Friday, December 26, 2008

good things about the holidays

(For this post, I will refrain from extended ranting about crazy shopping crowds, screaming out-of-control children, even-worse-than-usual air travel, fanatically and scarily cheery people, horrible cheesy music, commercialism aka holiday creep, and more. Observe.)

I'm not a big fan of tradition generally, but as I was sitting here this morning digesting the rest of Christmas dinner and reading more holiday email, I realized I do like some things about the holidays.

I like that people send out holiday cards, emails, newsletters, and other greetings, and I get to catch up on what everyone's been up to recently. Every year, I rediscover that my friends and family are fascinating people with wide-ranging and diverse interests. Sometimes I'm a teeny bit jealous of all the adventures that people are having, but that's also good, as it reminds me to re-examine and figure out how to execute on my own plans.

I like (most) holiday gatherings, or at least those with good food and good company. I like being in one place (geographically) with lots of family, and staying up at night being silly with my cousins. I love Christmas cookies and other holiday desserts, and the process of making them, with lots of people together creating chaos in the kitchen.

I guess I just like that people make an extra effort for the holidays, and that it shows.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

price of motherhood

There are a billion trillion articles these days about women attempting to juggle careers and families, and most of them are depressing.

I read this one for the first time about three years ago. It discusses a study that claims "...a woman in her 20s will increase her lifetime earnings by 10 percent if she delays the birth of her first child by a year...for college-educated women, the effects are even bigger. For professional women, the effects are bigger yet."

So, women who have children in their 20s not only end up spending lots of money on child-related expenses (and lose compounded interest on that money), they also have reduced income for the rest of their professional lives. On the bright side, there is a much smaller effect for women in their 30s. Yay for procrastination!

coconut cream pie

I got this recipe from one of the cooks at our villa in Jamaica. Her rendition was delicious; not too sweet, with a nice crumbly crust.

Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:
1. Combine butter, flour, a bit of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.
2. Knead the mixture and add milk until the crust comes together.
3. Continue kneading until soft.
4. Bake about 10 minutes, then cool.

Filling:
1. Take 1 whole dried coconut, cut it open, and shave the coconut flesh.
2. Combine with 1 cup of milk, a bit of vanilla extract, a bit of almond extract, a pinch of salt, and sugar to taste.
3. Cook on stove with cornstarch to thicken (about 1/4 cup).
4. After about 15 minutes, add the filling to the crust and put in freezer to set.

Serve with whipped cream spread across the top.

Friday, December 19, 2008

second annual Puerto Rico tournament

After finally getting home from Jamaica last Sunday, I took a shower, picked up some cupcakes, and headed over to a friend's house, for our second annual Puerto Rico tournament!

I unfortunately missed out on last year's event because I was out of town, so I was determined to make this one, jetlag be damned. There were 12 participants, so the preliminary round consisted of four games with three players each, and then the final round had three games with four players each, with the four winners of the first round playing against each other, etc.

I won my first game with my standard small market + harbor strategy, using coffee as my cash crop. Luckily both the other two players chose tobacco, so I was able to cash in throughout the game, and ended up buying two large buildings.

The second round was interesting; although I managed to secure both a harbor and a wharf, I seemed to be unable to gain ground on the leader by shipping often during the endgame. He had a wharf of his own, plus a small warehouse, and used some interesting tactics to make shipping less productive for me; he chose the captain before anyone had crafted, chose the craftsman twice in a row, etc. In the end, he beat me by two points for the championship. It was certainly an interesting game, though! I'm looking forward to next year's tournament already.

notes from Jamaica

Last week I went to Jamaica for a destination wedding. The wedding was on Monday, but we arrived on Saturday afternoon and stayed the week, until the following Saturday.

Assorted travel and other notes...

It was 85 degrees pretty much the whole week, and a bit humid (although not as bad as Taiwan), so I actually preferred to stay indoors between 1-3pm. The mornings and the late afternoons were very pleasant. It was a bit of a shock to come back to the Bay Area to find 40 degree weather and heavy rain!

Air travel is getting worse and worse. On the way there, one group of friends were rerouted through Las Vegas, making their itinerary a two-stop rather than a one-stop. The first leg left about 3 hours earlier than the original flight. Another friend was rerouted through Chicago, also resulting in a two-stop itinerary. She lost her luggage during the 50 minute connection due to the inbound flight being 20 minutes late. The couple we were travelling with lost their stroller in Houston, along with two other couples with small children.

On the way back, our original flight schedule gave us a 1.5 hour connection in Houston. The airline rebooked us with a 50 minute connection. Our first flight actually landed on time, but after we waited 20 minutes for the gate to become free, we missed our flight. When rebooking to the next flight, although two of us were on the same itinerary, one person got a seat on the flight and the other did not. When we got to the gate we realized the same thing had happened for two other groups.

Here's the entertaining part: The standby list was ordered so that there was one woman in front of me. Her travel companion also had a seat on the flight. At boarding time it was determined that there were no extra seats, so the travel agent asked her travel companion if he would fly alone. He refused, so by rule the seat would fall to his travel companion. Except, we had just established that they would not travel separately, so theoretically the seat should fall to me. Unfortunately the travel agent also decided to ask my travel companion if he would travel alone. If he had answered "yes", then (counterintuitively) the seat would have gone to me. He answered "no", whereupon the travel agent gave his seat to the other woman, as she was higher than me on the standby list. It was classic game theory in action, yet we failed to realize it in time to take advantage! Actually, I had all the data and did figure out the right answer in time, but I hesitated too long, since the question was not directed at me. In the end, we were able to meet up with some relatives in Houston for a few hours, so it wasn't all bad. Anyway, it was an interesting episode.

On one of the last days in Jamaica, a group of us booked a private tour to Ocho Rios and the Dunn's River Falls. The falls themselves were super fun; we basically hiked up the waterfall from the beach to the source, led by a guide. It looked a bit scary at first but was really not dangerous at all and made for some great photos.

On the way to the falls we stopped by a souvenir shop where we saw the following box of cigarettes, which amused us very much:


It's probably much more effective than the American version that just warns against cancer!

Other than that, it was a pretty chill trip; we spent some time on the beach, some time by the pool, some time playing tennis, and lots of time playing board games. The villa that we stayed in came with several housekeepers and cooks, and it was interesting planning out our meals and shopping at the local fish markets so that we could experience lots of authentic Jamaican food. In the end we were able to sample jerk chicken, BBQ chicken, jerk pork, oxtail, curried goat, fresh fish "escovitch" (with onions and vinegar sauce), fresh lobster, conch fritters, pumpkin soup, plantains, beef and chicken "patties", coco bread, and more. The chefs did a really good job with all of our requests, and even made dessert every night, so we had several key lime pies, rum cake, and even a coconut cream pie.

Overall, it was nice to spend a relaxing week hanging out with close friends. I'm thinking of choosing a more eventful itinerary for my next vacation, though. Machu Picchu, here I come!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

more food blogging, with photos this time

Wow, it's been nearly a month and a half since I went to these restaurants! Time flies...

My sister loves Japanese food and is a huge carnivore. When we were teenagers, she and I, along with two of our (girl) cousins, out ate my brother and three of our (guy) cousins (also teenagers), at a Korean BBQ buffet. We do love that kalbi and bulgogi.

Anyway, I digress. Since my sister was in town for a couple of months, I seized the opportunity to take her to Alexander's Steakhouse, which I knew she would enjoy. I made an effort to order all new appetizers, but stuck to the dry-aged New York steak for my entree.

Photos and comments follow:

The amuse was a steak tartare. It was deliciously seasoned, and I'm a sucker for raw meat, so I liked it very much.



We ordered two appetizers: "popcorn" lobster, and a rack of lamb. The lamb were yummy, but my favorite was the lobster. The chunks of lobster were generous and it didn't feel greasy at all. I went pretty easy on the aioli sauce, though.





The New York steak came with fried (almost tempura) veggies on top, which I liked very much. The steak was as flavorful and tender as I remembered, and of course I had to order the truffled fries again. Those fries must have crack in them; I can never stop eating them until they're gone, and then I want more.



I also had a bite of the porterhouse which someone else at the table had ordered, which came with a giant scoop of some kind of flavored butter, but I still liked my steak the best.

We ordered two desserts for the table: apple empanadas and pear tart with "raspberry Zinfandel sorbet". I liked the presentation of both desserts, and the apple dish was fine, but what I really loved was the raspberry Zin sorbet. It almost tasted fizzy, if that makes any sense at all; really unique and delicious. The gelee cubes were fine but I think I'm getting tired of fruit gelee.





Anyway my sister did like Alexander's very much, as I predicted, so I'm glad we made the time to go there. Now I just have to wait for my cousin to come back from New York so we can go again. She's an even bigger carnivore than my sister...

About a week afterwards, I went to Postrio for the first time, to celebrate a friend's birthday. When we walked into the restaurant it was pretty empty, which worried me a bit. But, I guess we had an early reservation (6:30pm), even for a Sunday night, because by 7:30pm it had totally filled up.

After looking at the menu (for only a very short time), the four of us chose to have the tasting menu for the table, which turned out to be a good choice, as there was a lot of variety and a good amount of food.

The amuse was a very generously portioned mushroom soup. It was nearly as big as a cup. It was well-executed and all, but not all that interesting.

The first course was "tuna two ways": tuna tartare wrapped in tuna tataki. The tartare was oily, almost like poke, and the tataki was seared lightly enough that I didn't mind that it had been cooked, which is really saying something. It was served on a smudge of nori (seaweed) sauce. I *love* nori; I'll eat a whole can of it in an hour, while watching TV. Anyway, the tuna was creative, attractively plated, and hit several of my favorite flavors, making it easily my favorite dish of the evening.



Next up was a lobster risotto. I've had some really good risottos before, as well as some great paellas, and this one just wasn't quite up there, as far as texture. It had good flavor, but too soupy (although I think that was on purpose), and the rice wasn't as soft as I would have liked. The lobster itself was fresh and tender.



The next course was supposed to be snapper, and everyone else did have the snapper, except me. I can't comment on the taste myself but people seemed to enjoy it.



As usual I asked for a substitution for any cooked fish dishes, which was a good thing because I ended up with venision, which was *delicious*. Of the three meat dishes, I most preferred the venision; it wasn't gamey but did have a nice subtle extra flavor to it that neither the beef nor the duck had. It was prepared medium rare (almost rare) and was extremely tender, and the sauce was a great accompaniment; strongly flavored but not overwhelming. My only complaint was that the little cubes decorating the sides of the plate were unremarkable, taste-wise.



After the venison came the duck, which was served with some berries, a pearl onion, and polenta. I am not a fan of polenta so I didn't eat much of it, but it was pretty good as far as polenta is concerned. The duck itself was yummy but not as tender as the venison.



The next dish offered a choice of Kobe beef (with a supplement) or venison. Since I had chosen the beef, the chef had cleverly given me the venison in place of the snapper, so at this point I had the beef and everyone else had the venison. I shared bits of the beef with everyone else so they could try it, and it was quite tasty, but amazingly, I still preferred the venison. I was probably also a bit biased because the accompanying radish was too creamy for my tastes. The green beans were excellent, though.



At this point we were served a "cheese plate". I guess when I hear "cheese plate" I expect to have more than one type of cheese, because I was a bit disappointed with this particular course. The cheese itself was fine, but didn't really stand out, and the preparation of the apricot (something about drying and rehydrating with some other liquid, I believe) sounded a lot more impressive than it tasted.



Luckily, we were soon onto dessert, which was a "whisky chocolate cake" topped with "Bailey's ice cream", accompanied by hazelnuts and caramel sauce. I was happy with basically every word in that description, and I was not disappointed; both the whisky and Bailey's flavors were very much present but went quite well with the chocolate and caramel. I especially liked the texture of the crumbly bottom part of the cake together with the almost mousse-like chocolate-y part.



They should have stopped there. Unfortunately, they then brought out a plate of biscotti and brownies, neither of which were particularly impressive.



I had a bite of each and decided that was enough. I was quite full, anyway.

Overall, I thought the restaurant was worth a visit, but at least for me, the courses were a bit uneven. I was very impressed with dishes like the tuna and the venison, and much less impressed with the risotto and the cheese plate. I'm glad that the dessert was good, though, as we left on a pretty high note. It was a nice time, anyway.

a question of prioritization

On Tuesday I went to a friend's thesis defense party. It was a nice party: Jamaican food from Back-A-Yard, pizza from Patxi's, burned almond cake from Bijan. There was a photo album of her doctoral years, and a giant card to be signed by all. There was also lots of alcohol, including several bottles of champagne, some of which even survived the open-by-machete ritual.

On the way home I was thinking...it's interesting that we throw large and lavish parties for events like weddings, baby showers, and milestone birthdays, but not generally for graduations, for which the parties tend to be fairly casual. After all, it's much harder to achieve a doctoral degree than to get married or pregnant, isn't it? Perhaps it's because grad students and their friends are generally too broke and/or busy to plan elaborate celebrations.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

paranoia

I've realized that I am paranoid in different ways than other people.

My parents constantly warn me about walking around in cities after dark. I figure if there are people around, it's safe enough. I used to ride subways in New York City at all hours of the night, which horrified my dad.

I dislike giving out personal information of any kind: name, address, phone number, email address, whatever. I hate when I go to a store and buy something and they ask me for my address or phone number. I hate hate hate telemarketers and junk mail.

My friends are careful about germs, and use paper towels to touch bathroom doors. Some of them refuse to eat food from street vendors or raw/rare meat. I figure the worst that can happen is that I'll get sick and develop new antibodies.

I choose very long passwords (10+ characters). I have my browser configured to flush cookies on exit and not save any form data. I worry about my new RFID-enabled passport, and contemplate wrapping it in aluminum foil (yes, really).

My parents worry about burglars and have a complicated alarm system that includes infrared and pressure sensors. At my house, there is no security system. I have a safe, but in my mind it is primarily to guard against water or fire damage, rather than theft. I'd hate to lose all my digital photos and such things.

I think it comes down to me being much more anxious about data security than physical security. I wonder why?

Maybe this is the exception that proves the rule: When I go camping (or vacationing in tropical climates) I am constantly applying sunscreen and insect repellent. That's just good sense, though...isn't it?

Friday, December 05, 2008

unexpected glitch

I'm flying to Jamaica tonight, so just now, I tried to check in online. I got as far as "passport number" and realized that having just renewed my passport, I no longer have my passport number memorized. Now I have to wait until I get home to check in, and I'll probably get stuck with a bad boarding number. Curses!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

no Bill Richardson please

I just saw an article about how Chinese-Americans are objecting to Obama's rumored nomination of Bill Richardson to the post of commerce secretary, due to his role in the Wen Ho Lee fiasco.

I'm not Chinese-American, but I object as well, on the basis of Lee's mistreatment, and for other reasons. I heard Richardson speak once at work, and I came away thinking that he was not well-informed and not well-spoken. I even preferred listening to Hillary Clinton speak, even though I found her glib and rehearsed.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

catching up on food outings

There are definitely been some blog-worthy food outings in the last month, but for some reason I haven't found the time to write about them. I'm going to start with the non-photo ones, since those go faster...

A few weeks ago, OpenTable ran an "Appetite Stimulus" promotion, during which many Bay Area restaurants offered a three-course, $35 prix fixe menu, from Monday to Thursday. Most of the restaurants were in the city, but fortunately for me, San Mateo's Lure was on the list. I'd been wanting to go all year due to a recommendation from a chef at work, so I quickly scrounged up some dining companions and made a Thursday reservation.

Ironically, none of the four of us ordered the prix fixe; instead we chose to order lots of appetizers, side dishes, and I think one main course. We were a bit stunned by the portion sizes for the appetizers; they were extremely generous! After eating my "Chestnut Spaetzle, Speck and White Truffle Oil", and sharing an order of "Butternut Squash Griddle Cakes, Apple Sauce", I was only able to eat half of my "Steamed Mussels, Lemon Grass, Galangal, Green Curry Cream". I did manage to try one dumpling from the "Butternut Squash Dumplings, Milk and Honey Sauce, Fried Sage" dish, as well, but it was only so-so.

My overall impression was that the food was above average, with some "good but not great" dishes and some really excellent dishes (for me, it was the spaetzle and the griddle cakes). However, given the generous servings, the value for money was very good indeed.

Two days later, some friends treated us to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Rivoli, in Albany. The front of the restaurant was rather smaller than I had expected, but once we were seated, it felt relaxed and spacious. The whole back wall of the dining room was a large window looking into a verdant garden, which was a nice touch.

For appetizers, we shared the "Buttered Lobster Napoleon with Braised Leeks, Carrots and Peas, Lobster Butter, and Chervil Vinaigrette", and the "Goat Cheese Soufflé with Proscuitto di Parma, Grilled Persimmons, Roast Chesnuts, and Arugula". The souffle was nicely done but I've had more interesting cheese souffles before. The Napoleon was excellent; the lobster was fresh and the pastry crust was light and flaky. I definitely could have eaten a whole portion, but didn't want to miss out on dessert.

For my entree, I chose the "Sonoma Liberty Duck Cooked Two Ways on a Wild Rice Pancake with Buttered Chard, Cooked Whipped Mascarpone and an Apple, Pecan and Grilled Radicchio Salad". The duck was tender, well flavored, and delicious, and the salad was creative and yummy, but I was most impressed with the wild rice pancake. I'm a sucker for unusual grains, though.

For dessert, we shared a "Hot Fudge Sundae with Whipped Cream and Toasted Nuts", which was good and all but not very interesting. I think I should have gone with my first instinct, the "Warm Chocolate Caramel Tart with Whipped Crème Fraîche and Chocolate and Caramel Sauces". That was my bad, though.

Finally, on Sunday, I wrapped up the excellent food weekend at another restaurant that I'd been eyeing for ages: Evvia, in Palo Alto. The decor was surprisingly homey and charming, and the fireplace was inviting on a cold night, so I seated myself next to it.

We went with some friends who had been there before, and they highly recommended the "Greek Spreads" appetizer, which consisted of three types of spread: roasted eggplant, yogurt and cucumber, and cod roe puree, served with homemade pita bread and what appeared to be dolmathes with raisins and nuts. I'm not fond of eggplant and I've had the yogurt cucumber spread before, so at first I liked the cod roe the best, but then it became too fishy for me. Both the pita bread and the dolmathes were excellent, although I may be biased, having recently had some very bad (tough and greasy) dolmathes.

I chose the "Lamb Chops" as my entree, and they were amazing; crusted with some kind of nutty sauce, perfectly medium rare, and very flavorful. They came with some roasted potatoes which were unremarkable, but I was too busy enjoying my lamb to care. Finally, I split an order of the "Rizogalo" (rice pudding) for dessert. My only complaint was that the menu had listed "honey roasted pears" as the accompaniment and the pudding came with only half of one pear. The pudding itself was well-textured and delicious.

It was interesting comparing the three restaurants in such a short timeframe; they were all in the same general price range, and each offered a different type of cuisine. I felt Evvia was the most consistent in terms of quality, but it was also had the least risky menu; Lure has a fusion-y flavor that is hard to get right, and Rivoli also has a strong Californian influence, even though it's advertised as Italian (kind of). I'm not sure I would make a special effort for a repeat visit, given all the other unexplored restaurants around here, but all three are worth checking out at least once!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Thanksgiving recipes

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year, with about 10-12 members of my family.

My mom made the turkey (a rosemary butter recipe that she found on the Food Network's website one year) and also brought you fan (literally "oily rice"), bhee whoon (my transliteration from Taiwanese, stir-fried vermicelli), and carrot cake. My aunt brought a beef and onion appetizer, shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We made pineapple and brown sugar glazed ham, two types of sweet potatoes, cornbread (courtesy of Trader Joe's), homemade cranberry sauce, savory bread pudding, and key lime pie.

The ham was the same recipe I've been using since college, when all the West Coast students would band together to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Here's the recipe, as posted last year.

I've only made cranberry sauce once before. This time I bought better port, and it tasted much better:

Cranberry Sauce with Port

1. Simmer 1 bag whole cranberries with 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of port until the cranberries explode. (This takes about 15 minutes.)

2. Remove from heat, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup orange juice, and then cool before serving.

I usually make sweet potatoes with marshmallows and raisins (the standard recipe) but this year I decided I was sick of that and made two new kinds of sweet potatoes:

This recipe came via a coworker, from a New York Times article. I modified it a bit so I could keep the sage and garlic:

Stir-Fried Sweet Potatoes With Brown Butter and Sage

1. Stir fry 1/2 box sage (about 30 leaves) and 5 cloves of finely chopped garlic in 1/2 stick of butter until the garlic is a bit brown and the sage is crispy.

2. Cut 4-5 sweet potatoes into sticks (like french fries but thinner), and stir-fry with oil, adding salt and pepper to taste. Potatoes should be tender but not mushy.

3. Toss the potatoes with the garlic, butter, and sage, and serve.

The second kind of sweet potato was really easy; I just cubed the potatoes and fried them in oil, first in low heat until cooked through, then in high heat to make them crispy. For spices I only added salt and pepper. My mom actually liked this kind better than the sage kind.

The bread pudding recipe I used involved green peppers, onions, and several kind of mushrooms. It turned out okay but I thought it was a bit too rich (8 eggs and 3.5 cups of cream!) and it was a bit troublesome to make, so I probably will modify it before using it again.

hmm

This morning, I read this article about a new Taiwanese movie called "Cape No. 7", which has a lot of Japanese influence.

My first reaction was to try to find the movie on Netflix, but it's not available, at least not yet.

My second reaction was to be disgusted that the Chinese government is again practicing censorship, this time using fears of "nationalistic backlash" as justification.

Then, I tried to consider whether perhaps there was some kernel of truth in their justification. Is there a topic which is so sensitive for Americans that if a movie was made addressing it, its very release would cause mass riots? I'm having a hard time thinking of one.

In any case, there's no good excuse for censorship, so I guess I'm just pondering different degrees of badness anyway.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

another pet peeve

I hate when people misquote Google's company motto. It's not "Do no evil", and it's not "Don't do evil". It's "Don't be evil". C'mon guys, it's three words. Yes, it matters.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

maybe I'm not a city person

A couple of weeks ago I went to check out the new California Academy of Sciences. It's a nice museum. The living roof is a cool concept, the rainforest part is nice, I'm always a fan of penguins, there are some very timely environment-focused exhibits, plus a really decent aquarium in the basement.

However, I did not have a good time. First, we stood in line for twenty minutes to buy our (not inexpensive) tickets. We were told the planetarium was already full for the day, but decided to proceed anyway. Then we stood in line again to get into the museum. After getting in, we found a huge line for the rainforest, so we decided to look at everything else first. The aquarium was full of people, so we couldn't sit down to listen to the show. At one point I was looking at some fish, standing about two or three feet away from the glass. Three kids ran over and arranged themselves in front of me, blocking my view. Two of the kids were on the small side, one was definitely not. Their parents (or adult minders, whoever they were) did nothing. Anyway, we finally did manage to see the rainforest, as well as most of the rest of the displays, but I was just not that psyched about the whole outing.

Maybe this is why I live in the Peninsula and not in the city...I'm not a fan of crowds, especially ill-behaved ones.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

some things never change

My mom's brother lives in Tokyo, so I don't see him very much. I think I haven't had a conversation with him longer than five minutes in over ten years. Anyway, last month he came to visit, and during a family dinner he suddenly turned around and asked me (in Chinese), "Do you still like Pocky?" I thought that was pretty random but I answered in the affirmative, and thought that was the end of it.

Wrong! Two weeks ago, I received a shipment from Japan. It was a giant box of assorted Pocky from my uncle. Pretty sweet.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Taiwan quick update

At first I was following the recent events in Taiwan pretty closely, but then I went "onduty" at work. Since then, things have been crazy, and they're likely to stay that way through the weekend.

Fortunately, there are still such a thing as good journalism, and Newsweek in particular has been kicking ass with their Taiwan reporting. Two of last week's articles were particularly good at describing the current situation: Fallout from Chen Shui-Bian's Dramatic Arrest and Strait Talk: So Near And Yet So Far.

I did manage to drag myself to a meeting of a local Taiwanese organization on Friday night. I cut out after dinner ended, was in bed by 11pm, and slept for nearly 12 hours. Tired...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

a real win

Wow, it's been two days and I haven't posted about the 49ers win against the Rams yet!

I was at the game on Sunday, and the first half was so great it felt surreal. I haven't seen a 49ers offense execute like that in...maybe ten years? It's too bad the second half was horribly boring due to the whole ball-control offense scheme which resulted in no points being scored by the 49ers after halftime. For part of that time I was still convinced they were going to throw the game away somehow (having been at the Eagles game earlier this season where they blew a 26-17 lead in the fourth quarter), but somehow they didn't. Of course, the Rams are a pretty horrible team, but it was still extremely satisfying to see a decisive victory against any opponent.

Friday, November 14, 2008

fondue night

Yesterday we had some people over for fondue. The cheese fondue was so-so; even though we used European wine, it still separated too easily, and required reheating every so often. I think next time I will try an even drier wine, and maybe more cornstarch or flour. The chocolate fondue turned out well; I added Grand Marnier to the chocolate, cream, and sugar, which I think worked out well. Nothing like fondue on a cold night, especially on a Thursday with two NBA games to watch. Okay, it's not really "cold" these days, but it is getting dark earlier so it definitely feels like fall.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

lost in translation?

I've been following the recent petition and protests initiated by Taiwanese university students and professors, and I'm happy that there is a non-partisan effort to reform the Taiwanese government. What I don't understand is why the effort is being called the "wild strawberry" movement. I'm sure I'm missing something; it probably makes sense in Taiwanese or in Chinese.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

random oddity

In my buliding here at work, in the women's bathroom, there is one stall which has a much narrower door than all the other stalls. As a result, it tends to be the last stall to fill.

One day last week, when the bathroom was particularly crowded, I ended up in that stall. I was curious, so I counted the number of bathroom tiles that fit between one side of the door and the other, and discovered there were ten. Each tile is maybe 1.5 inches wide (definitely less than 2 inches), which means that the door is about 15 inches wide.

I think I'm a fairly average-sized person, and if I walk through that door with my shoulders square, I will touch both sides. I wonder if anyone ever has any problems fitting through it? I guess one can always turn sideways to get through...

Sunday, November 09, 2008

a different kind of Vegas trip

I went to Vegas a couple weeks ago with some people who hadn't been to Vegas almost ten years. I think I go there so often that sometimes I forget to look around when I'm there. To them, The Venetian, the Bellagio, the Wynn, THEhotel at Mandalay Bay; all were new and interesting and photo-worthy.

We wandered the shops inside the Venetian, stopping for gelato, ate lunch at a cute bistro inside of Paris called Mon Ami Gabi, and checked out the famous Bellagio lobby and fall/Halloween-themed display. We also stopped by THEhotel's lobby, just because I love their decor, and caught the Bellagio fountains by night. Other highlights of the trip included yet another visit to Samba Brazilian Steakhouse at the Mirage (I always forget how good they are), a morning workout at the Wynn Spa (available only to hotel guests), and brunch at the Pinot Brasserie, inside the Venetian (delicious but I was not fond of our waiter).

Some photos:








I always like to plan one special meal when visiting Las Vegas. This time, for dinner on Saturday night, we went to Daniel Boulud's DB Brasserie. Obligatory food photos follow...

Steak tartare appetizer (my favorite):


Mussels & fries (very generous portion, delicious fries):


Beef tenderloin (very tender, I preferred it to the ribeye):


Ribeye for two:


Profiteroles:

Saturday, November 08, 2008

weddings of 2008

I'm going to a wedding this afternoon, the next-to-last of the year. The last is a destination wedding in Jamaica, in December. We're staying at a villa next to the beach for a week. Poor me, right?

Anyway, I think it's safe to say the wedding count for 2008 is complete? The final tally:
- Patty & Teddy: May 10th, in Warren, NJ
- Mike & Sophie: May 24th, in Sonoma, CA
- David & Boryana: June 7th, in Berkeley, CA
- Jen & Mike: September 13th, in Honolulu, HI
- Danny & Emily: October 4th, in Half Moon Bay, CA
- Henry & Paige: October 5th, in San Mateo, CA
- Amy & Tony: November 8th, in Portola Valley/Millbrae, CA
- Nina & Michael: December 8th, in Silver Sands, Jamaica

With the eight this year, I will have been to 41 weddings by the end of 2008. I thought that was a fairly large number, but then my coworker told me he went to 18 weddings last year. Wow.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

conciliatory tone

I thought Obama's acceptance speech and McCain's concession speech were really good. Both were eloquent, gracious, and substantial. It's kind of sad how the election process turns everything and everyone negative and horrible. Now that it's over, people seem to be reverting to decency. For instance, this site seems like a nice gesture: from 52 to 48 with love.

asian parents

Someone sent me these links last week but I didn't get a chance to look at them until today. They've been cracking me up all morning.

this year's pumpkins

Another year, another pumpkin carving party. This year's was scheduled to coincide with the NBA's season opener, so that people could hang out and watch basketball before/after carving.

Due to not having found/drawn a template in time, I decided to freehand my pumpkin this year. I think it turned out okay:


Other pumpkins:



I thought the Houston Rockets logo on the center pumpkin in the first photo was especially appropriate for the first day of the NBA season. The "leaky heart valve" pumpkin at the bottom right was also clever.

Here's a detail of the most intricate pumpkin:


Apparently it's a "Black Mage" character from the first Final Fantasy. I never played the game, so I can't vouch for authenticity, but the carving skill is impressive nonetheless.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

mixed feelings

I had 7:30pm dinner reservations at a nice restaurant last night. By that time, it was pretty clear that Barack Obama would be our next president, and this being the Bay Area, the mood both at work and at the restaurant was pretty jubilant.

It wasn't until I woke up this morning that I discovered Proposition 8 had passed, leaving me horribly disappointed in my fellow Californians. I wonder if the Bay Area can disown Solano County?

Other random election-related thoughts:
- I'm impressed and heartened that Obama took Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Virginia, and possibly North Carolina. I distinctly remember asking someone if it was normal for North Carolina to be close, because I was so surprised it was even a possibility for Obama to win there.
- California is predicting a turnout of nearly 80% (they're still counting early and absentee ballots). As disappointed as I am about the passage of Proposition 8, I *am* happy that people are at least voting. It's so silly for us to talk about democracy and then not to participate in it.
- The Wolf Blitzer hologram stunt was kind of stupid. Did anyone even care?
- News organizations like to call states really early. Last night they called some states with "0% districts reporting" (based on exit polls, I guess?) which seems awfully premature.
- It seems somewhat unfair that people can donate money to religious organizations and claim them as "charitable" donations and then get tax write-offs, even though the religious organizations turn around and pour the money into things like supporting Proposition 8. I'm fairly certain there was no way to sneakily characterize No-on-8 contributions as "charitable".
- My brother lives in Chicago and he says he heard it was a positive madhouse over at Grant Park, and even by his work (2 miles north) it was pretty rowdy, with people cheering and celebrating randomly all day. Must be amazing to be there, in the middle of it all, right now.
- I find it a little ironic that on this day, when we finally voted to elect an African-American president, that 70% of African-Americans in California voted to discriminate against gay people.
- There are some fascinating tidbits in this Newsweek Special entitled Highlights of the 2008 Election. As a techie, I thought this was pretty cool: The Obama campaign's New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

In some ways I'm relieved the election is over. It feels like it's been going on forever, and it's been a bit exhausting, constantly being deluged by the latest polls and attack ads and political analyses. I hope this is the part where we get on with fixing the country already. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

you should vote

In case you've been hiding in a cave for months, here's a reminder: Today is election day!

Over the years I've spent a lot of time trying to convince various people that they should vote. This year, my college roommate is registered to vote for the first time ever. Yay! I'm not sure I can claim any credit but it's good news either way.

Last week I read an article about why women, in particular, should vote. I dislike the idea that women should feel more responsibility to vote because of the history of women's suffrage, but I do think it's good to remember and acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of the women who fought for that worthy cause.

I especially liked this part:

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men:

"Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Monday, November 03, 2008

yet another Taiwan post

After my grandparents left to go back to Taiwan to attend the 10/25 protest, I was curious about how it turned out, but not surprisingly, I had a lot of difficulty finding English news reports of any substance.

Today, as I was reading about the newest protests, I finally found a Reuters article reporting a turnout of "half a million". Impressive!

Less heartening were the more recent reports that Taiwanese protesters and politicians are being denied the right to wave Taiwan flags in their own country, and that they are being kept away from the visiting Chinese official using razor wires. It's like Taiwan, under Ma Jing-Yeou, is slowly creeping back towards martial law again. It's scary and creepy and generally horrible.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

BBQ & basketball

My basketball league has been on hiatus for nearly a month now, due to the City of San Carlos' budgetary issues. One of my teammates decided that we should get together anyway, if not for basketball, then for BBQ. She invited us over to her house last Friday, and amazingly, most of the team was actually free.

Of course everyone came bearing side dishes and/or desserts, and I was pretty impressed with the spread. We started with stuffed mushrooms, chips w/ hummus, salsa, and guacomole, and bruschetta with fresh basil, tomato, and mozzarella (courtesy of yours truly and Trader Joe's). With the delicious BBQ chicken and pork ribs we had a garden salad, cornbread, pasta salad, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob. Finally, for dessert, there were brownies, and a banana pudding with Nilla wafers.

Yup, not only can we play, we can cook. Well, some of us. I can only cook.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

getting psyched for Jamaica

I'm going to be going to Jamaica for a week in December, to attend a small destination wedding. The bride and groom have been sending out planning details recently, which inspired me to finally go and check out Back-A-Yard, a tiny Jamaican place off of Willow in Menlo Park.

I had the Jerk Chicken plate, which came with salad, two scoops of rice & beans, fried plantains, and of course, the chicken. I was pretty hungry, but the plate was more than enough for me (although I did polish off all of the plantains). The chicken was delicious; less spicy than I had expected, which was good as I was eating with some spice-adverse people, but still spicy enough to be good. I'm told the BBQ items are also quite good, so maybe I'll stop by again sometime before my trip.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

tossing traditions

I object to the traditional "bouquet/garter toss" that often takes place at weddings. As I've mentioned before, I go to a lot of weddings, so during wedding season I often find myself explaining why. I've listed my primary reasons below.

Reason #1: Trivializing marriage
In my opinion, deciding to get married is a serious relationship change and both parties should spend a lot of time carefully thinking/talking it out and making sure it's what they both really want. The idea that something as trivial as catching a bouquet or garter could affect such a serious decision at all...well, it seems silly and even insulting to rational adults. Basically, it makes light of the institution of marriage, at an event intended to celebrate a marriage.

Reason #2: Trivializing other committed long-term relationships
This is very similar to Reason #1, but I want to mention this angle specifically because I think it often gets overlooked. People are expected to want to catch the bouquet (and to some extent, the garter). This would seem to indicate an absolute belief that marriage is the "best" relationship state for everyone. I object to passing judgment on people's life choices. Many adults are in committed long-term relationships. Some of them don't believe in marriage. Others are gay and are not allowed to be married in their state/country of residence. Others may feel that they (or their partner, or their relationship) are not ready for marriage at this time. Why would any of these people want to participate in these rituals?

Update: A friend just made another good point corresponding to Reason #2. The bouquet or garter toss defines people who are in committed long-term relationships as "single", thus trivializing those relationships and portraying them as "lesser" states compared to marriage. The obvious solution would be to allow people to define their own singleness, but what ends up happening is that purportedly "single" people who don't consider themselves single are pressured to participate anyway.

Reason #3: Awkwardness
One would think that at a party, the objective of the hosts would be to maximize the enjoyment of the guests. At a wedding reception, the bouquet and garter toss are often the most awkward moments for said guests. I'll focus on the bouquet toss first...

There's this outdated notion that all women want to catch the bouquet because all women desperately want to be married as soon as possible. In this day and age, that's simply not true. Some women are happy to be single, and some aren't. Some women want to catch the bouquet, and some don't.

I think we can define three groups:
A. Women who are happy about being single
B. Women who are unhappy about being single but don't believe in bouquet tossing
C. Women who are unhappy about being single and do want to catch the bouquet

Women in Group A are happy about being single, and thus don't want to catch the bouquet. Women in Group B are are unhappy about being single but think bouquet tossing is silly and thus don't want to catch the bouquet. Women in Group C are unhappy about being single and do want to catch the bouquet. So, the argument could be made that bouquet tossing is for Group C, right? The problem is, Group C women are unhappy about being single. Making them stand up in front of a large group of guests to "fight" over a bouquet only emphasizes their singleness, which is pretty much guaranteed to make them unhappier. Thus, by definition, no one is ever all that happy to catch a bouquet.

In reality, nearly all of the women who participate in the bouquet toss are usually present due to peer pressure or a sense of duty/friendship. I've attended multiple weddings at which everyone ducked the bouquet and it fell on the floor. Talk about awkwardness! More frequently, some poor bridesmaid will sacrifice herself and catch the bouquet so that the bride will be satisfied.

I've decided I'm not even going to get started on the garter toss. My thoughts are pretty much summed up by "ick". It's sad that sexism is so unapologetically rampant at weddings.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

living in a bubble

I read the national news, so of course I know that here in California, we live in a bubble. We have higher emission standards than the rest of the country, we have fresher and more organic produce, we have an Asian population of over 12%, we think high-speed internet is a basic utility, and we vote for Democratic presidential candidates.

I didn't fully realize until recently that the Bay Area is a bubble inside of a bubble. In the last few weeks, I've been bombarded by "No on 8" messages: via personal e-mail, in chat/twitter statuses, on Facebook, on mailing lists, etc. A few of my friends have in fact become very passionate and articulate about reminding people to vote "No on 8". (Incidentally, none of them happen to be gay.) I've heard many people express disappointment that such a measure could even have made it onto the ballot.

Then I read the news, and I am amazed to hear that Proposition 8 is currently projected to be "narrowly" defeated. See, I live in such a bubble that I can't comprehend how it can even be a close contest. Here's hoping it's not...I would love if California set a great example for the country on this topic.

(Being a lazy permanent absentee voter, I already did my part last week.)

Friday, October 24, 2008

pet peeve of the day

To all those bikers who for some reason think that they're pedestrians:
1. No, it is not okay for you to ride on the sidewalk and endanger real pedestrians. For one thing, you're taking up the whole sidewalk, which doesn't really allow for two-way traffic, does it?
2. It is also not okay for you to stop car traffic by riding in the crosswalk; you are not a pedestrian and do not have the right-of-way, unless you are off the bike and walking. Yeah, that's why all those other bikers are stopped back there waiting for the light to change.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

priorities

My grandparents, who have been visiting here in California for the past month, flew back to Taipei yesterday so that they could participate in tomorrow's Protect Taiwan march. That's just so cool that it speaks for itself, so my only comment is: 外公外婆加油!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

oh dear

In my news feed this morning: Pro-independence protesters in Taiwan have attacked a visiting Chinese envoy. There's video and everything.

On the one hand, I understand there is a lot of frustration right now in Taiwan. Ma Ying-Jeou has been pandering to China at every opportunity, and on top of that, people are afraid to eat anything, due to the Chinese milk scandal. Part of me definitely feels like cheering on the protesters. But, in the larger scheme of things, I don't think this incident is going to help Taiwan's standing in the international community.

Then again, the international community pretty much spits on Taiwan, so maybe we shouldn't care what they think.

Monday, October 20, 2008

milestone?

Last Thursday, I think I may have hit a milestone.

I was running on a treadmill, and somewhere near the fifth mile, my legs started to give out, and my lungs were fine. My legs were actually so tired that they refused to move fast enough to keep up with the treadmill's motion, and for a split second I actually felt like I was going to fall off the machine. Yay for increased cardio fitness!

Although, I guess the alternative explanation is that my legs were having a bad day.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

seriously

Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama's candidacy today. There had been rumors that he would, so it wasn't entirely surprising.

Like many others, I used to really admire Colin Powell, before the whole WMD fiasco. Parts of his statement reminded me why.

From his endorsement (via Huffington Post):

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."


The picture:


It's a question I've been asking for months...even if Obama were a Muslim (which he isn't), what would be wrong with that, anyway?

In his endorsement, Powell asked that same question, but managed to state it way more eloquently than I ever could have. And, given that he's a highly public figure and a Republican, I'm sure it was much harder for him to raise the question at all.

I'm trying to express something, or several somethings, here. Resurgent admiration for Colin Powell? Regret that he got screwed by the Bush administration (or wrong place, wrong time, rock and a hard place, whatever). Renewed belief in his statesmanship. (Is statespersonship a word?) Hope that he might play a role in an Obama administration?

Put simply, I found his statement thought-provoking, truthful, deeply moving, and most of all, necessary.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

eating well in Hawaii (days 3, 4, & 5)

I think when I left off last time, it was mid-September, and we'd been eating up a storm in Honolulu for two days...

We woke up on the morning of day 3 (Friday) and decided to road trip it to the North Shore, to see if we could see some surfing. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and there were no waves:


So, we just hung out at Waimea Bay Beach Park for awhile. While we were there, one of our friends joined the many people (mostly teenagers and kids) jumping off of a large nearby rock:


We consoled ourselves with some shave ice from Matsumoto's (not quite as impressive second time around) and prawns from Romy's (still fresh and delicious):


After eating, we drove all the way around the island, stopping from time to time to enjoy the views:


Towards the evening, we ventured into Kailua, where we picked up some "chocolate jump cake" from Agnes' Portuguese Bakeshop (looks too sweet to eat but isn't; it's deliciously chocolate-y), and then drove all the way around on the Kalaniana'ole Highway, passing by Diamond Head again on our way back into Honolulu.

For dinner, we went to the Coco Ichiban Curry House, a chain serving only Japanese curry:


We tried the takoyaki, the fried chicken, and the gyoza, but didn't have room for more than that. So simple, so cheap, so yummy. If only they would open a curry house in the Bay Area!

Afterwards we happened upon a street fair on Kalakaua Street, and wandered around watching the performers and smelling all the street food that we couldn't possibly manage to eat:


We met up with some friends from Honolulu at the Westin Moana Surfrider (at their suggestion), where we sat in the lounge catching up and having a few drinks. Very nice hotel and excellent table service, but I'm guessing way out of budget for our trip.

The wedding wasn't until 4pm on Saturday, so we slept in, for once. At the street fair the night before, we had been very surprised to see a sign for Okonomiyaki Chibo at one of the stands. Last year in Osaka a Japanese friend had taken us to Chibo for dinner and we had enjoyed it very much, so we stopped by to inquire, and it turned out that they had just opened a restaurant in a nearby mall, the Royal Hawaiian Center. Of course, we ended up there for lunch, and it was delicious. I've decided I prefer the kind of okonomiyaki where they put noodles into the batter and it turns out a bit crispy.

After walking around for a bit and enjoying a very fruity mango shave ice, we headed to Kaka`ako Waterfront Park for the ceremony. Despite being mid-September, it was sweltering hot that day, especially for the guys in their suits and tuxes. It was a beautiful and intimate outdoor ceremony, but shortly afterwards, during the downtime before the reception, we decided we just had to have some more shave ice (to fight the heat, naturally).

This time we headed to the highly reviewed Waiola Shave Ice:


We had the "Azuki Bowl", which came with milk flavor, azuki beans, and mochi balls. It was very good but reminded me more of Chinese or Japanese dessert than Hawaiian shave ice. A friend added green tea flavor to her bowl and it basically ended up tasting like a modified version of the Japanese dessert of green tea ice cream with red beans.

After finishing our second shave ice of the day, we had just enough time to drive to the reception, which was at the DAV Hall, in Ke'ehi Lagoon Park. At this point I'd been in Hawaii for four days and hadn't actually eaten any real Hawaiian food (except taro chips and poke) so I was excited for the dinner part of the reception, because I knew the bride's relatives (who happen to own a local catering business) were in charge of dinner.

As it turned out, they had the Kalua Pig I'd been craving (and it was excellent), sushi rolls, crab salad, pickled cucumber salad, and glass noodles, as well as some dishes that I hadn't had before: a coconut milk-heavy creamed spinach-like dish, an octopus dish, and a dessert that was kind of like almond tofu but was coconut flavored and was much more gooey. They also had a lot of poi, and well, I still don't like poi.

For dessert, there were four kinds of cake, all of which I managed to try:


I'd never been to a wedding reception quite like this one before. The last time I went to a wedding in Hawaii, the bride had grown up in Honolulu, but she was of Chinese and not Hawaiian ethnicity, so the overall tone of the wedding was much more traditionally American. This reception was very laid-back, and although the ceremony had been small, there were nearly 300 guests at the reception, mostly family. A live Hawaiian band played through most of the night, and various members of the bride's family would get up to do traditional Hawaiian dancing from time to time (and they were all quite good). At one point the groom (who is not Hawaiian) did a dance with the bride's father which he had been learning, and then the bride followed that up with a dance of her own. Overall, it was a very unique and fun wedding to have attended.

Our flight on Sunday wasn't until the late evening, but we had to drop some friends off at the airport before noon. On our way there, by request, we stopped again at Waiola for more shave ice. This time we tried the "Li Hing Mui" (Chinese preserved plum) with custard (basically flan). The combination sounded odd at first but it turned out really well, and in fact I liked it better than the Azuki Bowl we had had the day before.

After doing airport duty, we went to visit another friend from Honolulu. She tried to take us to Tamashiro Market for lunch, but it turned out they didn't serve lunch on weekends. Next we tried Nico's, but they were closed for a private event, so we ended up at Uncle's, which she said was less popular but I had a really decent calamari salad anyway, with large chunks of freshly fried calamari.

I'd already been to Pearl Harbor as a child and didn't remember being particularly impressed, but given that we had several hours to kill, we decided to head over to see the USS Arizona, just before closing. Even after getting there and looking around, I couldn't find any memory of having been there before, so I guess it's good that I went.

I thought this inscription was nice; it's a list of soldiers who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, but chose to be buried with their shipmates later:


(I think the bits sticking out of the water are of the decaying ship.)


Finally, just before heading back to the airport, we stopped by the curry house again for dinner, because I was determined to try an udon dish:


As much as I love Japanese curry, I hadn't ever tried it on udon before. It was very yummy (of course), and I will have to try making it myself one of these days.

Friday, October 17, 2008

eyeballing

I just took this eyeballing test twice and scored 4.15 both times. I'm particularly bad at finding the centers of triangles, and I'm good at midpoints, bisecting angles, and convergence points. I'm amazed looking at the high scores...how does someone score below a 2.0 on this thing?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

favorite movies (or, insuring against future data loss)

Back when I signed up for Facebook, I installed a bunch of applications and started to use them. One of the apps was Flixter Movies. I actually sat around rating movies and making a list of my favorites. Then, when Facebook switched over to its new interface, I was suddenly unable to access my movie list (at least on FF/Linux) and it was really freaking me out. I hate data loss of any kind.

Anyway, I guess they finally fixed the app for the new UI, because I checked this morning and I was able to access my movie list. I'm posting my "all-time favorites" list (as of 2007) here so I won't lose it again. It's ordered by date of release.

The Princess Bride (1987)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
臥虎藏龍 (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) (2000)
The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (2002)
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
The Incredibles (2004)

I also loved Immortal Beloved, but I think primarily due to all the Beethoven music. Hmm, I realize I do have somewhat generic taste in movies. Ah well.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

eating well in Hawaii (days 1 & 2)

I did mention that I'd been eating particularly well recently, right?

About a month ago, I went to Hawaii for a week. (For another wedding. Yes, poor me.) After last year's experience, I knew that the food in Honolulu varied wildly, from the overpriced tourist traps around Waikiki to the delicious hole-in-the-wall bento box type places further from the beach, so I did some research in the days leading up to the trip, which paid off handsomely...

We got off the airplane around 7pm on Wednesday, met up with some friends, and promptly headed for a Japanese BBQ place called Gyu-Kaku. It's actually a chain but has only spread to New York and Los Angeles so far, unfortunately. The four of us ordered two set meals, with interesting side dishes like cream cheese salad (good, but a bit heavy in large amounts) and a rice bowl resembling bibimbop, as well the omnipresent ahi poke. We then added a bunch of meat, doubling up on the happy hour special of "harami", or skirt steak in miso sauce. Both the service and the meat quality were quite good, and I would have ordered another rice bowl if I hadn't been way too full already. Then, for dessert, there was a grilled pancake with red bean paste, which is right up my alley.

The next morning, we stopped at a Foodland for some poke:


Then, we headed over to Mitsu-Ken to find the garlic chicken that we had enjoyed so much on our last trip. Even though it was mid-morning, we had to stand in line for a good 10-15 minutes to get our chicken. We took the poke and the chicken and had a picnic of sorts in a random park. I think I really started to feel like I was on vacation when we spent all morning just driving around town assembling lunch.

My friend, an avid quilter, had mentioned before arriving that she was determined to go to Fabric Mart while in Honolulu, and we just happened to drive by it after lunch, so we had to stop by:


I haven't bought much fabric myself since high school, but apparently the prices were about half of what they are on "the mainland" and it certainly looked like the selection was good.

After some sightseeing (Iolani Palace, then Diamond Head again), we decided we wanted sushi for dinner. Luckily I had read online about a place called Mitch's Fish Market, so we called for a reservation, and headed over shortly afterwards.

We were a little surprised upon arrival, as the "restaurant" appeared to be tucked into a row of dark warehouses, and was not too inviting itself. We proceeded anyway, and pushed open the door, only to find a tiny room with a fish counter and maybe three tables seating two or three people apiece. I told the person behind the counter (a bit hesitantly, since I wasn't sure where they were going to put us) that we had a reservation for four, and he cheerfully led us across a dark alley to another building, where we found four cozy tables of four. This room looked much more pleasant, so we relaxed and began to order.

The food was AMAZING. We started with a "ume kurage" appetizer; jellyfish with plum paste. I love sour plum paste, and this dish was very, very strongly flavored with it:


Next up, spiny (Pacific) lobster and toro sashimi:



The toro was strangely cold, and at first I didn't like it too much, but it was very good after getting to room temperature. The lobster was excellent; I am very fond of lobster sashimi in general but I think it may have been the best I've ever had.

Then came some of our favorite nigiri sushi, rolls, and chirashi/sashimi specials for the (still hungry) guys:




I distinctly remember someone saying the negitoro rolls were "sinful" because they were so fatty and delicious. The ume shiso rolls were excellent as well; I wouldn't have thought that I would have liked a vegetarian roll so much.

Finally, the cooked-fish-eaters wrapped up the meal with some hamachi kama:


I myself admired the size of the portion but left it for others to enjoy the taste.

The entire meal came out to about $75 a head, including tax and tip, which is actually very reasonable for sushi, especially given that we stuffed ourselves silly and ordered things like lobster and toro.

More Hawaiian food doings to come...

 

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