1.13.12 Friday the 13th
Not a bad Friday the 13th. Hiking four hours at a beautiful place...gosh, can't seem to think of much else I'd rather be doing.
haam-baak
Sent from my iPhone
Platform to share random thoughts. Mostly you'll read something related to food, fitness, and...yeah...that might be it for now.
Sweet home, Chicago
Alright. I've been pretty bad about "blogging" (i don't think this is actually blogging. Can't call it a tweet either) - but i used to have more energy and enthusiasm to post. I still like Posterous because of the super clean, simple, and minimalistic layout.
I feel quite fortunate being in Chicago in light of the recent event of North Korea's Kim Jong Il's death. My parents 🎎 have cable with at least one Korean station. So here I am with dad watching tv while mom is in the bedroom calling her brother in South Korea. 🇰🇷
Many friends have been praying for North Korea and are continuing to intercess. On the lighter side: i experienced the "other side" of being green. Felt a bit backwards. When checking out at the grocery store I politely requested a no-bag for my items. The cashier gave me a look of mild scorn. Was I really inconveniencing her to go bagless? Get with it Chicago!!
haam-baak Sent from my iPhone
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Last fully dark Nite Riders tour
This coming Saturday will mark when we move our clocks forward one hour. Pretty sure most people are happy about that - more daylight, days getting longer, warmer weather, etc. For the first time there is a bit of sadness on my end because what has become so fun is sort of ending. Well, that chapter I guess. See, my biking buddies and I have been riding every week since we pushed back the clocks one hour.
We're definitely built up a sense of commraderie because we all love to ride in the dark. We climb up challenging hills, descend like there's no tomorrow, and for the most part, avoid riding on long, flat parts. We go off-roading, on dirt paths, and up secret trails. We ride when it's super windy (spooky!!), also in the rain.
And I think it takes a certain kind of rider to enjoy the stuff we do. We're not too special and I am certainly not elevating us....I think it's just not the norm to enjoy this kind of riding.
One of the riders passed out glow strips. Here are the double pink bracelets I put on.
We climbed up the top of Rancho Preserve to watch the Space Shuttle. Timed our ride to get to the top but since it was cloudy we couldn't see anything. :(
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Kimchi in the Making
A few weeks ago a friend asked to make kimchi together. I was a bit hesitant because I thought the process would be long and arduous not to mention never having the experience of making it. It really wasn't too bad and the evening went by quicker because we made other random things: soymilk, fresh tofu, and soda bread. Our mission was to make oi (cucumber) and cabbage kimchi.
One key ingredient to making tofu is tofu coagulant. Felt as if I was back in food science lab as we were trying to figure out how much tofu coagulant to use. We must've spent 15 minutes doing metric, % and volume conversions. Luckily our education turned towards our favor.
My friend mastered 15-minute soda bread. She's crazy about it. It's tastes pretty good and even better when you've sliced up fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and heirloom tomatoes.
We waited two days to test the batches of kimchi. Her and her husband thought it turned out pretty good but I thought there could be room for more improvement. As sad as it sounds we both agree the kimchi needed more salt.Â
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Food
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Cooking Adventures Part Deux
Cooking Adventures continue! Our cooking club met for another cooking and eating extravaganza.Â
It was interesting because the three of us shared the kitchen to cook and prep. It wasn't a big kitchen but it happened to be a well designed lay-out. I forgot the technical term but it's something like the cook's triangle because the three main areas where cooks move to/from are: refrigerator, stove, sink. A well-designed kitchen will not have any entry point to disrupt the triangle.
This is what we brought to the table:
Rema made her special homemade noodles with 2 accompaniments (beef/cabbage/green beans, eggplant/green and red peppers). Per Jimmy's request Rema made everything at his place: dough making, noodle rolling, stretching, cutting and cooking. Everything was excellent! Never in my life have I tasted any dish like this. Rema down played it by saying this dish is like ordinary spaghetti from her country. Yeah right. Supposedly Marco Polo loved these noodles so much when he travelled the Silk Road.
Jimmy made this awesome glazed chicken. Asian-style glaze...don't even know the ingredients but it's the kind of chicken you can get only at a Chinese restaurant. It reminded me of peking duck just that it was chicken. Yum!
I made skirt steak, a salad, and green tea layer cake. The cake turned out much better than anticipated. I had to throw out the original cake because I accidentally took the powder from the powder green tea and thought the next ingredient read baking powder. Err...baking soda. Oops. Glad everyone liked it. Even after stuffing ourselves silly we ate more cake.
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Cooking Club
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