I was pretty mad when I discovered that my salmon still had scales on it. Not buying fish at Associated anymore. What was I thinking? After I de-scaled my fillet, spread a layer of butter on the skin side and put it in the fridge for an hour. Used a cast iron pan on med-high heat until the skin formed a crispy brown crust. Flipped it over and cooked for less than 2 minutes.Here fishy fishy...
Break out your antacids and corn bread! My super secret spicy broth has been brewing for a WEEK. Tomorrow, I (along with other mighty amateur chefs of Brooklyn) will be battling it out at the Bell House for the Brooklyn Chili Takedown! Watch this video, buy your tickets and let's high-five!
An email from the host himself:
I AM Matt Timms! And I see a whole army of my Chili Takedowners, here, in defiance of tyranny!!! You've come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? They may take away our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM! That was actually braveheart but oo. I think it really set the mood for the Takedown this Sunday... This is going to be kind of TOTALLY AMAZING!!!! 5 years on, and going on strong, the single most wicked awesomest chili competition in NYC has arrived again - with 30 different chilis!!!! You can buy the ALWAYS LOW PRICE tickets at chili-takedown.com or at thebellhouseny.com - fill your faces with the best chili Brooklyn have to offer! I'm numb, just thinking of the tornado of blood that shall be shed this fine day...
Chili Takedown November 22, 2009 Bell House 149 7th St. 4PM
Michael Lerman and Josh Davis (Bit Shifter) put away the dmgs and play acoustic. Photo from last night's all-star Pulsewave with Anamanaguchi, Talk to Animals with a surprise songs from Notendo, Bubblyfish, Nullsleep+Starscream, Natty + Paris, Glomag + Peter Swimm & Outpt. Blip Festival is 26 days away. Who are you most excited to see? I talk about it in this video:
Think you can make a better promo? Enter the BLIP YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FAN VIDEO CONTEST where you can win a Blip Festival 3 day pass, Plogue Bidule and Plogue Chipsounds.
I spent one night watching a lot of Alton Brown videos and stumbled upon a simple way to hard cook eggs. I stopped hard boiling them altogether because they were smelly after a while and the yolks were too crumbly. I could never get it right, until now! My breakfast today was hard cooked egg with salt (on one flat edge of the big piece), pepper (on one flat edge of the small piece) and savory cashew mustard.
Welcome to Facts n' Cheese! It's like Mac n' Cheese, but not! Join me on my awkward trek through cheeses of the world. In each episode, I'm joined by a friend and I make them eat cheese while I spout out all I know about a particular curd conglomeration. Special thanks to Jeff Stockton for designing our logo as well as Ryan Darrenkamp, Lisa Uhlman and Vance Spicer for their beer, house, camera equipment and editing!
Fresher, younger goat cheese works better than aged chevre. The tangy flavor works with the spiciness of the chili powder in almost the same way that citrus goes with spicy Mexican food.
When you coat goat cheese in any spices or powders, do not wrap it in plastic! It will sweat. Store any goat cheese projects in a small wooden box with tight fitting plastic wrap and holes poked into it. I don't recommend playing with goat cheese affinage more than a week unless you are a certified affineur, microbiologist or have access to temperature controlled a clean room.
You will not find Paprika Goat Cheese in my chili on Sunday (at least, not this year).
I'm experimenting with different meats (for no particular reason) and I had some leftover spicy longaniza to eat. After I sauteed the meat, I piled on some kale, covered it and let it steam with the heat off. Tossed the fine mixture with roasted garlic, elbow pasta, hot pepper flakes and topped it with grana padano. Since the longaniza is so oily, I didn't need any olive oil to coat the pasta. Yeah, that's gross and unhealthy but who are we to waste ANYTHING in this economy? I'm on my 2nd bowl already!
My friend Ryan is ridiculous, so are his roommates Lisa and Vance. They're the swarthy crew of talent that helps me produce episodes of Facts N' Cheese. We spent a couple hours in their lovely apartment (where Green Point kisses Williamsburg). There's more cooking, more chiptunes, more beer and of course, more cheese! However, last night shifted focus to Ryan's newest project: Boozecats.com ! From their About page:
Boozecats was inspired in part by Lisa's frantic search for a photo of herself that did not contain beer. I realized every one of our pictures has beer in it somewhere, so I decided to edit them all out using cats. This site was made to showcase boozecat images and to encourage others to make their own. Submit a photo of your own or rate the ones on display and talk about how awesome this is. Remember: this is awesome. Don't forget.
Unfortunately, I have a similar problem! Do any of you have a photo of me where I'm "appropriate" and not holding a drink? Mom needs a photo for the DLV holiday card...or should I send her a Boozecat?
I had hazy camera-phone eyes on Halloween when I took a bus down to Philly to check out the haps. Went to a diner called Honey's Sit N' Eat where I snarfed biscuits and gravy: Tommy shared some of his latke and corn muffin. Uh huh, good stuff--especially with their house made blueberry jam. Afterwards, we figured out our Halloween costumes. I didn't take any pictures, but I was a high school track star. We headed to an outdoor party where Goofbox Cowboybox BackstreetboxJukebox the Ghost played under a tent. The set was mostly new dancey songs, look out 2010! It's going to be a nice surprise. Afterwards, it started to pour hard outside. All of us retreated to an evening of Thai fried rice, miso chick peas, kidney bean stuffed potatoes and lot's of CANDY during screenings of The Wicker Man (the original) and Midnight Meat Train. Had some brunch at Sulimay's (see this post) and explored the old town. Talked to an awesome old dude about Benjamin Franklin and the Philosopher's society. Best of all, the National Liberty Museum had "pay what you wish" day! I couldn't have asked for better comedy gold: Until next time, Philly! I'm pretty bummed that I can't get out to 8static tonight. If you're into the chiptunes, it's a killer line up with Trash 80, Glomag and Animal Style with Enso and Dan Winckler on vizzies!
I put mine in the toaster, slice it on a diagonal and sprinkle gross dried out parm, stale red pepper flakes and onion powder. Good ranch dressing as a dip if I have it (stuff you find in diners).
After my Summer trip to Barcelona, I shared my restaurant recommendations with The Young and Hungry. Click the picture for my Facebook album of mobile photos!
I sawStarscream last week and my camera-phone died. Here's my mini tribute drawn on the back of a medical bill. I should pay that in case their next show DESTROYS me.
I've been reloading the Blip Festival website like a mad woman, watching BlipStarter slowly creeping its way up to success! I jumped into chiptunes back in college when I discovered the 8 Bit Construction Setand Nullsleep. From there, I started going to Pulsewave when I moved to New York. Never thought I'd be schlepping around Brooklyn late at night with these hooligans. The chiptune community spirit is astounding and inspiring. Only after 1 year of working for the Blip Festival and the Tank, I've booked chip shows and even started to write my own music.
Even though Blip made its fundraising goal, there is an exclusive 8bitpeoples compilation (8bp106) available only to donors of $10 or more. Most excitingly, at the $100 level, donors get an invite to a rare performance with Random and Covox (performing as CONDOM, no lie).
"Trash-bin symphonies and ray-chasing pixel pushers herald the explosive return of Blip Festival New York City, 2009. The three-day music and arts festival returns to Brooklyn's Bell House December 17th, 18th, and 19th and is presented by Manhattan arts organization The Tank, in partnership with NYC artist collective 8bitpeoples. Entering its fourth year of celebrating the best and brightest from the realm of chipmusic and its related disciplines, the festival showcases the use of the former heavyweights of computing such as the Commodore 64 and Amiga, the Atari ST and 2600, and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy to create arresting music and visual art.
The festival, now one of the worlds largest and longest running events of its kind, continues to evolve with a greater breadth of international artists, a growing sophistication of styles and creative vocabulary, and a forward-thinking enthusiasm driven home by over two dozen of the worlds best musicians and visualists.
If there's one thing festival-goers can expect, it's to have their expectations blown away. And the high-energy, low-res live experience is also supplemented by daytime workshops, film screenings, and open mic events -- all in an open, friendly, all-ages atmosphere, accessible to the hardcore fan and the chipmusic neophyte alike." (via Blip Festival website)
Growing up, I've been told by my father's side of the family that we de la Vegas are meant for greatness. Creative bouts of passion and firey sass. Being a biology nerd at the time, I didn't know what the hell they were talking about until now.
That is my poet-Aunt Yvonne de la Vega! She is currently hostess of WORDBEAT Poetry and Jazz Joint on BlogTalkRadio where she spins jazz tracks and callers can lay down some spoken word over it. Her next show is 11/8 at 11pm.
Also , I think there just needs to be more dancing in the street. Just sayin'.
We loaded up the gear for Capybara's 2nd show in Eugene, OR at Sam Bond's Garage. We were early and very hungry, so we sat down at the Pizza Research Institute. Since we like to try everything, we got 4 types of pizza split over two large pies: 1 [Pear, vegan pesto & herb roasted potatoes], 2 [Granny smith apples, smoked gouda & roasted walnuts ], 6 [Baked spicy tofu, roasted garlic & black olives ] & 7 [Asparagus, minced garlic & fresh tomatoes]. We gawked at other people that ordered the "Chef's Choice", which is "12-14 toppings arranged in a mandala pattern. " Totally saw corn on the cob on there! When our pizza arrived, we doused them with the housemade hot sauces (there was a bar full of hot sauce!). My favorite was #6, the spicy tofu was rich and flavorful. We got back to Sam Bond's and offered our leftovers to Rosewood Thieves and The Dead Trees, the other bands who were playing. I sat at the merch table, enjoying the music and drinking microbrewed red ale from a mason jar. It was nice to see some familiar faces coming out to see Capybara again, wish we didn't have to play so early! Definitely high-fived the sound man, he made it spectacular. In the morning, when we packed up for our long drive to California, we stopped at the locally renowned Off the Waffle. Mmm, stuffed sweet waffles. According to their website, Liege waffles "are made from a yeast-based dough containing imported Belgian pearled sugar, which caramelizes throughout the waffle due to its high melting point." Mine had goat cheese and bananas. Prepare for a wait, they take a while if you are in a big group! I admired the art on the walls in the meantime.
Oh look, the tour van and trailer are saying hello to my waffle:
Instrumentals that screech and bleep and bop, Max Justus has always caught us in the best way possible, mashing together subtle emotion and an apparent tenderness with his array of laptop blips and upfront geekery. And this week he's finally in town to show off his, er, chops. Taking place at Sputnik in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the wonderful kids from Mushpot have put together a great night coming up on Thursday night, November 5. It marks the first concert and DJ night in Sputnik's basement with disco nouveau from VDRK (Famous Friends), the hot rhythms of sister-screamers Zambri, the (finally!) NY debut of Max Justus and chiptune from Natty (Noise Channel). It's guaranteed to be a fun night--we'll be there so there's that--and not one to be missed. Admission is $7 or $5 with RSVP. Justus plays Silent Barn and Niagara on November 6 and 9, respectively.
Welcome to Facts n' Cheese! It's like Mac n' Cheese, but not! Join me on my awkward trek through cheeses of the world. In each episode, I'm joined by a friend and I make them eat cheese while I spout out all I know about a particular curd conglomeration. Special thanks to Jeff Stockton for designing our logo as well as Ryan Darrenkamp, Lisa Uhlman and Vance Spicier for their beer, house, camera equipment and editing!
Episode 9 features the very wonderfully creamy Brillat Savarin, my roommate Jen Marmor and the song "Demaris" by Greenleaf. I'm a total name-droppingjerk in this episode, mostly because I'm full of "juice." What? You can't censor that stuff from the internet. The kids will hear about it someday anyway. Also, if I could go back in time -- I'd use this Savarin quote instead: "A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye."
More facts about Brillat Savarin:
Brillat Savarin is named after Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the author of The Physiology of Taste.
Brillat is a soft, white-crusted cow's milk cheese from Normandy. It looks like this.
When it isn't aged (through affinage), Brillat resembles a really fancy cream cheese like Neufchatel.
Avoid red wines because the tannins come out more if you drink it with this cheese; bubbly stuff reacts nicely with the paste.
To macerate sliced strawberries, toss them with the juice of 1 orange, a tablespoon of sugar and a hand full of torn mint leaves. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and use them as a topping to waffles, french toast, pancakes or other baked delights. Eat 'em quick before they get soggy.
I went to Philadelphia for Halloween and had brunch at Sulimay's with my try-anything-on-the-menu cohort, Tommy. We were so inspired by the diner music reviews we saw on Youtube created by Woodshop Films.
We didn't see our favorite diner celebrities, but we did snarf down like champs. We totally high fived afterwards (no lie). We got a plate of roasted potatoes, scrambled eggs and scrapple. The scrapple was outstanding! With a little syrup, it was delightfully salty and crispy on the edges--a not-to-miss dish if you're ever in Philly. We also ordered the special pumpkin pancakes with a side of pork roll. The pancakes were so fluffy and spongy that they didn't need any syrup (just..only...3 packets of butter...I know, we're gross). I didn't know what pork roll was, so we had to get it. Our server described it as similar to Spam. I guess it looked like it, tasted more like regular sliced ham to me. Another interesting find was the hot sauce! It was marked as Sriracha, but it wasn't the same kind that I've seen. It didn't have a rooster on it and it was thin and vinegar based: All in all, Sulimay's hit the spot. In fact, I didn't really need to eat the rest of the day. That's how stuffed I was, dude.
Here fishy fishy... 
