Sze Tan's blog

A few quick things...

Books:

Food related ...

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

If you're a fan of good eats and molecular gastronomy or just a foodie science nerd in general, this is a great book for you. There are lots of interesting recipes interspersed between the various chapters on commonly asked questions about food, cooking and all things kitchen-like.

 

Next,

The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection

Michael Ruhlman's followup to his book on the CIA (no, not the central intelligence agency ;P), Culinary Institute of America called "The Making of a Chef". This books is split into three sections actually.. the first follows several chefs who are taking the very difficult Certified Master Chef (CMC) test at the CIA. The second chronicles Michael Symon.. the chef of Lola in Cleveland. You may remember him from some of the shows on the food network like Iron Chef and Dinner Impossible. Last section covers Thomas Keller of the French Laundry fame. It's a very very good read... a must read for all foodies :)

 

 

The Inheritance of Loss

As for fiction.. I recently finished "The Inheritance of Loss". This is a rather sad and poignant book that follows the stories of a few individuals immigrant experiences. Both new immigrants to America, and those who left and came back to their home country, feeling like they don't quite know where they belong. It also follows the stories of a group of people who have been transplanted in India and who after many decades living amongst Indians, are made to feel like they are outsiders. I really enjoyed this book.

 

 

 

 

I'm currently reading these books, in no particular order.

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada

 

Blindness

 

Emigrants: The Emigrant Novels Book 1 (The Emigrant Novels / Vilhelm Moberg, Book 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sense a weird theme here ;) "Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw" is a collection of short stories by Will Ferguson about his childhood and travels in general in Canada. It's got some history in it.. a pretty good and easy read if you're interested in Canadiana. "Blindness "is translated from Jose Saramago's critically acclaimed portuguese novel.. I've never had much liking to translated novels, but we'll see if I like this one. "The Emigrants" is a book about Swedish immigrants in the new world and follows their journey here to North America. Should be interesting!

Happy 2009. :) 

Black holes anyone?

Exciting.The world's largest hadron collider is doing the shimmy.
Hopefully, someone didn't mess up... and we zap a few things accidentally.

Check out this nerdy video about the hadron collider.

In other news, tonight we are checking out a new restaurant that has just opened up a block away from where we live. It's a french bistro called Les Faux Borgeouis. I'm almost as excited as the night before Christmas... mmmmm.

the most beautiful sandwich i've seen...

Mmmmmm...

Congratulations, California!

I wish I was in California to share the joy.
Here are some people we know who have and will continue to fight the good fight for equality in the US and who were married today!

Oh oh update

I suck at updating this thing. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, real life has been much more involved than the interweb lately :)

The Sex Life of Food: When Body and Soul Meet to Eat

Bunny Crumpacker

<-- I'm reading this book right now. We received it as a gift during our wedding shower (Eek. Getting married in a little over a month!)

You know how I love food. This book talks about food and how we relate to food, what they mean to our body, our minds and in general, our relationships with ourselves and each other.

It's very good so far. I'm halfway through it right now.








Tomorrow we head out to Vancouver Island for a little family R&R. I love riding on the ferry, it's such a beautiful ride. Hopefully the weather gets better. It's been pretty miserable here for a June month and I miss California sunshine horribly. It's one thing if its the winter time but damn this June freezing cold weather. It's just not right!

Ok, more real life to attend to. Happy Weekend!

Life and death

You can read more here.

Phoenix has landed :)

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/080525landing.html

Mars and Allergies

For any space geeks out there, the Phoenix craft will be landing on the Mars today. Coverage begins on SpaceTV at 3pm PST. My company built the robotics and weather systems on the spacecraft, so there's been some buzz in the press about it here in Canada.

I realized yesterday that its bee/hornet season. I should most likely get an epipen for the house.. just in case.

Need coffee!

music mmmm music

it's like flashback month.. lots of bands/artists that i enjoy are suddenly touring/releasing new albums.
coldplay is touring in june, but skipping vancouver. boo.
death cab for cutie's got a new album out.
alanis morissette is touring (seriously)
janet jackson is touring, starting in vancouver actually.

i know, i know.. i'm totally dating myself with all these artistes.

also, check out zaki ibrahim if you enjoy feist and esthero-like music.

good stuff.

I rise from the dead...

to pontificate about the state of the world today....it's been a pretty crazy month. The quakes in China and the cyclone in Burma.. and all that is wrong, unjust and just so tough to fathom about what's happening over in that part of the world, I've been really sad and angry about it... but in the midst of it all, some much needed joy to shift my perspective, the great news coming from my former home state, California.

2008 is 1 month from being halfway over. Where did the time go?

This is an interesting article about the declining interest in the field of engineering as a career in Japan, mostly because there are "easier" jobs out there. I stumbled upon that article from a blog I read whereby a fellow flinger-of-code muses about the stresses of being a programmer and not being able to leave your work at work. He says... "Working as a developer is like solving SAT problems for 24 hours a day with long procrastination breaks." Hehe.. I agree.

It's been a gorgeous couple of days here in Vancouver. It's been so great to watch the season change ever so slightly.. the cherry blossoms are now gone, and everything is so green. This is Vancouver at her best. It's a holiday tomorrow and the forecast talks about rain.. but it's been so warm so it may actually be a welcome change! Gotta love having weather.

My life is good and peaceful. I just want the same for the rest of the world.