With the weather we've been having lately, I've been craving something cool and refreshing -- enter gazpacho. Gazpacho is one of those things I've always heard about, but have never eaten. I knew it was a cold soup, but not much more than that. Reading up and doing research led me to this recipe for Andalusian Gazpacho, which I modified slightly by using heirloom tomatoes instead of normal tomatoes, and by omitting the garlic.

It's a rather time intensive recipe, about half an hour of prepping the vegetables, half an hour to let the juices expel, half an hour to freeze the veggies, and then another 10 to fifteen minutes to blend it all together. The result of all that time and effort is a fantastic soup for warm days.

I halved the recipe and still wound up with enough for 5-6 servings.

Mere minutes after the announcement, all my social media alerts flooded with news of Steve Jobs' passing. He touched a lot of lives, and there are a lot of messages regarding his passing.

Tim Cook's Message to Apple Employees

Apple Board of Directors' Statement

President Obama's Statement about Steve Jobs Passing

BoingBoing has laid out their website using a Macintosh OS theme

Wall Street Journal's Obituary for Steve Jobs

Flickr: Tribute to Steve Jobs

This Is My Next has a roundup of various statements from people in the tech industry.

Last year, I saw Steve Jobs at a local restaurant. It was the weekend, and he was enjoying brunch with his kids. I turned to my sister and said "I think that's Steve Jobs". She said "I don't think so." After we ordered our meal and drinks, the waiter came by and said that my drink was going to take a little longer, as it had accidentally been sent over to Steve Jobs. There are some old photographs at the front of the restaurant, and as Steve was leaving, he stopped for a minute to study the pictures before walking with his kids out to the car. Paired with his thinness, he seemed to quite tall, not something I had realized before.

My memory is of him being a family man and father, and of him being a guy at a restaurant on an Saturday morning who accidentally got my drink. Aside from moments like these, I mostly knew Steve Jobs through proxy.

With Steve Jobs being a generation older than me, I remember classrooms in elementary school being filled with Apple computers. I remember when he made his triumphant return when Apple was on the verge of going out of business, and partnering up with Microsoft. I remember hearing about his "reality distortion field" shortly afterward, that his enthusiasm for something could be so infectious that if you were near him, you'd start to believe in it as well. His passion for his ideas and his beliefs propelled Apple for the last decade. Apple was not his only company, he started NeXT, and bought and developed Pixar to become the major animation studio it is today.

When he stepped down as Apple's CEO, I knew this day was coming, though I wished with all my heart that he could beat his illness.

Farewell Steve Jobs, you will be missed. Thank you for giving us the future.

Steve Jobs gave a Commencement Speech at Stanford in 2005, in which he said:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Rebus, is James Jean's latest book, which is a rather sizable volume of his works; many of the them have been included in the previous Process Recess books, but it also includes a lot of his more recent material. 256 pages, full color reproductions, this book weighs in at a mammoth 3.9 pounds.

Basically, if you have a G4 Mac, you should be able to install Leopard (OS X 10.5). Apple has chosen to set the minimum system requirement to 867 mhz G4, which excludes a vast number of G4 Macs. With a little patience, Leopard can be installed on these old machines.

• Download Leopard Assistant and run it from your old operating system (presumably Tiger, but also works in Panther).
• Once it boots in Leopard Installer, change the option so that instead of a "Upgrade", you select "Archive and Install".

After the installer completes, your Mac should now be running Leopard.

Unfortunately, Snow Leopard is Intel-only, so Leopard is as far as the old PowerPC G4 architecture can be upgraded to.

I pre-ordered the Tron: Legacy / Tron: The Original Classic (Five-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy in Identity Disc Collectible Packaging) when it was first announced; while I have the Tron (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition) released in 2002.

The 2002 DVD contained a remastered version of the film, and contained 5 hours of bonus materials on a second DVD. The materials are duplicated here onto Blu-ray in DVD resolution, which looks terrible. The Tron film on the other hand, makes full use of high def resolution, making each shot very crisp; this is in contrast to the DVD version, which feels very blurry by comparison. The effect is most apparent in the real world film segments and fullscreen computer effects; in the composites, the resolution differences between DVD and Blu-ray are less noticeable.

The identity disc version comes in a plastic "identity disc" case, which includes the same discs as the standard 5-disc blu-ray package , so the difference is mainly in how the discs will sit on your shelf; if you want to just have a neat display box, the identity disc version is what you'll want -- but if you want to easily pull a disc from your shelf, you'll want the version in the standard blu-ray case. The identity disc version has problems -- it's difficult to get a disc out, and the case isn't big enough to hold all 5 discs, which makes it seem as if one of the discs was added after the case was designed.

With Tron:Legacy in several different varieties, which one is right for you? It depends on what you have for an entertainment system, and which films are contained.

The five disc versions include as a bonus the Blu-ray version of the original Tron.

The Tron: Legacy (Four-Disc Combo) and Five disc combos contain Tron-Legacy in 3D Blu-ray as well as a digital copy of the film, a DVD of the film, and the film in standard Blu-ray.

The Tron: Legacy (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) contains the film in standard Blu-ray and DVD versions.

The single disc Tron: Legacy DVD just contains the film on DVD.

Dominique Crenn, who had been the chef at the Michelin star rated Luce opened up her own restaurant, Atelier Crenn just a few months ago in San Francisco. Named after her father's studio, each menu comes with a mission statement of what Atelier Crenn is trying to provide. The restaurant itself is a cozy space, seating perhaps 40-some odd people in the main dining room. (As with most establishments, Atelier Crenn also has a private dining room).

On this occasion, I opted for the Chef's tasting menu ($115), a 10 course meal showcasing the skills of Dominique Crenn and her kitchen staff. A three-course ($62) and four-course ($72) is also available and contains little overlap with the Chef's Tasting Menu.

While I definitely enjoyed the food, the beverage pairings ($65) left a little to be desired; while I certainly appreciated the inclusion of beer within the beverage pairing, the food pairing with the beer was not particularly good; the same went for the final wine of a evening, an aged Chianti to go with dessert, which was a bit overpowering in flavor and far too sweet. The wine service was not particularly knowledgeable either -- it was simply a reading of the region it was from, the name of the producer, and the bottling year; you may be better off selecting your own wines by the glass.

The food here is fantastic, and a lot of care is given to the presentation of the dishes, as each dish is a culinary masterpiece.

The Amuse Bouche were a pair of tablespoons, each holding a different combination; one spoon was a frozen pea soup, while the other contained spheres of foie gras served atop a rose petal. These tablespoons were served with an "earth crostini" with salt, pepper, and peashoots perched atop a rock.

The Kir Breton is this little globe of champagne in a little apple shape. Simply amazing.

I loved the Oyster and Prawn appetizer; the oyster is served with with a bit of smoked sturgeon, and the prawn was served almost sashimi style with a saffron sauce, atop a warm rock.

The Le Jardin du Printemps with the yogurt snow and the wild rice crisps is both wonderful to look at, and tasty as well.

The foie gras was served frozen thinly at 30 Celsius. I thought this was a really creative way to present foie gras -- the creamyness of the foie gras was so wonderful, almost as if eating ice cream. This dish was served as part of the Morels course and included pickled morels and French gingerbread crumbs.

I really enjoyed the slow cooked egg with the various vegetables and sauces; the rye breadcrumbs are very good, and add some gritty texture to an otherwise smooth dish.

My one criticism was actually the one dish that I had been looking forward to the most : the Artic Char with carrot, liquorice and uni; the uni had been emulsified, turning the lovely creamy texture of uni into a mostly insubstantial foam, with all the flavor of uni, but still lacking in the richness of the real deal.

The dessert chef is very talented, and brought forth two very impressive creations: an olive oil meringue popsicle and green olive ice cream.

The olive oil meringue popsicle on the pine was very creamy and the olive oil flavor was very subtle, but only really a two-bite dessert. I definitely wanted more of it than two bites.

The green olive ice cream was a much bigger portion, and very good, mixed with some lemon verbana and ginger breadcrumbs.

Towards the end of the meal, I was feeling somewhat full, so I skipped the Cheese Cart and did not order any additional desserts. It is very nice that such an option is there, considering how lovely the desserts are.

Flickr: Atelier Crenn

Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino is a recent addition to the list of Michelin-starred restaurants in the Bay Area, earning the first star in 2011. From my experience there, it would not surprise me if Alexander's manages to earn a second star for their cuisine and service. For this evening, I ordered the seven-course Omakase menu ($130) with the wine pairing ($50). Alexander's Steakhouse also has an extensive menu of ala carte items as well; a full meal could easily be composed with the variety of dishes Alexander's Steakhouse offers.

The evening began with an amuse bouche of ramen soup and snow crab; the ramen broth was from their lunchtime service of ramen; the saltiness of the soup combined well with the sweetness of the snow crab.

A basket was brought out with a selection of breads from acme; sourdough, and honey wheat, along with some housemade parmesan crisps. Butter, sprinkled with sea salt in the center for spreading, as well as small dish of sea salt for flavoring accompanied the bread.

To date, Alexander's Steakhouse has actually sold more Hamachi Shooters than steaks; an ala carte order of Hamachi Shooters comes with six shot glasses; for the omakase, the first course consisted of two Hamachi shooters, which were shot glasses with Truffled Ponzu sauce, jalapeno pepper, and avocado mixed with cubed pieces of hamachi sashimi.

Next, Asparagus soup, served chilled with a 5:10 egg, which is essentially a panko-encrusted softboiled egg on a bed of mixed greens; the asparagus chilled soup is poured at the table, ensuring that the crispy 5:10 egg doesn't get soggy. When the yolk of the egg mixes in with the soup, the dish develops a second layer of richness and complexity.

Tuna tartare is served with nametake mushrooms, paddlefish roe and trout roe; the roe is used to salt the dish, and aioli sauce and bonito flakes are sprinkled on the side to add a bit of creaminess and texture to the dish; the paddlefish roe and trout roe were new twist to a familiar classic, both types of roe were very flavorful with a nice pop.

The Chef's Black Cod dish is based off of a dish his mother used to prepare for him; a fancy dish, the black cod is first grilled, then finished in the oven. The black cod is then layered over a bed of spinach in a light dashi broth; red miso accompanies the dish, and can be mixed with the broth to create a spicy miso broth. Maitake mushrooms, green apple and unagi help complete the presentation of this dish.

Tempura braised Angus beef short ribs were an interesting combination, but sadly the least impressive of the dishes. There are multiple textures to this dish; the tenderness of the beef short ribs, deboned and braised with the crunchy exterior of tempura breading did not seem like a great pairing of tastes and flavors; the different sauces included pumpkin, and a red miso sauce; this dish was garnished with crispy yam chips, maitake mushrooms, and some daikon radish.

Blood orange sorbet, with powdered sugar and tapioca served as the intermezzo to cleanse the palate.

The Tajima Black Wagyu was prepared very simply; grilled to medium rare, accompanied with some roasted finger potatoes and garnished with matsutake mushrooms.

For dessert, azuki panna cotta, served untraditionally as a log with blood orange sorbet, in a rhubarb consomme with starfruit and dragonfruit. The meal is finished off with strawberry cotton candy.

Dining at Alexander's Steakhouse was an awesome experience; while the cost is on the high side, the combination of service, quality and creativity in the dishes makes it one of the most deserving of the Michelin restaurants I've eaten at.

Flickr: Alexander's Steakhouse

Hachi Ju Hachi has a Bib Gourmand from Michelin; this means that for $40 or less, you can get two courses and a glass of wine (or desert). Chef Suzuki formerly worked at /owned Kampai House and Hamon Washoku. Hamon Washoku was on my list of places that I wanted to eat at, but alas, it closed before I had the opportunity to try it; thus I took a detour to Saratoga to try his cuisine at Hachi Ju Hachi, a restaurant that he opened after the closing of Hamon Washoku.

I made one trip out to Saratoga in 2004 to see Hakone Gardens, a Japanese style garden. On that occasion, I also ended up with a traffic ticket and a dining experience at Masu, a local sushi restaurant. I also saw the Plumed Horse, which would later turn out to become a Michelin starred restaurant.

This trip out to Saratoga was somewhat spontaneous; Hachi Ju Hachi has been on my list of restaurants to try for quite some time, so rather than attempt walking into the Plumed Horse without a reservation, I decided to try Hachi Ju Hachi. As I arrived, the only other patrons of Hachi Ju Hachi were leaving, so I was given a rare opportunity to be the only customer of Hachi Ju Hachi. Chef Suzuki and his staff treated me well, starting me off with a complimentary eggplant appetizer, while I perused the menu.

The menu is separated into sections: Appetizers, Grilled, Stewed, Steamed, Vegetarian, Claypot and Rice Dishes (which include Donburis and Rolls). There is a separate sake menu, and I recommend ordering either of the samplers, which yields 3 shots of sake beautifully presented for just $10. The variety sampler includes a daiginjo, a ginjo and a junmai which were distinctively good.

On this particular day, Hachi Ju Hachi also had some daily specials: homemade gyoza, yellowtail, salmon, and pig knuckles. While they all sounded good, I'm a sucker for good gyoza (or mandoo, or potstickers, or ravioli or whatever anyone calls dumplings), which is what I ended up ordering. Additionally, I also ordered a steamed duck dish and chawan mushi.

The steamed duck dish arrived first, followed shortly by the gyoza, and the chawan mushi; midway while I was deciding which pieces of duck and vegetable to eat, the gyoza arrived, along with the chawan mushi. My favoritism for the gyoza obligated me to try a piece of the gyoza first even before the duck, which I had been preparing on my plate.

I was not disappointed; the gyoza was crispy, and pre-sauced with vinegar and soy sauce.

The duck was very flavorful; the sake sauce which it had been steamed with brought out its flavors; the mushrooms and vegetables which went with seemed to complement the duck well; the mushrooms with the savory notes, and the green with the bitter notes.

Chawan Mushi (essentially egg custard with vegetables and seafood) is one of those dishes that is very hard to find in California; while it's a personal childhood staple for me, few restaurants offer it as an entree or an appetizer. While I wouldn't say that any restaurant that offers this automatically gets my seal of approval; three of restaurants which I have been ecstatic about recently have had this dish: Manresa, Gokaku, and Hachi Ju Hachi.

Chef Suzuki finished my meal with a complimentary red bean jelly dessert; as I was finishing up, the manager for Hakone Gardens appeared with several landscape architects from Japan and his staff from Hakone Gardens; he wanted to treat them to drinks at Hachi Ju Hachi.

I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant owner be so cool and collected; the servers began serving them soju, sake, tea and juice, while Chef Suzuki went to work on making the appetizers for the dozen or so people who just appeared in his restaurant.

Chef Suzuki's cuisine is definitely worth a detour, and it is my hope that his cuisine and his staffers' attentiveness to service will soon be worthy of a Michelin star.

Flickr: Hachi Ju Hachi

Today, Apple announced the iPad 2.

These are the improvements:

• 33% thinner than iPad
• 0.2 lbs lighter than iPad
• includes 2 video cameras for Facetime
• accelerometer
• newer, faster dual core processor.
• Now comes in two color choices: Black or White.
• They've kept the same WiFi/WiFi+3G pricing model as before.
• WiFi+3G models are for AT&T or Verizon.
• Same battery life as previous model, ~10 hours.
• WiFi+3G model includes GPS.
• mirrors up to 1080p HDMI video out capability with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately).

Since the announcement, I've have numerous people ask me if I am going to upgrade from my iPad; the answer is pretty much no, unless I need to purchase one for development purposes due to the accelerometer or GPS; I don't see the iPad2 as anything but a "speed bump" in terms of features; while the 1080p output is definitely exciting, I don't have a 1080p device to output on, and my current iPad applications aren't processor bottlenecked.

My currently philosophy is that for Apple's consumer iOS devices, the first revision is usually sufficient; the second generation is usually bug fixes, but it's not until the 3rd or fourth generation that an upgrade becomes necessary if you have a first-gen device. Case in point: the iPhone. I had a first generation iPhone; with the unlimited data plan and EDGE, (and being crippled by AT&T), I didn't see much reason to upgrade to the 2nd generation iPhone 3G; were it not for the misfortune of cracking my iPhone screen just a few weeks before the 3GS announcement, I likely would have not upgraded to a 3GS. The iPhone 4, with the high resolution screen was definitely worth upgrading for, although there are definitely times where I do wonder if a good Android phone on T-Mobile would be better for my lifestyle.

The iPad 2 will be available next week in the U.S. on March 11 at 5pm at the Apple Store; it does not appear as if they will be taking pre-orders until then.

Owned and operated by chef David Kinch, Manresa is a two-starred Michellin restaurant located in Los Gatos.

On this particular rainy evening, Manresa was only about half full when I arrived at 8pm, and it stayed that way the rest of the evening. This is not wholly unexpected; once the three-digit barrier for a single meal is crossed and covers a three hour time frame, the restaurant is relegated from being a casual dining location to a fine dining experience, and that cuts down the number of patrons who can afford the time or money to eat at 8pm on a school night. Manresa had a server to patron ratio of about 1:2 that evening, in contrast to my night at Chez TJ, where the ratio was approximately 1:5.

Having recently eaten at Chez TJ and being overwhelmed by food, I opted for the five course ($115) menu rather than the full tasting menu, and still ended up being quite full. While placing my order, the server asked whether there was anything I didn't like or wouldn't eat; while I have no dietary restrictions, I was impressed that they took the time to ask.

There are three amuse-bouches to begin with; followed by four of the five courses, a cheese plate ($20 more), a dessert plate (course 5), tea ($additional $8.50) and mignardises.

Flickr: Manresa