Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Lake. Tahoe.

Heading to Tahoe in a few hours.

I'll be snowboarding / skiing for the very first time. finger cross, let's hope I won't break an arm.
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Courtesy of Nicki Sun.

Ballin status.
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Won't be here for New Year's, so..

Happy New Year.
keep up the opened mind.

Something to think about:

Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.


-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Camera goes SNAP

Snap. Snap. Snap.

Photos fresh out of the memory cards. Check them out here.
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Thanks to Lavish Livez for shouting out.

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Help Needed
I need some help and advises here from you readers/photographers/kind hearted folks.

I've been using the Canon powershot for a good while now. Thought it's about time to upgrade the qualities of the photos a bit - dSLR.

Vote for the best camera. Or leave comments for recommendations or tips. I'm only a rookie at this. Anything helps.


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Monday, December 29, 2008

TIZ photoshooooot

For TIZ's winter line, we'll have Rolo(dunksrnice) the sneaker customizer, Mitch from Supreme Soul, and Mindy(Rockthesole) the shoe fanatic to express the imaginations.

We went to way too many spots today for the perfect shots. Stay Tune. Stay Open Minded.
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Here's a brief intro to the sexies:

Dunksrnice. Known as Rolo. Customizer.
He's been in the game since God knows when.
Check out some of his most popular customs:

Untechkles

&
Poorman Black & White Cement III Flight 89 Customs


Do you need some ice for that broken neck of yours?
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Mitch. A member from the Supreme Soul, need I say more.

One big smiley. Stop drooling.
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Rockthesole. Mindy.

Much more thoughts and philosophy marinated in her sneaker culture than anyone I know.
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Ready for some sex appeal?

1.2.3. You go, mitch.


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Prefect space to appreciate their passion for sneakers.

Rolo's Sharks.


Mitch's Jedi's.


Mindy kept it simple and clean - Authentic Vans.


Eric had his Doernbecher.


Son, you better recognize.

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Picture worthy?


Lookbook for the winter coming soon.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Present + Grip Tape Tutortial

Finally gotten a chance to review the presents i received this x'mas '08.

Other than red envelopes(just incase you've forgotten, I'm Chinese), my gifts are pretty bomb.

Founders at Work - A series of interviews with the big time founders like..you can view them right below this, on the cover.

A book given by Pam and her fiance Serban.

A skateboard deck that's been well designed by Michelle Huynh.


Carefully arranged.

The Imaginary Zebra. My deck can beat your deck any day.
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Honestly, it takes both sides to make a dope deck. Grip Tape.

Here's a simple tutorial for the right, if not the coolest, way to put on the grip tape.

1. Stuff you need - Ruler, cutting knife, marker, screw driver, and grip tape.


2. Think about the best grip tape design idea. ever.


3. Put that thought to work.

Note:design needs to be simple. Or else you'd spend the rest of your weekend/vacation cutting.

4. Put that work in action.

Note: sketch design behind the grip tape => design needs to reflect vertically. So when you place it on the board, it'll look the way you wanted it look at the first place.

5. Cut it out.

Note: Do remember to keep a cardboard or something hard underneath the area that you're cutting. Any damages to the floor would be a round house kick to the face from your mom. and your dad.

6. satisfy with your work by placing it on the deck.

now. you paste it. carefully.

7. Now, the screw driver comes to play.

Grind the side to worn down the grip.

8. Viola. Now that the edges are worn out, it can be easily trimmed off with a blade.


9. Trim with blade.

Note: Do not throw away the excess tape right away. save for the next step.

10. File the edges with the extra grip tapes.


Then, BAM.

Feel good and accomplished for the day.
Note: My board can beat your board any day.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Out. Now.

All the shirts available now.

Click here to enter the shop.

The winter line '08 present you 3 new designs.







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First 50 shoppers will receive the limited TIZ buttons.

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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Paulo Llanes from Daly City.


-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Saturday, December 27, 2008

In less than 24 hours

A few close ups.
"想像,斑馬" "想,像斑馬"


One of the knots for the scarf is actually a Zeeb face!


Totem guy rocking the Zeeb chain.


Woodgrain's the shxt.

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Zeeb.

Steven Dinh from Washington.



Amheil Laxamana from San Francisco.

Found out about TIZ from chamber 23 of the 36 chambers of shaolin. Hot Dam.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Friday, December 26, 2008

Seize. 16.

It's a game. Game have rules. Here are the rules:(Varies throughout the endless cycle)

1. If you were tagged, write 16 facts, which hopefully no one knows, about yourself.
2. Tag 16 other people, including the one(s) that tagged you.
3. To make things more interesting, make up a rule for the people you tag.

So the additional rule for the people I tag:
-Must include some kind of animal sound in one of your facts.
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1. I took French in America and learned Japanese back in Taiwan. Barely gotten a chance to use either. ( The biggest reward is now being able to identify the selections in Japanese video games. As for French, no help. I had to use an online dictionary to write the title.)

In this case, ドモン yells "HAaaaa..TOooleeaaahhhh!!"


2. I once had long hair.


3.I can wear cutesy slippers as long as it keeps me warm. I prefer cutesy slippers especially when it keeps me warm.



4.TIZ actually started since my sophomore year in High school as my graffiti crew that never really graffitied. (2004.) It was called "Tizite Graff."



5.I watchread Naruto AND Bleach. And I've always been a Dragon Ball Z fan- I used to wear wrist bands to school and made the power analyzing meter with cardboard.


6.I was named by my principle and not my parents. "Benson" is actually a last name.

7.I only know 2 other Bensons in my whole life. They're both Asian.

8.I would try to take a picture of people who fell asleep in class(Sleep Deprivation Project). Unfortunately, I'm usually the one ended up sleeping in class. (to be safe, i'd say 60% of the time)


9.I used to skateboard, but never broken anything but the boards. 5 of them. The best thing I did was kickflipping off a 5 step.



10.I milked a cow before. Their teats make a good hand warmer.


and I milked a goat before, too. Teats work just as great.


11.I came to the US when i was 13. I never wanted to come here, but I don't regret coming here.

12.I used to run around the house butt naked as a casual thing until I moved to US.
(No picture available here)

13.My favorite foods' been Pizza and Hamburgers ever since I first tried them when I was 6. I try eating a lot of veggies to balance things out. I'm also gradually starting to like Chinese food.


14. I'm the worst speller. Good thing Firefox has the feature to underline the words that don't exist in dictionary.(IE doesn't have this feature, or does it now) Also, I would open up a new Microsoft word document when I chat, just so I can copy and paste the words that i'm unsure to double check.

15. I have asthma. So severely, I was hospitalized for more than 4 times and you can still see more than 6 needle scars on both of my hands.

One dam doctor messed up twice.

16. I'm not obsessed with Zebras. Zebras are cool and all, but just because I have my brand revolve around zebra doesn't mean that you have to give me x'mas, birthday gifts that's zebra related. Though, I do appreciate your consideration.

Long liveTIZ.



I tag:
Kamz. JackRonnies. Dkwan. Nesquik. Raskeezy. MonkeyPhobia. Manshell. Dunksrnice. Mindy. Jim. Yen. TonyKyan. Ka-Tye. Joey&Carmut. Cody. Paul. Karen & Adrian.


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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry X'mas



Woooot.
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For the Winter:





Have a lovely X'mas.
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Quater's about to start, for you Aggies, check out "DavisText.com" for great deals on textbooks.
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-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Gifts for the first 50 TIZ shoppers

The Winter TIZ line will be dropping on the 28th of December.

That is 5 days from now. And to celebrate late X'mas and early New Years, TIZ will be giving these pins(1 of each) for the first 50 shoppers starting from 12/28/08.


Each pin will be hand numbered to keep its authenticity.


So get ready.

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After the shoe tossing, shoe dodging incident, just one more rule now to implement.


-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Online Map

that locates most if not all the images provided by you zeebs.

It is now up. Go ahead and click the zeebs on the front page when you first enter.

Go ahead and send us your support for TIZ.


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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Addition

Nesqu!k got himself on TFC, TV show from the Philippines, reppin TIZ.

It'll be on air on Dec 28th. Photo via Nesqu!k. Good shit, nesqu!k.

On the other note,

I've remodeled the official TIZ myspace page.

I've done it many times. However, the style's quite different this time.

Much more subtle and simplicit.
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Everday Individuals

My man Paul Chan's second entry. Click here to view the story of Billy.
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TIZ Bloglist

Nesqu!k himself.


Matt Sev(rens) the song composer.

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You can join our TIZ bloglist, too. All you have to do is ask.
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-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Surprise

Just thought we should visit Kevin (MonkeyPhobia) at Fremont before Joey's mission(will be discussed later).


Kevin brought us to this restaurant at MilpitasFremont. (thanks, Kev)

"QQ noodle" it's called. Just like its name, the noodles there can't be bitten in pieces like the ones in ANY Chinese restaurant. It takes several crunches to cut the noodles. Amazing food.

It felt like it was made by someone like this:

Peeps that seen the cartoon would appreciate this.

Joey's mission. After covertedly staying at Nor Cal (my place) for the past week, Joey had finally accomplished his mission. He'd successfully surprised Carmut (his gf) on her 20th birthday!

Congrats :)
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On the other hand,

As a frequent computer user, I understand how we are thankful for our operating systems, the speed of the RAM, the high resolution video card, even the existence of photoshop/illustrator. But have you ever consider how hard life would be without a mouse?!

Mouse deserves just as much respect if not any higher. So recently, I decided to buy it a rug.

An oriental Rug. My mouse is ballin'.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Friday, December 19, 2008

Patience is a virtue

Found these in a dusty cabinet last night.

Labeled in Chinese "The treasure that stimulates the growth of child's mind."

There are 12 transparent cubes. Each with a plane that has holes in them and many various sizes metallic balls. Rule is simple, put the balls on the holes.

That's 12 ways of killing your social life.

Things like these are real good patience trainers.

This one: big balls small balls. Be sure to have the big ones in place first, or else the small ones would escape to the other side => fail.

Some of them are much simpler.


I spent a good 30 minutes to complete these:

Easiest one.

Smiley.






This one's a bit tricky. You'd have separate the bigs and smalls.

Not as easy as it seems.

They all took a great deal gradually tipping the cube for the balls to slide in place. Addicting. But not as addicting as House.
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Zeeb.

Chao Zhang from Sacramento


Casey Guevara from San Francisco with TIZ lettering Blk.


Justin Lieu

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Want to Zeebify yourself? Just click here to request one for free.
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Photo of Anna Achacoso, taken by Nestor.



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Something Cool of the Day.

"Does happiness have a price tag?"
Benjamin Wallace, a journalist, went around the globe to have his first hand experiences with the most expensive..everything. Here's a short review from him after driven the 1.5 million dollar car, cleansed the 125 dollar soap, worn the 800 dollar jeans, and eaten the 160 dollar beef.


-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Almost There

Limited Shirts are in.

Now just waiting for the surprise x'mas gifts to come in before the release of the shirt.

On the other hand,

Would this be a good addition to the room?
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Something Cool of the Day

Like any company, politicians need branding icons as well.

I discovered a series of drafts for Senator President Obama before the logo we see on the billboards and posters today.












All the way till now. Viola.

via LogoDesignLove

Which one's your favorite?

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

How to add Social Bookmark in Blogger?

Tutorial entry for today. for dummies.

Before you learn anything, you'd probably want to know what it is that you're trying to learn, yes?
So what is Social Bookmark, according to my good buddy wiki, it's "a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to webpages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine."

to keep it short and simple, Social bookmark will help boost your traffic.

-Let's get familiar with the bookmarks that we'll be implementing today.

-Starting from the left: Zeeb character (Eye Catcher), facebook post-an-item, slashdot, yahoo bookmark, digg, technorati, Reddit, Google bookmark, Stumble Upon, Del.icio.us, and.. (if the the entry indeed has helped you, feel free to put an TIZ icon along with the bookmarks, thanks)

-Unlike the rest of the egocentric buttons, where only the button's account owner can publish items, TIZ allows anyone to get a chance to explore of the world of imagination.

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Tutorial Starts here: (Meant for blogspot users, only.) (for now)

1. Click Layout 2. Click Edit HTML 3. Check Expand Widget Template.

BAM, now you're just 3 more steps away from boosting your traffic.

Scroll about 2/3 down the codes. Or..

Click "Ctrl+F" and look for "post.body"

The codes for all the social bookmarks shall be posted right under that high lighted line above.

A preview of the final product:

The book mark buttons should appear at where the high lighted region that's indicated above.
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Now that I've shown you the teaser, here's the most technical and difficult part - copy and paste.

You can now go ahead and select the ones you want:
Or all of it (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Facebook.
Slash Dot

Yahoo

Digg
Technorati
Reddit

Google
Stumble Upon

Del.icio.us
TIZ icon

To make things easier, the following is the sum of all the book marks mentioned above.

Just copy and paste.

Hope the entry has helped you bloggers out a bit.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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M.J.L.V.

Over lunch, my friend Brian mentioned his rare collection of the Louis Vuitton mahjong set, which I never knew existed.

Don't get blinded by its luxury.

Pardon the excellent photography.


Straightener.


Feels like a million bucks.


LVMMJ ladies.

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Random Picture of the Day.

I get there's only tall, grande, and Venti from Starbucks. And that was cool, though I'm not much of a coffee drinker, I feel pretty good whenever purchasing a cup of frappuccino that sounds a lot bigger than it is. The size was toleratable.

Now they're just pushing it. Since when was Tall so dam small?!
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb

Courtesy of Nestor. All the way from Philippines or above the Pacific ocean.




The Man himself.


-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Zoom Zoom

Winter Break's here. finally. For those who are still struggling with finals, term papers, and projects, you'll taste the sweetness of vacation soon.

This break shall be productive.
That being said, i should turn off the house seasonal episodes that I've been watching for the last 2 days.

and the movies.

Anyway, Joey came and will be staying for a few.

If you knew Joey well enough, then you can tie him..

..and this.

to the equation for the upcoming of TIZ.

We're up to something no good. A new project. A new direction. A new industry. Maybe?
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Photo Courtesy of Rachel.

Jeff from SSU.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Winter Storm

Striking fast.







-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Study Study Study

Just one more day.


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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Finals

It's that time of the quarter( dam the rapid system) again.

Just a few elements that are crucial during this period of time.

Coffee.

loads and loads of caffeine.

The occasional snacks to keep your body away from collapsing.


Notes punching.

Break taking. ( Stop bloggin and keep studying, Benson.)

The excellence doodles of famous cartoon characters when spacing out.


and no sleep.

Wish you all finals takers good luck!
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

Karen spotted the hiding zeeb at Davis.

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Something Cool of the Day

If you didn't recall the pictures of faces from objects I took a few months back, here's a couple of them from Earth's Faces.






and my favorite.

I'm not the only one that's seeing things.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Sunday, December 07, 2008

Next Drop


Stay Tune.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Spice it up

It was Margaret's(my dear beloved sister that used to throw me around like a dog toy) bday a few days back. She's turning..an age that I dare not mention. Despite her depression over the tragic realization on how fast time flies, we had a delectable dinner over at El Sobrante.

One with yellow quotation marks hanging around the head is the bday girl. My mom's really good at not opening her eyes for photos. She'd hit me for putting this photo up. Good thing she doesn't use internet much.

We had 四川(Sìchuān) cuisine. Known for their hot off the heezy dishes.

I'll try my best to name the following dishes we had in English. Actually, nevermind.
Just try tracing the strokes and show them to the servers if you ever wanted to try them.
Here we go:

-水煮牛肉

"Water boiled Beef." Not quite fitting with its title. One of my favorite dishes. Spicy level: 4.5 stars.

-江湖一鍋端

"Milieu in one bowl." First time trying this. It contained veggie, seafood, beef, and all the different types of ingredients in a bowl. Spicy level: 3 stars.

-XX雞丁

"Whose name escaped me." But it was chicken. Look at the mountain high peppers in the background? It was just meant for decoration purposes. Spicy level:1 star.

-麻婆豆腐

"Ma-Po Tofu." The one that most of you should be familiar with. It appears in almost all the genuine wanabe Chinese restaurants. Good stuff. Spicy Level: 4 stars.

The food was great. Really spiced the night and next day in the restroom.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Thursday, December 04, 2008

Uni Crepe House

Japan-based crepe restaurant-Uni Crepe House currently has their franchise here at Davis.

*one of their most popular crepe is the Rare Cheese cake.*

I was asked to come up with a business card design for them.

So here it is. Based on their vibrant indoor color theme, simplicity of the storefront, and individualism from the staffs, I came up with the design. Hopefully, the bold color combination can catch the people's eyes just like their delicious crepes.
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Spread the Zeeb. Support the Zeeb.

I love Tee Design.com has featured TIZ as the store of the day.

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Something Cool of the Day.

"Fuck the rain."



designed by Anton Schnaider.

Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Apple Mini

Rumor has it..

The New Mac Mini Concept from Sait Alanyali on Vimeo.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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Monday, December 01, 2008

Okonomiyaki

mmm..Japanese cuisine- Okonomiyako, a.k.a Japanese Pizza.

It started off as a project for Michelle's Japanese course and ended up as one hellova meal.

And the procedure was incredibly simple. So here goes a brief tutorial on this dish:
(Of course, for detailed preparation and procedures on culinary arts in general, please visit Piglet's Workshop.)

1. Ingredients.

In english: 1 egg. mayo. Tonkasu sauce. Pork. Green onion. Seaweed. 1 cup of flour. Cabbage. Oil. and 3/4 cups of water.

2. Chop cabbage into fine pieces. (The following picture is not quite fine enough.)

3. Get a medium size bowl. Dump egg, water, and flour into it. Blend well.

4. Add cabbage into the dough mix and continue blending/mixing.

5. Pan fry the pork and the other toppings for flavor.

6. Place toppings into a circular shape in pan, then go ahead and pour the cabbage/dough mix.

7. flip a few times until the surface is tan/slightly toasted.

8. Spread the dressing.

9.BAM!

Enjoy.

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Welcome Our Latest Addition

Jackisbloggin by Jack Ready from San Diego.

Looking for some decent photos of Jordans? here's where to go.

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You can also be a part of the TIZ blogging family, click here.
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Goodies

I've got no ideas what these SB's are called. please comment if you do so.

Despite my lack of knowledge on this pair of kick, i love em. Thanks to Labbit, now i know it's called "Boba Fett" that came out in October. Still love em'. The bold yellow and maroon mixes with the dark forest green is *muah* perfecto.

Also, the kidrobot Heores and Heartbreakers series designed by Ryan Bubnis.

i got Pumpkin head.

-Benson
http://www.theimaginaryzebra.com


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