#88 - (rice dream).

they love me like I was a brother. they protect me, listen to me. they dug me my very own garden, gave me sunshine, made me happy. rice dream. rice dream. rice dream.   - radiohead

growing up in new hampshire, i followed all four major sports religiously (go statistics!) and my favorite teams were the hometown celts (basketball), bruins (hockey) and red sox (baseball) & the san fran 49ers (football)...nobody liked the patriots back then. they were awful...although...mosi tatupu! two of my favorite athletes growing up were hall of fame red sox outfielder jim rice (second only to dewey) & 49er wide receiver jerry rice, quite possibly the greatest receiver in nfl history...and classy. jim rice was sort of an ass to reporters, but compared to nowadays, it reminds me of a quaint time when professional athletes didn't kill people & have tragic breakdowns.

when i moved to nyc back in 01, within a few months, i randomly ran into a high school friend who i had dated for two weeks back in high school before i knew a damn thing about girls. we decided to meet up soon after at rice restaurant for dinner, but in the end, ended up somewhere else. then we hung out a few times after that, randomly ran into each other again at penn station taking the LIRR in from brooklyn during the 2005 MTA strike...

flash forward to 2007...i'd never managed to make it to any of the rice locales in the city, but i started working in d.u.m.b.o. and there's a rice restaurant there, so i finally tried it out. although it's a bit pricey for the portion, the veggie meatballs with black rice are friggin amazing. if i ever go crazy & become a serial killer & end up on death row, that might be my last meal...as long as i can get two orders worth.

present day...the rice name holds faded sway in american society. there's condoleezza "double z" rice, who after becoming the first black secretary of state, presided under the 2nd half of one of the worst periods of foreign relations in american history. there's anne rice, who after becoming a huge favorite with her vampire chronicles, decided to only write for jesus & left the ravaged new orleans that had been her home & inspiration for many years. then there's damien rice. he's always been pretty lame, but has some sway in ireland & some other countries.

#88 - (rice dream).
snack: riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps
drink: beer lao lager


in honor of rice, i picked up a bag of riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps.  on the front, they promise "a mouth journey." who doesn't want a mouth journey?  they're all vegan/celiac/gluten-friendly & made with brown rice, which makes them all thick & crunchy. since i'm the type of guy who fills his soy sauce with wasabi & sucks down wasabi peas like they're made up of the meaning of life, i found the flavor to be quite awesome.  it stands out nicely, but there's a prominent brown rice flavor as well, which is solid.

also, if you have some free time, you should check out the totally un-catholic guilt-o-meter on their website.  holy crap it is hilariously good fun.  it's amazing what you can do with the internet.  plus, who doesn't love a little guilt?  fun?  guilty as charged!

since the wasabi chips are spicetastic, i decided to crack open the can of beer lao lager to ease the pain. unfortunately, the can had other plans. when i pulled at the tab, it bent limply without piercing the can. i tried twisting it a bit & eventually, it just snapped off, leaving me with the smiley face pictured below. mr smiley & i had a nice joint chuckle over the scenario in the echo of my empty kitchen. then i grabbed a butter knife, stabbed at that can with authority & drained its foaminess into a glass, pseudo-shotgun style.


it's a beer from laos brewed with jasmine rice & basically, it's a light beer, more like a pilsner than a lager. it reminds me of singha, which is basically a slightly better budweiser, which is basically a slightly better water. it comes from a brewery started by the french & is apparently the national beer of laos.  there's this npr story about their brewmaster, sivilay lasachack, who wants to make it global...just like budweiser. they're now owned by carlsberg (whose website puts the words "probably the best website in the world" in your title bar), so the chances of that happening have significantly increased. good luck, sivilay!  keep reaching for that dollar!

#81 - for openers...

sports sports sports sports! sports sports sports sports! i sure do love sports recently. after a monday postponement, today was opening day at fenway park for the boston red sox, as they took on a team who knocked the sox out of the playoffs last year & has turned out to be their most formidable opponent as of late--the scrappy, young tampa bay devil rays.

as i work in times sq & don't have cable, especially the kind that gets red sox games, i decided to make my way over to the closest place carrying the game...the time sq espn zone. since moving to nyc in 01, i've only been in here twice, both for red sox games. one time, the sox game was starting just as a knicks playoff game was finishing up, which meant copious meatheads abounded for the first couple innings & the other time, the bartender abandoned me for a good 20-25 minutes just as i was finishing up my beer & getting ready to head out. let's just say that she got left an "estimated amount."

today, i got out of work early & made it over there by about 4:30, just in time to catch the tail end of the 2nd inning. i headed up to the bar, grabbed myself a $10.02 25oz sam adams boston ale & took a seat at a table on the ground floor level, which was basically empty save for a couple of people watching the sox & a couple watching some futbol. being able to chillax by myself in the middle of crazy ass times sq, drink a sam & watch the sox was much needed sanity-wise.

& they had wireless there, which meant i could play with my stupid ipod while watching the game!...& ted kennedy threw out the first pitch to former red sox outfielder/hall of famer jim rice and pedroia & varitek homered, beckett pitched well & the sox won 5-3, so it's a good start to the baseball season.

#81 - for openers...
snack: calbee hot & spicy chips
drink: paldo aloe vera drink

by the time i got home after the sox' victorious win, i was in the mood for some snacking, so i broke into my recent chinatown haul & went with the bag of calbee hot & spicy chips. when i cracked the bag open, an odd but savory odor escaped & wafted up into my nostrils. basically, they taste like a less-appealing mesquite barbecue chip. that ain't spicy, calbee. i know you are from hong kong, but that doesn't mean that you can't be spicy. it's ok. go nuts next time.

ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. [pause] ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. this paldo aloe vera drink is all glllllllllggggggg & slither in my mouth because it has floating chunks of aloe & gel pieces & pulp in it. it is like flies have landed & since drowned/gone into diabetic shock in my tasty, fruity beverage & i haven't been paying attention & next thing i know, they're [barf] all chilling & wriggling round in the back regions of my throat, urging me to drink more aloe drink to wash them down. but then there are more flies & i puke in my mind! that is what it is like.

so...i've got some bad news. i grossed myself out to the point that i went to the kitchen with the goal of straining out the flies. that didn't turn out so well. basically, i just washed my kitchen counter with aloe. that's good for it though, right? softens it up? soothes burns?...looks like i'll just have to settle for a tall cool glass of apple & eve natural style apple juice instead. no flies in that. maybe a worm or something, but if there is, it's so liquefied that i'll never know. go sox!