My All-City Space Horse Setup

Though All City ceased this year, my All City Dusty Rose Space Horse is still my favorite current bike. I’ve done three tours of the GAP/C&O, one of the Erie Canal, and many shorter adventures on it. It fits me like a glove.

Specs

Setup Notes & Customizations

There are a few specific tweaks I made to this build to get the fit and gearing just right:

• Gearing: for climbing, I throw a 36 cassette in back. For general touring, a 32 is preferred.
• Crankset Mods: I am running a 28-tooth Spécialités TA chainring. The RX800 crank is lighter, and I shaved down the chain slip guide to fit the inner chainring.
• Fit Data:
  • Saddle Setup: 9% angle on the non-drive side; phone aligned with the nose.
  • Stem: I am using the 70mm / 17-degree version of the Shimano PRO LT.
• Cabling:
  • Brake Housing: Shimano Hydro
  • Shift Housing: Jagwire LEX-SL Black

my Szechuan Noodles

My base recipe for Szechuan noodles (noods)

Ingredients

Almost all of these are optional.

• ⅓ teaspoon mushroom or other MSG powder (chicken, etc.)
• Chili oil
• Lao Ga Man Chili in Oil & Chili Crisp (I prefer the Chili in oil, tho a little Chili Crisp can be nice)
• Garlic (not more than 2 cloves)
• Dried Chili (the Chengdu dried are amazing, and totally different than Western)
• Tahini (⅓ teaspoon) (you can also use standard deeper sesame paste here)
• Any amount of dried peppers to taste (but use less “Danshan” type chili/fennel than usual)
• Optional ⅓ teaspoon Chinese vinegar
• Sugar to taste (it should be warming, and sugar is not optional)
• Chinese five spice
• 1 teaspoon Chinese soy sauce
• Salt to taste

Process

1. Compose the components above into a bowl
2. Cook the noods
3. Ladle about ⅓ or ½ of a cup of the noodle cooking water over the mix to cook the raw (garlic mostly)
4. Mix

St. Patricks Day Corned beef and cabbage & Irish soda bread

Corned Beef and Cabbage

• Fresh parsley
• mustard Seed
• 4+ peppercorn mix
• cloves
• juniper berries
• bay leaves (the strongest you can find)
• all spice berries
• thyme (a lot of dried, since it’s very water soluable, and doesn’t last long when boiled)
• Optional: dried ginger, star anise

• potatoes (baby, about the size of a tablespoon)
• onion (4+ big onions)
• carrot (5+ medium carrots)
• celery (3+ small stalks, not too much)
• cabbage (a small one… it’ll have to be cooked after taking some veggies/broth out, so it can’t be too large.)
• corned beef (the larger the better, also try to get a flat cut, not a point cut, ~$10, so x lbs)

Alt (kosher salt, 2 tbsp, added at the corned beef stage)

1. put the corned beef in, and add ~2 tsp mustard seed, 1.5 tsp peppercorn mix, 4 cloves, 8 juniper berries, 6 all spice berries, 2 very strong bay leaves or 4+ weak bay leaves), and 2 tablespoons of thyme or maybe a little more).
2. Cook for 2.5 hours, turning every half-hour.
3. After 2.5 hours, take out the corned beef, and add half the potatoes, carrots, and onion. Cook for 15-25 minutes.
4. After those 15-25 minutes, add the rest of the veggies, and cook for another 15 minutes.
5. Take out half, and fill the empty space with the cabbage. Cook on high for another 15 minutes.
6. Serve an 8th of cabbage, 2 slices of corned beef, a bowl-full of veggies, and add chopped fresh parsley on top. Serve along with the Irish soda bread.

Irish soda bread

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon (or less) of baking soda
• 1 tablespoon (or more) of salt
• 1 quart (or less) of buttermilk
• Any amount of Irish butter
• A little bunch… or a ton… of caraway seeds
• (note people like raisins or currants in this, but I find that’s less appropriate for dipping in the soup)

(Pre-heat a cast iron pan to 425)

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
2. Stir in the buttermilk past where the dough looks shaggy, until the dough looks smooth.
3. Place in a cast iron pan already pre-heated to 425, and cook for 40~ish minutes.
4. Take out and test that the middle is 190 deg F with a therometer, and serve with the Irish butter.

Wing contest at Quarry House

My first order of Quarry House wings was “medium.” The waitress had told me that they ran one level hot, and the medium were actually hotter than an standard “hot.” My nose was stuffed and my eyes were fully watered up at the end of twelve.

We decided to set up a trip with Andrew, Rich, myself, and my sister. I realized that Aman loves hot food too, so I invited him as well. We formally decided to go the night that Young Frankenstein played at the AFI. The final group was myself, Simon, Andrew, Rich, Alissa, Cathy, Shveta, and Aman.

The order came out, 9 wings each of the mild, medium, hot, and 4 alarm. As my sister said later, we probably should have started with the mild and worked our way up… but instead we each went to the 4 alarm. Lips started to burn, glasses (Rich’s) came off, and instead of laughter, yelling, or anything positive, we all spent time making sure we were physically ok. When the burning stopped, we could taste a familiar sweet habanero flavor.

Aman had three, Cathy and myself two each, and Andrew and Rich one. Shveta took one bite and gave hers to Aman, while continuing to enjoy her Fin du Monde. Cathy had her first Dogfish Head Palo Santo (and enjoyed it).

Young Frankenstein was amazing as usual. Where wolf? There. There wolf.

Onion-dill rice

Managed to concoct a recipe that I ended up quite liking today. Documented since I am unlikely to randomly repeat it. Makes 3-ish decently sized portions.

Start cooking 3/4 of a cup of rice.

Brown an onion in a tablespoon of olive oil, adding some salt (I used a medium amount [about 1/3 of a teaspoon] of coarse sea salt), and a decent amount of black pepper. Cook until moderately browned. (I added a teaspoon of A-1 sauce for a vinegar taste, and 1/4 of a tablespoon of hot thai seasoning [extremely spicy with a hint of lemon], but these are probably optional.)

Add 2 (or more… as much as you like) tablespoons of sliced garlic (not too thin), and 1 red pepper, cut into aprox. 1cm by 1cm cubes (you want a little flavor in each bite), and another tablespoon of olive oil. Cook until the peppers look good (the garlic will follow).

Add about 4-5 sprigs of fresh dill, ripping it into small pieces, and then the rice, and stir (feel free to add a tbsp or so of water if it’s sticking). Cook for another 3-5 minutes, until the liquid is drained.

I served it with two tiny-tiny steaks cooked in the same large-sized pan, seasoned with salt and pepper, though the rice would have been enough split between two people.