Of Sunsets During Sunrise

Some nights insomnia strikes. Luckily for my blog readers, this is one of them.

Under the dim light of my monitor and sunrise, I'd like to take this time to elaborate on my love of sunsets. At UCSD, I had the luxury of seeing sunsets any time I wanted. Our dorm room suite view looked like this.  

No I'm not even kidding. 

Since then, I've lived in various cities.  I only consider myself home when (1) I've locked myself out and (2) I find somewhere to see a sunset over water, or in the landlocked cities, at least a nice park with a body of water.  It always manages to brighten up my day and put things in perspective.  And a chance to jam to music.

Because interestingly enough, I rarely see other people in my places of solitude.  Here, at the end of an unremarkable set of townhouses, lies a view of the ocean in the midst of a mini-forest.  It's a 4 minute walk from my house and my little haven.  I've sung countless songs at the tops of my lungs without a complaint (not necessarily an indication of talent).

Further up Twin Peaks, above the parking lot vista point everybody knows of, are two 360 views of the entire city.  I'll bike there when I have time and motivation, but I have to admit, after finding my little haven, I rarely go up there anymore.  But I'm always happy when I do.  

Down and around the corner, is Sloat park.  I always see dog walkers.  Dogs make me nervous on a bike, but I am happy that others are basking in the sun. 

Continue further north, you'll hit Golden Gate Park, a 1,017 acre of city park heaven complete with a waterfall, a windmill, lakes, and bison!  

The city peaks out behind this one.

Head west and there is Ocean Beach, with yes, the Pacific Ocean lapping at your feet.  Although it's often times too cold for this, I at least try and dip my hands in.   

They say the best things in life are free and I think I've truly internalized that lesson.  But more importantly, how impressive is it that, in the second most dense city in America, there is room for so much nature?  The green (and blue, and purple, and orange, and so on) nurtures us and gives us an escape from the grey concrete.  It reminds us that there are important things in this world that aren't man-made and thus, can't be bought.  It provides the critical link between us and the environment, and makes us lovers.  For who in their right mind would willingly destroy their own sanctuary?

Giving Thanks

A couple great things happened this year, that never will again, so let's begin with those.  First was graduating law school!  I'll be blunt- I am so thankful that is done and I'll never have to do it again.  The endless workload, the anxious students, and the unconcerned administration made law school a pretty miserable experience.  I counted down the days till I could leave and gone I am!  Second, also related to law, was passing the bar exam!  I studied for it mostly alone, opting to go for a no-name course instead of the monopoly brand everybody else went to.  As such, I could learn my lessons online (thus avoiding anxious students) and saved 66%.  Of course, I spent almost half of that on the meat CSA, but considering I was promising myself am inedible flat screen tv at the time for motivation, I think I made a great choice.  

Some things that continued to happen this year, that I hope will keep happening.  First, dating Pumpkin!  Two years ago at Thanksgiving, I was recovering from a terribly broken heart.  Last year, pumpkin was helping me put it back together.  This year, it's full of love and for that I am truly thankful.  Second, my family who has supported me through law school.  I've really been blessed there.  My uncle gave me lodging- despite our differences in cleanliness and standards of living.  My parents for paying my way through the entire mess.  My grandma for always giving 110% to help the family out.

This year's Thanksgiving was focused around sustainability.  As such, I spent a long time researching turkeys.  Free range, organic, family farm?  Surprisingly difficult.  But I'll elaborate on that later.  For now, I'm thankful that both my sisters came home, my parents are home, my uncle came over, my grandma is here, and we trekked over to an old family friend's house to cook and eat, just like we always do.  It's hilarious because only the "kids" (now pretty much all legal) cook.  The adults, born on an island an ocean away, never had Thanksgiving growing up.  Free of consumerism, filled with consumption, it's my favorite holiday of the year.

Long Time No Post

Sorry to my paltry 2 followers for not blogging recently but I enjoyed a trip to Chicago and then Michigan which kept me off a computer. It's hard to be green while traveling, with all the transportation and eating out, but I did my best. My mom decided to follow my lead- she didn't look at the map once!

First, we opted for public transit instead of a car. For any big city, I would always recommend this option. Chicago's public transit is impressive and fast. It put us within walking distance of everywhere we wanted to go, whether museum(found 2 that were free that day), the bean (left), Hancock building (below), comedy club (free show), or food. We only missed the subway twice, and both times the next subway came within 7 minutes. Once it was 10:30pm on a weekday. That's impressive. I was musing as to why the SF Muni can't follow suit and joked it was because Chicago Transit Authority would face riots if people stood out in the snow for more than 7 minutes. Hmmm, seasons. Imagine that.  By the way, at the Hancock building I would highly recommend going up t the 96th floor for cocktails, forwarding the $16 you would normally pay for the observatory towards food. Brilliant!

The Chicago bus system was clean, quiet, and new, but had too many stops (like bus systems usually do). When I caught the bus (so I could take the luggage) from our final dinner to Union Station (Chicago's Amtrak station), my mom beat me walking. She said the bus would pass her, then get stuck at a light or stop, and then she'd pass it, etc. This actually happens to me a lot when I'm biking. Then, depending on whether there is a hill or not, I am beat or beat the bus permanently. I rarely take the bus in SF, after biking for a year, I quickly learned where the worst hills were and always avoid them. Or, in the case of my house, take the least offensive version.

Then, off to Ann Arbor to visit my younger sister. As I gave away before, we took the Amtrak, which was $36/person (AAA membership discount) and 4.5 hours. A rental car one way would have been $195 (I'm not even kidding, I did a print screen) and 4 hours (says optimistic google maps). Plus, the rental car was available at the airport, which is actually 15 miles from downtown. Union Station was (obviously) walking distance. The choice was easy, and I'm glad we had it!

In Michigan, we carpooled twice (such as to get 2 miles from amtrak to her house), but mostly walked/bused. My sister lives very close to campus and the bus systems were free for everyone. We took it to go eat downtown and even stayed in to cook some nights! That ensured the leftovers we took home didn't go to waste, and it's always greener to cook in.

Finally, on our last day we rented a car to go to Detroit and the airport. My sister has a Zipcar account, which is a great company that parks cars all over an area (usually a big city or campus) and rents them out by the hour, covering gas (up to 180 miles) and insurance.  You also have to pay a $50 yearly membership ($35 for students) and a one time $25 sign up fee.  In SF, the rate is $7/hr which means combined with public transit and/or walking, there really isn't a need for a car in the city.  And who can pass on the chance to drive the coolest cars (e.g. the BMW 3 series and the Prius and Insight hybrids)?  We chose an Insight about 2 blocks away from our last meal in Ann Arbor and zipped (ha ha) off to Detroit.

Detroit was only midly depressing, but we had a lot of fun.  My favorite part was, hands down Southern Fires which I found off yelp.  Our entire dinner, complete with 4 sides and 2 mains, cost us just over $20 with tax and tip- delicious!  

What a great trip!

Built In Waste

Our culture isn't known for its repair-it mentality. When it costs about the same to replace (and upgrade!) as it does for parts and labor, the choice is clear. Some products are designed to fail- products are suppose to fail after the warranty expires, but not enough so you feel enraged (unless, I suppose, you are me). Some products are revamped what seems like yearly so you wouldn't be caught dead with the fat ipod mini now, but then again, a year ago, you wouldn't be caught dead with the skinny one. I have a Zune, which has always stayed skinny, and at just over 2 years old, is just about to be phased out permanently. But not from my collection.

It's not only electronics, it's clothing as well. Skinny jeans, then flared, then (unfortunately), skinny again. I've never been much of a shopper myself, so I'll continue to wear whatever is in my closet, till it's worn down. I know it reflects poorly on myself, that is, if you are only looking at the outside.

I'm usually a stickler for repairing things when I can. Not only do I get to find out how things work, but it usually is cheaper and pretty darn easy (usually because of my fine network of brilliant friends). For instance, when my earbuds fell off of my earphones too often, Jon, who has an incredible knack for fixing things, suggested I super-glue them on. Now I do it with every pair (pictured here are Pumpkin's). Jon and I (mostly Jon) have also installed a car radio, taken apart my laptop, sautered mp3 or monitor parts, and unindented my car (having 2 younger sisters calls for a lot of broken things). They are fun projects and I can look back and say wow. In our glorification of convenience we lose more than just former possessions.

My most recent battle with repair-it mentality and buying new came last night, when my parent's Epson printer decided to not print. After 20 minutes of having it fake a paper jam (where it would load up a piece of paper, claim it was jammed, and then cough it out promptly), my mom suggested it might be the low ink on the magenta and yellow. I heeded her advice. But the notion of the printer not working even though the black ink I was trying to use wasn't empty made me instantly mad, so I pulled out my own refill kit (back in college, when I had a printer) and tried to make something of it.

Well, as it turns out, Epson ink is the bread and butter of the company. For my parent's printer (the Epson Stylus CX7400), the cartridges are pressurized and the ink is put in 3 different compartments. See Ink Re-filling Experts. So even though I tried to jab my ink needle everywhere, it failed to take. I even tried screwing a new hole on top, but upon closer inspection of the article, it appeared to be completely futile so I gave up.

I remember buying this printer. My dad, ever the economic stimulator, insisted he needed a scanner one random afternoon. After putting up an eventually futile resistance (where I questioned his motives), I did some quick research and found the Epson printer on sale, for $100. It was a 4-in-1 and quite sleek looking too. And in black, it would match the desktop color scheme (tricky tricky marketers).

I never saw him use the printer as a scanner (which I knew he wouldn't in the first place). My dad is a lover of all things new and shiny, most of which lays abandonned in various areas of the house. But all of which he absolutely needed in the first place. I now see why the printer was $100, a full ink replacement would be over half the price of the printer. And since there was no way to buy used or to refill it myself, there is built in waste even if I wanted to spend the time to "repair" it.

Eventually I did, biking over to office max 15 minutes before it closed. But, of course, even after putting the new cartridges in, the printer continued barfing out sheets of paper. $%#^ me.

Freecycle- Changing the World One Gift at a Time

Check out this piece of free magic I got off freecycle! I've been scouring craiglist for a couple kitchen items that I'd like, but don't critically need. For instance, I have an RSS feed for a food processor and cast iron skillet. I fell in love with the garlic press the first time I saw Pumpkin pull it out and use it, it's brilliant! However, it's definitely not $35 brilliant. Of course I've seen it for $14 at the store and one time I even saw it for $1 on craigslist, but it was in a city too far away. Sad.

Yesterday though, I signed off just before I was about to go pick up my [old] new garlic press for the low, low price of $0. My favorite price. Conveniently enough, the pick-up house was just 10 minutes walking from my house. And even better, the rain let up completely.

The experience was so great, the little old lady had it outside in a bag, as she promised. But since I saw somebody inside I rang the doorbell to thank her in person and gave her a sprig of fresh-picked rosemary. She said it was a "delight." Oh venerable vocabulary of the old. Then while walking back down the hill, her (and a man, who I presume is her husband) stopped their PRIUS to ask if I needed a ride.

Now, I walk and bike a lot through various areas. I remember sometimes in college, back when I hated to walk (first year I biked from the dorms to the dining commons about 200 ft away), I wished hard somebody would stop and pick me up. I was definitely going their way (we lived on a long street that dead ended). But nobody ever did. Then here is freecycle, that allowed me to share 1 minute with a stranger, that gave her the confidence to stop and offer a ride. Community.

What is freecycle? Basically it's a huge yahoo! group that people post onto (e.g. "OFFER: faux wood white blinds" or "WANTED: old Computer to surf the web"), organized by city. Your city could be on it, check! You get emails (and you decide how frequently) where you try and beat other people to the good stuff. It's competitive and this is the first time I've been successful.

If people freecycled instead of dumping, we'd be in a far better place. American households throw away 4.4 lbs of garbage a day (or 1600 lbs a year, or with the garbage produced in America alone, you could form a line of filled-up garbage trucks and reach the moon). See The [very frightening] Story of Stuff. Pathetic. But of course I used to be a lover of stuff too. More on this some other time.

Sudden Rains and Treasure

As a Californian grown kid, the concept of seasons is a little jarring for me. I love my skis so I see snow every winter, but I have to carpool 4 hours for the privelge. Today, it's a rainy (and misty where I live) in San Francisco. This meant riding in rain, which I normally try and avoid to the greatest extent possible. But somehow, viewed from 2 stories up it seemed light and reality failed to check even after I was dressed and outside, so I got on my bike.

It was surprisingly pleasant. I had layered up and my route home was mostly uphill so I stayed warm. Just had to squint my naturally squinty eyes a little more to keep out the rain (if you squint hard enough, you can see beads of rain still on my jacket and that my pants are two different colors). I hopped in the shower to warm up and all was well.

For lunch I cooked parmesan chicken. This was the remaining breast and thigh from the scrawny chicken I had bought from the farmer's market on Sunday. In my haste to buy $4 organic and sustainble chicken, I neglected to realize why an egg farmer would be selling chicken. I'm guessing the chicken was tough from being old and free roaming. After a miserable failure at bbq dark chicken quarters (even after brining) I quickly learned the lesson and soaked the rest in lemon juice and turned to cooking tricks. See, there is no such thing as a cheap piece of meat, there are always ways to make meat juicy and tender. For chicken, I like to pan sear it on high on the stove before sliding it into the oven. See Pan Roasting. This seals in the juices and then allows you to cook the insides slowly.

Today, however, I chose to insulate the chicken by breading it, hence parmesan chicken. I'm a strange (resourceful?) cook, always making do with what I have on hand. So while I was out of flour, I had parmesan (in fact, one of the reasons why I decided to make chicken parmesan in the first place). To replace flour, I binged the coincidental answer: parmesan cheese! So I covered the chicken with parmesan cheese mixed with rosemary (which I picked fresh from across the street), dipped it in a beaten egg, and breaded it in homemade bread crumbs (I never eat carbs fast enough so they also become something else) sprinkled with paprika. What an amazing final product! Juicy and flavorful, the delights of organic chicken became clear.

When I flipped the chicken, I used the other half of the pan to heat up the tomato sauce. Then when both were done I cooked a side of vegetables. Here, my Asian side shines through again. I've managed to pair parmesan chicken with bok choy. And even though most people discard the bases of vegetables, they are quite tasty cooked. Notice them on the bottom right of the picture.

Now I'm off to pick up a free garlic press a la freecycle which is a community network that keeps stuff out of the landfills by giving it to others. One man's trash is another's treasure.

The Conundrum of Free

Something I love possibly more than meat is being cheap (two loves only recently in conflict). So it's no surprise that when Pumpkin told me about the free art gallery showcases with free food/wine, I said yes! In fact, there was only free wine, and very little of it, but the art was quite good (if not a little modern for my taste). My favorite of the night was one artist who squirted out different colors of paint, building on each other to form vertical height. The result was a 3-D mirage of color. Almost worth the $10,000 price tag.

The first week in San Francisco is also free museum week and the Museum of Craft and Design generously opened their doors late. AND they had free food, in the form of salsa/guacamole/sour cream and chips, as well as tiny red velvet cupcakes and cream puffs. Even though I wasn't hungry yet (and I had thrown a half chicken into the fridge in hopes of making delicious chicken parmesan), I grabbed a bunch of chips, loaded it up with salsa and guacamole and called it night. Then, after finishing the first batch, I went for a second round. And two cupcakes. Oops.

For lunch, I had a hearty dim sum meal sponsored by my mom. We ordered the typical shrimp and pork dishes, and I gave no thought to sustainability (except that I was probably violating many rules, as shrimp is almost always from overseas, and poorly caught). I often hear of moralistic eaters in a conundrum at parties. Their mind pitted against their heart. After all, somebody important prepared and/or paid for the food. I have no similar qualms. If it's free, I'm eating it. My battle only goes as far as my wallet. If somebody is kind enough to share their food with me, I'm going for gold rather than waste and jilted feelings. Besides, food should be enjoyed in the company of others!

So today, besides my 3 persimmon (from the farmer's market) breakfast, my diet was completely dictated by others. It'll happen. But at least I got to tell my mom about sustainable meat production. Her eyes started to glaze over after I revealed the price per pound and she concluded with, "How do you know they aren't lying to you?" Oh Mom, ever vigilant.

November CSA

Pork spareribs- 2.65 lbs
2 Chicken Half, White- 3.02 lbs
2 Chicken Quarter, Dark- 2.45
Beef Sirloin Tip Roast- 2.11
4 Goat osso bucos- .71 .42 .56 .47 = 2.16
Goat stew- .91
Lamb boneless shoulder- 1.70

= 15 lbs of meat!

I have to admit, when I found the box with my name, I dug through all the rest of the boxes to make sure I didn't miss anything else. And then when I opened the box, I was sure I was missing some. This looked like $20 worth of meat, not $85! But I've done the math (above) and sure enough it is- this is the sacrifice of Ecotarianism. Most of it seems pretty benign, and the chickens parts look downright large, although I've never seen a roast so small. I'll have to keep a careful eye on it to make sure it doesn't cook over medium-rare.

I have no idea what Goat osso bucos is, but such is the nature of a CSA. It really pushes you to try new things. And sure enough, I've already found a recipe I'm excited to try: from cooking for engineers! They always do a good job answer my obnoxious questions of "Why?" I tend to ask responseless recipes and frankly, do a far better job at taking pictures than I do (which should change soon, when I get my camera back). Besides, braising is a fail-proof way to ensure meat is tender and flavorful.

Christmas in November! Now if only I could find somebody to trade those white halves with...

Pledge to Sustainable Meat- An Elaboration

Perhaps the hardest part of being an Ecotarian is my pledge to only buy sustainable meat. It's hard because (1) I've had a life-long love affair with meat and (2) the cheap Asian in me loves deals. Like a lot- I even like junk mail. So I'm accustomed to chicken being $.59/lb, pork $.99/lb, non-steak portions of beef around $2/lb and steaks around $4/lb. And let me assure you, that these are prices Safeway or Lucky's has at least once a month. This week, NY Steak is $2.99/lb at Safeway, while chicken is $.69/lb. Pause and reflect on how cheap that is, 69 cents!

However, after reading of the sustainable farm of Omnivore's Dilemma, of Fast Food Nation's factory farm created shit geysers, and of the UN report (which I cleverly read two years late, btw), it became clearer that to me that the the real cost of meat was much higher, and it became harder to ignore the environmental impact of it. I tried to rationalize by saying my own personal consumption was an indirect contributor to meat production.

But, as I mentioned in The Beginning, I cut down my own meat consumption anyways (darn psyche), especially red meat. It wasn't too hard at all, considering I was out-meating everybody I knew (and an average American eats about 18 lbs a month).

Then came along Pumpkin, lovely significant other, who linked me to Marin Sun Farm's Meat CSA. We decided to share the 15 lb/month package (less than half an average American), which is currently being supplemented with 1/2 of a Canada wild caught salmon that I bought, butchered, and froze last month, and a sustainable chicken I bought from an egg farmer at the farmer's market on Sunday. The package comes in tomorrow, and I am SO excited! A CSA is like Christmas every month! Will I get mutton? Will I get grass-fed beef? All I know is that it is local and sustainable meat from a responsible farm. I even emailed them and got a quick response back, yah, that's right, I talked to the people who raised my meat! Old school.

I'm unhappy to admit this, as the optimist I am, but Americans love their meat and will always love their meat. So while I commend many Ecotarians out there for being vegetarian/vegan (thank you!), the truth of the matter is, most of America will never follow suit. However, I think Americans can be convinced to cut down their meat intake, we are a nation obsessed with health as well (some are obsessed with quality, to which grass-fed beef is supposed to be the superlative). If we cut down by half, we can hold carbon emissions as they are. But if we can do it by more, or support local, sustainable agriculture like Marin Sun Farms, then environmentally friendly producers alone can satiate our demand.

Because let's face it, it's not meat production in general that is our problem, it's factory farms with their intensive land use, externalizing internalizations (such as waste), unnatural diet and the sheer amount of animals which make each other sick (unless they are pumped up with delicious antibiotics). See UN's Report. Waste is toxic in giant mounds but it's actually a natural fertilizer on a smaller scale. See Omnivore's Dilemma. Cows fed grass don't burp as much and if cows get to roam instead of being kept in giant feedlots, they don't get sick often enough to require antibiotics laced food. See Of cow burps, beef, and methane.

So not only am I helping reduce factory farmed animal demand, but I'm also supporting local (and small) farmers, who have practices I firmly believe in. In other words, I'm putting my dollar where my mouth is. With direct benefits.

The Beginning

In the beginning, there was nothing. I was your typical American meat eater. In fact, I was probably worse. My mother, the best cook in the world (now retired, possibly out of laziness, but more probably a symptom of an empty nest), used to cook us at least two meats per dinner. And we ate family style (so I ate more than my portion). In my house meat, whether pork or seafood, was never a scarcity. But thankfully, neither were fruits and vegetables.

In high school, I got my driver's license which quickly became a vehicle for junk food. I'd often trick myself into going to McDonald's under the guise of studying. I also loved deals. For instance, this is a direct quote from my personal journal in 2002: "TODAY I WENT TO KFC AND HAD 3 PIECES OF CHICKEN, 2 CHICKEN STRIPES, 3 SIDES, 1 APPLESAUCE, FRUIT ROLL UP AND 1 STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE FOR THE ALL TIME LOW OF $3.64. YAY TO COUPONS, DEALS AND REAL FOOD! WUT A GREAT DAY!" I thought that was "real" food? Sad. Even varsity sports and a black belt couldn't keep me from gaining 10 lbs. But my grandmother put me on a strict diet and we gained control again.

In college, when I started cooking for myself, I kept the two meat theme. Having a steak? Why not pair it with a sausage too? If there weren't two meats, then there was one huge huge hunk of meat. My burgers were 1/2 pound plus monsters. Unsurprisingly, I put on 20 lbs again. Note though, that I was starting to cook a lot, albeit usually assisted by Costco.

In law school, I moved in with my uncle, who is a fitness king and, more ominously, could directly report to my mom. I still kept up some of my old ways like buying bulk from Costco (Dino Buddies!). But I was starting to learn that cooking from scratch was a lot cheaper. Dino Buddies were around $7.99 from Costco (with coupon). They were two pounds of already cooked (and breaded, and fried) chicken. But chicken thighs at Costco were $.99/lb so Dino Buddies were 4x as much per pound. How is this a deal?

Then, one fatal day in mid-february 2008, I read a report from the UN about how cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation. I had already become a public transit/carpool/cycling nerd, an anal recycler/composter/reuser, and an abhorrer of waste, but this time, it was too much to ignore the carbon footprint my meat consumption was wreaking. So, I cut meat out of one of the meals I ate a day. Most of my friends laughed in response. But this was a true beginning, I started looking at meat differently. It no longer had to center my plate, nor did I need two versions of it. It quickly became limiting red meat consumption to once a month, as cows are the worst eco-offender.

And now, we are at the present. After less than a year of my omit-meat-one-day-a-week challenge I am ready to be an Ecotarian- with every purchase I make, I'll seriously scrutinize it's environmental impact and labor concerns. As such, I pledge to only buy sustainable meat. I pledge to take public transit/carpool/bike. I pledge to eliminate waste from my life (Americans throw away 1.3 pounds of food every day, or 474.5 pounds per year). More on what this really means to follow.

p.s. Picture is of a 8 lb cross-rib roast (for $12) that I made.