Nobay Mini Tour Day Two

Refreshed as I'd slept on a transatlantic red-eye in coach on United, I get up and start readying myself to leave. I begin to have those nagging thoughts about bringing too much shit with me. Jason makes us a killer cup of coffee, we eat some rehydrated cardboard flake and we get on the road.



After a quick stop at Breaking Away Bicycles for a barrel adjuster, we climb out of Fairfax. I've done this climb a few times before but never loaded. Fortunately there are no million dollar wild fires today, but that doesn't mean it's not hot, the road kill still manages a nice slow braise on the pavement. Not that I've ever been a fan of climbing, but this was not part of the "fun" people talk about while touring. Still once you do it, the long downhill into the redwoods is like drinking ice cold beer.



We arrive at Samuel P. Taylor park and finagle our way into a campsite. Our chase car filled with real ice cold beer is still miles away. In the meantime Brad and I jam to Pt. Reyes Station for tonight's dinner. On route, like a mirage rising out of the desert, we are greeted with the Marin Sun Farms Butcher Shop. If you are a vegetarian, skip this next part, unless you still like meat. In which case, you should read this while eating a block of seitan.



Unlike a mirage in the desert, this one is filled with grass feed meats from within a few miles. After riding in the early evening wind tunnel to the coast we could only pray it was open, It was nearly 6 pm. Like perfectly fried strips of bacon, we are greeted with a wonderland of fresh meats of every specie. Rib-eyes and tenderloins are trimmed before our eyes as if a meat genie was granting wishes. The bill for six pounds isn't awful, it's ridiculous — but worth it.



We pick up tots, veggies, and a 12 pack of beer just in case the car has not arrived by the time we get back. This would be a recurring theme. It also was something that I've learned is complete idiotic. Less idiotic was stopping for pot-stickers from the racist typography food truck. After our stickers we jam the 8 miles back to camp and our chase car has arrived with the women and ice cold beer. It was better than a podium ceremony.



A little shadow theater at Jason's Costco Tent Palace provides some pre-dinner entertainment, or something. If you're a vegetarian who has skipped the preceding sections continue here and look at this f---ing meat. Expertly prepared by camp chef Brad, the meats were a welcomed protein boost after a hard day on the bike.



We sit with our bellies full of meat and potatoes, eyes glazing over with campfire, it's like TV but hotter. I'm tired as hell today but at least I've showered.

Nobay Mini Tour Day One

No matter how old you get, it seems, there are never a shortage of things to remind you that you're but a greenhorn on this mud-ball. Cycling is one of those things that will continually show you where your green spots are. I've recently gotten into touring on bicycle and even after ten or so years and a few thousand miles on a bike, I'm still finding new things to learn about being on one.



A couple of weeks ago I set out on five day camping trip on my Bridgestone XO-1 with three tourmates, Dennis, Seth, and Jason. The plan was to bike to Vallejo and take the ferry back to SF camping along the way. We hit good weather despite the weatherman's curses, and deftly stayed the one night it rained at a great motel.

Day one starts a bowl of cereal and a banana. The weather is great and I'm feeling prepared for the trip. Since we'll be local I somehow feel less worried about forgetting something. Perhaps it was carrying all my crap downstairs and loading my bike that helped. Half a block down the street I began to worry I was taking too much.



After an immediate flat and a tire change, we are greeted with a great pint and rations at Marin Brewing in Larkspur. The riding is great, the weather is too, I daydream about the prisoners at San Quentin; that's gotta be where one would want to go to prison.



We arrive at China Camp bathed in a golden sunset to welcoming campsite hosts. We were the only ones to arrive on bicycle that evening, and while we went mostly unnoticed at first, everyone noticed us as we cruised by them fully loaded, many of them green-eyed, awkwardly carrying with their inflated-in-the-car-air-mattresses; dragging trash bins they borrowed from our camp hosts filled their camping effects.



We're at site 4, a slightly elevated site with a narrow un-even path through tall grass and a small brook to our clearing, great for a dicey end to a day of riding on the road. Dennis and Jason unload and get some firewood. Brad, who had been sleeping on a conference call until late in the afternoon before leaving, arrived just minutes after us. He is welcomed by a smokescreen of whining mosquitos; I was almost certain Brad was going to find a hotel. I hand him my insect repellent (that's a lesson I learned on my last tour). He proceeded to also repel the mosquitos from the inside with a generous dose of Maker's Mark, I guess that worked for him.

After dropping our meat in the fire and a few beers, we put Brad in the tent and headed out for a night ride, down the dicey narrow path over a small brook to the main road. Riding in the pitch blackness without lights is made possible by a couple of beers to impair your judgment and the magic of the human eye. Fortunately we decided that we'd use lights on the way back to camp.



Sleeping in a tent while camping is like a more comfortable version of sleeping on a plane. It's slightly less uncomfortable, but it's definitely not sleeping in a real bed. I understand the aesthetic of sleeping in the great outdoors, but I'll be honest, I'm not hard like that.

Dark

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The beards are good too.

Recipe Time! Spam Musubi

Musubi is a staple of the Hawaii brown bag lunch. Over the last 30 years the Spam Musubi has indelibly stamped itself on the local Hawaii menu. They are great snacks, highly mobile, and filling.

Spam Musubi Fo' Real

1 Can of Spam. Has to be the real thing. No substitutes.
1 Pkg. Roasted Nori Sheets (any kine brand is okay)
3 cups white short grain rice (any kine brand is okay)
Shoyu
Sugar
Salt

Equipment:
Musubi Mold
Rice Paddle
Knife
Cup of water (not for drinking)
Beer (for drinking)

Start by cooking the rice perfectly, seriously, Spam Musubi is basically just rice and meat. Rice usually takes anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes to prepare. In this time you can drink beer, or start prepping your protein.

After your beer, cut the loaf of spam into slices with round corners. If you have square corners after you've cut your first slice you should start over, your Spam is ruined. Heat a frying pan on medium heat and fry slices of spam, do not add oil, you do not want to spoil the delicate flavors of your Spam. As your Spam cooks it will shrink, at this point coat with shoyu, sprinkle sugar over each piece, and flip. Let this sit for a few seconds to carmelize, but not for too long, if you burn your glaze it'll be bitter. Repeat the glaze on the opposite side, remove from pan, and place onto a paper towel. Open a new beer if necessary.

Prepare your station with your sheets of nori, your musubi mold, a cup of water, rice paddle, knife, and a level cutting board. The cup of water is not for drinking, it's to keep your tools wet so they don't stick to your rice. Your beer is for drinking. Fold about a teaspoon of salt into your rice while it's hot, once it cools it will set up and become difficult to mix. You don't have to add this salt, but it'll make your musubi last longer in your lunch bag without refrigeration.

Assembling your musubi doesn't require a college degree (if it did, it would never exist!), lay the mold perpendicularly across your sheet of nori, fill with a layer of rice, lay down the Spam, another layer of rice, and compress. Fold over the ends of the nori and use a little water to seal it shut. Cut in half or fourths and serve.

While I love Spam Musubi, its ingredients exceed my recommended daily allowance for sodium induced flavor subtleties. To make the recipe more sustainable in my daily diet I use a 2 to 1 ratio of short grain brown to white rice. The cup of white works well to give it enough body to hold itself together and make it feel more accepted. Instead of Spam, I use tofu, insert obligatory Trader Joe's joke here.

Wrap your tofu in a clean dish towel and press with something heavy. I use my cast iron pans for about 20-25 minutes. Cut tofu into Spam-esque slices. If you don't have rounded corners on your tofu slices you should make it so. The perfect corner radius is vital to evoke the subtle flavors of Spam. Slicing the tofu also speeds up your marination time.

Marinate tofu in shoyu for about a half hour or longer. Heat a frying pan and fry tofu in your choice of oil. I recommend bacon fat or left-over Spam drippings if you have them (I didn't say this was vegetarian). Create the same shoyu sugar glaze as described above with your tofu slices. Assemble as usual or with options.

You can add a number of things to modify your musubi:
Teriyaki Sauce
Furikake
Pickles
Thinly Fried Scrambled Eggs
Portuguese Sausage
Kalua Pig
Mac Salad

Spam musubi is a great way to pack a lunch or take with you on a flight, I'd take a Spam musubi over an iPod in my bag any day.



Update: There's some pretty hilarious commentary on BoingBoing about Spam Musubi. Who would have thought this simple favorite could be so polarizing. Thanks Pesco!

daily yarly

South Swell

I got to take Seth out to catch a wave while back home in Hawai`i. Despite growing up on an island even despite being an a lava tube (see above) he'd never caught a wave on a boogie board, or any sort of board. Fortunately the tail end of a swell was in the cards on the last day of his trip. He'd change at the Zippy's and jump on a plane for SF. Days before I showed him a little about body boarding.

Sandy's 6 Days Earlier:



The shore-pound at Sandy's on the first day of the swell were easily 4-6 feet with a few big ones breaking on the outside. There were a ton of people in the water and on the beach and the weather was absolutely perfect.


This guy was always on top of the big clean ones. Good wave selection and always tucked into the right places at the right times.


The body surfers were also out for the action.


More than a five head. Solid 4 footer in the ole days.

We caught the tail end of this swell, an early spring surprise for the townies. I caught a look on Seth's face that I recognized from my first wave: disbelief. Not only was he surprised this worked, but that he in fact suddenly understood how it worked.

dail yarly 3d