Friday, November 30, 2007

California insurance survey

Wow, this survey that the State of California did on insurance premiums is actually really useful. Although, I'm not sure why it's the government's job to keep track of these things.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

the next great Kettle Chip

A co-worker brought in a big box of Kettle Chips yesterday. At first, we weren't sure why she would do such a thing, when we have tons of perfectly good free Kettle Chips here, but then she explained that the box contained five new flavors of chips, and that one would be selected "by the people" to be the next permanent Kettle Chip flavor.

Of course, everyone within earshot felt compelled to contribute to the democratic process by sampling all of the new flavors. This year's theme being "Fire & Spice", all five flavors had a pretty good kick: Mango Chili, Orange Ginger Wasabi, Death Valley Chipotle, Wicked Hot Sauce, and Jalapeno Salsa Fresca. My personal favorite was the Chipotle, with the Mango a close second. I was not fond of the Wasabi flavor, which was disappointing, since the name made it sound really yummy.

Both of my picks are currently doing very well in the standings, so I'm looking forward to potentially seeing one of them in the mini-kitchens next year.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Thanksgiving + Texas = food overload

This year, I spent Thanksgiving in the Houston area. Thanksgiving being the eating holiday, and Texas being known for its steak and BBQ, of course I spent most of the weekend eating.

For dinner on Thursday, in addition to the regular Thanksgiving food (including two turkeys; one deep-fried and one baked in soy sauce), we had battered fried fresh shrimp, bacon-wrapped sea scallops (also very fresh and very delicious), broccoli salad with olives, ham, and cheese (I'll be trying to duplicate this sometime soon), you2 fan4 (literally "oily rice"), wakame salad, edamame, homemade pot stickers, and homemade pork meatballs. For dessert, there was homemade pumpkin pie topped with chopped pecans (awesome idea, which I am looking forward to stealing), homemade Mexican tea cakes, and coffee-chocolate ice cream cake. Luckily, I had gone directly to dinner from a 4-hour plane ride and 4 hours in waiting and ground transit time (don't ask), having eaten nothing all day but two fan4 tuan2 (rice rolls), so I was able to try practically every dish over the course of the evening.

The next day, we had a late lunch at Ichibon, a Benihana-style sushi/teppanyaki restaurant owned by a friend. The sushi was fine, but was overshadowed by the fried ice cream and fried bananas that we had for dessert. The bananas in particular were decadent and amazing; they were the perfect texture; soft but not gooey, with a crispy but not oily crust, with a scoop of red bean ice cream (one of my favorites, and surprisingly hard to find). It was nearly 4pm when we finished lunch, so dinner was light; clam chowder with leftover scallop and shrimp, served with pumpernickel bread.

Saturday was dedicated to Texas cuisine; fajitas at Pappasito's for lunch, and pork ribs and beef brisket at Pappas BBQ for dinner. (Yes, they are owned by the same company, hence the similar names.) After watching the Rockets demolish the Nuggets at the Toyota Center, we had a midnight snack at Sinh Sinh on Bellaire; some people had congee and/or noodle soup, but I decided to order two desserts, which turned out excellently. The first was an "Almond Crust Pastry" which turned out to be a cup of hot sweetened almond soup with some kind of bean in it, topped with a freshly baked puff pastry. The second was a "3-color icy", which was less creative but still yummy; the crushed ice came with red and green bean pastes, coconut milk, and Chinese green jelly.

For lunch on Sunday, a friend asked me to pick a restaurant in Galveston, where we had decided to meet up. Not knowing anything about the area, I turned to Yelp for help, and we ended up at the strangely named but very good Mosquito Cafe. I liked my appetizer best; listed as a "Walnut Crusted Baked Brie with Jalapeno Chutney and Toast Points", it was well executed, with just the right proportions of cheese and walnuts, and a generous serving of fresh grapes on the side, to balance the softness of the baked cheese. Yum.

Monday, November 26, 2007

rock orchestra?

Last week a friend sent out an invitation for a performance by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I'd never heard of them before, but her description of a "rock orchestra" with a "laser light show" was intriguing enough that in the end I decided to go, even though the concert was the night before Thanksgiving, and I had a 9am flight to catch the next morning.

As it turns out, I did enjoy the show, and I'm glad I went, but I think I'm picky when it comes to music. The first half of the performance was Christmas-themed, and I liked most of the songs (especially the Nutcracker bits), but I didn't like the way they were strung together tenuously with a fairly boring narrative. I winced a couple of times when I felt that a particular vocalist was straining his voice, and I literally put on sunglasses at one point because the flashing lights were starting to hurt my eyes.

I enjoyed the second half more; there was an interesting piece based on Canon in D, and I liked their rendition of Mozart's Requiem. However, another of my complaints was that the woman singing Papagena's role in a Magic Flute-inspired piece was occasionally off-key. Although, she was also running up and down the aisles in high heels while singing, so I guess I should cut her a little slack. Also, one of the pianists was quite good, but the other was noticeably less proficient.

Incidentally, I'm going to the see the San Francisco Symphony perform Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique in a week and a half, which should make for a interesting comparison.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

FSA debit cards

Last year I signed up for an FSA, into which I put $100. Because I'm lazy about receipts, I also chose the new debit card option.

So far, I've managed to use over $95, so from a pure cash perspective, it was worthwhile, even with the $5 activation fee. However, I ended up having to fax in receipts for most of my expenses anyway; the only time that I didn't have to submit a receipt was when I bought contact lens cleaner at drugstore.com. Nevertheless, I signed up again for next year. I guess I decided the savings outweighed the hassle.

Incidentally, while reading up on FSAs recently, I discovered some interesting details. It appears that any unspent FSA funds are kept by the employer at the end of the year. Similarly, if an employee elects to put the full $3000 into an FSA for a calendar year, manages to use all of the money in the first week, and then quits the company, he/she is not responsible for any reimbursement. I wonder if it evens out?

Sunday, November 18, 2007

family photos

In my grandparents' house in Taipei, there are several shelves full of old black-and-white photo albums. The photos are slowly deteriorating, and every so often we talk about what to do about them, but we've never gotten around to taking them to a photo restoration professional yet.

However, a few years back, I took a digital camera to one of the oldest albums, and managed to extract a few decent images.

Here's one of my great-aunt, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my great-grandmother. They're standing in front of the same house in which my grandparents still live; the one with the photo albums:


My great-grandfather is also in this one. It's a more interesting scene, but unfortunately it's in worse shape. I didn't do as good of a job of capturing the image with my camera, either; the original isn't blurred at all:


I wonder who all the other people are? My dad could only identify a few of them.

Monday, November 12, 2007

still sleepy

It's Monday morning, and I'm still a bit sleepy from having stayed at Music Tunnel until 3am on Saturday night. Yes, that was two nights ago. Sigh.

On the bright side, I finally got to try the Peking duck at Great China, and it was as yummy as advertised.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

no photos this time

A horrible thing happened last weekend. I finally made it out to Manresa, and I even remembered my camera, but I forgot my memory card. Argh!

Here's a description of the meal as well as I can remember it:

We ordered a 2004 Rhone Valley red, which the waitress said had some Syrah and some other grapes. I enjoyed it very much; it wasn't too dry or too peppery.

There were three amuse bouches. The first was a mango lassi with a tiny black olive madeleine. The lassi was fine but unremarkable. I liked the salty-sweet flavor of the madeleine, but it was quite small. The second was a couple of German-style veggie "ravioli" which were really bead-sized spheres of veggies encrusted in an almost pastry-like crust. They were served perfectly hot, and were really yummy. The last one I didn't enjoy as much, because it involved a partially cooked egg served in its shell with some kind of foam on top. I'm not a big fan of eggs, and especially not of gooey eggs.

The amuses were followed by a green olive bread and a sourdough bread, and then our appetizers. I had ordered amberjack, sashimi-style, with olive oil and chives. It was quite good although perhaps a little bit oily for my taste, since I'm used to my raw fish plain. Very fresh, though.

Next was a round of wheat bread followed by entrees. My suckling pig dish was really well presented, with broken potatoes, cubes of caramelized apple, tiny leafy greens, and the pork itself fanned out over the sauce. It almost looked like my food had exploded over the plate, but in an artistic way. The apples, potatoes, and pork were all delicious.

I followed the entree with a cheese plate before dessert. The cheese guy came with a cart and described all eight cheeses to me, and asked which ones I would like. Of course, I asked if I could have all of them, and he graciously served me generous portions of each. My favorite was a thrice-creamed sheep's milk cheese whose name escapes me, but they were all good except one which was a very mild cheese crusted with herbs. I felt that the herbs overpowered the cheese. The accompaniments were figs, sweetened prunes, nuts, honeycomb, apple, and toasted cranberry nut bread.

For dessert, I had a gateau basque with caramelized pears, black licorice ice cream and sassafras sauce. I was skeptical at first but the waitress highly recommended it, and she was right; the combination of flavors was amazing, and I ate it all even though I was already stuffed.

Finally, we had the petit fours, which consisted of a chocolate mousse tart (ok), a strawberry gelee (ok), a square of something caramel-y with nuts (yummy) and a dab of lemon curd wrapped in caramelized sugar (super yummy!).

Overall, I would say the two dishes that I enjoyed the most were the suckling pig and the gateau basque, although I quite liked the "ravioli" as well.

Afterwards, I was thinking about whether I would go back anytime soon, with a memory card next time. I decided that although the food was delicious and the service was superb, there are lots of other interesting restaurants in the Bay Area that I haven't had a chance to try yet, and I'd rather visit those instead of returning to Manresa in the near future. It was definitely worth the drive, though!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

culinary internship

I got to cook in one of our cafes this morning!

I had to get up early (7am) and was in the cafe kitchen by 8:30am, dicing chuck for Beef Rendang. I also peeled ginger (for Stir-Fry Cabbage & Eggs) and shallots (for Chicken Marsala), rolled maki sushi, skewered shrimp (for Shrimp Satay), cut up whole chickens, and did various small things like opening cans of coconut milk (also for the Beef Rendang) and setting up the salad bar.

The cafe opened promptly at 11:30am, after which I helped staff the line, dishing out new portions as people finished the old ones, and generally trying to keep things moving smoothly. It was really fun, but I hope I wasn't in the way of the regular kitchen staff as they were doing their thing.

At 12:30pm, I was done with my shift, but before I left, I grabbed a to-go box full of the food that we'd just cooked. I think it tasted better because I'd been smelling it all morning. Yum.

 

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