Where is David?

man, baseball has a pretty crappy reputation among people from non-baseball playing countries.  People who don’t understand baseball seem to think that soccer is better for some reason.  Well, if your idea of a sport is watching people stall for time and fake getting injured, then yeah, I guess it succeeds at that.  For me, some of the fondest memories I have growning up were of going to a baseball game with my family.  Even though I’d have to eat a whole bag of carrots and celery before I could eat a candy bar, bought at a 7-11 before the game because ballpark snacks were too expensive, the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium is something I’ll always cherish and yes, I did occasionally get a dodger dog or nachos sometimes, too.

By the way, what is up with that nacho cheese sauce they use?  I doubt it could really be called cheese, but it’s pretty good.  Mmm…Mexican food, one of the things I miss most about the u.s.

Other than that, congrats to Japan winning the WBC.  I still think Ichiro’s a moron, but that doesn’t really matter now, does it?  Japan and Cuba are both countries that love baseball, so I was glad to see them in the final game.

Even though I dismissed soccer earlier, I will admit that I’m looking forward to the world cup this summer.  I might be in Thailand or Japan, which means the games will be on at night or early in the morning, but beggers can’t be choosers, right?  Hell, if it’s an ‘action-packed’ scoreless draw, maybe it’ll help put me to sleep.

Well, first of all, I just gotta say I’m glad Japan advanced in the WBC.  Everyone knows that Japan did score that extra run in the eighth inning versus the U.S., which could have changed the outcome of the game.  It’s an international contest, right?  So why are all the umpires from the United States?  That looked a bit shady in my book.  If Major League Baseball wants to promote baseball as an international game, it should have brought umpires from the countries participating in the tournament over to the U.S. for the games.

Don’t get me wrong, I was still rooting for the U.S., but if they lose to Canada, Korea, and Mexico, I don’t think they deserve to advance, and they didn’t.  It seems to be an ongoing trend that our American ’superstars’, teams filled with the best in their sport (mainly talking about basketball and baseball here), disappoint their fans on an international level.  I think the U.S. has better success when it sent college kids to play instead of the pros.  I have no idea why this is.  Maybe they’re hungrier, maybe they want it more.  Maybe the U.S. should send an entire pro team intact, preferably the #1 team.  You can’t tell me that if the NBA sent the San Antonio Spurs (or Pistons, or any other team for that matter) to the Olympics they wouldn’t have kicked the crap out of every other country there.  Ok, it would have been a bit different because some NBA teams have foreign players on them, but just pick a team where the foreign players aren’t that important.  The point is, these Team USAs filled with international stars don’t have a chance to develop as a team, something that’s very important in team sports.

So don’t feel bad, my fellow Americans, that our teams are embarrassing us. We know we’re the best right?

As for Japan’s team, I hope they lose to Korea again, mainly because of Ichiro’s stupid comment.  He said “I want to beat South Korea so badly,” Ichiro said, “that the South Koreans won’t want to play Japan for another 30 years.” (Link)  If you read the article, he also complained long ago that Korea smelled like garlic when he first visited, so it seems he’s not too fond of Korea, and maybe garlic as well.

Basically, it’d be poetic justice if Japan loses to Korea.  It seems they may be suffering from a case of ‘probigheaditis’ as well.  After their second loss to Korea, Ichiro said he felt ‘ashamed’.  Well, how are you gonna feel after the third one?  Seppuku suru no? (I’m rooting for Cuba now, by the way.)

Since I’m pretty broke at the moment (and living in Tokyo), I’ve started cooking at home a lot recently.  Now, a lot of my former roommates are probably reading this smirking to themselves, thinking my idea of cooking is more like walking a Burger King combo back to my apartment or something.  Well, no folks, really, I’ve started cooking.  My recipes aren’t what I’d call orthodox Asian recipes, in fact, the only thing that makes them Asian is that I’m ‘kind of’ in Asia (I believe technically, Japan isn’t on the Asian continental plateau, but could be mistaken, please check this for yourself).  My first recipe is a ‘Natto Tom Yam Gung Rice Bowl’, an experimental fusion of Thai Japanese cuisine pioneered by yours truly.

I guess I have to preface this recipe with an explanation of Natto and Tom Yam Gung for those not familiar with these gems of ethnic (oooh…sounds so exotic) cuisine.  Natto are fermented soybeans, that definitely have a bad reputation, due to their distinct odor and oddly stringy texture.  I won’t try to explain the odor here, so if you’re curious, I’d recommend going to your local Japanese grocer (What you say?  You don’t have a local Japanese grocer? Shame on you) and pick up a pack (or 3, as they’re usually sold) of this magical delicacy.  A good introduction to eating natto is to eat it rolled up in sushi rice and nori (seaweed) as a ‘natto maki’.

The other main component of this recipe, Tom Yam Gung, is a spicy Thai soup (the ‘Gung’ means ’seafood’, or shrimp specifically) that comes in two versions, Nam Kon and Nam Saay, or basically a clear sour version (Nam Saay) and a similar version that adds coconut milk (Nam Kon).  I could have gotten the thai names wrong, but probably just a few of you will catch that anyways, so let’s move on.

Step 1. Buy the natto and Tom Yam Gung soup base. (Natto is available at a Japanese grocer, Tom Yam Gung base possibly at an Asian grocer)

Step 2. Put some rice in a rice cooker, put the soup base in the rice cooker instead of water.

Step 3. Cook the rice

Step 4. When the rice is done, add the natto and let cook for another minute or two.

Step 5. That’s it, eat and enjoy.  You can add a raw egg if you want to really go crazy, or throw it in with the natto if you’re scared of salmonella and let it steam for a minute.

Variations: A version of this recipe that I actually like better doesn’t use natto or tom yam soup base at all, but instead uses miso soup base to cook the rice in, and add an egg at the end.  I bought some dehydrated garlic slices and throw those in with the rice/miso as well.

I received a sad e-mail from my friend Dave Wadsworth in Santiago.  Apparently, someone stole his bar.  Note, someone STOLE his bar.  Ok, I know that sounds wierd, but the bar was totally his, he built the thing from the ground up. (ok, he converted it from a Liguria….but you get my drift)  His ex-girlfriend had all the stuff in her name, so took over the bar when they broke up.  No more business partnership, no more capital, no money for Dave, nada.  She screwed him over, and her shrivy (is that a word?  it should be) lawyer friend called Natalia (hi Natalia, I always knew you were evil) helped.  Natalia was also a ‘friend’ of Dave’s, so there’s some real soap opera shit going on here (sorry for the cursing, is this a family blog? (i kind of hate that blog word now too…any alternatives?))  Anyways, the funny thing is, Carola tried to sell it back to him for a bunch of money.  Dave had already offered her about half that before to buy her out.  Then, the landlord ends up kicking her out to put a bank in there or something, and she still is trying to sell it to him.  Luckily, he found out about all this and didn’t buy it.

Anyways, point of this story is…….nothing really…..just be careful out there people.  Oh yeah, sorry, the point was, Bar Sepia is the bar you’ll see in almost all of my Chile photos, and it’s gone now…..just gone.

Hey All, just want to say Happy Birthday to my buddy Jake.  Best bud from Chile.  Jake, if you’re reading this (don’t get caught at work, or they’ll put you in the basement and take away your stapler), just wanted to say Happy Birthday.  I guess I’ll have to give you an IOU on a drink for next time we’re in the same country.  One day you’ll make it out here to Asia, I can tell.

We got lots of good memories and other pretty hazy ones.  You can read about them in some of the posts below. I don’t think I wrote about this one already, but do you remember when we took that crazy drugged out taxi from Las Condes to Providencia that one night, and he said he was just about to go back to jail in a week or so?  Man, I’ve been in some scary taxi rides, but that pretty much takes the cake.  K, keep it cool amigo, and remember, I don’t care what anyone says, salsa class is not just for gay dudes.

Well, I guess you could say ‘metro xl’ is now officially in existence.  It’s the name of my music video/commercial production company that I’ve started here in Tokyo (possibly moving to BKK soon), so I’m pretty happy about that.  I just filmed a music video for an artist here, Kien Shimabukuro.  He’s got some good trax that I like, so we’ll see what happens.  I’m pretty happy with the way everything’s turned out so far, but we have one more day of filming to do (possibly this week), then we’ll be done I believe.  I’ll be sure to post the finished product somewhere when I’m done.

Hi All,

I’m back from my Thailand trip.  It was great to see all my old friends.  Didn’t get into too much crazy debauchery there, but managed to kill 1 bottle of black label with the old gang (not by myself mom, don’t worry).  I stayed in my old stomping grounds, the Diamond City Hotel.  They didn’t have my usual room (yes, I’m a regular), but they did have a room that was pretty similar.  I still got my ‘friend price’ of 1000 baht (25 bucks or so), which is pretty good for a hotel of this quality.  They improved the breakfast a bit, and I actually woke up in time to eat is many of the days I was there.

As for this blog, yeah, yeah, I’ve been slacking on it, but I’ll try to write more, I promise.

how’s everyone doing out there in internet land?  send me an email to let me know….. my first name @ this site’s domain address.