Higo Blog

Stamina Curry

2010-01-22T04:30:53Z

Curry is one of those foods that pretty much cooks itself--little skill is required if you are using the chocolate bar look-alike cubes. I made a pretty nice batch by frying up some beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, apples and three bulbs of garlic. What did make all the difference is when I added the garlic.

Instead of adding it towards the beginning or middle of the process, I let the mixture simmer for about an hour and then only added it after I turned off the heat, much like adding heavy cream to a bolognaise. I folded the raw squished garlic into the steaming curry and let it sit for a few minutes. As a result, there is a new dimension to the garlic flavor--very obviously garlic, but also sharply spicy in that distinctive way that raw garlic burns. Though this is undoubtedly a strong flavor, it plays well with the other flavors and doesn't seem to overpower it somehow.

We fried up some pork katsu today as well, to accompany the curry. Pounding the katsu doubled the size of the cutlets and makes them taste better by optimizing the meat to panko ratio. Next time, I plan to butterfly the katsu beforehand so I can stuff it with a garlic chili cheese mixture.

With the leftover curry, I think I may use it as a base for croquet, or put it on top of pizza dough to make an indian pizza. Can't go wrong with this stuff. Must not forget--add massive amounts of garlic at the very end...

Hon Maguro

2010-01-07T02:22:53Z

It was the first fish I remember wanting to draw accurately, because it looked like a jet fighter. Later, when I was 11, I helped to reel in a cousin of the bluefin, a 68 pound yellowfin on a family trip to Cabo. We saw a large pod of dolphins, several hundred at least, and tossed a strange looking baitfish that I had never seen to sink down to the waiting fish, and right away hooked up and set the reel screaming. The shimmering silver flashes below the water, struggling greatly against rod and reel, was mysterious and alluring. Finally the tuna tired, was brought to the side of the boat, gaffed and landed aft of the transom. A shark followed the tuna to the boat, and we tried to catch it too by offering it a piece of sashimi, but it swam away. Later that night, we enjoyed tuna as ceviche, grilled and cooked in a rich, garlicky soup along with the mahi that my dad had landed.

Years later, off of Newport aboard the Six Pack, we spotted a boil and flylined sardines into the mix. The yellowtails bit pretty readily, but the accompanying bluefin would not touch our Owner hooks at all, save one individual who would not be finessed in by our 30 pound test. I ended that trip with a 20 pound yellowtail, and a new respect for bluefin.

In Japan, I visited the eastern-most village on the island of Honshu, and visited a fish market where they sold all sorts of seafood, from whale to mantis shrimp. I enjoyed some of the freshest tuna, ruby red chunks atop a bowl of steaming rice, with a sweet and salty sauce, shredded nori and a raw egg. It was one of the best things I'd ever tasted.

My brother told me of a tiny, hard to find restaurant he had found who specialized in serving the giant heads of bluefin tuna. The old proprietor grilled the head over a charcoal brazier for hours, resulting in a feast of sweet flesh seldom touched or ever discovered by American or European diners.

Though I am quite sad that I no longer eat tuna on a regular basis, due to their heavily depleted status, I am hopeful that the large greedy commercial fishermen who raise them in net pens will read "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" and make the connection: It is stupid to overutilize a resource past what can sustainably taken for short term gain. Though astronomical sums are being paid for tuna because of their scarcity, tuna fishermen will be screwed and have only stories of large paychecks in place of a steady living. Here's one such story:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gRREeCs4mEpsOF-n6VkpRhhLsD3g

Which sucks for small operations, like the fishermen ippon zuri operators out of Aomori:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20071209x1.html

The Mattanza, a fishing practice little changed since Roman times, has pretty much ended already because of the decline of the bluefin(link to slideshow). It's sad to think that this fish may go extinct in the not-too-distant future. Sometimes, it's bad to love something as much as we love to eat tuna...

Diving with Leopard Sharks at Lover's Point

2009-11-05T04:29:24Z

I went diving this past weekend with my dad right off of Lover's Point--conditions could not have been much better, and I got to play with his new waterproof Olympus point and shoot. It's been way too long since I've picked up a camera and had some fun. I think the pictures in this post speak for themselves, but you decide:

Sharpening the Thin Slicing Skills

2009-07-28T00:43:41Z

Do you ever, in a spit second, taste a hint, sniff a vague whiff or catch a glimpse of something that you know you recognize, and that if you had a little more time to analyze it you just know that you would be able to identify it?

The other day, I was eating Tostitos Hint of Lime tortilla chips--the ones covered with lime flavored salt. As a digression, when I was in middle school, some of my Mexican classmates brought in packets of lime flavored salt that became all the rage. This was the mid 90's, when super sour Japanese candy was the coolest thing in our middle school. The Asian kids, budding little entrepreneurs, would buy the candy at the Japanese market and make a profit selling it to kids who had no idea that there were other ethnic markets around. The lime salt was something that you would slowly eat, or eat all at once to experience the extreme sour taste that kids at my school were obsessed with. Later, the practice of seeing who could withstand the sourest candy and salt (in some cases, pure citric acid crystals) turned into seeing who was brave/stupid enough to snort the crystals. Rest assured, no one could snort a whole packet of lime salt, and those who snorted too much exhibited such signs of agony that the practice was soon abandoned all together.

Back to the Tostitos. There is a thin layer of lime salt coating each chip. As you eat it, a progression of tastes and textures ensues. Sweet, sour, salty, crunchy, corny, mushy. The Sweet, sour and salty tastes peak shortly after the crunch and before the chip is chewed into mush, and mixes tasting like...

...something unexpected from my childhood that I could not put my finger on. I tried chip after chip, closing my eyes and concentrating on the taste and texture. The memory would flash in and out so quickly, I couldn't make out its form or any details. The only thing I had to go on was a fleeting, faded impression.

When I was five, we often had food-based projects that we worked on together. Making stone soup and gluing beans and pasta on to construction paper come to mind. My favorite activity involved making cereal into necklaces. I brought home my colorful necklace to show my parents my work for the day, and they admired it I'm sure. They told me that, although I was not allowed to eat sugar-loaded kids cereals (once, I got a box of Mr. T's breakfast cereal as a kid and almost died of happiness. Mr T. on the box + peanut butter crunchiness make for a kickass cereal IMHO) I could eat my necklace.

I chewed off the colorful loops and enjoyed this rare treat, to the point where I still remember the taste of the thin cotton string that had been threaded through them. This was the cereal with Toucan Sam that in the slimmest of moments when eating a Tostitos Hint of Lime chip had burst forth from the dusty cobwebbed recesses of my childhood, but only after about 20 chips eaten in quick succession.

It sounds ridiculous, but I maintain that there is a split second when you eat a Tostitos Hint of Lime chip, that it tastes almost exactly like Froot Loops. Try it--it may just blow your mind...

I like el Nino

2009-07-08T01:22:48Z

Though not very good for the many sea lions around here, I am enjoying the warmer water up here. I've been seeing comb jellies and senorita fish cruise around the kelp forest in front of Lover's Point, and tons of juvenile rockfish. The alga and surf grass are so thick and verdant that the waterscape looks like a CG created environment -- especially with the light cutting through the water at polarized angles, sharp as a razor.

The other night, we went diving off of Breakwater when it started to get dark. The ocean was as calm as a lake, and we passed a small sea lion hiding in a cave in the concrete -- the Marine Mammal Center had already checked the little guy out.

On a side note, the MMC are completely swamped with calls right now. El Nino, the same phenomenon that makes the water a more pleasant temperature for us, is driving all of their food further offshore, resulting in a famine. The MMC must help the individuals who are in the worst shape, while helping the greatest number (just as Community Emergency Response Teams look to serve the greatest good for the greatest number of people during an emergency event). Though emaciated, this one at least is responsive and is able to take care of itself for now.

Out several hundred feet past the shore, we tuned on flashlights and descended next to the jetty. Turning off the lights, bioluminescent plankton lit up "lightsaber blue" whenever we moved. Some of the glowing chunks were a couple of millimeters in length, and I think simply swooshing water back and forth between my hands was the most fun I've had in a long time. Ooh! Sparkly light! I could have spent hours doing this, honestly.

The animals were out in force - rockfish, gobies, sculpin, sand dabs and perch seemed stunned by our flashlight beam. Moving slowly, I was able to get a half an inch within these fish. I think they only knew something was up by feeling the disturbances in water pressure as my hand got near.

Normally, I don't get excited watching sea cucumbers and sea start, but watching them on the dive was like being inside of Dr. Seuss' brain. Their branched feeding tentacles were stretched out like some sort of weird tropical plant. One by one, they inserted the feathery tentacles into its mouth, sucking off the plankton and other detritus-y goodness (mmm!) and then pulling the tentacle out (reminded me of the rabbit-in-the-hat trick for some reason. The sea stars seemed to be galloping about the rocks around anemones and other inverts, in search of food or something.

We moved out into the sand at around 20 feet of depth, amongst the tube anemones and worms. I dug in the sand and found a decent sized shrimp. A sheep crab the size of a child's head came bounding past us, looking like the giant mutant creatures that come out of the Fog in Stephen King's book. And then they appeared...

I had always wanted to see octopus on a dive -- on this night I saw probably 15 individuals. We found them crawling across the ocean floor. The light seemed to partially stun them, slowing their reflexes, but one of them shot out a mini-cloud of ink. Once they found a nearby hole in the sand, they sunk their arms in first and very slowly drew their whole body down. Reverse rabbit-in-the-hat trick. Contortionist masters of sleight of hand and deception -- Houdini could learn from these cephalopods.

Though the warmer waters are not so good for everything, they do bring warmer water species further north than you would normally see them. It would be awesome to see dorado around here (in deeper water), and yellowtails and sheepheads as well.

WMD justified

2009-02-01T03:43:09Z

My eyes are irritated and itch, and feel much like they do when I spend a little too much time in a swimming pool or water park, but I came out relatively unscathed. Armed with aerosolized chlorine, I quickly and methodically went about the cleansing. Perhaps there are survivors amidst the destruction in the kill zone, but they will likely die as the basic solution that surrounds them permeates their defenses and renders them extinct from the island that they had colonized.

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On the currents of the wind they were borne, perhaps hitching a breeze from a world away, riding the jet stream, and finally finding purchase in a craggy, inhospitable white desert. Their new world was not an easy place to live, but for the warm steam that enveloped their landscape periodically and condensed on the semi-smooth finish of the bumpy terrain. This ephemeral feast of moisture provided an ample supply of water upon which they depended on for their survival, forming the very foundation of their sustenance. From above, the colonies looked like eggs, cracked out of their shells. The outer "albumin" was clear, surrounding a loogie-colored yolk which they used to capture mana from heaven. Organic detritus, bourne upon the same breezes that brought them here, got snagged in the slime to be shared.

Slowly, the colony reached a point where its growth was limited by its size. At this point, a few explorers broke off from the group, and divided. This process was repeated for generation after generation and as the numbers of colonies grew, their population divided into distinct fiefdoms, spreading across the land. Theirs was a huge monoculture, their kind a breed specially adapted to live in a godforsaken place that supported a precious few lifeforms.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The colonists had the capability to cause great harm such as breathing difficulties, dizziness, hearing loss, impaired memory, dizziness, flu-like symptoms, excessive bruising, allergies, brain damage, and even death. An uneasy truce existed between us, in an environment that inherently favored them.

If they had eyes, they might have seen the bright orange tip of the spray bottle get within an inch, and then release a solution of bleach and emulsifiers suspended in water. If they were able to feel pain, being oxidized would have likely been an unpleasant way to go. At least it was quick.

It turns out that bleach is not the best way to kill mold that is growing on porous materials, but I figured that the glossy paint of the bathroom ceiling had likely been a sufficient barrier to the mold to sink "roots" into the drywall. I brought a fan into the bathroom and dried it out as best as I could so that any remaining mold wouldn't have any moisture to help it survive.

That being said, the battle may have ended in annihilation, but mold seems to thrive in these moist coastal areas. It will be back, but for now the bathroom is rid of the disgusting growths that had been taking over from above.

Doogie

2009-01-16T01:28:06Z

Chillin' on the freshwater

2008-10-27T00:32:11Z

I wish I could show you the pictures that I took with Kohei at Santa Marguerita Lake. It was a beautiful lake, like something out of a Disney film about life in the mountains.

I saw a big brown bird chasing an egret. The egret just managed to out-maneuver it, and as it turned I noticed its white head. It was a friggin' bald eagle! Having only seen disappointing footage of baldies eating washed up salmon carcasses after a spawn, I was shocked to watch it seemingly hunt a larger bird!

I also saw a ton of deer. Should you want to go on the Atkin's diet: deer edition, go to the lake. There are a surplus of deer. If someone figures out how to convert deer to an alternative fuel, our current dependency on petroleum will be solved.

Turkeys are also abundant in these parts. We must have seen twenty turkeys, at least, down by the lake.

A group of turkey vultures circled above the lake, making me wonder if there was a floating carcass tempting them to try out their water wings. Thankfully, I saw no bodies or animal remains.

The fish were plentiful too. Tons of juvenile bass, shad, and supposedly, they just planted 1,000 pounds of trout. I'm glad we didn't catch any trout. Though sustainable, I just don't enjoy the tiny bones.

Lake fishing is more about relaxing than fishing, and in this respect, we succeeded. Now that relaxation is out of the way, I am ready to go to the ocean...

ADD vs. Discipline and Focus

2008-10-24T01:30:53Z

It's the same old struggle, a single iteration among countless similar reiterations.The battle of organization vs. the second law of thermodynamics is waged in my brain every day. Thoughts scatter like frightened birds, then draw closely together as they flutter from neuron to neuron.

I have so many things that I'm interested in doing, studying, and experiencing, that if I allow my mind to wander, it can cause a state not unlike paralysis.

Where does the word "paralysis" come from? What are the root words? Which meaning of "para" (beside, near, past, beyond or contrary) would you combine with "lysis" (to separate)? Ah, it would have been useful to have studies Greek and Latin...

I come up with so many ideas, and only a few will get a chance to mature and produce offspring. You might say that it resembles the reproductive strategy of a broadcast spawner. I produce many young ideas, most of which succumb to predation and the harsh conditions of their environment.

It's fun bouncing around ideas with others, especially those who have good follow through. Ideally, I can come up with some ideas with someone else, they can develop it, and then I can find ways to innovate on them, and so on. It's nice to find someone or a team that complements the way I think.

Make no mistake, I have the ability to focus and to follow through. This is how I work. I try and maintain a focus, set deadlines, establish incremental steps until I finish something, and relentlessly plug away until I get a job done efficiently, and to a level of quality that I find acceptable.

But on my own time, or with my creative projects, I tend to enjoy the ability to move in any direction, in a seemingly-erratic path. Usually, these paths converge, almost impossibly sync together and connect in ways I would never predict. Many times, they end in ways obvious after the fact, but once in a while with surprising results.

I've always found questions like "where do you want to be, in your career path, in 5 years" ridiculous. Too much can change too quickly, and tying myself down to a commitment for that time frame is something that I don't care to do. Not to say that I can't come up with an answer, it's just that even if I mean it, I will be a different person with different experiences, a different set of lenses out of which I view the world.

Ah, I'm glad it's the weekend. Weekends are ADD friendly. I'll see discipline and focus again in a few days, but I'll let them take a little break. OK, time to go I see something shiny!

Success!!!

2008-10-22T00:03:29Z

Notice the polychaete worms emerging from the holdfast of the bull kelp (there's one to the lower right of the picture, on the tailgate.

Supposedly, some divers don't bother with game bags. They stick the abalone onto their wetsuits. I would not recommend this if you are heavily weighted...

We have a tailgate-load of abalone after the first day. Hopefully there will be a second trip up before the season is over.

Underwater Fight Club

2008-10-21T04:12:36Z

I just got back from a weekend of freediving in Fort Bragg. Though the sun refused to emerge from the clouds, the conditions were pretty nice. We found a ton of abalone on the rocks by going into places where the entry into the water is not as easy to find (by scaling cliffs).

The water didn't seem to be especially cold, and it was pretty clear in some areas (up to 10 feet!).

The abalone were so plentiful, it wasn't a question of "is it legal", but rather, "which one is bigger". Not being a skilled skin diver, I didn't have the luxury of rejecting too many, but instead, set about the task of finding ones with the best looking shells.

I found one that looked rounder, rather than a narrow ellipse, and set about prying the ab bar under it's foot. Unfortunately, it was lodged between two rocks. I set the bar, but was unable to pry the snail off.

I dove on that abalone a few more times, and caught something out of the corner of my eye in the swirling, cloudy water, saturated with tiny bubbles from the pounding surf. In my efforts to remove the abalone from the rock, I had wounded it, and its whitish blood seeped from the wounds.

I dove down once more,and was startled to see that the red blur was a sizable rock crab, going after my abalone! The nerve! I brushed him aside, and popped the abalone off. The crab made an advance towards the abalone, but it didn't have a chance. I was off to the surface to put my catch in the bag, and it was left tasting the faint traces of abalone blood.

I have to give it to the crab, it certainly had some large gonads trying to vie with a human hundreds of times its own size. It's just lucky that this human does not have a particular taste for red rock crab...

Back to Work

2008-10-01T03:51:03Z

I have a plan.

Scratch that, I have the outline of a plan that I'd like to work on. I enjoy staying on top of what's current and relevant now, and thinking about how the past and future fit into the present. I'm driven more and more to collect and share information, bounce around ideas, and to learn by trying (and oftentimes failing, which helps me to learn).

I'm interested in finding things that work, looking for patterns of success, and finding places where those things can work successfully. Facilitating innovation excites me, and drives me to work harder. This fascination applies directly to inter and intrapersonal relationships and connections.

There are many great ideas out there, being created, tested, tweaked, bought, sold, traded, remembered, forgotten, and re-invented by so many people and groups. It seems like everything, in one form or another, has been thought of before. What remains is how to put together the components so that they will optimally perform and remain relevant.

Many of these ideas fit together, and sometimes, they result in a synergy that creates something so much cooler than the sum of the parts. With a focus, this energy can be directed to achieve greatness, sometimes the likes of which have never been seen.

I feel lucky when I'm a part of a team that is able to work together like a finely-tuned machine, or when I put together something that is adaptable, highly-functional, and that may help or inspire someone else. There is a beauty that transcends cosmetics, that can only come from an uncompromising focus on functionality.

I feel that I'm fortunate to share these values with a culture that is flourishing in many places. You can see it from certain angles, if you're looking for it. Many people have successfully created, nurtured, and propagated these ideas in their own lives and groups.

So, where do I fit in? That's something that I have to work on in order to find out. In this case, in this aspect of my education, I'm actually looking forward to making mistakes.

Cooking with beats

2008-09-02T17:24:21Z

Office Space

2008-08-20T19:50:40Z

I haven't written much about what I'm doing this summer, but I plan on posting about it in a few weeks. I will post some pictures to set the scene. This is where I work, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Great Tidepool:

I have spent my summer in the man-made tidepool that you see in the foreground, with the kelp forest just beyond, and Marina and Seaside in the background. The water is usually around 50 degrees Farenheit. If you were to swim around in there without the benefit of insulation, it would probably cause your extremities to go numb rather quickly, and make your body tingle. Last summer, we rescued an older gentleman who had fallen off his boat when I was working on the Baylis. He was in the water for less than 5 minutes, but already started to exhibit signs of hypothermia.

In other words, the water is fairly cold.

Access to the tidepool is limited to about 20 percent of the staff, and of course, the kids that we take in the Underwater Explorers program (which I will post about later).

Sometimes we get sea otters, sea lions, and other wildlife in the tidepool. It hasn't happened during a program this summer, but we have trained for contingencies in case it ever does.

As you may see, we get quite a crowd watching us from the decks. I feel sorry for the many adults who see kids exploring the Great Tide Pool who are not allowed to enroll in our program (or anyone who is not 8-13 years old, the ages for whom this program exists).

The Great Tidepool is an ideal place to get used to using SCUBA equipment because it is mostly sheltered from waves. There are times when this is not the case, but during the summer, we rarely have any problems with the waves getting too large.

As you might imagine, it's one of the most fun places to work in the Aquarium.

Diving the Kelp Forest Exhibit

2008-08-16T00:11:11Z

I remember wanting to do this ever since I was a little kid...