iPhone notes

From yesterday:

Don't you just hate waiting for things? Waiting for things is one of the things that can be annoying for me. I feel that the problem probably stems from wanting too much and never having enough. For example if a website I love only publishes a few articles a day, it's not enough. I now have to wait a few days until I have great articles to read. I was much happier when I first discovered the site, when there were so many things to discover and explore. The amount of fun I could have was limitless.

Now that I think about it, everything has it's limits. For somethings they may be some really big limits. But they are still there. And once you get there you'll have to wait, like a dog waiting for a treat. You could leave and find a new source of entertainment, but that would require too much effort. At least your current source is consistent.

From last Monday:

Girl 1: "You don't even know how weird this guy is. During class he put his hand on my neck and said I'm checking your pulse!"
Girl 2: "He's so weird!"
Girl 1: "He's so random"
Girl 2: "What an embarrassing guy"

Yet they are talking about him now. He's so embarrassing. But they are still talking about him.

It's been a while

Why do we keep going back to something that we totally fail at? Is it because we are trying to prove ourselves wrong? Maybe we believe that we are better prepared to face the task at hand.

But we were wrong once again.

The anguish, pain and suffering embraces us, as we scold ourselves for doing something so stupid once again.

Recipe of the Day: French Tacos

Serves 3
No. I do not mean a French woman's nether-region.

This dish started out as a nice steak with a white wine reduced Dijon mustard sauce. However, there were leftovers in the fridge and I didn't want to waste them. When the cooking was finished I questioned what I had made. It was an abomination of French cuisine in a Mexican shell. Brave Jon took the first bite and declared the dish was safe to eat and quite delicious.

He was right. I was quite delicious.

Toronto Beer Festival

Friday was a great day. I didn't have to go to work, I had finished everything that I needed to do for the weekend and the beer festival was in town.

I had been looking forward to this event for weeks. One thing that I really miss about Hong Kong is that there is no policy towards open alcohol. I can drink a beer where I want, when I want.

Maybe I just wanted to take a stroll in the park and have a nice cold one, I can't do that here. Which is kinda sad, because there is just something about nature and beer, it's like eggs and soy sauce (they go so well together).

Continuing with my story, I left my apartment at 6pm thinking that 3 hours at the beer festival would be enough.

In retrospect, it was not.

Good Deeds

Have you ever preformed a task for someone? As a favor? Or just because you wanted to be nice?

You approach the task with the best intentions. You are a crusader for justice, riding the white horse of helpfulness, off to slay the evil whatever-thing-you-need-to-do.

But in the end, it all blows up in your face.

Recipe of the day: Chicken Parmesan

Serves - 3
This is one of my favorite dishes to make and eat. I remember the first time I had this it, I was 9 years old at the time. I went over to my buddy's house to sleep over, we did this quite a lot. Obviously, we worked up an appetite killing virtual baddies and feeling very accomplished. Meanwhile, up in the kitchen, his mom was cooking up a storm (and now that I think about it, she was hot). Anyways, the dish was delicious and hopefully I have recreated it close to its former glory.

This dish also got some good reviews from some friends. But that's not the point.

Recipe of the day: Pea & Bacon Casserole

Serves - 3
The inspiration for this dish came from a huge craving to eat cream and cheese. There is just something delightful about cheesy things that make you smile. A friend once asked me "If you could only choose one thing, sex or cheese, what would it be?". I would choose cheese. I can't live without that stuff. Add some smoky bacon into it and you have an epic dish of epicness.


Note: I am lactose intolerant, oh the irony.

Girl on the street and MCU

Usually as I walk down St. George there are not many things that stop me in my path. I'll see a nice flower and be like 'Oh nice' or see a dude with a bad-ass beard and be like 'Oh nice'. Today while walking with Alastair I saw something that made me go 'Oh...'

Just 'Oh...'

Drunk Carlos' life lessons

Have you ever talked to a drunk person while you are totally sober? It's interesting isn't it?

With Carlos, it's not that interesting.

It was Friday night and I'm was at home reading a book peacefully. I was reading book number 4 of the Scott Pilgrim series, which is a great series by the way.

http://www.scottpilgrim.com/

Anyways, Carlos stumbled in to the apartment with the biggest smile on his face.

Friendship

I was online the other day and and saw the status update of one of my friends. I don't remember the exact words but the message was something on the lines of:

"The friends that you make, are they just for that class? Or are they friends for a lifetime?"

This got me thinking, as a lot of things do.

The question here is not that simple and the answer is not black or white. I believe that the types of friends you make totally depends on yourself. When you make a friend, they do not fall straight into a certain category, they work their way there. Our friends are not rocks, they are human beings who will respond to your every action.

"Hey Rock, wanna hang out?"

"..."

Recipe of the day: Sweet & sour chicken

Serves 4
Sweet & sour chicken, a staple of the Caucasian-Chinese recipe repertoire. The dish is a total western creation, though it does share some similarities with other Chinese dishes. It doesn't really matter though because I LOVE THIS DISH. When I was a kid every Friday my mom would decide she was too lazy to cook dinner and we would order out. Usually when you order out you get something you don't make at home. We would order Chinese food.

Carlos in the kitchen = bad

Carlos and I have an arrangement in the house. It's quite simple:

1. I cook
2. Carlos cleans

Sometimes, however, Carlos wants to help out in the kitchen. I originally thought that this was good idea, it would be like having a sous chef and things would be made twice as fast.

In reality it was more like having a sous chef who wanted to end his life. I should have seen it coming, there were so many signs signifying that this cooking expedition was heading downhill.

1. Carlos enters the kitchen shirtless. I can't believe I missed this one, I know we don't own any aprons, but we were going to fry things. He should of had a shirt on.
2. Carlos had arranged the pot of boiling water (we were making spaghetti) behind the frying pan full of oil.
3. He had just woken up.

And this is what happened.

Children's books

During work today I was tasked with sorting through a donation of kids books. This is a pretty relaxing and fun job, as I get pretty nostalgic flipping though the novels.

Whoa Goosebumps! I haven't seen this in ages!

I would think as I flipped through the book reading only the exciting parts. Since most of the books are donations, they come from my generation or earlier. To be honest, I had no idea what children's books were like today.

Recipe of the day: Spicy Parmesan Pork

Serves 2
This dish is actually something I threw together from the left overs in my fridge. It is a blend of sweet and spicy flavors with a hint of tangy-ness from the cheese. I think this meal is pretty versatile and can be served with a variety of side dishes, spaghetti, potatoes, vegetables or rice. I use rice because I'm Chinese.

Ingredients

• 4 Pork chops
• 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp Corn starch
• 1 tsp Chili sauce
• 1 tsp Soy sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1/2 a spring onion
• 1 tbsp of butter or margarine
• Pepper
• 2 tbsp of Parmesan cheese
• Some fresh parsley 

1. Dice the clove of garlic and cut the spring onion in to slices
2. Heat up a small amount of oil and a large pan and fry garlic and spring onion until aromatic
3. Put canned tomatoes, corn starch, chili sauce, soy sauce and sugar in to the pan, mix well until corn starch dissolves
4. Cover and simmer on low heat
5. Smack those pork chops so they are tender, and make diagonal cuts on both sides
6. Heat up some butter/margarine in a pan
7. Season one side of the pork chops with pepper and place them in the pan on that side
8. Cook until brown, season other side with pepper and flip over
9. Cook until other side is brown too
10. Transfer the pork chops into the tomato sauce pan, cover and simmer on medium heat for 5 min
11. Flip pork chops over, simmer for 5 more min
12. Place pork chops on a plate and pour the sauce over them. Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese and garnish with parsley
13. Serve with your preferred side dish

Any food with sauce + rice = win

Note: Carlos actually came home drunk this evening, apparently it was his last day at work today, so the boss took everyone out for drinks. He stumbles into the house constantly apologizing and repeating how drunk he is. After noticing the food on the table, he thanks me by hugging me and sharing his booze breath. He devoured the food and posed for the following picture.

4 out of 5

Carlos blocks up toilet, Jon gets in trouble

I am awoken in the middle of the night in dire need of visiting the bathroom. This is usually not a problem. Reminiscence of Solid Snake, get in, hit the target, get out. Tonight, there would be a surprise waiting for me.

The usual step-by-step procedure shows no problems. Then I flushed.

I notice the water level rising and is not stopping, this scares me as I prepare to mop the floor. Thankfully my sacrifices to the Toilet God have been honored and the water stops. Now my mind is full of questions, which progressed in the following fashion:
- What the f**k?
- Okay, the toilet is blocked up
- What could it be blocked up with?
- S**t... (no pun intended)

I recall that Jon had spent an unusually long time in the bathroom earlier in the afternoon. There was no way Carlos and I could have produced such a monster. Like my mother, I jumped to a conclusion: Jon had blocked up our toilet with his creation.

Obviously, I was not going to clean this mess up. I was also tired, so I took the easy way out. Seat down, back to bed.

The majority of the next day was filled with making calls to Jon's phone (which he never picks up). When I finally get through to him, I give him the whole spiel. Only to Jon's offended voice saying:

"Dude, I never took a crap at your place"

I was back at square one.

Carlos works early in the morning so I could not tell him the news. He finds out about the toilet in the evening. At this point I am convinced it was him, as the last time I used the toilet it was functionally properly. Carlos sheepishly apologizes. I send him to buy a plunger. Our toilet is now fixed.

Apparently Carlos can produce monsters too.

Recipe of the day: Katsudon (and first post!)

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog: 'Living with Carlos'. Most of you reading this blog will know Carlos as an integral part of your university experience. Whether as your frosh leader, sports commissioner or mentor, you would have met him in some way. Now that he has graduated, I see the blog as a good way to share some funny stories about Carlos as he tackles the real world. This blog will also contain recipes for things I cook (and Carlos eats) and philosophical questions that pop into my head. Enjoy!

Katsudon - Serves 1
Katsudon is a Japanese dish of deep fried pork cutlet on a bed of rice with onions, eggs and a sweet sake based sauce. Apart from deep frying the pork cutlet the dish is very fast and easy to make.

Ingredients - Pork Cutlet

• 1 medium pork loin
• White flour
• 2 eggs
• Fresh bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients - Sauce

• 50ml water
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp sake
• 1tsp sugar
• 1/4 onion

Ingredients - Other

• Fresh steamed rice
• 1 Spring onion

1. Preheat some vegetable oil in a small pot (enough oil so the pork loin can be submerged), also go make some rice with your rice cooker!
2. Make small diagonal cuts on the pork loin and sprinkle with salt and pepper on one side
3. Place the pork loin into the flour and coat it well 
4. Crack one egg into a small dish and add 1tbsp of water, stir the mixture well and coat the pork loin with the mixture
5. Place the pork loin into the bread crumbs and coat well
6. Test if the oil is hot by adding a pinch of flour. If it sizzles, place pork loin into the oil, fry until golden brown or 5 min
7. Remove pork loin and drain on a paper towel, cut in to vertical strips and set aside
8. Place all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and mix well, add to sauce pan
9. Chop onion up into slices and add to sauce pan, bring sauce pan up to a boil (high heat)
10. Add sliced pork loin to pan, cover and simmer at low heat for 3 min
11. Crack 1 egg into the sauce pan and spread evenly, cook at high heat for 30 seconds
12. Spoon some freshly steamed rice in to a bowl and pour contents of sauce pan on top
13. Add spring onions as garnish

I used parsley as garnish but it's okay!