QUE?! 2 (Joanne ver)

SO I figured that Joanne should have a poster for herself as well. and I figured to those who don't know she does speak spanish, SHE CAN. So don't behind her back she may just turn around and ask you.....QUE?!!

Que?

HUH? yeah that is exactly what ran through my mind when I was trying ti figure out what to write in the bottom of the picture. I always think "What?" 

I can't stand it when people tell me "Speak English", so I thought Hmm I'm in America and I'm Puerto Rican,Vote and in a country were I have such freedom to speak in my own language if nto someone else's. So I ask"Que?" To those wh think we should just speak english, to those who cant; stad Latino's being themselves. QUE?. If you are one of them this one is for you.

VOTE HAHAHA

                                                                               So I want my students to start making propaganda posters. I thought about our country while it was dealing with WWII. Tons of solid colors and simple text. Other times obviously very detailed illustrations. But I want to  to keep it simple with them. SO obviously I am going to make a sample file that they will draw inspiration from. I recently dressed up as Fei Long from Super Street FIghter II. I had a skully to represent hair(since I shave mine every 3 days) ANyway I also had my picture taken and played with the image. I figured I give myself the Bruce Lee haircut(c'mon its cool looking) but not sure how I feel about it. I also did a "Hope" poster like the Shepard Fairey Obama posters. but obviously not with the same image haha

Any thoughts ??

        

Who are they

Just who are these people who are at coffee houses during the day? Sitting with their MacBook Pro chillin for hours without end.
Are they working or just pretending to be busy.

So Eating dinner while watching a show may seem like fun or even nostalgic..But tonight it wasn't; tonight it was boring, empty missing the flair it once had. Reading while eating seems like a great idea to fall back on. I do that ion the morning though...

SO I got 2 free tix( I know I was excited myself) to the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Festival.
But I cam to a conundrum,  who could I invite?
I could invite my room mates or another friend but who? SO I asked around since I didn't want to put it between my room mates and have them fight for the death for the tickets. But alas in the end I offered it to them and no one fought to the death(not even a face off hahaha)
Anyway  Benji ended up going with me. We headed to Government Center with empty belly's. As we walk in I was like a little kid at a candy store or a girl at a backstreet concert and they just took of their shirts.
I saw the Aussie bbq place and I wanted to go on their line first.  Their ribs where actually really good but not as good the chicago ribs
I have to say that from the 3 places that I tried The Chicago one was the winner. The other one we tried was from Virginia. It tasted like every other BBQ rib place I had before.


That's me next to the Phantom Gourmet Sign(awesome) and a random Ferris wheel
These where the Virginia ribs


These were the Chicago Ribs


and these were the Aussie Ribs(Aussie=Australia..hence Australian ribs)

Crazy line...

Untitled, a photo by pacman4ever on Flickr.

Taco(beef)

Untitled, a photo by pacman4ever on Flickr.

Rainbow Slushie

Untitled, a photo by pacman4ever on Flickr.

foodtruckfestival

foodtruckfestival, a photo by pacman4ever on Flickr.

Trucks, Food and Fat

I got an invitation from some friends to join them on Sunday  to a Food Truck Festival. I thought about it all weekend thinking weather or not I should join them and I figured (after some chatting with Joanne and some very persuasive convincing) I'll just go and see what it is all about.
As I leave church on Sunday afternoon with a couple of friends. I thought nothing of the event, not sure what to expect. Upon arriving at Umass, my friend makes a remark about "Christ the Rock" church I thought it was because he saw a giant rock on the side of the road, but no it was because the church's reserved parking spaces was backing up traffic a bit. Good for them. Christians are still here and here to stay! YAY!
As I walk into the giant space in the middle of the field of Umass Boston. I see a giant line and thought "Oh thats a long line" but I immediately saw a credit card and cash only line and NO ONE was there. Although I was not really worried I was relieved that I didn't have to wait. As we went into our first line for Fried Clams strips. We bumped into some church friends who helped us come up with this divisive plan to split up and conquer more food trucks TOGETHER. This helped. One girl was a floater, she made sure if a person was alone and about to pick up say 12 separate plates, then she would send someone to help  while the other waited in line to do the same. It all worked out in the end and we got to try some delicious treats.
 Some of the food was ok.  Overall I wasn't to impress except for the taco's which everyone else was "meh" about. In the end it was definitely an adventure that had to be experienced at least once. Some of the places that I did want to try out, sold out of their major product (...Lobster sandwiches..droool)
We tried some fire cooked Pizza which was slightly BURNED and (shrugging) ok. nothing I will go out of my way to try again. The clam strips where bland and needed condiments to have flavor,
it was more like"would you like som e clam strips with your condiments"
I also went to a place called <a href="http://www.olerestaurantgroup.com/">Olecito's</a>
It was great, I went with a  friend(Becky). This was definitely a hidden jewel in Inman Sq. I had a Sonora sandwich and a Baja taco.
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures. Shruggs....

New revelation or just random insights?

Random things come in and out of my life(like right now I would like to have a burger in front of me or a nice breakfast sandwich that has been made with Love and care...what ?! I haven't had breakfast yet)
Within the last few weeks I have been looking at my surroundings with a new approach. Its almost seems insightful but at time it is just an empty bag of gold. I made some home fries the other day to go along with my well done beef stew chunks. I cut up the Yukon potatoes into nice hearty chunks and wait until the water boiled.
Once it did I toss them in and wait 5 minutes(typically I do it for 3 minutes but on this day I had an inkling feeling about this batch, I felt that they needed to be there LONGER) As I wait for the stove alarm to go off, I stir the beef and add some seasonings and I smell the wonderful aroma that was seeping out the pot. 5 minutes have passed and I cut the fire and pull the pot out of the stove and drop them into the colander, I then turn on the cold water and rinse the potatoes to stop the cooking process, I then get my pan ready with some E.V.O.O.

I continue to paint the beef chunks(btw I got them from Whole Foods, yeah they were good) with some garlic spread (more garlic by the way) salt and pepper, I then toss in the cooled potato pieces in with the beef.
A couple of minutes later once everything has "infused". I put it on my bowl and go to my room. Now in front of me was a bowl of beef with potatoes very simple dinner.
And as I drive my fork down to the bowl to prick a potato and taste its savory goodness, I was shocked to know that I just pierced an uncooked potato. Well it was slightly cooked but not all the way. I ate it anyhow, biting down into its starchy filling(haha) I go in again and to my great luck I get a cooked one. The next 20 minutes or so went just like that, I ate a couple of uncooked potatoes and then I take a couple of cooked ones. Back and forth cooked and uncooked. I then had an epitome How can I tell the difference between an uncooked potato from a cooked one?.. And that was it, I felt n overwhelming sense of insight as if I had reached the peak of some sort of life long knowledge yet I wasn't sure what it was. so
"How can I tell a cooked potato apart from an uncooked one after they have both been through the fire.?" i
s the real question and how could I have applied this to other areas in my life. How would I share this random knowledge when I am surrounded by a group of people eager to hear the wisdom fall from my lips and eat at the very crumbs I utter? Well the reality is that that won't happen although I am laughing as I am typing it .. even imagining it.. I think I found a story to write and I should start writing that story soon.About a..... well..... let me type it up first, then I'll share.

I also enjoyed seeing Joanne a few weeks ago I was very happy to share with her back here in Boston.
here is the best highlight

The Zrant confused me

I was glad to come back and see for myself what this place really had to offer. The interior was not as welcoming as Its neighbor "the Middle East" Is. It did hoever had some great artwork on the wall by one of MA local artist Tak Toyoshimas
http://secretasianmancomics.blogspot.com/
I didn't mind the wait to get a table, it was packed, but I did mind that the wait for the menu and toast. I ordered the
The Kathy Bates which was
2 crispy oat waffles / fried green tomatoes / poached eggs / hollandaise / avocado smash.
I immediately thought" OAT WAFFLES?!! Hmmmm SWEEETNESS" but when I get it.. the wafles was under Everything else, making it a savory dish. So my palette was definitely confused and totally tripping.
Either way it was a nice novelty treat, but I was not sure what was I suppose to taste. What was this going for? In the end as good as it may have been I felt that most of the flavors had I not separated them to enjoy them as individual things would have tasted as a giant savory mush. The potatoes where too salty even for my Puerto Ricaness. But overall they where still good and well done. The crumb covered tomato was good and quite crispy by itself or with the eggIt was an enjoyable mix of crunchy and squishy and last but not least the Waffles.. I still have no idea what to say, the avacado smash as good as it was distracted me from tasting the waffles and I was disappointed by the distraction. So yes come visit this place check out their menu. There are some downsides but not enough to keep me away. I would come back, but not running. Even if I waited they were good at getting me coffee(which I won't even talk about since I was not satisfied by it
I do intend to try their breakfast sandwiches later on when I go on a breakfast sandwich run.
)Here's a link to their brunch menu
http://www.zrant.com/HTML/menu.html
Stay Tuned.
--
Juan

Too many thoughts and ideas.. One at time please

Something about that viewI've always enjoyed to look at


And after many weeks I've finally finished, I went over many reviews but I am finally content about it.
Since last month i've been a bit busy and drawing some previous ideas has been difficult. It has been like getting yourself to burp but you can't.I wonder if maybe I can get all of my ideas out next week when I'm in Cali? I don't know depends on how much fun I have walking around. haha.
I can't seem to get why I'm having so much trouble being able to fucus on things as of late, am I just feeling constraint because of my apartment situation(Which is not that major it just a nuisance).

I love Street Fighter

HAHAHAHAH ARE YOU KEN?
Thank you Comic Alliance
and what a Street Sharks costume do they have adult sizes

Napa, Gel Seats,No appointment and Baby Stones

This past December I flew back to California to stay with Joanne and her family to celebrate Christmas and obviously spend time with Joanne. Upon arriving at California I was smack with some bitter cold, not like Boston but not what I expected from Cali.On our first day Joanne and I went out and did some window shopping , hoping to find a Christmas gift for her mom.Walking down the downtown San Fran area was beginning to become nostalgic and all the sites were beginning to become more familiar as we continued to this pier area where they have some sort of "Hay Market" of various goods; goods that were visually beautiful, full of scent that were pleasantly overwhelming. delicious hmm smell so good you could taste it. We ended up buying some olive oil which can only be describe with a series of moans and groans that come from having taste the orange blossom olive oil.
Just the thought of it now makes me want to go and order some online. Anyway, we got some more stuff to help prepare for Christmas dinner at the Cheungs place. Upon getting to Cupetino I was greeted with more California cold weather man was it cole and trust me I can easily go into some rant about it. But I won't. Joanne's mom made some Hot Pot or Shabu Shabu, with some fish balls, slices of pork, beef, shitake mushrooms and (gulp) frog. Yes I was offered frog on Christmas and I was not ready to take a bite of Kermit the frog. I could recall images of myself as a kid eating animal crackers, enjoying the idea of me eating a horse or a zebra a giraffe and the whole concept of me eating these animals was fun and enjoyable. But somehow I couldn't get myself to take a bite out of Kermit's leg, I couldn't get myself to ear Rash,Pimple and Zits(the Battletoads),




Anyway I was survived and was forgiven but overall dinner was great I truly enjoy Hot Pot, enough for me to have bough my own Hot Pot about a year ago. Later on that night Joanne and I went over to her friends house and I got to meet literally the Get-Along Gang, her friends are so nice to each other I mean wow that was awesome. We played a game and I was totally hooked.




The next day Joanne and I headed off to Napa and arrived a bit late in the morning or early afternoon. We settled into the hotel and went of to the bicycle rentals. If you never ridden a bike before then for starters you are missing out.
We rode down the road riding by some beautiful scenery which was breathtaking. Its been a while that I have ridden a bike and its been a lot longer for Joanne. We rode past a handful of vineyards. We got to one place that looked beautiful both outside and in. But as we walked in it was offensively quiet. We tiptoed over to the wine server and asked for our wine taste. The light set pregnant lady seemed to have been bothered by our request. her look of snob was abrasive. Maybe because Joanne and I aren't Wine connoisseurs, what can I say we like what like who cares if we aren't connoisseurs. Well we left with a foul flavor in our
mouth and set off to another winery which carried dessert wine. This place was a lot better, and surprised us with some great tasting wine. We ended up buying a bottle and where off again to ride into the sunset, but that wasn't after we pedalled harder and harder as we tried to make the 10 miles back to the rental place. We got to one place where an older couple came out with their trucks to inform us that tasting was by appointment only. Snobby and didn't match their attire.
another place we went to the next day in car was beautiful, but their wines where to acidic, but I enjoyed poking fun with Joanne at this family who brought in their 8 year old to Napa. Who brings an 8 year old let alone two 8 year old to a winery.
As we continued back to Joannes place the next day, we enjoyed walking around SF and visited a couple of places.
My new found love Pancho Villa Taqueria
We also went to some intriguing chocolate bread. Oh WOW IT WAS SO GOOD, soft slightly hard on some edges and chocolaty to the end IN the end I ended up with a great trip to the Emergency Room and found out I had Kidney Stones. PRICELESS.
I got a filter 3 bootles of pills and a little container to put the stones in....which I forgot to do. Sadly I had to fly back so earlybut I can't wait for February.