Meet Buster!

This is my roommates 6 year old Dachshund, Buster. I cant help but be drawn to him. I was petting him on the head and he jumped into my lap. He flinches at every sound. Nervous thing.

HEY BUSTER! WHERE ARE YOU?
ROVER HERE!

Double Happiness

Two different versions of steamed veggies with black bean sauce on the side and brown rice.



Lunch in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Wild Ginger 112 Smith st. offers a small serving of brown rice with white cannelloni beans in it. but they make up for it with a wide assortment of vegetables including everything from asparagus to zucchini, pea pods, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and some weird white vegetable. What the heck is that thing?




Dinner in Manhattan Chinese Fast Wok 230 7th Avenue between 23rd and 24th st. are fast and have low priced eats and a nice amount of grub (carrots, water chestnuts, baby corn, green pepper and broccoli which I always remove and eat separate) Drawback: sometimes the patrons don't know the term "indoor voice"

Skyrockets in flight: American Buddhist Delight

One of my favorite spots to eat is
Fuji Asian Restaurant 1367 First Ave. (Between 73rd and 74th) American Buddhist Delight (fresh pea pods, mushrooms, eggplant, carrots, string beans, baby carrots and soft bean curd aka tofu) I add a lil' cashew nuts and some steamed Broccoli for maximum vegetablelocity and brown rice, black bean sauce on the side. This restaurant used to go by the monicker "Maple" (I know, it sounds like a Canadian pancake house!) but after a lovely renovation this place has stepped up their food game as well as the ambiance level. The workers are courteous and never give me the ol stink eye if I languish around for a while. This place gets a major thumbs up from me.

It's Supper Time

95% of the time I eat the same exact dinner every day with small deviation. I don't use menus ever.

Diner Dinner: Veggie Burger on toasted wheat bread, lettuce, tomato, pickle and a baked potato

Should I deign to eat fish (on rare occasion) I will have Salmon, side salad, (w/o onion) with a green steamed vegetable or on occasion lightly sauteed spinach with mushroom and a baked potato.



Chinese food: steamed vegetables with tofu and black bean sauce on the side with cashew nuts and brown rice.

Empire Schezuan "Design your own dish": steamed broccoli, spinach, green beans and soft bean curd (tofu) with black bean sauce on the side with cashew nuts and brown rice.

My "Standard Lunch" but for dinner: I prepare a salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomato and 4 different color peppers, cucumbers and alfalfa or broccoli sprouts, chopped radish with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil, adobo and capers. top it off baked yam or sweet potato. two slices wheat bread. For protein I will add beans or beans and quinoa

A Letter From Chef Dave

This just in from Chef Dave via Facebook:

I’m with a friend on Wednesday, and he introduces me to Quinoa. I come to find out it’s the Incan “Mother Grain”. Phil teaches me how to cook it, and now I’m a big fan. Thursday I audition to cater a wedding for labor for 70 people in Brooklyn, and I had given my client a list of ingredients I needed in which to prepare a chickpea salad. I get there, and she had forgotten the chickpeas. I open her cabinets and find a collections of unmarked grain in jars, the client hands me a jar and asks, “Is this Quinoa?” I pop open the jar, put my nose in it, and say, “This is Quinoa”. Not a commercial Quinoa product, yet I prepare it the way Phil had taught me the day before…and I take a scoop of this diced cucumber and tomato salad I had prepared earlier, dump some in the perfectly cooked Quinoa I had cooled down and made a Quinoa salad with cucumber and tomato . The client loves it, she wants it for the wedding and hires me on the spot. Friday I share the story with these affluent members in the upper east side, and they absolutely flipped over the recipe. 5 days later, the New York Times publishes a recipe for a Quinoa Salad with cucumber and tomato. “My” salad. Thank you, Phil.

Way to go, Chef Dave! Glad to be service! :)

Water Aerobics: Not For Wimps!

This young lady is holding a "noodle". It seems innocuous enough until you get it into the pool. it is one of the weapons in the water aerobicisers arsenal.


I really hate going to the gym. Its repetitive. It's boring, like being on a treadmill. (Actually I prefer being on the elliptical machine.) So In order to step it up a notch I started doing water aerobics. I got my speedo swim cap. (no rubber flowers) I think I was the youngest guy in the class and a woman was all like "I think you're in the wrong place whippersnapper!" I must admit I was a little intimidated but its hot outside and I'm grateful to be in a pool. The instructor arrives and we begin. Much to my surprise this stuff is hard. after a while I'm thinking "Do we get breaks up in here?" the answer is a resounding NO. I'm thinking I gotta finish strong I don't want to wimp out in a room full of a peeps in their golden years! at the end of the class I felt pretty accomplished. A couple more sessions and I started noticing a further range of motion in my extensor digitorum longus muscle. (I started noticing a stiffness during Tai Chi.) There is a lot of chop busting in that class but people are always willing to help a brother out. Man i have to learn how to tread water or I'm gonna drown in the shallow side of the pool and that would totally be ultra embarrassing! The class I went to yesterday we had equipment that looked like big toys, bright yellow weights. I was amused. that is until I put them under water these things got heavy and hard to move around. Then there is this noodle thingy! ya got to push this down and it really makes you tired! in any case you haven't seen the last of me yet! I'll be back!

Chef Dave is in the House

Painter and Martial Artist, Chef Dave wanted to come over and show me Master Tony Jaa's Ong Bak 2. We even cooked lunch I made Quinoa and black beans with kumato. i also made the salad but Chef Dave busted out these Wustof knives that defied reality. his ability to cut vegetables and put together entrees was mind boggling. "Sometimes people refer to me as the human Cuisinart" here's what we had:

salad with with quad color julienne peppers, radishes, capers and cucumber in a balsamic vinaigrette

1 baked yam


wilted spinach salad with sauteed yellow squash, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, red onions, sliced granny smith apples, raisins and a touch of honey, lemon juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and dill.

Quinoa and black beans with aromatic vegetables (garlic, red onions and peppers) a little sea salt and adobo seasoning

2 slices of wheat bread and a tall glass of water chef Dave then prepared himself a tall espresso in my Montezuma cup. He seemed quite pleased. "Next time let's invite some girls over." I hope they dig martial arts flicks!



Dave pouring his espresso from his beat up espresso pot. "nectar of the Gods" he calls it. Coffee makes me a mite nervous! (I only drink water.)

Shopping List

I just did a compra. that's grocery shopping for those of you that weren't brought up Hispanic. All the stuff that I usually buy is right here. On the left is Dr. Bronners Peppermint Castille soap good for people and vegetables, A new toothbrush, dental floss and toothpaste. A pack of kumato tomatoes (delicious) 4 colored peppers, a jar of capers, Granny Smith apples, a container of alfalfa sprouts, unripe bananas. a half gallon and carton (you can store it unrefrigerated for a year!) of Silk unsweetened soymilk (sorry to tell you if you like the plain one: cane juice = sugar), Traditional and Inca Red quinoa (I just couldn't choose so I got both) Yams and a bag of Bob's organic milled flaxseeds.

Things that I'm missing from this picture: Original (red box) Post spoon sized shredded wheat, Sun Maid Raisins, beans of all types, Lettuces of all types, Wheat bread made without high fructose corn syrup, tofu, seasonings like extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Goya Adobo, sea salt, Tabasco sauce, Bragg liquid aminos and a bunch of vegetables that I add to salads or steam like spinach, mushrooms, Kale, radishes, and many many more. I also take a daily multivitamin.

That is pretty much all I eat. As for drinking I only drink water. no bubbles, no flavors or vitamins just water. sometimes I go nuts and have some ice with it but that's as far as I go.

It's a very simple structure that works for me. Personally, I can complicate a glass of water if you let me. My ultimate choice is no choice.

Independence Day 2010

Did you know I used to totally rock a beard? Yep it's true. here is a shot from Thanksgiving 2006, contrasted with a May 2010 pic. As it stands today july 2010 I am now 159.4 lbs, I was a 300+ pound hot mess. Though I am still a work in progress. I can tell you physically I feel much better. My snoring is gone. Knees feel much better and my doctors couldn't be happier. The best result i've experienced is, I'm genuinely happier. I post this as a reminder. Memo to myself: Don't you give me any more sass when i ask you to do something like do your exercises, I'm trying to prolong your life! A fellow public access producer told me a contemporary of ours passed away from heart failure. I scoured his blog for any indication he was ill. a year back there was one simple entry that just had some sterile information about heart failure. No personal insight.

Let me be real with you. On the off chance that I die sooner than later, I want you to know that this has been the best life ever. Everything happened as it was supposed to and despite various luxury problems I have, It's been terrific and I will agree with what my Grandfather told me before he passed off this plane of existence "it's all good."

I'm going to enjoy this Independence Day, not with the traditional eating grilled meats in sugary BBQ sauce, grazing salted finger foods while pounding brewskis 'till I'm spewing the technicolor yawn into the porcelain altar. I'm going to honor myself. engage in some quiet meditation, exercise without sassiness, eat right. Tell my family I love them.

Here is a great song by Comsat Angels from 1983. i used to listen to this on WLIR when I was a kid. Enjoy. Be good to yourself and others. Live.