WOW

Wow.

I'VE BEEN TALKING TO THE COPS!!!

Well, sorta... had lunch with Jerry today - yup, the same cop who had that tastefully done CFL I shot almost 3 years ago over at West Coast Choppers, which was the last feature I did for The Horse. 

Yes, had to go for yet ANOTHER bowl of pho. And NO Jerry, I do not "medicate"! Good to catch up with the guy. Always fun to hear about life and all the war stories about crazy people and their bad judgement.

Click photo for the old blog post.

DUSTINATION - PURPLE BELT

BRAH. What can I say that I haven't said before about Dustin? Unusually strong, technical and if I may even have an opinion myself, truly deserving of this promotion. On top of that, achieving this rank from an instructor who has authored several books on the subject and known for not easily handing out belts. Out with the old belt and in with the new.

Here's a guy that just can't wait to get some sparring in with any black belt, regardless of who or where they're from. Always ending even the toughest rolls with gratitude.

Shortly after receiving his promotion, Dustin got thrown by three of the instructors that were in attendance. Then he sparred with the entire academy - back to back for 20 minutes straight.

Big time props goes out to Dustin!

PEPE TIME #70

I have a friend named Pepe. He's pretty funny and I like to keep a log of all the funny things he says and does. Enjoy.

SHAOLIN MASTER 

Back in Pepe Time #64, you might recall Pepe's opinion of Jiu Jitsu. I remember that short moment in time clear as day. "Fuck that faggot shit" he said, with such disdain... but that was totally OK with us. If we were patient enough, I knew that it would come around and it did in the good, humorous form of Pepe Time #70! Some of you fight fans may dig this short tale.

So the back story: Pepe loves watching UFC fights like the rest of us. He has literally seen well over a hundred UFC matches over at Nator's house alone. But Mixed Martial Arts and Jiu Jitsu is not where his heart was, grasshopper. It was in Shaolin Kung Fu!

Please, don't get me wrong. I'm never one to make fun of any martial art. I truly do respect them all, including all of Kung Fu. But I do find it entertaining how Pepe had perceived Kung Fu. Here are some of the more memorable moments over the years.

Pepe: I'm telling you, dude, it's just a matter of time before Kung Fu gets into the UFC

Me: and then what? 

Pepe: Shaolin Kung Fu is bad ass, dude. All that UFC shit is nothing compared to it

Me: you think some Shaolin Monks would show up and clean the UFC out? 

Pepe: psssht, FUCK yeah

Me: Have you seen the first few UFC from the 90's? 

Pepe: So? 

Me: they had some Kung Fu guys in there but they got fucked up. 

Pepe: psssht, I don't remember but fuck all that

Me: you watch any Kung Fu movies lately? 

Pepe: dude, I watched every Kung Fu movie there is on all of Netflix

Me: are you serious? 

Pepe: Totally serious. I fucking watched them ALL. Ask me, quiz me. I'm serious.

Pepe: I've NEVER seen Jiu Jitsu in the UFC before!

Me: How come there isn't any Kung Fu guys on YouTube fucking everybody up?

Pepe: it hasn't come out yet.

Pepe: you know what else I can't get into about Jiu Jitsu?

Me: what?

Pepe: I can't get down with rolling on the floor with a bunch of sweaty guys!

Then exactly one year later, Pepe starts training with us in Jiu Jitsu at our same academy. What caused him to have such a change of heart is still a mystery. He's been hard at it and its been great fun, we're all stoked to have him. Below is an actual photo of his first day!

Me: how was your first day of Jiu Jitsu training? 

Pepe: it's cool, you know, whatever. I just do it for the exercise. 

Me: you went to Kung Fu once in your entire life and went to Jiu Jitsu like 4 times so far this WEEK.

Pepe: so? I rather take Kung Fu... just that in Jiu Jitsu I get to roll with my homies.

[note: Pepe has been training with us regularly for the last 5 months!]

BUILT NOT BOUGHT

Homemade cinnamon walnut bread, peanut butter and strawberry chia seed jam. Courtesy of Sasha.

NEW CUP

PHO

I love pho. I tried to get the O with the squiggly line above it but that was impossible to figure out. But anyway, I'm deep on the pho train right now and I'm not getting off any time soon.

Currently, I crave pho more than ramen or any other soup noodle. How is that possible? Well, I've had ramen my whole my life, being half Japanese and all. But pho, not so much. I think it might be my palette's changing - I'm enjoying more of a simple taste... turning into an old man (but far from cranky).

Pho's got a real nice, light taste to it with a real freshness too, you know, with a handful of basil and bean sprouts - that whole deal. I think subtle flavors get overlooked a lot these days, especially in the U.S of A. where more is better and covered in cheese with deep fried everything.

I like the customize my broth as I go. A little hoisin sauce here, a little chili sauce there. Then as bowl starts to empty I'll re-think what it needs. Maybe more noodles.

Oh, the one in the photo above is simply pho with chicken. It came with a nice little dish of ginger dipping sauce for the lean white meat, which was just fucking perfect. After I put the basil and sprouts in, I had to stop and take a photo. What a gorgeous bowl of food (and there's so many food blogs around lately, I try to sneak a photo without being seen these days... people even taking pictures of Big Macs and shit, posting it on instagram - nobody needs to see that!).

Reminds me of Hawaiian style Oxtail soup that always comes with a small dish of grated ginger sauce to dip.

And there's gotta be at LEAST a dozen pho spots around Long Beach. There's 3 spots within a half-mile from my pad. There's 2 near my work, too.

I've had pho more times than I could count, sure, but right now it's my go-to. Anytime for me.
 
note: it's more commonly pronounced as "fuh". Less commonly as "foe".

BRANDON CASQUILHO'S REAGANOMICS

So I heard its out, the latest issue of Street Chopper featuring Brandon Casquilho's shovelhead. I shot this almost a year ago, but hey, things happen. But its in print now. Here are some excerpts.

TERI BEEF SANDWICH WAS SO FUCKING GOOD

•Left over steak (any meat will do)
•Slice up thin

•Grease up pan, fry it up
•Pour lots of teriyaki sauce all over

•mayo on King's Hawaiian roll
•pile on teri beef
•drizzle with Sriracha

NO BANG EM

Submitted by Nos

"Good luck finding this sign in California"

AND BRAWNY SAYS

"soo fucking ono! Did not expect to come over and eat this!"

CANTSTAYJOSE...

...just showed up to grill. He brought over TRIPAS that we refried.

He says to our guests, "to eat this you either have to be Mexican or Nelson".

DUSTIN'S NANA

...how she the Hinikers got from Hawaii to Long Beach. Neat piece of history.