Sci-Fi Hi-Fi

Now that I’m finally spending a quiet night at home, and working hard to get through the 500 odd unread items I have in NetNewsWire (to say nothing of my unanswered email!), it’s becoming painfully apparent to me just how out of the weblog loop I am. People I once considered “light” posters are now producing three or four posts in the time it takes me to do one, and the Mac developer blogging torch seems to have been passed to a new generation of people like Daniel Jalkut, Jonathan Wight, and Blake Seely. Sigh.

The other thing about my absence from the blogosphere is that I haven’t really kept up with what all webloggers fundamentally care about: what people are saying about me! Because of this I failed to notice that Aaron Feaver tagged me with a dreaded meme! Since I’m no longer the type of blogger who has, you know, delusions of importance, I’ve decided embrace a little blog candy and run with it. And awaaaay we go!

Four Jobs I’ve Had

1. Fashion model for a fancy, Denver-based country club lifestyle magazine (see below–I’m the little kid on the right).



2. Paperboy
3. Computer sales dork at Best Buy (in high school).
4. Intern in the collections department of a bank (also in high school).

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. Adaptation
2. Ghost World
3. Three Kings
4. Requiem for a Dream

Four Places I Have Lived

1. Denver, Colorado
2. Lakewood, Colorado
3. Cupertino, California
4. Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, California

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm
2. Seinfeld
3. Fawlty Towers
4. The Simpsons

Four of My Favorite Dishes

1. Carnitas, or, really, just about any Mexican pork dish
2. The red beans & rice with andouille from Memphis Minnie’s
3. The truffle cheese burger at Oola (pictured below)



4. The sikh kebab at Rotee

Four Websites I Visit Daily

1. My Flickr contacts page
2. My Del.icio.us inbox
3. Upcoming.org (maybe not daily, but pretty often)
4. My Last.fm friends page (gotta keep up with what my hipster friends are listening to!)

Four Places I Would Rather Be

1. California’s Central Coast



2. Austin, Texas



3. Mount Evans, Colorado



4. Paris

A long time ago, Jochen Wolters emailed me to ask if I, having made noises about being a “foodie,” had any restaurant recommendations for San Francisco. I intended to help him out by writing a post about my favorite SF restaurants, but unfortunately his visit to MacWorld came and went and I never got around to it.

Recognizing that I’m probably never going to have time to write extensive restaurant reviews for this site, but still wanting to share my favorite finds, I’ve decided to start posting micro reviews of recommended restaurants to my del.icio.us account.

I think this (name appropriate) application of del.icio.us nicely demonstrates how simple but powerful the tagging concept can be. By tagging my restaurant links with the words “sanfrancisco,” “restaurant,” and “recommended,” I am essentially creating an ad-hoc restaurant guide, with its own unique URL and RSS feed.

There are already some excellent finds in there, and I eat out a lot, so keep it in mind if you’re looking for great places to eat in SF. I’m even thinking of having little “Recommended by Buzz’s del.icio.us Links” stickers printed for restaurants to put in their windows next to the Zagat signs. On second thought, maybe not…

If you’ve been following my Flickr photos for the past few months, you might have noticed that I’ve become something of a foodie of late. A lot of things contributed to this: living in the restaurant mecca known as San Francisco, the great meal I had at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Las Vegas, the fact that I now hang around with people who really love to cook and have taught me a lot about food and wine. But if I really had to trace my culinary awakening back to its origin, I’d have to point to a special feature on the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD, in which director Robert Rodriguez hosts a “ten minute cooking school” instructing viewers in the preparation of Puerco Pibil (a Mexican slow-cooked pork dish seen throughout the film).

Now, I was fairly unimpressed with Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and, truth be told, I think Rodriguez is a fantastically cool guy, but not really a great filmmaker. Still, his comments about how one really can’t be a well-rounded person without knowing how to cook at least a few things well really hit home with me, and I resolved to remedy my deficiences in the kitchen. Since I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Mexican and Latin American cuisine, making a batch of Puerco Pibil seemed like just the project for me.

Unfortunately, while I did eventually take to the kitchen in a big way (as evidenced by the ambitious meal I cooked for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner), the long prep time for slow-cooked pork always prevented me from getting it together. That is, until just before Christmas, when my parents and I decided to supplement our traditional Christmas tamale feast with a little something extra. A quick trip to the butcher and Denver’s wonderful Citizen-Smith Spice House (which I found by querying Google with “annato seeds denver”), and a fantastic Mexican Christmas dinner was underway.

The result? Well, at the risk of sounding immodest, I believe it was the first thing I’ve ever cooked that I consider an almost unqualified success. The pork was extremely tender and stringy (which is exactly what I love about Mexican pork dishes), and had just the right amount of spiciness (glad I didn’t decide to put a third habañero pepper in!). I almost couldn’t believe I had made it, it was so tasty. The ultimate affirmation, though, was that I had planned to eat the leftovers for dinner tonight, but was disappointed to find that my Dad had beaten me to it.

Being a complete geek, I also decided to document the whole process and post a tutorial on Flickr. Try it out sometime if you’re feeling culinary—it’s actually pretty easy, and will seriously increase your faith in your abilities as a cook.