Road Trip 2011: The Summary

When the only radio music choices available are Country or Christian rock, you know that the true road trip experience has begun. We ate at what could possibly be the most random restaurant in the world, chatted up some local color, and said hi to the Amish, Mennonites and other 'Plain People' in Lancaster County. I even bought an Amish inspired hat, which fits my head (size 7 5/8 sigh)!

I kept channeling Psycho...Psycho meets 35 flavors of chicken wings

It's kind of creepy how much my face looks like a sticky bun in this photo

After a quick stop at Hershey Park in Hershey, PA to ride the free Disney-esque ride that simulates the chocolate making process with half of the 1.3 billion Indians in the world (it rivaled those encountered at Niagara Falls), we drove to Chambersburg to bunker down for the night. Sadly, the only place open for 'food' was Ruby Tuesdays, which kind of completed the road trip experience. I cursed Guba's name as I once again got 5 ounces of crap broccoli cheddar soup.

Pure chocolate-y goodness

What really awed me, was the number of kids staying at the hotel. I guess I'm too

used to business hotels. This particular one was geared more towards families...families with kids playing in sports tournaments. It brought be back to the good old days playing in the Japanese Basketball league.

Finally after some shopping (sparklers were bought for the summer!) and a wave 'hello' to Gettysburg, we finally made it to St. Michaels, which is on the skinny peninsula part of Maryland. Quaint. It was really quaint.

Monday morning the real fun began...crabbing. The video says it all. Four hours and two bushels of Maryland Blue Crabs later, we called it a day and out our whole catch steamed. I REALLY wanted to bring live crabs home. I REALLY wanted to bring live crabs to work. But Captain Russell (letsgocrabbing.com) dissuaded me from what would surely have been a folly. Instead, I brought back two coolers full of cooked crabs--at least 100 of them. WTF.

But it's so worth it. I'm in crab cholesterol heaven.

Memorial Day Weekend and Soccer

WE ACTUALLY WON! What a great feeling, winning the last game in the regular season. And I almost scored a goal too...if only my foot would actually connect with the ball. SIGH! So instead of playing the first place team in the finals, we're playing the second place team! Maybe we have a chance...

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and thus starts the Great 2011 Road Trip filled with back roads, forests, crabs...mmmm crabs. Final destination crabs. Also those crafty Amish are going to be involved, along with a quick stop at Hershey's! To round out the trip I'm going to the HIGH GROUND, Gettysburg, to see eighth grade social studies come to life (or not).

Way too tired to be at all witty and must wake up in 5 hours. Time to shower and sleep. Pictures to come after the weekend.

Tuesday Night Dinner

Ever since I heard the partners of my company were going to Istanbul, I've been dreaming about the tavuk (chicken) kabobs and tomato 'salad' with bread I ate in a little alley way restaurant near the New Mosque. I literally search this place out when I found myself back in Istanbul for the day after a experiencing a travel detour between Egypt and Italy (but that is another story).

Today that craving intensified after hearing all about the Istanbul trip this morning, and coming home I decided to bust out the Turkish chilis I purchased from the Spice Market in 2009 (oops). End results:

Chicken: I regret not using these chilis before. They're freaking good now, and I'm sure they were much better two years ago. I usually like chicken thighs, but realized a while back that the consistency of thigh meat just doesn't do it for this style of cooking. This time around, I used skinless, boneless chicken breast cubed in large 1 1/2 inch sections. I let that marinate in the chilis, olive oil, ground coriander and salt for awhile, and then seared the meat on both sides in the skillet. I actually ended up semi steaming them since I put the lid on the pan in an attempt 'lock in the moisture'. I then finished the chicken off in the oven for five minutes and let rest.

Sauce: What a freaking epiphany I had in making this yogurt sauce. It was a perfect complement to the chicken and really simple: yogurt, thinly sliced red onion, salt, cumin, and maybe cayenne pepper. Refrigerate and done! I forgot lemon, which I was going to put either in the sauce or on the chicken to give the dish a little acid, but oh well.

Bread: I've become a master at making dough. I'm way too impatient to ever become a great baker, but I've learned my lesson and now I 'proof' my yeast (or is it 'proof my dough'?) in a 1/3 cup of hot water instead of the full cup. My dough actually rises every time! And is so damn good. I just use a conventional dough/bread/pizza dough recipe and cook it in a hot pan on the stove. MMM oh and don't forget salt or else the dough tastes like crap.

Now if I can only figure out how to make that spicy tomato puree that should go with the chicken...

New Years 2011

Did I ever tell you about my New Years? The following photos explains it all. Actually, they don't, but unless you want to listen to one of my 15 minute monologues about random events in my life, then be satisfied with the pictures.

Retrospective: India Auto-Rickshawing

Ah India. After literally four months to the date since I've returned from India, I'm finally ready to share (or maybe I finally downloaded my pictures from my camera :) ).

And one of the most distinct memories I have of India are of the auto-rickshaws. In every city, there is a different etiquette: Mumbai and Pune (I believe) is by the meter, Hampi it's half as much to Hampi than it is from Hampi because the driver gets another 100 rs. from the guest house owner. If the owner doesn't pay up, then according to the driver the guest house is 'out of business'. What a racket! 'Okay please horn" "Okay please sound" painted on the back, the yellows and greens, and painted flowers. And of course the crazy driving that makes so much sense.

What I realized while in India is that if a foreigner ever attempted to drive, they'd probably cause a 50 auto-rickshaw pile up; there are local traffic laws that they just don't teach you in driving school. For instance: when faced with oncoming traffic at night, stick one arm out of the auto-rickshaw on the side the car is passing. This is because these little putt-putts only have one headlight, like motobikes, but are a lot wider. One becomes appreciative of these little rules, and how surprisingly well they work, after riding around India this way...

#6 - 10 of series 28 Hope

the rest...

The Vagabond is Back

Phew okay I know it's been a long, long time, but what can I say, life gets in the way of writing, as it does for many other things too: reading, apartment cleaning, laundry doing...

But I've officially completed (successfully) my second course at FIT. This time a photography course (film, what else) with darkroom instruction.

After a verbal spar with the photo guy, some wheeling and dealing, I managed to get my photos printed in time, albeit a bit purple. My prof said they printed my black and white photos on colored paper. How dare they. But at least I got a CD of my photos too.

Below #1-5 of my series "28 Hope" (all right reserved © Kiyomi Hayashida)

Packing My Life

(Here's a random picture from Montauk since I don't have anything else to post right now!)

What do I really need for a month trip? Well hopefully not much more than I put into my Osprey Kestral 48 (s/m).

I decided to pack light this time, bringing only a few necessary clothes, potions and doodads, including:

- 1 pair of $10 jeans, blk (hey I'm not going to risk having my good stuff ruined while traipsing around)
- 1 pair of Uniqlo leggings, blk
- 1 Uniqlo Heatech, long sleeved, blk
- 1 Uniqlo Heatech short sleeved, blk
- 1 ridiculously bright Nigerian dress, long
- 1 purple/white Nigerian shirt, long and wide (think rectangle...)
- 1 Levi's cutoff jeans, 6 years old (HA I can still fit into them...sort of, I remember buying these from ghetto Chinatown)
- 1 men's button down long sleeved shirt, yellow
- 1 down vest, red/pink (ouch...this does not go with anything else I'm bringing...I know, I've been wearing it these past days in California...not good)
- 1 keffiyeh, b/w (bought in Egypt, made in China?)
- bikini, green
- pj shorts, blue
- and vegetables that will need washing through out the trip (for those who don't know what vegetables are, think unmentionables...thanks Kimi for the vocab word all those years ago)

HA! We'll see how I fare, but my reasoning, is that I can always buy things along the way!

Regarding doodads:

- pad lock and bike cord/chain (oh gosh, but it'll be my security system for my nylon backpack...)
- Pentax K1000 + 13 rolls of b/w and color film (woot)
- (hopefully) 1 silk sleeping bag liner--I asked for it for xmas :)
- And some other stuff I probably don't need

Out of all of that, the two items I never travel without is a scarf that can double as a towel, beach towel, blanket, head wrap and a men's long sleeve button down shirt that can keep you warm and cool depending on the climate.

Sigh I can't wait!!

I'm BAAAAAAAAACK

And no I'm not a dinosaur!

I'm finally yanking up my roots and getting the hell out of this country. After a terrible flight back to California (Seriously Delta, I hate you. Fellow travelers, do not get conned into sitting in row 19 on transcontinental flights. It's not an exit row...the window seat SUCKS, especially when icy cold water is leaking into the plane. Wet socks are not fun), I'm one step closer to India!

By the way, the craptacular flight attendant has re-enforced my opinion that sometimes Americans suck. Perhaps I expect too much out of my fellow compatriots, but still.

After months and months of waiting, my departure date for India is right around the corner! I have everything planned out, meaning I have absolutely nothing planned out except for where I'm landing and departing. Ooo I picked up the wedding gift (good thing I made a list of things to do), and got my manual SLR in the mail (we'll see if it actually works. Unfortunately, I don't have time to test it out before I go...) and I'm ready to explore the sub-continent.

I know, I'm not supposed to eat food of the street. I know that it's a sure fire way of getting extremely sick, but the pictures of street cart vendors in my Lonely Planet look amazing...and if Lonely Planet says it's a must try...wellllll....

Okay, so I'll try to update this blog over the next month whilst away. Internet, email, and phone will be severely limited. But feel free to email me. I always like to know what's going on in the real world.

Ugh

Absolutely nothing interesting to report. This week's main event is getting weirdly semi-sick. No sniffles, no congestion, just a funny tickle in the throat, an on and off again dry cough, maybe feverish, fatigue...and oh my gosh is one of my nymph nodes swollen? I can only hope it's always been that size.

But hey at least I'm going camping this weekend...F

Pictures to come after the weekend!