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Erik
"Untitled"
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Sergio.
"Do fries come with that shake?"
http://blizzerone.blogspot.com/2009/02/do-fries-come-with-that-shake.html#comments

Vincent
"Home cook food"
http://theadventuresinenglishclass.blogspot.com/2009/02/home-cook-food.html#comments

Spam Delight

On the way back to my apartment in Long Beach, we passed by the Hawaiian restaurant named Big Island Hawaiian Barbeque on Ximeno and Atherton. Right away, I get the craving for some spam musubis. If you don’t know what those are, you are really missing out.

When I arrived home I thought, who came up with the delicious treat? The Hawaiians! And when thinking of the Hawaiian culture, one thinks of their favorite canned food, spam. They have many creative ways of serving it. Two of my favorites are the Hawaiian Spam Pizza and Spam Musubi. The Hawaiian Spam Pizza is obviously a pizza with spam as the main topping. But not many people know what Spam Musubi is, and if they do know, they think it is a type of sushi. Although it is very similar in sight and feel, it is not considered to be sushi.

Spam Musubi is composed of rice and spam rolled in seaweed. Because it is rolled in seaweed, people automatically assume it is some sort of sushi. It is actually a Hawaiian twist to a Japanese dish. Because the Hawaiian Islands may experience natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis, they need canned foods like spam. Because spam does not need to be refrigerated, it can last long periods of time in storage.

Musubi means “tied together,” with the use of nori also known as seaweed. It is composed of only four ingredients: sushi rice, soy sauce, nori sheets, and most important of them all, spam. It is usually eaten with one’s hands. It is the best of both worlds, easy to make and easy to eat.

So the next time you need something easy to make and easy to eat to fill you up on the go, remember these two words, SPAM MUSUBI.

Tommy's Burger Craze

Another Saturday stuck at home in Los Angeles with nothing to eat and loads of homework to do. What a great weekend. Anyway, while reading “Ask the Dust” and drinking my hot cup of green tea, my stomach growls with hunger. I look into the fridge and there was nothing that could be eaten without some sort of physical labor. So I hesitantly think of the closest fast food restaurants to my house, only two blocks away, Tommy’s Burger and Taco Bell. Although I am one to never turn down nachos with fresh salsa, I decide to relieve my hunger with a burger and fries.

My mom described the smell of their famous chili as the smell of armpits but that doesn’t bother anyone else, so why should it bother me? So while in line, I ignore the smell and look around. I see all the pictures of the famous “Tommy” and the lines that formed during the anniversary discounts. The pictures of the lines would make anyone’s jaw drop. The lines consisting of hundreds of people reaching all the way around the block, all for $.35 burgers and $.25 fries.

When I reached the cashier I ordered my usual, “Number 3 with chili cheese fries please.” “That’ll be six dollars.” I pay and the wait isn’t long. But while waiting for my food, I get my drink from their outdoor refrigerators and some of their famous ketchup and yellow chili peppers.

With my mouth burning from the heat of the peppers, I wonder, is Tommy’s was just a Los Angeles craze. There are Tommy’s Burger places in almost every major part of Southern California but for the other ones I’ve been to, there have not been as many customers as I thought. The original Tommy’s Burger had to expand and build a parking lot across the street and another cashier booth on the side. So why do the other Tommy’s Burger places have only a few customers at a time? Maybe it’s because most people would rather go to the original Tommy’s Burger or maybe because it is only a downtown, L.A. craze. So my question is, do other Long Beach people know about Tommy’s on Anaheim and Ximeno?

Green Tea

It’s Friday the 13^th, and ironically, I am sick. Luckily, I don’t have a high fever but my throat is itchy and my nose is clogged. I’m coughing up a storm and wrapped in blankets. So in my pursuit to get better by Valentine’s Day, only a few hours away, I go to my local liquor store in L.A. looking for soup to last me through the week and anything else that could make a difference. That’s when I saw it, parallel with my eyes, “Contains Antioxidants.” I automatically reach out, grab the box and read on. It was a box of green tea. Once I read contains antioxidants, I was sold. I bought five packs of top ramen, and the box of green tea.

While waiting for the water to boil for my soup, I microwave a cup of water. I know, why don’t I just boil the water for the tea too? Plainly, because it’s easier. Anyway, I open the box and there were the packets. I transfer my soup from the pot to a bowl and throw one of the packets into the cup. I take a sip and wonder, would it taste as good as the other green tea drinks that I have drank? But almost immediately, I burn my tongue. I take another sip and my first reaction was ewww, far from the Sobe Green Tea. So I put in two cubes of sugar and the taste went from ewww to ehhhh. So I continue to drink it just because of the “Antioxidants.”

A few minutes after finishing my soup, I look into the cup. There was no sign of sugar but there was only a floating pack of what looked like crushed leaves. So I think to myself, what are antioxidants? I’ve been drinking this burning hot cup of tea without really knowing what antioxidants are. So I look it up. With hesitation, I go to Wikipedia. My Comm 130 professor told us not to go to Wikipedia because it’s not a credible source, but it was the first thing I could think of. So I click English and type “Green Tea” in the search bar. All over the page I saw, “health effects” but in front of it were the words, “potential” or “unproven.” But I scrolled down and saw the title, “Scientific Studies.” There was hope, for me and anyone else who drinks green tea to get better. I learned that there was more than just antioxidants in the tea, there was polyphenols. Now, there were two things that I had no idea of what they were and what they did. So I read on. After reading the whole section, I have come to learn that antioxidants and polyphenols do help. They help lower the chances of heart disease, cancers, tumors, cholesterol, stress, arthritis, and more. My first thought was WOW, it helps with so many things but not the one I wanted it to help with the most, my cold. But as I think about it now, it’s ok because it will help in the long run.