Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are off to an amazing 38-4 start to the 2015-2016 season. Stephen Curry is undoubtedly been the NBA's MVP during the first half of the season.
The statistic I find most fascinating about Stephen Curry's run this year is the number of three pointers he's shooting. As of this writing, he's got 193 three pointers on the year. That's good for a pace of 376 over 82 games. Keep in mind, he missed a couple of games due to an injury earlier in the year. For a good part of the year prior to that injury he was on pace for over 400.
Regardless, any of these numbers will completely shatter the NBA record for three pointers in a season, which Curry already owns. He had 286 three pointers last year to set the record. That beat his prior record of 272 which he accomplished in 2012-2013. With 261 in 2013-2014, he owns three of the top five three point shooting seasons in NBA history.
While Curry is going to annihilate this record, it's really an indication of how much the NBA has changed in terms of the three pointer being used as a weapon. The NBA changed three point line distances several times starting in 1994 before settling into what it is today in the 1996-1997 season. Ever since then three point shooting has gone up and up. From 1997-2001 teams averaged 4.6 three pointers per game. Then from 2001 to 2005, NBA teams averaged over 5 per game. Then from 2006 to 2012 it grew to over 6 per game. From 2012 to 2015 it jumped to over 7 per game. And now in the 2015-2016 season, teams are currently averaging 8.3 three pointers per game.
The change in the game can be perhaps be illustrated best by looking at Michael Jordan's early career. Debated as the best basketball player of all time, but minimally the best shooting guard of all time, some of Jordan's pre-1994 three point statistics can look comical by modern day measurements.
For example, Jordan lead the league in scoring each year from 1986 to 1989. However, he made an phenomenally unimpressive 46 three pointers in those three seasons. Yes, that's 46 three pointers in THREE SEASONS. As a comparison, Stephen Curry has made 47 in his last eight games. In the 1987-1988 season, Jordan made a comical 7 three pointers total and had a horrible 13.2% shooting percentage on three pointers. Even during a championship year in the 1991-1992 season, Jordan made only 27 three pointers on 27% shooting (the league average was 33.1%).
Later, Jordan's three point shooting grew just as it did for the rest of the NBA, but it's comical looking at some of those early numbers.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
New vs Old Dining
Recently the famed New York restaurant Per Se was demoted to two stars by the New York Times. It got a lot of press online and went mini-viral. The review reminded me a bit of the commentary that went around after the restaurant Daniel in New York dropped from 3 Michelin Stars to 2 Michelin Stars.
I've been a fair number of dining adventures the past few years and have hit up many restaurants after my trip to Per Se's sister restaurant French Laundry. Over that time, I've come to an understanding on fine dining and restaurants.
In my opinion, restaurants sway in one of two directions. Either they are "classic" or "hip". "Hip" can be interpreted multiple ways, perhaps "new age" or "interesting" would also suffice. Individual dishes fall into the "classic" or "interesting" category as well. Basically what it comes down to is if the restaurant is trying to cook you a perfect recreation of a classic dish or trying to do something really different or interesting.
A few of the restaurants I've been to that remind me of the "classic" category are Chez Panisse, Alexander's Steakhouse, and La Folie. French Laundry perhaps sways towards the classic end. A steak from Alexander's Steakhouse is a wonderful example of a "classic" dish. There is nothing truly creative about this particular dish. They procure the best steak they can and then cook it to perfection. The lamb from French Laundry, duck from La Folie, and the pork loin from Chez Panisse also come to mind. Classic ingredients cooked to perfection and in a relatively classic fashion.
A places that immediately come to mind on the "hip" or "interesting" end would be State Bird Provisions and Al's Place. Saison, Benu, and Commis probably sway towards this end. Here there are dishes you generally cannot find anywhere else because they are quite unique. The lobster coral xiao long bao from Benu is the one that immediately comes to mind. You can't find this dish probably anywhere else in the bay area, or possible even the whole United States. The hearts of palm salad from State Bird Provisions and radish snackle from Al's place also come to mind in this category.
So there in lies the rub for higher end restaurants and reviewers. How do you grade a restaurant that serves "classic" fair vs a restaurant that serves "hip" fair. Restaurants serving "classic" fair may be limited in the types of dishes they serve. With the case of French Laundry or Per Se, there are such classic dishes that customers expect, they can't really take them off the menu. If "classic" restaurants cannot take them off the menu, how can they create new dishes? If they cannot create new dishes, will they fall behind other restaurants?
I've been a fair number of dining adventures the past few years and have hit up many restaurants after my trip to Per Se's sister restaurant French Laundry. Over that time, I've come to an understanding on fine dining and restaurants.
In my opinion, restaurants sway in one of two directions. Either they are "classic" or "hip". "Hip" can be interpreted multiple ways, perhaps "new age" or "interesting" would also suffice. Individual dishes fall into the "classic" or "interesting" category as well. Basically what it comes down to is if the restaurant is trying to cook you a perfect recreation of a classic dish or trying to do something really different or interesting.
A few of the restaurants I've been to that remind me of the "classic" category are Chez Panisse, Alexander's Steakhouse, and La Folie. French Laundry perhaps sways towards the classic end. A steak from Alexander's Steakhouse is a wonderful example of a "classic" dish. There is nothing truly creative about this particular dish. They procure the best steak they can and then cook it to perfection. The lamb from French Laundry, duck from La Folie, and the pork loin from Chez Panisse also come to mind. Classic ingredients cooked to perfection and in a relatively classic fashion.
A places that immediately come to mind on the "hip" or "interesting" end would be State Bird Provisions and Al's Place. Saison, Benu, and Commis probably sway towards this end. Here there are dishes you generally cannot find anywhere else because they are quite unique. The lobster coral xiao long bao from Benu is the one that immediately comes to mind. You can't find this dish probably anywhere else in the bay area, or possible even the whole United States. The hearts of palm salad from State Bird Provisions and radish snackle from Al's place also come to mind in this category.
So there in lies the rub for higher end restaurants and reviewers. How do you grade a restaurant that serves "classic" fair vs a restaurant that serves "hip" fair. Restaurants serving "classic" fair may be limited in the types of dishes they serve. With the case of French Laundry or Per Se, there are such classic dishes that customers expect, they can't really take them off the menu. If "classic" restaurants cannot take them off the menu, how can they create new dishes? If they cannot create new dishes, will they fall behind other restaurants?
Monday, January 11, 2016
Dinner @ Al's Place in San Francisco, CA
Al's Place has been one of the most hyped restaurants of 2015. The head chef was formerly the head chef a Ubuntu in Napa, a two Michelin star restaurant before it closed. It was named the best new restaurant of the year by Bon Appetit and just got a Michelin Star.
The restaurant reminds me a bit of State Bird Provisions. It is a very casual place for a Michelin star restaurant, with some folks dressed in jeans and t-shirts. A portion of the restaurant is reserved for walk ins. We saw a line of people lined up well before the restaurant opened (just like State Bird). A large number of people were waiting outside waiting for a seat. The price is comparable. Reservations are also difficult due to the hype. However, I got pretty lucky with a reservation that opened up < 24 hours earlier.
Right now Al's Place offers an a la carte menu or a "Family Style" menu for $60. The latter is simply the restaurants random picks from the menu. Normally, I always go for the tasting menu/chef's picks from the menu, but I didn't this time as will be explained below.
Al's place is somewhat famous for concentrating on vegetarian/pescatarian dishes. The menu is divided up into 5 sections, "Snackles" (snacks), "Cold/Cool" dishes, "Warm/Hot" dishes, "Sides", and "Limited Availability" dishes. With the exception of one or two dishes, all the "Snackles", "Cold/Cool", and "Warm/Hot" were vegetarian. A large number of the dishes in these sections would probably even qualify as vegan. However, this isn't a vegetarian restaurant, as a number of meat dishes are available under the "Sides" or "Limited Availability" section.
The "Family Style" only covers items from the "Snackles", "Cold/Cool", and "Warm/Hot" dishes. So if you wanted to get anything with meat, you'd have to order extra items. So we elected to just order a whole bunch of dishes from the a la carte menu to ensure we got a few meat dishes.
Here's what we had.
1) blue dane radish, preserved bergamot butter - w/ salt
It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but above the scoop of butter was a pile of salt. We were told to dip into the butter and sprinkle salt on. I just dipped the butter into the salt instead. Also, you ate the radishes leaves and all, which was new to me.
Overall, delicious. I can't quite put my finger on why it was, but I've never had an dish quite like this before. The radish leaves were certainly a good part of the equation as it had a bit of (I believe natural) spice to it.
2) french fries, smoked apple sauce
I normally wouldn't go for such a dish as french fries seem quite generic. However, my date insisted since we just finished a hike and she really craved some fries. Overall, the apple sauce was tasty. I probably wouldn't get this dish again though, as I'd want to try some dishes that were really different.
3) lightly cured trout, crispy potato, smashed turnip, bagna cauda
I had to look up bagna cauda, which is apparently a dip of some sort which originates from Italy. I wasn't entirely sure what "smashed turnip" was, but it appeared to be pickled in some way. Overall, this was probably my favorite of the night. All of it together was delicious.
4) baby lettuces, herbed avocado, pistachio crumble
Before coming to the restaurant I read on Yelp that this dish was to be eaten with your hands. I didn't understand why until I started poking at the dish.
From the picture, it looks just like a pretty normal salad. However, the "baby lettuces" in the title of this dish are not actually leaves from baby lettuces. They are the entire head of the lettuce from a baby lettuce. So the above is not a bunch of lettuce leaves but was around 8-10 baby lettuce heads, of atleast two different lettuce varieties. Underneath it all was the herbed avocado sauce, which you can see better in this picture below (along with a lettuce head). So it's actually easier to just grab a head of lettuce and dip it in the sauce.
5) hanger steak, smoked salmon butter, uni-balsamic
I'm actually not a fan of steak cooked rare, for some reason it just tastes too "uncooked". However, this was very tasty. I'm sure it has to do with the fact this steak probably wasn't from Safeway. It was also cut so thin that perhaps that rareness wasn't evident. Overall, very tasty.
It's worth noting that overall this wasn't a lot of steak. Maybe on the order of 5-6 ounces worth. Just to keep that in mind for anyone that would want to order it and if you're sharing.
6) grits, goat's milk curds, fried brussels sprouts, quince, yellowfeet
This was the lone dish we ordered from the "Warm/Hot" section as we didn't want to share a soup (2 of the 4 dishes in this section) and the other dish was a pasta (we didn't want two warm carb dishes). I assume the "yellowfeet" was yellowfoot mushrooms (Googling "yellowfeet" was not pretty). Overall a very tasty dish. I think the quince in the grits was what really stood out to me.
7) fish head under a brick, sweet+sour
We ordered this dish almost exclusively because we were curious what "under a brick" meant for cooking something. Effectively, this is a fish head (we didn't ask what kind of fish), sliced vertically so its flat, and put under a brick while it was grilled. It comes with some kim-chi sweet & sour sauce on the side.
I had actually expected some Chinese takeout like sweet & sour sauce, but this was much more mild and had some type of kim-chi flavoring in it according to the waiter. Overall, the sauce was quite tasty.
While the fish was fine, I wouldn't get it again. You have to really dig around to find the meat. If this fish head were perhaps steamed, I think it'd be more clear what parts of the head were available to pick off meat because the fish head would still look like fish. However, because it was grilled and there's so much black char on it, you're sort of just poking around trying to find meat.
Then on to dessert. We ordered two of the three desserts available.
8A) citrus salad, coconut, swarnadwipa - w/ tangerine, blood orange, grapefruit
It may be a little hard to tell in this picture, but the white is the coconut, which was a bit airy. I assume it was coconut whipped or moussed or something like that. I had to look up what swarnadwipa was, which is an Indian spice of some sort. Included amongst the citrus that we could tell was tangerine, blood orange, and grapefruit. If there were other types, I couldn't figure it out.
Overall, this was a nice light dessert.
8B) caramelized pear tart, shiso honey, lemon verbana ice cream
Looking at the pear tart, it seemed like there were atleast two different types of pear in this tart. Really good.
Update: I hit up Al's place again, see review #2.
The restaurant reminds me a bit of State Bird Provisions. It is a very casual place for a Michelin star restaurant, with some folks dressed in jeans and t-shirts. A portion of the restaurant is reserved for walk ins. We saw a line of people lined up well before the restaurant opened (just like State Bird). A large number of people were waiting outside waiting for a seat. The price is comparable. Reservations are also difficult due to the hype. However, I got pretty lucky with a reservation that opened up < 24 hours earlier.
Right now Al's Place offers an a la carte menu or a "Family Style" menu for $60. The latter is simply the restaurants random picks from the menu. Normally, I always go for the tasting menu/chef's picks from the menu, but I didn't this time as will be explained below.
Al's place is somewhat famous for concentrating on vegetarian/pescatarian dishes. The menu is divided up into 5 sections, "Snackles" (snacks), "Cold/Cool" dishes, "Warm/Hot" dishes, "Sides", and "Limited Availability" dishes. With the exception of one or two dishes, all the "Snackles", "Cold/Cool", and "Warm/Hot" were vegetarian. A large number of the dishes in these sections would probably even qualify as vegan. However, this isn't a vegetarian restaurant, as a number of meat dishes are available under the "Sides" or "Limited Availability" section.
The "Family Style" only covers items from the "Snackles", "Cold/Cool", and "Warm/Hot" dishes. So if you wanted to get anything with meat, you'd have to order extra items. So we elected to just order a whole bunch of dishes from the a la carte menu to ensure we got a few meat dishes.
Here's what we had.
1) blue dane radish, preserved bergamot butter - w/ salt
It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but above the scoop of butter was a pile of salt. We were told to dip into the butter and sprinkle salt on. I just dipped the butter into the salt instead. Also, you ate the radishes leaves and all, which was new to me.
Overall, delicious. I can't quite put my finger on why it was, but I've never had an dish quite like this before. The radish leaves were certainly a good part of the equation as it had a bit of (I believe natural) spice to it.
2) french fries, smoked apple sauce
I normally wouldn't go for such a dish as french fries seem quite generic. However, my date insisted since we just finished a hike and she really craved some fries. Overall, the apple sauce was tasty. I probably wouldn't get this dish again though, as I'd want to try some dishes that were really different.
3) lightly cured trout, crispy potato, smashed turnip, bagna cauda
I had to look up bagna cauda, which is apparently a dip of some sort which originates from Italy. I wasn't entirely sure what "smashed turnip" was, but it appeared to be pickled in some way. Overall, this was probably my favorite of the night. All of it together was delicious.
4) baby lettuces, herbed avocado, pistachio crumble
Before coming to the restaurant I read on Yelp that this dish was to be eaten with your hands. I didn't understand why until I started poking at the dish.
From the picture, it looks just like a pretty normal salad. However, the "baby lettuces" in the title of this dish are not actually leaves from baby lettuces. They are the entire head of the lettuce from a baby lettuce. So the above is not a bunch of lettuce leaves but was around 8-10 baby lettuce heads, of atleast two different lettuce varieties. Underneath it all was the herbed avocado sauce, which you can see better in this picture below (along with a lettuce head). So it's actually easier to just grab a head of lettuce and dip it in the sauce.
This dish was awesome, the most unique and delicious salad I think I've ever had.
I'm actually not a fan of steak cooked rare, for some reason it just tastes too "uncooked". However, this was very tasty. I'm sure it has to do with the fact this steak probably wasn't from Safeway. It was also cut so thin that perhaps that rareness wasn't evident. Overall, very tasty.
It's worth noting that overall this wasn't a lot of steak. Maybe on the order of 5-6 ounces worth. Just to keep that in mind for anyone that would want to order it and if you're sharing.
6) grits, goat's milk curds, fried brussels sprouts, quince, yellowfeet
This was the lone dish we ordered from the "Warm/Hot" section as we didn't want to share a soup (2 of the 4 dishes in this section) and the other dish was a pasta (we didn't want two warm carb dishes). I assume the "yellowfeet" was yellowfoot mushrooms (Googling "yellowfeet" was not pretty). Overall a very tasty dish. I think the quince in the grits was what really stood out to me.
7) fish head under a brick, sweet+sour
We ordered this dish almost exclusively because we were curious what "under a brick" meant for cooking something. Effectively, this is a fish head (we didn't ask what kind of fish), sliced vertically so its flat, and put under a brick while it was grilled. It comes with some kim-chi sweet & sour sauce on the side.
I had actually expected some Chinese takeout like sweet & sour sauce, but this was much more mild and had some type of kim-chi flavoring in it according to the waiter. Overall, the sauce was quite tasty.
While the fish was fine, I wouldn't get it again. You have to really dig around to find the meat. If this fish head were perhaps steamed, I think it'd be more clear what parts of the head were available to pick off meat because the fish head would still look like fish. However, because it was grilled and there's so much black char on it, you're sort of just poking around trying to find meat.
Then on to dessert. We ordered two of the three desserts available.
8A) citrus salad, coconut, swarnadwipa - w/ tangerine, blood orange, grapefruit
It may be a little hard to tell in this picture, but the white is the coconut, which was a bit airy. I assume it was coconut whipped or moussed or something like that. I had to look up what swarnadwipa was, which is an Indian spice of some sort. Included amongst the citrus that we could tell was tangerine, blood orange, and grapefruit. If there were other types, I couldn't figure it out.
Overall, this was a nice light dessert.
8B) caramelized pear tart, shiso honey, lemon verbana ice cream
Overall, I loved the meal at Al's Place. It's definitely one of my favorites in recent memory and one of the few that I think met the hype it's associated with.
Update: I hit up Al's place again, see review #2.
Monday, January 4, 2016
The NFL growing into a pass heavy league
Looking through the final NFL 2015 stats, I found something stunning.
An amazing 11 players threw for atleast 30 touchdowns this year. That's phenomenal. I remember a time when through 30 touchdowns a year was a benchmark of elite play. Even more amazing, 21 players threw for atleast 20 touchdowns.
As a comparison, in 2001, only 3 players threw for 30 touchdowns. Throwing for 20 touchdowns ranked you as 10th best in the league.
Here are the number of 30 TD passers the league has had each year since 2000.
2000 - 3
2001 - 3
2002 - 0
2003 - 1
2004 - 4
2005 - 1
2006 - 1
2007 - 4
2008 - 3
2009 - 4
2010 - 5
2011 - 5 (including three players with atleast 40 TDs thrown)
2012 - 5
2013 - 5
2014 - 9
2015 - 11
As you can see, it's been ratcheting up this decade and especially the past few years. It's hard to believe that in 2002 there wasn't even 1 quarterback that threw for 30 TDs.
Here's the total number of touchdowns thrown in the NFL during that same timeframe.
2000 - 634
2001 - 635
2002 - 694
2003 - 654
2004 - 732
2005 - 644
2006 - 648
2007 - 720
2008 - 646
2009 - 710
2010 - 751
2011 - 745
2012 - 757
2013 - 804
2014 - 807
2015 - 842
Wow, it's really ratcheting up. It's the third straight year of 800 TDs thrown (another record, beating the one set in 2014, which beat the one set in 2013) and there hasn't been fewer than 745 since 2009.
An amazing 11 players threw for atleast 30 touchdowns this year. That's phenomenal. I remember a time when through 30 touchdowns a year was a benchmark of elite play. Even more amazing, 21 players threw for atleast 20 touchdowns.
As a comparison, in 2001, only 3 players threw for 30 touchdowns. Throwing for 20 touchdowns ranked you as 10th best in the league.
Here are the number of 30 TD passers the league has had each year since 2000.
2000 - 3
2001 - 3
2002 - 0
2003 - 1
2004 - 4
2005 - 1
2006 - 1
2007 - 4
2008 - 3
2009 - 4
2010 - 5
2011 - 5 (including three players with atleast 40 TDs thrown)
2012 - 5
2013 - 5
2014 - 9
2015 - 11
As you can see, it's been ratcheting up this decade and especially the past few years. It's hard to believe that in 2002 there wasn't even 1 quarterback that threw for 30 TDs.
Here's the total number of touchdowns thrown in the NFL during that same timeframe.
2000 - 634
2001 - 635
2002 - 694
2003 - 654
2004 - 732
2005 - 644
2006 - 648
2007 - 720
2008 - 646
2009 - 710
2010 - 751
2011 - 745
2012 - 757
2013 - 804
2014 - 807
2015 - 842
Wow, it's really ratcheting up. It's the third straight year of 800 TDs thrown (another record, beating the one set in 2014, which beat the one set in 2013) and there hasn't been fewer than 745 since 2009.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Dinner @ Kin Khao in San Francisco, CA
I recently went to Kin Khao, a recently minted Michelin Star Thai restaurant in San Francisco. A Michelin Star for a Thai restaurant piqued my interest, because there aren't many of them (reading online, there's three of them in New York now).
Kin Khao has both an a la carte menu and prix fixe menu. If you've read any of my other blog entries, I usually default to the prix fixe/tasting menu because I don't want to bother with picking items off the menu. However, I made an exception this time. The prix fixe menu is a collection of items off the a la carte menu. There were 1-2 items on the a la carte menu that weren't on the price fixes that we really wanted to try, so we went with a la carte. The price fixe is a pretty good deal ($55 per person) to try a number of items on the menu and we ended up paying a similar price for the 5 dishes we selected below.
Here's an overview of what we had.
1) Som Tum Papaya Salad - Spicy chili+lime+fish sauce dressing, green beans, cherry tomatoes, dried shrimp, peanuts
First up was this papaya salad. I've had similar salads at other restaurants before, but I don't recall them being as spicy as this one. Overall, very tasty. A good light start to the heavier stuff coming below.
2) Namprik Long Rua - Spicy, umami-bomb Kapi shrimp paste relish, served with caramelized pork jowl, crispy Passmore ranch catfish, seasonal vegetables
This is the dish that basically made us not get the prix fixe menu. It seemed so different from anything else I'd ever seen at a Thai restaurant before. In fact, the menu actually said something like "This is not for beginners" on it. That made me want to try it even more.
The menu description isn't that clear about what this is though. The shrimp paste, pork jowl, and catfish are all in the jar you see in the picture. You mix it all up together to create a paste/sauce. The waitress said you should put it over rice. It also comes with a collection of vegetables and fruit to dip into it too. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it includes cucumber, asian pear, raddichio, green mango, carrots, radish, Thai eggplant, what I assume is chicory lettuce, and one other vegetable that my date and I were unsure about (maybe daikon?).
Short answer, as the menu description says, it really is an umami-bomb. It's absolutely delicious over rice. I didn't actually like it too much with the vegetables, as I think it was hard to dip everything into it. I ended up taking some of the vegetables out and sort of making a salad with it and putting some of the paste on. After the spicy papaya salad above, it was good to get all of the veggies and fruit to balance the spiciness.
My one only weird criticism of this dish is it is very very savory. After eating about 1/2 of it the dip, my date and I couldn't eat anymore. I think it'd work out much better if there were 4 or more people to share it.
3) Caramelized Pork Belly - Sweet, savory, voluptuous pork belly cooked in a clay pot
Holy cow, this is one of the best pork belly dishes I've ever had. It was super soft and gelatinous. It reminded me of the pork belly from French Laundry. Really really good.
4) Khun Yai's Rabbit Green Curry - Kiew Wan Curry Paste, Coconut, Milk, Rabbit Leg & Saddle, Rabbit Meatballs, Apple Eggplants, Thai Basil
We felt obligated to try a curry since we were here. We eventually settled on this rabbit curry, because I don't think I've ever seen a rabbit curry at a Thai restaurant before. The curry was a medium spicy, but not as spicy as the papaya salad above. Over rice, it was really good, however the star of this dish was the meatballs. They were delicious. Much better than the rabbit meatballs from The Progress.
5) Black Rice Pudding - Served with burnt coconut sugar caramel, salty coconut cream, puffed rice+peanut+sesame praline
This was apparently the only dessert Kin Khao has (according to the waitress which we overheard at a table next to us). We wanted to try this before coming here, so we didn't bother to look at a dessert menu if there was one.
The black rice putting comes with all the extras you see in the picture. The waiter said you can use it to build a sundae-like dessert. I think the black rice pudding was a tad bland by itself, but with everything else together it was really tasty.
Overall a good meal at Kin Khao. I definitely want to go back as there were multiple other dishes I wanted to try. The chili jam clams and spicy squid were the two dishes that caught my eye. Pad kee mao is my favorite Thai noodle dish and unfortunately it was not on the menu during my visit this winter.
Kin Khao has both an a la carte menu and prix fixe menu. If you've read any of my other blog entries, I usually default to the prix fixe/tasting menu because I don't want to bother with picking items off the menu. However, I made an exception this time. The prix fixe menu is a collection of items off the a la carte menu. There were 1-2 items on the a la carte menu that weren't on the price fixes that we really wanted to try, so we went with a la carte. The price fixe is a pretty good deal ($55 per person) to try a number of items on the menu and we ended up paying a similar price for the 5 dishes we selected below.
Here's an overview of what we had.
1) Som Tum Papaya Salad - Spicy chili+lime+fish sauce dressing, green beans, cherry tomatoes, dried shrimp, peanuts
First up was this papaya salad. I've had similar salads at other restaurants before, but I don't recall them being as spicy as this one. Overall, very tasty. A good light start to the heavier stuff coming below.
2) Namprik Long Rua - Spicy, umami-bomb Kapi shrimp paste relish, served with caramelized pork jowl, crispy Passmore ranch catfish, seasonal vegetables
 |
The menu description isn't that clear about what this is though. The shrimp paste, pork jowl, and catfish are all in the jar you see in the picture. You mix it all up together to create a paste/sauce. The waitress said you should put it over rice. It also comes with a collection of vegetables and fruit to dip into it too. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it includes cucumber, asian pear, raddichio, green mango, carrots, radish, Thai eggplant, what I assume is chicory lettuce, and one other vegetable that my date and I were unsure about (maybe daikon?).
Short answer, as the menu description says, it really is an umami-bomb. It's absolutely delicious over rice. I didn't actually like it too much with the vegetables, as I think it was hard to dip everything into it. I ended up taking some of the vegetables out and sort of making a salad with it and putting some of the paste on. After the spicy papaya salad above, it was good to get all of the veggies and fruit to balance the spiciness.
My one only weird criticism of this dish is it is very very savory. After eating about 1/2 of it the dip, my date and I couldn't eat anymore. I think it'd work out much better if there were 4 or more people to share it.
3) Caramelized Pork Belly - Sweet, savory, voluptuous pork belly cooked in a clay pot
Holy cow, this is one of the best pork belly dishes I've ever had. It was super soft and gelatinous. It reminded me of the pork belly from French Laundry. Really really good.
4) Khun Yai's Rabbit Green Curry - Kiew Wan Curry Paste, Coconut, Milk, Rabbit Leg & Saddle, Rabbit Meatballs, Apple Eggplants, Thai Basil
We felt obligated to try a curry since we were here. We eventually settled on this rabbit curry, because I don't think I've ever seen a rabbit curry at a Thai restaurant before. The curry was a medium spicy, but not as spicy as the papaya salad above. Over rice, it was really good, however the star of this dish was the meatballs. They were delicious. Much better than the rabbit meatballs from The Progress.
5) Black Rice Pudding - Served with burnt coconut sugar caramel, salty coconut cream, puffed rice+peanut+sesame praline
This was apparently the only dessert Kin Khao has (according to the waitress which we overheard at a table next to us). We wanted to try this before coming here, so we didn't bother to look at a dessert menu if there was one.
The black rice putting comes with all the extras you see in the picture. The waiter said you can use it to build a sundae-like dessert. I think the black rice pudding was a tad bland by itself, but with everything else together it was really tasty.
Overall a good meal at Kin Khao. I definitely want to go back as there were multiple other dishes I wanted to try. The chili jam clams and spicy squid were the two dishes that caught my eye. Pad kee mao is my favorite Thai noodle dish and unfortunately it was not on the menu during my visit this winter.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Tasty Stuff I Ate in 2015
As I did in 2014, the following are selections of random things I had in 2015 that were particular tasty or interesting that I didn't yet blog about. I don't blog about every meal b/c I don't really feel like it, but these were particular good and interesting and worth noting.
1) mochi wrapped with bacon from Ippuku, Berkeley, CA
This was a very popular item at the restaurant, but I couldn't imagine it tasting good. I just couldn't imagine the two items working out ... but it did. And it was delicious.
2) Fried frogs legs en Aigre Doux garlic, lemon from Monsieur Benjamin, San Francisco, CA
These frogs legs were delicious, but what made them so memorable was the presentation. They all had their "claws" on them still (I know it's not claws, it's bones, but it looks like claws). I recall the waitress telling us that many customers get freaked out by them. The table next to us had just ordered them but were looking at ours with regret.
3 & 4) Barbecue Abalone & Grilled Giant Ama Ebi at KCC Farmer's Market Honolulu, HI
While in Honolulu, I hit up a local farmers market. While admittedly semi-touristy, I loved the fact this farmers market had a unique set of "fair food" that is just not what you normally see on the mainland.
5) Omakase Sashimi from Dash, San Mateo, CA
After my dinner at Kusakabe, my girlfriend and I wanted to find more great sushi but at a slightly lower price point. Our favorite was Dash and this great sashimi plate.
1) mochi wrapped with bacon from Ippuku, Berkeley, CA
This was a very popular item at the restaurant, but I couldn't imagine it tasting good. I just couldn't imagine the two items working out ... but it did. And it was delicious.
2) Fried frogs legs en Aigre Doux garlic, lemon from Monsieur Benjamin, San Francisco, CA
These frogs legs were delicious, but what made them so memorable was the presentation. They all had their "claws" on them still (I know it's not claws, it's bones, but it looks like claws). I recall the waitress telling us that many customers get freaked out by them. The table next to us had just ordered them but were looking at ours with regret.
3 & 4) Barbecue Abalone & Grilled Giant Ama Ebi at KCC Farmer's Market Honolulu, HI
While in Honolulu, I hit up a local farmers market. While admittedly semi-touristy, I loved the fact this farmers market had a unique set of "fair food" that is just not what you normally see on the mainland.
5) Omakase Sashimi from Dash, San Mateo, CA
After my dinner at Kusakabe, my girlfriend and I wanted to find more great sushi but at a slightly lower price point. Our favorite was Dash and this great sashimi plate.
Battling Dry Eyes and Eye Strain
On and off over the last year I've been dealing with some eye-strain, dry eyes, and eye allergies. After some trial and error, I was eventually able to solve the problem(s).
The problem was a little hard to isolate b/c there were a number of competing problems. In addition, one issue can actually lead to the other.
I thought I'd share what I figured out, what I did, and some random tips/tricks in the hopes it helps people out there. I know I'm not the only software engineer / office worker that has to deal with these problems.
Of course a DISCLAIMER, I'm not a medical professional.
Part 1 - What I was doing Wrong
1) Not Blinking / Focusing Too Hard
As a software engineer, you unfortunately have to stare at a computer a good part of the day. You probably also have to stare at your phone too. If you're like me, some video games after work to relax or reading a book at night might be adding to the problem.
Apparently human beings, when concentrating, blink less than they normally do. This is bad. Blinking adds moisture and other teary goodness/oils to your eyes. When you blink less, your eyes can dry out. When you blink less, your eyes aren't clearing out dust/allergens like they normally are.
I'll let you Google for yourself about strategies to blink more, but it took some time to retrain myself to do this.
2) Not Taking Breaks
It goes without saying that when you're sitting at a desk all day, it can effect your eyes. Your ocular muscles are no different than any other muscle in your body. When they get fatigued they begin to get sore.
Taking a break to look off into the distance and just relax your eyes from staring at a monitor is a great break. Eye strain itself can lead to dry eyes too.
There is a general 20-20-20 rule that's stated on many websites. Every twenty minutes, stare off in the distance of atleast 20 feet, for 20 seconds.
I didn't necessarily follow this, but the general rule of take a lot of breaks and stare off into the distance is a good idea. I now force myself to get up and walk around the hall atleast every hour. I also try to go for a longer walk every afternoon. I used a timer on my phone to force this at one point, but I just know to do this now.
3) Not having good ergonomics
While my ergonomic setting wasn't terrible, it wasn't ideal and probably exacerbated a number of issues. Luckily I have an ergonomic evaluator at work that found the following problems for me.
This goes without saying, get your eyes checked. Squinting can increase eye strain & dry eyes too.
It ends up that my vision was actually fine. I was actually squinting b/c of my dry eyes and seasonal allergies. I didn't want to open my eyes as wide to avoid having them dry out.
5) Running a fan at night
When it's hot during the summer, I sometimes run a fan by my bed to keep me cool. Bad idea as the air / wind can totally dry out your eyes.
6) AC + Allergies
These are the two factors that are sort of not in my control but probably exacerbated the problem for me. If all of the above happened during the winter (minus the fan at the night), things might have been more tolerable.
Air conditioning can dry out the air and lower the humidity in your home and working environment.
Allergies are controllable through all the normal mechanisms, but there are circumstances you can't control b/c you have to be outside at some point.
Part 2 - What to do
1) Eye Drops
So you can buy various over the counter eye drops to help with dry eyes and/or allergies. However, I would caution to buy anything w/ preservatives in them. I unfortunately seemed to be sensitive / allergic to several of them, which made my problem worse for awhile.
My understanding is that you need to keep at it for awhile. If your eyes have been really dried out, the tear film has been weakened. Using eye drops for awhile can help moisturize your eyes making you feel better, but at the same time it gives your eyes more opportunity to heal.
2) Use warm / cold compresses
Using warm & cold compresses helped my eyes rest / heal. You can use normal towels with water or ice, but you can actually buy compresses that are specific to your eyes. They are far more convenient.
However, it is important differentiate when to use warm or cold compresses. It was hard for me to figure out what was what and when to use what. What I eventually figured out was:
3) Massaging your eyes
I eventually realized that some muscle tension built up in the muscles around my eyes, likely contributing to the eye strain.
You can look up your own massage your eye videos on Youtube, but the core massages that helped were:
4) Rest
As much as we all have work to do, the best thing to do is just rest. Stop looking at a computer whenever you can.
5) Turned off the lights
It ends up I did have some sensitivity to the fluorescent lights in my office. I read online that it's a fairly common issue for people who have dry eyes. After all, part of your tear film has been weakened, so it makes sense. Luckily for me I work in my own office, so I could just turn off the lights and only suffer them in meeting rooms until things got better.
It's also possible my monitor was old and bright and/or flickering. Turning down the brightness helped as well as looking at my laptop (which for some reason was better).
6) Humidifier
It sucks to add moisture to the air when its hot outside, but it's important to keep the air reasonably humid and not too dry. I tried to just keep the humidity at about 40%. More can lead to mold growth in your house, etc.
7) Eye Exercises
So I'm not 100% positive about this, but there are anecdotal stories that eye exercises can help strengthen your ocular muscles and make eye strain less of an issue. My ophthalmologist suggested pencil push-ups which I did for awhile. I'm not sure how much it helped or not.
However, after I started playing Fallout 4 (a first person shooter video game) my eye strain at work started to get a lot better. The first night I played Fallout 4, I had a terrible headache the next day. Then, as time went on the headaches didn't happen anymore and my eye strain began to get better (both at work and playing the game).
I'm no doctor, but I could see that first person shooters are an "intense" ocular workout as you have to move your eyes around a lot. It makes sense that the ocular muscles could have been built up a bit.
8) Have patience
It can take a lot of time, likes many months.
Good luck to anyone out there who read this.
The problem was a little hard to isolate b/c there were a number of competing problems. In addition, one issue can actually lead to the other.
I thought I'd share what I figured out, what I did, and some random tips/tricks in the hopes it helps people out there. I know I'm not the only software engineer / office worker that has to deal with these problems.
Of course a DISCLAIMER, I'm not a medical professional.
Part 1 - What I was doing Wrong
1) Not Blinking / Focusing Too Hard
As a software engineer, you unfortunately have to stare at a computer a good part of the day. You probably also have to stare at your phone too. If you're like me, some video games after work to relax or reading a book at night might be adding to the problem.
Apparently human beings, when concentrating, blink less than they normally do. This is bad. Blinking adds moisture and other teary goodness/oils to your eyes. When you blink less, your eyes can dry out. When you blink less, your eyes aren't clearing out dust/allergens like they normally are.
I'll let you Google for yourself about strategies to blink more, but it took some time to retrain myself to do this.
2) Not Taking Breaks
It goes without saying that when you're sitting at a desk all day, it can effect your eyes. Your ocular muscles are no different than any other muscle in your body. When they get fatigued they begin to get sore.
Taking a break to look off into the distance and just relax your eyes from staring at a monitor is a great break. Eye strain itself can lead to dry eyes too.
There is a general 20-20-20 rule that's stated on many websites. Every twenty minutes, stare off in the distance of atleast 20 feet, for 20 seconds.
I didn't necessarily follow this, but the general rule of take a lot of breaks and stare off into the distance is a good idea. I now force myself to get up and walk around the hall atleast every hour. I also try to go for a longer walk every afternoon. I used a timer on my phone to force this at one point, but I just know to do this now.
3) Not having good ergonomics
While my ergonomic setting wasn't terrible, it wasn't ideal and probably exacerbated a number of issues. Luckily I have an ergonomic evaluator at work that found the following problems for me.
- Keep your computer monitor below your eyes / Keep the top of the monitor at the top of your vision level. If your monitor is above you vision line, you open up your eyes more, which can lead to your eyes drying out.
- Your monitor should be about 20-28 inches in front of you. Mine was 32 or more inches away, which can lead more eye strain.
- Although I've been at my desk for many years, I have an air vent above my desk. Likely not the biggest culprit, but it was likely a contributor to drying out my eyes.
This goes without saying, get your eyes checked. Squinting can increase eye strain & dry eyes too.
It ends up that my vision was actually fine. I was actually squinting b/c of my dry eyes and seasonal allergies. I didn't want to open my eyes as wide to avoid having them dry out.
5) Running a fan at night
When it's hot during the summer, I sometimes run a fan by my bed to keep me cool. Bad idea as the air / wind can totally dry out your eyes.
6) AC + Allergies
These are the two factors that are sort of not in my control but probably exacerbated the problem for me. If all of the above happened during the winter (minus the fan at the night), things might have been more tolerable.
Air conditioning can dry out the air and lower the humidity in your home and working environment.
Allergies are controllable through all the normal mechanisms, but there are circumstances you can't control b/c you have to be outside at some point.
Part 2 - What to do
1) Eye Drops
So you can buy various over the counter eye drops to help with dry eyes and/or allergies. However, I would caution to buy anything w/ preservatives in them. I unfortunately seemed to be sensitive / allergic to several of them, which made my problem worse for awhile.
My understanding is that you need to keep at it for awhile. If your eyes have been really dried out, the tear film has been weakened. Using eye drops for awhile can help moisturize your eyes making you feel better, but at the same time it gives your eyes more opportunity to heal.
2) Use warm / cold compresses
Using warm & cold compresses helped my eyes rest / heal. You can use normal towels with water or ice, but you can actually buy compresses that are specific to your eyes. They are far more convenient.
However, it is important differentiate when to use warm or cold compresses. It was hard for me to figure out what was what and when to use what. What I eventually figured out was:
- eye strain - your eyes are sore, tired, or fatigued in some fashion. Imagine you're sore after running, it's that kind of feeling with your eyes. Just like with sore muscles, warm or cold compress are good to relax your muscles / lower inflammation in muscles.
- allergies - your eyes may be dry, but the core differentiator is there is some itchiness or inflammation (which to me felt like my eyes were "big" or swelling). Use a cold compress to reduce inflammation. A warm compress here is bad. If your eyes are redder after using a warm compress, I think that's an indicator it's allergies and not dry eyes.
- dry eyes - your eyes feel sticky or not well, but it isn't itchy or have any feeling of inflammation, use a warm compress to create tears and oil. I suppose cold compresses wouldn't hurt here, but they probably don't help.
3) Massaging your eyes
I eventually realized that some muscle tension built up in the muscles around my eyes, likely contributing to the eye strain.
You can look up your own massage your eye videos on Youtube, but the core massages that helped were:
- massage your temples
- massage the muscles around your temple / connected to your temple
- massage your eyebrows
- massage your forehead area / muscles connected to our eye brows
- massage around your eye socket
- massage the pressure points around your eye & nose
- massage the middle point between your eyebrows and above your nose
4) Rest
As much as we all have work to do, the best thing to do is just rest. Stop looking at a computer whenever you can.
5) Turned off the lights
It ends up I did have some sensitivity to the fluorescent lights in my office. I read online that it's a fairly common issue for people who have dry eyes. After all, part of your tear film has been weakened, so it makes sense. Luckily for me I work in my own office, so I could just turn off the lights and only suffer them in meeting rooms until things got better.
It's also possible my monitor was old and bright and/or flickering. Turning down the brightness helped as well as looking at my laptop (which for some reason was better).
6) Humidifier
It sucks to add moisture to the air when its hot outside, but it's important to keep the air reasonably humid and not too dry. I tried to just keep the humidity at about 40%. More can lead to mold growth in your house, etc.
7) Eye Exercises
So I'm not 100% positive about this, but there are anecdotal stories that eye exercises can help strengthen your ocular muscles and make eye strain less of an issue. My ophthalmologist suggested pencil push-ups which I did for awhile. I'm not sure how much it helped or not.
However, after I started playing Fallout 4 (a first person shooter video game) my eye strain at work started to get a lot better. The first night I played Fallout 4, I had a terrible headache the next day. Then, as time went on the headaches didn't happen anymore and my eye strain began to get better (both at work and playing the game).
I'm no doctor, but I could see that first person shooters are an "intense" ocular workout as you have to move your eyes around a lot. It makes sense that the ocular muscles could have been built up a bit.
8) Have patience
It can take a lot of time, likes many months.
Good luck to anyone out there who read this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)