Phil Wolff: food

Open Source Haggadah

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 23:05:04 GMT

Tonight is the first night of Passover, the night when we tell stories. For the kloggers among you, storytelling is part of Jewish tradition, one way our memes propagated and persisted through millennia.

The stories we tell on Passover are as political as they are spiritual.

Speak truth to power. Moses telling Pharaoh "Let my people go" despite being young, of common blood, on bad terms with the emperor and a speech defect.

Social networks aren't new. Get the word out to mark your doors tonight. To everyone in your community. Without the Internet. Without email, or Orkut, or AIM, or SMS. Just people telling neighbors to pass the word, spare your firstborn.

Freedom is worth a fast march out of town. When we had the chance, we ran out of Egypt. We ate crackers on the go. And it was worth it. Freedom from a state favored religion. Freedom to gather and assemble. Freedom to teach your children to read, to write, to know their heritage. Freedom from state approved murder and torture and rape and all the other trappings of slavery.

Are you more free now than you were in 2000? in 1990? in 1776? Is your government broadening and protecting your freedoms?

Invest in your future, not your fears. The lifetime wandering in the desert was worth it. For their children and the preservation of all they believe in. How are we repairing the world? How are we leaving it a better place?

Some people just won't listen to biological warfare. Ten plagues. Countless deaths and deformities. And still the Pharaoh would not relent. In our time we've seen anthrax used on American soil, and other WMDs used in Iraq. So today's Paharaoh's and downtrodden have bioweapons. Asymmetric warfare with power in mankind's hands, not God's.

Remember the little guy. Rabbis of 1800 years' ago set the seder plate with bitter herbs and a sweet mixture. You eat them together. The mixture to remind you of bricks our enslaved ancestors made. The horseradish to remind you of their sweat and tears. So we make the connection between ourselves and those still in physical and spiritual bondage. And if we're lucky, we act on that connection. What are we doing to assure that every kid gets an education? What are doing to eliminate hunger in our country? How are we forcing our criminal justice system to protect a poor person's civil rights? How are we protecting women better than we did last year?

Set a place for the stranger. You leave a cup of wine for Elijah, should the prophet come calling. But you open your door to anyone who is hungry. Hospitality is the least gift we can give to a stranger or to ourselves. We don't ask for ID or check with Homeland Security.

If you're looking for a haggadah for your seder, I like the Open Source Haggadah Project, a spinoff of Douglas Rushkoff's Open Source Judaism. It helps you roll your own from traditional and modern sources. In our civilization's spirit of inquiry and dialog. Chag sameach.

Toward a more democratic Iran.

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 02:23:17 GMT

I read Editor: Myself, Hossein Derakhsan's Persian/English weblog. Hossein (or does he go by Hoder?) covers domestic affairs for the BBC and metablogs the Persian blogosphere. I don't believe bloggers and politics mesh with each other the same way in Iran as they do here (the consequences of speaking out are a little different), but they seem of a kind.

Last week I dined with Pedram Moallemian who blogs the eyeranian. He wants a secular Iran. I asked him what he thought America's policy on Iran should be. He answered:

Respect the right of self-determination for Iran and Iranians.
Condemn any possible military action against the people who are doing a great job fighting tyranny by themselves.
Acknowledge big mistakes were made on both sides in the past and choose to move on towards a better relationship.

Tyrants ruled Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no meaningful chance for reform, no hope for self-determination. Do the people of Iran, at home and in diaspora, have enough faith in the current system and the system's ability to change incumbents?

Pedram clearly does. He and others are drafting a new Iranian constitution. This is an ambitious exercise, imagining a new government that fits a whole people. It's an embrace of liberty worthy of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. He wrote:

One of the bases for any true democracy is to accept the people’s prerogative to occasionally make wrong choices and even more often, to make choices that you and I may not like or agree with. But at the end of the day, the choice is completely theirs. By that I mean that if in a free and open election Iranians choose to keep the current regime, it would be vital for people like myself to value and honor their choice, yet reserving our right to oppose it in peaceful fashion and by non-violent means.

Back to the three points...

Kerry is more likely to negotiate with Iran's government than Bush, but no President or candidate worth anything will rule out future options.

Israel is America's friend, and the threat of American force is part of what keeps it safe. Why rule out military action against a country who is still technically at war with a US ally? Some of the terror organizations that operate in Israel are funded by Iran. So there's a lot to work out between us, more than self determination.

Acknowledging mistakes on both sides, well, sure. Why not? Moving toward a better relationship? That's Motherhood and Apple Pie (at least in America). But actions speak much louder than words. Secular government that doesn't position America as Satan; defunding and disarming Hezbollah and other terrorists and turning them in to law enforcement authorities; acknowledging Israel's right to exist; and full women's suffrage would be great starts.

P.S. It seems both of our countries could do with a little more regime change and fairer elections.

P.P.S. Check out iranFilter, a collective blog/mefi system built by... wait for it... Hoder. More links, pithy. Overall source on internal reform, student life, American policy re: Iran. Now in beta.

P.P.P.S. My conviction is much greater than my influence within the Kerry campaign.

P.P.P.P.S. I had some naan with the tandoori lamb. "akasig"

Cooking with Amy has an RSS feed!

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:41:12 GMT

Eat your Cooking with Amy via RSS and Atom.

Feature request: let newsreaders understand Amy's recipes, restaurant reviews, packaged products, and events.

The Second Day of Thanksgiving

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:07:25 GMT

Amy of Cooking with Amy has a new tradition that rings true for me: A second night of Thanksgiving. More than enjoying leftovers, a way to extend the festival.

Dinner with Dina and Friends.

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 17:05:27 GMT

It felt like an acid trip and swings in blood sugar and the five seconds of a family reunion that are sheer delight.

Stuart Henshall, always gracious, hosted Dina Mehta at Boobo di Beppy where staple busting portions stun you with their fat content. More on the restaurant later.

We talked about Skype, blog uptake, and other things until I realized that I was at the social scientists' table. Michele Chang is an ubicomp goddess researcher. Dina is a behaviorist. danah boyd (no caps for typographical balance) is getting doctored in social network behavior. Denise Cheskin comes at behavior from a marketing view, and I'm a demoblographer (I blog demography) and labor market analyst. Clynton Taylor is a full tyme ethnographer for business (from where do I know him?). And Stuart has x-ray vision when it comes to models, business and management models I mean.

We were a worldly bunch. Dina from India. danah originally from England but sans accent? Stuart from NZ but with a courteous American drawl. I'm from New York but work has taken me to strange places like Houston and Lausanne. Liz Goodman's from the Big Apple too, an ~~actress~~ artist become ubicomp sociologist en route to Oregon. Denise went to grad school in France. It felt so cosmopolitan to be in such a faked up Italian joint.

Skype tonight: 6pm Pacific Coast Brewing Co.

Wed, 24 Sep 2003 16:36:18 GMT

How could Skype transform your industry? Your favorite tools? What would a Skype-enabled newsreader look like? Does WiFi + Skype = POTS? What social network analysis would you like to pull from the Skype network? How much money can we make in Skype ring-tones? What commands could we stick at the end of "call://userid/"?

Now add beer.

Wednesday, 24 September 2003
6pm

Pacific Coast Brewing Co.
906 Washington St. (in Old Oakland, a block from 9th and Broadway)
Oakland, California 94607
Yahoo! map

New! Guest caller: The Skype team all the way from Denmark (2-3 in the morning Copenhagen time).

Call me at 510-444-8234 or Skype me.

Smoked url in Oakland's Chinatown.

Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:19:28 GMT

There is something delightful about living in a time where little corner bakeries in Oakland's Chinatown have web site address printed on their street awnings. How else would I have known that Sum Yee Pastry delivers DimSumOnline?

Q. If American Jews go out for Chinese food on Christmas, where do Chinese Americans go on Rosh Hashana? "akasig"

Skype Dinner: Wednesday, 6pm-9pm, 20 Sept, Oakland.

Sun, 21 Sep 2003 19:17:15 GMT

Stuart Henshall and I need to talk. We talked on Skype. Now we're going to talk in person. Join us for dinner in Oakland this Wednesday. On the agenda:

What are the traditional business opportunities for Internet telephony?
What are the non-traditional, blog and social software -based business opportunities?
What would we ask Skype to open to independent developers?

So:

Wednesday, 24 September 2003
6pm
Oakland
we're still looking for a venue: quiet, WiFi, BART-friendly.
I'll broadcast the location here, and by email if you write or Skype me.

Things to do in Oakland when you're political.

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:20:35 GMT

This week: Tuesday, I'm having lunch with John Kerry in San Francisco today. Join me. 600 Embarcadero at Delancy Street Foundation. No cover charge. Tuesday night, I'm going to the No to the California Recall meetup on Solano. Wednesday, I'm torn between the Democratic Party and Smart Mobs meetups.

I put together a multiuser weblog for East Bay Kerry (temporary url pending a good domain), a Yahoo! group, and business card flyers. Total time: 4 hours (excluding time spent waiting at Kinkos). Cost: Weblog: free using my TypePad account. Mailing list: free. Business cards: under $98 for 3000 double sided black and white, about 3 cents per contact.

Amazing how the cost and reach of Democracy have changed. "akasig"

Seybold meal #1: Gregor Rothfuss and friends.

Tue, 09 Sep 2003 20:51:36 GMT

Supper at cwas hearty. So was the conversation.

From left to right, one of my favorite bloggers, Gregor Rothfuss, tech journalist William Reilly, open source leader Michael Wechner, and me.

Gregor told us stories of Burning Man. Holy effigy. Gift/barter economy in the high desert. Parties all night. Concerts. Old West movie sets constructed for the week. Rituals and ceremonies for 30,000 people. How do you go to Seybold or any plain old computer show after Burning Man?

William is bringing his serious development experience to Seybold, reporting for CMS Review (I have a little press-pass envy). He asks insightful questions in a quiet way, but that may have been the jet lag from Boston.

Michael and Greg are here from Zurich, although Greg is looking for Cambridge digs.

Michael and Greg are bootstrapping Wyona : R&D, creating custom moblogging ASPs. If people will pay for ringtones, will they pay to post photos from their phones? Who are the natural partners for this technology? If people post from their phones, what is needed to help them find and surf their part of the blogosphere?

Michael is at Seybold to host and compete in tonight's OSCOM Hackathon/Sprint, featuring WebDAV and the Atom spec. I love code sprints. It's the height of voyeurism, seeing someone's most intimate programming secrets, the little tricks they use under pressure. If you're in town, stop by. "akasig"

Lunch with Mernit

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 06:42:23 GMT

I had lunch with Susan Mernit today. She found Kaimuki Grill in San Mateo, 104 S. El Camino, via Chowhound. Well prepared, unusual menu items, ambience comfortable, great service.

Some things I now know about Susan:

She's lived in New Jersey and New York. (I lived in New York)

She knows David Weinberger's brother. (I know David)

She's a foodie. (I'm a foodie newbie)

She's wise enough to value colleagues unlike herself.

She asks good questions well. And listens.

We share an interest in educational blogging. Question of the day: How do we design, package and sell blogging to teachers (not the early adopters)?

She's an alum of Scholastic Magazine, Netscape, and AOL. Keen interest in product strategy, marketing management.

And she's a born blogger. Only four months into it and she's on her second blog, written up by the New York Times, and comped to BloggerCon.

I brought some of my favorite examples of business cookbooks for show and tell (I'm such an entertainer).

CIO Insight Magazine's Whiteboards. Comprehensive project plans.
Optimize Magazine uses a real world case in each issue. The author drafts a 90-Day Plan. Lots of text charts and graphs suitable for PowerPoint.
Web Redesign: Workflow That Works, a step by step project process expanded to book lenght
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization
The Company Culture Cookbook: How to Change the Way We Do Things Around Here

btw, some of the first and best foodie bloggers: Barb Wong and Roland Tanglao's VanEats.

I loved Susan's "if only subway cars could blog" idea. "akasig"

My picks from today's Top 50 OnFocus.com books

Mon, 18 Aug 2003 06:22:33 GMT

Lies, by Al Franken

Anger is a great motivator. I'm waiting until after the California election to read this. btw, I trademarked the word "Lies".

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I'm a few hundred pages into Phoenix but stopped to read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Designing with Web Standards, by Jeffrey Zeldman

I've been pulling this out a few times a week.

Treason, by Ann Coulter

Give me a break.

Smart Mobs

An inkling of a big thing. OK book. Excellent weblog.

What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and...

Take that, Coulter.

The Great Big Book of Tomorrow

Time to get this. Now. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.

Fast Food Nation

I'm too scared to read it.

Why Girls Are Weird

Does it help dealing with it?

Stiff

Have you ever prepared a body for burial? I have. Nothing instills carpe diem faster or deeper.

Cryptonomicon

I had chills reading this. Scenes from my life. Right down to the sysadmins in trenchcoats with guns.

Hillary Clinton Memoir

I'll wait for the movie.

No Logo

Strident. Makes the case.

Pattern Recognition

If you liked "No Logo"...

Purple Cow

Selling the book was more creative than the book itself. But worth it just to grok deeply that your best marketing bang comes from a product, and not its promotion.

Bobos in Paradise

I have it. I can't remember why.

The Weblog Handbook

Buy in volume. Give as stocking stuffers. Require as a classroom text.

Sleeping With the Devil

Was this a first lady's biography? If so, which one?

Google Hacks

Yay, Rael!

The Chicago Manual of Style

It's red! What happened to the classic orange?

The Gunslinger

I'm waiting for the TV movie.

The Da Vinci Code

I'm waiting for the movie.

Traci Lords

I'm waiting for the movie. No, wait...

Neuromancer

To understand the times, the effect of technology, read this yarn.

Emergence

Huge idea. Pretty good explanation. Needs a fieldbook.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

I'd rather get my meaning in a can, please.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Is this a how to guide?

Atlas Shrugged

A reality distortion field. Read with care.

How to Be Good

Anything to do with Good to Great?

American Gods

I liked it, but not worth that much fuss. Try Icelandic sagas.

Snow Crash

If only for the pizza delivery!

Cascading Style Sheets

hmmm. Maybe there's more I could do.

Northern Lights

Find the hidden allegory.

Nickel and Dimed

Anguish. Struggle. Not getting by on minimum wage.

Linked

I studied the math. This is the context. And the game play.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Only five?

Good to Great

Boils down to "You'd better pick lucky parents."

Seabiscuit

Saw the movie.

Tivo Hacks

Just bought it.

Spain rising, France resting.

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 05:44:50 GMT

The word spreads: When it comes to cuisine, Spain is the new France. Furious innovation, imaginations bouncing off each other. Read more if you're a foodie, gatronome, or chef.

Danny's Raw Salsa Rossa.

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 06:37:50 GMT

A tasty recipe for Salsa Rossa at Danny Ayer's place.

Matzo Ball Soup

Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:25:16 GMT

Here's the Wolff family recipe:

Double the recipe on a box of Streit's Matzo Ball Mix

(Did Grandma Eva really use seltzer instead of water?)

Refrigerate matzo dough for at least 1 hour

Use fat free chicken broth - big cans

Add 1/2 cup Chardonnay wine to the broth

Season with garlic power and parsley flakes (or press fresh garlic and grind fresh parsley)

Put balls directly in the soup - not water

Learning to cook all over again.

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:51:35 GMT

Famous Caramel French Toast.

Mon, 16 Dec 2002 11:56:14 GMT

Dori Smith of Backup Brain:

Just because I'm thinking of it, here's the Famous Caramel French Toast recipe. Highly recommended for Christmas morning breakfasts.

...making me hungry. must buy eggs. and bread. and Grand Marnier. and brown sugar. mmmmmmmm. other people feel the same way.

Kottke savors Paris.

Sun, 10 Nov 2002 04:42:56 GMT

Jason Kottke is spending a month (?) in Paris. He seems to be appreciating the city of lights through his stomach, much to my vicarious delight.

From Thursday:

Except for the horse meat tartare
I don't know what the hell we ate the last time we were here, but the food we've had the last few days in Paris has been nothing short of almost perfect. You can easily get food this good in San Francisco, but it's significantly more expensive, too Californian (would you like avocado with that?), and not quite as good. The secret ingredients are butter and cream.
Addendum: This afternoon for lunch, we stopped at a little cafe not unlike every other cafe in Paris. Poulet et scalloped potatoes for 11 € (VAT + service included)...best chicken I've had in awhile. I hardly needed a beverage it was so juicy.

From last Sunday:

So good it'll make you wanna croque

A croque monsieur is a sandwich consisting of two slices of white bread, ham, cheese, a bit of cream (or cheese) sauce, and yet more cheese melted over the top of it after the whole thing has been grilled. I somehow missed this miracle of French cuisine the last time around, but am taking full advantage of it now. I've even written a little song about it, quite unintentionally. It just popped into my head and every time I see le croque monsieur on the menu, I can't help singing it:
Croque Monsieur, Croque Monsieur
uh huh huh**, Croque Monsieur
(repeat)
A chart topper for sure.
** The "uh huh huh" here is what I think of as typical French grunting (gathered mostly from misrepresentions of snooty French characters in movies and cartoons), a sound that when followed by a "monsieur" could be thought of as playfully condescending in tone.

Meg Hourihan is there too.

Le Colimaçon
44, rue Vieille du Temple
75004 Paris
48€ for two (one appetizer, two entrees, one dessert), with 1/2 bottle of wine

Wonderful dinner last night at Le Colimaçon right down the street from our apartment. I started with chèvre chaud aux figues, a salad of mixed greens with warm goat cheese melted on toasts accompanied by fresh figs and tomatoes. The balance of the figgy sweetness with the vinaigrette was absolutely perfect and every bite, especially when accompanied by the warm cheese, caused me to exclaim, "this salad is SOOO good!" For my main course I had confit de canard, a moist and tender drumstick and thigh of duck with cripy skin and juicy in its own fat. (For those keeping track at home, my vegetarianism suffered a fatal blow with my meal at the French Laundry and has never fully recovered.) This was accompanied by two cakes of grated potatoes and was rich and salty and moist and tender and simply wonderful.
I can't believe we simply stumbled into the place while wondering down the street looking for dinner. We selected it for two simple reasons: reasonable prices (under 20€ for entrees) and co-ed (the Marais has its share of gay bars and clubs, many of which seemed to be "going off" on Sunday night as we looked for a dinner place). If you're looking to eat in the Marais, I absolutely recommend this place for dinner. The only disappointment, which was slight, was the tarte tatin, which seemed less good only because I make it often at home. I'm looking forward to going back again, maybe even tomorrow!

Make me hungry for French food. I have to swing by Oakland's own Trio Bistro and Grill for some informal eating of hearty food with American portions at Lake Merritt.

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 10:02:54 GMT

Google Cooking Actually Works Now. Type in a few ingredients...

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 01:24:12 GMT

This is my new blogchalk:
United States, California, Oakland, Adams Point, English, Phil, Male, 41-45. :)

The Joy of Cookbook.

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 18:11:34 GMT

Read Karlin Lillington's mouth watering ode to one of the all time great cookbooks.

"This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children's meals, the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome, or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat."

That's the opening sentence of my mother's 1964 edition of the classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and the ever-formidable and fabulous Julia Child. As a small girl I found it the most intimidating cookbook on my mother's shelf, heavy, and full of long and involved recipes with French titles in italics beneath the English. more...

Karlin blogs from Dublin, Ireland. Witty, curious, passionate. Cookbooks become personal. They pick up stains, fragrances, and memories. The least of them show how. The best show why.

[a klog apart food]

Sukkot recipes celebrate the autumn harvest.

Sat, 21 Sep 2002 21:00:49 GMT

From the Archives of the rec.food.cuisine.jewish newsgroup:

Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles/Booths, celebrates the autumn harvest; a similarity to the Thanksgiving holiday observed in the United States which is not coincidental. Prior to making their way to the New World, the Pilgrims, themselves the victims of religious persecution, spent several years among Sephardic Jews in Holland. When they later celebrated the legendary first Thanksgiving, their conscious frame of reference was Sukkot.

116 Ashkenaz and Sephard sukkot recipes at cyber-kitchen.

Debby Segura offers Sukkot recipes with a Pacific Rim twist. Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Chinese Five-Spice Chicken, Garlic Spinach, and a French Apple Tart.

[aka food]

Jon Udell: The blogging CxO.

Thu, 29 Aug 2002 22:05:06 GMT

[aka klogs]

Thu, 29 Aug 2002 01:20:29 GMT

Backup Brain's Best Cookbook.

Sat, 20 Jul 2002 17:34:38 GMT

Tom Negrino: What she said. Also what she said in this post about Alton Brown's cookbook, I'm Just Here For the Food. I'd also add that The Best Recipe, which is the flagship cookbook for Cooks Illustrated, is hands down the best cookbook I own (it's a compendium of recipes from several years of the magazine).

I can't swear to the books, but I do like the practical chemistry lessons of Alton Brown's FoodTV show.

[aka food]