The long Memorial Day weekend called for a ride, but many of the regular MTB crew were off-island or otherwise unavailable, leaving Ckucke, Root, and I to carry the torch and get some trail time. The weather forecast called for the chance of rain on Saturday, but good weather for Sunday and Monday. We decided on doing the Wailuna circuit on Sunday. The predicted rains didn’t come until after long after sunset, but early Sunday morning was perfectly clear. By ride time, some disconcertingly heavy clouds had closed in, but we were “go†unless the sky really opened up and all kinds of unpleasantness broke loose. The rain held off, but the heat and humidity were definitely turned way up the dial. The road climb felt more brutal than last week, and the dirt climb went far slower. I was not feeling on the game. I hadn’t downed excessive beers the night before, but I felt hungover, and my guts were unsettled. My legs weren’t sore, but the burn came on really fast and the power level was just not there. Root was feeling the heat. The trail conditions were outstanding: The rain had stiffened up what had been a loose surface the weekend before. Continue reading ‘Pain, Pennance, and Ritual Bloodletting in the Church of the Eternal Burn’
Mmm… Mata natsukashii aji desu! This time it’s the pure “Throwback†version of Mountain Dew, complete with retro can graphics. Like the Pepsi Throwback, this one uses real sugar instead of HFCS, so the flavor is deeper and richer. The citrus flavor is in the forefront once more! Again, to be clear, it isn’t sweeter with real sugar: The flavor is simply better. Ckucke called me from Sam’s Club to ask me about it, and got me a case while he was at it. It’ll be pretty hard to go back to the regular HFCS stuff after this twelve-pack is gone!
Price varies – in this case around $4 USD for the 12-pack
Highly recommended!
Four out of four grinning monkeys
Our Saturday night culinary (mis)adventure this week kicked off with this:
Pork rinds for the new age, microwave speed for hot crispy pork skin goodness right at your table! Just like microwave popcorn it comes with brown bag containing the trippy little pork rind nodules. Zap (decided not to say “nuke” in deference to current events in DPRK) in microwave for between 1:30 to 2:00. I was told to be very vigilant in watching bag and stopping it as soon as it stopped expanding. The rinds go from crispy yummyness to carbon lumps and annoying entire office building in a matter of seconds.
Verdict from all the boys? Two thumbs up all around! Sorry, no pics of the finished product, we ate it all that fast! Oh wait, found it. 
And if you look at the nutritional info, it doesn’t look all that bad. Just doing our part to support the pork industry from the misinformed masses panic over swine flu. Thursday Dave did pork adobo lunch, and then his pork trio dinner at Los Chaps, I had chili verde pork, and I just made Japanese style nibuta.
Anyway, 4 out of 4 swine snacking monkeys.
Dropped by Kikuya in Kaneohe for dinner tonight. Hidden away in a light industrial area on Kahukipa Street, the parking here is limited day and night. We lucked out and got the space right in front. I got the #2 dinner special – sashimi, tempura, and salmon shioyaki. All meals come with miso-shiru and namazuke. Rice comes family-style serve yourself with chawan and an ohitsu, arriving along with a pot of genmai-cha and teacups . The miso and namazuke were both fine (C), and the sashimi was cut from good quality fish (B+). The salmon was large in plan area, but thin. It was seasoned fine, and of good quality origin (B). I’m still not exactly certain how it was cooked, since the surface looked more fried than grilled. The tempura was crispy and not oily at all (B). There were two long beans, a carrot and Japanese eggplant slice, and two shrimp. The shrimp were on the small size. The dipping sauce was a little on the sweet side for my tastes. There was a little scoop of potato salad (C-) and some salad greens with thousand island dressing (C+) to garnish the plate. Not bad. Probably the best Japanese food on the Windward side. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Kikuya’
WTF!? Tsukenjo’s was closed today. Did they take an extra day off to make Memorial Day weekend 4 days? Just across the street makai was Queen Bee Lounge. A bar at night, they serve plate lunches at midday. I got the Loco Moco for $6 USD. There was a pile of food in the heavy lunch. A full layer of rice lined the plate, and was topped with two hamburger patties, two nicely fried eggs, and lots of brown gravy. The traditional scoop of macaroni salad rounded out the plate. I was positive on the initial bite. The meat was actually spiced! The gravy had a good peppercorn note. Halfway through, my tongue started to hurt from the saltiness. I think this would be perfect for Fabio, but it was too salty for me and my low-sodium-diet-habituated-physiology. My coworker had the same experience with her breaded fried pork chops – tasty, but salty. I wish I could rate them better, since the ingredient quality was good and the preparation (other than the salt) was good. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Queen Bee Lounge’
After a long Friday at work and a hot commute home, the last thing I wanted to do was sit inside and vegetate in a sweltering house, so I geared up and went for an easy spin. After yesterday’s Tantalus ride, I wasn’t out for a grunt. Wispy high-altitude clouds far overhead scalloped like the feathers on a Barred dove and titanium gray skies out over the bay hinted at the approaching weather front forecast to bring instability and rain tomorrow. Hope the weather is good for a Sunday ride…
D = 12.12 km (7.53-miles), Vavr = 16.3 km/h (10.1-mph), Vmax = 41.5 km/h (25.8-mph), T = 45-minutes
I was powered by a pork adobo plate lunch up Tantalus on Thursday. I was working solo, so I had to turn in an hour of overtime in order to get everything done. I told Ckucke I would be late and that they should roll out without me and I would meet up with them at the top, but after I got changed and drove over, I was only about fifteen minutes late, so they waited for me (thanks, guys!). After working late, I really needed this ride to blow off some steam. The start was nice and slow and the weather impeccable. Ckucke took the lead right away. By the end of the houses, he already had a good lead on us. By the top of Euco, Root and Kevyn had pulled ahead of me, and Ckucke was out of sight! I had run out of Amino Vital after last weekend, so I was only running on Cytomax. The Cytomax kept the burn down, but I did notice a definite deficit in my fast-twitch muscle fibers. Every time I stood to sprint a steeper section, I dropped further behind instead of catching up: I had to be satisfied with sitting and grunting through the climbs. I felt really “draggy”. I did manage to reel the pack in by the very top and turned in a 39-minute ascent. Continue reading ‘Swine Flew’
Chris had penned in Saturday on his family dry-erase board, so he was good to go for a ride. We were going to ride somewhere, rain or shine – it was decided. Rainy weather on Friday made us a little apprehensive, even for our Ditch fallback, but dawn broke on Saturday morning with blue skies and tradewinds. As we converged on Wailuna, Ckucke called me to say that he and JT were at the park already, but he had forgotten his hydration pack at home, so they were heading back to get it. Chris and Kevyn were already there when I pulled up. The park was full up with soccer mom vans, so we parked along the street. Root arrived, and we waited in the shade for Ckucke and JT to return. Continue reading ‘Dance of Dook’
This Pils from Hokkaido Beer Pirkawakka brewery in Chitose, South of Sapporo, has the distinct bitter flavor common to the variety. The aroma is richly malty. There is a mild flowery aroma from the hopping, but no sweet taste. If you enjoy a good bitter Pils, then you will like this one. It is the most bitter Japanese jibiiru I have tasted to date. The color is a medium amber. The initial flavor is clean and malty, and the finish crisp. The malt and bitter both fade evenly in the aftertaste. The carbonation is moderate. Although richly flavored, this is an easily drinkable, refreshing Pils. This is the best Pils from Japan that I have tried! It is not unlike a Lowenbrau or Wernesgruner with more flavor. If you like your Pils a little less bitter, try the Otaru Beer Pilsner jibiiru. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hokkaido Beer Pirkawakka Pilsner Jibiiru’
Brake in the metal working sense. The current FX came to me with the spare tire well filled in with a sub woofer tub. The hold down spindle was chopped out and the tub hammered out. 
The plan to restore the brackets for the spare has been idle in my brain for a long time, then working on J’s door handles inspired me and I finally decided to tackle the job. My plan was also to properly relocate the battery in the well, instead of the hacked cracked plastic box bolted to the speaker board (which is no longer there). Just after noon, J got to my house just as I got home from picking up some supplies. I explained what I had in mind to him and we started taking a close look and making measurements. J suggested instead of my idea of cutting out a large piece of the bottom of the well, to just take the center spindle bracket and weld it into the existing FX’s well and leave the bashed out well as it is. Less work. That’s the nice thing about having more than one brain looking at a problem, alternate views and ideas. The idea looks like it will work, and instead of trying to find space to relocate the jack bracket, if I flip the spare over, there’s a nice spice within the spare that I could just use a strap. Continue reading ‘J the Human Brake’