State of Ramen

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The state of ramen by Momofuku’s David Chang.

When we first opened Momofuku, I feel like our ramen made sense at the time; we were figuring out what it was like to make ramen in America. But now ramen is everywhere, and a lot of it is the same. I don’t want to go to every city and taste the same fucking thing. Everyone’s serving tonkotsu ramen, everyone’s serving pork. You could do a blind taste test and not have any idea where the fuck you’re eating. Everyone is sharing the same experiences, but ramen is not supposed to be about that; it’s food for people that don’t want the same experience, that don’t want to be part of the mainstream. Even in Japan, cooks are returning to pure, clean, simple chicken ramen, because everything else has been done. That’s it—you’ve taken noodle soup as far as you can fucking go, and now it’s gotta go back to the beginning.

What's on your breakfast table?

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I'm merely highlighting a paragraph that clearly says it all. One of my goals when Norah could start eating more foods was to introduce her to new cheeses every week / month together and explore that world. I can't wait to expand her palette even more.  If you continue and read through the NY Times article, it's quite amazing the variety that other cultures present as compared to us here in the United States.

I love the part of Toyo / Bangus Tocho.

It is only through repeated exposure and mimicry that toddlers adjust to new tastes — breakfast instead of, say, dinner. That we don’t put pickle relish on waffles or eat Honey Bunches of Oats for supper are rules of culture, not of nature. As children grow, their palates continue to be shaped by the food environment they were born into (as well as by the savvy marketers of sugar cereals who advertise directly to the 10-and-under set and their tired parents). This early enculturation means a child in the Philippines might happily consume garlic fried rice topped with dried and salted fish called tuyo at 6 in the morning, while many American kids would balk at such a meal (even at dinnertime). We learn to be disgusted, just as we learn to want a second helping.

bangus.jpeg

A Random New Year's (yes I know it's already February)

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I know that I haven't posted in a while but I might as well start with the randomness that New Year's Eve brought. I spent the day with my fiance having a great breakfast / lunch, took some pictures around the area (Solana Beach, San Diego, CA) and just hung out knowing that we wouldn't be with each other that night. It would be the first time that we were not able to spend the midnight together since we have been with each other. She was working, I happen to be off that night, but it ended up working out just right! I called up a friend and was invited to hang out! It was great...the randomness = new friends, old neighbors, good company, great food and the random bar that apparently was throwing a New Year's Eve Party for a different breed. Needless to say, we were the only Asians around (not that that matters) and we missed the flyer describing the party as a lesbian night out! =) Good times though! We each donated food cans taken out of Jerome and Joyce's pantry used to discount the cover charged, enjoyed the night then went back to their place and play some quiz games on the PS3...and of course, enjoyed more food! Here are some pics! [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

I have quite a few more pictures that I'll be posting here too in the next few days!  Stay tuned!

Just checked...

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I didn't notice that my other blog "the battle" was still online but now I have sent all redirects to here:  www.elijahnicolas.com/wp  I think that it might just stay this way for quite a while, maybe a dynamic picture uptop or something, but we'll see.  I remember doing that for my Luxembourg blog a while back so making this one will be a little of the same deal.  Maybe just random collages or something. Well, today was another day of nothing-ness.  Woke up early around 9:00AM and since then I've been catching up on my shows, playing a little more Call of Duty 4 and that's it!  Call of Duty has been a lot of fun but I still really wish that we could all play online together.  Oh well, hopefully in the next patch or something.

I ate a can of Soup, the one with the red label along with some popcorn for a lunch and for breakfast, I had the usual Eggo Waffles with topped with maple syrup and light butter spread.  I also had some blueberry oatmeal that my roommate left me and I was actually kind of impressed.  It was quite tastier than the usual brown sugar flavored oatmeal that I have.

I think that I'm going to try to expand a little bit today with the links to my schedule again and go from there.  I still don't know if I want all the sidebars and stuff because they really don't contain any useful information.