Thursday, December 16, 2010

now you tell me

I went to the dentist this morning. After looking at the x-ray, the dentist told me that I had two new cavities. We then had a conversation that went something like this:

her:How's your flossing going?
me:Good! I floss almost every day now.
her:Hmm. <long pause> Do you use Glide floss?
me:Huh? Yes...why?
her:Oh. Yeah, it really doesn't work very well. Switch to something else.

Apparently Glide, although really easy to use, is not actually effective, partially because it slides over your teeth so easily that it doesn't catch much food and/or plaque. She said she'd had another patient a few months ago who had a similar problem, despite flossing every day with his children.

Anyway, she prescribed new floss, new high-fluoride toothpaste, and a fluoride varnish. Then, as I was leaving the office, I was given a standard freebie bag. Inside was a toothbrush, toothpaste, and Glide. When I pointed that out, the dentist laughed apologetically and told me it was not an endorsement. Sigh.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

worst division ever?

D and I went to the Niners vs Seahawks game with some friends on Sunday. On the way there, I preemptively apologized to our friends in case the Niners sucked it up again. Instead, they forced five turnovers and won in a 40-21 blowout. It was fun to watch, and the win means it's still possible for the Niners to make the playoffs, but how sad is it that that's true of a 5-8 team?

I'm still bitter that the Niners didn't make the playoffs in 1991, when they went 10-6 but the Saints went 11-5, and the Falcons went 10-6 and won the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Niners were a good team that year and I think they could have made a run at the Super Bowl.

This year, I'm fairly confident that whatever team comes out of the NFC West will get destroyed by the lucky wild card team they play in the first round, despite being awarded home-field advantage because NFL playoff rules are stupid. (As an aside, I bet the home-field rule gets changed next season.) If the Niners manage to eke out a division win, they'll just be a subject of ridicule for the rest of the league/country. I'm not much opposed to letting the Rams or Seahawks play that role.

Fun facts that I accumulated while reading NFL blogs this week:
- The NFC West has a 3-17 record against teams that currently have a winning record.
- The NFC West has a 12-22 record against non-division opponents.
- The NFC West has had more starting quarterbacks (8) than road wins (6) this season.
- Among NFC West quarterbacks, the highest rated quarterback this season is Rams rookie Sam Bradford (20th overall).
- It is mathematically possible for a 7-9 team to win the NFC West. This would be an NFL first, making the 2010 NFC West officially the worst division in the history of football.
- The Niners have both the "best" offense and the best defense in the NFC West, ranking 24th on offense and 11th on defense. The co-division-leading Seahawks rank 28th on offense and 30th on defense.
- NFC West teams have been outscored by a combined 236 points this season. In comparison, the super awesome Bills, Lions, Browns and Bengals have been outscored by a combined 141 points. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

lunch at Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge

During my week in Zurich, I went with some coworkers to Dijon for the weekend. Another coworker had recommended several restaurants in Burgundy, and it turned out that one of them was in Dijon, so we called them up on Friday and managed to get a lunch reservation for Saturday.

As an aside, we actually asked a French coworker to make that call, since none of the four of us had any confidence in our French-speaking abilities. I grew up speaking English, Taiwanese, and Chinese, so French is perhaps my fourth-best language, just edging out Japanese. Of the other three, one is an American living in Switzerland whose second-best language is now Swiss German, one is a Swede living in the US who probably speaks four or five languages not including French, and the last is a German living in Switzerland (I bet his French is the best).

Anyway, we got off of the train, dumped our bags at our hotel, and were off to lunch at the Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge. Interestingly, the hotel itself is poorly reviewed, but the restaurant was recently awarded a Michelin star. I was certainly not impressed with the exterior facade:


The interior was surprisingly nice and modern, though, and soon after being seated, we were served a set of four amuse bouches:

I just realized that it's been several weeks and I've started to forget a lot of the details about the food. Also, most of the explanations were in French, so my comprehension was shaky to begin with. Oops. Anyway, I believe the first one was a falafel-like fritter, the second was a veal dumpling, the third a fairly bland sushi roll, and the last was a veggie spring roll. The dumpling was by far the best.

The wine menu was very extensive and way beyond me, but luckily we had a wine expert at the table, so he ordered us some champagne to start, and later on tried out several local reds:

We chose the tasting menu (of course), so the wine consumption was spread over the next four hours.

There were four or five varieties of fresh bread, all of which were tasty, but my favorite was this olive bread:

I was amused when the waiter offered us a second piece of bread after a few courses, and he seemed shocked and/or offended when one of my dining companions refused. The next time he came back we all obediently made additional selections.

The first real course was a foie gras au torchon with potatoes and champignons. Everyone else liked the foie gras very much. I liked the mushrooms very much.


Next was a shrimp tempura paired with (I think) rabbit, with giant capers:

The shrimp tempura was very, very good; it may have been one of my favorite things on the menu. Whatever the meat was, I did not enjoy it at all; it was very gamey (and I typically like game) and very fatty.

This interesting presentation is of a sea scallop, served with corn puree and more champignons:

It was quite good but interestingly I liked the accompaniments more than the scallop itself.

The fish course was next; I believe it was some kind of sea bass, with shaved black truffle and some assorted vegetables:


I had this veal shortbread dish instead, with fresh pasta underneath. The shortbread was pretty good but very crispy and salty, so I couldn't finish it. The pasta was fresh and delicious and I ate every bite.


The poultry course was a duck breast with some vegetables. I don't remember much about this dish so I guess it wasn't particularly memorable.


I do remember this beef. I was quite surprised to find it very overcooked; I gave up after only a few bites. It compared very poorly to the sous vide beef that I'd had at Baume last month.


There were four "dessert" courses, the first of which was this cheese mousse, served with prunes and honey, with mesclun salad and a black pepper tuile:

This was my favorite dessert, and possibly my favorite dish overall, since the gamey rabbit offset the delicious shrimp. The cheese mousse looked like it should be sweet, but it was not sweet at all. It was extremely cheese-flavored, but not cheesy. I thought it was very creative, unusual, and very delicious.

Next we had a pear-themed dessert. I think the pear was prepared three different ways; there were chunks of cooked pear, there was pear flavor in the cream/foam, and there was some kind of sugary syrup as well. It was tasty but not as impressive as the previous course.


I liked the next dessert better; it was a trio with passionfruit souffle, pineapple sorbet, and pineapple rum. The sorbet and the rum were not that interesting, but the souffle was amazing; the texture was perfect and it was tart enough even for my taste.


I was a bit surprised that the last real course was the lightest of the desserts; it was a very simple grape sorbet served on a toffee crisp with some citrus-y sauce. Again, yummy but not that interesting.


Finally, we were served four types of petit fours. I believe the pink one was a raspberry meringue, the macaron was chestnut flavored, and the tartlette was apricot. The fancy one in the back was pistachio on fruit gelee on top of a piece of chocolate with financier underneath. It was also my favorite of the four.


Overall it was a very satisfying meal. The service was outstanding, despite the occasional language difficulties, and the decor and the tablescape were impressive. The food was a bit uneven; it seemed like some of the courses were much more ambitious than others, and I was especially disappointed in the overcooked beef, but the shrimp tempura, the shortbread pasta, and the cheese mousse were all creative and memorable. The foie gras and the passionfruit souffle were very well executed as well.

It was after 4:30pm by the time we left the restaurant, so despite walking around for several hours after eating, none of us were interested in dinner. Instead, we caught a showing of Orlando at L'Opera de Dijon, and then went straight to bed.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Zurich wrap-up

I've been back from Zurich for several weeks now, but what with hosting Thanksgiving and and then having houseguests last weekend I hadn't got around to writing about it until now...

I really enjoy visiting our other offices; instead of feeling like a tourist the entire time, you start to feel a little bit like you belong, when you take the tram to the office or buy groceries or go out for dinner or drinks with coworkers after work.

Some random thoughts:
- Everything was at least 25% more expensive there. I discovered upon arrival that I was short two pairs of socks, so I went out to try to buy some. Despite the store being located in the basement of a train station and the socks being regular black cotton socks, it cost me 15 CHF ($15.25) for two pairs. Ouch.
- I love European breakfast. I could eat just the bread and cheese for weeks. At our office they also had delicious cold cuts, a fresh OJ machine where you can watch the oranges being squashed, fresh yogurt, muesli (of course), granola, and other yummy things.
- It seemed like there was chocolate everywhere. Just in our office, I think there were like 20 kinds of chocolate lying around, if you counted the mini-kitchens, cafes, and the random boxes sitting on people's desks. I became addicted to Sprungli Lilliput truffles and bought nearly $100 worth of Sprungli on the day I flew home.
- Every time I leave suburbia and live in a real city for a week, I rediscover the fact that I like being close to restaurants and shops and cafes and people, and being able to walk or take public transit everywhere. Then I go home and realize that my house is really comfortable, my yard full of trees is quite pretty, and oh, I like driving. Obviously the solution is to have two homes! Yeah, I'll get cracking on that.
- Switzerland is really pretty. The mountains and the lakes combine for some spectacular scenery. On our TGV to Dijon, we stopped by Bern. We were only there for about 15 minutes, but even from the train I was impressed by the sight of the bridges over the Aare river. Maybe I just like hills because I grew up around San Francisco.
- I already knew this, but being able to take a weekend trip to France just reinforced for me the fact that Europe is really small. (Photos from our lunch at Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge to come.) I was thinking, if I lived in Zurich for say, several months, I'd be able to go all over the place! I could go skiing in Zermatt, hiking in Lugano, wine-tasting in Tuscany, and castle-hopping in Bavaria. (D's company opened an office in Zurich this year, so we've been hoping he'll get sent there at some point. Fingers crossed.)

Friday, December 03, 2010

moving pains

It's been about a month since D and I moved back into our remodelled house. One would think that moving back into a house that we'd already lived in would be easier, but we're having to do a lot of things again.

Honestly, I hate moving. Every time I move I swear I'll never do it again. This time I think maybe it'll actually stick for a good while.

Anyway, I was thinking over all of the issues that we've been handling and are still handling, and I was amazed by the length of the list.

before moving in:
- walk-through with contractors to create punchlist
- HVAC cleaning appointment
- tree removal service (quotes & final appointment)
- moving day coordination

right after moving:
- satellite TV appointment (DISH this time)
- re-cabling of family room TV setup since the DISH box requires an open shelf
- new garage door installation
- new blinds for new windows
- selection & installation of new front door locks (required patching existing door)

during the past few weeks:
- delivery of new sectional for family room
- delivery & assembly of new desk for study
- special trash pickup scheduling
- pest control appointments
- new sheets and towels
- new items for punchlist after heavy rain
- garage cleanup

still pending, blocked on other people:
- installation of new blinds
- remaining old furniture donation/disposal
- remaining contractor punchlist items
- installation of new wireless doorbell

still to do, haven't got around to these yet:
- redo networking setup to incorporate the new CAT6 cabling
- bolt down safe
- debug powermeter setup
- finish hanging photos and artwork
- finish garage cleanup

This list doesn't include the non-trivial number of remaining boxes that still need to be unpacked. Argh.

two down

Last week, D and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner!

I flew back from Zurich on Tuesday, arriving just before 7pm. D's parents arrived around the same time; his mom coming from Houston and his dad from Taipei. On Tuesday night, I cooked the brine for our Google-sourced Heritage turkey.

On Wednesday, I made cranberry sauce (with port and orange juice), started the homemade bread, and D made his scrumptious key lime pie.

On Thursday, we made candied sweet potatoes (with bourbon and marshmallows), sourdough sausage stuffing, and sauteed green beans. D's mom helped us roll some maki sushi, and both the turkey and ham (with brown sugar and pineapple) went into the oven for several hours. We timed things pretty well, finishing around 3:30pm.

The guests started to arrive about 15 minutes later, and they brought a ton of food too. In addition to everything that we made, I vaguely remember eating papaya salad, shrimp salad, "oily rice" (aka you fan), glass noodles with pork, bacon mashed potatoes, saltine toffee, and way too many Baked by Melissa mini-cupcakes (fresh from NYC).


Anyway, that's two down for my 35-before-35 list! I declare #5 (cook something for longer than two hours) and #20 (host Thanksgiving dinner) complete. The 17 of us even finished off all 13 lbs of turkey that night, which I think must be a first for an Asian Thanksgiving party. I also made progress on #25 (master a bread-from-scratch recipe), but although the bread was much improved from the last time, it still did not rise as much as expected. I think the kitchen was too cold during the rise phase...will have to try again over Christmas.

Next up, #28 (put up holiday decorations)! Due to allergies, we've decided on an artificial tree, so I guess we'll be shopping for one this weekend...

 

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