Design webshop OEN did a short piece on my photography.
Read it here:
http://the189.com/photography/abstract-architectural-details-by-photographer-yusheng-liao/
I've been to Tokyo 11 times in the past decade, and, being a sushi lover, I always make it a point to stop by Tsukiji at least once per trip (sometimes multiple times!). However, I've never been to what is widely heralded as the best stall in the famed mecca of sushi. There's always an insane line (longest in Tsukiji) and I would invariably decide against using up my precious time in Tokyo waiting in a crazy line.
On this my twelfth trip to Tokyo, I finally made up my mind to pay Sushi Dai a visit, long wait and all. It's long overdue.
]]> Two things conspired to make my long-postponed wait even longer than necessary: It was a weekend and I didn't get in line until well past 10 a.m. If I had gone on a weekday at let's say 7, perhaps I could have cut what ended up being a 2-hour-and-40-minute wait to a more manageable 90 minutes or so.Two hours and forty minutes! I racked my brain for a time I waited longer for food and I couldn't come up with any.
My turn came and I squeezed in to my spot at the sushi bar. The chefs were extremely friendly (in stark contrast to the surly chefs at Nakaya who yells at you for taking photos). The one that was serving me was even able to speak a little in Mandarin and Cantonese (and English, of course).
I ordered the ¥3,900 (US$46.71) omakase course, which came with 10 pieces plus a customer's choice of any piece available that day.
The pieces came fast and furious and each was fantastic. The vinegared rice was as good as I've had at any sushi restaurant. The stickiness, doneness and amount of vinegar were all perfect.
There weren't any really funky, esoteric pieces in the omakase. The set consisted of your standard affairs: toro, mackerel, anago, etc. But that's fine with me — I like the so-called run-of-the-mill pieces, especially when they are as good as they are here.
For my own pick after the chef's selections, I went with the yellowtail and it was shockingly good. I love yellowtail and I order it all the time, but it's not something that has ever made me swoon. Until this time. The chef brushed a light sauce and put a few sprigs of fine baby scallions on top of just the most amazing piece of yellowtail I've ever had.
Even better than the yellowtail were the uni and ikura, both of which I ordered again after my omakase was finished. The ikura in particular was just heaven. I've never had ikura that rich and nuanced before. The depth of complexity in the savoriness was beyond words.
All in all, I think it was worth having 3 hours taken out of my busy Tokyo itinerary, though I'm not sure I would do it again. Nothing is 3-hour-wait good, though this certainly came very close. Next time I'll just try to get there nice and early on a weekday.
For more pictures, see my Sushi Dai photoset on Flickr.
Sushi Dai
中央区築地5-2-1 築地市場場内8号館
5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku (Interior Market Building #6)
(03) 3547-6797
Earlier this week Archinect interviewed me for their new series on architecture photographers.
Read it here:
http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=96395_0_23_0_C
Stunning computer rendered short film that "tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view." Buildings by Kahn, Mies, Gehry, Calatrava and others are breathtakingly rendered. I particularly loved the depiction of the Barcelona Pavilion in the film.
If you love architecture, set aside 12 minutes and watch this in HD in full screen (you have to click on the link to go to Vimeo in order to watch this in HD).
]]>Image courtesy Mike Mitchell.
]]>The door is comprised of 40 sections of 254mm-thick Burma teak and integrates 160 pulleys, 80 ball bearings, a wire-rope and a counter weight. I need to see a video of this incredible door in action.
Photo credit: Dinesh Mehta [via Architecture Review]
]]>Photo credit: "Big Daddy" Nelson on Flickr [via Frank Street]
]]>Bigger view. The smell of ham must be intoxicating in there. Umm........ prosciutto.
Photo credit: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters
]]>Found this photo attached to a NYTimes article about how the U.S. can't track whether foreign visitors have left the country.
It appears to be a spherical tent attached to a one-car shed. It's identified as a "bungalow" in the article. I find it fascinating, but a cursory Google search has not turned up any info. Eyeballing the photo, the unit can't be bigger than 150 sq-ft (probably closer to 125). There's a certain dystopian futuristic look to these pods. I wonder how much the rent is for one of these things. Also, is it unbearably hot in the Texas sun? A/C? Shower and toilet? Who can tell me about these things?
Photo credit: Ron T. Ennis/Fort Worth Star-Telegram
]]>Beautiful.
57 years ago today US Patent 2,612,994 was granted for the barcode.
]]>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.
]]> I've loved Robuchon's cooking ever since I had dinner at his Tokyo L'Atelier two years ago. It ranked as one of the best meals I've had, all things considered. So I was curious to see what kind of experience he offers at such a low price point in such a fancy palace.Despite the low entry price point, the dining room is haute French dining through and through. The purple decor gives it a stylish modern touch, but also gives the room a bit of a diva-ish personality. Not quite gaudy, but threatening to become so at any moment. The high ceiling room was airy and quiet, and not even a fifth full when we showed for lunch at 11:30 am without a reservation (it was about half-full when we finished around 1). Seemed like a spot for rich housewives as we saw quite a few tables of them around the rather large dining room (80 person capacity according to their website).
L'Amuse-Bouche
The amuse-bouche was just a couple of tiny toasts with tuna on top. Didn't taste like much, and I've had better hors d'oeuvre from no-name caterers. I suppose this is one place where they're skimping in order to turn a profit on ¥2950 per person.
Le foie gras fondant sur une gelee au vin rouge aux figues fraiches.
On the menu dejeune (French for lunch menu), there were three options for appetizer and four options for main course. My dining companion and I both picked the foie gras to start the meal (the other opions were a gazpacho and a white asparagus dish). We probably should have done foie gras plus something different to sample more things, but we have no regrets: the foie gras was amazing. The foie gras mousse was crazy smooth and the red wine gelee was all manners of tasty. A great combo.
La daurade poêlée avec un bouillon parfumé au jambon.
Fried sea bream in ham broth, topped with arugula. Amazing fish dish. Reminiscent of the sea bream I had at his Atelier, except a little less Asian, a little more French in this version. I remember the Atelier one having more of an impact intellectually on top of just being wildly delicious. This was only wildly delicious.
El arroz bomba dans un bouillon aux saveurs paella.
This was fantastic (as all his dishes tend to be), but I was in a way disappointed because I love paellas and I was looking for something special from the "chef of the century" and this wasn't "special."
I'm not entirely convinced this is one of those dishes that works in this type of environment. This is comfort food, and you want a large portion of it all by itself, not a small serving as part of a multi-course meal. A few small bites and the many elements of the paella didn't seem to really mash together coherently enough.
He did try to put a twist on the paella by making the chicken with some Japanese flavors but that turned out to be more of a curiosity.
That was the end of the lunch set, an amuse followed by an appetizer and a main course.
The dessert was a ¥900/US$9.94 supplement.
La menthe en gelée avec une crème au citron et ananas mariné.
Mint dessert with jelly, lemon foam and marinated pineapples. This is a less sophisticated variation of the dessert I had at Atelier. The one at Atelier was with grapefruit instead of pineapples and the added sophistication came from the sugar stick where at Atelier it a thin tube of hardened sugar containing sorbet (amazing!) and here it was just meringue.
La peche en clafoutis avec une glace vanille et figues fraîches.
Peach dessert with vanilla ice cream and fresh figs. There were little cubes of peach cake in the bottom of the bowl.
This was die-and-go-to-heaven good.
Obviously we only tried 3 dishes (let's not count that silly amouse-bouche), so my pronouncements don't really mean a whole lot. Overall, I find the dishes here have pretty much the same style as his "casual" restaurant, L'Atelier.
It's an unbelievable deal for ¥4235 (including the dessert supplement and 10% service), considering you are getting it in a top level fine dining French restaurant, with the accompanying attentive service. Even regular casual restaurants in Tokyo could cost about that much for lunch.
But in terms of value, I still think a dinner at L'Atelier is better. For roughly 3 times the cost (¥12600 vs. ¥3850), you get 3 times the dishes and each dish is better.
For more pictures, see my "La Table de Joël Robuchon" set on Flickr.
La Table de Joël Robuchon
Château Restaurant Joël Robuchon 1F
Yebisu Garden Place
1-31-1 Mita, Meguro-ku
Tokyo
03-5424-1338
Open daily 11:30am-2:00pm and 6-9:30pm.
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.
]]>You add it up and I consume about 15 hours of television a week, give or take two hours, depending on what's on repeat. That's nearly one whole day (minus sleep) gone from my life due to TV. Scary. Good thing all commercials are zapped out, otherwise, I would be spending closer to 20 hours a week watching TV.
That's why I haven't started watching Battlestar Galactica, despite multiple recommendations (or Mad Men, or any other good show you might be wondering why I don't watch). I just can't add another show to my mix. Once I get invested in a show, it's nearly impossible for me to stop watching it, no matter how lame it becomes (see: Smallville... oh god please, let this be the last season... and I may have been one of ten viewers who watched every episode of Enterprise... that's about a hundred hours of my life I'll never get back). The only time in recent years that I have stopped watching a show has been Prison Break. I need to watch less TV, not more.
]]>