Confessions Of A Sushi Convert.

Even having been halfway raised in the Midwest and growing up in a Filipino household, my exposure to different cuisines was rather limited in retrospect. Of course, I didn't think so at the time; I proudly invited my friends to dinner and scooped traditional dishes like adobo and pancit onto their plates. At the same time I thought nothing of eating whatever was put on my plate at my friends' dinner tables, and heartily plowed through bowls of food when we ate at Chinese restaurants. Looking back though I realize that I'd been playing it safe (sweet and sour chicken isn't exactly the pinnacle of Chinese cuisine) and was sorely missing out.

Through out my formative years I'd definitely heard of sushi, but it had always remained an exotic, mysterious dish that I really had no interest in exploring. All I knew about it was that it was raw fish (OMG!!!) and that was the end of that. We don't really have a Filipino equivalent -- although some of our more culturally-traditional dishes probably come pretty close with the ewww factor to the uninitiated. But that didn't matter; I had no plans on trying raw fish and was happy with what I was already eating.

I took my first bite of sushi during a Spring Break road trip to the West Coast. One of the highlights was going to dinner with a large group of friends to a sushi restaurant in LA. It may have been the beer we'd been drinking at alarming rates but I was game to try. Someone ordered for me and my other sushi-virgin friends, and after a while dinner came out, artfully presented on square plates.

But tell me this doesn't look FANTASTIC [via]

The food we'd ordered were mostly different types of roll. I tried some of everything, and enjoyed all of it. It was hard to keep track of what was in each roll but they were all delicious, a tasty blend of flavors built upon the rice/seaweed base. I distinctly remember devouring a particular piece, then turning to a friend and asking him what I'd just eaten. "Eel," he said.

[Pause.] "Eel?" I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly.

"Yeah -- like, uh, an eel."

[Another pause.] "Okay." And I reached for another piece.

After that eye-opening experience, I was more eager to graduate to eating sashimi (the actual raw subset of food under the sushi umbrella) and surprised myself with more incredible flavors and textures. That first experience was over ten years ago and I haven't looked back since. Now I look for sushi restaurants whenever I have the chance (and the funds). Hell, I'll even run to Hy-Vee and buy some pre-made rolls to go when I'm really craving it. Of course it's not nearly as good as going to a restaurant and ordering something on the spot, but most of the time it's close enough. I actually did this last week; I walked to the checkout with a package containing two kinds of surimi rolls.

The cashier, an older gentleman, rang up the package. "Are these really that good?" he asked. "People buy a lot of these but I've never tried it."

I ended up talking with him for a minute or so, trying to convince him to buy some and just try it. After all, "Even if you end up not liking it," I reasoned, "At least you'll know you don't like it. But who knows, you could end up loving it. Anyway I think it's delicious." I hope he agreed with me, and maybe I've created a new sushi convert.

That would be sweet.

It's funny 'cause nowadays when someone mentions a food or cuisine that I've never had before, the first things out of my mouth are "Where's the restaurant?" and "When are we going?"

I've learned my lesson. Life's too short, man. Try it all -- at least you'll know.

I Still Miss You, Rice.

I'd never been one to actually count calories in my life. After all I'd never had to before; as a teenager I could snarf down two Big Mac meals and go for dessert after with no pauses or gastrointestinal distress. Obviously my Ferrari-like metabolism slowed down as I got older, but I also started minding my diet a little more closely. It wasn't enough though. Sure, every now and then I'd attempt some kind of portion control, but those moments were few and far between and inevitably I'd go back to eating way more than what I actually required (very easy to do when I went out to eat or got take-out several times a week). to add to this, by 2006 I led an almost completely sedentary lifestyle consisting of 50-hour workweeks in a cubicle and minimal outside physical activity, so boom -- I gained weight.

The added pounds weren't enough to buy new jeans or anything, but I was definitely out of shape and overeating. It didn't seem like it at the time but my daily caloric intake was probably twice to three times what I really needed. Carbs, unsurprisingly, were the usual culprit. I downed white rice, noodles, sandwich bread and cereal like they were going to be rationed the next day. I decided a few months ago that the madness had to stop.

As you might know, I've been on a seafood diet since February. In April, I started P90X (I've just finished BTW! More on this in an upcoming post). In June, I decided to start counting calories to determine just how much I've been eating, and to cut down accordingly. The results have been very enlightening.

So I've been using FitDay to keep track of my food and caloric intake for almost two months now. The benefits have been twofold:

1. Psychological/Mental. I've become extremely aware of what and how much I eat. FitDay has a great feature that displays the nutrition information for the thousands of food items in its database, so I can no longer blissfully ignore the carbohydrate (or sugar, or sodium) content of any of my meals. I scrutinize the nutrition labels of every jar, bottle, bag and box that goes in my grocery cart. As a result, I find it a lot easier to say "no" to food. And I actually feel great knowing that I'm making informed choices about my own diet. Knowledge, in this case, equals much better health.
   
   
2. Physical. I've definitely slimmed down. Unsurprisingly, keeping track of (and regulating) my caloric intake worked. Last weekend I weighed in at one pound below my high school weight! My jeans are sagging. I have lost some muscle mass as well -- P90X concentrates more on general physical preparedness rather than weightlifting -- but I'm planning on changing my diet regimen slightly to include much more protein when I finish cutting weight.

Giving up carbs was pretty easy for the most part. The majority of my carb intake now comes from a cup of oatmeal in the morning, supplemented with various fruits/veggies throughout the day. I don't buy sandwich bread or cook pasta anymore. Initially, I thought that giving up white rice would be terrible and while I do miss eating it, especially with certain meals, I can definitely do without it. I probably eat rice only once or twice a month now, usually when I treat myself to sushi :)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not immune to cravings.

almost, but not quite [via]

There have been times when a grilled burger, rice noodles or any one of several Filipino dishes sounds like it would be perfect, and I've given in to those cravings on rare occasions. I didn't adhere to my regimen a handful of times (including camping and a wedding reception). On those occasions, I had to decide between going hungry and being as reasonable and practical as possible. The choice has been easy. I'm happy to say that it's worked -- very well -- so far.

Farewell, Meat. It Was Nice Knowing You.

It's now three full weeks into Lent and I've succeeded in sticking to The List. Among the four items, the most consistently significant sacrifice for me would be giving up meat altogether (instead of only on Fridays) and eating only seafood. It's something I do every year. And I'm happy to report that I've been largely true to my word, annually abstaining from burgers, steaks, chops and wings until a massively gluttonous Easter Sunday lunch.

But somehow it's different this year.

A couple of days ago I mentioned on Twitter that I was considering giving up "land meat" for good. After all, I'd basically been doing so every year for weeks at a time. So I put some serious thought into it, weighed my options, played some more Sushi Cat, and decided to officially become a pescatarian. From eHow:

A pescatarian is a person who refrains from eating land animals and birds, but includes fish, mollusks, and crustaceans in addition to fruits, vegetables, plants, legumes, nuts, and grains. This is a common form of "vegetarianism" and is generally considered a very healthy diet ... Pescatarians can enjoy low-fat protein sources that are high in fish oils, which contain Omega 3 fatty acids -- the "good fats" that reduce inflammation.

People become pescatarians for several different reasons, whether ethical, environmental, political or health-related. I subscribe to a combination of all of them, but I'm doing this mostly to improve my health and physical well-being. Plus, I love love LOVE seafood.

[via]

Don't get me wrong ... I will definitely miss eating certain pork, chicken and beef dishes (Kobe steak?! Say it ain't so!) -- not to mention the multitudes of delicious Filipino meals I've eaten my whole life (adobong manok, we had some good times, didn't we?).

[via]

The good thing about this is that I can almost always substitute seafood for the meat and it'll taste similar, so I won't be missing out entirely on the flavors. That makes me feel better.

So. There you have it: Come Easter Sunday, I won't be carving up any rib eyes or filleting any chicken. Most likely, I'll be digging into some succulent, moist salmon and sautéing some jumbo shrimp. Bon appétit!

Raw Fish FTW!

In anticipation of all the unagi, maguro and sake I'm going to be devouring during my upcoming trip to Seattle, I've been playing Sushi Cat. From the description:

Sushi Cat is lonely. Lonely and very hungry. Help Sushi Cat out by guiding him to as much sushi as possible. Watch him grow fat as he eats more and more sushi along his way. Fill up his belly to win.

Looks like my kind of game. Basically you're walking (rolling?) along when you spot this fine honey in the shop window:

It's business time.

In an effort to win her heart, you somehow have to go through scenarios where all you do is EAT SUSHI:

om nom nom

Get a full belly on each level, and you bear witness to a crazy sushi fireworks display:

Sushi Frenzy!

Don't do like I did, though, and bounce around gobbling so much sushi that I couldn't fit in between the obstacles and was doomed to kind of roll gelatinously around forever:

DOOMED

See kids? Portion control is your friend. Yeah, that's not good. Whimsical and funny as hell though -- a good 15-minute Plinko-clone time-waster. Aaaand I'm really hungry now. Enjoy.

BMR.

Okay so at work a couple of days ago, talk turned inevitably to food (as it usually does) and somehow, in between exclamations of "I need CHOCOLATE¹" and "Eggs smell NASTY²," the topic of metabolism and calories turned up. I've been blessed with a pretty high metabolism -- although I can sense it slowing down as I get older -- so I'd never really counted calories before nor really knew what my basal metabolic rate (BMR) was. Simply put, your BMR is the base amount of calories you burn if you stay sedentary all day. The formula to calculate this, though, is kinda complex:

Men:

BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.76 x age in years)

Women:

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Since I'm lazy, Google got me a BMR calculator. I plugged in my info and voilà, my BMR popped up at 1595.85. Then I had to multiply that by 1.55 according to the Harris Benedict Equation, which factors in my activity level (moderate exercise 3-5 days/week), and I got 2473.56, which is the number of calories I can consume to maintain my current weight. I guess I eat food adding up to slightly more calories than that, then burn off the excess during my runs, because I've weighed the same for about a year now.

My go-to fast food sandwich of choice, a BK Whopper with no cheese, has 678 calories so clearly that means I can indulge and inhale three of them every day and not gain any weight!! Fantastic. Oh wait, I need fries and a giant Coke with that.

Never mind. Back to salads for me.

¹ I work with mostly women.
² Picky, picky women.

Baby Steps To Sashimi.

Being at the hospital for twelve to thirteen straight hours sucks. Every other day after I finish my regular clinical internship hours from 7:00-3:30, I clock in and head directly to the mammography film library to work for a couple more hours and snag some extra cash as a Student Tech. I'm usually out by 5:30 or 6:00 at the latest, which is still early enough to run errands and whatnot before the day is completely done. However the guy who works the night shift had a family emergency and has been gone for over a week now, throwing the whole staffing schedule off.

In order to get things done in the library/admin office -- the most important of which involves preparing the next-day exam schedules for the various imaging services departments -- another Student Tech and I have been asked to stay extra late until the guy returns to work (no word from him so far). So yeah, while I get a bit more money out of it, leaving the hospital at 8:30 leaves me virtually no time nor energy to do things afterward. I don't want to complain too much though: The pay's pretty good for what it is, the people are cool, and it beats working part-time retail hands-down.

Anyway.

The most striking thing I've noticed about living (back again) in the Midwest is how culturally isolated the majority of the people here are. Not that they don't want to learn for the most part, but -- and please keep in mind I'm not referring to everyone -- they're so far removed from actual Asian cultural experience that their only exposure is through the occasional Asian/Asian-American friend, or through television (which may or may not be a good thing depending on what they're watching).

Not surprisingly, I've found that my classmates and co-workers here in Kansas are overall less willing to try new cuisine than their counterparts in California and Washington. I'm guessing this is because they just weren't exposed to it nearly as much, given the demographic makeup of the Midwest versus the West Coast. While this is completely understandable, it makes me a bit sad that some of them aren't willing to at least try food that they've never eaten before. I mean, how do you know you don't like something if you've never tried it? And I'm not even talking about the "delicacies" Andrew Zimmern shoves, still squirming, down his gullet on Bizarre Foods. I'm talking typical ethnic cuisine, and if you try it and still don't like it, then I'm cool with that.

So a few weeks back I resolved that, while I lived here in Kansas City, one of my personal missions would be to broaden the culinary palettes of my friends and co-workers -- and a few days ago I had my first chance. Since the beginning of the year, I'd been talking about the tastiness of Thai food to a few Asian Cuisine Virgins, and last Friday one of my more food-savvy co-workers and I decided to order Thai for lunch. I immediately asked D if he wanted to try it. A little background: He'd lived in Missouri/Kansas his entire life -- more than 50 years -- and I think had vacationed in Mexico a time or two. D liked Chinese food, and while I don't think he had even considered trying Thai before, he was game. So I ordered him a heaping plate of (you guessed it) Pad Thai.


Pad Thai was the obvious "starter" choice as the most taste-accessible dish -- the noodles, chicken and various garnishes and veggies look basically like Chinese food to the untrained eye. D liked it almost immediately and, in between exclamations of how good it tasted, devoured half of the contents of his take-out box before stopping, saving the rest for later. He even periodically offered samples to the rest of my co-workers and classmates who happened to be eating in the breakroom, but they unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) declined.

Ah, people, but you don't know what you're missing. Okay, more for us then!

It made me strangely pleased that I was able to share something as simple as a new food experience with someone, but hey if it helps open the door to new cultural experiences as a whole, then I'm all for it. Food can be the universal conduit.

Now if I can get D to try sashimi next ... hmm maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Baby steps ...

Westport Rocksteady.

Last night was a good one in Kansas City. My brother, cousin and I rolled down to the Westport District and met up with a few friends for a Thai dinner and Detroit hip-hop. I'd eaten at Thai Place before so I knew the entrees were tasty. I think the only slight issue I had was that the sauce in my Pad Kee Mow was a bit bland, but overall the dishes were excellent and I had enough to take home.

During dinner a conversation ensued as to which cuisine lent itself to the best-tasting leftovers. The general consensus was that Thai held up fairly well to reheating, and that Japanese food was one of the worst. Obviously you don't want to keep raw fish any longer than you have to before shoving it down your gullet. I should add that I love cold Italian food -- this includes all the noodle dishes, lasagna and pizza. (Go ahead and make all the ewww noises you want -- I'll still eat fettucini alfredo straight from the fridge.)

We decided to hit up One80 Lounge up the block after a satisfying dinner to kill a few minutes (and brain cells) before the Black Milk show. I don't think Jose will ever get over the low drink prices here. Not that anyone's trying to make it a habit, but it's a good way to get buzzed and still ball on a budget. Midwesterners don't know how good they really have it with the miniscule bar tab.

recordBar was an intimate venue situated in a strip mall a few blocks down. It was kinda strange to see it wedged next to a dry cleaners and Half-Price Books, but whatever. DAMMIT THIS WAS HIP-HOP. We paid cover and found a large table near the back with a decent view of the stage. The DJ was spinning some underground records/remixes and Corey and I played the "Who's This?" guessing game. Meanwhile the drinks kept flowing and I maintained with Sapphire and tonic.

Out of the two opening acts, Approach smashed it with more than a few high-energy bangers and acapellas that got the crowd moving and hyped for the headliner. I may have to check for this cat at some of his future shows here in KC -- he's pretty ill, has a sick stage presence and seems to have a decent fan base in town. I shoulda copped a CD. The buzz built up steadily and I wove my way to the front of the crowd as Black Milk took the stage. Getting right into it, he ripped through cuts from Popular Demand and Tronic and people were wildin'. Several times I do believe I almost snapped my neck from noddin' so hard.

Anyway I only wish the set had lasted longer because it was a great feeling to be in the crowd once again after a long break from going to shows. I couldn't help but reminisce about when J-Pros used to rock venues in Seattle, so I know the sensation of a hundred hands in the air with waves of bass exploding through the room. Ah well. Gotta keep it movin'. In all it was a great night, and one I hope to recreate again when the next opportunity arrives.