If you seek shelter...

Return of the lobster roll

Maine_0002-edit

Of course we had to order some lobster roll the moment we arrived in Maine.  In comparison to our previous lobster roll in Rhode Island, the Maine style is apparently to keep the preparation of the meat fairly minimal.  In the case of Red's Eats, whence these behemoths were birthed, there is absolutely none - just some clarified butter or mayo on the side to go with huge and heavy chunks of unadulterated lobster meat.

 

Tiny creatures

Yay, we're back from a little vacation in Maine, land of lobster and lighthouses.  While we enjoyed relaxing at the slower pace up north, there were plenty of little tidbits to keep us on our toes.

1maine_0177
We must have spent nearly a minute trying to figure out if this mushroom was some woodland creature that decided to crawl up into a little ball, ashamed that it did not make the varsity team.  In the end, we decided not to disturb it and took the other path.

It was easy to encounter many more of the little one's colleagues in Acadia National Park, where they really seemed to flourish.
(download)
Sadly, these two lovebirds did not survive, and therefore get the monochromatic treatment.
6maine_0403

 

The simpler things in life

As summer fades away, I am reminded of our time in Provence, a profoundly magical place where the morning air is sweet with the scent of burning firewood and the only weeds you will see in the fields are thyme, rosemary and lavender.

It was great to drive around and explore, but some of the most memorable moments were at (or close to) home.

(download)

Korea's wine meme

One thing you hear often is how the growth of the consumer class in Asia is fueling the asset bubble in wine that took off after the much-touted 2005 vintage.

This is evident in Korea, where the idea of drinking wine is a relatively new concept for many.  Its novelty appeal, combined with inflated perceptions of social status, have created a "mania" of sorts.

Whether this has anything to do with the trend we saw in Seoul, who knows, but outside most bars or restaurants you will often find lines upon lines of empty wine bottles.  Now, I admit that, while I do have sentimental tendencies and will save a bottle that holds a particular memory every now and then, this is different.

I don't think they are showing off, because their bottle selection seems pretty haphazard across the board.  It seems more like some quasi design-related thing that somehow caught on.  It would be interesting to see how this trend plays out over the years.

(download)

Lobster rolling in Jamestown

(download)

Despite having spent four years living in Rhode Island, I have not gotten around to exploring it much.  So when our friends decided to have their wedding in Little Compton, we took the opportunity to spend a weekend in the Ocean State.

Here are some photos from Jamestown, a sleepy seaside alternative to the hustle of Newport.  At the recommendation of a friend, we stopped by The Village Hearth Bakery & Cafe for some delicious pastries and lobster roll.  Now, I don't claim to be an expert in lobster roll construction, but they did this one right with a butter brioche bun and nice chunky pieces of lobster.

I'm hungry.

(download)

Gas Whal Myung Su

Korea_2010_4688

I grew up in America, but my family is Korean.  Which means they had secret techniques for dealing with common issues not known to most stateside.

As an adolescent, whenever I had indigestion from eating too quickly (which happened often), my mother would squeeze my wrist and poke my thumb with a needle.  Dark blood would ooze out and within minutes the stomachache would go elsewhere.  This actually worked.  I don't know how or why it does, but every Korean kid knows this from their childhood.

For those more averse to needles and blood, there is Gas Whal Myung Su.  It is a carbonated beverage only sold in pharmacies in Korea, and is useful for treating many discomforts of the tummy.  Here, you can probably find it in most Korean supermarkets.

Menthol notes dominate the nose, with peppermint and winter fresh toothpaste immediately coming to mind.  It has a very fresh aroma with an herbal backbone.  A creamy texture overwhelms the palate, leaving a refreshing mouth-feel behind.  The cooling sensation continues down the esophagus and there is an immediate sense of comfort in the stomach.  Gas Whal Myung Su should be stored and served at room temperature.

Whoever thought no one would ever write up a tasting for a Korean medicine... just got served (a tasting note!).

Seoul food

One thing that sets many Asian cities apart from New York is their highly evolved street food culture.

Sure, Calexico and some of the Halal carts are great, but you would be hard pressed to find a block with a consecutive string of food stands to choose from, each specializing in a different dish.  It was hard to walk around Seoul without passing by a food cart (or several).  They run at all hours and are very reasonably priced - you can eat a satisfying meal for under $3.

Some tasty dishes you might find: ddukbokki (spicy rice cake), kimbap (rolls, like futomaki), soondae (Korean black sausage), teegim (breaded fried things, like tempura), hoddeok (honey-filled Korean pancake), boonguh bbang (hot-pressed red-bean pastries shaped like fish)

Here are some photos of carts that we came across in Sinchon (pronounced sheen-chon).  Taken "from the hip," so to speak.

(download)

Gigondas & Tour de l'Isle 2007

Last fall we went to Provence for our honeymoon.  It charmed our socks off.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting a tiny wine shop and bar, Caveau de la Tour de l'Isle, in the picturesque L'Isle sur la Sorgue.  The proprietor of the shop, Stéphane Fina, is an excellent sommelier and cheesemonger.  Wines by the glass are appropriately priced with no mark-up; a glass will typically run about one-fifth the price of a bottle.  The city itself is gorgeous, with several canals that allow the River Sorgue to pass through it.

We enjoyed many glasses of André Chemin Champagne, a producer that he represents.  Another producer represented by Stephané is Tour de l'Isle, and we were fortunate enough to walk away with a bottle of their 2007 Gigondas, which we uncorked recently.
(download)

The aroma was quite pronounced, with clove, blackcurrant, red & black cherry and brambly fruit bursting through, balanced by an earthiness and touch of oak that rounded everything out.  On the palate, the texture was silky smooth with a nice glycerine level and full mouthfeel.  The finish was slightly spicy and had a very good long length.  Alcohol level was quite high, but in balance with the fruit and tannins to make it not noticeable.  I left half the bottle in the fridge overnight to see how it might age in a couple years, and it was equally enjoyable yet different.  This time around the palate was much darker and spicier, with tons of chocolate, damson fruit, a lot more tannin and baking spices on the nose.

The Châteauneuf-du-Pape region is the star of the Southern Rhône Valley, but I must say our visit there did not prove as enjoyable as we had expected.  It has much more of a tourist draw than the other regions, and the attitudes of the people there reflect it.  Understandably so.  We walked into a cellar for a tasting and had to leave in the middle because the customers next to us were so pompous and obnoxious I wanted to spit out more than just the wine into the bucket.

Luckily, Gigondas is just thirty minutes away and exceedingly more attractive in appearance and personality.  Here are some images from our visit.

(download)

A currant affair

Currants are a common aroma/flavor descriptor in wine tasting notes, the classic example being black currant and Cabernet Sauvignon.  However, they are not easy to come by, at least in my experience.  Which made it all the more exciting when my wife brought home a pack of white currants from Assi Plaza.

Whitecurrants_8

The juicy little morsels looked delectable and somehow reminded me of the mistletoe tree berries that grew in our front yard growing up.  Little did I know that I would be ambushed by an instantly sharp acidic bite, invoking a serious pucker.  The tangy juice content was not so much refreshing as plain painful.  The texture of the seeds was interesting in that they were soft enough to chew, but left an incredibly tannic residue, leaving my innocent tongue abused and battered.  This is not to say I did not enjoy them, but I do believe they would work better cooked, as an accent to a dish or in some form of baked good.

The flavor profile is easily comparable to Aligoté, the less noble white wine variety found in Burgundy, France.  In my opinion an excellent wine with great values to be found.  I would pair this with white fish and anything that comes with a lemon to squeeze onto.  Aligoté could work wonders with Mexican food on a hot summer day.  Yum.

A map of tones

I've always had mixed feelings about tone mapped HDRs.

It goes back to an internal battle I have when I think film versus digital, one of those conflicts being about dynamic range.  Film certainly wins out in this realm, and in an elegant way - the same way it exposes overblown highlights.  Elegantly.  Digital on the other hand has many other advantages, but when you hit that highlight ceiling you hit it hard.  Thus, the choice to use HDR and tone mapping.

I'm not bringing up anything new here.  It's just that sure, you can exceed the dynamic range of celluloid, but in the way tone mapping is used in most cases, why would you?  Most tone mapped images I've seen have excessive edge contrast, over-saturation, and weird haloing issues to the point where it becomes a meme'd out parlor trick.

That being said, I now present to you a tone mapped image.
Hunterspoint_tonemap-edit
It is an attempt to create a tone map that doesn't scream to be noticed.  Any apparent haloing is from the natural flare of the bright exterior, and I did not attempt to hold any detail in the sky or light fixtures.  Of course the over-saturation problem was solved by avoiding any saturation at all.

I don't know if I completely succeeded.  It still feels a bit weird to me, almost hyper-real, but it does leave me with a some hope that these tools are valuable and valid.

Spreading the news, in vagabond shoes

I recently worked on a project that gave me the opportunity to shoot a lot of material, all based in New York.  It was great to stroll the streets and "be a part of it," to wake up when the city was asleep in the city that never sleeps.

The project unfortunately encountered some complications outside my control, so it is still in progress.  In the meantime, here are some stills to whet your appetite.

(download)

A promising start, wormy results

Our inaugural attempt at fire escape gardening this season yielded mixed results.  Eggplant, peppers, sesame leaves, basil and thyme all flourished.  Others, not so great.  Take our cucumber plants, for example.

(download)
Very promising at the start, but whether it was overzealous pruning too early on, infrequent watering for a period of time, our brief northern exposure or the squirrels conspiring against us, we ended up with just a couple duds.  Here are mother and baby cucumbers, in full-on wormy fashion.
(download)
The spines on these guys (girls?) were dangerous, but despite their "challenged" looks, I must say they were quite tasty.  Cheers to trying again next year!