Max's Fried Chicken Imitation

Max's Restaurant has the best fried chicken in the Philippines. It's one of my favorite restaurants in the Philippines. They have franchises in California, Hawaii and a recently opened restaurant in New Jersey. And I just read somewhere that they will also open on in Toronto. Come on, now. How about one in Chicago?

A little history on this very successful restaurant: "Max's Restaurant's beginnings started in 1945, after World War II. Maximo Gimenez, a Stanford - educated teacher, befriended the American occupation troops stationed at Quezon City. Because of this friendship, the soldiers regularly visited Maximo's nearby home for a drink or two. Later on, the troops insisted that they pay for their drinks. This prompted Maximo to open a cafá where the troops could enjoy food and drinks." (http://www.maxschicken.com)
Here's a picture of what the chicken looks like:


So, I went online and searched for different types of recipe on how to imitate this chicken. I found a really good one online with a video tutorial. Gathered the ingredients. We have lots of chickens in the house right now coz my mom bought it on SALE. Made two of these chickens for dinner tonight. It took a while for it to finish (about 1 1/2 hours), coz I had to fry them separately and one at a time. Here's how it turned out:

It was so yummy. The skin was so tasty and crispy.
Sarap to the bones!
Not exactly like the Max's Fried Chicken (of course that will be really hard to copy perfectly).

Post-ACL Reconstruction

After surgery, I went home with a brace on my left leg and a Polar care machine (ice machine) that will pump cold water intermittently. I had to keep all of these on my leg for a week or two. The first night home from surgery was the worst. When I got home I was so hungry so we ordered some sandwiches (Potbelly). Then, I started to feel really sick and nauseated and threw up. I did not even want to take my pain medicine coz i really felt sick to my stomach. In return, I was in so much pain later that evening. I could not find a comfortable place in my bed coz I was so limited in my movements. It also felt like my leg was gonna explode coz of the pain and swelling. I was tossing and turning. I finally took my pain medicine and was able to sleep that night.

Day one: The next day was pretty much the same. I still can't move my leg, but it usually takes up to 16hrs for the femoral block to wear off. By this time all the pain meds and the anesthesia from surgery wore off. I was taking my pain meds every 4 hours as needed. And believe me, I needed it. It just gets me so drowsy and sleepy after I take it. But it takes the pain away. Then later that afternoon, my friend Charmaine stopped by to visit and brought me some apples. I open up the velcros on my brace once in a while to let it "breathe" for a little bit. I had a lot of help at home: my sis, bro, mom and boyfriend all helped out the first day and then next few days.

Day two, three, four and five, six and seven: I can't really remember how I was doing during these days. My memory is all scattered and it already sucks in the first place, so I'll just put everything together. The next few days after surgery my leg was still swollen and stiff and felt like cement. My doctor actually wanted me to move my leg from 0 degrees extension to 90 degrees flexion. It was just impossible to do it the first few days. So I decided to take it slow. At this point, I was using 2 crutches to get up to the bathroom and partial weight bearing on my left leg. Two days after surgery (8.29.2010) I removed the dressings as ordered by my doctor, but left the steristrips on. At this point, I was kinda bummed that I still can't even do leg raises. But I really just have to be patient, every person is different during this recovery time. Then, one day while I was replacing the ACE wrap on my knee, I noticed a lot of bruising behind my knee and it was really dark too. It scared me a little bit, coz I forgot to ask my doctor about that and I can't remember if he mentioned it. So, once again, googled it and found out that it was expected. So the bruising was normal as long as there's not other pain behind the knee (which is a sign of blood clots usually). I did have some pain on my calf and behind the knee,but it went away the next day after elevating it a lot (or should I say, ALL THE TIME) and keeping the polar care ice on it. By day 5, I was able to shower. And this was a challenge coz I had to keep the left leg outside the shower door (I didn't really bother on wrapping it with something). I actually can get it wet at this time, but I really didn't want to.

Week two: By this time, I switched to just using one crutch. I was actually doing it wrong coz I kept it on the left leg when it should be on the right. No wonder I felt so unstable still and walking really weird with one crutch. I was feeling good around this time and was even able to go get a haircut at Chinatown. The bf took me. I stopped taking my Norco about one week post-op. I just really don't like that stuff. I went to see the doctor on Sept 13 for my first post-op follow-up. He checked my incision and removed the steristrips and his nurse removed the sutures. She then applied new steristrips on so the incisions will be well-approximated (heal together well).

So far my recovery is doing well. Not as fast as I'd expected, but I'm getting there. Still gotta take it easy.

At week three, I started physical therapy. I went back to the place I had therapy before surgery. So far it's going really well. One week of therapy completed and I'm going into its 2nd week. I'm also 4 weeks post-op. Able to walk without crutches, but with a brace. I still just keep one crutch close by just in case. I have to go to physical therapy 3x a day for 4-6 weeks. Oh, I forgot to mention about the CPM machine (continuous passive motion). I had to do it 6 hours a day. I split it into 2 hours each time, but it's still very hard to get all the 6 hours in. My most was 4 hours a day.

My ACL Reconstruction [8.27.2010]

On July 4th, 2010, I was playing volleyball with friends then all of a sudden I felt my knee give out. So I sat out for a few minutes coz I thought i may have sprained or strained a muscle. I tried to get back in the game but couldn't. So i spent the whole night wondering what happened to my knee. By the end of the night, I can't even put weight on it. The next morning, my knee was so swollen and it was so sore. Went to the ER, had an XR done and it showed a sprain. XR only checks for fractures anyway. So i had to wear a knee immobilizer for a week (took a whole week off from work) and follow-up with an Orthopaedic specialist. So that entire week, I've been googling what my injury is. Possible injuries: ACL, meniscus tear, PCL tear, or really just a sprain. Anatomy of a normal knee on the right.



So I went to the orthopaedic doctor a week later, and he suspected an ACL tear right way (my worst fear). He wanted to do an MRI just to make sure. Luckily they had an open spot for an MRI the same day. The MRI took 45 minutes, so I was just laying there looking through some magazines, so boring. Results came in 2 days later, and it was a complete ACL tear. My doctor gave me 2 options: 1) do therapy, 2) or have ACL reconstructive surgery. So, for someone who has not had any surgery before, like me, I chose to do therapy first. It really took me a while to decide what to do, but I chose to have the surgery after 8 sessions, 1 month of therapy.

August 27, 2010 Friday - Day of surgery.
The night before I received a call from the hospital with instructions and what time I had to be there. I was NPO (nothing by mouth) after midnight and I was at the hospital at 6:00am. My surgery was scheduled at 7:30am. I was registered by the secretary she showed me which room to go to. I had my sister with me and my mom in the waiting area. The nurse gave me a hospital gown and then she came back in the room and ask me my medical/social history. She then started an IV on my right hand. Oh boy, was that painful. I never knew it could hurt that much. I've only started IV's on patients (I'm also a nurse by the way) and now I know how much it hurts. After that, the resident, nurse anesthetist, and the anesthesiologist came in my room to ask a few questions. It did not take long until they transferred me to the holding area. My sister and mom had to wait in the surgery waiting area at this time.

I was the first patient in the holding area. The nurse gave me a dose of Versed, then the anesthesiologist came back and pushed another medicine through my IV. I was starting to fall asleep at this time. I woke up after a few minutes and the doctor was done doing the femoral block. I could not feel my left leg at all. Then, a few minutes later my surgeon came and talked to me. Then, they transferred me in the OR. They strapped my right arm and left arm down. Then, the last thing I remembered was when the nurse put an O2 mask on me. Next thing I know, she was waking me up and told me that it was all done. So they moved me to the recovery area and I can't really remember how long I was in there. I really think that I was in there for only a few minutes. That was Phase I of recovery. Then they moved me to another recovery room. That was Phase II. I stayed in there until I was ready to go home. Went home after 1pm that day.

In phase II, the nurse offered me some crackers and asked if I needed a pain pill. She gave me options: IV morphine, 1 or 2 tabs of norco. I picked 1 tablet of Norco - BIG MISTAKE. Coz in an hour I was in a lot of pain, but I never asked for anything else coz I just wanted to go home.

....at home after ACL Reconstruction: TO BE CONTINUED in the next blog.

Damn you Bunny Hill

Devil's Head in Wisconsin. [1.30.2010]
This was our first time snowboarding. I was really excited and scared at the same time. Been wanting to try this for a long time now. Rented out boards and boots, which kinda sucks coz it's never the right size for you, and I'm small. I can't really figure out my stance when I got on the board if I'm "regular" of "goofy". It was really uncomfortable. I'm not sure if me being a lefty affected it, coz it felt like I can go both ways.
We started out on the bunny hill and spent pretty much the whole day there. WHICH WAS A BAD IDEA. Coz you'll never learn there. Fell a millions times on the bunny hill.
Finally went on the lift when the day was almost over, coz I saw my sister went up there with some of our friends. So EJ & I decided (both of us have never done it before) to go on the lift. OMG!!! took me forever to get down that hill and saw all my friends get past me 3x already. HAHAHAHA. They stopped and helped out though. Thanks! LOL. But all I can think of was, please let me just get down that hill. HAHAHA! I think in the end I finally got the hang of it, but then it was time to go home. This picture on the upper right was taken after. You probably can't really tell that I'm in a lot of pain and super sore which lasted for at least a week.
We will definitely try to go more this coming winter and learn this stuff. It's so much fun and all worth the PAIN.

Not Allowed

As you can see, to your left is a picture in the subway (CTA Red Line). We were (EJ & I) waiting for the train after a long walk from Chicago Avenue to The Art Institute of Chicago to take photos.

I was browsing through the photos I've taken that day while waiting for the train. Two Chicago Police walked past me, but then the lady cop came back to talk to me about taking pictures. [Coz when they walked past me, the train was coming, and I thought "oooh this would be a great shot" and decided to take a photo]. Anyways, I guess the lady cop heard my shutter thing..and asked me (in a b*tchy way)

B*tchy cop: "Why are you filming the trains";
Me: (looking very innocent) "huh?" (didn't hear her the first time coz the train was coming)
B*tchy cop: "Why are you filming the trains? You can't film the trains." (in b*tchier TONE)
Me: "I'm taking a picture". (i was being a smart a$$ a little bit, coz she asked filming, i'm not 'filming').
B*tchy cop: "You can't take pictures here."
Me: "oh." (turning off my camera)
Guy cop (much nicer): "You can't take pictures because of the whole 9/11 thing..."
Me: "Ohhhhh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."
B*tchy cop: "There's cameras everywhere, don't be surprised if they (i guess she meant the CTA personnel) take your camera away".

Then they left. If they try and take my camera, it's WAR!! I've waited years to buy this camera (Canon Rebel t1i DSLR) and I finally have it..so NO WAY!!! I guess I look like a terrorist or a threat to them or something..HAHA! Good thing I was in an okay mood and did not b*tch back at the B*tchy cop. Coz I'm NOT doing anything wrong. I see a lot of CTA/train pictures everywhere, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But according to the CTA website's Photography/Video Policy, it is PERMITTED to take photos using hand-held cameras. I guess my DSLR is not considered "hand-held".