Saturdays Foodventures - PappaRich!

Papparich
Photo Courtesy of la.eater.com

Coming from a very traditional Chinese background, I am community oriented and often spend weekends with large groups of people. Since family is so far away back in New York, I spend most of my weekends here with friends, typically going to Monterey Park’s Atlantic Seafood or Ocean Star to eat dimsum. Today is different. Connie, one of my best friends at USC, asked me to drive for her Malaysian Student Association event – getting lunch at PappaRich!

Roti Canai with Chicken Curry

PappaRich is a Malaysian chain restaurant located in Monterey Park. Their menu had everything that I missed eating from Singapore: Laksa, Char Kway Teow, Nasi Lemak, and Roti Canai. I am even more surprised to see the beverage options included Milo Dinosaur, an iced chocolate malt drink, and Teh Tarik, a hot milk tea drink. If there is one thing you need to know about me, it is that I love travelling to eat amazing food. Though this is the first time I ate at this restaurant and I know I will soon be coming back for more.

Chicken Nasi Lemak with Shrimp

I split 2 dishes with Connie: Roti Canai, an indian-influenced flatbread served with curry, a spicy sauce and a sweet sauce, and Nasi Lemak, a coconut rice dish served with curry chicken, dried fish, peanuts, shrimp, cucumber, and Sambal spicy sauce. The sambal in the Nasi Lemak is a lot spicier that I expected and had me sweating bullets within a few bites. Luckily, I am saved by the waiters who came over every ten minutes to refill my water a total of 7 times! The food is deliciously authentic, but what came after is even better.

Half & Half Boba

To complete this Saturday Foodventure, I have to get Boba and there is no better place to get Boba than Half & Half.  I got the Iced Milk Drink with Grass Jelly, Caramel, and Honey Boba. This is the finishing touch that sent me into a deep food coma. I drove home in haste to pass out on my bed. Foodventure = Success!

BEER ME!

Hate beer? Let me change your mind. As a college student, your experience with beer is probably limited only to the Bud light and Natty lite you drink at tailgates and house parties. Your first sip may have been horrible, but you continued to drink it because of social pressure and there was nothing else that you can chug. Then after one too many, you may have thrown up and decided for yourself that you absolutely hate beer and will never have one again. Well, let me help you give it another chance except this time we’ll replace the crap beer you had in the past with the craft beer that is full of flavor and aromas from all over the world. Here are the items on the agenda:

• What's in my beer?

• Beer Types

• Places for craft beers

So get your bottle openers ready because we're about to pop some bottles!!

What's in my beer?

Water: Most beginner brewers use tap water, but sophisticated brewers use varying levels of hardness and alkalinity of water to get different flavors from malt.  

Malt (left) and Hops (right)
Photo Courtesy of www.drinkbritain.com

Hops: Like the taste bitterness of beer? Hops has a bittering agent called alpha acid that adds the bitter flavor into beer. It is also used as a preservative to store beer for long periods of time, which explains why most beer nowadays has hops added in.

Malt: This ingredient gives your beer color, body, sweetness, and roasted flavors.

Yeast: This is the ingredient that causes all the magic to happen. Yeasts are living organisms that eat the sugars released from boiled malt and produces alcohol and CO2.

Other ingredients that can be added are: fruits, spices, grains and even chocolate!

Handy dandy diagram
Photo courtesy of popsci.com

Beer Types

Beer comes from two varieties: lagers and ales. The biggest difference between lagers and ales is not the ingredients that are used to brew the beer, but in the method of fermenting it. Lagers use bottom fermenting yeast, which means yeast that ferments at the bottom of the barrel, and usually fermented cold. Ales uses top fermenting yeast which ferments at warm temperature. So the important thing to remember is yeast used and the temperature that the beer is fermented at.

I have listed below some of the most common, and my favorite, styles of beers along with a few examples so that you can try them out by going to your local Ralphs.

• Pilsner: These are light lagers, usually with a light to golden yellow hue. Pilsners are usually low in alcohol content and features a strong hoppy flavor that makes this beer slightly bitter. Sam Adams Noble Pils, Lagunitas Pils, Firestone Pivo Hoppy Pils
• Stouts: Stouts are usually the darkest beers. They are roasted and have hints of chocolate, caramel, licorice, molasses or coffee. Magic Hat Vanilla Stout, Guinness Stout
•  Pale Ale: Made by warm fermentation, pale malt and slight hoppy flavor. Magic Hat Not Quite Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Goose Ten Hills Pale Ale, Alchemy Pale Ale
• India Pale Ale: IPA’s were first created when British troops stationed in India wanted to drink beer from the motherland. Hops is added to the beer to prevent it from spoiling on the journey to India. It is very bitter and can range from light golden yellow to darker red amber. Firestone IPA, Lagunitas IPA, Sam Adams Rebel Grapefruit IPA

If you look closely, some of the examples have repeated brand names in different style categories. This is because I like to buy variety 12-packs with 4 different types so that I can try out many different types of beer all at once. You can even opt for the Ralphs Pick 6 option for $9.99 which gives you even more variety to choose from!

For all the ladies out there, I highly recommend getting something fruity with pear, grape fruit or blood orange. And yes, you might be thinking, “Well if I’m going to get something with fruit in it, why don’t I just get a cider?” Sadly, I have to say that ciders are not beers because ciders are fermenting using apple juice, while beers are fermented using malt and hops. Ciders do not have malt or hops and the only thing it has in common with beer is the magic – yeast.

Where can I get amazing craft beer?

Congratulations you’ve made it to the most exciting section! Where are the goods and how can you get some? As students from all over the world, you may not have easy transportation so I have handpicked three awesome breweries near USC that you can Uber to or you can visit your local Ralphs.

Angel City Brewery 216 S Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Angel City Brewery
Photo Courtesy of angelcitybrewery.com

Located in the Arts District of Los Angeles, Angel City is a must visit place to learn more about breweries, go on their tours and taste their exclusive variety of Angel City beer on tap 7 days a week. It is one of my favorite breweries because it allows you to bring outside food. Food trucks are usually parked outside at nights and Wurstkuche is only a 4 minute walk away.

Barrel Down 525 W 7th St, Los Angeles, CA 90014

Barrel Down
Photo Courtesy of yeastsidebrewers.org 

Offering a variety of over 40 taps from local breweries and regional producers, Barrel Down is the place to go once you know your beers. Their experienced bartenders will teach you about their selections of beers, wines and cocktails to match with your fried chicken sandwich or juicy beef burgers. Best to come during happy hour when beers are only $5!

Beer Belly 532 S Western Ave Los Angeles, CA 90020

Beer Belly
Photo Courtesy of Jennica R from Yelp,com

Started a little less than 5 years ago in the heart of Koreatown, BeerBelly has grown to be a great place to not only drink craft beers but also eat delicious food. This gastropub is a favorite hangout spot among hipsters and prides itself on serving craft beer and crafty foods. Therefore if you love to pair a beer with your meals I can’t recommend this place enough! Definitely order their Death by Duck Fries and Beer Belly Grilled Cheese with egg.  

Now that you have learned a little bit more about beer, I hope I have changed your mind. Give these places a visit and try out their craft beers along with the delicious foods. If not, go grab a cold one at Ralphs for about $1.00 a beer. Cheers!

Works Cited

Flowers, J. (2013, July 26). An Introduction to the Confusing World of Beer Styles. Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://learn.kegerator.com/beer-styles/

Geek, B. (2009, August). Cider is Not Beer. Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/3786/cider-is-not-beer/

Harbison, M. (2013, January 25). BeerSci: What Is The Difference Between A Lager And An Ale? Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/beersci-what-difference-between-lager-and-ale

Kraus, E.C. What Goes Into Beer? | EC Kraus. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www.eckraus.com/what-goes-into-beer

Growing a Farmer Post 2

I recently watched a video about why we should stop drinking dairy milk and it made me think about Kurtwood Farms. The speaker talks about the inhumane treatment of dairy cows where cow plantation farmers emotionally and physically abuse their cows so that they will quickly produce high volumes of milk and calves for slaughter. This animal abuse is nothing like the way Timmermeister treats his own animals. Timmermeister has open pasture for his cows, pigs, and chicken and feeds them every day. Even when he slaughters them, he maintains his empathy for his animals by giving them a quick and painless death. In recent years, there has been many videos showing farm animals living in cramped cages, forced to produce more milk or offspring using chemicals, then brutally dragged off for slaughter once they got old and no longer produced. Though Timmermeister’s farm is small, I would rather pay a higher price to buy meat produced on his farm than the meat produced by large farms simply knowing the way the animals were handled.

Though Timmermeister is an established farmer, I see him more as a businessman. He made the goal of developing a plot of land to live the life he wanted, then identified opportunities where he can diversify his portfolio of ventures and acquire the skills needed to manage these ventures. The best thing about his business is that he is not looking to be efficient or make profits. He is looking to live a simple life tending to his ventures so that they can continuously produce goods for him to consume. Financial independence is something that many people seek, but only few people like Timmermeister actually finds. It is inspiration for anyone to pull himself up by the bootstraps, start his own business and live the life he has ever dream of. 

How to Sell Anything

What if I told you some people have the power to influence the way another person thinks and behaves? Wouldn’t you want to have the same superpower too? I know I would. Welcome to the world of sales, where the sale is already made and you just have to take the product home. We are constantly living in a world where sales is the most necessary skill you need to sustain a living. When you are out looking for job, you are essentially selling yourself to recruiters. When you have a great business idea and want to pitch it, you are selling the benefits of your idea. When you are working in any company, you are selling either products or services to customers and end users. It is advantageous to hone your sales skills and be the best and presenting whatever you want to sell to people in the best light possible.

So how can we achieve this?

Understand your customer and the problem

A huge part of sales is knowing who the target audience is and what they are looking for. Sales has a bad connotation because people see it as sleazy car salesman who are only looking to get the most commission for themselves and are looking for the next sucker they can rip off. Customers do not like pushy salesman who are only focused on the sale. Effective salespeople play a more consultative role focused on building a relationship with the customer by creating an environment of safety and trust to understand the customer’s issues. Identify the customer’s issue through research and chatting with them. Help prioritize the issue, quantify how the issue affects the company as a whole, and what has stopped the customer from solving the issue in the past. Usually it’s because of Time, Money or Knowledge. From there, you will identify an opportunity to solve a customer’s issue with your credibility and your company’s product.

Identify solutions to the problem

Products and solutions are vehicles that deliver a service. For example, if a person wants to buy something, but does not have the money to do so, banks may try to sell them a credit card. The credit card itself is a tangible product that delivers a service (spend money you don’t have).

How the customer can benefit from the solution and how it is better than the competitors

Communicate value by identifying the features of your product that best fulfills the service a customer is looking for (problem), you will have essentially sold them your product. The product sells itself and you are helping the customer understand how the product can improve his quality of life.

By playing a consultative role, you can be more effective in selling. Understanding how your products fits the needs of the customer and solves their problems is the key factor in getting more sales. Follow these steps and you will be on your way of influencing how people think and behave. 

LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM, BUILD YOUR OWN FARM!

How often do you hear anyone drop everything he is doing, buy a plot of land and creating what will eventually be his life-long dream -- a farm? Writer Kurt Timmermeister embarked on his journey of pursuing his American dream of owning a home, only to find himself creating a vegetable business, making honey and cider, then buying another 8 acres of land to eventually create his pastures for his sheep and cows in his incredible story Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land. Kurt’s entrepreneurial spirit and determination to succeed inspires me to review how I approach business and fulfillment.

Capitalist America has evolved in recent years to create the innovation revolution, popping out entrepreneurs faster than Kurt can milk his cows. While everyone is talking about the exciting technology coming out Silicon Valley and coding becomes the new fast track to wealth, Kurt prefers to get into the muddy grit of it all by entering the small farm business. Knowing nothing about farming and never intending to enter this space, the soon-to-be farmer self-learns and experiments with various sources of crops until he could optimize and run his business successfully. Every new chapter introduces a new type of crop, a different way to run each venture and an important business lesson.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again

Entrepreneurs fails all the time, but what makes them successful is the perseverance to continue working towards their goal. Kurt’s negligence killed his first batch of bees and the post office’s storing conditions killed his second batch, but he kept trying until his bees finally produced honey 2 years later. Deer ate away at planted orchards, but Kurt determined to make hard cider kept replanting his apple trees until they became tall enough to survive on their own. Mistakes made the first time becomes a lesson for the second or even third attempt until it becomes success.

Take the Leap

“I was grateful I didn’t know what was to come for fear of never starting out” Kurt wrote describing his cow, Dinah. Creating a farm from scratch, milking a cow for 2 hours, and having orchards eaten away by deer are daunting if Kurt knew about the time and effort commitment beforehand. However, if he did not jump right in and adjusted his learning as needed, he would not have created his awesome farm. Taking fear of failure out of the equation by keeping optimistic about what he ultimately wants enabled Kurt to stay determined about adding new equipment and improvements on his plot of land.

For Kurt fulfillment, happiness, and wealth is being able to look at cows grazing his pasture and eating produce from his self-sustaining farm. In a world where money makes the world go round, this perspective is refreshingly eye-opening. There are other ways to be happy instead of chasing after money. Though I will not one day leave my city life, buy land and create a farm, I am inspired one day own my own house and grow my small garden of produce for tangible fulfillment.