Most expensive sandwich in Harvard Square

I was in Cardullo's for lunch yesterday -- I heard that they have good sandwiches. Their sandwiches are pricier than Darwin's by a couple of dollars (ranges $9-12), in case you were thinking about going there to try their sandwiches. My Italian sub was intensely flavorful -- hot peppers, balsamic vinegar, salty meats and sweet tomatoes.

The most extravagant sandwich is the caviar sandwich. It sells for $130. It also made me wonder what else I can get in Harvard Square that is tasty for $130.

how a conversation deteoriates

I first noticed the girl standing across the platform from me because of her dress. It was a short dress with one black strap going from one side to the other, and onto her shoulder. The dress was white, with huge bold brushstrokes of colors streaking across. In a sea of jeans and t-shirts, she stood out in her short and loose dress. She also had immaculate hair and looked fairly attractive.

I pointed her out to my friend. Since he was a guy, I decided that it would be futile to describe the dress in detail. "What do you think of that girl on the other platform across from us? With her boyfriend or something. I think she's kinda hot. Her dress looks like a pillowcase."

Oops, did I really say that? I wasn't really thinking but it was true. You can call it a short loose dress, or a pillowcase (the dimensions looked right). The sub-conscious is honest and brutal.

"She looks kinda of big."

"Really? I didn't notice. Hmm...come to think of it, her boyfriend is not so big. He might be shorter than her since she's in sandals and he's in dress shoes. Oh yeah, he isn't as wide as she is. I still think she's kinda hot though. He's skinny so that makes her look bigger."

"I don't really see a waist."

"It's a loose dress." On hindsight, the word "pillowcase" does work perfectly to describe how she looked in that dress.

"You have bad taste."


I think he was the first one to say the fat word. The train arrived, and we were going to get into the same carriage from different sides. "We're getting into the same door as the fat girl. Try not to stare."

Staring is a natural reaction for me if I'm curious about someone and trying to size them up. In other words, I was stealing glances at the couple while we were in the train. They were being affectionate, hugging each other and possibly kissing.

Then I said it. *Nudge* "Look, the fat girl is making out with the small guy."

"I can't believe you just said that."


Somehow, I just don't have the innate ability to check girls out. My picks don't ever agree with the guys. It was an interesting dress though.

Efficiency versus?

Shaw's at Porter Square has had their self checkout machines for a couple of years. Those machines were fun to use when they first came out, and they are still somewhat fun to use. However, they are not terribly efficient, at least not from the customer's point of view.

Perhaps for someone with a couple of items, the self checkout might look just as quick as having someone check you out if there isn't a line. Beep. Beep. And you're done. But when your basket has several items in it, it gets slow. Yourself aside, look at the other people in line. Someone will be trying to find the barcode, or trying to figure out why the machine insists that there is an unidentified item in the bagging area. You've probably faced those very same problems yourselves. Then you have to go through 2-3 screens while you try to pay. Because customers don't use the checkout often enough, they always seem to need to pause and read the screen again before pressing the right buttons. And I get the feeling that because the machines talk slowly, people feel obliged to hang around a little longer, or until the machine stops talking, instead of moving on.

I guess there is the one breed of customers who likes to take their own time to read the screen and make sure that every discount was taken. The girl at the checkout counter is usually too fast for you to take that thorough glance at the prices.

All that said, I still like using the self checkout for one reason: it's fun to check things out. I definitely could save a few minutes letting someone else check me out, but I'll be missing out on that little bit of fun. However judging from the flashes of annoyance from people experiencing difficulties at the checkout, I don't think it's all that fun for everyone.

The Homeless in Harvard Square

I went to college at Berkeley, and after 4 years I thought I was used to homeless people. When I first got to Cambridge, I remember joking with a college friend who also moved to the area. "Man, I feel uncomfortable here. Where are the homeless people?" I saw Harvard Square in the day as that tourist attraction it is, all clean and pristine. I wasn't being very observant.

I've recently become uncomfortable about homeless people. I'm not talking about the people who ask for spare change and have signs. Those people seem to disappear at night. I'm talking about the people who are homeless and do not ask for spare change. They fade into the crowd during the day, and at night if you care to look, you see them, snug in their very used sleeping bags.

I can tell you where to look -- right in front of the Coop, especially in the winter, and beneath stairs in the building at the bend of Brattle Square/Mt Auburn. Sometimes, you see a sleeping bag in Cambridge Commons when the weather is warmer. Don't forget to visit the ABP at the Holyoke Center -- I've realized that nearer where the bathrooms are, you see possibly homeless people hang around, trying to clean up at the public bathroom, especially at night. I think I saw an old man huddle in 7-Eleven this evening trying to get a bit of warmth. I hope he wasn't chased away.

These are a very different type of homeless people I'm now noticing. The ones I saw in Berkeley were kids in goth-ish clothes who looked like they were being homeless as an alternative vacation. Fine, there were some older people, but they were the ones telling jokes for money. There are the homeless people in Berkeley who gather in Sproul Plaza to drum at night, and sometimes students join in. I guess there were also those who stayed in People's Park and I didn't see those at all. I've heard of people who go through the trash cans on campus, although I've only seen people collecting cans, not looking for food.

These homeless people in Harvard Square don't seem to be asking for help. I once saw a woman chased a couple of guys away, furious that they tried to give her money. I remember her because I saw her a few days earlier near the same place, in an ATM center. I thought she looked like she might have just gotten off a plane, and was sitting in the ATM center while waiting for someone. I mean, I do that sometimes especially when it's cold outside. But seeing her again with her suitcase, I didn't think she was waiting for anyone.

I guess I'm bothered, and this is my first avenue for release. I'm hoping I'll eventually get around to trying to do something. With food prices going up and the economy going down, I'm reading about the increasing number of people turning up at soup kitchens. In the meantime, I fumble, trying to figure out how to cope with the real Harvard Square that really has vacant buildings and vagrants.

I haven't been noticing homeless people in other parts of Cambridge/Boston. Maybe I'm still not seeing the world as it is.

Female Forrest Gumps

Walking to school today, I was following behind a woman on wedge-heeled boots. I might as well have been following a woman handicapped in her legs. Her feet seemed totally disjointed from her shoes, which gave me the impression of watching someone with not one, but two twisted feet. She reminded me of the scene where young Forrest Gump was dancing for Elvis (I happened to see that on tv last night.)

After the woman with the wedge-heels and I parted, I found myself walking beside a woman with a double limp. It might have been badly-fitting sandals -- those chunky ones that shouldn't be too hard to balance on; she was dragging both sides of her shoes in turn. She was lifting her feet, but just not enough to compensate for her shoes such that she was dragging them both. It sounded like a terrible terrible limp.

All that said, I am guilty of wearing shoes that are not too comfortable at times. I only hope that I didn't look that ridiculous to onlookers. Someone forgot to teach women of my generation the importance of feigning comfort when wearing our chosen instrument of torture. After all, they were meant to make us look better, not worse.

Cracking the soup code

I found this out by accident -- you get free food if you speak Chinese at this particular Chinese restaurant near my school.

I've been eating at Chinese restaurants for years, and I've never really noticed any major difference in service speaking in English or Chinese. Sometimes you get a friendlier waiter if you speak in Chinese, but that's almost a natural response to speaking to anyone in their native language. Then, I went to this restaurant that I've ignored the past couple of years for no particular reason four times.

Visit 1: received free dessert of red bean soup.
Visit 2: received free soup, and free dessert of red bean soup.
Visit 3: no freebies
Visit 4: received free soup, and free dessert of red bean soup.

After Visits 1 and 2, we postulated that it was either the dish we ordered -- we had noodles the first visit, and a couple of main entrees the second visit -- or (unlikely) the time of the day -- visit 2 was rather late. Our 3rd visit there, we had noodles and there was no free soup. We also went during the regular dinner hours.

On the 3rd visit, we were wondering about the difference between receiving the starting soup and the dessert soup. While waiting for our dishes to arrive, I took a good look around the restaurant to see whether anyone else was getting free soups (and the answer is yes), and who was getting the free soups.

People getting free soups:
1. old white people who looked like they were regulars coz they had special attention
2. Chinese people who look like they speak Chinese (let's call them real Chinese people).

Of the people who ordered noodles, the real Chinese subpopulation definitely received soups.

We did not receive our free soups that 3rd visit, and I thought that I knew why. Analyze this:

Language used when talking to waiting staff:
Visit 1: Chinese
Visit 2: Chinese
Visit 3: English

Yeah, I thought it was a language thing. Naturally, the next thing to do is to test it out. For visit 4, I will order in Chinese.

Day of visit 4

The greeting staff that day was a young girl. She immediately spoke to us in English -- Argh! Foiled? I was worried about my experiment.

Fortunately, someone else served us water, and I made it a point to thank her in Chinese. Then I ordered dinner. I was slightly nervous about this because there were a few words that I couldn't read off the menu. I tried to fudge it, and I guessed the first 2 words right, but got the 3rd one wrong. The waitress corrected me, and I immediately felt extremely embarrassed and tried to mumble something in Chinese about not being able to read too well. It was so awkward that my non-Chinese speaking friend could tell I was totally bluffing at this point.

I sat nervously in my seat, wondering if I'd screwed up, trying very hard not to stare at the waitress. Then she appeared with 2 bowls of soup. But where was she heading? It was a heart-pounding moment. But I gave the answer away at the very start, so you know that those soups were for us. Score!

And we got our dessert soup too.

I haven't gone back to that restaurant since that time. Now that I know that it makes a difference what language I use, I'll feel cheap if I deliberately talk in Chinese to get free soups.

But what is in it for the restaurant that discriminates among their customers? Clearly they try to reward their regulars, so that might keep those regulars coming. I guess the Chinese customers (if they noticed) feel more welcome, so they may also return more often. But what about the people who notice the freebies, and did not receive them? I don't know if it makes a difference in terms of tips though.

In any case, I will be going back to the Chinese restaurant simply because it's the only real one in the area. The freebies certainly do help though.

My new food blog

I now have a new recipe blog! It's called K.I.S.S. Foods. For now, the plan is to record recipes that I've simplified for myself (don't you hate those long lists?). I don't know how often I'll be writing there, but recipes don't grow old.

The Irony of Being On the Other Side

I watch other people struggle for freedom and independence, keeping in mind how independence was forced upon my expelled country. Why do countries insist on keeping people who don't want to stay? Or is my example of a country too willing to give up land an anomaly?

Sustainable materialism

For my sister's birthday this year, I got her a book -- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I chose this book for the following reasons:
1. I wanted her to think more deeply about money
2. I needed a book that she can read easily without getting bored

Nevermind that some friends of mine think the book is more fluff than substance. My goal was to make her reconsider her definition of being rich and her relationship to money. I was afraid she would become one of those many people who live paycheck to paycheck, no matter how large that paycheck is. I've seen a good share of people with more money than the average college student, who somehow had to borrow more money from their parents. I think it shows something about a person's character -- namely an inability to be disciplined and self-sufficient -- and I don't like that. I'm huge on being independent.

I don't mean to discourage her from wanting the material goods in life. Instead, I want her to go all out to get what she wants, on a sustainable self-reliant basis. I want her to realize that having a paycheck doesn't mean she can afford a big fancy something. Most people don't earn enough to buy that big ticket item.

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An aside: I hate listening to the radio these days.

Yes, the Fed is dropping rates and trying to inject liquidity, but that doesn't really mean that the liquidity is going to get to you. You hear these ads on the radio all the time -- "Mortgage rates are at an all-time low" Yes, but the money isn't going to get to you that easily. All the current financial mess is caused by a bunch of banks lending money to people who shouldn't be getting loans, the same people who are facing foreclosures and think they somehow deserve help because they got screwed. The truth of course is that they are screwing everyone else who is playing by the rules.

The worst ad must be the one that recommends getting a special loan to pay for that cosmetic surgery procedure that will change your life. It's appealing to people with poor self image and bad financial sense. I mean, how many people seriously really need cosmetic surgery to live a proper life? Breast augmentation is a totally different ballgame than reconstructive surgery for someone who's had a mastectomy.

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Anyway, about my sister and her financial intelligence. For her 19th birthday, I want to give her the gift of never becoming one of the dumb financially illiterate masses. I hope she realizes that the book I gave her is wanting. I hope it'll start her thinking about what it really means to be rich -- not to just appear rich, to have a car that you can barely pay for, dinners and vacations that you are paying for by credit card -- but to live without financial worry.

More about food in Harvard Square

I had a craving today (yes, another one) -- I wanted a cream cheese brownie. I decided to give ABP another go. I walked there, stared at the small selection for about a minute and walked away. The memory of that chocolate cornmeal muffin haunted me.

There were 2 other possible baked goods places in Harvard Square a year ago -- the Greenhouse cafe, and another Cafe Paradiso or something like that. They are both gone this year.

I tried Starbucks, but nothing looked delicious. Where else?

There was only one place left -- Dunkin Donuts. Yes, I am serious. I just wanted something delicious, and it didn't have to be a cream cheese brownie anymore. I bought a chocolate glazed donut for 89 cents at Dunkin Donuts. Light sugar crust, soft cakey mild chocolate donut. It wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. It was perfect for 89 cents.

I think I'll be going to Dunkin Donuts for my sweet fix next time. I discovered that they also sell chocolate muffins. All they need to do is use donut batter and add chocolate chips and that should be a perfect chocolate muffin.

American Runs on Dunkin? I wonder why.

Chocolate muffins and fried calamari

I had a Proustian moment yesterday.

I've been having a craving for chocolate muffins, and I finally got hungry enough to walk out in the cold for a mid-afternoon snack yesterday. I have a memory of eating a chocolate muffin, warm, moist and oozy with melting chocolate bits. This is a Berkeley memory, and I probably got the muffin at the on-campus cafe, or maybe the supermarket. I wanted that muffin.

The muffin I found at ABP was nothing like the chocolate muffin of my past. Dry, cornmeal-y for some odd reason, with rare bits of chocolate. I even tried microwaving it. ABP was the only place I could think of that sells chocolate muffins; The on-campus cafe doesn't carry it. Verdict: sometimes, it's better to continue dreaming.

I was reminded recently of my mother's fried calamari. I was 6-7 then, when she was still willing to fry food. My mother is a progressive sort of person -- she goes through phases and never comes back to them again. It's somewhat disappointing since I don't have any homey-comfort food when I go home to visit. There is always something new instead.

The crunch of the batter, the bits of salt, the chewy bits of squid. Perfect, and never to be had again. I still have hopes for the chocolate muffin though.

Balloon fashion

I'm pasting a link here for my future reference, and to share:

Balloon Fashion

I taught myself to twist little balloon animals for fun last year, but I haven't been serious about it. My balloons are probably too old to twist now.

poverty in science

I found out last night that a friend is eligible for food stamps. It was rather disturbing. My friend has a PhD, and he has a perfectly normal job as a postdoc. Unfortunately, he also has a wife and two kids. Fortunately, this is just a temporary situation for him.

But seriously, how is the average household supposed to cope? Childcare is crazily expensive in this country (not to mention healthcare and other things). How is a man/woman supposed to get a family and kids if someone has to stop working the moment the kid comes along?

Conclusion: poor grad students aren't really poor. Wait till they become poor postdocs.

another blow to the average woman

Despite what they say, bags are not one-size-fits-all. That realization came to me this morning when I was walking to school. There on the road in front of me was a tall thin woman with the sort of figure that reminds me of a supermodel (at least what I think a supermodel might look like). She was wearing a bag in a way that made me think "wow, perfect!". It was a large brown leather thing with short handles that hook over a shoulder. I'd usually think that it's ugly, but this morning I felt that it was sophisticated. I still wouldn't buy it, but that's only coz I'm still stuck on bright furry things. And I'm the wrong build for it.

The thing that stuck me was that the bag was a perfect size for her. It's like a tailored suit, except it was a bag -- it fitted perfectly. You have to be of a certain height to carry a bag of a certain length; you have to be of a certain width to carry a bag that is that wide. The proportions were perfect on her.

Of course, having seen perfection I finally saw how few women had the perfect shoulder/hand bag. Cringing while I walked past people on the street -- wrong color, wrong size. Wrong wrong wrong.

Most large bags overpower the petite woman. They make her look small and chubby. Most women are not very tall or very thin. And we all know that clothes were designed for the tall thin woman. This now includes bags.

To be safe, I'm sticking to small bags for now though I can't figure out what to do with my oversized laptop backpack that's obviously wrong for me.

Mundane observations 1

I was at home over winter break, and my mom bought ground beef. The way I like to cook it to to season it, and fry it till the oil comes all out. In the US, ground beef comes as 80%, 85% or 93% lean usually. The package at home is unmarked -- what does that mean?

It turned out that the amount of fat in my ground beef was negligible. Couldn't even pour off the grease. I think that makes it better than 93% lean. Just coz products are better labeled (and thus marketed) here doesn't make it any better.

US - 0; Outside - 1.

Mac rant part 2

I thought I was done with the ranting, but here I go again. The trigger this time is an e-mail sent by a tech support guy in school whom I personally know. He doesn't know that I'm posting parts of his e-mail though.

"I do not know who serviced this computer before. I opened it up and found many of the screws were missing and a part near the battery compartment was broken. The functionality of the computer does not depend on these screws or broken part but I still expect them to be there."

And guess what, I expect all the screws to be there too! The only people who have opened up the laptop prior to the tech guy are people working for Apple. I wonder who left the insides of my computer in a mess. With such poor work quality, I don't think I actually expect more if I had purchased the more expensive Powerbook version (currently the MacBook Pro).

I wonder what would have happened if I had purchased the 3-year Applecare plan -- would they have accused me of messing up the insides, thus voiding the warranty? It certainly doesn't sound like they were planning for anyone to crack things open, except it doesn't matter to me coz I no longer have a service plan.

I'm sticking to PCs. Not that I think they have better tech support, but they are simpler inside. That means with the help of smarter friends, I might be able to fix my own stuff. *growl* Can't trust anyone these days.

I'm over Macs. Mac users tend to like their machines a lot, and rave about the excellent service and such. Blah blah blah. My personal experience with Macs is that they aren't so great. The service isn't stellar either. I spent hours on the phone with a tech help guy who refused to acknowledge that my hard drive was down, and made me spend hours over the phone before agreeing to let me ship it back for repairs (this was about a year after I got the computer). It took them another 3 weeks of replacing everything single part to finally get to my hard drive (written on the report sheet). My labmate was able to tell me that my hard drive was down minutes after looking at it.

Most recently, I received further confirmation that lemons do exist in the land of Macs. The dear computer (hard drive down a year ago) mysteriously stopped working. Things were whirling, but the screen wouldn't show anything. Using an external screen didn't solve the problem. Trying to boot my computer in Target mode didn't work either (can't read the hard drive as an external drive). Unfortunately, the department messed up and didn't get me the 3-year Applecare plan, so instead of having slightly questionable repair people working on it, I have highly questionable people working on it instead. It's been 2 months, and I've given up on the Mac ever returning.

To be fair, it's important to share what I found good and bad about Macs, not just rave about the good things. It makes no difference, Mac or PC. It doesn't matter to most users who just want to read their e-mails and various websites and write word documents. On the other hand, if your hardware fails and you want a cheap replaceable part, PC is the way to go.

Anyway, the highlight of my day: One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't.

Limitations of my thought experiment

Shortly after I described my "Eat what you can kill" diet, I went to dinner with a couple of concerned labmates and had a serious discussion about my dietary philosophy. They rightly pointed out that my idea of killing was limited to me with a knife in hand, and a huge animal in front of me.

There are many ways to kill an animal. For instance, I could shoot it. I have to agree that shooting a beast is as impersonal as it can get, especially when it's 50 or more feet away. I actually don't have problems with hacking the carcass up so I am actually capable of killing and eating an animal.

I could also ram a car or some equally large vehicle into a poor beast. It's a waste to not consume road kill. Another easy possibility is seafood -- if I can take it out of water, it's mine to feast upon. That said, I am not sure about tuna.

I finally saw a tuna 2 years ago. It wasn't a tiny fish; it was huge. It didn't look as cute as a dolphin though. Is that why people worry about dolphin-friendly tuna, but not about the tuna? Anyway.

We then discussed other even more philosophical and scientific ideas. For instance, instead of Schrodinger's cat, I could have a Schrodinger's cow. If the cow happens to die due to reasons I can't control, I could eat it.

So yeah, I have to admit that it's a poorly defined criteria for determining what I can consume. There are too many impersonal ways to kill an animal, and it disturbs me to think that the same methods can be applied to a human being. I don't like this thought experiment too much. It's depressing, and I've gotten nothing done.

A thought experiment

I was reading the New Yorker (as usual) the other day, an article about a guy with a private navy who hunts down illegal fishing ships. It somehow got me thinking about the food I eat (again).

Can I kill the animal that I eat? If I can't go to the grocery store to get nicely cut beef, can I go to my hypothetical barnyard and kill the cow? If I can do that, then I'll eat it. So far, I figure I can probably kill a chicken so I could eat that. I'm not so sure about other types of meat though.

I'm one meal into this new "Eat only what you can kill" diet, not counting breakfast since I never have meat for breakfast. I'm not sure how long I'll last.

I've been eating way more meat since I moved to Cambridge, mostly because I can't get excited over the sparse variety of vegetables I find at my grocery store. I wonder if it's possible to go back to the way I was.

woohoo!

My computer died on the last Thursday of September, and finally today I have a new computer of my own. I've been borrowing a department laptop for over a month, and while it was helpful, it was also annoying that I couldn't install anything. It was an older computer so everything was a little out of date, including virus protection. It was slightly disturbing.

I've gone back to a PC. It was a hard decision to make until the tech guy in the department told me that if I were to buy a Mac, I really should go for a MacBook Pro, coz the MacBooks have inferior hardware. It was a hardware problem that sank the last notebook, and while I know I probably got a lemon, I can't face a Mac again for now. That pretty much settled it.

So hurray! I can use hyperlinks in my posts again, and the first article I'm linking is The Economic Consequences of Mr Bush. I know it's great -- a Vanity Fair magazine article by a Nobel laureate.