The internet is chock full of recipe sites ranging from the good to the bad. Usually, when I'm researching a recipe, I use a combination of Google and my favorite recipe aggregation sites. The CookbookWiki aims to collect all the world's culinary traditions and recipes into one wiki site. Wikipedia already does a good job of covering food, but perhaps with CookbookWiki's tight focus, it can be an even more invaluable resource for chefs and amateur cooks alike. They already have an aggressive development plan for the content. What do you think about this resource?

Haggis is still something I have yet to try. Yes, we all know that it is typically the butt of all jokes here in the US. But, after watching Tony Bourdain tuck into a large one on TV, I've actually been intrigued enough to maybe try it, when I get the chance.

On a side note, officials have suggested reducing the fat and salt content. But, what would haggis really be without these? I'm sure that many of its positive aspects have to come from its rich texture.

Having spent a good part of my teenage life in the heartland of America, I know a good fried chicken when I eat one. Over the past weekend, I decided to make a stop at San Francisco's Blue Jay Cafe, one of those joints that tries to bring the comforting tastes of the South to the West Coast urban life. The decor of the place is simply amazing, and brings to mind a coming together of indie, vintage, and western.

After a quick sit at the bar, we were presented with the menus. But, I knew what I wanted--fried chicken, no questions about it. Here, they serve it up with a side of macaroni and cheese and a homemade biscuit. I immediately fell in love with their biscuit, which was crusty and moist. I'm salivating about it right now as I'm writing. The mac 'n cheese was serviceable. But the chicken--oh, the chicken. Their chicken reminded me of why I like fried chicken in the first place. The delicate breading on the outside meets with the lusciously tender and flavorful chicken on the inside. The two are a match made in heaven.

As I finished my last bite of the finger licking good chicken, I vowed to return once again to this southern oasis in San Francisco. They've convinced me that I don't ever really need to leave the tastes of the south behind.

Blue Jay Cafe
919 Divisadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

My only complaint about the service is the lack of carts. The quintessential dim sum meal will include the hustle and bustle of a multitude of carts carrying bounties of bites to eat. At Hang Ah, you have to order off the menu. But, I overlooked this after I had a chance to taste the food. The dim sum at Hang Ah is among the best I have had. The fillingsare flavorful and very fresh, and the dumplings are nice and crispy on the outside. The char siu baos are extremely big, and filled with a glisteningly delicious pork filling.

In addition, they have bunny-shaped shrimp dumplings (pictured above), which are very amusing.

1 Pagoda Pl, off Sacramento St. between Stockton and Grant Sts.
San Francisco, CA

There was an interview conducted recently with a self proclaimed autotroph. In the context of plants, an autotroph is an organism that gets its energy from the sun--basically, a producer with respect to other organisms that eat the produce from the earth itself. However, in the context of humans, its a person that lives without eating food or drinking water. There have been records of fasts that last hundreds of days, but this particular women who was interviewed claimed she had not eaten or drank anything in the past four years.

She claimed her weight started out at about 90 kilos, which is now down to 74 kilos. Also, she says her lungs have adapted to getting water from the atmosphere. Besides brushing her teeth and taking showers, she gets no other water intake.

I can maybe (just maybe) believe the lack of food intake. But no water for four years? This has to be a hoax. Right?

The Japanese have had square watermelons for a while. Due to lack of space, the most pragmatic thing to do to a watermelon is, well, to square it. These edgy melons come at a price of $82 each. I'm not sure on what occasion I would buy a watermelon if it were that expensive, but it sure wouldn't be for a quick snack!

Now, the Japanese have innovated again with pyramid-shaped watermelons. I'm a little confused about the practical applications of this--perhaps one could stack more watermelons in a given space by interleaving them.

Last week I had the pleasure of trying out the buffet at the Wynn in the Las Vegas. The buffet is one of the newest on the block, and is a pretty swank environment. The $20 for the lunch service was well worth it. As far as buffets go, the food was top notch--including some of my favorite entrees: poke, sushi, smoked salmon, barbeque chicken, and swordfish. In the dessert section was gelato, mousse, and decadent brownies. There were so many more choices that I didn't even get to try all of them.

The top left item in the picture was the swordfish. And oh, what a piece of heaven this was. It was so tender and flavorful that I couldn't believe my mouth. This, in fact, was one of the best pieces of swordfish I had ever had--and its at a buffet! At that point I disregarded the mercury warnings and got myself a second helping.

Another potential problem with the RFID pan is that someone could hack it to burn your shrimp. Think about it--just go around the city with a powerful RFID transmitter and burn everyone's meal!

Amazon is now selling gourmet foods--a great idea, I might add. Soon, we'll be able to get everything off of Amazon. But, I was suprised to find out that they also sell bologna. Yes, you got that right: you can now get all your bologna fixes straight from the internet at Amazon. The comments are also quite amusing. And really, do they really need to rate this? It's bologna!