Friday, May 23, 2008
Menu du Jour
I really don't like to bang my head against a wall. I know, I know: we all do it from time to time. There's a bit of comedy to it that makes people watching laugh and point at the fool who's messing up his cranium or dulling his wits. There is that. Maybe there's the other kind.
So last night I was talking to my class, a class which at this time certainly has no name, and the idea was to practice their English while having a bit of pizza, sushi, fried dumplings, sesame tofu and cake. Now, writing that, I think I threw up a little in my mouth because it doesn't sound like it would go together. At the time, I managed to make it through all of the above except the sushi: "All Japanese people like to eat sushi with pizza." Naturally, I wouldn't make such a fool statement.
I countered with, certainly not ALL Japanese people... You know. To which I got the paraphrased response: "Yeah, well, maybe 99.9% of us."
Probably, I should have let it slide. But since we started the lesson more than an hour late and they were speaking Japanese when they were supposed to be speaking English and then they were not accurately translating anything they said into English, I kind of got angry and did not pick my battle so well.
We talked about personal taste and general taste. How maybe one or two of them like sushi with pizza but not everybody in any group would. (And at the insane cost of it in Japan, why bother? A 12 piece sushi box -- varied -- cost 680 yen times six people plus three large Domino's pizzas, probably about 2500 yen each, we're talking north of 10,000 yen here, or more than US$100.) Plus you throw in the tofu (homemade), cream puffs (six @ probably 300 yen each), and cake (six @ 400 yen each) and you're talking big bucks.
Here's the thing: it doesn't go together. The tastes are so disparate... It's like licking a garbage can.
Pizza 1: tomato sauce, pepperoni, red and green peppers, onions.
Pizza 2: cheese, squid, shrimp, broccoli, some kind of cream sauce, scallops.
Pizza 3: teriyaki chicken, vegetables, cheese.
Fried dumplings: ground garlic, ground vegetables, chicken and/or pork maybe, wrapping in thin rice paper.
Tofu: tofu (soybeans), sesame.
Cream puffs: whipped cream (with added sugar) and pastry.
Cake: cake and various toppings like strawberries and blueberries. Oh and crust. But it most definitely wasn't a pie.
Sushi: shrimp, salmon, salmon roe, squid, and others whose names I don't know.
Now, I ask you, in any order does that sound good?
So last night I was talking to my class, a class which at this time certainly has no name, and the idea was to practice their English while having a bit of pizza, sushi, fried dumplings, sesame tofu and cake. Now, writing that, I think I threw up a little in my mouth because it doesn't sound like it would go together. At the time, I managed to make it through all of the above except the sushi: "All Japanese people like to eat sushi with pizza." Naturally, I wouldn't make such a fool statement.
I countered with, certainly not ALL Japanese people... You know. To which I got the paraphrased response: "Yeah, well, maybe 99.9% of us."
Probably, I should have let it slide. But since we started the lesson more than an hour late and they were speaking Japanese when they were supposed to be speaking English and then they were not accurately translating anything they said into English, I kind of got angry and did not pick my battle so well.
We talked about personal taste and general taste. How maybe one or two of them like sushi with pizza but not everybody in any group would. (And at the insane cost of it in Japan, why bother? A 12 piece sushi box -- varied -- cost 680 yen times six people plus three large Domino's pizzas, probably about 2500 yen each, we're talking north of 10,000 yen here, or more than US$100.) Plus you throw in the tofu (homemade), cream puffs (six @ probably 300 yen each), and cake (six @ 400 yen each) and you're talking big bucks.
Here's the thing: it doesn't go together. The tastes are so disparate... It's like licking a garbage can.
Pizza 1: tomato sauce, pepperoni, red and green peppers, onions.
Pizza 2: cheese, squid, shrimp, broccoli, some kind of cream sauce, scallops.
Pizza 3: teriyaki chicken, vegetables, cheese.
Fried dumplings: ground garlic, ground vegetables, chicken and/or pork maybe, wrapping in thin rice paper.
Tofu: tofu (soybeans), sesame.
Cream puffs: whipped cream (with added sugar) and pastry.
Cake: cake and various toppings like strawberries and blueberries. Oh and crust. But it most definitely wasn't a pie.
Sushi: shrimp, salmon, salmon roe, squid, and others whose names I don't know.
Now, I ask you, in any order does that sound good?
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Cooking the Cook
So I had six like gallons of spaghetti sauce from Costco. I'd used one and was working on another. And according to past experience, using more than half would be appropriate for... yes, lasagna. Or lasagne. I've seen it both ways. Whatever the spelling, it's good stuff.
My method which is a combination of styles is...
What you do is you grind up the garlic and slice the mushrooms. Put them in a pot. Chop up the onions and do the same (in the pot). Cut up the asparagus and put it in the pot, too. Follow that by browning the ground beef and after it's brown (!), toss it in the pot. When it's all in there, you add as much sauce as makes the rest of it float and turn on low heat to cook it a little. (If you feel like frying the onions before including them in the pot, then that's perfectly okay. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.)
You then put the "pizza cheese" into a bowl with the eggs and mix it up so it's more like a soup. (That's the part from Wolfgang Puck's web recipe.)
So you put some vegetable oil in the bottom of the dish, enough to coat the bottom, and put a flat noodle there. Then a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodle, then a layer of cheese, then a layer of noodle, ad infinitum. You can alternate the way you like.
Ah, I forgot to mention that you may want to add extra oregano, basil, or whatever needs you have for an Italian sauce.
When it's all ready, you preheat the oven to about 230 Celsius, maybe a little less and then cook it for 25 minutes or so. The temperature and the time aren't crucially important. A little either side is okay.
And there you have a perfectly serviceable lasagna, serving a few people.
Mine serves me and my wife twice (meaning two meals).
Enjoy!
My method which is a combination of styles is...
- Prego mushroom sauce (the larger the amount the better)
- A bunch of flat lasagna spaghetti... noodles? Not sure exactly what they're called.
- Asparagus
- "Pizza cheese" from my local grocer
- Whatever secondary cheese is lying around
- A whole snuffle load of garlic
- An onion
- Ground beef
- A couple of eggs
- Extra mushrooms
What you do is you grind up the garlic and slice the mushrooms. Put them in a pot. Chop up the onions and do the same (in the pot). Cut up the asparagus and put it in the pot, too. Follow that by browning the ground beef and after it's brown (!), toss it in the pot. When it's all in there, you add as much sauce as makes the rest of it float and turn on low heat to cook it a little. (If you feel like frying the onions before including them in the pot, then that's perfectly okay. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.)
You then put the "pizza cheese" into a bowl with the eggs and mix it up so it's more like a soup. (That's the part from Wolfgang Puck's web recipe.)
So you put some vegetable oil in the bottom of the dish, enough to coat the bottom, and put a flat noodle there. Then a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodle, then a layer of cheese, then a layer of noodle, ad infinitum. You can alternate the way you like.
Ah, I forgot to mention that you may want to add extra oregano, basil, or whatever needs you have for an Italian sauce.
When it's all ready, you preheat the oven to about 230 Celsius, maybe a little less and then cook it for 25 minutes or so. The temperature and the time aren't crucially important. A little either side is okay.
And there you have a perfectly serviceable lasagna, serving a few people.
Mine serves me and my wife twice (meaning two meals).
Enjoy!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Here I Come to Save the Day!!!!
So tonight was probably my last chance to enjoy one of the great joys of life in Japan: live professional baseball.
I trundled out to Koshien, an hour or so from here, and watched the Hanshin Tigers beat the Yakult Swallows 8-5. I actually didn't see all 5 though, as we left before the game ended to beat the crowd.
And I remembered a little something about expectation during the game.
My expectation was that my favorite pitcher would go for the Tigers, an older guy name of Shimoyanagi. He's got a week's beard growth and gives the impression of being surly and not the kind of guy you want to meet on the street. But I saw him receive the player of the game after a game one time and he was charming and self-deprecating. On TV, he was funny and interesting and I don't speak enough Japanese to know if he was or not. But he oozed coolness.
As a result, he is my favorite player on the team and I wanted to see him pitch. However, being Friday, I guess, we got Andoh.
I've seen Andoh maybe two or three other times and he was terrible, walking batters left and right. Now, I'm used to seeing him or hearing his name and thinking, "Loss."
Well, I got to tell you, Andoh was rockin' tonight. He had a four-hitter through eight and about seven strikeouts. He was in control and the Swallows (a weak team the last five years) looked helpless in front of him. To be fair, the defense bailed him out with some spectacular plays, too.
My general impression is that Andoh is a humble guy. I respect that. I think that in the past more had been asked of him than he could deliver.
I have never respected the manager of the Tigers, Okada. He's the kind of manager that stays with a player even longer than a loyal manager stays with a struggler before sending him down to the minors for help. Okada seems fixated. This didn't help Andoh in the past because he probably should have gone down to the Japanese "minor league" (developmental league) and fine-tuned his skills to be a very high-level pitcher.
It seems that hard work has paid off for Andoh, though, if tonight was any indication. Maybe the role he has has just taken him some time to grow into. Good on him!
On the other side, the Yakult pitcher, whose name I couldn't catch, gave up seven runs on 10 hits in four innings. It was three runs in three innings and five hits. You could tell he didn't have good stuff tonight and the manager should have gone to the bullpen after the third inning. Yakult used like six or seven pitchers by the end. Being down by seven after four innings is never good as you never expect that to happen.
Then again, expectations can be very negative things.
I trundled out to Koshien, an hour or so from here, and watched the Hanshin Tigers beat the Yakult Swallows 8-5. I actually didn't see all 5 though, as we left before the game ended to beat the crowd.
And I remembered a little something about expectation during the game.
My expectation was that my favorite pitcher would go for the Tigers, an older guy name of Shimoyanagi. He's got a week's beard growth and gives the impression of being surly and not the kind of guy you want to meet on the street. But I saw him receive the player of the game after a game one time and he was charming and self-deprecating. On TV, he was funny and interesting and I don't speak enough Japanese to know if he was or not. But he oozed coolness.
As a result, he is my favorite player on the team and I wanted to see him pitch. However, being Friday, I guess, we got Andoh.
I've seen Andoh maybe two or three other times and he was terrible, walking batters left and right. Now, I'm used to seeing him or hearing his name and thinking, "Loss."
Well, I got to tell you, Andoh was rockin' tonight. He had a four-hitter through eight and about seven strikeouts. He was in control and the Swallows (a weak team the last five years) looked helpless in front of him. To be fair, the defense bailed him out with some spectacular plays, too.
My general impression is that Andoh is a humble guy. I respect that. I think that in the past more had been asked of him than he could deliver.
I have never respected the manager of the Tigers, Okada. He's the kind of manager that stays with a player even longer than a loyal manager stays with a struggler before sending him down to the minors for help. Okada seems fixated. This didn't help Andoh in the past because he probably should have gone down to the Japanese "minor league" (developmental league) and fine-tuned his skills to be a very high-level pitcher.
It seems that hard work has paid off for Andoh, though, if tonight was any indication. Maybe the role he has has just taken him some time to grow into. Good on him!
On the other side, the Yakult pitcher, whose name I couldn't catch, gave up seven runs on 10 hits in four innings. It was three runs in three innings and five hits. You could tell he didn't have good stuff tonight and the manager should have gone to the bullpen after the third inning. Yakult used like six or seven pitchers by the end. Being down by seven after four innings is never good as you never expect that to happen.
Then again, expectations can be very negative things.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Vacuum
Unfortunately, there is, sometimes, nothing in my head. I know this sounds strange. It sounds like a freak of nature. I don't mean that there is literally nothing. There is tissue. There is some organ that pulsates as the blood pumps through. There is... A BRAIN!!!!!
But what's coming out of the brain can be less than exciting. There is a difference between blogging and... general conversation... for a blog needs direction and coherence while a conversation can digress and ebb and flow.
I guess that's why I've been making an effort for the last few days to write here not every day, but every other day. If I tried to do this every day, I would probably pull my hair out or worse. Maybe, for you reading this, meandering isn't such a bad thing. If that's the case, you'd probably enjoy a nice conversation with me. If it isn't the case, I will make more of an effort to keep to a specific subject. Hopefully, it will be entertaining for you and helpful to me!
But what's coming out of the brain can be less than exciting. There is a difference between blogging and... general conversation... for a blog needs direction and coherence while a conversation can digress and ebb and flow.
I guess that's why I've been making an effort for the last few days to write here not every day, but every other day. If I tried to do this every day, I would probably pull my hair out or worse. Maybe, for you reading this, meandering isn't such a bad thing. If that's the case, you'd probably enjoy a nice conversation with me. If it isn't the case, I will make more of an effort to keep to a specific subject. Hopefully, it will be entertaining for you and helpful to me!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Boo-be
It's half-time in the season finale. Liverpool and Tottenham tied at nil. Naturally, one hopes the Red side get a result. But just as important is a fixture at the other end of the table. (Liverpool are in fourth with no possibility to move up to third or go down to fifth.)
Fulham are fighting for their survival. They win, they stay up. Birmingham or Reading win and they go down.
I have followed Fulham for quite some time, in fact since they were in the old Second Division under Kevin Keegan. The old Second Division is now League 1. Back in the day, Maik Taylor was the goalkeeper and Geoff Horsley and Barry Hayles formed the strike partnership. Even before Chris Coleman's accident and the family-like relationship with him during the rehab. What class! The year they were promoted to the Premier League, they set a record for most points in the Championship (League 1). I bought their strip at Harrod's. If I wasn't a Liverpool fan, I would probably be a Fulham fan.
Which, I might add, has nothing to do with Mohammed al-Fayed.
Today's Fulham is, bless me, full of Americans. The leading scorer is Clint Dempsey. The leading scorer would have been Brian McBride if he hadn't missed a chunk of the season through injury. Kasey Keller has been deputizing in goal since the injury to Niemi. Bocanegra gets a game occasionally. Now they also have Jimmy Bullard and ex-Red Danny Murphy. On the negative side, I was riled a bit when they dismissed Chris Coleman at the end of last season. I was not a big fan of Lawrie Sanchez, this season's first Fulham manager, nor am I a big fan of Roy Hodgson, former Swiss national team boss and present manager.
But for old times' sake, I hope they stay up. That, and I hate everything having to do with Birmingham, England. And Reading -- except Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey. One could only hope that Fulham could overtake Bolton and relegate them, too. But sending four teams down wouldn't work because they only promote three and 19 in the Premier League would play havoc with the schedule.
I'm hoping they stay up (Fulham) and are able to sign some new guys to maybe get mid-table and do well in a domestic cup competition. I'm hoping they'll dump Hodgson and get
someone solid in. Martin Jol would have been good. I wonder who else would have made a good boss at Craven Cottage. If Sven is canned from Man City, they should go after him. Most of the other bosses I would think of already have jobs. McCarthy, Adams... Maybe they should hire Ince. That would be pretty sweet. He's done well at MK Dons recently and at other teams. He is a rising star among managers. I think he is young enough and he has the silverware to be able to motivate the lads to do more and more.
This year's Fulham has had a lot of injuries, which has contributed to the low rank. Ask any team with major injuries for parts of the season. (Houllier and Benitez have both had that problem at Liverpool in the last ten years, though year after year is a problem with the conditioning, training and physio.) Hopefully, they can buy well, perhaps from the lower leagues or intelligently and return to success. Here's hoping.
UPDATE after Matchday 38!
Manchester United won the game, vs Wigan, 2-0 and in so doing, won the Premier League... um... again...
Chelsea managed to DRAW! (ha-ha-ha) with Bolton 1-1 at the last, ensuring they finish 2 points behind United.
Nobody really cares that Arsenal managed to win.
Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham through Voronin and Torres.
And, the news you were waiting for.
Derby 0-4 Reading. As expected, but with more goals.
Birmingham City 4-1 Blackburn. Not as expected. Blackburn is a much better team, but usually that is when McCarthy starts... and he didn't today.
Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham through Danny Murphy (see above).
Fulham survive and Reading, Birmingham and Derby are relgated.
Whew. I can relax now, as it was touch-and-go.
Surprisingly, Middlesbrough 8-1 Manchester City. City finished ninth and Boro 13th, but you couldn't tell from that scoreline. Remember what I said about Sven above? I take that back. If his squad is humiliated like that on the final day of the season when they should be playing to save his job, he should quit. (It started when he quit playing Rolando Bianchi but that's a story for another blog.)
So I am HAPPY! Fulham stay up, Reina of Liverpool gets his 17th clean sheet of the season and Torres his 33rd goal, I believe. Plus Voronin scored, which is always a good thing. Maybe a good summer is ahead, without Gareth Barry for Liverpool.
Fulham are fighting for their survival. They win, they stay up. Birmingham or Reading win and they go down.
I have followed Fulham for quite some time, in fact since they were in the old Second Division under Kevin Keegan. The old Second Division is now League 1. Back in the day, Maik Taylor was the goalkeeper and Geoff Horsley and Barry Hayles formed the strike partnership. Even before Chris Coleman's accident and the family-like relationship with him during the rehab. What class! The year they were promoted to the Premier League, they set a record for most points in the Championship (League 1). I bought their strip at Harrod's. If I wasn't a Liverpool fan, I would probably be a Fulham fan.
Which, I might add, has nothing to do with Mohammed al-Fayed.
Today's Fulham is, bless me, full of Americans. The leading scorer is Clint Dempsey. The leading scorer would have been Brian McBride if he hadn't missed a chunk of the season through injury. Kasey Keller has been deputizing in goal since the injury to Niemi. Bocanegra gets a game occasionally. Now they also have Jimmy Bullard and ex-Red Danny Murphy. On the negative side, I was riled a bit when they dismissed Chris Coleman at the end of last season. I was not a big fan of Lawrie Sanchez, this season's first Fulham manager, nor am I a big fan of Roy Hodgson, former Swiss national team boss and present manager.
But for old times' sake, I hope they stay up. That, and I hate everything having to do with Birmingham, England. And Reading -- except Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey. One could only hope that Fulham could overtake Bolton and relegate them, too. But sending four teams down wouldn't work because they only promote three and 19 in the Premier League would play havoc with the schedule.
I'm hoping they stay up (Fulham) and are able to sign some new guys to maybe get mid-table and do well in a domestic cup competition. I'm hoping they'll dump Hodgson and get
someone solid in. Martin Jol would have been good. I wonder who else would have made a good boss at Craven Cottage. If Sven is canned from Man City, they should go after him. Most of the other bosses I would think of already have jobs. McCarthy, Adams... Maybe they should hire Ince. That would be pretty sweet. He's done well at MK Dons recently and at other teams. He is a rising star among managers. I think he is young enough and he has the silverware to be able to motivate the lads to do more and more.
This year's Fulham has had a lot of injuries, which has contributed to the low rank. Ask any team with major injuries for parts of the season. (Houllier and Benitez have both had that problem at Liverpool in the last ten years, though year after year is a problem with the conditioning, training and physio.) Hopefully, they can buy well, perhaps from the lower leagues or intelligently and return to success. Here's hoping.
UPDATE after Matchday 38!
Manchester United won the game, vs Wigan, 2-0 and in so doing, won the Premier League... um... again...
Chelsea managed to DRAW! (ha-ha-ha) with Bolton 1-1 at the last, ensuring they finish 2 points behind United.
Nobody really cares that Arsenal managed to win.
Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham through Voronin and Torres.
And, the news you were waiting for.
Derby 0-4 Reading. As expected, but with more goals.
Birmingham City 4-1 Blackburn. Not as expected. Blackburn is a much better team, but usually that is when McCarthy starts... and he didn't today.
Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham through Danny Murphy (see above).
Fulham survive and Reading, Birmingham and Derby are relgated.
Whew. I can relax now, as it was touch-and-go.
Surprisingly, Middlesbrough 8-1 Manchester City. City finished ninth and Boro 13th, but you couldn't tell from that scoreline. Remember what I said about Sven above? I take that back. If his squad is humiliated like that on the final day of the season when they should be playing to save his job, he should quit. (It started when he quit playing Rolando Bianchi but that's a story for another blog.)
So I am HAPPY! Fulham stay up, Reina of Liverpool gets his 17th clean sheet of the season and Torres his 33rd goal, I believe. Plus Voronin scored, which is always a good thing. Maybe a good summer is ahead, without Gareth Barry for Liverpool.
Friday, May 09, 2008
"Victimless" Addiction
I post this as I'm practically falling asleep. My wife is reading her news on her online social community of choice. (Rhymes with "Pixie.")
It's times like these that I wonder what guys like the people who invented Facebook, MySpace and internet dating really thought they were doing. People with lives, real lives, log onto these things and get lost for hours. It's really worse than going onto IMDB and looking for all the answers in 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and THAT takes a long time.
Online social networking is one of the evils of our age. Truly. The Chinese ones all pick your address book clean and mail everyone junk in Chinese characters. Luckily, not all do that. But others can be equally frustrating and/or annoying.
Sometimes I like to jump between links to look at new information and those links occasionally lead to a MySpace page. MySpace -- I'll be the one to say it -- is a waste of time. I go on looking for info on a band and get blurry gig photos and the Wazzup guy from the beer commercials leaving a message reading: "Wazzup! Ur sitez kul!"
Shoot me now, as I've heard a good friend of mine say.
Social networking not only wastes your time, it kills brain cells and makes you have bad grammar.
And if that wasn't bad enough, these wastes of time are being bought by major media companies as secondary and third-dary (I know, tertiary) markets for testing things to sell to kid who have none of their own money. Rupert Murdoch peddling "Temptation Island" via the Wazzup guy to Mrs. Christian's ninth grade faith-and-values class. Oh, John Ashcroft, we hardly knew ye.
It's too much for the mind to connect to. It's really time to go to bed and not worry about it anymore.
It's times like these that I wonder what guys like the people who invented Facebook, MySpace and internet dating really thought they were doing. People with lives, real lives, log onto these things and get lost for hours. It's really worse than going onto IMDB and looking for all the answers in 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and THAT takes a long time.
Online social networking is one of the evils of our age. Truly. The Chinese ones all pick your address book clean and mail everyone junk in Chinese characters. Luckily, not all do that. But others can be equally frustrating and/or annoying.
Sometimes I like to jump between links to look at new information and those links occasionally lead to a MySpace page. MySpace -- I'll be the one to say it -- is a waste of time. I go on looking for info on a band and get blurry gig photos and the Wazzup guy from the beer commercials leaving a message reading: "Wazzup! Ur sitez kul!"
Shoot me now, as I've heard a good friend of mine say.
Social networking not only wastes your time, it kills brain cells and makes you have bad grammar.
And if that wasn't bad enough, these wastes of time are being bought by major media companies as secondary and third-dary (I know, tertiary) markets for testing things to sell to kid who have none of their own money. Rupert Murdoch peddling "Temptation Island" via the Wazzup guy to Mrs. Christian's ninth grade faith-and-values class. Oh, John Ashcroft, we hardly knew ye.
It's too much for the mind to connect to. It's really time to go to bed and not worry about it anymore.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Well Smack My Buttocks and Call Me Shirley!
I've never seen so much silliness to just post a blog! Wow! If I had known that, I would have just tried to shift it all over to WordPress or something.
Anyway, long time no update.
Storyville, as mentioned in the previous post, is a thing of the past. It has curled up its tootsies and gone on to meet its maker. It's an ex-thing. It ... snuffed it. Alas, poor Yorick, we hardly knew ye. Greener pastures, et al, beckon.
I have been gathering my "energies" and fully, FULLY, intend to commit some of my thoughts to the electronic page in the near future. Even as the time approaches for me to move again. (First time in 18 months, sixth time in seven years.) Perhaps getting my thoughts down is more important now than it ever has been, imminent return to the home shores pressing down upon me.
More firmly to be continued.
Anyway, long time no update.
Storyville, as mentioned in the previous post, is a thing of the past. It has curled up its tootsies and gone on to meet its maker. It's an ex-thing. It ... snuffed it. Alas, poor Yorick, we hardly knew ye. Greener pastures, et al, beckon.
I have been gathering my "energies" and fully, FULLY, intend to commit some of my thoughts to the electronic page in the near future. Even as the time approaches for me to move again. (First time in 18 months, sixth time in seven years.) Perhaps getting my thoughts down is more important now than it ever has been, imminent return to the home shores pressing down upon me.
More firmly to be continued.
