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Audiobooks – the ones I’ve read recently and short reviews of them

As a result of my commute having gone up to over 2 hours one-way since the beginning of September, I’ve been breezing through audiobooks lately. Infact, I had to upgrade my subscription to “2 at time” (roughly 8 to 10 CDs, depending on the book, at a time, each CD being on average 70 mins long) to keep up with how quickly I was going through them. Here are the books I’ve read lately, and what I think of them. Hope this is especially of use to other commuters.

• Create an abundunt life – this book was total crap, I’m not even going to waste more words describing how bad it was
• Personal Finance for Dummies - this book had some useful tips, but I would not recommend it overall
• Kitchen Confidential & A Cook’s Tour – I covered both of these in previous posts, highly recommended.
• French Lessons -This book is excellent! A must-read for any food lover. It is written by an Englishman who was completely oblivious to the pleasures of food, but visited France when young, fell completely in love with not only the cuisine, but also the French culture of food, and soon moved to France. This book is his story of him travelling to all regions of France to explore the best the country has to offer in terms of all sorts of food, with a special focus on cheese, and also wine. It is very humorously written and the narration is brilliant. Very highly recommended!
• Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger – This book is a biography of Arnold Schwarzenneger, former bodybuilding champion of the world, top movie star of hollywood, and currently governor of California. It begins with his childhood in a remote village in Austria, and follows the entire course of his life. If you do have an interest in learning about Arnold, then I would recommend this book, I found it fascinating and inspiring.
• The 7 habits of Highly Effective People - not recommended
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - I went into this book expecting it to be something like Morgan Spurlock’s movie ‘Super-size me’, in other words a strong criticism of the eating habits of America, and thats about it. However, I soon realized, the title is actually quite decieving. While the book does focus on the fast food industry of the US, it is much more an economic and cultural study of the rise of the fast food industry, and more importantly its current and future effects. This book has countless more dimensions than ‘Super-size me’ and is one of the most educational books I’ve read. If anything, it is much more like the (also exceptional) documentary ‘The Corporation’. I am eagerly awaiting the movie of this book, which is coming out in 2 weeks time. It is going to be truly powerful to watch in image and video everything discussed in the book, and it will also be even more up-to-date (the book was published in 2001, with research primarily from the mid to late 90s).

The book I am currently reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Upcoming books:

• Experts Guide to 100 things Everyone Should Know How To Do
• Into Thin Air
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• World of the Ancient Maya
• My Life (Bill Clinton)
• Blue Gold: The Political Struggle for the World’s Water
• Don’t Eat this Book
• Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• World Is Flat

A short Zidane movie

I recieved a link to this movie, asking me to watch it and help promote it.

I was slightly skeptical going into it, but its fairly short, only 10 mins, so I decided to check it out.

The acting is alright, although they seem to struggle with English a bit, or atleast it sounds artificial in the scenes they do converse in English. They are helpful subtitles during the parts when the dialogue is not in English. The video production is actually quite well done, in terms of the music, effects, and combining the scenes.

All in all, I would recommend watching the movie. Your interest might seem to wander off towards the middle, that was the case for me, but the ending is great, and definitely makes the whole clip worth watching.

Here is the link to it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5410429878612170029

Lunch at Harvest

Right when I was leaving the restaurant after dinner, I saw a small sign for the opportunity to win a free group dinner, courtesy of Ameriprise, if you drop your business card in the bowl. I have seen these offers in many restaurants in the past, and my brother had actually won once for Nancy Chang’s in Worcester. Apparently, on many occassions, they just choose every business card that is dropped. Unfortunately, they did not have a bowl next to the business card, but not wanting to pass on the chance, I placed my card right by the sign.

Early the following week, I got a call from an Ameriprise financial adviser. I had won a lunch for upto 6 people. The only catch, as with all their free lunches, is that the FA gives a short introduction where he discusses his area of expertise and how financial planning could benifit us. Naturally I was thrilled, since Harvest is a nice restaurant.

Since it was lunch time, I could not get more than 4 people in total. The group was comprised of my brother and me, as well as one of my high school friends who lives in Boston, and an MIT graduate student who I’d recently met.

The menu was limited, as expected (i.e. no lobster…) but still pretty decent. We had a choice of one of two appetizers, and one of two entrees. I chose a mixed green salad with balsamic vinagrette for my starter and cold poached salmon with red bliss potatoes for my entree. We also could order a non-alcholic beverage, but we all just went with water. Franco, my high school friend, chose the same dishes as me. My brother and Kenny, the MIT grad student, chose the eggplant soup for their appetizer, and chicken pot pie for their entrees. Overall it worked out to about a $30 value for each of us, all for free. On my way out, I checked out the menu, and the appetizers were priced at $9 and the entrees at $15, so with tip and everything it would have been about $30 per person, but thankfully it was all on Ameriprise’s tab.

great Zidane tidbit

here is something I ran across while browsing the section on Zidane in Wikipedia today. Its one of the reason I love wikipedia (apart from being a tremendous accurate and up-to-date resource), one can find all sorts of obscure tid-bits and facts that are posted by individuals, that would otherwise be very difficult to come across.

 In 1995 Zinedine Zidane may have become another high profile signing for Blackburn Rovers during the Jack Walker era. Kenny Dalglish had wanted to sign both Zidane and Christophe Dugarry who were playing in France for FC Girondins de Bordeaux, however Walker reportedly said to Dalglish: “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”

HAHA. What a great quote.
Anyway, on a side matter, I noticed this blog has passed over a 1000 hits. Yay. I use these posts more as a reference for me to look back on later, to see what my thoughts were on various issues. But its great that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic also, which has been one of my goals as well. The truth is, for a blog to really succeed, it needs to have many subscribers (people who read a particular blog on a regular basis, generally keeping up with new posts via RSS feeds). To get many subscribers, its important to have an area of focus. For example, web 2.0, soccer, travel, OR food. As you can see, however, I have chosen to combine all these areas, and others, in my blog. This is an important reason as to why this blog is unlikely to be widely read, because the chance of many other individuals also being intrested in soccer, internet technologies, audiobooks, healthy cooking, travel…etc as I am, is very low. Nonetheless, these are areas I am intrested in, and I’ve decided to let this blog reflect me as an individual, more than any particular topic. Having said that, I do make sure to tag my posts well, so I can get bursts of traffic relating to individual posts.

Dinner at Harvest – in Harvard Square, Cambridge

I had recieved a gift card for this restaurant a while back, and finally got around to using it last Friday. After work, my brother and I took the Red Line T to Harvard Square. From the T stop, its only about a 2 or 3 min walk to the restaurant, which is in the ground floor of what looks to be a small commercial center. I was definitely looking forward to the dinner, as I had heard good things about Harvest. It is an established institution (founded in 1975) and many famous chefs from this region have gone through the kitchens of Harvest, including L’Espalier’s Frank McClelland and Veritas’s Scott Bryan. For the most part, the reviews seemed to agree the food was well done (simple and fresh, as is claimed) but slightly overpriced. The gift card I had was for $50 (and was also valid for Grill 23 or Excelsior, but my brother and I knew either of those 2 would work out to significantly more than $50, so we chose Harvest).

The first thing one notices when approaching the restaurant is the sign. Its a very ugly, cheap neon sign, that looks barely fit for most of the Chinese all-you-can-eat buffets I see around Worcester. Naturally, I was quite surprised and was having second thoughts as to whether I made the right choice. However, as we made the turn into the doorway and through to the restaurant, it was immediately apparent that Harvest is in-fact an upscale restaurant. The decor fits the name and concept very well, its a very “harvesty” color scheme. I had read about the open kitchen, and was happy to see that kitchen is pretty much as open as can be. If one wanted to, one could stand a bit to the side and see the entire life-cycles of orders, from the waiter bringing it in, to the final plating and it being carried to the table. I am always a fan of an open kitchen, as it requires that it be very clean, being in the plain view of all the restaurant’s patrons. And this is especially true of a restaurant like Harvest, where one is paying above-average prices for the freshness and quality of, for the most part, regular ingredients.

We had a reservation for 6:30 and were seated immediately. We chose to sit outside, even though it was slightly cold, because there are very effective outdoor space heaters in the patio. Anyway, I knew it would probably be one of the last times for at-least a few months that we could dine al-fresco.

We received our wine and dinner menus. There was a tasting menu, as well as an A la carte, but we were informed that any of the items on the tasting menu could also be ordered A la carte. I had taken a look at the menus previously, as I usually do before dining out, so I was able to decide fairly quickly. We both selected A la carte items. I chose the Halibut with chunks of lobster, walnuts, and sauteed bok choy ($32). My brother went with the Pork loin with eggplant ($27). Here are the descriptions from the menu:

Pan Seared East Coast Halibut	32
Baby Bok Choy, Lobster, Chartreuse Macerated Grapes, Walnuts, Red Kuri Squash Sauce

Roasted Pork Loin	27
Cumin Scented Chubby Carrots, Cipollini Onions, Eggplant, Fregola, Picholine Olives, Ham Broth

We each ordered a glass of wine also, I chose a French Chardonnay [Chardonnay, Pascual-Renaud, Macon-Villages, Macon, Burgundy, France...to be more specific] ($8) and my brother chose a red ($9), I forget what type.

The food was very well done… Not mind-blowingly amazing, or surprisingly good. In many ways, the entrees were exactly as I expected them to be, relatively simple, fresh, and tasty. The only thing that did surprised me was the entrees very much felt like a part of a tasting menu, although they are priced and described to stand alone. The meat and fish itself were of good entree size portions, I guess what was lacking was the usual starch that restaurants throw in. It was perfectly fine with me that this was excluded, but I can understand why many people might feel strongly that Harvest is overpriced, because apart from the ingredients being relative every-day (as fresh as they might be), the entree portion by itself would certainly not be a filling meal for anyone. Anyway, since I avoid starches in the evening it worked out great for me.

We ate and drank our wine at a relaxed pace. Once we were done, our plates were whisked away, and without any inquiry, two dessert menus were placed on the table. We looked over the list, and rather than go with anything sweet, decided on the American Artisan Cheese Quartet ($14) which featured 4 cheeses from the local area. Here is the description from the menu:

American Artisan Cheese Quartet	14
Featuring Aged Gouda, Londonberry, VT Taylor Farms, Cow’s Milk Bayley Hazen Blue, Greensboro, VT Jasper Hill Farm, Cow’s Milk Blue Mt. Snow Brie, Weston, VT Woodcock Farm, Sheep’s Milk Fresh Chevré, Alburgh, VT Lakes End Cheeses, Goat’s Milk

The cheese plate arrived, accompanied with: thinly sliced apples, four perfectly toasted slices of brioche, salted and roasted almonds, 3 small apricots in syrup, and two piece of some fig or date, tart-like thing.

Now this wasn’t anything close to the monstrous cheese course my brother and I were able to enjoy at L’Espalier (where we were served the same quantity as the table of 5 sitting next to us), but rather a well portioned plate. This was still, however, a cheese plate, which as I remarked to my brother, always feels like pure gluttony. By then we both had a good buzz from the wine too, so all this contributed to a memorable, filling, and tasty end to our meal. As for what I thought of the various cheeses…I liked them all, they were delightfully creamy. None of the individual cheeses stood out so much that I have anything to say about any of them in particular, however they all served to further reinforce my belief that cheese is a good thing, and we must be grateful when we have the opportunity to enjoy it.

As we were getting through the last of the plate, we had to take longer and longer pauses before going for another piece. In one of these brief respites, a waiter was about to take away our plate with still a little bit left, but of course we stopped him, immediately. But even before we were done, the bill arrived at our table. Overall the service was average, there were certainly areas in which it could have, and should have, been better.

The bill came out to $94 without tip. This included two entrees (which averaged out to about the average entree price), two glasses of wine, and a cheese plate.

I have included photos: of the two entrees, and of my brother and I before devouring the cheese plate.

Great soccer blog

Here is a link to a very well written soccer blog: http://soccerspot.wordpress.com

I ran across this blog because the author posted a response to my Nedved post. There is definitely some great commentary at Soccerspot, as well as a number of useful pages, such as one keeping track of Juventus in Serie B, and another of the Euro 2008 standings.

Juventus in Serie B

For probably the first time ever, I was actually looking out for the result of a Serie B match last weekend. That match involved Juventus of Turin, a team that needs no introduction really. Despite their rich pedigree, they could only manage a paltry 1-1 draw, and their path back to Serie A looks more difficult than ever.

The unthinkable had finally happened this summer…Juventus in Serie B. But what an absolutely disgusting, dishonorable way they got there. For a team with such a proud history, the club that is in many ways the flag-bearer of all Italian clubs, the “old lady” of Italy, it is truly a black mark to go down a division. Prior to this year, there had been only two teams in Serie A who had never been relegated, Inter Milan and Juventus. Now only one remains.

Although I am not a fan of Juventus particularly (but I am a big fan of Serie A in general), some of my favorite players have been through their ranks, and having watched them as such a dominant club, it is quite disappointing to see their sorry state of affairs currently. Nonetheless, their punishment was quite deserved, because even if nothing amounted from the particular referee choices, obviously that should not be done. It is really such a let down for the players, the technical staff, and especially the true fans, to find out all that has been revealed of what took place. To think that the celebration of the last title, among other things, really has no meaning now, is a slap in the face to those involved. In many ways, its good that this came out into the open, and hopefully this will be a stern reminder to any who plan to conspire.

Lyon 2 – Real Madrid 0; UEFA Champions League matchday 1

I watched about 45 mins of the middle part of this game, and was fortunate to catch both goals. It was definitely an exciting game to watch, and this seems to reflect the nature of the majority of the Champions League matchday 1 games. I have to say, I am very pleasantly surprised by this, as I had mentioned earlier, there is such an immense anti-climax after the World Cup. And so, it is refreshing to see that club soccer is actually so promising and proving itself to be more exciting than ever, not at all like the summer when the sport showed so many signs of needing some real changes.

Anyway, some quick thoughts on Lyon 2 – Real Madrid 0. For the second consecutive season, Lyon manages to stun Real Madrid in France (Last season they thrashed them 3-0). Lyon definitely dominated the game, with plenty of chances, and really played as best they could. They were compact, efficent, quick on the counter attacks, showed that they had talented individuals, but most of all, they just oozed teamwork. The second goal was quite representative of this, where Govou, who was in a great shooting position, thread through a defense-splitting pass to Tiago, who was in an even better goal scoring position. Juninho had a handful of chances from free-kicks all over the place, and came close on all of them, its a pity he didn’t score any though.

Real Madrid seemed the polar opposite. More than anything, they did not look to be a team. Cannavaro was making uncharacteristically silly mistakes, and Casillas was just horrendous at points. I guess they must have been better in the past weekend, when they destroyed Levante 4-1 with hat trick from Ruud Van Nistelrooy, but then again, as one of my friends quickly pointed out, that was Levante. Lyon are certainly in a whole different league, looking to be one of the best teams in Europe currently.

Speaking of best team in Europe currently, FC Barcelona certainly seems to be living up to their billing so far. I’ll save that for a future post though.
To wrap up, I must stress that I did only watch the middle part of the game, so my observations really apply to only the chunk of the game from about the 20th min of the 1st half to the 65th min of the 2nd half, but I doubt things were radically different at other points in the game. Overall I think its fair to say Lyon are continuing to build on their successes of the past 5 season, while Real Madrid and Capello have some serious re-thinking and re-organizing to do.

Finally, here are video highlights of ALL the goals from Matchday 1, courtesy of Youtube (seriously, what an awesome website, but again, I’ll save that for a future post):

Tuesday, September 12th:

Wednesday, September 13th: