Steve Perry: A Very Perry Christmas

My same friend who sent me the Arnel Pineda video clip also sent me this. Pretty funny except the guy portraying Steve Perry can't really sing! This would have been funnier BEFORE Christmas!

Journey's new lead singer

I haven't done a music related post in a while. Just a few days ago, a good friend of mine sent me a YouTube video of this Filipino singer doing Journey cover songs. Sounds corny, but this dude can really sing! So much so that Neal Schon, yes, THE Neal Schon, contacted him and now this lucky and talented man is the new lead singer of Journey! My friend is one of my few friends that share my similar taste in music. She told me there were rumors that Journey replaced their former lead singer (Jeff Scott Soto - the same dude that sang for Swedish guitar whiz Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force) with a Filipino dude Arnel Pineda who is now the former lead singer of his group The Zoo. They even a CD out this year (the CD does not have cover tunes but original material). Well, the rumors were true and it's even posted on Journey's website. Very cool and what a dream come true.

If you want to check him out, just go to YouTube and type in Journey The Zoo. His powerhouse vocals are well suited to those old power ballads like Survivor's "The Search is Over", Stryper's "Honestly", and "Faithfully" by Journey. It's too bad that a lot of those YouTube clips have shitty audio. I'm sure it doesn't do his performances any justice and the band members kind of suck, especially the guitarist. Arnel Pineda also did a great rendition of Led Zeppelin's classic "Black Dog". Anyways, check it out if you have the time (and the patience to have your eardrums endure crappy audio).

Arnel's story reminds me of how Tim "Ripper" Owens got his gig for replacing Rob Halford (aka The Metal God) of Judas Priest. Except the band members weren't looking on YouTube to find a new lead singer.

Journey was pretty popular back in the early 80's, but I was never into them. You might as well be branded a pussy for liking such a mainstream group. They were wussy arena rock, but man, they sold out stadiums and records like anything. Years later, I do have to finally admit that they do indeed rock! Minus the pompous keyboards (i.e. "Separate Ways"), Journey were a tight unit that later gave way to mid to late 80's smarminess. C'mon, "Oh Sherry?"

Favorite Journey song references:

There's a scene in Caddyshack where Rodney Dangerfield's character is blasting Journey's "Any Way You Want It" on the golf course, messing up another player's concentration while he dances like a goofus.

Another reference I found humorous was depicted with hilarious effect in the defunct TV series Freaks and Geeks, in the episode "Girlfriends and Boyfriends" in which Bill Haverchuck's character gets paired up as a Biology lab partner with Cindy Sanders, much to his fellow geek friend, Sam Wier's chagrin (Sam has a major crush on Cindy). Sam walks by Cindy's house and sees Bill and Cindy through the front window laughing and having a good time to the horny and massively suggestive refrains of "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin" (click on this link - Steve Perry's pants are practically sprayed on and he had feathered hair to die for!!!).

It's cool to see a Pinoy front a major group like Journey. I wish this guy success and hope he does well with the band as they start touring next year. Filipinos are talented singers (not all, but the ones that can sing, can really sing) and it's good to see this man have the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm sick of those Filipino singers that just do wimpy and insipid love songs and ballads. Booring. You know, those forgettable songs that sound likethey should be playing in supermarket or eleveator muzak hell.

Dinner party

What a weekend! Lunch and dinner party on Saturday and dinner party last night This time, the theme was Korean so we went to Zion to get our stuff. Here's the Chap Chae ($2.99 package - we bought 3). I like buying the premade since it's so time consuming making this.
Red leaf lettuce was only 2 for $1!!!! You can't beat that! This was for the bulgogi.

My friend cooked the bulgogi for me as I ran around like a headless chicken trying to get things ready. Bert had candle lighting duty as well as clean up. The bulgogi came out really well. My friend cooked it really slowly on medium heat. Although she is Filipina, she grew up in Korea (military family), spending her teen years there.

The accompaniments includes kim chee, seasoned perilla leaves and lotus root. This trio server was only $1.50 from Marukai Daiso. I used this the day before for the Spanish tapas lunch/dinner.
Korean potato salad. I was kind of bummed that they used apples instead of Asian pear in here. I like that this potato salad is sweet and creamy and not vinegary like American style potato salad.

These are wanna be Oreo's from Trader Joe's. They have a peppermint cream filling with tiny bits of peppermint candy. It's like eating a chocolate sandwich cookie with mint flavored toothpaste. Just kidding. Not really. These weren't that great.

My lemon cheesecake bars.

My other friend's husband's rum cake. Not pictured, flan made by our other guest (the one who cooked the bulgogi). This was so moist and delicious!

Our kids had a blast . They're all in 2nd grade and were in kindgergarten together. One of a boy, the other a girl. They made a fort upstairs in the loft, played Explorer and played several board games. TC also played the piano and the kids even sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Deck the Halls"! It was so cute! TC actually played "Rudolph" with a jaunty lilt, as opposed to the leaden hands she sometimes employs when she doesn't want to practice. This was our last dinner party this vacation. Next week, one of the other families will host and the theme is Tacos!

Zion

We went to Zion after church to get items for our dinner party Sunday night. We invited two couples whose kids (one kid per couple) are good friends of TC's. In addition to marinated bulgogi meat and premade Chap Chae and various panchan items, I bought snack items yet again. These are to be stowed away for a rainy day or for whenever we get into a snacky mood. The first box is a chocolated dipped chocolate pretzel stick, the one in the middle - almond, and the last - chocolate with almonds. These aren't Pocky but wanna be pocky by Lotte brand.
This "Pepero" brand had "Nude" flavor! I think it was 'nude' because the filling is inside the pretzel. They were having a special on the Strawberry Pocky - 5 for $1.00! The last box is Bert's favorite, the Manly Men's Pocky! Ha ha.
I regret buying this. This is a shell shaped sweet potato snack, 2 for $1.00. These don't taste very good. It's sweet but dry and cardboardy. I like the Japanese sweet potato stick snack a lot more than this rubbish.

North Park Produce now open!

[Update - Closed as of Summer 2011]

On our way home from Zion, we had to go to Costco near our place to pick up some salmon. To do double duty, Bert parked near Kmart and walked it while TC and I checked out the newly opened North Park Produce. This new market is in the former location of electronics store, The Good Guys. According to one of my students whose parents own a liquor store, the owners are Middle Eastern. North Park Produce also has locations in El Cajon and Poway. Some of the reviews I read in Yelp had good reviews about the selection of goods from around the world but trashed their produce saying the quality wasn't so great.

At this new location, the produce looked like it was very fresh. It wasn't bagged or packed in plastic containers like at Trader Joe's or Fresh and Easy. One could actually hold an individual fruit or vegetables and not be stuck with a prepackaged item. Ever since my "incident" at Fresh and Easy, I have not used my camera in any kind of market! One you walk in, the fresh produce is to your right. On the left side are bakery items, plus cheese, olives, and the frozen foods aisle. I was quite impressed because they had FILIPINO food items! I don't have to drive all the way to Seafood City anymore! They had longganisa, tapa, lumpia, and even Magnolia ice cream! Oh my God! And for their fresh vegetables, they had the Chinese long beans, bok choy (spelled as boc choy), bittermelon (wow!) and opo (sometimes spelled as 'upo') squash. They had such a great selection of spices from around the world. Lots of Indian, Mexican, Greek and Middle Eastern food items. They also had various Asian items as well. Stuff that I didn't expect to see here.

Unfortunately, we didn't spend a long time perusing the aisles (I don't have a detailed description here) since we had bulgogi meat in our car. Didn't want that to spoil. So, after I got a few items (seen below sans the 2% milk and Hinode Calrose rice), we took off. Here are some impulse purchase chocolate bars I picked up while in line. Russian, I believe. Wait, the wrapper says Ukraine.
I had a nice conversation with two Hispanic ladies in line behind me. We were marveling over the store's selection of items and the woman was happy to get a large vegetable tray for about $3! Her blueberries were only $1.49 along with raspberries...For the photo below, the chocolate biscuits are from Holland while the hazelnut wafers are from Croatia. Most of these items were less than $2.
I thought I'd try a different brand of Corned Beef this time, Targeter brand from Brazil. I'll let you know how this in in a future post. Being Filipino, I have my own twist on my canned corned beef recipe.
Looks like North Park Produce is going to give Fresh and Easy a run for it's money. It's much larger and has a huge selection of all kinds of items. They even had fenugreek seeds, which I bought a few weeks ago at Ker market for my co-worker. I'll be making more trips here in the future. It's so close by and I still want to go aisle by aisle and look at what they have. It kind of reminds me of the European Market I went to in Astoria this summer.

Double Booked - Lunch & Dinner

Actually, I wasn't really double booked (but it felt like it but on a really tight schedule. I was hosting a lunch with 2/3 of my lunch/diner friends at 12 noon. I had to tell them to come 30 minutes later. Later that day, I was also to host dinner with our friends from NY, along with with Thane (yay!), Tatonka and another friend. The lunch theme was Spanish Tapas. My ,friends were unknowingly guineau pigs to my foray into Spanish appetizers. Here's that Membrillo that I bought at Fresh and Easy last week. I served it with grapes, crackers and brie cheese. Yeah, I know that Brie isn't Spanish, but I thought I'd include it anyways.

The bottom tier had thinly sliced chorizo from Spain. Also procured at Fresh and Easy. Who would have thunk! Those slices were really tasty - very salty and with a bit of a kick.One of my experiments, taken from a Tapas cookbook I bought one month ago. This was Chickpeas with chorizo. Instead of an actual sausage that I should have sliced more thickly, I used the pre-sliced sausage that you see in the photo above. I'll be posting the tapas recipes I used in my other blog, J'ai Faim.

Imported Jamon Serrano , bought from Fresh and Easy. There were only 6 slices in the package. This stuff was a bit pricey at roughly $6 a package - about $1.00 a slice. As a back up, I also bought Italian prosciutto (but that was for dinner).

Manchego cheese slices. I tried to imitate the way Costa Brava layered their Manchego cheese. This was relatively painless. Just slice the cheese and arrange. No cooking required. Same with the sliced meats.

Another first attempt - Spanish tortilla. I used my largest frying pan and Bert had to help me invert it onto a cookie sheet because it was too large to go on a plate or even a platter. I sliced it a big raggedly. Looks a bit browned on the top, but it tasted okay. Man, Spanish food is pretty damn oily. I used so much oil that day and some of it splattered on one of my favorite green shirts. The oil spots didn't come out in the wash either.

Early stage of Sauteed Mushrooms with Garlic. I used white button and brown crimini. The end product will be seen by the end of this blog. Most of the stuff seen for lunch would be repeated for dinner with the other set of friends.

Another first attempt which came out all right. This is Sauteed Chicken Thighs (with skin on) in White wine with sliced garlic.

Patatas con alioli. Okay, I cheated. I didn't fry these potatoes. These are white potatoes with the skin on that I roasted. The alioli was actually reduced fat mayo with garlic that I smashed with my mortar and pestle along with sea salt. My new favorite standby, Gambas al Ajillo.

So that was the gamut of my attempts at Spanish cuisine. Not pictured were the baguette slices that we used to eat the Manchego slices along with Serrano ham and the garlic mayo. Along with the usual dessert suspects: the Filipino stuff I had on an earlier post and my lemon cheesecake bars, I bought these dark chocolate molten lava cakes (from F & E) which were a big hit with my lunch guests.

Time lapse....Five hours later, I entertained another set of friends, N & L from NYC, Tatonka, Thane and another friend I'll call P. It was a race for time to clean up and get ready for dinner. I had chicken adobo that I made the other night which I put in my crock pot to warm. Here's a platter of Serrano Ham and another type of cured ham, artfully arranged by my husband.

See this? I also had this out for lunch, but this was a fresh set of tidbits - stuffed olives, marinated piquillo peppers and the sauteed mushrooms. This time, the mushrooms are prettified with my new friend, Italian flat leaf parsley.

A newcomer entree (not seen during today's lunch) was a baked salmon recipe that I learned from my sister in law (Bert's oldest bro's wife). This dish is so damn easy. Just get a fillet of salmon, put it on top of a thin layer of olive oil. Spread mayo (yeah, sounds gross, but it tastes good!) on top of onion soup mix. I happened to use Knorr because I couldn't find my Lipton packets. Nice fatty and salty and oily goodness. Trust me, it does taste good!

Here's my steamy chicken adobo with sliced potatoes. Adobo tastes so much better the next day. You can use any parts of the chicken that you wish so I chose my favorite, the wings and drummettes. To make it interesting, I added slices of ginger when I browned the chicken. I also added several frozen cubes of kalamansi and used less white vinegar.

I'll post the pics later, but N brought over a gift bag of assorted chocolates and goodies from Jacques Torres . It was great seeing our friends again. We hadn't seen them since our summer visit and also since our 20year high school reunion. They were kind enough to play Connect Four, Sorry and Monopoly with TC. Our friends also ended up playing Mah Jong (using Mr. Saliva's un-numbered set) into the late night hours. It was fun catching up with P and chatting with Tatonka about his upcoming trip to the Philippines. Since we didn't have a huge holiday dinner party like we normally do, this was the closest we came to it this year.

Finally on vacation!

Yesss!!!!

Two week break finally!

Pho Vien Dong revisited

Bert and I took last Friday off. We did errands that morning and we all went out to check out Pho Vien Dong again. It was a nice and sunny day and it felt great to NOT be at work! It was around 12 noon and the place wasn't yet packed. Again, mixed clientele. Mr. Flirty waiter was there, as was Pompadour and the young guy with spiked hair. Mr. Flirt was yukking it up with some elderly Filipinos at the back end of the restaurant. I overheard one of them telling him to call him "Manong".
We ordered the Goi Cuon which Bert and TC shared. It was standard. Nothing too exciting. A bit overpriced in my opinion - $3.99.
My new Tokidoki bag. Except I got this way cheaper than what's on the official website. So cute!!! That's Uglyworm hanging onto my bag. I got him at the Comic Con this year. I love his straggly strands of hair a la Homer.

We got the Pho with Flank for TC. She shared most of it with Bert. We asked the waiter to give us three bowls.

Child size pho.

The so- so summer roll.

I vowed to get something different the next time I came here, which meant no Mintless bun. So I got the Char Grilled beef with rice. It came with your standard cucumber and tomato slices along with dipping sauces (not pictured).

This entree wasn't so bad. The marinated meat was really good and tender.

I guess his rockabilly pompadour hair wasn't so high after all. This guy was pretty silent. You can see Mr. Flirty (in the background) who was already done shmoozing with the Lolo's and Lola's.I almost forgot. Bert ordered a banh mi sandwich (I think it was the Dac Biet). This was $2.99. Yes, a banh mi for more than $2.50! Let's put it this way, K sandwiches kicks ass over this anytime. It was smallish. There was more bread than filling.

Skimpy on the meat...

Pho Vien Dong was worth another try, if only to check it out during lunch rather than dinner.

Greenbox #11

Where is this greenbox located?
Answer to post next week!

Answer to Greenbox #10

And this greenbox is located on:
Imperial Avenue, right off the 805 as you approach the new Lincoln High School.

King's Fish House #2

[Closed as of 2012 and is now Buffalo Wild Wings as of 2014]

As if all that food I made for Bert's clan wasn't enough,we ended up going out to dinner that same night! Don't worry, I ate very lightly since I knew we were going out to eat. We were in the good company of Lotus, Thor and their new baby daughter, S. We wanted to stay local, so we went to King's Fish House at the Otay Ranch mall (not really a mall, but whatever!). Bert was feeling a bit sick, so he thought a cup of New England Clam Chowder would be in order.
He also ordered the Jambalaya with shrimp, andouille sausage and fish served with linguine. Something about Cajun spices doesn't agree with me. I liked the shrimp but the flavors were so strong that I didn't really enjoy the bits that I sampled.

Linguine with Manila Clams (their menu had double "l's" in Manila! Dumbasses.) . The portion was just right like the last time. The only gripe I had was that there a few sandy clams in there. Yuck. They also put more butter in this sauce than the version I had for lunch. Also, instead of arranging the clams around the perimeter of the dish, they just chucked them in there mixed up. The dinner portion also had more clams! Yay! Instead of ten, there were about 16-18 clams in there. Except for the few sandy clams I encountered towards the end, this was a tasty dish, but I can do better!

TC's linguine with marinara sauce. Your standard linguine noodles with red sauce. This photo was taken before the waitress deposited parmesan cheese on top in a thick layer. Ehhhh...

Lotus' Chicken Parmesan with sides of mac and cheese and a loaded baked potato. The mac and cheese was also shared by the baby, who also macked out on the bread. She makes cute Chewbacca noises! She is an adorable little girl!

Thor's Blackened catfish with mashed potatoes and spinach sides. I'm sure it was good because he finished it all but I think he told Bert that he's had better fish at other places.

It was a long week! Cleaning, cooking, then cleaning again after guests left! Going out to dinner was a welcome respite from the drudgery I endured this week. I don't know about you, but I hate leaving mess for the next day. I clean up either immediately or the same day/night so I don't have to worry about crusty dishes, utensils, dirty floors, etc. Seeing mess and clutter drives me nuts. Can't wait 'til vacation...I need to just chill.

Family party

This weekend we hosted an early Christmas get together for Bert's side of the family. His oldest brother and his family were going to Maui for Christmas, so we had to move up our normal gathering a week early. I offered to host because #1) I am a control freak and #2) I enjoy hosting, baking, and cooking for family and friends and #3) I didn't want to have to drive anywhere! Yeah, pretty selfish of me, but hey, I really do enjoy hosting these events. See that pretty flower centerpiece? THANK YOU to Bert's office party! Free!

I ripped off this salad idea from California Pizza Kitchen. A few weeks ago, Bert,TC and I were at CPK at the Otay Ranch mall for a YMCA fundraiser and we ordered this salad. I thought it was easy to pull off. One bag of pre-washed spring mix, a handful or two of sliced red seedless grapes, slices of green apple, candied walnuts (I made those too) and on the side (for my sake), crumbled blue cheese bits and balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. I don't know about you, but the blue cheese is absolutely vile...It smells like stank feet. Ugh! I am not a fan of any type of smelly cheese. Isn't cheese just the by products of controlled milk spoilage? To think that you're eating mold too just grosses me out. Well, the bits were out there for those who wanted it! By the way, the salad dressing for original Waldorf salad is supposed to be mayo based but CPK gives you two choices - a creamy dressing and/or a vinagrette.

I made the candied walnuts from a recipe on the internet. It didn't turn out as good as I thought it would be. For some reason, it wasn't as sweet, so I added more sugar on the nuts (okay, insert dirty joke here) after I took them out of the oven. We used our fine china from our wedding. Yeah, the china that we bought ourselves because no one (save one person) bought us any place settings. Cheap Filipinos. Ha ha. I ended up returning the lone place setting and buying in bulk (service for 12) at the Mikasa outlet (way cheaper that way). The pattern is Mikasa Wedding Band Platinum.That whole week, Bert and I worked on cleaning our house and making it presentable. We finally hung up some pictures frames that had been lying there for months. We also replaced some of the photos with more updated shots of TC. The day before Bert recycled our cans, bottles and glasses and got $50 out of it. It also helps that he gets rid of the recyling stuff at his work too. So, with the $50 (it wasn't cash but rather a Ralph's voucher), he got the supplies on our list.

I wanted the meal to be super easy so that it could be made either the morning of, or the night before. I didn't want all of the dishes made in the oven either. In the case of these two side dishes, one was just frozen peans and corn (I added butter after it was warmed up in the good ole microwaves), and the other side was sauteed mushrooms (white button and crimini) with shallots and carrots with a reduction of balsamic vinegar. You could see the Saran wrap still! I woke up at 5 am to assemble the pot roast. Yeah, you heard that, 5 fkn am. The lunch was scheduled to be at 1 pm so I had to time it right. The meat was a 2 lb roast from Matilda, the butchered half cow that Lotus and Thor picked up in Monterey. This part was easy, just dump in the meat with the carrots, and celery that I cut earlier that day. Bert peeled and chunked the potato for me, as well as halved and sliced an onion. I added a packet of Lipton French onion soup mix, a little bit of water and put the lid on the crock pot and went back to sleep. I had it on High for 4 hours, then turned it back to Low after we got back from church that morning. Damn, this turned out pretty good.

The salmon was the only dish I baked in the oven. Actually, I baked the salmon in my Corningware first, then transferred it onto my nice china platter. You can't really tell but the transfer wasn't seamless, so I covered the breaks with the oranges.It's fillet of salmon with sesame soy ginger marinade topped with Cara Cara Navel orange slices and scallions. These are a variety of orange with a slightly reddish orange flesh, but not as deep as a blood orange.
Not shown (because I forgot to take a photo) is my Gambas al Ajillo (or Shrimp Pil Pil). For a photo and the recipe, click here

My sister in law (oldest bro in law's wife) brought two types of marzipan filled stollen - one with cranberries and nuts and the other with just marzipan and nuts. She bought this at Trader Joe's and it's a German brand, Kuchenmeister. I liked the marzipan filling and the sugar coated topping.She also made a German bundt cake (she has a German friend who taught her this recipe) with a chocolate biscuit cookie filling (she used Ritter cookie bars). There's a piece that I just patched on because the cake didn't come out of the bundt mold cleaning. No matter! It tasted fine nevertheless!This cake would be great with coffee! You could also sprinkle powdered sugar on this, but I was out.

My Lemon Cheesecake Bars . I'll be making more batches of this for my co-workers and the folks at the main office. Notice, I kept the corners for myself.

The dessert tray: the top tier has my lemon cheesecake bars while the middle tray has Uraro cookies which are one of my favorite Filipino sweets. I remember my parents used to make this; my mom had a special molds that had flower designs. Another one of my aunts had one with one of the saints on it. The bottom row contain brightly wrapped polvoron, another one of my favorite Filipino sweets. It's made out of milk powder, butter and flour. These are ube flavor and the brand isn't Goldilocks. I really like these because they are powdery but they can really dry out your mouth if they're not made right. You can order a polvoron from Goldilocks here . Last year one of my relatives sent us a few boxes of this. I also had "cookies and cream" flavor which you can't buy here in the U.S. Mmmm....okay! Here's a link on how to make polvoron . Seems easy, but I'd need the polvoron molds to do this.

I have another triple tiered display with more treats. The top has a variety of sweet puffed rice snacks from Japan, the middle has those Japanese cookies shaped like mushrooms and pinecones dipped in chocolate, and the borrom plate has Andes peppermints, Lindt dark chocolate truffles and chocolate bells. Yes, candy galore...more for display purposes. Gotta love the Japanese packaging.

Not pictured was my Watergate Salad which I call my "50's Housewife Salad" since it's so old school and "white trashy" since it has a powdered pudding mix, a canned ingredient, and the old processed standby, Cool Whip! Ha ha. I got the recipe from a former co worker and have made it every holiday since. It's so easy to make (here's the recipe) and it does taste good!

I was happy that the gathering went well and our planning paid off. It was effortless for the most part. It was nice to connect with my brothers and sisters in law and TC had a blast playing with her three cousins. It was cute because they were playing "Explorers" and "Detective" and wearing mismatched bits and pieces of TC's costume odds and ends. Next weekend, a tapas party with my educators lunch/dinner group. Gotta plan that small bites menu!