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- March 11, 2005
Bamboo Fine Asian Cuisine
March 11, 2005Read moreToday, I had the pleasure of having sushi with Bob at Bamboo Fine Asian Cuisine, in Westford Massachussetts. The restaurant serves a variety of Chinese and Japanese food, which would ordinarily be a recipe for disaster, but the sushi and service was very good even though the place was bustling with activity. I had a few pieces of tuna, salmon, and unagi, a spicy tuna hand roll, and half of a “Godzilla roll”. It was an inside-out maki roll with avocado, crab, tempura bits, and a bit slab o’ unagi on top of the whole thing. It was quite rich and delightful.
To get to Bamboo, take 495 to exit 32. I was coming from the north, so I took a left off the exit and then a right onto Route 110 (Littleton Rd). Go about a half mile, and you’ll see signs for the Residence Inn Westford (Marriott) on your left. The restaurant is in the plaza, on 1 LAN drive, which doesn’t show up on any maps. Once you find the plaza, you’ll see the sign for Lan Drive and the restaurant immediately next to it.
UPDATE 3/15/2005
On Tuesday, I returned with buddy Jeff to have a go at the Chinese side of the menu. We got there at 7:30PM, were seated quickly, and proceeded to have a fairly mediocre time. Service was somewhat spotty (we may have been slightly underdressed). The menu was Americanized Chinese: General Gau’s Chicken, Mooshi Pork, etc. We ordered a “Bamboo Specialty” item: Crispy Sesame Beef, which means it’s supposed to be good. Also Kung Pao Chicken, Szechuan Style Tofu, and Salty Pepper Pork. I also had a bowl of Hot and Sour soup. All the items had that slightly overcooked, sweet “shared seasoning” taste I have come to expect from successful neighborhood Chinese restaurants: Not terrible, but not terribly exciting. Even my fortune cookie was stale. On the other hand, I tend to like the brisker style of Chinese food presented fast and hot on-the-fly like they do it in the better restaurants in Chinatown. This meal’s score: B-, with atmosphere saving it from a C+. Maybe the lunch buffet is better, but I wasn’t impressed.
- March 11, 2005
Magical Adventures in Space
March 11, 2005One of my favorite online reads is Jeffrey Rowland’s strip Magical Adventures in Space. Humbly drawn, the draw of the strip for me is in the characters and the way they talk. Topato Potato is a Space Potato made of poison and has incredible bludgeoning power, which he uses indiscriminately accompanied with high-toned language. Sheriff Pony is his nominal boss, and enjoys being polite. They’re Princess Awesomelope Dongle’s Royal Warriors, and they go around having…magical adventures in space! Magical Adventures in Space actually picks up, sorta, from Rowland’s previous effort Wigu, which was the story of this boy Wigu, his goth sister Paisley, and their parents. Mom is a stockbroker. Dad makes a living composing music for pornographic films. They’re all good guys. Magical Adventures in Space is the cartoon that Wigu likes, except of course it’s actually real. The drawing is cruder, but the dialog is pure multisyllabic bliss; If you’re a fan of Tony Millioniare and Steve Purcell, you know what I mean. The writing, man, the writing!Read moreRowland has some internal logic at work that just works for me: the 7 year-old adventuring spirit as interepreted by a still-kickin’ sardonic adult brain. It’s also, surprisingly, somehow emotionally true to itself. Great stuff, if you’re a demented kid at heart like me :-)
- March 10, 2005
Reason 3.0 Released Redux!
March 10, 2005Read moreI forgot to mention that the whole reason (heh) for my earlier post was that new version 3.0 is officially released today! Woo hoo! The new features seem to be related to mastering and performance, and of course there is a new soundbank. Cool! I may have to run to the Apple Store or Guitar Center and grab a small keyboard in celebration.
- March 10, 2005
Reason 3.0 Release!
March 10, 2005One of these days I plan on actually trying to noodle with music, but I’ve finally accepted that it’s one of those things that I need to take lessons for to get started. However, as this realization occured just last week, it hadn’t prevented me from already acquring a number of musical instruments already. In the electronic category is a piece of software from a company that I just like: Swedish software developer Propellerheads. They released a software-only synth studio called Reason back in 2001 that, unlike a lot of music software, was rock solid stable. It came in a cool box with cool packaging, ran on both Mac and PC without apology, and was packed with cool samples. It easily replaces ten thousand dollars worth of studio gear, for about 300 bucks, and it’s all virtual. Since then, virtual instruments have become pretty mainstream, but I’m excited to see the Propellerhead is still pushing out their product. I have a copy of Reason that I’ve never really used, music n00b that I am. The GUI is very pretty, too, filled with exciting simulated LCDs, brushed metal, and knobs.Read more - March 9, 2005
Alotsa Saltsa
March 9, 2005Read moreA couple years ago my sister introduced me to the books of Jeffrey Steingarten, food writer for Vogue magazine. A former lawyer with a insatiable taste for research, Steingarten pursues all forms of good food with the reckless determination of Indiana Jones. He embraces cuisines high and low, writing with incredible pomp and energy. He’s one of my heroes.
In addition to trying to chemically recreate the tastes of expensive imported spring waters in his kitchen, he’s also written about the variety of gourmet salts available. For one, do they really taste any different? Though my memory is dim, I believe his article was somewhat inconclusive on this regard (texture may play a part), but nevertheless it is nice to know where to buy those salts on the Internet. Here we find that black salts taste of sulfer, and are used in authentic Indian cooking, and that celtic salts are “naturally moist salts harvested from the pristine Atlantic seawater off the coast of Brittany, France.” Did you know you can buy smoked salts too? I didn’t.The rest of the Saltworks site is filled with all kinds of applications of salt. It’s fun. Check it out! My gut tells me there’s at least three or four elementary school science projects here, parents!