RunSenoRun

My First Soccer Match

 

While in Los Angeles, I attended my first ever soccer match. Not just any match, mind you, but I got to see Real Madrid... in the Rose Bowl! They were playing Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy in an international friendly.

Real Madrid did not disappoint. The photo above is taken after Donovan scored on a penalty kick just prior to the half to give the Galaxy a 2 - 0 lead. 

After halftime, though, Real Madrid inserted their stars. All of them, minus Kaka, who was injured. At that point, the Galaxy didn't stand a chance. It was a little like watching the Yankees playing the Everett Aqua Sox, or the Sonics (sorry, can't let it go) playing Bellevue Community College. 

I don't love soccer, but I would pay money to see Real Madrid 100% time the tickets were offered. It was kind of amazing to see, like watching the Magic Johnson era Lakers, or the Steve Nash Suns from four years ago. Their brand of soccer is just so smooth and fun to watch. 

Ronaldo and his bright orange cleats were set up right in front of me the entire second half. Watching him is mesmerizing. Sure, he's a douche, but my word, that boy can play. He led Real Madrid to three straight goals and 3 - 2 win over L.A. I was rooting for LA because Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle deserve some love for the Team USA World Cup contributions, but I was not at all disappointed at the outcome.

Am I a soccer fan now? No. But, I'll say this, watching soccer live is a completely different experience than watching it on TV. Soccer and hockey are two sports that are much better live. Whereas, football and basketball are infinitely better on TV. Baseball sort of depends on the weather... and the length of the game (or having my cousin's tickets, natch).

Eating My Way Through Los Angeles

Spending a week in LA is a little like spending a week in Hell, but minus the really cool fire. Well, actually, LA does seem to burn quite often. But, it didn't on this particular trip.

Here are my three favorite things about Los Angeles:

1. The weather. Fantastic.
2. The beaches and wee little "mountains," which look nice and make for an easy hike.
3. The food. Wonderful restaurants with food from all regions of the world.

On this trip, I spent exactly zero minutes on the beach and in the mountains. The weather, though, was perfect... cool in the mornings (nice for running) and sunny and warm in the afternoons. And I ate. A lot. Shocking!

I was there for work, and the big boss was on the trip, so I ate much better than I normally do on business trips. We had sushi twice, once at hoity-toity Koi and once at a strip mall joint called Katsu-ya, that dishes up some of the best sushi in the city. Both were excellent. We also had lunch at a great Greek restaurant called Le Petit Greek.

Prior to the boss arriving, I had burgers on back-to-back nights, once at In-N-Out (it's not a trip to LA without a Double-Double) and once at the very cool 8 Oz. Now that I think about it, I had a third burger on this trip at Kitchen 24 in Hollywood. I'd rank the burgers in this order: In-N-Out, 8 Oz, Kitchen 24. Also, had an amazing sandwich, called the Godmother, from Bay Cities Italian Deli. Probably the best Italian sandwich I've ever eaten. Finally, had some pretty good Tex-Mex at Marix in West Hollywood and some decent wings at The Den, also in West Hollywood.

When traveling for work, or any trip for that matter, the first thing I do is stop by a grocery store and pick up some fruit to eat for breakfast. The thought of paying hotel-prices for breakfast, when I don't even particularly like breakfast, makes me ill. So, not a whole lot to report on the breakfast front, unless you're fascinated by bananas and grapes.

Time for a reset. I'm sort shutting down all the social crap I was doing. I need to redo some backend issues on this site (it will be devoid of images for awhile... I need to remove them, then manually re-add them), but eventually, it will be good to go.

Kind of excited to start blogging again.

World Cup: Wake Me Up in a Month

I'm sure this post will go over like a stale fart in packed movie theater, but there's no way around it: I find soccer boring.

I'm trying to enjoy the World Cup. I really am. I even convinced myself that I was excited about it. What I've found, though, is that while I'm excited about the event, I really don't need to watch any of the actual games. In that way, it's kind of like the Olympics. Outside of a few events, I'm perfectly satisfied just watching highlights and reading the results.

I KNOW this boredom with watching soccer primarily stems from the fact that I don't understand the intricate details of the sport. But, the more I watch it, the less I actually like it. I'd much rather watch two hours and 20 minutes of a random women's marathon than 90 minutes of soccer.

Here's what I like about the game: the players are great athletes. You don't see a Carlos Silva rolling around out there. Those guys play as hard as they can for as long as they can. I love that. The sport is competitive as Hell. It seems that even the most mediocre of teams can stay close to the superpowers (I just tweaked this post a bit after Germany's thrashing of Australia). 

My final knock on soccer though, is this... play the damn game until someone wins. People are celebrating a TIE vs. England. It was a TIE. Why even play the game? What's the difference between 1-1 and 0-0? Though, that said, I'd rather have dual champions than have the World Cup champion to be decided by a shoot out. Can you imagine if the NBA Finals were decided by a free throw shooting contest or the World Series decided by home run derby?

I'm sure I'll end up watching the Championship match. I'll probably even enjoy it. But, that's sort of the point of this post. As great as the sport is purported to be, I still only want to watch a match once every four years.

Broke Down: Bought an iPad

This post was supposed to be about the iPad I just received in the mail. Instead, it's going to be about how it doesn't play nicely TypePad. The iPad doesn't seem to support the "Rich Text" editor for TypePad. Using the HTML editor works, though. I'm hoping this is something the smart people at TypePad can figure out.

I also can't figure out how to upload a photo. Once you see a photo on this post, you'll know I succeeded.

FYI, I'm typing this with using a bluetooth keyboard. If I had tried to type this with the onscreen keyboard, well, I'd still be typing this tomorrow.

I had hoped this iPad could 'replace' my laptop, but that's not going to happen. If I have to hook up the the keyboard every time I want to type, what's the point? However, as someone who does a fair bit of traveling, the iPad should be pretty great.

At the end of the day, the iPad is a bit of toy. Was it a necessary purchase? Not even close. Do I have buyer's remorse? Not really. I'll still use it. Just not as much as I thought I would.

EDIT: So, it appears there's an app called BlogPress that may solve all of problems. I'm pretty stoked to buy an app that will do what the native web app should do. But, whatever. We'll see how well that works...

Just Made: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Ah, ice cream. Who knew the stuff was so easy to make? I mean, about three minutes prep time, stick stuff in the ice cream maker, transfer to a container, put in freezer, and two hours later, fresh, all natural ice cream.

Memorial Day weekend, Sur La Table (the greatest store known to man) had $89 Cuisinart Ice Cream makers on sale for $49, plus you got a $15 gift card for a later purchase. I had been looking at a higher end ice cream maker, but questioned whether I would ever actually use it. So, when I saw the Cuisinart on sale, I snatched it up, figuring, if I never used it, it would only be $35 down the drain, rather than $200.

As for the ice cream, it was a simple concoction of 2 cups heavy cream, 2 cups whole milk, one cup sugar, some vanilla extract, some peppermint extract and mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips. That's it. So, it's not fatty at all! I found the recipe here.

The taste? Excellent! Creamy and not overly sweet. Should summer ever come to Seattle, I can see making lots of ice cream. In fact, when my niece is here next week, I think it will be a fun project for her.

Just Made: McCoy's Texas Chili

No, this has nothing to do with Colt McCoy. This recipe comes from Dave McCoy, a buddy of mine who lives down in LA.

After work on Friday, I stopped by Safeway to get the ingredients for the chili. $70 later, I walked out of there with two pounds ground beef, two pounds of London Broil, two pounds of pork chorizo, eight jalapenos, five red bell peppers, two heads of garlic, two onions, bay leaves, cilantro, basil and assorted spices.

Yes, this is enough chili to feed the Seahawks offensive line... with leftovers for the kickers.

The only difficulties I had were purely mechanical. I don't eat canned food, well, ever. So opening the can of whole tomatoes took about 10 minutes due to the crappiness of my can opener. I wasn't sure the damn thing was ever going to open. The other issue is that my disposal got stuck and I had sink full water that I needed to drain. It's always perilous sticking your hand down a machine that wants to eat it, but I eventually got it to work.

From a cooking standpoint, the hardest part for me was roasting the peppers, something I had never done. I took the five bell peppers, coated them with olive oil, then stuck them under the broiler. I flipped them three times until they were nearly completed blackened. I let them sit for a bit, then I was supposed to put them in a plastic bad. Unfortunately, I didn't let them cool long enough, and they ended up melting the bag.

Once cooled, I peeled off the blackened skin, leaving pure, juicy roasted peppers. You know how after you suck off the burned part of your roasted marshmallow and you have that hot, soft marshmallow goodness? These peppers are like that.

Eventually, everything ended up in a pot. A giant pot. I simmered it for four hours before going to bed. Then, following direction, I turned off the heat and let the pot sit overnight. This was to develop "the funk." The next morning, I simmered it for another two hours, then stuck it in the fridge. An hour before eating it, I poured in a beer, and let simmer for another hour.

The end result is the best chili I've ever eaten. In fact, nothing else even close. It's spicy and meaty, but the bell peppers and cinnamon give it a bit of sweetness. The cilantro and basil also help off-set the fire. I would invite to eat some, but I'm doing miraculously well at eating it all myself!

Missing: Junior

Today, the greatest player in Mariners history retired. Ken Griffey, Jr., just Junior to most of us raised here in Seattle, stepped away from the game of baseball.

He and his mates in the mid-90's made baseball relevant in Seattle. I will never forget crying, bawling really, for 15 minutes after we dispatched the Yankees in game 5 of the 1995 playoffs. It was truly one of the happiest days of my life.

When he demanded out of Seattle, he broke my heart. I hated him for it. His first few seasons in Cincinnati I rooted against him and wished him bad luck. As fate would have it, I didn't need to root for bad luck, because it zeroed in on him. In Japan, they call that Bachi.

In the end, though, when he came back to Seattle, I welcomed him with open arms and open heart. I'm glad he retired a Seattle Mariner.

Thank you Junior for bringing joy to Seattle's baseball fans. We're going to miss you!

Just Made: Shrimp Risotto w/Seared Scallop and Truffle Oil

Yow. I nailed this one. Making risotto isn't really hard. It's just time consuming because you have you have actively cook for about an hour, if you include prep and reduction time.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in New York for my friend's 40th birthday party. The dinner, at Spina, was wonderful. It was three courses, and each course was excellent. My favorite dish, though, was Beet Risotto. It was then that I realized that I just loved Risotto and hadn't made it in about five years.

So, fast forward to the past weekend. I went to Pike Place Market on Saturday and picked up the shrimp, scallops, and truffle oil. The rest of the ingredients, I grabbed from the supermarket.

Making risotto is quite simple, but again, it's just very time consuming. Basically, you have two pans going... one with the rice/veggie/meat mixture, the other with the liquid base. In this case, the rice was simmering with onions and garlic. The shrimp is added at the very end. The liquid base consisted of three 8-oz bottles of clam juice and chicken stock. As the rice is cooking, you add one cup of the liquid until it's totally absorbed by the rice, then you add another cup, and so on until the rice is cooked.

It took about 35 minutes to reduce the risotto mixture. Then I just topped the risotto with the seared scallop, the yummy (and stupidly expensive) truffle oil and chopped chives.

All in all, I felt like a rock star when I tasted it. It was so good! If I can ever get another woman into my apartment, I'm going to make some form of risotto. It would actually be fun to make with someone else because it's very hands on. 

Quick Hits: Etta's and Mike's Noodle House

On Saturday, I met a couple of friends visiting from New York for brunch at Etta's, located down near Pike Place Market. Etta's is a Tom Douglas joint, so of course, it's really good. I'm not much of a breakfast guy, but having just come off of a run, I was actually hungry.

I started with a wonderful, spicy Bloody Mary. It was one of the better Bloody Mary's I've had in quite some time. For my breakfast, I had a really good corned beef hash. It was more corned beed than "hash," but it was delicious. It was topped with two poached eggs and served with home fries. I was pleased with my meal.

Sunday, I met a friend at noon at Mike's Noodle House for some Chinese noodles. Now, let me say this, I'm a big fan of Japanese noodles... I visit Samurai Noodle for ramen at least once every two weeks. And I'm a big fan of Vietnamese noodles... I eat Pho at least once a week (for some reason it seems healthier, I have no idea if it is). But, Chinese noodles, I wasn't so sure of.

Guess what? I can add more noodles to my mix. At Mike's I had the noodles served with Won Tons and Beef Brisket. Excellent. I would rank it below ramen and pho, but the soup was quite satisfying. 

After lunch, we went to the Panama Hotel for coffee. Or, rather, Tim had coffee, I had water. But, it was great catching up, talking running, baseball and food. Pretty much my three favorite topics. Tim said he'd do a post about his dinner at Alinea... it was a five hour dinner! Crazy stuff. Can't wait to read about it. I'll share the post once it's up.