Jeremiah Blatz

I've been using this to get Jess to eat yoghurt and fresh fruit, and it's working quite well. It's a little heavy on the carbs for "healthy," but it's a lot better than regular fruit honey snacks, and it tastes much better. Also note that it's vegetarian and has an almost perfect protein balance.

(Despite all the nutrition rambling, it tastes really good.)

Apple with yoghurt and slivered almond snack
Serves 2

1 apple
slivered almonds, approx 1 small handfull
approx .5 cup yoghurt (whole milk, fat is good for you)
Honey for drizzling

Slice apple into bite-sized chunks, mix with slivered almonds to taste, and a few big spoonfuls of yoghurt to coat generously. Drizzle with honey.

Westside Market
77 7th Ave, NYC 10011

Somebody smashed together the world's biggest deli with a grocery store, and it kinda works.

Today is rainy any yuck, so we decided to not go to the Union Square Greenmarket and Whole Foods to pick up veggies and stuff. On the way home from Tea & Sympathy, we saw this place from across the street, and thought we'd stop in. It's a maze of twisty passages, all different, except with food instead of green phosphors.

The have a *lot* of prepared food and a *lot* of packaged cheese. We didn't look too hard at this stuff, except to note that they have a lot of different kinds of parm (which is good). It's pretty firmly a yuppie grocery, they have organic stuff and the like, but not hippie food. They have expensive food, but not wierd gourmet stuff. That said, they had a lot of produce and it was mostly really nice. They had a lot of meat that looked great, and a lot of meat that looked like it had been out too long. We got a nice-looking flank steak for $5.99/lb. Gotta get that going sous-vide if we want it to not be yucky...

The prices for the stuff we bought was on par with Fresh Direct, which is pretty suprisingly good, given the upscale nature of the place.

We will probably return on days that we go to T&S.

Our pics from our trip to Barcelona are up.

Most Barcelona:

Most awesome:

1) Great, they're laying off MTA workers, jacking up fares, and reducing service. What's the stimulus plan doing for you?

2) The EEE 900HA is tiny and quite capable of running Adobe Lightroom. This is win.

1
I make damn fine eggnog

2
Most of what one needs to know about making eggnog is in the 1976 edition of the Joy of Cooking, and not, for instance, the 1997 edition. The later edition may have more varied and convenient recipes, but it's lost its soul. Not in that it sold out (which, AFAICT, it didn't), but that it started to be a recipe book, and stopped being a book about how to cook and eat food.

3
Go buy the 76 edition. It's not getting any cheaper. Don't bother with any newer edition (the 75th anniversary one may have gotten better, but I doubt it). If you want a recipe book, get How to Cook Everything.

4
That said, the 76 edition recipes could stand a little updating. If you've cooked from it a bit, and thumbed through it a bit, this shouldn't be a problem, since you know how to cook. For example, eggnog:
Use the ingredients for eggnog for one (pages 71 and 72). The preparation is different, though.
Separate the white into a cup suitable for your immersion blender (whisk attachment), and the yolk into a tall drinking glass.
Using a rubber scraper, cream together the yolk, sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Then mix in the rum (Capt Morgan is barely rum, but it's great for rum & cokes and eggnog). I think it's supposed to be better if you refrigerate this for a few hours to overnight.
Beat the egg white until medium peaks form, pour the foam into the drinking glass
Without cleaning the immersion blender cup, add the heavy cream, beat to just shy of soft peaks
Pour all the stuff from the drinking glass into the blender cup (use the scraper to get everything out), mix together with the scraper, then pour back into the drinking glass.
If you're trying to impress someone, sprinkle some nutmeg on top.

So, when I make quiche, sometimes I had pools of egg whites on the top, which got tough when they were baked. For my last quiche, I separated the eggs and lightly beat the eggs. The only problem was the foam, you don't want it, since it makes burnt meringue on the top of your quiche. Next time, I'll spoon the foam into the pie pan before I add the goodies, popping all the bubbles.

On Sunday, I made steak sous-vide again, but this time I stepped it up a bit.

( Good steak, improved sucking )

To conclude, sous-vide is the real fuckin deal.

Short version: Sous-vide is the real fuckin' deal.

( Longer version )

After my trial month at Schulmann's Mixed Martial Arts, I had a bit of travel and fell off the Martial Arts Walkabout wagon. On Oct 21, I climbed back on, attending an intro class at Seido Karate. I had seen their advertisement for 100 days of training for $100, and was intrigued.

The intro class is an abridged and watered-down version of the white belt class. We did a warm-up consisting of static stretches and pushups, then ran through a few techniques. There were some basic straight punches, a backfists, blocks, and two kicks (front snap kick and roundhouse).

After that I observed the tail end of what I think was a "Step-by-Step Kumite" class, and then a "General Class" that was split between white belts and blue belts.

The step-by-step kumite class was, well, a little sad — tappity-tap point sparring with a lot of protective gear on. There were a couple black belts in the class, and even when they were partnered up, they looked like they would get destroyed in a fight/MMA match by someone with a year of a "practical" fighting art like Muay Thai, BJJ, Sambo, etc. Looking at the schedule, it appears that there may be more useful kumite classes, but of course they are for advanced students only. Now, I understand that point kumite is a real sport, and that they are training their students for that sport. However, there is a "self-defense" curriculum, and I definitely got the impression that they were claiming that they can teach you to fight. This triggers my scornful frown reaction. If they want to teach their students to defend themselves, they should teach them sprinting and recognizing the pre-contact cues, not point sparring and their ineffective self-defense drills.

The general class was, after warm-up, split up into white belts and blue belts. Testing was coming up, so the class was largely about filling up the holes in their knowledge. They started with individual techniques and short combinations. The instructor would correct techniques and the students' Japanese, and quiz them on the latter. There seemed to be a lont of emphasis on learing the Japanese names for the techniques. Class for the white belts ended with kata practice.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the blue-belt part of the class, as they were far away and I couldn't hear the instructor. I noticed that they were doing the standard self-defense drills. (Here's a hint, nobody attacks with a stepping reverse punch. Ever.)

So, I left. Didn't ask them about what the promotion really cost (apparently it's more along the lines of $175), etc. However, maybe I should've signed up. Their web site doesn't say anything about "the street," but instead talks about discipline, tradition and fitness. They certainly have a nice space, and $175 for three months is still ridiculously cheap. The folks seemed nice, and hey, Jodi trains Seido, how bad could it be? So maybe I'll go back and see how a few months go.

My, I've been a slacker about updating.

Okay, so a long time ago, I signed up for a free (with $50 uniform purchase) month at Tiger Schulmann's Karate Mixed Martial Arts. The place has kinda a rep, and that rep isn't really good. Does it deserve the rep? Stay tuned!

( Read more... )

So, I've been reading some CrossFit propaganda lately, and it's been a great boon to my home fitness un-routine. I just did my first proper WOD: The Fluffy Cloud Dance. I did the squats and pistols with just bodyweight and subbed 15lb dumbbells for the kettlebells, as that's the closest I have (also, I am a candy ass). (Yay for doing less than half the Rx'ed women's weight!) Anyway, I did better than I expected, almost 23 rounds (23 in 20:06). What I did not expect was that the back extensions were the hardest part. Guess that's what I get for wussing out on the squats and renegade rows.

Long ago (July 3rd) I went for a free intro class at City Wing Chun. This was not a trial class, it was a special class for prospective students. The instructor welcomed us all in and had us fill in a form about ourselves and why we wanted to learn WC. He then had us gather around and gave us a tour of the school. There was one mid-sized room with a wooden dummy, some makiwara (wall-mounted punching pads) and a B.O.B. At City WC they don't actually teach you any wooden dummy forms until you're an advanced student. Early emphasis is on "self defense," which I think means 2-person drills.

After the tour we got a speech about how WC was the best martial art in the world blah blah. It may be true, but I've heard this speech at many different kinds of places, and they can't all be right. We then went into actual training. The intro class was separated from the regular class, so we could hear what they were doing, but not see it. The topic of the intro class was chain punching. We did chain punching while standing, chain punching while stepping forward, chain punching while doing squats and kicks. The instructor also showed us a chi kung type forearm/wrist exercise. After that was a one-on-one thing where the instructor went over their various membership programs.

I definitely got a good workout at the class, in that WC punching uses a muscle in my shoulder that I apparently had never used before. Despite not getting tired during class, my arms were sore for days. That said, there were a lot of red flags during class. They held themselves out as a self-defense school, but seemed to only teach self-defense against drunk guidos with no training. (Which is fine, but not really what I'm looking for.) Their programs were all gimmicky, and implied that you could basically buy an "instructor" rank. They did have a program that included actual free-form sparring, but it was expensive and you had to buy a lot of gear (including headgear with a face mask, chest pads, etc.). And, of course, you can't even watch a real class.

So, who knows? Citi WC might be awesome, effective, and fantastic, but i can't tell, and don't expect I will find out. Unless I pick a fight with one of their students, which is not likely.

I just signed up for a month at Tiger Schulmann's KarateMMA. Okay, fine, laugh. But it was just $50 for an intro month, so whatev. Starting next week sometime, my walkabout will be all Tiger Schulmann, all the time.

Getting a little behind on these, but here goes.

( Five Points Fitness, three classes in one day (kali, Brazilian jui jitsu, and muay Thai) )

This has been a bad week for training. I've spend most evenings working, fitting in some workouts at home. Today i didn't get to train, but I watched a class at New York Akikai. They used to have a no-registration pay-per-class mat fee, but sadly they now require membership for class.

Class started with some light semi-dynamic stretches. After a short while, the action started. The instructor would choose an advanced student and demonstrate a technique. Quickly a few times, with slight variations, then slowly. After that, students would pair up and practice the technique for a while. While the demonstration was very formal and one-way, the practicing was far more relaxed. Advanced students, and sometimes the instructor, would wander around correcting peoples' for and answering questions.

After class, I chatted briefly with an advanced student from an affiliated school. He did say something that made Aikido make a lot more sense for me. He said that the techniques worked just as well against attacks with a sword as against empty-hand attacks. Suddenly, those ridiculous overhead chops made a lot more sense. Aikido, it seems, is empty-hand fighting for samurai. That explains the lack of submission or striking — your goal is to get your opponent to stop slicing at you long enough for you to find your sword!

Of course, the root of the techniques is just part of the art. I look highly suspiciously at any statement that Aikido, as it is practiced today, is a practical martial art. That said, it looks like a lot of fun. You get to fly through the air, and also throw people through the air. People in class looked like they were having a good time, and I can see why.

I've not had much luck calling places to set up trial classes. Yesterday I called 5 and got one puckup: New York Akikai. Unfortunately, despite what their web site says, they're no longer offering pay-as-you-go classes. Anyway, work was crushing on Monday so I didn't get a change to go visit.

Today I went back to the Renzo Gracie Academy for a trial class. I though class was at 7:30, but unfortunately it started at 7. Fortunately, I was quite early, so they let me quickly change and join class. Good thing I brought my gi, otherwise I probably would've missed it.

The white belt class was in a much smaller room than the blue/purple belt class I observed on Thursday. It was pretty full, however. Class seemed to be structured about the same as the other class. I arrived midway through the warmup and did scoots, jumping jacks, pushups, and some bjj-specific ab exercises (x-choke grabs and leg triangles on our backs). We then shown a takedown (osotogari). We then paired up and practiced it for a bit. We then learned a kimura (a little like this one, but a little trickier) and drilled it, then learned a armbar transition if your opponent blocks the kimura by grabbing their wrist, and drilled it.

Next, we did 2 minute rounds of free rolling, starting from various positions. I had a significant strength and conditioning advantage on my opponent, so she only owned me a little.

To close class, we did a few relaxed stretches.

The class was really... full. The whole mat was covered with people. On the plus side, you clearly had to develop an sensitivity to your surroundings, which is good in the cage or "on the street." On the minus side, we were a little limited in the techniques we could use, and there wasn't a lot of attention from the instructors. The instructor gave me a little feedback on my throw, then came around during the rolls at the end and asked me to show him the ground techniques that he taught. He gave me a big thumbs up, so I guess I more or less learned them, but it was quite different than my experience at other places.

Anyway, I enjoyed class, and definitely worked up quite a sweat (the fact that I suck at BJJ contributed to that, no doubt). I actually tried to run home, but failed, even though it's a short distance. I guess it was working stuff that I need, but don't usually use.

Wednesday my shoulder was still a little sore (and not in a good way), so I took a rest day. On Thursday, I went to the Renzo Gracie Academy for an intro class. They said class was half an hour, so I didn't really know what to expect. I ran down (class was at 6:00), signed in and got changed. The guy in the office said that I should wait on the bench. There were four of us waiting on the bench, and about 50+ students lounging around chatting. Class started and the students started doing an extended version of the warm-up we did at Premier Martial Arts. After the first part of the warm-up, an instructor took us over to the back corner of the mat and explained that the intro class was a lecture on what Gracie JJ was about.

We explained that GJJ had 3 parts: takedowns, positions, and submissions. Takedowns were derived from JJJ and wrestling, whereas the other two were more unique to GJJ. He talked a little bit about all three parts and demonstrated bits of each on us. The class was half intro, half sales pitch, and felt a little odd to me. The tone was somewhere between confident and arrogant. Which, you know, is probably justified. However, given how famous the name is, it's probably a reasonable idea to go into how the style works. RGA is fairly traditional, almost all classes are with gi, and you're supposed to have your purple belt (~6 years) before starting MMA training. After the intro class, I asked about class structure. The instructor explained that classes start with a warmup, then several rounds of the instructor demonstrating a technique and students paring up and practicing it, and then finishing with some free-rolling.

After the intro class, we sat one-on-one with the guy in the office. They seemed to have a fair amount of screening, asking if people currently work out, how often they're willing to train, etc. I didn't really have questions about rates, etc, and I was pleased that the guy was very encouraging of my walkabout, and encouraged me to try a class, despite the fact that it would be a long time before I even considered signing up.

At my time there, I did develop a few impressions. One, the mats were really, really nice. Everywhere else I've been the mats were kinda hard and textured, good for standup and throws. However, my inexperienced extremities have lost a lot of skin, particularly on the tops of my feet. The mats at RGA were soft and deep, and had a smooth covering. The other thing I noticed was that it was very male. In the blue-purple belt class I watched, there was not a single woman. There were definitely girls in the muay thai classes, but i didn't see more than a couple in gis. The atmosphere was pretty boyish, too, people would greet each other by sneaking up behind and slapping on a friendly rear naked choke, etc. It wasn't really macho, everyone was open and friendly and chatting, but it was definitely overwhelmingly male.

Anyway, I'm definitely going back for a trial class.

Due to, well, mostly laziness on my part, this week hasn't been great for trial classes. On Tuesday, I attended the MMA class at Premier Martial Arts. The instructor (Julio Rivera) told me to bring all my gear when they invited me to attend, so except for some sparring, I didn't know what to expect.

Class was very small, only myself and two other students (one of whom arrived late). We started out with jogging around the mat with variants (knees up, heels up, face inside, face outside). Then we did some wheelbarrows and pushups then shadowboxing with periodic sprawls and shoots.

After the warmup, we practiced knees from the muay thai clinch. One person would hold a lightweight suitcase pad to their chest while the other person would knee the hell out of them. My partner apparently thought my knees were pretty good, because he kept holding the pad away from my chest to soften the blow. The Mr. Rivera chided him. When we switched, I thought his knees were pretty good, too, but I just took it. I thought the drill was very good. First of all, it trained you a little bit on taking a knee — learning to use your muscles to protect yourself. Also, it was good at teaching you to keep a good clinch. I noticed that my partner's clinch was far more secure than mine, and that mine improved during the drill.

Next we learned a couple groundfighting techniques — an arm bar from side control and a guard escape to a side control choke. The instructor would demonstrate a technique then we'd each try it twice on a partner. It may just be how new I am at groundfighting, but I thought that went by quite quickly, and I didn't really retain the second technique. Perhaps if I were more familiar with the basics, I would've gotten more out of it. That said, one of the other students didn't really seem to get the guard escape down either.

We then put on grappling gloves and mouthguards and did a little light sparring starting on our knees. The student who arrived late and I started, and he was much better than me. I think the best I can say is that he had for fight for 2/3 of his submissions, and I didn't give him my back. Still, he submitted me 3 times in 3 minutes. The most embarrassing was the time he was mounted and applying a forearm choke, and I didn't really notice. I was actually helping him apply the choke by trying to pull him down! Doh. That said, I would've gotten him in a guillotine choke, if I actually knew how to apply one. I was definitely in deep enough. I was laughing my ass off — the instructors and the other student were all saying "pull guard!" and I didn't know how.

After the 3 minutes I was pretty well gassed, so the other two students went at it. Then another gear change and myself and the student I rolled with did a couple rounds of standup while the other student took his purple belt test. Sad to say, I didn't do much better. He was way, way taller than me, and it had been maybe 9 months since I'd sparred. He knew how to jab, and I wasn't able to properly cover up and turtle in. Seriously, though, his jabs has as much reach as my kicks. Anyway, after 1.5 rounds, he was tired enough that I was finally able to rush in, clinch, throw some knees, then get the double-leg. That was after he tagged me on the chin like 20 times, of course.

Finally, we congratulated the other student on his successful belt test and cooled down with some stretches, led by the assistant instructor, Mr. Bellot.

(The score: bruises: check. sweating: check. gassing out: check! minor injuries that prevented me from training the next day: check (note to self, tap sooner!))

All in all, the class was good, but very rushed. I felt like more time could've been spent on any of the things we did, but mostly drills. The class was good, in that it covers the MMA range and complements the "adult basic" classes. However, I felt like spending more time on the drills, progressing from compliant to resistant, would really help students apply them in the free rolling.

After class, I chatted with Misters Bellot and Rivera about the school. Apparently it was started as a pure TKD school, but has since moved to more stereotypical MMA style, with muay thai and BJJ and the like. There's still a lot of TKD, as evidenced by the belt test (I was more focused on not getting punched in the face, but I did notice some board breaking going on). They both seemed really nice and had broad martial arts experience. The instruction was definitely good, and they gave helpful and observant feedback. While I did notice some things I'd want to improve about the school, I had a very good impression.

One thing to not is that the three branches seem to be largely independent from each other, with somewhat different curriculums and instructors.