Tag: food

Surprise of the week

On Tuesday we went to Alcatraz Island for a tour. Leah and I had been there before last time we visited San Francisco more than 5 years ago. So nothing too exciting happened there. The revealation was the Boudin Bread place on the piers. 5 years ago it was a red brick building with very little indoor seatings forcing all the tourists to seat and stand outside to consume the sourdough clam chowder. Now in its place is a very modern metal and glass building with a shop on the left and a demo bakery on the right. There are even outdoor seatings!

The real surprise was when we got back from the island and decided to eat at the Boudin Bistro on the second floor of the new building. Since it is in the tourist location I kind of expected over-priced average food with bored sevices. In fact we got average-priced excellent food with great service! We were so impressed with their food that not only left a large tip, but we also planned to have lunch there on Friday.

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Carolina BBQ Pulled Pork Burger


Carolina BBQ Pulled Pork Burger
Originally uploaded by alexhung.

I know I have been to the dentist, but I didn’t know I am due for a mouth extension! Just look at the size of the burger!

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Is computer profession a profession?

I love food and preparation of food, e.g. cooking, so naturally I like the Food Network channel on the cable TV. But I never seem to be able to watch much as Leah’s TV schedule doesn’t leave me with much time for ‘my TVs’. Unsurprisingly I have been gorging on Food Network for the last few days! Emeril Live (whom Leah has nicknamed ‘Greasy Gnome’), Boy Meets Grill, and Iron Chef America to name just a few.

Of course one thing in common is that all these shows have a fully kit-out kitchen, and this got me thinking. Why is it Ok for other professionals such as chef, painter, writer, musicians, etc. to have they tools of trade in their house and get appreciated comments from friends and family, while computer professionals like myself get the ‘wasteful’, ‘excessive’ looks when friends and family discover I have more than one computer?

Why is it Ok (or in fact encouraged) for chef, or painter, or whoever, to practice their trade in their own home, e.g. cook for their friends, paint a picture for special occasion, etc., while it is considered anti-social, nerdy, for computer professionals like myself to spend my leisure time on the computer/internet? More puzzling is that if my time spent on the computer is for something creative, let’s say working on digital photos verses developing my own application, that’s considered time worth spending. Why is it not Ok for me to have multiple computers when others can have multiple ovens, cooking pans, knives, paint brushes, etc.?

Is this because computer industry is still very young and the majority of the population still does not consider computer job as a profession? Or is it because the work we do is so complex and nebulous in compare to others (like cooking) that most people does not, and will not try to, understand what we do and thus do not value our work?

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The Weekend

Leah and I had a busy Saturday.
Central Park Gates  – 7Just before we left the apartment for my usual gym session at midtown Manhattan, we decided to go to Central Park afterward and see what the fuss is all about The Gates. I took Leah’s compact digital camera with us and took some photos there. The park was packed full of gates as well as people. The orange fabric makes the park looks very zen/Buddhist-like.

But we couldn’t find somewhere we wanted to have lunch near the park so we decided to walk all the way back to midtown and had Japanese noodles instead. The round trip must have been at least 3 miles. Well it was 10 blocks up and down town between the park and the gym/noodle place as well as our walk up and across the park. I persuaded Leah to try out the pork curry ramen noodle and she loved it. Now that becomes her favourite dish, replacing chicken katsu don. We shared the gyoza and they are probably some of the best gyoza I’ve tasted! (I am sure there are better ones but hey, I am easy to please)

Then in the evening later, we went to a Sinatra party in downtown Manhattan. Really it was just an excuse to have a party and get ourselves drunk!
Sinatra Party – 1 We were supposed to be there by 9 p.m. but I had some shirt problem and PATH train problem so we didn’t get there until way past 10 p.m. Still we had a great time there drinking and chatting with people I work with. By the way, the ‘classic’ martini tastes pretty bad. Perhaps it is the gin but I am not sure why people like it. So I had a Baileys to balance it out 🙂 We didn’t leave until 2:30 am when the owner of the place more or less kicked us out.

I joked to Leah that since we have the keys to the new apartment in Battery Park City, just across the street may be we should just stay there instead of trekking home. She didn’t buy it and so we had to wait in the freezing platforms at WTC then at Grove Street before we got home at around 3:30 p.m. Good job I didn’t go to work the next day like I planned to!

The next day I woke up at 11 a.m. by Leah’s departure to the cinema with her friend (her reason/excuse of not staying at our new apartment). I stayed in bed and surfed the net for awhile then I got up and worked on ecto for a couple of hours. By that time Leah had came back with Thai food so we finished watching the last two episodes of Long Way Round DVD* and other TiVo shows. Then took some photos of my film camera body which I will be putting onto eBay for sale very soon. More TV then ensured and after that, I played like 4 hours of Halo 2 and went to bed at 3 a.m. I need more days like this one.

* There are a bunch of negative reviews about the book of their trip on Amazon. I am not sure whether it is because the reviewers are jealous that Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman were rich actors, or that they realise they didn’t get off their collective asses and do the trip themselves. Either way, Leah and I enjoyed the DVD. It is certainly not the Round the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin but it never pretends to be.

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