Friday, April 28, 2006

5th Annual Crawl for a Cure

This great event is happening this Saturday, April 29th, in Fremont. Here are some of the details:

Join us in the fight against cystic fibrosis as we crawl for a cure on Saturday, April 29, 2006 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood!

Support important CF research while traveling from pub to pub enjoying your favorite ales! Bring your friends and have a great time! All participants will receive a 7 oz beer at each of the 6 participating bars, a very stylish Crawl T-shirt, a 16 oz bottle of Vitaminwater Revive, and a free concert for all participants with Amanda Lammert and The Filthy None at Nectar Lounge on the last stop of the crawl!

Participating bars include: Nickerson St. Saloon, Brouwer's, Red Door, Triangle Lounge, Norm's Eatery & Ale House, Dad Watson's and our "7th" bar Nectar! A Tully's coffee cart will also be serving complimentary espresso beverages to all participants.


For more information about the event and to register online visit the Crawl for a Cure web site.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

dining out for life

Just a reminder to all of you that tonight, 4/27, is Dining Out for Life. When you eat at one of the more than 150 participating restaurants, a portion of your bill will go directly to the Lifelong AIDS Alliance. For a list of participating restaurants go to the Dining Out for Life web site.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

the joy of food

What is it about food? The smells, the tastes, the sounds, how it looks, and how it feels. I'm not just talking about eating, but also the immense joy you get when you turn a bunch of stuff into something delicious. Part of it must have to do with all the senses that are involved which helps you remember and enjoy your food experiences.

Food has been a big part of my life for a long time. Without realizing it, I had been involved in helping put together meals since I was a kid. At first it was just doing the simple things like washing and making the rice. Learning what the correct ratio of water to rice was and then forgetting all about once I heard about the finger test, or a similar method referred to by some as the Mt. Fuji test.

Next, it was helping out with the making of dumplings (known as jiaozi in chinese) on Sunday nights. Making dumplings was a family affair where everyone gathered in the kitchen, each assigned a job. From making the dough to rolling it into little balls and flattening them into little discs (making sure the edges were thinner than the middle) to stuffing and folding them into beautiful little packages. Once everything was done we were greeted with steaming plates of dumplings that made you feel all warm inside when you ate them. This wasn't just about getting dinner on the table, but a chance to sit together and talk before the beginning of another hectic week.

Like many people my age, I was a latch key kid. Both my parents worked and often it was us kids who were left to get dinner started before they got home. On easy nights that just involved heating up some leftovers and making some rice. But most often we would be tasked with peeling vegetables, taking some meat out of the freezer, maybe soaking some bean threads in hot water, nothing very complicated. Once my parents got home all the prep work we did would be quickly turned into a tasty dinner with a couple of dishes served family style.

Little did I know I was learning about the importance of organization and prepping your food ahead of time. Something that is known in the world of cooking as a mise en place. A fancy french term for a pretty simple idea. Obviously I've been talking about chinese cooking and for those who are familiar with that style of cooking know the importance of your mise en place. I can remember back to my childhood when we would have dinner parties at our house. The morning would be spent chopping vegetables, slicing meat (if it's still slightly frozen it's easier to get thin slices), scrambling eggs, cooking noodles, making rice, etc. By the time the guest would arrive the kitchen was filled with little bowls of perfectly cut carrots, celery, etc. and the refrigerator would be packed with bowls of marinating sliced beef, chicken, and pork. When everyone showed up my parents would put on a show with how quickly everything in those little dishes would come together to create a dazzling and colorful meal with so many different choices to taste.

It wasn't until my junior year in college that I realized how much I enjoyed food. By that time I had moved out of the dorms and was forced to cook or starve. I started out with simple things, like pasta, the college student's mainstay. Slowly I began to play around with my food some more while trying to stay within a poor student's budget. Simple things like stir-frying some chicken and then mixing it with some of the prepackaged seasoned rice my roomates and I tended to buy, more for the value than the taste.

Over the next couple of years I began to do more and started to avoid prepackaged processed food. I began pan roasting chicken breasts with little wedges of potatoes, asking my parents how to make some of my favorite dishes growing up, making giant pans of lasagna, discovering how simple chili really was, and playing around with making sauces. Many times friends would stop by while I was in the middle of a meal and stare at my plate incredulously. "Dude, what the f**k is that?" "It's a beef and vegetable stir-fry with a sauce that's kind of like a sweet and sour barbecue sauce." "I don't know, that's kind of scary looking. The sauce isn't even fluorescent pink like most sweet and sour sauces." This would then be followed by them picking a piece of food off my plate. "Dude, that's good. Mind if I have some more?"

I think my real food revelation didn't happen until I moved to Seattle. One of the memories I have from when I first came out here was me sitting at my little kitchen table on a winter evening slicing meat and chopping vegetables after having just come home from my temp job. In the dark living room Monday Night Football played on the television as I prepped my dinner. I remember feeling a little sad that I was cooking alone but at the same time I was comforted by doing something familiar and that reminded me of my family and friends on the other side of the country.

Over the past seven and a half years here I've experienced so much food, as my belly can attest to. I've discovered the gorgeousness of a simply prepared roast chicken with schmaltzy potatoes. The wonderful energy of going to the farmers markets in the city and seeing what was now in season. The pleasures of a fresh grilled fish sandwich at the Pike Place Market or how good a roast beef sandwich on a baguette with a raspberry croissant from Le Panier tastes. I've eaten Sengalese food, something I never would have even thought about growing up. The inviting warmth of Cafe Campagne on a cold evening. A paper cone of hot frites after a show. Eating a plate of chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes at a dive bar at 2am.

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm writing all of this. A couple of months ago the stress of work was starting to take it's toll on me and I was just feeling down. One Saturday afternoon I decided I wanted to make some pasta because I hadn't done that in a while. While working with the dough I began to remember the pleasure I got from cooking. The smell of the flour, the effort you have to put in while kneading the dough, and the feeling of the dough when it starts to come together. Eschewing the pasta cutting attachments on my pasta machine I decided to handcut it, after it had been rolled it, to make pappardelle. There was just something about meticulously cutting the dough into wide ribbons that brought me joy. Of course the chinese look at noodles as symbols of life, long noodles symbolizing long life, which is why you have to eat them on your birthday. How appropriate that these noodles had brought me an escape from what had been getting me down.

The next day I decided that I needed a sauce to go with these noodles, sauce in a jar just wouldn't do. So I set out to make a batch of bolognese, based on the bolognese they make at Babbo. I spent the afternoon making my mise en place with finely diced carrots, celery, onion, etc. There was something extremely meditative about cutting up those vegetables into tiny little cubes. After sauteeing the vegetables and throwing in the bacon and other meat I added the wet ingredients and let it simmer for a couple of hours. When it was ready I quickly cooked the pappardelle in some boiling water, ladled some sauce into a pan, and finished the pasta in the hot sauce. This was much better than any therapy I could have received.

So what was so special about that meal? It wasn't like I hadn't been cooking, but I was just cooking the same stuff all the time. I love my roast chicken, but it isn't the most challenging thing in the world to make. The same goes for a lot of the other stuff I was making, I was just on autopilot and not really taking the time to enjoy the experience of cooking. It's hard to do so when you're coming home from work and with just making something simple you won't be eating until 8 or 9 at night. But since then I've tried to do more, mostly on the weekend. Making a light spring salad with shaved fennel, blanched french beans, and tomatoes with a lemon vinaigrette; poached garlic soup; fingerling potatoes boiled and then browned in butter; and hopefully there will be much more. I even took a road trip out to Walla Walla to spend a couple of days away from work just eating great food and drinking amazing wine.

I've decided that no matter how crazy and hectic and stressful things get, I'll take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures of food. Immersing myself in all the great aromas and tastes, as well as the beauty of things like a perfectly roast chicken coming out of the oven. The feeling of flour between your fingers as you start combining the ingredients for some dough and the sound you get when you place a piece of meat into a hot pan or onto a hot grill. Food can really make everything better.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

i ain't no fit asian

Did you know that Oakley makes "asian fit" sunglasses? I was looking around on their site earlier today to see if I could find a suitable replacement for the sunglasses I had recently lost due to theft. While I was checking out all the different styles I noticed one that said "available in asian fit." Curious, I clicked the link to see what that was all about. Here is the opening sentence I saw for the description: "Designed to compliment Asian facial anatomy in both fit and comfort." At first I didn't know what to make of it. But then I remembered back to something Margaret Cho had written in her blog some time back about how difficult it was for her to find glasses that actually fit her face and how nobody made glasses that fit asian faces. When I shared the link to a friend, she told me how her fiance hates how he can never find sunglasses.

So I guess Oakley has found a way to address an overlook niche. You can't really argue against it since it helps out a large group of people and I'm sure it isn't hurting their bottom line.

Update: Here is a link to a listing of their asian fit sunglasses

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

and it continues...

So, I told them to replace my battery since it wouldn't cost much more than if I bought a new battery and did the work myself. But instead, they totally flaked on that probably because all they heard was don't do the $800+ service. Sweet...

no luck so far...

So, my hope that they wouldn't find anything wrong with my car was dashed. My battery failed their tests so I have to get that replaced. Not too big of a surprise since I've had that battery for a while now and the last time I was in they said it looked like it was starting to lose it's charge. Then they recommended I get the timing belt replaced, which for those of you who know, is pretty darn expensive. Well, I think I'll put off that service for now because the recommended interval is 90k miles or 6 years and I last replaced it at 55k, 7 years ago.

planes, trains, and automobiles...well, automobiles at least

Traffic yesterday (and today) was pretty insane. The president of China was in town and that just led to the perfect storm or weird traffic. I've been driving from where I work to where I live for about 5 years now so I've seen all the traffic patterns, or so I thought. Usually when there is a backup on the highway across the water I'll take a shortcut through the side roads to get closer to the bridge.

As I write this I'm going to say things like the highway was all black, which means the road was totally stop and go. This is based on the traffic maps we all study very intently when deciding how to get home. Green means wide open, yellow some slow going, red heavy volume, and black you better not have had too much water before you left the office.

So, when I left the main highway was black all the way to the point where it makes more sense to go the shortcut. Little did I know, things weren't going to go like they usually do. I first noticed some weird traffic when I was headed down one of the main side streets and noticed that cars were lined up and not moving going in the opposite direction. There usually isn't much volume headed that way at that time, so I thought maybe I'd get lucky and nobody would be taking the same route as me. Everything was going fine until I approached the intersection to the second major side street that I take to get onto the highway. From about a block or so away I could see that cars weren't moving and backed up all the way to the intersection I was headed towards. In all my years of doing this commute I had never seen this happen and thought it was just an anomaly and would begin moving soon.

Well, after I got onto that street I found out how wrong I was. At this point there was no alternative for me so I was resigned to just sit there and inch forward. At one point I lamented that I didn't take the turn to go the super secret squirrel way when you have 2 people in your car, only to realize that I hadn't even reached it yet. This was about 30 minutes after I had turned onto this street and I hadn't reached the light that usually only takes a minute or two. As we all inched closer I decided to check how things were going on the highway, expecting it to be much worse than when I left. Using the real time traffic map on my phone I discovered to my surprise, and horror, it was now all green. In the 45 minutes since I had left my office it had gone from all black to all green, it didn't make any sense. How could it have emptied out that quickly? Not believing what I was seeing I checked out the traffic cameras and saw that it, indeed, was wide open with only a few cars. I began getting really frustrated know that if I had just gone on the highway to begin with I probably would have been home by now.

About an hour after I left I was finally getting on the highway. Expecting it to be wide open I was pretty surprised to see that it was now all black again. In the span of 15 minutes it had gone from wide open to stop and go again. So during this trek it had gone from all black to all green back to all black, all in the span of an hour. This was insane! It was kind of like the 15 minutes of wide open highway was the eye of a hurricane. After a commute of about an hour and 20 minutes I finally made it home, cursing the commute that I have slowly begun to hate more and more every day.

Once home, I had to turn around rather quickly so we could get to the baseball game. When we got downtown, 5th was a mess because the president of China was staying at the Olympic between 4th and 5th on University so a bunch of streets were closed. With no other option we stayed on 5th and tried to navigate our way through confused drivers. At one point, a pedestrian decided was a good idea to run across the street against the light. I narrowly avoided him by slamming on the brakes, but a small part of me thought it would have been a little cathartic to have nicked him just a little bit. That was just the frustration that had built up sitting in traffic for so long and the anger at how stupid some people are. Anyway, we finally got to the game, grabbed some hot dogs, and got into our seats in the bottom of the first so we hadn't missed too much.

So you would think that was the end of my car saga, but it isn't. This morning when I got out to my car I doesn't some things just didn't look right inside. Once I got in I realized things were definitely out of place. The glove compartment was open, the trash tray was too and some things were strewn about. It looks like someone broke into my car in the night, but luckily all the made off with was my sunglasses. All things considered, that isn't too bad but I sure will miss those glasses. Whoever it was totally missed the windbreaker in the back seat, the change tray next to the steering wheel, and didn't look in the trunk (probably due to the fact that the sticker for the trunk lever fell off a few weeks back). As I was making my way downtown to drop my car off for some scheduled service I noticed that it smelled a little like b.o. inside. A nice little present left for me from the scoundrel who absconded with my sunglasses.

Well, I got to stew about this personal violation for a while because traffic was again a mess downtown thanks to the chinese presidente. It took me about a half hour to go the 8 or so blocks to the mechanic. That just capped off a great couple of days. Let's just hope they don't find anything wrong with my car.

Maybe I'll buy a lottery ticket tonight because my luck has to change...right?

Thursday, April 13, 2006

random thought

For some reason, the building I work in has smelled like a mall this past week. It's kind of weird.

i know i know...

Alright, so I know I over simplified the immigration issue in my last post. The issue is definitely more complicated than I initially portrayed it, and I know that now and I knew it then. The underlying issue of how do we deal with folks who get into this country illegally is one that has me torn. Of course, illegal is illegal but it isn't as cut and dry as that. On the one hand, you've got to think about the folks who are sneaking in here to find work to help support their families back home. On the other, you have to think about the people who come in legally by following all the appropriate processes to do the same thing. What is the underlying issue for why these folks need to sneak into the country? Are our immigration policies so out of whack they don't address the needs of our economy?

Like I said, I oversimplified before and I still am now. There are so many different facets of this issue that are really hard to wrap your head around and come up with a clear solution. My last post really talked about the racial issue, which I hate to play the race card. But it seems like race has been a major talking point of this whole thing. A lot of focus has been placed on those individuals who are coming in from the country south of us. What about the people sneaking in from Canada? What about the human smuggling rings that are sneaking people from Asia? How do these proposed bills and laws affect them? The part of the proposed immigration reform that is absolutely ridiculous is anyone in the country is automatically a felon and anyone who provides them assistance of any kind is also considered a felon. Nice.

Anyway, I should just get back to talking about music and food, those subjects are so much easier. But, my last thought on this topic. Don't demonize everyone who has come into this country through other than regular channels. There are a lot of honest, hard working men and women who are providing a valuable service to our economy. If we could find some way to get them out of hiding who they are we could do things like providing them with valuable services like unionization, legal protections from employers who don't pay them for their work, making sure their working conditions are adequate, etc. Things that we take for granted. At the same time we need to revisit our immigration policies so that people don't see that they have to enter the country illegally.

Just my two cents on the issue. Feel free to disagree or add additional views on this topic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

first day back plus other stuff...

I hate the first day back at work after taking some time off. Nothing like digging through all the crap that piled up while you were gone. You also have to dig the subtle jabs at you when you get back for waiting so long to do something. I was taking my first vacation in a very long time. Nothing like that to raise my ire.

So, I'm not sure if people have been following this immigration thing going on but I don't know how you couldn't. One thing I don't understand is why other minorities that have been oppressed in the history of this country aren't rallying with the hispanic community. This isn't the first time the land of the free has attempted to keep people from coming here. I know it was a long time ago but let's not forget the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1882. It kept Chinese people without family already in the US from entering the country and Chinese Americans weren't allowed to even apply for naturalization. The Exclusion Act wasn't repealed until 1943 only because China was an ally in WWII. In 1952 first-generation Chinese Americans were allowed to apply for citizenship and all the restrictions weren't removed until 1964 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Only 42 years ago were there restrictions on Chinese Americans from becoming full fledged American citizens, so why won't more Chinese Americans stand up for another ethnic group that is about to be subjected to similar restrictions? Are we afraid of rocking the boat? I sure hope not, because all the reasons they are saying now sound an awful lot like what they were saying back then. So it's about time we do something before this country ends up making the same mistakes again.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Butter Poached Halibut

I just recently got back to Seattle from a trip to Walla Walla for a little eating and drinking excursion. There were a lot of little disappointments on the trip. The first being my ticket for going 80 in a 70. Now that was not a good way to start my vacation. The next was when I checked into my hotel and realized luxury hotels in Walla Walla were only slightly better than a Days Inn or Holiday Inn in other places. The final disappointment was the camera bag I ended up buying that wasn't the one I really wanted but bought anyway because I thought I would need it...then ending up not using it.

That was really it though, the rest of the trip was full of pleasant surprises. There's nothing like walking into a tasting room and being the only one there. It's nice, but also a little stressful since you don't want to sound like an idiot and you try to make some small talk while not gulping down the wine. Everyone was nice, though, and Dunham gave me some pretty generous pours. The biggest surprise of the whole trip was my dinner on my first, and only night, there.

I had made a reservation for myself at 26brix the day before I drove out. When I arrived at the time of my reservation, the hostess said, "For 1?" and I couldn't tell if she gave me a look of pity or something else, like "Kudos for you, I could never got to a fancy restaurant to eat by myself." I wasn't really surprised when I was seated at a little table in the corner, I actually liked it because it gave me a good view of everything that was going on.

What I was surprised about was the service. Dining alone, I kind of expected to get just the bare minimum of service since my check would definitely pale in comparison to the tables of two+ people, which would result in a smaller tip. But what I ended getting was extremely attentive service from 5 people. Yeah, I said 5. There were the two folks who filled up your water and cleared your used dishes. Then there was my server who had to visit me because the worst thing that could happen to a restaurant is having someone starve to death in there. The captain also visited me on multiple occasions to make sure I had ordered, check in on how things were, presenting me with the dessert menu, etc. Additionally the sommelier came by to help me pair wines with my courses and even poured it for me for each course. He actually came by at the end and almost poured me an extra glass by accident before I stopped him.

I really appreciated how they gave me the same level of service as everyone else, of course they probably knew that I was going to eat and drink more than my share. I probably ordered more stuff than the guy there with his college-aged son, I have a sneaking suspicion I tipped more too. But now on to the important stuff, what I ate:

First Course
Vegetable Bisque with Black Truffle Coulis
Wine: Woodward Canyon Riesling

Main Course
Butter Poached Alaskan Halibut: saffron and halibut fumet, "Parisenned" potatoes with shaved artichoke hearts, braised fennel and pea sprout salad
Wine: Chinon

Dessert
Coconut Tapioca Soup
Monkey King Jasmine Green Tea

At the end of the night I went out of my way to thank the sommelier for the great pairings and my server for the dessert recommendation after my first choice (the brioche bread pudding) was no longer available. Eating alone is always a little awkward, but they did their best to treat me like everyone else and because of that I left a little something extra for them to show my appreciation.

If you're ever in Walla Walla make sure you don't miss 26brix: http://www.twentysixbrix.com/

What Celebrity Do You Look Like?

Interesting site I just found. On http://www.myheritage.com you can run a face recognition tool to see what celebrity you look like. While trying to do this I realized I have no photos of myself, which is kind of weird. When I ran a picture of Bill Gates, it said he looked like...Bill Gates. But only 70% like himself.

Archive is working again...

It's been like two years since my archiving was working and I've finally gotten around to fixing it. Maybe this will motivate me to blog once again. Or, at the very least to post my playlist from my shows.