Bonarda, it’s here!
Today we opened up a bottle of Santa Julia wine, a mix of Malbec and Bonarda. The first time I heard about Bonarda was a few years ago, while visiting the Mendoza area of Argentina. The hush hush was that winegrowers were planting the Bonarda grape in great quantities. We should be on the look out in the future for Argentina Bonarda. It will become Argentina’s next red.
Argentine Bonarda
Apparently, Argentine Bonarda isn’t the same as Italian Bonarda. The Argentine grape is different: Douce Noir, similar to a grape from the Savoie in France. Some argue it comes from California’s Charbono.
Bonarda wines are at first very fruity on the nose, with notes of black cherry compote, fresh blueberry, and plum. Then, they become more complex, giving off nuanced aromas of violets, 5-spice, allspice, and peonies. Finally, depending on whether or not the wine was oaked (though most aren’t), they may have slight smoky notes of cigar box, sweet figs, and chocolate. On the palate, Bonarda has an initial burst of fruitiness, a medium-body, juicy acidity, and a smooth, low-tannin finish.
I expect a lot more Bonarda to show up now. If there only was a way to invest in the Argentina’s next red.
The Santa Julia wine tasted great for a Friday-pondering-election-results.
November 6, 2020
Bubble bubble bubble
I am caught up on the current state of the presidential election. All eyes are on Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. The fact that Georgia is this close is a surprise to me. I would have expected Florida to be in this list as well.
The bigger surprise and sadness however is how many Americans still support this president. We can disagree on policy decisions: tax-cuts or no tax-cuts, affordable care act or not.
However, I don’t consider this election about policy. This is about whether we accept a blatant liar in the White House.
The fact that so many people still voted for this president illustrates also a lack of my understanding of the rest of the country. Living in the Bay Area, I have been living a sheltered US existence: lots of job opportunities, mostly white collar jobs, a large diversity including from many different countries and cultures, and overall a good response to covid-19 pandemic. As soon as this pandemic is over, let’s leave our bubble and do a cross country road trip. We can start in the South and travel the mid west. As a matter of fact, the blue-red colored map is a nice roadmap.
November 5, 2020
The day after the evening of
I was very successful avoiding any election night coverage. As a result, I fell asleep very swiftly.
This morning, it is very hard to avoid any commentary about how it is going.
“I am glued to the NYT coverage for any new updates.” (So, it much be close. Biden must have lost Florida. It must be about Pennsylvania and similar states.)
“Hey, how is it going? Are you following what’s going on?” (Could be mayhem in the streets, or lawyering, or both).
“Unlike Trump, Biden didn’t announce victory yet, but already started talking about healing the country.” (Trump must have given an election night victory speech, but nothing is sure yet. Now it will be about suppressing the mail-in vote. As expected.)
That’s about the coverage I want to be exposed to today. I won’t be tuning into any news coverage. Yet, I can come out from underneath my rock or covers.
November 4, 2020
A Peaceful Election Night
For months, I have been following the political campaigns. Trump v Biden, Gideon v Collins, Graham, McConnell. I watched the debates. I read Nate Silver’s website. I watched Cuomo, Oliver, Buttigeig, Maddow, Tapper, sometimes even FoxNews. I donated and even joined a phone bank. “Hi, how are you? Have you already decided who you will be voting for in the presidential election?” I commented on the Belgian coverage of the US elections. I commented on Twitter. I was in it.
But not today. Not tonight. All day, I didn’t log onto Twitter. I didn’t tune into any news channel. I didn’t listen to single political podcast. I asked my family not to discuss any politics at the dinner table.
The way I see it, tonight there are two options. Or Biden wins big, e.g., Florida. However this is is not likely if you read the polls leading up to today. Or it will be the beginning of a long drawn out count-recount-lawsuit-argument-counter-argument session. Tonight I didn’t care for any of that spectacle. I wanted peace and quiet.
If I could, I would go into hibernation for a week and resurface when the political jousting has settled. Unfortunately, that’s not in the cards. So I wanted at least tonight to be calm and peaceful.
Goodnight my dear political wonks.
November 3, 2020
A month ago I did a major twitter purge and unsubscribed from a large number of people (or bots). I noticed I was living a bit in an echo chamber. When the Lincoln project posted a new video, my entire feed became one giant retweet. I wasn’t learning anything new.
Now, my twitter feed is a bit too lean. I do have a few people I definitely recommend on twitter:
Nevertheless, I am in need for new insights and interesting twitter handles to follow. Any recommendations?
October 25, 2020
First pizza on the pellet grill
October 25, 2020
The nomads of North San Jose
Our neighborhood is a quiet suburban neighborhood in North San Jose. The population is mostly Asian. A lot of people here are blue collar. Just like us, the new neighbors who moved in the past decade are mostly professionals working for one of the Silicon Valley tech companies. It is also why the average house price soared to above $1 million. For Silicon Valley that is still cheap.
People mind their own business here. There isn’t a strong sense of community. There is no yearly block party, or Saturday get togethers in the street. This is why our neighborhood has been an ideal place to blend in and park in our streets almost unnoticed. Unless of course, you show up pulling a camper or in a mobile home. We have plenty of space to park along the large avenues, or along fences near the corner of a street. Folks will show up and live there for a few days. These nomads move their vehicles every 72 hours. A week later they will rotate again into the same spot, never truly leaving the larger neighborhood.
These mobile homes are different from the ones you find near large construction sites, Halloween pumpkin patches or at the back parking lot of Nasa Ames in Mountain View. Those are seasonal workers, craftsmen and contractors from all over the Western United States. I’ve heard about woodworkers who will come from Idaho or Montana to build sheds for Tuft Sheds in the Spring, or about volunteer fire fighters who will help California in the fall to fight the dangerous wildfires. Some even form a private fire department for certain winemakers.
The nomads in our neighborhood are different. They are living some of the hardest lives of Silicon Valley. I don’t know what they do for a living. Some of them collect iron. I see others work continuously on cars, along the side of streets. The wide boulevards of your neighborhood or a perfect place to blend in without causing too much trouble for neighbors. Sometimes it just looks like a nice mobile home is parked there. Other times, it is not as pleasant with plenty of old iron spread out around a trailer, with trash in the gutter, and even sewage. Most of these set ups do not have running water obviously.
As long as you are courteous to the neighborhood, I am not bothered much by them. Life must be very rough for the nomads of Silicon Valley.
October 25, 2020
The longest day
Yesterday, I completed one of my longest driving days: San Jose to San Diego and back in one day. 915 miles, in 14 hours at an average speed of 66mph.
One Day Round Trip to San Diego
I left shortly before 5am on Highway 101 South. The hardest part of the entire drive is the 152 connector from Highway 101 to Interstate 5. It is a two way rolling road with big trucks and where people drive at high speeds. After about 65 minutes, I reached Interstate 5.
At about 2-2.5 hours I passed the Kettleman City’s pitstop. This is another landmark for those driving through the boring Central Valley. Kettleman is a small place with a few gas stations and restaurants, including an In and Out burger.
Overall the Central Valley passed quickly. It was covered in an eerie fog or smoke from the California wildfires. I made good progress and arrived after 3.5 hours at the foot of the Grapevine. It was time to fill up the tank and do some stretches.
San Jose to San Diego
I didn’t need any food or drinks as I had packed a nice cooler with Red Bull, Haribo, healthy bars, peanuts and a breakfast sandwich. I was ready to keep on going.
The Grapevine, the Valley, Downtown Los Angeles and Orange County passed quickly under my wheels. I hit a bit of traffic near Camp Pendleton, just before I exited on to Highway 76 to switch to Interstate 15. Almost exactly 7 hours later, I arrived at my destination.
After a nice lunch, three and a half hours later, we were back on the road back home. This time I had a co-pilot who helped me for a few hours through the Central Valley at night. This time we did stop at Kettleman City at the In and Out for a cheese burger and animal style fries. A little before 11pm, we arrived exhausted back home in San Jose.
The drive back from Palm Springs was a long drive back home. The round trip to empty the dorm in Los Angeles was a monster trip. This one-day trip beat them all: 14 hours of driving in one day.
October 4, 2020
Fish Grill
This weekend, I started learning the fine art of grilling fish. Grilling fish is a lot less forgiving I suspect than a big piece of meat. I’ve tasted rubbery cod or dry grilled salmon. I knew this may take a few attempts.
On the menu:
- Salmon filets - I let it sit overnight in a bed of brown sugar (1/2 cup), and coarse salt (1/4 cup). In hindsight, it was too much salt.
- Mackerel - I bought them frozen and salted. In the morning, I marinated them in dijon mustard, lime and coarse pepper.
- Large Shrimps, marinated in Gochujang red pepper paste, garlic, cumin, cayenne and lime.
Fish Grill
I smoked the fish and shrimps at 180F, high smoke for 2-3 hours until the internal temperature of the salmon was about 145F.
The food came up excellent (except for a little too much salt on the outside of the salmon).
September 27, 2020
