Koob vs. Food

On memorial day weekend, we decided to take Jane up on one of her invitations to St. Louis. We headed out for a road trip to spend the weekend with her family. They were great hosts, complete with Pho, Heineken, and most Yiknamese chit chat than I've done in the past 3 years. It was a great time. I've been watching a lot of travel channel lately, mainly Anthony Bourdain, Dhani Jones, and Man vs. Food. It just so happened that I saw MvF St. Louis a couple nights before, so visiting at least two of these spots were on my list.

First stop was Pappy's Smokehouse. Now that dude Adam from Man vs. Food came here and ordered a "Big Ben" on the show and it looked delicious. I tried to order one for myself, but the wife said we should share. I was a bit upseat about this... but she couldn't be more right. I need to challenge Steve or Pete to try and dust this thing. The foods great, and the ribs were the best I've ever had (I still have yet to try the perfect rib though). Let's get down to it already... Ladies and Gentleman I present to you the 6+ pound meadly of meat, the Big Ben:

[Big Ben part 1: A full rack of pork ribs, and 3 chicken leg quarters]

[Big Ben part 2: A pulled pork sandwich, and beef brisket sandwich (50% of the meat has already been eaten before taking this pic]

[Big Ben part 3: Sweet potato fries, deep fried corn on the cob, cole slaw, and potato salad]

After our meal, the dude was cool, and took us to the back and showed us his smoker named Walter (it even had a wood carved name plaque). He's got a lot of passion for his food, and here's where he breaks it down.

[Pork shoulders deluxe]

After all that meat, it was time for some sweet. We headed to the Crown Candy kitchen where the Man vs. Food Malt shake challenge went down. This place was cool, it was a real deal old school candy kitchen and ice cream parlor open since 1931.

[Mmmm... chocaolate malt made with home made ice cream]

If you ever travel to a city in the US, I suggest checking out the Man vs. Food site for some local joint reccomendations. It was an awesome road trip weekend out to see Jane's family... although almost all my pics seem to be only of the food joints we went to! I guess I checked out with a major case of Man vs. Food coma.

[One of the few pics without food: Su, Linda, Addy, Jane]

2 random car pics

Here's a recent pic of the SC. I wanted to go for a different look, so now it's on gunmetal CE28N's. I definately like the look a lot more since its alot less flashy. Not to mention, it no longer looks like it belongs to a 55 year old rich white lady.
Went to a MR2/Old school Toyota meet yesterday. One of the guys took this pic. It's a little dark, but I like it. It definately shows how much my regular camera sucks that's for damn sure.

From LA to Chicago

So a week after Nhan and Linda visited, some of the Cali homies came out. It was a good reunion for all of us. Pee came up from North Carolina which was crazy since i haven't seem him in years. Jojo also came up with Amber who me and Su got to finally meet. It was a great time, and it felt like how it used to be back in the days. It's jsut a shame that Justin and Sarah were supposed to come but had to cancel last minute. You guys were deinfitely missed! A few snaps from the trip.
[Jo, me, Jules, Pee, Steevo atop the Signature Room]
[Amber and Jojo in front of the John Hancock]

[Pee's version]

[Walking down the Mag Mile]

Nhan and Linda

Nhan and Linda finally made the journey to the Midwest. It's always fun to see what people like to do when they travel. Nhan and Linda are the types that like to try as many of the local food joints as possible. Food bring people together, food is the way to a man's heart, and most importantly, food is delicious. It was a great time with Nhan and Linda here, filled with good eats, Hot I Met You Mother marathons, and the clicking and clacking of back to back to back Street Figther 4 battles. I think the night Sagat and Ryu developed a grudge match, the match counter went to over 50 straight of this one matchup. Anyhow, a lot has been going on in the part 2 months, and I never got to post these pics that I stole from Nhan. We'd love to see you guys back, and this time, we'll take the pics of the Bob Chinn's feast. 3 lobster tails, 12 oysters, a prime rib, a ribeye, 2 orders of king crab legs, and 3 mai tai's: 3 people. We can't wait to have you guys back!
[Nhan and Linda cheezin and freezin]
[What dreams are made of, Al's Beef]

[This is how Nhan would dress for work in Chicago]

[Justin met us up to wait in line for over an hour for duck fat fries]

[Justin was right, it was good, but not 1 hour in line good]

Today was a good day.

Yeah yeah, I've been super busy lately and reformatted my computer, only to find out my photoshop disc is missing. Sadly, I didn't know any other way to resize pics, so I didn't update the blog. Well... I found some free microsoft image re-sizer, and I guess it'll do for now. So what's happened since my last post... hmm... Nhan and Linda came to Chicago, Steve, Jojo, Amber, Pee, and Jules also came to visit... I went to cali a few times... I still like Al's Italian beef sandwiches, CE28N's we put on the SC, and the MR2 finally made it back from the paint job. Today was a good day.

Rome-ing Around

When walking through Rome, we came across this cool little farmer's market. This dude likes knows meat and cheese more than you do.
Some weird centipede shits for sale.
Outside of some republic building in Trevi plaza, people put a bunch of personalized locks on the fence. I have no idea what is means, but it looked cool. On our last day of the trip, we hung out in Trastevere, which was packed with people. It was a nice ending, and hangin on these steps was a cool palce to reflect about the trip.
And lastly, I snapped a pic of the only MR2 I saw in Europe. Too bad it was stock, na.

For the glory of Rome!

Our next part of our trip was a quick flight to Rome. After a small baggage issue with Air Italia, we were on our way to the hotel to plan our next adventure. We laid out a map, and started planning what to see and routes to get around. First up, the Coliseum. Once you get here, you can help but think of Maximus in Gladiator. Dudes getting served in this joint like WWF Saturday Night's Main event.

Here's the Roman Forum which is directly across from the Coliseum. In the center of the picture is the most famous of the 3 arches, the Arch of Constantine. It looks much like the one above, but is definately is worse shape. How all this stuff is still standing, let alone how it was built back then without cranes, and Bob Vila's, I have no idea.

[The next day we went to Vatican City. I've always seen it on tv, but in person its huge.]

[Heres a pic of the ceiling inside the Vatican]

[Dispite the drizzle, thre's nothing like having breakfast in the courtyard surrounding the Pantheon]

[The most famous fountain in Rome, and an awesome kick it spot. Fontana Di Trevi]

I think that's enough with the landmarks. Some of the most fun we had was just venturing through the streets and different hoods. Hopefully I can get off my lazy bum and post those pics soon too.