Photo Dump: Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to play this so bad

What a ride. Time for the Cyberpunk tabletop games?

Made some 8-hour beef wanton ramen. It was a 4/10. We'll get them next time!

 Photo Dump: Dogs, Gats and Games

Penny

Glock 17 Gen 4 with a Streamlight TLR-1. I love it!

Elden Ring! I like Bloodborne better, but ER was such a wild ride

DnD night

FOOD! What I made at home and ate out these past few months! 

Pizzshaaa

Homemade gyudon!!! WIth egg on top and pickled ginger.

Sushi from Shimogamo 

Homemade Chinese stir fried egg and tomato

Homemade unagi rice bowl

Beef Curry Udon 

On tonight's menu (I made this a few weeks back actually), beef curry udon!

This stuff slaps on cold weather days and will make you feel like a newly birthed baby Jesus as you slurp the noodles. I'm kidding, I suck at cooking so it wasn't that good, but here's the low-down about the dish.

So I started off by sautéing a dump truck load of onions, garlic and thin sliced beef. I then deglazed the pot with beef stock, mirin and sake. Later I had it reduced and thickened with S&B hot curry roux and a block of butter or two... or three. I then added soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and hear me the fuck out... instant coffee.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... INSTANT COFFEE. Trust me dudes, trust.  

For individual servings, I had the portion of curry heated to a boil while I cracked an egg on the noodles. After awhile, I took the super hot curry and poured it over the egg and noodles.

Top it with some green onions and pickled ginger and enjoy.

Making and sharing food is everything to me. It's my way of saying I appreciate your existence, so now be my guinea pig and try it. WIth that in mind, I made some for my coworkers and they all turned out okay in the end.

Persona 

I've been playing this video game series by Studio Atlus called Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. So far the series has 5 main games and I can say without a doubt it's one of the best games I've played in ages in terms of JRPGs. 

At the moment, I've only finished Persona 4: Golden on the PlayStation Vita and have started Persona 5: Royal on the PS4. I plan to play Persona 3 next on the Vita, but each day that passes, it seems I have less and less time to play :( All I can say, the soundtrack for all the games are so good, I time to time add them to my music playlists.

I didn't realize how big the Persona community was until recent and I'm glad to be apart of it now. it's hilarious to see the Persona meme's on reddit and twitter now that I have some familiarity to Persona. 

I feel like 13 year old me again playing these games, just getting lost in the stories and worlds. The game's characters and massages are relatable too, having to deal with themes of acceptance of death, acceptance of self, moving on in life, making and losing friends/loved ones, etc.

There's a few things in life I wish to forget about to experience for the first time again and playing this series would be one of them. 

Thank You, Atlus for making a rad game.

Persona 4: Golden on PSVita

Persona 3 meme lol

Fried Chicken?

Phở - Pretty Good Soup, Huh?

I love soup and noodle dishes, especially when it's cold outside. I wish there was a late night noodle shop around me. I dream sometimes of me flying to Vietnam and the first thing I do is buy a $2 bowl of phở and eat while it's raining.

The broth was made from scratch and took roughly 10 hours for it to be ready. My favorite part was flame charring the aromatics. Something about fire gets me excited (no, I'm not a pyromaniac).
I brought some to my coworkers and it was well received.

I makes me warm and happy to see the people I care about come together and eat the food I make.

 Photo Dump: Go to Work, Go Home, Repeat

10 hour Miso Ramen - Making Mistakes to Get Better 

A few weeks back, I decided to make miso ramen for my coworkers to try and critique so I can be a better ramen maker. As a hobbyist making it for friends with different years of experience and training levels in the food industry, it was an honor to have them taste it.

So like previous ramen recipes I've used before (Tokyo shoyu, tonkotsu, & shio), I used Mike Satinover's reddit recipe for the ramen (click here for recipe!). The hardest part about this ramen was the tare (seasoning sauce). How the pros put it, the tare for miso ramen breaks or makes it. If done wrong, it ends up being a glorified bowl of miso soup. If done right, it becomes a godly bowl of miso ramen (obviously).

Of course being the first time making miso ramen, there were issues such as lack of depth and acidity to the ramen soup when the tare, aroma oil and broth were combined.

After some nights of further researching and having my friends, family and coworkers taste test my ramen, it was eventually remedied, but it could've been done better for future batches. 

In terms of adding more depth, instead of pouring the hot broth over the tare and aroma oil, I've decided to stir fry some ground pork and aromatic vegetables with the tare and aroma oil and deglazed the wok with the broth.

Even then something was still missing. The soup was indeed good, but it didn't hit all the taste buds. It didn't give that taste-smell connection and then it hit me. Yes, the soup had some form of fat and salt in it, but what about acidity? So with that in mind, I added some rice vinegar and titrated it until that connection was made and holy shit, it worked.

One minor issue that my coworker brought up was that, though the soup was very savory and good, the taste of umami and maximum depth of taste was lacking. She recommended I roast the bones and aromatics next time to give that extra "oomph". Salamat po, Esther, for that advice. I will be sure to keep that in mind next time!

Overall, the miso ramen was well received and I wished I had made more to feed all my coworkers. I dream about having a midnight ramen shop, but I'm nowhere near perfect to do so.

Maybe I should stop dreaming about silly things like that.

Prince, I Miss You.

I had a border collie named Prince. My best friend gave him to me a few years back and I loved him ever since.

His favorite thing to do was run in open grass and eat things he wasn't supposed to.

I spoke to him everyday when I got home from school, work or anything really. He was there when no one else was. Before, I felt like I was the loneliest person in the world, but when he came into my life, everything felt okay.

My favorite memory of him was when we were out for a walk one night. A few blocks from home, we encountered a huge stray dog, bigger than Prince. They were nose to nose with each other, tails pointed up and both as stiff as taxidermy.

I didn't know what to do. Animal control was not in service and it seemed like a trivial thing to call 911 about. The best I could do was prepare for the worse. Before I knew it, Prince as fast as a fencer's lunge, bit the dog's nose and it squealed and ran away into the alleyway. He looked at me with the happiest face ever and wagged his tail gleefully, as if nothing happened. 

My biggest regret is that I never took much pictures of him or of our time together.

I had planned to take him to Prescott, Arizona because I heard that month was when the grass fields were as green as ever with mountains and forest trees in the background, like it was a scene from The Sound of Music. I could imagine him running about for hours on end. 

He passed away on November 2nd, 2017, due to medical complications. 

We were suppose to go to Prescott together that week, but it never happened. The following months felt so cold and lonely like it used to be. I don't think I can get another dog for awhile.

Like many other people and things in my life that I care about, when I think of him, I just want to keep moving forward. My time with him is over now, but he will always have a part of my soul tucked away that no else can have.

Prince, I miss you. I hope you're running in green fields forever.

 Late Night Discoveries - Payphone Hunting

I wish these were around more.

Skateboarding and Growing Up 

It's 3:44 AM, I'm drowning in paperwork and school stuff. I'm typing this as my de-stress and relax moment of the day.

Earlier when I got home from work, I took my little brother to get burritos from this 24hr Mexican place. We then got home and as usual went on YouTube to search for the finest entertainment to enjoy our wrapped artery busters.

Looking through my video recommendations, I came across some skateboarding videos that I used to watched back then. Skateboarding was everything to me in high school and middle school. It was my release, my only way to feel alive.

I sucked at socializing, I sucked in academics, I sucked at everything really. I felt like I didn't belong anywhere, but with skateboarding, there wasn't any discrimination at all. I was so fascinated in filming and editing it. I tried the best I could to replicate skate videos from the 90s/Early 2000s. It made my dad question my sanity when I dropped so much cash toward his old tape camcorder he used for home videos. That thing was my baby. I carried that thing and my skateboard at all times just in case I came across some dude street skating or to record things just for the sake of recording. Now all that stuff is just collecting dust and it makes me sad that time just isn't by my side for this part of my life to get back to filming.

So, yeah. My brother and I watched old skateboarding videos all night while eating burritos. It probably didn't mean that much to him, but to me, it meant the world. I hardly felt this feeling before, but to feel genuine happiness, I think things are going to be alright for now.

Night Life 

So green

Change Takes Time

My paramedic class is scheduled to graduate around October. There's so much work to be done before I can celebrate. Before I know it, I'll be a flight medic and making a decent living for myself.

I can't wait to see the day where me and my brother are in Japan after I save up enough money. We'll have the time of our lives for sure. 

Just got to keep patient.

Just got to keep moving forward.

Photo Dump - Food! Food! Food!:Gyoza, Poke and More 

I want to branch out to Chinese and Russian cuisine next. I feel like I I'm too partial to Japanese food and want to get out of my comfort zone of cooking. 

I like to believe I have made some mastery towards making karaage. I could use some work on the gyoza tho as my folding skills are ass.

I adore my cast iron. Might pass it to my kids if I do have any one day.

I could eat a dump truck worth of these ngl

Marinated in soy sauce, mirin, garlic and ginger. Battered and fried in 
egg and potato starch. Fry once on low heat and second on high.

My boss and coworkers as so fucking awesome

 Late Night Korean Black Bean Sauce Noodles (Jjajangmyeon - 짜장면)

There is an unofficial holiday in South Korea called "Black Day", which is observed on April 14th by single people. I guess it's the anti-Valentines day, where single peeps wear black and eat black foods such as jjajangmyeon. Jjajangmyeon is considered a SK comfort food and I can see why.

Full of onions, juicy pork belly, sweet, savory and spicy black bean sauce on top of noodles - what's not to like about this dish? Topped with yellow radish, cucumber and green onions.

Doesn't look appetizing, does it?

New Years & 7 Hour Shoyu Ramen

It is 10:30 PM as I'm typing this. I had a few beers, some good food and am currently waiting for midnight to come. I could give a retrospective on how my year went, but thinking about it makes me want to have a stroke, so I'll just share about the shoyu ramen and cheese gyoza I made to celebrate today. 

Last year, I tackled tonkotsu ramen, which is a pork bone based ramen. This year I'm trying a soy sauce (shoyu) based ramen. Like the previous recipe, I followed Mike Satinover a.k.a ramen_lord's collection of ramen recipe's. This ramen is based off of Tokyo's style of shoyu ramen.

I made some mistakes in the process, but in the end I learned and enjoyed prepping and eating the end product. I served it alongside cheese gyoza, which is just regular pork gyoza with cheese seared on the top and bottom. 

Besides eating and drinking all day, yeah nothing to write home about, really.

I honestly don't want to wish anyone a happy new year, because I know that's never the case. So I hope whatever endeavors and hardships you guys encounter in life this coming year are met with resolve and closure? Idk, I'm total shit with words. 

Cheers, see you guys next year (that line is so dumb lmao)

It doesn't look like much, but this bitch was deep 

I used sharp cheddar, but probably should've opted for a milder cheese

Not shown is the tare and garlic chicken aroma oil I made to flavor the broth

Niboshi, kombu and bonito flakes for the tare and broth

Photo Dump

Hope you guys enjoy the remaining days of this year. Things will suck less I guess.

I wish they sold green tea KitKats in full bars

Bodem Half Acre IPA from Chicago, IL

For Christmas I made Cơm Hến with my mom. So good.

Lmao

 Weekly Photo Dump

From Okinawa. Pretty crisp and light.

Got this Iwatani butane stove. Will be my cooking workhorse when I get out   
 of the Navy and start living in my truck.

Made Korean BBQ with the new butane grill. Iwatani grills are arguably the
Toyotas of the portable grill market