A session of pain and remembrance!

Kia ora,

   Pretty much since the next day after the quake i've been living down in Akaroa, with not much reason to stay in town plus the offer from my boss to keep working for her at the Duvauchelle store & bistro, having a bed at the flat on the back and a bed on my best friend's, Kay Maitland, house, it was only the best option, and even though i'm a city boy the country life is growing on me, at first it sort of f=drives you nuts, not having much to do, but once u let go, the commodities of the big city u start appreciating the beautiful surrounding nature or the sound of silence.

   Had the last weekend off, and i went to Kay`s for some time away from the store, between cooking Brazilian rice and beans, riding her motorbike, walking through the vineyard having a chat and a beer, watching movies and discussing arts with her son Roman i had a great time perfect for taking my mind out of things, plus on Sunday night i called her friend Simon to scheduelle for my MAORI tattoo that he would design himself!

Today i woke up, psyched for the prospect of getting my ink done, carried on with my duties up till 12:30 and left to town heading for the Simon's studio. Got there around one and having previously discussed the concepts i wanted done for my tattoo i sat down and he started drawing free handed on my arm, it took him about 40 minutes to come up with it, and then the pain started hehe!

   All together the design and the tattoo took around 4:30 hours, and it was the longest session of tattooing that I've been through, but hey it was worth it, it looks wicked and now i have a part of New Zealand culture going back home with me. Simon is an amazing artist and for the fact that he is Maori, properly told me stuff about the culture and even did some Maori gestures i feel a bit more immerse in this amazing country's history.

KIA KAHA!

New plan! Heading home!

    It's been a little over a week since the big quake in Christchurch, and it took me a while to actually get my mind in order to organize new plans, for this city won't be the same for while, it will take sometime to get the pieces back up, restructure what's been destroyed, and unfortunately even longer for getting this city back on the map for touristic destinations.

   The hospitality business had already suffered a blow with the quake in September, and 28% of the market was forced to shut, now i reckon that the lucky ones that remain open will have a  real hard time to keep their profit in order to stay open!

   All i can do is wish them well, and pray for the souls that were lost, as for what am i going to do, i could just go to another part of the country, but very honestly one of the reasons i stayed in Christchurch is because of the sense of normality for once, living with a suitcase ready and always on the go is hard, and i know i'm one that can do it, but everybody has a limit, and i fell like I've reached mine, plus i'm 26 now which is good cuz with all of this travelling done can now focus on my goals for a career, and i really think i should put more time into my ART.

   It is never to late to restart, and as long as you've got a general idea of your plans for life, it's not that hard to make out the priorities of your present in order to achieve results in the future.

   So with no further longings I've decided to head home, i'm much satisfied with my choice, knowing full well that i could stay and do some other things, but as i say on my motto, if you are going to regret, regret the things you've done and not the ones u haven't tried, of course with a little common sense!

cheers to all guys!

Cenas de uma zona de terremotos!

Devido aos ultimos eventos ocorridos em aqui em Christchurch, eu decidi fazer um reporte sobre a situação.

No dia 22 às 12:51 pm aproximadamente 5 meses após o grande terremoto de 7.1 na escala Richter, nós aqui em Christchurch fomos afetados uma vez mais por outro grande, o terremoto de 6.3 acontecido no dia 22 talvez não tenha sido tão alto na escala como o anterior, porém pelo fato da profundidade ter sido de apenas 5 km os efeitos foram devastadores.

Eu estava na minha casa quando os tremores começaram e ao abrir a porta da cozinha para sair de casa, eu podia ver o solo movendo em ondas, garrafas e outros objetos voavam da mesa, armários e geladeira, felizmente em minha casa os danos não foram maiores que algumas garrafas, pratos e potes que estilhaçaram no chão, infelizmente eu não posso dizer o mesmo de outras partes de Christchurch.

Ao sair de casa, a caminho do restaurante onde eu trabalho, eu vi a extensão dos danos causados pelos tremores, uma das principais ruas chamada Papanui, tinha varios pontos de liquefação, rachaduras e muitas casas e lojas destruídas.

Assim que cheguei no restaurante eu pude ver meus amigos e colegas de trabalho e todos estavam bem, porém as perdas dentro do restaurante eram muitas, e levariam semanas pra re-estruturar e voltar aos negócios, um pouco depois da minha chegada ao local sentimos mais uma vez um after-shock (terremotos de menor intensidade pós os de grande intensidade), a policia foi forçada a fechar o quarteirão e nos mandou ir para uma área aberta que seria de menor perigo, sem saber se houveram danos estruturais no predio nos não podemos nem mesmo determinar o que podemos fazer.

A visão geral deste desastre é a de uma cidade que passou por uma guerra, prédios caindo aos pedaços, sirenes e gritos são os sons que se escuta, as expressões de choque nos rostos das pessoas, nuvens de fumaça e poeira, helicópteros voando pra todos os lados, reportes de pessoas desaparicidas e mortas, desespero para todos os lados, a sensação e de se estar em um filme pós-apocaliptico! 

Agora 48 horas após existe um grande número de pessoas que se foram para outras partes do país porém ao mesmo tempo existem muitos por aqui que querem ajudar de alguma maneira, algo de muito bom na natureza das pessoas desse país é certamente esse senso de solidariedade, muitas pessoas abriram as portas de suas casas para outras pessoas que perderam seus lugares, outras cozinham e forneçem aguá, enquanto um grupo de estudantes iniciado em uma comunidade do site Facebook se mobiliza com instrumentos para ajudar a limpar as ruas de toda areia e água espalhada pela cidade.

With much sadness i report all of this to you, and with a sense of relieve i can say that i'm safe and sound!      .

Scenes of a quake zone!

In due course to the new events i'm posting news from Christchurch.

Today at 12:51 nearly five months later than the big quake we had here of 7.1 on the scale, we were hit yet again with another big one, the 6.3 quake that happen today might not have been as high as the previous but for the shallowness of only 5 km depth it felt much bigger.

I was at my house when it happen and as i opened the kitchen door to run out of the house, i could actually see trembling waves on the very solid ground, bottles and other objects were flying out of the benches, fridges and cupboards, fortunately there seems to be no real damages, and the only losses in the house were a few jars and bottles that smashed on the ground, unfortunately i can't say the same for other parts of Christchurch.

As i left home to go and check on the Restaurant that i work Hay's, i could see the extent of the damage caused by the shaking, one of the main roads called Papanui, had several points of liquefaction, large cracks and houses severely destroyed.

Upon arrival at hay's i could see that my colleagues and friends were fine, but the internal breakages on the restaurant are far too great to keep us open, until we get all the mess cleaned it will be a good few weeks in order to pick it back up, and with the next few aftershocks, police was forced to enclose the entire block, without knowing if there was any major structural damages on the building we cannot even start to think of what to do.

The overall look of this disaster is of a city that has been through war, buildings crumbled down, sirens and screams are the sounds u hear, shock on people's faces, dust clouds, choppers flying, reports of people missing and dead, despair everywhere, much like a post apocalyptic scenario.

With much sadness i report all of this to you, and with a sense of relieve i can say that i'm safe and sound!      .

Challenge set, challenge done!!! Part 1

Kia ora everyone,

   Pretty much since the first time i came down to Akaroa, I've been wanting to take a bike trip from Christchurch to here, it's this most amazing scenery all the way, and it's the proper "road trip" on a bike that I've been wanting to do for a while now, pretty much since me and my best friend Yuri  started "biking around", the road is great, there's trails, rest stops, refreshing wind, pure mountain air and even though some people might say that New Zealanders are bad drivers, in comparison to Brazilians they are pretty respectful to cyclists.

   If u are ever in New Zealand and enjoy biking in the outdoors then I advise u to take a road trip somewhere here, it's truly worth it, I promise that u will enjoy!

   The trip from Christchurch to Akaroa is a little less than 85 km, but together with the way out of my house to the outskirts of the city i rounded up to 90 k's, it's quite a hard trip to do, not so much for the length but more so for the headwind that builds up to 80 km/h during the crossing of Taitapu, Motukarara, Ataahua and Birdlings flat, these are all flat areas, with very far and low mountains around, that creates the perfect "desert like" winds, making it that much harder to pedal  all the way to Little river, which was the place i had in mind to do a good lunch break, and by the time i got there which makes up for 2/3 of the way i was very tired and already sore from top to bottom.

   I considered that a good strategy though, cuz there's a few cafes and a couple of stores, to pick up some extra goods and refill the water supply, plus the Little River old train station, is a beautiful historic place worth to stop by. After having my lunch, i got in one of the stores to get me some powerade,  i was craving an ice cold isotonic drink, and asked the guy from the store how long did i had to go, even though i had a good idea, i wanted to know in km, he replied:

"it's 28 k's but so far you've done the easy part, from here it's uphill"

   Man he was not kidding, as i said i knew what was coming having done the road by car before, but it is totally different to do it on a bike right?! After leaving the store it took me about 15 min to reach the beginning of the hill, the first feeling of excitement had vanished from me within the first 3-4 k's as the steep hill was revealed ahead of me, the sun in New Zealand is very strong for the whole in the Ozone Layer above this country, and is no lesser of an adversity, you'll need a lot of liquid to boost your way to the top.

Challenge set, challenge done!!!

 As I pedaled up and up, i felt like it was an endless hill leading up to one of the highest places on earth, the summit is only about 476 mt, but it goes all around the mountain range, and it creates the illusion of an abrupt end, when u look up and you see no more way up, but actually it turns to yet another side with more and more incline planes.

   Finally after what it felt like hours and much road up, i had reached the summit, and the prospect of stopping for a drink at the Hilltop restaurant remained only an idea, i did stop for a couple of pictures for the view was too precious to not be appreciated specially after the effort done, but after five minutes there before I could think of anything else I felt a surge of energy towards the BEST part of the whole thing... Downhill !

   Ohhhh bless gravity with it's law for the way down was a rush of positive feelings that reanimated my damp spirit after the though way up, in terms of energy i was pretty good the worst when it comes to long distances is the mental state, and my strategy is to think of "rewards", such as ; "if i make to that part i'll stop for a drink" or "after going up, i'm going down!!!", but more than anything the feeling of accomplishment after setting yourself a challenge like this.

It was a 4 and a half hours trip, i'm thoroughly sore, got sunburns that makes me look like i'm dressed when i'm naked, but i made it!

C ya folks

Traditional or not make your own SUSHI!

It's time for the Post of the week folks, and as last week i did say i was going to post a recipe but didn't, here we go for a recipe on the basics for SUSHI, or Makimono to be more precise. As some of you may know, and for those who don't, Sushi comes from an ancient grammatical form that translates to "it's sour", which is due to the seasoning with rice vinegar, but also Sushi is basically all forms of Japanese Rice and raw seafood in general, Makimonos are the ones that you roll up, ramifying to Hossomaki (the thin ones), Futomaki(the large ones), Nigirizushi are the ones with a rice oval shape on the bottom and seafood on top, and so on!!!

Anyway folks, doing sushi it's really not that hard, i had my first try today and was very pleased with the result, and for that reason i come to thee in order to show you how simple it can be.

First and foremost the rice, make sure you have SUSHI rice and no other, with about 1 Kg you can feed well around 10 people, and as for the filling it can be anything u want, the traditional ones are compulsory if you are trying to become a great sushi men, but if u are not Japanese than u have failed the quest already(haha), Japanese people are ultimately traditional and therefore there isn't much space for recognition as a sushi man when u are not from or related to the country, so if u feel like making beef sushi by all means go ahead!

Traditional or not make your own SUSHI! part 2

The Ratio to cook the Rice is 1/1, which means equal parts of water and rice, previously washed with running water, using a lid on simmering fire, make sure to look every now and then, you don't want to burn the rice right?!

For the seasoning you'll need:
-90 ml rice vinegar
-75 gr sugar
-25 gr salt

Dissolve all the elements with low degree of heat (microwave or fire). Now that the rice is cooked get all of it into a big/large bowl and slowly add the "sauce/seasoning" to it, you should fold the rice gently in order to keep the grains whole as oppose to mash them, and while you do it get something to fan it together (either you or someone else), the rice should be lowered to around 38 C degrees, to prevent it from cooking more.


Great, with all of that done now u just have to roll them right?! Well rolling them is really not that hard with the right tools, you will need a bamboo mat (makisu), and nori, which is the seaweed sheet.

Wet your hands to make it easier to manipulate the rice and Spread a layer on top of the nori, leaving around 2cm on the top of the nori, rice free. Start rolling the mat forward keeping a tight grip on the food inside (filling),  after half way through it bring the whole thing near the bottom edge of the mat and finish to roll all the way!

It's kinda hard to actually explain this with photos, check out Youtube for videos on how to Roll sushi, there's loads of it and you'll get the hang of it.

That's all for now, i hope this will help ya with making this delicious treat, and if u are having any trouble with the rolling then make a rice "ball" put some protein or vegie on top and eat it, it might not look as good as if u were rolling but it will still taste as good!

P.S.: the first pic is a sketch on a Japanese looking-like village, and the other ones r my sushi from today!

Ciao

Pondering about life! ...as usual!

Lately i've been working for my current employer in two of her business, one is the Restaurant Hay's which is in Christchurch and i'm doing 3 to 4 days, and the other is the Duvauchelle store and cafe, down near Akaroa which i also do 3-4 days a week.

Akaroa is a very charming country place, small little town, a couple hundreds of people, if that much, and i was thinking being a city kind of guy, how funny is that i'm all the way across the world working on a country town, and how that makes me feel a bit like i'm part of "Smallville" the tv show, haha it's so funny that i've always thought of living in big cities around the globe, and never in the past i actually thought of New Zealand, what's to say about the country side of a 4 million people country?!

The city of Rio by itself has 10.000.000 people, and i've always been raised surrounded by skyscrapers, people in suits, traffic jams of kilometers when u don't get to go past 2nd gear, malls everywhere, movie theaters for 150 people in places that the hot movies would be displayed in 4-6 rooms, so u'll always find a session that agrees with your scheduelle, bars, restaurants, night clubs, public transportation 24 hours, the list of commodities in a big city like Rio is seriously immense, hence me finding funny being on a small place like Akaroa!

But u know i find that for the simple fact that i've seen myself in various scenarios like this, i can sort of grasp how amazing the world is, and that's why i love travelling so much!

Anyways that's about it for now, later this week i come back with a recipe or something!

cheers!

It's a long way to the top if u wanna Rock'n Roll! part 1

Hi to all,

So as i previously said on my last post, i got a relocation deal on a car, tickets to the Big Day Out in Auckland, my license translated, my boss's permission to take four days off and my plane ticket back home!

This was by far one of the best experiences of my life, what a great way to see a country like New Zealand, I've always been a sucker for Road Trips and this one was an opportunity i could not miss.

Wednesday early morning i woke up, got on the rental car, picked up my friend Robin, and started the first part of the trip from Christchurch to Auckland, which by the way it was not only 600km but over a 1000km instead. From Christchurch to Picton were 344 km, which most people told me it would take me about 4 maybe even 5 hours to do so, only that i made it in less than 4, we were so ahead of scheduelle by the time we got to Blenheim, which is on the Marlborough region the most famous wine region of NZ,  that we picked one winery to stop by and do some tasting, we tasted about 12 wines, but in the actual tasting way, which means spitting the wine instead of drinking it. The Gewürztraminer we tried appeal so much to me that we bought a bottle, and Sue the lady that was serving us, made it 7 NZD$ cheaper which was a pretty good deal hehe.

From the winery to the ferry was only about half an hour. Once on board it felt a bit weird to see the familiar emergency signs, the very same which i lived by on ships for 6 years, a lot of the experience on the ferry reminded me of my "ship's life", and for that the ride was quite fun. The crossing from the south to the north island of NZ takes about 3 hours, and it sets from Picton to finish in Wellington the capital and base of operations for one of the most amazing directors of all times Peter Jackson (I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings)

Once we arrived in Wellington we went straight to the Weta Cave (PJ's workshop), took heaps of pics, and headed for the Backpackers we had booked. We got there dropped our bags in the room and left for a walk along the Harbor, Wellington seems a very nice place and i definitely have to stop by there with more time. After some roaming around we went to Cuba st, the main street for good and best bar and restaurants, set down at a nice place for some really good pizza and a Italian Sangiovese wine, got back to the Backpacker and went to bed.

Next morning we woke finished packing and left the backpacker to find out we had a Flat tire, which cost us extra time in the city and 160 bucks for the new tire, which reminds me to inform you that always plan for more money than what u think u'll be spending.

We were on the road by noon, and decided to follow the advice from some people and take the SH 32 and go around the Tongariro national park(where Mordor from LOTR was shot) and the great lake Taupo, beautiful scenery folks NZ is an amazing country for a Road trip. 

Within 6 hours and quite a few K's of driving done, we were checking on the map to figure where was the Backpacker we had booked for Hamilton, only to find out that it would deviate us for a good few K's, so instead we decided to call the backpacker in Auckland to see if they would have a spare room for the nite before the one we had booked and fortunately they did, so we kept on the road and around 10 in the evening  of the day before the BDO we were in Auckland. 

Met up some great people there and later met up with a friend, Michael who's been living in Auckland for the past couple of months, so gave a quick nite tour around the city up till 2 am when we got back and went to bed.

Continues below......

It's a long way to the top if u wanna Rock'n Roll! part 2

Friday the Big Day Out was only a few hours away from start, so we figure out what to do, walk to downtown and took the train all the way to Mt Smart Stadium, there was n way to get lost on this folks this is one of those events that mobilizes huge crowds, all with the same objective which in this case was to Rock'n roll, we all got of the train and marched with great eager for what awaited about 300 mt away from us.

We passed the whole security check thing and the doors of a beautiful day were open, so much to do, it was hard to figure out where to go first, like kids in a toy store, we bounced on to the queue for one the Carnival rides they had, and then onto the next one, roamed around checking out the amalgam of different people going about their business, all kinds of "tribes" looking for they places in this massive area where the BIG DAY OUT was set.

We decided to follow the path that lead us to the main stages, in good time to catch the beginning of  AIRBOURNE and i gotta say i wasn't that excited about them, but those guys rocked really hard, worth mention the lead guitar and vocals climbing on the scaffold next to the stage and doing a solo from the very top of it, about 15 mt of the ground, as well the part where he would smash cans of beer with his head and throw in the crowd saying "have a beer!"

After Airbourne it was Deftones, which i like but don't know many of the songs, so i stayed back and lay down on the grass to chill and ponder upon this amazing experience i was having, u should always take the time to appreciate the beauty of living, the things u are doing and all that's surrounding u.

Around 4:30 WOLFMOTHER started and i was sitting for a bit on the benches, but couldn't keep sitting as wolfmother took the stage with a lot of power, with their Rock'n roll very much like the late 60's early 70's. That was the band i was most looking forward to, and my expectations were met with one amazing concert.

The rest of the day was filled with other great bands, like Jonh Buttler trio, Shihad, Iggy pop that had his whole stage crowded with fans that he invited up himself, Ramstein which is a Techno-metal German band with a thing for fire and explosions that makes up for a rather entertaining concert, in between them and the last band for the day me and Robin went to the so called silent disco, which consists of a "disco" where the only music u hear comes from the headsets they give u at the entrance, finally for the end of it all Tool played under very heavy rain, and i stayed up to almost the last song but thought it would be smart to leave a little before everything was finished in order to avoid the massive crowd that would be on the trains to back.

Once back in the city center Michael met us again, and we were utterly soaked, cold and famished, so he took us to a cozy Japanese restaurant where we had some Lamen and hot sake and with that in almost no time we could feel the warmth again. Nevertheless after such a day and a hot meal the only thing i could think of was my bed back at the hostel/BP.

Next morning we woke up very lazily at nine to realize that our flight was at 11 instead of 11:30 as we thought, the stress built up on us both as we where driving around to find the place for the drop off of the car, Michael once again helped us out by showing us the place to drop the car and rushing to the airport with us. When we got out of his car we ran as fast as possible to the Air New Zealand counter, and fortunately we made it on time to catch the plane only for the fact that we didn't had to check in our bags as they were small enough to fit in the over head compartment. The flight home was definitely a pleasure cuz after driving 1.085 km the only thing i wanted to do was appreciate the view and the pleasure of not being in charge hehe!

So this concludes my great adventure road trip to rock in Auckland with a few thousand of people on sucha celebrated festival as the Big Day Out, and i'm am truly glad to have done it, for it is now one the most remarkable experiences of my life!

Take a shot at doing something alike as i know none can regret this!

Cheers fellas!

Where there is a will there is a way!

Kia ora,

Just when i thought there was no way and thought i would lose 150 $ bucks on the ticket to the big day out that i would not be able to attend, my new friend Kay, gave me an idea of how could i do it, that idea was nothing but a struck of brilliance, a bright flashy light that lit an entire huge dark room.

About 2 months ago i bought tickets to the BIG DAY OUT, a well known music festival that happens every summer in Auckland. Immerse on too much work between the 2 jobs i had on the month of December, i completely overlooked on finding me a flight to Auckland, and as it could not be different the prices raise up exponentially over the first weeks of January, and now it would cost nothing less than 600 $ to fly there and back, man that's way too much, and therefore i decided to settle for not going.

On the last weekend i was at Akaroa sitting on a porch, outside the Duvacheulle store and cafe, appreciating the amazing sight of the sun setting in between the mountains that once where the crater of a volcano reflecting the orange and reddish color on the waters of the bay, when Kay gave me the idea of "grabbing one of those relocation deals". Basically it consists of driving a rental car for free to it's original place, which in my case is gonna be drive from here Christchurch, over half of the country all the way to Auckland. That's a perfect Rock'n roll trip as I've always wanted to do, next Thursday i'll be getting on a car to drive for over 600 km, ride with the car on a ferry, see amazing landscapes on this country enjoying a great soundtrack which i'm already working on as i write this!!!

This morning i called my boss and sorted the days off i'll need, the car deal, the flight tickets back to here and got my license translated, so from today i start the countdown to one of the best road trips of my life!

Where there is a will there is a way, believe in that sentence folks cuz it pays off really well!

PS: the photo up top is actually four different pics that i "photoshopped" to piece them together, if u look closely u'll see that some clouds are not real, i made some up to cover differences between pics!

cheers to all!

New year, new look!

Hya folks,

    So here we are 2011, a new year starts, and i decided to come up with a new look for my blog a more clean one, hope u guys like it!
   With the beginning of a new decade i cannot help but feel hopeful again, isn't it funny that only because we restart the count of months on our calendars we feel like is a fresh start, i mean isn't it common to say "a whole new year ahead of u" as in this is a total new beginning, forgiving and forgetting the mistakes committed over the year past.

   The other day as i was sitting outside on the porch at late night, tired yet sleepless, with a full bottle of an ice cold beer, after a loooong 16 hour work journey between my 2 jobs, contemplating the wonders of this new year, up till when i stopped to think of the "bad years" i've had, only to realize that i never had a bad year. Honestly we all have problems and obstacles in life but 365 days of bad is way too much for a person alone. Companies , industries, crops, farms, and so on have bad years, if you consider to compare with other years that profit wise were better, but us we go through a few bad things in a year, but there is always good things to look forward to right?! At least i would like to think so, and from this i send my best wishes for a great year in general for all of those that have the hope for it, specially those that have not had much luck over 2010.

latest facts of me life:

I changed the look of the blog cuz i thought it would be nice to start the year with something special;

Finally done working on of the jobs, which means that i have a normal life again;

Just finish to re-read Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, and it's really a great book to my view!

The drawing above is based on the book/movie by Steig Larsson "The girl with the dragon tattoo"

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!

Hi there Everyone,

So this is the last post of 2010, or the first of 2011 hehe! Thing is as i'm writing this post it currently has been the 1st of Jan for 12:30 hours over here, but it is still the evening of the 31st of Dec 2010 on the west side of the world, where i come from hehe!

Anyways i just wanted to post before the week was done, and i won't bother u with much info, 2010 has been an interesting year but i hope 2011 to be much much better for all of us.

The pics above are of my new work place, the Choc torte and Creme Brulleé are two of the desserts we have in the menu there!

Just as a small note, as i was writing this my I tunes was on and on random, as the Star wars theme is on my music library it came up on the speakers, and my friend Alana says "u are such a geek", which i reply by saying
"i am a big, huge, motherfucking astronomically massive geek!" and proud of it hehe!

Anyways folks there  is no denying who u are, u know be whomever u want to be and be happy with it!

Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho,

This week since is Christmas tomorrow, as promised i'm posting a traditional Christmas treat all the way from Brazil.

This Recipe/illustration was done for the Holiday contest at http://www.theydrawandcook.com/ and is self explanatory.

Rabanadas are something that we usually have on Christmas morning right before hitting the beach, as a kid growing up on the tropical weather, Christmas and New years are a synonymous of Summer time, our Christmas trees in Brazil r usually the coconut and palm trees decorated with Christmas lights hehe!

Anyways Merry Christmas to all and and to all a good night!

cheers!

Strawberries and chocolate!

OHH hello folks!

This week is gonna be a quick one, afraid of sounding like a whiny person i'll say this first, I took the responsibility of working two jobs, I decided i could do it, but the tiredness is kinda getting a hold of me, as i see myself doing nothing on my very short free time, honestly i haven't draw much lately, i haven't been to the gym in the last 2 weeks, cuz my very little free time, i'm pretty much using for activities that i don't have to do much, and i can't wait to finish working at one of the places to go back to having free time and disposition to do other stuff!

Said that, let's go for this weeks post which is a dessert pizza, the way we do it in Brazil!

U'll need:
-1 can of condensed milk
-5 or 6 Tbs of chocolate powder(not cocoa powder, rather the one u drink with milk)
-100 gr of butter
-1 box of strawberries
-1 pizza disc plain


Get the Condensed milk, chocolate and butter all in a pan and over simmering fire keep stirring untill it thickens enough that on your stir u can see the bottom of the pan. Set that aside for a moment. Cut the strawberries however u like it, presentation is all up to whomever is doing it, if u want to do it like mine from the pic above then go ahead, if u think u would like to see a different look by all means go ahead, the overall taste will be the same. Spread the Chocolate mix over the pizza, place the strawberries on top, take a quick pic if u like what u see, u can also sprinkle the whole thing with some choc chunks, small ones though so when they go through the oven they'll get crispy on the outside and melting on the inside. Place your pizza on a preheated oven at around 180 C/350 F, for not longer than 12-15 minutes and finally have at it!

U can whip some Cream and have that with or have it with plain vanilla ice cream, dessert pizzas are common in pizzerias back home(Brazil), they'll do loads of different flavors and usually serve them with the whipped cream!

To finish it off, i'll be posting a Christmas Recipe probably on Friday, which was my recipe/illustration for the blog "They draw and cook", so come back to me here on the end of the week and then i'll wish guys all the good thoughts customarily at this time of the year!

cheers to all!

Finally done!

Wow it has been a rush doing two jobs over the last couple of weeks, it's quite funny how sometimes your mind can wander to all different kinds of thoughts, like for example the other day i caught myself thinking about how it makes me feel going to one job in the morning and another one at night, and as a geek that i am, regarding my passion for comic books, animations, games and so on, i kept thinking that i'm like a "super hero" with double identities, hehe!


One is Felipe the cafe worker, making paninis, quiches and sandwiches during the morning period, and then when the night starts to take place, i put on my Chef's jacket and become FELIPE THE CHEF!!! hahaha LOL

Anyways don't have much more to say for the moment besides that i started re-reading the last Harry Potter, as i'm about to go see the movie next weekend, and with my well deserved FULL DAY OFF from both jobs, i got to finish my piece on Hisagi Shuuhei, my fav chara. on one of my fav animation!

Hope u guys dig, soon, i'll post a recipe!

cheers y'all!

The naked Chef!

Hello to all, what's up?!

I Had a pretty good weekend, Lately i've been in a such a great mood for the fact that it seems that things are finally turning up to the way i want them to be, i'm truly enjoying the company of me flat mates, the house and all, got a new job and this one as a proper chef, making more money with that and spending less than what i was spending before, which means more money for me, i finally found time to finish the x-mas illustration for They Draw and cook, and already got an email from Nate saying that he got my email, so for now i just have to wait till i see my illustration there, as for showing you guys, over here, i'll leave for the 24 of this month, cuz it's a x-mas recipe right!

U know how Jamie Oliver use to call himself the naked Chef?! Since pretty much then i've had the idea of doing a pic like this one above (which i know that by now there r many like this), and finally i got around to do it. I had just come from a little bike ride, and i was starving, so to get something going before i started my shower, i chopped up some onions to season and cook some white rice, and decided to do this pic, hehe!

To finish it off, i bought a scanner cuz being honest after having used the one on my previous flat i couldn't go back to simply taking pictures of my drawings, i get such a better quality from scanning them ya know, here's a little example of it:

So my advice is if u draw and like to post your stuff on the net, get yourself one, it's worth it!

And with my scanner fully operational, i've got quite a few drawings to scan and color for the moment, hard will be to find time between the new job and the old one haha!

cheers everybody!

The fusion of cuisines!

Hello to all,

As the post from this Wednesday felt a bit philosophical, and a bit sad to me, i decide to do another post this one being a recipe, and the recipe i choose to share this time is Shrimp/Prawns Stroganoff.

The tittle fusion cuisine, refers to using original techniques from the origin of the dish, using new elements present on the country the "old-new" recipe is being done, or so combining both to come up with a third one.

Originally Stroganoff is a Russian recipe created in 1861, and it was beef cubes browned on a frying pan, finalized by bouillon(broth) and mustard with a little touch of sour cream. with the fall of the Russian empire the dish gained a lot of popularity around the globe, and as it went around "suffered" variations from its original recipes. One of the countries that came to be a largely known Stroganoff eating country is my very own BRAZIL.

Therefore the recipe presented to thee on this blog is Brazilian! 

Now in Brazil we have some variations to the dish such as chicken and prawns, chicken being the most affordable one has definitely the top rank of most popular, but i decided to do the prawns/shrimp recipe over here.

For 3-4 people u'll need:

600gr of prawns or shrimp 

400gr of  heavy whipping cream

1 onion and a couple of garlic cloves chopped fine

150 gr of tomato paste(or ketchup if u like the sweetness) 

100gr of cream cheese

dash of Worcestershire sauce

juice of one lemon

half bunch of Italian parsley chopped

1 tbs of brandy

olive oil

salt & pepper

Now if u bought them prawns "dirty"(which means with the shelf), 1 kg makes for around 500-600 gr of prawns itself, and u can prepare some broth to add on flavor to the dish, and also save the broth to make other dishes later on, u can freeze the broth in ice cubes, to make it easier to use it later. To make the broth start by peeling them and once peeled, fry the shelves on olive oil with a little bit of the onions and salt, add water and let it reach boil, then bring the broth to a simmer for another 10 min or so.

Season the prawns with lemon juice, salt and pepper, fry them on a very hot pot with olive oil, onions and garlic for a couple of minutes, add the brandy and let the alcohol evaporate for another minute,the brandy will add up to the flavor of the dish, and if it catches on fire, don't worry but keep your face away from the pot when adding that (u don't want to loose your eyebrows right?! hehe).

After that add the heavy cream, a ladle of prawns broth (if u made some, if not just a bit of water will do), the Worcestershire sauce and the tomato paste or ketchup (in Brazil is more common to just use ketchup, particularly i like the ketchup cuz it brings out a bit of sweetness to the dish), let it cook on simmering fire for a few minutes to reduce it a bit, and finalize it with the cream cheese and chopped parsley, saving a bit of the parsley for the decoration of the dish. U don't have to wait much just stir to incorporate and dissolve the cream cheese well. Check for salt and pepper, add some if needed, and dig in.

In Brazil we serve it with plain white rice, or potatoes either fried, roasted or rosti, if u find big potatoes my opinion is for u to roast them whole with skin and all, once soft, cut a "lid" on them and scrape a bit of the inside to make room for the Stroganoff, place a bit of butter mixed with some chives inside the potato and pour the prawns with the sauce inside, eat it out of it... uhhhhh delish hehe!   

We've come to the end of this recipe, remember to enjoy it, while u do it, put on some music and have some wine, it will enhance the experience, at least that's what i can say for myself!

cheers everybody!

High & low tides of life!

Living ain't easy but if u cherish all the good times and learn from the bad ones, u'll feel better about how you're passage on life is going. I mean seriously i tittled this blog "Art of Living" because i really feel like one that has learned ways to enjoy life as much as possible, but not everything is smiles and laughs, and there's no way u will ever go through an entire life without being affected by the bad aspects of...  huuh.....  life pretty much.

I see it this way, waves of fun and excitement hit you with a certain frequency right, but there are other waves filled with grief, sorrow and sadness that will hit u eventually, and it can only be this way, for if u don't know bad then how will u know what's good?! As a normal person i gotta admit that i haven't been having the best experience here in NEW ZEALAND, having to deal with all the fees of moving in here, getting visas and all, has made me a bit negative about the whole deal, i try not to show it too much, cuz i believe that thinking positively works very well, and thinking negatively can only attract more prejudice to yourself.

For pretty much the past couple of months, i haven't had much of a social life simply because i haven't been able to afford to have one. And even though i have enjoyed the people that i work with at the Antarctic Center, i 'm not pleased with not getting back in touch with actual Cheffing. I miss soo much working with an à la carte  restaurant and feeling the rush of making something with a beautiful combination of taste, textures, aroma and presentation, that working with something that's not that, yet again, is a bit frustrating.

But anyways today i had my "first day" at what's going to be my next job, and it is as a Chef in a proper restaurant!!! We had a dinner with a set menu for about 50 people, and everything went great,we did everything well, the dishes looked and tasted amazing, there was a professional photographer taking shots of us, and when being introduced as the chefs who cooked the meal to the clients we were applauded! IT FELT GREAT!

So Now i`m starting to feel like i'm back on top, a high wave of great experience has hit me again, and soon this will turn into a great part of my life, and as for the bad part about being an immigrant, i'm learning from it, and hopefully it's making me a better person!!

this is enough for now, for the next post i'll do a recipe as it have been a while since last i posted one!

cheers to all, and a good night(or day) ; )

BTW the pic above is a photo manipulation of me and my friends as kings of yore!