Posts by Soon Lee
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Hard News: Time to Vote, in reply to James Green,
I think the theater of voting on the day is important
I considered waiting until Saturday for that reason, but in the end decided that the act of voting is more important. I also like the idea of supporting early* voting; providing a greater window of time for people to get to the ballot box can only be good for increasing participation in our democracy.
I have been more engaged than during any previous campaign, been reading & watching the work of many, not only MSM but also online sources. Lurking has been very useful in clarifying & solidifying my own thoughts so I want to add my thanks to the contributors here.
*I called "peak crazy" yesterday & popped into the local polling station after work. It was a very easy process (took about three minutes).
-back to lurking-
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Feed: A scientist researches restaurants, in reply to Isabel Hitchings,
If you are in Auckland, I highly recommend going to Meredith's on a Tuesday night. They only do tasting course menus & on Tuesdays it's wholly vegetarian. Having vegetarian friends who love food, I am mindful that they tend to get shortchanged when it comes to dining out options. So it was really nice to go out to dinner with them where everything on the menu is edible & done brilliantly.
Some of the fine-dining restaurants in Auckland now offer vegetarian degustations (The Grove, French Cafe). I generally find that if you talk to them about your dietary needs when making a booking, most places are accommodating.
We also went to Sidart with the same group of friends. Sidart is another tasting course restaurant but also offer set menus for bigger groups. We told them that half of us were vegetarians, they suggested the set menu option. When we sat down to eat I got a little envious because the food the vegetarians got looked more exciting than mine.
This sort of care & service is why I keep recommending places like Meredith's & Sidart for special occasion dining.
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It seems to me that we are currently living in a Golden Age for dining out.
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Feed: A scientist researches restaurants, in reply to llew40,
Friends who eat out more regularly dub it the "Sky City Effect": it's a dice-roll that determines the sort of service you get which is why I am hesitant about trying them out.
With the time limit issue, I come back again to expectations. I have eaten at places that explicitly tell you at the time of booking if you have to finished by a certain time (like some of the more popular yum cha places) and I have no problem with it. But to spring it on you during a meal? That's just rude.
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Feed: A scientist researches restaurants, in reply to linger,
Both Metro & Cuisine have a panel of judges while TripAdvisor uses customer reviews which explains the more eclectic nature of the TripAdvisor list.
Part of the fun of the exercise was to find the consensus; you should reasonably expect a good dining experience from the eateries in the intersection because they wouldn't be there if they weren't consistently good, right?
But for me it's also just as interesting to look outside the intersection (where they "disagree"). Just because they are not in the intersection it doesn't mean they're not good. I have had fabulous meals in places other than the 14 restaurants in the intersection & putting this Venn diagram together has suggested (even) more places to try.
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You might find the version with the expanded Cuisine list (not all "Cuisine-recommended" eateries made the "Good Food Guide 2014") more useful?
For me, it's about meeting or exceeding expectations, which is easier for the cheap-n-cheerful places to achieve. There's nothing more disappointing than to go to an expensive joint & have an underwhelming experience.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to "chris",
No complaints here. Life is good.
The instances where I encounter overt racism have pretty much vanished, from a high in the mid-90s (thank you so much Winston Peters). And I tend not to be complimented on my English anymore.
I also have coping strategies in place of preferring face-to-face interviews or at the very least a phone conversation of the "Hi, I submitted an application for the position you advertised last week & wanted to make sure you have received it" nature. Said phone call where the real aim is to ensure that they get the chance to hear me speak (why yes, I am fluent in English) so they are making an informed decision when culling my CV from their shortlist.
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to "chris",
Can't resist the urge to reply anymore...
There is a real cost to retaining one's given name as shown by this Auckland University Business School study (pdf) where a CV with an ethnic name (especially Chinese) has a significantly smaller chance of getting to the interview stage. I chose to retain my given name (mostly) and wonder how my life might have gone had I chosen to be a Simon, Stephen or Samuel instead.
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Loads of food memories where family is concerned but one that sticks out was the time Grandmother came to fetch us two kids to Penang for the school holidays. We travelled by train. Cheap tickets meant no allocated seating, and because it was the school holidays, the coaches were packed. The three of us spent the journey sitting atop suitcases in the middle of the carriage. Not terribly comfortable but we didn't starve: Grandma packed chicken stew which she had made, which we ate with sliced white bread. To this day, it's one of my comfort foods.
Grandma's Chicken Stew:
Chicken pieces (bone-in) lightly browned in oil then added to a pot with potatoes, carrots & onion cut into chunks. Simmer covered with minimal liquid (water or stock), and seasoned with ground white pepper, star anise, a generous stick of cinnamon, and light soy sauce. Near the end of cooking, add a can of button mushrooms. Thicken with cornflour if desired. -
[Pedant] But the heat provided is different because the active chemicals are different.
Capsaicin is only found in the Capsicum genus which include members that don't contain capsaicin like capsicums/bell peppers to members that contain high levels of capsaicin like bird's eye chillies.
The heat from black & white pepper comes from piperine, whereas in Sichuan pepper it is hydroxy-alpha-sanshool. Wasabi looks even more complicated with more than one chemical providing its 'heat'.
I don't think the different ingredients are interchangable, e.g. you can't substitute with black pepper if you happen to be out of bird's eye chillies because you'll end up with a dish with a distinctly different flavour profile.[/Pedant]
Given that the ingredients that impart heat do so via different chemicals, it might be interesting to create an overload dish that contains all of them, chilli, pepper, Sichuan pepper, wasabi. And if you're going to do that, might as well also throw in ginger & horseradish too. It would certainly add complexity...