TONS of new India Pics!

TONS!!!! of India pics posted below - click on the pic below to go to my new Picasa page for my India photos!

India 2006

india/thailand food pics

many food pics from my india and thailand trip below. more pics to come as i just signed up w/ google's picasa and recommend you do the same. just google picasa..

my food pics below, click on image:

eating in india and thailand

new pics and video from india/thailand

a video from a night market in bangkok.



also, here's some more pics from the trip

neighbor

question:

what would you do and think if your 87 year old neighbor that was supposed to feed your cat whle you were gone told you this upon your return: While you were gone, he saw an asian mom and her two kids inside your house and when he asked who they were, they gave him a mean look and pretended they didnt understand him? he says he saw them coming down the stairs, as if they just spent the night.

Now, let's just say absolutely nothing was missing from your house, and nothing looks disturbed at all. the neighbor is also quite old and regularly repeats himself, and you think he has alzheimers?

i think he's gone wacko. i called my landlord and he has no clue who that is/nobody else has keys, and he thinks the old neighbor needs some serious help. he also thought the neighbor would have called him or the police if he really did see anything like that. plus when the landlord ran into the neighbor a few days ago, the neighbor said nothing of this to the landlord, but did mention he was taking care of the cat... man i think the neighbor dreamt this story up last night...his mind is replacing real memories w/ delusional ones...a definite symptom of alzheimers... rest in peace to my grandfather, who was a victim of alzheimers. at one point, alzheimers hit him so bad he was talking into the remote control, trying to pass it around to other family members in the room saying the phone was for them, and that he just had a nice conversation with someone on it....its a crazy disease...

so what do you think?

india videos

2 videos from india:


1) here's some video from the streets of mumbai/bombay:



2) a video of a snake charmer near Ghandi's cremation site:

end of trip

i'm so tired...too tired to type momre and upload pics from the camera...but not the cellphone camera, we have 2 nice ones for you now...just got back to portland this morning instead of last night...LAX airport is the worst in terms of directions. our flight to the states was late also. that and miscommunication in terms of picking up bags when arriving in the states / customs/ checking into domestic flights made us miss our flight last night. the two awesome upsides, however are:

1) I met Kanye west in the airport and he was really cool. he was w/ his fiance/wife. he let me take a pic with him. peep:

2) we got to eat at In-N-Out burger, which really does stand up to all the hype. order your cheeseburger "animal style" off the secret menu!

more india and some thailand

before i forget, 2 days ago, i had an awesome 2 hour butt naked aromatherapy hot oil massage from a blind lady. no you dirtballs, there was no happy ending. at one point, she did pick it up though and say something in thai, but i have no clue what she said. i laughed and she laughed and she put it back down and kept massaging my legs or whatever. yesterday we hit the custom tailor. i am getting 2 suits custom made, 3 shirts and some ties. mel is getting a suit, a skirt, a shirt and a jacket i think.

back to india... i left off the day Rajeev was showing us around... so at that muslim monument, there were tons of gorgous wild parrots flying around. bright green. we went to the spot where Gandhi was cremated. we paid our respects. Rajeev brought us home to his crib and introduced us to his wife and mom and pops. his wife showed me how to make chapitas, an indian bread similar to naan or roti, either fried or grilled. we made both. we also had an awesome raita w/ yellow split peas, a very good potatoe curry, a mixed vegetable dish, a cashew desert, and more. i learned about the 5 spices in garam masala (secret) and more...we drank lassi (yogurt drink) without the rumored bhang (cannabis). anothony bourdain drank some bhang lassi in rajisthan, india.

we went back to the hotel and walked to a night market and bought some things like ayurverdic hair products/lotions for melenie from this store that had a signed johnny depp poster there saying everytime he comes to india he buys hair crap from this place and loves it.

more to come about taj mahal, food, mumbai, bankok, etc. i have some really really good pics and video as our new camera w/ a 2gb memory card is the shiiiiiiiiit. we took about 750 total pics/videos.

india

back in thailand now after some crazy adventures in India. I don't even know where to start. I guess by city descriptions. New Delhi is the political capital of India and less modern than Mumbai/Bombay, aka the Washington DC of India. Mumbai was the New York/business capital of India, though it's on the coast, so there are palm trees everywhere. We LOVED Mumbai, didn't care too much for Delhi, though the food was amazing everywhere in India.

We spent 5 or so days in Delhi and 2 in Mumbai. we arrived in delhi at around 11 or so at night, so we just passed out that first night. we stayed at a gorgeous hotel, The Ambassador, since our trade mission for Siam International was hsoted by Food Export USA. We were there to promote US foods in India, through Mel's moms import/export division. the hotel had awesome food and breakfast was included, I ate many dosas for breakfast, which are kind of like a crepe, though filled w/ a potato curry, if you get a masala dosa. They typically come with sambor i think it's called, which is like a minestrone soup, minus the noodles, and then 2 chutneys, a coconut chutney and a tomato chutney, though it's more like a paste you spread on the dosa. very, very good.

we hit connaught place the next day. mel bought some saris. i bought a little antique tiger. we did a lot of haggling. our associate, got poop thrown on his shoe. this is a scam we read about it our india travel guide. someone throws poop on your shoe, says its monkey poop, then offers to clean it up for 10 ruppees, which is only about a quarter in US money. i have a pic to show later on this. i ate some really good street food, a plate of spicy lentils with good grilled chapita bread. connaght place has a crazy underground, indiana jones type of shopping too, which just looked like all corny bootleg stuiff that is way cheaper in bangkok at MBK mall anyway.

next day we called up my uncle jay's client's brother, Rajeev, who lives in New Delhi. This guy was so cool and gracious...he hired a cab for the day, took us around to some sites then brought us to his house for a big home cooked indian lunch. we saw a huge temple in the shape of a lotus for all religions, the Bahá'í House of Worship. We saw Iskon temple, a huge krishna temple, where I got some good pics and video of music. we then went to a really sick muslim monument, which i have to dig for the name of the place. a former king built this as a memory ...

gotta run in mid sentence, be back later, lots more to come...

p

thailand

whats goin on my good readers?

first day in thailand, super long 17 hour flight from LA, a 2 hr one before that from portland. arrive in bangkok, not as hot as last time, only about 80 or so. some super blazing koh mon gai, and then the fried version too... koh mon gai = boiled chicken w/ garlic, ginger, sugar, salt and scallions, then use the stock to make rice, serve you a side of chicken stock/soup w/ radish/daikon, then a heap of rice chicken flavored from the stock, w/ the chicken on top (boiled or fried), we had both, w/ a side of cucumber, a blazign sweet/hot sauce, then we had some moo satay also (pork grilled on a stick served w/ a peanut sauce and a little side of cucumber, chili and red onion in vinehar w/ sugar.)

holler. shit was blazing.

ive got about 5 singha's in me right now. im passing up seeing dj jazzy jeff perform at Que bar (www.quebar.com) where matt is manager cause mel is feelign sick on our first night here and is downstairs sleeping. its 12 midnight. im about 13 hours ahead of yall right now or something.

copped an ill new digital camera for about $180 today. a super slim fit in your pocket sony cybershot 5.1 mp.

also coppd my favorite little tapioca balls stuffed w/ panuts, eaten w/ cilantro and a striahg tlittle thai chili.

mel ate her favorite juk soup.

the electronics mall was sick. forgot to mention a 2 gig mem card i bought also for the new cam...specifialyl for all the video i'm a record in india...watch... but yo, 5-6 floors of all little electronics boutiques...sensory overload....

im ghost...more to come.

thanksgiving weekend with stink and mecs

we had a blast with stinke and mecca this weekend...amazing thanksgiving dinner that mel and i cooked:

a brined turkey stuffed w/ apple, onion and other aromatics
candied yams w/ marshmallows
acorn squash soup
lemon, tarragon, dill and crab dip
cheese and crackers
tons of pinot noir
creamed spinach
som tum (amazing spicy thai papaya salad)
garlic mashed potatoes
garlic jasmine rice
pumpkin ginger duck confit dumplings
apple pie
fried tofu

we went snowshoeing at mt hood on friday to walk it off.... hit the city, shopping, drinking and eating (montage: jumbalaya and mac n cheese) on saturday...nice sunny day too... then today we hit the coast - from astoria to cannon beach to tillamook... good times, good friends, good food..

curse of the beagles

eagles lost and lost mcnabb for the season. this blows:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=261119021

turks

cant wait one minute more! like my old favorite tune from CIV, im pretty amped to see my ol pals stink and mec from philly relocated to the bay area trekkin up here for turks day.

after evaluating many a recipe for roasting a turkey, im going to trust my main man Alton Brown on the food network..if you've ever seen his show "good eats" - you'll know this guy knows his shit...big time science behind the cooking guy.. Alton's turkey recipe can be found here. i'll use his brining method as a nice starting point... letting it brine in a cooler outside for hours before roasting...

so we got this 20 pound bird! lotta turks for 4 people so some turkey soup will most def. be on a few days later...friends are coming for 4 days which will be nice...

a week later mel and i are definitely headed to india... bounce dec. 1st, arrive in bangkok dec 3rd, kick it with dj jazzy jeff and travellin matt that night at Que Bar where matt is a manager and dj, then bounce to new delhi, india the night of the 4th... IFE food trade show is the 6th through the 10th. my uncle jay's good pal has a brother/family in new delhi, and Rajeev will be having us over for dinner one night for an authentic indian homecooked meal!!! so excited to experience that...hopefully they'll also show us around for a little bit... we'll have some extra time in which we can hopefully make it to Rajisthan where Bourdain got his bhang lhasis on!!! do some research to know what im talking bout, but if you've been to amsterdam, its similar to a spaceshake... on the 10th we hit the taj mahal say word! then the 11th bounce down to Mumbai in the south (formerly known as Bombay). ask me if im gonna drink a bombay sapphire martini james bond style in bombay...come on now! extra olives or maybe a little pearl onion action called a gibson. hells yeah! back to bangkok on the 13th through the 17th to kick with matt, do some crazy bootleg shopping for $5 bape hoodies, cheap digital cameras, tons of sneaks and shoes....holler. not to mention a lot of thai full body $5 for an hour massages. no happy endings, get your mind out of the gutter, guys... and TONS of som tum, thai bbq chicken, bumi (egg noodle) soup with the bbq pork, bbq duck, etc. kow mon gai (mels favorite), street style pad thai and more. oh wait, curries. man i cant wait.

keep in touch people.

pauly walnuts

p

random recent pictures

here's some trout that i cooked recently, a cool truck, pictures of duck confit (before and after) and some nice autumn leaves.

bff,

paul

duck confit

im making a duck confit today. im going to india in a month. duck confit is made by slowly cooking duck legs in duck fat. its supposed to bee amazing. happy birthday aunt lish!

plug and socket slappy hollerween!

my birfsday tomorrow

its my birfday tomorrow. twenty nine years young. halloween party tonight - YEAH BABY, my favorito time of the year.

other things ive been up to:

• my old college roomate, Tadd, came to visit about 2 weeks ago. he works on alaskan fishing boats counting the diff. species of fish they catch. this last boat was a mackerel fish.
• i like mackerel. the japanese cook a bangin mackerel..oily fish with a lot of flavor. ive ordered it cooked and raw from japanese restaurants, and it tastes the same both ways.
• india coming soon. my buddy john from work old me that the one emperor who built the Taj Mahal originally planned an identical black Taj dead across from the white one. i can't wait to see it - one of the 7 wonders of the world...
• reading the new haruki murakami short story book, "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". REALLY good. highly recommended.
• using this super delicious finishing salt, fleur de sel (flower of the salt) on everything...
• bout to cop a new chef knife, courtesy of my lovely sister, erica, for a bday present she got me, a gift certificate to a knife store...thanks, slick.

audi five gees

farmers market in autumn

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS DAY TODAY! farmers market. chanterelle mushrooms, squash, radishes, locally raised pork products, tons of super fresh amazing fall harvest items..

SICK new concepts from el Bulli

The #1 restaurant in the WORLD - el Bulli has these serious idealogies/concepts for their food styles - taken from their website, www.elbulli.com :

Synthesis of elBulli cuisine. In the mid-1990s a new style of cuisine began to be forged. Today, this style has been wholly consolidated and may be defined in the following terms:

1. Cooking is a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation and culture.

2. The use of top quality products and technical knowledge to prepare them properly are taken for granted.

3. All products have the same gastronomic value, regardless of their price.

4. Preference is given to vegetables and seafood, with a key role also being played by dairy products, nuts and other products that make up a light form of cooking. In recent years red meat and large cuts of poultry have been very sparingly used.

5. Although the characteristics of the products may be modified (temperature, texture, shape, etc.), the aim is always to preserve the purity of their original flavour, except for processes that call for long cooking or seek the nuances of particular reactions such as the Maillard reaction.

6. Cooking techniques, both classic and modern, are a heritage that the cook has to know how to exploit to the maximum.

7. As has occurred in most fields of human evolution down the ages, new technologies are a resource for the progress of cooking.

8. The family of stocks is being extended. Together with the classic ones, lighter stocks performing an identical function are now being used (waters, broths, consommés, clarified vegetable juses, nut milk, etc.).

9. The information given off by a dish is enjoyed through the senses; it is also enjoyed and interpreted by reflection.

10. Taste is not the only sense that can be stimulated: touch can also be played with (contrasts of temperatures and textures), as well as smell, sight (colours, shapes, trompe d’oeil, etc.), whereby the five senses become one of the main points of reference in the creative cooking process.

11. The technique-concept search is the apex of the creative pyramid.

12. Creation involves teamwork. In addition, research has become consolidated as a new feature of the culinary creative process.

13. The barriers between the sweet and savoury world are being broken down. Importance is being given to a new cold cuisine, particularly in the creation of the frozen savoury world.


14. The classical structure of dishes is being broken down: a veritable revolution is underway in first courses and desserts, closely bound up with the concept of symbiosis between the sweet and savoury world; in main dishes the "product-garnish-sauce" hierarchy is being broken down.

15. A new way of serving food is being promoted. The dishes are finished in the dining room by the serving staff. In other cases the diners themselves participate in this process.

16. Regional cuisine as a style is an expression of its own geographical and cultural context as well as its culinary traditions. Its bond with nature complements and enriches this relationship with its environment.

17. Products and preparations from other countries are subjected to one's particular style of cooking.

18. There are two main paths towards attaining harmony of products and flavours: through memory (connection with regional cooking traditions, adaptation, deconstruction, former modern recipes), or through new combinations.

19. A culinary language is being created which is becoming more and more ordered, that on some occasions establishes a relationship with the world and language of art.

20. Recipes are designed to ensure that harmony is to be found in small servings.

21. Decontextualisation, irony, spectacle, performance are completely legitimate, as long as they are not superficial but respond to, or are closely bound up with, a process of gastronomic reflection.

22. The menu de dégustation is the finest expression of avant-garde cooking. The structure is alive and subject to changes. Concepts such as snacks, tapas, pre-desserts, morphs, etc., are coming into their own.

23. Knowledge and/or collaboration with experts from different fields (gastronomic culture, history, industrial design, etc.,) is essential for progress in cooking. In particular collaboration with the food industry and the scientific world has brought about fundamental advances. Sharing this knowledge among cooking professionals has contributed to this evolution.

----------------------------

i love this. i'm trying to study these concepts and seriously hypothesize on them. i'm a little crushed right now though after a few happy hour pitchers of mcmenamins terminator stout...

asia, here i come again...

rumor has it that i might be headed to india, vietnam and thailand in early december.

holler at your boy.

ok go

in case you havent seen this ok go video yet, its hilarious and i still dig watching it from time to time:

culinary tour de france

my cooking class at in good taste was definitely a night to remember. one of portland's best chefs (tom hurley) paired w/ portland's freshest sommelier, ken collura.

things i learned/knew but was reinforced/took new outlook on:

• while eating a fine meal (or any meal where you truly want to taste your food), breathe solely through your mouth
• begin meals with cold dishes, as your flavor profile changes
• blanching in salt water then moving to the ice bath shocks green veggies, stops them from cooking, locks bright green chlorophyl color in
• different foods absorb diff. elements in diff. fashions, i.e., when dressing a salad, oil adheres better to some foods while vinegar adheres better to others, egg whites help this, etc.
• foie gras is amazing. fuck all those sissies worried about the geese and their livers.
• all grapes have white juice
• fleur de salt is an amazing finishing salt...i picked some up and actually overdid it with it tonihgt in this chicken and oyster mushroom dish i made w/ onions, red wine, thyme and chicken stock
• tom hurley served foie gras protestors chocolate chip cookies made w/ some foie gras fat!!!
• quenelle is an egg shape? we had these awesome quenelles of halibut in a lobster sauce. it reminded me of a fishy matzah ball
• adea and coleman are ken's favorite small-shop local pinot noirs
• pinots should be flexible, can go w/ fish, chicken or red meat
• best chicken ever for tom hurley is seared first then roasted @ 425.
• anything is great seared first then roasted in the oven.
• tom cooks fish, scallops, and other shellfish with avocado oil
• his lobster stock has lobster and shrimp shells in it along w/ white wine, coriander, brandy, thyme, onions, carrots, celery, fennel and tarragon?
• all of the french countryside is gorgeous.
• ken and tom both grew up in NY
• the #1 restaurant in the entire world is el Bulli in Spain.
• the el Bulli cookbook costs $350 at In Good Taste
• I flipped through it. it's INSANE!!! Many of the cool dishes at The French Laundry and Alana (the dope chicago restaurant w/ the chef is kinda like a mean scientist also) seem to come from the likes of this cookbook...
• Farce is a blend of 70% meat (duck, chicken, bacon, etc.) and 30% fat (pork/duck, etc). we ate some pheasant breasts stuffed with a farce, then wrapped in caul fat, seared then roasted.
• Caul fat is the lining of a pig's stomach. It looks like netting or white, ripped, pantyhose. It tastes amazing when you wrap other meats in it. I bet its off the wall to wrap scallops or shrimp in caul fat..it melts away leaving an incredible pork/bacon flavor in whatever you cover it in.. I was told it freezes well too.
• supposedly city market here in portland sells foie gras as well as caul fat
• im going to make stinke and mecca eat foie gras and caul fat on thanksgiving
• confit means to cook ini fat
• i have a dope recipe for duck confit. its a duck leg cooked in duck fat. it supposedly tastes like heaven.
• what did the french chef say to the american chef? he said "more salt. more butter." ha!
• 1st category meats are tender, like the tenderloin
• 2nd category meats are more like sirloins
• 3rd are shoulders, necks, shanks. bacon is a 3rd category. these need to be cooked slow at a low temp to break down all the fat and muscle holding the meat together.
• supposedly you can cook bacon in butter and the bacon wont absorb it. it cant absorb any more fat, supposedly the butter removes the fat in the bacon? tom said this...
• cut onions with the grain, not against it in an onion ring fashion. notice the difference in the smell and your eyes not watering.
• ken thinks the best pinot noirs are made in the burgundy region. then 2nd place is here in oregon. france thinks so too. the french come here more and more...worried.
• dont cook caul fat too fast, you want the flavor to seep in your food...
• season every component of the food.
• dont eat different foods on your plate, take a bite and get a piece of everything, all the food should blend well together.
• a great holiday meal would be sage and thinly sliced walnuts underneat the skin of the chicken/turkey. sear then slowly roast.
• sweet pea emulsion: peas + pea husks +salt + pepper + truffle oil
• rose petal jam is phenomenal

hbo's "The Wire"

although i fronted on HBO's "The Wire" for a few years because tim and bean loved it so much, i now admit i played myself. i bit off my nose to spite my face.

the wire is amazing. def. in the top t or 4 tv shows ever.

check out THE WIRE

crater lake video from july 4th weekend

october

• eagles are currently rocking the packers
• i got melenie a laptop for our anniversary
• she got me an amazing french cooking class
• temp has dropped into the 60s here
• leaves are changing colors
• i got the lamb chops at timberline lodge
• we went swimming in a heated pool, it was amazing to have mt hood behind us, at 11,249 feet elevation... gorgeous view...cool from the shouders up, but in a nice warm pool shoulders down....
• 2 bottles of bubbly..some tattinger and some moet...
• nice local pears and apples, some good brie & chevre...
• hiking in the morning after breakfast...
• now eagles crushing the packers...and wireless internet finally in the crib.
• october is my favorite month. fall is here. as of october 29th (my bday), it will have been 1 year that we've been living in oregon...

1 Year Anniversary

our 1 year anniversary is tomorrow. as is my aunt sue's 50th bday. as is the start of yom kippur. we're spending the night @ timberline lodge at the top of mt. hood.

here's a pic of mt hood on a sunny day in portland:


click below for the amazing menu for dinner @ timberline dining room tonight:

Timberline cuisine is predicated on freshness in the preparation of the area's bountiful natural resources. Wild and rare Chanterelles and Morels thrive on our mountain sides.The finest Fruits and Vegetables are grown in the volcanic rich soil of Oregon’s green valleys. Special emphasis is placed on a great galaxy of fresh Seafood from our waters. The naturally healthy lifestyles encouraged by the beauty of our environment are reflected in our sauces and preparation techniques.Our award winning culinary brigade will offer you many unique Cascadian style classics and international dishes and the best of Oregon cuisine in this very special setting...Timberline Lodge

Leif Eric Benson A.A.C. C.E.C.
Executive Chef Timberline Lodge

I'm happy to report that it's still sunny in Portland. Holler at your boy.


p.

tired.

• i'm tired.
• my one year anniversary is coming up in a week and half. we're spending the night @ timberline lodge at mt. hood.
• my sister ate our anniversary cake (the top part of the wedding cake) on a drunk rampage one night many months ago.
• we have to go out and get some really fresh dope strawberry shortcake to make up for that.
• i'm tired.
• i just finished another haruki murakami book: norwegian wood and it was not as dope as the rest i've read, in my mind. more of a twisted love story. still pretty good and worth a read, but not as twisted and extraordinary, in the creative sense of the word, not the way most people use the word today.
• i made some good tea tonight, white peony and orange pu-ehr
• roobis tea (red tea) is def. my shit these days though, but i'm out.
• melenie got an A in her first grad school class!
• im going to start a book soon i've decided yet again...i have a dope start of a novel in my head, but it's really hard to get on the computer at night after sitting in front of the screen from 7 am - 5 pm these days.
• my mom makes me feel guiltier and guiltier every time i speak to her on the phone, for moving out west. i think she's being quite selfish. what do you think?
• fall is here. i love it.

good bye.

pauly

picture time.

another big shout to my man EMC who stopped by again on his way back from washington. here's us chilling for the day at one of the smaller falls.....


















my wife, looking as gorgeous as ever with some pinot noir grapes from the williamette valley, home to america's best pinot noir wines, i think she's at Maresh red barn here in this pic..check for it at your local wine store...

















here in this pic are our most recent visitors...monique and her bro, aka my main conspiracy theorist, christian..and on top, straight outta montreal, quebec, my man marc...another dope day at wakeena falls, one of my most favorite places on the planet... christian put me down with many new truths in the world, most especially those of larry silverstein, owner of the world trade centers and biggest asshole in the world, taking out the bigget insurance policy ever and then planting detonators to "pull" the building, in the same fashion that any old building is taken down. look at building 7 for further explanation. some examples:
example 1 : example 2 : example 3 : example 4 : example 5

oh wait, here's video PROOF on PBS of him saying "pull it"

















my tomatoes were amazing this summer. but fall is here. leaves are turning and beginning to fall. its getting slightly cloudy again. i miss my family. sales are up. food is good. im plotting a novel in my mind. melenie is doing great at grad school. life is good.

i miss yall,

paul

currently reading cookbooks

two books i'm currently studying:



The French Laundry Cookbook
by Thomas Keller

Supposedly The French Laundry is the best restaurant in the country, so I'm pretty damn curious what this guy can do in the kitchen and onto a plate...and i'm REALLY impressed with what I've only flipped through so far...the secrets about super green veggies and poached eggs and how important vinegar and salt are in cooking, and how if you can taste either of those two, well then you've used too much... check out his current menu





you've probably read my older posts about Anthony Bourdain and his tv show on the travel channel, No Reservations. I've been dying to see what kind of dishes he kicks out of his restaurant after seeing the guy critique food from all over the world and it's pretty decent french food, though nowhere near the innovation on Frnech Laundry. les halles is a typical decent french cafe, and bourdain even says so in the book... however, i've definitely scraped up some really nice recipes from this book, such as the pot au feu, coq au vin, onion soup, mushroom soup (for mel), beef bourgnion, and one or 2 duck dishes... oh and the real way to make stock and demi-glace.. some more on this book here...




happy labor day. life is cool. i worked work out for now...had a good sales month. melenie is doing good in grad school. stinke and meca are coming to visit us for thanksgiving. i have a new chef apron. my tomatoes and strawberries are blazing. fall is coming. i miss my friends. i want a dog. and a house with a big backyard. its saturday night and i had some beers with lunch. made a blazing breakfast. chopped up green bean and cherry tomatoes from the garden omlette w/ goat cheese, some tater tots and decent breakfast sausage cooked in chicken stock. happy hour/lunch around the corner, bloody mary, beer, spinach crab dip w/ chips, a pear and walnut and blue cheese salad, couple of oysters and a fish taco. helping mel w/ a powerpoint presentation tonight. reading more of my new cookbooks from the library. drink some wine, maybe.

bye for now.

sammy

peace and good luck to my cousin sammy who is moving to london for grad school this weekend!

bad week....

crappy week. i got yelled at again (and a 3rd written warning via email) at work for my attitude and doing dumb shit and being cocky. this time, when my bosses were gone, i took it upon myself to move my desk. i dont feel like giving the excuse why (actually i totally do, but im thinking that i shouldn't and just accept that it was stupid and that nobody told me to do so).... this sucks becaue i think i'm gonna end the month with a really good sales number....

onto something else...so mel got pink eye this week, and then got sick directly afterwards... so she's sniffling behind me and there's a million tissues and nasty wet washcloths (warm compresses) everywhere. of course everytime she gets sick, we make jook soup. so here's a recipe for a lazy saturday afternoon:

need: jasmine rice, chicken stock, garlic, ginger, scallion, cilantro, pork, eggs
*note, melenie says her mom never uses garlic in the soup but i personally like to...

1) cook some jasmine rice in a pot or rice cooker. (1 cup of rice, 2 cups water)
2) while the rice is cooking, dice ginger and garlic and cilantro and scallions and chop up pork breakfast sausage or ground pork (on separate cutting board, but you should know that already)
3) when rice is almost done, saute pork w/ ginger and garlic in a non stick soup pot.
4) when pork is almost cooked, add a lot of chicken stock. bring to a boil.
5) rice should be done. add that to pork in soup pot.
6) add greens
7) simmer for 2-3 mins.
8) crack an egg or two in the soup. stir it up. the eggs will cook really quick in the soup.
8) eat quick before rice soaks up all the chicken stock. if this happens, add water. add salt and pepper to taste, as well as pickled ground thai chilis peppers.

enjoy mel's favorite thai soup. the thai version of chicken soup or my matzah ball soup... this is also called congee in vietnamese or chinese restaurants. here is a pic of congee that we got in hong kong:


what else...so we've had jeannie and chris's car and didnt take advantage of the situation and actually go somewhere... we're off to go water her 1 million plants in a little bit...its hot here this weekend...then off to costco...again, guys, thank you for the car and costco card! monique and her bro christian are coming in a week or so... mel is off all next week... i'm out.

p!

stand by me?

the stupid stand by me video that i posted on youtube a few mos back now has more then 7,000 views... crazy shit this internet thing, isn't it?

i want to give a big "have at it" shout to my man mark phile out in ol reading, pa...i miss you, dog...

p!

medford / horizon

flew down to medford, oregon today for a business meeting. hour flight, much better than a 5 hour drive... surprising thing was that Horizon Air turned my ride home into a happy hour. they were pouring one of my favorite local beers, Drop Top Amber by Widmer like it was water. no charge, refills all around. that was nice... my meeting went great also... the library rocks here...you can even download audiobooks as a rental...chris and jeannie are back in philly for a week or so...letting us borrow the car as a trade for taking chris to the airport and picking them up....good deal, i say... thanks guys...oh, and watering of the plants is required.... melenie is gearing up to start her first class for grad school... she's taking online courses to get her master in elementary ed/teaching certificate...

im tired...woke up @ 4:30 am this morning...peace in the middle east.

no title..

well let me start off by saying that for mel's bday, our neighbors baked mel a penis cake. this was kind of funny, especially when our 80 year old neigbor, Van, stopped over the other night to say happy bday:






so what's been up?

well, EMC stopped over Friday after work...we caught up on what we've been up to... ed's been at this college called Heartwood studying chinese medicine. he's off the raw food diet, now eating whatever his body tells him to eat, so long as its organic and not too high up on the food chain.. i think goat's milk, goat cheese and goat meat (once so far) is as high up as he'll go. he schooled us on canola oil (cheap canadian oil) and a cool way to make coffee that wont kill us in the long run. he has a long beard and long hair now. full rasta hippy man. he's chillin though.... and on his way to the amazing san juan islands off the coast of northern Washington state. i got him to eat some bacon in this flick, though:

so we went to vancouver, BC last saturday... EMC got off 3/4 of the way there. oh, we stopped in Seattle, by the way to pick up a piroshy at Piroshky, Piroshky (got the smoked salmon jawn). also picked up some super juicy Rainier cherries (the yellow and red ones). oh, and some little SUPER juicy organic donut-shaped peaches.



we went to chinatown in Vancouver and it was comepletely full of heroin addicts and other junkies... that sucked. gastown near the water was ok, but nothing special. when we got to Vij's, there was what do you know, an hour to an hour and a half wait. we strolled the streets and found CRU wine bar. got a gin martini, mel got a pinot noir, we had some chevre cheese w/ champagne grapes and a seared scallop appetizer. went to vij's for an AMAZING meal. we had another appetizer (hey, we had a buzz, it's ok...) we chose the baby jackfruit in a black mustardseed and cardamom curry. with the bomb naan bread to sop it all up. I chose the venison medallions in some chocolate curry sauce. mel had lamb tenderloin w/ mushrooms and this really good eggplant fritter. we also had some awesome drinks but i cant remember for the life of me what it was. this place comes HIGHLY recommended, i really loved the venison.




the wait coming home through customs blew. it took hours and hours. luckily, the view was incredible to the west. we stopped again in seattle on the way home. seattle seems a lot cooler than when we visited before...we found a dope new neighborhood there too to chill on. it's only 2 1/2 hours away.

tadd jets back on his alaskan fishing boat again until october.

snow patrol comes here on sunday for $7 admission to the Bite of Oregon food festival. they're touring w/ The Subways.

EMC

I know everybody remembers the good man EMC aka Ed Campbell aka Soupy from bensalem/temple/philly. well the nomad himself will be blessing us with his presence in portland on friday night then hitching a ride with us 1/2 way to vancouver, BC, getting off in northern Washington State, near the San Juan Islands...

I've known EMC since the first day day of my sophomore of high school...he was a freshman...we met in study hall and we played dungeons and dragons with jessica lipson. yes, we were geeks and played d&d. i also really dug jess lipson and took her to the soph hop or junior prom or something... but EMc has been my man since like 1991 or 92 or something... everytime i would pick him up, he was never ready on time. but he could tell you the origins of popcorn. or how many miles it is from here to Saturn. dude's a genius. he has a philosophy degree. he is homeless. he travels like the wind. i visited his hometown in jamaica, sligoville, with him and his pops back in like 1995 or something. we partied it up. we ate meat and drank Red Stripes and smoked our hearts out. Ed is now a vegetarian who does none of the above. let me take that a step further....Ed is a macrobiotic? He lives by the Raw Foods diet. he ONLY eats raw fruits and vegetables. no meats, no fish, no cooked vegetables. STRICTLY RAW. well, he's not the type of dude to totally limit himself, i guess if that's all there is to eat, cooked veggies, he'll eat them, but he prefers raw. i think he's been on this diet for a few years now. i'll update everyne on how he's doing shortly.

Looking forward to kicking it with you, Ed.

pauly

twenty eight

it's melenie's twenty-eighth birthday today so i'd like to say happy birthday, dear, I love you. we're off to vancouver, BC this weekend. eating dinner at the world renowned Vij's.

Mel Gibson goes buck on the jews...and skype

Gibson's Anti-Semitic Tirade -- Alleged Cover Up:

http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/28/gibsons-anti-semitic-tirade-alleged-cover-up/

----------

also... get SKYPE, it's free to call from your computer to other computers, house phones and cell phones until the end of this year.

www.skype.com

email me for our username on skype

wed night hump day

you know the saying but no humping today, we're beat....been waking up early and going to bed late...stupid neighborhood cats meowing like crazy in the middle of the night, fighting with each other or with other animals...or late night phone calls or kippy knocking crap over or also meowing with this little dumb hello kitty in her mouth...

been eating a lot of yogurt lately...oregon strawberry flavor, tilamook brand. very good shit.

we've been cooking lots of thai food lately. bitter melon and pork soup tonight with jasmine rice and a shrimp and brocolli stir fry w/ spicy chili and garlic sauce... pour a little of the pickled thai hot chilis w/ the vinegar on it, blazing...

i've finally got some green beans growing now..little babies... and the cherry tomato plant is off the chain, taller than me, reached the top of the fence and real thick too...about 50+ little tomatoes on it right now and more to come soon.

big shout out to my girl marisa tener, that would be dope if you moved out here, and even super cool if you came out to visit oregon and we got to chill...thanks for thinking to give a shout, it's been a long time...

and lastly i want to give the antithesis of a shout out to my homeys who never hit a brother up anymore.

audi

p!

climate crisis widget

An Inconvenient Truth

Been working hard this week at work on both PR and sales... my sales are slumping a little right now, need to focus more... been eating and cooking healthier, more soy products, more whole wheat, less dairy... don't worry i'm nowhere near a vegetarian, still gotta have meat with most meals...

had a scotch egg at this irish bar the other night, it was banging...a hard boiled egg covered with sausage, breaded and deep fried...goes great with a nice dar stout...

saw Al Gore's movie about the climate crisis last night...it was incredible.

Please go see "An Inconvenient Truth."

Here's the trailor for it, it can be seen in movie theatres across the country and is DEFINITELY worth your time and money:

rocky

check out the trailer for the new rocky movie here...

3 quick item from the news today

1) Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett dies

2) Psychedelic mushrooms work their magic on many

3) Trailer Bulletin: Borat
In BORAT - THE MOVIE! Sacha Baron Cohen - star of HBO's hit comedy "Da Ali G Show," takes his outrageous Kazakstani reporter character Borat to the big screen. In this hilariously offensive movie, Borat travels from his primitive home in Kazakhstan to the U.S. to make a documentary. On his cross-country road-trip, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences....

new kenneth masters video "jet set stereo"

here's the latest video for a good friend and artist i managed for many years, kenneth masters "jet set stereo"... to think we recorded this song like 3-4 years ago and the video is just now surfacing.... best of luck to you with this, fam!

Camping in Genesee, CA 4th of July Weekend

Ever since we moved out here to Portland, Chris and Jeannie Stone have been telling us how amazing their 4th of July camping weekends are at the Stone Ranch in Northern Cali, between the towns of Genesee and Taylorsville. The land is known as high country, and it's a mix between the desert and the forest. There's mountains, creeks, lakes, waterfalls, wild animals, wildflowers, wild fires, ranch houses, cows, cowboys and a gold rush vibe to the whole area.


We left on our trip Saturday morning around 6 am and took the long way so that we could stop by Crater Lake, which we've heard so much about. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in America. It is a lake inside of a volcano with an awesome island in the middle known as Wizard Island. It has a 26 mile loop you can drive around at the top of the mountain, overlooking the lake. When we went, it was still quite snowy and you weren;'t allowed access to actually go in the lake, or I would've went swimming. It was gorgeous with butterflies and little gophers everywhere you turned.

the next four hours involved me speeding at 80 miles an hour, passing acre of acre of desert with pine trees and sage brush, ranch house, cows, horses, mountains, mountains and more mountains and then two super cool things: the best ice cream sandwich ever with peanut butter cookies in the town or Merril, Oregon and then a HUGE birdsnest which I was told was an osprey:

We arrived at Stone Ranch around 6:00 pm and set up our tent. Chris was the man as usual, lending us a spare tent, air mattress and sleeping bags. Spaghetti dinner that night and salad. margaritas. poppers (tequila shots w/ a splash of 7 up, banged on the table and then tossed down the hatch real quick).




Next day was the super-hyped up treasure hunt/scavenger hunt. we had the BEST time. we had about 5 teams of 5 or 6. each team was given a GPS. we had a big package of clues in envelopes w. longitude and latitudes printed on the front and hints...i.e., find the matchbox car at 3.995 latitude and 45.765 longitude. do the task at blah blah blah and take a pic of it. bring back a receipt from this place where it has this type of cash register, etc... AWESOME time! we came in second place...got back early but couldn't figure out two clues - one where it was a soduku puzzle on the front to find the latitude/longitude and then another where you had to solve a double equation with 2 variables! who remembers algebra?!??! we should've had a couple teenagers on our team like the others... I did have to swim across the creek though to find some m&ms on top of a huge rock..involved some decent mountain climbing skills...

best ribs ever that night.

monday was really decent as well...we made the acquaintance of these cool cats Craig and Jean from Santa Barbara, CA....we took some beers and went swimming at this place called Indian Falls...clear water, big ass cliffs, which I jumped off the 3rd level, around 35 feet, dope waterfalls, cool water, gorgeous views, etc... we also hit up this smalltown cowboy bar for some cans of budweiser... then found out what an indian taco is - an open face taco on indian fry bread, really good too...







































later that night, INCREDIBLE prime rib on the bbq with this sick garlic herb rub. it was Chris Stone's 54th birthday. chocolate cake and HOMEMADE creme brule ice cream. YES, they sat there and churned the fucking ice cream. How sick is that??!?!?!


























no way we were driving home that ngiht... next morning, drive home...left around 7 am...stopped 2 hours later for some eggs... stopped again around 5 more hours at Eugene, a hippytown an hour and a 1/2 south of portland...made it home around 5 pm or something...flexcar kicked ass this trip, didnt have to pay for gas, awesome reliable car...

in the end we had an awesome time and will be going every july 4th that we live on the west coast and probably even if we dont we'd come back for it anyway...thanks and keep in touch to all those we met, we had a blast...

garden, dylan bday, chicago

so its saturday and its pretty hot here this weekend, in the 90's, but tuesday it drops back down to the low 80's, high 70's for awhile...my garden is growing pretty decent now, i have a ton of peas and about 15 or so baby tomatoes...

ate a nice fruit salad with cherry yogurt from tillamook for breakfast along w/ some bacon... got a nice beef roast/chili in the slow cooker right now for dinner, i'll letcha know how it works out later... took a little roast, salt and pepper rubbed it, browned it on all sides on a hot skillet. sliced up a big onion pretty thick style, put that in the bottom of the slow cooker, added some dried mexican peppers, two thai chilis, a big red bell pepper, couple cloves of garlic, put the beef in, some dried cayenne pepper, some paprika, a can of black beans, a large can of diced tomatoes, a dash of worchestchire, a dash of bbq sauce and put that thing on blast.

so i was in chicago earlier this week for work for this compliance conference...only there for 2 days, 1 night...didnt get back though till 3:30 am on tues night because of a shitty united airlines layover..i was supposed to bounce at 8:30 pm from denver but it got pushed back 1 hr at a time t ill it was like 1 am...when we finally bounced....which made for an extrmely tired paul at work the rest of the week...chicago was dope though..killed an amazing ribeye w/ a horseradish crust at this steakhouse called wildfire... the river that runs through the city looks gorgeous..the city was clean...lake michigan was gorgeous! nice beach man on the cusp of the city! here's 2 phone flicks:




























also it was dylan's bday the other night... he was dying to go to this german joint rheinlander for the past few months..he loves the yodeling staff and the accordian player. this pic is really dark here but you can make out that he wore his german yodelling hat to the spot...we got him a record player and a few records...