One of Life's Great Experiences

This is a story about trust. It is always very very hard to trust anyone in a touristic area, because they may try to rip you off, or something even worse. I have been ripped off, in Turkey, for over US$400. But this doesn't deter me from trusting people. You will get burned, but you can't let that deter you. Be smart about it and once in a while you will find a genuine connection. And once in a blue moon, you will get an experience that will stay with you for a lifetime.

Granted, I got REALLY lucky, and ended up with a once in a life time experience.

Let me first preface this story. I took this initial climb up this mountain, by myself, first thing in the morning. After finding nothing up there too spectacular, I came down. So, I had absolutely no intention to climb back up this mountain.

I went to Petra alone (see pictures here). I met a French couple, and a Dutch guy, Robert, along the way, but since we were all staying in separate hostels, I didn't expect to see them. I entered Petra at 8am, 1 hour later than what I wanted. Guidebooks say that over 10,000 people will visit Petra everyday and that you should go before 7am. I got lucky. It was basically empty.

The walk from the Siq canyon is longer than what you may expect, and around every turn you think the treasury is around the corner and your heart skips a beat. Until you finally see it.

The site is beyond words. It is absolutely amazing.

I decided to climb one of the many mountains in Petra. The hike claimed that it had a view of the Treasury from above. It was a short, but steep climb, and I found nothing on top. I hiked down and decide to trek it to the monastery. On the way, I sat on a stone path to eat my banana, melon seeds, and nuts that I had packed, and a Bedouin lady, who is also selling stuff, gestures to me to come and have tea. Most of the time, especially in Egypt, if you are offered something, they will hassle you to buy something, but I felt adventurous and went over and shared tea. I shared what food I had and we chatted for about 10 minutes. This is where I met up again with Robert, the Dutch guy I met in Amman and took a very weird car trip down. He met this Polish girl, Agnieszka, and we all chatted with the Bedouins over tea. The three of us decided to travel together for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day, they decided to climb the mountain I did first thing in the morning. I was tired and had no energy or will to climb it again. But they convinced me that it would be a good idea, since this time around, I might actually find the view I was looking for.

The climb wasn't easy. I wanted to stop and wait for them more than once, but they kept me going. But we finally made it and found the view to see the Treasury from above. This is where the story of trust begins.

O Captain, My Captain

You put a lot of trust into the captain of the ship. He pilots the ships and makes sure everything is ok. Piloting is especially important when on the Nile and your in a felucca (traditional sail boat), because there's a ton of huge cruise ships that also cross the Nile. This guy, to the left here, surprisingly was an amazing captain. He also smoked, literally, 18 hours a day.

Initially, I was against the idea of sailing up the Nile for 2 days. I thought it may be too cliche and the experience dull. I don't know if I talked myself into it, or the guy selling me this tour, or the dreaded Korean-Brazilian I met talking about it, but I decided to do it. The romantic in me wanted to be in a sail boat, instead of a train, sleep under the stars, and eat whatever there was on the boat. This turned out to be a great idea.

This was our vessel. I shared it with the captain, his "first mate", 2 of the nicest people from Sweden, and a guy from Columbia. It was a small boat, but no matter, for 6 people, it was quite comfortable. The 4 passengers slept outside under the tarp, while the captain and his mate where inside in what they called "The Magic Room". The Colombian guy didn't really speak English and looked like a douche, so we really didn't have much to say to each other. The couple from Sweden were in Cairo because of an arts scholarship, but didn't find the inspiration they were hoping for.

This is not surprising.

Cairo isn't exactly an arts inspiring city.

All of us ended up on the same boat, sailing the Nile, trying to relax and get away from all of the craziness that are Egyptian cities.

We had lunch on the boat, and as I am Asian, I decided to fulfill my stereotype and take a picture of it. It was actually really good. Nothing like falafels, pita, beans and tomatoes. At this point, I noticed my first potential problem. Everything is washed in the Nile. Nile river water is cold and seemed refreshing and clean, but if you remember, Cairo is dirty, so is most all of Egypt. Most of the trash is thrown into the Nile or some gully that feeds into the Nile. There's also something called West Nile Virus. Put two and two together, and you'll see my concern.

Without any second option offered, I quietly accepted the fact that I will probably have the runs for the next couple of days and should watch out for any signs of flu-like symptoms and/or worsening GI issues. But this wasn't going to ruin my time, I will be ok.

Egypt is 98% desert. The only land that has water are a few oasis in the west and the Nile banks. But the areas that are not desert was amazingly lush and green. Maybe it's the contrast that you see, or maybe the grass is just much greener, but there's something about it that is absolutely stunning.

We started sailing at 1PM, and sailed until it was dark, which was a disappointingly short period of time, since sunset is about 6PM. We tied the boat down, and went ashore to a "Nubian village", or so the captain described. The "Nubian village" turned out to be nothing more than a small town with Nubians living there. There wasn't exactly Nubian culture or especial architecture, it was just Nubians living there. We did end up finding a coffee shop, got some Turkish coffee, and learned to play dominoes. Dinner was served on the boat, in the dark, and you ate whatever was in front of you.

This bull was not happy I was on his bank. Almost charged me.

The next day, we woke up, with no real concept of what time it was, and saw our captain smoking and cooking breakfast. As I said before, he smoked 18 hours a day. This was what his smoking schedule looked like:

I smoke two joints in the morning...I smoke two joints at night

1. Wake up, pack sheesha and smoke it while cooking breakfast.
2. Eat, while first mate rolls a couple of hash blunts.
3. Smoke said hash blunt.
4. Smoke at least 3 cigarettes
5. Pack sheesha again and smoke while cooking lunch.
6. More blunts

So, for more than 8 hours a day, I had a high captain. The rest of the time, it was just tobacco.

The trip was really enjoyable, though short. I felt quite relaxed and ready to for the craziness of Egypt. Who knew the next day the world was going to go crazy????

Cairo and people watching in Cairo

Cairo is old. It is very very old. It has seen everything from the start of civilization to the new Arab Spring. My initial thoughts was that it would reflect all of it's character from ancient Egypt through Ottoman and Arab Empires and the new smell of revolution. Sadly, what you see today is the revolution, or at least what is left after the Arab Spring.

Note the burned out police building on the right. I feel bad for whomever invested in the Ritz-Carlton pre-revolution

The city is a dusty, dirty, grimy, congested, mixing bowl of Arab north Africa. With a booming population of 22 million people, it can barely sustain itself. Every year there are pessimists that claim that this year will be the fall of Cairo and all will be lost. Yet, every year Cairo survives. From the ancient city of Memphis, to the Giza Pyramids, Al-Azhar mosque, Coptic cathedrals, and Tahrir Square, Cairo always survives.

My experience with Cairo was more brief than I had planned it to be. I was supposed to stay for 4 days, but ended up with only 2 and a half. Mainly because I, personally, cannot stand the city. The air quality is pretty awful, traffic is horrendous (I got hit with a side view mirror 2 times), and you fear everyone around the corner is trying to rip you off. I still believe people should go for the experience of it all, especially the pyramids (photos here). There is a certain charm to the city, so says many of my friends, but I wasn't able to appreciate it all that much.

The issue, I found, with Cairo is the post-revolution government. There is none. Morsi runs around the international circuit making peace plans and touting the Muslim Brotherhood, which is all fine and well. But governing is much more than that. Things back home need to be done, and not just consolidating power. Trash needs to be pick up (which it hasn't), Ministry of Tourism needs to regulate the industry (woefully lacking), traffic patterns needs to be restored (driving wrong way on a one way is not that uncommon), and people need jobs (not more sheeshah and coffee shops). The problem with post-revolution Egypt is that the Muslim Brotherhood has no idea how to run a country, especially it's massive bureaucracy. The touts and vendors have free reign in the country.

It was explained to me that the vendors are much more aggressive because the police don't really want to do anything, because they have been seen as the "bad guys" during the revolution. So, now, people will try to push the limits of what they can get away with, especially with tourists, foreign and domestic.

A Trip to the Pyramids from Cairo

I was getting a cab to the pyramids from Giza train station, and the cabbie spoke no English, which is fine because I learned, or so I thought, how to say the pyramids in Arabic (al-ahram). Not surprisingly, he did not understand my Arabic. So, I ended up drawing a picture of three pyramids for him and he finally understood. He charged me 20EP (Egyptian Pounds) which is really good considering my guidebook said expect 30EP. About 20 minutes into the trip (the pyramids are 8km away from the train station, but due to traffic, it takes about 40 minutes to get there), a guy jumps into the cab. This is not unexpected, since hitching a ride is not uncommon in most countries. The guy starts talking to me about how he works at the pyramids and then starts talking to the driver in Arab. The driver looks irritated by this man, and keeps waving his finger at me.

The guy starts telling me that I need a camel or horse to get into the pyramids and that he will cut me a good deal. I don't know what was said between him and the driver, but the driver ended up taking me to this guy's "stable". I use the term "stable" very loosely, as it was just 4 camels and 3 horses tied to 2 trees outside an office with a couple of coaches and a TV in it. The driver knows I don't want to be there, and gestures that he will wait for me until this other guy finishes his con. This guy explains to me that it's US$120 to get a 4 hour tour of the pyramids by camel or horse and that you CANNOT enter the pyramids without a horse of camel. He became aggressive and I finally had to tell him to fuck off.

I jump back into my cab and the drive gives me a "told you so, don't trust motherfuckers" look, and then start driving to the main entrance. In about 3 minutes, another guy jumps in, and makes the same schpeel. This guy, though, says "I'm the police, and I'm telling you that you cannot walk around the pyramids". REALLY DUDE?!?! You're the police??? That is what you decided to come up with??? Right...

I tell him to fuck off with a nice "khalas" in Arabic, meaning "enough". He keeps asking me "why don't you want a camel?" proceeds to smack me on the back of the head and runs away before I can do anything. The drivers takes me to the main entrance and I gave him a little more than 20EP for not abandoning me and feeding me to the other 2 assholes. Thank god for good taxi drivers.

If you like riding animals, take a camel. I feel the experience is overrated. They smell REALLY bad and are not exactly comfortable to ride. The other reason I will not ride is camel or horse or anything for that matter is that they treat these animals completely inhumanely. It's disgusting and I do not condone animal cruelty. Let's just say at the end of the day I saw a dead horse laying right outside of the pyramids with no one to move it or dispose of it.

Amazing. Still standing after 5000 years

The problem with the pyramids, minus the animal cruelty, everyone bothering inside and out for camel and horse rides, the amount of animal poop all over the pyramids, and the cops that want baksheesh (tips) is that you are nickle and dimed for everything. Here a quick breakdown of costs:

1) Admission fee: 60EP
2) Entering the actual pyramids: 100EP for Cheops, 50EP for the lesser 2
3) Solar Barque museum: 60EP

The price is half off with an international student ID, which I do not have nor know what it is. What you CAN do, is show your drivers license, hope they don't read English, and say "am'ma taliban" (i'm a student) in Arabic and hope they buy it. It has worked 4 times for me. The rest... they read English and immediately knew it was a drivers license.

And everything has it's own ticket office. Can't you just offer me one price for everything? Not to say that it was not a great life experience, but I could have done without the 20 people asking me for camel rides or asking me to buy stuff. Of all the things though, the solar barque museum is worth the visit. The barque is massive (100+meters) and took 18 years to reconstruct.

Pretty impressive

I didn't enter the Pyramids, since the guidebook says it's not really worth it. The trip out to Giza is absolutely worth it. The pyramids are HUGE and the sphinx is anti-climatically small, though still impressive. It is a stressful journey to and through the pyramids, mainly because of the people, but well worth it. I found one quiet little space for about 20 minutes and just sat there admiring the work and it is truly awe inspiring. Then the crowds and sellers came back...

The More I see the Less I know and Even Less I Understand

In honor and remembrance of those lost today 

I don't know what is wrong with this country. It's disheartening to see ourselves so hell-bent on our own destruction. With the recent shootings in Aurora and now at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, I'm starting to wonder what we stand for as a country.

It's easy to talk in high terms about society and what we should and shouldn't do, promote, condone, or condemn. But let's take a much more personal view of this. I want everyone that is reading this to try to be introspective for just a second.

A. We, myself included, LOVE to post bullshit on Facebook that makes us seem deep or enlightened. We quote the Dalai Lama, random gurus, Lao Zi(Tze), Confucius, and every other philosopher that our freshmen seminar taught us about. We LOVE the idea of the universal idea of love. But have we thought about hate.

Why is it that we refuse, on both an individual level and as a society, to acknowledge that hate is also universal. One person's hate is no more hateful than any other persons. We like to qualify hate to our own interests, and it isn't just conservatives or evangelicals, but liberals as well. For example, this recent shooting at the Sikh temple. When it turns out to be a fanatic white guy with evangelical Christian beliefs, going to shoot some rag heads, singing "Onward Christian Soldiers", 90% of white Americans will give his Christian beliefs a pass. He will be classified as a deranged man who had violent and perverse tendencies, and at the end of the day, lost his shit. Though this will be classified, as it should, as an "domestic terrorist-like act", I questions this:

1. Will his family be subject to scrutiny in the way that Muslim "extremists" families are? Case in point Secretary Clinton's Assistant Chief of Staff Huma Abedin?

2. If he turns out to be a Christian extremist, will we start questioning the basis of Christianity as generally violent, just like so many commentators have said about Islam? Case in point "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword." Matthew 10:34

3. Will his affiliation with other groups mean that those groups are guilty by association? Case in point, http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/11/12/fox-continues-its-guilt-by-association-smears-o/173261

We wish to qualify all of our hatred, as if hatred born from causes or belief that we believe in or are sympathetic to, are some how different that other hate. We believe that those people are somehow not representative of the flaws of that particular set of beliefs. THEY are just outliars, and WE do not believe in hate. Sorry, folks, hate is universal, and I wish we condemned hate in all of it's forms. Just as we embrace love in all of its forms.

Well THAT was a surprise...

Did anyone truly think that Justice Roberts would not only side with the liberal justices, but write the majority opinion? And that Justice Kennedy would completely side with the dissension? If you did, you are a much wiser person than anyone I know.

I know this post isn't about capoeira, or travelling, but this is my blog, I get to dictate subject matter :)

The ruling today by the Supreme Court was unexpected to say the least. I don't think CNN expected it either (check this out)! The surprising thing is that the only part of the bill that didn't stand is the expansion of medicare, the portion where all the "legal experts" on the cable news channels thought was a sure thing under the necessary and proper clause. The other surprising thing is that Chief Justice Roberts seemed to go out of his way to get thing this passed.

If you haven't read up on the bill, it's 3 parts: 1) Is this a tax as defined by the Anti-Injunction Act? 2) Is the individual mandate constitutional under interstate commerce and/or necessary and proper clauses of the US Constitution? 3) Can the federal government force states to expand Medicare by denying them funding?

Everyone agreed that part 1 and 3 were granted. We all claimed it was a "penalty" not a tax, and that the federal government can, and has, done whatever the fuck it wants in terms of giving states money. Point two was up for debate. The reason I say that Chief Justice Roberts had to go out of his way to get this thing upheld is this: The majority decision states that it is NOT a tax in the context of the Anti-Injunction Act, but IS in FACT a tax. From my reading of it, the line is drawn so fucking thin. It isn't a tax under Anti-Injunction because it's considered an "assessable penalty", which isn't a tax, because the Act would not have made the distinction between assessable penalty and taxes. It is a tax, in terms of the taxation powers of Congress, because it give powers to the Secretary of Commerce and the IRS to "collect by means of personal income tax". I won't go into the details, but it is well argued.

The majority decision also does state that though the Federal government can't force you into commerce and then regulate that commerce, it can levy taxes to influence behavior like tariffs on imported manufactured goods, or alcohol and tobacco taxes (both federal and state).

The dissent, in this case, makes the argument that the Framers of the Constitution did not intend this. They also argue that if we allow this to be regulated under Interstate commerce, then it sets the precedent that almost gives way to unlimited regulatory authority to Congress, since it can force you into an area of commerce you never intended to be in. It also argues that really thin line of penalty and tax. It claims because it penalizes you for not buying health insurance, it is a penalty and not a tax. They also claim that penalties and taxes are mutually exclusive.

Minus the fact that Justice Scalia is a dick and writes like a dickbag, the reasoning, to me is pretty damn good. Which brings me back to the point that Chief Justice Roberts REALLY wanted this thing to be upheld (thank god).

WOW... what a day... if your interested, or a total dork like me, read the opinion here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf. It's most definitely worth the read.

Oh and a final note, thank you George Bush for nominating Roberts. WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT!?!

My Travel Plans Got Fucked This Year...

WOW... I've been lazy with this thing. Sorry? But then again, I don't think I have that many people that are on the edge of their seats waiting for another post. So, my original idea was to go to Egypt. This was driven by 1) It's Egypt 2) New democracy smell??? 3) Only country that is cheap to fly to AND allowed access into Israel. So the original idea is going to Cairo-> Jerusalem or Tel Aviv->Petra, Jordan. This doesn't seem likely anymore...

I'm not exactly a huge fan of mass protests, even though I would love to see it, it may not be safe. I say this mainly because there's a military involved, and it seems like they don't like protesters, nor are they too keen on stepping down. Now, after said military has disbanded parliament, and with a super close presidential election, anything can set this powder keg ablaze. The only reason I haven't fully ruled out Egypt is that there isn't a state department travelling warning. Then again, there was one for Zimbabwe and look how well I heeded that (take that Secretary Clinton!).


This leaves me now with a trip to Costa Rica (tentative) for new years. But I have LSATs in Oct, so you better believe I want to get the hell out and take a long vacation the day after this bloody test. I want the flight to be under $1000, that be great. So, recently war torn (Syria hahaha...NO!), bad economy (Ireland?, Spain?), or a tropical island that I can not give a fuck about anything. I also don't have that long, 10 days max, so I don't want to go to a place where I want to stay for long periods of time (Brazil). I haven't talk to many people about this, but I also can do Jerusalem, but considering there was just another rocket attack (granted from the Gaza Strip), not sure if THAT'S a good idea, but I need someone else to tell me that. 


If only I can get to Prague or Budapest for cheap, that would be nice.... but for now my travel plans are fucked.... 


Gimme some suggestions folks!

Chicken n Waffles...St Louis brunch topped off with some Cleveland

It's been another one of those crazy travelling periods, but this one doesn't feel so bad. First, chicken n waffles, best idea ever. Had at multiple places, the best: Marvin's in DC. I would go as far as to say it's better than Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. Marvin's are the best. But this place in Durham was really good: Dame's Almost World Famous Chicken and Waffles. It's right in downtown Durham. They have a lot of choice, which I really don't like. Read their menu, they try so many different things, when all you really want are some chicken wings or leg and thigh and a waffle. Their waffles, however, are amazing. It's like a thick gourmet waffle, and you can choose from regular, sweet potato, gingerbread, blueberry, and vegan. I went with just regular, don't like anything fancy. They also have a bunch of shmears that are really good. Try a couple, you won't regret it. Two things makes this makes not as good as Marvin's. One, you need gravy. Chicken needs gravy and waffles need syrup, mixing those might not be the best of ideas, but it's still needed. Two: You tried to be too fancy. All you need is chicken, waffles, maple syrup, and gravy. The end. You don't need BBQ sauce or even crazy different types of combinations. Just chicken and waffles please! Their grits were ok, not great, just ok.

So now I'm off to St Louis. My plan was to drive, with my cousin, from St Louis to Cleveland and then onto New York. Since we got packed and stuff a lot earlier than expected, we grabbed brunch in St Louis. It was fantastic. Half and Half is known for it's coffee. I'm not a huge coffee snob, nor do I know a lot about coffee, but this place has some GOOD coffee. Apparently it was from Ethiopia and you had a bunch of other choices. What was phenomenal about this place was what my cousin got. It was a grilled chicken sandwich. Doesn't sounds special. WRONG! It was grilled chicken with an avocado cole slaw on top. I got the French toast, though still very very good, caused me to have food envy for her avocado cole slaw. If you ever find yourself in St Louis, go to Half and Half for brunch. 

So on to Cleveland! The drive was actually not that bad for Memorial Day, but then again, my idea of "not that bad" is up and down I-95 corridor, which is always god awful. The city of Cleveland is a little rough around the edges.... you can tell that it had it's heyday during the manufacturing boom and has seen better days. The place we picked for food was good. It was in a little skwanky part of town on Market Street. Our original idea was Market Street Wine Bar, but then we realized we were more hungry than expect. We decided to go to the Flying Fig. We got the Medjool Dates. Apparently, after googling Medjool is a type of date, they were bacon wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo with a tomato sauce. I am not a fan of dates, but bacon and chorizo make almost anything palatable, and these were excellent. Not amazing, but excellent.I ordered the duck breast, which was good, nothing too special and my cousin got the hanger steak. She likes her meat as rare as you can legal get it, and I'm not a huge fan of meat THAT rare, so I didn't try it, thought since she finished it, I assume it was great. The rest of Cleveland was kind of weird. We were sitting in the parking lot and two cars got pulled over by two unmarked police cars, with 2 detectives inside (not just regular beat cops). They pulled two people out of each car, sat them down, and then cuffed them fairly quickly. Then 5 other police cars and 1 more unmarked detective dressed in a mechanics uniform came up. We guessed something serious was going on, but didn't stay to find out. When that many cops are in the area... it is best to leave.

Cleveland... yay....

So we left, and the next morning went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is worth going to just for the nostalgia of it all. I also love music and learning some stuff there was pretty cool. No major other highlights. It's worth the trip, but not worth tell you about it, have to be there kind of thing.

Pretty cool building for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

18 Seaboard and Grits

There is something about grits south of Fauquier County. It is just so much better than anything in Arlington or DC or the north. For some reason, I love Waffle House. It's one of those places that I have to go to in the south. Don't know why there isn't a Waffle House near me... it's irritating. There's something to be said for a pecan (please don't pronounce it PEE-can, thank you) waffles, eggs, hash browns with jalapenos and onions, and of course grits. The consistency is, I feel, a thicker or coarser down south...I know that there is that myth that fried chicken in the south is better because the flour they use has a higher percentage of cornmeal, I don't know how true that is though....you'd think you'd be able to get the same flour everywhere in the country. Anyways, I digress. Waffle House, dirt cheap, NOTHING fancy=GREAT!

Exactly...take that paleo

Now, with grits in mind, I needed to find a restaurant for a nice date. I haven't seen her for a while, so I was looking for something nice. She was also on paleo diet (the merits, or lack there of, I will discuss in a later posting), which means its GODDAMN tough to find ANYTHING. I ended up deciding with 18 Seaboard, which had great reviews on Yelp. Of all the places in NC that I've been to, this may be the best, tough call between this and Glenwood Grill (read about it my previous post). The chose here was between scallops and pork shank with grits for me, and my date got there grilled fish of the day.

I ended up with the pork shank and grits. Her fish was excellent, and it came with a side of roasted cauliflower. I have been fairly surprised at the quality of seafood, considering Raleigh is nowhere near an ocean, nor is NC really known for great seafood, but the last 2 times she's gotten fish and it has been good. My pork shank was also amazing. It came roasted, bone in, which means that there is still a little bit of bone marrow left in it. If you haven't had bone marrow before, you have not lived. It is one of the joys in life. There wasn't enough of it left, because marrow tends to melt fairly fast, but the essence of it all went into the grits (AMAZING)! There was no dessert, because most all dessert, not paleo!

All in all, NC has yet again surprised me, but then it really shouldn't. The south has a long standing tradition of good comfort food. I think the South and Mid-west is true American food, as opposed to the north which Italian and European tends to dominate or the west, which is more Mexican and sometimes Asian as you move north. The south is what American food was founded on, and it's good. REAL good. Keep it up NC, I'm digging it. The south also has Waffle House. Point, set, match. 

Yup.. that's what's up

A whole week at home??? That's unpossible!

I was on the road for 3 weeks straight and I finally conned one week at home for myself. This hasn't happened since god knows when. There's a shit ton of things in DC/VA that I haven't experienced, it's pretty amazing.

First off, one of the best sandwich places around, definitely in DC, and top 3 in the country: SUNdeVICH. The place is located in an old garage off of N street NW and it's slightly hard to find, but definitely worth your time. I've tried the Kingston, Istanbul (kabob sandwich), Athens (medium rare lamb and tzatziki), and Buenos Aires (rare steak w/ something like a pesto spread). All of them were amazing, the best being the Kingston. It's a jerk chicken sandwich with a pineapple chutney. It's spicy, which is a rare find. I'm not a huge fan of fruit in my sandwich, but the spicy makes sure that the fruity taste doesn't overpower the sandwich. This maybe the best jerk chicken outside of Jamaica. No joke....

One of my critics has said that I use the word "amazing" too loosely, but this place is AMAZING! Go there! This critic says it's very good, but the only time I've heard him use the word "amazing" to describe food was for Le Bernardin. This place has also been rated one of the best restaurants in the world and since the fall of El Bulli (THE best restaurant in the world by a mile), the best seafood restaurant in the world. It continously receives 3 stars from Michelin. So, compared to a $200 meal at Le Bernardin, a $9-12 sandwich, I feel, can be classified as amazing. 

There is one place that I will say don't go to, though it looks nice and tempting, don't do it: Masa 14. DON'T DO IT. It looks nice and trendy and who doesn't like small plates? But I didn't realize that it was "Latin/Asian Fusion". Don't do that shit...stop...stop fusing shit that shouldn't fuse. I guess if your a really good chef and know what your doing, this might work. But it failed...pretty badly...at a high price. My apologizes to my dinner guests, I should have read reviews on it. 

I also finally got a chance to cook this week...doesn't happen much, but I'm not bad. It was also feeling some post-event blues so I made feijoada for make up for it. My feijoada is a little different, here's the recipe:

1 lb black beans, fresh

1/4 white onion

1 habanero pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

2 spicy chorizos

2 spicy Italian sausages 

1 slab bacon

1 bone in pig shank (optional)

Bay leaves

Dendê , 2 table spoons

Black pepper

So, it's fairly simple. Soak the beans overnight. Put beans into a large pot with about 2 liters of water, maybe a bit more, with the bone in pig shank. Heat at high until boiling, then bring it down to a low bubble. Add chopped onions, habanero, jalapeno peppers, dendê, sliced sausages and bacon, bay leaves into the pot. Cook for about 2 hours. I tend to do it for about 4, just because, I feel, the longer it cooks, the better it gets. Before you turn off the heat, take about a large bowl and scope out a bowl of it and taste it, season for taste as you wish. Mash that bowl of beans and stuff up, and pour back into the pot and stir for 15 minutes. I don't like watery feijoada, so this will help thicken the base. Some people may not like that, so feel free to skip it. 

I don't really have a good farofa recipe, but I'm working on it.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed that. And go to SUNdeVICH. That is all. 

The end to a crazy 2 weeks

I finally set foot in my own home today at 2AM (thanks American Airlines and O'Hare Airport, YOU SUCK!) The last leg of this trip was pretty amazing. It was at Livre Como Vento's event in Champagne, IL. If it wasn't for this event, I probably would never have went there. Driving from Chicago is just corn field after corn field. But who would have thought that there would be a GREAT capoeira school there??? The event was amazing. I personally found my capoeira groove back. It did take 12 hours of capoeira for 3 days and playing Mestre Cabello and Tizsa to get it back. If seeing and taking Mestre Cabello's workshop doesn't put the groove into your game, you are doing it wrong.

It taught me a lot about capoeira angola...the transition hasn't been the smoothest. Mestre Marrom brought up a really good point: You cannot play capoeira with tunnel vision. You cannot go into the roda hoping to accomplish a sequence or perform one move. You have to make the moves make sense and respond appropriately. I've been stuck in this weird funk where my games have been really choppy and unnecessarily aggressive. But I think this event really solved a lot of that. Capoeira is about conversation and if you're not having fun with it, you're doing it wrong.

I also realized that a person's personality really shows up in the roda. You really can't hide anything while playing. One person, who in real life would not stop talking and complaining, all day all long, did the same thing in capoeira. He would just kick and kick and kick. He waited for you to finish kicking, so he could kick again. I will admit that I'm really pensive when I first meet a person and it will take time for me to warm up to you. My games tend to be crappy for the first 30 seconds, then, I hope, it gets better.

I have to say I'm really glad I get a week at home, because if I had to travel this week....I would have killed someone.

Now, time to make feijoada. 

San Diego on someone else's dime

For the record: I still have a job. This may not make sense for some people, but others who read it will immediate know what I mean. I went for an interview in San Diego last week for a small (read 3 people) company that produces niche market HPLCs, crazy instruments that do cool chemistry. I ultimately rejected the offer they gave me, so I'm staying at my current job. This didn't, however, deter me from getting to see San Diego on someone else's dime!

First off, I kind of feel bad for the small company, considering they flew me there, put me in a nice hotel with a view of the ocean, and fed me, but so goes business.

I didn't get to do much in San Diego, considering I didn't have a car. So no SeaWorld, no zoo, you get the idea.... I did get to see the beach and now can say that I have touched 3 of the world's 5 oceans, and I don't believe I will get to the Antarctic or Arctic Ocean. San Diego is absolutely gorgeous. It was slightly cold, like 65 degrees, but it is absolutely gorgeous. According to people that have lived there, it is the 3rd most moderate place, climate-wise, in the world. I would have no problems moving there. In fact, I think it got but onto places I may want to move to, eventually if I ever get out of the DC area.

The position I was interviewing for gave me a compensation that was oceans apart from what I wanted, so obviously I wasn't going to take it. I didn't tell the boss that, so he decided to take me to dinner, to I guess entice me to come work from him and his 2 other people. He took me to Hane, a sushi restaurant. He was Japanese, so I could only assume that he knew what he was doing. Yup... he knew what he was doing.

I tend to not want to piss people off by rejecting food offerings so, I asked no questions of what we were eating and he just kept ordering from the sushi chef. I definitely tried some stuff that I generally wouldn't. Sea urchin being one of them. The texture of sea urchin is WEIRD! It's creamy and soft, and the first taste is good, tastes like the sea with a certain smokiness to it. Then there's the after taste, which stays with you, and I don't find enjoyable to the least. Then there was a litany of other things, fluke, octopus, fatty tuna, raw shrimp... it was fucking amazing. Probably the best sushi I've had...ever. He also informed me that Boston is the only place in the US where you can get unfrozen tuna. Not that I would know the difference, but interesting.

The bill came out to be $200, I feel bad for rejecting him after a $200 meal. This isn't the first time I've rejected someone after they bought me large and expensive amount of sushi... I think I might be a sushi cocktease.

The one thing that was reinforced to me at dinner is: If you can't handle alcohol, don't drink so much. As a golden rule, I will have 1 drink with anyone that is, can be, or will be my boss. The 1 drink is symbolic, it means I accept your generosity, but you will never see the real me. This guy, on the other hand, had 4 beers, and went on about how hiring a new person would allow him to go back to Japan since the sales in Japan dropped from $6 million to just over $5 million. Not something to tell a potential employee. So, the lesson of this story is: don't drink if you can't handle it.

All in all San Diego, for 3 days, was cool and I wish I could go back. The only thing that sucks is coast to coast travel in 3 days time, it messes with your sleep cycle.

St Louis and a quick stop in Chicago

I'm on a plane right now, going to San Diego. It has been sunny in my world for 20 hours. That messes with you... a lot. I also worked the weekend in St Louis, so I'm not 100% what day it is. But I digress... So, I spent the weekend, working, in St Louis. I really didn't have any spare time, because my company understaffed the start up crew for the account and the 3 of us there ended up working 18 hours. I did have some time to hang out with my cousin. I wanted to go to Pappy's, aka the best bbq ever, but it was closed by the time both of us were free. We ended up going to the Central West End, which was, I'm guessing, the cool part of town. We went to SubZero, which is a vodka bar that claims it has the biggest collection of vodka in the US. It also serves burgers and sushi. It's a weird mix.

The food there wasn't all that great. I decided to get the sushi. There is 1 major reason not to get sushi in St Louis: The nearest ocean is well over 1000 miles away, so either there's nothing good, or anything good costs a shit ton. The burgers were ok, according to my cousin. Our original idea was to go there grab a quick bit and chit chat over drinks. It turns out, the place was POUNDING with techno music, so that didn't go over that well. I'm also not a vodka fan. I can tell the difference between Aristocrat vodka and Grey Goose. But I can't tell a $200 bottle of vodka from any of the "top shelf" vodkas like Grey Goose or Ketel One. I had an adventurous drink that fell way short of expectations. Most of the time, cucumber juice makes for a great base of drinks, especially vodka, then add something citrus-y and add sugar, you'll have a great drink, trust me. This drink I had... messed that all up.

Sadly, this time around, food-wise, St Louis was a little disappointing, but I guess you can't win them all.

I then made a half-day pit stop to Chicago. As you may have read, or heard me talk about it, I'm not a fan of Chicago. I think it's NYC Jr. This map is fairly accurate:

 

But things not to miss in Chicago: 

1. Indian/Pakistani food

2. Steaks

I don't think Chicago style pizza is that good. If you don't have time to exit the airport, go to Tortas Frontera. Airport food SUCKS! No matter what country, airport, whatever. Airport food is the worst. There's only a handful of places I will religiously go to for food at airports. This is one of them. It does take 10 minutes for a sandwich, but if you have the time, wait for it. The Cubana is amazing. Well worth the wait. This place might be the ONLY thing that redeems O'Hare, which is one of the more annoying airports in the world. 

Now I'm headed to San Diego. Never been there, and only spent a couple of days in San Jose, so going to Cali is kind of exciting. ESPECIALLY on someone elses dime!

I really dislike Philly

I really dislike Philly. This place kinda sucks.... I've been here for 3 weeks now, granted in King of Prussia, which is a barren suburban waste land of strip malls and one of the largest indoor malls in the country, but Philly in general, I am so not a fan of. Here's why:

1. How the hell does Rocky have a statue and "Smokin" Joe Frazier's gym can't fucking stay open? Rocky is NOT REAL. He's not even based on Rocky Balboa. Even if he is, Balboa is from Massachusetts! Frazier is by far the greatest boxer Philly has seen, and probably will ever see with the way boxing is going. Yet, the city will allow the iconic Joe Frazier gym to go bankrupt and close. Thanks Philly! Keep honoring your fake boxers!

2. Geno's sucks. It's pretty awful, this is why you get 2 1/2 stars on Yelp. The owner is a douche. If you don't remember, read this. American chauvinism irritates me, GREATLY. Granted, I think learning English would be great, and probably will benefit you since most people speak English here. But the whole THIS IS AMERICA!! FUCK YEAH! mentality is annoying. What's worse...SO MUCH WORSE...about Geno's is the sign that says blah blah blah cop "murdered by Mumia Abdul-Jamal". REALLY!?! There's was a great amount of controversy around Mumia and the cop shooting. I'm with the free Mumia camp. There's fishy evidence and probably police misconduct, but that's for another time and another post. FREE MUMIA! Suck my cock, Geno's

3. What is the bad part of Philly again? North? West? South??? Everything? We know Camden sucks some balls....

4. Do you ever support your sports teams? Ever?? I've heard Philly fans boo everyone... and you have a jail under Lincoln Financial Field, enough said. 

Philly does have great capoeira though. ASCAB is in Philly, so gotta give some love to M. Doutor. If your ever here, go to his class. The studio is gorgeous and M. Doutor is one of the funniest guys I know. 

I also have a lot of friends here, I love you guys, but I hate your city, I'm sorry. 

Philly, minus some good trails to run on, you suck. Like you always have....

Before you buy an Apple product

Listen, I know a lot of the people that read this have something made by Apple. It is damn near impossible to convince anyone not to buy Apple, it’s a good product, I get it. But let’s not forget the human cost that goes into keeping us entertained. Everybody, by now, has heard about Foxconn. If you haven’t, read this. Horrible working conditions, suicides, dying from exhaustion are all in a days work at Foxconn. 

I believe that, as consumers, we should demand that the workers that make our products are promised basic workers rights. 

Apple makes HUGE amounts of profit. $1B USD profit in a quarter is absurd. These numbers are comparable to ExxonMobile on a good quarter when they inflate prices. Yet, no one ever complains that Apple is making too much money at the expense of human rights. My wish is for Apple to cut its profits and mandate higher wages, benefits, and better working conditions for its subcontractor manufacturers, namely Foxconn.

I’m not going to be wordy and detail my whole argument, if you wish to hear them, call me. 

My plea is this: Foxconn has a major plant in my hometown of Chengdu. This place is making the iPad 2 and will be making the new iPad. I love my hometown and I wish the best for the city. Foxconn’s working conditions there remind me of a communist factory where everything is company owned and every facet of life is controlled. It hits hard at me, and I do have a moral obligation to not buy Apple. I can’t tell the readers what to do, but before you buy an Apple product, do this:

Email Apple.

I’m not 100% sure where, it’s not like Apple has a complaints department, they’re too good for that. But Google something and write a letter, or an email, and let them know that you want rights for workers that make Apple products.

 Email Human Rights in China

Write to them saying that basic human rights are being denied to workers at Foxconn. Let them know that this is an issue that people care about.

Donate

I’m biased to Human Rights in China, so I would advocate donating to them. But please donate 2% of the cost of that Apple product and let them know that this is for worker’s rights.

This is my little plea for generate some sort of change. I will continue to boycott Apple until they change their business practices; I wish you all would do the same. I know that won’t happen, but I hope that you all take action and help the people in my hometown to gain some basic rights. 

NC...you and me...this can work

First off, I've been in North Carolina for the past month because I was voluntold to go down with a sinking ship. It pissed me the fuck off, but complaining won't do me much good. What I take away from this experience, professionally, is that I can deal with crappy situation much better than I thought I could. Yay?

On the bright side, I did get a chance to spend some quality time in NC, which continues to surprise me. First, thank you Yelp. You just IPO'ed at an absurd amount of money, and though I don't understand why, I appreciate your services and making me look like I know what's going on in terms of choosing restaurants for a date. For that I thank you. Second, southern food is great. It's fairly hard to fuck up. Deep fry it. Add gravy. Always good. But what is surprising is when you mix a genuinely southern style food with a new age American twist. I respect that. A lot.

The first place I found, Glenwood Grille, was amazingly good. I don't trust restaurants in strip malls, because they usually scream CHAIN! or KITSCHY! and generally AVOID! But this one was great. I got the seafood and grits, which was grits (southern, good grits) scallops, crayfish, shrimp over a light sauce. It was amazing. The size of the scallops were huge. In DC, I probably would have paid a SHIT TON for them, but in Raleigh, $22 gets your amazing stuff. My date had the salmon on a bed of creamed spinach. It was "Scottish salmon"... all I could think about at that moment was the Starburst commercial...DAMN YOU COMMERCIALISM FOR SCATTERING MY ATTENTION! I'm not a huge fan of cooked fish, unless fried, I tend not to eat it. But she seemed to enjoy it, which I was very happy about. She also got the succotash, which I didn't try, but since it got finished, I'm going to say it was good.

The dessert was a creme burlee. Straight traditional French, nothing changed. It was the first one she had, since she had given up processed grain for lent, the creme burlee was the only good option. I liked it, and since we both finished it, I'm guessing my date liked it.

The only disappointment was the wine. A viognier. If my cousin is reading this, for the record, yes, I like viogniers, regardless of how hipster or elitist you may think that is. It wasn't good... wasn't bad, we finished it, but I've had much better at about 1/2 the price. Can't win them all...

The second place was a sushi place, Mura. The decor of the place was very nice, check out the website, it does a better job with pictures than me typing about it. I'm very spoiled when it comes to sushi. Thanks to Cais, who worked at Kushi for way too long, I was able to get whatever the executive sushi chef wanted to feed me. 2 of the greatest food joys in the world: super fatty tuna, and super fatty tuna cheeks. And pea sized salmon roe is a close third. They were fairly innovative with their rolls, using mango, which might have been a first for me. Since I am a spoiled brat when it comes to sushi, I will just say that it was a decent sushi place, which probably means it was awesome to most people. Judging from the response I got from my date, I would venture to say that it was pretty good.

I have a feeling that I will be frequenting NC for the coming future, on my own fruition and hopefully on company dime. The food there does bring a lot of promise, though its not the primary reason I would be going down there. But I believe food is to be enjoyed with good company, it enhances the experience. Since I have an amazing person down there, more reason to get to the south.

I would have never expected any attraction to NC. But everything about it has just exceeded expectations: people, capoeira, food, living expenses. UNC is on my list of law schools, and I thought about taking it off, but after all this, if I get in, it might be hard to say no to.

A Summary of This Blog

It occurred to me that people actually read this. Sincerely, thank you. I don't expect people to read anything I write, nor do I think I'm entertaining as a writer, but I guess since I have readers, that may not be the case.

What's funny is, Blogger allows you to get a glace at who reads your stuff. I get how many people have "read it", which in actuality is just clicked on this link, either by accident or for unexplained reasons, on purpose. I get to see what operating system and browser you are running, your country, and where the traffic is coming from. I thought this was super interesting! So here's what I've noticed (it's a slow day at work, so bare with me):

Countries:

Since this blog started I've picked up readers in:

US
Russia (I have never been nor have friends in Russia, and it comes in second!)
UK
Germany
South Africa
Singapore (Don't know anyone there!)
France
Australia
Brazil (go figure)
Spain

I have people in every country I've been in reading this stuff... and some that I have no idea how they got a hold of this. I think that's super cool....

Browsers:




Chrome wins! And good for everyone out there running Chrome...the benevolent gods of Google approve!

Firebox and IE come in second and third, respectively, which isn't a surprise. But what's funny is there's 2 people... yes 2 whole people, that are still running Netscape. They might be the last two people in the world doing so... what is this 1999??? If you are reading this on Netscape, can you please identify yourselves, just for my entertainment purposes, please??? There's also 1 person running something called "Konqueror", that sounds not the LEAST bit ominous.

Operating Systems:


Obviously, most people run Windows, and the second is Macs. What surprised me is.. more people are reading this with Linux than with the iPhone+iPad??? Linux?? Do I have that may hipster and/or tech geek friends that run Linux??? Should I stock up on PBR and/or Mountain Dew in my fridge for you guys? Also, who the hell  runs i686 Linux and who the hell was dumb enough to buy a hp-tablet?...oh wait nevermind... i remember

I currently have 1,154 pageviews currently... THAT'S FRIGGIN AMAZING! Thank you all for indulging me with my antics and giving me a soap box to talk about capoeira, food, and whatever the hell is on my mind. Keep reading, let me know if I can make improvements or if you'd like to see something. And if your the people running Netscape...or i686 Linux, or your browser name is the "Konqueror", let me know, I wish to make fun of you just a little bit.

The last couple of weeks

I've been fairly busy with life that I completely forgot about this thing. I have a couple of minutes of down time before more LSAT studying so I might as well jot some stuff down.

Surprisingly, the last couple of weeks in capoeira have been phenomenal. I was in St Louis last week, training with Tebogo and Livre Como Vento and had a roda with my CECA folks. It was a great roda, first time in a long time with a full bateria. I'm a huge fan of this "angola contemporanea"/"movimento novo" deal, and the Tebogo's group kind of personifies that. Also, kind of personal sad new, Prof. Jesse stop teaching in St Louis and quit capoeira in general. Good guy, wish him well and hopefully one day comes back to capoeira.

St Louis also keeps surprisingly me with food too, this time in the Cherokee district. Tongue tacos...something everyone should try.

This past weekend was Mestre Doutor's workshop at ASCAB NC. Sadly, Estagaria Maravilha was hurt, but still played like a boss for her birthday roda. It was a great time to hang out with a great group of people. North Carolina is not a bad place either... kinda fun, with the right people. For the record, Mestre Doutor, fucking hilarious.... If anyone is in Philly, I'm sorry, but go to Mestre Doutor's class. It is well worth it!

Nothing else has been that new... up to 5 miles on the marathon training and the vibram pains are fading. LSATs are still going, finally broke the 160 plane today, and if that holds up, I should still be on schedule for June LSATs.

I do want to note the passing of some great capoieistas:

Mestre Decanio de Mestre Bimba
Mestre Biriba do Grupo Uniao Capoeira
Instrutor Morcego do Mandinguieros dos Palmares

Saudades...descanse em paz

It's kind of sad... the first generation of great capoeira has passed away: Mestre Bimba, Pastinha, Waldemar, etc. and now the second generation is aging. But so goes life eh? Hopefully, we can write down all the history they have to pass on and start something like an anthology of capoeira. 

Bistro Bis and Continuation of the Marathon Training

On Sunday, I went with a friend to Bistro Bis. It's owned by the same people that did Vadalia, which my friend and I went to together before and had a great experience. Bistro Bis was having restaurant week, which I hate (will explain later), so their menu was shortened.

I chose a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape (CdP), Domaine Berthet-Rayne 2009, which was really good. It's a little lighter bodied than I'm used to for Chateauneuf-du-Pape's go. DISCLAIMER: I know next to nothing about wines, but I know what I like and why I like it. But to continue, I thought it was a little drier that I would have liked it at first, still very full bodied, not as earthy as a Syrah, but still exceptional. The price was not cheap either, which I didn't imagine it to be, since CdP is not a blend that everyone knows, personally it is my favorite, but a good Bordeaux or St. Emilion are close seconds.

We started off with two appetizers, since it's restaurant week and we had no other choice, one steak tartare (AMAZING!) and a pate of pork and pistachios. The love me some steak tartare and they served it with a truffle oil, thin cut potato chip, and a relish of unknown, but good, substance. The pate, I didn't like. I forgot that a pate is French is not a patty in English. The texture was like fois grois, but made of pork (bad), and the consistency was just not right. For the main course though, for me at least, was great. Bistro Bis is as French as you can get, like traditional high end French dining. With that in mind, I got the duck confit, and she got the coq au vin (like I said, both VERY FRENCH). The duck confit is great, it's REALLY hard to screw up considering it's marinated duck leg, fried in rendered duck fat. The coq au vin was ok... it wasn't spectacular, but it passes. You couldn't really taste the wine sauce, which was a problem, but it came with thick sliced pork pieces.

Dessert was kind of a disappointment, we're not gonna go there. The chocolate orange thing she got was dense and a little too rich, while the three little fruit thingies I got were good, but I felt that I could have bought those in a good bakery store.

The bill was not cheap, and this is why I hate restaurant week. Everything you want comes with a surcharge, because it is impossible to make a profit on restaurant week for a nice restaurant unless it puts a surcharge on the good stuff. Wine is still pricey and even though I could have gone with a much cheaper bottle, I loved the company I was with, and CdP is my favorite, hands down. Most of the time, I don't need two appetizers, that's overkill. So with all this, restaurant week doesn't actually save you any money. The place is super busy and the kitchen isn't at 100% because it's overwhelmed. So restaurant week.. I tend to avoid.

Overall all, Bistro Bis isn't the BEST place in DC, but it's good, very good. Go during regular times, and don't get dessert, there are much better places for that.

Marathon training has been better second time around. The first run, with Kevin, was awful...the stats are on Facebook... 11:31 min/mile at just under 5 miles. Yeah I suck... the second run however was markedly improved 9:32 min/mil at 5 miles. This morning I have rocks for calves and walking is painful, but I guess it was worth it.... It does prove to me that this 9:00 min/mile marathon is possible. I have a proof of concept. Now, it's time to go do it.

The Whirling Dervish

I'm pretty sure when people think of the country Turkey, whirling dervishes aren't far from the imagination, unless, of course, you are Rick Perry, who thinks Turkey is a country of terrorists. For those who don't know, the whirling dervishes are a branch of Sufi Islam, the mystic branch of Islam. The group we saw, the Mevlevi Order, are followers of Rumi. I'm a huge fan of Rumi the poet, but he was also a theologian, which I didn't know about. For some random perspective here's my favorite Rumi poem:

When I am with you, we stay up all night,

When you’re not here, I can’t get to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnia!

And the difference between them.

Any who... the whirling dervishes are a religious activity that Wiki could explain better than I can, it roughly looks something like this:

Everything about what they are doing, from clothes to posture is symbolic of the ideals of Sufi Islam.
Read about it on Wiki, it explains it much better than I can

Cais got the tickets to go, after being implored by his dad. We went to a culture center, as opposed to the other places that offered it, like bars, and restaurants. The show, which included live music, was really good. It starts with an orchestra of 7 people, 3 singing, 1 drummer, 1 on the lute, 1 on this stringed instrument like a small cello. There were 5 dervishes, performing for 1.5 hours.

Sufi music is really calming and the trance like effect could be felt by everyone. For the capoeira people out there, it's really like capoeira angola music, it's simple, but something about it makes you go into this trance. The feeling is really hard to explain, but everyone should experience it. Chalk it up to cultural understanding and exchange.

We went to see it at a cultural center. It was a Turkish bath from the 1500's converted into a culture performing arts center. It has belly dancing, cultural dance, and dervish shows going on all during the nights. The whole performance was about 1.5 hours long, which, from just a time perspective, is impressive to be rotating, always counterclockwise, for that long. It was also very calming, even though I couldn't understand the lyrics being sung.

What struck me was that even in this cultural center, there were 2 shows a night, seating about 70 people per show. Considering that this is a deeply religious event, can a group do 2 shows a night? Is there still religious significance or are they just commercializing off of this? It can be argued that it is less religious in this sense, and more of a "cultural show", that show cases the "cultural" aspects of it. We started walking back to the hostel and realized that a lot of restaurants also had these shows, granted with only 2 people as opposed to 5. On one poster, we realized that the person on it, was the same guy from the Mevlevi Order we just saw. I don't have a problem with this idea of showing off the culture, but I do have some qualms about having religious rituals repeated over and over again for commercial gain or pure entertainment. I feel it disrespects the religious tradition and cheapens the process for everyone.

I guess it's slightly hypocritical of me to say that I disagree with the commercialization and then go see it, but I felt that at least it was at a cultural center that not only put on a show, but also educated the audience as to what was going on. I believe that there should be a movement to not only preserve these arts, but also to spread throughout the world. More cultural understanding prevents idiots like Rick Perry. I just wish that people don't try to commercialize it at the expense losing the meaning and beauty of the art and turning it into a caricature. 

Amazing Experiences in Turkey

I realized that if I wrote a meticulous account of Turkey, it would get really long and most people wouldn't care. So I decided to cut all the stuff down into one post of just important things. If you want to see pictures, go here.

Izmir, Pamukkale, and Selcuk


I like Izmir, a lot. It's really a summer place to go, it's by the Izmir Bay and it would have been much nicer in the summer. But the funny thing about this place, more so than Istanbul, is that the city never sleeps. Cais and I were out until well after 1AM, and I, suffering from jet lag, got up at 630AM to wander around the city. The city was awake and moving about at 630AM. Restaurants were just opening, people were moving around, it really was like a city that doesn't sleep.

Pamukkale, I broke my camera and got stuck in 38 degree weather, fairly wet. The sunset made it worth it, though I have no pictures. Look on Facebook for the pictures I took, that's all I'm going to say.

Selcuk, the city, was ok. We got there while it was dark, and kind of wished I got some more time there. Efes, on the other hand, was pretty amazing. It was known as Ephesus to the Greeks  Romans. It was the capital of Asia Minor in the Roman Empire, so it is filled with amazing Roman ruins. The place holds great significance to Catholics as well, because the House of the Virgin Mary is there and is the spot where Virgin Mary died. I didn't think the site was that great, but I'm guessing, if I was Christian, the site would mean much more to me.

Istanbul


Istanbul is a great town with a lot of things to do. The generic things you can do are better read in a tour guide or book than here. There were experiences, though, that I believe everybody should have. I was lucky enough to witness Saturday morning prayers at the largest mosque in Istanbul, Suleymaniye camii. It is an amazingly peaceful time. Hundreds of people get together, and for those 15 minutes, nothing else matters. There is only you, your fellow man, and Allah. It makes you feel much more apart of a community. The world slows down, and I feel that there's a crystallizing moment where everything makes sense and you can ground yourself for a day. I think in this country we demonize Islam way too much to appreciate and understand it. From listening to the Adan 5 times a day and being woken up by it daily, I have to say the words "Allahu Akbar" holds greater meaning for me.

I'm not deeply religious, even in Buddhism. But I can absolutely understand the draw to religion and how it is the one thing that brings us all closer together. We rarely here about that. Instead we are constantly bombarded with sounds clips of religions hating on one another.

I think of all the things I did in Istanbul, those 15 minutes were the best.

Istanbul is one of those cities where anything you touch is old. The city is old and filled with history. It's simply amazing, for me, to walk the streets and think that thousands of years ago, some Byzantine schmuck was also on there streets, probably thinking the two things I was thinking:

1. Wow, this city is amazing!
2. Where can I get some cheap to eat?

Maybe this sounds hippie, but I truly believe that we have a metaphysical connection to our past, and the understanding of our past helps explain and clarify the present. It allows us to understand the meaning of life, through so many lives, and understand what it is to be human. Our history hasn't always been bright, but as long as we learn from the mistakes before, we can always make it better.

Edirne

I felt Edirne, an old capital of the Ottoman Empire, was my favorite city. It was touristy, but not catered to Westerners. It's on the border of Bulgaria and Greece, which is a funny mix of things, since all three languages were represented in many cases. The mosques there were amazing. The main mosque, Selimiye Camii, has the tallest minarets of the Muslim world, and is known as the masterpiece of Sinan, the chief architect during the golden age of architecture in the Ottoman Empire. Google Sinan, his life story is an inspiration.

The old mosque took my breath away. It was decorated with giant calligraphy on the walls and had a very cozy feel to it, as opposed to all the rest which were huge (think fitting 500+ people huge). Check out the picture here, I don't want to drag this post out with pictures.

I only had a day trip to Edirne, not knowing what to expect, but I wish I had stayed a couple of days to explore everything and go into Bulgaria and Greece.

Overall, I liked Turkey, a lot. If I ever got the chance to go back, I probably will. There's still so much to do and so many things left unexplored. But now I'm already thinking about my next destination....

Travelers never know where they're going, and tourist never know where they've been

Turkish Food for the More Adventurous

The next two things are not for everyone. Good food is not always safe, and you have to make the judgment of whether it is worth spending half a day on or over a toilet versus instant gratification of great food. I have a pretty powerful stomach, but there things I can't handle (blood, not blood pudding, but pure blood is one of them and under cooked bone marrow). If you are adventurous and willing to roll the dice, try these:

1. Kokoreç: It looks innocent enough. This is the quintessential street food of Turkey. It's a long log of god knows what, on a horizontal spit, roasted over coals. When you order it, the dude cuts a piece off the spit, chops it up and cooks it some more, throw it on some toasted bread, crushed chili peppers and done. Istanbul places will try to cook it with tomatoes, onions, and a sauce, don't get that, it makes it taste like shit. So why is this so dangerous? Kokoreç, as I found out later, is sheep intestines, wrapped up REALLY tight and sometimes stuffed with organ meats. The danger of it is that if you don't clean intestines REALLY REALLY well, you'll be eating sheep shit, which will in turn put you over or on a toilet for a long time, if not worse. But this, as Cais will attest, is my favorite food and I will not pass it by without buying it. 

2. Mussels: These aren't just ordinary mussels, these are mussels stuff with spices and rice, served with a healthy squeeze of lemon! They are so very tasty and only 0.95TL a piece. I would sit there all day and eat this stuff. But be careful! Mussels anywhere are not 100% safe. They have crappily evolved so that their ass is above their mouth. So, they produce a lot of shit water, and that water needs to be changed many times a day to keep them fresh. Lukewarm, shit eating shellfish sitting outside for hours? Always a gamble, and it's not just me Anthony Bourdain also gave the same warning during his trip to Turkey. Also to consider, mussels, like all mollusks, filter water and clean it. The places I had it, Izmir and Istanbul, were both industrial seaport. Ask yourself this question: Do I really want to risk eating a filter of crappy water in an industrial zone? The answer to me was, and always will be, yes, but sparingly. 

I ate all this stuff with no stomach issues, so I fully encourage people to try this stuff, but it's at your own risk.  Cais didn't have any issues either, and he refuses to drink tap water anywhere. 

The last are things I wasn't a fan of, which isn't much:

1. Simit and anything sold on a simit cart: Simit is the Turkish equivalent of a bagel, but taste a lot more like a bagel crossed with a pretzel. Jews and Germans don't get too excited, it's not as good as either. They also sell a variety of stuff on the cart, which I tried. All of it sucked. It was all dry and kind of tasteless. Worth a try at 1TL or less, it is the breakfast of choice for Turks.

2. Fish: This may have been my fault, but I wanted to order a fish that I never heard of. Cais wanted the salmon. The fish sucked, it was tasteless and not seasoned, not even with salt. Per chance we didn't order the right thing...who knows? Had it once, wasn't good, won't do it again.  

Taste of Turkey Everyone Should Try

It's 4:40 AM EST, and in my head it's 11:40 AM, needless to say jet lag is kicking my ass. Normally, even if I do wake up at about 5AM, I could take a walk to the local börekici and grab some börek (stuff puff pastry), a cup of tea, and bread for 5 TL (~$3USD), but, sadly, I am not there. So, to further frustrate myself, I'll write about all the different foods I ate in Turkey.

I woke up thinking I was going to get some cucumbers, soft white cheese, white bread, tomatoes, maybe some olives, and a strong glass of çay (pronounced chai), but I'm in Queens, which means cold cereal and whatever junk food I may be able to scrounge up. It's been 2 days, and I already miss the food.... it was dirt cheap and really good. So here's what people should try, all of it can be found in Turkey and I think most of it can be found in a Turkish restaurant, maybe. I say maybe only because some things may not be hot sellers in the US and most of it is street food. 

For all to try:

1. Döner: If you haven't already had it in Europe or the US, do so. Comes in et (meat) or tavuk (chicken). It is prepared by stacking layers upon layers of meat onto a vertical spit and roasting it for the whole day. Never get before noon. The juices just haven't sinked in and the taste is just not there. Served as a platter w/ rice, ekmek (bread), or dürüm (wrap). They will run you anywhere between 6TL to 1.5TL depending on where you are.

2. Kebap or Kebab: Self-explanatory, seasoned meet on a stick, grilled, served with whatever the fuck the restaurant wants to serve it with. Specifically worth trying in Turkey: Adana kebap, spicy ground beef and lamb. I avoided anything that said "steak" or "beefsteak", since I'm picky with my steaks. Also, lamb chops were great, but don't expect what you find in the US. Their lamb chop is about 1/2 the size of ours (go figure), and is fattier (read: better).

3. Balik ve Ekmek: As literal and simple as it translates: fish and bread. It's simple grilled fish (whatever they can catch) and bread. It's not that great, nothing too special, but these restaurants float up to the shore of the Golden Horn and sell this stuff only Friday-Sunday. They set up shop, have simple seating, cook on super rocky boats, and you get a full fish meal for 5.50TL. The kitchen looks like this: 

Floating kitchen

4. Lokum: This stuff ROCKS. For 2TL, you get 5 pieces. You should not try to finish 5 pieces. It's sweet fried dough sprinkled with pistachio. They're crispy on the outside, covered with this sweet syrup, but soft on the inside, and melts in your mouth. It's fresh and sells FAST and it is a fight to get to them. Only found them on weekends though.

Dude prepping Lokum

5. Pide: Roughly, it Turkish pizza. Long flat bread with meat, cheese, eggs, all sorts of stuff on top. Generally not bad, but is better served like street food. I was in a part of Istanbul where no non-Russian and Greek (I will explain in a later post) go, Fener. I was starving and found a pide place. They did it right, they cut it in half, rolled it up, and you eat on the walk, it's great.

6. Roasted Corn: If that's your thing, which it is my mom's so maybe for more people it is, you'll love it. For me, not so much, especially at 2TL a pop, should have gotten lokum.

7. Köfte: Grilled meatballs. Much more tender than US meatballs and has never failed me. Best place: Cafe Osman in Edirne. 

8. Börek: Puff pastry stuffed with either meat, cheese, spinach, potatoes, or what one guy called "spice". These things are huge, 1.5'x1.5', and you buy by the kilo. 1 kilo will feed a small village. Most places I had this in Istanbul was not fresh, like pipping hot fresh. It's mainly a breakfast food, but good throughout the day, especially when it comes straight out of the oven. 1 kilo, in Izmir, ran about 5TL. I love this stuff and will forever miss it. Best place: this small shack in Edirne where there was a line of about 20 people every time the oven opened up.

9. çop şiş: Small beef kebaps, grilled, and made into a sandwich with grilled onions and hot peppers, seasoned only with chili and oregano. They do it right in Selçuk and no where else, Cais and I went to this stand almost religiously. They are great at cooking this stuff. First, it's on what I call an open George Foreman grill. It's a tilted grill, with a charcoal burning (if it's gas, it will suck) underneath. The drippings all run off onto one side of the grill. Healthy, you might think. NO! The drippings are collected and your bread is wiped on the drippings before it gets grilled (AMAZING IDEA!!). Second, they take a huge piece of beef fat, and press the meat down with it to cook it (GENIUS IDEA!!!). The large piece of beef fat, then, sits on the end of the grill collecting drippings, until it is once again pressed onto the meat. Greasy, fatty, grilled goodness, everything right about the world.