Author: Oliver Asis

Groceries, Friends, and Food … Oliver the cook, the friend, the foodie

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Saturdays are my traditional sleep in days.  So sleep in I did.  Which was good because I was up late reading and I fell asleep with the lights on and the book resting on my bed.

Traditionally on Saturday is the lunch time hang out with my mom and dad but today was a bit different.  My traditional lunch hangout was not done outside of the house but at home.  My dad went to play golf and my mom decided that grocery shopping was needed. So I went grocery shopping at the Commissary.  And for those that don’t know what the commissary is, it is basically you traditional supermarket but military style.  Commissaries were a part of my life for about 23 years.  It wasn’t until I lost my military ID that I started shopping in “civilian” supermarkets.  So far the transition has been relatively good.  Although I have once again started looking for other ways to purchase food such as farmer’s markets.

Today’s visit to the commissary was a good one.  My mom and I just shopped around looking for the foods we needed to get.  Plus I get an opportunity to help them with their eating habits.  And since I usually cook for them I usually do the shopping for them and I try to introduce them to new food.  So it was cool talking to my mom about the stuff that they shouldn’t eat.  Which my mom always reacts to “Everything is bad for you,” my mom  kidding of course.  We both know that moderation is the best way to go and also just to make eating a healthy way.  So we shopped for an hour or so.  This kind of shopping was our traditional Saturday hangout before we did the lunch thing.  So much good memories doing that while I grew up.  It might also explain why I have my foodie side.  🙂

After doing the grocery shopping, we headed off and bought some lunch.  A good old traditional Filipino lunch.

Soon after lunch I headed off to meetup some of the coolest peeps around.  A few weeks ago I had such an amazing time at a conference in Portland called the World Domination Summit (WDS).  It was the World Domination summit that planted the seeds for me to start this blog.  This meetup was special because it was made up of the people that went to WDS and live in San Diego!  It was a great afternoon of hanging out with them.  It definitely brought the feel and excitement of WDS home.  Hanging out with them was cool not because they went to WDS but they are equally as nice and genuine and all believe in living their life the way they want to live it.  These guys are truly my peeps.  When I’m around them I don’t have feel like I’m the oddball or just feel weird when people just don’t understand.  It is these people that I strongly believe will make great GOOD in the world.  It’s exciting to know that I have set of people, wait scratch that, it is exciting to know that I have a set of friends that will be there to help support me and I will support them.  During our meetup / hangout we all got to introduce ourselves to each other.  It was awesome find out that we all have different interest collectively but we all have the same goal of making ourselves happy.  For sure we will be hanging out more often and making plans to work together to get stuff done.  Also an interesting fact was that none of us have yet to figure out what we are going to do with our $100 investment that we got from the World Domination Summit.  Currently we had the idea of doing community gardens and helping with people locally.  We will see were our ideas go.  Excitement for sure is in the air.

After an exciting afternoon, I headed home.  When I got home I ask my mom and dad what they wanted for dinner.  And I remember that my dad mention a restaurant that he wanted to try out.  So I ask him and then I went to the internet to search it out and to try to make reservation.  And so I did.  The place that we headed too for dinner was a new restaurant called Burlap in Del Mar.  Burlap as it turns out is the brainchild of Bravo’s Top Chefs finalist Brian Malarkey.  It’s a place were East meets West and described as “Asian Cowboy.”  The place was an awesome mix of atmosphere and modern and a bit abstract.  The food overall was good.  I had the braised short rib with some cowboy corn ( corn with a kick ).  It was good overall.  The only complaint I had about it that it was a bit noisy but that’s what you expect if you go to a place to go and be seen.  It’s definitely a place where the young go to hang out and enjoy each other’s company.  Good experience overall.  Just a bit pricy so not your everyday foodie place to go.  🙂

With dinner all over, we all headed home where I decided to chill out and spend the rest of the evening relaxing with tea and a traditional Marathon watch of the Ghost Whisper.  That will have to wait for another post.  🙂  Until then.  Thanks for reading.

Half Days are good until… Oliver the Engineer, the Cook, the Photographer

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Today was a half day, which in itself is a good thing.  I actually got a crap ton of work completed and in only the mere 4 hours that I was putting your tax dollars at work.  I guess maybe it was the motivation that I would get to have a more time off than usual that was helping make the day for me.  So I work diligently for the 4 hours.  I made a to-do list to visually see what I need to get done and I tried to put a deadline on it but knowing that it would change but I resisted.  Although now thinking about it I should have at least put a date on it for my personal deadline verses my boss’ deadline.  I guess I’ll have to do that on Monday.

So the 12 o’clock hour was coming up and what do you know my boss comes to my cubicle to ask me once again for an exhibit that he intends to send out in about 1 hour.  And of course there are some changes that need to get done and assumes it will only take 10 minutes to change however I know its going to take about 30 minutes to change.  So I knew in the back of my head today that it wasn’t going to go as smoothly.  And this just proves it yet again.  So I spent 45 minutes fixing the map and of course I send it to my boss who doesn’t check it for about 1 hour and then just when I’m about to leave mentions that more corrections are needed.  Oh really?!  Seriously?!  I think I should have just said “NO,” but I’m still working on that.  I know I would never ask someone to do something for me at the last minute unless it was the FINAL resort that I had to do but I will under no circumstances do that to anyone.  So I hurried turned on my computer and fix the map and then sent it off.

Now with the rest of the after ahead of me, I sat in my car for a couple of minutes thinking what I could do.  And I couldn’t think of a thing to do.  Grrr.  Now that I have all this time I couldn’t think of anything fun to do.  So I headed home and through out the drive home I keep thinking of what to do.  And by the time I got home, still nothing.  I knew that I was at least hungry but I didn’t want to eat alone so I tried to call up some friends but they were all at work.  Go figure, right?  So I search the refrigde for what I could eat.  Luckily there were some cucumber and olives to eat up as snacks but those didn’t fill me up.  But in the moment I decided that I wanted to cook.  And I figure I should cook something that takes some time.  So I decided beef stew would be a good choice; I haven’t cooked it in awhile and I knew it would take some time.

Off to the internet I go.  Since it has been awhile that I’ve cooked it, I had to make sure what I needed to cook it.  So I spent about 5 minutes to search for the “perfect” recipe.  But as it turns out there isn’t any perfect recipe.  I finally decided on a recipe that was simple and would have a lot of flavor.  With the recipe in hand I head over to my local Vons.  While in Vons, being hungry (which I don’t recommend), I bought more than I intended.  I’m just happy to report that it was a lot of vegetables and fruits.  So I headed off home to begin cooking the stew.  And much to my surprise I didn’t take me too long to prepare and cook.  In about 15 minutes everything was stewing together.  And I finished cooking it off and put the stovetop on low and let it cook for about 2 hours.  It turned out marvelous, a little bland but still flavorful.  Add salt and pepper for tastes ( just saying ).

While the stew was cooking I decided to get working on some pictures that I have been putting off for quite a bit.  I worked on them for about an hour.  One of the cool things that I am lucky enough or crazy to do is that I never delete any images that I take.  I do that because I always on a look out for the situation that a photo doesn’t look right at the moment but when I learn a new skill, I get that lightbulb moment.  And that’s when I realize that I could “salvage” a picture that just didn’t look right.  So that’s what I did for the hour of time that I worked on pictures.  I like to think that sometimes the solution is present but when it is ready it will show itself.  So I have a few hard-drives just full of pictures.  🙂

After dinner and working a few more pictures.  I was a bit hungry for dessert so I called up a few friends.  I ended up going to get some gelato with my friend Dave.  We chatted about photo projects and did a recap on the shoot that we did on Sunday.  So for a Friday it was pretty good.

But getting back to the title of the post.  Half Days are good until…you don’t know what you are going to do with your half day.  But as it turns out I did a lot but I just didn’t do what I thought was exciting.  I guess that’s why writing and looking back on the day helps.

 

Holy Cow… Oliver the Engineer, the Cook, the Photographer

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Holy cow is right.  Today was one of those days.  But not what you might typically be thinking.  Today was just that day.  The day where you stop and go holy cow, where has the time gone, what have I done, what do I do now.  Nothing immediate stuck me or anything but today, I just realized that a lot has happen and part of me thinks I haven’t done much and the other part of me think I’ve done a lot.  So as you can see things may look confusing but I think I got a handle on it.

However today started off normally just like any other day.  I went to Starbucks, got my coffee, drove to work, arrived at work, unpacked my stuff (notebooks, cords, and pens) and just sat there and did my thing.  While at my desk I realized that I haven’t written in my log book for awhile so I immediately reached for it and wrote in.  I discovered that I haven’t written in since last week.  So I had to think about all of the things that I’ve done since then.  It was quick easy to tell you the truth.  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had this ability to rerun the pass few days in the head.  I could remember some of the most unrelvant pieces of information but it just all makes sense to me and helps me remember.  Could it be a gift or a talent, I don’t know I just know that I can do it.  I don’t think it would be good to say that it’s photographic memory because I surely don’t remember everything but just enough to help answer the pending question.

So I sat there and wrote the place I’ve been too and the things that I did this pass week.  I got the idea of the log book from Austin Kleon’s book, How to Steal Like an Artist.  It was one of those things that I thought, what a great idea and why didn’t I think of that.  And so I have.

After writting in my log I immediately went with my day.  I started doing the research I needed for a report that I needed to finish.  The task / research for this report is quite dumb and nothing exciting.  The report has to do with stormwater and how we are dealing with it on our project.  So after awhile it does get a little boring, okay not little but majorily boring, to the point I think; how the hell did I end up doing this.  This is just crazy.  I think looking at this is when I realized that I have just given up on this project.  Seriously for a guy that sincerely loves he’s job, I have given up.  The project has lost its luster, its excitement, its public good, its aura of the last new freeway in San Diego.  So now instead it is just one F up project where people just don’t know what they are doing, people are not talking, and everyday is drama.  It seriously is like a sitcom.  It’s just one of those things where you can’t help yourself wish that it was over and now you just work to protect yourself from working for nothing.  Although I think I am doing now.  I bet if you are reading this, you are thinking so why don’t you move on?  Well the honest truth is that I still have a some hope the impossible is possible on this thing.  I think it is still the optimizism in my that things are get done when you put your mind into it.  And I think that’s where my problem is; it is that I have lost focus and I really need to find it again.  I’m going to have to work on finding it again.  This may be a new leap.

The majority of my day was spend going back and forth between my two current task at hand.  I went between the stormwater report and the hydraulics design.  So I’m going to work on the stormwater first and get that out of the way and then I’ll work on the hydraulic design.

The highlight of my day was lunch.  Go figure.  Today’s lunch trip takes me to one of my favorite lunch trucks in San Diego, MIHO Gastrotruck.  I’ve mention about them before but seriously I’m a foodie fan for them.  When I’m given the chance I will drive out and find them and get myself one of their delicious burgers.  A reason that I wanted to have MIHO today was because the classic burger is still on the menu.  And when things are there you have jump on the opportunity to grab it before its gone otherwise you’ll have to be kept wondering when it will make it’s appearance again.  So that’s what I did.  I got my burger, enjoy it, and made myself happy.

The rest of the day after lunch was pretty much just a few hours of nothing exciting.  Same old same old.

After work I did another thing that I enjoy doing which was shopping for grocery and figuring out what to cook for dinner.  Today I went to Costco to look for the answer.

I made my trek / commute to Carmel Mountain Costco for the food.  The drive up there wasn’t bad.  It was actually pretty light for a Thursday so I made it up there in about 25 minutes or so.

Inside Costco I wondered around the warehouse for a bit.  Looking at things that I could possibly need but I didn’t really need to buy at the moment.  But I didn’t want to head home just yet.  I eventually found myself getting into the meats and seafood section.  At first I was thinking I could make fish but then I realized that I already made fish earlier in the week so then I thought steak but I didn’t feel like smelling like it afterwards, so that idea was axed.  I eventually went for one of the premade heat up meals that Costco makes.  I picked up a Lime Cilantro Marinated Beef.  And since I was going to prepare meat tonight for dinner I figure a salad and some greens would be good.

One of the things that I have been curious about this whole week has been artichokes.  I’ve never really had artichokes before or cook them for that matter.  But I figure today would be the day to do so.  This curiosity came about last week when I hung out with my friend Hollie who showed me and prepared some dinner.  And she mentioned artichokes and since then I have been fascinated with an artichoke from how to cook it and even how you eat it.  So I purchased those.  Other than artichokes, I also purchased olives, water, cucumbers, and beets.  This would be an interesting dinner.

So I made my way out of the warehouse and drove home.  I cleared out the oven and then preheated it to the temperature the instructions said on the beef packaging.  And then I filled a pot with water to boil so I can cook the artichokes.  I read the instructions and found out it takes about 45 minutes of cooking time for the artichokes.  Which was perfect because it takes 60 minutes for the beef to cook.

Fast forward 60 minutes, so I get the beef out and put in my meat themometer and I find out that my beef is barely medium raw.  So I put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.  Meanwhile I took the artichokes out and let them drain.  And then I began preparing the salad.  Long story short, I ate like a king this evening.  I ate more greens (salad) which was good than meat.  But I do have to say it was delicious.

After dinner, I went back to work on the HOBY pictures and video.  And I finished them up.  As of the writing of this post, I have finished everything in terms of the processing and editing.  So now I will need to start the burning of DVDs tomorrow and get the pictures printed so that I can mail them out on Monday.  It’s going to be busy but it will be done soon.

Well I’m heading off to bed.  Have a great one!  🙂

Hump Day… Oliver the Engineer, the Photographer

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It’s Wednesday!  And you know what that means.  It’s hump day.  The week is almost over and the weekend is upon us.  Seriously this week has been one of those really laid back days where it seems like you have all the time in the world to spend doing whatever it is you are doing.  And once again there isn’t much to report on the work front that you haven’t heard of already.  That could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Well after getting off work today, I finished up one of my task that I volunteered to do.  The task was simple which is to drop off some promotional material at two of our local camera stores; Nelson’s and Georges.  Both places are my favorite places to go to and just geek out.  Today’s location to visit to finish off the task was George’s Camera in North Park.

I’ve always enjoyed going here, George’s staff is one of the friendiest and most knowledgable when it comes to cameras.  And the nice thing that I like about them is that work together to figure out a problem.  Like myself they are photographers themselves so they understand the things we go through for the craft.  But back to the task at hand.

Unlike most people.  I’m the kind of person that needs to show that I care before I ask for favors.  I do that because I know myself that I hate it when people just ask me a favor when it is convenient for them and don’t even show the sign of respect.  A nice, hey how are you doing, conversation ensues, and then hey buddy, so i was wondering….  You know it does go a long way to catch up and see how a person or place is doing before asking favors.  So being the person that I am, I shopped around the store first to see if they had a few items that I could find some use for.  And what do you know they do have a the stuff that I could.  Today’s bounty was a filter holder and another clean wipes.

It was only after purchasing these items and making conversation that I ask them what their store policy is about handouts.  And like other places it is easy enough to just ask and tell them it is a photography related.  So after asking, I headed back to my car to grab the material that I wanted to drop off and they happily accepted it.  It was as easy as just asking, nothing more.

After dropping off the materials at Georges I head to Vons to do some grocery shopping.  Today’s grocery shopping was some ice cream, vegetables, and salad dressing.  Nothing to exciting for shopping day as they go.  And since I wasn’t really in the mood for cooking today, I decided that a pre-made chicken as in order to make life as a cook easy.  So that’s what I did.  I kept dinner simple and delicious.  Along with the chicken and rice, I also made some salad.

With dinner out of the way, I decide to finish up some of the photography work that I have been putting off for a bit.  And so I was able to get them completed.  Now all I have to do is contact the client about the finished work and get their approval for the work so I can place the order and the jobs can be completed.

So that leaves me where I am now.  Which is, I’m finishing up my daily post and this marks me being back on track with my daily journal / blog post.  So far I know that it is stuff that doesn’t really have to do with a lot of the people reading this.  But I have a few things in the works to add some more elements to this blog.  In the meantime, thanks for reading and check this out.  🙂

Hanging out with Daryl… Oliver the Foodie, the Friend

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Hangout Tuesday was a success. Today I had the great pleasure to hangout with one of my college buddies. I met my buddy Daryl while I was going to school at UCSD. It’s funny to think how we became friends. I met Daryl in Statics class.

The way we met was after receiving back a quiz. I distinctly remember asking him if we get to drop a test. And to this day we laugh about him thinking that oh god this guy not going to make it. Today when we look back at this and just laugh. Luckily we got pass this and became good friends.

So today after a few month of not hanging out with each other we finally found the time to hangout. As always being the foodies that we headed to our favorite place to eat. One of our all star places to eat is a JV’s.

JV’s is a Mexican mom and pop place that I’ve been going to for ages. Since six grade in fact. So now that I’m 29 I’ve been going there for about 17 years. And up until about two years ago I had only ordered two things off of their menu. And those two items are the Surf and Turf Burrito and the 6 roll tacos.

The Surf and Turf burrito is this massively large burrito that weights in at nearly 1 pound.  The burrito is actually two burritos into one.  It is made out of a shrimp and carne asada burrito which makes it one of the king burritos at this place.  Although it not as large as the burrito that I ate in Oregon a couple of weeks ago during my WDS trip.  That particular burrito was just a burrito of epic portions.  Seriously it was!

After grabbing some food and having a good chat, we decided at first to grab some dessert.  Being foodies we had a set of places that we liked to hit up.  At first we decided to head up to one of our favorite places to grab some ice cream; Moo Time in Coronado.  Unlike JV’s, Moo Time has become one of the more recent local hunts that I’ve come across and go to quite often.  I discovered Moo Time, when I was going UCSD.  To me Moo Time just taste better because it is a locally started company that takes great care into what they create.  And that being ice cream.

However during our drive to Moo Time, Daryl wanted to see if there are any good bars to go too to get a drink.  When I got ask that I seriously drew a blank and I keep thinking and thinking of the places that I like to go and I knew had a good drink selection.

One of the first places that I thought of was Off Shore Tavern.  Its one of those places that a friend showed me and ever since then I’ve gone back a few times.  But when we got there it was packed!  And we didn’t want to wait.  Next we headed off to Old Town and check out to see if Fred’s was any better.  And in about a few minutes we found that answer out and surely it was packed.  I guess Taco Tuesday is pretty popular.  but we didn’t give up, there was one more place that I really like to go to and that was Shakespeare’s Pub and Grill.

While we were at Shakespeare’s Daryl and I had a great talk over some beers, cider, water, and coffee.  It was one of those talks that you have with friends that could if it wasn’t for work the next day that could go on for hours.

Overall it was a great afternoon and evening of catching with one of my good buddies that I haven’t seen and chatted with in a while.