June gloom in May

I call this kind of fog "Freddie" fog because, like my friend Freddie, it's AWOL.

I kind of like the limited visibility, and the cover was especially appreciated since I forgot sunscreen this morning.

The best thing, though, is the quiet. No planes this morning.

Long Weekend

While not as long as it should have been (I write this Sunday morning at work while waiting for the gear to reboot), the Thanksgiving holiday weekend did give me lots to be thankful for. Each day began with a ride and culminated in a nice meal or other social event. In between, there was sloth. You can understand why I'd want one more day.

Thursday was the first ride back on the Look in a couple of weeks. Commuting has been it for me for riding lately, so it was very nice to get out to the beach in some spandex, switch between quick circles and a big gear, fight the wind, and crush some Freds. After snarfing some leftovers and taking a very long, very hot shower, BoW and I headed to friends-who-are-more-like-family's house for traditional turkey feast. And it was good.

Friday's ride was nearly twenty miles of MTB out at Pt. Mugu State Park. After a long, gentle six mile climb up Sycamore Canyon Fire Road, BoW and I tore down the Sin Nombre/Two Foxes trails, most of the way back up it, looped around on the road and went back down again. What a great way to spend a couple of hours in the low-angled, midday sun of  November. Plus, I even successfully rode through the hardest trail feature (a steep, hard left whoop) at the top of Sin Nombre for the first time.

That evening, we went to arguably the best music club (at least in terms of the space itself) in town to bask in the warm thrill of confusion at the hands of The Melvins and two of their side projects Porn, and Big Business. Added to that was the extra bonus of reconnecting with an old friend and bandmate JUS and his wife, neither of whom had we seen in over 5 years. Porn was better than hoped, offering an onslaught of noise backed by what could only be described as a metal drumline. Big Business had only the one drummer, but made up for it with thick, meaty, Slayeresque bass riffs complemented by obligato nonsense guitar. More to my taste than BoW's. The Melvins current two-drummer lineup (same as Porn) is a joy to see in an intimate setting such as The Troubadour. You really haven't lived until you see symmetric metal drumming where not only the kits are opposed, but by virtue of one being a lefty, the drummers are as well.

For food porn, I offer these pics from our lunch outing to Culver City's own Pho Show. Before you discount them because of the cutesy name, let me just say that this is no Absolutely Phobulous. It's a family-run business which is just beginning to find its way, zeroing in on a menu, offering late-night hours, adding delivery, and dialing in a consistent flavor to its central offering, the broth. 

While we can all agree that from a political and humanitarian standpoint, Colonialism was a major faux pas, the creole culinary traditions it begat are generally as beautiful as the foreign lands that caused so many Europeans to go native in the time of empire. A great example of this is the delicious bánh xèo crepe. Crispy, eggy, stuffed with veggies and pork, and dipped in fish sauce, those frogs never had it so good as they did in Saigon.

The main event, though, is the pho. The broth is rich and tasty, and just requiring of condiment to make it your own. Meat ingredients are prefect, and on this occasion, I went with just meat balls. 

 

BoW elected brisket, tendon, and tripe. In pho, the tripe has a remarkably clean and palatable flavor. The fuzzy texture is a bit like extra-spongy tongue. I highly recommend this as an entry to tripe, especially if the iron-rich, tomato gaminess of menudo has turned you off in the past. That, or deep frying it in the French style...

For last supper on the long weekend, I cleaned out the fridge by making some soup. The chicken I was thawing to make more stock and potentially some bbq was still solid, so I went with the last of the homemade stock BoW whipped up for soup a couple of weekends ago. I had mirepoix on hand, added a turnip, some fresh parsley, some leftover chicken from tacos on Tuesday, the leftover green beans (retaining some of the mustard sauce the BoW made from the Ladies' recipe) and topped it with a crisped piece of prosciutto leftover from homemade pizza on Monday. Served it with a warm baguette. We do eat well.

Harvest Ride

Yesterday was the fourth annual Harvest Ride for Literacy. It's an awesome ride along the cost through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and back through the foothills. I did the first one as my first century and last year's with Stretch. BoW did the 66 mile ride last year and opted for the 55 this year.

Of course, since we had a heat wave last week, yesterday we had our first rain of the season. In addition to creating plenty of grimy, chamois-soaking misery for the riders, it also made the roads slick and washed all of the debris possible into the bike lanes and shoulders where I spent eight quality hours cursing the name of Selle Italia. This yielded three flats for me, including a slow leak in front that came after my second full flat in back. I admit, I swore out loud.

Obviously, this is more the domain of BoW, and I will let her fill you in on the details of the ride itself. 

Suffice to say that despite the rain and adversity, I was very pleased to find my legs and lungs stronger than ever and quite proud to finish in 6:13 actual moving time. Yes, that is hours and minutes. Yes, it is the fastest I've ever covered 100 miles. It would have been faster, too if Stretch had ever come around to take a pull when I wiggled my left elbow. 

The important thing to remember about why I am a cyclist is that it gives me license to eat. According to my computer/HRM/GPS/bike brain, I used over 5500 calories' worth of energy on that ride. Thus, I had no qualms about my bacon/swiss/spinach omelette with grits at the S&W this morning. Still, for a long ride like this, you must eat before and during. During is usually confined to easily digestible concoctions that deliver sugar and electrolytes in a barely palatable form. I always know that I'm not eating enough on the bike when they taste good. I prefer the Clif brand and use their products in solid, liquid, and gel form.

Preparation is everything for endurance sports, and eating is no different. What I do on the bike is very important, but without a good breakfast and a great meal the night before, it's all playing catch-up. For that, I like to eat a decent sized, nicely balanced meal composed of things I know will sit well. Comfort food is a good choice, and that, for me, is pasta.

I haven't used a recipe to cook pasta in I don't even remember how long. Why would I? Garlic, oil, herbs, three ingredients, good pasta, and a little parmesan is all the recipe you need. Here, the herbs are fresh sage (cooking and garnish) and flat parsley (garnish), and the ingredients are sausage, crimini mushrooms, and roasted red peppers. Too lazy to roast them myself, I happened to have an open jar after making pizza a week or so ago, and I was inspired by the news that there is going to be an exotic mushroom growing operation here in CA soon. 

If you go back up to the title shot, you'll see that wild arugula is indeed hot, and available at WFM as well as at the farmer's markets now. I only link to that blog because he failed to find anything other than that seed company to link to on the topic as well. Trust me, it makes a nice salad and goes well with an Italian table wine and some pasta. Get some.