10 Things to Add to My Worry List
Sigh… This “10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List” just highlights what’s wrong with science is reported.
Just because there’s a new study that seems to contradict previous studies, doesn’t invalidate the previous studies. They’re all valid and their results have to be interpreted all together, taking into account how the studies were done!
And just because something was found to be true for certain cases, you can’t apply it to all cases. #3 on their list is particularly bad. It just means that the situation is more complex. Just because you found some examples that go against the overall trend, you can’t use those examples to deny the overall trend!
The rest of the list is reported in these black and white blanket statements. Sigh.
And scientists, don’t think you are immune from my wrath. I heard this physicist on NPR talking about how quantum mechanics is the real truth and what we observe in the real world is just a “reflection” of quantum mechanics. Okay, fine, that’s a little exaggerated, but wasn’t my main issue. Then he started talking about how people don’t understand quantum mechanics because we are evolved to understand classical physics. He didn’t say that this was his hypothesis or guess. He didn’t say whether or not there was evidence for his claims. He just said it. Stop doing that. Some person out there is going to go out there and start telling his/her buddies about how we’re not evolved to understand quantum mechanics and say that because a physicist on NPR said this, it must be true. Or they’ll use it as an excuse to not to try to understand quantum mechanics. NPR physicist… please put some qualifications on what you say - which things are conjectures, which things have or don’t have evidence and how strong is that evidence!
Scientists are not experts on everything! Please don’t come up to me to ask me a question and say “You’re a scientist so you must know the answer!” Do feel free to ask your question and I’ll do my best to find evidence to support one answer or another, because that’s what scientists do. Or I’ll try to figure out what needs to be done to answer it, because that’s also what scientists do. And if I don’t know the answer, I will say that I don’t know, because that’s also what scientists do. Or at least should do (I’m talking to you, NPR physicist!).
Houston, that’s really embarrassing
From an article from NYTimes about Houston’s recycling:
It is the worst recycler among the United States’ 30 largest cities.
Houston recycles just 2.6 percent of its total waste, according to a study this year by Waste News, a trade magazine. By comparison, San Francisco and New York recycle 69 percent and 34 percent of their waste respectively. Moreover, 25,000 Houston residents have been waiting as long as 10 years to get recycling bins from the city.
Yay, San Francisco! I love San Francisco. Plus, the city collects compost! That’s awesome!
Here’s info on other cities:
I guess it’s the NEW YORK Times, which is why they quote the NYC number, but it’s also pretty embarrassing for NY to be so far behind other cities like SF, LA, San Jose, San Diego, and Chicago. It’s barely above the national average! And why did they exclude Boston? Is this a Red Sox thing?
Okay, here’s the update after looking at wastenews.com:
It looks like they cut it off based on population, and the cities in their bar graph are the most populous cities. Here’s the rest of the list that’s available:
- Austin 27.3%
- Memphis 26.0%
- Fort Worth 22.2%
- Baltimore 42.0% (That’s unexpected, but that’s not bad)
- Charlotte 10.6%
- El Paso 16.0%
- Boston 15.0% (Boston, you should be ashamed!)
- Seattle 44.0%
- Washington 22.0%
- Milwaukee 24.0%
- Denver 10.3%
- Las Vegas 16.0%
- Nashville 28.0%
- Oklahoma City 3.0% (It’s a good thing there’s Houston, otherwise, you’d be getting the shameful headline.)
- Portland 62.0%
Doesn’t seem to be correlated with size. So that’s no excuse. Based on the patterns that you do see, my guess is that weather and willpower are key factors for having high recycling. But Baltimore is pretty high. As is Chicago… so I don’t think weather can be an excuse either.
You know what other city is doing embarrassing things? Beijing is erecting screens to hide some areas for the Olympics. Beijing, we can see the screens and we can tell you’re hiding stuff. And this whole issue appears to to beyond appearances, so there are other interesting bits in the article.
Summer is officially here: Tomato-Bread Salad
I’ve made my first tomato-basil dish of the year. That means that summer is here and I’m no longer bogged down with thesis seminars and teaching workshops. And there are also cucumbers to make it extra summery.
I tried out the Tomato-Bread Salad recipe on NYTimes, that’s based on something from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
Here’s the NYTimes photo:
Here’s what mine looks like:
It came out looking pretty similar. My tomatoes look redder and yummier - maybe that’s a NY vs CA thing. I did use some beautiful heirloom tomatoes, so that probably helped. It tastes pretty good, but I can imagine it being better. Here’s what I’d do differently next time:
- The bread in the roast chicken and bread salad at Zuni is more crispy and less soggy. The bread in this recipe, even though it is filled with flavor from the juices, comes out soggy. I’d rip the bread into big crouton-y pieces, toss it with some olive oil infused with garlic, and then toast it.
- Instead of slicing the tomatoes, I’d dice them into big pieces, which would enable me to…
- …toss everything together instead of layering and pressing. I’d pour the juices over the bread at the last minute so that you get the flavor and not so much sogginess.
Be inspired to dance and travel
This video made me laugh and smile. And it made me want to dance. And it made me want to travel around the world and see all those amazing sights and meet interesting people. Fortunately, I’ll be able to have a post-PhD trip so I’ll be able to do all those things!
Here’s a video of outtakes:
If you still haven’t had enough of the silly dancing and of the beautiful sights, here’s one more:
Any suggestions for where we should travel?
Random Thing #3 - Some stats about me
I read all my blogs through Google Reader. It’s quite handy. And it means that I don’t have to keep checking lots of different blogs to see if they’re updated. They also give you stats on your reading habits.
I guess I hit mid-morning and mid-afternoon lulls in my work. I usually hit the gym around 4-6 pm. I’m not sure why there are weird spikes in the evening. It might be because if I’m watching TV, I’ll usually be browsing blogs at the same time? You can also tell when I get up and/or start working. The 5 am ones are probably from when I’m on the east coast or when I’m jetlagged from coming back from the east coast.
Here’s my goal. I’m going to really hunker down in the next couple of months to pound out this thesis thing. I’m planning to only read blogs after dinner. So I’ll post an updated histogram after I turn in my thesis and you’ll be able to see whether I’ve done this. I need some accountability.
I wordled some words
Here’s my blog as a cloud of words:
Since it was so fun, here’s the text of my accepted paper (yay!):
And here’s Mark’s paper. His is the most beautiful.
You can generate your own cloud at the Wordle site. As you can see, you can pick the font and the layout of the text and the colors. And you can also browse through random wordles.
From sea to shining sea
I’ve been really quiet with the posts lately - it’s been really crazily busy with all these workshops to prepare for and teach. I just got back from Williams College. It’s a really beautiful campus, just what you might expect from an old New England college campus. There are also mountains - the famed mountains of “purple mountain majesties” - surrounding the campus.
And the people are all lovely. I ate the most delicious and pure fruit pies baked by someone who lives in Vermont. Great crust. The filling of the peach pie was perfect. My guess is she added little or no sugar and just let the peaches be peaches. There was also a mixed berry pie. The rumor is that she picked her own berries. There was an almond flavor in the berry filling that was really nice. The baker’s name is Kathy or Cathy. The pie boxes said “Brick Oven Bakery.” But I was unable to find anything on the web. You have to be in the know!
And we had an impromptu performance by a wonderful trio - violin/fiddle, keyboard, bass/guitar - Trio Cafe Budapest. The fiddler was the brother-in-law of one of the workshop attendees and when the originally scheduled outdoor performance was rained out (by a huge, magnificent thunderstorm!), they came to the lounge of our dorm and gave us a private performance. Very eclectic music - Irish, Turkish, spirituals, waltzes, jazz. All of the music was full of emotion and spirit. I was smiling during the whole performance, and at times, I felt the urge to run outside and start dancing in the pouring rain. No one danced outside, but several people got up to waltz, and at the end, the whole group got up to dance. It was all awesome! We shared some of our extra pies with them to thank them. It’s such a small world in southern Vermont and Northwestern Massachussetts - it turns out that the band members are friends with the baker! Here’s another neat tidbit. The keyboard player teaches at Williams and he studies quantum information theory. Quantum information theory - that just blows my mind.
Perfect and intimate setting for the Trio Cafe Budapest
The workshop attendees were all great. I learned a ton from them and it was great to start meeting people who are interested in education and teaching in the NY area (that’s where I’ll be heading soon!). I learned about hunting morels. And a bunch of other people all got up to do yoga together every morning. I would have liked to join them, but it was way too early and I was way too jetlagged. The focus of this workshop was on how to teach bioinformatics and genomics to undergrads. There’s still a long way to go, but we’re definitely making progress. Hearing about the modules that were being developed by the other workshop participants made me want to go back to college!
Why don’t airlines and airports convert the arriving flight info screens to be departing flight info screens? Since they started preventing people from meeting arriving passengers at the gates, why do they need the arriving info screens anymore? And if there were more departing info screens, the ones that they do have wouldn’t be so crowded!
This recipe for Tomato-Bread Salad looks really amazing! I’m going to gather ingredients this weekend at the farmers market and put this together.
The French Laundry Day: The Manifesto, Part IV
I feel like now that I’ve already been so thorough and detailed, it would be really bad to stop. Plus, there’s all this momentum! So, I give you… what Mark and Ben ate…. more pictures, fewer words.
puffs
beet/salmon cornette
"PIMM'S CUP" - Cucumber Sorbet, Pimm's No. 1 Gelee, Borage Blossoms and Lemon Salt
brioche
COMPRESSED SUMMER MELONS - Nicoise Olive Crumbs, Jacobsen's Farm Arugula and Mint "Aigre-Doux"
"BOUILLON DE LEGUMES EN GELEE" - with Armando Manni "Per Mio Figlio" Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Garden Herbs and Blossoms
They got to try this special olive oil… so special that they only needed to add three drops of it. Or so special that they could only spare three drops of it. I forgot to ask Mark and Ben how the olive oil was.
ciabatta
"OMELETTE FARCIE AUX COURGETTES D'ETE" - Crispy Sea Beans, San Marzano Tomato Vinaigrette and Squash Blossom Salad
I wonder why some menu items have quotes and others don’t.
HAND-CUT SEMOLINA "ANELLINI" - Sweet Corn, Castelmagno Cheese, Lovage "Nuage" and Shaved Black Truffles
One of the best dishes of the whole evening. If it weren’t so hard for me to chose a favorite, I’d think about which one dish was the best. But it’s very likely that it was this dish. It was magical. It’s too bad that it was on the vegetable menu and not the chef’s menu. Or it’s too bad that I didn’t get the vegetable menu.
CALIFORNIA CEPE MUSHROOMS - Ramp Top "Subric," Nantes Carrots, Pickled Ramp Bulbs and Dijon Mustard Emulsion
"BLANC BLEU DU RIZET" - Silverado Trail Strawberries, Celery Branch and Black Pepper Gastrique
These were the reddest and deepest strawberries that I’ve ever seen. This is the blue cheese that had the blue cut off. This cheese course was much better than the other one.
FRENCH LAUNDRY GARDEN BASIL SORBET - Lychee Fruit and Basil Seeds
Wow, what a plate!
oolong
"COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS"
"PARFAIT AU GINGEMBRE" - Shiso "Water," Ginger Pearls and Apricot Sherbet
The vegetable menu got a lot of extra goodies that were added at the table (olive oil drops, shaved truffles, poured Shiso “Water”). I wonder if it’s because usually women get this menu and they think that women like the extra service touch. ?? If so, they loose points for that.
creme brulee
shortbread
macadamia nuts
shortbread
The French Laundry Day: The Manifesto, Part III
Huei in The French Laundry's garden
Okay, now for Huei’s meal. This is also from the Chef’s Tasting Menu, but she selected many of the alternative options. To give you a sense of the flow of the meal, I am going to put up photos of the items that I’ve already discussed from my meal, that also were a part of Huei’s meal.
puffs
salmon cornette, but this is a photo of the beet cornette
Maybe Mark or Huei or Christina can describe how the salmon cornette was?
"OYSTERS AND PEARLS"
bioche
MOULARD DUCK "FOIE GRAS AU TORCHON" - Jacobsen's Farm Crab Apples, Heirloom Beets, Caraway Seed Streusel and Frisee
3 types of salt for foie gras
The foie gras was also served with brioche - that’s the pile of bread next to the salt in the top photo (sorry for the blurriness). That was really good bread - a less rich bread would have been lost being eaten with that foie gras. After she finished her first few slices, they were kind enough to “refresh” her bread. And then she finished that too. And she finished the whole meal. My sister is amazing.
Okay, let’s talk about the salts. The pink one is from Hawaii. It had an immediate and sharp saltiness. The white one is Jurassic salt from a mine in Wyoming. This one was really salty as well - it’s had many years to become more concentrated? The grey salt (sel gris) was my favorite. The saltiness was much lower and you were able to taste other minerally flavors. The Hawaiian and Jurassic salts were way too salty to really taste anything else going on. (Update: Huei says that I mixed up the Jurassic and Hawaiian salts. I may have mixed up the names, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t mix up the flavors.)
GULF COAST COBIA "CONFIT A LA MINUTE" - Glazed Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas, Red Radish and Young Ginger "Mousseline"
Here are the adorable vegetables that I was talking about in the first part of the manifesto. The carrots (whole carrots!) are about 1.5 cm and the snow peas are 2-3 cm. I tasted a bite - it was good, but not that interesting, once your amusement from the mini veggies wears off. The tartare that I choose was a much better option. Good job, Ranyee!
ciabatta
BEDFORD SEA SCALLOP "POELEE"
"CONFIT DE COEUR DE VEAU" - French Laundry Garden Swiss Chard, Bing Cherries, Spring Onions and Dijon Mustard
I talked about some baby cows in my thesis seminar (to help explain enzymes). And my sister really latched on to that. I guess for her, that means that she wanted to eat some baby cow hearts. She really enjoyed the dish. I tried a bite - it was good, but maybe not worth feeling the whole ickiness that comes from realizing that you’re eating baby cow hearts.
SNAKE RIVER FARMS "CALOTTE DE BOEUF GRILLEE"
JUNIPER GROVE "TUMALO TOMME"
white tea
CANTALOUPE SORBET
"COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS"
"REGAL DE FRUITS ROUGES AU ROMARIN"
pot au creme, shortbread, chocolate-caramel macadamia nut
shortbread to go
Okay, it’s time to take a stroll in the garden before we move on to the last five and a half hour meal, the Tasting of Vegetables. (Update: Part IV is up!)
The French Laundry Day: The Manifesto, Part II
… in which I discuss the food in more detail, as promised.
Because the different menus have their own flow through the different courses, I’m going to go through the different menus one at a time. I’ll cover my own meal, Huei’s meal, and then Mark/Ben’s. Christina’s was like a hybrid between mine and Huei’s, so that won’t get a designated recap.
First, my meal. Here’s a photo of the whole Chef’s Tasting Menu.
Chef's Tasting Menu
puffs
These are little cheese puffs that are made with a pate au choux. I know these are supposed to be single bites, but I cheated and made it into a few bites to extend the experience. I probably enjoy smaller bites more than a typical person, so I think this is okay
beet cornette
Three of us had salmon cornettes (which I had heard about), but I was selected to eat a beet cornette. The little scoop is actually made of hundreds - thousands? - of little minuscule cubes of beet. I think all that added surface area really intensifies the flavor. Also, the texture of the fine dice adds another textural layer. The cone, unexpectedly full of flavor by itself, was filled with creme fraiche. Do you see that little dot of green on top? I think it’s chive? It’s not just for show; it was actually the perfect addition - perfectly sized and a perfect bit of zing.
"OYSTERS AND PEARLS" - "Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar
If I were to start a food trend, I would have to make sure that balls were somehow involved. The sabayon provided a deliciously magical* base for all the balls. The caviar added intense pops, the tapioca added soft, chewy pops, and the green bits (more chive?) added crisp and bright pops. The oyster, while having a good texture and flavor, had a slight off-ness that I associate with oyster poop and mussel poop. I’m not sure if that taste is really from poop, I should actually look that up sometime, but that’s what I imagine in my head. This taste wasn’t strong enough to make this dish unenjoyable, but it’s better to not be so poopy. So lots of fun pops and, unfortunately, also a little poop. I loved the pearl spoons. So smooth on your tongue. Why don’t we eat more things with pearl spoons?
*There are some really good flavors that I have a hard time describing or pinpointing or deconstructing. So that’s when I start using terms like magic.
brioche
Our first bread course - The brioche (from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon) had a great crust - lightly crispy. And the inside was rich and layered and airy. Rich and airy at the same time! And it was a beautiful piece of bread. Because the bread was so buttery already, it was hard to fully taste the butter with the bread. So I tried just the two types of butter by themselves. (The sources of these butters is based on our collective memories, so take it with a grain of salt!) The unsalted butter (from Andante Dairy) was so diaphanous. Crazy, huh? Diaphanous butter?! You could barely taste it for the first few seconds. And then the flavor of the butter swells, but only by a little bit. It wasn’t sweet, it wasn’t rich. The flavor was more of a texture - smooth and silky. The salted butter (from Vermont, maybe Diane St. Claire) was much stronger - very good and buttery. I wish I had another strong butter to compare it with though - I think that would have helped me to explain what it tasted like.
SALAD OF HAWAIIAN HEARTS OF PEACH PALM - Green Almonds, Mizuna and Santa Rosa Plums
This dish was one of the less exciting ones. The plums, very thinly sliced, were amazing and beautiful. I would say that was the focus of the dish rather than the hearts of peach palm. It was well-balanced and refreshing and appropriate. But it didn’t get me to say “wow!” or “oh!” It’s weird that the alternative choice for this course was the foie gras (you’ll have to wait for Huei’s menu), which is completely the opposite of this. Even though the foie gras was tastier, I wouldn’t have wanted a whole course of foie gras and a bite of Huei’s was enough for me.
"TARTARE" OF PACIFIC KAHALA BELLY - Akita Komachi Rice, Compressed English Cucumber, Perilla, White Sesame Puree and Kanzuri
This was one of my favorite dishes. Every component was perfect and enhanced the other components to be beyond perfect. Good choice, Ranyee.
ciabatta
Bread course #2 - Really good ciabatta. Godly ciabatta. I bet Jesus’ bread of the fives loaves and two fishes miracle tasted just like this bread.
NEW BEDFORD SEA SCALLOP "POELEE" - Summer Squash, Toybox Tomatoes, Greek Basil and Spanish Saffron
Pretty classic flavors and combination of ingredients, but they were done really well. The tomatoes were magic - they were either extra special tomatoes when they fruited, or they added something to bring the flavor beyond normal tomatoes. The saffron sauce was SO intense! Look at the color! The flavor was at least as intense as that color. Magic.
DEVIL'S GULCH RANCH RABBIT SIRLOIN - Wrapped in Hobbs' Bacon, Baby Corn, Filet Beans and Black Truffles from Australia
Here’s when my enjoyment of the meal started dipping… Everything was good here, but nothing blew me away. Even the black truffles from Australia. Those crazy Australians, apparently not learning lessons from all the other species that they’ve brought in that have wreaked havoc on the whole island, have “inoculated” some trees with truffles. Pretty good truffles, but I hope that this doesn’t screw up their ecosystems even more.
SNAKE RIVER FARMS "CALOTTE DE BOEUF GRILLEE" - Fingerling Potatoes, Romaine Lettuce, Morel Mushrooms and "Sauce Bordelaise"
This dish needed to be at most 1/5 of the size of this. There was no way I was left wanting more. The meat was really good - flavor and texture. But I got bored after a bite or two. I decided that I think that morels are best for making other things more magical but are not especially good by themselves. Huei thought the potatoes tasted like ranch dressing. She thinks they used Hidden Valley’s powder. The wilted Romaine was pretty good, but I can’t dissociate wilted Romaine from the times when my mother cooked old lettuce to keep it from going to waste.
JUNIPER GROVE "TUMALO TOMME" - Panisse, Fennel Bulb Compote, Arugula and Nicoise Olives
The cheese course on the Tasting of Vegetables menu was better than this one. The most interesting thing was the mind-blowing intensity of the olive sauce. The cheese was subtle, but not in a particularly interesting way. What’s a panisse - is that the patty thing that reminded us of quinoa and polenta?
CANTALOUPE SORBET - Compressed Melon and "Muscat de Beaumes de Venise en Gelee"
Sorbet course, a closer look
This was one of my favorite presentations. The plate itself was nice. And the glistening compressed melon pieces were so beautiful. This course did its job, but I wish the flavors could have been more interesting. I guess melon is seasonal. But then again, there are so many varieties of melon. Couldn’t they have used more exciting melons?
oolong tea, from Ben Shan in Fujian
Best thing about the tea is the “strainers.”
"REGAL DE FRUITS ROUGES AU RAMARIN" - Rosemary-Scented Genoa Cake, "Creme Patisseriere" and Summer Berries
I thought rosemary and berries were an interesting combination. The cake almost had a frangipane texture. The pink sprinkles tasted like some sort of crumble/crumb thing. It was more floury than sugary. Notice the texture on the plate - I mean plate plate. Christina, Huei, and I all got this same dish and we noticed that the berries were placed in the exact same arrangement on each plate and on each cake. I get annoyed with a lot of desserts that have way too much cake and not enough berry. This was not the case here. It was arranged so that you could very easily take a perfectly balanced bite. My only complaint was that the portion was too large.
"COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS"
We got the doughnut and the hole! The coffee is a coffee semifreddo - a very light semifreddo -that’s topped with a foam. This is the first time I’ve had a semifreddo and actually felt like it was half frozen. Other times, it’s either too frozen or not frozen enough. So simple and so perfect. I kept thinking “Holy S—” as I was eating this - it’s just a doughnut - but it’s so amazing!
pot au creme, shortbread
Here are some more of the extra sweets that we got. The pot au creme was mildly infused with star anise. The top of the custard had a little bit of a skin - I didn’t like that. The custard was very dense. Very good, but a few bites were enough for me. The cookie was a really short shortbread. I was trying to explain to the others at the table what I meant by “short” - because I don’t mean crumby. It’s the opposite of the chewiness that you get from the developed gluten in bread. It’s tender and soft.
macadamia nuts, covered with chocolate-caramel
The nuts were good - very brittle, not too sweet. But I loved the lidded pot more than what was inside.
shortbread, to bring the French Laundry experience home
Here’s another case where they are able to put extra flavor into something. I had one of these shortbreads already. Texture was very good. The amazing thing was the strength of butter and vanilla flavors. I don’t think they used vanilla extract here. I think they were somehow able to infuse the dough with vanilla bean. This was confirmed by the presence of vanilla beans in the cookies. Maybe they infused milk or cream with vanilla beans and then that went into the dough? I don’t know how they did, but I think I will eat one now.
I think I’ll post about one menu at a time. So that I don’t get overwhelmed and I don’t overwhelm anyone else. You’re probably either overwhelmed already or you’ve skimmed over a lot.
Huei’s menu will be next… (Updated with the link to Part III, and Part III.)
