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The Hunt for Vietnamese Catfish...
Sunday, Nov 25, 2007 11:53AM / Members only
For the past several months, our very own Dustin Nguyen has been raving about taking us to a restaurant with the "the most amazing Vietnamese baked catfish in the whole wide world." I suppose for the avid catfish connisiuer, such a claim would demand immediate culinary action and exploration. Unfortunately for Dustin, such palatable love for this feline fish falls on deaf ears. You see, I really do not care for any fish of the scaleless variety, and I especially do not like catfish. Much like the sea slug and the geoduck, it is no accident that such a fish is classified as the "poo of the sea". My theory is simple...you are what you eat. Eat poo = you will taste like poo. I personally do not like the taste of poo. Follow such logic in the realm of grass fed beef...Eat grass = taste like grass. Hence the gamey flavor of some grass fed cattle. Please note, I do not wish to appear harsh towards the catfish as a whole. I'm sure if I were a sea critter, I would find the catfish a fine friend and a good buddy in which to explore the undersea kingdom with. But this is not about fish friends...this is about eating fish that has poo-like flavor.
The catfish - a vessel of aquatic poo.
Given Dustin's incredible passion for us to taste this "best ever" catfish, I decided to broaden my dietary horizon by agreeing to travel 1 hour to Little Saigon to Favori Restaurant - home of "the best Vietnamese baked catfish in the whole wide world." Joining us on this adventure was 3 other fearless eaters...Angela, Julie, & Juliet. This would be a trip of either great gastronomical epiphany or group suicide. I would imagine a trip to eat Japanese Fugu (blowfish) would have the same giddy anticipation of life and death.
Angela, Julie, & Juliet. They smile now. But would they still be smiling after eating sea poo...we would soon find out.
Let's cut to the chase, we did not die. In fact, that was some damn good catfish! Best I have ever had. But it did not start that way. The method of eating this catfish is culturally anchored in the Vietnamese style...you basically wrap the fish in rice paper and various exotic greens to form a south east asian burrito of sorts. Now I am accustomed to this form of labor intensive eating, having a great love for Nem Nuong...roll your own spring rolls with beef, chicken, or pork with exotic veggies. Now if it was the catfish I feared, such paranoia retarded my senses towards the plate of exotic greens. Usually the greens are a cornucopia of carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and variety of mint leaves. Nothing unusual. Except for this rogue green that looked very similar to that of a mint leaf but is clearly not. That leaf and bastard vegetable of the devil is known as the Pennywort. If you have never encountered it, take heed now. Do not eat it...EVER. It looks innocent enough, much like a non-veiny mint leaf. So docile and innocent it looks, perhaps even pretty. But take a bite and it paralyzes you with a flavor of rotten fish. Why the hell this restaurant would serve such a horrid vegetable with any fish dish is beyond me. It's like McDonald's serving a Big Mac with rotten beef/crap flavor buns. Needless to say, my first roll contained only 2 ingredients...catfish and a fist full of Pennwort. I thought I had bitten into a spiced trout head that had been rotting in the summer sun for 4 days. I almost vomited. Being a somewhat socially graceful friend, I turned to Dustin, smiled and told him it was amazing.
This is the Pennywort. A bastard of a green that was created by the devil. Consider yourself warned.
Given the fact that everyone else was in blissful awe of their catfish rolls, I figured that something had to be wrong. After a bit of forensic deduction I was able to narrow down the culinary criminal to the Pennywort. Damn that green. Damn it back to where it came from...a pig's anus. After ridding all of our plates of this vile offender, the rest of the meal was pleasant. So, to Dustin's credit, this was the "best baked Vietnamese catfish" I have ever had. But then again, it was the only baked Vietnamese catfish I have ever had. Love the catfish. Forever hate the Pennwort.
You see before you the great Favori baked catfish. Below it hides the dreaded Pennywort. Do not let it's good looks seduce you. -
My Animal Friends of Canada...
Wednesday, Nov 7, 2007 5:16PM / Members only
Ahhhh yes...Vancouver, Canada. Truly an amazing place it is. A place where nature and humans coexist in peace and harmony. A place where man and animal live as one. A place where interspecie encounters have the potential to blossom into life-long friendships. Such nature bonding is virtually impossible in the United States. So I took full advantage of my time in Vancouver to introduce myself and get to know the many wonderful creatures who call Canada their home. These are my pictures. This is my story...
While on the Capilano Suspension Bridge, I saw, for the first time in my life, a bald eagle in majestic flight. To my surprise, the eagle landed and perched itself upon my arm, for it was the first time it had encountered an Asian person. Though I spoke only english and the bird could only squak, we were somehow able to communicate and made quick friends.
Mr. Deer was in a somewhat surly mood. While exploring Grouse Mountain, I wanted to take my first photo with a Canadian black tail deer. His response was to point his ass at me and piss out his entire bladder. It was not nice.
3 hungry, baby Canadian wolves. Only 2 nipples. 1 wolf would have to go without...
The Canadian Grizzly is known to have a foul temperament and a penchant for disemboweling unsuspecting humans. As a sign of respect, I picked out the belly lint from her rather large and hairy navel. This Canadian Grizzly turned out to be a rather fine lady who invited me to spend the day with her in a freezing stream to catch spawning salmon with our teeth. I had a wonderful time. I believe that the Canadian Grizzly is a misunderstood creature.
Spend life in tank. Then get boiled to death. The life of a Canadian lobster sucks crap.
The guy on the right is Vancouver's most famous sushi chef. He supposedly invented the California Roll. That would be fellow filmmaker, Quentin Lee, second from the left trying to hide from my camera. He too is a wonderful Canadian animal friend of mine. -
Oh Canada, Oh Canada, oh how I love thee!
Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 3:29PM / Members only
Well, technically, the FINISHING THE GAME Grassroots Tour is over. However, not all good things have to come to an end. Much like in Empire Strikes Back where Luke and R2D2 detour from the Ice Planet of Hoth to Degobah to search out Yoda, Justin and I venture to Vancouver, BC tomorrow morning to search for moose, goose, dry, and a film festival.
As foreigners, Justin and I hope to encounter and befriend one of these 4 legged, Candaian locals.
I have great admiration for Canada. In many ways, I find it a nation that possesses all the great things of Americana without all the smelly bad things like the current leader of our country, GWB. Just returning from Hawaii, however, I realize that we are in for a serious temperature shock. Hawaii was about 85 degrees and humid. I just checked weather.com and realized that 40 degrees and rainy will be the climate while we are north of the border. Personally, I prefer warm weather to cold. However, if I had to choose a way to die, I would probably prefer to freeze to death than to burn to a crisp.
Whether male or female, The Canadian Goose looks exactly the same. This is a scientifically proven fact. How such a physical trait is an evolutionary benefit is beyond me.
One great thing from the past year of Grass Roots traveling is that I have learned to pack really, really light. Tomorrow I will exercise my travel knowledge by only packing 1 small backpack for a 4 night stay. I will bring 2 shirts, 3 underwear, 2 socks, 1 toothbrush, and just wear the rest on the plane. My hope is that it does not get hot. I am relying on zero sweat to avoid that dank smell of skin and body that we all know too well but refuse to speak of. Tomorrow, we got North! : )
For those of you who love to drink Canada Dry, this is what the stuff looks like under a black light. Water is not supposed to look like that. -
Boy Band Inspiration... Thank you Heavenly Kings!
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007 4:31PM / Members only
One of the great things about Hawaii was I was able to see "The Heavenly Kings" for my first time. Outside of the fact that I laughed my balls off, the film served as an inspiration to pursue my lifelong dream to become part of a boy band. The following two pictures will be our lead album covers. The only thing left to do is to learn how to sing...which will be a serious problem since all of us are rather tone deaf.
Here's a fine pic of Dustin and I looking cool in a parking garage. I also think we look like humanoid insects.
I understand that the sexy quotient isn't too high in this photo. But just imagine us in white sequin vests and gold, buttless chaps...that would most certainly be hot...or make you vomit. -
Exotic Island Love - FTG meets AnD in the Pacific Isle of Aloha
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007 5:22AM / Members only
Ahhh yes...Hawaii. Aloha Oye! The sheer thought of our nation's 50th state conjures up dreams of palm trees, warm, crystal blue waters, tan island girls in grass skirts and coconut brassiers, strapping island lads bursting out of their mesh loin cloths, and a whole bunch of other exotic island images that only seem to exist in Costco travel brochures. Justin, Dustin, & I left SF last Sunday to take part in the Hawaii International Film Festival and to take on Team Alive Not Dead in a drinking contest to end all drinking contests. The pictures below are just a few snapshots of our trip to Hawaii. Please take not of the myriad of handsome young asian chaps. And though I am smiling in quite a few of the pics, please do not be misled by my grins of aloha. HIFF had me on such a crazy speaking schedule that I did not even have time to touch the island waters. How dorky is that? The film festival might as well have been in Iowa. OK, enough spirit dark barf. Please enjoy! Mahalo my fellow fellows.
Though I did not even get to touch the waters of Hawaii, I did manage to take a photo in the men's restroom at Louis Vuitton. It was nice. The toilet seat even had an LV on it. I now have an LV imprint on my ass.
Me, Andrew, Conroy, Daniel, Patrick, & Dustin. None of us are wearing underwear...a true sign of island life and aloha
Patrick & Stephen chartered a catamaran for a fine day of aquatic exploration and sea creature watching. I was unable to attend because of my 101 speaking engagements scheduled by HIFF.
Better Luck being Lost on 21 Jumpstreet Aloha
Dustin & I speaking at McKinley High. We both feel like a floral Mr. T
