Daily Loaf

This year, the Japanese psychedelic-metal collective Acid Mothers Temple stayed busier than most and released four albums.

Their latest, Dark Side of the Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? is unaltered in the slightest from their innumerable previous outputs, and if anything, their style – a distinct rupture of metallic speed – has swelled into an even more berserk tempest.

No other band makes music so extreme; not extreme like a Mountain Dew commercial, but more comparable to the overzealous pursuit of distilling only what is required to showcase a lack of moderation.

There are no interludes, no breakdowns, no calm patches, no introspection, and not an iota of breathing room, because once Dark Side awakens, every instant fires full throttle, with a demented treatment of overlapping guitars charging imponderable beats-per-minute, the swarm of fizzy intergalactic effervescence, and the unequivocal jangle of tribal psychedelia heard in pastoral Bavarian communes during the late ’60s. Read the rest of this entry »

As the temperature starts to rise (at least in this part of the country), its time for some refreshing and simple dishes for those hotter days, like my Asian-inspired cold soba noodle salad. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour and have a heartier, more substantial texture than regular pasta noodles. In Japan, they’re used in a variety of ways throughout the year: cold in the summer in a salad (like this one) or hot in a soup or broth in the winter months, and in a multitude of variations. Surprisingly enough, soba noodles are now more widely available now bring in the ethnic aisle many grocery stores. Or you could take a culinary adventure to your local Asian market and pick up other interesting ingredients to play with.

Read the rest of this entry »

FXCuisine.com, a site loaded with culinary video and articles, put up a photo-essay of a Japanese blademaster lovingly hand-making the kinds of kitchen knives you won’t see in the stores, from forging, to sharpening, to carving the handle to engraving the blade. A lot of work, but that’s just the kind of labor I expect when I shell out $100-200 or more for an onion-chopper. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to be the iron chef of your kitchen, you need to find your local Asian supermarket. Tampa has quite a few of them, usually Chinese- or Vietnamese-owned. Every foodie should have one of these on their shortlist. Oceanic Market is mine.

I was first introduced to Oceanic by a Vietnamese friend and have been going there every weekend since. Not strictly Chinese, the market is more a pan-Asian shopping spot, offering everything from ingredients for sushi to Szechuan peppercorns and wood ear mushrooms. The store has a produce department that offers a wide variety of hard to find yams, herbs and vegetables at very cheap prices, as well as a deli and a meat department.

Located in a transitional area just north of downtown Tampa, Read the rest of this entry »