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.

 

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