Cargo

Cargo is a science fiction film from Switzerland that came out in 2009. In my mind, Switzerland is the last place I would expect a sci-fi film to come from, which might be why I was so surprised at how well done it was. The story is set in the year 2267, when Earth has taken a turn for the worst and is no longer inhabitable. People live aboard overcrowded space stations around Earth's orbit waiting for the chance to be able to go to a planet called Rhea that has been colonized. Our main character is Dr. Laura Portmann who boards the run-down spaceship Kassandra which is on a eight year flight to an unmanned space station, in hopes to make enough money to join her sister on Rhea.

The crew consists of five different passengers, with a last minute addition of a security guard due to recent terrorist threats by a group of extremist bent on changing the system.

The crew takes turns in cryosleep for stretches of 2 1/2 months at a time. Toward the end of Laura's shift, she starts to hear things and feels she is being watched. She prematurely wakes the captain and the security guard, who find that certain doors on the space shuttle have been tampered with and begin an investigation. As they inspect there cargo, they find that they are not hauling what they thought they were.

To me, movies that take place on spaceships and large metal ocean tankers can be quite scary. Both vessels always have sounds that you just can't quite place, whether it's the creaking of the ship, things in space settling or something more sinister. I find that my mind always starts to wonder to the worst places as the characters walk down these dimly lit and often tight corridors, never knowing what's around the next turn. Your mind starts to play tricks on you and you expect the worst. Movies always work well in these types of scenarios as your mind will create scarier visions then anything the director could show you.

Cargo does one other thing well and that's it's miniatures and use of CGI. The shots in outer space of the planets, spaceships, and infinite nothing are some of the best I've seen in a long time. Stanley Kubrick would be proud. In the beginning I said that I was surprised at how well Cargo was done. The movie works well as a spooky sci-fi movie for the first half of the film and is shot beautifully. However, once things start to become known, the movie changes it's pace and to me starts to fall flat. I enjoy a good sci-fi movie but I want to be rewarded with a decent ending. Cargo did not provide that ending as it led me to believe in the first half. If you into mysteries and not monsters or your a die hard science fiction fan, you'll enjoy this movie for what it is. If your looking for something with a little more payoff(think Alien or Pandorum), don't waste your time.

Merry X-Mas

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

For most of you that know me well, you know that my taste for Christmas movies runs the lines of "Die Hard' and "Lethal Weapon." Both take place during Christmas, have plenty of action, and for me are great "feel good" movies. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy movies like " The Man Who Came to Dinner," "It's a Wonderful Life," and "A Christmas Story" but they just don't get me going as much as the others. I was messing around on Netflix's last week and came across an amazing little film from Finland that is now one of my new holiday favorites!

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" tells a very different tale of the Santa Claus we've all come to know and love. It takes place in Lapland, Finland next to the Korvatunturi mountains. These mountains are on the border of the North Pole and is said to be the home to "Father Christmas." There is a legend that centuries ago, a group of citizens where being terrorized by fearsome monsters. They were able to lure one of them into a lake, where he froze in a solid block of ice(think "The Thing"). The villagers cut him out of the lake and buried him beneath a mass of rocks, never to be heard from again. Now present day, a group of local reindeer herders have there Christmas disturbed by a scientist who is doing an "excavation' on the base of the mountain. Reindeer are mysteriously killed and children and supplies start disappearing from the town. Pietari, a small boy very reminiscent of Ralphie from "A Christmas Story", starts to figure out what's really going on.

 Pietari and his father capture an "old man" who only seems to only come alive at the smell of gingerbread cookies.

However, this "old man" isn't exactly what he seems to be!

Eventually, they try to sell him back to the scientist to make up for the loss of there reindeer crop. From here the story really starts to take off, as this "old man" has many "friends" who may just be protecting something even bigger.

"Rare Exports" is written and directed by Jalmari Helander who pulled the story off of two small shorts(here and here) he made about capturing and taming Santa's and then reselling them worldwide.  The movie is in Finnish and English and is rated R. It's more a horror movie then a friendly Christmas movie with dead reindeer, curse words, and a fair amount of blood. However, the location, acting, and music are all extremely well done and story is perfectly told. The best part about this movie is that it's fresh!! Everything coming out of Hollywood these days has been rehashed over and over again. It's very rare these days that an actual "original thought" comes out of Hollywood. I have no doubt that "Rare Export" will be scooped up soon and remade here, most likely by Tim Burton. Here is the trailer for the film.  If you can find it, put the kids to bed, close the chimney, lock the doors, and enjoy this wonderful tale!

Pat LaFrieda's Big App for Meat

A couple of years ago, I was talked into getting the I Phone by a manger I worked with at the time. Now I'm not really technically inclined and for some reason ALWAYS seem to have problems with phones when I first get them. I don't really do anything except try and use them for the purpose they were created but they never seem to work out for me. I had my I Phone for 41 days and gave the damn thing back, a happier man for doing so. I now have a Blackberry(however my 3rd one!) and I really like it. I will say however, in my short time of having an I Phone, they are amazing as a small, fast, computer in the palm of your hand. Andi has both an I Phone and an I Pad and the graphics are amazing. I use them when I can to mess around with games and check some of the other apps. The other day I found an app called "Pat LaFrieda's Big App for Meat." Now Pat LaFrieda is the owner of New York's most prestigious meat plant: Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors. He's been in the business since he was 10 and sells to over 600 restaurants in the city. Read a little into his bio and you'll see, the man knows meat!

He's an ad for the app which shows you what to expect upon purchase. It allows you to choose which animal you want to learn about and then tells you how to butcher it while giving you knowledge on the animal. It also goes into detail about the La Frieda family history, has an extensive meat quiz, talks about the importance of letting meat rest after cooking, and discusses dry aged beef .

Here's a little demo on beef short loin. I have yet to purchase this since where pinching pennies at the moment but I will defiantly check it out. The app is $6.99 and can be purchased on iTunes.

What Are You REALLY Eating?

A friend of mine on Facebook posted an article about "The 6 Most Horrifying Lies The Food Industry Is Feeding You." It originates from a website called "Cracked" by Pauli Poisuo and breaks it down into several items you most likely thought were "safe" and contained the ingredients listed. It's pretty informative and made me head straight to my cupboard and see "what's up!" I've condensed it slightly and highlighted some of the more interesting links but kept it in the same format as the original.

#1-Wood pulp-Wood pulp cellulose which has been approved by the FDA as "safe for human consumption" and is added to many items to provide texture. There is also no limit set as to how much cellulose can be added to products.  As humans, we can't digest it nor is there any nutritional value.

General Mills is one of the biggest users of wood pulp cellulose along with other known brands such as Kraft, Pepsi, and Kellogg's.



#2-Orange Juice-"Freshly Squeezed!" "Not From Concentrate!" "100% Pure and Natural!" Nope. Oranges where freshly squeezed in the beginning BUT the juice is then held in large vats where the air is removed to preserve it for up to 1 year. The only problem is.....it removes all the taste from the product. So how do you get that orange taste back into the juice? Flavor packs created by the same company that makes perfumes such as Dior and Calvin Klein. 

#3-Ground Hamburger-Hamburger. Ammonia. Two things that you would never think about putting together. However, several years ago federal officials were trying to figure out how to get E. coli out of hamburger meat. A company called Beef Products Inc. invented a system of passing the hamburger through a pipe where it gets an "ammonia" treatment. Beef Products Inc. has the market pretty much cornered on all beef patties which they supply to McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King just to name a few. They also use the burger meat in federal school lunch programs(check out this NY Times article). The company also has a youtube video explaining how safe ammonia in burger meat is. 

#4-Fake Berries-Most cereals and muffins claim to have real berries inside but it's actually something called "berry crunchlets" or "berry bits." These are made with corn syrup, sugar, oils, food coloring, and several other ingredients, none of them containing berries.

Check out this video from Natural News that will give you the low down.

#5-Free Range Chickens-The USDA's definition for "free range" is quite basic: Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside. However, there are no time limits or definitions of what the outside area should look like. If they can run outside for five minutes in the dirt, by the USDA standards, they are "free range." This article by "The Daily Green" goes into more depth on "free range" and the USDA.

#6-Fake Health Claims-Most products these days tell you how great they are for your health, how they will lower your cholesterol, protect your arteries, etc. In an article in Forbes, they reported that in Europe, the Food Safety Authority " has rejected 80% of more than 900 proposed claims over the past several years because they are lacking strong evidence. However the FDA here in America "does not prospectively review food claims because American law says that foods are allowed to affect the "structure and function" of the body, so long as they do not actually claim to treat disease." This leaves you, the buyer, to figure out if those peanuts really will be good for you heart or not.

One example is Nature's Path's claim that it is an "excellent source of Omega-3 fats" which protects the heart. However, the Omega-3 that protects the heart comes from fish oil not flax.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

I've just stumbled upon a new movie coming out next year called "Jiro Dreams of Sushi." The story is about an 85 year old man called Jiro Ono who is regarded as the greatest sushi chef in the world. He has a small 10 seat restaurant inside of the Tokyo subway which has been awarded three Michelin stars!! As of 2009, there were only 81 three star restaurants in the world. The movie focuses on Jiro, his life work as a sushi chef, and his relationship with his son who will one day take over in his father's footsteps. Here is a link to the official site that gives you a little more detail and a link to the trailer. I'm looking forward to this one.

13

When I was younger, I narrowed my career choices down to two options: chef or movie critic. I have always loved movies and have the weird ability to remember actors and directors, movies and roles. Even if you just give me a small amount of detail, I can tell you what movie your thinking of, most likely the director, and rattle off the cast even if they only had a small part in it. I slightly pursued it when I lived in Tennessee, talking to movie critic's for the Nashville Star and then again in Boston for the Globe, asking them how they got started and how to begin. However, I fell back into my chef career and have never looked back. Now that I have this blog going, I'm going to give it a shot.

First off, I have been waiting for this movie to be released here in the states for well over a year. Thirteen was filmed in 2010 and release overseas but just recently was released here in the states. It has a strong cast including Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and newcomer to the states Sam Riley. It starts off with Vince(Sam Riley) overhearing an opportunity to make a lot of money fast in a "contest" while he's doing some electrical work at the house of a small time gangster. When the gangster dies of a drug overdose in the house, Vince seizes the chance, steals the invitation, and assumes the dead man's identity. However, once he gets to the "contest," he finds that making some fast cash is no where near what he thought.

Known only as number 13, he is thrown into a game of modern day "Russian roulette" where contests are placed in a circle and only refereed to by their number. They then place one bullet into a gun, spin the cylinder and place the loaded gun to the head of the person in front of them. A light is hung in the middle of the circle and when it goes off, they pull the trigger. 

Rich men from all over place bets on their player or on someone else's if their player has already been "eliminated."

There have been many movies that wrangle in a bunch of famous actors and hope that if the plot falls flat, the talent alone will lift the movie(think Ocean's Thirteen). The same theory applies here but in reverse. The idea is completely original, something that is hard to find these days coming out of Hollywood, but the actors don't do anything for the film. Mickey Rourke and Curtis Jackson's characters have no depth, very little background, and are totally pointless to the overall plot of the film. You feel nothing for them and don't care if they make it or not. Jason Statham and Ray Winstone turn in fine performances but it's nothing we haven't seen before.

I will say that the best performance of the movie comes from Michael Shannon. He plays the mediator of the "Russian roulette" process barking down orders from high atop a chair. He has become one of my favorite new actors out there right now. He reminds me of Daniel Day-Lewis the way he "becomes" whatever character he portrays. He was recently in "Take Shelter" which I haven't seen yet but have heard good things about and is also coming out as General Zod in the new Superman "Man of Steel" movie. Down the line, I see him winning an Oscar.

What hurts the most about "13" is that it's a remake of a great french movie called "13 Tzameti." Both movies are directed by Gela Babluani but he cannot seem to harness the same feeling of tension that the first movie imparts. If you can take subtitles and the fact that "13 Tzameti" is all in black and white, which adds to the tension believe it or not, I highly recommend skipping "13" and

going with the original.

Looking for a Job???

I'm still looking for a job and have had several good interviews. I will hopefully have something within the next week or so and then I'll tell you all about it. However, while I was searching on Craigslist, I came across a post entitled "Pizzetta 211 seeks someone who wants to cook food." I don't know what made me click on it, I knew it was going to be nothing that I could financially consider, but the sheer randomness of "cook food" made me curious. I was totally right!! Below is the post in full. I almost want to work for this person just on how fun they sound to be around!

Not trying to be a wordy asshole but I don't want to waste your or my time. And I apologize in advance for any gramatical errors or anything offensive.

The position I'm looking to fill involves a lot of cooking (potentially involving your very own dishes). So it would be beneficial to me if you are a good cook and have worked in a kitchen before. But not all experience is good and I don't discriminate against amateurs if you can make a convincing argument. More important to me than your ability with food is your dedication and willingness to learn and accept criticism. Beyond cooking you will be expected to do all the duties of a Pizzetta bad ass including making pizzas, baking desserts, doing dishes, dressing salads, waiting on tables, making espresso drinks, mopping the floor and whatever else I tell you to do that's not illegal. We don't exploit marginalized people at Pizzetta so besides all the fun stuff that comes with conceptualizing, cooking and serving food you will be expected to roll up your sleeves and do your own dirty work. You will also be very busy because Pizzetta is usually very busy. You will get to make tips and because of that fact you will probably make better money than most, if not all, line cooks/prep cooks/sous chefs around town (but that shouldn't be your main source of motivation because I HATE mercenaries). You will be treated like family because we are a family, albeit a sometimes dysfunctional one. I'm thinking about 35ish hours a week but nothing is in stone. An ideal applicant is someone who loves food and is hardworking, coachable and fun to be around. Sound good?

DO NOT apply for this job if...

-you think you are a rock star chef and like to do things your own way without learning the basics.
-you are in a band that requires that you miss freaking every other shift so you can go stand in line for a limited addition banjo pick or play at the battle of the bands in freaking Chico.
-if you don't like to be critiqued.
-if you are antisocial, awkward, and cannot deal with the public or your coworkers.
-if you plan on getting a "more" serious job in a month or two.
-if you are a self-entitled brat and think that just doing your freaking job is a huge imposition to you.
-if you can't wake up to be at work by 7am (on some days).
-if you can't work hard for more than 2 hours without taking a break.
-if you can't work on weekends.
-if you plan on going on more than 3ish vacations that are a week or longer throughout the year besides the holidays.
-if you don't have command of the English langauge because you will need to speak and interact with the public.
-if you can't hack it working in a busy and sometimes stressful restaurant.

If this all sounds good BRING your resume and cover letter to Pizzetta sometime Wednesday November 30th between 7am and 10:30pm. Your cover letter will probably determine whether or not you get an interview and should address why you would like this job and why I might actually want you at Pizzetta. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT email me your resume and cover letter because I will not read it and I gurantee that you won't get the job. If you cannot make it in person Wednesday because you're on a 3 day mushroom trip in Joshua Tree or off fighting against Japanese whalers have your roommate/mom/friend drop it off for you. If you have any legitimate questions (besides "where are you" because if you can't find Pizzetta 211 in this day and age I don't want you working for me) please ask via email and if I'm slow to respond it's because I'm too busy wading through the morons who are undoubtably emailing me their resumes. I WILL get back to you though. That's it. All the best.

Awesome!!!

Blood

When I got back from China, I had a stack of mail to go through. Several of my Food Arts magazines had piled up and I set them aside for later reading. Now that we have somewhat settled down, I cracked one open from this past August that really caught my interest just from the cover above. It's all about blood and how it's underused in modern day cooking. The article is written by Chef Brad Farmerie of Public Restaurant in New York City and gives a pretty good account of blood's travel through time and food around the world. At the end of the article, it gives you "A World of Blood Cookery" where they list foods from different spots from around the world and how blood is used in different preparations. Here's the link to the article. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our Wedding Ceremony!!

So if you remember back in August I told you I was going to upload our wedding ceremony. Well finally after a lot of trial and error, changing formats, cutting the video into smaller segments, and uploading it several times till it worked, I finally have it for you!! Now the entire thing is in Chinese, so be prepared! The ceremony lasts about 23 minutes, so you'll need some time if your going to watch it all. Also, I had to use a software that put a watermark in the middle of the video at certain parts, so just
ignore it. 

Here is Part 1. The presenter talks for the first 3 minutes all in Chinese and Andi's mom lights some candles, so feel free to skip ahead to the 3:00 minute mark where we enter if you want. You'll notice the entire time I'm looking quite serious or lost. When we first talked to the presenter, he told me he would tell me when I should speak, what to say, etc. However, once we got started, he left me high and dry!! Dick!

Here's Part 2. In this section, Andi's father gives a speech at the 5:50 mark and last till the 9:40 mark. Just letting you know, since it's all in Chinese, you might want to skip ahead again. Let me know what you think!

Culture Differences

Being back in America, I have come to notice many differences between our American culture and China's. I don't have any photos to give you with this post so instead I'm going to show you my favorite cartoon food video from China at the end: Super Baozi! It has a rapping bun that knows Kung Fu, noodles with swords, and a bread stick that can really jam!! It's all in Chinese so just enjoy it for what it is.

1. There are no paper towels in China. They don't even make them. Instead they use tissues or napkins. I've even been to small restaurants that use the white streamers we use in the US at parties!
2. Monopolies are allowed in China. For all of China, there is 1 electric company, 1 gas company, 2 phone companies, and 3 Internet providers. They don't do "looking for the best price."
3. You ALWAYS take your shoes off at the door. This is a must! Most Asian countries do this.
4. Chinese homes do not have ovens. You'll only find them at restaurants or bakeries. A typical Chinese kitchen only has 2 burners and an exhaust.
5. There are televisions everywhere!! I have seen them in elevators, on buses, and even in bathrooms.
6. You can't find out the sex of your baby until it's born. They made ultrasounds illegal in China because most people want boys and their afraid that the mother or father will hurt the unborn child if they know it's a girl.
7. If a person has tattoo's, they are seen as a "bad person." Usually the person has been in jail or is in a illegal type of work. I got all types of looks because of mine and most people stay away from me. In a country where there are people everywhere, this works out great for me!! :P
8. Spitting, shooting "snot rockets," not covering your mouth when sneezing, interupting a person's conversation and talking with your mouth full of food are all exceptable forms of behavior.
9. You can do what ever the fuck you want when it comes to driving. Seriously. I have seen just about everything!! If you want to drive at night without your lights on, go ahead! Drive at night with your high beams on, sure!! Make a right turn from the farthest left lane, no problem! Red lights, optional! People drive motorcycles on the sidewalk, against traffic, where ever they please. I've seen cars turn around on the interstate and go up the on ramp. I've seen them drive on the sidewalk to get through traffic! Buses are first, then cars, then bikes, and last people. Somehow, very few people seem to get killed!
10. Almost all stewardesses and nurses are young, thin, and attractive. If your not, you don't get hired.
11. The idea of a line or queue is completely foreign in China. Everyone just pushes, shoves, kicks, and elbows there way everywhere.
12. Trademarks and copyrights don't exist in China. I have seen Garfield on bags of snacks, Snoopy on pens, and Transformers on everything!!
13. Have you ever been to Home Depot and your trying to find something but no one is around to help you. Well, not in China. The government helps to employee people at almost every location due to the fact that there are so many people in China. I have seen 8 women standing around the sock area waiting to help someone. Places like Dairy Queen will have 5 employees working when no one is there. Since everyone in China gets paid by salary, they don't have to worry about overtime or label cost.
14. It's very hard to find cold or "iced" drinks in China. Most of the time people carry around warm tea with them or your offered hot tea when you go somewhere. I even tried to order a cold in certain places and been told that they don't serve it "this time of year because it's cold out!"
15. Nothings closed on Sunday. Banks are open, the post office delivers, and even some government business still run.  

And now for the show!

And Then There Was Oakland

Well, not Oakland but right next door in Berkeley. Andi and I looked high and low around San Francisco but couldn't find a good apartment. The place either wasn't pet friendly or was in a bad neighborhood or wasn't close to the Bart(SF's train system). We decided to venture over onto the other side of the bay this past Monday and the first place we looked at we loved! Berkeley is a rich, little suburb of Oakland and is home to Berkeley College. Our place is in a really quiet, safe neighborhood, close to the Bart, grocery stores, and several little restaurants and shops.

View from the street. We originally thought it was the house but it's the apartments in the back. Of course it had to be raining the entire day so all of the photo's we took look grey!

Our place is the red circle.

The kitchen is quite big and has a mad amount of cupboard space.

The living room area. It's directly across from the kitchen.

The bathroom is bigger then it looks in these pictures. Currently its home to a small family of ants that will be leaving on Wednesday when the exterminator comes!

The bedroom had an amazing amount of light coming into it the first day we saw it. The rain and clouds that day make it look kinda dreary. The closet is huge and may just fit all of Andi's clothes. :P

We have a persimmon tree right outside in the yard...

...and our neighbors have a small lemon tree!

There is also a garden in the back that needs some love. I've already talked with my neighbor next door and we are going to revive it together. Should have some good stuff going in a couple of months.

China's Smoked and Cured Meats

Like every other country, China has a selection of smoked and cured meats. Since almost every part of the animal is eaten, they also smoke or cure everything. While in Wuhu awhile back, we stopped into a Walmart. Yes, Walmart's long arms have even reached to this side of the world. The store was similar to all other stores in China however they had an amazing section with all of these products. I have tried the duck legs and some of the sausage during my stay in China. There good but always super salty. This isn't a huge problem when using them in cooking however because the addition of salt in dishes is very rarely used.

I like the smoked piggy mask! :P

Whole chickens and sausages.

More sausages, pig feet, pig ears, duck legs. You name it.

A Different Way to Order

As I said before, I still have some posts I never got to in China. One of them is on ordering food. Whenever we went out to eat, most of the time people would order for us. However, some restaurants in China don't give you a menu at all but instead have you walk into a certain area where all of the food is in pictures or has already been made and wrapped in plastic. A waitress follows you around as you choose which dishes you would like to order. I can never seem to get into this style of ordering food as the pictures never really look that appetizing. Of course, once the food hits the table it's usually quite good but it's just so different from what I was raised on in the US.

Picture after picture of everything offered.

Whole glazed duck.

Vegetables will also be displayed raw allowing you to choose what you would like.

They are usually just stir-fried with oil and garlic.

They also have an entire seafood section, letting you choose which fish, crab, shrimp, etc. you would like to eat.

Mr. Turtle.

Mr. Crab

Lobsters are slightly different from our American ones. They are usually more orange and have a lot more spikes.

Strange looking fish.

Some of the fish were tired of swimming and decided to take a "nap."

Right now is crab season in China and everyone scoops them up when they can. They are similar in size and flavor to our soft shell crabs but you can't eat the shell.

There also quite expensive.