Not technically an aji, as there are no aji chilies. This recipe is pretty malleable. Add scallions, more or less garlic, a tiny fiery hot red chili depending on your tastes. For creamier texture, add a 1/4 cup mayo, yogurt or milk and a little less cheese. Sometimes I see this sauce made with a bit of crackers or bread used as a thickener. If...
Success! A Two raw eggs gives this dish just the right consistency, bringing the salty, spicy, sour and creamy all together. We like our noodles a little spicier at this house, so the flavor of the mentaiko gets a little lost, but you can rinse the kimchi and lightly dry it. Perhaps I may try the saltier masago or tobiko to see if the...
The love child of this momofuku4two recipe originally taken from the Momofuku book/restaurant, and the Kimchi Udon from Ginji. I found this first iteration not as creamy as I would like, aka Momofuku version. However, the flavor was close to what I was after. I actually think there might be an egg in the Ginji dish like a carbonara, and not actually any mentaiko,...
After finishing first, Terminal World, by Alistair Reynolds and then, All the Windwracked Stars, by Elizabeth Bear, I realized that both novels are much of the same. Meaning... In the aftermath of apocalypse (or several, as in the case of Bear), on a foregone, poisoned planet (a pseudo Earth), humankind, or a mutated semblance of such, clings wretchedly to life in concentric rings...
The premise of ABC's tv show Castle - intelligent yet winsome novelist turned NYPD homicide consultant to poker faced procedural hotty Kate Beckett - is laughable, but realism aside, this mystery crime series has just gotten better and better with age. While charges are partially true that the character of Beckett is an old routine, that Stanic plays her a little too stoic,...
This Yale Press coffee table book features deliciously large photos that show design detail with great clarity. Considering the intent of the author to prove American designers have innovated as much as their international peers, Mears unfortunately describes garment construction textually when a simple pattern image would have illuminated the same point in a more concise way. Perhaps the publisher believed a lay audience...
Taken from a Fashion-Incubator posting regarding pattern frustrations. "It is quite natural that we should adopt a defensive and negative attitude towards every new opinion concerning something on which we have already an opinion of our own. For it forces its way as an enemy into the previously closed system of our own convictions, shatters the calm of mind we have attained through...
Despite the moderator's attempt to steer the discussion towards a mundane dissection of undergraduate level humanities theory, New York Times writer, Cathy Horyn, managed to land a few gems on the topic of critical thinking and fashion during yesterdays installment of Stanford Humanities Department Arts Critics in Residence Series. Horyn, breaking from dated women's wear reporting of fashion, ascribes her critical style to...
I made the magical cheesy puff bread constructed from choux dough from the Tartine baking book, which resulted in accolades among all testers. Remember to poke the puffs immediately after leaving the oven or they will go flat. Plenty copy pasta on the interwebs, so I won't repeat it here. Unfortunately, my camera is still having troubles and my picture of beautiful puff...
A little short on sauce for our taste, I added a bit extra garlic and salt and another can of crushed tomato puree. I also reduced the amount of parmesan in the meatballs as they were plenty rich enough for my yin yang twin. That said, I enjoyed this dish from Ina Garten a lot. Meatballs 1/2 lb ground veal 1/2 lb ground...
A belated picture of candied pecans. A belated picture of candied pecans. ...
"Be your best self". --Darryl Philbin "Be your best self". --Darryl Philbin ...
"Imagine concentrating on a challenging modern painting that becomes just a little bit different every time you shift your attention from one detail to another, or try to impose a frame on a running river, making it a finite, enclosed work of art yet leaving its kinetic quality unsullied, leaving it flowing freely on all sides... It has been done. Steve Reich has...
"The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." --Queen Victoria "The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." --Queen Victoria ...
She's put the spell on me, that Elizabeth Bear, with her tersely modulated prose and bitter lovemaking. All the Windwracked Stars, a cyber-norse apocalypse story, and the tragic prequel, By the Mountain Bound... Good Stuff! My favorite scene? Glistening toadstools in a barren land. Also occult sorcery, wampyr, steampunk, and Victorian politics collide in New Amsterdam, a fetching novel that sets a stage...
For anyone living down the shame of a fallen souffle or recovering from a disastrous holiday dinner; Sensible, funny, durable kitchen lessons from chefs who have gone through a whole lot to get where they are, creating the most amazing dishes at the top of the food chain through refinement after persistent refinement, and sometimes by grotesque accident. 'Such is the nature of...
Sure, there's only really one hot week out of the year, but of course the Bay Area would be home to some serious ice cream; Marianne's - chocolate malt with a buttermilk base, Mitchell's - halo halo flavor, the It's It oatmeal cookie and mint chip sandwich. For artisan flavors inside the foggy city proper, look to the salted burnt caramel at Bi-Rite...
This Alastair Reynolds novel is rife with verbose exposition, redundant in presentation, weak on dimensional characterization, poorly paced, with an utter lack of satisfying concrete prose. In short, an overlong mess with a very well reasoned premise. Why am I still reading this bloated book? Well, Alistair Reynolds throws out compelling ideas with a whiff of noir and techno-dystopia sci-fi, and in this...
"These are the last things. A house is there one day, and the next day it is gone. A street you walked down yesterday is no longer there today. Even the weather is in constant flux. A day of sun followed by a day of rain, a day of snow followed by a day of fog, warm then cool, wind then stillness, a...
