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.
]]>
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
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."]]>
]]>
Unfortunately, Snow Leopard is Intel-only, so Leopard is as far as the old PowerPC G4 architecture can be upgraded to. ]]>
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 
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)
The Tron: Legacy (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
The single disc Tron: Legacy DVD
]]>
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.
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.
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.
These are the improvements:
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. ]]>
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]]> The course began with the amuse-bouches, which are little single serving appetizers that show off the creativity of the chef, and preview the meal to come.
Amuse-bouche #1: Baked brioche resting underneath a fried and perfectly seasoned kale leaf. I was told by the server it was easiest to eat this particular amuse-bouche with my hands, due to the fragility of the kale leaf. The brioche was fresh from the oven, and was extremely fluffy.
Amuse-bouche #2: oyster, served in a shell, with thyme soup and ocean jelly. This particular dish seemed so simple, and yet was spectacularly flavorful.
Amuse-bouche #3: Monterey Bay abalone served atop panna cotta. This salty and savory amuse-bouche was wonderful; the creamy panna cotta was a perfect complement to the saltiness of the abalone jelly and the thinly sliced pieces of abalone.
Their selection of breads consisted of a sesame bread, brioche, a black olive and olive oil bread, and a grain bread; all the breads are freshly made and baked at Manresa. The breads are served with butter from Normandy cows in Watsonville. Their brioche was croissant-like in texture, and my favorite; if I had been wiser, I would have asked if I could purchase some to take home with me.
Course #1: Amberjack, served sashimi style with radicchio, seaweed, sesame and olive oil. This was interesting, especially since I had a similar dish served at Chez TJ a few weeks ago; In both cases, the fish was extremely fresh, however I was surprised that Chef Kinch chose such an Asian presentation of the dish, while Chef Nishiyama's presentation was more Californian.
Course #2: Pan seared Nantucket bay scallops, served with a ceviche of black truffle and grapefruit, fennel. This dish was extremely good; while I'm not a big fan of foam, its use as ceviche was good in this particular dish. The black truffles were extremely meaty, and complemented the richness of the scallops well.
Course #3: Winter Tidal Pool. This dish is served in a large rimmed bowl with lots of edge, the bowl itself evokes the feeling of a tide pool on the coast, capturing random edible elements. Inside the tide pool has captured deliciousness: sea urchin, abalone, enoki mushrooms, seaweed, green onions. The foie gras broth is both sweet and savory, a sort of ponzu with vinegar.
Course #4: Wagyu beef with black truffle mushrooms, winter vegetables, in a bonito and black tea broth. This dish is initially presented dry, before the server pours the broth over the dish. The mixture of flavors is interesting, but the broth to me was largely unmemorable; I would have preferred this dish be done without the broth, so that I could experience the Wagyu before being mixed with the broth.
Cheese plate. Manresa wheels out a cheese cart with 8 cheeses, and I was given a choice of 4 cheeses; the cheeses were arranged in order of pungency, and the rinds were all edible. Along with the cheeses, they included several pieces of lavash flatbread and cranberry-raisin toast. Served with roasted almonds and a piece of hazelnut chocolate ganache, the $20 extra for this plate is well worth it.
Intermezzo: tangelo sorbet, mint ice cream, verbana jelly; this is a palate cleanser to prepare for the next course: dessert; this was remarkably similar to the palate cleanser I had at Chez TJs, but I preferred this one due to the crumble that was included.
Course #5: Dessert: I opted for the citrus dessert, which was a tangerine sorbet panna cotta. Creamy, sour, tangy and sweet, it was very good.
Mignardises: Truffle, pistachio Roca and Ganache. Of the three, I liked the crispy pistachio roca the most; it was a wonderful way to finish the evening.
While Manresa isn't an everyday restaurant, it is quite suitable for special occasions; the service is excellent, and the food is good. ]]>
Chez TJ has exceptional service; the servers are well prepared and well versed in the dishes being presented, and the sommelier Gretchen Simms is knowledgeable in the wines and regions. The pairings, I felt were quite good; for this particular visit, the wines all happened to be not California wines, which gave Simms a chance to show her knowledge of the various wines, climates and tastes of the different wines.
The desserts and pastries were top notch; if I could afford it, I'd be quite happy eating those items night after night.
I stuffed myself with the Chef's Tasting Menu, but the four-course "Menu Gastronomique" can be modified to become a vegetarian or pescatarian menu. At Chez TJ, the menu selection is for the entire table; either the whole table gets the 4 course or 8 course menu; mainly this has to do with the timing of the dishes -- expect to spend at least three hours here to complete the 8 course menu, and around two and half hours for the 4 course menu; a couple near me requested that the timing be sped up, as they had a babysitter to get back to, and another table near me requested the rest of the meal to be boxed up, as they had their families to get home to; for this kind of food, it seems as people these days do not have the time for truly sit and enjoy the food and service.
While the foie gras dishes are very delicious, I can't help but feel that they were too heavy to start with; I may have placed them later on the menu; going from the very refreshing take of amberjack onto two different foie gras dishes to a more light chestnut raviolini felt somewhat unbalanced for me, and would have been better positioned between the pork belly and the ribeye. The menu is definitely much richer than Chez Panisse.
There's some very interesting combinations coming out of Chef Nishyama, such as the Octopus and Oxtail dish that he presented, as well as the Ribeye with the black garlic gnocchi and mushrooms, which was an excellent finish to the savory courses.
It may be some time before I return to Chez TJ; Chef Nishiyama is leaving, and no successor has been announced yet. When Chef Chemel left, he took 5 assistants with him to work at Baume; any visit I make after Chef Nishiyama's departure will surely feel like a different restaurant.
Flickr: Chez TJ.]]>
. With over 5,000 movies and TV shows available to be streamed, I can't help but feel as if Amazon is following the same steps Netflix made in putting streaming content online. Start out first with a small selection of whatever
content and rights they can pickup, and then slowly expand their offerings as the program gains popularity, and servers allow for.
A couple of caveats to the Amazon Prime Free Streaming:
1) Only paid Amazon Prime Subscribers have access to it; if your Prime Membership is part of the Student Prime or some other Free Prime Shipping program, the content isn't available.
2) The content offered on Amazon is not alot, and some of it can be found on Hulu; and much of it overlaps with Netflix. Netflix still has much more available for streaming; the Amazon content is mostly indie, foreign, classics, documentaries and some "bargain-bin" type movies and tv shows.
3) The content requires Flash 10.
4) Video content resolution is dependent on connection speed, and the maximum resolution seems to be a little below DVD quality. ]]>
inspired the spoof (on Attack of the Show) of Rosetta Stone: Cataclysm. The video is truly facepalm territory. ]]>
Blizzard's Collector's Editions generally contain an exclusive in-game item and an art book. The Cataclysm Collector's Edition contains the following:
]]>
David Lyons plays Vince Faraday, who becomes the Cape, under the tutelage of Max Malini (Keith David). The Cape is assisted by Orwell (Summer Glau), and Max Malini's circus buddies. The problem with the show is that it takes itself too seriously, when it is just really cheesy.
While the pilot I watched had placeholder music, Bear McCreary (of Battlestar Galactica) will be composing The Cape's final music.
The extended entry contains a brief summary of the pilot episode. Included are my notes as to how to make it better.
]]> Chess, of course is none other than captain of industry, Peter Fleming, who puts the mask on Vince and sets him loose for his ARC police squad to chase down; they chase Vince underneath one of the explosive gas containers, where he escapes by finding a hatch into secret tunnels inhabited by Max Malini's circus. Max Malini is a circus magician, who when not performing shows, robs banks -- as a former ARC employee, Vince's card key proves useful to them for robbing ARC. Vince convinces Max to train him to become the Cape, and after a training montage, Vince is ready to try and take down Chess at the docks -- a new shipment of the "explosive lethal chemical" is coming in, and Vince goes head to head with Dominic Raoul, one of Chess' henchmen who happens to have reptile-like skin. Max Malini is captured by Chess, and the circus goes to save him. Max Malini and The Cape escape, with the help of Orwell. Orwell and The Cape return to Orwell's base of operations (which is just a garage with a computer setup), where we learn that Orwell appears to be involved with Peter Fleming in some way.
If that sounds like a lot to pack into the 45 minute pilot, you're right. There's just too much going on, and it just follows too much of an origin story arc. The story is silly -- it's too stereotypically comic book-like, without any real depth to the characters. The supervillain/arch-nemesis already has money -- he's a caricature of a James Bond villain, who is evil for the sake of being evil to give The Cape someone to fight. The Cape needs skills and talents to be super hero worthy, and in this way, the creators leaned toward the Batman model of ordinary human, but highly skilled. Many of the characters in this are simply unnecessary, and silly -- there's a short strong man named Rollo, and Dominic doesn't need to be reptilian/mutated. While Vince's family provides for him some motivation to be who he is, I don't know if it is necessary to begin the series at this point.
This pilot episode could be cut apart to be used as origin pieces that get revealed as the show goes on -- the show needs to be shown in the middle of the action -- to really get to the heart of what the show is about, rather than just a pitch that made it to the pilot stage. ]]>