mother like son, always taking off your shirt". The nerve! Luckily, Al beat him to a bloody pulp after the show. I will admit, I gave him a swift kick to the ribs when no one was looking. You would probably expect that I would have some awesome pictures from the show to share, but my camera, she don't work that way, so instead I have awesome pictures of last nights dinner.

We went to the Asian Food Center on Broadway. I asked the kid working the desk at Sunh fish about a fish to grill, and he steered me towards the striped bass because it's nice and oily. It was already dead. The live fish, the black bass, he said is more of a fish to steam. They gutted and scaled it for me. It came to under 14 bucks for the 3 pound fish. I took the fishy and stuffed him with chili paste and crushed ginger and garlic, then I squeezed lemon on his skin and coated him with fine sea salt. Five minutes on each side on the grill and voila! Fucking delicious, especially the skin, which was all charred and crispy and salty.

Also, more pea shoots with ginger and shallot and sesame oil and soy. They're only $1.59 a pound at the Asian Food Center, even cheaper than vinh phat. Buy a ton, they shrink up a bit. Look to Ben's comment on that older post (comment 33) where he posts helpful pictures of morning glory. Now I know what to look for.
Here's the gory aftermath.

Then we watched "Jazz on a summer's day". I netflixed this because I read in an article that it's both Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger's favorite music doc ever, and I can see why. 29 thumbs up! This movie is shot beautifully and well, jazzily. It's worth it just to peep the fashion of the audience. An America without slobs, just imagine!

p.s.-the dude at Sunh fish said they should be getting crabs in today

dc stirring things up

Here's an article about Darrell Corti's righteous crusade. The comments are typical. Most of them are from winemakers who are missing the point. If a super influential mag like Wine Spectator can slant a majority of their coverage (which is steered by a few editors) towards big wines, then why can't Darrell express his opinion without getting slammed? People find it threatening, but it's his preference, and many others feel the same way.

inspiration for halloween show

oops stupid blogger put this photo on top, this isn't such a great picture but doesn't he look happy?

The bun is excellent here. I'll probably attempt that.
This might be an 80s pic of stevie nicks, but a cockatoo is a good suggested accessory
These guys below obviously look great.

Here's a fan photomontage of lindsey buckingham. I saw a couple on a date the other day, looked like a first date, and they were bonding over lindsey buckingham, and the lady said very forcefully "I love Tusk!".

OK, I know youtube posts are lazy, but this is rad. Man, how many times can you say "lady" in one song that's not named "Lady"?

vinh phat

Sorry to draw out this topic but...
I do think Midtown Monthly is rad, of course, and I want them to do well, but I also like other local publications, such as the news and review, which I think is apples and oranges to MM but is an invaluable resource for our area, which I read every week and frequently spend time discussing and analyzing, and Edible Sacramento is fun to pick up, and Alive and Kicking is an institution (and the Knock Knock cover interview is great!). I find the Bee to be very, very disappointing on many levels, Sacramento magazine is a joke, which everybody knows, and I think Sactown mag could do a lot better and it represents a whole attitude about Sac which I despise and yes, find very threatening to my way of life. There's the round up. It's funny to think that me taking taking the piss at (did I use that right?) Sactown could affect their ad revenue in any way. I never slant my pieces in any way to get ad revenue, and have never received the slightest pressure to do so.

BUT, I was thinking about Sactown's food coverage and thinking that I guess it's not really the place of a glossy monthly to do real food criticism. They have write-ups more than reviews. That's really the place of the news and review and more importantly, the Bee, which completely drops the ball on that. I didn't even read the writeup that Sactown had on Tuli Bistro, cuz the sunday morning, sweats clad jamband "Lovepile" was driving me out of Old Soul.

Man, Vinh Phat is a kerazy market. Yesterday I perused it and am making my first foray into the pre-seasoned frozen fake meat territory. I bought fake bbq pork and fake beef pepper steak. They also have beautiful bunches of pea shoots for cheap, which I sauteed with tofu, ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil last night. Is this a seasonal type of produce or have you guys seen these year round? They're delicious, albeit a big fibrous. I skip the metamucil today.

Anyway, tonight-Lost!
Tomorrow-Knock Knock, English Singles, San Kazagascar show!

save the aura condos?

Does anyone out there read Sactown mag? What do you think? I absolutely refused to buy the one with Rita Moreno on the cover cuz WTF? I got to look at it the other day at Old Soul and it made me really mad. Their food coverage is still the worst. I saw on the authors page that Kate W. wrote something so I thought maybe there would be a decent food article, but she just wrote this thing about going to San Francisco, which was fine, but kinda silly to be in a magazine about Sac. And their tried and true features of pictures of famous people who were passing through Sac is a real snorefest. There was this super ANNOYING article about saving the Aura condos project because it was such a blow to our collective egos when that fell through?!!?!? Huh? They regurgitated the old party line about "this will bring people downtown at night, and create a vibrant yadda yadda". They actually had a line about the "creative class"! Yeah, all the super creative artists masquerade as corporate lawyers by day. I was reminded of that and this type of pie-in-the-sky thinking when I read this this morning.

However, I will probably buy the new issue, with Jackie Greene on the cover, unless I can peep it for free somewhere. Did you guys hear about the reuniting of the Grateful Dead for Barack Obama, with Jackie Greene as one of the guests? Nuts.

I want to like sactown mag. I don't want to hate it. But their whole deal is that Sac used to be really lame and is just getting cooler and cooler and if we can just persuade more slick and glossy douchebags to deign to inhabit the new lofts and condos we'll all feel the benefit. Look, d-bags, Mandy Moore was here for a few hours, don't you want to live here now?

happy fake spring, everybody!

Holy fucking shit, The Ohsees blew my mind! I saw them at Fools before but this time was like the goodness of that show squared. I'm a superfan now. I just checked their myspace and for some reason it's only showing their march shows, but the club pow myspace still has them listed with agent ribbons on february 25th. Don't miss this show! Don't worry, I'll remind you about it. Gomerstock in general was great fun, except there was a gnarly fight at the very end. I think someone in the Uncut Hunks was hurt. I hope not badly. DJ Rick bravely stepped up to try to talk some sense into the marauders. The cops showed up in about 25 seconds so hopefully the dudes were arrested. What's up sacto has some pictures.

Tonight the Terrible Twos and the Warm Streams have another show, a house show. It's at a house called the witchdome.

Clear your calendars for this friday cuz it's the knock knock, english singles show. All these shows are a wonderful way to celebrate fake spring!

busting makes me feel bad

A special friday Twilley video, with cameo appearances by Tom Petty and the unknown comic.

OK, so we watched Lost before we went to the show and I am calling b.s. on the ghostbusting. That show Lost me (heh) a little bit. A couple of good twists, though, and I like the new Jimmy Buffet guy.

We missed the Nowheres and the Standard Tribesman. The Tribesman are playing a house show in Davis with the Ganglians on March 23rd. Hopefully I can go to that. I am officially proclaiming that the singer of the nowheres is the punkest guy in sac. Livmoe said he spit on the audience a few times. Th' Losin' Streaks tore it up and then were cut short by technical problems, which kept the show from going past 1 am. Pierced Arrows were good. I was glad they were stoked on the show. Maybe they'll tell the Black Lips that Sac isn't the worst place on earth after all. Davis showed up en masse for this show which made it more fun. Thanks, Davis!

shows shows

I knew something would come up that would make me miss lost, I just didn't know it would be so soon. There's a show at the Silk Bar in DPH tonight (read about this venue in the new midtown monthly). It's a Dead Moon related band called Pierced Arrows. They sound pretty good. Plus, they're legends. It's a four band show (bummer), with th'losin'streaks, standard tribesman, and the nowheres. Starts at eight.

Also, there's an awesome, awesome show on saturday. It's for whause's bday. It's called GOMERSTOCK 2008. It's the ohsees, warm streams, mayyors and my new favoritely named band, the uncut hunks. Fun! At the charred doghause, starts early. I would love a ride to this show if anyone has two spots for me and my old man.

mayberry machiavellis? I love it!

I only have a minute to post. I'm hopefully working a half day today. Like you care. So this guy John DiIulio was on fresh air the other day. He was the first head of Bush's office of faith-based initiatives (similar to his office of hope-based initiatives)-an office which I fervently pray (ha) will be promptly dismantled by the next president. Anyway, this guy seems cool. He's a democrat, he was constantly fighting to give many to many different religious groups, not just evangelicals, etc. Also, he gave one of the most awesome quotes yet about the Bush white house. It got him in some real hot water, but he pretty much stands by it today.

"there is no precedent in any modern White House forwhat is going on in this one: complete lack of a policy apparatus. Besides the tax cut, which was cut and dried during the campaign, and the education bill, which was really a Ted Kennedy bill, the administration has not done much, either in absolute terms or in comparison to previous administrationsat this stage, on domestic policy. What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. [They] consistently talked and acted as if the height of political sophistication consisted in reducing every issue to its simplest black-and-white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible." The former White House director confides, "I heard many, many staff discussions but not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions. There were no actual policy papers on domestic issues. There were, truth be told, only a couple of people in the West Wing who worried at all about policy substance and analysis ... Every modern presidency moves on the fly, but on social policy and related issues, the lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking: discussions by fairly senior people who meant Medicaid but were talking Medicare;near-instant shifts from discussing any actual policy pros and cons to discussing political communications, media strategy, et cetera ." DiIuliogoes on to tell us that "the remarkably slapdash character of the Office of Homeland Security, with the nine months of arguing that no department was needed, with the sudden, politically timed reversal in June ..."

Are you there God? It's me Heckasac.

The dudes out there probably never read any Judy Blume, but look how cool she is! She has a blog, and she's so cute. She's 69 (hot!). Although, to be honest, I do recall the dirty parts of her books more than the plots. Come to think of it, none of her books were my favorite. I mostly remember reading about Deenie and her washcloth. Remember that? I guess my faves were more like Island of the Blue Dolphins and A Wrinkle in Time. And Star Trek novelizations, of course.

LOL

Despite the fact that I am kinda paralyzed with embarrassment because of this stupid joke I forgot to edit out of my food article, I am very psyched on the new issue of Midtown Monthly. The cover looks great, and all the articles are really interesting. Best issue yet. Rachel G. really harshed on the True Love, but I agree with her assessment of all the coffee houses I've been to. I loved OMF's thing on Little Joes. It almost made me want to try it again sometime. Almost. Pay close attention to MH's wine picks. I've had both of them and they are both good enough to make baby angels cry. No Soriano thing, though? I miss that. I want to know what the recession is going to do to all the development plans, and I want Soriano to explain it to me.

I finally got to do some cooking this weekend, which made me really happy. I cooked a LOL (leg of lamb) from a recipe by Simon Hopkinson (not sure if this book lives up to the hype but I really like it). The recipe called for me to stab the leg with a small sharp knife, stuff in half a garlic clove, half and anchovy, and a sprig of rosemary, and repeat twelve times. Then I rubbed the leg with a butter, anchovy mixture, poured half a bottle of white wine into a roasting pan, and put the whole thing in the oven. Unfortunately, the timing on the recipe was completely wrong, so the first time I pulled the leg out it was raw, and I ate a bite and got a bite of total lukewarm raw bloody meat in my mouth. I'm still kind of recovering from that. The real revelation was the brussel sprouts recipe. Corti brothers had some beautiful brussel sprouts with small, tight heads (sounds dirty). Here's what I did:

saute yellow onion of shallot in some olive oil for two minutes on medium heat
throw in brussel sprouts (halved), salt and pepper and saute for four minutes, until browned
throw some water in the pan, enough to just cover the bottom
put on lid and cook for about 6 minutes, still on medium, keep checking to see if the water has evaporated, if so add a teeny bit more
when done, squeeze a half lemon over the top. I picked a meyer lemon from my neighbor's tree and used that.
the recipe called for apple cider vinegar, but mine had some disgusting huge clot of mold in it. does anyone else have this problem with vinegar? do you keep it in the fridge? mine always goes bad before I can use it more than once.

dharma brew

We had a nice spread of dharma initiative products last night, including some excellent dharma pate. Who knew they had the gourmet shit? Watching Lost on TV was a rather harrowing experience and the commercials really take me out of the zone. I was bummed to discover that there are supposed to be six seasons, so that we're only halfway through. 2010? Who knows if I'll even be alive by then. What if my flying car crashes while I'm on my way to work or I choke on a synthetic meat pellet?

I assume the new Midtown Monthly is out today? It's the Del Paso Heights issue. Look for it. Did the SN&Rs ranking of sexy people make anyone else uncomfortable? I just hope no one shows it to June because I think she's going to be very confused. It's a nice sentiment, and of course June is beautiful, but I think it's a little disrespectful. Respect June!

This play has its official opening today and I hope to go to it. I enjoyed their production of Fat Pig. And you get to watch it on the Delta King!