Food Jitsu

Over the last semester, I’ve gotten close to my Food Prep class. They’re probably the best lab partners I’ve had in my life, and look forward to working with them in restaurants, on projects, in catering gigs, whatever. The material learned doesn’t compare to the camaraderie instilled with a group of budding culinary professionals.

It’s nice to toss ideas back and forth between folks that know where you came from, and have an idea of where you’re heading. Constructive criticism on your product, followed by immediate adaptation is immensely important for learning and growing in this field.

Another way to learn and grow is the Integration phase. When applied to cooking, it boils down to (hah!) putting yourself out there. Not just yourself, but you own food. I make food every day, but I’m just a monkey on an assembly line, preparing someone’s menu item. When you go out there, and present your creation to someone for their criticism, your culinary skills, artistic capabilities, and ego are all on the line. Not to mention time and money. There’s a lot at stake there.

I competed in an American Culinary Federation competition last semester. The one Big Thing I brought back home with me was this: Know Your Audience. At this competition, I cooked for the senses. I should have been cooking for sensibility, meaning I should have focused on knife skill, and sauce preparation for the judges. I ended up making a hugely delicious, but home-styled dish.

This semester, a few of my Food Prep friends and I are doing a tasting event, featuring our own creations. It’s even turned into an official school club. What once began as a post-class drinking group-turned trivia juggernaut has now coagulated into the Thursday Night Culinarians. Where we used to talk about food, some of us decided to take the next step and start cooking. How awesome is that!? I didn’t originate the initiative, but I’m sure as hell coming along for this ride.

It’s these trial-by-fire things that make cooking so much fun.

As a club, we’re able to use the school’s kitchen (I’m assuming) during off hours to prep our dishes. And while I probably won’t know most of the folks attending our tasting event, I should have in mind a commonality between these guests: they’re going to be looking for presentation, and something different. Technicality would definitely be important (for me as a professional), but I wouldn’t make it obvious.

In my first post, I wrote about my fascination with choux pastry. It’s simple, classic, and outside of the occasional eclair, it’s different to the average American Palate… at least different to the average Dogtown bar-bro palate. I want to stretch my food cost budget and use that pastry to work as the “buns” of a garlicky pork meatball slider. Top that with caramelized onions and a pineapple (plus guava??) coulis and maybe a spinach leaf for color and this looks to be a delicious dish. It’s different, yet familiar. I’m not going for spectacularly mindblowing right now. Just edible and delightful. I also want to go for cheap, and this is definitely something I can do for reduced costs; compared to my mainstay recipes for crab/seafood cakes, or cedar plank balsamic salmon, my ongoing affair with Beef Wellington, or salt and pepper crab. Those are thing I like, and love to cook for people when I want to show them my personality. But I’m cooking for strangers, and I think for now I need to pander to what they might want. I need the Top 40 hit.

As far as jiu jitsu goes, I’ve been in and out of the gym. My neck has been a little tweaked and I don’t want to risk tearing anything while it heals up. I did some technique last week, but didn’t roll. I should be able to spar this week, since I’ve moved away from Batman Neck to simple Hurty Neck. However, I’ve been playing a LOT of guard lately. Which is probably why my neck hurts. Rolling into upside-down guard for triangles is all fun and games until Batman Neck claims your soul.

I look forward to training for my first IBJJF comp in March, and maybe an out-of-town tournament for no-gi… It’s been almost two years since my last no-gi comp! I’m a little skeptical about NAGA being in STL even though it’s at UMSL. Their last tournament here wasn’t any better that an in-house tourney and it didn’t seem very organized. Maybe Round Two will be redeption.

Deep Fried Omoplata. Word.

A month into culinary school and I have time to write!!?!?!

Kind of. Homework. So I wrote about one of my favorite things: Lumpia. Some situations were embellished for the sake of storytelling. Anyone mentioned is fictitious, unless they call me twenty times a day, every day (love you Mom!)

Lumpia Story: The Rock & Roll Eggroll

Being latchkey kids with parents that worked all the time didn’t leave much in terms of “home cooking.” In spite of that, my mom was an accomplished cook. In order to pay for college classes, she ran her own catering business from home, specializing in Filipino food. It was pretty successful, I guess, since she was able to help pay for college and buy us kids little luxuries every now and then. The years Mom went to college were probably the most favorite out of my childhood. I was her Unofficial Taste Tester, and got to experience my culture First Class via taste bud. Mom would start preparing on Thursdays, cutting massive amounts of vegetables and brining fish. But Friday was my favorite, since it was the day we would wrap lumpia, which is the Philippine’s version of the eggroll. (According to the almighty Wikipedia, lumpia were brought to the Philippines by Chinese immigrants. Filipinos and Chinese-Filipinos then made them awesome.)

Fridays were the days that Mom would sample a small batch, and fry some up for the family. In my opinion lumpia (pronounced LOOM-PEE-YAH) is far superior to its Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai counterparts, which are unceremoniously lumped into the category “eggroll.” If the food world was personified by fireworks, eggrolls would be mere sparklers… Lumpia would be the fireworks that boomed loud enough to rattle your fillings. They are the loud, throaty Harley Davidsons to eggroll’s moped.

Lumpia simply outclass the competition because they unabashedly stand on their own as the main course to a meal. In other cuisines, you see eggrolls as a side, to be forgotten under a mass of General Tso sauce, or in a dribble of vinegary fish sauce. In Filipino cuisine, lumpia take center stage oftentimes as an entree because substantial, hearty, identifiable ingredients are used. Eggrolls can oftentimes mask questionable fillings under the perceived happiness that is a fried shell. Lumpia, on the other hand, declare themselves filling first, crispy-fried goodness second. A few lumpia served with a side of good, semi-sticky jasmine rice and a little bit of “duck sauce” or “banana ketchup” would be a complete, real meal to my family.

From an early age,I realized why Mom’s lumpia were in such high demand: she would make her own lumpia wrappers! Yes, there are specialty stores out there that many cooks (myself included at times) resort to for prepared, packaged generic eggroll wrappers. Mom would tirelessly prepare countless little rice crepes that would soon be lumpia wrappers. She would often prepare so many of the little white crepes that she would have a sizeable frozen stock available for any situation. According to a fun blog The Burnt Lumpia (which is a reference to the one or two burnt lumpia in any batch that resulted in there being too much fat in the roll, or if the wrapper was punctured) and Cheftalk.com, this is a recipe for lumpia wrappers:

Lumpia Wrappers: (Yields 20-25 wrappers)

3 large eggs
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until frothy, then blend in yolks. Make a slurry out of water and corn starch, then add egg mixture. Blend together. Let stand for 20 minutes for mixture to release bubbles.

In a Teflon pan, brush with vegetable oil and set flame to a low heat. Brush mixture to desired shape. Do not let them brown.

The wrappers will easily remove themselves from the pan. Let each wrapper cool down on a baker’s rack. Wrappers are ready to use or can be layered for storage.

Like many comfort foods, lumpia is actually a general term for one of three varieties:

 Lumpiang Shanhai- Thin rolls, mostly meat and garlic; sort of like a mini meatloaf.

Lumpiang Gulay-Gulay means “vegetables” in Tagalog. Meat and hearty vegetables cooked, drained, and wrapped.

Lumpiang Sariwa- “Fresh” lumpia; similar to fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, but with cooked vegetables.

For this paper, I will use OverseasPinoy.net’s recipe for 20-25 lumpiang Gulay. Normally, lumpia is made in huge batches for special occasions. Uncooked lumpia are frozen and, depending on the fillings, can last for weeks.

Ingredients:

3 cup mung bean sprout, roots trimmed
1 cup green beans, thinly sliced diagonally
1 medium size carrot, cut into strips
2 cup cabbage, shredded
1 cup sayote cut into strips
1 cup small size shrimp, shelled, chopped
1 cup boiled pork liver, cut into strips
2 cup pork, cut into strips
2 cake tokwa, tofu, diced
1/2 head garlic, choped
1 medium size onion, chopped
1/4 c. patis (fish sauce)
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
lumpia /spring roll wrappers

Cooking procedure:

In a wok, sauté garlic and onion, add in pork meat, pork liver and shrimp, stir for 3-5 minutes or until shrimps are cooked. Add in patis and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add all vegetables and quickly stir cook for a minute. Let cool and keep aside vegetable filling. Place 1 tablespoon of filling on one side of each wrapper and wrap tightly, secure wrapper by lightly dabbing with water on wrapper edge. In a wok deep fry lumpia at medium to low heat for 2-3 minutes or until wrapper turns to golden brown and fillings are cooked. Serve with vinegar garlic mixture dip.

                When I make lumpiang gulay, I use a similar recipe to this one, but add more garlic, remove the tofu, and substitute chicken (dark meat) for the pork. I remove the pork because a few family members and friends of mine are Muslim, and I would like everyone at the party to enjoy my food. This type of food is great for substitution; a part of the cook’s personality should show in the fillings. I have seen variations with jalapeno peppers, extra garlic, and even SPAM. If it fits in the wrapper, it can be used.

                Additionally, my favorite dipping sauce is equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar, with crushed garlic and red pepper to taste.

                I also immediately fry them as soon as they are wrapped. This makes for a lovely, golden brown color, perfect for presentation. Having a cooking partner really helps this process. It also creates a nice bonding experience when among family members. Looking back, I think I reconnected with grandparents, cousins, and my own mother through the lumpia-making process. I think that is what home cooking and comfort food is all about: making a familial connection.

                In my case, that family connection stems from making lumpia, the James Bond of eggrolls.

In the past year, I’ve gotten gotten married, changed gyms, and started culinary school. In my experience, dynamic decisions make for much more enriching results.

Be bold. Be decisive.

While a decisive attitude is not always the case with me (I feel this will be a lifelong project) I think it’s already played out into my Foodjitsu in recent months.

In my cooking world, I’ve gone from quiet prep cook, to a whiny entitled culinary student baker, to (at least trying!) a calm, professional cook that’s able to quickly analyze and take action during a rush, delegating orders or taking them in order to get the job done.

Everyone is a team player in a working kitchen. No one cares if I can recite standard proportions for a mirepoix… Or that I can make perfect vegetable cuts. No one cares because it’s knowledge disassociated with the situation at hand. If I can’t get my orders through in a productive, clean manner, then all the perfectly bruniosed carrots in the world wouldn’t be able to save me.

A few weeks ago, I burst my own bubble, and decided that I want to be the kind of cook that will work, in a pinch, anywhere in the kitchen. I vowed that I would be the kind of guy to help out the dishwasher at the end of the day, and help make sure that the next day’s prep is completed. I want to be reliable and willing to do what it takes to get through a rush. A total paradigm shift from a frustrated cook that blamed others.

In light of that, whining gets you nowhere. Neither does a display of knowledge in a functional situation. It’s plumage for the rest… and they simply want performance.

For example, instead of whining about overall holding temperatures, I simply changed it when it came to my turn to run the line. If I needed something done in the kitchen, and I had my plate full, I asked another cook or the kitchen helper to get it done. And it got done. Many times, those changes were kept by the other cooks; an unspoken combination of practicality, and laziness.

I have to say that I do feel better about it. And I’m not as irritable at work. I’ve noticed that my cooking has grown more precise; my presentation cleaner. This is a good place to be in my head.

My Jiu Jitsu has followed suit. Almost a year ago, I switched from St. Louis Training Circle to North Broadway Jiu Jitsu. I was getting the same way I did during my interim phase in the kitchen: whiny and lazy.

I would whine to myself when someone I felt had less BJJ knowledge suddenly gave me a little game. Or bitch about no one playing in the gi. My patience grew thin, and my ego ballooned. Not good when you’re trying to peer coach others to win competitions.

I left my friends at STLTC, and went ronin for a bit, traveling to St. Louis area gyms and dojos. Some were wonderful and had a good vibe. Others… well, I felt sorry for the students that bought into their lies. I mean, no matter what anyone says, you can’t throw fireballs, and Kung Fu is not the deadliest form of combat ever. You can’t disarm or sticky palm a bullet or nuclear warhead, Kung Fu people.

I eventually decided that North Broadway Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Bryan Guidry, Black Belt under Rodrigo Vaghi) was a good fit.

I’m a Youtube BJJ junkie; something that will never stop for me. But instead of simply passing that technique as rule of law, it’s constantly tested at North Broadway BJJ. Like the kitchen, functionality is king. The guys are strong, but have solid posture and technique. And it works… No more rubber guard. No more lockdown. Flashy sweeps and flowery attacks no more.

My overall game was scrapped, and I focused on the little (Read: Less Flashy) things, like retaining my guard and getting out of side mount. Working in the gi has really helped me be a little more crafty, but I’m learning not to hang out in any one position without a plan of attack…. And always, always, always: attack.

Rolling with guys that are years better at BJJ really bumped up the learning curve for me… Also, regularly rolling with a champion BB is a pretty amazing thing. 

I checked out a (probably now-defunct) Krav Maga school that had an instructor that claimed to teach BJJ (He had a framed picture of Helio Gracie and a Brazilian flag), and he refused to roll with anyone! Even with a mouth guard and workout clothes. [[NOTE: I’m not that Brazil-centric. I simply looked for any indicators that this school actually taught BJJ.]] 

He also taught his students to cross their ankles when taking back. Not cool Mr. Krav/BJJ Instructor dude. That’s like telling a four-year-old to play in traffic. I was polite, and left. Maybe the reverse punch he taught that evening might save one of his students’ lives one day, in an alternate universe, on a different planet with entirely different laws of physics.

It’s back to the basics for me. And I think I’ll make it stay that way. The fundamentals and posture keep you out of trouble on the mat, and I want to be the kind of grappler that’s able to keep posture and composure at all times in order to get a decisive win. I’m turning down the flashy dial and going with solid, high percentage jiu jitsu. I’m not there just yet, but I’m working on it.

Just like the kitchen, I plan on remaining calm, patient, and most of all: productive, decisive, and positive.

Enjoy!

I occasionally find myself out of town on visits to family. We’re spread across the globe (which makes for wonderfully interesting food talk). But like all addicts in need of their “Jits Fix,” I scour Google for local MMA or Jiu Jitsu gyms and send friendly emails to gym owners asking if it were possible for me to train there for a class or two.

I’ve found that the Jiu Jitsu/MMA community in the US is overwhelmingly friendly… to a point. They’re more than happy to take on a new training partner that they haven’t sparred/rolled with before. But I say that the friendliness extends to only a specific point because as a visitor I am a stranger, possibly interrupting (even in the slightest way) their routine.

From the perspective of being from a gym that constantly allows other players to join in on the fun, great blog posts from solid BJJ coaches, and from being a visitor to other gyms, I’ve come up with some general guidelines that I follow when visiting other gyms. It’s basic common sense to many jits players, grapplers, or MMA fighters, but it might be nice for those  first striking out on their own into a strange club.

FoodJitsu- Training Out Of Town

1. Don’t be a dick.

This is a general guideline that I follow at my home gym and bring to gyms that I visit. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen visitors from other gyms go into competition mode when they should really be learning the vibe and rolling with the same energy as the rest of the gym. Things like exploding an arm bar in a slow-roll, skull rides, mandible crushes, while legal in (some? most?) competition, might be considered dickish moves in the gym you’re visiting. Also note that many times, the first person you’re rolling with is trying to get a bead on how you train before you start on his training partners, which leads to my second guideline while visiting a new gym:

2. Be a good training partner.

Be concerned about your partner’s safety. You accidentally elbow him in the jaw, kick his head while transitioning, or slamming him while in his guard without knowing your new training partner might escalate force when it’s definitely not necessary. You’re there to train with new people and to work out. This new person you’re rolling with is the tool you’re using to complete your goal. Don’t break him (or her).

3. Follow house rules.

My gym doesn’t bow to the mat, or anyone for that matter. In fact, we’re pretty laid back and focus on fundamentals and training partner safety… But that doesn’t mean I won’t line up with all the other white belts at some schools after bowing to the mat if the school asks. It’s like taking your shoes off before entering some homes. Different strokes for different folks, right?

4. Hygiene, hygiene, hygiene!

Don’t be the stinky kid in class. Seriously. If you are visiting a friendly gym, they won’t be so friendly once they realize that the stranger they’ve invited into their fold smells of a combination of Funyons and goat cheese. Seriously. Take a shower. Also, make sure you cut your nails. You don’t want to be remembered as the stinky kid that leaves scratch marks in the ni-go class. This should be something of a given, but sometimes, being on vacation in a strange town might steer some into being a little lax on the shower scene.

5. Introduction.

Always seek out the instructor/point of contact and introduce yourself. By this point, you should have contacted the school via email/phone and squared away class times, rules, and any fees. Keep in mind that particular instructor might be bombarded with visitors so tell him where you’re from, and don’t be shy about giving details on your training. The instructor, like your first training partner, will try to get a bead on you. That’s cool. He’s just looking out for his own. You would do the same, right? Shake hands with everyone you roll with, and take the introduction time to go over what subs/techs are taboo in that gym. Some places might be taking it easy on the day you’re visiting. They might have a fighter competing the next day and the last thing they want is some stranger heel-hooking the crap out of their guy. See #1.

6. Roll with everyone that’s willing.

I like to think that the more people you roll with, the better you get. You learn different body styles, contact levels and sparring games. So get the most out of your experience with a different group of grapplers. Look to roll with everyone. If you’re not a dick on the mat, pretty much everyone will be willing to roll with the new guy. You’re also giving up some of your game while rolling with these new guys, and it’s a good time to work on your fundamentals. For example, while I thought my mount escape was really good, rolling in a gym where they were training mount retention for the past month straight really helped my escape game.

7. Don’t be the loudest guy in the room.

If you’ve been grappling for any length of  time, there’s “That Guy” who likes to talk about the latest UFC fight, and how he can do X-technique, or how he tapped X amount of jits players in competition, etc. And then you’re sorely disappointed in his performance. Don’t be all talk and no show. Just show what you’ve got on the mat in a constructive manner, and take in what you might need to work on.

8. Tap early, tap often, and leave them uncounted.

Reasons for being out of town: work or play. That’s it. So when you’re in a new gym, don’t hang onto that armbar before tapping, or throwing/soaking bombs (if you’re training MMA). Chances are, going back home to work, or showing up to Cousin X’s wedding with a fatty shiner or broken arm will not be in your best interests.  Use your time at a new gym to play, and take in different energy. Your ego should be left at the door; so counting taps shouldn’t even  be an issue. Again, just play and have a good time.

9. Refrain from coaching, unless specifically asked.

Okay, here’s where I’ll contradict myself from what I’m used to in my home gym. I’m all about criticism after a roll. When my training partner asks me how I kept taking back, I’ll let him know how. He’ll get better from that kind of advice. However, there are a lot of schools out there that have strict rules against coaching during open mat sessions. While I tend to shy away from such schools, sometimes my Jits Fix needs scratching and I have to make due. Personally, I think it’s an ego thing, but other times, some instructors are following a strict curriculum and would like their students to follow it to the letter. That’s cool, I guess, just not for me. A good thing to notice is how other people in the gym are finishing their games. If they’re chatting about the previous roll, then I think it’s cool to coach a bit. If everyone stands back up and looks to the instructor for “insight” then I suggest refraining from saying your piece unless asked and find some place else to train (IMHO).

10. Always thank the instructor.

In the end, it was they who let you train on their mat. So a sincere, friendly handshake is in order. If you liked their club/school/dojo/etc, then invite them to train in yours when they’re in your town. The surprising thing about fighters and grapplers is that while our community is huge and worldwide, it’s very personal. While many folks don’t remember the name of a visitor’s gym, they’ll remember that player and think “Hey! That guys was fun to roll with!” and seek you out if they’re ever in your area. Also, keep in touch with those instructors you meet along your journey. You’ll never know when you’re back in town to train, and it would be nice to have a friendly gym around.


[NOTE] It’s also very commonplace to go out for a few beers or grab a bite with some of the people you’ve rolled with. It’s a great way to make some new friends and to promote a friendly grappling community. Visitors from out of town visiting my home gym are usually offered that. Who knows? You might be rolling with a great tour guide.

Enjoy!

-Nowell Gata

“Pate’ a choux” is a fancy [Read: French] for a cream puff base. It’s also the same kind of dough used for éclairs and other forms of tasty goodness. A few months back, I held a dessert-themed Food Club [Think: Fight Club, but with edibles and no blood… unless it’s steak.] The whole point of Food Club is to “cook outside of the box,” meaning that the dish you bring to Food Club is something you haven’t made before.

The cool thing is, when faced with the task of creating something new, Food Club participants start doing their homework. The research behind each recipe is immense only because there’s eleventybillion recipes for X dish, and one brain to discern [guess?] what the happy medium could be.

This past Food Club, I went the opposite route and went for the Cream Puff while dreaming about Beard Papa cream puffs. If you haven’t had one of those. Seriously try it the next time you’re in NYC or LA… Anyway, the cream puff is basically a dollop of pate’ choux, and is then filled with custard/cream/pudding/etc. Simple, right? Most definitely. The surprise and awe that I created something this… pretty… and tasty bewildered my sensibilities and forced me into a touchdown dance in the kitchen. My friends were accommodating; and also surprised that I could pull any kind of pastry off.

“Holy shit Nowell. You baked something!”

Yep. I did. And  it tasted great after being filled with custard and dunked in powdered sugar.

It was kind of intimidating attempting something with such a name. Pate’ a choux: it sounds important. It sounds grand. And at the time, it sounded kinda difficult.

“I’m going to attempt a pate’ a choux.” It sounds like a high-dive routine.

But it’s just a name for a technique and method to cook flour in a certain way to get a specific result. I think it’s an American-English-speaking thing. The moment something is given a “fancy” name in another language, it becomes an event, and no longer fundamental. Hell, it becomes “fancy!”

The same thing applies to martial arts. For the sake of ego protection, I’ll use the term X-tech to refer to any technique that transcends the different arts. A punch is a punch. A kick is a kick.

Right? Some times.

Well, to some, it’s completely wrong. I’ve run into countless martial artists who strongly believe their version of X-tech is the golden ideal of all fighting and will ninja-fy the world and all aggressors. The simple truth: it’s a fundamental concept, shared by the rest of the world, and other arts since we all generally have the same biological layout.

A lot of arts/delivery systems seem to fall along the lines of general strategy, created by folks that had a need for a certain strategy, found that it worked isolated in that strategy, and then decided to teach it as Fighting Truth to people who believed that X-art would work for them.

That translates into very specific names for X-tech and a disdain for variation or deviance from X-tech.

But what if the situation calls for X+1tech? You come up a bit short in terms of effectiveness, right?

So it all comes back to fundamental basics, practicing what works with your own tech in a live manner, and see what works for your body type and skill level. Spar. Work in a functional way, instead of listening to someone tell you what he thinks is right or wrong.

Come full circle to the pate’ a choux. Here’s the fundamental recipe I used direct from cooks.com:

CHOUX PASTRY     

3/4 c. water
6 tbsp. butter, cut up
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 lg. eggs

Place water and butter in medium saucepan. Bring to a full boil over medium heat. Boil until butter is just melted. Add flour and salt. Stir vigorously until dough forms a ball and leaves the sides of pan (about 1 minute). Remove from heat. Let stand 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. After last egg is thoroughly incorporated, mix vigorously 30 seconds longer. Shape dough as directed in recipe.


Okay. That’s the fundamental recipe to make the dough, which can be lumped onto a cooking sheet and made into cream puffs, piped into little tubes to create éclairs, or deep fried to make beignets. The idea is that there’s a fundamental base for everything, and that the little tweaks that surround it may not be the end-all, be-all for the concept, whether it’s fighting, cooking, or balloon-animal making.

The end result, once you realize it works, is rewarding as it is useful to your interests.

Enjoy!

I haven’t written for myself in the past few months. Lately, it’s been copy for e-newsletters, reviews of restaurants, even photo captions. While fulfilling in the sense that, yes, I did write something on X day and got paid for it, I didn’t write for myself.

You see, writing allows me to express myself in ways that I wouldn’t be able to during my normal day at work. I could be groggy from the night before, lacking sleep, and/or hungry and come across like a complete Neanderthal. Yeah. It happens (and Yay for caffeine!).

I can always write, and come across as a less-than-Neanderthalic Neanderthal. So that’s a win, I guess. Word.

But what to write about? Hmm… Two of my other passions in life are martial arts (mixed, not stirred) and cooking (anything). I’ve pursued those interests to what I consider a very functional point; which means that I’m comfortable competing in submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (my favorite fighting range) and cooking in a working kitchen (I bake bread and slice/dice/cook edibles).

I consider both passions separate journeys in my life but have found huge similarities in the learning processes of both arts. From one perspective, Food and functional Fighting (and a lot of other things!) start from the introduction of a concept to reach a certain end result. The quality of that end result is also a culmination of a variety of factors, like training, knowledge, equipment, and experience performing that concept. The fundamentals, and the constant improvement of those fundamentals makes a better cook or fighter.

So thanks for following and exploring this dual journey with me.

More to come!