#it's been YEARS since i ate fried chicken because american fast food fried chicken is consistently disappointing

[absentlyabbie]

as a southerner, understand i do not say this lightly, but korean fried chicken is running fucking circles around kfc and popeyes

(we're not talking about your nanna's fried chicken or the fried chicken from that hole in the wall down home kitchen, we're talking fast food fried chicken)

tried korean fried chicken for the first time last night and i'll never be the same

petition to strip the acronym from colonel sanders and dub what the koreans are doing the one true kfc

[usmsgutterson]

Yellow- Pin Hawthorne

OKAY, YES-- I’ve wanted to write for Pin Hawthorne since having finished the show, and I’ve decided to do it, because I simply can’t resist and Pin is my favorite moody horseboi, plus, this blurb (imagine? I don’t know how long it’s gonna go yet!) is entirely inspired by the songs Yellow and Sparks by Coldplay, because the show is modern and the songs were released W A Y before the years that show is set in, so yay! 

Pins aged up in this, as well. In the show he’s around 16-17? In this, he and the reader are both 20!

I might have Pins characterization a little off because I’ve only watched the show once (I’m gonna rewatch it before I do a shadow and bone rewatch,, moody pin is just a bit too endearing) but other than that, lets do it!

The reader is American for this, and I did mostly keep it gender neutral, aside from an outfit description! Even then, though, I did try to keep it androgynous

Fic type- fluff

Warnings-none

It took a ton of convincing on Pins part to get his dad to let him use the castle for something that, to anyone else, might’ve seemed small. He’d known it might’ve, and started the process a good month before the event was even to happen. A decision that he’d made that wound up working in his favor. 

“You really love them, don’t you?” His father asked, pressing the keys into his palm as Pin gave a nod. “Even with all the stupid nicknames?” Pin grimaced, but nodded again. 

“Even the stupid nicknames, Dad,” he assured. “All of them.” His father broke out into a smile, pulling Pin in for a hug as he tucked the key away into his jacket pocket.

“Well then, happy anniversary,” his father mumbled. “Five years? Gotta admit, I had faith, but I didn’t think you’d make it this far. Not with someone like them.”

“I know,” Pin retorted. “I’m pretty lucky.” Pin knew that ‘pretty lucky’ might as well have been understatement of the year, but went along with it anyway, pulling away from his father and slowly approaching Elvis, patting his side a few times before climbing onto the saddle and riding down to the castle that he, as the duke, could technically call home. 

The castle was big and at times, tough to get around, but he made his way just fine, letting Elvis move at a slow gallop rather than a run, figuring that he had the time, considering you’d agreed to meet at 8 and it was barely 7:15.

When he arrived, he put Elvis away safely, and made his way through the entrance and up to the outdoor balcony, which had a view outlooking the expansive land on which the castle was built, and the trees that went around the outerrim of the space.

He grabbed his bag off the chair on which he’d had his butler leave it the day previous, almost grinning to himself as he sat at the glass table, rummaging through the bag for everything that he’d put in it.

A bottle of wine, because why not, several sweets, a ton of the polaroids you’d taken in the seven years you’d known each other, some fairy lights that he’d hang up so that you weren’t totally and completely in the dark, and a bluetooth speaker that Becky had gotten him that Christmas; one that he’d still not bothered to use, despite the fact that it was almost June. 

“Can I get you anything sir?” Arthur poked his head through the balcony door way, and Pin found himself startled. 

“Uh, yes please. Wine glasses,” Arthur gave a single, solitary nod.

“The dinner that you requested will be here by the time you requested for it,” he responded. “Though, are you really sure fast food is what you want? It doesn’t seem right to celebrate an anniversary with fast food.” Pin forced his gaze to his lap so that Arthur wouldn’t glimpse his smile. 

You’d come from America, just like Zoe had, but you’d moved with your family to the island when you were eleven. You’d met Pin when you were thirteen. 

One summer, Pins father was insistent that he get away from the stables, spend some time somewhere he’d not gone before, travel a little, and your family had agreed to let him spend the eight weeks of summer with you in the united states. 

You’d had your first date in a McDonalds that same summer, when you and Pin were fifteen. He’d felt weirded out, at first. The fact that he’d never eaten from a McDonalds, despite there having been a couple on the island, almost made him confused. You’d gotten chicken nuggets to split and a couple of the pastries to count as a desert of sorts, and thus sparked the relationship.

“No reason,” Pin murmured. “It’s quick. It’s easy, and the last meal that they ate was lunch.” Arthur gave another nod, and Pin began fiddling with the speaker as he heard Arthurs footsteps grow farther and farther away. 

It was a speaker that was almost the size of his hand and designed to look like a vintage radio. Forest green was the color, and the dial on the right side would control volume. The three buttons below the dial were the power button, the on/off button, and the skip button. Pin turned it on, checking the sound quality by playing two MCR songs, silently bopping his head as Arthur returned, the supplies that Pin had asked Arthur to gather in a bag perched neatly on his arm.

Arthur placed the bag on the table wordlessly, leaving Pin to do his thing as he stopped using the speaker,  deciding that the sounds of nature; the river, the rustling of trees and the beautiful view of the sky as the sun grew closer and closer to setting was much better company than Gerard Way scream-singing his lungs out. 

He’d spent the remainder of the time he had working on your gift. At the end of it, he felt proud of himself, even despite how dumb he’d thought the idea was at first.

It was all of his favorite photos of you--polaroids he’d taken via polaroid camera and polaroids that became polaroids when he’d used a polaroid printer alike-- neatly put into a big picture frame, plus a couple of his sweaters that you liked to steal, some of your favorite sweets, and a journal he knew you’d been eyeing at one of the shops. 

Arthur put the McDonalds onto the table in the last ten minutes before eight, putting the wine glasses beside the bag. “I’ll send them here when they’ve arrived,” he murmured, shooting Pin a smile as he turned and walked away. 

Sure enough, ten minutes later, Pin had the dinner mostly set up, the chicken nuggets at the center of the table, fries on either side, wine glasses filled the appropriate amount. 

“You’re lucky I love you, Hawthorne,” Pin was almost breathless as he glanced over to you, putting the bag that he’d put your gift in on the ground to his right. “If you were anyone else, I’d not have waited so long to eat dinner.” You’d worn a simple pair of black jeans, with a black turtleneck and a dark gray blazer overtop. You styled your hair like you always did, and your smile was bright, eyes warm as you looked at him.

“McDonalds and wine,” you sat, putting the gift you’d gotten Pin on the ground to your left, reaching across the table and taking his hand in yours. “The perfect way to a persons heart.”

“Do you like it?” He asked, gesturing to the fairy lights Arthur must’ve put up while he was busy in the world of gift making. They weren’t lit yet, as the sun had barely begun to dip over the horizon, but he’d light them once it grew darker. You nodded.

“It’s absolutely lovely,” you responded. “I didn’t think you’d put this much effort in, to be totally honest.” You were poking at him, pricking gently at his work ethic in the hopes of getting a kiss across the table. 

“I’d have been fine just cuddling the day away,” you admitted. “And I know you would’ve, but thank you. For everything.” He smiled, feeling grateful for Zoe’s suggestion that he use the castles balcony to his advantage when he’d brought his plans up to her and Marcus. 

“You’re welcome,” he responded. 

After that, you lapsed into a comfortable silence, making occasional conversation as you ate and drank. You let Pin ramble about the sick horses at Bright Fields and made a mental note to visit the hospital part of the stables, see how they were doing and make sure they knew that they were loved. As you cleaned up, putting your garbage back into the McDonalds bag, you gave Pin updates on some of the horses around the stables and the wild horses that you and Jade had been tracking. 

“There’s a foal, too!” Pin loved seeing you get so excited, and that was no exception. “I know that we shouldn’t name the wild horses, but I couldn’t help myself, so I named the horse November.”

“Why November?”

“The foals coat is white. Snow is white, and snow happens in November. It just seemed fitting!” You grabbed the bag, going inside only briefly to put it into the nearest trash bin before walking back out and sitting back down. 

Pin grabbed the bag with your gift in it at the same time you grabbed the bag with his. He slid yours to you with a bright smile, and you slid his to him with the same.

You opened yours first. “Your hoodies!” You yelled out, smile turning into a full on beam, “Pin, you know that we’re moving in together in the fall, right? You’re just gonna get these back!” Pin shrugged.

“You get them until the fall, I’ll wash them, wear them a couple of times, and then they’re yours again. I get to see you in my clothes and you get to be warm and comfortable constantly! I call it a win-win situation!” 

“Can’t disagree with that!” You put the sweaters back in the bag, grabbing the photo frame next. 

You sighed, feeling your legs turn to jello as your heart melted. You looked up at him, feeling tears well up in your eyes as you did. “Five years of polaroids,” you whispered. “And you’re giving them back to me?” Pin just shrugged, feeling tempted to round the table, crouch next to you and kiss you senseless, but he resisted. 

“I took photos of them,” he responded, pulling his phone out of his pants pocket and waving it around. “I can always get more copies from the polaroid printer.” You laughed lightly.

“Thank you, Pin, so much.” You’d never stop saying it. You had so much to thank him for. Every smile, every laugh, every dinner date, every ride out into the countryside and every kiss. 

“You don’t need to thank me, love,” he responded. “Theres one more thing in there for you.” He gestured to the bag as you put the photo frame back into it, pulling out the journal you’d been eying a moment later. 

“No fucking way!” You cursed, turning it over in your hands. Pin leaned back into his chair, shrugging while he nodded. 

It was a simple journal: a brown leather bound thing that was the same color as Elvis’s fur, but it had pages that were suitable for practically anything.

“I know you’ve wanted it for a while, and, well, I figured you could use it for just about anything. Sketches, diary entries, even putting bank statements in the thing would make a good use for it,” You slightly stood, planting a kiss to his nose across the table. 

You put the journal back into the bag and gestured to the bag he’d put in his lap. “It’s your turn, duke.”

“Don’t call me that,” he whispered. He narrowed his eyes at you, but the smirk that followed after told you he’d not been serious. 

The first thing he’d pulled out was a scrapbook of the years that you’d spent together. From photos like the victory one that Ted had taken after you’d completed riding lessons, Pin doing a thumbs up on the right side of your horse while you sat on it still, throwing a peace sign and smiling, to random photos you’d taken together. 

Blurry ones that’d been taken with the timer feature. You flipping off the camera while Pin flopped back onto his bed. One from when you were both sixteen, in the middle of turning around, his arms snaked around your waist and yours resting on his shoulders as you kissed, the screen blurred but not so blurred that you couldn’t tell what was happening. 

A couple that Zoe, Jade, Becky and Marcus had taken. You, exhausted, with your head in Pins lap as he fiddled with a camera, curled up and almost hidden from sight in the haybales. You and Pin at the pony prom, slow dancing, looking at each other with nothing but love in your eyes. A shot taken as you and Pin left the stables, backs to the camera, hands interlocked. A photo of you and Pin in the haybales again, you with your head on his chest, his arm around your shoulders, hay in your hair. A laptop sat discarded beside Pins sleeping body, playing old episodes of Criminal Minds. Both of you had sleepy smiles on your faces. 

Pin laughed as he saw more than one picture of you two asleep in the haybales, some taken by Jade, most taken by Zoe, though there were a few shots that’d been taken by his father. 

“I love this,” he glanced up at you, then to the speaker that sat on the edge of the table. “I love you, Y/N.”

“I love you too, horse-boy!” He snorted, putting the scrapbook on the table and grabbing the next thing in the bag.

It was a sweater; one that he’d not seen since before his eighteenth birthday. “Thief,” he murmured, folding the sweater and putting it atop the scrapbook. 

“You’re my favorite person,” was your lovestruck retort. He blushed as he grabbed the last thing in the bag.

It was a camera; a polaroid to replace the one that’d been broken in the months before, and it was vintage. 

“You didn’t,” he looks up at you, face showing disbelief as clearly as his voice did. In response, you just shrugged.

“We’ve taken a lot of photos, and you loved the polaroid camera. I used a connection or two that I have and I grabbed it for you.”

“How much was it?” He asked. “We had a limit! No more than fifty pounds!” 

“It was forty nine pounds, and the taming of a wild horse found just outside the coast of Maine. She comes in a couple of days, by the way.” Pin put the things back in the bag and stood, grabbing the speaker and turning it on, connecting his phone to it a minute later.

“You love chaos,” he teased. “But I love you, so I love it by association.” He held his hand out to you, and you took it, giggling as he pulled you in close, bringing you into a passionate kiss that lingered on your lips even after it’d ended. 

He paused only to have Yellow by Coldplay stream through the speaker, putting his phone on the table next to it.

“May I have this dance?” He asked, emphasizing more on his accent in a silly way to get you to laugh. It worked, to his delight, as you nodded, cheeks flushing bright red.

“You may have every dance, if you so wish it,” he felt his cheeks heat up as he pulled you closer, pressing a kiss to your forehead and gently swaying with you as your arms moved to rest at his shoulders and his moved to your waist, wrapping around it, his hands meeting and folding at the small of your back. ‘

He’d found a way to loop the song so that it played a couple of times back to back, but you didn’t mind. You had Pin. You had Pin and his sarcasm, his smiles, his voice, still drenched with sleep in the mornings and his peaceful face while he slept. You had tea in the mornings, quiet afternoons spent riding or in helping horses, and evenings laughing with your friends, Pin at your side. 

You’d known Pin for seven years, and you’d been dating him for five. He was like the lgiht at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel, and he embraced you tightly as you finally escaped it. 

“What makes you happy?” he asked you absentmindedly, just to get to hear the melodic sound of your voice again. You laughed, meeting his gaze with a smile. 

“You, Pin,” you responded. “You make me happy.” He stared at you for a long moment, wishing that he had what he’d kept in his sock drawer since Christmas. 

“What makes you happy?” You repeated.

“You, Y/N. Always you,” you leaned up, pressing your lips to his without so much as thinking twice.

The kiss was messy, and you stumbled backward a little, but you giggled as you did. When you pulled away, you were delighted to find that Pins cheeks were burning as bright as yours, the same red that coated some parts the sky as the sun dipped down the horizon. 

“You’re the love of my life,” Pin was almost in awe at how easily you said it, like you’d been reading off a grocery list or ingredients for a recipe. Pin had wanted to say it since he’d bought the thing that sat in that pathetic little sock drawer, but he’d still not figured out how to say it and make it worthwhile.

“Do you want forever?” The closest he’d get, but he was fine with that, and relieved as you’d nodded. “I promise you forever then, Y/N.”

[chaoticgabby]

My Cheap & Relatively Healthy Grocery List for College Students

Context: I had been used to eating fast food so much because it was cheap that when I went to the doctors' they said I had high glucose content. That wasnt good. So I started eating healthier. Anyway let's skip the BS and get straight into it:

Ramen: the OG cheap food. I personally don't own ramen bc I dont like it that much, but if you want to save money this is the meal, at least add an egg or some veggies to make it healthier.

Frozen Veggies: anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar or two a bag. Can easily be kept in your freezer (if you have one) for months

Mac n' cheese: my all-time favorite. Of course, it might not be healthy for everyone to eat pasta all the time, but I do it anyway. Add some real cheese and spices for taste or chicken and veggies in it / on the side.

Other Pasta boxes (Pasta Roni, Velveeta, Hamburger Helper, etc.): basically as cheap or almost as cheap as Kraft macaroni, but maybe you arent a fan of mac n cheese.

Soup (Soup!!): Cambell's Tomato soup is often $1 a can. I like to eat mine with grilled cheese. Thats a whole ass meal. But of course you can get other soups just as cheap. Basically, any canned foods.

Canned foods & veggies: this one goes without saying. Although, the better options are sometimes $2 to $3 the same can be said for frozen veggies, but just heat these up and cook them in fried rice or just add butter and eat them aside a nice entré

Chunk light tuna: speaking of canned foods, canned tuna is soooo cheap and is a great option (if you even like tuna). Dont actually get the "pack tuna" for $1 a pack unless you want to keep it in your bag bc canned tuna is around 60 cents a can. Mix it with Miracle Whip (or mayo) and spread it over break for a good sammich.

Grilled cheese (or cheese toastie if you arent American I think??): similar to previous options, youre getting your cheese and your butter and your bread. Not as healthy as other options but way better than fast food calories.

Quesadillas: similar to grilled cheese, except spICY. My brother only eats these and he has no meal plan. I do it now too. Honestly, adding up tortillas, cheese dip, shredded cheese, & chicken is kind of costly but worth it. Also cooking chicken is annoying bc I dont have time for that. But. Yknow. A great option.

Pillsbury Crescents: a little costly, about $2+ per tube, but still fookin delicious. Also imma be real: actually havent checked the nutrition label to see if these are actually healthy. But these are sO useful. Make them by themselves for breakfast (with jam, eggs, or alone) or use the dough for other recipes. I use these with Manwich sauce, cheese, and ground beef for snacks :)

Manwiches: manwich sauce cans are $1 and although they have some sugar, its not nearly as bad as fast food. Just cook up some ground beef to go with it & maybe add cheese, sliced bread, or hamburger buns

PB&J: Another OG. I could never get tired of these. You just gotta make sure you have soft bread and the pb&j and youre good to go. Although..like.. some people apparently like theirs toasted or with different jams (I like strawberry).

Eggs!!!! : Just keep these in your fridge. Just do it. You never know when youre going to run out of food. Boiled? Scrambled? Fried? Soft boiled? With ramen? Omelet? In fried rice? Egg sandwich??? Eat them with bread, eat them with toast, eat them as a breakfast sandwich, scramble them with cheese, the list goes on. If you dont eat them often, get a smaller carton, but always have eggs! Also, for baking.

Rice, or fried rice: If you like rice, have been cooking rice for a long time, and can actually make it without burning, make sure you have rice. If you like rice but have never actually made it yourself, it takes trial and error in a pot. Or just invest in a rice cooker. Additionally, fried rice is not that difficult to learn & it fits the bill for healthy bc you can add unlimited veggies and meats. Im not here to educated you but the more ingredients, the better, is how i see it.

Fresh Food:

Fruit: I literally have "an apple a day" for breakfast. It's just good for you. Keep them in your fridge to keep them fresh. Keep one in your bag in case you get hungry. Bananas? Awesome! Use them in smoothies or a milkshake or eat them with your cereal or even with peanut butter. Possibilities are endless with fruit. Just make sure they dont spoil. Apples are OG bc they dont spoil as easily.

Vegetables: Make sure to only periodically get them so that they dont go to waste. Make some broccoli with butter & eat it alongside pasta. Or asparagus. Anything you want. Just make sure to have some with your meals sometimes. Greens are good. Additionally, carrots can get addicting if yoh eat them with ranch. The plus side is they are filling. If you have a tendency to want to munch on something: carrots.

Deli Meat / Sandwich Options: I personally dont make deli sandwiches because ham (as well as roast beef or turkey) can be expensive and then wanting to add lettuce and tomato to a sandwich sounds amazing but I'm scared they will spoil. Dont let me stop you though! Sandwiches are amazing.

Meat: you dont want to be cooking meat all the time bc it can get expensive, but the basics I always get are ground beef and chicken. I prefer "boneless skinless chicken thigh fillets" but you would need to cut off the fat. You could always get rotisserie if you arent feeling to for cooking. Also, if you're feeling expensive one week, salmon is just sooo good. I ate it with asparagus and seasoned with lemon. Delicious.

Snack / Dessert Options:

(I personally don't keep snacks or dessert in my home very often bc you dont want to binge eat. But here is what I have)

Peanut butter: classic, filling, can be potentially bad if you eat a shite ton

Nuts: peanuts, almonds, cashews, and especially pecans

Cookies: make your own, a lot of simple cookie recipes exist and it's a lot easier than you think. Baking essentials like flour, sugar, milk, and eggs are not that expensive to keep around in an apartment kitchen. Difficulties may be vanilla extract (the avg student doesnt have this lying around) a baking sheet, a big bowl, and possible a whisk. Store bought cookie dough isnt too bad either.

Box-cakes / box-brownies: simple and easy. Takes a few eggs sometimes and some oil, milk or water. The same goes for pancake mix. Honestly, I had an out-of-country roommate and he had never heard of boxed cake mix or brownie mix. They always made from scratch where he lived.

Low-calorie ice cream: okay ice cream can be pretty expensive and filled w/ added sugars. I used to eat this strawberry icecream sweetened with stevia and it was SO delicious, but I couldnt find that at my grocery store. Other options are "low-calorie" ice cream or "no added sugars" ice cream. I have one of these and the thing abt it is that its just the right amount of sugar to taste like ice cream and the neat thing is that you dont feel like binging it bc it doesnt have addicting added sugars.

Milkshakes / smoothies: this is a tough one bc me and most other students dont own a blender or juicer. I personally get my smoothies from a local smoothie place that only uses fresh fruit and then I ask not to add the natural sugars bc it is sweet enough with the fruit. Natural smoothies are delicious & I find that you can kind of make then if u freeze your fruits and blend w a fork. "Handmade" milkshakes are actually super easy w this method.

Yogurt: just...mmm.

"Healthy" snack food section, often called the gluten-free aisle: im not too experienced with this and im sure they have added sugars too but what I do know is I tried these gluten free oreos once and they were delicious

Fruits: I mentioned earlier but apples are great snacks

Veggies: also like I said earlier, carrots are great snacks. Not exactly a veggie but possibly potatoes for a meal or snack.

Granola Bars: for when youre too lazy to keep up with fruit and if fruit will spoil, granola bars (they healthy kind, not the chewy sugary kind) are so good to have in your pantry or keep in your backpack for a snack (and to keep you from on campus temptations). Also I used Nature Valley ones instead of cereal. They actually dissolve and are delicious with milk, since some cereals are so sugary.

Since my last college tips post got some notes I figured I'd keep writing these advice posts. For reference, I am hoping to become an RA next year at my college, so I'm not just speaking out of my ass. I generally have experience at college thus far and want to help students.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #210

“made of flame, made of mud, i’m the many, i’m the one.”

Did your parents live in a different country before you were born? No. Do you have a preferred coffee brand? No. What’s something you’ve experienced that very few others have? Your favorite human on Planet Earth/God Himself noticing you. :') Three days I couldn't sleep. Three. Days. Do you have to wear an identification badge at your job? I don't have a job, yet. Have you ever dated someone who was terrible with money? No. If so, how did it affect the relationship? N/A How often do you paint your nails? Never. Do you know anyone who’s related to a current or former world leader? I'm related to Queen Victoria somehow. Idk about anyone else. Do you do your own taxes, or do you hire a professional? No job, no taxes yet. What is something you don’t have any natural talent for? Mathematics. Has anyone ever told you that you get too competitive over minor things? No. Do you usually befriend your coworkers, or do you prefer to keep work separate from your personal life? N/A What was the very first thing you ever saved up to buy with your own money? I think Venus. Describe your favorite Christmas ornament. Man, I have a lot. We've accumulated A LOT over the years between me and all my siblings. Mom gets each of us one every year, and she's also kept all the ones we've made throughout school. She's so cute y'all. There is this REALLY damn pretty swirling crystal one with an angel on the top of it I got from my grandmother, that's definitely one of my faves, I've always loved this lil gingerbread dude I made in pre-k, and... idk man, there are truly a lot. What is something you frequently forget? To turn the laundry room light off anytime I go in there at night for Roman's litter scooper or to bring dirty clothes in there. By this point it's like a joke in the house with how much I do it for whatever reason. How do you feel about your body? I hate it. Who is someone you would like to get to know better? Connie, but I respect her privacy. I know you have to be careful online. What’s your opinion on assisted suicide? For it. At what point do you consider a relationship to be ‘long-term?’ Hm, idk, really. A year? What jobs did your parents have when you were growing up? Mom worked with special ed kids at school, she had a job at the hospital doing computer work I can't remember because I was so young, Dad's been a mailman all my life, but he also worked at Lowe's as a carpenter I think for a while. Do they still have these jobs? Or different jobs? Or have they retired? Mom's got a totally different job, and I already mentioned Dad being a mailman. Do you have any recurring dreams? Themes, yes; dreams, no. Have you ever had to call 911? Why? Yes; Mom and I thought she was having a heart attack. Terrifuckingfying morning. Do you get out a lot? I might as well be on fucking house arrest. I can stay in the house and go nowhere for over a week. Do you eat a lot of vegetables? No. Last fast food you ate? I had a Hardee's biscuit for breakfast. Do you live in Canada? No. What do you think when you see two members of your preferred sex kissing? It's sweet, and brave considering the assholes of the world. Is that hot? "For fuck’s sake… It bothers the hell out of me when people fangirl over homosexual couples. It’s so disrespectful." <<< THIS. Would you ever want to be a chef? No. Bonfires: Y/N? They're fun. What’s a food that’s famous in your hometown/state/country/etc? Southern cooking, like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, hushpuppies, pulled pork, nasty shit like that. By pure coincidence, I literally hate almost all the "traditional" Southern foods. When’s that last time you saw snow? January this year. I think it was January... What’s something that you think will become obsolete in the next 50 years? Physically driving cars, probably. Are you efficient or do you procrastinate a lot? I procrastinate all to hell. Who are the 3 people you love the most? Mom, Sara, and then... idk if I can pick #3. Last person you slept in the same bed with? Sara. When was your first kiss? March 2012. Have you recently been sick? No. What song are you listening to? "Break My Mind" by dAGAMES. Would you marry someone if they were unable to have sex? Yeah. Have you ever made a boyfriend or girlfriend cry? Sadly. Does heartbreak really feel as bad as it sounds? It's worse. Weed, coke, crack, heroin, oxy, acid, x, k, peyote, mushrooms, opium…How many of these have you tried? I have no clue what like three of these even are lmao. None. How long has it been since you had sex? Like over three years. Who was the last person to call you babe? Probably Sara. Last reason you went to the ER? My sister got in a wreck. Were you a planned pregnancy for your parents? I believe so. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? Yeah. When was the last time you shaved your legs? It's been many months. My legs are AWFUL, but it is an absolute chore to shave or use Nair because my hair is so long and thick. So I figure if there's very little/no chance someone's going to see my legs, why even do it. I really wanna get laser hair removal on my legs when I can afford it, though. What facial cleanser do you use? A Biore charcoal scrub. If someone wanted to know what you smelt like, what should they smell? I don't know? Probably dogs, lmao? How many purses do you own? One I use, then I have... two or three old ones saved just because I really like them. What are your top five favorite stores to clothes shop? Hot Topic, Rebel's Market, Spencer's, rue21, and... idk. I guess Wal-Mart lmao. What kind of clothes do you mostly wear? Yoga/dance/sweatpants with a tank top, graphic tee, or band tee. What about shoes? Flip flops like, year-round lol. If I do wear something else for whatever reason, it'll probably be my Vans or maybe a pair of Converse. Have you ever cheated on the significant other that you have now? No. For that one week a month, do you hate being a woman? Nah, birth control's made cramping a far smaller problem. Last thing you bought at the mall? Wow, I have no idea. Well... maybe a book before the hurricane to read if the power went out? I haven't read it if you're wondering, aha... Do your parents like your boyfriend/girlfriend? Yeah. Dad's met her once, but he seemed to enjoy her just fine, and Mom adores her. What store did you last buy clothes from? Wal-Mart. Which parent are you more similar to? I have traits aligning with each of them. I think my mom, but then again, I don't see my dad nearly enough to know his personality deeply since he changed IMMENSELY after the divorce. Have you ever been to another country’s capital city? No. What are some of your favorite qualities for another person to have? Compassion, wisdom, an open mind, gentle, passionate, a good sense of humor... What smell reminds you of your childhood? Chlorine, I guess. I swam a LOT as a kid; it was my favorite activity. Are you happy with who you are? In some ways, in some ways no. Do you ever sleep with your bedroom windows open? No; we live beside a busy road, and plus I don't trust people. Have you ever had a job where you didn’t fit in with your coworkers? No. What was the last word document you typed? I made a brief outline of the message I'm sending to the client who hired me for her wedding when I send her her pictures. Thanking her and telling her what more I could do for her, stuff like that. What’s something that has upset you lately? The extreme difficulty of finding a job for myself... Do you have a home security system? No, but damn do I want one. What’s something you don’t think people take seriously enough? If you know the darker part of my photography, roadkill. People see it and either think 1.) "poor thing" or 2.) "dumb thing," and that's it. No one seems to truly consider our responsibility to watch for animals on the road; in most instances I've seen, the animal is blamed for being "stupid." No, they're fucking terrified and panicking. Anyway, I'm going on a tangent. Basically, I think we should feel far more pity for what we end, even though it's accidental. And get out of the fucking car to see if it's okay/can be saved. Have you ever gotten sick from someone else’s cooking? I believe so, but I don't really blame the cook. My stomach is just REALLY sensitive to food it's not used to, particularly fancier meals. What was the last kind of cheese you ate? American. How young is too young to be sexually active? "Personally, I think anything under 18." <<< Same. Would you ever dye your hair silver? I wanted to at some point, but particularly with my hairstyle now, idk how good it'd look. What was the last fun thing you did? Shot a wedding. Have you ever dated someone who had a child from a previous relationship? No. Is there any drama currently going on with your family? No. What’s your favorite kind of soup? I'm not a fan. Do you know anyone who practices Hinduism? No. How long was your longest relationship? Three and a half years. When was the last time you spoke to the first person you ever kissed? February 2017. What’s a political issue you have a strong opinion on? Gay rights. What snacks do you like to get at the movie theater? Just popcorn is fine. If I have any candy, it's from a gas station or dollar store. Movie theater prices are expensive as fuck. Have you ever stayed in a hotel in the center of a big city? No. What was the last fruit or vegetable you chopped/sliced up? Romaine lettuce for my iguana. When you take a nap, do you nap in bed or on the couch? In bed. Do you have any friends you have never gotten into an argument with? Yeah, Connie. Girt and I have also never really had an argument, he's just said things that hurt me as his sense of humor can be a bit harsh and they were sensitive areas, but he's never meant it. Do you think you could survive living by yourself for a month? No. Can you cook anything other then toast? Yeah. How many times have you cried over the last person you cried over?  I don’t remember the last person that I cried over. Have you ever been in an on-and-off relationship? So annoying right? No. Have you ever developed a crush on someone the first day you met them? I don’t think so. Have you ever been with someone who was really clingy? Did it annoy you? For only two weeks. I like to pretend that shit never happened. Is there a store you go to so much the employees know your name? The tattoo/piercing parlor I go to know me well; some probably remember my name. Do you have any friends who never shut up about their boyfriend/girlfriend? One literally only talks to me if she wants to ramble endlessly about him. Have you ever helped someone while they were drunk puking? No. There is NO way I could be with someone while they're vomiting. The sound would make me join in, and that's almost a promise. What annoys you more to do, sneeze or cough? Cough. Would you rather have a pet snake or a pet cat? I want another snake. Do you fall for all the lines about making guys/girls like you on magazine covers? Lmao yeah right. Do you have a calendar in your room? What’s it’s theme? My door is currently open so I can't see for sure, but I have three or four outdated meerkat calendars as decoration. Have you ever gotten anything racist about you yelled at you? No. Does the last person whose house you were at like anyone? She's married, so obviously. Do you own more pink or black clothes? Just about everything is black. Has a boyfriend/girlfriend ever given you a stuffed animal? Yeah. What does the last body wash you used smell like? I think it's some kind of ocean-y scent? I don't pay attention. I just know it's blue. What is the worst name anyone has ever called you? A martyr, and not the good kind. Where is your favorite place to eat out? Sonic. Does it bother you when people call you ‘ma'am’ or 'sir?’ No. That's general good manners in the South. Have you ever been obsessed with a television character? I don't think so, but maybe? What was the last thing that changed your life completely? Recovery. Do you have any step siblings? One. I don't call him my brother, though. Did you partake in senior skip days? HA I sure did. Have you ever read the Christian Bible? Not the entire thing. When the holidays come around, do you help decorate? Yeah. Has someone ever promised not to leave you? NEVER IN YOUR FUCKING LIFE BELIEVE THAT SHIT. Do you have a part-time job? No. Are you the type of person who likes to buy gifts for your friends? If I had my own money, I absolutely would. Hopefully I can when I have a job... though I don't exactly have many people to send anything to. Have you ever lived in an apartment before? I wasn't an actual resident, though I was pretty much always there. Have you ever been questioned by the police? No. Are you close to your parents? Yeah. Have you ever had to be put on medicine for a mental disorder? For most of my life. Have you ever been responsible for someone’s death? Wow, no. Do you ever spend the night with your significant other? Well, we're long distance. We do when we visit each other. Do you know a lot about serial killers? No. Have the police ever been looking for you? Ha ha yes, but only because my sister, friend, and I went walking on the beach at night, and apparently Mom didn't hear us when we told her we were going... Have you ever been in a car accident? Yes. Do you cuss more than any one else you know? Tbh probably lmao. How old is your youngest cousin? I don't know. Do you tend to talk on the phone a lot? No. Have there ever been any serial killers around your hometown? I don't believe so. When was the last time you went to a museum? When my brother and nephew were here early this month. Do you know how to shoot a gun and hit a target? No. What turns you on the most? Don't grab my boobs. Have you ever kissed someone of the same sex? Yes. Do you answer the phones at your work? N/A What’s your ring tone? The Revaleso remix of "Dear Insanity" by Asking Alexandria. The text alert sound is the chime of picking up a gem in Spyro. Do you want to fix anything with anyone? Yeah. Did you wake up in the middle of the night last night? I do literally every night. It sucks. What shows do you watch? None. Do you know anyone who has been arrested? Yes. When you were in elementary school, did you change best friends a lot? No. Have you ever suspected anyone of cheating on you? No. Who was the last person to give you a ride somewhere? My VR counselor drove me home the other day. What’s the scariest bug you’ve ever seen? I'm sure some kind of beetle. Not a fan of beetles. What was your favorite TV show you watched as a kid? Pokemon. :') How many times a day do you tell your parents you love them? Mom, at least once when she leaves for work. Dad, I barely ever see him, so. I don't daily. Ever talk to your pets? Of course I do. I talk to them like I talk to people. Do you think it’s alright if people baby talk to babies? ... Yes???? At a certain age you need to set an example to talk correctly, as the kid is going to copy you, but as a baby, no shit it's fine? Ever take a nap in a hammock? I may have fallen asleep, maybe not. Probably not tho 'cuz I would've been afraid of bugs (the hammock was between two trees directly outside the woods in our backyard), so I've likely just dozed for a bit, if anything. Who’s the best character in Rugrats? Oh boy, I don't remember them all. I know I liked Tommy, but I mean, he was the main character, so I guess that's to be expected for a little kid, mostly seeing him. Ever get caught doing something naughty with your boyfriend/girlfriend? No. Who has had the biggest impact on your life? Jason. Girls: ever wear boxers? Guys: ever wear a thong? No. Do you use q-tips to clean your ears? DON'T DO THAT. I got wax adhered to both eardrums because I did that frequently; it inevitably pushed things back and dried onto them. NOT fun getting it sucked out; hurts like a bitch. Always only use them for the outside of your ears. This has been a PSA. Ever want to make out with someone, anyone, didn’t matter who? No. Ever had your feelings hurt when you knew the person was joking? That is EASY, friendo. Do you make jack-o-lanterns during Halloween? Sometimes. Have you ever swam with dolphins? No. Cats, awesome pets or Satan in disguise? I love cats. When you buy/receive new clothes, do you instantly wear them or wash first? Wash them. Do you hate using public restrooms? VERY MUCH. I will avoid using one at almost all costs. What’s the weirdest item you’ve seen for sale on Ebay? Oh my fucking god. So one night my friend Chelsea and I were up REALLY late and were loopy as fuck and this bitch started looking up weird dildos and shit and I'm not even remotely kidding, she found a huge 50 lb. butt plug. I sincerely wish I was joking. Do you check to make sure there’s TP before using the restroom? Yeah. Do you drunk dial/text? I've never been drunk. Have you ever built a massive snow fort? No. We don't get enough snow here. Are parents to blame for what their kids do on the Internet? Not entirely. Do you use acronyms to remember things? I did in school. Do you take pills like Tylenol for the littlest aches and pains? No. When was the last time you went rollerskating? WOW I don't know, but it's been a long time. Do you call people “dude” a lot? Yes. Who was your favorite Ninja Turtle? I was never into them. Horror flicks make you: laugh, scream, or squirm? Out of those, I may ever only squirm at nasty shit. If you could become a doctor, what would you specialize in? Probably ophthalmology (eye doctors). The last time I went to the eye doctor, I got way too into the science and anatomy of the eyes and such. You woulda thought I saw God when I realized I could see the veins in my eyes during that "lemme shine this light straight into your eyes" tests; I thought it was SO cool. Well, I probably realized this at previous appointments, I just didn't remember. Hm, or maybe a pathologist, that'd be cool. I'm looking through a list of doctors, yes. What’s the cutest thing a little kid has ever said to/in front of you? Probably just "I love you" and stuff like that from my niece and nephew. Ha ha aw, wait... When my brother and older nephew were here, Christian exclaimed, "She's up!", like the MOMENT I moved in bed one morning. I'm so happy to say that kid loves me. He wore me the HELL out in the course of just three days, but man, I miss the lil dude now. That occasion in particular just really sticks out to me because I do not find myself good with kids, and to just hear how excited he was that I was up meant the world to me. Apparently I was fun enough. At what age do you plan on moving out? I hope in like... two more years, maybe less. I need a stable job, a car, but I also DO NOT want to live alone, so I'd want to wait until Sara was ready to move, too. I'm beyond thankful Mom isn't rushing me in the least, she seems happy I live here actually, but I don't want to be in her hair much longer nonetheless. I have to be an adult. Did any characters from TV shows scare you as a kid? Which one(s)? King Ramses from Courage the Cowardly Dog fuck-ing TERRIFIED me. His animation was unique to what was normal in the show, so that automatically stood out as different and weird, but more than anything, I was just so scared by his voice and repetitive lines. I had nightmares of that shitlord. HA HA OH MAN I REMEMBER THIS TOO: When I visited my aunt and uncle's when I was little, my family slept on the floor in a room downstairs, and there were small trees outside the window that would sway, and the outline on the curtains would make me think of him. I remember waking Mom up one night about it, and I think she gave me something for comfort, but idr what. What’s the saddest thing you’ve heard on the news recently? In my very own fucking state, consent can no longer legally be revoked when sex begins. Fuck this place. How long does it take before you trust a person? It depends on the person. It's usually a while, though. Have you ever made a time capsule? What did you put in it? Hm... I feel like I have? Wait yeah, I did in elementary school! It was a class effort. Idr where it was buried. What would you do if your mom or dad read your diary/journal/blog? My mother would be deeply concerned that my love of Mark runs as deep as it does, meanwhile my dad would be v v v confused. They would mutually be very worried of their daughter's willingness to eradicate the fools of the population and replace them all with miniature Fischfucks. Do you know anyone with a lisp? I may? I don't exactly have a lisp, but in certain words, I pronounce "s" weakly due to my tongue piercing getting in the way, but it's very mild. If you were to break a Guinness Record, which one would you try and beat? Idk. What’s the coolest item in your room? I'm not sure, I find a lot of things in here particularly cool for various reasons. Hence why it's so heavily decorated. I guess my favorite is probably the Japanese, limited edition Silent Hill: Revelation flyer I have framed on the wall. I won it in a giveaway and I love it alskdjfklajwer. I wanna collect more SH merch, man. Are you accident-prone? Yes, due to my own lack of common sense and clumsy nature. As a kid, what was your favorite activity on the playground? I BOLTED for that swing. Are huge muscles gross or sexy? I'm not a fan of extreme muscles. Have you ever fished and caught something weird? Phew, I grew up fishing all the time with Dad. I'm certain I have. Well, I caught a catfish by the eye, but only the method's weird there, lol. I still to this day feel so bad for the fella. Is old age catching up with you? In my back and knees lmao. Can you sleep through thunderstorms? Yes. Ever spent the night in a tent? Yes. Do people confide in you? Some do. Ever been around someone who makes you feel stupid? He doesn't intend to, he's just reeeaaally fucking smart. Actually, that goes for my brother, too. I knew he was very intelligent, but holy shit, when he was here last and I actually got to hear more about him, his beliefs, and general knowledge, dude's a genius. How many college degrees do you want? Either up to Bachelor's or Master's. For my career goal of being an out-in-the-field zoologist, I need the latter. Do you like animals? SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever written anything longer than 10 pages? Yes; my high school senior project was at least one. There's other personal stories I wrote as a kid, too. Can you snap your fingers? Yes. Can you wink? My right eye, yes. I can with my left eye, but not without my face distorting pretty badly. What song explains how you feel about love? *shrugs* Does hardship make a person stronger? It depends on what they take from it. What comes to mind when you think of pregnancy? Ew please never. Have you ever attended a professional sporting event? Yeah, hockey games with Dad. What is your favorite brand of clothing? I don't have one. Which do you value more, intellect or work ethic? Work ethic. How well do you know the people you live with? Well, I live with my mom, who I've lived with my whole life, and we're very close, if that answers the question. Do you have any heroes? *blinks* Ever been to a cabin on a mountain? No, I wish. Ever lost your voice? At least once. Are you a cautious person? Yes. Meet Anxiety, baby. Do you enjoy comedy shows? Yeah. Do you chew gum? Sometimes, rarely. Do you think a lot when taking a shower? Not really. I just enjoy whatever music I have on. Are you currently charging your phone? No. Do you ever get razor rash? No. Are you a private person? It depends on the subject. If you straighten your hair, do you always use hair spray? N/A Do you curl your hair often? It's too short to be curled. What’s the earliest you’ve ever woken up for school? Idk. Probably around 5:00-5:30 if I was getting ready for a special day or something. Can you get ready in under 10 minutes? Yeah. Has anyone ever told you that you were a bad kisser? No. Do you like Frostys from Wendy’s? Hell yeah. Would you ever sleep in the same bed as your sibling? Sure, if we had no other choice. Ever taken a shower with someone? My little sister and I did all the time as kids, I'm guessing to save water. Would you consider yourself to be a creative person? Yes. Do you usually take a nap during the day? Yes, usually. Might you enjoy hanging out in the woods for day or two? HELL YEAH!!!!!! So long I have my camera and company, that'd be awesome!!! Do you suffer from frequent paranoia? Eh, not as badly as I used to. Two friends whom have been there for you the most? Sara and Girt. If you/your gf became pregnant accidentally, would you consider abortion? If it was my own fault for not using protection, I couldn't do it; then that's my own foolishness. I would regardless if my life was endangered, though. I do believe abortion is killing a living being once brain activity begins, but I believe in the right to put yourself first. If a complete stranger picked a fight with you, would you fight or flight? Flight if possible. Defend myself when necessary. Have you ever decided to set fire to something out of anger? No. Would you rather be a house pet or a wild animal? House pet, so long as my owner is a good one that truly loves me. Wild animal would be much more dangerous, and besides, I like the idea of companionship. Can you juggle more than two objects at once? lol I probably couldn't even juggle two. Can you function well on little to no sleep? Eh. I'm cranky for sure, but I can function. Well... depending. If I am REALLY tired, I won't be able to keep my eyes open. Do you find that it is difficult to maintain your mood? Even on medication, I'm still bipolar (not using that as an adjective; I'm legitimately diagnosed with it). My mood can change VERY quickly with tiny stimuli, but at a much, much milder degree. Have you ever listened to a group of chanting Monks? (if not you should) No, but it's cool! Two sports that you are horrible at? Tennis and volleyball. The latter mostly just hurts like a bitch. One thing that you would like to change about your life? My job situation. What was the last candy you ate? Sour gummy worms. Which decade was your favorite for fashion trends? Idk. I'm really not educated enough on what was trendy for each one. Do you like the current fashion trends? I pay no attention. Who is the strangest (or one of the strangest) person you’ve met? I won't give away his name as it's a pretty unique one, but there was a kid in high school who was certainly different in both good and bad ways. He was pretty unstable. Made his own religion. What are you struggling with currently? Finding a mfckn job. Do you forgive yourself for your mistakes? Most, I'd say. Have you ever been abused by a police officer? No. Name one friend who had a parent who was in jail. A cousin of mine. Has anyone tried to kill you and then played the victim? No? What is your favorite board game? I like Battleship and Scrabble. Can you remember the last time you played a board game? A few months back with Sara and Girt. Actually Scrabble, lol. List three traumatic memories you have. The only truly traumatic memory I have is the breakup. Well, I guess a nightmare I had with my dad kinda is too, seeing as it still affects my trust today? Have you ever been misdiagnosed with something by a bad doctor? Yup. How the fuck did I have ADHD, woman. If you don’t mind my asking, when was the last time you had diarrhea? Like about two weeks ago before my period started. That's starting to seem like a theme. Do you prefer sunny days or cloudy days? I like partly cloudy. Do you have a painful past? A good chunk of it. But I mean, who doesn't have some rough paths behind them. What was the best time of your life? Walking through Chicago with Sara and her dad one night was INCREDIBLE. Coming from the middle of nowhere into such a colossal city with all these lights and such was such a shock to me, and exploring it with them was super cool. It was cold as fuck, but still, it was fun. When was the last time you were hugged? Idk. Well, probably last time I was at Ashley's saying bye to everyone. Do you trust your doctor? Yes. Name something God has healed you of. HAHAHAHA. If applicable, how old were you when you got "saved?" I was raised into religion, so I don't know. I grew up "saved." Have you been baptized, and if so, where? Yes, at my childhood church.

[bayfood]

Bayfood’s Top 10 Places to Eat in 2013.

Now that the year is just about over, it’s time for the top ten list! For the past three years, I created a top ten list of the restaurants I’ve most frequently eaten at or really liked out of all the places I tried. I guess it’s become a component of this blog, so I had to do it again for 2013! This list is mostly comprised of places that I tried for the first time that really stood out to me throughout the year. I didn't travel out of California as much this year with the exception of Chicago, so this year's list is centered around the Bay for the most part. Anyway, who doesn’t love arbitrary Top Ten lists? I know I read them all the time when I’m lurking celebrity gossip sites, heh. Don’t take my rankings too seriously since I am in no way a food/culinary expert. Enjoy. :)

10. Molly's Cupcakes (Chicago, IL)

This was the cutest cupcakery I have ever been to! Right when you walk in, you see cute decorations adorning the wall and most prominently, the swing bar chairs! I really like the whimsical atmosphere of the place. I wanted to try out the swing for myself, but I was too scared that I would fall off. Knowing me, that would probably happen. The line moves pretty fast despite how long it may seem and the wait for your order isn’t too bad either. I also appreciated the “Sprinkle Station” that they had where you can add more toppings to your cupcakes and add creamer to your coffee. My favorite flavor was the Cake Batter, which was a vanilla confetti cake, with a raw cake batter center, topped with a vanilla butter cream and festive sprinkles. The cake batter in the center was so yummy, and let's be real, that's half the fun in even making cake! Next time I come back, I'm most definitely sitting in those swing seats.

9. Saul's Restaurant & Delicatessen (Berkeley, CA)

After having the most delicious sandwiches of my life in Philly, I am on the hunt to find a satisfying replacement here in the Bay. So I headed over to Saul's Deli to get myself a Reuben. I was so excited to finally get my Reuben! I got my sandwich with pastrami with Swiss, sauerkraut and Russian on grilled Acme rye. I was really excited upon seeing my meal because it was stacked with layers of meat! The pastrami was really tender and I am officially in love with Acme bread. I think the bread really makes the difference. My only qualms was that it may have been too stacked with sauerkraut? If you consider that a con, lol. It was a good, satisfying sandwich as the meat was nice and soft but plentiful. I'd love to try the rest of their menu in the future, such as the matzo ball soup. 

8. Mirchi Cafe (Fremont, CA)

I really like Mirchi Cafe because it's a fun fusion of Pakistani flavors and American dishes. My native Pakistani parents were not as enthused with it, reacting as if it was more of a culture clash, but this first-generation kid was pretty happy. I decided to order Chicken and Waffles since I’ve never had it! The fried chicken had some Pakistani inspired spices so the fried chicken had some spice! I’m still not quite sure how you eat this dish, so I kind of just ate the waffle separately and the chicken separately since they gave me a spicy sauce for the chicken and syrup for my waffle. It was really filling and I had so much left over. Definitely would not expect this at a Pakistani restaurant. Their fries are also delicious with their Mirchi seasoning as are their wraps. 

7. Mindy's Hot Chocolate (Chicago, IL)

I added Mindy's on my list of things to try in Chicago, after seeing it on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Although it was late March, it was still nippy enough to enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate. The dinner was average, but I recommend the appetizers and desserts for sure. The mini cheddar biscuits with honey butter were divine. The hot chocolate that I ordered was the cocoa nib which consisted of 2/3 belgian white chocolate, 1/3 hazelnut infused milk chocolate (a big reason why I chose it!), and a dash of cocoa nib. It was so good! The hot chocolate wasn’t so thick that it was extremely chocolate-y nor was it overly sweet. They also give you homemade marshmallows. We also indulged our sweet tooths and ordered the chocolate “souffled” tart. It was a tart with salted caramel ice cream, and house made pretzels. The sweet tart was paired well with the other salty dishes, so it kept it from being too sweet. The tart reminded me of a jumbo macaron because of it’s texture and lightness.

6. Joanie's Cafe (Palo Alto, CA)

Whenever I have an early appointment or a break between them, I stop by Joanie's for a late breakfast or early brunch. I am obsessed with Eggs Benedict (eggs in egg sauce!), so this is my go-to order. We even emphasized that we had to be out soon to get to to the doctor’s office, and they really delivered on being speedy. We were a group of three and were in and out in half an hour, which worked perfectly in between appointments. I don’t eat bacon, so I’m really glad that they make their Eggs Benedict into a Florentine with spinach and tomatoes as well, so long as you make sure to ask. The eggs were poached beautifully as the yolk oozed out when I cut into it and I really love the Hollandaise. This is my sodium splurge if I decide to eat here and I totally don’t regret it when I do! 

5. Local 123 (Berkeley, CA)

I was really happy to find that it was a large cafe with a lot of spaces. After I ordered, which ended up being a bit more than I expected (though I was prepared for that because of the emphasis of supplying local-grown/made ingredients), I was able to find a nice seat with some sun near the lovely moon mural. I ordered the Local Poach along with my hot chocolate, which consisted of two organic eggs with herb buttered Acme toast. The egg was cooked well and it was the perfect amount of hard and soft, in my opinion. My only qualms with this place would be that the kitchen closes early, so if you want something to eat you need to get here before 3 PM. They also have a 15 dollar minimum card charge, and I didn’t see that until I was about to pay. So bring cash if you don’t intend on spending that much! If I had found this place earlier in the school year I think it definitely would have become my study spot. I miss Berkeley and exploring places like this!

4. La Mediterranee (San Francisco, CA)

My last experience at their Berkeley location was so lackluster, I was reluctant to try it again. However, I'm so glad I didn't listen to myself and went ahead with eating here! After a trip to the SFMOMA right before it closed for renovations, we headed here for an early dinner. This time I got the  the Saffron Chicken, which consisted of sliced Halal chicken breast baked in a Saffron Lemon sauce served over rice pilaf and came with a side of Armenian Potato salad (which I really enjoyed last time). The chicken was moist and I loved the lemon sauce! I’m a big fan of citrus flavors so I really enjoyed the tang of it. The rice was also nice and soft and went well with the sauce and chicken. I am now a big fan of Armenian potato salad that I have made it at home. I like it because it’s much lighter than American potato salad since there’s no eggs or mayonnaise, etc. I don’t really care for vegetables like celery either, so having onions and tomatoes was much better in my opinion. My experience was ten times better at this location, so I highly recommend visiting this front if you want some good Mediterranean food.

3. Ssissio (San Francisco, CA)

I wanted a new experience for my birthday, and I have actually never had Korean food before. It was doing new things with close friends, especially those that have already had it before. I had a bunch of their appetizers, so I got a great intro to the cuisine. My favorite appetizer at this restaurant was the Kimchi Jeon, which were kimchi pancakes! Pickled spicy vegetables fried into a pancake is a genius creation. My dinner was also really delicious. I HAD to finally try the Dolsot Bibimbap with brown rice, bulgogi, and sesame soy sauce. I mean, how could I have chosen wrong - meat: good, rice: good, vegetables: good, egg: good! I can't believe I've never had a fried egg on top of rice before, and this is a great quick meal for future lazy dinners! I tried so hard to finish it but it was impossible, despite the fact I shared it with two others. My feelings on their service is mixed as they have some great and not so great qualities, but do not let that deter you from the good food. 

2. Giordano's Famous Chicago Pizza (Chicago, IL)

I can no longer decide which type of pizza I love, after eating Deep Dish. We decided to keep our pizza pie simple and put only one topping: beef. And man, I was so satisfied after I had it. I loved how much cheese, sauce, and meat was in each slice. I never wanted to stop eating. While they give you copious amounts on each piece, I feel like one doesn’t overpower the other, nor do you feel overwhelmed by the volume of all of the ingredients. I’m a big fan of things like pot pie, so the stuffed pie experience was a good deal to me. It truly was amore, and I am missing that pie every day. 

1. The Vine (Fremont, CA)

My top favorite has to be this awesome place I found in the Niles neighborhood of Fremont! Who knew Fremont could actually have a cool, comteporary eatery? It satisfies the hipster checklist with its quirky furniture, great ambience, and mason jars for water. Since it was brunch, I split the Chilaquiles. It is a dish that consists of  house fried sundried tomato and blue corn tortilla chips tossed with tomatillo & ancho chile sauce, soft scrambled eggs, black beans, sour cream and cotija cheese. It was a great combination for breakfast and lunch since we got the nachos along with eggs. I also had a side of ricotta cheese pancakes with topped with fresh berries and powdered sugar. I didn’t expect them to be as small and thin as they were, but I was pleasantly surprised with the pancakes. They weren’t overly sweet and the berries complemented the pancakes very well. I think it’s a good size for a side, especially since everyone’s entrees looked very large. I still need to come back during lunch and dinner to try the rest of the menu.

And, there you have it! Here’s to hoping 2014 brings more good eats, and more importantly, great experiences. May the odds be ever in your favor everyone. :)

(Past Top Ten Lists: 2010 | 2011 | 2012)

[arttlations]

one

Aside from the fact that my essays always stray too far from the topic given or as mentioned before, lack elegance in my usage of language and hence cost me a few marks, my overall grades were basically good. Simply put, I was close to being called a top student. That is why, before the placings for the midterm exams were out, I made a bet with Fatty and the rest that I would be able to attain a level placing in the top 15. This was a safe bet, for if I could get a pass for my essay, top 15 in the level would be an easy goal.

However, when the placings were released, I was ranked 16th.

Speechless, I treated Fatty and the rest to the student cafeteria's best fried noodles. Each person ate two big plates, and along with the noodles that disappeared, so did half of my week's allowance. (Dad and Mum used to give my brother and I our allowance weekly.) I was dissatisfied; my essay had surprisingly gotten a good pass, yet why was I unable to get into the top 15? I took out the seven scripts and went through each one of them carefully: out of a 100, Chinese 87, Mathematics 90, English 92, Physics 89, Political Science 86, History 69. My History must have pulled me down; it actually fell below 70 marks. Still unwilling to accept the placing, I went through the script thoroughly, hoping to spot a calculation error of one or two marks. The 15th rank belonged to Lu Feng, who was also from our class, and he only got one mark more than I did. Getting one mark back would mean I could share the spot with him. This wasn't about honor but rather about whether I would be able to eat this week.

With this final check, my blood started boiling, my face turned red with fury. I got a full score for the multiple-choice questions, but the teacher only gave me a big red tick, not a single mark out of the twenty marks was added to my final score.

Twenty, twenty marks...... Amongst the top 15, even half a mark could change everything, let alone forty half marks.

The me who was originally lying in the top bunk bed of the eight-people shared dorm awaiting death immediately sprang up, prepared myself to look for Fatty first to get the money back and then get my rightful marks back at the teachers' office. Suddenly, as soon as I lifted my head, I saw Lu Feng who resided in the lower bunk below me dash through the doorway excitedly, in his hands was an expensive-looking paper box.

"Cheng Yi Chen, come and check out my CD player."

It was the year 1996, in our small village back then, it was a time where many children could only enjoy the heavy cassette tape players, and carrying an AIWA Walkman was already a privilege that extended way beyond the MD-Player. I too, carried an unspeakable sense of curiosity and admiration as I examined the black gadget, and in the meantime, completely forgot about my usual stance of not bothering myself with Lu Feng.

Since the start of school, only half a term had gone past, but the cliques in which the boys hung out in were already more or less formed. Lu Feng and I were two different kinds of people that would never mix with the other no matter what. For me, as you guys have seen, I was a good student and an obedient son. My brother who's younger than me by a year was still in his first year of junior secondary school while I was a quick student who moved up by a few grades to be in the first year of senior secondary school. Besides my marks, my other aspects were on the low side; my family's financial background was extremely normal, (I'll see you try if you had parents who are both earning an average salary and yet have to support a son, one without any knowledge in terms of managing finances, studying at a prestigious school.) I was taught from young that nothing was more valuable than the knowledge you get from books and was threatened with the usual scare "if you can't get into university, then you can go back to our hometown and plow through our ancestors' fields that extend for miles", hence, I would never compare myself with others. Be it in terms of my meals or attire, as long as it's edible or wearable, an example being my outfit from junior high, the standard blue or black long pants with a white top and white sneakers, I would still try to wear it. As expected, I had the most appropriate hairstyle that's aligned with the school rules, and a daily scene you would see would be me wearing an old-fashioned pair of glasses as I sat at my desk, occupied with work.

Lu Feng, on the other hand, he's...... um...... it isn't right to speak badly of someone behind their backs, so I would simply present an objective point of view, picking a few rumors I had heard through the grapevine.

Appearance: Apparently, he was the level's most stylish and handsome male student, and if compared to Andy Lau or Aaron Kwok, they wouldn't stand a chance. (Really? Why didn't anyone find a Chinese man with a high nose bridge and deep amber eyes strange?)

Family background: Yes...... I heard that his father was a Chinese American, but anyway, Lu Feng is a person of mixed race, and just putting this out here, from the start of junior high, Lu Feng's family had been donating large sums of money to the school yearly to build this and that.

Academics: Um...... Let's just say the fact that he had entered the top 15 was as senseless as the fact that I hadn't entered the top 15.

Character: Eh, this sensitive question makes it hard to arrive at an answer, but the money that his father had donated was partly for the removal of records of Lu Feng's multiple fights. In one of the years of junior high, he had miraculously not been caught for the whole year. The finance department was said to have been riddled with anxiety for quite a while then.

Simply concluded, none of us look up to the other.

This new machine had obviously made us forget about this as we sat together listening to Lu Feng's collection of CDs of popular rock artists who I had never heard of.

"The sound quality is quite good, isn't it?" Lu Feng excitedly chattered, "My father's a man who keeps his words. Getting into the top 15 this time all depended on luck."

I immediately understood. This was the prize Lu Feng asked for from his father.

Feeling the history paper in my hands, I hesitated. I didn't like Lu Feng, but I couldn't bear to dampen his spirits at the moment.

"Like it? I'm going out to play soccer in the afternoon, do you want to borrow it first?"

Gosh, this was hateful...... He was too generous.

I quickly rolled up the paper hidden behind my back. Forget it, the cost of the plates of fried noodles wouldn't even add up to half a piece of the CD player's antenna.

Lu Feng scooped up the soccer ball below his table, and shouting for the boys next door, he left. The player was still sitting on my desk. I sighed. "Because of you; to protect you I'll have to starve for two days."

Throwing my script aside, I picked up an English textbook for a read on Lu Feng's bed before I gradually fell asleep.

Go on, sleep, once you fall asleep you'll no longer be hungry.

When I woke up, Lu Feng was already back, his eyes carefully examining something in his hand as he stood by the bedside rubbing his hair dry. I wandered for a moment before realizing that was my history paper.

"Your marks are tabulated wrongly." Seeing that I had woken up, Lu Feng lifted the paper, his tone calm yet unfriendly.

I muttered an "oh" in return.

"Why don't you go correct it? You might just become 1st if the marks are added."

"If I changed it, you would..." As expected, I was never one with the gift of gab after a nap. Who knew, Lu Feng was one with an immense amount of pride, and the look on his face obviously changed upon hearing these words.

"I know you look down on me. When the final exams come about, I'll be able to get a placing above you just fine by myself, you don't have to pretend to care."

Well, so much for being nice.

"I don't have any other intentions. That player is pretty neat, but as to whether you want it or not, that is your problem, it has nothing to do with me. I have no need to curry favor with you, and I'm not looking down on anyone, so don't be so narrow-hearted." I was too lazy to say any more, and with a quick eye roll, I snatched my paperback.

The room was quiet for some time before I heard him spoke. "How about this, I don't like owing people favors, so let me treat you to a meal."

This person is pretty irritating, treating someone to a meal immediately after having scolded them off.

After giving it some thought and finding that I was indeed hungry, I nodded. "Sure."

After that, I often thought, if I wasn't for this exchange, if Lu Feng and I had kept our distance and simply brushed past each other as usual, the future, my future, his future, would perhaps have been different.

I never expected that Lu Feng would go to such a great expense for the meal.

Repeating myself again, that was the year 1996, Kentucky's chicken wasn't as commonly found in the past. To eat that meal of KFC, it required a one hour plus journey on an old bumpy bus before they reached the city. To be honest, my knowledge on these American fast foods only extended till what I've read about them or seen on television, and as a result, Lu Feng called me old-fashioned for I had on a serious and respectful expression as I dipped the French fries in the tomato sauce with deep concentration, even more so than when I do an analysis question in Chemistry.

Even though I was mercilessly made fun of and laughed at by Lu Feng, that became one of my life's most unforgettable meals, and that feeling would never return in the future as I sit in the KFC by the street eating a burger and pieces of chicken.

Maybe a person's first indeed leaves the strongest memories.

This will then explain why in the many years to come, I would still fail to forget this man called Lu Feng.

For as many firsts he had given me, he had taken just as much away from me.

prologue//two//masterlist

[hardeepcox]

The Chronicles of Hardeep Cox - Bangkok pt 1

Intro

Hi my name is Hardeep Cox, I may or may not be a guy born to an Indian mom and a white guy from Boston in the DMV area. Then again I may or may not be just an extremely immature adult with a ridiculous sense of humor. Quick warning: if you are easily offended then I suggest you just exit this shit right now and idk go watch cable tv or something.

I am writing this as we prepare for our first legit night out in Bangkok, as I and a dude named Paper awkwardly wait for my dad to finish showering so we can head out. Tonight’s destination is Above Eleven, but I’ll explain more later on. Let’s begin with our arrival.

Flight and Night 1

After about 20 hours of flying we met up with Paper, our guide/family friend (on my dad’s side). Paper picked us up from the airport and helped us hail a cab. My first impression of Bangkok when I stepped outside of the airport was that it seemed so similar to Los Angeles, I guess because of the weather and vegetation. Anyways, the cab dropped us off at the Doubletree where an enormous wooden figure of a football (soccer) sat in the lobby. To my unbelievable surprise, it turned out that Paper was actually going to be staying in the hotel room with us because he lives outside of the city (my dad of course manages to leave out important details like this when planning trips). Because of the timezone change we were hungry upon arrival, at 3 in the damn morning. So we did what any idiot American tourist would do, we went to 7 Eleven. I had to accept the fact that chili and cheese quarter pounders would no longer be an option, so I went with the spicy basil rice and fish sauce. I gotta say that it was pretty good, even though it was spicy as hell. After crushing my first meal in Thailand, we did our best to sleep for the next couple of hours.

Day 1

Sleep deprived but feeling ready to roll, we got ready and headed downstairs for breakfast. The buffet included the usual American stuff, sushi, dim sum, and some freshly made Thai dishes.The dim sum was by far my favorite, and today it was Chinese egg tarts.

We went to some Buddhist temples, hundreds of years old. There were so many Chinese tourists, and so many lame pictures being taken by them (sitting down in lotus position next to a statue of the Buddha, a chick looking dramatically and diagonally down at the floor while her boyfriend takes a picture for her instagram and you KNOW she’s gonna add some kind of bullshit philosophical caption to it). It was hard to get into the spiritual groove with all these tourists, and the only places where I could feel peace was in the praying rooms where I wish that I could have stayed longer. The best part was the Wat Phra Ram, literally the place where they filmed one of my favorite childhood movies Mortal Kombat. It was totally unexpected and spontaneous, the most interesting part about it was the dog that had managed to sneak up into the actual ruins and seemed to be searching for something at a calm pace. My pathetic attempts to whistle loud enough for the dog to hear me led me to run around the ruins hoping to catch a glimpse of it. I heard it howl a couple of times after that and I’ll always wonder why, maybe its spirit led it to the ruins to discover a link to a past life. Who knew I would have accidentally stepped into the Netherealm, but too bad I couldn't meet Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Liu Kang's dead brother (if you don't get this reference please find a time machine and go back in time to 1995, break into a Hollywood video, steal a copy of Mortal Kombat, watch it, go back into the time machine, return to the present time, and punch yourself in the fucking face).

Tired as hell we walked around markets near the Chao Phra Ya river, they were pretty generic developing country markets and I was extremely tired so I just wanted to go back to the hotel and pass out. We tried some sticky rice dessert that was pretty good so we bought some, and my dumbass ate my entire portion in the cab and felt even more like a piece of shit after. We made a stop for some roadside Pad Thai, it was delicious but again I was exhausted. Back in the cab again I pretty much passed out from exhaustion.

Night 2

I woke maybe 45 minutes later still in the cab but the sun was setting and the nocturnal city was coming alive. Suddenly it dawned on me that we had to be in Chinatown and my street-mode immediately turned on. After driving us through some beautifully sketchy streets, our cab driver dropped us off at a main road. All the lights made it look like it was an attempt at giving it a times square feel. I was now totally awake and ready for more exploring, and after walking for a bit we walked by a Chinese restaurant (Chinatown in Bangkok is an extremely fast-paced environment full of beautiful chaos, if you can’t keep up you might as well stay in your comfy apartment and drink lattes or something). The menu had so many choices, but no combination fried rice, general tso’s chicken, or lo mein (at this point I realized that I should just forget about these options because I’m not gonna find this delicious diabetes-maximus anymore). I got the egg noodles with roasted duck for $2, and the portion was just right for me since I was still full from that sticky rice and exhausted from the jetlag. Before the food coma took over, we took a tuk tuk to the nearest metro train station and made our way back to the hotel. The metro was actually very organized and technologically advanced, the DC metro could learn a thing or two from it. Because of the timezone change, the beers, sticky rice, and random stuff that I had eaten, I hadn’t really used the bathroom all day. Walking from the metro to the hotel at some point became truly difficult and I had tell myself just breathe man don’t shit yourself on your first night in Bangkok goddammit.

Now back at the hotel and totally relieved, our night actually began.

Nocturnal Adventure

We started out at the Queen Bee, a little bar across the street with shitty mojitos but a damn good blues band. From there we went to a place that my dad would not stop mentioning, Above Eleven, a local Peruvian restaurant. Probably one of the coolest restaurants that I’ve honestly ever been to. This was some upper class bougie shit as the kids say, but the view of the city was breathtaking and the food was absolutely delicious (and I am a picky fuck when it comes to flavors). The Peruvian food was authentic, the Pisco Sour was legit, and we got to meet Chef Omar Frank Maruy. Chef Maruy is the Japanese-Peruvian chef in charge of keeping the food quality at Above Eleven at its exquisite level. After downing a few Pisco sours, and devouring a few dishes (ceviche, jalea, and anticucho) we made our way to Havana Social. I could tell this place was throwing a good party as we walked to the entrance which was a random door in an alley with working girls in the corner. Too bad some of us were wearing shorts so we were ultimately denied entrance. Bummed out we walked to the nearest bar, Oskar, and had Lavender Pisco Sours. Seriously so creative and surprisingly delicious!

After downing these drinks we basically gave up and made our way back to the hotel. Maybe like 5 minutes away from the hotel we walked past a really sketchy alley and I shit you not, my dad says “let’s go into a small street shithole bar!” He’s already walking towards it so Paper and I say fuck it and we join him, plus I mean come on I gotta watch my dad’s back since hookers have been flirting with him for the past 25 minutes. We walk in and of course all these chicks are so psyched to see us, a very pretty hostess welcomes us so we sit at the bar and get some Tiger beers. With Youtube as our DJ, we start sipping on beers and my dad is just having a blast with these two chicks. They try to flirt with me but I’m like meh, I’ve honestly seen hotter escorts in Lima. Then one of them says, “I’m gonna bring my sister for you.” I’m like ok cool whatever, totally unimpressed as I watch my dad party at this little bar. This chick brings the pretty hostess over and introduces her as her “sister”, and I notice dude this girl is actually super cute and obviously not an actual escort. Me and her are both like uhh… hi? She’s not sure how to interact with idiot foreigners, but I can tell and I am just my usual super chill self with her. She gets a jack and coke, and I continue sipping on my Tiger. Her name is May, I was like “is it pronounced like the month May, or is it Mai like my?” She looked at me like if I was a dumbass but she was playful about it, and I start crushing on this chick because I mean duh I am a fucking idiot and I do shit like this. This all ended with a bill of almost $200 USD, an escort angry at us for not taking her back to our hotel, and me DJ’ing some old school reggaeton on their Youtube. As we made our way back to the hotel we ran into into girls selling booze on the sidewalk in what seemed like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo but cut in half the long way, and the girls turned the bottom half of the car into a mini-bar. As I took a whiz on a street corner, Paper points out that dude there is a toilet at this mini-bar on the sidewalk! I look behind a little curtain next to the mini-bar and there is in fact a toilet there, I mean not connected to any plumbing or anything, just literally a tiny toilet placed on the sidewalk. Did I whiz into this tiny toilet like 20 minutes later? Yes. Did I drink a few too many rum and cokes at this sidewalk mini-bar? Yes. Did I have any idea of what the hell to expect the next day? Hell no.

Night 3 - Let’s try not to die tonight shall we?

I’m skipping to Night 3 because the highlight of Day 2 is just me holding a lemur (by the way lemurs are freakin adorable and they have actual fingers and thumbs!), and realizing that my dad should move to the Thai countryside cuz he is actually genuinely happy there (he greeted random people from a canoe, including a naked fat guy who was in the middle of a soapy bath in the river).

On Night 3 we make another attempt at Havana Social (if there ever is a place with reggaeton and Cuban rum then you’ll probably find me there). The entrance is the #1 coolest that I have seen in my life so far, some dude gives you a code and you punch it into an old phone-booth, this then unlocks an old door next to it which you push open and find a little piece of Havana hidden within Bangkok. So there I am doing my thing downing Cuba Libres, dancing, and laughing at tourists dancing like idiots when I notice three pretty cute chicks dancing near us. I am not the most extroverted dude, but when I hear Latin music the beast is then awakened and I just let it take me places. So I slither over to these girls and pull off some of my signature moves, including one borrowed from my grandpa which I call the Egyptian knife hands. One of the chicks starts dancing with me and my first thought is “wow my dad is watching me spit some legit game, now I AM THE MASTER!” But anyways yeah we dancin and shiet. Suddenly she asks if I wanna go with her and her friends to another club, I thought it was a bad idea but the rum and Daddy Yankee had me saying “yeah screw it let’s go.” The four of us leave the club and somehow fit into a tuk tuk that says VIP on the seat and one of the girls say it’s free! RED FLAG - free shit usually comes with a price later on, and these girls seemed way too excited to have me along. One of the girls pulls out a wrapper with a bunch of pills and puts one in my mouth, my first thought is oh fuck I’m about to get roofied, or flooried, dammit Zack Galifianakis! I pretend to swallow the pill, then I look over into the street and spit this shit out. The girl is like are you feeling okay? I’m like yeah I’m great (meanwhile internally trying to think of an escape plan without freaking out)! We get to this club called Mixx, and this party is poppin. Every tourist is dancing with a local, and I’m thinking wow is every girl at a club in Bangkok an escort… like every single damn one?! My phone only has internet if there is wifi, and I tell the girl that I wanna call my friends to come but I need the wifi password so she hooked me up with her hotspot. Instead of figuring out how to use the wifi to escape, I’m in the bathroom FB messaging my friends back in the states how I almost got roofied and that I’m probably gonna die cuz I mean that is a brilliant idea right? I go back out there and one of the girls goes “if you wanna hang out with me it’s gonna be 3000 baht (like almost $100 USD).” Since I don’t wanna die I go “okay sounds good, let’s hang out every day this week okay?” Her eyes brighten up and she has a huge smile on her face, she tells her friend who then makes a face like “we did it bitch!” I’m thinking okay thank god I’m not gonna wake up tomorrow in a tub full of ice with my internal organs missing because they wanna take all my money throughout the week. Suddenly the Thai DJ starts playing the cumbia song “Colegiala”, and it was at this exact moment that I knew that everything would be okay! I stopped freaking out and danced the night away, didn’t sleep that night, and somehow found a really nice cab driver to take me back to my hotel afterwards (he charged me 300 baht but had no change so I just gave him my 1000 baht bill, really nice guy and really grateful). Yep definitely not doing that again, from now on I will assume every chick at a club in Bangkok is an escort. If you are asking yourself if I hit up that girl again to hang out and continuously pay her $100 USD throughout the week, the answer is dude of course not wtf.

[victakestaipei]

WEEK 1 RECAP: drip drying, pot stickers, and hand-sized snails

I’ve realized that during the weeks here, I’m going to be pretty busy. I am trying to keep a schedule (routine) so that I can have some sort of stability/consistency in this still-unfamiliar place. As a result, I will probably stick to blogging on the weekends, because my “me time” isn’t in excess like I’d hoped. So, with that…

Let’s start with Monday/Tuesday:

As you all know from my previous post, I had a bit of a stressful first day. But things definitely started looking up as the week trucked by…

I started taking the bus to class after the first day. As it turns out, the bus is way more convenient than the MRT. It’s less walking (to get to the bus stop) and it arrives to school in like 7min, and drops me off right across the street from the building that all of my classes are in. The bus is also cheaper than the MRT too! It’s just better in all aspects. One thing to note though is that the bus starts and stops pretty abruptly, so if aren’t holding on to something before the doors close, you will definitely lose balance and find yourself stumbling into the poor old asian woman standing next to you, minding her own business, umbrella and shopping bags in hand.

In terms of my class, that’s a long story so I’ll condense it a bit for ya’ll. My teacher’s name is Cheng, or “Cheng Lao Shi” (meaning Teacher Cheng). And it’s interesting to note the different dynamic of the Asian classroom. First off, there are 7 of us in the class.. three Americans, three Indonesians, and one Swiss guy. Our teacher is friendly and charismatic, like I said in my previous post. But now that the week has ended, I can tell she has this sort of dark humor.. and her facial expressions tell you everything you need to know about what she thinks of your horrible Chinese grammar. I try not to be sensitive because I know it’s not personal, but it’s hard when you already feel insecure about speaking Chinese to begin with. She also, like other Asian teachers, is keen on comparing the students… She says how one student in my class has horrible handwriting, and says that she should practice more so that she can write characters beautifully like I do. (which is a nice compliment I must admit, but she really ain’t had to say all that ya feel?) She even asked me (in front of the entire class) if I would help said student write better… It’s just awkward for me ya know? We all sort of joked/laughed about it but I know that if it was me I would have wanted to pop off.

We also have daily quizzes and homework which keeps me busy at night after I have my daily nap (yes you heard that right, daily nap)… And on my second writing quiz I got a 93%!! Hooray for progress!!

After class my friend Jeannie and I headed out to scout out the on-campus gym. Come to find out, since I am an exchange student and technically a student of NTNU, I get free membership! It is a small facility in terms of the weight lifting area, but the building as a whole is huge, and three or four floors. The weight lifting area has some pretty old/dusty machines, but they keep the AC blasting (thank God) and it has all the necessities I need. On Wednesday after class I headed to the gym with Jeannie and did leg day/abs, and then on Thursday I did back day/abs, and Friday I did chest/shoulders/abs. The locker rooms in the gym are also super duper nice. But I always forget that there’s no toilet paper in the bathroom… By Friday I finally got it through my thick skull that I need to bring my own toilet paper to the gym and into the bathroom itself. Drip drying has to be the most uncomfortable thing on Earth… but ya do what ya gotta do I suppose. 

walking around NTNU after learning about my free gym membership^

Wednesday:

On Wednesday I got up a bit later than I wanted to, so I headed straight to the grocery store after leaving the house in the AM so that I could grab some fruit for breakfast and head to the bus stop. I got a bit turned around when trying to find the bus stop, so I was a little stressed about the possiblity of being late to class. I hopped on the bus around 10am, and I still made it to campus by 10:10, giving me 10 minutes to cross the street and head up the elevator to my classroom. Class dragged on, and I found myself looking forward to those little 10minute breaks we get after every 1-hour of class. After class I hit the gym, and then after the gym Jeannie and I were craving smoothies. We found a cheap spot on the street market with fresh mango smoothies for 60NT! ($2 US). That smoothie had to be one of the best smoothies I’ve had. The mangoes here are so sweet and fresh and just bomb. I ended up getting another smoothie the following day (hehe). After the smoothies we hit up this other food stand where we got some really good fried squid and french fries (not your typical post-gym meal, but it was delicious). I definitely can see myself eating tons of calamari while I’m here because they offer it everywhere, so it’s good that I’m working out because all of this fried food can’t be good for my “summer body” lol.

the mango smoothie place ^ and the fried squid/french fries   v

Today was also the deadline to pay my dorm payment, which was 8800NT (around $295 US [for the entire summer]). Not too shabby right?? After lunch I hopped on the bus and headed home. On my way in, I stopped at the nearby 7/11 to use the ATM and make the payment. Here in Taipei you can go to the 7/11 for just about anything:  printing, copy machine, fax, ATM, food, drinks, buying train tickets, making payments, etc). And there’s a 7/11 on just about every street corner, making it all the more handy. However, I had alot of trouble at the ATM, and it was pretty frustrating. I have a Chase bank account that I never really use (not in the past 4 years at least). I definitely prefer to use my Wells Fargo account, but since my mom uses Chase, it’s easier for me to use that card because my mom can just send me money directly from her account and it’s instant. But, with my Chase account, I didn’t tell them about my travel plans so when I was trying to use the ATM (for my second withdrawal of the day), I was flagged and they put a protective block/hold on my account. After inserting my debit card about 5 more times, I finally gave up and went home. I was able to pay my dorm fee because I already had some cash on hand, and also my first withdrawal was a succcess. I called on Thursday and got everything settled, but it still bugged the hell out of me that I stood there at the ATM like a dumbass. 

After I got home my roommate Bunny told me that she bought her ticket for the Phillipines (which we have been talking about/planning for a few days now). I also had trouble purchasing my ticket online at first, so Bunny paid for my flight (which was about $95 roundtrip) and I ended up venmo-ing her the money after getting off the phone with Chase International Customer Service. We leave for our Phillipines trip in two weeks! I’m PUMPED!!! We leave on Friday early AM (like 1:30 AM) and return Monday early AM (between 1-2 AM). Then I have class on the following Monday at 10am, so I’m sure Monday’s class will drag on even more so than this week had.

Bunny and I ordered pizza for dinner after finishing our homework, and the pizza actually wasn’t awful (to my surprise). I ate the whole thing too fast (because I was starving and it was personal-sized), and crawled into my bunk bed to lay on my stomach. I knocked out shortly after that. 

Thursday/Friday:

The end of the week flew by.. Bunny ended up joining our intensive class because her class level was a bit too easy for her, and we had an open seat available (most classes are 8 students). So now Nick, Bunny, Jeannie, and I are all on the same class schedule (10:15am-1:15pm), and Nick/Bunny/I all have the same exact class. It’s definitely a bit more fun now, and Bunny and I sit next to each other so we always share quick glances when the teacher starts to verge on saying inappropriate things (and quite frankly, wildin’ out on our classmates, and us (occasionally)). On Friday I was super sore at the gym from the previous two days, and decided to do a quick chest/shoulder day. Now that it’s Saturday I regret that decision, because now literally every part of my body hurts… from my thighs to my butt, to my back and my chest/arms. I’m a mess. Crawling in and out of my bunk bed is 10x harder and I can’t help but moan in pain everytime I get up. 

For dinner on Thursday, Bunny and I found this hole-in-the-wall potsticker place right by our campus. 

As it turns out, this potsticker place is open from 8pm-3/4am, and they only serve potstickers, soup, and fried chicken. (the fried potstickers and fried chicken are pictured above ^) 

I have to give them a pat on the back though because they have a great location (right next to campus) and their hours of operation are superb. While walking to the potsticker spot, we ran into a couple quite large creatures. Some of them being large flying cockroaches (like thumb sized roaches with wINGS!!!!!) But the one I really want to note is this snail. We found a snail making it’s way across the sidewalk but it was about the length/size from the tip of my pinky to the bottom of my palm (where my palm and wrist connect). It was HUGE. and TERRIFYING!!!  

We had a test on Friday in class, so Bunny and I reviewed a bit before hitting the hay on Thursday… The test proved to be quite easy actually so I feel really good about it (though I don’t have the grade yet.) Friday’s class flew by and after the gym I headed home to shower and lay down. It’s finally the weekend and I can finally relax knowing I have absolutely nothing to do until Monday. Lord knows I won’t do my assigned homework until Sunday night anyway, so I figured I would just enjoy this small break while it lasts. I would’ve blogged yesterday (Friday), but I elected to binge watch Netflix instead and I have no regrets. Last night (Friday night) we headed out around 9:30 to go to the movies! Bunny really wanted to watch the new Spiderman movie and it actually wasn’t bad. Yes the movie was in English (with Chinese subtitles) and the tickets were only 240NT (around $8 US), and for an extra 60NT ($2), we could have gotten popcorn and a drink!! Crazy how cheap everything is… but I decided to just buy the movie ticket because I wasn’t hungry after dinner and I had my hydro with me. Spiderman was definitely a good end to the week, although I wish Zendaya would have been the love interest instead of whoever the hell that other black girl was.

[luishascanceledtour-blog]

Luis has canceled American tour

Luis has canceled a headlining American tour, kicking off in Las Vegas on September 8. More info..

Hello. My name is Luis. I've already done my tour in America in the past. And he planned to carry out the trip on September 8 again. But I decided to cancel it, because my daughter was sick. I hope you will be interested in my blog, and you read that I'm writing here. Useful advice for those who do not want to read a long story. 1. Nutrition. In New York in the shops are marmits with ready-made hot food for every taste. Very cheap and delicious, you can separately take boiled or fried potatoes, meat, fish, pasta - that is, you can eat. If there is a cafe in the restaurant, I think it will be necessary to look for something that would be well fed. We could not find it. If you cook yourself - then by no means to take semi-finished products for warming up, - still throw it away. The taste is disgusting. Although the choice is big and probably can be found under itself, basically the products have already been processed and the meat will be ready immediately and will melt in the mouth, but for example it did not really like me - as if ate soy. French fries in bikmachne - the same, but mayonnaise and cucumbers put less! Salads are ready too for an amateur, they are many and varied, for example macaroni-macaroni (horns), onion and sea of ​​mayonnaise. But you can still eat everywhere. Maybe not tasty, but you will not stay hungry, at petrol stations almost everywhere there is hot coffee and hot dogs and soup of the day (brewed). Also in supermarkets there are departments of cooking, there you can buy chicken grilled, meat stew, or soups: potato - diluted puree. chicken-ground meat with onion and tomato paste, spicy. Surely everyone will find something to taste. But if you want glamorous! it is better to first find out where there is a good restaurant. although in our understanding of food - this is different. 2. Roads and Transport: Fly by air - fast and udono! Travel by car - the roads are magnificent and fast! Important - Look carefully at the map and pointers! If it is said that the output of ONLY here - then - go out, then it will not !! We wanted to navigate the map, like so much shorter, and almost missed the plane, so there was no other congress, and the roads just passed one another. In the General, with transport there are no problems! 3. Read before the trip the rules of the traffic, and a few basic laws of the State where you eat! - In California, for example, you can not smoke almost everywhere. Even in the car if you have a child. And you can not drink at the wheel, and even open the bottle, even to the passenger. There are three main rules on the road everywhere - A scary yellow bus! If it has a red sign on the side - you can not go around at all! Give way to flashers ALWAYS. Up to a complete stop on the roadside! We almost rasskalala ambulance in a narrow canyon. Had to hang on the slope. She did not even slow down. At the intersections where there is no traffic light - the first one is coming, who first came to the intersection - the rule of three seconds - drove up to the crossroads - wait three seconds and drive on. (Then I got a chip and peppered :-))) The rest of the rules were written on the signs - they should be read! You drive up - and there it is written - so a pier and so - here it is necessary to behave. Here! Another - to the right you can turn on the red light - very convenient! If there is no turn-it will either be written that you can not turn, or there will be a special segment at the traffic lights. 4. If you know the language, you can not book hotels, but just come to the city and look for hotels yourself - for sure you will save! 5. Las Vegas - a city of rest! There are a lot of National parks nearby, inexpensive SHIKAR hotels. And - play at all OPTIONS! You can come with children and enjoy free shows from hotels, travel to travel - all in one day's availability. There is also Disney Land in Los Angeles (for children). 6. The basic information is almost ALL already available on the Internet and in Russian. Rules, Laws, National parks. 7. Language is required within the secondary school 10 years ago. 8. Carefully study the map and the neighborhood of the road you are eating, a large number of attractions. Choose the most interesting for you _____________________________________________________________________________ So, almost all of Europe is also conquered, it's time to go to America. And this thought was hovering periodically in my head, stirring up fantasy. But it still could not materialize. But in the end, having collected the will to travel and accumulated savings, we decided to look at the country that defeated democracy. And of course make up your own opinion about the "image of the enemy". Of course, such a global trip can not be completely spontaneous and requires a deep study of the route. At first they decided to map out the most interesting places that must be visited. The choice was not so great at first - the Grand Canyon of Colorado, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the village of Hollywood in Los Angeles. Las Vegas, "Disney Land" in Orlando, Miami. But with a detailed examination of the route under the Internet magnifier, it turned out that there are very good places in the USA called National Parks and National Monuments, which deserve special attention and even more than the cities (as it turned out later). And then another question began to worry, how to fit in 20 days of travel so many interesting things. On hand, the fact that most of the places that I wanted to see were near - in California. The car was chosen as the main transport, as it allowed not to follow the route strictly and to look more if desired. Although we could not completely abandon the plane, we were still limited in time, and the distances were decent. Now it was time to look at the map and compose the route itself. As a result, after all doubts and torments, we stopped at the following: San Francisco - National Park "Yosemite" - National Park "Sequoia" - Cumbria (Pacific Coast), - Santa Barbara - (Well, no matter how to look "native" places ) - Los Angeles (although we were dissuaded almost everything) - Las Vegas - Death Valley National Park - again Las Vegas - Grand Canyon National Park - Williams - Monument Valley National Monument - Durango, National Park "Zoyon", - Las_Vegas. Flight to Orlando. - Disney Land - Cape Canaveral - NASA Base in Florida. - Miami. - Kay West - Miami - Orlando - Flight to New York, - Buffalo - Niagara Falls - New York. The famous park "Yellowstone" was, unfortunately, rejected until better times because of the distance from the route. Washington and its museums also had to be left under the wing. There was not enough time for everything. But even so it was already planned incredibly much. So. The route is scheduled and approved, there were only minor adjustments due to the availability of seats in airplanes and hotels in Las Vegas (since there they did not want to book seats for one night) But as a result, everything was successfully resolved with this question.

[thenewgrlsclub]

Weekly Watch SPECIAL EDITION: Food Shows

Published on June 18, 2018, by Ailish Elzy.

I wanted to write this food show edition of Weekly Watch for a little while now and was taking my time with it so I could watch all the shows and get a real feel for what to suggest. And then Anthony Bourdain died and it made me think about these shows more seriously.

We’ve always had the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, but we’ve recently had an upsurge in the quality of these shows and I really think you can trace it back to Bourdain. Whether you were an early fan of Parts Unknown or No Reservations or you just recently got into Chef’s Table or Ugly Delicious, you have Bourdain to thank for that.

There’s a lot that has been written in the past week and will continue to be written about in the years to come because Bourdain had a profound impact on the food industry, on the food documentary and on how we see different parts of the world. I only recently got into his shows in the past three years, but I very quickly fell in love with his passion, his sense of adventure and his honesty. He was an incredibly inspiring and fascinating dude to watch.

I’m not here to talk about him in depth, mostly because I don’t feel like that’s my place. I want to talk about the impact I’ve seen on food television because of him and his legacy. This will be a slightly different Weekly Watch. It’ll all be food shows I love and recommend watching because this is a large umbrella of a genre that’s worth exploring.

The real reason I wanted to write this in the first place was that I recently acquired two new books. One about Wine called Wine. All The Time by comedy writer and leisure enthusiast Marissa A Ross. A book I highly recommend no matter how much or how little you know about wine (I know very little). The other book I acquired was Cravings by supermodel and well-known internet person Chrissy Teigen. Both books are very dope and enjoyable in different ways.

Since I’ve been reading them, I’ve subsequently stopped watching scripted shows and fallen down a very enjoyable hole of watching shows about food and wine. It’s really hard to watch these shows and not immediately think you’re a talented chef yourself. Shows about food and cooking are highly underrated in my opinion. It’s not just your mom’s Food Network anymore either, it has really expanded.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the influx of well-produced food-related documentaries on Netflix or channels expanding on their brand and adding a food show. It’s not even just on TV. YouTube holds some very well produced fooding shows (which is what I feel like we should be calling them) from channels like Tastemade or Bon Appetit as well as homemade shows by regular-ass kids.

I gotta say I am totally here for this! Food shows are a wonderful break from scripted TV. You can throw them on in the background when you’re cleaning but you can also sit and watch them like you would any other show. You can even watch them when you’re cooking, although you might feel inferior depending on if you’re watching Chef’s Table and if that’s the case, maybe just throw on Nailed It when you’re making food to feel a little better about yourself. I will say the one place I don’t recommend watching these shows is at the gym. It should be pretty obvious, but I thought I could handle it and then immediately got SO hungry and had to make a pizza. 

If you need it, here are some shows I recommend, where you can find them and a solid episode you can start with if you’re unsure.

Nailed it

Why it’s good: This show is almost everything I’ve ever wanted a competition cooking show to be. It’s silly, it’s realistic, it’s short, and they win money. The premise is home cooks try to recreate all those things you see on Pinterest with people making cakes that look like emoji’s or Spongebob. Nicole Byer, the host, is EASILY the best part and really the only reason to watch it! 

A dope episode to start with: Honestly the first one. The episodes are short and you’ll get right into the vibe of it. 

Where you can watch it: Netflix babyyy!! Also they just got renewed for season 2

Chef’s Table: Pastry

Why it’s good: If you love high quality docu-series AND food, you’ll love this. It’s got that cinematic quality goodness mixed with a really heartwarming story about someone trying to achieve their dreams. They really do a good job of weaving a narrative into these people’s stories of success.

A dope episode to start with: Milk Bar. It’s fun, it’s really American, and it shows you a very approachable way to cook delicious and simple desserts.

Where you can watch it: Netflix duh!

Bonus: Pastry is the fourth season, the other three seasons focus on non-pastry foods, or what they call in the biz, food. There’s a fantastic episode about Nancy Silverton (season 3 episode 3) that has such a great dramatic arc it really seems more like a narrative show than a documentary.

Ugly Delicious

Why it’s good: I was particularly drawn to this series because they focus on one type of food per episode. And they really know how to get you. Episode titles include: Pizza, Tacos, Stuffed and Fried Chicken. Honestly, unless you’re a vegan, what’s not to like? They take you all around the world. They eat the highest quality, the lowest quality (usually fast food) the weirdest and the least expected versions of whichever food they’re profiling. You’re definitely going to learn something new about a food you’ve loved. The style of this show is also particularly cool. They’ll do a parody genre, or have a section just be animated. They really have fun with it which makes you as a viewer have fun with it!

A dope episode to start with: I’d say pick whichever food you like the most and go from there.

Where you can watch it: Netflix (obviously!!)

Frankie Cooks

Why it’s good: If you’re into Italian home cooking, but you’re a little intimidated, BUT you also want to learn about why you’re supposed to do the things you do while cooking, Frankie is your dude! His hyper-enthusiastic personality will draw you in, but his pasta knowledge will keep you coming back for more. I’m a HUGE fan of pizza and pasta and have had many of his meals made for me by my boyfriend who is both obsessed with his videos and the one who introduced me to 

A dope episode to start with: As will become clear with a lot of these, it’s best to find the food you want to learn more about and start with that, but the one that got me into Frankie was this video.

Where you can watch it: Youtube, baby! Here’s his personal channel and here’s where you can find him on Tastemade.

Good Times with Jen

Why it’s good: Another Tastemade person! Jen is such a delight. She specializes in Filipina food and comfort foods that are easy to recreate at home. Her personality is fun and authentic which can be really rare with these kinds of videos (trust me, I watched a lot). She has a lot of great videos of her getting stoned and making or attempting to make food which is so fun to watch. But I really love her videos because I feel like I learn more about Filipino food and they’re actually dishes I can eat and enjoy (I’m allergic to a lot of foods).

A dope episode to start with: A funny video to start with is this one, but a good food video is this Filipino bacon recipe.

Where you can watch it: On Tastemade’s youtube!! Or just follow those links.

Huang’s World

Why it’s good: I think this was the first cooking show on vice that I ever watched and I really loved it. I was REALLY apprehensive about vice show at first, especially shows about food. I guess I just didn’t trust that they knew what they were talking about. Boy, was I proven the fuck wrong. Eddie is a fucking G. He really knows his shit, but he’s also really open to learning about the culture where he’s visiting. I think that’s what I enjoy most, how open and respectful he is about where he is. The food they eat is also really great.

A dope episode to start with: I personally loved the episode in Japan.

Where you can watch it: Viceland! (Either Youtube or on cable I guess)

F*ck That’s Delicious

Why it’s good: This is the type of show I actually expected from Viceland. Something raw, lots of cussing, smoking weed and just eating a bunch of food. This show is really all over the place. It’s hard to describe, but that’s also why it’s so fun.

A dope episode to start with: A while back The New Yorker had a great write up about a specific episode which is a really solid one to start with to get a feel for what this show is all about.

Where you can watch it: Viceland probably or maybe on YouTube.

Parts Unknown

I would be remiss if I did not include an Anthony Bourdain show on this list. There are so many good episodes and they’re all good for their own reasons. One of my favorite episodes is Season 8 episode two called Hanoi. This is the episode where he famously interviewed Barack Obama. My other favorite episode is Season 6 Episode 5 titled Bay Area. Because If Bourdain goes to Oakland, I obviously have to know where and what he ate. I was not disappointed!

I will say that the best way to watch Parts Unknown is to go through the seasons and find either the closest place to where you’re from or the most interesting sounding place you’ve always wanted to visit. Whether you know the place well or you don’t know it at all you’re bound to learn a lot of new information.

[texanpeanut]

End of Training Thoughts

As you guessed, another email update. I wrote this one toward the very end of training when I was a little ball of anxiety. Meow. 

December 6, 2017:

Hello hello hello, There are a few things I can't believe: first, that I haven't send an update in over a month, second, that because a month has passed means I'm incredibly close to swearing in and becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer, and third, that it's winter in the states. Today it was 100 degrees in Thies. The continually hot weather makes me think this is just an extension of summer vacation, and the Christmas decorations put up around the hotels and bars meant for Western travelers and the few Catholics in Senegal seem comical. Anyway, even though a lot of time has passed, not many activities have happened, except for during the past 10 days or so. After I returned from my FOT visit, I had a few days at the training center before going back to my CBT family for a three week long visit. To be completely honest, not much happened, except for a lot of running (I was proud of myself for going every single morning, and sometimes twice a day with one of my site mates), bread eating, walking around at the market, and learning a heck-ton of Pulla Fuuta. One exceptional day was when all of the trainees in my site got to go to a nearby touristy town of Mbour and visit the BEACH! "Beach" in PF is "takko mayo" which literally translates to "next to ocean". We did do some learning that day about the Muslim brotherhoods in Senegal. There are four main brotherhoods: the Khadre, the Mouride, the Tijane, and the Lamp Fall. From what I understand, the concept of brotherhoods originated in Morocco and made it's way to Senegal a couple hundred years ago. Each brotherhood has a different leader and members of the brotherhood choose to listen to their interpretations of the Quran, and the brotherhoods each have a certain amount of influence over Senegalese politics and some industries like public transportation. If you were to come to Senegal, you would not be able to ignore the brotherhoods. There are visual references to the brotherhood founders everywhere - on every boutique, on every house, and on every sept-plas. After about an hour or so of class, we got to swim in the Atlantic and wear semi-revealing clothing for a change. At that point in time I had been wearing only pants, long skirts/dresses, and full shoulder covering tops for six weeks or so, so to wear a pair of nike running shorts and sports bra in public felt almost like public nudity. We also went out for lunch that day, and it felt really good to eat a meal of just chicken and vegetables - no rice or bread to be seen. Thanksgiving also happened while I was at site! It ended up being a nice day, even in the absence of a TV to watch the Macy's Day Parade. I called my "real" family in America in the afternoon and had my mom and sister greet my host-mom and host-sister in Pullo Fuuta. It was pretty awkward to listen to as a third-party but I could tell it was appreciated on both sides. That evening we all also went out to a restaurant together. It was a typical Senegalese "fast food" restaurant with chicken sandwiches, burgers, shawarma, etc., but it felt special because their seating area was an open air spot on the second story. Even all the way in Senegal there were lots of family connections - with my American family, my Senegalese family, and my Peace CorpsTrainee family. I ended up really enjoying three weeks with my host family. It was the longest I've gone without internet access for a while, and it was incredibly refreshing. I felt like my language skills really improved, I became really close with my CBT site mates, got a lot of reading and crossword puzzles done, and just became more in touch with my thoughts and actions as cheesy as that sounds. I'm looking forward to being without regular internet access at my permanent site as well. Thanksgiving ALSO happened AGAIN when I got back to the training center after the end of the three weeks. We celebrated as a group on the Sunday after the holiday by each cooking a dish of our choice. We had fried chicken, stuffing, green bean casserole, homemade egg noodles, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, apple pie, and yours truly single-handedly whipped up a lentil loaf (not using any sort of recipe) for the vegetarians. It was all SO GOOD and I ate SO MUCH of it and it was overall an AMAZING evening. Yay. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness style of writing in this email. As time passes here, I find it harder and harder to keep days and my memories about them organized. After Thanksgiving was sort of a blur. We had our final technical exam - I got a 105% and a sparkly turtle sticker on my test.  We also gave our Readiness to Serve presentations. For the RTS, each language class had to put together a presentation about their understanding of the Peace Corps project frameworks and approach to development, their role as a volunteer, and how they're going to incorporate gender into their development work. Each person also had to give a 1-2 minute speech in their local language about what they want to achieve as a volunteer and how they want to spend the first few months at site. I think I said I want to teach farmers how to do a tree nursery, how to compost, and how to plant a live fence. And I'm going to greet all 54 people in my village every morning. We'll see what actually ends up panning out. We also got to go to Dakar last week. Mostly to sign paperwork. However, we did get a tour of the main Peace Corps office there, and got fed an amazing lunch of GUACAMOLE, FRUIT (I have been craving a single strawberry over the last two months and finally got it), and BACON CHEESEBURGERS which is a big deal in a country that hardly eats pork. We also got to visit the US Embassy to sign papers in front of a notary and it was such a nice building. I forgot how nice American buildings were. The bathroom had a Western toilet and it was great. On December 1st we all went to our CBT sites for a two-night "goodbye" stay. During this stay we had our FINAL language class, which is crazy to think about. I spent the very last day (Sunday) putting whole cloves in plastic bags for my dad to sell at a boutique, and the smell put me in the Christmas spirit a little bit and had me feeling slightly homesick. Afterward he went to the weekly market and bought me a set of gold earrings and necklace to wear with my complet at swear-in. I cried when I got back to the training center that day. My host family has been so sweet to me this whole time and I will definitely miss them when I go to my permanent site in Kedougou. On Monday we had our final LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) to determine if we were at the right level to swear in. We were supposed to get Intermediate-Mid to swear in and yesterday I found out I got... Intermediate-High! Woohoo! We've mostly had a lot of free time since then to relax and enjoy the last few days before swearing in on Friday. I'm in denial that this is actually happening because I am terrified. But I'm also excited. And sad. And... I don't know exactly what else but all these emotions are making my stomach churn, that's for sure. I'm terrified of getting to my village and not knowing how the heck to spend my time or not being able to understand anyone. I'm excited to see where my work takes me, to meet new people, and to live in a beautiful place. And I'm sad to be leaving all the amazing friends I've made during training! However, when I was leaving the US I had all the same feelings, went through an awkward beginning phase, and ended up loving training. So hopefully I will love my two years of service, too. Or "si allah jabbi" (if God accepts) as they say in good ol' Pullo Fuuta. For the future, tomorrow we have our last day of sessions, we swear in in Dakar on Friday, and I believe Saturday we leave for our sites. Once I get to Kedougou I'll have some time to shop and get all the things I need to move in. And then I'm going to be in my village for five weeks. In PC Senegal there's something called the Five Week Challenge (or Home for the Holidays as they're calling it this year), where trainees are encouraged to spend their first five weeks of service at their site only, not traveling to a regional house or going to another volunteer's site to spend the night or anything. I'm going to try to do it. My site is very isolated anyway and hard to get in and out of, so I'm not sure how tempted I'll be to do a lot of traveling. I think that's all I can expel from my brain at the moment. Thanks all for reading my updates so far and to everyone who's replied.

Peace only,  Maggie/Binta

[trendingnewsb]

Read this and you may never eat chicken again

Most meat animals are raised with the assistance of daily doses of antibiotics. By 2050, antibiotic resistance will cause a staggering 10 million deaths a year

Every year I spend some time in a tiny apartment in Paris, seven stories above the mayors offices for the 11th arrondissement. The Place de la Bastille the spot where the French revolution sparked political change that transformed the world is a 10-minute walk down a narrow street that threads between student nightclubs and Chinese fabric wholesalers.

Twice a week, hundreds of Parisians crowd down it, heading to the march de la Bastille, stretched out along the center island of the Boulevard Richard Lenoir.

Blocks before you reach the market, you can hear it: a low hum of argument and chatter, punctuated by dollies thumping over the curbstones and vendors shouting deals. But even before you hear it, you can smell it: the funk of bruised cabbage leaves underfoot, the sharp sweetness of fruit sliced open for samples, the iodine tang of seaweed propping up rafts of scallops in broad rose-colored shells.

Threaded through them is one aroma that I wait for. Burnished and herbal, salty and slightly burned, it has so much heft that it feels physical, like an arm slid around your shoulders to urge you to move a little faster. It leads to a tented booth in the middle of the market and a line of customers that wraps around the tent poles and trails down the market alley, tangling with the crowd in front of the flower seller.

In the middle of the booth is a closet-size metal cabinet, propped up on iron wheels and bricks. Inside the cabinet, flattened chickens are speared on rotisserie bars that have been turning since before dawn. Every few minutes, one of the workers detaches a bar, slides off its dripping bronze contents, slips the chickens into flat foil-lined bags, and hands them to the customers who have persisted to the head of the line.

I can barely wait to get my chicken home.

Chickens roam in an outdoor enclosure of a chicken farm in Vielle-Soubiran, south-western France. Photograph: Iroz Gaizka/AFP/Getty Images

The skin of a poulet crapaudine named because its spatchcocked outline resembles a crapaud, a toad shatters like mica; the flesh underneath, basted for hours by the birds dripping on to it from above, is pillowy but springy, imbued to the bone with pepper and thyme.

The first time I ate it, I was stunned into happy silence, too intoxicated by the experience to process why it felt so new. The second time, I was delighted again and then, afterward, sulky and sad.

I had eaten chicken all my life: in my grandmothers kitchen in Brooklyn, in my parents house in Houston, in a college dining hall, friends apartments, restaurants and fast food places, trendy bars in cities and old-school joints on back roads in the south. I thought I roasted a chicken pretty well myself. But none of them were ever like this, mineral and lush and direct.

I thought of the chickens Id grown up eating. They tasted like whatever the cook added to them: canned soup in my grandmothers fricassee, her party dish; soy sauce and sesame in the stir fries my college housemate brought from her aunts restaurant; lemon juice when my mother worried about my fathers blood pressure and banned salt from the house.

This French chicken tasted like muscle and blood and exercise and the outdoors. It tasted like something that it was too easy to pretend it was not: like an animal, like a living thing. We have made it easy not to think about what chickens were before we find them on our plates or pluck them from supermarket cold cases.

I live, most of the time, less than an hours drive from Gainesville, Georgia, the self-described poultry capital of the world, where the modern chicken industry was born. Georgia raises 1.4bn broilers a year, making it the single biggest contributor to the almost 9bn birds raised each year in the United States; if it were an independent country, it would rank in chicken production somewhere near China and Brazil.

Yet you could drive around for hours without ever knowing you were in the heart of chicken country unless you happened to get behind a truck heaped with crates of birds on their way from the remote solid-walled barns they are raised in to the gated slaughter plants where they are turned into meat. That first French market chicken opened my eyes to how invisible chickens had been for me, and after that, my job began to show me what that invisibility had masked.

My house is less than two miles from the front gate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that sends disease detectives racing to outbreaks all over the world. For more than a decade, one of my obsessions as a journalist has been following them on their investigations and in long late-night conversations in the United States and Asia and Africa, with physicians and veterinarians and epidemiologists, I learned that the chickens that had surprised me and the epidemics that fascinated me were more closely linked than I had ever realized.

I discovered that the reason American chicken tastes so different from those I ate everywhere else was that in the United States, we breed for everything but flavor: for abundance, for consistency, for speed. Many things made that transformation possible.

But as I came to understand, the single biggest influence was that, consistently over decades, we have been feeding chickens, and almost every other meat animal, routine doses of antibiotics on almost every day of their lives.

Caged battery hens in a chicken farm in Catania, Sicily. Photograph: Fabrizio Villa/AFP/Getty Images

Antibiotics do not create blandness, but they created the conditions that allowed chicken to be bland, allowing us to turn a skittish, active backyard bird into a fast-growing, slow-moving, docile block of protein, as muscle-bound and top-heavy as a bodybuilder in a kids cartoon. At this moment, most meat animals, across most of the planet, are raised with the assistance of doses of antibiotics on most days of their lives: 63,151 tons of antibiotics per year, about 126m pounds.

Farmers began using the drugs because antibiotics allowed animals to convert feed to tasty muscle more efficiently; when that result made it irresistible to pack more livestock into barns, antibiotics protected animals against the likelihood of disease. Those discoveries, which began with chickens, created what we choose to call industrialized agriculture, a poultry historian living in Georgia proudly wrote in 1971.

Chicken prices fell so low that it became the meat that Americans eat more than any other and the meat most likely to transmit food-borne illness, and also antibiotic resistance, the greatest slow-brewing health crisis of our time.

For most people, antibiotic resistance is a hidden epidemic unless they have the misfortune to contract an infection themselves or have a family member or friend unlucky enough to become infected.

Drug-resistant infections have no celebrity spokespeople, negligible political support and few patients organizations advocating for them. If we think of resistant infections, we imagine them as something rare, occurring to people unlike us, whoever we are: people who are in nursing homes at the end of their lives, or dealing with the drain of chronic illness, or in intensive-care units after terrible trauma. But resistant infections are a vast and common problem that occur in every part of daily life: to children in daycare, athletes playing sports, teens going for piercings, people getting healthy in the gym.

And though common, resistant bacteria are a grave threat and getting worse.

They are responsible for at least 700,000 deaths around the world each year: 23,000 in the United States, 25,000 in Europe, more than 63,000 babies in India. Beyond those deaths, bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics cause millions of illnesses 2m annually just in the United States and cost billions in healthcare spending, lost wages and lost national productivity.

It is predicted that by 2050, antibiotic resistance will cost the world $100tn and will cause a staggering 10m deaths per year.

Disease organisms have been developing defenses against the antibiotics meant to kill them for as long as antibiotics have existed. Penicillin arrived in the 1940s, and resistance to it swept the world in the 1950s.

Tetracycline arrived in 1948, and resistance was nibbling at its effectiveness before the 1950s ended. Erythromycin was discovered in 1952, and erythromycin resistance arrived in 1955. Methicillin, a lab-synthesized relative of penicillin, was developed in 1960 specifically to counter penicillin resistance, yet within a year, staph bacteria developed defenses against it as well, earning the bug the name MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

After MRSA, there were the ESBLs, extended-spectrum beta-lactamases, which defeated not only penicillin and its relatives but also a large family of antibiotics called cephalosporins. And after cephalosporins were undermined, new antibiotics were achieved and lost in turn.

Each time pharmaceutical chemistry produced a new class of antibiotics, with a new molecular shape and a new mode of action, bacteria adapted. In fact, as the decades passed, they seemed to adapt faster than before. Their persistence threatened to inaugurate a post-antibiotic era, in which surgery could be too dangerous to attempt and ordinary health problems scrapes, tooth extractions, broken limbs could pose a deadly risk.

For a long time, it was assumed that the extraordinary unspooling of antibiotic resistance around the world was due only to misuse of the drugs in medicine: to parents begging for the drugs even though their children had viral illnesses that antibiotics could not help; physicians prescribing antibiotics without checking to see whether the drug they chose was a good match; people stopping their prescriptions halfway through the prescribed course because they felt better, or saving some pills for friends without health insurance, or buying antibiotics over the counter, in the many countries where they are available that way and dosing themselves.

But from the earliest days of the antibiotic era, the drugs have had another, parallel use: in animals that are grown to become food.

Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States and more than half of those sold around the world are used in animals, not in humans. Animals destined to be meat routinely receive antibiotics in their feed and water, and most of those drugs are not given to treat diseases, which is how we use them in people.

Instead, antibiotics are given to make food animals put on weight more quickly than they would otherwise, or to protect food animals from illnesses that the crowded conditions of livestock production make them vulnerable to. And nearly two-thirds of the antibiotics that are used for those purposes are compounds that are also used against human illness which means that when resistance against the farm use of those drugs arises, it undermines the drugs usefulness in human medicine as well.

Caged chickens in San Diego, California. California voters passed a new animal welfare law in 2008 to require that the states egg-laying hens be given room to move. Photograph: Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images

Resistance is a defensive adaptation, an evolutionary strategy that allows bacteria to protect themselves against antibiotics power to kill them. It is created by subtle genetic changes that allow organisms to counter antibiotics attacks on them, altering their cell walls to keep drug molecules from attaching or penetrating, or forming tiny pumps that eject the drugs after they have entered the cell.

What slows the emergence of resistance is using an antibiotic conservatively: at the right dose, for the right length of time, for an organism that will be vulnerable to the drug, and not for any other reason. Most antibiotic use in agriculture violates those rules.

Resistant bacteria are the result.

Antibiotic resistance is like climate change: it is an overwhelming threat, created over decades by millions of individual decisions and reinforced by the actions of industries.

It is also like climate change in that the industrialized west and the emerging economies of the global south are at odds. One quadrant of the globe already enjoyed the cheap protein of factory farming and now regrets it; the other would like not to forgo its chance. And it is additionally like climate change because any action taken in hopes of ameliorating the problem feels inadequate, like buying a fluorescent lightbulb while watching a polar bear drown.

But that it seems difficult does not mean it is not possible. The willingness to relinquish antibiotics of farmers in the Netherlands, as well as Perdue Farms and other companies in the United States, proves that industrial-scale production can be achieved without growth promoters or preventive antibiotic use. The stability of Masadour and Lou and White Oak Pastures shows that medium-sized and small farms can secure a place in a remixed meat economy.

Whole Foods pivot to slower-growing chicken birds that share some of the genetics preserved by Frank Reese illustrates that removing antibiotics and choosing birds that do not need them returns biodiversity to poultry production. All of those achievements are signposts, pointing to where chicken, and cattle and hogs and farmed fish after them, need to go: to a mode of production where antibiotics are used as infrequently as possible to care for sick animals, but not to fatten or protect them.

That is the way antibiotics are now used in human medicine, and it is the only way that the utility of antibiotics and the risk of resistance can be adequately balanced.

Excerpted from Big Chicken by Maryn McKenna published by National Geographic on 12 September 2017. Available wherever books are sold.

Plucked! The Truth About Chicken by Maryn McKenna is published in the UK by Little, Brown and is now available in eBook @14.99, and is published in Trade Format @14.99 on 1 February 2018.

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My heart is full

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this happy and this right. In a life lived by shameful indulgence against twisted duty in a foreign land, these moments of clairvoyance and fulfillment are few and far between. 

I woke up next to George and the piercing sirens of the smoke detector on Friday. Grease from the pre-seasoned chicken breasts had drizzled onto the oven elements in our Tobermory cottage, whipping up a toxic smoke that filled our villa. More shrill still was the easily frustrated commands of my mother, who displaced her innocent guilt in forgetting the drip pan into screaming at the rest of the inhabitants who tuned her out long ago. 

That morning I was able to show my leadership, just as I did the night before. I followed up Thursday’s dinner with Friday’s lunch. To me, these moments are wholly insignificant since I’ve been self-sufficient for going on three years, but parents will always be parents and the bar for applause is shockingly low. They praised my adaptability to the mastery of white food that had always eluded them. My dad, for example, scrambled all the eggs that were meant to become fried luncheon between the bagels, but I maneuvered quickly by substituting with slices of the smoke-honed chicken. That’s some basic shit.

Our first stop of the day was Singing Sands beach. The weather cleared up right after I was soaked from buying seven ponchos I had no use for, but that’s a small price to pay for good weather. The beach played great host for the family of eight as the low water levels gave accessibility to accommodate everyone from the easily-exhaustible grandparents to my physically frail aunt. Grandpa told me fantastical horror tales from the Great Leap Forward, explaining that he escaped hunger by eating poached potatoes while dodged death by wolves. Nobody takes him seriously in his older years, which becomes a problem when he’s desperate to impart his experiences onto the next generation. We waded into the water, mom and auntie got in some quality sibling bonding time, and we happily ate lunch after taking a frog-filled detour through the conservation boardwalk.

The next attraction was the grotto, which was a series of caves that dipped into the translucently green waters. We split into two parties. My dad and I chaperoned Ava and George for an exploratory swim into the caves, then hiked around the cliffs to marvel at daredevil leapers. Mom and auntie took the grandparents for a hike and spotted a garter snake. The day flew by fast and it was back to the city.

Dad and I formed the navigation team for the lead car. With no air conditioning and the grandparents dozing in and out of sleep, we filled the silence with a 3-pack CD set of Chinese soft rock hits from the 80s and 90s. All of them were trash except this unintentional Tom Petty tribute by 田震 called 執著. 

We stopped at Inglis Falls on the way home. It was quite beautiful, only I was distracted with Tobi. As I shared with her my adventures, she re-imagined them with her girlfriend. I was jealous and petty because I wanted to take her to Tobi-mory as recently as last year before we settled on Prince Edward County, In a bit of spite cheaply masked by a self-flagellant bit of humor, I hurt myself to hurt her, and of course Tobi saw straight through it because she’s incisively perceptive and because she’s seen my bullshit way too many times. She challenged me.

It wasn’t the best time to tell her, in fact it might have been the worst, but it was suddenly clearer in that moment than during any of the previous two years of confusion. I wanted her and I wanted her to want me. I came right out with it. No bullshit and as honest as possible. I told Tobi how I’ve felt. I told her that the August we spent together back in 2015 left me wanting ever since. I told her how my racism and homophobia led me to run. I told her how much I’ve regretted that decision since. I told her how we became best friends and helped each other make it safely into the newest chapters of our lives. I told her how she makes me feel, which is purely content and giddily happy, and how I wanted her going forward. 

It all came out at once at the worst time with the worst logistics. Tobi was in Amsterdam preparing for an early flight to Madrid, she just told me she was in love with her girl, there’s another two girls waiting on the side, I’m her roommate and her best friend, and this all came across on Facebook Messenger. I always thought I would tell her everything on a rain-soaked night while we frolicked about in ponchos. I’d kiss her and tell her how I wanted her. This wasn’t close. All I could do was snap a photo of the puddles in the street with a cheesy caption.

She put me on hold. I was good with that. I loved Tobi unconditionally and she was unavoidable so there was no threat to flee. She needed to sleep and quite frankly, I needed to say something to my dad since I was being awfully rude. We navigated home through rainbows and thunderstorms to have the ultimate Chinese crisis meal: instant noodles. It was just like the first night we arrived in Canada. Dad then drove me home.

The first order of operations was to write. I always want to write because it’s how I communicated and how I reflect most honestly. I wrote a letter to Tobi explaining how I felt, what I wanted, and what she could do, this time with more of my signature overzealous charm. Having suffered paralysis by shame for so many years, I was struck by a rare moment of decisiveness where I asked for exactly what I wanted. I hit send with great relief and great satisfaction before walking out the door in my best outfit to a friend’s birthday party nearby.

Sweating ruins everything, but this party was doomed from the start. There’s nothing sadder than an 80s video game bar. Sorry, but any rational person would rather be at home immersed in Uncharted 4 as opposed to competitive Tetris. Just admit you’re washed and sad about the future not having a place for you in it. Happy birthday, Reynolds? Anyway, I was distracted still by the needy figure of Arun all whilst my mind remained on Tobi. I saw that she was active but had said and read nothing. My love letter hung in the breeze as my challenge went unnoticed. I want to blame the sweating on my anxiety but honestly I should see a doctor. It’s bad.

She finally responded with the vaguest of messages. “Hi will” the text read, which could lead to anything. I braced for the worst and repeated that I was okay with whatever outcome. I didn’t see it coming. Tobi was naturally conflicted, but she wanted me back. She had feelings for me, too. Everything was a blur and my timing couldn’t be worse but she felt what she felt which was that she felt something strongly towards me. She got on a plane and I suffered through a sleepless night in which my hyperactive brain woke me up every 30 minutes to check for messages. I hardly slept a wink since I was so excited.

We talked extensively the morning after before I went to dim sum with the family. We gave parameters and clarity to our feelings: we wanted each other to want each other, we would leave room to allow each other to try, and we’ll go from there. She wasn’t going to leave her other partners and I didn’t want her to. I just wanted to see where it could go and the idea of that made her happy. Our conversation was once again cut short by mass transportation as I ducked sleepily into the subway.

Dim sum is always a good time. Grandpa likes being catered to, my dad got to indulge in all the odd appendages of his farm-fed fantasties, and George and I were able to team up on Ava and trick her into eating cow stomach. It’s true: even Chinese people can gross themselves out with the food we eat. Once full off delicacies I discussed birthday gift plans for Ava and George with mom, then shepherded the grandparents onto the subway.

Buying gifts for Ava was easy. She said earlier in the week that she wanted Golden State Warriors gear so I bought her a hat. You can’t call her a bandwagon fan when she lives in Palo Alto. That was easy. So was the stereotypically boring gifts from the Chinese parents. Two binders for school? That’s so sad. At least the trip to Staples inspired the idea of buying a gamer headset for George. Playing Santa is fun, especially since I was in a position to spoil the kids. They’re good kids that could use some spoiling. I felt like a proud older brother.

I returned home with the intention of bridging the sleep gap with a nap but Tobi had other ideas. She grew warm to the idea of being with me as I had been on her mind constantly as she was on mine. She was giddy and I was too. We swapped nudes and I jerked it for the second time that day in honor of her. Yes, ejaculation can be a form of honor for men. I never slept but I was happier for it.

Back to Etobicoke for dinner with me in the role of Santa carrying their gifts in my backpack. I shared a parental counselling talk with Auntie about how identity struggles will come to define Ava’s life as a first-generation Chinese-American. Then I took in Ava and George’s strings practice as they planned a duet performance later that night. 

After dinner I talked more with Tobi, only the topic moved onto her girlfriend potentially testing positive. That led to a phone call between us that started off tearful, but ended with soft kisses over the phone. I had missed her voice so much and even though it was a tough subject, I couldn’t help but smile as her soft purr filled my ears. I was relieved that we were at the same place and that I no longer had to hide. Her corny ass even sent me a photo of her smiling in which she looked so beautiful. I couldn’t wrap my mind around me making her that happy. She went to sleep shortly thereafter. 

The recital was wonderful, and made more wonderful still when Dad indulged Mom for a dance to their waltz. George and Ava gave a determined performance and so too did my parents, who oozed happiness in their own ways. Dad giggled uncontrollably while Mom stoically looked into his eyes with a soft smile that conveyed total satisfaction. Their hearts were full. The music was wonderful. George played the role of big brother beautifully as he coaxed Ava to overcome her shyness, while also showing face to the family. I couldn’t have been more proud of both of them, but especially George, who I have been diligently drilling since he was very young to escape the trap of being the classic diva younger brother. 

https://streamable.com/3e1hv

Cake and gifts brought everyone together for story time with the family. Auntie couldn’t convince Grandpa to share his story of hardship so I wove a fantastical tale of how he beat starvation and a pack of 20 wolves with his bare hands as an infant. The family was screaming in laughter over an otherwise tragic experience. My parable led Grandma to share her story of sharing food rations with Grandpa, which in turn led Grandpa to unclench over his bitterness towards an admittedly bitter time in his life. Mom, Dad and Auntie shared their gripes, and it was our turn to speak. I could only speak to the feeling of being without a home in our disaporic search for identity, and to my great surprise, George came in to reinforce the point. I am so proud of that boy. Everyone bonded.

Our night ended as many Chinese gatherings do: with a spirited game of cards. Grandpa religiously avoids any temptations of sin so he retreated, leaving the rest to play president. I was growing obsessed so 執著 was played on loop given half a chance and to my surprise, Auntie knew all the lyrics. We belted out the lyrics as Mom flashed that same look of peaceful content. She was surprised I picked out that song from the 3-pack CDs, and quite honestly I was too embarrassed to ask why since I didn’t know the history. I merely savored our moment of connection and proceeded to cheat my way into presidency as I typically do. Never let me deal. The night ended with Auntie and Ava wishing me goodbye, and I couldn’t wait to see them again over Christmas. Dad drove me home and we talked Milton FC. That’s how I got here. 

In this moment my heart is full. I am at peace with my family, as they are with me. I’m so proud of everyone, of our history, of our future and our heritage. From one generation to the next we were united. Their names, their customs and their values will live on through me, through Ava, and through George. And the girl I’ve wanted for two years is my best friend and she wants me back. 

May this day live forever. 

[bestcbdoilshop]

Beware of Fast Food Veggie Burgers

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While I applaud the efforts of the fast food industry in attempting to provide vegetarian and more healthful alternatives to the crap they already sell on a daily basis, I have to point out shortcomings and defects in their attempts to provide vegetarian and healthy alternatives that sabotage or defeat the whole purpose of attempting to provide healthier and meat-less (vegetarian) products.

Is health or the wellbeing of the American people the main objective in selling vegetarian products or is it financial gain? Unfortunately for all the people who want to believe the fast food industry is coming around and becoming more health conscious, the fast food industry's objective in selling vegetarian items such as the veggie burger is strictly commercial, at least right now or presently.

Why? Because until the vegetarian items are completely lacking animal byproducts, the promoting and selling of vegetarian items is to deceive fast food consumers into believing that they have a choice in eating meatless or healthier items and products, which just isn't true

. Take McDonald's, Burger King, and the Habit for example. They all sell a veggie burger. But that veggie burger patty (if the patty itself is not entirely vegetable based) is cooked in ANIMAL LARD number one, and number two, cooked on the same grill that meat (DEAD ANIMAL FLESH) is cooked on.

All meat contains parasites and worms, and the ugliest ones that you could ever see with the human eyes. I know this personally as I have done the personal research (and have been presented research from Doctah B, Bro. Tarik, and others in the Los Angeles area) and have the nauseating photographs to show you. TOTALLY GROSS!

Some people thought they were avoiding animal byproducts by only eating French fries from the fast food restaurant, not knowing that most fast food restaurants such as McDonald's were cooking their fries in vegetable oil mixed with beef juice. That's right! McDonald's add beef juice to its cooking oil for flavor, in addition to spraying the fires with a sugar solution, freezing them and shipping them off to McDonald's franchises, and after cooking the sugar sprayed fries in beef juice (oil), sodium chloride (salt) is added and you have one of the most addictive products in America - McDonald's French fries!

Take Subway for example, a place I used to eat at often in my early vegan days and while I was in the Corporate world. I had my places to eat at and menus to choose from. However, eating out was the exception to the rule and not the rule, as I normally prepared my own lunch. But Subway was right across the street from my place of employment and the food was much lighter than the stuff sold at the more general fast food establishments.

However, as I became more spiritual and health conscious, it started to bother me eating at establishments that served vegetarian products alongside with meat or flesh products. I used to order the Veggie Max sub sandwich from Subway. But the soy based Veggie Max patty was in a container or bin next to bacon (pig's back end). This was not a far distance for the microscopic parasites and worms to crawl from the bacon bin to the veggie patty bin. Also, the veggie patty was cut in two with the same knife used to cut meat with. You see, it really doesn't matter if you're health conscious or vegan or vegetarian and the person preparing your food (or product) is not. To the fast food employee, they're just preparing another product totally oblivious to strict food sanitary preparation ethics and principles.

Another thing to point out about the Subway Veggie Max sub or sandwich is that it was (1) cooked (actually, RADIATED) in a microwave oven, (2) cooked or radiated in the same microwave oven as meat or flesh products (pork worms can't be killed in heat because of a heat-resistant shell that forms around the worm in very high temperatures, and the only substance that can penetrate or break open that shell is the hydrochloric acid of the human body).

One day while out on the town with my children here in Glendale, California, my daughter wanted some noodles or Chow Mein and I think some vegetable-fried rice or egg rolls from Panda Express, I really can't remember exactly the items, but I do remember asking the Panda Express employee to prepare an exclusively vegetarian plate - NO MEAT OR MEAT-BYPRODUCTS WHATSOEVER, i.e. vegetable-fried rice, Chow Mein, steamed vegetables, and to my utter shock, the employee honestly told me that NOTHING at Panda Express was vegetarian. Absolutely nothing! I said, "Even the vegetable-fried rice, noodles, and steamed vegetables?" He said "That's right, Sir!" With a discombobulated look on my face, the employee then told me that Panda Express pours chicken juice on all of its items. So now I'm thinking about the time when time compelled me to get something on the go and I got what I thought was completely vegetarian from Panda Express.

And of course, I've heard similar accounts from my good Vegan comrades as well. So if you want to know a thing, ask. And by all means, don't presume.

If you think those vegetarian corn dogs at Hot Dog On-A-Stick are vegetarian, think again! They contain egg whites (in the bread batter).

I also used to eat the vegetarian burritos at Baha Fresh Mexican Grill. I started getting headaches. Why? White flour tortillas cooked on the same grill as the slaughtered flesh (meat). So what did I do to cure the problem? I Left those burritos alone and I have been fine ever since.

I remember my early vegan days of 1997 and 1998 and thinking I was not eating any animal parts or byproducts whatsoever only to discover that those black beans I was eating from El Pollo Loco contained chunks of chicken. One day while eating these black beans, I noticed a strange substance in them. When I picked the substance up and closely analyzed it, I was disgusted to be holding a piece of chicken in my hand. Boy did I feel nauseated at this revelation and discovery. I had to let those beans go no matter how good they tasted. I refuse to let taste disillusion me into a state of poor health and into an early grave.

Vegetarian does not mean vegan! Vegan means "completely animal free, including dairy products and eggs," whereas vegetarian means "meat-free but not dairy/eggs-free." A vegetarian burrito at a fast food restaurant may contain cheese and sour cream (congealed cow snot or mucus). Some veggie burger patties may also contain cheese. Cheese is from an animal so how can it be animal free? While many health conscious folks and would be vegans enjoy Boca Burgers, some brands contain egg whites and cheese, so start reading the ingredient list on the box.

So although McDonald's now has a veggie burger, just know that its veggie burger is cooked in beef oil, in addition to the fact that the veggie burger is centered between two white, refined grain buns, conventionally grown iceberg lettuce (the worst lettuce to eat and the most nutritionally deficient plant to eat) and genetically engineered tomatoes (if you want lettuce and tomatoes on your veggie burger). The same thing can be said of Burger King and the Habit's veggie burgers.

However, if you're on the road or out and about in society and must make a choice to eat something that is not so insalubrious, it would be a good idea to experience around with a major fast food chain's veggie burger rather than give in to the traditional crap that has been served over the years and that you always bought and ate. However, it is better (and wiser) to seek out vegan restaurants before you actually hit the town (if you're a health conscious individual or vegan).

I know how difficult it is to be vegan (at first) and to not have vegan eateries so easily and readily accessible, especially if you live in a small town. I'm thankful that the Greater Los Angeles area and Southern California in general is loaded with vegan spots around town to get something wholesome and nutritious to eat. The same is true for other big cities around the nation such as New York City, Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco-Oakland Bay area, etc.

If you're having trouble locating vegan eateries around the nation, contact Friends of Animals at bill@friendsofanimals.org or (203)656-1522 for a possible listing of vegan restaurants.

If you're in the Greater Los Angeles area, you may contact us at http://www.DHERBS.com for a listing of vegan (and vegetarian) restaurants.

Eating healthy is a journey, discipline, and lifestyle and does not come without challenges in the early stages. However, as you become more health conscious, you'll discover more healthy places to eat at while out on the town.

Thank you for reading! PEACE, LOVE and LIGHT!

This article was compliments of www.dherbs.com and Djehuty Ma'at-Ra, The People's Herbalist

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Article Here: Beware of Fast Food Veggie Burgers

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The Right Curves Vol. 8: Sugar Withdrawal

In 3 months, I’ll celebrate my first anniversary as a semi-vegetarian (wooohooo!).This is one of the most significant milestones in my life, being on the third year of my fitness journey. I started wanting abs only, but it didn’t look very feminine. I stumbled into the Bikini Body Guide or BBG on Instagram. Results from the BBG girls who joined greatly varied, which made me uncertain of my fitness goal for quite some time. 

When I became a semi-vegetarian, I was strict with my diet mainly because I was working within a daily budget. I had the body I wanted early this year, however, my family wasn’t happy. They said I looked anemic. I guess it was also due to stress from work and acute insomia. I was in denial at first, but I got scared, so I tried eating more until today. 

My current body goal is an hourglass figure. I find it womanly. I want to embrace this season and enjoy singlehood to its fullest. Not being able to run for several weeks, I’m back to square one, but with a healthier mindset (not bad, right?). The highlight of this phase is (tan-tana-nannnn!) sugar withdrawal. Although I wasn’t eating rice, I didn’t stop eating sweets! I realized how inconsistent I was when a friend called me out on my sugar addiction. Well, I thought it was normal, but at the back of my head I knew something needed to change. I just became more conscious after I turned 27, since it seemed as an indirect call to be more intentional in living healthy. For me, every year I spend doing it wrong is one year less to live. Aside from that, my mother has been taking medication to control her blood sugar. It gave me a preview of a possible illness I’d experience in my older years if I won’t discipline myself. Recently, studies are focusing on the impact of lifestyle in longevity, but we can’t dismiss the fact the genes have a potential to affect us one way or another.

Here’s the latest list of food I don’t eat: - rice (random days I ate sticky rice which I try to avoid now) - red meat (had a small slice of steak last April and didn’t like it) - chicken (tried a sandwich last June and got constipated) - fast food (gonna give up fries, tuna pie, except BonChon’s fish) - junk food (except boy bawang, potato chips occasionally but not anymore) - and soda (there were times I drank Sprite when I was in a fast food) And here’s the list of food I plan not to eat starting today (until I can bake/cook healthier versions): - cake - ice cream - pastries - any dessert - bread  - pasta (umm not this year though)

I actually began preparing for this diet tweak 20 days ago (coz this one’s major). It’s important not to dive into something without first preparing yourself physically, emotionally and mentally, else you’ll become disheartened by minor setbacks. There really should be an adjustment phase. 

During the first few days, I felt irritated and sluggish. I was easily annoyed. My head was pounding for almost a week! My body craved sugar that I had to drink pineapple juice everyday for half of the period. It was the healthiest option I had, although it should be noted that a can contains around 20 grams of sugar. And according to the American Heart Association (AHA), the maximum amount of added sugars for women is only 25 grams. Those days I had 2 cans, my daily allowable intake basically doubled! So in the remaining days, I did the juice-water ratio half-half just for water to taste, and I guess I’ll stick to that. 

It was my first time to dine out yesterday since I started controlling my sugar intake, and there was a complimentary bread. It took me minutes before asking the waitress to take it away (’twas tempting! hehe). Why am I talking about bread now? A type of carbohydrates is starch and they also turn into sugar when broken down. 

The struggle in dining out just got harder. I often check the appetizer and snack part of the menu if I want something light. Good bye, tuna melt sandwiches and pies (for now)! I’m now left with appetizers as food option in most restaurants, because if they do have fish in the menu, bet ya it’s fish and chips. Fish and chips is one of those dishes that seemed easy to cook, but tricky to perfect. It’s done wrong when it’s oily. BonChon’s fish and chips is my favorite to date (thanks to Mary Lane for introducing it to me). Luckily, the breakfast list was interesting. My eyes glittered when I saw “chia bowl”. I’ve been wanting to try a chia seeds. Boy, it was filling, but not heavy! 

The most challenging part of being a vegetarian or vegan in the Philippines is the accessibility of healthy ingredients that’s not grown in the country. Let’s take for example chia seeds, which are packed with fibers, omega-3 fats, protein, and other vitamins and minerals. Chia seeds are superfood, but I can’t find it in a regular supermarket.

It’s always a food hunt. It can get frustrating especially after you realize you’re not eating enough. Nutrient deficiency is common among vegetarians and vegans, and I want to discover ways on how to break that in a developing nation setting. Now that 30% of Filipinos are obese (according to a study which I read from a news site), the need for affordable healthy alternatives is increasing. Also, variety is important so our taste buds won’t get bored. I normally get food ideas in restaurants. Yes, I consider dining out as part of my research because online recipes and videos usually feature ingredients that aren’t easily available. 

I’ve created several food plans for my friends reaching out to me, and made progress by shifting focus from my initially recommended calorie counting in meals to quality food in huge servings. It’s now about listening to your own body and eating til you get full! Would you believe it? Friends, this has become more exciting than ever. 

If you need help, please leave me a message. We can do a one-time advising. :)

[cbdhempoil2017]

Beware of Fast Food Veggie Burgers

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While I applaud the efforts of the fast food industry in attempting to provide vegetarian and more healthful alternatives to the crap they already sell on a daily basis, I have to point out shortcomings and defects in their attempts to provide vegetarian and healthy alternatives that sabotage or defeat the whole purpose of attempting to provide healthier and meat-less (vegetarian) products.

Is health or the wellbeing of the American people the main objective in selling vegetarian products or is it financial gain? Unfortunately for all the people who want to believe the fast food industry is coming around and becoming more health conscious, the fast food industry's objective in selling vegetarian items such as the veggie burger is strictly commercial, at least right now or presently.

Why? Because until the vegetarian items are completely lacking animal byproducts, the promoting and selling of vegetarian items is to deceive fast food consumers into believing that they have a choice in eating meatless or healthier items and products, which just isn't true

. Take McDonald's, Burger King, and the Habit for example. They all sell a veggie burger. But that veggie burger patty (if the patty itself is not entirely vegetable based) is cooked in ANIMAL LARD number one, and number two, cooked on the same grill that meat (DEAD ANIMAL FLESH) is cooked on.

All meat contains parasites and worms, and the ugliest ones that you could ever see with the human eyes. I know this personally as I have done the personal research (and have been presented research from Doctah B, Bro. Tarik, and others in the Los Angeles area) and have the nauseating photographs to show you. TOTALLY GROSS!

Some people thought they were avoiding animal byproducts by only eating French fries from the fast food restaurant, not knowing that most fast food restaurants such as McDonald's were cooking their fries in vegetable oil mixed with beef juice. That's right! McDonald's add beef juice to its cooking oil for flavor, in addition to spraying the fires with a sugar solution, freezing them and shipping them off to McDonald's franchises, and after cooking the sugar sprayed fries in beef juice (oil), sodium chloride (salt) is added and you have one of the most addictive products in America - McDonald's French fries!

Take Subway for example, a place I used to eat at often in my early vegan days and while I was in the Corporate world. I had my places to eat at and menus to choose from. However, eating out was the exception to the rule and not the rule, as I normally prepared my own lunch. But Subway was right across the street from my place of employment and the food was much lighter than the stuff sold at the more general fast food establishments.

However, as I became more spiritual and health conscious, it started to bother me eating at establishments that served vegetarian products alongside with meat or flesh products. I used to order the Veggie Max sub sandwich from Subway. But the soy based Veggie Max patty was in a container or bin next to bacon (pig's back end). This was not a far distance for the microscopic parasites and worms to crawl from the bacon bin to the veggie patty bin. Also, the veggie patty was cut in two with the same knife used to cut meat with. You see, it really doesn't matter if you're health conscious or vegan or vegetarian and the person preparing your food (or product) is not. To the fast food employee, they're just preparing another product totally oblivious to strict food sanitary preparation ethics and principles.

Another thing to point out about the Subway Veggie Max sub or sandwich is that it was (1) cooked (actually, RADIATED) in a microwave oven, (2) cooked or radiated in the same microwave oven as meat or flesh products (pork worms can't be killed in heat because of a heat-resistant shell that forms around the worm in very high temperatures, and the only substance that can penetrate or break open that shell is the hydrochloric acid of the human body).

One day while out on the town with my children here in Glendale, California, my daughter wanted some noodles or Chow Mein and I think some vegetable-fried rice or egg rolls from Panda Express, I really can't remember exactly the items, but I do remember asking the Panda Express employee to prepare an exclusively vegetarian plate - NO MEAT OR MEAT-BYPRODUCTS WHATSOEVER, i.e. vegetable-fried rice, Chow Mein, steamed vegetables, and to my utter shock, the employee honestly told me that NOTHING at Panda Express was vegetarian. Absolutely nothing! I said, "Even the vegetable-fried rice, noodles, and steamed vegetables?" He said "That's right, Sir!" With a discombobulated look on my face, the employee then told me that Panda Express pours chicken juice on all of its items. So now I'm thinking about the time when time compelled me to get something on the go and I got what I thought was completely vegetarian from Panda Express.

And of course, I've heard similar accounts from my good Vegan comrades as well. So if you want to know a thing, ask. And by all means, don't presume.

If you think those vegetarian corn dogs at Hot Dog On-A-Stick are vegetarian, think again! They contain egg whites (in the bread batter).

I also used to eat the vegetarian burritos at Baha Fresh Mexican Grill. I started getting headaches. Why? White flour tortillas cooked on the same grill as the slaughtered flesh (meat). So what did I do to cure the problem? I Left those burritos alone and I have been fine ever since.

I remember my early vegan days of 1997 and 1998 and thinking I was not eating any animal parts or byproducts whatsoever only to discover that those black beans I was eating from El Pollo Loco contained chunks of chicken. One day while eating these black beans, I noticed a strange substance in them. When I picked the substance up and closely analyzed it, I was disgusted to be holding a piece of chicken in my hand. Boy did I feel nauseated at this revelation and discovery. I had to let those beans go no matter how good they tasted. I refuse to let taste disillusion me into a state of poor health and into an early grave.

Vegetarian does not mean vegan! Vegan means "completely animal free, including dairy products and eggs," whereas vegetarian means "meat-free but not dairy/eggs-free." A vegetarian burrito at a fast food restaurant may contain cheese and sour cream (congealed cow snot or mucus). Some veggie burger patties may also contain cheese. Cheese is from an animal so how can it be animal free? While many health conscious folks and would be vegans enjoy Boca Burgers, some brands contain egg whites and cheese, so start reading the ingredient list on the box.

So although McDonald's now has a veggie burger, just know that its veggie burger is cooked in beef oil, in addition to the fact that the veggie burger is centered between two white, refined grain buns, conventionally grown iceberg lettuce (the worst lettuce to eat and the most nutritionally deficient plant to eat) and genetically engineered tomatoes (if you want lettuce and tomatoes on your veggie burger). The same thing can be said of Burger King and the Habit's veggie burgers.

However, if you're on the road or out and about in society and must make a choice to eat something that is not so insalubrious, it would be a good idea to experience around with a major fast food chain's veggie burger rather than give in to the traditional crap that has been served over the years and that you always bought and ate. However, it is better (and wiser) to seek out vegan restaurants before you actually hit the town (if you're a health conscious individual or vegan).

I know how difficult it is to be vegan (at first) and to not have vegan eateries so easily and readily accessible, especially if you live in a small town. I'm thankful that the Greater Los Angeles area and Southern California in general is loaded with vegan spots around town to get something wholesome and nutritious to eat. The same is true for other big cities around the nation such as New York City, Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco-Oakland Bay area, etc.

If you're having trouble locating vegan eateries around the nation, contact Friends of Animals at bill@friendsofanimals.org or (203)656-1522 for a possible listing of vegan restaurants.

If you're in the Greater Los Angeles area, you may contact us at http://www.DHERBS.com for a listing of vegan (and vegetarian) restaurants.

Eating healthy is a journey, discipline, and lifestyle and does not come without challenges in the early stages. However, as you become more health conscious, you'll discover more healthy places to eat at while out on the town.

Thank you for reading! PEACE, LOVE and LIGHT!

This article was compliments of www.dherbs.com and Djehuty Ma'at-Ra, The People's Herbalist

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