Wow, Foxconn is going automated. Of course this was inevitable and is what all manufacturing eventually goes to once the labor cost goes up enough that it is cheaper to buy robots. That means that this is the start of the end of affordable manufacturing in China.
Time to find country with labor that is cheaper…
source: 9to5mac.com
http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/31/foxconn-will-bring-on-1-million-robots-in-3-years-to-replace-workers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Our Wedding - Ocie and Loni get Official!
Loni and I had a small and simply wonderful wedding at Marin Civic Center with some of our close family and then we had a fantastic little reception at Victor and Kerstin's house for family and neighbors. We will have a house party in a month or two after we finish varnishing the floor for all of our friends. That means you!
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
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| From 110527 Loncie Wedding |
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Back to the Future - China: Episode 02, The Food Report
OK, since I know that most of my much-loved but paltry audience reads my blog for only two things - photos and food - I will hurry up and get to both of them.
My first night in Shenzhen ended the same way as every one of my first nights end here - gorging on deliciously spicy Sichuan cuisine. Roger, Lee, Jack and I went to our favorite Sichuan restaurant in the world (so far) and ordered the usual: Kung Pao Chicken, Sichuan Beef, Garlic Long Beans, Dan Dan Mein, and lots and lots of Tsing Tao beer. As always the beef was succulent and juicy - melting in your mouth while it melts your mouth. The Kung Pao chicken was spicy and a little sweet, crunchy from the peanuts, and delightfully numbing from the mouth-tingling Sichuan peppercorns. This time we added a couple of new dishes to our table - Chicken With Numerous Peppers and "The Special". The chicken dish was fantastic, having been sautéed with dried assorted peppers that were very light and crunchy and were, yes, exceedingly numerous. So numerous were the peppers that we immediately understood the local slang term for this dish - "sorting chicken", since you have to sort through all the peppers to find the chicken.
The last dish we had, "The Special", was in fact so special that I have just started a new paragraph. CUIDADO, PELIGRO, ACHTUNG, and BEWARE those with simple tastes and weak stomachs - the following dish may not improve your mood. The special was a large bowl of pepper broth similar to that of the more pedestrian and less disturbing Sichuan Beef, hot and shimmering with a floating sheen of essential pepper oil spicy enough to melt through a lesser bowl and continue on through the wooden table and possibly the granite floor like alien’s blood. Swimming in this broth was a jigsaw puzzle autopsy on the scale of Noah's Ark.
The most mundane of the ingredients was eel, which many people like and is generally considered to be pretty normal in the western world now that Japanese sushi has become so commonplace. Following the eel was something that is not that exotic, but that I had never seen before in China and that I generally only eat when camping - SPAM.
The next animal up for slaughter was the venerable cow, which donated not just its stomach, but also its throat. Yes, I said cow's throat. Cow's stomach, most often referred to by its less anatomically identifiable nickname “tripe” is actually very common in Mexican food and therefore in California and the southwestern US, but that doesn't mean I don't avoid it whenever possible. I know many of you will want to remind me that menudo, the spicy Mexican soup made with tripe, is the world's best hangover cure, but so is water and ibuprofen and that doesn't taste like the inside of a farm animal. This offal was just as chewy and grey as the Mexican varietal and is likewise made “only from the first three chambers of the cow’s stomach” (thank you, Wikipedia). Pass. OK, on to the cow throat, a new “cut” of meat for me and frankly not too bad. It was very smooth, soft, and creamy – very similar to silken tofu but more solid due to the fact that it was once living tissue. It had no flavor of its own, but soaked up a delicate hint of the peppery heat of the broth.
Apparently, the devilish chef that invented this dish felt that the prime cuts of bovine stomach and throat were not quite enough for this witches’ brew and browsed on through the farmyard until they stumbled upon the humble piggy. That little piggy went to market as a pork chop in a western restaurant, but this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way to Shenzhen. Since this bowl of fiery bowels wasn’t rich enough, the humble piggy contributed both his skin and his blood to the mix. Don’t worry, the blood is not fluid, because that would just be gross – instead the pig’s blood is properly congealed like it was meant to be consumed. The clotted pig’s blood tasted mostly like the hot broth but with a not surprising overtone of iron. You may think the pig skin is not that exotic, after all fried pig skin is actually a very common snack around the world. I am not a big fan of these pork rinds (chicharrones) mostly because of the fat content, but also because I don’t cherish the idea of eating an animal’s skin. Well gentle reader, rest assured, these chunks of pig skin were not the crispy snacks that you may be used to. These hunks were not fried. They were put in the soup close to the end of its cooking time, because they were pretty well raw. They were like little cross sections of pig from the external surface to about three quarters of an inch into the fat layer. The fat was a bit translucent and the skin was white. The worst part was that I could see the pores on the skin and the follicles where I could imagine hair having been. I did not eat the pig crust.
A few nights later we ate at a Korean BBQ restaurant. The cook the meat right at your table and it was delicious. Two cuts of meat on the menu that we didn’t order: Top Chuck Tail Flap and Grilled Whitebait. I imagine the first cut was “the last thing that crosses the fence” and the second cut sounds a little too close to home ;)
Tonight we ate at a Thai restaurant and ordered “Boiled Arumpet with Chili and Citronella”. Google doesn’t seem to know what arumpet is so I’ll fill you in – snails. We were attracted to them because of the picture that showed very colorful shells and a nice shiny glaze. What did they taste like? Low tide.
Bon appetite!
Next episode: Torturous traffic, back door shopping, squat toilets, and I at my most distinguished…
//ocie
Sichuan Beef:
Chicken with Numerous Peppers, AKA "Sorting Chicken"
"The Special": "The Special" - Clotted Pig Blood, Undercooked Pig Skin, Cow Stomach, Cow Throat, Eel, and SPAM
The Kingway of Beers:
lunch
don't let it crawl away
PHOTO ALBUM:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ocie.ward/101110BackToTheFutureChina?feat=directlink
My first night in Shenzhen ended the same way as every one of my first nights end here - gorging on deliciously spicy Sichuan cuisine. Roger, Lee, Jack and I went to our favorite Sichuan restaurant in the world (so far) and ordered the usual: Kung Pao Chicken, Sichuan Beef, Garlic Long Beans, Dan Dan Mein, and lots and lots of Tsing Tao beer. As always the beef was succulent and juicy - melting in your mouth while it melts your mouth. The Kung Pao chicken was spicy and a little sweet, crunchy from the peanuts, and delightfully numbing from the mouth-tingling Sichuan peppercorns. This time we added a couple of new dishes to our table - Chicken With Numerous Peppers and "The Special". The chicken dish was fantastic, having been sautéed with dried assorted peppers that were very light and crunchy and were, yes, exceedingly numerous. So numerous were the peppers that we immediately understood the local slang term for this dish - "sorting chicken", since you have to sort through all the peppers to find the chicken.
The last dish we had, "The Special", was in fact so special that I have just started a new paragraph. CUIDADO, PELIGRO, ACHTUNG, and BEWARE those with simple tastes and weak stomachs - the following dish may not improve your mood. The special was a large bowl of pepper broth similar to that of the more pedestrian and less disturbing Sichuan Beef, hot and shimmering with a floating sheen of essential pepper oil spicy enough to melt through a lesser bowl and continue on through the wooden table and possibly the granite floor like alien’s blood. Swimming in this broth was a jigsaw puzzle autopsy on the scale of Noah's Ark.
The most mundane of the ingredients was eel, which many people like and is generally considered to be pretty normal in the western world now that Japanese sushi has become so commonplace. Following the eel was something that is not that exotic, but that I had never seen before in China and that I generally only eat when camping - SPAM.
The next animal up for slaughter was the venerable cow, which donated not just its stomach, but also its throat. Yes, I said cow's throat. Cow's stomach, most often referred to by its less anatomically identifiable nickname “tripe” is actually very common in Mexican food and therefore in California and the southwestern US, but that doesn't mean I don't avoid it whenever possible. I know many of you will want to remind me that menudo, the spicy Mexican soup made with tripe, is the world's best hangover cure, but so is water and ibuprofen and that doesn't taste like the inside of a farm animal. This offal was just as chewy and grey as the Mexican varietal and is likewise made “only from the first three chambers of the cow’s stomach” (thank you, Wikipedia). Pass. OK, on to the cow throat, a new “cut” of meat for me and frankly not too bad. It was very smooth, soft, and creamy – very similar to silken tofu but more solid due to the fact that it was once living tissue. It had no flavor of its own, but soaked up a delicate hint of the peppery heat of the broth.
Apparently, the devilish chef that invented this dish felt that the prime cuts of bovine stomach and throat were not quite enough for this witches’ brew and browsed on through the farmyard until they stumbled upon the humble piggy. That little piggy went to market as a pork chop in a western restaurant, but this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way to Shenzhen. Since this bowl of fiery bowels wasn’t rich enough, the humble piggy contributed both his skin and his blood to the mix. Don’t worry, the blood is not fluid, because that would just be gross – instead the pig’s blood is properly congealed like it was meant to be consumed. The clotted pig’s blood tasted mostly like the hot broth but with a not surprising overtone of iron. You may think the pig skin is not that exotic, after all fried pig skin is actually a very common snack around the world. I am not a big fan of these pork rinds (chicharrones) mostly because of the fat content, but also because I don’t cherish the idea of eating an animal’s skin. Well gentle reader, rest assured, these chunks of pig skin were not the crispy snacks that you may be used to. These hunks were not fried. They were put in the soup close to the end of its cooking time, because they were pretty well raw. They were like little cross sections of pig from the external surface to about three quarters of an inch into the fat layer. The fat was a bit translucent and the skin was white. The worst part was that I could see the pores on the skin and the follicles where I could imagine hair having been. I did not eat the pig crust.
A few nights later we ate at a Korean BBQ restaurant. The cook the meat right at your table and it was delicious. Two cuts of meat on the menu that we didn’t order: Top Chuck Tail Flap and Grilled Whitebait. I imagine the first cut was “the last thing that crosses the fence” and the second cut sounds a little too close to home ;)
Tonight we ate at a Thai restaurant and ordered “Boiled Arumpet with Chili and Citronella”. Google doesn’t seem to know what arumpet is so I’ll fill you in – snails. We were attracted to them because of the picture that showed very colorful shells and a nice shiny glaze. What did they taste like? Low tide.
Bon appetite!
Next episode: Torturous traffic, back door shopping, squat toilets, and I at my most distinguished…
//ocie
Sichuan Beef:
 |
| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
Chicken with Numerous Peppers, AKA "Sorting Chicken"
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
"The Special": "The Special" - Clotted Pig Blood, Undercooked Pig Skin, Cow Stomach, Cow Throat, Eel, and SPAM
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
The Kingway of Beers:
 |
| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
lunch
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
don't let it crawl away
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
PHOTO ALBUM:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ocie.ward/101110BackToTheFutureChina?feat=directlink
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Back to the Future - China: Episode 01
Well, here I am back from whence I came, on the side of the left side of the pacific - the side that speaks funny and likes spicy food. I arrived in Shenzhen, China via Hong Kong last night. The flight was uneventful, which is just about the best thing you can say about a 15 hour flight. I flew Cathay Pacific again and I highly recommend it. The seats are as good as you will ever find in economy class, with sliding panels to accomplish reclining instead of the whole seat frame. That means that when Andre the Giant in front of you tries to get supine in his chair, you don't have to eat your dinner off of his forehead.
I watched four movies on the flight. Here are the reviews:
Dinner for Schmucks: Dude gets promotion but must become a douche to fit in. Alienates hot girlfriend with douchiness. Pays for douchiness through a comedy of errors caused by Steve Carrell's character. First half kinda blah. Second half really funny. The taxidermied mice were awesome. Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) were awesome. Definately worth seeing on DVD.
The Tournament: Every 7 years, the world's best assassins decend on a small town and have 24 hrs to try and kill all the other assassins to win lots of money and the title of world's best assassin. Orchestrated by super rich douchbags. All the action watched through the town's CCTV feed. Some great fight scenes (wire supported, Hong Kong Kung Fu style) and some interesting characters. Ving Rames as the baddest mofo in the world. Extra points awarded for writing in an amazing parkour assassin that is flying through the city. Worth watching if you are into stylized fighting and killing and don't have a better movie to watch.
Killers: Katherine Heigl is a slightly dopey but sweet girl that falls for Ashton Kutcher on a trip to Nice, France with her parents. Ashton, the black bear hunter, is a government assassin who get's out of the biz to be with the blonde. They move back to Suburban Anywhere, USA and live happily for 3 years until it turns out every single person they know are actually inbedded sleeper assassins and are activated to kill The Kutcher. Maybe it was the canned air in the plane that i'd been sucking down for the last twelve hours, but this movie was actually pretty funny. Get it in DVD and recreate my open mind by limiting your breathing area to the region no more than one half inch from your armpit.
The Twilight Saga - Eclipse: I saw the first film, just called Twilight. I thought it was overacted with undertalent, but it was still entertaining. I did not see the second one (Twilight Saga - New Moon), and so I essentially did not know any of the background that this third installment is based upon. The first ten minutes were a touch confusing, but guess what, I figured it all out. This movie is not Gorky Park or War and Peace. You want to know what this "film" is about? Bingo - "Will Bella choose Edward or Jacob?" Here's what I think: Bella is a stupid bitch and she is going to choose Edward, despite the fact that he is a giant douche. Jacob is a totally cool guy and hot enough to make my loins tingle a little, but she'll never choose him becasue this is a VAMPIRE movie and not a WEREWOLF movie. Sorry to ruin it for you, but by all means go see all the future craptastic movies in this series, becasue she is not going to choose Edward over Jacob until the last one minute in the last movie. When will the last movie be? When the drooling tween fans stop enjoying sappy overacted crappy crap like this. In other words, never.
Well, that's it for anything interesting to say about my trip over here. I gotta run to work now. Today is my birthday (36) and I believe this is the third year in a row that I have been in China for my birthday. Whatever. This year, Loni and I celebrated our birthdays at the same time around the time of her birthday (Oct 17), so i have had a very fully birthday experience this year :)
Next episode: Ahhhh, reunited with my Kung Pao Chicken, but who ordered this Cow's Throat?
//ocie
I watched four movies on the flight. Here are the reviews:
Dinner for Schmucks: Dude gets promotion but must become a douche to fit in. Alienates hot girlfriend with douchiness. Pays for douchiness through a comedy of errors caused by Steve Carrell's character. First half kinda blah. Second half really funny. The taxidermied mice were awesome. Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) were awesome. Definately worth seeing on DVD.
The Tournament: Every 7 years, the world's best assassins decend on a small town and have 24 hrs to try and kill all the other assassins to win lots of money and the title of world's best assassin. Orchestrated by super rich douchbags. All the action watched through the town's CCTV feed. Some great fight scenes (wire supported, Hong Kong Kung Fu style) and some interesting characters. Ving Rames as the baddest mofo in the world. Extra points awarded for writing in an amazing parkour assassin that is flying through the city. Worth watching if you are into stylized fighting and killing and don't have a better movie to watch.
Killers: Katherine Heigl is a slightly dopey but sweet girl that falls for Ashton Kutcher on a trip to Nice, France with her parents. Ashton, the black bear hunter, is a government assassin who get's out of the biz to be with the blonde. They move back to Suburban Anywhere, USA and live happily for 3 years until it turns out every single person they know are actually inbedded sleeper assassins and are activated to kill The Kutcher. Maybe it was the canned air in the plane that i'd been sucking down for the last twelve hours, but this movie was actually pretty funny. Get it in DVD and recreate my open mind by limiting your breathing area to the region no more than one half inch from your armpit.
The Twilight Saga - Eclipse: I saw the first film, just called Twilight. I thought it was overacted with undertalent, but it was still entertaining. I did not see the second one (Twilight Saga - New Moon), and so I essentially did not know any of the background that this third installment is based upon. The first ten minutes were a touch confusing, but guess what, I figured it all out. This movie is not Gorky Park or War and Peace. You want to know what this "film" is about? Bingo - "Will Bella choose Edward or Jacob?" Here's what I think: Bella is a stupid bitch and she is going to choose Edward, despite the fact that he is a giant douche. Jacob is a totally cool guy and hot enough to make my loins tingle a little, but she'll never choose him becasue this is a VAMPIRE movie and not a WEREWOLF movie. Sorry to ruin it for you, but by all means go see all the future craptastic movies in this series, becasue she is not going to choose Edward over Jacob until the last one minute in the last movie. When will the last movie be? When the drooling tween fans stop enjoying sappy overacted crappy crap like this. In other words, never.
Well, that's it for anything interesting to say about my trip over here. I gotta run to work now. Today is my birthday (36) and I believe this is the third year in a row that I have been in China for my birthday. Whatever. This year, Loni and I celebrated our birthdays at the same time around the time of her birthday (Oct 17), so i have had a very fully birthday experience this year :)
Next episode: Ahhhh, reunited with my Kung Pao Chicken, but who ordered this Cow's Throat?
//ocie
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
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| From 101110 Back to the Future - China |
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
THE DISORIENT EXPRESS: EPISODE 4, “MACAU TIPPING”
Macau was a very interesting country. The culture is a very unique mix of Asian and Portuguese. On the surface it looks similar to any other Asian metropolis like Hong Kong or Taipei, but as you walk around you notice that all the older buildings and foundations are clearly European looking. It was very strange to walk down an alley and feel like I was in Rome and then looking up and seeing all the clotheslines, rusty tin sunshades, and dripping moldy air conditioners hanging off balconies, reminding me I was in Asia. Standing in front of the ruins of St. Paul's and looking down the long steps into the cobblestone street below, it was unreal how much it looked like Piazza Di Spagna. The cherry on top of the disorientation was all of the neon Chinese signs clogging the street below. This is what Rome will look like in one hundred years.
Portuguese traders settled in this peninsula in the 16th century and slowly increased their presence until the Opium War of 1839, during which time they overtly occupied the southern islands of Taipa and Coloane. When a treaty was signed years later, the Chinese government agreed to allow Macau to be officially governed by Portugal under the conditions that but that the government could never be ceded to another nation and that the customs taxes on the illegal opium trade flowing through Macau and Hong Kong would find their way to the Chinese government. When Portugal had problems at home with the Carnation Revolution in 1974 they decided to divest their overseas holdings and the process of granting Macau back to China began. In December of 1999, the sovereignty of Macau was transferred back to the People’s Republic of China and the prosperity of the region has re-bloomed primarily due to the creation of a gambling mecca.
What happens in Macau stays in Macau, unless of course you empty your bank account, then the debt follows you home - just like Vegas. We went into the Royal Lisbon casino and it was unbelievably posh. The lobby looked like an Asian history museum with many, many beautiful artifacts under glass - impossibly intricate carvings made in impossibly massive ivory tusks, brilliantly glistening carvings of flowers made from 300 pound chunks of jade, lavishly gold plated statues of horses and heros, and a 12 foot long model of a 16th century Portuguese trading ship that was accurate enough to set sail in the South China Sea with a cargo hold full of opium. In front of all these antiquities was a statue of Dr. Stanley Ho, the wealthiest person in Macau and a major benefactor of modern Macau. He is one of the most prominent figures in the Macau gambling industry. I found it extremely ironic that one of his biggest donations to the people of Macau was a bronze sculpture of a horse's head (if you haven't seen "The Godfather" please do not ask me why the horse head was ironic).
We weren't in the mood to spend big bucks to eat with a bunch of high rollers, so we blew back out into the hot wet night and hit the street to find some Portuguese cuisine. It turns out that we were not in a good area for restaurants that were not Cantonese (which we had already had far too much of – no more snout please), so we resigned ourselves to jumping back into another casino and found a Japanese restaurant that looked quite good. I have always considered ordering sushi in China to be the gastrointestinal equivalent of Russian roulette, so it was with some hesitation that I ordered a couple pieces of nigiri to go with my hand-made udon noodle soup. The joint looked very upscale, so I decided to spin the cylinder and take my chances. The sushi turned out to be fresh and fantastic and the smooth and tender noodles in my soup may damage my ability to enjoy machine-made udon in the future. We also ordered shabu shabu, which is essentially Japanese fondue (broth not cheese) with Kobe beef. The best part is the platter of condiments that they bring you to dip your meat in. There is usually a creamy Ginger sauce, to which you add sliced chilies, chopped garlic, and soy sauce. I don't think your brain can comprehend the unbelievable bud-busting tastesplosion created by this magical mixture. If you enjoy a creamy horseradish sauce on your beef, you better book your flight to Japan right now. Ok, so that description is of the authentic shabu shabu found inside Japan, and this meal was sort of what happens to it when it is outsourced to China - it was still good, but it didn't quite met the specs of the designers. The garlic was sliced instead of chopped, the Ginger sauce was a little watered down, and most importantly the beef was not Kobe. It was still delicious, but my socks did stay on.
We were not sad about not finding a native Portuguese restaurant, however, because we had in fact had lunch earlier in the day at Fernando's, down on the southern tip of Taipa Island. Fernando's is the most famous Portuguese restaurant in Macau and has fed many celebrities and heads of state. It was totally down home and not ritzy or shiny in any way. We showed up before they opened at noon, so we grabbed some beers at the open front shop next door and drank them on the beach across the street. When they opened up we were glad to have gotten there early because the entire restaurant filled up in minutes. The atmosphere was laid-back and very casual and the food was awesome. Spicy African chicken that was as moist as it was freaking delicious, super tender pepper sauce beef, spicy prawns the size of my palm, and amazing fresh bread they make in their own bakery. We washed it all down with a couple bottles of Vino Verde – a light Portuguese white wine, chilled just right. By the way, if you go there, you are going to need a cold drink because there is no air conditioning in the place and it got pretty hot and sticky in there.
That is about it for my report on Macau – it was fun, the food was great, the architecture is unexpected, and the culture is singular among Asian countries. I thumb it up.
Macau General Post Office:
The "piazza" below St. Paul's. The Royal Lisbon Casino in the distance:
Macau's unique version of Street Meat:
This could be any asian metropolis, but this one is Macau:
Spicy prawns @ Fernando's:
European architecture with Asian residents:
This is modern Macau. We did not spend much time in this world:
This waiter taught us to use the abacus:
Portuguese traders settled in this peninsula in the 16th century and slowly increased their presence until the Opium War of 1839, during which time they overtly occupied the southern islands of Taipa and Coloane. When a treaty was signed years later, the Chinese government agreed to allow Macau to be officially governed by Portugal under the conditions that but that the government could never be ceded to another nation and that the customs taxes on the illegal opium trade flowing through Macau and Hong Kong would find their way to the Chinese government. When Portugal had problems at home with the Carnation Revolution in 1974 they decided to divest their overseas holdings and the process of granting Macau back to China began. In December of 1999, the sovereignty of Macau was transferred back to the People’s Republic of China and the prosperity of the region has re-bloomed primarily due to the creation of a gambling mecca.
What happens in Macau stays in Macau, unless of course you empty your bank account, then the debt follows you home - just like Vegas. We went into the Royal Lisbon casino and it was unbelievably posh. The lobby looked like an Asian history museum with many, many beautiful artifacts under glass - impossibly intricate carvings made in impossibly massive ivory tusks, brilliantly glistening carvings of flowers made from 300 pound chunks of jade, lavishly gold plated statues of horses and heros, and a 12 foot long model of a 16th century Portuguese trading ship that was accurate enough to set sail in the South China Sea with a cargo hold full of opium. In front of all these antiquities was a statue of Dr. Stanley Ho, the wealthiest person in Macau and a major benefactor of modern Macau. He is one of the most prominent figures in the Macau gambling industry. I found it extremely ironic that one of his biggest donations to the people of Macau was a bronze sculpture of a horse's head (if you haven't seen "The Godfather" please do not ask me why the horse head was ironic).
We weren't in the mood to spend big bucks to eat with a bunch of high rollers, so we blew back out into the hot wet night and hit the street to find some Portuguese cuisine. It turns out that we were not in a good area for restaurants that were not Cantonese (which we had already had far too much of – no more snout please), so we resigned ourselves to jumping back into another casino and found a Japanese restaurant that looked quite good. I have always considered ordering sushi in China to be the gastrointestinal equivalent of Russian roulette, so it was with some hesitation that I ordered a couple pieces of nigiri to go with my hand-made udon noodle soup. The joint looked very upscale, so I decided to spin the cylinder and take my chances. The sushi turned out to be fresh and fantastic and the smooth and tender noodles in my soup may damage my ability to enjoy machine-made udon in the future. We also ordered shabu shabu, which is essentially Japanese fondue (broth not cheese) with Kobe beef. The best part is the platter of condiments that they bring you to dip your meat in. There is usually a creamy Ginger sauce, to which you add sliced chilies, chopped garlic, and soy sauce. I don't think your brain can comprehend the unbelievable bud-busting tastesplosion created by this magical mixture. If you enjoy a creamy horseradish sauce on your beef, you better book your flight to Japan right now. Ok, so that description is of the authentic shabu shabu found inside Japan, and this meal was sort of what happens to it when it is outsourced to China - it was still good, but it didn't quite met the specs of the designers. The garlic was sliced instead of chopped, the Ginger sauce was a little watered down, and most importantly the beef was not Kobe. It was still delicious, but my socks did stay on.
We were not sad about not finding a native Portuguese restaurant, however, because we had in fact had lunch earlier in the day at Fernando's, down on the southern tip of Taipa Island. Fernando's is the most famous Portuguese restaurant in Macau and has fed many celebrities and heads of state. It was totally down home and not ritzy or shiny in any way. We showed up before they opened at noon, so we grabbed some beers at the open front shop next door and drank them on the beach across the street. When they opened up we were glad to have gotten there early because the entire restaurant filled up in minutes. The atmosphere was laid-back and very casual and the food was awesome. Spicy African chicken that was as moist as it was freaking delicious, super tender pepper sauce beef, spicy prawns the size of my palm, and amazing fresh bread they make in their own bakery. We washed it all down with a couple bottles of Vino Verde – a light Portuguese white wine, chilled just right. By the way, if you go there, you are going to need a cold drink because there is no air conditioning in the place and it got pretty hot and sticky in there.
That is about it for my report on Macau – it was fun, the food was great, the architecture is unexpected, and the culture is singular among Asian countries. I thumb it up.
Macau General Post Office:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
The "piazza" below St. Paul's. The Royal Lisbon Casino in the distance:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Macau's unique version of Street Meat:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
This could be any asian metropolis, but this one is Macau:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Spicy prawns @ Fernando's:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
European architecture with Asian residents:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
This is modern Macau. We did not spend much time in this world:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
This waiter taught us to use the abacus:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Sunday, August 29, 2010
THE DISORIENT EXPRESS: EPISODE 3, “SIMON SEZ”
On my second full day in Shenzhen, I went to visit with our design house and factory. This is the main purpose of my trip and I will be there almost every day until I leave next Thursday. Actually, at the time of writing this I have already been there for the last 4 days. For reasons of confidentiality (as well as mind numbing boredom on behalf of any non-technical readers), there isn’t a lot to talk about regarding my daily work there - so I will leave it at "things are going pretty well".
This morning we visited a battery manufacturing factory that we are considering qualifying for our products. The factory campus was large but old and quite grungy looking. Inside on the factory floor though was actually quite modern and it looked like they had good quality control practices. We are very critical of battery quality issues, so there will be many long discussions and multiple audits before we decide whether or not to use this factory.
On a cultural note, yesterday was the 30 anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Just three decades ago, Shenzhen was a rural fishing village with a population of 30,000 (a tiny village by Chinese standards ;) Now Shenzhen is one of the world’s most prosperous technology manufacturing centers and has a population of 14 million. That represents a greater than 46,000% increase in population! In comparison, in the last 30 years, Petaluma has grown from 30,000 to 60,000 people. Then again, Petaluma is not having outbreaks of melamine-tainted milk or 60 mile long traffic jams that last for 10 days*. I think I will stick with Petaluma ;)
The Shenzhen SEZ was China's experiment to test out a market economy without "polluting" infecting the rest of the country. Shenzhen sits right at the border with Hong Kong, so it is perfectly placed to both trade with the outside world and insulate the rest of China from the cancer of capitalism. Needless to say this cancer has been extremely virulent and has metastasized into many other regions of China, much to the benefit of the Chinese government. The experiment and success of Shenzhen has been an integral part of China becoming the world's second largest economy (I wonder if they are number one if you include our debt to them).
This trip has been a busy one, so we only have one day off in the two weeks or traveling. We need to visit a vendor on Zhuhai on Monday morning, so we decided to spend our day off in Macau. It takes four hours to drive from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, so we took the ferry to Macau on Saturday evening and will cross the border on the other side over to Zhuhai on Monday morning. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, with casinos larger and grander than Vegas itself. I am expecting gaudiness on a level that thine eyes have never seen. I am not planning on spending any time in the casinos, since I have more sense than money.
I am now in Macau for my day off and it is very cool over here. It has a really interesting blend of the Asian and Portuguese cultures. I’ll report my findings in the next episode…
*Have you heard about this 60 mile long traffic jam? Freaking unbelievable. Cars and trucks were stuck for 10 days on the highway between Beijing and Inner Mongolia. The traffic has been increasing on this road because of new mining in the region and has apparently reached the saturation point. They started some new construction along the highway and it set off this 100km long traffic jam with cars moving a half mile per DAY. Locals rode their bikes up and down the roadway selling ramen noodles and water for inflated prices. After 10 days, the traffic broke up but nobody is sure why.
**New update – the monster jam is BACK! Just four days after the 10 day clog dispersed, it is on again with an estimated 2000 cars locked back up again in the same location. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how long this one lasts…
gotta love that cantonese food:
150,000 lithium ion batteries being cycle tested:
nobody does rural in the middle of a metropolis better than the chinese:
this night hedge would have looked a lot better with my real camera:
"uh, could i get mine with a little less squid juice?":
100km traffic jam, credit AP Photo:
another view of the jam on day 10, AP Photo:
This morning we visited a battery manufacturing factory that we are considering qualifying for our products. The factory campus was large but old and quite grungy looking. Inside on the factory floor though was actually quite modern and it looked like they had good quality control practices. We are very critical of battery quality issues, so there will be many long discussions and multiple audits before we decide whether or not to use this factory.
On a cultural note, yesterday was the 30 anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Just three decades ago, Shenzhen was a rural fishing village with a population of 30,000 (a tiny village by Chinese standards ;) Now Shenzhen is one of the world’s most prosperous technology manufacturing centers and has a population of 14 million. That represents a greater than 46,000% increase in population! In comparison, in the last 30 years, Petaluma has grown from 30,000 to 60,000 people. Then again, Petaluma is not having outbreaks of melamine-tainted milk or 60 mile long traffic jams that last for 10 days*. I think I will stick with Petaluma ;)
The Shenzhen SEZ was China's experiment to test out a market economy without "polluting" infecting the rest of the country. Shenzhen sits right at the border with Hong Kong, so it is perfectly placed to both trade with the outside world and insulate the rest of China from the cancer of capitalism. Needless to say this cancer has been extremely virulent and has metastasized into many other regions of China, much to the benefit of the Chinese government. The experiment and success of Shenzhen has been an integral part of China becoming the world's second largest economy (I wonder if they are number one if you include our debt to them).
This trip has been a busy one, so we only have one day off in the two weeks or traveling. We need to visit a vendor on Zhuhai on Monday morning, so we decided to spend our day off in Macau. It takes four hours to drive from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, so we took the ferry to Macau on Saturday evening and will cross the border on the other side over to Zhuhai on Monday morning. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, with casinos larger and grander than Vegas itself. I am expecting gaudiness on a level that thine eyes have never seen. I am not planning on spending any time in the casinos, since I have more sense than money.
I am now in Macau for my day off and it is very cool over here. It has a really interesting blend of the Asian and Portuguese cultures. I’ll report my findings in the next episode…
*Have you heard about this 60 mile long traffic jam? Freaking unbelievable. Cars and trucks were stuck for 10 days on the highway between Beijing and Inner Mongolia. The traffic has been increasing on this road because of new mining in the region and has apparently reached the saturation point. They started some new construction along the highway and it set off this 100km long traffic jam with cars moving a half mile per DAY. Locals rode their bikes up and down the roadway selling ramen noodles and water for inflated prices. After 10 days, the traffic broke up but nobody is sure why.
**New update – the monster jam is BACK! Just four days after the 10 day clog dispersed, it is on again with an estimated 2000 cars locked back up again in the same location. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how long this one lasts…
gotta love that cantonese food:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
150,000 lithium ion batteries being cycle tested:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
nobody does rural in the middle of a metropolis better than the chinese:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
this night hedge would have looked a lot better with my real camera:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
"uh, could i get mine with a little less squid juice?":
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
100km traffic jam, credit AP Photo:
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
another view of the jam on day 10, AP Photo:
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| From 100823 China Trippin |
Thursday, August 26, 2010
THE DISORIENT EXPRESS: EPISODE 2, “SICHUAN AND SHEETMETAL”
When I landed in Hong Kong I went through customs, got my suitcase, and met Roger and Elise out in the transfer lobby (they had landed about an hour before me). We decided to hire a car to take us to our hotel across the border in Shenzhen, China rather than taking the ferry or train. The cost was about the same and it is convenient not to have to catch a taxi at the train or ferry terminus. This sounded great in theory, but in practice the immigration station we had to go through on the car route was significantly older, fetid, and clogged with humanity. There was one guy (white of course) in front of us in line that could not have weighed less than 400 pounds. I felt sorry for the guy, as he looked about as uncomfortable in the heat as an Eskimo in a sweat lodge. Of course, even though I empathized with him, I also thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t had to sit next to (and undoubtedly partially under) him on the airplane. My cologne soaked journey was looking better in retrospect.
We finally got to the hotel and I sloughed off my dank clothes like a wet snakeskin and poured myself into the most amazing shower of my life. Words cannot capture the rapture of the soul-cleansing I received from the warm enveloping embrace of the shower. It was a full-on double rainbow across my face. So intense. Hmm, “capture the rapture” sounds like a great caption for a motivational poster involving kittens and unicorns. After my bathtism I fell into my single bed (except for my feet sticking out the bottom) and slept like a logarithm.
I had to get up a scant 6 hours later and have a breakfast meeting with the team (there are five of us over here right now). After breakfast we visited a sheet metal factory that is about to start making the cases for one of our receivers so we could see their facility and audit their processes. The last vendor we were using had some bad workflow practices because the yield on the parts was very low. Our assembly factory was rejecting more than half of the incoming parts because they didn’t meet our cosmetic standards. We never put out any of our products with any problems, but it was slowing our production because the vendor had to keep re-making parts. Now we are switching vendors and hoping to get a much higher percentage of good parts (hopefully 100%). The new vendor was very impressive and had a very large and well organized factory. Their design department was very large and the business office was very nice. I have no qualms about working with them. Good start to the trip.
After lunch with our colleagues from our Sister Company’s (Oticon) Shenzhen Office we headed to a meeting on the other side of town with our assembly factory. Nothing terribly interesting to talk about here, so I’ll fast forward to dinner at my favorite Sichuan Restaurant in Shenzhen: I don’t know the name, but it is just south of Coco Park mall, which is blissfully walking distance from our hotel. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I like staying at this hotel ;) Sichuan beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Spicy long beans, oh my. This is one of the restaurants that makes my taste buds sad when I go home…
Shenzhen Sunset
Typical Shenzhen Towerblocks
Marco Polo Hotel
My favorite Sichuan Beef (you can tell how spicy it is just by the photo)
Cantonese Shrimp
We finally got to the hotel and I sloughed off my dank clothes like a wet snakeskin and poured myself into the most amazing shower of my life. Words cannot capture the rapture of the soul-cleansing I received from the warm enveloping embrace of the shower. It was a full-on double rainbow across my face. So intense. Hmm, “capture the rapture” sounds like a great caption for a motivational poster involving kittens and unicorns. After my bathtism I fell into my single bed (except for my feet sticking out the bottom) and slept like a logarithm.
I had to get up a scant 6 hours later and have a breakfast meeting with the team (there are five of us over here right now). After breakfast we visited a sheet metal factory that is about to start making the cases for one of our receivers so we could see their facility and audit their processes. The last vendor we were using had some bad workflow practices because the yield on the parts was very low. Our assembly factory was rejecting more than half of the incoming parts because they didn’t meet our cosmetic standards. We never put out any of our products with any problems, but it was slowing our production because the vendor had to keep re-making parts. Now we are switching vendors and hoping to get a much higher percentage of good parts (hopefully 100%). The new vendor was very impressive and had a very large and well organized factory. Their design department was very large and the business office was very nice. I have no qualms about working with them. Good start to the trip.
After lunch with our colleagues from our Sister Company’s (Oticon) Shenzhen Office we headed to a meeting on the other side of town with our assembly factory. Nothing terribly interesting to talk about here, so I’ll fast forward to dinner at my favorite Sichuan Restaurant in Shenzhen: I don’t know the name, but it is just south of Coco Park mall, which is blissfully walking distance from our hotel. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I like staying at this hotel ;) Sichuan beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Spicy long beans, oh my. This is one of the restaurants that makes my taste buds sad when I go home…
Shenzhen Sunset
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| From 100823 China Trippin |
Typical Shenzhen Towerblocks
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Marco Polo Hotel
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
My favorite Sichuan Beef (you can tell how spicy it is just by the photo)
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Cantonese Shrimp
 |
| From 100823 China Trippin |
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Disorient Express: Episode 1, “Eastbound and Down”
Well friends, the time has come once again for me to climb on board the winged chariot and soar across the deep blue sea. I am currently flying due east at 553mph at 30,000ft with a headwind of 32mph and an outside air temperature of -35degrees F with 6,265 miles to go. Loni and Dudley dropped me off at San Francisco International Airport and it was very hard to say goodbye. This is my first trip to Asia since the three of us have started our lives together and I already deeply miss Loni’s sweet smile and Dudley's floppy ears. It is a strange feeling to be on the other side of the world from your friends and family. There is a real feeling of isolation and the distance is truly tangible. Luckily we live in a world of wired and wireless communication, where the long fingers of Skype, Google Talk, and Facebook reach out and “coochie coo” our chins from infinite distances. Of course if this global network didn't exist, I wouldn't be off to the Orient for a design review in Shenzhen, China in the first place. That is the dark side of the ability to globalize - the inability to avoid it.
But I digress - this is my first installment of this travelogue and I'm not going to get too deep. Back to my story - when I bent to take off my shoes in the security line at SFO I noticed that I forgot to change into my black work shoes and was still wearing my Crocs house-shoes. Crap. I guess I'll be buying some black “Roqueports” at the night market (the silent Q helps in the black market).
When I got to my seat back in steerage (61A) I was horrified to find my seat buddy had apparently christened himself before this voyage by breaking a bottle of Cologne across his bow. You may not know this about me, but I am quite sensitive to perfume, cologne, and new car smell. They irritate my nose similar to pollen and if they are strong it starts to churn my stomach a bit. So there I was, eyes starting to water and nostrils starting to burn, my brain starting to froth about the prospect of steeping in this Drakkar Noir gas chamber for fourteen and a half hours. I mean I might as well be snuzzling my face into this guy's neck for all of the olfactory raping I was getting. Fortunately, I vowed not to judge him based soley upon his stench and we struck up a conversation. Low and behold, he was possibly the most interesting person I HAVE EVER MET ON AN AIRPLANE. His name was Obii (can you believe it, “OC and “OB” sitting right next to each other) and he is from Nigeria. He was a professional soccer player who has competed in the World Cup and has lived in India, Switzerland, and Hong Kong while playing on their teams. Now he is a soccer agent and represents professional players all over the world. All of that would have been interesting enough, but then we got talking about gay marriage, rebuilding the economy, terrorism, the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, The Six Days War and Anwar Sadat, The Vietnam War, and Democrats vs. Republicans. Obii had some of the most creative and forward looking political ideas that I have ever heard. Needless to say, I decided to disregard his nasal bombardment – shoot, maybe I should start drenching myself in the stink if it is going to sharpen my mind like that…
After talking with Obii for two hours, I “feasted” on “chicken”, had a glass or two of red “wine” and settled to find out if Tim Burton’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was as bad as Loni said it was. It was.
Sorry no pictures in this episode, but some in the next, I promise.
Before I sign off for the night, let me pose a question: Can anyone explain the logic behind the way that airplane bathroom sinks are designed? The drain is stoppered by default and they only drain the water in the basin when you push on a lever. Why on earth would this be the case? I have wondered about this one for years…
But I digress - this is my first installment of this travelogue and I'm not going to get too deep. Back to my story - when I bent to take off my shoes in the security line at SFO I noticed that I forgot to change into my black work shoes and was still wearing my Crocs house-shoes. Crap. I guess I'll be buying some black “Roqueports” at the night market (the silent Q helps in the black market).
When I got to my seat back in steerage (61A) I was horrified to find my seat buddy had apparently christened himself before this voyage by breaking a bottle of Cologne across his bow. You may not know this about me, but I am quite sensitive to perfume, cologne, and new car smell. They irritate my nose similar to pollen and if they are strong it starts to churn my stomach a bit. So there I was, eyes starting to water and nostrils starting to burn, my brain starting to froth about the prospect of steeping in this Drakkar Noir gas chamber for fourteen and a half hours. I mean I might as well be snuzzling my face into this guy's neck for all of the olfactory raping I was getting. Fortunately, I vowed not to judge him based soley upon his stench and we struck up a conversation. Low and behold, he was possibly the most interesting person I HAVE EVER MET ON AN AIRPLANE. His name was Obii (can you believe it, “OC and “OB” sitting right next to each other) and he is from Nigeria. He was a professional soccer player who has competed in the World Cup and has lived in India, Switzerland, and Hong Kong while playing on their teams. Now he is a soccer agent and represents professional players all over the world. All of that would have been interesting enough, but then we got talking about gay marriage, rebuilding the economy, terrorism, the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, The Six Days War and Anwar Sadat, The Vietnam War, and Democrats vs. Republicans. Obii had some of the most creative and forward looking political ideas that I have ever heard. Needless to say, I decided to disregard his nasal bombardment – shoot, maybe I should start drenching myself in the stink if it is going to sharpen my mind like that…
After talking with Obii for two hours, I “feasted” on “chicken”, had a glass or two of red “wine” and settled to find out if Tim Burton’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was as bad as Loni said it was. It was.
Sorry no pictures in this episode, but some in the next, I promise.
Before I sign off for the night, let me pose a question: Can anyone explain the logic behind the way that airplane bathroom sinks are designed? The drain is stoppered by default and they only drain the water in the basin when you push on a lever. Why on earth would this be the case? I have wondered about this one for years…
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunrise Paddle
Loni and I went for a nice sunrise paddle down the Petaluma River for Memorial Day.
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
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| From 100531 morning kayaks |
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tales from the Flipside - Part 4 – Sawas Di Kraup, Bangkok
We got in pretty late Friday night, so we got off to a late start on Saturday. Bangkok is an enormous megapolis of 12 million people, and yet it is surprisingly easy to get around via the excellent BTS Skytrain. Built just ten years ago, it is elevated two or three stories above street level. The trains are fast, clean, frequent, and cheap. Every morning we bought an all-day-pass for 120 baht (less than $4). We chose our hotel partially based on its proximity to one of the Skytrain stations, so we only ended up needing a cab once (and it was horribly, horribly slow through the traffic). In addition to being convenient, the train doubles down on its awesomeness by affording a great view of the city from its lofty rail. In fact, it is said that when the train was finished, lifetime residents of the city reported that they "hadn't realized their city was so beautiful". Of course, beauty is relative - I happen prefer rolling hills and native trees to concrete tower blocks and urban sprawl, but as far as dense metropoli go, Bangkok is a good'n. Many of the Jengaesque tower blocks have lush garden patios on the roof, although most of them have odd metal cages around them as if interlopers must be prevented from scaling the tower and stealing a fern.
OK, back on track - Roger and I took the Skytrain to the north end of town and dove into the Chatuchak Weekend market. I always partake of the street markets that flourish in every asian urban center. An evolution of the ancient barter towns along the trade routes, the present day street markets are some of the best places to experience local culture. Sure, you can get a great deal on cut-rate fake Gucci bags, but you can also get local handicrafts and authentic foods. The Chatuchak Market is by far the largest street market that I have visited in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The shops cover 35 acres and claim more than 200,000 visitors every day. We wandered for hours through its tight and winding warrens that were filled to overflowing with vendors selling everything from hunting knives to thai silk scarves to US military surplus to litters of beagles. There were vendors hawking fruit popsicles that they were making on-the-fly in refrigerated carts and butchers selling street meat of such varied fauna it would make Noah's Arc look boring. Hot and damp, we pushed our way past bins of pigs for pets and chickens for dinner. We did not dwell near the porcine or avian conglomerations so as to avoid any possibility of becoming known as "patient zero" of the next global pandemic. When we finally emerged from the labyrinth my curiosity was sated and i gulped in the fresh air like a catfish in heat.
Chatuchak Market
on-demand popsicles
thai coffee mixer
street meat
street feet
OK, back on track - Roger and I took the Skytrain to the north end of town and dove into the Chatuchak Weekend market. I always partake of the street markets that flourish in every asian urban center. An evolution of the ancient barter towns along the trade routes, the present day street markets are some of the best places to experience local culture. Sure, you can get a great deal on cut-rate fake Gucci bags, but you can also get local handicrafts and authentic foods. The Chatuchak Market is by far the largest street market that I have visited in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The shops cover 35 acres and claim more than 200,000 visitors every day. We wandered for hours through its tight and winding warrens that were filled to overflowing with vendors selling everything from hunting knives to thai silk scarves to US military surplus to litters of beagles. There were vendors hawking fruit popsicles that they were making on-the-fly in refrigerated carts and butchers selling street meat of such varied fauna it would make Noah's Arc look boring. Hot and damp, we pushed our way past bins of pigs for pets and chickens for dinner. We did not dwell near the porcine or avian conglomerations so as to avoid any possibility of becoming known as "patient zero" of the next global pandemic. When we finally emerged from the labyrinth my curiosity was sated and i gulped in the fresh air like a catfish in heat.
Chatuchak Market
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| From Tales from the Flipside 2009 |
on-demand popsicles
 |
| From Tales from the Flipside 2009 |
thai coffee mixer
 |
| From Tales from the Flipside 2009 |
street meat
 |
| From Tales from the Flipside 2009 |
street feet
 |
| From Tales from the Flipside 2009 |
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