Had another one of those, WTH have I been doing all these years?! moments. Started on rebuilding the AE86 transmission. It’s got some decades worth of spooge accumulated all over it. I’d been poking at it with a screwdriver and spraying it with citrus degreaser every night throughout the week. Today decided to attack it, and this time I picked up nitrile gloves. Never really liked using mechanic gloves when wrenching. These nitrile ‘rubber’ gloves were one size fits most, and as such were loose on my skinny hands, but they still worked fine. And damn they keep your hands clean! No scrubbing multiple times with handcleaner and nail brush. And I’m sure much better for skin. Continue reading ‘Modern conveniences good’
Author Archive for taro
Page 68 of 88
A few thursdays ago, Dave got the urge for pizza. And no, we did not want to settle for the ordinary Pizza But or Papa’s. And somewhere with beer is a definite plus. Fabio brought up J.J. Dolan’s, a less than year old eatery, located downtown on the fringe of Chinatown. He’d been there, but Dave and I haven’t yet. And they got beer. So it was off to find parking in the somewhat sketchy streets of downtown after dark. Kinda wish I didn’t have my bike in my car, should have left it at w0rk. Anyway, after scrounging up $6 in loose change to feed the parking ransom, I met the boys on Bethel Street. Continue reading ‘J. J. Dolan’s – pie and suds’
More of the Hitachino Nest beers available imported, I had the white ale a couple days ago. Poured with moderate head that dissapated pretty quickly, but bubbles carry on. A cloudy light yellow. This is a white similar to Hoegarten, has added spices of corriander and orange peel. Pleasant aroma. The spices are subtler than Hoegarten, making for a nice drink. I think I like this one the best so far, 3 out of 4 lightly drunk monkeys (5% alcohol).
Red Rice Ale – specified on the label as brewed using red rice, definitely no German purity law brew here! And as such, it tastes like it. Poured with large head (think I may have pour a bit more aggresively), cloudy medium dark amber/red. Didn’t detect any really distinctive odor. Definite sweet, dangerously close to a malt liquor. Nicely controlled bitter finish, but honestly there was little that appealed to me. Not one of my faves, 2 out 4 rice fume burping monkeys (long after finishing, after taking a shower even, rice aftertaste).
Soup curry is quite popular in Hokkaido, a viable alternative to warm the body from both within your belly, and from your tongue. The name is an appropriate descriptor, it is somewhere between a soup and stew/curry. The broth is thin like a soup, but is spiced like a curry. It’s gotten so popular that like ramen, there exists a soup curry yokocho (alley) where you can find shop right next to shop next to shop all serving soup curry. This past winter I made it to Hokkaido to ride the powder and was fortunate to have friends lead me to one soup curry joint that was quite enjoyable. 
After that experience, everytime I went food shopping I’d keep my eyes open to see if some company would create a soup curry mix just like you can get the wafu style curry roux blocks everywhere. No such luck. I chocked it up to the thought that it hadn’t gained enough mainstream popularity elsewhere in Japan to gain the attention of the food manufacturers. Until tonight. Part of the problem was I was looking for the wrong thing. Tucked out of eye level sightline on the top shelf at Marukai was this small 6 oz. jar of soup curry paste. Had to pay attention as there was no English characters, but there it was. I checked it out, pork and chicken fat were the top ingredients, how can you go wrong with that? The only thing that was holding me back was the latest best buy date looked to be 5/30/09. Three months…. The stuff is chock full of salt…. The cap wasn’t bulging…. It should be okay…. Continue reading ‘Soup Curry!’
The next selection from Kiuchi Breweries, their take on the classic weissen, wheat beer. A light amber, pours with a moderate head that quickly dissapates, and like a good weissen some sediment you should swish around the last bits to pour into glass to make it properly cloudy. There isn’t an overwhelming aroma. The prominent flavor is citrus. On the verge of being sour. You’d swear someone already squeezed a lemon into your beer. There’s some pleasant floral tones hiding under there, but you have to pay attention. Clean finish. Dare I say it, it almost doesn’t taste like beer. Flirting dangerously close to a chick beer. Good thing I had this after my soup curry meal, I’m pretty sure it would not have gone well during. 5% alcohol content, not buzz packing juice.
I would have prefered a little less sour and taste more of the grain, but this is still a good drink. I would have to interject a caution of it may not go well with some food, it worked out well for me being almost a dessert after my meal.
3 out of 4 weissen monkeys.
Last monday thoughts turned to riding St. Louis. After the recent rains followed by clear weather, figured conditions would be prime. Ckucky and JT having time on their hands had already done two Dumps runs by the time I got to the park. I’d passed one guy on a cross country rig on the road up, just a precursor of things to come. By the time I geared up and the guys were roused from their lounging on a park bench, this guy had rolled through the parking and continued up into the park. Continue reading ‘Invasive Species’
New product from GU sport supplements. Decided to try these “energy chews” which is fancy talk for candy. OK, they put stuff like vitamins in it to differentiate it, but they’re largely sugar of one form or another. I’m a fan of the Cliff Shot variety, but the shop no longer brings in the Margarita flavor which featured higher sodium to replace that lost in sweat and assist staving off cramps. GU stuff has been hit or miss, I use their lemon lime and strawberry banana gel supplements. Again mostly because no one brings in my favorite Cytomax gel version. The other guys have not liked their other products flavors, even going as far as eliciting an anger response from one! Continue reading ‘Gu Chomps Energy Chews – Blueberry pomegranate’
Looks like bunch of stores are putting in orders for Kiuchi Breweries Hitachino Nest beers with the distributors. I found this among four varieties at Marukai, and also saw some at Whole Foods a week or so ago. Decided to go with the most conventional sounding one to start with, the Japanese Classic Ale. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale’
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! It’s SCCA Test and Tune day at the stadium! A day for all the SCCA geeks (and geekettes) to bring their cars out and drive them all day on the course. The weather was clear, and hot. I see many a lobstered racer tonight! It was a full house for the entire day, so turnover was kinda slow, sometimes almost 30 minutes between runs, but it was enough time to weight my car, and get in about 7 runs. Enough to start to get a feel for the car, get the tire pressures sorted, discover that this Corolla is fun, and get an unexpected kustom tuning job. Continue reading ‘Test n Tune, Shake n Bake’
That is a general statement, however the statement all beer is good is not true. Fortunately the past couple I’ve had were good. Here’s my quick take on them.
Echigo Stout – Sorry, image lost somewhere. Echigo’s dark beer. Like many Japanese beers, a very clean tasting beer. On the flip side of that, not much distinct flavors either. Has the smoky flavor of a dark, but not very strong. Makes it a go good with food. Not worth the $4 price of admission though. 2 out 4 monkeys.
Serious Madness Winter Seasonal Black Ale – Yes I know, it’s not winter. A California microbrew. This is a dark beer, no doubt about it. Creamy dark goodness, very much like Guiness Stout. Excellent. 3.5 out of 4 swigging monkeys.