This picture brings back memories of Krispy Kreme donuts, good friends, the Bay Area and doggles. That was the day I learned that Kehoe, one of the dogs pictured here, was a geologist. I’ve never seen a dog go totally nuts over a rock. Very interesting.

I processed this shot as taken under a bright blue sky, black and white and settled on the ever nostalgic sepia. I also added excessive blur because the original shot was out of focus. Somehow, massive fuzziness works better than slightly out of focus.

This shot is for ewee for her enthusiasm for all things creative, sketchy (both drawings and otherwise), and doggle related. Cheers!

Or more precisely I miss my daily dose of photoweenie. This Sunday, I strolled with my camera thinking I’d capture some street shots of Brooklyn. I got some crappy snow pictures and a so-so shot of my beer. I refrain from externalizing self-critique over at Photoweenie, but am thinking it may help my technique if I articulate some of my deficiencies in this precinct of Lunamania.

My biggest beef here is the lack of primary focal point. Shooting with one of the sharpest lenses on the market, the fuzziness of the beer foam in the foreground is a technical failure. A reminder to 1) finally set my vision impaired compensation settings on my camera, or 2) wear my frakkin’ glasses when focusing. Lame.

Secondary annoyance is the way blown out window in the background. I tried adjusting in PS, but there’s only so much I can do.

On the upside, I like the curves in the foreground and the skewed reflections in the coffee beer.

Thanks to the beauty of the internet and suspension of my general rule that all information is not equal, I’ve convinced myself of veracity of the following:
“Being the Tiger’s own year, 2010 holds great promise for those born under this sign, with exciting developments happening for them both personally and professionally. Some Tigers may be feeling disappointed and disheartened after 2009 and it will be important to leave the past behind and concentrate on the future, which is looking so bright!”
Thank you, Web Source of Unverified Credibility!

The iPhone doesn’t capture the furious flurries blowing horizontally
across the way. It also doesn’t show the cozy cafe I just stepped out
from after drinking waaaaay too much coffee (the price of having to
seek Internet access outside the comforts of my apt…)
If this storm weren’t keeping me from long planned meetings and a
weekend at home, it’d actually feel quite magical rather than
diabolical.

.::.Sent from an iPhone, please forgive the brevity and any typos.::.

Nothing like an empty new notebook to inspire hope and anxiety.

Being in Orange County, land of the Costo size immigrant grocery store, means an abundance of affordable fresh produce, meat and seafood. Seafood is sold swimming and clawing, of course. My perusal of the Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese groceries coupled with the Monkey Mom’s discount radar pointed to a Christmas crab dinner.

Blue crab meat is sweeter than that of the dungeness and king crabs, but is increasingly rare in restaurants and stores. But H Mart had a box of blue crabs scrambling for their lives and Ranch 99 had dungeness waving from the tank. We were on for a full blown crab fest.

We steamed the blue crabs and ate them with ginger and soy sauce dip. We cooked the dungeness crabs two ways. One was a simple steam with ginger and scallions. The other was a fry and wok braised ginger scallion recipe. I saved the crab miso for pan fried noodles. Nothing says Christmas like getting your fingers all messy with crab…uh ok, maybe not so Christ is Born like, but it was quite tasty.

Here are the recipes:
Steamed crab with scallions and ginger.
Ginger and scallion crab in a wok.

The noodles were improvised:
Chinese egg noodles
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
3 inches of sliced ginger
3 stalks of scallions (cut to ~2″)
Half a bulb of garlic
Dash of canola or peanut oil
Miso of whatever crab is in the pot cooking
White pepper to taste

Heat oil and get heat through the scallions, garlic, ginger and crab miso
Toss noodles and sauce in the pot
Add pepper

The country of origin may be different, but the groceries are united by cellphones and Johnnie Walker under glass counters, ye olde Berkeley Bowl fresh produce amped with herbal leafy greens, delectable prepared foods and live seafood with an optional fried fish station. Granola is nowhere in sight and Yakult is the closet thing to yogurt. The spices, sauces and snacks spur salivation and a reassuring connection to “home.” Best Buy v. first generation groceries…it’s a really tough call in Lunamania.

Tomorrow, I will head to the Korean H-Mart for live blue crabs, Ranch 99 for live dungeness crab and Von’s for penne to toss with crab juice–these stores stir immigrant nostalgia and make me hungry.

I’m going to supplement all this eating out with home cooked roast crab from Ranch 99. Goooood!