GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH & SOME OE EGGS

Today's blog post is about something I cooked. Nothing new, someone in this great big world must have done what I did. I mean, it was like 10am and I was ready for some coffee and some eggs and toast. Well, there wasn't any pods for the Keurig so big nay on the coffee, however I did have a full cup of Starbucks coffee in the refrigerator. I had a tall cup yesterday because I was using their wifi and air conditioning, but didn't drink the coffee and took it home, yay that.

So I'm at the stove, I got two slices of white bread, two slices of American cheese, some butter and two large eggs. You know what I was up to right? Of course you know what I was up to, that's right guys, I was gonna make a grilled cheese sandwich with two over easy eggs. 

2 over easy eggs cooked in butter over a grilled cheese sandwich

So I bring the cheese to room temperature for about five minutes so it melts fast in the pan. Then I put two slices in between the two slices of bread. The pan is going on medium high heat, and in a couple of minutes the pan is hot. I put a pat of butter on to the pan, and melt it. Once melted I place the sandwich on to the pan. I let it sit for about 40 seconds, then I press down with a spatula. I hold it for about 20 seconds, lift it up to see if it is golden brown. It is, yay! Then I put another pat of butter into the pan, melt it and then flip the sandwich to cook the next side, just repeating what I did. Then I put the sandwich on to a plate, then put the pan back onto the burner with about 2 pats of butter. I crack the two eggs and cook it until the whites settle, then flip it. Then cook the flipped side for about 10 seconds then flip it again. 

Now I could have put the cooked eggs on to the side of the plate, however I put the cooked eggs on top of the grilled cheese sandwich. Eating it like this is nice, you get a fork, and break the yolk, and then it runs all over the grilled cheese sandwich. As I cut into the grilled cheese with the yolk of the eggs oozing all over, and take a bite it was cheese, butter, and eggs heaven! Yay yay! What a breakfast, and thank goodness for my quick thinking, "Shit I got coffee in the fridge!" So all was Yay Yay. Until next time.

© 2917

ZIPPY'S MAUI MINI KATSU PLATE

Yesterday was kind of stormy outside, remnants of a broken up hurricane that was moving over the Hawaiian islands. Me and my bro Ronnie wanted something to eat, we decided to head to Zippy's located in Kahului just minutes from the airport. 

The good thing about Zippy's is the foods are totally local since its inception long time ago, simple foods, done right. They have a bakery inside most of their dives called Napoleon's. And they got all the rich sweets you could ever want with hot coffee after a meal for dessert. Or take dozens of their famous Napples home, simply that's an apple turnover.

But this is what was on my plate, the Mini Chicken Katsu, one scoop of white rice, and one scoop of delicious macaroni salad. Really the mini plates are big enough, I got to stop going for those huge regular plates, too much food. One scoop of rice can fill you up, and the mac salad is starchy for one thing, and the mayonnaise isn't too healthy. So go easy if you're on a diet. Maybe ask the girl at the counter or the waitress because they have two dining areas, a sit-down spot, and a take-out counter, just ask for veggies instead of rice, they should accommodate you.

The Mini Chicken Katus Plate

My buddy had the Portuguese Bean Soup, one scoop of rice, and one scoop of mac salad, sorry couldn't get a pic of that. But he said it was 'ono' delicious! OK, this post is very short because I gotta split and do some errands, but for those of you that may be visiting Maui for the first time and want to eat what we locals crave, one stop would be Zippy's it is a good introduction to local fare. 

Other things we love at Zippy's:

HAMBURGER STEAKS

LOCO MOCO

ZIP PACKS (various entrees)

CHILI AND RICE

SAIMIN (like ramen)

Check out their website ZIPPY'S MENU ALL ISLANDS

© 2017

PORK LOIN CHOPS IN THE PAN

Today I'll talk about eating pork and gout. Can you eat pork if you have gout? Maybe not, it is not a good idea. However if you are clear of gout, and you want to treat yourself to a pork meal, you can probably have some, considering it will be lean cuts, without heavy duty marbleization happening. And to have that meal with lots of vegetables like a green salad with oil and vinegar and some herbs, garlic, ginger, squeeze of tangerine or lemons. You want to get a pork cut that is lean like I said, also an all naturally raised one. If you knew that the foods you ate was injected with chemicals for whatever reason, would you feed that to your kids? I'm starting to realize how damaging my diet was in the past. It was not good. So the question is this, do we want to feed our bodies good food? Or bad food? Well, as much as possible nowadays I try to eat foods that are at least mostly natural and organic, and surely staying away from the evils of high fructose ingredients, and high sodium too. In fact I'm starting to cook old school. Buy chicken in bulk for instance, make stock from the carcass, cook the different sections accordingly, it makes plenty of meals with different cooking methods as well as flavors.

So back to the pork, in this blog let's do a (Loin Chop), a lean one with no bones and little fat. In fact I ate a piece of this with veggies the other day, that's about close to a week after my gout cleared, I ate lots of fruits and veggies before I ate that, and after. And I drank lots of water, and before bedtime, I drank 3 teaspoons of Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar in a glass of water. Knock on wood, I did not swell up, and this my friends is without taking my Allopurinol tabs. I really don't want to take medication any longer, it's really damaging for our organs. So hence let's get into this pretty safe dish for you gout people.

INGREDIENTS

3- 4 oz. lean loin boneless pork chops. (you will eat only one save the rest in the freezer)

3 lean 4 oz each loin pork chops

Garlic Salt TT
Black Pepper TT

1 tbp. Vegetable Oil (for cooking)

Lots of your favorite veggies and fruits on the side & a scoop of rice (brown or white), not a huge scoop, just a tad the size of your fist, and lots of water with squeezes of lemons or lime, or any citrus fruit.

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat a large skillet with vegetable oil over high heat, once it starts to smoke, turn down heat to medium.

2. (Chops should come to room temperature about 15 minutes out of the fridge) Place each chop into skillet, using tongs, sear the edges to brown, to cook it through and also to add color or it will look pale.

Loin chops hitting the hot pan

3. After about 3-4 minutes, flip each chop, and continue to cook for about 3-4 minutes.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO OVER COOK THESE CUTS, WHEN COOKING, LOOK FOR THE JUICES TO RELEASE, THE CHOPS WILL BEGIN TO LOOK SHINY MEANING IT IS SWEATING OUT THE NATURAL JUICES, THIS MEANS THE INSIDE IS COOKING THROUGH.  USE AN INSTANT READ THERMOMETER IF IT REGISTERS 145-150 F, REMOVE IT FROM THE PAN, AND LET IT REST FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES.

4. Plate the chops with your veggies, fruits, and rice, and drink lots of water.

Until next time healthy cooking healthy eating!

© 2017

SNACKING AS A GOUT SUFFERER

On the subject of gout, that wicked joint pain, swelling of the big toe, or ankles, or anywhere the uric acid wants to make home on your skeletal frame. Eating well, to keep the weight down, sodium down, sugar down, and the uric acid levels down. The uric acid can be a nightmare because not only does it manifest into gout, it can also morph into kidney stones, I've never had that, but I've had friends who claim that is very painful. Imagine trying to pee, and that stuff is stuck inside of your thing? I'd rather have a swollen toe thank you. No, I don't want kidney stones, nor do I want any more swollen joints, that sucks big time! So let's get into snacking because we all get a little hungry during the course of the day, and eating clean and healthy will help the uric acid stay out of the hurt zone.

Want to know what I been snacking on? I'll tell you right now this is what I've been snacking on, and it's no longer Lay's chips, or Snicker bars, or M&Ms. I'm trying my best to snack on more plant based foods.

Apples: I'll buy an apple, any apple, wash it, and slice it thin into chips, sprinkle some lemon juice on there so it doesn't get all brown, and put it in a ziplock bag. (Good bye potato chips)

Oranges: I peel the orange, and break each member apart and bag it. Lots of vitamin C, good for the cells, good for building the immune system.

Pineapple: OK this one, is a chore, I can't stand slicing pineapples, just do. But I'll slice it into various shapes, slices, chunks, and bag it, chill it, and have some of it with ice cold water. Sounds good?

Bananas: I slice the bananas into mini disks, and spread organic peanut butter on them, that's better than eating candy.

Pickled cucumbers, you can buy them at your favorite market. If you can't get them, simply slice some cucumbers very thin, and place them in a jar. Add a little water, some sugar and vinegar, and let it sit in the fridge.

Organic brownies: OK it's kind of sweet too, however if you can get fresh baked ones from your local vegan deli, chances are those brownies are made with real raw sugar, and zero fructose. At least it's not filled with preservatives that's engineered. I know I've made fun of the organic crowd, but hey, tell me this, would you eat a fruit that you knew was grown all natural, or a fruit that was sprayed with poison? Only if you knew of course. So why not go for more natural foods, God made us natural, we should eat natural just the same.

Now it took me a while to get used to not eating the Lay's Sour Cream & Onion chips, or those Asian salty rice crackers, or those artificial shrimp (flavored chips). I got used to eating that junk, and it has to be that junk that is causing my health to go south! Let's all try to eat healthier.  And here's the thing guys, try eating an organic fruit. You will feel fuller, you won't be hungry, why? Because all the God's given nutrients are in there, all the stuff we need for survival. We can't get nutrition from junk. Common sense right?

Until the next blog take care!

© 2017

SOY SAUCE WATERED DOWN

Soy sauce. You've all had it by now right? Go to a ramen joint, and there it is, that clear bottle with that dark colored liquid, with that red cap. Have a bowl of good ramen, you add a little dash of it and away you go into ramen orgasmic ecstasy. Growing up soy sauce or (shoyu) was a go to condiment as well as marinade. I put soy sauce on everything. Mom made sunny side ups, it was soy sauce at the ready. Dad cooked us pork adobo, though it was salty enough, I had the soy sauce at the ready Freddy! And I mean I used to pour a quarter of that bottle on everything. Kikkoman was the brand, and ask anyone in my age group or older, that stuff came in metal rectangular containers and not plastic like today. When the thing was empty, we'd cut it out to use as dust pans, or Tahitian drummers used it to make a great sounding drum, though it would get beaten to hell. And as a mayonnaise fan, man soy sauce in mayo, that mix was the bomb on fried fish, or chicken sandwiches. It's amazing I didn't have a quad by-pass yet. 

So what is soy sauce? It is made from fermented soybean paste, and manufactured into the dark liquid we see in many an Asian food dive. Simple right? Don't get me looking into it, that's boring. We have it, we can buy it, that's all you need to know. Shit, go check out Alton Brown, he must have all the fucking answers. Anyhoooo, on with this condiment.

A lot of people with gout, or hypertension need to minimize the use of this sauce, because it is salty and sodium filled to kill. I've heard of stories where guys getting drafted would drink shit loads of it so their blood pressure was raised so much so that they couldn't pass the physical. Cowards! Nah just kidding, if I got drafted I really don't know man. Canada? Nah. I'd go. But it's freeeeeking salty man. Even the marketed Low Sodium versions are salty. I find it best to buy regular soy sauce, any brand you like, and just add water to it, and taste it. Too salty add more water, too watery add more soy sauce it's simple as that. 

So what this blog is really about is eating healthy, watering down a soy sauce can still give you joy in eating your favorite chow fun, meat jun, or ramen. Keep it healthy, don't be too salty if you get my drift. Haha. And here's the thing, let's say you invite people over to your cookout, and you're making Korean BBQ ribs, and your uncle Tom has high blood pressure, well, make him a marinade that is watered down, you can cut that sodium level by more than 50-75 % for sure, and you can still taste the soy sauce. Seriously. I should be a soy sauce sommelier. Haha.

Good luck eating healthy guys.

A table setting soy sauce from Kikkoman

DOUBLE CHEESE BURGER AND GOUT

How's everyone doing? I'm going to blog about double cheeseburgers and gout. Now I suffer from gout, and I'm trying my best to lose a few pounds, keep my blood pressure down, and uric acid levels down as well, and also the sugar levels too. So here's the deal for all you gout sufferers. You need to know what may have triggered your gout episode. Was it fatty pork bellies? Bacon? An all you can eat crab leg buffet in Vegas? Once you know what actually triggers your gout attacks, all you need to do is don't eat those foods that keep you bed ridden. So a friend of mine asked me if eating a double cheeseburger was bad for him since he as well is a gout sufferer. 

"Ron, I'm afraid to go to Teddy's and eat a double cheeseburger brah."
Well I asked him if cheeseburgers triggered his gout, and he said not that he knew of, but he like most sufferers will read up on foods that have high purines, and in some journals, ground beef is found.

So to answer his question, (and I am not an expert in the medical field) all I can say is this-

1. If you don't eat a lot of beef, or red meat and want to treat yourself to a juicy double cheeseburger, go ahead. Maybe don't eat any fries, but ask for a salad or veggies on the side, and drink  lots of water instead of a soda.

2. Ask the cook/chef to cook it more towards the well done phase, maybe a bloody burger will give you more chances of uric acid build up.

3. Go for a walk after you eat it, or do something that will make you sweat, sweating helps get rid of waste hence your purines or uric acid will flush out easier.

4. Eat some citrus, oranges, or some melons, fruits is a good cleanser, helping rid of uric acid.

5. Again, drink lots of water, as much as you can without gagging.

One thing you have to remember is this, everybody is different, some people can drink lots of beer and never get gout. But once they have some shrimp, they are hung up for a week. Some people eat fried chicken and develop gout, I've seen people that don't eat rich foods get gout because it was stress related. The best thing to do is have your doctor check your uric acid levels by doing some blood work on you, and blood work will determine if you have other ailments as well. Don't go overboard on cheeseburgers, but if that food didn't in your life trigger gout, then you should be fine eating it. It's a tough call man!

© 2017

PORK CHOPS WITH TOMATOES ONIONS WITH RAMEKIN OF PATIS

Hey friends, today's blog will be pork chops with tomatoes, onions and patis (fish sauce). Now the last few blogs was about eating to prevent gout, and of course pork chops is out of the question for my diet, however today I had a gig cooking for a few people, to make a few dollars & not a lot, but got me cooking you know?

So today was an easy one, the plate or should I say the styrofoam box with a lid on it, now illegal in some states was filled with about 10 oz. of pork chops, without the bone on it. Also white rice, and a mixture of diced tomatoes and red onions, this is usually a Filipino style mixture, the eater will simply pour some patis (fish sauce) into the tomato mixture, and some on the sliced pork chops. Easy eats, easy cookings.

And I had the chance to use my latest addition to my knife bag, a Mercer 8" Chinese Cleaver, I love it.

Here my cleaver is razor sharp as I prepare the diced tomatoes

Another angle on this sharp knife

I prepare the sliced red onions

Sorry, but you can see the diced tomatoes in the bowl.

I FORGOT TO TAKE MORE PICTURES

Here (l) Pork Rib Chop & (r) Pork Loin Filet

I forgot to take pictures of the pork chops in the pan searing, and of course the finished product. But I'll give you the lowdown right now.

1. I took 2 large tomatoes and diced them up, and sliced squares out of 1 large red onion

2. I sprinkled black pepper all over the onions and tomatoes, and squeezed the juice of half a large lemon into the mixture

3. For the chops, each plate had approximately 10 oz. of lean pork meat. It was seasoned with garlic salt, and black pepper.

4. Let the chops come to room temperature, then I seared it in a large pan with some canola oil, on medium heat as to not over cook it. The chops were about an inch thick. Each side took about 8 minutes to cook because I had to use tongs to lift up each chop and sear the edges that had fat, I had to brown it otherwise it would look livid.

5. Took the chops off the heat, and let it rest on the cutting board. 

6. Each plate had a scoop of white rice, and a scoop of the tomato and onions mixture

7. Sliced the chops and plated it. Put 2-1 oz. ramekins of patis (fish sauce) in each plate.

* I also added minced green onions to the tomatoes and onions.

There you have it, and sorry I forgot to take more pictures my mind was preoccupied with making the dish perfect and not overcook the meat.

© 2017