i have disappeared off the face of the planet i know. and for that i am sorry. midterm celebrations and the following drama have ensued many this past week. and once again the fall allergies that never haunted me in california have invaded all my senses. yuck. anyhow, i am right now at school doing some preparation for the cold war memeorial design that i am going to participate in. ok break time is over...back to work.

:: notes for mee krob dinner tonite, tonite ::



ingredients

6 ounces of sen mee (rice vermicelli noodles)
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons of kratiem dong (pickled garlic), thinly sliced
3 tablespoons of shallots (purple onions), sliced thinly
4 ounces of belly pork, cut into small dice
4 ounces of medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

sauce

1 tomato
2 tablespoons tamarind juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons palm sugar
1 tablespoon citrus zest (preferably kaffir lime)
1 tablespoon fish sauce

garnish

thinly sliced green onions, and red and green chilis julienned.
half a cup of hard tofu, cubed.

Method

Heat about 3 cups of peanut oil until very hot (preferably smoking),
then whilst it is heating, crush the noodles in a large plastic bag.

Drop the noodles, a small quantity at a time, into the hot oil. They
immediately puff up and turn golden brown. Remove at once with a slotted
spoon, or the type of wire strainer available from Chinese hardware
stores.

When all the noodles have been cooked and set aside to drain on kitchen
paper, drizzle the egg into the oil to form a ribbon of cooked egg, then
take it from the oil and chop it up.

Finally deep fry the pieces of tofu until golden brown and set aside.

Now pour off and reserve all but a little of the oil, and stir fry the
garlic pickle and shallots. Next stir fry the pork until the fat is firm
and the meat cooked to your taste. Stir fry the shrimp briefly until
they turn pink.

Mix the cooked ingredients, except the tofu, and transfer to a serving
platter.

Combine the ingredients of the sauce, and place it in a small bowl so
the diners may ladle it over the food as required (if you do it too
early the noodles will go soggy).

Garnish the mee krob with the green onions, chilis and cooked tofu.

on monday i had a studio project review which went rather well, if i might say so myself. anyhow, the one major critique was that the choice of building materials was "bittersweet." i haven't written too much about my project yet as i haven't had too much time but the general idea is a think-tank for memory research. anyhow i'll have to put together something to document/share all my work with those who can't be here to talk about it in person. so in the meantime, i've chosen corten oxidized steel on the main facades of the building, using it in a variety of ways for the exterior skin, corten steel tubes overlapped, corten steel shingles patterned, corten steel strip plates, and corten steel corrugated panels...after entering the building inside , a "sensing" wall guides you along the main artery path, this i determined as bird's eye maple wood placed in strips along the wall in continuous repetition. as your hand passes along the wall, one of the strips becomes a cold galvanized steel. causing your senses to allow your hand to remain at this point and push the "switch" opening the various doors to the various research areas. anyhow, the point being corten "hard" steel versus "soft" maple was referred to as bittersweet.

this word, bittersweet, makes me think back to the original project purpose, to be a place of memory. are not memories bittersweet? or the combination of extremely happy memories plus one bad memories, always causes that tinge of taintedness. thus in turn making every memory bitteraweet? i dunno. my thoughts have been going over and over this for two days now. isn't it only under the hard surface of our being that the soft memories remain precious and buried. only after penetrating the skin can we dig up and reveal the memories? doesn't the skin just become a mask that allows memory to be revealed or hidden at purposely specified moments?

any thoughts on what memory tastes like?

b i t t e r s w e e t

JUST EXACTLY HOW MANY TIMES CAN A PERSON LISTEN TO "KEANE" SONGS OVER AND OVER AND OVER UNTIL THEY GET SO SICK TIRED OF IT THEY THINK THEY ARE GOING TO BE SICK???

10 DAYS AND COUNTING....

SORRY ABOUT THE CAPITAL LETTERS - I DIDN'T REALIZE IT TILL HALFWAYS THRU AND I'M TOO LAZY TO RETYPE IT ALL. SO I'LL JUST KEEP YELLING FOR NOW. WENT TO AN ART RECEPTION OPENING LAST NITE AT THIS ARCHITECTURE FIRM IN D.C. SEEMS LIKE THIS FIRM HAS THESE PARTICULAR SHINDIGS EVERY QUARTER OR SO...GLASSES OF WINE WARMING MY BODY, CHEESE IN THE TUMMY, A SMALL ARTISTIC AND ADORABLE DOG BEGGING ME FOR A BITE, A NICELY PACED MEANDERING WALK THRU THE FLOORS VIEWING AN EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL OUTCROPPING OF PIECES...SIGH...IT WAS A RATHER NICE EVENING. THERE DID STILL SEEM TO BE SOMETHING MISSING THOUGH.

MY FAVOURITE WERE THE RESIN PATTERN PIECES AND ALSO THE AUTOMATED/MECHANICALLY MOVING OXIDIZED STEEL COMPILATIONS.

sorry i've been out the past couples weeks. i've had to prepare for midterms and back to writing huge long papers. today i had my pre-midterm pin up for design studio. it went fairly well. i have a lot of the building figured out in detail and so it was just a detriment to have my drawings done so lightly. but i present next monday afternoon, so send me all your warm fuzzies before i talk to the entire faculty. ok...i need to burn my pics from the computer at home so i can post. after next monday i'm free for a bit.

on other terms, i'm excited to have bought my plane ticket for only 150 dollars roundtrip to california! amazing...i'm going home for the thursday thru tuesday pre thanksgiving weekend to go to my aunt's wedding. exciting and scary and i'm actually very nervous for her. i bought a card a week ago and want to send it to her, let her know i'm thinking of her. i'm tired and i'm still at school. went out with "the boys" to go eat and then shoot some pool. now back at studio and finding it hard to focus....

focus...focus...focus....must focus.

hold on for just a little bit more....i have pictures of the kennedy center and finnish embassy coming soon...

my computer is here at last and now i am as happy as a button!! my disappearing act will finally be over and i will be connected once again to all of you...