SOBing in the rain

Posted on by

Another wet one yesterday, but life goes on, and into each life, some rain must fall.

The Friday walking group didn’t let a little precipitation keep us from our scheduled jaunt. We did confine ourselves to the relative safety of the pavement, dodging cars instead of raindrops. I’ll post the photos from that endeavor at the end of this post.

After the hike, I decided to try something new for lunch. It has been months since I fired up the grill, but I had defrosted some pork chop steaks, and it was time to give them a whirl.

I had a bottle of Hawaiian marinade on the shelf, so I soaked them in that for a couple of hours, then put ’em on the grill.
I don’t recall ever actually grilling pork chops, but I treated them like a beef steak, turning them over periodically to avoid overcooking. Well, I wanted them cooked through, just not burned.
On the plate with some broccoli in cheese sauce and garlic bread. Honestly, they came out bland tasting to me. I’m not sure what seasonings they use at Mango’s to give them that robust flavor, but mine, while perfectly edible, was not nearly as tasty.

It was a rainy afternoon, and when the time came to head to Voodoo for the SOB, I was thankful for my umbrella. Voodoo doesn’t open until 5:00, and I arrived a little after 4:00, so I hung out at Cheap Charlies while I waited.

Voodoo is in that grey building across the street, so I could keep my eye on things and see when they opened the doors.

Naturally, I took care of my regular CC girls, but I was drinking slowly, knowing I had a long night of imbibing ahead of me. As I did last week, I switched to San Mig Zero to moderate the rate of alcohol consumption. When I saw Voodo was opening, I paid my tab, said goodnight to the ladies (there were three of them), and made my dash across the rain slickened highway.

The last time I visited Voodoo was for the SOB over a month ago. Josie, the gal who kept me company on that occasion, latched onto me as soon as I walked through the door.

She’s actually pretty sweet. After we’d been sitting there a while, she looked at me, touched my neck, and asked if I’d been feeling ill. Well, yes, as a matter of fact. Weird that she could tell just by looking at me. Anyway, she said let me give you a back massage, and she had a nice, relaxing, gentle touch.

Voodoo is the smallest SOB venue of them all, and it was packed by the time the competition began. It was good that I arrived early to secure a comfortable seating location.

The dancers from the seven competing bars on stage.

The results:

Alaska Club finished third.
Second place went to Wet Spot.
And the home bar was the champion–congrats to the Voodoo girls.

The Aftermath party was at Hot Zone. I stayed there until about 9:30, and that was all I could muster. Caught a trike outside and finished my rainy night out on the town still standing.

Up this morning, ready to tackle a new day. Had the leftover fixin’s from yesterday’s burrito, so I decided to put them where they belonged: in my belly. I was bragging in yesterday’s post about learning how to brown my tortilla in the frying pan, but my foodie commenter, Kevin Kim, pointed out I was still doing it wrong. I’m supposed to fry the whole damn burrito, not just the tortilla. Well, my problem is I like to overfill the tortilla with so much goodness that it can’t be rolled properly, and there is always some spillage. This morning, I cut back on the insides and made it look like an actual burrito.

Into the skillet with you then.
Maybe just a little too much brown, but still not bad for my first try. The meat had been in the fridge, and the browning process wasn’t enough to completely warm it up, so next time I’ll heat the meat before I put it in the tortilla.

Yesterday, commenter James suggested I map out some potential bar crawls for like-minded readers here. Sounds like fun to me. Of course, I’m going to need to learn a thing or two about making maps, but I’m sure there’s a way, even for a techno-peasant like me. The first step in that endeavor was to use my morning walk to take a picture of each Barretto bar. They are all on the National Highway, and thanks to my Map My Walk app, I know that the whole of Barretto along the highway is a mere 1.15 kilometers in length. The app also provided me with a rudimentary map that I could work with as a start. I’ll be doing a post about those efforts in more detail tomorrow.

When I left the house this morning, it was not raining, and I neglected to take my umbrella. I soon came to regret that oversight. I don’t mind walking in light rain, but a downpour is just too damn uncomfortable. Heading up the highway, the skies opened, and I rushed to take refuge in one of the two bars that are open during the morning hours–Dynamite Dick’s.

I sat on the front porch of Dick’s and enjoyed a hot cup of black coffee while I waited for the rain to die down some. Dick showed up a few minutes later, followed by Griff, the Hideaway Bar manager. That helped pass the time.

As is his custom, Dick gave me a chit for a free drink, but I respectfully declined his kind offer. The rain had let up, and it was time to complete my mission. Arizona Resort is at the end of the bar district in this direction, so I turned off my app, crossed the highway, turned on the app again, and walked back, documenting the bars on that side of the road. About the time I reached Sit-n-Bull, the skies opened up again, and I took shelter inside.

I felt obligated to buy something while I waited out the rain, so I indulged my sweet tooth with a miniature cherry cheesecake pie.

I also enjoyed a nice chat with owner Ron about the local bar scene. He’s happy to be strictly in the restaurant business these days.

Finished the last bar on this side of the road (Queen Victoria), then decided to head back home even though I was nowhere near my step goal for the day. Walking in the rain is overrated, and sure enough, it started pouring again before I reached my house. Oh well, at least I was able to put on dry clothes.

Here are some photos from yesterday’s hike: (just a reminder, as always, photo credit to Scott for many of these)

Our course of action. I bailed on the group in San Isidro and took the back way into Alta Vista. Once a shortcutter, always a shortcutter, I suppose.
Our band of weather beaters. Actually, we were fortunate that the rain held off for most of the hike.
Yours truly leading the way up the highway.
And the rest of the group.
We walked the streets in Santa Monica, getting us off the highway for a while.
Subdivision walking may not be all that exciting, but at least we were out and about.
And there is beauty to be found there.
Santa Monica is notorious for flooding during rainy season. We were lucky to have clear streets yesterday.
Can anyone identify that mountain?
Entering Sierra Hills, another subdivision.
Trudging along on the Govic Highway.
It’s a scenic highway in places.
And much nicer when traffic is light.
A well-stocked sari-sari store.
That rice doesn’t plant itself.
Hard work, it appears backbreaking to me.
Workin for a livin
Workin for a livin
Workin for a livin, livin and workin
I’m taking what they giving ’cause I’m working for a living.
San Isidro here I come.
In them old rice fields back home.
Sees ya later.

My Saturday night is rapidly approaching. I’m planless and clueless. That could make things interesting. Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens.

Since I stole some Huey Lewis lyrics, the least I can do is post the video of his song.

2 thoughts on “SOBing in the rain”

  1. All the food looks good. And the browning on your burrito looks great! You got both sides, right?

    If your burrito’s insides are still cold after searing the outside tortilla, finish the burrito in your microwave, maybe 1:30 or 2 minutes depending on how much you want to irradiate your food. (Kidding… microwaves don’t contaminate your food with lingering radiation; they simply excite the water molecules in your food, forcing them into a frenzied dance that produces friction, and with friction comes heat.)

    I don’t normally prepare pork the American way… when was the last time I even had a proper pork chop? I know pork goes well with apples, so you could make a side of apple-pie filling (apples, some sugar, some cinnamon, a few drops of lemon juice, and some cornstarch to thicken the mix) and eat that along with your pork. A Google search of “spices and seasonings for flavorful pork chops” leads to this result: Pork Chop Seasoning. Basically:

    2 tablespoons smoked paprika
    1 tablespoon sea salt
    1 tablespoon black pepper
    2 teaspoons garlic powder
    1 teaspoon onion powder
    1 teaspoon dried thyme
    1 teaspoon dried oregano
    ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
    ½ teaspoon dried mustard
    2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional: leave out for a sugar-free seasoning mix)

    The base of pretty much any seasoning is going to be salt, pepper, and garlic powder. The Barbecue Pit Boys on YouTube even refer to that as SPG (salt, pepper, garlic). To add layers of flavor, then do as you see above: add onion powder, hot/smoky spices like paprika and cayenne (or chipotle powder, which is awesome), dried herbs like oregano, and some sugar to bring things down from being too hot. The above spice/seasoning mix is pretty standard—and not just for pork. with some adjustments, you can use the above on beef and maybe even chicken.

    If you want your pork chops to be respectably crusty, but not burned, keep flipping them as you’re doing, but up the amount of sugar from the recipe above. Sugar, when exposed to heat, tends to caramelize. Just be careful—as you yourself said—not to burn everything. Sugar and spice, when burned, both become bitter.

    Quite a lot of photos with this post; seems to have been a good time, and the views, as always, are beautiful. I wonder if the PI’s rain has any connection with the typhoon currently heading our way. It’s still not far from Taiwan, but it’s heading north to Korea for sure. No rain yet in Seoul, but it’s getting windy outside; that’s probably the leading edge of the typhoon. I hope this doesn’t lead to more major flooding; we just got done with a flood. Rain in earnest is to start early Sunday morning for us, and it’s going on through at least Tuesday.

    I’m loving the glimpse we get of the dog that hikes with you guys. Buddy seems big and robust enough to go on such hikes; Lucky seems to be more of a stay-at-home kind of dog.

  2. Thanks again for the tips and recipes. I’ll keep practicing!

    I’m hearing typhoon talk, but these recent rains are consistent with the regular storms we get on an almost daily basis this time of year. When a typhoon gets added to the mix, the flooding starts. Could be on the horizon. Good luck with your storm; it would suck to see a repeat of what you recently dealt with.

    I think Buddy could handle the hike, but I have no desire to bring him along. When Max brings his dog it is a constant battle with strays on the street going on the attack. It’s much better for him up in the hills, but we’ve been pavement-bound lately. You are right though, Lucky is a lazy boy but he is also more aggressive than Buddy. He’d probably enjoying fighting with those strays.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *