Insane in the Membrane, Insane in the Domain!

It is 3:00 a.m. in the morning, but something truly awesome has just occurred. If I wait until later today to blog about it, my head would explode into a million pieces of melancholy.

Truly. Awesome. Occurrence. Just. Now.

The beau just bought and set up http://www.passionateeater.com and http://passionateeater.com! Instead of tediously typing in http://passionateeater.blogspot.com, forget about the "blogspot!"

Depression Sets In

Sigh, I have been feeling down and out recently.

The economy.

The job market.

And it's only been getting worse. The latest bad news to befall my ears was the recent trade by the Suns of Raja Bell and Boris Diaw for Kevin Richardson. Well, yes, granted, it is a good trade, but it breaks my heart to know that the dynamic, explosive, and adrenaline-filled Suns team of just a few years ago is now completely torn asunder. Note to Steve Kerr: You already had Shawn Marion, but you let him go in pursuit of your short-term desire to go further in the playoffs. You just got rid of two amazing players for a "great scorer" that you already had! Well, not to bag on Richardson, but Marion is actually better than Richardson. . .

I guess this hurts more because I love, love, love Raja Bell. And I mean "love."

Bye-bye Marion, D'Antoni, Bell, and Diaw. And bye-bye to the Suns that were a great team. We will miss you all, and you will be a special part of Suns history and my heart.

Sweets? Specifically, an ice cream-filled crepe cone, with pan-crisped edges and an airy light texture? I need you now. Help me to cope with my loss.


Hornets? Please lift me up, baby.

Celebrating Monumental Victories

This has been an unprecedented year in American politics, and most importantly, American history. First, the nation resoundingly elected its first ever non-white president, a brilliant and charismatic gentleman named Barack Obama. This past week, after the votes were tallied from the December 5, 2008 election, America discovered that Louisiana had elected the first ever Vietnamese-American congressman, Anh "Joseph" Cao.

My parents would have never imagined that these two events would have happened in their lifetimes, much less the same year. Thank you America, and thank you Louisiana, for teaching me that we can achieve what once was impossible.

Image courtesy of the Times Picayune.

Bring It!

I just got back from my one month long honeymoon from Europe!

During my time there, I attempted to taste all of Europe so that I could report back to my amazing-incredible (not just amazing, and not just incredible, but "amazing-incredible"--with the hyphen) readers with all of my findings. Well, I also ate like a beast for myself too. But mostly for you. Really!

But I have some really disappointing news that actually took me a few days to digest. When we returned home, we were in the process of uploading all of our pictures onto the computer, when a serious mistake of astronomical proportions occurred, resulting in the permanent deletion of 90% of our honeymoon pictures. It has to do with moving files through the command prompt using an Apple.

Trust me, it took me a full week before I could talk about this like an adult. For the first couple of days, the only thing I could say was repeated expletives. Yea, those dirty words shot out of my surly mouth like a AK-47.

Unfortunately, after countless visits with the tech support at Fry's and hundreds of dollars spent of freakin' useless "recovery software" purchased online, we discovered that we pretty much lost those photos for good. And the pictures included our multiple visits to Berthillion in Paris, France (the best ice cream in the world), Nico in Venice, Italy (the best gelato in that region of Italy). Oh yes, and pictures of us, the honeymooning couple. (For a food blogger, you know I was just a tad more devastated by the loss of those food pictures though. Shh, don't tell the beau!)

However, the limitations of modern technology will not get this food blogger down! No!

This is my new goal. To blog my attempt to try and recreate my most memorable meals and snacks in Europe with recipes. Yes, the pictures were deleted, irretrieveably. But the memories? Still in my head. And I can still use this to my advantage. I don't want to just say, "I had the best paella ever in Barcelona," or "I loved the pizza and pasta in Florence and Rome," but I want to say something like, "Paris was the start of my love affair with excellent coq au vin."

So I am turning this horrific nightmare into something good. Just to give you a roadmap: for the future, I will be blogging about my experiences with (1) Swiss, (2) Italian, (3) Spanish, (4) French, and (5) English cuisine. I know, that is a lot of places, but it was a one month honeymoon, and we exhausted our life savings for that trip. (Oh, and as a side note, upon our return to the U.S., we discovered that the remainder of our life savings in our 401(K) had also been "exhausted," or apparently eliminated.) But thankfully, since I backed up the pictures from Zurich, there will be a few more Zurich posts.

Welcome back to Passionate Eater folks, you will be seeing me more often now!

Honeymooning, Do Not Disturb (Just Kidding, Feel Free!)

Several big things will be happening here on Passionate Eater.

First, both my blog and I will be making the transition from New Orleans back to San Francisco. I am sure you are disappointed (as I was and am), but now that I am married, things are inevitably changing. I tried to convince the beau to move to New Orleans, but he has a stable job and other regional commitments, so I will be moving back to the Bay Area instead. However, we will continue to visit our New Orleans family and friends on a regular basis. The hurricane season disrupted my ability to try as many restaurants as I wanted to, so I need to go back to New Orleans often and eat like no tomorrow! (And take a look at the sunlight on these gorgeous New Orleans houses on the picture above!)

Second, I am leaving for my honeymoon in Europe in one day! During my honeymoon, I might drop by for a post and comment every now and then. Definitely expect to see a honeymoon recap here on the blog!

Before I take my honeymoon, I just want to share with you the story of how my Bay Area beau proposed:

Back in 2006, I was offered a position in New Orleans. The job in New Orleans was a once in a lifetime opportunity, for many reasons. I remember weighing the pros and cons with the beau, and one of those pros was living and interacting with "kind Southern gentlemen and ladies." The beau saw that "pro" as listed on the paper, and had a look of extreme dissatisfaction on his face. I think he just saw the "Southern gentlemen" part. However, he ultimately let me go.

About one month after I moved away, the beau surprised me with a round-trip plane ticket from New Orleans to Washington D.C. He greeted me at the airport with a limousine (huge surprise) with a dozen roses (1 red, 11 white, to say I was "one in a million") and had me chauffeured off to the Jefferson Memorial. Then, he bent down on one knee, and proposed on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. In front of people! In public! I guess you know what I said, since we got married a few months later.

Sigh, memories get me all teary-eyed. I will be making more memories this upcoming month. See you soon!

Open Faced Question

Hi readers, all one of you (Mom, I am referring to you), I have a question to ask you. I have changed the format of my blog to feature larger images and have now placed a watermark on the images to protect against bad folks from reposting my images without linking to my site. However, I have noticed that the images sometimes take a while to load. Do you prefer large or small images? What do you think about the watermark? Thanks for chiming in and letting me know your thoughts. The poll below will end on October 20, 2008. (Oh, and I was going to use a picture of an open faced sandwich for this post, but I didn't find one, so here is blank white emptiness instead. Sorry.)

Please Pray for State of Louisiana and the Surroundings

I am sure that now, you are hearing on the news what we in New Orleans have been bracing for all week--the arrival of Hurricane Gustav. Right now, the primary sentiment of Gulf Coast residents is one of extraordinary trepidation. None of us want to relive the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, and based on the forecast of Hurricane Gustav and Mayor Nagin's proclamation that Hurricane Gustav is the "Storm of the Century," there is a very strong possibility that we will--almost three years to the date of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

To update you on the path of Hurricane Gustav, here is the latest real-time map (which is updated by the National Hurricane Center):



For those of you who know me, my close friends and family have evacuated safely (or are in the process of evacuating). I am reading your emails now this morning, and want to thank you for your concerns. Please think about the other people of New Orleans and Louisiana as well.

Please pray for the people living on the Gulf Coast, many of whom simply do not have the psychological or financial wherewithal to make it through another hurricane like Hurricane Katrina. Many have lost everything, and are in the process of potentially losing everything, again.

Please pray that the people of New Orleans will never lose their generous, abounding, and unparalleled spirit, even despite tragedy and hardship. Please pray for the people who are still evacuating, that they would not encounter car troubles, that they can make it through the bumper-to-bumper traffic relatively quickly, that they would be able to purchase enough food, water, and supplies, even despite the empty shelves, and that they can find rooms in which to stay. Please pray that the levees will hold. Please pray that by a miracle, the storm would weaken and that the Gulf Coast may be protected.

Also, please pray for those who have lost their family, friends, or homes during Hurricane Katrina, and who are still coming to terms with their losses. In a time of frenzy and fear, the blogger at Contraflow Maps reminded me to "remember" the losses from Hurricane Katrina with this image:

I hope you do the same.

Links to Evacuating for Hurricane Gustav

I just wanted to pass along these links that I have been using to keep apprised about the status of Hurricane Gustav. Be safe this weekend, and please take all necessary precautions, including stocking up on bottled water and filling your gas tank with gasoline.

• Weather Underground
• Contraflow Evacuation
• NOLA Hurricane Information from the Times Picayune
• National Hurricane Center
• State Evacuation Information
• WWLTV (Currently on 24-hr Hurricane Gustav Broadcast)
• WDSU (Currently on 24-hr Hurricane Gustav Broadcast)
  

You Must Take This Quiz

I just took this test, and it was brought a smile to my face.

70%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
If you are a blogger, this is the ONE quiz that you need to take. It will either humiliatingly expose your addiction (for which you need help for) or confirm what you knew all along: that you need to get off the computer, you fool! Though I am technically a "blogger," even despite my lengthy hiatus, the quiz still asserts that I am addicted to blogging. Lately, I've been addicted to surfing through and reading other people's blogs, which I love doing with all of the great content and ideas out there.

I have to admit, I am both relieved and stressed to be back to the blogging world. And I have to qualify my return: my reentry will be a little slow and painful. I plan on just posting about how I am going to gain back those five pounds (and then some, preferably, ten to fifteen additional) that I lost for the wedding! Bring on a carb lollapalooza, the po' boys, the pizza, and the fried chicken! (Or bring on the below images! . . . Can you tell that I am purging my hard drive of old food pictures? No? Okay, thanks.)

I Actually Do Want a Piece of Meat

This parody on Britney Spears's song, "Piece of Me" is quite amusing.

The Only "Sun" In My Life Right Now

Sigh, wedding planning, the NBA Playoffs, and work have really started to take its toll on my life.

First, work stress is making my eyeballs bleed. Deadlines. Deadlines. And more deadlines, that is all I can think about right now.

Second, I bought two dozens of Krispy Kreme donuts for the Habitat for Humanity volunteers this last Saturday, and only two people ate any or took any donuts, leaving me to consume more than a dozen and a half of donuts on my own. And I did so happily, until I realized that my wedding dress is coming in one week. Then I felt depressed and ate a pint of ice cream in front of the kitchen sink.

Third, as you've heard, the Phoenix Suns just let Mike D'Antoni pack his bags and happily walk away from Phoenix. Without a fight. Without a whimper. Without any signs of a struggle to keep him at all. It was like they bought him the plane ticket to New York. Great job, Suns management. Great friggin' job.

Then, just when I thought my week couldn't get any worse, I just watched the New Orleans Hornets let a two-game lead against the Spurs evaporate into nothing. My stomach is churning, in a bad way.

I think I need some sugar to cheer me up. Krispy Kreme and greasy diners, here I come.

I'm a Proponent of Photoshop

Introducing. . . Adobe Photoshop Express! You can now use a free online version of Photoshop to crop and modify your food pictures, and now you get 2 GB of free space to store them! If you can't afford Adobe Photoshop or don't have Adobe Photoshop Elements, you should check it out.

Also, I updated my post about Mardi Gras, if you are interested!

Image courtesy of Adobe.

Inaction Justified?

Notice a trend about the spam I have been receiving lately? I think it is a message from the spam gods to "marry or date the rich and wealthy" and to beware of pain pumps and pain patches. Well, I am going to tie in my spam emails with my life.

I miss you so much, my food blogging friends, and really do love you. I haven't looked at food blogs in a long time, and you know that means that something is awry in Passionate Eater land.

Well, there is. I have HUGE news to share with everyone: I am now engaged! Just as my email spam seems to imply or recommend, I will be getting married! (Holy mutha' of all! What the heck did I do when I accepted his proposal?)

I have been with my beau (now fiancee) for five (5+) years (including our on-and-off periods and long-distance periods), and thus, we decided to have an abbreviated engagement period. But, this "abbreviated" engagement period is stressing me out like mad. My current job (which I previously described as dealing with all-things-resulting-from-Hurricane-Katrina) has been EXTRAORDINARILY demanding. Also, another factor for my "stress" is that I never wanted a big, glitzy wedding, so I loathe wedding planning.

But you all mean so much to me, and I had to share the news ASAP. I also want to tell you all (especially my kindred food blogging friends linked to in my sidebar) that I love you all SO, so much (I really do), and I greatly value the friendships that I have established through food blogging. Tears come to my eyes when I realize all of the encouraging and sweet words that you have repeatedly communicated to me, and I wish I could invite you all to my wedding! (In fact, I promised some of you that I would!) I discussed "costs" and etc. with my Beau and I reluctantly agreed that we would limit our guest list to only close friends and family. (His family is literally 20X the size of mine, so I think that 90% of the wedding guests will consist of his side.) But I will be sharing the food related wedding details on the blog, as I can. I might however, only start blogging again though after the summer time wedding, given my intense time crunch. :(

Oh, and ahem: Does this mean that I can get a blogging waiver until the end of summer / the beginning of fall? Thanks friends, thanks!

And if you are not a food blogger and are just a casual visitor, please check out the food blogging links in my sidebar, they are the best food bloggers EVER!! (Way better than me.)

Miss and love you all,
Passionate Eater (or Passionate Loather of Wedding Planning and Work)

The Closest I'll Get to Thomas Keller

Dinner Night at the Movies

Hi there. . . I know that you're probably thinking, "Where the heck have you been?!"

Well. . .
1. There was that week-long vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada.
2. Work has been overwhelming.
3. Although I said I wasn't going to watch anymore NBA games, I ended up tuning in for "brief," one hour portions of each game in the Finals.
4. I'm intimidated by the growing "To Post" folder filling with food images and I haven't yet had the time to set aside to write anything that is not a rambling mess. (But I promise that once I get my act together, I have several restaurant review posts and recipe posts in the pipeline!) Until then, I am just going to post some random, non-post related food pictures of a soupy, watered-down version of red braised pork butt.
5. I discovered social networking sites, and I end up surfing those sites until my pupils are dilated and my eyes are so dry, they can't even be restored with Visine.

But, I am going to pull myself away from those unimportant parts of my life and dedicate some quality "me with food" time with my food blogging friends!

But, I am not going to talk about eating or cooking food. I want to use this opportunity to encourage you to go and see Pixar's latest animated film, Ratatouille. One of my friends is an animator at Pixar, and he actually worked on this film. Although he finished work on the film a few years ago (when it was still in the "animating stage"), both he and I are understandably excited about its impending release.

This past weekend, my animator friend and I had an opportunity to talk to me about the recent New York Times article about the movie, and he gave me the low-down. (By the way, the article was in the food section of the newspaper, and not the entertainment section, and the article indicated that the movie earned Thomas Keller's unequivocal endorsement and approval.)

In our conversation, my animator friend told me that food is one of the most difficult subjects to animate, because it must not only look realistic, but it must also look appetizing. And, as the article indicates, the human mind is hard-wired to immediately recognize real food. That makes sense if you think about it, because our great-great ancestors survived by distinguishing between the edible berries and the poisonous or rotten berries. But, getting back to the movie: I've heard that this movie is so well-animated, that you'll be amazed at the uncanny detail, from the individual grains of risotto, to the discrete, golden-brown flakes of buttery croissant. Furthermore, my friend told me that after watching the film, your hunger pangs will be at full throttle. In other words, if you are even on this site, that means you'll enjoy the movie! My friend also informed me that although the film had a distinctly bourgeois and metropolitan flair (as opposed to the previous Pixar film, Cars), it would appeal to a wide audience, which means you, me, her, and him!

The beau used to work in the film industry, so I know how important it to spread the word to promote movies. I hope my spiel was convincing enough to pique your interest in the film. And if it wasn't, I hope that the random pictures of a poor man's red braised pork soup somehow did the convincing on my behalf. Let me know if you watch the movie! I'd love to hear what you think!

Eye Exam Time: Is the Better Choice One, or Two?

Right now, I am suffering from a form of food blogger's writer's block, or the "inability to generate new posts." It is not that I don't have the ideas for new posts, I am just to lazy and busy to think of something meaningful. I do have the raw materials though. I have photos: vivid close-ups of syrup-drenched hotcakes, glistening and grill-marked beef steaks, and golden glazed donut rings. . . It is just I am at a loss for words in terms of describing them in an interesting or provocative way. I just have unformed ideas, languishing about in my head and drifting about lifelessly.

I attribute my current "mashed potato brain syndrome" to the fact that I am just a tad burnt out from the events of this month and the last. The beau and I have been three "significant" birthday celebrations, two weddings, and one family reunion the last three weekends. And yes, work has been a little hectic lately.

So instead of an enjoyable-to-read, substantive post, is it okay if I open this time up to a question and answer session? What do you think about using flash versus using no flash? I am trying to get a feel for whether I should make the investment into a better camera that can take crisper, non-flash pictures.

Is the food less attractive with a glaring flash bulb, or is it accentuated with the "soft" light from flash?

Here are some flash and non-flash photos of wedding food from a wedding the beau and I attended in South San Francisco. What do you think?

At the wedding, we started with a salad of mixed greens, walnuts, radicchio, orange segments, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar. The salad plate was decorated with thin slices of apple, which arranged symmetrically like fan blades. The salad itself was contained in mandoline-shaved sheets of cucumber.

Do you like the picture of the greens better with flash, or no flash?

For our wedding appetizer, we feasted on an intricately-layered, exploding, filo dough flower, that was stuffed with a cornucopia of vegetables, including bell pepper slivers, julienned carrots, and sliced mushrooms. The crispy package sat atop a luscious pool of a mushroom-based cream sauce.

Which do you prefer? Flash or no flash?

For the main entree, the beau and I both had grilled filet mignon, sprinkled with coarsely chopped herbs. The filet came with cupcake-sized serving of cheesy potatoes au gratin, shrimp sauteed in a parsley and cream sauce, and steamed zucchini squash and golden wax beans.

Do these pictures change your mind in terms of liking food pictures with flash or no flash?

Finally, in addition to the wedding cake, the bride and groom also offered a palate cleansing sorbet, made of cloyingly sweet raspberries.

Thank you for taking the time to offer your input. And thanks for putting up with my drivel while I gradually get my act back together. I will be back soon, I promise!

Hiatus in Life

Dear Food Blogging Friend,

I owe you an explanation.

I need the patch, except not the patch for nicotine, but for something infinitely more addictive: television.

I can't stop watching the NBA playoffs or the after-show or the sports segment in the 11:00 o'clock news. I can't stop reading sports columns. I can't stop listening to sports radio. There isn't a minute that goes by that I am not thinking, breathing, dreaming about the Phoenix Suns, and it has gotten even worse since the latest fiasco.

But it isn't you. Seriously, it's me. Just look at the innards of my fridge and you'll see for yourself. See what I've been eating? Condiments and drinks. I have also been eating cans of cold ravioli and cereal. . . Without milk.

The purpose of this post is to promise you that I will back to my food blogging self in a few weeks, which means I'll be leaving extensive comments and posting again! Okay, back to tonight's Spurs vs. Suns game! See you friends soon.

Enjoying Your Humble Pie, Mr. Cuban?

Mark Cuban image courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle. Pie image courtesy of another site.

Give me a chalupa* because Golden State Warriors just won against the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks, 111-86!!

111-86. The most beautiful sounding numbers on the planet this moment.

Tonight's game shouldn't be called the "greatest upset in NBA history," because there isn't anyone in the Bay Area who is upset right now! Rather, it should be called the "most long-awaited and deserved victory!"

*Golden State Warriors used to give everyone in the stadium free chalupas if the Warriors scored over 100 in a given game. With Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson, the Golden State Warriors are going to be giving out a whole lotta of chalupas!

Are You Voting for Hillary, Obama, or Comments?

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind! I am discovering so many amazing food blogs and making many new blog friends over the internet! Unfortunately, there is one downside to all of this--blogging is getting to be pretty consuming. One of the ways I was thinking about easing the blog workload, was no longer replying to the comments on this page. If a reader has a question, I will answer in a reply comment on your blog or send a response email. I will continue to comment on your blogs, and you are welcome to continue to leave a comment on my blog so that I can "discover" your site, if I haven't done so already. What do you think?

I am very, very grateful for those of you who do leave comments (I read them all and laugh and enjoy every sentence), but I know that are many people out there who read this blog and don't leave comments and don't read the comments section at all. I am just trying to get a "feel" for what people think. Please vote using the poll below and let me know what you think. Also, I am also adding these pictures of dim sum (sia jiao shrimp dumplings and shao mai pork dumplings) as an incentive to vote!

Update: Thank you everyone who took the time to weigh in on this issue and share your thoughts with me. I read and mulled over everything that you said, and discovered that the most meaningful and insightful thoughts shared with me about "commenting" issue, were through the comments themselves. That made it even harder to come to my ultimate decision. From now onward, I am going to try replying to all the comments as a group, with a "Hi everyone," and responding specifically to certain questions within the comments. However, I want to note that I love reading and commenting YOUR blogs and will continue to so. Thank you friends for your input and for your support. I appreciate your friendship and readership.

Whoa!! I'm Not Worthy!!

Image courtesy of Movie Actors.

Did I just win the lottery!?

I just want to say, "Thank you, I love you, you're wonderful" to the person at Blogger who thought my blog was worthy to be featured as a "Blog of Note!"

Please accept these pictures of my celebratory lunch of Pad Thai, Red Duck Curry, and Calamari Salad as a token of my sincere appreciation! Nothing I could communicate over the medium of the internet can fully express my feelings of immense gratitude except for pictures of my favorite things: food and movies!

In the wise words of Wayne and Garth, "It's party time! It's excellent!" Thank you again Blogger!

Image courtesy of Movie Actors.

Image courtesy of Mutant Reviewers.