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Name: Rob
Country: Australia
Metro: Sydney
Birthday: 10/23/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: bcom/llb(hons), usyd. facebook. people and things to do with people. phone calls at any time of day. writing and reading letters. walking and talking with friends. saying 'oh really?' speaking in a foreign language with an authentic accent. travelling and walking in foreign cities. reading fitzgerald short stories. reading murakami novels. going to restaurants and writing reviews. sipping a macchiato. playing pinball and beating an old score. playing solitaire showdown with matt. playing texas, water big 2, or cleopatra. finding really obscure music that i enjoy. creating incriminating lingo. posting on xanga like there is no tomorrow. triumphing over a good food challenge. hearing about your day and what you had for dinner. etc.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
MSN: robert_p_chiu@hotmail.com
Member Since:
12/9/2003
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| From Tom Spencer..... A man in a hot-air balloon realised he was lost, so he reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.
He shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am."
The woman replied. "You are in a hot-air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be a junior solicitor" said the balloonist. "I am" replied the woman. 'How did you know?' "Well" answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far." The woman responded "You must be a partner!" "I am" replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well" said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made promises which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault." | | |
| Layoffs - The Definitive Job Loss League Table (Updated)http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/7851.cntnsWe've been running a financial markets job losses league table for a few weeks now, and several readers have asked if we could recast the league table based on the percentage of financial markets jobs lost in the various firms. So, we have. The figures below are based on our best estimates. In many cases, the firms themselves won't confirm (for obvious reasons) the number of staff they are letting go. In the case of Bear Stearns, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland / ABN AMRO and Thomson Reuters, we have used the job loss projections published in the mainstream media. Bear Stearns - 7,500 job losses, 14,000 financial markets jobs, 53.5% of the total Wachovia - 1,200, 3,900, 30.7% Citi - 7,900, 30,000, 26.3% Royal Bank of Scotland / ABN AMRO - 7,000, 28,000, 25% WestLB - 1,530, 6,120, 25% Fortis / ABN AMRO Asset Management - 490, 2000, 24.5% Thomas Weisel Partners - 160, 800, 20% UBS - 4,380, 22,000, 19.9% Bank of America - 3,650, 20,000, 18.2% Lehman Brothers - 5,000, 30,000, 16.6% Mizuho Financial Group - 300, 2,000, 15% Morgan Stanley - 5,400, 47,050, 11.4% Jefferies & Co - 250, 2,200, 11.3% Fitch Ratings - 130, 1,400, 9.2% Credit Suisse - 1,800, 20,000, 9% Merrill Lynch - 5,600, 63,100, 8.8% Fidelity International - 170, 2,000, 8.5% Dresdner Kleinwort - 450, 6,000, 7.5% HSBC - 1,800, 25,000, 7.2% Goldman Sachs - 2,200, 32,000, 6.8% JPMorgan - 1,620, 25,000, 6.48% (Speculation is rife that the firm will layoff up to 4,000 more bankers soon). Bank of Montreal (BMO Nesbitt Burns) - 150, 2,400, 6.25% Moody's Investor Services - 180, 3,000, 6% Thomson Reuters - 2,500, 50,000, 5% Henderson Global Investors - 45, 980, 4.6% Nomura Holdings - 440, 10,000, 4.4% CIBC World Markets - 100, 2,600, 3.8% Daiwa SMBC Europe - 25, 800, 3.1% Deutsche Bank - 600, 20,000, 3.0% Barclays Capital - 320, 16,200, 1.9% BNP Paribas - 145, 13,000, 1.1% SG Corporate & Investment Banking - 110, 10,500, 1% | | |
| Recipes for leaving homeJuly 1, 2008
http://www.smh.com.au/news/good-living/recipes-for-leaving-home/2008/06/30/1214677920340.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 Don't spoil your children - teach them how to cook the basics, writes Robin Powell. SEX And The City's Carrie kept part of her $40,000 worth of shoes in the oven, presumably safe in assuming that she was never going to roast her Manolos by mistake - that'd be a leathery leg of lamb. Her shopping skills are legendary, chopping skills negligible and even a binge-drinking teenager knows there's not much nutrition in a cosmopolitan. But Carrie's not real - important to remember that - and surely this dearth of cooking skills is not typical? Having cooked a muffin and stuffed a capsicum some time in Year 8, are people quite a lot younger than Carrie capable of leaving home and cooking their own dinner well enough to stay healthy? Keen that my children not see the oven as an extension of the closet, and aware that osmosis doesn't really cut it as food preparation training, for a while there Sunday night at our place was life-skills night. The two daughters took turns making dinner and I assisted with chopping and translating recipes. We raided the cookbook shelves and ranged through the cuisines of India, Japan and Italy, with the meat-avoiding younger daughter exploring the high-fibre realms of vegetarian cooking. We ate more pasta than was strictly necessary, and learned there's not much of a vegetarian nature that will satisfy a man who has been windsurfing on Botany Bay for the past four hours. The project was going well until maths intervened. The maths tutor is only available on Sunday evenings. In the run-up to the HSC, maths skills trump life skills. Catherine Saxelby, nutritionist and mother of an 18-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son, admits she, too, has been only "moderately successful" in teaching her children to cook. "You have to find the right moment, and even then a whole meal can be overwhelming," she admits. She's started to break the training into steps but the goal remains. "The children need to master a mince dish, a stir-fry, a barbecue and a roast. Without those skills, they're at the mercy of fast food." Is it fair to worry, or is this just another case of parents being unable to cast their minds a few decades back? When I left home I lived on ratatouille - sometimes with pasta, sometimes with rice, sometimes with grated cheddar on top. You'd hardly call it cooking. My sister lived with a friend who liked to do dreadful things with a pumpkin and lots of brown rice, and my brother had a thing for cabbage. Saxelby admits she couldn't cook at all until she worked at the Bread Institute with an older home economist who handed out recipes and gave her tips. She insists life is different now because takeaway and convenience food is ubiquitous. Her concern is supported by the results of a recent study at the University of Sydney. Associate professor of Human Nutrition Samir Samman and his team studied 308 young women who are full-time health science students at the university and found a third were iron-deficient. Most of the deficiency is explained by the low intakes of red meat. But why? Is that about cooking skills, budgets, ideology, restrained eating - or all of the above? "It's an interesting question to look at whether the home environment affects health," Samman says. The raw data indicate a little more than half the study students are living away from the family home. "We'll be looking at that in the future. And though we didn't specifically ask about cooking skills, we can make inferences based on their food intake." The most commonly consumed foods were vegetables, followed by fruits. "Mixed dishes", complete meals such as bolognaise or stir-fries, were at the bottom of the consumption list, eaten only slightly more often than eggs. "There's a pattern of snacking, of no food preparation, low skills and low time availability," Samman says. That sounds about right to Madelaine Lucas, 18, who has been living with two girlfriends since she finished the HSC last year. "When we first moved out we made more of an effort but we've started getting lazy and getting more takeaway, which is not good for the budget," she says. They are all aware of the risk of low iron and the three are taking iron supplements to make up for the gaps between sausages. Pasta is the default option, served a few times a week, along with soups, which she points out, are easy and can be made out of scrappy vegetables. For these though, she has had to consult her mother. She thought she'd spent enough time around food preparation to know what to do but, when it came down to it, she was caught thinking: "Wait a minute, how did she do that?" Saxelby thinks TV celebrity chefs have a lot to answer for. First there's the annoying habit of showing how fast something is to make when all the ingredients are pre-chopped and waiting in little white bowls. Then there's the pressure they clearly feel to do something "foodie": first de-bone your quail. "There's too much ego involved," she says. "No one wants to do a show or write a book about how to do the shortcuts, what to eat when it looks like there's nothing in the fridge, about how to do 101 things with a can of tuna in less than 10 minutes." OK, so I can't write the book of 101 ways with a can of tuna but I do have one completely non-foodie recipe for tuna. Put one can of tuna in a microwave container, add a packet of microwave brown rice and a tin of crushed tomatoes. Microwave until hot. It even comes with individual optional variations - frozen peas, baby spinach, chilli, anchovies, olives, parsley, tomato paste, lemon. Tuna mush is now checked off the daughters' list of developing skills and we're on P-plates for some of Saxelby's other requirements. Samman believes the issue goes beyond cooking skills to knowledge about food in general. Part of the university's second-year nutrition course is an introduction to commodities, including fruits and vegetables. Samman is shocked by the lack of recognition. He acknowledges a 19-year-old might not be familiar with a custard apple, but a turnip or a radish? The kicker for him is the all-too-common assumption that pineapples grow mostly below ground, with just the green leaves above ground. "There's a whole range of knowledge about food that's missing," he says. "You see it when you go to the supermarket and the girl at the checkout points at the eggplant and says 'What's that?"' Chef Stephanie Alexander has a plan to cure this problem through her kitchen garden program in primary schools, which is set to go national following a pre-election promise by Kevin Rudd. The next generation may be able to recognise a kohlrabi and know what to do with it but those considering leaving home have some work to do. In between the maths tutoring. French student's chances of romance are friedSOMETIMES a boy's mother hides too much of the grunt work and he can pay a heavy price for his ignorance. At the age of 22, I set out on an excellent adventure across Europe and installed myself in Paris, where I was the only male in my French language class. Eventually, I persuaded a fellow student to come over for dinner in my apartment (a converted hotel room with gas cooker and no fridge). It would be meat, fried rice, a light salad — and red wine, of course. As the veal simmered, it was time to start on the rice … sprinkling it liberally from the bag into a buttered frypan. The grains took a while to heat, which I blamed on the underpowered gas cooker. Soon it became apparent they were going from hard white straight to hard black, bypassing the lovely fluffy consistency my mother would present at table. With my date arriving soon, the problem dawned on me: it was the wrong rice. I scooted down to the market and bought some basmati. Into the frypan it went. Amazingly, the same thing happened: black nuggets, hard as toffee, disgusting to look at, inedible. I whipped out lettuce and tomatoes from my fridge (aka the window ledge), washed them, whacked on the veal, squeezed lemon and poured two very large glasses of wine. On entering, my friend inquired politely about the smoke and burnt smell. Words failed me, in both languages. The evening went quickly downhill and she left early, before the wine could weave its magic. Lesson learned, the hard way. The moral? A French accent is useless if you don't know the facts of rice. | | |
| Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay Pick London Eateries: Richard Vines (Update 2)http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aPNSUcGVtCxw&refer=home July 1 (Bloomberg) -- London has no shortage of popular and respected restaurants, so where do the chefs rate as the best? Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing were among those who took part in this Bloomberg News survey, in which the names that recurred included Le Cafe Anglais, Le Gavroche, Hibiscus, Petrus and Yauatcha. My own longtime favorite is the Lahore Kebab House, and I've had standout meals recently at Texture, the Ledbury and Petrus. This selection updates one in December, when chefs named their best meals. Here's what the chefs had to say this time. Tom Aikens (Tom's Kitchen): ``The Wolseley, because the food is great, the service is fun and Chris Corbin and Jeremy King are just the best.'' Pascal Aussignac (Club Gascon): ``It's Yauatcha. Alan Yau is the greatest restaurateur in London. He's so clever to be able to combine quality and consistency while being able to deliver for the mass market and also upmarket, always in very stylish surroundings, without compromising the quality in any way.'' Claude Bosi (Hibiscus): ``Yauatcha, because I like to go late at night, after service. I enjoy the casual atmosphere and the quality of the food, especially the soft-shell crab.'' Antonin Bonnet (Greenhouse): ``It's Hibiscus, because it's unique, cutting edge and has its own identity. Claude is a very straightforward person, and he's not afraid to push the boundaries with his cuisine.'' Adam Byatt (Trinity): ``If I had to pick between the Square, Roka, Chez Bruce and l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, it would have to be Roka simply because it is out of my food zone so is a real treat. The vibe and tone is exactly how I feel restaurants should be and the welcome is worth coming back for.'' Aiden Byrne (Dorchester Grill): ``Petrus. I've only eaten Marcus Wareing's food once and I was extremely impressed with both the food and service. I love the fact that Marcus and Heston (Blumenthal) are flying the British flag in the world of gastronomy.'' Eric Chavot (Capital): ``Brett Graham at the Ledbury does some nice things. I'm not going to say Pascal Proyart at One-O- One because you'll say I say that every time. I like Tom Aikens, too. I like Chez Bruce, the whole concept. It's nice and laid back.'' Richard Corrigan (Bentleys): ``It has to be Le Gavroche. Silvano (Giraldin) is one of the best to have at front of house. He'll make a pauper feel like a prince.'' Anthony Demetre (Arbutus): ``Le Cafe Anglais is completely unpretentious and has the best roast chicken on the planet.'' Brett Graham (Ledbury): ``I know Shane Osborn's my mate, but I always do enjoy the food at Pied a Terre. Of recent meals, I had a very impressive lunch at Petrus.'' Henry Harris (Soho House): ``It's Le Cafe Anglais. At lunchtime, with the sunlight streaming in, the parmesan custard...you couldn't ask for anything more than that.'' Angela Hartnett (York & Albany): ``St. John because it's just around the corner and is always a treat for breakfast, lunch or tea.'' Mark Hix (Hix Oyster & Chop House): ``Cay Tre and Viet Grill because it's the best, most authentic Vietnamese food in London. It's light and fresh and the restaurants are easy-going.'' Philip Howard (The Square): ``River Cafe serves the best food in London in my humble opinion. The balance of the restaurant is spot on. It's casual yet professional. The staff are well informed and River Cafe delivers more than anywhere else.'' Atul Kochhar (Benares): ``My all-time favorite is Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. It just purrs along with the most dazzling food and incredible service. The restaurant never rests on its laurels. It's constantly evolving, keeping as fresh and exciting as ever.'' Rowley Leigh (Le Cafe Anglais): ``Le Gavroche is Le Gavroche and still the best in town. Service is a ballet and the kitchen cooks proper food. I go two or three times a year and marvel.'' Jamie Oliver (Fifteen): ``I love Theo Randall at the Intercontinental. I worked with Theo at the River Cafe and he is a brilliant chef. I've had some fantastic meals there over the last year or so and the food just gets better.'' Shane Osborn (Pied a Terre): ``Recently, I had a fantastic meal at Texture and at Hibiscus. Both have very individual styles and are very different to what's been done in London. There's a lot of personality in the food. You go and you just go, `Wow.''' Gordon Ramsay (Gordon Ramsay): ``My current favorite London restaurant is Quo Vadis. I am a great admirer of Sam and Eddie Hart. They are restaurateurs in the fullest sense of the word. Their revitalization of this Soho institution is as assured and polished as their other two restaurants and I am delighted to see Quo Vadis restored to its former glory.'' Marcus Wareing (Petrus): ``I was going to say I go to simple eateries, because I had fabulous food at Scott's, but that's going back a year or so. One of the best meals I had in recent time was Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester Grill. It's a shame people talk about the room rather than the cuisine, which is so good. How he got missed by Michelin, I can't imagine.'' This is the second part of a survey: Yesterday, chefs named their favorite restaurants worldwide. | | |
| Ducasse, Ramsay, Pick Top Restaurants: Richard Vines (Update1)http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ax5b0H1g7t3Y June 30 (Bloomberg) -- El Bulli and the Fat Duck battle it out each year to be named the world's best restaurant. Other venues don't get a chance. So, where do chefs and restaurateurs like to eat? I asked Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Gagnaire and other culinary masters with U.K. restaurants about their favorite places in the world outside London. Tom Aikens (Tom's Kitchen): ``Troisgros (Roanne, France) is a gastronomic delight and is one of the best meals I have had.'' Pascal Aussignac (Club Gascon): ``It's Troisgros (Roanne, France). I enjoyed every single thing I ate. It was creative and classic at the same time. I can't imagine a better restaurant.'' Claude Bosi (Hibiscus): ``L'Arpege (Paris) for its simplicity, the quality of the produce and the friendly service. It's a great restaurant which feels like it could be my home. Alain Passard is a proper cook, not just a chef.'' Adam Byatt (Trinity): ``Nicolas Le Bec (Lyon, France) is my favorite. I visited in 2003 when it had only been open a month. It was modern, personal, thought through, and the food was truly memorable. Nicolas is one of the most innovative chefs I've met.'' Aiden Byrne (Dorchester Grill): `The Fat Duck, I've eaten there about seven times. I haven't had the same dish twice and every time I go, I come away a little more educated.'' Eric Chavot (Capital): ``I went to El Bulli (Roses, Spain) and had a good time. But I don't think I'd go back. It's something so special: The concept, the service, the location, the whole thing. Con Fabes (St. Celoni, Spain) was more classic.'' Richard Corrigan (Bentleys): ``Gambero Rosso (San Vincenzo, Italy) because long before it became one of the best in the world, we had the pleasure of getting to know Fulvio Pierangelini. It's fantastic food, deconstructed to within an inch of its life.'' Anthony Demetre (Arbutus): ``Le Tracteur (Uzes, France) is what all restaurants should be about: full of passion, soul and great spirit. Numa Testud is a real chef who goes to the market in the morning and cooks on his own for 40-50 per night. The menu changes daily with fresh market produce.'' Alain Ducasse (Alain Ducasse): ``One of my most memorable dinners was at Sushishou in Tokyo. It left me with an emotional souvenir. Keiji Nakazawa is an original chef with a perfect knowledge of the Japanese terroir. The refined ingredients, delicate taste of the sushi, and the subtle tableware, make for a truly harmonious experience. I had to share my discovery with you, as you will not find it in any restaurant guides.'' Pierre Gagnaire (Sketch): ``In no particular order, my favorites are: Marc Veyrat, Megeve, France; L'Auberge de l'Ill, Illhaeusern, France; Mugaritz, Errenteria, Spain; Dal Pescatore, Runate, Italy; Koju, Tokyo; La Bastide, St.-Antoine, France; Restaurant Olivier Roellinger, Cancale, France; Le Contre Quai, Sauzon, France. Brett Graham (Ledbury): ``Some of the most exciting food I've eaten has been at Pierre Gagnaire (Paris.) It's so inventive and most times the combinations work fantastically. I also like L'Astrance (Paris) and Bras (Laguiole, France).'' Des Gunewardena (D&D Restaurants): ``A day exploring Californian vineyards in the Napa Valley followed by dinner at the French Laundry (Yountville) is a truly wonderful experience which ranks up there as one of the great days of my life.'' Henry Harris (Soho House): ``Chez Panisse (Berkeley, California) is the greatest example of local and home grown and reared ingredients enjoyed in one of the most relaxed settings. It's simple and honest cooking devoid of pretension.'' Angela Hartnett (York & Albany): ``Jean Georges. The food is always inventive but never over the top. Whenever I go to New York, I try to eat there and I always find something different and exciting.'' Philip Howard (The Square): ``I've had a couple of meals over the years at Rockpool (Sydney) that I've really enjoyed. That's as good as anywhere I've been for the all-round experience.'' Atul Kochhar (Benares): ``The French Laundry represents the ultimate example of a restaurant that has married an idyllic setting with truly sensational food. The whole experience is a pleasure for all five senses and is incredibly well conceived.'' Ichiro Kubota (Umu): ``It's Paul Bocuse in Lyon, because it is authentic and I love the philosophy behind Mr. Bocuse's cuisine: It's genuine, and upholds tradition. I respect him and admire him so much.'' Rowley Leigh (Le Cafe Anglais): ``Checchino dal 1887 is old Rome, dignified and calm, with a great menu of Roman classics, many offal but many not, a great wine list and you can sit under the trees and watch La Dolce Vita spinning past on the way to the nightclubs in Testaccio.'' Shane Osborn (Pied a Terre): ``It's Arzak (San Sebastian, Spain) because of the atmosphere, the food, the complete package. I had a wonderful time and was made to feel so welcome. It was absolutely brilliant. I walked out with the biggest smile on my face.'' Gordon Ramsay (Gordon Ramsay): ``I've just had a manic week in Australia at the Good Food Show. The undoubted highlight of the whirlwind tour was a phenomenal lunch at an iconic beachside restaurant, the Icebergs Dining Room in Bondi Beach. The food was uncomplicated and fresh and the setting just blissful, it epitomizes the laid-back Sydney style that I find so refreshing.'' Michel Roux Jr. (Le Gavroche): ``So much depends on where you are and the occasion. I could say somewhere simple like Marie- Antoinette in Mauritius, which would never get a Michelin star, but I associate it with holidays, family and fun, so somewhere like Le Cinq in Paris.'' Marcus Wareing (Petrus): ``I'm a huge fan of Per Se (New York). The cuisine gave me everything I wanted. There's so much satisfaction in the food. From the start to the finish, it was pure pleasure. Everything was at a high. There were no troughs.''
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