Ramen

Ramen is a delicious, warming, nutritious Japanese soup. I made this the other day and it was awesome. You can use seitan or any meat substitute you like instead of tofu if you'd rather.

What you'll need to make 2 big hearty bowls of the stuff:

- 1 block of regular firm tofu, drained, dried and chopped into chunks
- 2 bell peppers (any colour), cut into strips
- 1 onion, cut into strips
- 2 carrots, cut into strips
- 4-5 handfuls of bean sprouts
- 500g/half a bag of spinach, kale or chard, chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1/2 can of bamboo shoots
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated,
- 2 tbsps of miso paste
- 2 tbsps of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
- 1L of vegetable stock
- 2 handfuls of noodles (I used Udon, but you can use rice, wheat, whatever)

1. Preheat your over to 200C. Place the tofu in a greased oven dish and bake for 15-20 minutes on one side then flip and do the same on the other side, or until the tofu is golden brown and crispy on the outside. Alternatively, you can fry your tofu until golden brown on all sides and then set it aside.

2. Add the olive oil and sesame oil to a large pan. Next add the ginger, peppers, onion and carrots along with the stock, miso paste and soy sauce and turn the hob onto a medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes then add everything else except the noodles and spring onions. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, cook the noodles according to packet instructions until they are almost done but not quite. Drain them and add them to the soup.

4. Taste the broth and adjust the quantity of stock/seasoning (i.e. add more water, miso paste, salt or soy sauce if you feel it needs it).

5. Serve into bowls and garnish with the chopped spring onions.

Enjoy!

It's been a while

I've been keeping my head down, working a pretty cool job at the School of Oriental and African Studies, trying to save up some cash and practicing as much as possible before we head out on tour with I am the Avalanche and the Hostage Calm in a couple of weeks. Things off stage have been moving along real nicely for Apologies as well, we have some really fun stuff coming up, including a release show for our split with Calvinball and One Night Stand in North Dakota next Wednesday, November 16th at the Old Blue Last (it's free, come on down!) and lots of cool stuff happening next year including lots of touring and the release of our first full length (more on that to be announced in the coming months).

There's a couple of things I've been reading recently that I thought might be worth sharing with people.

Firstly, I recently discovered a blog called My Sober Year. It's a fascinating, anonymous account of someone who was recently set up by someone working with the Florida Police and charged with possession of marijuana (apparently a felony in the state of Florida). As a result, they can either go to court (where they will almost certainly lose their case) or take part in something called "drug court" where they have to completely abstain from any drugs and go to meeting 4 times a week (this decreases over time) and take regular drug tests. It's a really heartfelt account from someone who has been forced into a pretty terrible situation, but has decided to embrace this and try to completely abstain from all drugs, legal or illegal. This includes caffein, alcohol and any unnecessary medication. They are keeping a journal of their physical reactions and emotions at http://mysoberyear.tumblr.com/. I would highly recommend reading this blog.

The other thing I have just finished reading is Jello Biafra's account of when he visited Israel and Palestine. On July 2nd of this year, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine were supposed to play a show in Tel Aviv. After much debate between the band members and fans of the band, they ended up pulling out of the event. Jello still felt he should visit the place, as he has been very involved in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinian people. His writing with regards to his travels there is fascinating. I am someone who has always been interested in finding out more about the occupation and its consequences, but have also always been rather confused about its roots and history and what it is actually like on the ground. Jello gives a passionate, very level-headed, 2-sided account of what he saw there and his take on the whole situation. He also explains in a clear and simple manner, why certain things are the way they are out there. It is probably, to date, the most useful and informative thing I have read on the Israeli-Palestine conflict. It is long, but well, well worth reading and includes photos and video blogs as well. You can find it here: http://www.alternativetentacles.com/page.php?page=jello_israel

Germany Belgium Home

Our last 2 days consisted of a show with this outside the venue:

Also on the bill that night were smile and burn, a German band we'd played with once before in England on their last UK tour. Sadly, their singer has broken his leg rocking out since we'd last seen em and he had to play the whole show propped up against a stool. Despite this, he managed to absolutely smash it, which impressed me greatly.

After a good night's sleep we headed towards Belgium for our last show of tour. After somehow literally ending up in the wrong town, at a completely different venue, a stroke of luck hit us: the owner of the wrong venue we showed up at knew the owner of the venue we were supposed to be at and hooked us up with them and gave us directions. The show was with Lemuria, who we'd met before and love and Cheap Girls, who we hadn't. Their next record is being recorded by Tom Gabel, I'm stoked to hear it. On the way to the show we stopped to fix some van troubles and I met this awesome beagle:

The show was cool but kind of quiet, and due to a misunderstanding we ended up with no place to stay, which meant we camped on some grass in a service station that night.

It's not really a glamorous end to tour, but, well, that's what happened.

I can't wait to get out on the road again! This week, we're playing Crazy Arm's record release show and then heading out for 3 shows with Samiam and Off With Their Heads. See you there!

You know you're in Germany when... (part 2)

...this is what awaits you in your host's crapper:

Auenstein take 2

The drive the next day, as all German drives seem to be, was traffic ridden. It was worth it though, as we were playing Auenstein. Playing Auenstein is awesome. If you wanna hang out with really nice Germans that will cook you food that they grow themselves, give you loads of beer and rock the fuck out with you, go play there.

Also awesome, is this puppy that showed up after we played:

In the background: Maurice. Probably the craziest German on earth, almost definitely the funniest.

Mighty Sounds

So with my only hangover of tour, we set off to the Czech Republic - the only country that we were going through on this tour that I'd never been to before. We were met with this view as soon as we crossed the border:

It became apparent fairly quickly that the £15 tent me and Joe bought together was not as big as we'd hoped. Here it is on the left, next to Dan and Josh's tents:

It said it was for 2 people! Bloody Argos...

Mighty Sounds turned out to be fucking awesome. It was the first proper outdoor festival that we'd ever played and I really can't wait to do more of them. We watched the King Blues kill it and then Madball get on stage and be tough. Awesome. The day of our show we went swimming in our underwear in a lake we found on the edge of town:

That rather nice sunset is deceiving however. Our show was almost cancelled due a massive storm that came through the festival. Our tent stage was taken down and we were told we might not be able to play, only for it to be put back up and told that the main stage had been taken down and that the main stage bands were being moved to our stage. Eventually all stages got back up and running though and we played what was probably my favourite show of tour. Nice big stage, lots of jumping.

Much, much later on, Joe fell asleep in his clothes.

Vienna/Wiener Neustadt

We wake up at promoter Rob's house in Graz in the baking heat and play streetfighter II in our underwear on his Super Nintendo for a half hour or so. I kick Josh's ass as Chun-Li. We head to the local supermarket and find nothing worth eating so, on Oil and Water's recommendation, decide to head out to a local burger bar that, as well as meaty burgers, serves a couple of different types of vegan burgers and wraps. We eat there and it's good and pretty cheap! Shortly after that I am extremely pleased to find an ice cream parlour that serves organic ice creams and sorbets for €1 a scoop! I take a scoop of mojito and a scoop of mango. Dissapointingly though, I'm still sober after my scoop of mojito. It's at this point that it really hits me how awesome Graz is and I'm kinda sad to leave.

However, I'm not sad for long as we're off to Vienna! We arrive in good time but the seemingly crazy street numbering system means we spend an hour and a half looking for the venue. We get there just in time though: Just as we're having our dinner another CRAZY storm breaks out. The lightning is so close and bright that I actually see it fizzle out rather than instantly disappear. I head back inside when it starts hailing seriously big hailstones.

Our friend Alex shows up, he's already wasted and telling us stories, something he's good at. It's great to see him. The show is fun, Oil and Water kill it once again and we head back to crash at Alex's house:

It's kinda late by this point and Alex has to go to work the next morning. He has to get up in around 4 hours actually at 7am. I go to sleep and wake up at 9am needing to pee and see Alex sitting up in his bed, his eyes half open, seemingly gazing at the wall behind me. He is clearly hanging.

"Hey dude, shouldn't you be at work?" I ask him.

He takes a second, makes eye contact with me and then just says "absolutely."

He assures it'll be fine and he heads off to work. Meanwhile I go back to sleep and wake up around 10.30. I make satay tofu and veg for lunch (get the recipe here: http://apologiesfriendsgabyandihaverooftops.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-hate-service-stops-leeds-to-newcastle.html). It is awesome. For some reason we take forever to get going, and by the time we get into the centre of Vienna, which we really wanna check out, we get a call saying we actually have to be at the venue early that night (shows tend to start very late in Europe when compared to UK shows). The drive is a short one and on arrival we see some familiar faces from the previous 2 shows, which is both humbling and reassuring. I'm not a huge drinker, but tomorrow is our only day off of tour and we plan to spend it at Mighty Sounds Festival, which we are playing in a couple of days, so that night I take advantage of the free booze for the first and only time on this tour. After the show, I head to a bar with Joe, Alex and Zock from Oil and Water. Alex tells us more crazy stories about how certain members of his family believe the earth to be flat (!) and how his parents sat him down and asked him who his cult leader was when he told them he had decided to adopt a vegan diet. Around 3am Zock gets a phone call and is excitedly talking in German to his friend on the other end of the phone. His friend Steffy just called and she's making veggie burgers and has invited us all round to share them with her. By this point I'm so drunk I can't finish my last beer and give it to Joe and Alex who polish it off. Burgers sound like a fucking great idea to me so we head over to Steffy's. Her burgers are astounding. Crispy on the outside, soft but firm and chewy on the inside and really flavourful. She serves them with avocado salad, one of my favourite things ever. Alex gets a piece stuck in his throat and his voice goes totally weird:

I'm having an awesome time. However, the beer in me makes me realise all too late that I have forgotten to take photos of what I've just eaten. Gutted. Just when I think things can't get any better, Steffy shows us her living room. It's entirely painted like a screenshot from super mario brothers:

And THEN i meet hazy, Steffy's adorable dog. I'm so incredibly excited by this point that I don a trendy hat and glasses, both belonging to Zock:

Before heading home, I take a photo of Alex looking particularly fresh. We all think he looks like an animal here. See if you can guess what we were thinking...

It's a sloth.