Fantastically Lazy

Oh man oh man...I am feeling soooooooooooooooooooo lazy this weekend. I feel like we've just been catching up on sleep since the family reunion. We didn't even work out this weekend - ha! All I did was grocery shop and hang out at home. God help me if I get fat from this type of behavior. Thank goodness for all the weekday workouts at the pool.

Movie Review: Batman

Yesterday the Chinn's called with extra tickets to the new Batman movie. We drove down rather excitedly to meet up with them in San Mateo for this fabled movie.

HOLY SHIZ people - this movie is good. I am not saying any more as I don't want to get into the storyline too much.

Heath Ledger as the Joker, stupendous. He is totally creepy and enthralling. You can't stop watching the train wreck the madman is creating in Gotham - through cringes and everything.

Aaron Eckhart was great as the idealistic DA turned vengeful Two Face. He is quite a cutie (pre-face burn).

Maggie Gyllenhall is MUCH better than Katie Holme's version of Rachel. Maggie's had more "oomph" to her character. More sass, attitude and vibrance to her incarnation.

Christian Bale was consitent...I don't particularly find him attractive but he is a good actor. But can somebody please explain WHY does he need to do the fake gravelly voice as batman?

Eating Umami

Everything on the menu is in celebration of umami... With the ultimate experience of umami being a mouth watering sensation that is then rewarded with a fullness and richness of flavors that provide sensory satisfaction.
A flight of three different wines to accompany our tasting menu. From right to left we have;
2006 Ludwig Riesling, 2006, Handley Chardonnay and 2002 Philippe-Lorraine Cabernet Sauvignon....these were pretty healthy pours for being "tastes."

Above is the most beautiful plate I have ever seen....they dimmed the lights when they were bringing this course out and in a more intimate venue, I can only imagine what the effect may have been..... Chef Kunio Tokuoka flew in from Japan to create the appetizer course for the umami celebration - and in some ways, I think his achievement celebrated the many nuances of umami the best.

The candle is wrapped in a thinly sliced daikon that has been dipped in a reddish/pink dye on one end, creating a ethereal effect by illumiating the veins of the daikon and creating a soft glow onto the plate of delectable little morsels....

The first is a set of lightly simmered onions with chicken and pickled plum gelee, seaweed, shiso and sesame. This was crunchy yet not crispy....the shiso was sliced finely and dried but had a more intense flavor then anticipated...

On the right is the seared lobster with tosa vinegar gelee, fried rice, ginger and bonito....I found this to be the most tasty for my palatte. I prefer tangy and salty things with intense flavors and this one fit the bill perfectly while having various different textures - the gelee melted in the mouth while you chewed the lobster - fantastic!

On the left is a savory egg custard with a smoked chicken mousse, parmagiano-reggiano shavings and pepper leag bud. HOLY SHIT - this was hands down the most interesting thing on the plate for me. The mousse was basically a whipped cream that has been infused with smoked chicken...then sitting on top is an egg yolk that has been cooked at a low-ish heat for 30 minutes creating a creamy yet firm consistency...together with the parm cheese it was like a subltle flavor-gasm in my mouth but it was the mouth feel that won me over...it was like eating savory silk.

On the right we have Wagyu beef rolls with a japanese pepper dipping sauce... Did I mention it was Wagyu? enough said there I think.

On the left are potato frites with a topping of salt pickled vegetables...it was like a mashed potato with the tangy pickles chopped on top..very refreshing yet satisfying.

Chef Hiro Sone of Ame in San Francisco prepared the salad course. He took a Thai/Vietnamese twist to his dish by preparing Ginger-Poached Shrimp and Watermelon salad with a lemongrass vinaigrette. The green dots that you see there is a cilantro oil and he also has some thai chiles in the vinaigrette....what brought out the umami most was the use of fish sauce in the dressing. That savory and spicy goodness was a wonderful complement to the respective sweetness of both the shrimp and watermelon.

Chef Thomas Keller prepared the main course of lamb, byaldi and roasted fennel with pickled shallot sauce. All kinds of umami in this bad boy - although Chef's opening was interesting in that he says he isn't specifically trying to bring out umami or anything...that we should all realize that this (umami) was here before we recognized what it was so we should just accept and enjoy it. Kind of funny considering it was an umami celebration - but true nonetheless as he was emphasizing that we should just love it because it tastes great and not single out one compound.

Also, at one point when someone asked him "what do you think is next?" he had a very humble and reflective answer by saying....we have to honor the farmers and providers of our food (ingredients) otherwise nothing is next - in this country people want the best for as cheap as possible and that is not sustainable - we must support the providers of the very best with money (our purchases) so that they can continually produce the best.

I do like that he always gives the "shout out" to his purveyors and brings awareness to that side of the business, especially in these times where we are facing outbreaks of food borne illnesses, potential extinction of entire species of crops and many other sins from our factory farming and monoculture approach to agriculture. And yes - I did read the Omnivore's Dilemna...but before that I read Fast Food Nation and Food Politics and a whole host of other food related literature. It is amazing what our fiddling around with the science of food has done to us in the long run....

Celebrating Umami

Forrest and I took Monday off from work to attend the "New Frontiers of Taste's, 100 years of Umami celebration." The first part of the day started with a panel discussion featuring food scientists, professors, chefs and sommeliers. The event was put together by the UMAMI Information Center and who knew such an organization existed??? I mean it's like having the Institute of Sucrose put together a celebration of all things sweet...

Interestingly enough, umami (or the 5th flavor) was discovered by a Japanese scientist 100 years ago but has only been publically recognized by the rest of western society since the mid 80's. The flavor is molecularly "glutamate" and it is what gives food a savory / rich flavor sensation. There was some interesting disucssion around how the receptors for umami might have evolved to make humans interested in eating proteins whereas the sucrose receptors make us essentially crave carbohydrates.

Anyhoo - I am totally nerding out now, but now nearly as much as the folks who were in attendance. In comparison, I am merely "interested" in food where some of the other attendees could be better classified as "fanatics"....

Visiting Soo, Dean and Baby Tae

H&H Reunion 2008

It has been two years since the last H&H Family Reunion and this time around, I'm a member of the family...the last time I was a "special friend" attendee. H&H stands for Henry and Hildegard, who are Forrest's maternal grandparents - so at this reunion, it is my mother in law Pat and her siblings; Steuart, Shirley, Deannie and their kids, grandkids and even some great-grandkids. The picture above has 38 people in it and what is even crazier is that 30 people are missing!!!

This year's reunion was hosted at the YMCA of the Rockes in Winter Park Colorado...about 2 hours west of the Denver airport. So it's near Vail and Breckenridge ski resorts.... The place was massive and there were tons of outdoor activities to do and really, I wouldn't mind going back there again.

The only thing I could pass on is the altitude... I have never experienced a sickness like that before in my life. We arrived in Denver at 1pm and around 5 am the following day, while I was sleeping, I was awoken by a splitting headache and could not go back to sleep...then to only make matters worse, I lost my lunch from the nausea. GROSS. The vomiting only happened once, but I fought the headache all weekend and then started to get bloody noses - not awesome. But I am happy to report that I am back to normal after having returned to California on Sunday.


You too can kill a raging tyrannasaurus rex during the group archery lessons!

Livestrong Challenge 2008 - San Jose, CA

Sunday was spent cycling over 50 miles of mostly flat suburban San Jose. Hiroko found this event and I somehow signed up and talked Forrest into it too..it must have been the fundraising for cancer that won me over because man oh man...I was soooooo over the cycling portion before it ever began.
Riders (not racers) lining up and awaiting the kickoff.
Forrest pre-bathroom line.
Hiroko's back full of support for cancer survivors.

Friday Night at the Ambassador

There are better pictures up on Chesternet but these are ones from my camera. Friday Chester IM'ed me to meet up for drinks and dinner at the Ambassador in the Tenderloin. Normally I am against hanging out in the 'loin but Sam offered to drive so...eh....

But what a surprise! The place is super cool on the inside with these booths that had phones so you could call each other. BUT the real treat is the happy hour menu!!!! It's about half the price of the regular menu so you can get a really good hamburger on a brioche bun and fries for $6 - ACK!

Almost a Fraud Victim....EEK!

So I got the craziest phone call today...
They said they were from our car warranty company and that we could renew our warranty…

They went through this whole schpeel, said it would be only $2,695 but if I bought today, they would knock $500 off the price… AND that there were different financing options so I could downpay whatever amount I wanted now…and call back with the rest.

So my first inclination was to ask for documentation of the warranty benefits before I moved forward because this guy was talking WAY too fast. But before I asked that....

It got squirrely because I said “I need to talk to my husband tonight about it and get back to you…besides I never received any notices from you guys that I could renew my warranty…”

They say “sure no prob, talk to your husband and call us back”

I say “great – what is the phone number”

They say “hold please”

And then they hang up.

I tried calling back the phone number from my caller ID…and guess what? It’s an invalid phone number.

TOTALLY CRAZY - I have never had that happen before.

Paper Anniversary

Today is our one year anniversary!
I can't believe it's already been a year already...What they say is true, time goes by A LOT faster as you get older.

Girls Weekend in Napa

Pictured above is me, Ann, Jana and mom at the entrance to Artessa winery. Jana has a big birthday this year and mom decided to organize a girls spa weekend to celebrate....We spent three days over the Fourth of July holiday working really hard on our relaxing. Friday was spent at Spa Terra (highly recommended) which is built into the side of a wine cave at the new Meritage Resort and Saturday was spent wine tasting then an evening concert at Momdavi Winery.

Below are pics from lunch at Carneros Della Notte.... Ann had met the owner at a fundraiser event in Los Angeles and we were treated to a picnic style lunch on the porch with loads of wine to sample.

The day continew with an outdoor concert at Mondavi Winery. The event was kicked off by Margrit Mondavi and a tribute to Robert Mondavi who passed away this year.
Consensus??? We need to do this more often! Leave the kids home with dads or grandfathers and the ladies need to head out for some relaxing!