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.

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.)

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.

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.)

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...

fire drill

I took a train earlier today from Dijon (France) back to Zurich. After a 5-hour ride, I went to dinner with some coworkers. I got back to my hotel after that and checked my email at 9pm CET. I had a 15-minute-old Google Voice transcript from the guys who were supposed to deliver our furniture. I checked the timezones, and it was 12pm PST. They were supposed to come between 1-4pm, and they were going to arrive at 12:15pm. Plus, I had called earlier in the week and specifically told them to call D on his cell, not me on mine. WTF?

I quickly dashed off an email to D hoping that he would check his phone even though he was supposed to be at basketball until 12:30pm. I then tried calling him using the "call" function inside of Gmail for the first time ever...straight to voicemail. I must have tried ten times before I realized it was useless and called the delivery people instead. They seemed very confused. "Where are you? Belmont?" "No, Switzerland!" Finally I told them that D would be there at 1pm, even though I couldn't confirm that because I had no way to reach him. Unfortunately the furniture delivery company and the furniture making company are not the same company, and according to the delivery guys, they were not told to come between 1-4pm, they were merely told to deliver today. ARGH.

I was really afraid they weren't going to wait, so I called our friend up the street who has a key to our house. No dice. I randomly complained to another friend online, but she lives over 30 minutes away and doesn't have a key. Finally I tried again and got the first friend, and he said he'd head over. I took a quick shower to rinse the train smell off, got back online, and found out that he had gone down there only to find no one there. I then asked his wife to call the delivery guys and figure out what was up. They had gone to lunch. Of course.

I heard that in the end they came back and D met them there, but I'm still in Switzerland and I still have no idea what happened. Anyway, this whole episode just stressed me out to a stupid degree. I know delivery guys are always late, but since when do they show up EARLY? I hate the service industry.

Zurich 1, Mountain View 0

In Mountain View we have a slide that goes from the 4th floor to the 3rd floor.

Here in Zurich, they have a fireman's pole that goes from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, and then a slide that starts on the the 1st floor and ends right in the middle of the ground floor cafeteria. The slide is curved in a tighter spiral than in Mountain View, and isn't covered the whole way, so you kind of get the feeling that if you weighed a little more and went a little faster, you might be able to jump the side while sliding down. Also, they correctly 0-index their floors here.

(Tip on using a fireman's pole: brake with your legs!)

high school...not totally useless

I'm spending a week in our Zurich engineering office, visiting some engineers that I've worked with for years, but many of whom I've never actually met face-to-face. It's been fun; everyone's really friendly and I've gotten lots of invitations for lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks, and even foosball.

Anyway, I flew Swiss Air nonstop from SFO on the way over, and all the announcements were done first in German, then in French, and finally in English. It was the same at the Zurich airport, and again on the rail (6 CHF from the airport to the "Hauptbahnhof" main station). I was a bit surprised to discover that my high school French is good enough that I usually understand what's happening without having to wait for the English translation.

(As an aside, there are like twenty kinds of Swiss chocolates in the various kitchens and cafes on the seven floors of this office. It might be deadly to stay here too long.)

travel fears

I travel a fair amount. I've visited East Asia, Southeast Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and many parts of Europe. When choosing travel destinations, I like to pick places that are different from the places that I've already been. I find a lot of people rule out destinations because they're afraid of terrorists or pickpockets, but I figure the first is a very low probability occurrence, and the second can be minimized by wearing money belts and not carrying valuables.

One place that I am wary of is China. I went once in 2002, and we had a good time. We spent half the week in Shanghai, attended a friend's wedding there, and then spent the rest of the week hiking at Huangshan. The scenery was gorgeous, we had lots of yummy food, and we enjoyed travelling as a group. We also found what appeared to be a tape recorder in our hotel room.

Many years later, a friend who is a US citizen but was born in Taiwan was denied a visa because her US passport lists "Taiwan" as her country of birth. They insisted that she change it, so she decided not to go after all. D's US passport also lists Taiwan as his country of birth. This was not a problem in 2002, but I would not be surprised if it was a problem now. I would be very irritated if we paid $150 only to be denied a visa.

In addition, the food safety and pollution issues seem to get worse and worse. The WHO has reported that 750,000 people die prematurely every year because of air and water pollution-related diseases including respiratory illness, lung cancer, heart disease, making pollution the leading cause of death in China. Acid rain falls over 30% of the country, and has spread to Seoul and Tokyo. Some of China's food safety incidents have gotten international attention (melamine in baby food and egg products, pesticides in the powdered ginger imported by Whole Foods). Other incidents were widely reported only in Asia, but still sound quite serious. For instance, there were reports of sewage in stinky tofu, plastic in tapioca pearls (to improve texture), and pesticides and sulphur in mantou (to increase the chewiness and whiteness of the steamed buns).

In my mind, if I travel to the Middle East, there is a very small chance that I will be killed. If I travel to China, there is 100% chance that I will have to breathe the air and eat the food, thus ingesting and/or inhaling potentially dangerous chemicals and carcinogens. I'm trying to figure out if I just have a mental block because of all the anti-Taiwan sentiment in China, or whether it's reasonable for me to fear visiting China?

(This topic came up because I was looking at some amazing photos posted by a Shanghai-born friend who recently returned to China.)

meaningless victory

Yesterday D had to get his car serviced, so we drove two cars to work. On the way home, he suggested one of us take 101 and the other take 280, so we could figure out which is faster on a weekday night with no carpool. We laid down some rules (max highway speed, max local speed), I picked 101 so I wouldn't be tempted to exceed them, and we were off.

I pulled into our driveway about 38 minutes later. D arrived just over one minute after. We concluded that despite the frustration of having to fight traffic, 101 is nevertheless a more efficient route, time-wise. (We are thinking of replicating the experiment with our roles reversed, though, as I think I tend to do better in traffic.)

moment of dread

Q: How do I know when there's a good chance that I'm going to feel stupid soon?
A: When my friend asks me, "How good are you at combinatorics?"

I guess it could have been worse, she could have asked me how good I was at statistics. (I suck at math. Yes, I really do program for a living.)

incremental improvement

Just finished today's Goblin Run in 26:58. I didn't dress in costume (yes, bad me), but if the listed course distance of 3.18 miles is correct, I did achieve a new personal best of 8:29/mile. (My previous best was in the spring, when I ran 8:32/mile. Huge improvement, right?) I'm a little bummed that I got passed at the last second by a guy in a Luigi suit, though.

overheard

or seen on a public post, rather, at work today:

coworker #1:	Is there an idiom for doing a really bad job at something you shouldn't have been trying to do in the first place?
coworker #2:	Operation Iraqi Freedom.

communal living

As I mentioned before, D and I have been remodelling our house these last few months.

Our architect strongly encouraged us not to try to live in the house during construction, so at first we thought we would have to rent an apartment. Then, D's old college roommate generously invited us to live with him and his wife for the duration of the project. They had coincidentally moved to a house about a mile away from us last year, and luckily they had yet to entirely furnish the place.

So, nearly six months ago, we completely emptied out our house. We sold off our cheapo living room furniture and rented a moving van. We moved our family room furniture into their empty living room, and put our breakfast table into their empty dining area. We stacked probably ten or fifteen boxes in the back of their living room, and put another five in their garage. We brought over a couple of dressers for our clothes, and packed the rest of our furniture into our own garage.

We've been mostly living out of two rooms; one is our bedroom, with a bed and dressers, and the other serves as a study/living area, with a desk, couch, and TV. We all use the family room and kitchen together, as no one ever really hangs out in the living room. (Amusingly, one of their visiting friends once remarked that she liked their new couches, only to find out that they were ours.) It's been really comfortable for us and we all get along amazingly well.

I was thinking the other day, I'm surprised more couples don't live together like this. D and I had a housemate for several years before we started the remodelling project, but we didn't hang out with him all that much, and he pretty much never used the kitchen. Similarly, some of our other friends have single housemates, but we don't know of any other households consisting of multiple couples.

These days, at least once or twice a week, the four of us will manage to conjure up a multi-course dinner from scratch. We all love farmer's markets, so we're always well-stocked with fruits, veggies, and fresh bread. We never get bored, because we have built-in critical mass for board games (our favorites are Puerto Rico and Agricola) and video games (Rock Band, Starcraft). There's a ping-pong table in the garage, a grill in the backyard, and between us we have two wine fridges full of wine and a ton of hard liquor. Also, with four of us being in the same place already, it's super easy to convince our friends to come over instead of us having to go to them. It's a little bit like living in a dorm again, but with more space and lots more money.

I guess it only works if everyone is easygoing and conscientious about sharing chores, groceries, and of course, the TV remote, but luckily everyone has been, so I've been very much enjoying our setup. I'm excited about our house being finished soon and being able to invite people over again, but I will definitely miss some aspects of communal living.

the official 35 before 35

Alright, I'm done with my list! I will consider it a success if I achieve 30 of these goals. (They are listed in semi-alphabetical order; I've numbered them just for future reference.)

1. attend (and possibly ride in) BYOBW
2. bike to work
3. buy dining room furniture (the poker table does not count)
4. cook live crab or lobster
5. cook something for longer than two hours
6. do an unassisted pullup
7. do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)
8. do not buy a new car
9. drive across the country
10. eat at Alinea
11. eat fugu (puffer fish)
12. finish a photo project
13. fly first class
14. get scuba-certified
15. go houseboating
16. grow a plant for three months without killing it
17. hike Half Dome
18. hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim
19. host a multi-course dinner party
20. host Thanksgiving dinner
21. landscape the backyard
22. learn to knit
23. learn to put on eye makeup properly
24. make spaghetti sauce from home-grown tomatoes
25. master a bread-from-scratch recipe
26. move the rest of my stuff out of my parents' house
27. plan an awesome 35th birthday party
28. put up holiday decorations
29. run a half marathon
30. see the Northern Lights
31. see the polar bears of Churchill
32. ski a new destination (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho...?)
33. try indoor skydiving
34. visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
35. write an Android app

Looks like I better get cracking...

eww

I realize it's just a meme (about purses, of all things), but I'm still kind of disturbed that my 16-year-old cousin's status says "I like it against the wall".

Then again, now that I think about it, people said and did much more suggestive and/or outright raunchy things throughout high school. I'm so old.

35 before 35

I was recently inspired by a "30 before 30" list made by a coworker. Unfortunately I'm already past 30, but I started writing a "35 before 35" list instead. The first ten or so were easy, but it's taking some time to put together the rest.

As a teaser, my top five were:
- run a half marathon
- get scuba-certified
- eat at Alinea
- hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim
- see the polar bears of Churchill

I think I may have to be less ambitious for some of the rest. Stay tuned...

Baume

A couple of weeks ago I went with some of my coworkers to Baume (apparently it's pronounced "bau-MEH"), a new molecular gastronomy place in Palo Alto. I'm a little surprised about the location (on California Avenue); it seems more the kind of thing that would do better in the city, but it made it convenient for a weeknight dinner.

The restaurant isn't very large, and the four of us were seated in a small room with maybe five other tables. The atmosphere was a little hush-hush for my taste, although I think we livened it up a bit after we got there.

Baume offers three menus: five courses, ten courses, and fifteen courses. Each has an optional wine pairing. We quickly decided to go for the full fifteen, and a few of us (not me) were initially tempted by the wine pairing, but decided against when the waiter described it as "75% whites". We got some cocktails instead.

The menu is not very specific; it just lists some ingredients that are likely to be used in the courses, so that diners can point out allergies and/or other preferences:


The cocktails were pricey but I was glad I ordered one; mine was a passionfruit sake drink with little "pearls" of passionfruit in it that burst when you bit them. It was very fun to drink and reminded me a little bit of bubble tea. Even more visually stunning was this grape sake drink, which had the same pearls (in grape) but also had liquid-nitrogen-frozen grape sorbet on top:


The amuse was a tiny bit of scallop sashimi with soy and passionfruit pearls. It was tasty but very small:


There was no bread basket, but we were offered a total of four different types of bread at two instances during the evening. My favorite was this walnut bread which was served with a "choc-olive":


Basically, the olive was processed into the shape of a chocolate truffle, and the server recommended we spread the whole thing across the bread. I found this made the bread too salty, and I scraped some of it off. I'd chosen the black olive and wondered if that was the problem, but my coworker who had the green olive said the same.

The first real course was comprised mostly of red beet bubbles, with goat cheese and pinenuts on the side. It was fun to look at, but hard to eat once the bubbles started to collapse. This may have been my fault for spending several minutes taking photos of the dish. Both the goat cheese and the pinenuts were quite strong in flavor and I felt like the beet flavor got overwhelmed a bit.


Next up was a duck, shiso, and kabocha soup. Initially we were given just a bowl of smoked duck bits and duck lardo:


The servers quickly added a scoop of frozen shiso, and then poured the kabocha soup on top:


The final product wasn't that interesting to look at, but it was quite tasty; the flavors went together well, and I could have eaten the duck bits all night:


Next up was sauteed abalone with citron foam and green apple "wasabi":


I liked the sauteed abalone by itself very much, but I'm not sure the foam and the apple added that much to the dish. I tire quickly of foam and bubbles, though.

This was one of the dishes that I had heard about previously, from another coworker who had already eaten at Baume; he said it was one of his favorites. It's called "62-degree egg" and is literally an egg perfectly cooked at 62 degrees for an extended period of time. It was served with lobster mushrooms and tarragon sauce. I dislike egg yolks but have to admit this dish was very well executed. I even ate most of it:


The foie gras torchon was served with pineapple and a bubble of cinnamon foam. I liked the cinnamon but the pineapple flavor was too strong. The foie gras itself was tasty served on toast points, but as usual I let others finish my portion:


I liked this matsutake trio but others found it bland. It was a very simple dish:


The server called this palate cleanser "gaspachio" but it was mostly sweet, with more flavored pearls and brandy foam. It was nice but by this time I was starting to get tired of the pearls:


Next up was a leek farcie with arctic char mousse and shaved truffles:


Luckily I had asked for substitutions for any dishes involving cooked fish, so I was served this vegetarian dish instead. It had figs, carrots, and other greens, as well as the truffles:


The vegetables were fresh and flavorful and I enjoyed the dish but wasn't amazed.

Our second palate cleanser was a rosemary nitro-foam. The server scooped little bits of frozen rosemary foam into wooden spoons for us, one by one, so that they would be good and cold when we consumed them. Eating the "foam" was quite interesting; visible cold steam/smoke came out of my nose and the bits were cold and crunchy on my tongue:


The meat dishes started with this "cochon au lait" (basically pork belly), served with sliced apple, armagnac sauce, and a prune. Everyone else liked this but I thought the pork was drier than it should have been:


My favorite course was this grass-fed filet with summer truffle saveur. We were pretty sure the filet must have been done sous vide as to achieve the perfectly even degree of cooked-ness, and it was seasoned perfectly; not too salty and not too peppery, so the meat flavor could take center stage:


The desserts started with a cheese course. The cheese was served with "honey caviar" which was basically the same pearls done with honey:


The bottom-most cheese was a Petit Basque which I liked a lot, and the top one was a Point Reyes blue; also very good. The middle one was fine but unremarkable. The slightly bitter taste of the watercress went quite well with the cheeses; I'll have to remember that for future reference:


At this point we were served a second amuse; a sweet one this time. It was comprised of lychee bits with chocolate and passionfruit pearls:


I liked this amuse very much; even more than the first one. (Then again, I love sweets.)

All three of the desserts came out together, which I thought was kind of strange. One was a combination of lychee and passionfruit, in which the lychee was processed and frozen. This was my favorite of the three:


The most fragile one (which we were told to eat first) was a caramel foam freeze which was topped by chocolate ganache syrup. I'm not sure the chocolate sauce was very necessary. (This photo was taken before the syrup was added.)


The last dessert was a fig and nut concoction. Again, the individual bits were yummy, but I'm not sure that it all came together very well. That didn't stop me from finishing it, though.


Finally, we were served mignardises of strawberry daiquiri spheres on tiny financiers. The spheres were delicious, and tasted exactly like strawberry daiquiri. I liked the presentation, too:


The last little treat was a packet of homemade marshmallows. We debated awhile and decided the flavors were green tea, grape, and probably orange or citrus. We did think marshmallows were an odd choice for such a fancy restaurant, but they were packaged up nicely, at least:


Closing thoughts...I thought that the food presentation was among the most spectacular of the restaurants that I've visited. Unfortunately, I also thought that they reused the same techniques a bit too much; nearly every dish had some kind of "pearl" or "caviar", there were lots of uses of liquid nitrogen, and there were several dishes that were heavy on foam. Taste-wise I thought both WD-50 and Moto were more consistently delicious, but Baume was perhaps more ambitious (definitely less subtle) than WD-50 at least. Also, the super-quiet atmosphere was a little stifling at first, although that may have been partially because we had such an early (6:30pm) reservation.

In conclusion, it was a fun meal and I'm glad that I went, but I probably won't be returning anytime soon, especially given the price tag and all the other restaurants on my to-try list.

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Dreamgirls

Yesterday night I went to go see Dreamgirls at the Curran with some friends. I haven't seen the movie, so I didn't know the story beforehand, and I'm not sure if it's exactly the same.

My thoughts:
- I was impressed with the visual effects, the staging, the costumes, and the choreography.
- I enjoyed some of the songs. There were definitely songs that I did not entirely like, but I'm not sure if that was the fault of the performers or just a stylistic issue.
- I liked the performer who sang Deena better than the one who sang Effie. Effie often seemed a little over-the-top and was screaming rather than singing. Again, this may be a matter of genre/style. Also, the way Effie is written, she's not very sympathetic; she's whiny and diva-y.
- The guy who plays Jimmy Early is amazing. He's ridiculously high-energy, dances beautifully, and is totally hilarious. He reminded me a little of Chris Tucker but less annoying. I was telling my friend after the performance, I'm really not sure how they manage to find multiple performers who can fill this role, but I also thought the same about Angel when I first saw Rent.
- I've never been at a musical where the audience "interrupted" so much with intermittent clapping and running commentary. At first it was really distracting but eventually I think I got used to it.

Although I was really tired yesterday even before getting to the show, I was definitely never in danger of falling asleep; the songs were mostly upbeat and the pacing of the musical numbers was on the fast side. Overall it was a fun evening, and although Dreamgirls will not go on my favorite musicals list, it's nice to have seen it.

biscochitos

I'd never heard of biscochitos before today, but I'm kind of tempted to try this recipe, because a cookie recipe that has lard and wine in it can't be bad, right?

hot potato salad

The other day we had some people over for homemade French bread pizzas. I wanted to have some side dishes, so we baked some garlic bread and I made a lettuce, cucumber, and radish salad.

I also had fingerling potatoes from our vegetable box, as well as leftover roast ham, so I made a potato salad as follows:

Hot Potato Salad

1. Boil potatoes (w/ skin) until soft (about fifteen minutes).

2. Dice onions and ham and stir-fry until onions are soft.

3. Chop up potatoes and combine with onions, ham, and chopped dill.

4. Add salt, vinegar and mustard to taste.

I used rice vinegar because that's what I had, and it seemed to work well. There were eight of us (seven meat-eaters), and it was gone well before most of the other food. I'll have to make it again sometime, with more potatoes.

East Coast trip highlights

I was doing my Alaska writeup and realized that I forgot to write about last month's East Coast trip, except to detail our fine dining experiences.

The highlights (mostly food-related)...

I finally got to try a Five Guys burger. It was good, but I still prefer In-N-Out. I would say the burgers are juicier and heartier than In-N-Out, but less flavorful and with a soggier bun. I loved the free peanuts though.

When I visited my brother in Baltimore several years ago, he took us to Obrycki's for Maryland blue crab, and I loved it. I was determined to get more blue crab this trip, but we weren't really near Baltimore, so instead we went to Harris Crab House. I wasn't sure what "soft-shell clams" were so we got those too, in addition to the crab. Both were satisfyingly delicious.


We drove out to Assateague Island off the coast of Maryland. There were nice beaches where we found lots of seashells, and we saw the famous wild ponies. It seemed very un-touristy; we encountered mostly locals who were RV camping.



We spent one day in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. My original motivation was to go to Longwood Gardens and to see the "mushroom capital of the US", but it was a cute town to visit, too:

• I was very impressed with the Half Moon Restaurant & Saloon, which served a wide variety of wild game. D and I had crab nachos, antelope, and wild boar ragout, all of which was yummy. I especially liked the homemade pasta that was served with the ragout.
  
• For dessert we got ice cream from La Michoacana, where we decided against the corn and avocado flavors in favor of nutella and toasted coconut. The nutella was really good; both the chocolate and hazelnut flavors came through clearly. The toasted coconut was yummy as well, and had bits of bittersweet chocolate in it. I soon discovered that they were best swirled together, which was easy to do as the ice cream was very creamy/sticky (not sure what the right word is; easy to pull into long strands, kind of like gelato).
  
• The next day we ate breakfast at the Country Butcher cafe, where they offered a variety of breakfast sandwiches as well as omelets and pancakes.
  
• We spent the rest of the morning at Longwood Gardens. I'd last been there when I was about 6 or 7 months old, so needless to say, I didn't remember a thing. Both D and I were pleasantly surprised by how expansive and how beautifully landscaped everything was. We quickly stopped complaining about the $16 entrance fee.
  
  
  
• Before leaving Kennett Square, we stopped at two little shops downtown. One was a used bookstore in which all the books were donated, and all proceeds benefited the local senior center. The prices were good and we bought several books. We then went to The Mushroom Cap, where I bought "Snack 'N Shrooms" - spicy dried mushrooms which were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately the 3oz bag was horrendously expensive at $8.50, so I only bought one, but I finished it before the end of our road trip. Sigh.
  

We drove through Philadelphia but spent almost no time there at all. We did swing by Cosmi's for some very tasty cheesesteaks and hoagies. The surrounding neighborhood is definitely working class, and Cosmi's itself is a tiny grocery store/deli, but the owner was super friendly. We had a pretty funny conversation with him (copying from Buzz): As we walk in, he says to us, lemme guess, West Coast? Everyone who comes here who's not from Philly's from the West Coast. So I say yes, and he says, is it San Francisco? Again I say yes, and this time he's surprised; he says really? I only guessed that because there were two other people from San Francisco in here earlier, or I might have guessed Seattle instead. I told him, what can I say, Bay Area people know good food and are willing to travel to get it. He was amused.

Despite having lived five years in Boston, neither D nor I had ever been to Nantucket, so we decided to go. We took the ferry from Hyannis Port, which took a couple of hours.

After arriving, we had lunch at Sayle's Seafood which was really more of a takeout counter and bait shop than a restaurant, but their fried clams and lobster roll were very good. Generally speaking though, we were not that impressed with Nantucket. The stores were obscenely expensive, and although it was cute and charming we quickly got bored.

I imagine it would be different had we gone with a large group and stayed in a house for several days, but I don't recommend going as a day trip. We did get some tasty chocolates from Sweet Inspirations but even those were unjustifiably expensive.

In Boston, we had a fabulous dinner with some friends at Oleana. I am quite fond of Middle Eastern food, and Oleana executed most of the dishes impeccably. My friend and I polished off a giant bowl of labne (hot yogurt?) probably before the guys got their fair share, and I also enjoyed the grilled octopus and even the moussaka, despite my aversion to eggplant. It probably helped that the four of us simultaneously drank through two bottles of wine and some after-dinner drinks. Yum.

I'd been back at MIT about three years ago, for campus recruiting, but D hadn't been in six years, so I took him there and showed him all the new buildings. We also spent some time just walking around campus, which was kind of fun and nostalgia-y. There was gorgeous weather that day.


We had several good food experiences in New York.

• First we had brunch with our cousins at Five Points, where I liked my lemon-ricotta pancakes very much. We all enjoyed our pitcher of "morning punch", too.
  
• Next, we went to Momofuku Milk Bar where D and I tried the soft serve sampler. It came with four kinds of soft serve: cereal milk, purple drink, creamed corn, and bbq. There were also three types of toppings: cornflake crunch, potato chip, and chocolate fudge.
  
  The cereal milk and purple drink flavors were pretty good (purple drink was really more like purple soda). The creamed corn flavor was okay, but I've had better corn desserts. The bbq flavor was terrible. It was well-executed in that tasted exactly like bbq sauce, but for me that did not work at all. The toppings were all pretty good, including (surprisingly) the potato chip one.
  
• Finally, we went to Le Pain Quotidien. There's a bit of a story behind this: in July we attended a wedding in DC with a bunch of college friends, and they fell in love with LPQ's praline spread. They bought several jars of it, but it was all confiscated by the TSA on the way home, as it was deemed "gel-like". Since D and I are United Premier this year and can check bags for free, we decided not to bother with cramming our week's worth of stuff into carry-ons. Then, sometime during our drive, I realized that meant we could bring home praline spread for everyone! We ended up buying four or five jars. As an aside, it's really ridiculous that there are no good Belgian bakeries in the Bay Area, while there's one on every other block in New York City.