good recipe

carnita, from food wishes, chef john

port butt, cubed, or just small 2 inch pieces. 

kosher salt, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, orange peels, orange juices, orange pieces, bay  leaves

garlic cloves, peeled, and unpeeled. 

mixed all well,

put heavy duty aluminum foil. 

275F 3 hours. 

after that, drain the juices.

put the pork back to the pan, and start to broil, until hardened, even charred a little, on top of the pork. 

during broil, try to pour some meat juice on the pork! 

great for tacos.  or anything else! 

fish soup

i made a fish soup today.  it tasted pretty good.  here's the recipe:

chicken stock, already prepared by my mom. 
tomatoes, cooked already a week or two ago, by my mom.  just cooked a bunch in oil with medium heat, until most of the juice came out. 
Hot pepper sauce, prepared by my mom.

Yellow onion, sauted in low heat.  I'd prefer to cook longer, but it turned out good. 
Garlic, crushed, chopped, added to sauted onion. 
Celery, a stalk chopped fine, added with one wedged carrot into onion and garlic. 
added, 龍利魚.
added tomatoes, stock, chinese cooking rice wine, miso, hot pepper sauce.
then, added 豆腐, 或著油豆腐. 

simmer for 20 minutes. 

no salt or pepper required. 

a series of thought

4 months ago, the company i worked for hired a guy to overlook the logistic and warehouse, his name was jake.  he was let go after 4 months.  he's 8 years my junior, but he did have a demeanor of professionalism that i lack.  lacked very much.  after four months, i felt he could relax with the warehouse crew a bit more than the office people, plus the engineers.  But about 1 month ago, he came in and said that it's a pleasure working with us...  then put his hand out trying to shake vic's hand.  vic thought he was joking at first, put the hand out and pulled back immediately.  But instantly realized jake was not joking!  jake shook both vic and my hands, and left.  his excuse for being let go was, "it's not a good fit."  to me, it's a very professional response, it did not demean the company, nor himself.  I wrote about him, because he really know how to handle situation professionally.  But at the end of 3 months, he knew he could came in warehouse, do a bit of skateboarding on the rolling board for moving heavy objects, he came in and heard me play reggae music, and he would talked about that genre was his favorite in his younger day...etc.  it's also funny that when he found out the range of music i hear, he said to me, "most people often say they listen to all kinds of music, but i know you really do..." :D 

the whole let go thing was shocking.  the company let 2 people go that day.  then, a week or two, they let one of the newly hired sales person go as well.  when jake was here, i felt that warehouse had somebody that could fight for us, but now jake left, the head of the engineer took over warehouse management.  it's an instant feeling that we were alone, belong to nothing.  Warehouse is such a integral part of the the company, it's not good to be left hanging. 

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i watched a series of movies recently,

taxi driver, i saw it once before, could not understand why it's so big.  i think i liked it better, maybe if i saw it again, it'd be better.

captain america winter soldier: it's good.  it's a fun flick for mindless enjoyment. 

abraham lincoln: vampire hunter, it's also pretty good, also a mindless enjoyment.  interesting enough that it used so many of lincoln's original writings. 

let me in, i saw the original swedish version.  i like that one better.  this one was really close to the original version.  but the tone is very different.  the swedish version is clean and calm.  this one was a bit more muddy and brawn. 

chef, it's a fun movie to watch.  it's food on the surface, but it's just needle and thread connecting people and their relationships.  

sabotage, it's an action movie from arnold.  it's actually pretty good.  with a mystery in the center.

hara kiri, it's a remake of an old movie.  I did not watch the old one.  but this one was really interesting.  because the protagonist condemning the bushido code, at the same time, of all the other samurais surrounding him, i felt he was the only samurai in the movie!  That is ironic at it's best.


the dark crystal, vic introduced me to it.  it's a puppeet movie in the early 1980s.  it's pretty neat.  i felt it still had star war's shadow, but it's really unique.

the taste of others, it was a french movie.  it's a little quaint movie.  i think it's not bad.

nebraska, another quaint movie.  the relationship between father and son was like reading a short story.  almost felt like a literary, interesting.



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my mom is going to taiwan on monday.  she reviewed her situation for the past few weeks now, her lament was the sword and arrows.  i could not bare, only trying to escape.  but such act of cowardness was poison to myself.  it made my pride hungry.  only by making myself miserable, i can feel a bit relaxed.  god only know how much i wish this is not the truth, but only know how much effort i put into this life to lift us away from this situation.  i really wish...

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clowns, where?

"Send In The Clowns"

written by Stephen Sondheim,
for a musical, A little Night of Music,
an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night.

Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground and you in mid-air
Send in the clowns

Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around and one who can't move
But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns

Just when I stopped opening doors
Finally finding the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair

Sure of my lines
No one is there

Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear
But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns
Don't bother they're here

Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year