Random: October 2005 Archives

I've noticed that when people get an injury like carpal tunnel or tendonitis, they seem to have a tendency towards inflammation in other parts of their bodies too, like their knees.

It's no fluke:

Early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- characterized by malaise, fatigue and depression, and often mistaken for poor performance, according to a study by Ann Barr, Ph.D., and Mary Barbe, Ph.D., at Temple University's College of Health Professions. The study, "Increase in inflammatory cytokines in median nerves in a rat model of repetitive motion injury," is published this month in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

I had a craving today for turnip cake, which is one of my favorite dim sum items. However, I'd been hanging out with my vegetarian friend much of the weekend and was not feeling inclined to cook with meat. "There mus be a recipe on the Internets for vegetarian turnip cake!" I thought. I thought wrong.

So in the end, I took this recipe and made some modifications. I used a six-ounce pack of fresh shitake mushrooms instead of the dried variety; I omitted the pork sausage and dried shrimp and added dried onions; I replaced the chicken boullion granules with "Better than Boullion" vegitable boullion and, instead of using sliced ginger and removing it, I diced in and left it in the mixture.

Unfortunately, I also apparently used a little too much of the five-spice powder and white pepper; I'd be more cautious about how much I put in next time.

Also, Michael's initial reaction was that the texture was "weird" — too "chunky." I had grated the turnips, and the texture seemed similar to that of some homemade turnip cake I'd had before, but I wonder if the restaurants puree the turnips or add something else to make the cakes creamier.

Matters were helped somewhat when, after steaming the cake per the directions, I cut it up, poured a little olive oil into a pan and pan-fried a few pieces. The bottom got nice and crispy.

The whole project took me two hours  — longer than I expected — but now I have a plate of turnip cakes waiting in the fridge for my next craving!

But that day is not today.

However, the theme of the day appears to be small-plates restaurants. First, there was the glorious news that Cesar will be opening on Piedmont Avenue in the near future. If you don't know what Cesar is, it's a wonderful tapas restaurant in North Berkeley. OK, maybe "glorious" is too strong a word, but still, it's an exciting development.

Then, in the San Francisco Chronicle, there was an article about a new-to-the-Bay-Area trend in Zhou — jook served with a variety of interesting little side dishes like stir-fried peanuts and anchovies, or seaweed salad. The article also mentions two restaurants which specialize in these kinds of small plates. Alas, they are in the South Bay, but it may be worth an expedition.

Finally, in this week's East Bay Express comes a review of a new restaurant on 40th Street in Emeryville called Ferenzu which also sounds like something I've got to check out — and it has the added virtue of being ten minutes away.

Unrelated to the small-plates theme, there was a review today of Mangosteen, a restaurant in the Tenderloin that Michael and I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It was also very good.

Darn it. Just ate dinner and now I'm hungry again.

A random roundup of music, restaurants and stores I've enjoyed recently...

Music

• You Could Have It So Much Better, Franz Ferdinand. OK, it's never going to be like hearing "Take Me Out" for the first  time again, but it's a really, really good album. There's even a couple of slower songs (including a love song to the lead singer's girlfriend) that I really like. 
• KCRW Sounds Electico. KCRW must be the public radio station that all others envy.  They have Le Show, and they have Morning Becomes Eclectic. This is a compilation of performances from the latter by musicians like Mano Chao and Thievery Corporation, as well as a bunch of other performers I wasn't familiar with but think I'll have to check out now. Good stuff.
  
• "Caleb Meyer" by Gillian Welch. I saw her perform this song at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival last weekend. Amazing (and disturbing!) song.
  

Restaurants

• Clay Pot, San Pablo near Solano, Albany. Interesting food including chicken and chestnut clay pot, cucumber garlic salad and the best shao lum bao I've had.
  
• Old Place Seafood Teahouse, 391 Grand Avenue, Oakland. Not old, but very good. The dim sum is fresh and varied, the service is really friendly (they always tell us it's nice to see us again, whether they really remember us or not) and the prices are dirt cheap. And it's right near the Grand Lake Theater, and consequently not that far from us. This is my current favorite place to get dim sum.

Stores

Well, just one...

Rockridge Home, College Avenue (near Forest), Oakland, CA. I kept walking by this place, and especially the last month or so, I've been very intrigued by what I saw in the window. I finally got to go it. It is the reincarnation of the late lamented Integrand Design shop in Santa Cruz - that is, lots of very stylish and well-designed items, from furniture to housewares to bath products.

It's funny to read a travel guide to downtown Berkeley... but the Chronicle has produced one on their website.

"If you can't find something to watch, eat or buy in downtown Berkeley, call the doctors because you don't have a pulse.'

They don't mention Ross, though, which is a shame. Although it's a chain, I sure lucked out when I went there the other day. A jacket, a cardigan, a skirt, a sweater and a t-shirt for $64? Try finding that at a boutique! (There have always been chains in downtown Berkeley.)

One of the usual neanderthals opined thusly on the Letters to the Editor page today:

Blue Angels

Editor -- Mea culpa. Call it guilty pleasure, but with the first startling roar of military jets flying overhead Thursday morning, my heart raced and I broke out in an ear-to-ear grin. No, not just because the Blue Angels are once again in town to celebrate Fleet Week, but, rather, because I know every time those taxpayer-supported jet fighters scream overhead with exquisite precision the next few days, it's going to drive the anti-war, anti-military, anti-Bush crowd absolutely nuts. Heh.

RICK VAILL
Sausalito 

Let's see. Anti-war? Check. Anti-military? Somewhat. Anti-Bush? Hell yes.

But the moment I heard the Blue Angels roaring overhead, I too broke out in a big grin. I can't help it. Planes are cool, and planes flying in formation, doing daring loop-de-loops over Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge, defying gravity... I eat that sh*t up.  

Yes, it is a show of military might as well as gravity defiance... but on the other hand, every plane flying over the Bay is one less plane bombing some other country!

Anyway, Rick, how's this for a deal. You fantasize about how the Blue Angels are going to drive liberals nuts, and I'll fantasize about how every piece of bad news that's come out in the last month... Hurricane Katrina, Harriet Miers, Tom DeLay, etc. is going to drive Republicans nuts.

Oh, sorry, I forgot. You're already nuts! 

(The picture is one I took two years ago, last time the Angels were in town. I didn't get any good pictures of them today, alas.)