Archives > September 2009

La Table @ Château Restaurant Joël Robuchon

La Table de Joël Robuchon

There's fine french dining, and then there's Robuchon's extravagant replica Loire chateau in the heart of Tokyo. It is undeniably luxurious, elegant and beautiful, yes, but yet at the same time, flamboyantly over-the-top because it is in the middle of Tokyo! Maybe it's the Japanese and their meticulous building prowess or more likely it is because it is housing someone of Monsieur Robuchon's stature, the chateau didn't seem at all ridiculous or cheesy, which these types of replicas tend to be in Asia.

Inside, there's a bakery in the basement level, a less expensive restaurant on the first floor and two stories of his finest cooking on the second and third levels of the chateau. Dinner for two can cost as much as ¥10,000/US$1100 after drinks and service in the upstairs restaurant.

Amazingly, in the first floor restaurant, there is a ¥2950 per person set meal option during lunch. US$30 (give or take, depending on prevailing exchange rate) for a meal at this high temple of fine French dining? I'm there.

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Sep 14, 2009 | Filed Under: Food & Drink |

So About that Snow Leopard "No Features" Feature

The Mac cognoscenti are all aflutter, rushing to heap praise on Apple for its daring "no features" Snow Leopard upgrade. There are many articles describing all the cool technical things going on in the background, from OpenCL to Grand Central Dispatch. It's groundbreaking. It's significant. If you only listened to the tech nerds, upgrading is a no-brainer. It's that good.

But I'm curious as to what the adoption rate will be after a few months. Judging from a sample of one, my girlfriend, a typical non-techy user, it won't be too good.

"So, your Macbook has new software (eschewing any technical terms like 'operating system,' or I would lose her right off the bat)."

"What's new about it?" she asked, very reasonably.

"Um... nothing."

A pause as she looked at me like I'm wasting her time.

"Well, not nothing. There are a bunch of little tweaks here and there and it's supposed to be a little faster."

"Nah, I don't need it then," she pronounced. "It's working fine right now, why bother?"

True, by the way.

"Well, it's only US$30."

"Wha?!?? And this costs money? I definitely don't want it then."

"Well, it's good, trust me, let me install it." I insisted. I wanted to see all the hoopla myself (I don't use a Mac). She said fine, whatever, since I'm her one-man I.T. department. So a few days later, I installed it while she was at work.

She looked at it when she came home and said to me, "So? it looks the same."

I started pointing out the small differences here and there and she just shook her head and rolled her eyes at me like I'm a silly, silly boy.

Sep 10, 2009 | Filed Under: Technology |