Ramen Shop in Oakland – Chez Panisse vets opened up a Ramen Shop near Zachary’s Pizza on College Ave.; pretty good, a bit on the expensive side for a bowl of ramen but the execution is nice…could be giving some of the best ramen shops in Japantown in LA a run for it’s money once they find their groove…

and Ramen Tomo will be opening up on Telegraph near Koryo soon…

If I knew and was really passionate about ramen (I’m not), I’d open up a ramen shop called Fukuoka Ramen or FU Ramen for short. Fukuoka is supposed to have the best ramen anywhere, famed for their tonkatsu ramen, and Fukuoka is also Oakland’s sister city.

There’s a name idea for you for whoever wants to open up a ramen shop in Oakland.

stacktrap (n) – a product or service from a company that lures you into a set of additional products or services, locking you into that company and limiting your use of other competing services

similar: lock-in, product lock-in, data lock-in

examples: [1] The new iPod is a stacktrap for all your music and video for Apple.  [2] The new Facebook Home phone is a stacktrap to keep all your contacts and messages on Facebook.

stack trapped (v; past tense) – to be tied to a particular set of product and services from one company, limiting a person’s ability to use a competing set of products and services.

examples: I have my email and documents stack trapped Google. I have my music and videos stack trapped in Apple. I can’t decide whether I should get an iPhone 5 or Nexus 4 device.

Working on the “clean” diet and “core” training routine to get into snowboarding shape for this Winter and hopefully launch me back into Ironman triathlon training.

Clean diet – “clean” foods, clean meals, simple ingredients

Core training – shoulders to thighs training with emphasis on developing ab and back strength

I got a good friend of mine to get me some Bernachon while she was in France. I asked for Day and Night but they were out so she got me one caramel and one hazelnut.

Bernachon could arguably be the best chocolate in the world, just delicious.

The caramel didn’t last at all and the hazelnut is almost gone.

Ramen shops:

• Momofuku, in New York
• Fukuoka ramen shops
• saimin in Kauai
• In Honolulu, Goma Tei and Gomaichi ramen
• In Los Angeles, Toroniku ramen from Santouka and Daikokuya
• In the Bay Area, Ken Ken Ramen, Hapa Ramen, and Ramen Dojo in San Mateo

Finally looking to get out of hibernation mode and into Spring mode, shedding Winter fat (about 25lbs) and getting ready for the Summer.

New diet to include loads of steel cut oatmeal, lots of tea, no sugar, no sweets, more vegetables, little to no bread, more sweet potatoes, less meat, more rice, and more fish.

Training this year will probably pick up some time in June, a lot of running and maybe back to spin class.

If I were to buy a laptop in 2012 it would be one of these (in the following order):

• MacBook Air 13″
• Dell XPS 13″ Ultrabook
• Samsung Series 9
• Lenovo IdeaPad U300

Spec wise I guess you’re supposed to look for Core i5/i7 processors with 256GB SSD hard drives (I’d want 512GB) and 4 to 8GB of memory and 6-7 hours of battery life. SD card slot, back lit keyboards, high res screens, a couple USB slots pretty much rounds things out. Might want to wait for Ivy Bridge processors, “retina display” for the MacBook as well as Mac OS X Mountain Lion or Windows 8 due out later this year.

For tablets, there’s really only the iPad, no point in getting anything else at the moment unless you’re a developer or want a tablet to just watch movies. For smart phones, either the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and probably the next generation of both, due out later this year, is the safer bet.

My current setup (and will be through 2012 and a good part of 2013/2014) is a 13″ MacBook Pro from a few years ago and a Nexus S that I upgraded with a better battery that can last me a day or two between charges. And no tablets yet.

Roy Denim are the best jeans out there (for men only right now), might not be able to get them though since they’re made by one guy in Oakland, CA and they’re limited in quantity. I’m lucky to have a few pairs and they’re just fantastic. Roy Slaper is Levi Strauss reincarnated.

Plenty of videos and discussion why Roy jeans are great out on the web but it’s mostly because it’s about a passionate guy doing one thing and doing it really well. And it’s hard to beat that.

I prefer the Oakland marathon that I ran earlier this year.  I like the warts and all course through Oakland much better.  There’s more people cheering at the Oakland marathon and the runners seem a little more laid back and a little more entertaining.  Whatever.  Just being cranky/Oakland prideful.

Anyway, SF marathon should be pretty fun.  Weather is always great, overcast, not too cold and not too hot and not windy, perfect running conditions.  The hills are tough though.

• butcher/fish monger: Berkeley Bowl, Marin Sun Farms @Market Hall
• baker: Acme Bread, Henry@Tucker’s Ice Cream, It’s All Good Bakery
• plumber: Michael Your Plumber, Raul@Pelican Plumbers
• electrician: Eduardo Miramontes, Early Light Electric
• HVAC: Harry Clark
• general contractor: Eric Angress
• farmer: Eatwell Farm, Straus Creamery

Personal

• tailor: Thomas Mahon@English Cut
• shoemaker: George Glasgow@George Cleverley
• barber: Nick Vlahos@Temescal Alley Barber Shop
• doctor: Dr. Don Weinreich
• dentist: Dr. Robin Levi
• coach: Chris Hauth@AIMP Coaching
• massage therapist: Johnny Wong
• insurance: Manny Reburiano@AllState
• garage: Bavarian Professionals, Weatherford BMW

This candy bar — jour et nuit by Bernachon –  my sister brought back from Paris was pretty darn great.  I need to figure out how to get more of this, might be the best chocolate bar I’ve ever had.

The other chocolates and pate de fruits from Patrick Roger were pretty good too.

Just goes to show that “caviar taste on a beer budget” is genetic.

This is our box for the week from Eatwell Farm.  We’ve got apples, oranges, lemons, strawberries, lemon balm, parsley, sugar snap peas, green garlic, spring onions, spinach, carrots, mixed greens.

We’re on the 12 week program (13th week is free) w/ a half dozen eggs, which comes to about $29 a box.  Considering we get our box next door, the fruits and vegetables are organic AND they’re picked the week of delivery, it’s a no brainer value — and ridiculous from a freshness standpoint.

You also get things you might not normally buy at the store like romanesco, daikon, rainbow chard, jerusalem artichokes, rutabagas, and watermelon radish.  And you learn to eat seasonally, which makes you realize we actually do have seasons in Northern California.

There are a few drawbacks.  It’s not always easy to eat everything in a week, and you do have to cook.  You might get weeks of weeks of something you might not like for example red cabbage or kale.  You might not have enough of something to finish a recipe — need one more eggplant or one more onion, so you’ll have to supplement that at the store.  You’ll also never get bananas (obviously) and probably some other “non-standard” vegetable.

Sign up with Eatwell if you’re in the Bay Area or I’d encourage signing up for another Community Support Agriculture (CSA) program like Eatwell Farm.  A lot of them are popping up all over California and the rest of the United States.

—

* Hard to say whether or not CSA is scalable, I’m sure less than 1% of the country subscribes to a CSA.  But it would be great to see because in practice we feel healthier and feel better knowing where our  food comes from and the knowing the people who farm it.

]]> http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/28/eatwell-farm/feed/ 3 http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/27/acai-bowls/ http://www.rebron.org/2011/04/27/acai-bowls/#comments Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:07:08 +0000 rebron http://www.rebron.org/?p=2576

I’ve been making these Acai bowls for breakfast or lunch and they’re delicious.  First had these at Lanikai Juice in Kailua and then had them again when I was in Los Angeles at a couple places.

Really simple to make, just need to buy or order the frozen Acai pulp, I get mine from Berkeley Bowl but can also get from Amazon.com.  The fuzion is good but I like the original blend.

To make it, just two of the smoothie packets, some soy milk (or apple juice but I like soy milk) in the blender and blend away.  Put it in a bowl, add fruit like: blueberries, raspberries, bananas, strawberries, and then add some granola.  I’ve seen some with a little bit of yogurt too but maybe too much.  I like Cafe Fanny’s granola but also Blue Bottle’s granola.  It takes at most five minutes to put it all together, which is great too.

This bowl is maybe 300+ calories but if it’s breakfast or lunch it’s not bad.  I like eating it post workout too — just tastes good and looks pretty too.

Nice infographic from Transition Four

I’m #813, for this second year of Ironman St. George.  While I swore never again to do this race — it’s that hard and miserable, I ended up signing up again.

A few reasons:

• I really liked the finisher’s shirt and I want another one
• The coach we work with is doing the race, among other friends
• the Utah bike course is gorgeous
• this course kicked my butt last year and I didn’t like that
• it’s drivable although this year I’m breaking up the drive into two, first LA and then Las Vegas
• needed a race to stay in shape

We’ll see how it goes.  Last year I did this race in 15:42:17 (fifteen hours and 42 minutes).  I’m going to see if I can do it in under 14 hours, but I’ll be happy to just finish and get my t-shirt.

Oakland has some pretty good drinks.  A few that I really like:

• Gin and Tonic from Pizzaiolo; the tonic is a house made tonic by Cate Whalen
• As good as the gin and tonic is, I like their whiskey cocktail better.  It’s made with Buffalo Trace bourbon whiskey (my favorite liquor)
• Linden St. Black Lager or their Common Lager are really nice, can only be found on tap at just a few places.
• Blue Bottle’s Bella Donovan coffee is what I normally drink for coffee (daily basis)

Haven’t really tried Numi tea, another Oakland company.  We want to but just haven’t pulled the trigger we have so much tea in the house.  I get tea from Teance in Berkeley, their ba bao chao and pu-erh teas and we also get tea from Republic of Tea, Ginseng peppermint and several other kinds.  We’ve got a lot of tea.  We’ll try Numi eventually.

I ran the Oakland Marathon last Sunday and I had a few notes:

• What a great event!  A challenging “warts and all” route through Oakland — from City Hall to Rockridge to Montclair to the Mormon Temple to International Boulevard to Jack London Square to West Oakland to Lake Merritt and back to City Hall.
• Great crowd throughout the whole course.  Very “homey/welcome” feeling, not like running the San Francisco marathon.
• There was no rain despite the threat of rain, it was pretty good running conditions.  Hoping next year will be the same.
• I used the day as a “training day” if that makes any sense.  I was strong through 20 miles, slowed down a little bit for the next two, and then put it into recovery mode.  Starting a marathon on tired legs is definitely an interesting feeling.
• A marathon is still a marathon.  I was hoping it was going to be easy but I was getting antsy around mile 17.
• The event was well run, some areas could be improved but not bad for their second time around.
• The Expo the day before was a little meager.  Could use some more vendors but the ones that were there were pretty good.
• The medal is nice.
• The shirt, long sleeve again, could’ve been better.  Needed a better graphic design and maybe a slightly higher quality shirt.
• The massage tent could have been managed better.

I’m hoping to get more people signed up for the race.  I’ll likely going to do it again next year.  It was definitely a lot of fun and it’s great to have a running event like this in Oakland.

These are the sites I visit almost everyday:

• Google News, Google Finance, WSJ.com, Economist.com, SFGate.com, NYTimes.com, ESPN, News.com (I open these all at once in a Tab, and I’ve been visiting these sites for years)
• The most interesting/entertaining: Facebook, Twitter, HuffingtonPost
• New to me: Groupon (group coupons), Pandora (web radio, w/ a great music recommendation engine, Oakland company) – knew about them but was hesitant to sign up

I access Gmail via Thunderbird so only go to Gmail every once in a while to check out new features.

The other sites I visit are only through a quick scan of their feeds, i.e. Lifehacker, Engadget, All Things Digital, Oakland North, Oakland Local, etc.

Would love recommendations on other sites to check out.

Power Dessert – Tofu w/ Chia Seeds and Maple Syrup

In a cup, add the following:

• 3 tablespoons of chia seeds (after soaked in water for 10 minutes)
• 2/3 cup of silken tofu (I like Hodo Soy’s from Berkeley Bowl)
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of maple syrup (real maple syrup not pancake syrup)

That’s it.  I’ve been eating this a lot lately, instead of ice cream and other desserts.

Emergency Dessert – Castella

My other go to dessert is Castella or Kasutera, a simple slight honey flavored sponge cake brought to Japan from Portugal.  They have these in the freezer section of Berkeley Bowl.  I like to keep it in the freezer and I like it as an emergency dessert for myself (as in if we’ve got nothing else) or in case we have guests over.  It’s good with tea, coffee, morning, afternoon, late evening.

]]> http://www.rebron.org/2011/02/13/power-emergency-dessert/feed/ 0 http://www.rebron.org/2011/02/03/chicken-chow-mein-recipe/ http://www.rebron.org/2011/02/03/chicken-chow-mein-recipe/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 04:51:01 +0000 rebron http://www.rebron.org/?p=2520 For my reference, adapted from here.  Easier than I thought

• 1 lb of fresh chow mein noodles
• 1/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• kosher salt
• 1/2 cup chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 lb of chicken thighs sliced or small cube (or breast or shrimp or pork)
• 1/2 cup of carrots, small dice
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (out of tube or fresh)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 scallion white and green minced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced or 1 cup of leeks
• 10 shittake mushrooms

Directions

Boil/cook the noodles, pat them dry.  Heat 1/4 cup of the peanut oil in a wok.  Fry the noodles until they’re fried to your liking.  Transfer noodles to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside. Discard any excess oil and wipe out the pan.

Mix the chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar in a small bowl, and set aside. Season the chicken with the sesame oil, salt, and pepper, and set aside.

• March 27 -  Oakland 1/2 or Full Marathon
• May 7 – Ironman St George
• July 30 San Francisco Marathon
• October 1 – Levi’s Gran Fondo
• December  3 – NorthFace 50k

I’d like to keep the Summer and Fall open for things other than races but may consider some races depending on who’s in.

My base workout locations are: my house in North Oakland near Children’s Hospital (bike/run), Temescal Pool, Sports Basement in San Francisco (bike/run), Mike’s Bikes Sausalito (bike/run), Tam High School (swim/bike/run), Lunardi’s (bike/run).

Will also be doing some trail runs in the East Bay hills (Skyline 50k routes) and in Marin (NorthFace 50k routes).

My fitness goals for 2011 are to maintain my fitness levels from last year, drop some weight, improve my core strength and flexibility, and become a stronger runner.  I’d also like to reconnect with friends/training partners and just have some fun on the road.

General Happenings

• Chilean Miners rescued after 69 days trapped in a mine
• Earthquake in Haiti
• Volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull
• Deepwater Horizon Oil spill
• Wikileaks releases cables/documents
• Republican’s win control of House of Representatives
• Slow recovery Dow at 11,000.

Tech

• Apple releases iPad (and an updated MacBook Air)
• Android making gains, Nexus One and Nexus S released
• Rise of the App stores
• Facebook/Twitter continue to grain traction

Sports

• Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler
• FIFA World Cup won by Spain
• Saints over Colts to win Super Bowl
• Lakers beat Celtics NBA Finals
• SF Giants beat Texas Rangers to win World Series

Obits

• JD Salinger, President of Poland, Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper, Manute Bol, Robert Byrd

Personal

• General: Attic insulation w/ new attic ladder, other home energy work
• Travel: Kirkwood/NorthStar (good snow), Whistler, Turks & Caicos
• Races: Oakland 1/2 Marathon, Ironman St. George, Ironman Canada, NorthFace 50k
• Work: Thunderbird 3.x releases
• Restaurants: Commis and Rikyu mostly
• Too many purchases.

Parlee Z5 stock

My dream bike is a Parlee Z5 — an all carbon fiber bike that can be built as a complete bike at around 13lbs.  My current bike is not heavy at a little over 17lbs and bikes for racing have to weigh at a minimum 15lbs (thankfully I don’t race).  Shaving 2 to 4lbs off a bike would be really great though.  I could also just eat less and lose some weight.

Anyway, for the build I’d go with the SRAM Red group with ENVE seat post, stem, and bar, Fizik seat, Look pedals, and TRP brakes.  I’d also go with the Dura Ace 7850 50cm wheels because they’re carbon wheels with an alloy braking surface, otherwise would go with Lightweight or ENVE clincher wheels.

If all goes well, maybe in 2012?  I could use the time to think of a nice paint job, though will probably end up with something like the first picture above — a solid blue bike.

I’m in the camp of people believing that carbon fiber is the best material for road bikes.  Carbon fiber just sucks up the bumpiness in roads that it makes for really comfortable riding.  I’ve ridden maybe 10,000+ miles on my road bike and can’t complain — stiff, durable, comfortable, just solid riding.

Above Category bike shop in Mill Valley is teasing me with some of their current bike builds of the Parlee.  Here, here, and here.

Picture above is from Above Category.  The bike is a Moots RSL titanium road bike with SRAM Red and Lightweight wheels.  If I had room  and money for several bikes, a Moots titanium road, cross, or mountain bike would be one of those bikes.  Titanium bikes are super light, durable, strong, and they’re considered lifetime bikes.  They’re just pretty looking bikes.

There are lots of other bike companies that make titanium bikes like Lynskey, Litespeed, Seven, and Serotta.  These companies sometimes mix titanium and carbon fiber parts into the frame, it’s a cool but a bit frankenstein-ish for my taste.  In any case, if you’re shopping for a titanium road bike, this Moots RSL is what I would get.  I’d actually get a mountain bike from Moots, I prefer carbon fiber for road bikes.