Yeah. Pretty much the same guy.
Parallels between The OC and Gossip Girl go far beyond the shows' creators (Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage). I'm sure I am not the first person to ever analyze just how deep they run.
Garry's convinced that it's effectively the same show/story, set in NYC instead of Orange County. I maintain that GG has way more delicious scandal and better characters, but gotta admit the resemblances are a bit creepy. So I decided to make a few diptychs (or triptychs) to compare the characters side by side.
- Ryan Atwood vs. Dan Humphrey vs. Seth Cohen. Garry's got a point - if Ryan and Seth had a love-child, Dan would be the result.
- Kirsten Cohen vs. Lily Van der Woodsen. They are so alike in appearance and character, I can barely tell them apart!
- Summer Roberts vs. Blair Waldorf. Both dark-hair beauties, but Summer's more adorable and Blair's more badass.
- Serena van der Woodsen vs. Marissa Cooper. No contest. Serena is as awesome and vivacious as Marissa is vapid and vacant.
- Sandy Cohen vs. Rufus Humphrey. Garry says they look alike and I think they don't at all! Maybe the only resemblence is that both of them at one point sang in a band.
- Nate Archibald vs. Luke Ward vs. Chuck Bass. No apparent connection except their all moneyed "bad" boys. And they look pretty good.
I've been wanting to post this since I saw it linked off a coworker's FB profile.
Meet Angela Y. Lee, a creator of creatures! That is, she's a rather imaginative person in Peoria, IL who makes huggable, lovable, customized plush toys by hand. I was quite taken by the sunny disposition of her website, its inhabitants, and the adorable little stories bursting out of every seam. A few things you should know about her operation:
- She never makes duplicates, so no two creatures are alike!
- She customizes it with your favorite colors, animals, ideas, and dreams.
- Her day trade: graphic designer.
- Her creatures are not cheap, but isn't buying handmade worth it!?
From her website: "I was living by myself in a dark, bug-infested, sublevel apartment with no furniture. I guess making soft little creatures comforted me while I was transitioning into this new city." I actually asked her blessing to post about her creatures. Her response: "Sure you can include my creatures on your blog, they would like that :)"
How can one not smile? Order here!
I went with my brother to Marukai, one of the largest Japanese specialty markets around here. Besides the crazy $120/lb. Wagyu beef for sale and the much more reasonably priced sukiyaki I bought, I came across this candy I used to eat when I was a kid: Super Lemon. Actually they come in a bunch of flavors, like Super Apple and Super Cola.
We used to sell these on the playground for $0.25 apiece to the non-Asian kids who didn't know where to buy them. Hah! We were entrepreneuer-capitalists even back then.I always loved the cheeky comic-book packaging. "OH! Powerful Candy."Make-your-own crepe (chicken, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, cheese) from Crepes on Cole, and a deliciously creamy and frothy soy latte and blueberry bran muffin from Cole Valley Cafe.
Exhibit A: A simple wooden tool sent to Garry and I by M, who had just completed the Paris leg of her round-the-world trip with J. The only clue we got--it was "something to play with in the kitchen." For the longest time Garry and I couldn't for the life of us figure out what it was. Exhibit B: A fish-tail looking thing made of silver. I noticed it on my friend Jules' bookshelf this weekend at her housewarming party. She promptly offered it to me, and the instrument in Exhibit C (see below), because someone else had given it to her and she didn't want it. The only clue I had was the etching at the top: "Mariage Freres Paris." Exhibit C: Also from Juliana. Clearly a spoon with a mother-of-pearl bowl and a delicately silver-smithed handle that reads, "Christoph Widmann .925" But what is it for? Guessing CLOSED.
ANSWERS: A = Crepe stick/spreader. B = Tea scoop. C = Caviar spoon. So I think between everyone ya'll got it right!
...where thou shallst find the best chocolate milk EVARrrr. Well, maybe only if you live in California.
We used to have individual packs of this wonderful chocolate milk from Clover Organic Farms. It was my coworker Brent who first tipped me off to this fabulous snack that was kind of a well-kept secret on campus. Only those in the know, or in certain buildings, enjoyed it. Why I love it:- Reduced fat - only 5g/serving
- Not too sugary-sweet, syrupy or chalky like most kinds of chocolate milk
- Wonderfully creamy and rich mouthfeel
- Hormone-free!
I'm speaking, of course, of the extraordinary British illustrator who made gorgeous plates of all our favorite fairy tales (and some lesser-known works like the Valkyrie) once upon a time. I've been a big Arthur Rackham fan since college. I was just thinking randomly about him because I was looking for something good to put on my computer desktop. Someone ought to print high-quality reproduction posters of his stuff, or maybe put together a coffee table book in his honor.
As I resolved in my 2009 List of Things To-Do, tonight my friend and I made my former coworker's secret family recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They are extraordinary--fluffy, tender and melty out of the oven, chewy and delicious a day or two later.
I begged him for six months to share the recipe with me, and after he finally did, I proceeded to sit on it for two full years. Well I finally made them and am very happy to report that after following the recipe to the letter they turned out just as kickass as I remember! The keys are the very specific type of fat used, the cookie size and the baking time.
I think it would be in poor taste to post the recipe since it's not really mine to share. But here are some pictures!PS. Isn't Crystal cute with her big ole oven mitts!
It's been well over a month since my last installment of Foodie Tuesdays, a series in which I try to highlight one somewhat obscure yet interesting food item and tell you something you might not know about it.
So here you go--Chinese noodles. I want to talk specifically about Chinese noodles not just because the Chinese invented them, but because I think they demonstrate an awesome diversity rarely found in other cuisines. It's like they can made noodles out of anything they can grind, mix with water, stretch and boil.
-
1-2 My favorite noodles in the world, Uigher laghman (or hand-pulled noodles) originating in Xinjiang province
-
3-5 Garry's favorite, knife-cut noodles (dou xiao mian, a northern China specialty), cut rapidly from a big lump of dough. Plus pan-fried jian mian or cut noodles.
-
6-7 You mian, or oil noodles, a peculiar specialty of the Shaanxi province. Oil and flour formed into rings and steamed in honeycomb formation. To be pulled apart with chopsticks and dipped into spicy sauce. Chewy and delish!
-
8 Cat ear noodles, another Shanxi specialty.
- 9 Suoman, another Xinjiang specialty, fried noodle squares in spicy sauce.
-
10 Traditional Lanzhou-style lamian, or hand-pulled noodles from Gansu province.
-
Mung bean based noodles. 11 Dried dongfen, or bean threads. 12 Fried bean threads in Korean japchae. 13 And wide, flat mung bean sheets.
-
Rice noodle varieties: misua (14-15), or rice threads, 16 Fujianese bee hoon or fried thin rice vermicelli, 17 Cantonese maifun, 18 thicker rice vermicelli, 19 lai fun, 20 Cantonese beef chow fun, 21 rolled rice noodle sheets.
-
22 Serik ash, a yellow Uigher noodle from Xinjiang that is made into rounds and cut into strips
- Egg noodle variations: 23 fresh egg noodles, 24 pan-fried, 25 deep fried crispy egg noodles
