During our time in Bologna, we took a cooking class from Bluone Cooking Tours. It had always been my dream to learn from a Bolognese family how to cook. Bologna, after all, is one of the centers of the culinary world, giving the world Bolognese sauce and mortadella (Americans are more familiar with the bastardized version of this: bologna — don’t ever mistake the two).

Our guide was the wonderful Raffaella, who has been teaching for over 15 years. She took us under her wing, bringing us to the local food markets and explaining all the local ingredients. Then, after deciding on a menu, we went back to her charming home to make a traditional Bolognese meal. Needless to say, it was the one of the most memorable moments in our time in Italy.

After coming back to California, I decided to try my hand at the two simpler recipes we learned: Veal Scallopini and Eggplant with Olive Oil.

Veal Scallopini

This is a tender and deeply flavorful dish, and it’s quick and easy to make too. I managed to do this recipe from memory, so I did my best to guess the amounts.

Ingredients

• 1 lb pounded veal, in about 3 inch long pieces (you can usually find this already flattened and ready to cook, otherwise, you’ll need to pound it)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 fistful of parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh (or dried) oregano
• 1 cup good quality olive oil
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup flour

Directions

1. Finely chop the parsley, garlic, and oregano together.
2. Heat a heavy skillet over medium low heat, add the olive oil.
3. Sweat the chopped garlic and parsley in the skillet for 7 minutes.
4. Add the tomato sauce and stir. Continue to cook for another 7 minutes.
5. One by one, lightly coat each veal piece with flour and drop into the skillet.
6. Cook for about 7 minutes or until the veal pieces are cooked through. Don’t overcook, or the veal can get tough.

Eggplant with Olive Oil

Raffaella kept describing this recipe as “stupid” because it’s just so simple. But what you’ll come to learn after doing enough Italian cooking is that all the dishes relatively simple. It’s really the quality of the ingredients that shine through in each recipe.

Ingredients

• Good quality olive oil
• Italian eggplant, sliced thin
• Parsley, chopped fine

Directions

1. Heat the slices of eggplant in a heavy skillet, without any oil, for about 10 minutes. The point is to dry out each piece of eggplant. The pieces should shrink about 50% and start to shrivel and slightly brown.
2. Set the slices on a plate and cover with the parsley. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top.
3. That’s it! There’s no 3rd step. It really is stupid.

It was really nice to cook a meal that instantly transported me back to Bologna. It’s funny how aromas and tastes can evoke such intense memories of a place and time. Perhaps that’s why many first memories are about food.

Here are some more random observations while walking through Taipei:

• Plastic black rimmed glasses are very popular. When young people wear glasses, it’s most likely plastic and black.
• For a city that’s so clean, I’ve actually found it hard to find waste baskets.
• Food stands rarely offer napkins, even if what they’re selling is extremely messy.
• Rarely do you see homeless people or the police.
• In San Francisco, there’s usually a high number of SLRs. I rarely see anyone holding SLRs in Taipei.
• No iPhone.
• People are very nice and welcoming.
• People don’t seem like they’re in a big hurry, unlike cities like New York.

The Shilin Night Market is the largest and most well known night market in Taiwan. Spreading out north from the Jiantan Subway Station, the market is a veritable playground of trinkets, games, and most importantly, food.

When setting foot inside the market, you’re immediately bombarded by intoxicating smells, sounds, and sights. It’s easiest just to see for yourself, so here’s the video of my quick walkthrough:

Shilin Night Market Walkthrough from James Yu on Vimeo.

In essence, most of the food is a late night eaters dream. A lot of it involves frying, meats, and savory spices. Perfect after a night of drinking.

There were two main agenda culinary agenda items for me: stinky tofu and oyster omelets.

Oyster omelets are a starchy omelet fried with oysters and topped with a red sweet sauce. There are tons of vendors that hawk this item throughout the market–it’s sometimes known as the unofficial national dish of Taiwan.

Stinky tofu is one of those controversial dishes–you can smell it from a mile away, and yes, the smell is as pungent as any smell can be. It’s basically tofu that has been fermented with various fish and other seafood as a base. The texture of the tofu becomes spongy, and the taste is very complex. Thankfully, it’s one of those things that taste very different than it smells.

Usually, it’s served with some pickled vegetables and a good dollop of chili sauce.

I also had some barbecued mystery meats, including chicken tailbones (which we throw away in the US). It was a bit chewy, but very flavorful due to the high fat content.

I spent the rest of the night walking around the market. There’s a whole section devoted to those claw machine games where you fruitlessly try to win a cute stuffed animal. Some of them, like this one where you win bodyless Chip heads, were actually a bit disturbing.

You can catch all my Taipei pictures in my Flickr set.

More is a great short film created by Mark Osborne back in 1998, only to see Hollywood confused as to what to do with it. Then, five years later, he uploaded it to the internet and garnered a huge audience. It’s a great little 6 minute film that took a gigantic 6 months to create.

Oh, and it’s also the first stop motion film to use the IMAX format.

Watch it here.

In his latest book, “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”, Andrew Keen argues that Web 2.0 and the cult of the amateur is dumbing down our culture. I haven’t yet read the book, but it seems like he’s taking the conservative view with respect to social media and its positive effects on culture. There is one interesting quote from MSNBC, which states:

What scares Keen is that some Web 2.0 enthusiasts argue that we no longer need traditional media companies — the Internet provides artists and writers their own means of distribution and promotion. But publishers and record labels provide more than just distribution and promotion. In a sense, they’re the venture capitalists of culture, advancing money so that a writer can take years to research a great book or a band can concentrate on creating a strong body of music. Sure, there are lots of writers and bands who keep their day jobs and still create good work — but most of them wouldn’t mind an upfront check and some uninterrupted time. Even the most faithful bunch of MySpace friends will probably never be able to offer them that.

I’ve never thought of publishers and record labels as VCs, but, it does make sense. They’re betting on pretty risky investments — some of which are even more risky than the typical web startup.

Continuing with the theme of contrasting popular dance forms and music in American history, here is a wonderful video juxtaposing the Charleston dance with Daft Punk. Based on African rhythms, Charleston is one of the roots of Lindy Hop.

We see a lot of similarities between the Charleston and top rock form in breaking. In fact, Wikipedia states

Charleston can be danced solo, its simple, flexible basic step making it easy to concentrate on styling, improvisation and musicality.

which also perfectly describes breakdancing. Also, the high kicks in the beginning remind me of the outside crescent kick in Wushu.

I’ve always been fascinated by human movement. The frenetic energy, strength, and flexibility of the human body never ceases to amaze me. In the past, I’ve been involved in various different kinds of artistic movement, including ballroom dancing, breakdancing, martial arts, popping, and gymnastics. I’ve found that there is a core set of movements and skills that are common in all of these activities. After watching countless videos, I’m convinced that all of these activities can be tied together in a huge graph mapping out the various human movement characteristics.

This is why it’s always a joy to see two videos highlighting the similarities between two disparate movement arts. And, it’s even more satisfying when the two movements have radically different demographics and culture.

I stumbled upon an amazing Lindy Hop competition video that reminded me of the energy and movements in breakdancing. The video highlights a lot of fast and technical footwork similar to top rocking in breakdancing, in addition to the high flying acrobatics. Without further ado, this is the video of the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2006:

Now, compare this to the footwork of Dyzee, one of my favorite breakers. Pay attention to the footwork after the first cut (the rest of the video is a bit low on quality). Dyzee just has one of the most fluid footworks I’ve seen, and mirrors the footwork seen in the Lindy Hop video.

Also, here is another oldie but goodie from Dyzee. I remember watching this in my college days:

UPDATE: And let’s not forget the original Lindy Hop style, captured in this video from “Hellzapoppin” (1941) featuring Frankie Manning (in the Mechanic’s Dungarees).

Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and author of Hyperspace, talks about the different types of civilizations. He mentions that we’re not even on the scale with regards to the different types, since we have not yet harnessed the entire energy of our planet.

He also states that we’re in the most crucial part of human history, since we are currently making the transition between a Type 0 and Type 1 civilization, which is the hardest transition for a civilization. He claims that within about 100 years, we’ll be able to make this transition, and thus control the Earth.

I tend to disagree with this — I believe that it’s going to take us a bit longer, perhaps 500 to 1000 years before we attain Type 1 status. We just have too many problems with nuclear proliferation, poverty, and worldwide unity.

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Napa for some wining and dining. When I saw the beds, my only goal was to get on BedJump, and I did.

I only sent in a few pictures, but they made a video of it.

Boy, does it feel good to be part of viral marketing..

I was looking at Wikipedia’s entry on cell phones, and was examining the percentage cell phone usage in the world. It’s amusing that there are two places that are colored gray, which don’t even correspond to anything on the scale: North Korea and Vatican City.