Food, Recipes, and Health

It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I decided to get myself a homemade dessert. I looked up recipes for mousse au chocolat, wanting one that is original both in time of creation and inventiveness.

I got in one of my baking books that I shlep around from move to move, without really having a good reason for them. I started writing down the list of ingredients and found something that puzzled me: it called for egg yolks and whipped cream.

Coffee places in SoMa

I’ve been living here for about two months, and I have now visited my share of coffee places in SoMa. The following is a brief summary of my recollections – constantly updated as I find new places.

First of all, there is no dearth of choices here South of Market. The neighbourhood caters to two classical coffee addicts and is crowded with caffeine spigots. Yuppies need the jolt to get their head spinning all the time, and time wasters just have time to hang out, and coffee is just the excuse.

Mediocrity

One of the things that has always puzzled me is just how adverse a reaction you can get to anything average. You’d think that something average would be ok – I mean, how could it possibly be bad to be like everyone else?

Instead, in all languages I speak, there is a common thread: words that indicate averageness have negative connotations. Let’s see: mediocre (from Latin medius, middle); average; common; durchschnittlich (German for average). Even the very negative “mean” has a cognate that indicates averageness.

Moving right with Delancey Street Foundation

{moszoomimglink:delancey_restaurant}Well, usually a move would not warrant yet another blog post – I guess everybody goes through them, and many of us have gotten used to the whole process. I wanted to highlight, though, the movers I used this and the last time, and recommend them to everybody that cares about their stuff.

Preparing for the Move

First things first: anyone who moves has to take care of the process. Take a calendar and mark your desired move date, choose the movers and get a confirmed date. Try to get the first appointment in the day, since you don’t want to be waiting in case something goes wrong with the move before you, and let that be a priority over the date.

Back from Whistler

{moszoomimglink:sunny_for_a_change}Thanks to the virtually infinite generosity of my friends Paul and Justin, I got to hang out at their place in Whistler this year for the second time. What was different this time? Well, I knew the mountain already, and so had much more fun exploring. My crazy friend D. (who wouldn’t want to be named) was there, too – he shoved me up the worst couloirs on the mountain, and together we conquered some really fun terrain on Blackcomb.

Patent

No way! A friend at Yahoo! just emailed me this link

Back (Briefly)

So, my life in Hawaii is actually quite close to what I wanted it to be, but someone thought I am a good CTO and invited me for an interview back to the Bay Area. Cool company, lots of problems in the product but nothing a good team couldn’t fix – and the money to do it, all of it.

I am flying out tomorrow morning, returning on Wednesday. Of course, Friday will see me flying out again – to Honolulu, to get a complete check-up at the Kaiser clinic after my doctor here is afraid I might have had angina, precursors to a heart attack.

One Way

Et in Arcadia ego. How odd it was to buy a one-way ticket to Hilo, how odd it is to sit at the Starbucks and not have to check email or anything else.

The morning was gorgeous, as if to make up for the short night. The plane was crowded, and getting out took forever, especially since this time around I had to check-in luggage – how else was I going to get the cherry jam to Paul and Charlie???

Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 10

{moszoomimglink:Mozart}Not a great many stories start with the sentence: “So, I was at the Border’s store to get on fast Internet, when I wandered off to the classical CD section.” Admittedly, sounds like a nerd crossed with a geek meeting a dork. What can I say? Is growing up in Europe an excuse?

In any case, I was perusing (that’s a nerd term for you!) the CDs when I noticed the “4 for 3” special in the store. I scoured the place for 4 CDs that might be interesting, paid for them and put them in a bag to be forgotten for a couple of days. Who knows, maybe stale classics get pepped up by a few hours in the Hilo sun?

Moving into the Mission

A friend of mine from spinning class, Liz, finally made her dream come true and bought an apartment in the Mission. I really love her a ton, so I offered to help her with the move, and that’s how I spent my usually sacred selfish Saturday.

We moved from the Northern reaches of Daly City. The neighborhood was mostly minority, with the black families living with their backs to the freeway, while the more affluent Asians dominated the upper reaches. Liz’s sister-in-law pretended we were not there, almost refusing to say hello. We packed the truck within an hour and disappeared into Liz’s new digs in the Mission.