February 21st, 2010 § 0
One Example
There are modern day explorers–culinary Cousteaus–who roam cities, exploring different cuisines one adventure/restaurant at a time. One such culinary explorer who is eating his way through Tokyo’s ramen shops one shop at a time is Nate at Ramenate. His blog offers a great glimpse into one of Japan’s culinary treasures, ramen, and offers plenty of ramen porn for you to salivate over.
Other such explorers exist in CA as well, such as the Great Taco Hunt blog and others.
February 17th, 2010 § 1
Classic.
Another example of ’80s funk care of Hungarian super band Neoton Familia. Listening to this track will cause you to conjure up images of legwarmers, Jazzercise and strangely dressed people in the 80s dancing to disco/funk. In other words, this track is a winner.
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February 14th, 2010 § 1
For all the lovers out there and those wanting to be inspired by some love grooves, I present to you my Valentine’s Day 2010 Mix made especially for my Valentine and shared with you (for a limited time). It’s a few miscellaneous love songs sandwiched between acoustic ballads and 80′s Funk with a touch of freakyness at the end care of Leon Haywood. Enjoy.
February 4th, 2010 § 0
I’ve been saying this for a few months now to anyone who will lend me an ear: I think Starbucks is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. I think it’s a company (and stock) worth watching and it seems the NY Times agrees; they’re calling it a rebound.
My interest in coffee shops and coffee in general began at a young age with my grandfather who is one of my greatest heroes. He used to pick me up from school and take me to Peet’s Coffee next to the Claremont Hotel in Berekeley, CA, nearly 20 years before Peet’s became a national company and coffee shops became a publicly traded phenomenon. I remember the confusion and delight on the barista’s face when I, as a child, would walk up to the counter and order a cup of coffee (half milk, half coffee) with a brownie that I could never finish.
January 31st, 2010 § 0
Intelligentsia has in many ways perfected espresso and how coffee is prepared and served. Their attention to detail, design aesthetic, and the quality of their product are setting a new standard in the coffee shop experience. This video gives a glimpse into how they do it and why they’re my favorite coffee shop. Kudos to the Department of the 4th Dimension for a well done video.
Those of you interested in using a Syphon coffee maker should look here.
January 29th, 2010 § 3
January 27th, 2010 § 0
You may know Aaron Neville from the three recordings he made with Linda Ronstadt (which never seemed to stop playing on the radio) back in 1989. What you may not know is that he also created one of my favorite (chill) funk songs. Although the track blurs the line between Funk, R&B, and Soul, I’ve seen it included on some New Orleans Funk compilations so I’m calling it Funk. Whatever you call it, it has a chill groove and a slick dose of Soul/Funk accented by Neville’s unique voice. Enjoy.
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January 18th, 2010 § 3
This is real.
Over the past 6 months I’ve been exploring Funk music, getting to better understand the genre and enjoying the many ways it was interpreted across the globe over the span of about three decades. It seems funk made its way to nearly every country and had a fairly decent presence starting from the late ’60s all the way through the early ’80s. The funk bass line, guitar riffs and vocals have the magical ability to get people (at least this person) moving and jerking around to the beat–in almost any language. » Read the rest of this entry «
January 11th, 2010 § 1
Finished Product
Kirala, is a Japanese Restaurant in Berkeley, CA where I learned to appreciate seafood. Prior to my first bite of Sushi there, I had never been fond of Seafood and barely ate any at all except for the occasional Fillet-o-Fish (does that even count as seafood?). Nearly 11 years later, seafood (particularly fish) makes up a large portion of my diet.
It didn’t take long before I became a regular at Kirala and the one dish I almost always ordered was the “Butterfish” or Miso Marinated Gindara (a.k.a, Black Cod or Butterfish), a dish Kirala and their robata masters had perfected. Since moving out of the Bay Area, I’ve been searching for a worthy equivalent to Kirala’s Butterfish and I was starting to lose hope until I decided to attempt to create my own using some extra Gindara we had from nabemono the night before. » Read the rest of this entry «
January 6th, 2010 § 0
