One day I will write a post a week like I used to back in the old days but I’ve been busy and lacking writing stamina lately. I moved out of that dodgy hotel room months ago and rented an apartment in San Jose, near “smelly” Milpitas but not too close to the landfill-waste-whatever plant so no funkiness around here (yeah… San Jose is an interesting place). Loving it though. Loving the top floor situation too. I’m 7 miles away from work and bike there and back very frequently. Love biking around here. There are so many trails and the views are beautiful. A lot friendlier than LA. 

Anxiety. 

In April I had a really weird day. An anxiety attack triggered by stress. The situation back home wasn’t and isn’t good (Venezuela) so I guess it was time to show off my 80 partially sleepless nights somehow then. I ended up in the ER. After 4 hours doctors said I was fine. Went for a 3-mile run that night. Slept like a baby. Wtf… 

Belize it or not. 

I recently went to Belize for 2 weeks and this trip easily made it to my top 5 vacations of all time. It was a beautiful, sunny, tropical, full of nature and wonderful people. Lots of good food, lots of drinking, lots of diving. I will never forget my time there and should dedicate a post to go over the details and all the shark diving I did. I would really like to visit again before the end of the year. There’s so much to see. I have to say hi to the monkeys. Missed that. Next time! Best shrimp pasta I’ve ever had btw. I know! so weird! Belize food scene is pretty awesome. 

Instagram. 

The cooking situation hasn’t changed but it has definitely been less publicized lately. I have switched my attention to IG stories… they’re a lot of fun and more interactive. I’ve always enjoyed graphic design and there’s a bit of that in there. Anyways, I’m trying to get back to updating my IG feed with more food-related content like I used to.  Hope to get there before I lose my entire following! 

How about we talk about this pasta dish…

If you were to ask me about my 5 favorite pasta dishes, shrimp pasta would definitely be there with mushroom pasta, cacio e pepe, bolognese and a la vongole… actually this is all a lie. Put any pasta in front of me and watch it disappear no matter what it is… but shrimp pasta is so fucking good! 

Shrimpies. 

Get yourself some shrimpies. Spot or rock, maybe tiger prawns. I get the cheap stuff at Safeway or Ralphs unless I’m feeling fancy in which case I might go to Mitsua (there are very few reasons for me to miss LA, Mitsua is one of them) or some good local fish market. I don’t get up at 4am, go to the wharf and have coffee with the fisherman… try to score a good deal on their fresh catch… whatever.

Grab a box of your favorite linguine brand (not that I used linguine but I would recommend using linguine), parsley, garlic, and lemon. That’s it. Eyeball the whole thing unless you’re feeding 20 people but you should be able to guess your ingredients right otherwise. 6 to 8 prawns per person (never go stingy on the shrimp… I hate that shit.. 3 shrimps and it’s over…wtf). One box of pasta will feed about 4 to 5 people. Grab a couple of lemons, parsley, and as much garlic as you can… you will only use a little bit but I use so much garlic in my daily cooking that grabbing extra when I can never hurt. 

The cook. 

You’ve done this before. Pot of water, salt it until is nice and briny (about 2%) over high heat until it boils. This is not the way I usually cook pasta but this is the way most people would cook pasta so I will go with the flow tonight. Only tonight. 

While that pot gets hot, work on the prawns. Cooking is 85% project management and the rest is technique. Ok, maybe 50%… ok, who cares, I can’t do math right now. If you’re cooking by yourself you’re gonna need to manage many tasks, very quickly and efficiently while you’re hungry. Prepping everything ahead of time is key and time management is key… I said “key” twice because I’m an awesome writer. If you’re not cooking by yourself, good luck. But in either case… have a timer handy. There are phone apps that can set multiple timers… I’ve usedt those but seems overkill. One timer and a lot of practice and you should be able to at least cook shrimp pasta. I abuse Alexa and Siri with timer requests. 

Get a pan nice and hot, add some olive oil (I actually never use olive oil over a hot pan… olive oil doesn’t really like high heat, you can use safflower oil or grapeseed). Add the prawns first and let them cook on one side for about 1 minute, toss, cook for another minute. Add the chopped garlic… yeah, I never told you the garlic needed to be chopped but I assume you figured that out on your own…toss for an extra minute and move the contents of the pan onto a dish or whatever container you have… but please remove those prawns from that hot pan.. you don’t want them overcooking.

Cook the pasta. I don’t care what the box says… I test it constantly until I’m happy. If you’re feeling pro, you might be able to juggle pasta and prawns at the same time… and instead of removing the prawns from the hot pan, add the cooked pasta to the prawn pan and finish the cooking of both prawns and pasta together which is ideal…but otherwise… mixed the cooked shrimp and the cooked pasta, squeeze some lemon juice, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle lots of chopped parsley. You’re done. I’m done. Good night!

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