Greatest Day of the Year

Today is the greatest day of the year for me. I don't really care for Christmas, Thanksgiving is just turkey and football, and Easter is confusing and useless. Usually I start decorating my place the first week of September and don't take everything down till after Thanksgiving. However, since we just came back from China and the fact that we're "homeless" at the moment, I'll just have to wait till next year. In the meantime, I scanned the Internet looking for some inventive ideas or funny photo's for you. Here is what I came up with. Enjoy!

The Justice League wants NO part in this!!!

Yeah, that will make the kid want to celebrate Halloween next year!

Those crazy Japanese!!

There is definitely something illegal going on here.

One way to slow your kid down!

I feel everything needs a Charlie Sheen joke these days.

WTF?!?! Not only is the guy weird but what is going on with the unfinished dungeon in the background, the Spy Kids poster, and the picture of a dog staring at birds. This may be the weirdest photo I've ever seen.

Love it!!!

Keeping my burger theme going from my last post. :P

This kids face is priceless!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

The Best Website Ever

I believe I have stumbled upon the best website ever!! It was 4:52 a.m. yesterday morning. I was up early fighting my jet lag, messing around on the net, which is probably the only reason I found this site. The site is called Cheese and Burger Society. Working for the Metropolitan Club restaurants for the past 3 years, I learned a thing or two about making a good burger. However, once I starting reading about these burgers, I felt like a novice again.

The website is set up like a Rolodex allowing you to flip through all 30 burgers.

Each page then has three different tabs that you can click on to learn more about the burger, it's construction, and the type of cheese used. The website also celebrates what Wisconsin does best, after the Packers of course, and that is cheese. Every cheese on the site is made in Wisconsin under the tab "Meet the Cheese." It gives you a funny little story about it, some knowledge on it's origin and flavor, and what beverage it would be paired best with.

The construction of the burgers is beautiful with ingredients that would knock anybody away. I am only going to show you a few, just to peak your interest. The above is The Firehouse; Wisconsin Havarti and Provolone, capicola, pickled jalapenos, pepperoncini, ketchup, mayo and dill all on a nice crunchy Italian roll.

The Couch Potato. Wisconsin Blue, thick cut potato chips, smoked pepper pork, sauteed onions, and garlic mayo all on a buttered bun. Not for the faint of heart!

The Sheboygan. Wisconsin Cheese Curds, split bratwurst, sauteed onions,
beer mustard, and sauerkraut all on a kaiser roll.

After cycling through all 30 burgers, you are then rewarded with an additional 10 that are named after cities in the US. Above is The Atlanta; Wisconsin Aged Cheddar and Havarti, thick peppered bacon, pickled jalapenos and fried mac and cheese on a hamburger bun. Yes, that's right, fried mac and cheese!!

Now I've saved the best bit of news for last. The entire site is narrated by...drum roll please... Patrick Warburton!!! If you don't know who he is, allow me to educate you. Patrick Warburton is one of the most famous voice actors out there along with starring in TV shows and movies. He is most famous for doing the voice of Joe on Family Guy which is in it's 10 season and as the awesome Brock Samson on the adult cartoon(and in my opinion the best damn cartoon ever made!) The Venture Brothers which just finished it's 4th season. His voice is the perfect touch to the site giving each description a familiar voice and a comedic touch! When you have yourself a half and hour to spare, sit down and enjoy these beautifully made burgers narrated by "the manliest man alive!"

We Have Returned!

Well, we're back from the East. It was another long flight with a short layover in Seoul, Korea. I instantly noticed how slow everything moves over here in the West. Traffic doesn't move as fast, there were instantly less people, and the convenience of getting something to eat is nothing like it is in China. You can walk out into the street anywhere and find people making food from a little cart or dozens of tiny restaurants! I miss China but we will return in a couple of years and stay for a good amount of time.

The question now is; what next? I have given a lot of thought about my blog and what I would do with it when I returned. Now that I have access to sites that were previously blocked by China, I can upload photos there. My good friend Chef Chris Windus of Bluezoo in Orlando used to have a blog but made his last post "How many blogs has Twitter killed?" almost 4 months ago. Even though I have access to these other venues to post and comment on things, I'm going to keep my blog going. It's become my own little "man diary."

I still have a good amount of stuff to post from China and our next adventure in San Fransisco is just about to start. We have a lot of exploring to do here, up and down the California coast, and beyond. I have also always wanted to be a movie critic and write reviews. Most of you know I watch a shitload of movies and sometimes they can be pretty obscure. I figure I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I'll try and continue to make my posts interesting with photos, comments, and just random things that entertain me! I hope you'll stay along for the ride!!

Our Shanghai Apartment

Well, we're back in Shanghai for the last two weeks of our trip. We leave this coming Thursday and head back to the states for our San Francisco adventure! I will really miss Shanghai but we plan on returning to live here for awhile within the next couple of years. Since we already have a place to stay, it will make moving here quite easy. Andi and her mother bought the place back in 2007. They rented it out for almost 4 years and then took it back and redid the entire place.

This is the living room with the front door on the right. Andi is always cleaning! :)

We have two balconies in the apartment; one for hanging and drying clothes and the other for the washing machine and storage. There are no drying machines in China. They prefer to do laundry every couple of days and hang it in the sun. All apartments in China are built in the same direction(south, southeast) so they can get the maximum amount of sun for drying clothes and light.

The living room with a closet on the left, second balcony straight ahead, and the entrance to both bedrooms and the bathroom on the right.

The tiny washing machine. They don't make huge one's like we have in the US since they do laundry more frequently and don't have the space. They also don't have laundry mats here either. Every apartment is equipped with the

capability for a washing machine.

The guest bedroom. Also where Andi's parents sleep when they come to Shanghai.

Our room.

The bathroom. There are no bathtubs in China unless your in a reasonably expensive hotel. They also don't have much in the way of keeping the water from going everywhere except for a very small lip(right where the towel is on the floor). Instead, there are two drains for the water; one on the inside of the

shower and the other on the outside.

The kitchen(the fridge is hidden on the left).

All apartments only have two burners and no stove unlike us in the US. They also have massive hood vents because cooking with a wok is usually done on very high heat and creates a good amount of smoke. The entrance to the kitchen also has a sliding plastic door so the smoke and smells from cooking don't go all over the house. What is very popular over here our induction burners. I plan on getting two when we return.

We live on the 6th floor which is the top floor of our apartment complex. It has a pretty good view all around. At night, you can see into other peoples places

"Rear Window" style!

On a side note, this will most likely be my last post from China. Since we are back in Shanghai, we have no Internet like before and have to rely on going to coffee shops or a friends place. I must say, I can't wait to have stable Internet connection again!

Nanjing

From October 1st through the 7th is China's National Day. National Day is the day on which China's People's Republic of China was founded October 1st 1949.  It's the same idea as our July 4th Independence Day but there fireworks and days off last for the entire week. During this week, most take trips to see family or just take a small vacation to another city. We followed suit with everyone else and took a trip to Nanjing.

Not the best photo of the city as the entire time we were there it was

raining or overcast.

The city has a brick wall just like Xi'An only on a much smaller scale and with

not as much history.

The city wall is home to a large park surrounded by a lake. Notice the people. This was only the beginning of the massive amount of people that were on vacation just like us.

We went to another section where we planned on taking a boat ride at night. I took a picture of the dragons because I thought it looked neat and was able to get a picture of China's police force hard at work! Being a police officer in China is one of the safest jobs you can have. Since China forbids there citizens of having guns(no "right to bear arms" here!!), officers have less to fear from citizens. This makes them quite lazy however. Best bet is to not need the police for anything while in China.

Mom and Dad waiting for the boat ride.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any really good photos on our boat ride. My camera isn't really suited for nighttime shots.

After the boat ride we went to The Confucius Temple.

There is place to worship inside of the temple. I like the three small animals wrapped in red velvet. They are considered an "offering.

On both sides of the picture are ancient musical instruments made from

bells or pieces of metal.

After the temple we had to fight our way through the "Sea of Chinese People!"

The next day wasn't much better. We took a trip to the memorial of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is considered the "Father of the Nation." He is pretty much China's George Washington. His history is quite deep but he is most well known for helping over through the Qing Dynasty and starting the PRC. Since it was National Week, millions of people come to the memorial.

We climbed many, many stairs to get to the top of a hill where his statue is. On the news that evening, they said that over 500'000 people went to see his statue

the same day as us.

Another Round of Food

Here is my last collection of food photo's I have taken while here in China. There are many other things I ate but didn't get photo's of. I'll just have to save them for my next trip here! I apologize for some of the photos having light and others without. Sometimes they don't come out just right or I have to race to get a photo before it's eaten.

Shark fin soup. I have to say I was expecting something quite grand in flavor and taste since it's so rare.  The shark fin itself is kinda hard to see since it's opaque, almost fleshy. It's really has no flavor and is similar to eating a rubber band but not as chewy. The picture above tasted mostly of roasted garlic.

Snake soup. The meat is "just like chicken" which is what I have always heard. Once the skin is removed, there are a shitload of bones you have to work through to get to the meat but it's worth it as the snake has great flavor. This soup was called "Dragon and Phoenix." Snake=dragon, chicken=phoenix.

This dish is native to the Xi'An area. The bread has no flavor minus a couple of sesame seeds baked into it. You make little sandwiches out of them with the jalapenos and spicy chili paste. There good but only if you can handle spice.

This here is one of the best soups I have had in China. It consists of shaved pork, mushrooms, noodles, jalapenos and some other type of pepper similar to a peperoncini. The soup is tangy yet spicy.

Duck stomach and liver with tea eggs. It is sitting in a small pool of black vinegar which you use for dipping. The liver was delicious but the stomach was a bit chewy.

Fried string beans with chili, garlic, and onion! Awesome flavor!

Pork intestines in chili oil. I just can't bring myself to like intestine. It's not the thought of it, just the chewy texture and faint smell of, well, intestines.

Tofu in spicy chili oil. Once again, good if you can take the heat.

Duck paw with chili's. I don't care for duck paw myself because there is very little meat. The flavor is fine but you have to work to get anything.

Small baby prawns with peanuts, green pepper, and garlic. Here in China, they leave the head and shell on almost all of their shrimp since they enjoy the process of crunching the shells.

Duck liver and aspic. This was done perfectly but I would have liked a little sea salt. They provided a lite vinegar to dip them in instead.

Duck paw(removed from the bone) and duck liver.

The above dish is my most hated dish in China! All it is is scrambled eggs and tomatoes but I hate it. They always leave all the skin on the tomatoes and everything is mixed together looking like vomit. It also has no flavor what so ever. Andi loves it! :P

This restaurant close to Andi's place in Hefei serves these dishes above in super hot little crocks. The crocks are always filled with rice and then whatever you order to be put on top. Since the crocks are so hot, the rice always hardens and becomes crunchy. It's really good when you mix everything together. I had beef, potatoes, and bok choy with pickled green beans on the side. They also do one with

 twice cooked pork that is amazing!

Fried pork meatballs with 3 dipping sauces. The first sauce was a spicy chili paste, the second very similar to a pear chutney and the last was a spice market blend. Anyone reading this and has worked at the Met-it's just like what we rubbed our pork ribs in.

Spicy potatoes. These things with be great in the morning with some scrambled eggs after a hard night of drinking! 

Shaved lamb with leeks, onion, and cilantro. If you like lamb, you'd love this dish. I will defiantly try to recreate this when I get back to the states.

Last but not least, a whole lamb on a spit. When we were in Beijing in the Olympic area, there was a tent that had all types of food inside from different areas. One section had this little guy rolling around and I had to get a photo of him. Tasty!