This isn't an entry about food per se, but when it comes to my passion and the way that I live my life day to day, the things I do... this post is about a piece of who I am....Continue Reading »

It's strange to think that it's been 20 years since the Loma Prieta quake. It doesn't seem that long ago, at all.

My 15th birthday was just a few days away. The A's and Giants were in the World Series together. MC Hammer was a hometown sensation.

We had just moved to San Francisco that Summer and were living in a two story house on Moraga between 17th and 18th Aves in the Inner Sunset district. My brother and I were the only ones home. My mom was on her way from work, and my grandmother was... well, who knows. She was probably out grocery shopping for the night's dinner, actually. I was excited and getting ready to watch the baseball game with my brother. He was downstairs playing Bard's Tale 3 on our Commodore 64.

I was going to the bathroom... In our house, we had a typical SF bathroom where the toilet resides in a seperate little closet apart from the shower/tub and sink the next room over. This particular house had a very small toilet room. At 15, I remember thinking it was small... I can only imagine how cramped it would be for me now, so many years and pounds later!

So there I was, sitting on the loo, when I heard the earthquake coming. Being a Californian, I can't count the number of quakes I've been in... I remember the big Piedmont quake when I was a little kid in Montessori... I was living in LA for the Whittier quake of '87... and managed to catch numerous tremblers up and down the coast...

Sometimes, they sound like a big truck rolling down the street. That's what this one sounded like at first, but then it got louder and closer and it very quickly became obvious that an earthquake was about to hit. The rumbling continued to intensify, and still no shaking. My heart began to race, and I knew it was going to be big. I braced my arms against the walls, no time to pull up my pants and make a dash for an open doorway...

...then it hit. It felt like I was inside a box and someone had decided it would be fun to roll me down a steep hill inside of it... I remember thinking "shit, shit shit... I don't want to die like this!" as I was jolted side to side and listened to the old wood bend and creak, books and dishes and various things falling onto floors in the rooms outside...

when the initial quake finally subsided and rolled away, there was an eerie dead silence... then I heard keys frantically shaking in the front door and my grandmother calling out "mijos! mijos! where are you?!?" and I yelled out, "I'm in the bathroom!" and started laughing nervously at the ridiculousness of my situation... I heard my brother yell "grandma!!" and come running upstairs...

we gathered in the living room and huddled tightly in the silence... we waited patiently for my mother to get home, my grandmother's face creased with worry... the silence faded into distant sounds of sirens and traffic, and we found a portable radio so we could find out how bad it was... and bad, it certainly was.

i had never cried because of an earthquake (or any other natural disaster) before... but that night as we heard the news and later began to see the news footage from the Marina district and the Cypress freeway... i cried.

...

I usually actually rather enjoy most earthquakes... but not the Loma Prieta. There was aftershock after aftershock... and in our house, my brother and I shared a room downstairs, and in our bathroom we had a shower closet with a metal framed glass door. That door rattled incessantly for days... so sensitive, it announced even the slightest of tremors... we never knew when it's rattle rose in volume if it was going to be another big shock or just a little one passing through... and you could hear it rattle all throughout the house.

As I'm remember all of this, I can still hear that damned rattle in my head, and I have shivers up my spine typing this out. Needless to say, our nerves were shot for some time after...

...

I remember when dusk came and night fell that evening... how emcompassingly eerie it was... the silence... the dark... and most of all, the skies! Our house was on a hilly street and we could see all the way to the ocean when the fog wasn't crowding us in... that night, the sun set not only in the west over the ocean... but to the north and to the east as well because of the fires raging in the Marina district and across the bay as well... I've seen many awe inspiring sunsets now in my days... but never one so frightening as the halo of red 'round the horizon that night...

...

20 years... crazy.

Wowza! Has it really been almost seven months since my last post? Crazy...The date of my last entry here just about coincides with when I officially took over as Manager for the Cheese & Charcuterie department at Liberty Heights. Understandably,...Continue Reading »

received a rewarding compliment today at work...

Janet Fletcher (food writer and cheese columnist for the SF Chronicle) was in town and doing the rounds in between stops on a research trip for her next book. Steven and I had some good chats with her, and I gave her a brief tour of my cheese cases. She was impressed with how many cheeses I had that she'd never tried (or even heard of in several cases), and complimented me on how good everything looked. She then told us how she'd made some stops previous to coming over and asked if we thought we had the best cheese in town. After Steven told her we like to let our customers decide that, she chuckled then looked at us both sternly and said, "Well, I'll tell you. You have the best cheese counter in town."

With all the biased press in town, sometimes it's hard to get a break. I often wonder what the hell that's all about anyway... maybe just because we're an openly radical ragtag bunch of misfits in the middle of a goodie-two-shoes-appearance-is-important town... in any case, those words coming from Janet's mouth meant an awful lot especially with how hard i've been working to create something truly outstanding.

Felt almost as good as the time Gary Snyder slapped me five and said "Good shit!" after my Du Nord show back in the day...

It's hard sometimes... being out here in what can seem at times like the middle of nowhere culturally... I feel like such a noob without any guidance or standards nearby... Steven is a good guide sometimes, but for the most part I'm flying solely by my own instinct and experience... but I guess when I'm getting high compliments from well-known published food writers and being chosen to help judge a multinational (the ACS accepts entries from north america, not just the US) competition among other things, then maybe, just maybe... i'm actually getting things right.

What an interesting life...

Looks like August is going to be a busy month for me :)

I got news yesterday that I won't just be attending this year's American Cheese Society conference in Austin... I'll be going as a judge for their annual competition! There are over 1300 entries this year o_0... but don't worry, I won't have to taste them all! I'll be part of a team of pairs of judges (one aesthetic, one technical... I'll be one of the former). Last year there were just under 1200 entries worked by 15 pairs of judges... that's still a lot of cheese! But to put it into perspective: that will be broken down over the course of two days of judging. Whereas at last year's conference culmination: the Festival of Cheeses, over the course of several hours I made the full circuit tasting probably every entry (a lot of it gets blurred after a while)... TWICE! o_0 hah!

I'm excited and nervous for this opportunity... and I'm also feeling more than a bit humbled. I'll probably have the least professional experience and "formal" food education compared to my fellow judges. I was looking over the judge bios from last year's conference, and we're talking professional food writers and critics, pioneers in the industry, people with French titles bestowed upon them, and pedigrees that include alums of Chez Panisse...

...and whilst humbled, I feel more than up to the task. This will be an incredible learning experience and an increidble experience, period... and while I don't have the professional experience, training, or resume behind me; I have a great wealth of food knowledge and taste memory that spans a lifetime of being raised in a truly multicultural and multiethnic environment... from learning to cook from my parents as well as my Chinese and Mexican grandmothers... spending time alongside my Greek ex-step-yaiya making baklava, spanikopita, and learning how to cook the family's Easter leg of lamb... sitting in front of the tv as a child without cable and only PBS to guide me - thank the gods for Julia Child (I bawled like a baby when she died), Jacques Pepin, & Jeff Smith (controversy aside)!... all my culinary explorations (every vacation is highlighted by food finds and defined by taste) including who knows how much money spent at the 6th Ave cheese shop as a teenager and young adult...

food has been one of my greatest passions and joys in this life.

so, somehow, I am put to the task of wrapping all of that and my current status into a 100 word bio to be printed alongside those of such pioneers and luminaries as I now call peers...

Hopefully suitable, this is what I came up with:

Emiliano Lee is a newcomer on the professional cheese circuit, but no stranger to the worlds of cheese and fine food. A San Francisco Bay Area resident for most of his life, this native Oaklander grew up cooking with Chinese and Mexican heritage as well as (for a while) a Greek stepfamily. Growing up in San Francisco, spending his allowance at the local cheese shops was a common occurance. Transplanted in Salt Lake City, Utah, Emiliano finds himself a pioneer of sorts in the "last Western frontier," promoting full-flavored food finds as Cheese & Charcuterie Manager for Liberty Heights Fresh.

I'll be sending that in tomorrow with my acceptance form.

As I said, August is going to be a busy month. In addition to the ACS conference the first week of the month, I'll be hitting the road again the last week as well. One of my suppliers is having an open house, and seeing as they're in the Bay Area, I figured it would be a grand time to plan a trip home around. Woot woot! I don't have my dates down yet for that, but I got the time off and I'll be in San Francisco then around the 26th give or take a few days :D

Also might take a little time off in July... Ren's annual family reunion camping trip is the last week, but that wasn't available for me... so maybe we'll just take a family trip down to southern Utah. I need to see Bryce Canyon and Zion... and I have friends running a restaurant down in Boulder that I would love to visit as well (and maybe hit up Hell's Backbone for some eats as well)... and maybe pick up some "Ho-Made" pies on the way home ;) We'll see. Need to talk to the others about it. Not sure if Ren can get more time off in July since he's already got the last of the month alloted.

edit 10:31pm... editted the bio to read:

Emiliano Lee, relative newcomer on the professional cheese circuit, is no stranger to the wonderful worlds of cheese and fine food. A San Francisco Bay Area resident most of his life, this native Oaklander grew up cooking with Chinese, Mexican, and Greek heritages. Growing up in San Francisco, culinary expeditions were frequent and often included blowing his allowance at local cheese shops. A ways down the road now transplanted in Salt Lake City, Utah, Emiliano finds himself a pioneer in the "last Western frontier" promoting full-flavored food finds as Cheese & Charcuterie Manager for Liberty Heights Fresh.

openned a box i inherited from the previous cheese manager (something we'd had for in the back for months)... inside was a wheel of vacherin fribourgois that was totally infested with cheese mites... after wiping and smacking the cheese to remove... well, ok, to collect as many as i could for morbid curiosity's sake... i ended up filling an 8 oz plastic container with the microscopic buggers! it was such a mess... i probably only managed to collect about two thirds of what fell out... not to mention how many more were nestled away in the myriad crevices they'd burrowed across the landscape of the cheese!

needless to say, the wheel was unsellable. it was edible though, so i cut away and discarded the outside of the cheese and wrapped up the innards for making fromage fort. i have a big stash now to use, so hopefully i'll make time to do so soon.

i should've taken pictures!

next time :P though, hopefully there won't be a next time. lol.

it was so surreal... at first i was using my bare hands, but the tingling sensation of thousands of mites scuttering under my touch started to freak me out so i put on gloves for the task. XD

got home from today's managers meeting at work (we went to No Brow and I had one of the best cappucinos I've had in many years, nice and dry yet creamy and perfectly balanced)... was sitting here staring at my notes and thought about how I come home every week with all this great info and ideas from the meetings, but as soon as I go back to work Tuesdays that all fades into chaos of day to day operations...

so i was googling up freeware options for digital sticky notes so that I can keep a list of things to do visible in front of me so I won't have any excuses for distraction... and I saw this amazing video:

getting an email or letter that begins "I wish I weren't writing these words, but I'm hugging you as I do." is never a good thing...

Amy is one of my closest and dearest friends... a kindred... a soul mate... our beings and psyches forever entwined by shared experiences and love... and in high school, I considered her mother a second to my own. I called her "Mom."

I got an email from Amy today telling me she died on Monday.

I am saddened... I'd say beyond words, but I suppose that would be a lie since I'm typing this.



Thank you, Mom... for all the beauty, light, and inspiration you gave to this world. I feel blessed to have known you, and my heart aches at the loss of your corporeal self... yet at the same time, I am comforted by the knowledge that your memories will carry on and continue to shine upon those who you touched.

You always made me feel at home and part of your family. I never thought of you as anything other than Mom... a second to my own. It seems fitting then, that my old friendship with your daughter Amy holds a dear place in my heart alongside those of my own flesh and blood.

It is times like these that I wish I was back home in the Bay Area. Though not in body, I am with your beloveds in spirit.

"Rest In Peace" doesn't quite seem fitting... may your memory never rest! May you ever continue to inspire us all. May we all shine as you and never rest!

Until forever, all ways with love.

my mom forwarded me an article/obituary for one of my dad's old friends and comrades.

Richard Masato Aoki died March 15, aged 70...

also, a memorial blogsite has been set up for Aoki here: http://ramemorial.blogspot.com/

reading the entries there that have been submitted is inspiring. i urge you to go and read and see what this man was to the people around him, to the bay area, to asian america, and to the constant struggles for freedoms and equality in this world. amongst the entries, i found this poem:

For Richard Aoki: 1938-2009
by Marvin X, Houston TX

The yellow sun has set in the West
evening has come to the Buddha Panther
Comrade Richard
another son of Merritt College
who joined the Panther Revolution
no hesitation
only dedication to the cause of world revolution
consistent and loyal to the end
model of third world unity
taking his place on the altar of the warriors
to be remembered as the first Asian Panther
Uniting Asia and Africa in America
Richard we love the song you sang
the magic lyrics of your walk
the fire of your speech
determination in time of defeat
We honor you, love you and miss you
will never forget you
your respect
smile
yet serious always
about revolution
change
unity
human possibilities.
Right On!

...

his passing saddens me, and i'll have to call my dad tomorrow to let him know... i wonder if he'll be able to make the memorial next sunday. i know my dad has been talking about heading to the bay area for a visit soon. i wish i could be there.

i'll have to see if i can find one of my favorite old pics of my dad from when i was little... it's him with aoki and a couple others posing with their guns and rifles in one of the doorways of our old house :) (aoki was at the rally that this icon pic of my dad was from, too)

a piece of my own history passes. and such passings are always melancholy... yet at this time i am filled with pride... for who brother Aoki was and what he did in this life... for all the he and my father gave me and all of our brothers and sisters... Richard Aoki left a great legacy, and one that shall carry on for some time to come. there are many of us who would not be where or who we are today if not for him.

rest in peace.

all power to the people.

nice... Chibi from The Birthday Massacre just openned up an Etsy shop! ^_^

http://goodbyeforever.etsy.com

she does the crochet, her friends do the other stuff on there. love the name and logo hehe.

in gaming news... and somewhat related to my busy work schedule...

i haven't been playing WoW much... only logged on maybe once in the last month or so. i was having a blast with my Death Knight, but once i started getting busy with work, i just didn't have the gumption to get on and quest or grind. it was fun, but it just didn't grab hold of me. it was *just* a game for me... with chat added on. before the holidays, i had been playing a lot with Kiki, but then she withdrew and we weren't hanging out so much or even chatting like we had been, and then for a while she grew disenchanted and wasn't really playing. so once more i found myself soloing my way along in an mmo and basically paying to play what was for me a single player game (with chat)... going back to my old server and rolling a DK... getting back in touch with old guildies... that was fun, but it wasn't fulfilling. i wasn't the same level as anyone anymore, and i seldom played at the same times as the people i would've loved to play with. so once work got busy, the disenchantment kicked in again, and i wondered if i was going to keep playing.

recently, i'd begun to really miss LotRO... in part because of the similar circumstances around which i stopped playing. got uber busy at Harmons, went to Chicago, got even busier upon return... and just didn't have time. lame. lol. why lame? because i loved that game. it was more than just a game for me. it was a joy to be able to see middle earth brought to life and be an active part of the world... and it was more than just a game because even though i soloed a lot, i also met a lot of wonderful people and made friends who i would just hang out with. the social aspects of LotRO are far greater than perhaps any other mmo i've played... and it helps that a good number of those other people playing are old school tolkein fans such as myself who not only enjoy being in the world, but help to actively bring it to life themselves. i really missed that comraderie and community.

i was telling Circe (one of the hosts at Le Cim in SL when i DJ) about LotRO and got kinda misty eyed while showing her screenshots... especially when i remembered and started telling her about the first time i ever came over the mountains and down into the valley where Rivendell lies... how LotRO was the first (and only) mmo to actually bring me to tears. the beauty and grandeur of the world... the real community amongst players... i really missed it, and have been wanting to go back for some time now.

so to keep from feeling bad about paying fees for an mmo that i might not play much with my busy busy busy... i eliminated that factor altogether :P hehe... i've been managing my finances pretty well lately, had a little extra leeway, and decided to reward myself for my promotion by reactivating my LotRO account with a lifetime subscription :) so now i can play anytime for any length or shortness of time and relax and not worry and know that middle earth will be right there waiting for me (so long as the servers are live hehe).

already back in touch with and reinstated in Knights of the White Lady... with several warming welcome backs... hoping to catch my old friends in the Hobbiton Philharmonic soon to let them know i'm back and hopefully hear them play again soon as well :) meanwhile, just need to remember how to actually play lol.

tonight's dinner:

Dirty Mexican Rice!

begin by making a picadillo... in my family, that's usually made by browning ground beef (you can drain the fat off if you want or use 93% lean and cook in olive oil instead... ground turkey works too, but you'll really want to brown it up well for comparable flavor then, almost crispy... fried tempeh would work for a vegan version), then sauteeing onions and garlic with the meat and seasoning with garlic salt, cumin, and black pepper...

add brown rice and chopped red pepper (and jalapeno if you want it a little spicy), and continue to cook until the pepper just starts to sweat...

then add in your cooking liquid (2.5 to 3 parts liquid for each cup of brown rice you use)... tonight i used equal parts crushed tomatoes and water... you could use enchilada sauce even if you want...

bring to a simmer, then cover and cook until rice is done (approx 40 min)

garnish with green peas and scallions (and cilantro if you like)

orale vato!

For a while now, I've been hearing all about Tulie Bakery here in SLC. My boss has even brought in some of their goodies on occasion, and every time I've been rather impressed. This last week though, he brought in...Continue Reading »

I live not half a block from Panaderia Flores. I don't go there often enough. When I do though, I am overwhelmed by the smells and sights of memory. All those familiar cookies, rolls, buns, pastries, and cakes. Dusted with...Continue Reading »

Selling my 1990 Honda Accord LX Sedan, $1800 obo

( details and pics under the cut )

"This is the best french toast I have *ever* had..." - actual quote from one of my coworkers! That and many other rave reviews spouted forth after Steven requested I cook up some breakfast for the crew. He and Tyler...Continue Reading »

holy crap, this cracked me up to tears! fucking awesome XD

Last night, author and NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman was in town on a book tour for Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I was on the LHF catering team plating up pre-show appetizers that we'd donated.I've read Friedman's columns in the...Continue Reading »

wow... I'm not much into sports cars personally, but this thing is amazing in both it's performance and green-ness!

zero to 60 in around 3 seconds? 370 hp? 92 MPG?!? single tank range of 1200 friggin miles?!? all the bells and whistles plus trunk room enough for all your luggage and grocery needs?

yep:

The Frazer-Nash "Namir"

sometimes wikipedia and google can be a dangerous thing... heh.

was just choking back tears after stumbling upon this entry.

for a number of reasons... the sicknesses within our society that nurture shit like this to happen... the imagery triggering my own ptsd over the brawl Andy and I ended up in that landed us both in the ER in 2001 (tho I still find irony and smirk at the fact that while they were calling him a Chink, he was Japanese and I was the one with chinky blood :P heh)... remembering the story of two goth kids in the UK not being allowed onto a bus because of how they were dressed, and yet where was this story?... and also because I found the story while reading up on VNV's discography, and the thought of Ronan dedicating "Illusion" to her at a show shortly after her death wrenches my heart beyond words.

I can't help but think sometimes... wtf is wrong with this world?

It all boils down to what I focused my university studies upon: Identity as the basis for all human conflict.

Regardless of the reasons... why do we continue to hold so strongly onto everything that divides us?

At least I have comfort in my Entropic beliefs... one of these days this shit will all be over. We'll be gone, and there will not even be a trace of memory left. All this shit for naught.

Until then though... wtf. There is no excuse. Reasons perhaps... many of which I can understand on a sociological level... but no fucking excuse.

I might not be on the streets raising my fist like I used to... but at least I am doing what I can in my life to better my world in what little ways I can... and who knows, maybe one of these days I'll be back out there raging against the machine once more.

VNV Nation, "Dark Angel"

In your dream you see me clear
I have no restraint, no fear
Powerless I watched from faces I'd assumed.
My purpose set. My will defined.
Caress the air.
Embrace the skies.
Escape the sorrow and restraint of mortal cities.

Give me time I will be clear.
Given time you'll understand
What possesses me to right what you have suffered.
I'm in this mood because of scorn.
I'm in a mood for total war.
To the darkened skies once more and ever onward.

So many years I stood among the thoughts
and tears of those I served.
Among my own I was alone through my own doing.
All the years I walked unknown
behind the faces I assumed.
Powerless to clear your mind of what you'd suffered.

They fall again.
They fall again.

Give me time I will be clear.
Given time you'll understand
What possesses me to right what you have suffered.
I'm in this mood because of scorn.
I'm in a mood for total war.
To the darkened skies once more and ever onward.
There is no faith in which to hide.
Even truth is filled with lies.
Doubting angels fall to walk among the living.
I'm in this mood because of scorn.
I'm in a mood for total war.
To the darkened skies once more and ever onward.

I'd only come here seeking peace.
I'd only come here seeking me.

It seems I came to leave.