It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally revamped my photoblog. It’s now at www.outsightful.com. Most of the older photos aren’t up yet. I’ve switched from pixelpost to movabletype, and no, there is no easy way to export between them.

Oh yes, and I finally upgrade to the new Canon Digital Rebel XT. Happy days are here again.

It happens every year. I always get suprised by the commercial Christmas enterprises that seem to loom earlier and earlier. Tippy and I were walking around Union Square and happened upon what seemed to be a special Macy’s Christmas store. I quickly glanced at my wrist, realized I didn’t have a watch, and exclaimed, “It’s September people! Are you really whoring the glittery holiday merchandise already?!” Then, I proceeded to go in and browse, just for fun.

I’ve never seen so many themed Christmas trees before. There’s everything from Chinese Christams trees (with little takeout baskets), to Russian themed, to TV themed. Has anyone seen a theme tree in anyone’s house before? There must be a market out there somewhere.

The store itself was starkly empty. There was probably at most two other customers besides us. The employees were basically milling around twiddling there thumbs. It was indeed an empty and cold Christmas at Macy’s.

Can anyone verify the jacket that this guy is wearing? If my eyes do not betray me, the garment seems to be a jacket with the midsection cropped to about the height of the sleeves (which are short). Will the more fashion enabled please explain this jacket? Karen??

There’s nothing like a big hunk of teriyaki chicken to enliven the mind. And really, there’s nothing difficult in making your own teriyaki. We decided to make a braised version (teriyaki should technically be grilled) with our own sauce. Don’t go out and buy teriyaki sauce, it’s really easy to make at home with a few simple ingredients.

Teriyaki sauces vary, but our version has soy sauce, mirin, fresh ground black pepper, and some sugar. Make sure you taste the sauce before using it. Typically, I use equal parts mirin and soy sauce. It’s really the mirin that adds depth to the teriyaki sauce.

You can use any part of the chicken for this recipe, but preferably the thigh, breast, or drumstick. We used thighs, and they came out great. Since we’re braising our chicken, we first browned it in a pan to seal in the juices and give a nice golden color on the outside. Next, we placed the chicken along with the teriyaki sauce into an oven safe container (like pyrex or a dutch oven, if you have one). We then let this sit for at least 2 hours–the more the better, since we really want the flavors to penetrate the chicken. Let’s face it, chicken by itself doesn’t have a very strong flavor. That’s why chefs love to doctor up their chicken to show off their talents.

After that, we shot the whole thing into the oven for about an hour. Make sure the juices run clear and the flesh isn’t pink before taking it out. The result will be a spectacular lip-smackingly good teriyaki chicken.

We cooked up many more thighs than we can eat in one sitting, so we covered the chicken and put it in the fridge. One good side effect is that, since the collagen has dissolved into the sauce, the chicken marinates in a very concentrated chicken teriyaki jelly. I found that the thighs were more flavorful as time went on. It’s a bit like a confit, except not all of the preserving jelly is fat.

As I walked into Andalu, I found myself immersed yet again in another trendy tapas joint. Our party was over fifteen people, and it took about 30 minutes for the staff to finally clear out a table for us.

The atmosphere is lively–cloyingly pushing everyone to celebrate whatever there is to celebrate. The menu consists of safe choices, anchored in Italian and French traditions. We each ordered two items, so variety was the spice of the night.

First, there was the fondue made from Cambazola cheese (a blue cheese), accompanied with Fuji apples and thin crunchy bread. I was a bit wary of Cambazola with apples, but the combination was actually quite nice. As always, everyone yearned for more bread or apples, since restaurants never give enough dipping artifacts to comfortably finish off the fondue.

Next came to the crab cake with Mache salad. The crab cake was good, but nothing special. I found it to be a bit heavy on the cream (or mayo, or whatever they used for creaminess).

After that was the grilled eggplant stuffed with ricotta, spinach, and pine nuts, served over Caponata (an Italian eggplant relish). I was disappointed with this one, probably because I had a lot of hope for it being good. The grilled eggplant was flavorless, not even imparting a gram of eggplant goodness on my taste buds. The ricotta and Caponata were satisfactory. However, this didn’t make up for the grilled eggplant, which should be the star of this dish.

Next, we dove into some of the heavier dishes. The grilled lamb was quite juicy, tender, and flavorful.

After that came the duck confit, which was very flavorful. However, this is the first time I’ve had duck confit, so I’m not sure how to judge it. Duck confit is duck that has been preserved in fat and salt for a period of time. The only cooking that is done is on a very low heat for extended periods of time. Complex flavors should develop as a result. It was, however, quite salty, which probably is to be expected.

Finally, we come to the dish everyone raves about: the Coca-Cola braised short-ribs. The ribs looked fantastic and incredibly tender. Perfect ribs should be tender, but never mushy. The meat should easily come off the bone, but still have some snap to it. Andalu’s ribs were inconsistent. I found some of the pieces to be entirely too tender and mushy, while others were a bit on the dry side. The marinade, however, was very flavorful and rich, just shy of being cloyingly sweet. There was no need for the sauce that came on the side, unless you’re hard of tasting. The beans added a nice temperature contrast with an interesting herby taste that I couldn’t pinpoint.

In short, Andalu’s was a good experience, but probably equivalent to many of the tapas places in the city. The food is familiar and easy to swallow, and the atmosphere is cheerful. On busy nights parking is almost impossible–use the valet.

3198 16th St. @ Guerrero
San Francisco, CA
415-621-2211

Recently, I’ve been a little obsessed about stock photography. I’ve been spurred on by websites like istockphoto, where your photos can be bought by designers to incorporate into their creations.

I’m a big fan of isolated on white pictures, like the eggplant photo I took above. Once you get the proper lighting, the isolation isn’t too difficult. The key is to totally drown the background (I use a poster board) with as much light as possible, while keeping the object under normal lighting. This totally saturates the background when capturing the image while keeping the object at a decent light level. This results in those clean looking images you see in the magazines, movies, and commercials. I’m still using my two megapixel dinosaur of a camera to take this, so it really doesn’t take expensive equipment. Currently, I have two light sources, but will hopefully make myself a soft box sometime.

There’s just something about capturing the essence of an object all alone at a gratifyingly minimalistic state. You can check out my current gallery of works. It’s still rather meager compared to the “real” photographers who are members of the site. For now, I plan on just working on honing my basic photography skills. Then, I’ll hopefully upgrade to better equipment. The good thing about istockphoto is that they have actual experts look at every single one of your photos to check and make sure they are up to a certain standard before letting it into the library. They’ve given me really good advice about technique, and take the time to really critique my photos. It’s really a great resource.

I was looking forward to a screening of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio yesterday. I jumped in the car with Tippy and sped our way to the Loews theaters at the Metreon. It was about 7:15 when we got parking. They said that they overbook the screening to ensure a full house, so not everyone is guaranteed a seat–be there early, they said. So we were there early; we even rushed our way home to complete a few errands before rushing back downtown.

The line was long, but didn’t seem too long to not fit inside a big theater (I would assume they would use one of their larger ones for a screening). I had my credentials on hand to ensure that I was indeed the James Yu that was on the RSVP list. The author and directory were supposed to be there. We were in high spirits as the line began to move.

The staff moved the line a group at a time, and made the rest of us wait anxiously. As we were about to be let in, they made a cut off for a new group, and Tippy and I were now at the head of line. About twenty minutes passed. We were sure they would let us in.

They came back and said they were now full.

You must understand that in any other circumstance I wouldn’t be so pissed off. But we were at the head of the line! If we were just a few minutes earlier, beating out the people directly ahead of us, we would have been golden. A few minutes! Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy at the situation.

A simple breakfast is the best. I decided to make my childhood favorite: cheese and egg over some type of bread product–in this case, English muffins. There’s just something about runny eggs over sharp cheddar that reels me in every time.

Usually, I don’t feel like breakfast right when I get up. Something about sleep always fills my stomach–no matter how hungry I was the night before, and how many times I promised myself that I would get up and make a huge breakfast to satiate my appetite in the morning. I usually get hungry around mid-morning.

We also had some heirloom tomatoes on hand, so I chopped some up and threw some sea salt on for extra brightness and crunch. It was actually my first time eating heirloom tomatoes (you know, the overpriced ones that look ugly and disfigured, yet are pined after by desperate gastronomes). The taste was more delicate and sweet than a normal tomato, and a few had mushy centers, which I didn’t enjoy.

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival was crowded–too crowded to be comfortable. Confectioners handed out their treats (5 for $8), ranging from chocolate truffles to sorbet to fudge to Krispy Kreme donuts. Needless to say, most of the people looked like they were on a sugar high. A CIA chef also came to give a demonstration on making chocolate truffles. It was surprisingly easy, and the results looked just the like the overpriced nuggets of chocolate found in fancy boxes.

The festival was satisfactory and not over-the-top fun in any sense. The sundae joint that supposedly is a must-see for tourists is a bit of a downer. It’s overpriced, the sundaes are small, and the service is poor. Not very sweet in my book.

Sometime this week I’m going to be changing over to my new domain at http://www.jamesyu.org. The current domain at http://www.jamesjyu.info/ will continue to work (it will forward you to the new domain). So be sure to update bookmarks.

For all of you reading with RSS, there’s no need to do anything. I’m changing the domain at the Feedburner level, so the swap will be automatic for you.

My photoblog has also switched to the new site. It is now at photo.jamesyu.org.

This switch is a much needed upgrade from my current host at Telnap to the bigger bandwidth Dreamhost. Expect faster load and response times.

Please, if you see anything that’s amiss while the switch occurs, comment on this post. Thanks.