mini-boss in a foreign land: akane, the iron chef

i've cooked a few times since i got here, and i'm kinda enjoying it. :)

i've heeded rambling jester's advice, and tried some recipes in pinoycook.net. thundercat also gave me an easy-to-follow recipe for sinigang (which i intend to perfect). so far, i was able to cook the following:

• menudo --> yummy
• sinigang na beef ribs --> better if we had long green chilis and more sinigang mix
• bistek tagalog --> took so long to cook
• sinigang na pork spare ribs --> overcooked the veggies

for my next "experiment", i will try soy gin pork. according to the website, it's "very simple, yet very tasty". also, i figured that if my friends do not know how it should taste like, they're less likely to complain. ;)

games people play: go-kart (erratum)

i found the printout containing my pro-kart stats, and i realized that i misstated some info in my previous go-kart post (what with my poor memory and all :P ). here are the facts:

track length (m): 350 m

1st try
top average speed: 39.3 km/h (24.5 mph)
average speed: 36.9 km/h (23 mph)

2nd try
top average speed: 43.1 km/h (26.8 mph)
average speed: 40.6 km/h (25.2 mph)

strong enough

i actually have a lot of stories to tell, but the words do not come easily. so while i collate pictures and recall details, i'll just post the lyrics to this song which i remembered i like. i heard this in the car while we were travelling to the place i will tell you about in my next posts :D

---

strong enough
shery crow

God, i feel like hell tonight
tears of rage i cannot fight
i’d be the last to help you understand
are you strong enough to be my man?

nothing’s true and nothing’s right
so let me be alone tonight
cause you can’t change the way i am
are you strong enough to be my man?

lie to me
i promise i’ll believe
lie to me
but please don’t leave

i have a face i cannot show
i make the rules up as i go
it’s try and love me if you can
are you strong enough to be my man?

when i’ve shown you that i just don’t care
when i’m throwing punches in the air
when i’m broken down and i can’t stand
will you be strong enough to be my man?

lie to me
i promise i’ll believe
lie to me
but please don’t leave

games people play: go-kart

last may 6, we went kart racing at the pro kart indoors. it was my first time to participate in such "sport". we were around twenty in all, i think half were girls. among the ten girls or so, i think only two of us didn't know how to drive :D

i was quite nervous, being the scaredy-cat that i was. i rode on the last kart, so that i wouldn't get in the way of the others ;) thankfully, i was able to maneuver through the track's numerous twists and turns, without getting anyone killed :D

the whole ride lasted around 5 minutes. as expected, i had the slowest kart, averaging around 31mph. a friend teased that i was doing a leisurely drive :D better safe than sorry, I told him ;)

i enjoyed the exhilarating drive so much that i went at it again with 3 more girls. on my 2nd try, i averaged 28mph. "not bad for someone who doesn't know how to drive," my friend opined. not bad indeed :D

given the chance, i will do it again... ;)

mini-boss in a foreign land: mess duty (part 2)

in case you were w(o)ndering, my sinigang was edible. we used beef ribs (big ones) instead of pork spare ribs -- beef ribs were the only available meat in our ref for sinigang. we also had to substitute spinach leaves for kangkong, as kangkong is hard to find here. we also used radish and gabi (taro?). my roommie helped me slice the ingredients (thanks jean!). since there were no measurements indicated in the recipe, i only approximated the quantities of the ingredients. moreover, we had so much meat that i had to use two big casseroles! i felt like i was cooking for a feast :)

my friends said that it was good enough, that it tasted like sinigang (hey, what are friends for?) :) i think it was not sour enough -- after all, we were able to buy only two packs of sinigang mix. thankfully, there were no complaints, and i didn't need to threaten them ("eat my sinigang or suffer the wrath of akane, the iron chef!"). cooking ain't so bad after all ;)

next recipe please! ;)