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There is a certain snobbism in food circles in favor of tradition, authenticity, shunning any suggestion of using modern techniques. Flash freezing, use of liquid Nitrogen, Spherification, Sous Vide (which is just the French way of saying 'cooking under vacuum') - for example. "Is it even 'Food'?", they ask turning their noses up. On the other ( Read more... )

The idea was to cross the hills via the Beverly Glen canyon road on my way back from work in Burbank, come back to Westwood Village, loiter around, read a story or two from the New Yorker fiction issue, decide whether to eat grilled chicken or barbacoa at Chipotle, and then slip into the adjacent Regent theater to catch Toy Story 3 ( Read more... )

Yahoo's Sunnyvale campus is so full of energy - radiating from its huge URL's cafe, outward onto its many buildings, people rambling about with Y! backpacks on its lawns - that it's positively giddying for a non Bay Area visitor. It even has access to bay trails right from its backyard. You can run, hike, or just unwind from your day breathing in ( Read more... )

Apparently there is a bar in Bay Area, the bartender at Shutters on the beach tells us, where they serve 2$ drinks during the happy hour, and the prices shoot up as soon as someone breaks the seal.

I don't wanna be in that bar.

Ever!

I feel so disconnected.

After a month away, in addition to the frustration of not being able to check out a single French movie while in Paris, though I saw the posters of many interesting movies (Did you know that the director of Triplets of Belleville now has a new movie titled L'Illusioniste based on a story by Jaques Tati or that the star of ( Read more... )

After struggling to order from a French menu for a month ('terrine' what? Excus-mwah, Is that chicken or beef?), it's rather comforting to know that at any time you can walk into a Starbucks, and say "Medium size Mocha, with soy, extra hot", and be understood immediately.

Almost!

There will still be the mandatory questioning "Oh, you mean Grande ( Read more... )

One of the regrettable changes online is that LiveJournal is dead, or rather dying a slow death, or is taken over by greedy Russian overloads who seem hellbent on running video ads and make the site highly unusable, almost as if they want to remind you that you are unwelcome to even visit the home page. Like you, I too lamented, in public and in ( Read more... )

The best thing about Paris is of course its cafe culture. The side-walk cafes that serve, well, coffee, d'oh, and a lot more. Drinks are welcome, so is smoking. Puff it away. A few food items too. But not caramel macchiato. Yuppies, please exit through the side door. These are only for parisians to socialize after work and yap about anything under ( Read more... )

Anna Ternheim is being billed as the next Norah Jones, to go where the fellow swede, Lykki Li, couldn't.

I am skeptical though. beatzo, are you listening?