tuesday night dinner

you're insanely jealous of me.
look at the beauty and deliciousness!


scallop carpaccio with mango and chile-lime dressing.


sun-dried tomato and goat cheese stuffed chicken breast (cvd even made puff pastry letters of our first initials)







chocolate ice cream in puff pastry basket.

gooooo falcons! caw caw!

the wiler organized a trip out to the dome to see the bangels take on the falcons. i haven't been here in quite some time, and it was pretty awesome.

the crew:
tucker
cvd
ktl
the wiler
fidel

and we won, which was a bonus.

and now the pics...enjoy

tv theme song trivia

haha! finally got around to embedding tv theme songs in my blog.

this was always my favorite question to come up with, when i ran a trivia in brooklyn. and now i bring it to you fine people of the internet. hopefully this will motivate me to start writing more trivia, and do these theme song questions.

enjoy...


(three short clips of theme songs, and one theme song in it's entirety)

also...

don't do it, even if all the cool kids are.

roomie dinner

oh man, i wish had taken a picture of wiler's dinner while it was still in the crock pot. alas, this is the only picture of roomie dinner captured in "leftover lunch" form.




it was a char siu (chinese version of bbq pork):
boston butt pork roast (slow cooked for 7 hours) in a soy/hoison/siracha sauce served with stir fried vegetable medley and brown rice.

de.
lic.
ious.



also, no guesses on the trivia question? sad, guys. here is the answer:
Avatar
Titanic
ET: The Extraterrestrial
The Passion of the Christ
Finding Nemo
Forrest Gump
The Lion King
(Tim Burton's) Alice in Wonderland
Independence Day
The 6th Sense
Up
The Hangover

its been a while...

and i have lots to update, but that will have to wait. here's something to tide you over:

a NSFW red band trailer for "i love you philip morris" that looks absolutely hilarious, despite having jim carey in it.



aaand a little trivia:
Name the 12 highest grossing box office releases to not spawn a theatrically released sequel or to be a sequel itself, in non-adjusted box office receipts (as of April, 2010).
Note: Excludes Iron Man (which has a sequel coming out next month).
Hint: 3 are animated.
(i got 9 of them...BOOM!)

i'm not a balla

but this dude sure is. he jumps over SEVEN people....enjoy

atlanta zombie apocolypse

scrambling through a wasteland full of the walking dead.

our only protectors, two soldiers, one level-headed the other section 8, both carrying rifles.

and us, a motley crew of 12 delicious brains, ripe for the eating.

ATLANTA ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!!

i'm not a huge fan of haunted houses. actually, i think they mostly kinda suck. but the promise of a huge converted warehouse (atlanta paintball), zombies, and shooting zombies with paintball guns was too much to resist.

we made our way through winding claustrophobic corridors, to a burned out mad-max style open ground, and then back inside the bloodstained warehouse.

our army guards had modified paintball guns shooting co2. loud and effective. at one point we ran into someone with either a handgun with blanks, or a starter pistol. either way, it was super loud in an enclosed space, and very jarring.

all the zombies were great. they were the slow movers of yesteryear, not the carl-lewis-type from the new dawn of the dead/28 days later.

we were told to stay in the middle of the hallways (zombies would reach out from doorways). not to fall behind. and GO GO GO!

there was a weak storyline of a scientist gone mad, but it really didn't matter. when zombies are coming at you, you don't care about sub-plot.

[side note, i almost had my shirt taken off by one of our group members. because at the very beginning she latched onto it, almost never let go. and when zombies would attack, she would push me forward and subsequently the shirt would ride up my back. at several points, i was flashing all my back fat to the group]

afterwards, there was a shooting range of zombies. it was fun but i was kinda expecting getting to shoot zombies as they came at us in the warehouse. but i realized the safety issues wouldn't allow such things. and honestly, i probably would have shot some of my own group members, if they weren't pulling their weight.

so all in all, one of the best "haunted houses" i've ever been to. highly recommended.

here are some pics, enjoy...

this was selena's "presentation" for our group at my place before we went to zombie apocalypse (it was the thriller video...awesome)...sorry a little dark


BRAINS!!!!


shooting zombies with paintballs, the only way to "kill" them was shooting them in the head. also, shooting them in the crotch was just as effective.


our crew minus me, tucker, and fidel (they're camera-shy)

the cleverlys

holy. crap. awe. some.

from the lead singer, to the ridiculously intense drummer, the beach boy bass player, the 70's hippie professor banjo player, and the jail warden fiddle player . just amazing.

spicy sweet teriyaki chicken wings, version 1.0

so for tuesday night roomie dinner, i was up and i made some chicken wings. now i have a good teriyaki sauce that i stole from an uncle. took me about 10 years to drag the recipe out of him. had to get him drunk at a thanksgiving, and even then he only gave me the ingredients. and i found out later on my own, that he had left one out. sneaky asian bastard. took me about 5 years to get all the ratios right. and it's pretty damn close to the original. but i thought i could improve on it. and the roomies got version 1.0 of my spicy sweet teriyaki wings.


spicy buttermilk brine for 24 hours


2 different dredges: a thomas keller concoction and a tony chechere's cajun seasoning one, also more buttermilk to double dredge some of the wings for extra crispiness.


the setup


the tony chechere double dredge(left) and single (right), with teriyaki sauce


the thomas keller double dredge(right) and single (left), with teriyaki sauce



being version 1.0, there were a lot of lessons learned.
things that worked, and things that sucked the big one:
1. double dredge makes it too too crispy. chicken gets lost in all that extra batter.
2. there was almost no heat to the wings, even though the brine was spiced, and both dredges were spiced.
3. single dredge added awesome crunch to the wings.
4. a buttermilk brine makes the chicken super moist, but not mushy.
5. needs waaaay more heat....somehow
6. wings need to be cooked bw 200 and 215 degrees, especially small batches.
7. this will mos def have to go through 3-4 more test batches before i go public.

fckthtsht

nsfw language, but awesome message. and you can't go wrong when kids swear. enjoy...

two of the best political ads...evar.

enjoy...
the first one is just hilarious.
the second one is hilariously racist.

a tease of trivia...enjoy

the usa has 6 of them.
china has 1 of them.
russia, in march of this year, dropped 2 to end up with 9 of them.

what are they?

PRIDE Atlanta

this past weekend was a busy one. on saturday, i had to work our annual TEA (together empowering asians) Walk. i was in charge of trash, recycling, and drinks. it was a good time. free food, free tshirt, and lots and lots of asians.

those pics will be up sometime soon.

on sunday, i woke up early again to attend the atlanta PRIDE parade, reppin cpacs. i really didn't know what to expect. i've never been in a parade before, and it turned out to be crazy fun. we walked from downtown atlanta to peidmont park, about 2 miles, and the crowd was super into it. here's the evidence. enjoy...

that's me on the left, with my beautiful wings.


this guy was part of our float


pre-parade, i walked around and snapped some photos














snapshot during the parade



other than a few protesters that were screaming we were all going to hell, everyone there was super nice, and there was a great energy. and anyone who would like to march next year, please let me know cause i'm definitely going again.

damn, sometimes i really miss ny

just can't find this kind of stuff in atlanta. enjoy...

Amazing Building Mapping - Vimeo Festival from Dan Ilic on Vimeo.

stolen

so a while ago, my house was broken into, and my ps3 and my laptop were taken. thankfully, no one was home.

and while both the ps3 and laptop can be replaced, there was one document on the laptop that cannot. my korean chili recipe.

yes, in the grand scheme of things, it's insignificant. but i worked very hard on it, won a contest with it, and was pretty proud of it.

so here's all that remains of that night. enjoy...

here's the set-up:
on top of a pool table and a couple of extra tables. and loads and loads of power strips.
16 contestants in all.
everyone who came got to be a judge.
we were graded on creativity of ingredients, originality, and taste.


here's my stuff:
texas style chili (no beans)
2 types of korean bbq, bul-go-gi and galbi
served over rice, topped with homemade kimchee, gim (seaweed), and green onion


settin up mah station:


winner winner chicken dinner:



how the scoring ended up that night:
1st: 340 pts (utter korean domination)
2nd: 201 pts
3rd: 199 pts

but alas the recipe is no more. you will be missed, sir.

one bad day...the joker lego-style

enjoy...

tuesday night roomie dinner

when i lived in new york, probably my most favorite tradition was having tuesday night dinners. it all started out as me and big d wylie getting some drinks after work, then we would start grabbing dinner. then we would seek out new places to eat. then the ex eventually started to join us, then big d's wife would join too. and it was all very lovely and awesome. great conversation, awesome food, and something to look forward to during the week.

but since being back in the atl, i haven't had the chance to do something like that again. but finally, i think we did it. our own southern tradition.

tuesday night roomie dinner.

sparked by a loss of an good friend, and cvd cooking us a wonderful meal, i suggested that we keep it up. and everyone was on board.

unfortunately there were no pics of that inaugural dinner, which consisted of:
duck fat braised duck legs with mushrooms and potatoes
spinach salad with goat cheese, roasted walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette

suffice it to say, it was mega-awesome.

then cvd generously offered to cook the second tuesday night roomie dinner: salmon en croute:
look upon it and be jealous.


salmon with a blend of cream cheese, dill, and basil, wrapped in puff pastry, and baked, with roasted asparagus on the side

and for desert, an amazing "s'more" of gram cracker, peanut butter, chocolate all inside a puff pastry with marshmellow fluff on top...like heaven

i'm up this week, and i plan on trying out a new spicy teriyaki wing recipe.

ahhhhh. doesn't get much better.

sun shining
cool breeze
couple of adult beverages
me in a rocking chair
cvd laying in an army cot
watching football outside on the porch
perfect

saturday, mini golf, and go-karts

expiring groupon prompted a malibu grand prix trip. first we feasted at lupitas. some mexican fare nearby, that turned out tasting really good. well, at least the lunch fajitas did. then off to malibu!

kinda crowded, and we seemed out of place cause we weren't chaperoning or being chaperoned. we started off with a little mini-golf, which i, of course, dominated. then some racing, then more golfing and racing.

i had forgot how much fun go-karting is. our motley crew consisted of:
me
combat veteran dan
tucker
and action jackson
will.i.am (not featured cause he busted out early)

enjoy...

here we have action, tucker, and cvd after a rousing game of mini-golf



action silently judges, as tucker throws up gang signs


only way cvd could be cooler is if he was smoking


death machines...OF DOOM!

the social network

wow. a really amazing movie.
eisenberg, awesome.
jt, almost as awesome.
score, will be nominated for an oscar. it'll lose to zimmer for inception, but reznor's music will give hans a run for his money.
story and pacing, perfect.

go watch this movie. i would say you should view it in the theater, not for the incredible cgi, though,fincher does frame the movie incredibly well, but just for the enveloping music, which you can't get at home.

5/5 stars

mah new boyfriend

my first football post in a while, and mostly it will be ramble-y and incoherent.


1. yes, aj green is my boyfriend, and you cannot have him. cause i will be his baby mama.

2. yes, we suck this year. 1-4 is not the record of an elite team. but we're getting better every game.

3. are we better than our record? maybe.

4. why do you white folks hate muslims, hispanics, blacks, poor people, reason, and accountability?

5. we have to learn a new d. we're breaking in a new qb. for the last few games, no aj green. and an offensive line that has been struggling. an ineffective run game. basically, the perfect storm of potential and realized failure.

6. it obvious we don't have the same level of talent in years past (except for my boyfriend).

7. the people who are talking about firing richt, are the same people from #4.

8. groundhog's day is an awesome movie: "don't drive angry, don't drive angry!"

9. denard robinson is retard-ly good at football. he's like the entire oregon offense in a single man. but not like a regular man, like a genetically modified super cheetah that has a laser-rocket passing arm.

10. as long as we beat florida, i'll say this season is a wash.

spades kountry kooking

while trying to decide where we(ktl and the wiler) could get a good pre-dem-georgia-bulldawgs-game lunch, we decided upon Spades Kountry Kooking.

a mile away from our house, next door to our bar. haven't tried going in till a couple of weekends ago. damn me.

this is some of the best bbq i've ever had. the best?! very possible. it's at least in the top 3.

the ribs are cooked perfect. but it's the sauce that makes it. the sauce is KILLER. spicy and sweet, just the way i like it.

all the sides are amazing. cornbread is ridiculous, collards are fat-backed and delicious, and the mac and cheese is cheesy and mac-y and wonderful-y. and to top it all off the people who run the place (steven and martha) are super nice, in that old southern 'rockin on the front porch, sippin sweet tea, and talkin about the world goin by' kinda way

and now that we've been a couple of times and they recognize us, martha chooses the biggest fattest ribs for our plates. i think i'm in love with her.

(also, no white folks in the joint, which signifies great bbq and a hidden jem)

this place is perfect.

this looks badass...

enjoy...