Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve Meal 2007

I helped in the preparation of this year's Christmas Eve meals.

This year's theme is Spanish. We started with Sangria and a modified version of the Ultimate Paella by Tyler Florence. That's just for lunch.

The Sangria was a hit! This version has a good balance of the sweetness from fruits, tardness from wine and a little fizz from Sprite. The recipe is reproduced below.

The Paella turn up quite well. We added scallops to the recipe, but used bratwurst instead of Chorizo sausages for health reason. The rice was a little more soggy than the versions I had in B44. We believe this was due to our using of a wok as the cooking vessel. The layer of rice was too thick and water did not evaporate as quick in the middle. There was a nice crust at the bottom, much like Tyler had described in the recipe:)

The dinner menu consist of Prawn with Pink Sauce, Roasted Beef with Caramelized Shallots, garlic bread, tossed green salad and Coffee Flan.

The roast beef was still a little undercooked in the middle when sliced, even though we followed the recipe to a T. We suspect it is due to our instant read thermometer was not being properly calibrated.

The prawns were from Omaha Steaks and were delicious! It needed very little help from the mayo/ketchup sauce or the store bought cocktail sauce.

The coffee flan was a little light on coffee taste as I had used brewed coffee instead of the concentrated version described in the recipe. Also, I had used too much sugar for the crust. Despite those mistakes, it was well received:)

All in all, a delicious day!

--
Sangria recipe

1 orange sliced
1 lemon sliced
Juice of 1 orange
1 bottle of light body red wine
ice
1 mini can of Sprite

Mixed well, served.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Walt Disney Hall, Heifetz's studio, MOCA

I had wanted to visit the Walt Disney Hall after reading an article about it in Newsweek magazine. It was described in the article as a warm and inviting concert hall, even with the metallic shell. I had also read a lot about Frank Gehry, and had wanted to visit buildings designed by him.

We arrive at about 2pm and took the audio tour. We started the tour on the ground floor. The lobby was quite small, but according to the audio guide, all glass walls open so the sidewalk will feel like part of the lobby. Luckily this is Southern California, where it doesn't rain:) At this level is a beautiful bar made of layered glass. Also on this level is a small cafe with art deco like furniture and lights.

On the second floor has a nice design feature. A space call BP Hall was created for pre-concert talk and other less formal occasion. The space itself has wonderful curve wooden walls that tapered inwards at the top, which made the space while wide open, cosy.

Walt Disney Hall does not have much windows but uses lots of skylight to brighten up the space. According to the audio guide, this was carefully conceived such that at night, interior lighting from the hall can be seen from outside, giving the hall a warm glow.

We were allowed to visit the auditorium since there was no performance scheduled on the day we visited. Like most concert hall, the auditorium had a piped Organ. Unlike most piped organ, this one have non vertical pipes, creating a dynamic center piece for the hall. The auditorium itself is quite small, with more seating in the terrace and sides compare to Davies Symphony hall. Acoustic is rumoured to be excellent, but unfortunately on this trip, I did not have a chance to experience that.

The hall has a beautiful garden where an outdoor amphitheater has been constructed for open performance and outreach efforts. Between the back splash of the amphitheater and the main building is a cleverly design narrow walkway with tall metallic walls on both sides. The walls are curved, reminding me of narrow canyons.

Frank Gehry designed a beautiful flower sculpture as a tribute to Mrs Disney. A beautiful rose is created out of cement, with pieces of broken Delft pottery embedded in them to give it a light blue color when viewed from afar. Spaces between the petals were filled with water to make it a fountain, giving the sculpture movement and reflection.

Overall, Walt Disney Hall is a beautiful structure with many thoughtful touches like BP Hall and Outdoor amphitheater. Unlike other music center, it is not grand. While the look is modern, the clever use of wood and curve shapes made the space intimate and warm.


Diagonally across the street from Walt Disney Hall is the Colburn School. We stopped by to visit Jascha Heifetz's studio, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I had thought Heifetz used to worked in one of the studios in the building, which was then preserved. Instead, a part of Heifetz's home was cut and move into Colburn school. The interior has the familiar Frank Lloyd Wright clean lines and oh-too-low furniture:)

The Museum of Contemporary Art is right next door to the Colburn School. We happened to walk into a Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition: You are the measure. I am not familiar with Gordon's work, but did enjoy the exhibition. My favorite exhibit was 3 walls of a house, cut into similar size. The outside of the walls are plain brick red roof title, and the other side showed the indoor details. An interesting play of lines on the house structure and contrast between the inside and outside of the house. Here are some pictures I found on the web for this work(1,2).

Gordon's doodles were another series which we enjoyed very much. There were doodles of plants with whimsical but aesthetic changes. One doodle can be found here.

The exhibition was reviewed by New York Times.

Other highlight of the visit includes a Jackson Pollock's painting.

We did not walk to the remote site as it was located in an iffy neighborhood and it was starting to get dark.

Dinner was at Checkers. This being a holiday weekend, the restaurant was deserted. When I read the menu, I was a little disappointed. It was not a very imaginative menu. However, the execution was superb. We started with simple salad. For entrees, I had the slow cook short ribs with polenta and my brother ordered the braised lamb shank with lentils. Both meat are very tender and flavorful. The short ribs has a hint of sweetness from the port wine reduction sauce and the mire poix bits on the dish adds a crunchy contrast to the fork tender meat. According to the wait staff, the restaurant recently went through a chef change, and the new executive chef is still working on the new menu. As such, I decided not to review the restaurant on Yelp.

After dinner, we decided to stop for drinks at Bonavista Bar, atop Westin Bonaventure. The novelty of a revolving restaurants/bars seems to have worn off these days. The only one in Bay Area, Equinox atop Hyatt Regency located at San Francisco's Embarcadero closed down in June this year. So, for me, it is actually a pleasant surprise.

View from this 35th floor revolving bar at night are mostly of the surrounding office buildings of major banks, some of which towers over the bar. This means there is limited visibility and one cannot quite see the mountains in background. For me, I enjoy cityscape and did not mind the obstruction. For more on the Bonavista Bar, please read my review on Yelp!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Happy New Year!

Ah...the Happy New Year email,
Sent on the last working day before Christmas without fail.

Before the company's winter shutdown,
After the company's holiday party chowdown.

To old friends who I tried to stay in touch,
And to new friends whose comradeship I enjoy very much!

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
From the bottom of my heart:)

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Finally done!


It is finally done.


During March, S came visit from Chicago, followed by J from San Diego. I was extremely happy to get in contact with old friends and was inspired to write a quote by Confucius: "To have friends come visit from afar, is it not a joyous occasion?" (有朋自远方来,不亦乐乎?).


The writing must have special power, because T came visit from Singapore while I was working on the work...


The writing is done in seal script(篆书). The seal script is an ancient font, almost from the age of Confucius.

This is actually my second attempt. In my first attempt, I wrote the wrong word (悦instead of乐) for joyous:(

For privacy reason, I removed my name from the work...

Enjoy!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Madam Butterfly

My second opera for this season is Madam Butterfly. This time I was sitting in the grand circle, which allowed me to watch the performing. I had heard comments that the music mixed better for seats higher in the theater, but the singing sounds great where I was sitting.

Before the opera began, we were asked to perform a special task. It seems like SF Opera will be doing a recorded video presentation of Madam Butterfly and they need video shots of audience applauding. So, for 2 15-seconds segments, we were asked to applaud wildly. Some folks even stood up for this segment. Devoted fans!

The Madam Butterfly story is well known, and there was definitely no suspense about what was going to happen next. But the acting and singing was incredible. After Cio-Cio San did her rendition of "Un bel dì vedremo", there was no a dry eye in the theater. I linked to this performance by Renee Fleming for your enjoyment.

The audience so emotionally involved with the performance that after the opera was over, and during the curtain calls, the tenor playing Lt Pinkerton was booed! The soprano playing Cio-Cio San playfully wag her finger at the tenor before her curtain call:)

A review of the performance from SF Chronicle can be found here.

A very depressing opera, though I absolutely enjoy the performance.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Audi Driving Experience @ Infineon Raceway

I am not a fast driver nor a gearhead. So when I was reminded of my Audi Driving Experience was 8:30am at Infineon Raceway, I was tempted to cancel my reservation. My gym partner, John, talked me out of it. "It will be cool!" he said.

Great advice! I dragged myself out of bed at 6am and drove all the way to Infineon Raceway. Audi had a simple breakfast of Kashi bars, juice and yogurt waiting. After a quick registration, we were been led into a small training room. The instructor, who is also a race car driver, gave a quick lecture on over-steering, under-steering and why 4 wheel drive vehicles more stable. While it was a pitch for Audi vehicles, this is the first time I was exposed to the mechanics of steering, braking and accelerating in a car and found it very interesting.

After the lecture, we were led to the parking lot. Orange cones had already been set up and we were taught several drills: braking, turning and accident avoidance. Another instructor, Todd, which has done Pike's Peak in 11mins, showed us what to do.

The first drill was using the ABS system to stop. He had us approached a set of cones at high speed (~60mph), then hit the brake hard to engage ABS. During his demo, the parking lot was wet from the rain and the car skidded a long way. The designated stopping point had to be moved back.

We then formed groups of 3 and each group took turns trying the drills. The other's in my group were pretty skilled, and I was concerned if I was able to execute the drill. I went at high speed towards the cone, but lifted my foot off the gas pedal before the designated stopping point to hit the brakes. My stopping distance was therefore shorter, but still the drill gave me quite a rush!

The second drill was to drive around a tight turning course at high speed, practicing stopping in the straight line entering the turn and accelerating coming out of the turn. We engaged the sports mode on the Quattro and had a lot of fun with this one. Even though the turns were quite sharp, I was able to enter most turn with the engine brake and accelerate smoothly out of the turns. I can now better understand why people enjoy watching auto racing, because driving the turns was really exciting!

The last drill was accident avoidance. Here we drove hard towards a set of cones, much like in the braking drill, but instead of braking, we were to avoid accident by letting go of the gas pedals and swirled around the cones. Staying loose was the key in this drill. Again, I was concern since I am not that great a driver:(

I actually did pretty well on this drill. I came in with the correct speed, lift my foot off the gas pedal at the correct time, but over corrected on my swirls and had the back wheel hit the cones as a result.

After practicing in the parking lot, we were given helmets and got to drive S4/S5 around the actual race track!

I got into a S4 with auto transmission. In the cars were walkie-talkie, so that we could hear our instructions. One of the instructor, Stu, got into a S5 and led. All of us follow him around the track, with instructions coming from the walkie-talkie. Overtaking was not allowed. Cones had been placed on the track to help us navigate which side of the track we should be in to reduce the angles of our turns.

Given the condition of the track, we were able to still do ~30mph around the tracks to keep up with Stu. We did 2 rounds around the track. My car skidded a little on the first time around the track, but did not have trouble on the second time.

Since I was alone in my car, the instructor invited me to sit in his car on the second drive round the track. I was able to observe first hand how he handled the turns. He had a skid too on his run, so I suppose my skid was nothing to be ashamed about:)

We had a quick debrief session after the drive, then I went about to look at the Audis on display. We were asked to fill up a survey about our experience on a iPhone, and feeling sleepy(I woke up at 6am!) I went home.

This is my second test drive event. The first was the Mercedes-Benz C-class test drive event in SF. The food was better at that event, but given we were driving on SF roads, not very exciting.
The Audi Driving Experience is more fun and I hope to participate in future test drive events which have more emphasis on driving.