vision problems

I was talking to a friend today who said she recently discovered her glasses prescription had gone up. She mentioned that she was pretty bummed when the optometrist "went up two clicks" and everything got clearer. That sounded really familiar to me.

I first got glasses when I was seven or eight years old. For the next six years, my prescription increased every year. Walking into the exam room, the only question on my mind would be, by how much? As the machine kept clicking up, I'd start to get a sinking feeling in my stomach, because when I came back out with a particularly bad prescription, my parents would frown and scold me for reading too much (in the dark, in the car, while walking).

As I got older I started to recognize the optometrist trick of renaming the same two powers "1 or 2? 3 or 4? 5 or 6?" and I also became very good at guessing letters by shape even when they were quite blurry. At least once I tried to game the system so my prescription would come out lower. In retrospect this seems completely stupid, but I guess my ten-year-old self was more concerned about parental approval than being able to see clearly for the next year.

WD-50

During our East Coast trip, D and I spent a total of two nights in New York City. During those two nights, we ate dinner at Blue Hill and at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant, WD-50. I am aware that this is completely ridiculous. I justified it to myself (and to D) by pointing out that I hadn't been to New York in over two years...okay fine, ridiculousness persists.

Also, before booking the reservations, I'd already talked to a couple of my high school friends about meeting up for dinner on Saturday. So, when I told D that I wanted to go to WD-50, he was afraid the others might not be up for it. As it turns out, he needn't have worried.

At D's prompting, I dashed off a slightly sheepish email to both friends asking if they'd be up for some over-the-top dining, and within an hour, I had my responses: "fierce!" and "LOVE over-the-top!". I was also further admonished that when one chooses to live in New York City, one commits to a life of delicious decadence, among other things. I love my friends.

We had pre-dinner drinks at one of their apartments in the Village, so it was a short cab ride over and we were still quite happy when we arrived at the restaurant.

Upon arrival, we quickly decided on the tasting menu for all, and started munching on flatbread while we waited for our first course to arrive. Either the flatbread was super yummy, or we were very hungry, because over the course of the evening they refilled our flatbread container I think three times.


The tasting menu soon began, with this dish of "cobia, verjus, arugula, chickpea fry". I thought it was a little bit bland except for the nice texture of the chickpea fry.


Next up was "everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, crispy cream cheese". After tasting this one, we collectively declared the smoked salmon "threads" the exact consistency of pork sung. It was cute but again not super impressive, so I was starting to feel a little let down.


Luckily, the next dish was delicious. It was described to us as "foie gras, passionfruit, chinese celery". The passionfruit flavor came as a kind of curd which was packaged inside the foie gras mousse. The Chinese celery manifested itself in the green crunchy bits on the plate.



This dish was listed as "scrambled egg ravioli, charred avocado, kindai kampachi". The ravioli texture was really well done, but I am not a big fan of very eggy things and I actively dislike avocado so overall I was not that fond of this dish, although it was very well executed.


This "cold fried chicken" (with "buttermilk-ricotta, tabasco, caviar") was spot-on. They'd done the chicken sous-vide and then encrusted it in something that tasted like cold fried batter but I think it was something else entirely. I liked the chicken part better than the batter part. The tabasco-based sauce had a good kick to it and I always like caviar.


As usual, I avoided eating cooked fish. This one was a striped bass, and it came with chorizo bits, pineapple, and a popcorn sauce.


My favorite savory dish was this beef and bearnaise. The dumplings were superb; they were a little more liquid-y in the middle and when you bit them they popped a little. I admit I was a little disappointed at first when this dish came out and there was no actual beef, only beef consomme, but in the end I liked it very much.


The last savory dish was "lamb loin, black garlic romesco, soybean, pickled ramps". The romesco sauce was very thick & pasty; too much so, I think. The lamb was fine, but I really liked the crunchy bits of soybean. As an aside, I'm starting to wonder what it is these days with pickled ramps. I first remember eating them at Moto earlier this year, and now I feel like I see them everywhere.


I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a palate cleanser or a dessert, but it was described as "chewy lychee sorbet, pistachio, yuzu, celery". It was very refreshing and the chewy sorbet was fun to eat (not sure how they accomplished the extra chewy texture). My verdict on this one was that it was successfully creative, as the pistachio and celery both went surprisingly well with the lychee. I felt the yuzu flavor in the foam could have been stronger (I love yuzu).


Everyone else at the table loved this one: "hazelnut tart, coconut, chocolate, chicory". I thought it was yummy but less interesting than the rest of the courses that we'd had thus far. The chocolate flavor was dominant, even when eaten with the chicory foam.


The opposite was true of this dessert, a "rainbow sherbert" made with tarragon, rhubarb, and mandarin orange. I believe there was some olive oil involved as well. The flavors were unexpected and delicious, and the presentation was super cute. I liked it best of all the desserts, but at least one person at our table thought it was too weird and did not finish it.


The last course was entitled "cocoa packets, chocolate shortbread, milk ice cream". The cocoa packets were extremely chewy to the point where they got stuck in my teeth. Interesting, but kind of annoying. The rest of the dessert consisted of shortbread crumb-covered ice cream balls, that we all liked very much.


As we were wrapping up our meal, our waiter asked if we'd like to have a tour of the kitchen! We were somewhat surprised as during the four hours we'd been there, we hadn't seen any other diners go into the kitchen, but of course we accepted immediately. The waiter went and asked his manager, who came by and led us into the kitchen, where he proceeded to give us a rundown of each station and which course(s) it handled.

Finally, he introduced us to Wylie Dufresne himself, as well as chef de cuisine Jon Bignelli, both of whom were very gracious, despite the entire kitchen being very busy. The service had been consistently good throughout the evening, but that tour was really the icing on the cake; we walked out of the restaurant extremely satisfied.



I think I had been expecting something similar to Moto, but instead the molecular gastronomy techniques were used much more subtly, plus the overall feel of the restaurant was much more comfortable and less edgy. My friend said that before we went he'd been slightly apprehensive about the food being too strange (and thus less tasty) but afterwards he concluded that it hadn't been gratuitously weird at all.

blast from the past

Someone dropped by my desk just now. He supervised my undergraduate research project at MIT during the summer after my freshman year. I have not seen him in probably twelve or thirteen years. He now works in our Seattle office, happened to be in town for a meeting, saw my name posted near my desk, and stopped by to say hi. Crazy.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Last week, on our way from Boston to New York, D and I stopped by Blue Hill at Stone Barns at a friend's recommendation.

Stone Barns is a 80+ acre non-profit farm/educational center that teaches visitors about healthy and sustainable food. All of their food comes from the surrounding land, Blue Hill Farm (in Massachusetts, owned by the same family), or from other local farms in the Hudson Valley. There is a Blue Hill restaurant in the Village as well, but after having been to the one at Stone Barns, I'm fairly certain that it's much more worth it to make the trek out to Pocantico Hills to experience the farm as well as the food.

(amusing aside: We didn't want to spend all day driving in nice clothes as the restaurant is "jacket recommended", so we stopped at a Courtyard Marriott about fifteen minutes out, traipsed into the lobby restroom, changed, and left. I wonder what the hotel staff thought...)

As we arrived at the property, we were greeted by sheep pastures, herb gardens, and a rustic-looking farmhouse complex.



The dining room is spacious and airy and has a nice view of the surrounding fields. D was especially enamored with the pastoral painting at the far end.


The tasting menu started with a variety of "tastes" which were heavy on fruits and vegetables (the tomatoes were delicious!) but also showcased their own cured meats, eggs, poultry, lamb, and even veal marrow. The mini tomato burgers were my favorite out of this sequence.

garden vegetables with shots of chilled tomato juice:


baby zucchini wrapped in prosciutto and mini tomato burgers:


"space bacon" (super crispy!):


home-cured charcuterie:


veal marrow and caviar:


The "real" courses started with this lobster and "wahoo" (fish) dish. I did not eat the fish, but the lobster and the tomatoes underneath were tasty.


The next dish was particularly interesting; it consisted of a slow-roasted onion which was cooked with homemade charcoal that was produced by heating wood, bone, & other organic material to a very high temperature.

The onion (served with accompaniments of summer vegetables, beets, blueberries, and olive tapenade):


The charcoal:


This one was described to us as "grilled celtuce" with almond and pinenut butter. It was my favorite vegetarian dish.


The service was excellent; not stuffy, very attentive, and quite educational. The waiter even brought by this display of eggs and identified the various types for us...


...before serving a delicious curry, egg, and summer bean dish. I am not that fond of egg and I made D eat my yolk, but the flavors were fantastic.


To my surprise, my favorite meat dish was the chicken and not the lamb. The chicken was extremely tender, and the accompanying peaches and tomatoes were perfectly sweet and ripe. To be fair, I am also not the biggest fan of eggplant.

The chicken:


The lamb:


The tasting menu consisted of eight courses, of which six were savory. After we finished with the meat dishes, we were invited to go out on the patio to enjoy our dessert courses. The view was even better from outside.


We were given the option to add a cheese course, which I did (D did not, although he tried a few bites of mine). They were both American sheep's milk cheeses (one Vermont and one New York), served with peach chutney and pickled ramp. They were both fine but I was not super-impressed.


The first dessert was very light: blueberry, goat cheese, and honey "granite".


I liked the second one much better; it paired sweet corn ice cream with grilled peach, fresh raspberries, and a non-descript sort of cake. The sweet corn flavor was extremely strong and surprisingly good. I think the cake was really just to sop up the melted ice cream. The peach was also very good.


Finally, we wrapped up dinner with red jacket apricots, local sugared currents, and chocolate covered almonds. The almonds were meh but the fruits were yummy.


We had booked a very early reservation as we had to return our rental car to midtown Manhattan before 11pm that night, but it was still well after 9pm by the time we left, on a warm (but not hot) beautiful evening. We had a great time and I highly recommend a visit.

target practice

I've always wanted to try shooting a gun; I think ever since I read a biography of Annie Oakley when I was about seven years old. At MIT they have a pistol PE class, but it's perpetually oversubscribed. I lotteried twice, didn't get in and gave up. Last year some friends talked about going skeet shooting, but we were lazy and it didn't happen.

About a month ago, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to the shooting range. I've known him for ages, but I never knew that not only does he like shooting, he owns a gun! Score!

We finally made it out to Jackson Arms a couple of weeks ago, and it was a blast. Three people brought their own guns (two Glocks, one Beretta), and we shared two lanes between six people. D didn't go; despite being from Texas, he objects to guns.

My impressions:
- It was louder than I expected. I was wearing my own Howard Leight disposable earplugs (usually for airplane travel), and I even rented over-ear protection, but still I could hear muffled booms quite clearly. (Also, it was quite amusing trying to communicate with each other with all of our ear protection on.)
- Apparently regular glasses are sufficient when it comes to eye protection. However, I had not planned ahead and was wearing contacts, so I had to borrow glasses from a friend.
- The casings fly everywhere! Once or twice I was pretty glad I was wearing eye gear. We also had to sweep the casings aside a couple of times so we weren't walking all over them.
- The actual shooting part was not as difficult as I'd expected. The posted rules stated that it was not allowed to shoot the hangers, the ceiling, the wall, or the floor. At first I was worried that I would do so accidentally, but it turns out that I have pretty good aim as long as I remember to keep both my wrists stiff.
- The hardest part was loading the magazines. Most of the time the guys would load them for me, but I tried it a couple of times myself and could only get about five or six bullets in before the spring loading mechanism became too difficult for my fingers to manage.

Overall it reminded me of a batting cage or driving range outing, or maybe of a bowling night. You practice a skill, in a lane, with friends. Fun!

travel note

I want to post more last week's East Coast trip later, but one quick note: I got to use the "mobile boarding pass" system for the first time flying out of SFO on United. There was a slight hitch: only one of the security lines was set up to scan the pass, so my security guy had to hand my phone to another security guy to scan it. But, overall it was still fairly quick and totally paperless! Yay.

caution: incoherent rant

D and I have a Wells Fargo mortgage. A couple of weeks ago, a guy called us up and told us that we could refinance through their program to a much lower rate, with no fees and no new appraisal. The only catch was that we'd have to take our home out of trust and then put it back after closing. Normally this requires notary costs ($10 per signature) as well as recording costs ($15 for the first page). However, the mortgage rep claimed that we could walk into "any Wells Fargo branch" and have the deeds notarized at no fee because they would be Wells Fargo documents.

Bright and early this morning, we trekked down to Santa Clara to get the deeds from our attorney. Then, we visited two Wells Fargo branches and had them call at least three other ones in a futile attempt to get our papers notarized. Washington Street (Santa Clara) said they used to have a notary but she left. North First Street (San Jose) said that they had one on staff but that she was on vacation. They called Rivermark (Santa Clara) for us, but their notary was on maternity leave. Winchester (Santa Clara), Arques (Sunnyvale), Park Center (San Jose), no dice. Everyone was either on vacation or on some kind of leave. WTF? Do people not work anymore?

Finally, as we retreated in defeat and headed to work, I started dialing branches near home. San Carlos said their notary was on vacation (of course) and suggested Belmont. In the end, out of eight Wells Fargo branches, Belmont was the only one who actually claimed to have a notary in the office today. So much for "any branch". Anyway, we're going to try to head over tonight before they close at 6pm. I remain skeptical.

P.S. Someone should start running businesses that open just from 6am to 9am and from 6pm to 9pm. I am convinced that here in Silicon Valley, they would make a killing.

Ocean Beach revisited

Sometime last month, I randomly decided to plan an Ocean Beach outing. I knew it had been awhile since we'd gone, but I didn't realize it had been seven years (!!!) since the last time.

I'd heard rumors about new regulations, so I did some research, and it turns out that nowadays you can only make fires in designated "fire rings", rather than anywhere on the beach. The good thing is that the city installed twenty fire rings, so if you get there mid-afternoon you're pretty much guaranteed to find an unoccupied one.

We were prepared this time, and brought chairs, blankets, and heavy jackets in addition to the food. Nevertheless, by the time the sun was setting, it was pretty chilly (low 50s) and we were happy to cluster around the fire.

On the menu: sausages, baguettes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and s'mores (of course). One twist was that someone decided to buy Nutella in addition to chocolate, and although I preferred the traditional s'mores recipe, several people were delighted by the Nutella version. We also brought some cookies and chips to snack on while cooking.

Originally I had planned to buy the firewood from the local Safeway off of Fulton, but in a fortunate coincidence, one of our party had chopped down both a eucalyptus tree and a pine tree in his yard last year. As a result, he was able to bring us lots of well-seasoned wood. We soon discovered that the two types of wood burned at different speeds and temperatures, so it was nice to have both.

Last time we had a lot of trouble starting the fire, but this time it was started in almost no time at all. Perhaps it was because I had absolutely nothing to do with the process. Also, from a distance, it appeared our fire experts were using the "log cabin" method, rather than the "teepee" method we tried last time.

Anyway, we had a great time; we stayed from about 4pm until sometime after 9pm, when we relinquished our spot (and the remnants of our fire) to some grateful teenagers. I'd read that the parking lots close at 10pm (at which point gleeful parking cops promptly start ticketing), but I guess other groups had taken Muni or something, as the beach was still full when we left.

Here are a few photos that I took that day, as well as an SF Examiner blog post (written by someone else in our group, not by me).

usage patterns

I have a Nexus One phone, with a T-Mobile phone/text/data plan. My billing cycle starts on the eighth of the month, so I'm about a third of the way through this month.

My plan usage as of today:
voice: 20 anytime minutes & 16 weekend minutes
text: 15 messages
data: 421 MB

Granted, I was on vacation last week and probably used data more than usual. Nevertheless, if I extrapolate those numbers, it looks like I use less than 100 voice minutes and well over 1.0 GB of data per month. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a super-cheapo voice plan with only 100 (or even 200) minutes.

yeah, right

I dislike companies whose employees lie to me.

Today I called Citibank to request a reward check for my Citi Platinum Dividend card. Normally I'm able to request the reward check online, but for some reason the online interface wasn't showing me that particular link today. The person who answered the phone had a heavy Indian accent and identified herself as Susan. Interesting, but okay, whatever.

I asked her to send me my check, and she said that she wasn't able to see any dividends in my account, because it was "under conversion" to a new type of card. She said I should call back in a few days to request my reward. I asked if the dividends would be properly transferred to the new account, and she assured me that they would. I asked if I would be able to request the reward check online once the conversion was done, and again she said yes.

As I was about to hang up, I asked if she could give me her extension so that if I had to call back, I'd be able to tell the next rep who I'd talked to previously. She said she was unable to give me that information. I asked for her last name, and she said "Smith". Then, she wished me "a pleasant evening". This was at oh...9:30am Pacific. Susan Smith? Yeah, right.

I guess I really don't care as I'm cancelling this card once I get my money out anyway. The new rewards system (as of July 1st) totally sucks.