Ljubljana!!!!

After three week of touring across Europe, on the verge of getting sick, averaging 4 hours of sleep the past few days, being pulled over by the border police today, and generally feeling worn down, we arrived in Ljubljana.

We immediately went to Matt's (Dub Trio's EU live sound engineer) house. His parents, Dora & Boris, greeted us with a firm handshake and big hugs. NICEST PEOPLE. We then sat down to an amazing lunch of vegetable matzo ball soup (very healing), parsley'd potatoes, mushrooms in cream sauce, rocket salad, steamed vegetables, and patitza for desert. All washed down with a fruity and slightly effervescent red Slovenian wine. It was so great to get a home cooked meal.

A couple hours later, upon arriving to Gala Hala for sound check, we found a nicely stocked backstage...thanks Kaja. And our good friend Dornik brought us a great bottle of Slovenian red fermented grape juice (Simcic, Refosk 2008). We then made our way to dinner at a decent Slovenian Italian restaurant. The garlic cream soup was rich, bursting with flavor and was exactly what my body needed to help encourage my white blood cells to get their shit together.

After dinner, back at the club, we enjoyed a little Slivovitz as a digestif before taking the stage...thanks again Kaja. The gig was fierce and pummeling!!! GREAT CROWD! GREAT SOUND! GREAT ENERGY!

All in all it was a healing (except for the lack of oxygen due to the excessive amounts of cigarette smoke in the club), fulfilling, generous, and great day in Ljubljana.

A Steady Diet of...

As I traverse towards Linz from Vienna, I thought I would share several, almost daily, themes on this current EU Dub Trio tour.

1. Musli topped with honey for breakfast. Each hotel seems to have a different blend. I prefer one with small fruit pieces or chocolate chips thrown in for sweetness and texture
2. Perfect pushups and core strengthing exercises
3. PBS's Frontline, TED talks, & Radiolab podcasts
4. Not getting enough protien for dinner as vegetarian eating dinners provided by club catering...glad I stocked up on cliff bars before tour started
5. Mediocre wine provided by club catering...augmented by a few choice purchases on my own dime
6. Reading about The Bradly Method
7. Not getting enough sleep
8. Realizing I'm lucky enough to travel the world and share my art
9. Being annoyed that they still haven't outlawed smoking in every club or venue i play
10. Admiring the autumn countryside views


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When in Rome...

While on tour, i always try my best to get out and sample
some of the local treasures the cities have to offer, Whether it be music, food & libations, art & architecture, etc.... even at the expense of not getting enough sleep sometimes.

However, i've been guilty of making an excuse like..."oh, i don't really need to check this or that out because i'll be able to find it in nyc." I am spoiled living in the best city in the world.

Well, after being on this current European tour, I can tell you that things REALLY are better where they come from. A sense of place and context can really make an experience one to remember. I pretty much already knew this, but this past week it really hit home that "local" rules!!!

i mean the olive oil in Greece tastes AMAZING!!! ..and it didn't travel thousands of miles for me to pay double (or triple) of what i would pay for it in Greece.

Being in Tel Aviv and going to ANOTHER great hummus place, far outweighs going to "Hummus" on 1st ave and St. Marks again...even though their hummus is legit.

Drinking a bottle of 2005 Bordeaux, bought from a French supermarket for 5 Euro, is a much better experience than paying the huge markups we deal with in the US.
Or similarly, drinking some local Ouzo in Athens, from a distillery that been around since the 1920's, is so much better than buying a bottle at the Duty Free shop on my flight out.

Going to see the Monet exhibit at The Grand Palais....even though i didn't get in because the line was 3 hours too long, would have been a lot more hip than checking out a retrospective at The Met. Again, similarly, seeing the "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan" painting at the Tetryakov gallery in Moscow was ruled.


No matter where you are in the world, get out there and explore. EXPERIENCE is not underrated.

Four Shorts

I really wanted to get a new video together for the past few months, but i've been traveling so much lately
and haven't had the time to make it happen. shooting the content, importing it, cutting it up, making a soundtrack.....what to do?

well.....i opened up my iPhone app, Qik Video (an app that lets you shoot video with a
3G iPhone....i'm kickin it old school) and went through some my videos over the past six months.

i picked a few i thought were interesting, two already had decent enough sound, and i spliced them
together into one video as four shorts.

what the lesson here:
sometimes the materials are right in front of your face and you just need to take the time and look around.

here is the LINK
to my youtube channel. the video is featured

....and while your there check a few others.
enjoy

On Tour with Puddin de Pan

sugar, eggs, butter, milk, and stale bread....what's not to love. the tour started two days ago and i decided it will be a "bread pudding across america tour." playing drums for about two hours a night for two months straight and getting in a 5k run every other day, i had no qualms about putting back some serious pudding. With the help of a few key websites, some local input and a little intuition, my adventures led me to sample seventeen of America's favorite day-old-bread-delights. the criterion was simple: eat as much bread pudding as possible and try to remain objective...just the facts. Here are some of the hightlights...you be the judge;

Ale Mary's Krispy Cream Bread Pudding - Baltimore, MD.
This tasted like 3,000 calories of pure sugary goodness. Krispy Cream doughnuts sandwiched between soft white bread with cinnamon notes. topped with Bourbon and caramel sauce, whipped cream, and a dollop of french vanilla ice cream. sweet, rich, & heavy. paired well with a scotch ale.


Mama Ricotta's - Charlotte, NC
It was restaurant week in Charlotte and it just so happened that bread pudding was one of the prix fixe deserts on the list. bingo! Warm moist white bread (good soak) w/ raisins(i must admit, i don't like raisins in my bread pudding), topped w/ a salty carmel sauce & dusted with powdered sugar. served w/ vanilla and cinnamon ice cream and a caramel sugar crisp garnish. nice hint of butterscotch with a good use of salt in a dessert.

Mary Mac's Tea Room - Atlanta, GA
white bread with baked apple chunks (similar to cobbler). nice buttery texture with a sweet baked brown sugar taste. served in a sweet red wine sauce with a baked crust top. very southern style bread pudding.

House of Blues - Houston, TX
White chocolate banana bread pudding. a dense thick mound of bread with a baked banana flavor. served with vanilla ice cream, white chocolate sauce and a mint garnish. a bit dry, quite thick, and not overly sweet.

Beasy's On the Creek - Ashland, OR
This pudding came out HOT! very buttery and served with generous portion of bourbon sauce, whipped cream, and some good old raisins. bread was quite moist and surprisingly light with a butter & carmel finish.

Etta's - Seattle, WA
my first brioche pudding and quite light in weight. nice notes of cinnamon baked into the semi-moist and soft textured bread. served with caramel & vanilla ice cream with a garnish of blackberries. the berries added a nice depth of flavor. perfect portion size for an after dinner desert.

Sweet Life - Eugene, OR
Pre-made and served heated up by microwave. the microwave really brought out the butter. served with caramel sauce and whipped cream. the bread was light with a nice fluffy quality. Firm baked top with baked in walnuts added good texture. Simple and a bit dry. disappointing after the hype that surrounded this place.

Tin Angel Cafe - Salt Lake City, UT
quite an interesting bread pudding. made from compacted croissants. fresh berries baked into the bread. caramel & creme anglaise sauce (rich and creamy). baked brown sugar nut topping. nice balance, but the bread could have been a bit more moist.

Gumbo's - Austin, TX
Southern style bread pudding with a firm, well soaked and set bread. served with a whiskey anglaise sauce with a hint of cinnamon along side vanilla ice cream and mint garnish. subtle, with a nice balance of integrated flavors.

Mothers - New Orleans, LA
comfort food style bread pudding. not the prettiest presentation, but tasted damn good. very soft in texture and cooked with a lot of butter. crispy baked outer crust served with a whiskey / toffee sauce. sweet brown sugar finish. down home style.

The Tomato Head - Knoxville, TN
Sour Apple baked bread pudding. fluffy light bread with a oven baked flavor. a little warm milk served in the bottom of the bowl was nice touch. baked sugar topped crust. good textures and balance of flavors.

The Little Fountain Cafe - Washington, DC
a Bon Appetit recipe alumni. another brioche bread budding in a strong rum & cinnamon sauce and some baked-in chocolate chips. a rich buttery flavor with brown sugar notes, the firm, but soft set bread was topped with a white chocolate drizzle. chocolate chips were melt-in-your-mouth consistency which complimented the already luscious pudding. worthy of my visit 10 minutes before taking the stage.

The Dessert Truck - NYC
It's funny how things come full circle. while talking to my wife on the phone about a week before the end of tour, she was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay and this episodes "throwdown" just happened to be about bread pudding...guess who won that "throwdown?"....yep, that's right, The Dessert Truck. While home from tour and walking the streets of Manhattan, the The Dessert Truck and I just so happened to cross paths.
Warm Chocolate bread pudding w/ vanilla sauce(real vanilla bean)...there is an option of bacon custard sauce, but steering clear of the swine, i opted for the latter. warm chocolate(good quality cocoa), almost molten like, center was a perfect consistency to magnify the bread pudding's creamy texture. topped w/ fresh whipped cream and a chocolate crisp this rich and lightly eggy bread pudding was highly delectable.

If you don't know, now you know.

Good Day Chicago

Yesterday morning started off with the motivation to find the best bread pudding, but being stuck on a peninsula and lack of a vehicle, I settled for chocolate covered coffee filled doughnuts and buying a bike for $0.01....oh yeah, the gig at Carter One Pavillion wasn't too bad either.












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Hittin skins

It's been a really great couple of weeks playing music. Downtown Studios with Outasight. New Dub Trio record 85% finished at Avatar & Studio G. Mountain Jam with Matisyahu. Matt Lowell at Avatar. Playing a Disney remake on The Tonight Show coming up
next week. Yep.


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Brooklyn

It's nice to be home for a while. Hanging with my lady and the cats. Cooking my ass off. Dub Trio gig and recording session. Buying some vinyl again(*picture outside of Academy Record Annex). Appreciating what I have. Reminding myself it's ok to be a human BEING and not always a human DOING.


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WWW.FLWRPT.COM

WOW! The cat who posts this blog definitely does their hip-hop homework. i mean there is some serious time spent digging for this kind of knowledge. quite a few video gems, mixtapes, and album discoveries.

Party. Pizza Party.

wow, i can't think of the last time i actually made pizza from scratch. i think it had to have been sometime in late 80's at my pops house.. moreover, it was probably a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box. while thinking of some new dishes to make in the upcoming week, i decided tonight was going to be pizza night.

after Dub Trio rehearsal i had an hour or so to make the dough (a mixture of whole wheat and unbleached bread flours, yeast and warm water, olive oil, and salt). upon finishing combining, mixing, kneading, oiling, and covering my creation it was straight to a meeting that went just long enough to let the dough rise. back home...voila...the dough had risen to more than twice it's size, and with a good punch down the center to remove any air bubbles, i started to make a pesto (basil, garlic, pine nuts, parm chesse, olive oil, and s&p). i separated the dough into two chunks. the first was to be rosemary infused crust (add fresh coarsely chopped rosemary while rolling the dough into shape) topped with the pesto and shitake and cremini mushrooms. the second pie was a simple San Marzano tomato sauce, a few dollops of the fresh pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese, olive oil, white truffle oil, and s&p.

i baked each for pie about 20 minutes on 500 degrees, and low and behold....PIZZA!

GUMBO night

since i've been eating food again for three days now, i've had a serious craving for some GUMBO. i remember eating some delicious seafood gumbo for lunch before sound check at the House of Blues in NO. i asked as many locals who has the best seafood gumbo within walking distance...my answer was Johnny's Po-Boys. a small little hole in the wall resto, filled with locals, a few tables and some folks behind the counter that looked like they knew what they were doing. this was the first time i had REAL gumbo. on a side note, the BBQ Shrimp at Mr. B's for dinner that night was killing. next time i go back it will the The Gumbo shop on the hit list.

back to tonight....so i figured i would make vegetable and soy chipotle sausage gumbo. last time i made seafood doing my best to recreate Johnny's.

Whole Foods stop:

onion, green pepper, celery (the holy trinity), garlic, okra, soy chorizo (or real adouille for you meat lovers), tomatoes (a big no-no in Cajon style, but we're making Creole), black-eyed peas, and i had the remaining ingredients (oil & flour (for the roux), dried herbs(thyme, basil, oregano), worcestershire, creole seasoning blend(must include cayenne pepper and paprika), homemade vegetable stock (seafood stock with seafood gumbo), lemon, and s&p).

basic recipe:

brown the sausage in a pan.
in a separate soup pot start the roux and cook to desired color. add the chopped vegetables (but not the okra) and aromatics and cook till tender. add browned sausage, diced tomatoes, okra, and stock. add seasoning and spices. bring to a boil. reduce to a simmer and continue cooking for 1 hour uncoverd. stirring occasionally and seasoning to taste. serve over rice and garnish with spring onions.

tips....

--cook the roux, without burning it, on med-high heat to get it as close to a dark chocolate color as possible. **stir constantly
--don't under season. it is a hearty soup and can take a little salt, heat, and spice. you can add bit of lemon or cider vinegar for some acidity. or try a small bouquet garni with some peppercorns, fresh parsley, bay leaf, whole cloves, etc....
--if you can't deal with the "slime" from your okra you can roast it in the oven for 10 minutes to take out a bit of its inherent moisture. however, the "slime" does help as a thickener in the soup.
--make sure your stock is very flavor-FULL. again, it is a soup and stock is the base. you can add Better Than Bouillon or Kitchen Bouquet to help with a uninspired stock.
--after bringing everything to a boil allow to simmer, with the lid off, and reduce and concentrate flavors
--server with a nice cold beer, California Zinfandel, Sancerre blanc, Australian Sauvignon blanc, or an Arnold Palmer.

YEZZIR

Drinking Food

Upon my return from South America i went straight into a juice fast. no caffeine. no wine. no solids. motherf'in fruits and vegetables. i went out and bought myself a Breville juicer, a plethora of produce and went to town. albeit a short cleanse, as day 6 approaches mañana, its almost time to eat solids again. here's some food for thought:

1. making your own version of V8 RULES and its contains about 90% less sodium. i made more like V12...adding things like parsnip, kale, golden beets, scallion as well as the obligatory celery, carrot, spinach and the like. try adding a little garlic (helps immune system, anti-everything, and aids in allergy relief). adding a few brussel sprouts will not disappoint either.

2. by adding a little peeled and juiced lime to any green juice will cut the bitterness and give a slightly sweet flavor.

3. grapefruit, blackberry, pineapple & pear juice combo RULES!!!

4. watermelon, ginger & fresh orange juice RULES...thanks Stu.

5. place your glasses in the freezer to chill them before pouring in the juice.

6. reuse your produce bags in the pulp container to cut down on clean up.

it's probably a good idea to buy all "organic" produce, since it will be the only thing you'll be putting in your body for an extended period of time.

....i broke my fast with vegetable soup (use some of the scraps & peels from the juice cleanse to make your own veggie stock for the soup), an avocado smoothie (avo, banana, pineapple, honey, rice milk) and homemade spirulina bars (spirulina powder, honey, various nuts & seeds, coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger powder)

Viva South America

so, i've decided to try this thing they call blogging. not that i don't have a twitter & facebook account, but i thought what's one more social networking site gonna hurt?

i've just returned home to Brooklyn from a recent trip to South America. i played some great shows with Matisyahu and Dub Trio.....Buenos Aires was probably my favorite concert of the whole trip. My travels took me to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bogota. i also took some time to sample the food & beverages these countries had to offer. in addition, next time i'll bring a few extra air pollution masks on this trip, as much of these countries have a major pollution problem. where are the vehicle emission regulations?

here it is in a nutshell:

Rio & Sao Paulo, Brazil -
fresh coconut juice. awesome buffet at MARUIS in Rio. thanks Jonathan Shaw. finally watched 'Dub Echo' a documentary about dub....my name was in the credits..weird. gulped down an amazing caipirinha after the show. good outdoor running along the water. and cheap kicks in your in the market.

Buenos Aires, Rosario, & Cordoba, Argentina -
i performed live on national tv (actually improvised for the second song). ate some kosher pizza w/Matisyahu. i saw my friends from cleveland, Kristina and Greg, at the show in Buenos Aires. had a healing vegetarian meal with Kristina following afternoon. off to Rosario, where the Flan de dulce de leche at DAVIS was banging. back to BA for a day off and some more pizza, non-kosher w/anchovy, at PIZZA CAFE. Palermo is the spot as far as i'm concerned. i did encounter a "kosher" McDonalds...WOW

Santiago, Chile -
i discovered lucama fruit. def search this out and make ice cream out of it. i had a few lucama smoothies. i discovered Chile and Peru were in serious competition for the best Pisco Sour, so decided to drink a few of them in each country.. verdict is the Pisco i had at Azul Profundo was the winner... and the food was killing here too. the next day i ate carne de jivia (squid meat, but similar in textrue to a scallop) cooked in hot oil, garlic, and hot peppers with an amazing presentation served in a hot bowl sitting on a plate set aflame.

Lima, Peru -
off the plane, to the hotel, and immediately fit a run in just in time for lunch and search out some serious ceviche. a few blocks from the hotel was PUNTO AZUL. amazingly fresh seafood and delicious Pisco sours as well. the mango i had for lunch the next day was on pair with the last one i had in Hawaii. also, took a trip to the market to buy some local art. played outside that night at the Lima Green festival.

Bogota, Colombia -
last stop on the tour. i was on the hunt for the perfect pandebono (as suggested by Joel Hamilton). i had a delicious dinner that evening at Club Colombia and discovered Refajo (a beer and Colombiano soda mixture), quite a refreshing bebida. the corn and doublecream queso arepa ( sweet and fluffy corn crepe with the saltiness from the queso = amazing) was eye-opening. the next day, our friend Javier (from Diva Gash), was down to show us around town. still no pandebonos yet. i tried some guama fruit (a large pod style fruit with a white furry flesh that your eat off the giant seeds inside). i took the rail car to the top of Monseratte and had my first almojabana (similar to a pandebono, but not a pandebono). finally stumbled upon a "on-the-go" chain style bakery and tried my first pandebono with hot cocao, while its was hitting the spot, because i was starving, it wasn't the famed pandebono experience i was expecting. yet another reason to go back.