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An awkward situation when traveling alone; it’s a sunday morning, you really want some brunch food, an omelette, maybe some pancakes, what do you do? Go to brunch alone and weather the storm of couples, or even worse the parents and their kids if you’re near a university? I don’t mind eating alone, there’s the bar, there’s the two-top tucked away for privacy, but brunch is a bit more difficult, it’s the quintessential couple/group event.

So this was my problem on a recent sunday in california. I had a few options, Hobees which is fine but near Stanford so lots of parents, there’s a number of places on University Ave also near Stanford. I could drive a little further away to California Ave in Palo Alto but there’s a Sunday farmer’s market so it too will be crowded.

The thing that saved me is something you should always do while traveling, when visiting one place always keep an eye out for somewhere else. Earlier in the week i ate the vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho) shop next door to an interesting looking cafe. I was rewarded for remembering it today.

‘a good morning’ is an unpretentious cafe that serves breakfast to some stanford locals willing to drive 15 minutes from campus. you have the basic brunch type things, a capable espresso bar and fast, attentive service. it’s the type of place where they can undercharge you and they don’t really much care, which is exactly what happened to me.

the server said something about discounting my meal (no charge for the americano or hash browns) for the long wait–which i didn’t feel was long at all. my bill was $7, i think it should’ve been $12, so i left her a $7 tip, which may prove difficult to expense but when getting discounts on food, i don’t see a reason to penalize the server by paying the same percentage. In that case their tips would be reduced for doing the same amount of work. I guess the proper tip in this case was $3 ( 25% of $12), but the additional $4 was already spent in my mind, so i’d rather give it to the server then claim it myself, especially when i didn’t think it necc. anyway.

Sorry for the rant, it’s a great place, i hope it sticks around as i will definately return for breakfast. If i had to complain the sign-in process for a table is a little chaotic, the trick is walk up to the register, grab the clip-board and add your name to the list.  ‘a good morning’ is at the intersection of san antonio road and el camino road.

This most recent trip was for work, and the company asks us to stay at certain hotels.  This time it was the courtyard in Newark CA.  I’ve stayed at this hotel at least once a year for the last 3-4, the first year it was pretty desolate for dining options.  It’s steadily improved, and i knew the area had made it when i saw the newly opened Chipotle in the parking lot next door to the hotel.  Franchises aside there are other options next door to the hotel, a reasonable thai place, a few divey but honest chinese places (crazy cheap, $6 entrees at dinner), a passable if unsteady italian place.   We did venture further into Fremont to a part of Fremont Blvd which i discovered is home to a large Afghan population, and called Little Kabul. 

Salang Pass is in a non-descript building shared with a Round Top Pizza and Persian Rug store.  It’s on the end with a sign and entrance obscured by a tree, the closest cross street is Central Ave, if you get lost just ask for directions to the Round Top.  Inside the decor is basic, with one exception, there is a tented area to one side of the dining room with low tables and pillow seating for the romantic types, since i was eating with 3 guys from work we opted for tables. 

I’ve had afghan food a few times, and i always describe it as indian but just milder, not indian lite as the flavors are still there just more delicate.   I don’t know all the names but we had the roasted pumpkin, eggplant with tomato, hummus, lamb curry (with huge lamb shank), chicken curry, and the ground lamb simmered in tomatoes (a complex blend of delicate spiciness, got better the more you at it).  The meals come with salad (very passable) and bread/naan.  I think the total for all of us was $20 a head and we were all quite happy at this point. 

I don’t claim to be an expert in Afghan food (or any food for that matter), but i was satisfied with this meal and would happily return.

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Two weeks in San Francisco has given me a lot of time to eat out. Tonite was one of my favorite personal traditions, dinner at the House and pastries at Stella Pastry for dessert. I ate one of the always great cannolis, which i love because the shells are properly crispy, the filling not too sweet. I also had one of these sacrapantina cakes.

It’s a whip cream layered rum infused sponge cake, it’s light, fluffy, airy, quite good but a touch expensive at $4.50, but then the prices there tend to be higher, so it’s unfair to call it expensive. I’m reading the two Michael Pollan books and i realize food can be too cheap. More on my trip over the next few days.

In the wierd but cool category, this game Blazing Birds is a robots playing Badminton game for the Xbox 360. It’s wierd, but at the same time captures the speed and feel of badminton. it’s totally awesome. watch the video

So for the first time in a long time i bought something from Apple on launch day. After roughly 5 years of service (plus 1 year of service before i bought it second hand) my 1G (as in first generation) 5 Gig iPod will be retired from exclusive service. I bought this in summer 2002 from a work colleague for $175, remember this thing? It was $399 in 2002 dollars when it came out to lukewarm reception and the rest is history.

I’ve watched 4.5 generations of iPods released without buying them, i’ve seen the no click button 3G ones, the iPod photo, the iPod video, all the small variations; mini, nano, shuffle without buying a new one.  I replaced the battery in my 1G model with one many times better then the original battery.  But i’ve been waiting actively for the last 18 months to see what Apple would do with a wide screen iPod. I’ve had a $50 apple store credit for the last year from the iPod class action law suit a few years go, and it was expiring in the next 3 weeks so i was under pressure to buy something soon. And when i saw the iPod touch i decided an iPod classic was the perfect replacement for me.

Why the classic and not the touch? Well i wanted something to replace my iPod–which i use for music. I didn’t want something to replace my portable video player–oh yeah i don’t do that, or something to replace my portable web browsing device–oh yeah i don’t do that either. I also think it’s creating a reason to buy it instead of buying it for a reason. Bear with me here, what i mean is that i don’t find myself needing an impromptu web browser while in range of an open WiFi access point. I find it’s more the case that i’m out and about and need access to google or maps or email but not near an access point, so an iPhone would work best in that case.

I will get an iPod touch when they upgrade it in the next 2 years with more memory and expanded capabilities. While i like the portable web browser, i’m waiting to see if they add other applications. Apple has already stated they don’t want to add email or map applications (yet), but that’s a big reason for me to use it.

I have to give props to Apple and even more so UPS, i ordered it on Wed 6PM east coast time and UPS tried to deliver it to me at 9AM friday–39 hours. Not that impressive? Well it was drop-shipped from Shanghai and i didn’t even have to pay extra for shipping! Of course I was out walking the dog, but he came back in the afternoon, so at least i have it for the weekend. Thanks for coming back my UPS delivery guy.

So what’s it like? It’s what you expect from a product that’s been developed and refined for the last 6 years. Just look at the pictures, it’s about half the mass of the original one.  It took about an hour to sync my library of about 22 gigs.  I scratched the shiny back within 30 seconds of handling it too, so that hasn’t changed!  The navigation (especially CoverFlow) is a little slow, not as responsive as the 1G interface, of course it’s a lot fancier.   I watched a few minutes of video and i started getting a headache, i think it’s something with the refresh rate and flicker causing motion sickness.  I’m not sure i’ll use that feature too much, but i think i’ll convert some more shows to try it out.  I have 50GB still free!

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IMG_5631, originally uploaded by minhi.

if you know her tell her she should keep her eyes open when people with cameras are about, but in our defense i took this picture freehand without looking through the viewfinder…

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IMG_3807.JPG, originally uploaded by minhi.

I’ve always been hesitant to post pictures of friends, but i realized there are only like 10 people who visit this blog on not even a regular basis, so it figure there’s not much to worry about…

I was in NYC recently and stopped in at the frozen yogurt phenomena known as Pinkberry.  I didn’t realize there were so many opened/scheduled to be open.  I went to the one near Penn Station in K-Town, one block away from the H-Mart.  In typical fashion there were a lot of Koreans there, just saying.  I tried both the green tea one and the regular one.  I think the regular one is better, the green tea masks some of the sourness from the yogurt and as someone that eats 2-4 quarts of yogurt a week i like that sourness.  I think the perfect combination is the regular with raspberries (or another tart berry), there are some odd toppings like chocolate chips.  Overall it was nice and refreshing on a hot day, i think i paid $5 for the smallest serving (i think 5 oz?) and raspberries.  You pay about $1 for each additional topping, and the sizings go up to 12-13oz i think.  I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but i liked it and the line was only about 10 minutes when i went.

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IMG_3601.JPG, originally uploaded by minhi.

part of this series

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IMG_5233_060407.jpg, originally uploaded by minhi.

interesting “mistake.”