Alex - ProfilesArchive

About Me

"Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders."
-Nietzsche I want to be a chef someday with my own restaurant. I love music. I love food. I love beer/wine. I love driving. I love art. I love to cook. I love going out to check out restaurants and menus. I am passionate about my food and my cooking. I fear no pain; it only makes me work harder. I love to read. I collect cookbooks; I have over 800 cookbooks in my collection. I'm addicted to work. I like to do things fast because I think there isn't enough time. I graduated from UW in three years with a BS in psychology and a minor in music. I don't like to waste time. I am picky. I have dreams. I prefer night over day. I'm too critical of how my food turns out. I love fish, shellfish, anything pork, fried chicken, spam, eggs, and rice. I hate celery, raisins, and cranberries. I feel like I'm always tired. I want a dog. A golden retriever. I think the word "retriever" isn't spelled right, even though I know it is. You can take the boy out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the boy. Like Lloyd Dobbler, I'm waiting for a "dare-to-be-great" situation.
Bottom-line: whatever happens in the end, I just want to be great. If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
-Epictetus I want to travel and see the whole world someday. When I get the chance to travel, my trip will be : Seattle - California - Baja - Mexico - Texas - Louisiana - Missouri - Kentucky/Tennessee - Georgia - Florida - New York. Then I'm flying to London - France - Spain - Italy - Germany - Belgium, and then fly to China (Szechwan, Canton, Macau, Hong Kong, Chaozhou, Shanghi, Beijing), then to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. After that, I'm taking a vacation down in Australia and New Zealand, and I'll stop by Hawaii before I come back. "A man who is rich in his adolescence is almost doomed to be a dilettante at table. This is not because all millionaires are stupid but because they are not impelled to experiment."
-A.J. Liebling Songs you need to listen to:
The Rolling Stones - Almost Hear You Sigh
INXS - Beautiful Girl
Nina Simone - Ain't Got No (I Got Life)
The Perishers - Nothing Like You And I
The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
David Byrne - Glass, Concrete & Stone
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Our House
Pulp - Like A Friend
U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
Aretha Franklin - Baby I Love You
Paul McCartney - Singalong Junk
B.B. King - The Thrill Is Gone
Louis Armstrong - Skokiaan (South Afriacan Song)
Creedance Clearwater Revival - Have You Seen The Rain?
Elliott Smith - Angeles
Bryan Ferry - Slave To Love
Beck - Lost Cause
Eric Clapton - Promises
Dave Matthews - Oh
Cranberries - Linger
Elvis Costello - Please, Love, And Understanding
Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
John Lennon - Watching The Wheels
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
The Cure - Close To Me
The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts
Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
Jane's Addiction - Jane Says
Stereophonics - Dakota
Jets to Brazil - Sweet Avenue
Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Gong Li
Annie Lennox - Why
Smashing Pumpkins - Dreaming
The Faces - Ooh La La
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Here Comes My Girl
The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."
-Willy Wonka

My Interests

Food, wine, beer, cooking, cooking on the line, butchering, restaurants, music, guitar, movies, driving, friends, working out, reading/collecting cookbooks, etc....

I'd like to meet:

"Watching girls go passing by; it ain't the latest thing. I'm just standing in a doorway...I'm just trying to make some sense.... Out of these girls go passing by; the tales they tell of men. I'm not waiting on a lady...I'm just waiting on a friend.... A smile relieves a heart that grieves; remember what I said, "I'm not waiting on a lady...I'm just waiting on a friend...." I'm just waiting on a friend.... Don't need a whore; I don't need no booze...don't need a virgin priest, but I need someone I can cry to...I need someone to protect.... Making love and breaking hearts; it is a game for youth. But I'm not waiting on a lady...I'm just waiting on a friend...."

Music:

The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, The Beatles (John Lennon & Paul McCartney), The Doors, Smashing Pumpkins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, U2, Incubus, No Doubt, Third Eye Blind, REM, The Cars, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Lenny Kravitz, The Ramones, The Clash, Green Day, The Strokes, The Cops, kanYeWest, N.E.R.D., Mos Def, Outkast, Ludacris, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Nouvelle Vague, The Cure, Eels, Yo La Tengo, The Rentals, Weezer, The Perishers, Violent Femmes, Cake, Better Than Ezra, Gin Blossoms, My Bloody Valentine, INXS, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Pretenders, Stereophonics, Kings Of Leon, Interpol, Doves, Pulp, Spoon, Radiohead, David Bowie, CCR, Bryan Ferry+Roxy Music, Beck, Frank Sinatra, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Van Morrison, Johnathan Richman, Pete Yorn, Tim McGraw, etc....

Movies:

Say Anything, Lost In Translation, The Wedding Singer, Juno, Superbad, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Lars And The Real Girl, The Darjeeling Limited, Kikujiro, Ratatouille, Marie Antoinette, Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles, Little Miss Sunshine, Talladega Nights, Last Holiday, Click, Something New, Elizabethtown, Wedding Crashers, Walk the Line, Waiting..., Spanglish, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Saved!, 50 First Dates, Kung Fu Hustle, Napoleon Dynamite, The Naked Gun, Wayne's World, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Eddie Murphy Raw, George Lopez Why You Crying?, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind Of Wonderful, The Princess Bride, Adaptation, American Beauty, The Virgin Suicides, Magnolia, Punch-drunk Love, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Udon, In The Mood For Love, 2046, Happy Times, To Live, Yi-Yi, Rickshaw Boy, Shall We Dance? (Japanese version), True Romance, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Jerry Maguire, Great Expectation, High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank, As Good As It Gets, Pretty In Pink, Chungking Express, Eat Drink Man Woman, Big Lebowski, Dumb and Dumber, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, Scent of a Woman, etc....

Television:

No Reservations, Bizarre Foods, Top Chef, Dinner: Impossible, Human Weapon, Las Vegas, Venture Brothers, Iron Chef, A Cook's Tour, Yan Can Cook, Simpsons, Family Guy, Kids In The Hall, SNL, Conan O'Brien, Frasier, Newsradio, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and any documentaries or travel shows....

Books:

The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine, Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, The French Laundry Cookbook, A Return to Cooking, Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It, The Fine Art of Japanese Food Arrangement, A Confederacy of Dunces, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, David Sedaris, etc....

Heroes:

Mom, Bernard Loiseau, Howard Hughes, and Martin Yan.