DownTo Earch - Every nuance I enjoy in life

FISSION posted from Crackle.com

2008-05-25T14:18:00.001-07:00

From Crackle: FISSION

麻辣诱惑

2007-12-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

Last night after tennis, the gang went to this new 川菜馆 in fremont, with an enticing name. Some of us even gave it a better English translation, "Spicy Lust", anyhow... Place is spacious, decoration is nice, presentation is elegant, we all agree the overall atmosphere is just like restaurants in metro China, not some cheap Chinese eateries in US from last generation.
This is an appetizer, thin slices of 肚丝 and cucumber, hung like noodles. ( I said elegant presentation, didn't I) It tasted great too, crispy cucumber contrasts with tender jello like stuff. Courtesy to Jeff's iPhone, camera of which produces much better quality at low light than my 1.3M Samsung t809.

Of course, like in restaurants in motherland, ordering is a complicated negotiation process, recorded here.

Here are some dishes we had.

I love the clay pot they serve the spicy 田鸡(frog legs) with, traditional Chinese.
Clay pot chicken soup stew, with all sorts of herbs, Yummy! (Picture is not good though)

If you have anything to say about this place, post comment in my blog, or Yelp it On!

Singing Chef

2007-10-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

Harrod's department store food hall, London. at the Italian stand, the chefs sing folk songs and act simple episodes of opera, attracting many visitors.

Queen Square

2007-10-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I went to do my laundry, entirely unexpected, I had the most peaceful and relaxing moments during my entire stay in London. It was a very quiet Saturday morning; the city is spared of the usual crowds and noises. After early morning rain in Autumn, the air smells crisp and clear. The sun was coming out of clouds, just started to heat up the ground and everything on it. It was a small (by US standard) neighborhood park I strolled into after starting up the washing machine, just to kill some time. It’s called Queen Square, just a small piece of green grassland with some trees, bit of flowers, and two dark bronse statues, this is one of them.
Surrounding buildings include a hospital and a historical bar named after Queen Victoria, the streets were almost empty, only an old lady passed me by. There are a few apartment buildings a block away, almost red brick, bit of plain and old, looks like filled with low income immigrants, but very much are like the building I lived in ages ago. Walking around the little park really reminded me of the places in old Beijing in the 80’s, same of the old buildings and small park, same kind of peacefulness. It seemed time has turned back two decades and I found myself a young boy again on my bicycle passing through those back streets covered in old leafy trees and Russian style red brick buildings. It was before the commercialization of the city and influx of migrants.
I know how weird it sounds. I had the same feeling the first day in Milan, I guess I'll feel the same way in many European cities ahead. Perhaps cities with history and culture are all alike, but it's nice to think that traveling around the world, you can find serenity at unexpected locations.
I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone before moving along with rest of the day, didn't spend much time there. After all, peace is always short.

A Californian lad in London...

2007-09-28T12:12:00.001-07:00

"Hi there, this is an average lad from Santa Clara, California, reporting live at London, United Kingdom......" Just kidding. Have been in London for 2 weeks, still don't like this city, there's more to adapt than to enjoy. There is lots to say about London this time, since I have experienced the city much more than last visit.

My hotel is across street from British Museum, and a block away from Oxford St., a major shopping area. Here's the Museum at night, preparing for a Korean culture event. Every morning, I walk 5 min to take the "tube" (subway) to work. Office is across town near Tower of London and Tower Bridge, so I have to switch train, commute takes about an hour. The tube is extremely uncomfortable, noisy, dirty and crowded, matter of fact, that pretty much describe streets in the entire city. Everywhere is full of people busy getting to somewhere, all looking pretty serious. In many aspects London remarkably resembles Shanghai, both have highly-efficient public transport system, both are noisy, crowded, both have polluted air and narrow streets, the stores in shopping district look a lot alike, of course to me, my wife would protect those in Regents St are much higher-end.

Of course, this is Britain, so many conventions are at odds with the rest of the world. I'm just about to get used to staying on LEFT side at stair and pathways, after bumping into people walking towards me the first few days. The sweet voice of "Mind the gap" still ring in my ears. People all dress up, or nicely, men all in suits, black the dominant color. One day in the tube I even saw a guy with Punk hair-style and tattoo but in formal business attire. In office, half of guys wear shirts with French cuffs and of course cuff links(which I had no idea how expensive they are). Women all wear make-up, making them look prettier, or maybe they are pretty, since London has people of races from all over Europe, there are many pretty people here. At least everybody is slim, both men and women. seldom see overweighted body, perhaps because food is so expensive and people have to walk a lot everyday. There are so many slim people that their body shape resembles Asian better, no wonder the suits in European cut I tried in stores fits me much better than American cut.

Another thing is perfume, you can smell all sorts of it in tube cabins or in office, for a couple of times even on street. Now I know why Europeans love perfume, not because it's the scent of love, but because it's the only way to mask any body odor in a hot and packed tube cabin after rushing on street for a while.

For one thing, the British love tabloids, and London is the heaven of it, numerous papers are not only free but hire people to push them into your hands at tube stations and on streets, so tube cabins are littered with those dirty papers, which I considered pollution. And people DO read them, in the tube, all the time, making me questioning the intelligence of the general Londoners.

Life in office is a bit of challenging, I didn't realize how much different American and British English can be. I can't understand half of the chatters and jokes people say in office, so I have to constrain from participate in conversations. Sometime I really wonder if the 2 countries across the Atlantic actually speak the same language, because so many words are different. For example, one of the guys in office spent 2 mins explaining to me what "riding push-bike" is, while he could've said "cycling". Some of them have strong accent, Nick, the guy I work most closely with, happen to be one of them, so imagine the frustration on my side of keep asking "what", and on his side keep repeating what's just said, but I manage to get along fairly well with him, and everybody else in office. I probably have picked up a little British accent myself. People in London seem all like to go to bars, drink after work is the usual social event, kind of like lunch in California, because most people eat lunch at their desk. Although everybody seems quiet and serious in office, once getting into a bar, they all become live. I went to one of such event, it's a company sponsored celebration event, so it's quite mild and polite. There's another one, farewell to Nick, he's leaving the company, I didn't go, there were pictures of people getting drunk and lying everywhere.

Well after all, there are also many interesting parts about London. It's a city with amazing mixture of the past and present. Walking on streets, you can see modern glass-steel office buildings blended with centuries-old stone-brick architectures. There are "big ben" and London Tower, as well as "The Gherkin" and London eye.

The Gherkin is the egg-shaped or cigar-shaped building in old financial district, not far from Tower bridge and my office. In the new financial district Canary Wharf there are many new high-rise offices.

Food is great if you ignore the price tags. I'm amazed the number of restaurants you can find, seems there's something at every street corner. There are a variety of cuisines. We went to quite a few nice Korean restaurants, but the Korean restaurants here don't serve you side dishes for free, and tea is all tea-bags, no tea pot. I went to an Italian Pizza once, not bad. Food in company "canteen"(cafeteria) is not bad, has a good variety. BGI's cafeteria is on top floor of the building, has a splendid view of the city on both sides of the river. Lunchtime is my enjoyment of the day.

Streets are filled with the lovely red double deck bus, they are perfect place for commercials, many of which are quite creative, check out this one:

What else good, the weather is wonderful if you like photography, many cloudy days, and clouds display various forms and shapes, providing constantly changing lighting effects on everything in the city, buildings, vehicles, people, etc. This provides endless photographing opportunities. No wonder there're so many amateur photographer in Britain.

Another great advantage being in London is getting to visit some places in England I have been longing to go, such as Cambridge, where I went last week. I'll have a separate post on that.

Well, two weeks flied by, I have mixed feeling to London, I'm really not sure if I want to come back or not. In one sense it's not up to me, for instance there's a good chance my boss will send me back next month. On the other hand, the idea of living and working here for a year or longer is still so far-fetched it's hard for me to imagine, surviving the sick air in the tube and the overwhelming London streets. Right now, Bay Area has never been sweeter to me, I miss the sun, the air and my friends so much.

This post is still work in progress, for more London pictures, visit my flickr page

It's all in your head

2007-09-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Once again, Roger Federrer won a grand slam title, 2007 US Open championship, over the young Serbian Novak Djokovic. This is his 12th career title and 4th US Open champion, so that's not surprise. What's noteworthy is that he won less on skill, more on mental power.

Federrer wasn't at his best game today, started slow, many unforced errors. In the 1st 2 sets, Djokovic had 7 set points, but Federrer won back both sets by tie-break. there were times you would think Djokovic would win the set, but then he just get nervous under tremendous pressure and didn't grasp the chance, double fault at serve, return didn't get over net, etc., he just floundered, and Federrer finally found a way to turn back the tide. Especial frustration came at a set point he shot the ball out by a split-hair of room. After losing the 1st set Djokovic got so upset he smashed his water bottle during break. 2nd set he grew more impatient after missing a breakpoint by a slight placement. From which point on just fell apart in rest of the game.

Throughout the game, Federrer didn't have clear technical advantage, but he maintained his composure in the entire time, even during the most difficult moments, that's how he was able to turn around and win the game, that's why he is a champion. It's all mental. I guess during the entire game, he had always believed he can win, for no clear reason(he lost to Djokovic at Montreal open earlier this year), but he had to believe it, for it to actually happen. On the other hand, Djokovic felt good at the beginning winning a few points, so tried to rush ending several points, ended up in loses, and at tough times he became self-doubt and his play conservative. That's why he lost at the end, he never believed he can win.

In sports mental power has huge impact on a player's performance, perhaps bigger than skills and physical capability, I think it's the similar case in life for everybody. In fact for many people there is no much physical limit what a person can or can not do, but rather the belief that something can be achieved. If you truly believe it, you will find a way to accomplish it. The belief can help you overcome the obstacles. On the other hand if you don't even believe in yourself, there is no way you can achieve anything. Reflecting on myself, I choose to always believe I can change my life, anything I don't like about myself today I can make it better tomorrow, as such that I am striving for that goal, so I will reach it.

Russian Family restaurant

2007-06-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

First time been to a Russian restaurant, this one is called "Russian Family"

in San Bruno near SFO, my coworker Svetlana recommended for our group lunch. The owner/waitress is from Ukraine. The place is decorated with traditional Russian(I suspect Ukrainian) household artifacts.

Food is pretty authentic. Lunch starts with soup(Ukrainian Borsch).
The entree I had was Golubtsy(stuffed cabbage), delicious. see here.

Other people tried other dishes. They even have dumplings(Vareniki), with cheese in it, we had as dessert, I even brought some home, delicious. Svet said Safeway has it, I shall try it find some.

Zhutou is always happy when ordering

2007-06-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

See, as long as there is good food, she's always smiling. So many choices!

This is end of April when she came back to Bay Area for the break, it's in a newly opened Chinese restaurant in Milpitas square for lunch with Patrick and Haiying.

My Favorite Korean lunch place

2007-06-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

This is a new Korean restaurant opened less than a year ago, they have full service barbecue for dinner, kind of expensive. But recently they introduced lunch $7.99, this is what I ordered, spicy pork, with rice, soup and lot's side-dishes(8), makes a really delicious meal. I've been there twice, both times I had to pack some home. Good deal for 8 bucks.

the wall and the wall

2007-06-19T22:24:00.001-07:00

the wall and the wall
Originally uploaded by jerryzhang

My first B&W shot, taken at a church near Geary and Van Ness in S.F. city , in a bright sunny day, so ND4 filter is placed horizontally to reduce the exposure contrast.

My Inspiring Neighbor

2007-05-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with my neighbor Alex, he told me he is working on some website startup ideas, one of them is sportsmatch.us, an online community for sport fans. He hired a few programmers in Ukraine, his home country, He hosts the site in his garage. That's pretty interesting. He even showed me his server rack in the garage, a 6-feet tall cabinet filled with black boxes, looks professional, I guess because his day-job is managing web traffic for business use, so as he said, "consumer web hosting is nothing".

He spoke passionately about web 2.0 business. Considering he has 2 kids, one of them newly born, and a day-job, it's amazing he can find time to do this. I should learn from him.
(BTW, this link to the site can boost its Google ranking a little, but he still going to pay for SEO, just kidding)