Chinese New Year Eve 2011

This year, for Chinese New Year, I decided to prepare my own the traditional reunion dinner.

I had planned for a proper 10 course dinner as per tradition, but after talking to my Mom, she told me a five course dinner would suffice.

So, here's my five course reunion dinner menu:
1. Steamed White Pomfret
2. Sauteed Spinach with Shittake mushroom
3. Steamed rice cake with Chinese sausage
4. Braised pork
5. Pork rib soup with Napa cabbage and carrots.

Fish is a must on Chinese year, since the word sounds like "abundance" in Mandarin. Similarly, rice cake is required, since it symbolized "Yearly increment" :) My Mom wanted to include mushroom in the menu, since it sympbolized "growth".

Frankly the quality of the produce, fish and meat at the Chinese Market were not very good due to high sales volumne during Chinese New Year. As a result, the dishes did not taste very good.

Without further delay, here's a picture of the dinner spread...

Cinequest 20: The Real Revolutionaries

I had been sick most of the week. Feeling weak from the illness, I decided to invite A to a movie instead of going hiking.

Cinequest 20 was happening and as I was browsing through the movies, deciding on what to watch, I saw a picture of the "Traitorous eight". It was the poster for a movie called "The Real Revolutionaries".

The movie was about the history of the development of the silicon transistor, from the time William Shockley established Shockley's Lab in Palo Alto to Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore establishing Intel.

It is a story I knew well, having read Crystal Fire and hearing stories from the late Prof Henry Guckel when I hung around his lab.

The movie started with describing William Shockley, whom the movie described as a brilliant but arrogant scientist. He hired some of the smartest engineers in the US to work for him, but never quite trusted his employees. He micromanaged, was paranoid about the loyalty of his employees and egoistic. Shockley labs was going to build a new transistor device different from the device that won the 1956 Nobel prize. That effort went no where, and eight of the employees, left to form Fairchild Semiconductor, a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation.

Fairchild semiconductor division did very well and was very profitable, but when Robert Noyce found out he was passed over for the CEO position, he and Gordon Moore left to form Intel.

The movie spent some time on Shockley's life after semiconductor and his views on race and intelligence. Robert Noyce's womanizing ways were not mentioned:) There was also lots of cartoons to try explain semiconductor physics. The film mentioned some of the social events happening around the same time, such as the Kent State shootings and Woodstock, but insisted real revolutions were happening in the labs of Silicon Valley.

I felt it was too much material for one movie to tackle, and after watching the movie, I felt unsatisfied. I would recommend people read Crystal Fire instead for more detail history of the silicon transistors.

After the movie, A and I went to House of Siam for dinner. Read my review of the restaurant on Yelp!

Given my nagging cough, we called it a night after dinner.

Trip to Singapore 3-Driving range with YC and Family dinner

This morning, YC took me and Yee-Chye to Marina Bay Golf Course driving range for a little workout.

Both YC and Yee-Chye are friends of my brother, from high school and Army respectively. YC is like a family friend and visits often, while I had not met Yee-Chye for about 10 years.

En route, I found out we would be going to the driving range instead of the course. Apparently, in order to play on the course, one had to pass an exam. Both Yee-Chye and myself had never played golf, so that's not going to happen:)

Yee-Chye and myself are southpaw, while YC is not. We were using YC's clubs, so we had to adapt and swing right handed. YC handed me a 7 iron, go through the basic swing mechanics and off we go!

I had trouble with locking my back on my swing and had lots of trouble just hitting the ball straight on. When I finally locked my back and got contact with the ball, I was hitting it too low. The ball did not travel far. The furthest I could manage was hit the ball about 50m.

After we had hit 20-30 balls, YC took out his driver and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. With the bigger sweet spot, the driver was easier to hit with. I was able to hit the ball about 100m, but had a nasty slice and the ball did not travel straight.

I had always thought golf was a fairly relaxed game. But after hitting almost 50 balls, combined with the hot and humid weather of Singapore, I was completely drenched.

YC took me and my parents to lunch at Tunk Lok Classic. We had a cold spinach appetizer. This dish was very similar to a Korean spinach salad which I often prepared, but used sesame paste to further heighten the flavor. We also ordered a Chinese BBQ pork with Chinese hot mustard as appetizer.

This was followed by scallop and abalone in soy sauce. Here, I tasted a nuttyness to the sauce, and suspect it was thicken with butter. There was a steamed bamboo clamp dish, and we finished with steamed fish with wood ear mushroom. The seafood were all very fresh, and there was very creative use of sauce.

For dinner, it was a family affair at my sister's house. My cousins, who are both working in China, happened to be vacationing in Singapore and joined us. My sister planned the menu and prepared bruschetta to start, "Westernized" salt-water duck and baked salmon with dill mustard sauce for the main course. She also made a orange chiffon cake with lemon curd and mixed berries for dessert. There was also a cheese platter and Australian/New Zeland wine for the after dinner conversations.

After dinner, I went with my cousin and his girl friend to Zouk. It was fairly dead. I guess by Boxing day, most people had enough of Christmas parties and had wanted to take a break.

Trip to Singapore 2-Yong and Danny

Today I met with Yong for lunch at Din Tai Fung (Junction 8) for fried rice, chicken soup and, of course, xiao long bao. Yong was my Army buddy. The last time we met, he was starting his own business. He is now a successful system integrator, running a company of 2, working mostly with Sun systems. While he also worked with Window machines, the decrease popularity in Sun hardware was having a big impact on his business. Yong is married but have no kids. He told me he was tired of his work and wanted to work on something else in a few years.

Dinner was with my primary school friend Danny. We literally know each other for most of our life. In fact, Danny had sort of become a family friend. He would visit my parents from time to time, even when I am not around.

Danny took me to Chin Lee restaurant for Teochew food. We had coffee pork ribs, chicken pan cake with plum sauce, fried prawn roll, stir fried Chinese broccoli with mushroom, tofu with minced meat sauce and, the all popular Teochew dessert, orh nee (yam pudding). I am actually part Teochew. While I ate Teochew food infrequently growing up, some of the ingredients, like plum sauce, was often used in our daily meals. I had not found many Teochew restaurants in the Bay area and enjoyed the meal very much!

Danny is a support specialist at SIM University. He is married and has a really cute daughter.

Trip to Singapore 1- X'mas Eve Dinner

On most trips to Singapore, I usually par take in local cuisine. After all, that's the type of food I missed the most.

On this trip, being Christmas and all, I decided to do some fine dining (Singaporean tends to not celebrate Christmas as a family holiday). My dear sister did some research and sent me menu to White Rabbit, Prive, Il Lido and Flutes. From the menu, Prive's Christmas eve menu was most interesting and that's where we went...Joining me for dinner were my parents, my sister and niece.

Amuse Bouche

Prive offered a 7 course dinner menu. The dinner started with an amuse bouche: a cherry tomato stuffed with cream cheese, sprinkled with chopped pistachios, over a pesto base and some cracked red pepper. I guessed this was the chef's play on caprese salad. Given it was not summer, the tomato did not have the bright flavor to carry the dish. Still, it was a good concept and well executed dish.


Citrus-cured Tasmanian Ocean Trout, served chilled with Soy Dressing, Marinated Cucumver and Ikura


Compressed Watermelon Salad with Cherry Vine Tomatoes, Strawberries and Sangria Granite

For the second course, we had a choice of trout with soy or watermelon salad sangria granite. I opted for the trout. The menu describe the trout to be citrus cured, but I was unable to detect citrus flavor. The trout was served sashimi style, cubed and uncooked, with soy dressing. I liked sashimi and really enjoyed the texture and the sweetness of the fish. I had a little taste of the watermelon salad. The greens were tossed with kaffir lime leaves based oil, giving the greens a lot citrus feel without the acid.


Pan Seared Hokkaido Scallops with Ikura, Custard, Asparagus Ribbon and Beurre Blanc

The third course was scallop, pan seared and served topped with salmon roe. The kitchen showed its execution with a delicious beurre blanc sauce. The scallop was well cooked, with a hint of crust outside and tender inside. It was accompanied by a tempura tofu, wrapped with asparagus ribbon, showing a hint of Japanese influence in the chef's preparation.


Pan Seared Foie Gras with Caramelized Figs, Puff Pastry and Baby Spinach

The fourth course was pan seared foie gras. For health reasons, I seldom ordered foie gras, let alone pan seared foie gras. This dish was also well executed. The foie gras had great texture, with a touch of crispiness on the surface and a soft, melt in your mouth center. The foie gras was lightly salted and not greasy. It was served atop a puff pastery and fig jam. The puff pastery provided a good base to set off the flavor of the foie gras. I only wished the fig jam was a little more sweet to help cut through the fattiness of the foie gras.

The fifth course was the main course. We were given a choice of bracuida(fish), turkey or pigeon. I opted for the fish, while others chose the turkey and the pigeon.


Crispy Skin Barramundi with Caramelized Eschalot, Shimeji Mushroom, Broccolini and Sauce Bordelaise

The barramundi was a firm white fish. The skin side was seared until really crispy. It was served over a small soy sauce, broccolini and shimeji mushroom. The dish had an Asian flair to it. The flavor was well balance. It was a good but not great dish.


Slow-cooked Turkey Breast with Brown Butter, Pickled Vegetables and Glazed Cranberries

I also tried a little turkey. Here turkey breast was brined and probably roasted, then sliced into triangle. The turkey was not dry and had pretty good flavor. I did not try the accompanied vegetables.


French Young Pigeon: Roasted Breast and Leg of Pigeon with Sauteed Baby Carrots, Pocini Mushrooms and Taylor's Port Sauce

I had a tasted of the pigeon too. The meat was quite gamey, but very soft. The skin side was crispy and made for an interesting texture contrast.


Calvados Gelee with Granny Smith Foam

After the main course, we were served a gelee. It was an apple puree piped over pear gelatin. The dish was not too sweet and worked well as a palate cleanser.


White Chocolate Log with Griottine Cherries with White Chocolate Mousse and Cranberry Compote

The final course was dessert. The dessert was a log cake with graham cracker base and white chocolate mousse molded to looked like a traditional log cake. The log cake was garnished with a clear sugar disc, sprinkled with chocolate. The log cake was accompanied with cherry, tart cranberries and garnished with a chocolate straw. It was a good mix of sweet and sour on the plate.

After dessert, we were served tea and coffee with petit four. It was a sweet end to dinner.

The food was of high quality, but I though service level was poor, especially when the restaurant was promoted as a fine dining destination.

The servers were not knowledgeable about the dishes being served. When we were served the gelee, we asked what was in the dish. The wait staff was only able to repeat the name of the dish on the menu.

While we brought our own wine, my sister studied the wine menu just to see what they carried. The server show a hint of impatient while waiting on us.

Finally, and more seriously, I found a hair in my gelee and alerted the server. The dish was not replace, nor were any apology given.


Bridge

The restaurant is located in the marina in Keppel Bay. While the dinning room itself was curtained off, we took a stroll outside the dining room after dinner. The restaurant was located on a small island and we had to drive on a small bridge to get to the restaurant. The marina was being used as a dock and there were many boats in the harbor, which added to the atmosphere.

The food itself was very good. The chef show much creativity in the menu planning. There was good use of Chinese/Asian technique/ingredients to highlight seafood dishes. Overall there was interesting play of texture and good balance of flavor in the dishes.

The menu for the night can be found here. Given my preference for local food while in Singapore, I will probably not come again, but thought the food was prepare well enough, I am willing to give this place a chance to improve their service.

Styrofoam cups and Thai Nakorn

I read his comics blog every work day for almost 3 years now.

Three years ago, Boey posted a link on Craigslist to his comic blog. Each blog entry is a simple line drawing comic about his work, friends and love life. Since he post a blog entry everyday, on some days the comic might be funny, on other days, thought invoking and, still on some days, boring.

It was from one of the blog posting I read about his styrofoam cups. Boey is an artist and draws on styrofoam cups when bored. Then he started showing the cups at Art Festivals and scored an interview on Orange County Register. That was when he hit big time!

From the article, I learned his work could be found at Marion Meyer Contemporary Art gallery in Laguna Beach. On this Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Orange County to spend time with my brother and his family. Not a shopping person, I talked my brother and his family into seeing this unique art work on Black Friday.

There were about 10 cups on display. The details on each one was amazing! This was like graphic art, souped up to fine art. Most of the cups had whimsical design, but a few were darker and more serious. Quite a treat for me, especially having seen some off the cups on Flickr.

There was a painting by Robert Mah in the Marion Meyer Gallery which we enjoyed very much as well. It was a landscape painting that had a hint of Chinese landscape painting. Using only black coloring, the brush stroke were more obvious compared to most chinese painting, but it did had the same mystic feel.

After the show, we went to Thai Nakorn in Stanton for dinner. The best thai food I had ever had. Read my review on Yelp about it here.

--
Update 11-30-09

I emailed Boey and told him I made a trip to Laguna Beach to see his styrofoam cups. He repiled asking if I made the trip for that purpose only. When I answered yes, he said he felt sorry for me, because he did not leave his best work with Marion Meyer. He also told me to email him in advance on my next trip south to Orange County and he would show me his best work over coffee. Sigh...I think I have low standards. I thought the cups in Marion Meyer were quite good already.

Stand Up Paddling and Cafe Brasil

I first saw stand up paddling in 2008 Santa Cruz Kayak Surf festival. It was a strange sight. Out in the ocean, far away from shore, were these people standing and paddling. They look really stable and were even able to ride waves!

Well, as some of you know, I am a self-proclaimed paddle junkie. So, when I saw stand up padding lessons offered by UCSC recreation, I jumped at the opportunity.

The meeting time for the lesson was 9am at UCSC East Field House, which was a welcoming change from the earlier starting time for kayaking trips. There I met who I taught was the instructor, Conner. When I first saw Conner, I laughed. He had the the stereotypical surfer dude look. Long blond hair, shoe less, shirt less and laid back attitude. Turned out he was the surfing instructor for UCSC, but stand up paddling lessons were being outsource to Surftech.

This was the first time UCSC offered stand up paddling lessons and Conner himself had not done stand up paddling, so everyone was new to the sports and nobody knew what to expect. The Recreation department suggested everyone wore a wet suit while padding, so all of us loaned suits from the UCSC recreation department. Then, Conner drove us in a department van to Santa Cruz harbor. There was where our lessons were to be conducted.

10mins after we arrived, Rob from Surftech showed up in a van filled with surf board and paddle. He then proceed to pull out about 20 surf board and handing out paddles to everyone.

It was a really hot day, and based on conversation Rob, we were not expected to fall into the water too much, I decided not to wear my wet suit. Apparently, everyone else in the class reached the same decision.

We carried the surf board down the boat launch ramp, then dropped the board in the water. With someone holding on to the board, I slided stomach down onto the board. Once I felt stable, I came up to kneeling position and started paddling away from the ramp to make room for other surfers.

After launching everyone, Rob told us to stand up gently. The board was surprisingly stable in the protected water of the harbor, and I did not have too much difficult standing up. Then, Rob suggested we swaying our hip from side to side to loosen it up. According to him, to will help us get "sea legs", so that we can react to waves and better keep our balance. Obviously, I did not understand the last part. As I started swaying, I fell into water.

It was actually a bit of effort to swim back to my board, since when I fell, I kicked the board away from myself. Once I reach the board, getting back on was quite easy. I was able to reach reach across the board and pull myself stomach first onto the board. Like I said, surprisingly stable, much more stable than a kayak.

We went round the harbor once, then Rob asked if anyone had questions. When nobody said anything, he decided we were ready to paddle in open sea!

The class started paddling out the mouth of the harbor into the bay. We were quite a sight, since there were several college co-ed among us, wearing bikini. A boat passed us on its way into the ocean, and I could hear the couple on the boat talking.

"Henry, this must be your lucky day!" the lady said. "There are girls in bikinis inside the harbor!"

At this time we were near the mouth of the harbor. Another boat sped by, and the wake of the boat caused me to fall a second time:( Luckily outside harbor, water was not as dirty.

Our class paddled to the beach to the right of the harbor (when facing land). We quite a distance away from the beach, so there was not much swell. The weather was getting really hot. Everyone began to lie down on their board and rest, tanning and enjoying the sun.

Conner, the surf instructor, began riding some waves. Obviously, he was able to get the hang of riding wave on stand up paddling board quickly. I saw him ride a few waves and that looked really fun!

Fascinated, I decided to join in. Having not surf before, I was unable to judge the wave. I had paddle in front of a wave, waiting for the wave to catch up. At first, I felt nothing, then a sudden surge which I was unprepared for. My stance on the board was totally wrong for riding wave. My body was perpendicular to the board, with feet on the sides! The board quickly sped up, and like someone had pull a carpet from under my feet, I fell backwards into the sea. The board was washed ashore, with me swimming behind to catch up.

I retrieved the board on the beach, collected my breath and tried paddling out. But the waves in the surf zone was quite strong. I was not having much success leaving the beach :( I would paddle a few feet and be washed back ashore by the waves. Sensing I am in a difficult spot, Conner came to the rescue! He told me to walk the board by my side as far as possible into the ocean, while going directly into the wave front. Then at the point when water was chest high, we "jumped" over a wave front. At this time, he had me kneel down on the board and started paddling back into the ocean, out of the surf zone.

I was a little tired from battling the wave coming out, so decided to rest a little more. The rest of the group decided they had enough sun and started heading back to the harbor. Most people were paddling sitting down or kneeling. I tried paddling standing up, but my legs were tired from all the balancing. Also, my attention was occupied by keeping stable and I could not put as much energy into each paddle stroke. I resorted to paddling most of the way kneeling down too.

After I had paddled into mouth of harbor, I stood up and paddled back to ramp. As I was kneeling down and tried to slide over to land, I was feeling effects of the wave and lost my balance again. Rob reach over with paddle and help me regain stability. I guessed this was a tiring sport!

We helped Rob pulled all the board out of the water and into his van. Then we rode the van back to UCSC.

Overall stand up paddling was a rather fun experience. However, I think I need to do more flat water training before going to sea again. Hopefully, I will be able to do surfing sometime in the future:)

After we got back to campus, I checked the time. It was about 1pm. I decided to try my luck and have lunch at Cafe Brasil, a restaurant which was highly recommended on Yelp, served Brazilian food, immensely popular and had really short hours. This was my third attempt to try this restaurant.

As usual, there were long lines out the door. I decided to get food to go. I knew from reading Yelp review people raved about the Acai bowl. But having spent much of the morning on water, I had also wanted a hot lunch. Therefore, I ordered an Acai bowl junior and the Muqueca, as recommended by the super hot server.

The Acai bowl had granola topping with almonds, over a slush of ice and pureed acai. The Slush was filled with strawberries and banana slices. Sweetness from strawberries and banana matched well with the slight acidity from the acai berries. I could eat this for breakfast everyday!

The hot entree came with a side of a simple green salad with slice hearts of palm. The flavor from hearts of palm was quite unique. It had a little texture with a "fresh spring" like flavor. The salad was served with a balsamic vinegrette.

Muqueca was a seafood dish. Fish and shrimp were cooked in tomato sauce, with a touch of coconut milk. The dish came with side of rice and farofa. The fish and shrimp were nice and firm. The background taste of the tomato sauce with coconut milk was refreshing. I associate the coconut milk flavor curry, accompanied with either heat or lots of spices. Here, the coconut flavor was light and refreshing.

Farofa looked like a pile of sand! (It is actually toasted manioc flour. I checked on the web and no, I don't know what is manioc flour). It tasted like bread crumbs and I didn't care for it.

You can read more review of Cafe Brasil on Yelp.

All in all, a good paddling and food day, with college co-ed in bikini as a bonus. I need to come back to Santa Cruz more often:)

Crabbing in Bay Area, Chili crab at Banyan Tree

One night, over dinner, H's friend, HH, suggested we should all go crabbing. Since the Bay Area is well known for its tasty Dungeness crab and this is crab season (the commercial Dungeness Crab season open officially on Nov 15th 2008), H and I happily agreed.

Given this is the first time I have gone crabbing, I looked up the web for some resources. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much good information. All I could find were the following:
Jeff's guide to Crabbing, a Noe Valley Voice story and this SF Gate article.

Armed with this information, I went to Sportmen's Supply and bought a crab trap. The sales staff recommended a bait cage which I bought as well.

Meanwhile, HH bought a pack of chicken drumstick, which he left out in the sun to stink. We would be using those for crab bait.

On Sunday, H and I, HH and his wife and father gathered our crabbing gear, camping chairs, warm jackets and snack before set off. I was concerned about pollution in the Bay water and convinced everyone we should do our fishing off the coast. Since we did not want to pay for fishing license, we had to fish from public pier.

Base on location mentioned in Tom Stienstra's article, we decided to try Princeton jetty on Half Moon Bay. When we arrived, the gates to the jetty were closed, but we were able to get onto the jetty by looping around a nearby building. The jetty was deserted and, at about 2:30pm, the sea water level seemed too shallow for crabbing. We decided not to try fish here.

As we were leaving, we saw a father and son walked onto the jetty with crab traps! We immediately asked about fishing in the area. Turned out, this was their first trip too. We wished them good luck and decided to try another location mentioned in Tom's article, Pacifica pier.

We were much more encouraged when we reach Pacifica Pier. There were many crab trappers on the pier. Figuring we found a good spot, we unloaded our gear, stick chicken drum stick into the crab trap, and slowly lowered the trap from the pier into the water.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, we tried pulling the trap up. It felt heavy! Excited H came and help, but the line just would not moved! Someone fishing nearby commented, "Your cage is stuck! $40 down the drain!"

We were of course quite discourage. H and I tried pulling the rope, and finally the trap became free. There was no crab:( The fisherman then told us to fling the trap far out to avoid the trap getting tangled up with the pillar under the pier. We tried this technique and at least had no problem with tangled traps. Crabs were another issue. We casted the trap 3 to 4 times and nothing was biting.

H went around the pier and started asking others casting crab trap. While there were many crab trapper, no one had caught anything in the past 4-5 hours. Dejected, we huddled up and decided what to do next. Given it was only 3pm, we wanted to try our luck some where else. It was decided we would go to San Francisco.

Our destination was Crissy Field pier, just off warming hut. This pier was located near Golden Gate Bridge, near the mouth of the Bay. We figured pollution would be less compared to other locations in the bay.

Given we had all up given up hope, we decided to use all our bait this time. We stuffed all 6 chicken drum stick into the net and swung it into the ocean. Almost immediately, we saw a seal stick its head out of the water and then dive towards our trap. H told us me and HH to quickly pulled our trap in, since the seals would steal the bait. But, despite our best effort to quickly reel in the trap, it was too late. Only 3 drum stick remained in the trap. We decided to use bait cage for this location.

We secured the bait cage to the bottom of the trap with our only 3 chicken drum stick in them, cast the trap and waited. After about 5 minutes, we decided to pull the trap in. Amazingly, there were 2 small crabs in the trap!

We were overjoy, despite the fact the crabs were too small to keep(The legal limit is at least 4 inches). The location made a big difference and soak time made a big difference. We cast our trap a few more times and let the trap soaked for a good 10 minutes each time. We caught a total of 6 crabs, including one about 5 inches wide. These were all rock crabs. Dungeness crabs fishing is illegal inside the bay:)

We fished for about 2 hours, until the sky started getting dark and it got really cold. Our last 2 cast did not yield any more crabs and we decided to call it a day.

But everyone in our party had crab meat on their mind. We decided to head towards Banyan Tree restaurant in Union City to try their chili crab. The chili crab here was a little too sweet and not spicy enough. I also find the sauce too watery.

All in all though, we had a lot of fun crabbing. We did a quick calculation and decided our bounty did not justify the cost of the trap, bait and gas, but it does make a great fish story.

Central Coast Weekend 2-ATV, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay

On a previous trip through central coast, H and I saw many trucks hauling ATV. H commented she wanted to try riding an ATV at some time.

Turned out, Pismo beach in Central Coast was a mecca for ATV enthusiasts, which was a short drive from SLO. We got off the Pier St from 101 and went into the first ATV store we saw: Steve ATV.

It turned out to be a great decision. Steve was the only store carrying 2 seaters. We rented a 2 seater for 1 hour. We were then directed to the beach area. A shuttle bus would drive us to the dunes, where we would get a quick video introduction and pick up our rental ATV.

The most important rule in ATV riding was we need to wear out helmets at all time. The ATV could not get wet, so we were to stay away from the water at all time. Controlling the ATV was easy. On the right handle, there was knob. By pushing the knob up or down with the right thumb, we would control the speed of the ATV. Turing the handle bar controls the direction of where the ATV went, much like a bicycle.

Both H and I were not the dare devil type, so we took it slow. It was a really powerful ATV and responded to our control immediately. We rode up and down the sand dunes, taking our time approaching the dunes to stay in control and made turns slowly. This was a new experience and we were being careful. H and I took turns doing the riding, shifting our bodies forward and backwards as we go downhill and uphill respectively.

We rented the ATV for one hour and it was more than enough time to experience this sport. We took the shuttle back to our car and drove to Pismo beach down town. Here, we enjoyed fried fish, scallops, shrimp, clams and oysters at Pismo Fish and Chip. The fried seafood was not too heavily battered and tasted very fresh.

After lunch, we walked around the beach area. Since this was Labor Day weekend, the beach area was very crowded. As we walked around the beach town tourist shops, our attention was drawn to a chocolate shoppe, selling chocolate covered worms and crickets. H and I tried a chocolate covered worm. Luckily, we could only taste the chocolate and the texture of something crispy in the center of the chocolate:)

Near the end of our walk in the downtown area, we noticed a long line of people buying chowder at Splash cafe. We were definitely in culinary exploration mode and H decided to wait in line to buy the chowder, while I went to pick up our car. The chowder was thick and creamy, with lots of clams. However, we did not find it special enough to warrant the half an hour wait for takeout.

From Pismo beach, we drove to Morro Bay. We drove by a park and there was an Art Festival going on. We took a walk around the festival, but we not impressed.

From the park, it was a short drive to Morro Rock. We drove around the rock, and enjoyed the bay view. The rock itself was quite big, and the view from afar, with the rock set in the ocean was quite good.

We then walked along the water front, looking at the various shops. There was an interesting store called the Shell Shop, selling various types of sea shells. H bought a large shell to use as soap dish, then added a sea turtle made from shells glued together to give the soap some company.

We were walking along when H saw the arching windows of Morro Bay Wine Seller. It was starting to get dark and she wanted to enjoy the sunset through the window. We stopped by for some wine tasting and had a good chat with the store owner. Turned out, he used to work in restaurant in San Jose. We talked a little bit about how life's different in Silicon valley and central coast and had a great time. Before we left, we asked for restaurant recommendations.

"The Park", he said without any hesitation. "Maegen is a talented chef, you will enjoyed your meal."

With a recommendation like that, we could not resist. We drove back to San Luis Obispo and seek out the restaurant. My review of the restaurant is on Yelp. Overall, it was one of the best meal we ever had.

San Francisco Beer Tour

After watching Beer Nutz-San Francisco, my brother and I decided to spend July 4th to visit all the bar/brewery mentioned in the show.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get tour reservation at Anchor Brewing. Also, Magnolia Brewery was somewhat out of the way. In its place, we added Thirsty Bear brewery.

Our first stop was Beach Chalet. Located at the edge of Golden Gate Park, right next to the Pacific ocean, Beach Chalet is housed in a beautiful historic building, upstairs from the Golden Gate Park visitor's center. The restaurant had large windows facing Ocean Beach, looking out into the Pacific. Even though it was a foggy day, we enjoyed the view.

Beach Chalet offered 6 beers on their circle of ale selection: Hefeweizen, IPA, ESB, Red, Porter and 2 other beers I don't remember. Our favorite was the ESB, with the IPA a close second. The banana flavored Hefeweizen was actually decent, but I am not a fan of fruit beer in general.

The second stop of our beer tour was Rouge. Based out of Oregon, this brew pub had a San Francisco outlet located in North Beach. We ordered a 4 beer tasting set consisting of 200m IPA, Dead guy Ale, American Amber and a dark beer. We found the beer at Rouge too "hoppy" and not quite our taste. Their IPA, in particular, was too bitter. This was unusual, given I generally like a little hop in my beer.

Next stop was San Francisco Brewing Company. They did not have a taster set, so we ordered a small glass of all their beers: a lemony Hefeweizen, Albatross Lager, Emperor Norton Lager, IPA, Esteam, Brock, Ale, Stout and Porter. The Heferweizen here was too tart, in a bad way, so we quickly gave up on that. Both lagers was good. We especially like Emperor Norton. More malty than hop, it was a good change of pace. Their dark beers were all very strong. The stout was almost undrinkable. We liken the taste to Chinese medicinal stew. The porter was also bitter, but had a mild sweet after taste to make it more palatable.

Both Rouge and San Francisco Brewing Company are located a "touristy" North Beach. On most tables, we saw people with guide books enjoying their brews. Both venue were located in older buildings, but these buildings were not very well maintained. Instead of charming, both locale felt a little run down.

18 beers later, we came to the third stop of our tour: Thirsty Bear. Located next to the now defunct Hawthorne Lane restaurant, Thirsty Bear is located in the more modern/hip part of town. As we were tasting beer and having dinner, a steady flow of young professionals were coming in for food and drinks as well.

Thirsty Bear brew 8 beers: larger, wheat, brown ale, golden vanilla, ESB, IPA, Stout and the season brew Belgium white. Golden vanilla was quite special. It had a strong vanilla flavor on the nose and went down smooth. The Belgium white was golden in color, but had double the alcohol of most beer. It was quite good too.

We also ordered food off the Spanish inspired menu: grilled asparagus and spring onion with romesco sauce, ceviche and Valencia paella. The grilled vegetables with romesco sauce was great. The ceviche liquid was too tart, and overcame the sweetness of the seafood. The paella was tasty, but a little watery. We would prefer if it had a socarrat(the crusty bottom).

Our last stop of the night was 21st Amendment. Located near the base ball park, the brew pub looked modern. 21st Amendment offered the 8 beers: Blonde, Watermelon wheat, motor oil, darkness, cherry cider and 3 more which I could not remember.

I was looking forward to this stop because 21st Amendment offered a watermelon flavored beer. H's favorite fruit is the watermelon and I was wondering if she would enjoy the beer.

Unfortunately, at this time, both of us were feeling quite full from all the beers. We had paced ourselves and not drank on empty stomach, so we were not drunk or even high. But empty calories are still calories. Between the 2 of us, we could not finish the taster set! The watermelon beer came with a wedge of watermelon which gave the drink a strong watermelon smell. Upon removal of the garnish, we could still detect a hint of watermelon on the nose. I would have enjoy it more in a different occasion.

The cherry cider was not something I enjoy. It tasted like NyQuil.

We walked around the ball park area after our drinks before heading home.

Thus end our San Francisco beer tour! 34 types of beer in a day. This is definitely a personal record, one I don't want to break anytime soon:)

Chihuly at De Young Museum, Beethoven Symphony No. 7

H and I planned a cultural weekend. I bought tickets to the San Francisco Symphony during their January sale. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I learned that there is a Chihuly exhibition at the De Young Museum. Since we were already going to the city, we decided to watch the exhibition on the same day.

My first exposure to Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture was his installation in Bellagio in Las Vegas. H remembered seeing his work at Monterey Bay Aquarium and was intrigued as well.

We arrived at the Museum a little after 2pm. Since it was H's first trip to De Young, we walked around the compound a little to admire the copper clad structure. Since the copper skin will turn green due to oxidation (think Statue of Liberty) to better blend with the surrounding park at some later time, I thought it would be nice for her to view the Museum in its current copper-golden shade.

Since our tickets for Chihuly were timed for 3pm, so we had time to wonder around the museum a little. H was impressed by the Mammouth ivory among the America arts exhibits:)

Finally, at 3pm, we entered the Chihuly exhibition. The first exhibit was a series of long thin white tubes with pale red base. The glass took on organic shapes and in the reflection looked like strange, white tree branches.

The next exhibit, I called the "Falling leaves". Here glass were blown into round disc with folds, almost like flower petals. The petals had shades of autumn leaf colors.

The next room was filled with Native American weaved bowls and throw. Among these artifacts were glass bowls, with earth tone. The bowls were not perfect, and I felt like I was looking at hand made bowls from clay, shaped after open gourds.

There was also a room filled with flower petals. These glasses had soft, pastel colors, and the reflection of the glass on the walls looked like a Monet painting.

Another piece was what I called "Purple goo dripping up from tree". Here water droplet shapes of purple glass was placed on dried fallen tree trunks. The droplets seem to be falling up away from the tree against gravity.

There were also 2 wooden boats, one filled with colorful glass balls, the other filled with random shapes. H and I joked that the exhibition had too many art work and not enough space that they resort to bazaar style of presentation.

In another room was a series of heart shaped glass sculpture. Both H and I do not like the series of pointed glass tubes that formed these heart, so we walked through this room quickly.

In the next room, the glass sculpture was placed on a glass see through ceiling. Light shine through the glass artwork, creating a colorful reflection on the ground. Again, H and I felt the display was too busy. It was a good idea, but the exhibit would probably benefited from more space.

Final, the last room consisted of various stand alone display of glass sculpture, set on the ground. Some had pointy tubes, like the heart exhibit, while others have tulip like leaves shapes.

Images from the exhibition from Bayareadragon.com

Overall, we liked the organic shaped of the glass sculpture and the soft natural colors. These shapes and colors transform the glass sculpture into something familiar, but at the same time mysterious. We also felt the some art installation was too busy and if the pieces were spread out more, we could enjoy individual glass pieces better. Here's a review by Mercury News, as well as SFGate.com.

After the exhibition, we took the elevator to the top of the tower. There, we enjoyed the areal view of Golden Gate park and the San Francisco skyline.

After visiting De Young Museum, H and I walked around Golden Gate Park a little before dinner.

Since we are going to Davies Symphony hall after dinner, we stopped by Indigo for a quick pre-concert meal. There, we enjoyed a grilled salmon with herbed orzo and spring vegetables, as well as a pan roasted pork tenderloin with corn, mushroom and broccoli rabe. H felt the tenderloin was a little tough and the sauce too sweet. I liked the herb orzo and fresh vegetable in the salmon dish, as well as the straight forward preparation of the fresh wild salmon. More about the restaurant at Yelp!

The program for the concert was Seht die Sonne by Magnus Lindberg, Chansons de Jeunesse by Debussy and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Seht die Sonne was a modern piece, but had some elements of classical "depart and return" tone system, so it was fairly pleasant. We did not enjoy the Debussy piece as much.

Beethoven's 7th symphony was a big, exciting, fast paced piece of music. The conductor had only one little pause between the four movements and the final movement was a exhilarating whirl wind of music. We left the concert hall on a high note. Here, a critic disagree with my take on the concert.

Our last stop of the night was at my favorite wine bar in San Francisco: the Hidden Vine. After a day filled with exhibition and performance, we came here for a little port wine tasting to savor the sweet life:)

SCUBA Open Water Certification: Dive 1-3

I woke up at 5:00am to go to Monterey peninsula. After 3.5 weeks of class room lessons and pool lessons at Diver Dans, it was down to 4 open water dive before I get my PADI Open water diver certification.

H and I arrived at Breakwater Cove at 6:45am. The first dive of the day was at 7am. I quickly changed into wet suit, setup my scuba unit and got a site briefing from my instructors, Kirk and Alexia. The weather was warm by Monterey standard and the water barely moving. It was a great day for diving!

Breakwater cove is also a very popular dive spot for beginner diver. I did not count, but there must be another 3-6 groups of beginner divers. I could tell the other groups were beginning divers since only people who are trying to get certified will do surf entry and exit on an otherwise calm beach:)

My open water dives went fairly smoothly. We did all our drills correctly the first time, and after each session had some time left over to tour around. And the skills we learned came in handy too. I tend breathed out of my nose, especially when on the surface, so I always fogged up my mask. Mask flood and clear was especially useful for me:)

On one of the tour, my dive buddy accidentally kicked my regular out of my mouth. Visibility at our dive site was not very good and since none of us were navigating, all three students were swimming very close to our instructor. Given we are all beginner and have limited buoyancy control, that was bound to happen. I was actually rather calm, looked up, snatched the regulator, purged and continued swimming! Just like the drill!

Overall though, I am still fairly nervous in the water. Twice, our group had to surface because I was running low on air. I considered myself a decent swimmer and still cannot understand why I have this fear of the water.

We finished our three dives a little after noon. I went to the hotel to shower, hung out my wet suit and rest.

Dinner was at my favorite restaurant in the Monterey peninsula: Passion Fish. H and I shared a tasty Dungeness crab cake to start. For entree, we ordered a red wine braised beef short rib and baked wild Alaskan Salmon. Surprisingly, the braised short rib was excellent and even more tasty than the salmon. Please read my review on Yelp! for more details.

Graduation from green; D'vine Wine Bar

Spring skiing continued...

H and I left Bay Area at 5:30am since weather had been unusually warm, and we wanted to hit the slope early and end early to ski in the best possible snow condition.

We reach Kirkwood at about 9am, just as the lifts were opening. H suggested warming up on Mokelumme off chair #5, a blue slope I skied 2 weeks ago. This time though, she suggested using a narrower stance to improve carving.

Snow condition at 9am was surprisingly good. Unlike our previous trip, it was not icy, probably because of the warmer weather. However, it was still cold enough for the snow not to melt into mash.

Mokelumme is still a little too steep for me to work on technique, so I practised mostly on Lower Monte Wolfe. I was slowly gaining confidence and by my third or fourth run down Lower Monte Wolfe, I skied down the entire slope without stopping. The downside to gaining all this speed was my pole timing was all messed up. I was not initiating my turns with my poles, instead was sticking them out after my turns had started.

Snow condition gradually turned bad as the morning worn on. The snow became wetter and lumps of snow began to form. My inside foot was sometimes trapped by the lumps of snow during turns and made me fell down several times. Conscious of the wet, lumpy snow, I tired lifting my inside leg higher to avoid the lumps. While this helped enforced better carving, but also made each run more tiring.

I broke for lunch at about noon and had a pull pork sandwich with slaw. There was a band playing in the Kirkwood Mountain Village square, so I had live music to enjoy with food. Hit the slope again at 1pm and continued skiing on the 2 blue slopes. Due to the wet snow condition, I was unable to work on my stance as much as I prefer, but was feeling very comfortable going down both blue slopes. H jokingly commented I had graduated from the green slopes.

We had planned to stop skiing at 3pm, but H caught a second wind and we did not stop until 4pm when the lift closed.

We checked into City Center Motel in Carson City. After a quick shower, we took a stroll inside the Carson Nugget casino. Compare to Vegas, casino in Carson city are tiny. Since neither H nor I gamble, and I was bothered by the smoking, we left the premise after a quick look around.

Dinner was at D'vine wine bar and bistro. This is a fairly new establishment and I was unable to find any review about it on the web. But we were glad we came.

The exterior of the wine bar looked a little run down and cold, but the interior was new and warm. There was also live music. We ordered the roasted salmon and the raspberry pistachios salad. Shared a lovely flight of 5 wines. Finished the evening with a mixed berry cobbler with ice cream. For more on D'vine Wine Bar, please read my review on Yelp!

H and I had a wonderful evening and would come back to D'vine wine bar on future ski trips.

Ski Kirkwood

Spring skiing season officially arrived at Kirkwood on April 1st. Sensing ski season was coming to an end, I decided to go skiing once more with H.

H is a much better skier than me. She was kind enough to share with me her secret: "Breakthrough on skis" by Lito Tejada-Flores. We watched the first DVD together the night before and I took mental note of the exercises I should be working on.

Since this was a 2 day ski trip, we left the Bay area at 6am. The drive via route 88 took a little more than 3 and a half hour, as there was some light snow on the ground.

We started skiing at about 10am. H accompanied me on Squirrel Ridge, a green slope at lift #7 to start the day. The first section of the slope was a quite steep and I instinctively reverted to wedging. Sensing my discomfort on that slope, we went skiing on lift #9 instead. The three green slopes: Funny Bunny, School Run and Graduation were more appropriate for me:)

I was mainly working on skiing on one leg. Of the three slopes, Graduation was less crowded and had more powder, so I skied that slope most of the time.

After lunch, H skied with me on Funny Bunny. She noticed I had made some improvement and suggested we go up on lift #5 and try Mokelumme, a blue slope. I was able to come down with mostly parallel skiing. We also tried Lower Monte Wolfe, which had more powder and less slope. These are probably the steepest slopes I had ever skied, and I am happy to report I am making small improvements.

At about 4pm, we headed out of Kirkwood towards Carson city, where we checked into City Center Motel. After a quick shower, we headed out the door. Since both of us are not the gambling type, we decided to get dinner at JT Basque Dining room in Gardnerville.

There was a 40min wait for table. We strolled around Gardnerville while waiting, but most shops were closed. It was also getting cold. JT was buzzing with people and H was bothered by the noise. We were ready to leave and have dinner at another restaurant when our table was ready.

The food made the wait worthwhile. JT offered "all you can eat" side dishes with one main entree per person. I would classified the cuisine as comfort food. We started with a simple tomato based vegetable soup with orzo, served with bread and butter. Next up, a simple tossed green salad dressed with oil and vinegar that was more tasty than it should. There was also sides of baked beans, beef stew and fries, sprinkled with paprika. Finally, the best part, was the free refills on red wine. The wine itself was sweeter than what we preferred, but still quite good.

We chose the Basque scampi and Basque chicken as our entrees. The Basque scampi was a stir- fried onion and green pepper shrimp sitting in a tomato-based broth. It was delicious! The Basque chicken was similarly prepared, using boneless, skinless chicken breast steak instead of shrimp. The chicken was cooked just right, but this entree paled in comparison to the shrimp.

After dinner, vanilla ice cream and almond chocolate ice cream was served. It was a satisfying end to dinner. Read more about this restaurant on Yelp!

We decided to call it a night after the meal, since I had wanted to wake up early and experience freshly groom snow.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

I called my Irish American friend Gary over the weekend to wish him Happy St Patrick's Day. Turned out he was in Wuxi, on a business trip. I jokingly asked if there is an Irish pub nearby. His answer was, unfortunately no.

Gary used to buy us beer at Connor O'Neills while we were both going to grad school, so we were really closed:) We moved to different cities after graduation, but I still seeked his advice from time to time.

At the end of our conversation, Gary asked me to have a pint on his behalf on St. Patrick's Day. I am only too happy to oblige. I drove to the King's Head Pub on my way home for a green beer, but saw a long line of people waiting to get in. Not wanting to wait, I decided to have a black and tan at home instead.

This one's for you, Gary!

Cinequest 18: Dot.com

Cinequest is an independent film festival held in San Jose, typically with movies showing in Camera Cinemas, among other downtown locations. Since 2004, when I first found out about Cinequest, I always tried to attend at least one movie at Cinequest.

In general, movies at film festival can be hit or miss. Indie movies are not well reviewed and Cinequest tends to choose rather "unique films". Based on our schedule, H and I decided to watch "Dot.com", which had received decent review in Metro.

The movie is a fictional tale about a small village in Portugal which had registered its village name as an website. A multinational Spanish beverage company wanted the same website to promote its new mineral water product. There were some conflicts but, in the end, a happy ending was achieved.

The movies is quite funny, and enjoyable that way. Some details were not clearly handled, but, unlike some indie film, the overall story were coherent. I felt that the movie could have explored globalization and its impact/conflict on local culture more. But given globalization and its impact is such a serious topic, I doubt any movie could do the discussion justice while keeping the movie light and enjoyable.

It was H's first time at Cinequest and she liked the movie. I was relieved since I enjoy going to Film Festivals.

After the movie, we checked out A Perfect Finish wine bar in downtown San Jose. Unlike some other wine bar, A Perfect Finish serves tapas and dessert. I like the concept, since it is nice to be able to get a little food and drink after watching a performance/movie, in the downtown San Jose area.

On the night we visited, the bar were full, but most of the table were opened. I hoped this place does well, so I can come back for future visits.

Dinner with A and S

A IM'ed me at work last week, asking me if I am free for dinner on Saturday evening. I told him sure...

A's SO, S, is a good friend of mine from undergrad. We don't meet very often because we stayed in different part of the bay area. One event we have done regularly together is the San Francisco Dine About Town (DAT) promotion in January every year. We are both a little bit of a foodie:)

However, DAT(Dine About Town) changed its format this year. Instead of offering the promotion the entire month of January, as in previous years, this year, DAT promotion is been offered during the last 2 weeks of January and the first 2 weeks of June.

I was sick on the the weekend in January where we were supposed to meet, so this is like a make up dinner:)

We met for Little Lamb Mongolian Hot Pot in Union City. I have heard positive reviews about the food there and eagerly went. Turns out A and S loved the place and have been there several times already. They did most of the ordering. I posted a review on Yelp about the restaurant.

Good food, great company...After a somewhat busy week at work, I was glad to unwind a little and enjoy myself.

With this new format for DAT, we will definitely try to do dinner in San Francisco during the first 2 weeks of June.

Miro, Goya and Picasso at SJ Museum of Art

I will admit it...I feel a little snobbish about the Bay Area fine art museums. Legion of honor, SF MOMA and the San Jose Museum of Art are in my mind NOT some of the better fine art museums on the West Coast, let alone the US.

Then, I received an email invitation through work about a reception and a chance to see the work of 3 Spanish master: Joan Miro, Francisco Goya and Picasso. Plus, they promised sangria and tapas too...I don't think I need any more arm twisting:)

Work was actually somewhat busy, so I did not reach the museum until 7:15pm. Feeling a little hungry, I hit the buffet table for some tapas. Got myself a few pieces of cheese, some ham and a meat ball. Satisfied, I start browsing the exhibits.

I had read online the Miro exhibit will be closing soon and decided to look at his work first. Personally, I felt Miro's works are too abstract for me to interpert, but always enjoy the vibrant colors and whimsical lines/shapes. There was a painting with a drawing of I thought looked like a dog that I enjoyed. On another painting, I swore the top right figure was Miro's representation of a rat. Finally, there was a figure that reminded me of Cobi, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics mascot, waving its arms welcoming guest.

There was a series of Miro's works which were almost Zen like. Painted with wide brush strokes on beige-colored paper, it was very different from the Miro's that I am familiar with. Interesting in its own right, but, unfortunately, that series did not resonate with me at all:(

Next, I went to check out the Goya's exhibits. I remembered vividly studying about "The Third of May 1808" during my art history lessons in undergrad and always had the impression that Goya's works are mystic, dark and painful. These exhibits did nothing to change that impression. There were several etching depicting evil torturing ordinary people. Bodies were twisted in pain. There was something strange about the setup of this exhibition: the explanation posted next to the etchings read like comments of 3 art critics, where usually the titles given by the artist were posted. I still don't know what to make of that.

Finally, I checked out Picasso's etching. I was immediately drawn by the intricate lines Picasso used to drawn horses and facecs. Those detailed lines reminded me of African masks. I was quite excited since I recalled in my art history class, Professor Geiger had mentioned Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was inspired by African tribal masks and Picasso had an extensive collection of African art. It seems to fit pretty well with what I was seeing.

The title of Picasso's exhibition is "Etchings of Love and Desire". Call me conservative, but I was uncomfortable with the obvious drawing of male sexual organ in some of the etching. There was a series of etchings showing the Pope, Raphael (the Renaissance artist) and his model Margherita where Raphael was CLEARLY excited. The etchings were too explicit for me to enjoy the art. It was unfortunate, since the some of the etchings had beautiful line art work which I did not associate with Picasso.

My friend H came by after work and we viewed the rest of the exhibit together. We managed to quickly glance through most of the art work before the museum closed at 9pm.

I was feeling a little hungry, so we had a quick dinner/night snack at Asqew Grill. I had eaten at their Steiner Street location in San Francisco and really enjoyed their skewers, but was frankly disappointed with the San Jose store. I ordered the Portobello mushroom skewers, which was served with citrus couscous . The grilled vegetables did not have any seasoning to it, and the soy berrre blanc sauce described on the menu tasted like soy sauce and did not bring alot of flavor to the dish. The portions seemed to have changed a little as well. I recalled the skewers were served with a starch and a creative side salad, but salad was not part of my meal.

I was happy San Jose Museum of Art was able to put together exhibitions by 3 world renowed artist. While their most representative works were not shown, one could still sense and appreciate the style of their work. I was also glad the reception successfully drew a large crowd of younger patrons. Maybe San Jose will be more cultured from now on!

Sand Hill Cranes at Galt, Night ski at Boreal

It snowed heavily the previous weekend, so when my friend called me up and asked if I am interested in a 2 day ski trip, I figured why not?

I am really not much of a skiier, but does like to go to the mountain at least once or twice a year. After all, where I come from, snow is not a natural phenomenon:)

Four of us met up at about 9:30am in Milpitas, then vanpooled to Galt. Someone within the group had read that the natural reserve near Galt have a large population of sand hill crane migrating at around this time and given it is on our way to the ski resort, we might as well stop by for a visit.

Frankly, we were all very disappointed. When we drove into the reserve, we saw about a total of 10-12 sandhill cranes. These cranes are not entirely white, but more grayish in color, so they don't look all that pretty. Disappointed, we decided to stop by the visitor center to see if there are other spots for better bird viewing...

Turns out, we were at the reserve during a bad time. The cranes have mostly left the reserve looking for food. A better time for bird viewing would be early in the morning or later in the evening when they are back at the reserve resting...Oh well, at least this was not the focus of our trip:)

We then drove to Sacromento for lunch. Despite having lived in the Bay area for almost 7 years now, this is my first time having lunch in Sacromento. Again, someone in the group suggested New Canton Restaurant. It was a great suggestion! The quality of the dim sum was comparable to those in the Bay area. We also ordered a stew lamb with tofu skin that was hearty and flavorful. As we were in a hurry, I didn't feel I had tasted the food carefully enough to write a review, but I would gladly go back there for lunch or dinner on future ski trips.

We arrived at Boreal at about 3:30pm. After getting our lift tickets, we hit the slopes! We hit a ski lift called the "Accelerator" to the top of the mountain. From there, there is a blue route (#17)down the hill. I had felt it was somewhat steep, and maked really wide turns to come down the slope, but my fellow skiier were not frazed at all!

I had been stuck at the ski level of trying to do mostly parallel turns for a while now. My friend was very encouraging and gave me some good tips. She also showed me the drills she had practiced while she was learning parallel skiing. Feeling route 17 was too steep for me to concerntrate on improving my techniques, I went on a ski lift call the "Claimjumper" and did some green slopes instead. There was the added bonus of shorter lines at the Claimjumper:)

After several runs, I felt that my right turns had improved and I could stop fairly well going in that direction. I could slow myself down with left turns, but was unable to stop myself.

Boreal is a small resort and lights were installed to allow for night skiing. As the day light starts to fade, the snow became more icy. But by 6pm, a small breeze had began blowing. This help bring in some new powder onto the slopes, and the ski condition actually improved a little.

I hit the "Accelerator" a few times after dark, but the cold wind made it really uncomfortable on the ski chairs. I decided to stick to the shorter green run for the rest of the night.

We stopped skiing at about 9pm and headed to a hotel in Reno to spend the night.

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.