Monday, June 29, 2009

Roskilde: Let the drinking begin!



How does one describe Roskilde to someone who has never been before? Well it's huge, kind of it's own community and simply amazing to behold, especially the first time you go. For me that was the summer of 2007, perhaps the worst weather Roskilde has ever experienced as it rained non stop almost the entire time. Which normally would put someone like me off, but I enjoyed myself so much despite the weather I came back again and again. This summer being my 3rd time in a row and so far the weather has been beautiful! Normally you arrive at the Roskilde main train station and get to the East or West camping area anyway that you can. You can either walk, take a taxi, bike, hitch or even the special festival train, though the festival trains don't actually start running til Sunday afternoon. The festival really begins on a Thursday and ends late Sunday night. But most people come early ( like me) for the warm up days and arrive the previous Saturday night to wait in line to exchange their tickets for wristbands. Normally no one gets their writsbands until after midnight, so technically Sunday morning.


This summer they started to give out the wristbands earlier at the local Tivoli, sometime around noon on Saturday. Since all my trains from Austria to Denmark were late, I didn't get there as early as I had planned or wished to. Hence a lot of my friends who were a lot coser to Roskilde, Denmark than me got their wristbands, while I had to go to the actual festival grounds and wait in line to get mine. One of the worst aspects of the Roskilde Music festival, waiting in line for hours and hours. Though because of the early Wristband exchange my waiting in line actually took less than 30 minutes total, compared to my waiting for over 3 hours last year in th rain. When I got to the ticket booth I was even recognized by the ticket taker for posts I had apparently made on the official Roskilde site, which was pretty amazing since over 80,000 people come to Roskilde most years and I am but one person. But better than that I actually bumped into some Swedish guys I was hoping to meet up with again, as we partied a lot together in the past. In fact we met waiting in line to get our wristbands, just like we did the 1st time back in 2008. So this years festival had a little bit of kismet thrown since the odds of us both being in line again on the same day at the same, albeit at a different time than last year is pretty amazing if you ask me.


Once everyone has a wristband they are led to another temporary camping area where they wait until the fences of the main camping area are scheduled to be taken down around 8 or 9am Sunday morning. Though what usually happens is someone breaks down the fences around 3am Sunday and everyone rushes the camping areas to set up their respective tents. This year someone started a rumor that the other camping area had torn down their fences already, which in turn made the side that started the rumor in the first place tear down theirs. This happened at 9pm this year, about 6 or 7 hours earlier than when it normally happens. Which actually gave me, my fellow camp mates and everyone who showed up at Roskilde Saturday night almost a whole extra day of camping and partying! As for the camping during Roskilde itself. There are two main camping areas, East and West. I have only camped in West as far as I know...I cannot recall where I was exactly in 2007 because of the weather and the fact that I was drunk most of the time. West is more relaxed and tends to have more non Danish campers, while East is more of a party area and full of Danish people. I prefer West because I like my friends and company to be varied, and there is less noise and less theft than in East. I have heard a lot of horror stories about tents being broken into at East or tents being slashed and even set on fire. Though that tends to happen the last day of Roskilde.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon




All recipes posted here are a composite of random recipes found online, in various cookbooks, taken from family, friends, neighbors and dishes/creations I have tried and/or made myself. Any similarity to people's personal or unique family recipes is purely coincidental, and no one actually owns the rights to any food combinations if you think about it. No matter how unique. Food for thought?!





Serves 4


If you prefer a very mild pepper flavor, drain the cooled peppercorns in a fine-mesh strainer in step 1, toss them with 5 tablespoons of fresh oil, add the salt, and proceed.
Serve with Port-Cherry Reduction or Blue Cheese–Chive Butter.

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons black peppercorns, cracked
5 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 center-cut filets mignons, 11/2 to 2 inches thick, 7 to 8 ounces each, trimmed of fat and silver skin




1. Heat the peppercorns and 5 tablespoons of the oil in a small saucepan over low heat until faint bubbles appear. Continue to cook at a bare simmer, swirling the pan occasionally, until the pepper is fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. When the mixture is at room temperature, add the salt and stir to combine. Rub the steaks with the pepper mixture, thoroughly coating the top and bottom of each steak with the peppercorns. Cover the steaks with plastic wrap and press gently to make sure the peppercorns adhere; let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the middle position, place a rimmed baking sheet on the oven rack, and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a 12-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat until faint smoke appears. Place the steaks in the skillet and cook, without moving the steaks, until a dark brown crust has formed, 3 to 4 minutes. Using tongs, turn the steaks and cook until well browned on the second side, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the steaks to the hot baking sheet. Roast 3 to 5 minutes for rare, 5 to 7 minutes for medium-rare to medium. Transfer the steaks to a wire cooling rack and let rest, loosely tented with foil, for 5 minutes before serving.


Port-Cherry Reduction
Makes about 1 cup, enough for 4 steaks

1 1/2 cups port
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 large shallot, minced (about 3 tablespoons)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Salt

1. Combine the first five ingredients in a medium saucepan; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is reduced to 1/3 cup, about 30 minutes. Set aside, covered.

2. While the steaks are resting, reheat the sauce. Off the heat, remove the thyme, then whisk in the butter until melted. Season with salt to taste. Serve, passing the sauce at the table with the steak.


Blue Cheese–Chive Butter
Makes about ½ cup, enough for 4 steaks

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup crumbled mild blue cheese, room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced chives

Combine the butter, cheese, and salt in a medium bowl and mix with a stiff rubber spatula until smooth. Fold in the chives. While the steaks are resting, spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons butter on each one.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Europe: Almost time to start drinking!


Something that is rather sad, is that I look forward to my Europe trip all year long. So much in fact that I kind of coast through life in the US purely in anticipation of my yearly summer spent partying in Europe. Seeing friends, traveling around, being somewhat naughty and getting very, very drunk! As I really do not touch a drop of alcohol in the US, but in Europe I drink like a fish and am definitely a binge drinker. Which is supposedly worse than being an alcoholic! But in Europe it's pretty much anything goes in terms of Alcohol as it's definitely a Pub culture. I also find I am a lot more active or social while in Europe, and I definitely do a lot more things there than I do in the US. Such as this summer I will be in Roskilde, Denmark for their annual 10 day Music festival featuring over 150 bands from around the world, as well as Gothenburg, Sweden for the 4th time to visit friends, Switzerland for the Street Parade, Innsbruck, Austria and close to Vienna for Frequency ( Another outdoor Music Festival), along with stops in Germany, Bulgaria, and possibly Italy and a few more places. I have not decided yet, but after my planned trips I will have an extra 5 days of unlimited 1st class travel in all of Europe to use. So most likely I will be taking a day trip to Italy or somewhere else close to Austria by train. Perhaps Hungary so I can go to Prague for the first time?

Movies Galore: Way too much free time!



I use to be a film critic so I have seen my fair share of movies. So many in fact that I really do not enjoy movies as much as I should or did once in the past. As I am pretty much over saturated with films to the point that even great films, do not register as much as they should. Though I still make it a point to go to the movies every single week, at long as there is at least one decent film out. I usually see at least 2 films and even more if I can stand it, but the older one gets the harder it is to sit in one space for long periods of time. Plus being almost 2 meters tall doesn't really help matters either. Still I do enjoy the movies and will continue to go since I still do not have to pay and haven't paid for films for close to a decade now. This summer I am looking forward to a few films this summer, namely Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, GI JOE, 9, The Surrogates, Moon, Harry Potter and D-9. Which I think is very pertinent to today's day and age, especially with immigration being the hot button it is. The ad campaign they are using for the film is excellent. With actual posters and bust stop posters telling you to call and report alien sightings. Unfortunately I will be in Europe most of the summer so I will have to see cam copies of most films online, or wait til I return to the US. Something I am not really able to do as I am more of an ID kind of guy, sad to say.

Nerdy Nerd Nerd: A Convention in Pasadena


This past, past weekend I was in Pasadena, Ca for Botcon. Which, For those of you who are not familiar with, is an annual Transformers convention based on the Hasbro/Takara toy line from the 80's, featuring a dealers room, various art/film contests, special Transformer related guests and from time to time a movie premiere or two. Botcon is usually held in a different State each year, which is something I personally look forward to. How else would I have been able to visit such places as Kentucky or North Carolina without actually being kidnapped and transported there against my will ( The people in Kentucky were actually very friendly. I was quite surprised!). So I was a little disappointed that Botcon was held in my actual State and not too far away from my house this past May (2009). Though the closeness of this year's location did save me about $1,500 in hotel and travel costs which was rather nice. This year's convention was the 25th anniversary of the Transformers toy line and featured a special party at Paramount Studios and a preview of 2 scenes from the upcoming film. Seeing 2 scenes from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, presented by director Michael Bay, was a pretty nice little surprise. Though I would have preferred to have seen the actual film, but I do not think it was ready at the time. A few of the stars from the film were present as well to sign autographs and take pictures with. Weird Al from the original Transformers Movie in the 80's as well as the recently canceled Transformers Animated cartoon was also there and very, very courteous to all his fans. I actually felt sorry for him as he had to put up with some rather stupid questions or comments from his so called fans. But that is the nature of the beast at such conventions or any fan based convention.

One of the things I personally love about the conventions themselves, aside from being able to buy so many toys I missed when they first came out or the exclusives only sold or offered at the conventions. Is the art contests they have. So far I have won each and every year that I have entered, and the crystal trophies are really nice. So far I have only won 2nd and
3rd place crystal trophies, but I am going to try harder for 1st next year. especially since the cash prizes are all that bad either, as I have been able to use the convention dollars to buy merchandise the following day and get whatever remained in cash. Which isn't half bad actually. I have also been featured in Toy and Hobby magazine for some of my custom figures and 2D Black and White and color drawings, and truth be told I have not tried as hard as I think I should or could have. Hence I am pretty confident that I can take first place next year during Botcon 2010! Wish me luck!




I am hoping that the 2010 location is somewhere more exciting or somewhere I have always wanted to go, like Texas ( Purely for the Barbecue), New York ( I have only been to the airport so far), Chicago, Miami, or somewhere in the the Boston/Rhode Island area ( I have actually been to both of these places, but I would have liked to have spent more time there sight seeing). The location of the convention is usually announced around late December or early January each year, so we have a ways to go before we will know anything for sure. I know they have been tossing around Detroit as a possible location as well as Florida I believe, which could be interesting with Disney world and Universal Studios, but only time will tell. More updates as I know more. Feel free to comment on your personal experiences and/or if you have any questions.