Well, “like” Mexican. As I experienced many years ago at Sombrero in the basement dining arcade in the Paseo building adjacent to the JR Sapporo station, it looks right, but doesn’t taste right. The fried chicken and fries weren’t really “Mexican”, but the chili con carne and enchilada were… somewhat. They did a lot better than last time. To this day I don’t know what that white stuff that came with my burrito was, but it wasn’t sour cream (I think it was cream cheese). Continue reading ‘Mmm… Mexican’
Author Archive for risu
Page 16 of 95
Okay, temperature around 0 to -2C, windspeed around 3 m/s, TAD Ranger fleece with Stealth LT uninsulated softshell was fine over just a tee-shirt on 20-minute walks. It did get hot inside heated stores, and my tee-shirt did get sweaty where my pack was against my back, but the highly breathable materials did allow for a decent amount of moisture transport, so I didn’t chill out once outside again. I’d probably have been a little wetter with the eVent jacket. Could probably take this combination down to about -10 to -15C before adding more layers underneath. A technical baselayer and midlayer would easily extend the temperature down another 10-degrees, or extend exposure time.
For S&G, I tried wearing a Patagonia Capilene 3 half-zip long sleeve top over the same tee-shirt, and put a Patagonia Nano Puff vest and TAD Stealth LT softshell over that. The temperature and wind were still about the same, but it was night, so no warming effects of sunlight. Fail. Cold. Colder than the heavyweight Polartec Wind Pro TAD Ranger hoodie alone. The Cap3 and Primaloft are pretty good insulators, but I guess nowadays I’m not pumping out as much heat as I used to. After a moderate amount of activity, my core did warm up, but my arms were still cold.
Whoa! Sweet! These are like German ninja boots! After slipping and sliding in Danner Desert boots in the snow last year, I got a pair of Lowa Couloir GTX boots to try. These incorporate Lowa’s G3 sole unit which has dual-compound rubber lugs with textile “studs”. Between the softer rubber lug center compound and the textile, these boots are just short of metal studs insofar as grip on packed snow and icy surfaces. I’m not sure how they came up with the textile idea, but it works. The normal compound lends the sole normal traction, feel, and noise on everyday surfaces at normal to cold temperatures. You’d be slipping and sliding on concrete and tile if you had metal studs, or didn’t take yout Yak Trax or similar traction devices off. With the G3 sole, the transition between clear sidewalks, icy streets and snowy areas is seamless. The only surface that these still have traction issues are streets covered with churned-up brown tire slush, which is where you’d really need the metal spikes or crampons. The Partelana wool/polyester fleece lining and wool felt insole kept the insides warm. These are seriously the best thing I’ve ever walked in during winter hands down. As a bonus, they’e not made in China! Like my Scarpa Kailash GTX’s, they are made in an Eastern European republic.
Highly recommended
Four out of four monkeys not falling on their asses on the ice
Okay, the conditions this afternoon were -3 to -4C with winds between 5 and 7 m/s. I had on my TAD Ranger fleece (heavyweight Polartec Wind Pro) over a tee-shirt, and TAD Covert pants (50/50 NYCO ripstop) over Patagonia Capilene 1 underwear. The wind was what killed this setup. I would have been otherwise about right if it wasn’t for the wind cutting through the outer layers. Capilene 3 long underwear and a shell layer would have fixed things, but that would have made it hot when transitioning into interior spaces, and the resulting sweat would have made returning to the outside even colder. Had to put on gloves. Wished I had hat. Had keffiyah, but didn’t bust it out, as I looked suspicious enough as is.
From the internet, this Suntory 100% malt beer appears to be a Japan 7-11 exclusive. The name, Fukumi no Zeitaku means literally “depth of extravagance”, intending to convey the over-the-top rich experience of flavor the drinker is supposed to encounter with this beer. Of course, as has been shown in the past, the best intentions and best technique and best ingredients can still yield a marginal product. I wouldn’t say in this instance the product is sub-par, but it is really just average. On first taste, there is a sweet that hits you – not quite the painful sweet of like the gnasty Sapporo Fuyumonogatari “Winter Tale” beers, but a sweet nonetheless. I’m thinking this is an unattenuated sweet and not a hop sweet. There is a decent amount of hops, as the bitter in the finish is evident, but the sweet really seems like a sugar sweet, indicating unmetabolized sugars from the strong decoction. That’s strong, considering the yeast managed to hit 6.5% ABV and still had sugar leftover when they died. Considering the little yeasty beasties went whole hog on the sugars, it is surprising that the carbonation level is so low. The 100% malt part is borne out in the rich malt flavor that overtakes the sweet through the middle and finish, with that hop bitter co-mingling at the end. It’s a bit of a shame that the initial taste is rank, since the finish is so nice. It’s tantamount to going from homeless smell to frying bacon. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Suntory Fukumi no Zeitaku’
Darn. Shuugaku-sou is closed today, so I can’t go and buy all kinds of titanium stuff.
I noticed a correlation between pre-flight meals and the level of altitude-induced flatulence created on this last trip to SLC. On the way out, I had a home-cooked dinner and only had a beer at the airport: On the way back, I had a big bacon burger at LAX. The result – no issues outbound, but painful gas inbound. So as an experiment, I didn’t get a Whopper Junior and onion rings at the airport terminal BK as I otherwise would have done, but instead stopped at the Gordon Biersch consession and had a pils and clam chowder. The result – a significant decrease in gas. There was some gas (I don’t think you can avoid it completely in the low-pressure environment), but it was manageable. Only thing was shelling out nearly $20 to not get thunderfarts!
The Hawaiian Airlines aircraft I flew to Shin-Chitose was I think one of their first 767’s. The tail number was N584HA, and the bird name was “Kioea” (Chaetoptila angustipluma), which is an extinct honeycreeper. The cabin safety card calls it out as a B-767, and indicates it is valid for tail numbers 584 to 586, so apparently there are three of this generation. According to online aircraft resources, this is a 767-3G5 ER with airframe number 24258/255, so it is an extended range 767-300 with P&W 4062 engines. The airframe was originally built for the German airline Lufttransportunternehmen (LTU) in 1989, and transferred to Hawaiian in 2002, which explained all the German labelling. I’ve been on one of their newer 767-33A ER WL wingletted aircraft on the HNL-KIX run before. Those were built new for Hawaiian and weren’t lease turnovers. None of Hawaiian’s 767’s have individual headrest screens like their Airbus A330-243’s, but the shared screens in these older 767’s were probably upgraded to LCD’s when the aircraft was refitted, as I don’t think something built in 1989 would have come with them originally. It doesn’t appear that the 2-3-2 seating was reconfigured. The seats were roomy and the German-sized legroom was enough to stretch out in. I’m repeating what I said in a live SUAR post earlier, but considering the age of this airframe, it is amazing how odor-free the interior is. I give the Hawaiian Airlines cleaning crew some major credit. All the JAL international flights I’ve been on in the past several years have been pretty stinky.