patrick.net

"If I had purchased MSFT in the 80’s, things would have been quite different for me. "

Why didn't I buy Berkshire Hathaway shares in the early 70's?!?!?!

What are your favorite ways to cook seafood?

How about wine poaching?

I'm not a big seafood person. For shrimp and fish I prefer to dredging in tapioca flour and pan fry in canola. Steaming for all crustaceans, lobster, clams, and crayfish. Salmon and trout are salted and pan broiled.

I've never wine poached anything. I'm still trying to figure out what wine poaching is (though I assume it does not involve carrying a gun into a vineyard).

I’ve never wine poached anything.

Something like this:

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe790024

RE: seafood

When in doubt, eat raw. :)

* Not dietary advice. Consuming raw or undercooked seafood can be harmful to your health.

I am having a vision of king crab risotto with green pea puree. Perhaps I should cook that soon...

That sounds good. Though it'll be while before I can afford to test out such a dish (I may have to take up the other kind of wine poaching to afford this wine poached scallop).

I've only had good scallops once (nobody bothers to take to good seafood restaurants), that was in Dalian. It was live and 60 cents a kilo, we steamed it and it turned out really good. Otherwise, it doesn't do much for me.

That sounds good. Though it’ll be while before I can afford to test out such a dish (I may have to take up the other kind of wine poaching to afford this wine poached scallop).

I think Trader Joe's has some good scallops. You do not need too many of them.

However, you may also want to try searing the scallops.

I heard that Dalian is a seafood heaven.

Do you like oxtails? I am also thinking of combining an oxtail soup recipe into one with risotto.

Wouldn't risotto be kind of waste for king crab? I find dungeness crabs to be very good and cheaper. It's not as sweet as blue crabs, but much easier to eat.

I like eating shrimp (or some other white fleshed sea fish) with hot rice congee. That cooks the shrimp quickly and compliments the delicate texture of the shrimp.

I tried TJ frozen seafood once. Never again!

I may have had oxtail once, but I don't remember what it tastes like. Tails and necks are too much work.

Wouldn’t risotto be kind of waste for king crab? I find dungeness crabs to be very good and cheaper. It’s not as sweet as blue crabs, but much easier to eat.

Not really. King crab meat is quite firm so it should do fine. Dungeness crab meat is quite delicate and it can "disappear" in the rice. :)

Blue crab is sweet!

Congee is a good way to cook seafood. Adding clams is the easiest way to bring more flavor to the soup.

I tried TJ frozen seafood once. Never again!

Costco has good scallops too.

Tails and necks are too much work.

Meat should fall off of the oxtails and it is quite tender. I do not usually eat neck.

My fellow Patrick.net bloggers,

I could use your help/ideas . Patrick is now interested in doing a CafePress-style storefront to merchandise Patrick.net themed T-shirts, hats, mugs, etc., but is not too keen on on the per-unit price CafePress charges. The "base price" (CafePress's cut) on each t-shirt is $8.99.

Does anyone out there know of another merchandising/storefront site that does the same thing but takes a slightly less gargantuan cut? I'm new to this game and any constructive suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

HARM, have you tried iprint.com?

Clams are good. Though a good chunk of my family got Hep A through an unfortunate batch of raw clams once. So we always get a little paranoid around clams. We do cook with mussels a lot.

Have you ever tried really small softshell clams? They're called sea melon seeds and they're the size of pumpkin seeds. It's good beer food.

"Costco has good scallops too."

Thanks for the tip. They have good frozen dungeness crabs and mussels too.

@Peter P,

No I haven't, and thanks for the tip!

Clams are good. Though a good chunk of my family got Hep A through an unfortunate batch of raw clams once. So we always get a little paranoid around clams. We do cook with mussels a lot.

I believe there is a vaccine for Hep A.

Have you ever tried really small softshell clams? They’re called sea melon seeds and they’re the size of pumpkin seeds. It’s good beer food.

Perhaps I have tried that in miso soup, but I am not too sure. I usually cook clams in a wine/beer/sake broth. I do not prepare raw seafood at home.

They have good frozen dungeness crabs and mussels too.

I will try. I saw them at $4/lb. It takes some work to get the meat out though. A hammer would be useful.

It was about twenty years ago in China. And I do try to keep my Hep A and Hep C vaccines current when I travel to China, just in case.

I haven't had sea melon seeds raw. They're good sauteed with a little rice wine, scallion and ginger.

I don't have much trouble with dungeness crabs. A seafood cracker might be helpful. The blue crabs are a pain though, especially the claws.

I haven’t had sea melon seeds raw.

I only had cherrystone and littleneck clams raw. They taste very good with mignonette sauce.

The blue crabs are a pain though, especially the claws.

I had blue crabs once but I was more interested in the crab roe.

There seems to be a positive correlation between cholestestrol and taste. :)

Blue crab roe is yummy. East Coast blue crabs taste a lot like Yangtze hairy crabs. The roe gets used like truffle, they use it to flavor many meat and vegetable dishes. Late September and October are very good times for crabs.

Blue crab roe is yummy.

Yes. The roe was so good that forgot the crab had claws.

how are crabs and housing alike??

At this time, they both walk sideways.

When management asked people to stay late and work weekends, the H1-B’s always obliged fearing about being sent home. So, then I have to work the extra time because the H1-B’s will seldom say no, I’m not mad at them I came here on a visa also.

You do not have to do what they do. Perhaps you need another job. One should not have to put up with abusive management. You know, expectation does not necessarily have to be fulfilled.

When management asked people to stay late and work weekends, the H1-B’s always obliged fearing about being sent home.

One can also have two cellphones and turn off the business line after work. The most overworked employees are not necessarily H-1Bs. They tend to be people who do not see a purpose in themselves. Consequently, they think work is all they have.

Go to a sushi bar and you will know there is more beyond work. :)

One of the cafeteria’s at work had oxtail soup just last week. I had never had it before, so I took some. I won’t be trying it again.

Huh? Do not judge food in a cafeteria. It should be presumed bad unless proven otherwise.

But now, I don’t care anymore, a job is just that, read the CNN/Money blog about how people got fired, sad stories but abusive management are alive and well.

If you have politically savvy bosses, you will not be laid off.

I am glad that you have realized "a job is just that".

“I’m sorry, but I forgot that you’re on the list also”

So what? This just illustrates that it is important to have enough saving to survive a temporary setback. Once that stress is gone, it is much easier to approach things.

It is just that I didn’t like the oxtail soup myself.

Perhaps. It is... different.

Record foreclosures in Sydney: doubled since 2002...

Left with an empty feeling

"At Annandale, a "mortgagee in possession" house, bought 18 months ago for $750,000 was up for auction. But only a handful of interested parties went looking for a bargain.

The Susan Street home passed in at auction without attracting a single bid. Before the auction, Century 21 City West principal Matthew Meynell expected the three-bedroom, two-bathroom strata home to sell for about $550,000.

Afterwards, a potential buyer offered a mere $330,000."

They tend to be people who do not see a purpose in themselves. Consequently, they think work is all they have.

how are crabs and housing alike??

At this time, they both walk sideways.

very wise today, peter p :P

Also from that article:

It's not the only repossessed home in the popular inner-west. "There are a couple coming up and we have another in Annandale in a few weeks," Mr Meynell said. "I think some people overcapitalised and it has been very easy for people to borrow money.

The RE agents feign surprise that the RE market could collapse, 2 years after they were telling people 'it only goes up', and developers agents would put a 'conservative' 7% annual growth for 20 years into their projections to convince investors to buy... and they blame 'interest rate hikes' as the problem - so they can blame the Fed... altho lowered interest rates can only lead to a one-off price hike, and that will inevitably be undone when they go up again...

maybe it's time to use a hieronymous bosch graphic for a thread to show capitalist boom/busts? just watched a show on it -- particularly the hell scene from the paradise tryptich...

http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bosch/bosch38.html

I haven't had a chance to peruse it yet, but today's Sunday NYT has a "new" magazine section (very thick): "Keys" or something like it - all about real estate! Should make for interesting bathroom reading later today.

astrid,

On the other hand, compare AT&T’s prices and services in the 100+ years before the breakup and all the great stuff we have now for a fraction os the cost.

Big telecom happens to be my strongest industry of expertise. While that is a quite common popular conception, the reality is much more complex and much different. In fact, US telecom has fallen significantly behind Euro & Asian telecom's in those regards since dereg, while they were never deregulated and are still largely monopolies.

Also, you are confusing natural monopolies from socialized/state-run monopolies. The two are seldom one in the same.

I missed participating in the last thread's discussion of Boston as a leading indicator for the bubble so I thought I'd add my perspective now.

The pop has definitely hit the MSM here. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald both run articles on a weekly basis. The Mass Association of Realtors admits to a ~4% YOY median SFH decline, while the Warren Group (local analysts) come up ~6% decline (they include FSBO's).

On a square foot basis there is no doubt that a 10% decline has occurred for many neighborhoods, some of them very nice, such as Newton.

In the best downtown neighborhoods such as Back Bay and Beacon Hill (where we rent) sales have been sporadic enough that I cannot yet perceive a decline. I think this confirms the theory that the best neighborhoods will be the last to go. When we were looking to buy in Fall 2004, prices were about $650/sq ft, and we are not yet back to those prices.

Still, when I compare the rent on our apartment ($2360/month) to the approximate sale value ($750k) I cannot help but feel a cumulative 30% real decline will occur eventually.

When I talk to coworkers they are evenly split. Half believe declines will continue, half think things will level off. I do have a couple friends who bought two years ago and have been unable to sell without bringing money to the table.

The most interesting recent news is that there will be an auction for unsold condos in a new highrise on the waterfront:

"The developer of a new luxury condominium project in Boston's financial district is resorting to a tactic last seen in the real estate bust of the 1990s: It's holding an auction for the 34 remaining, unsold condominiums...

...A minimum bid will be required for each unit. A one-bedroom currently offered for sale at $480,000 will be sold at or above its $325,000 minimum price. The most expensive unit to be auctioned, a $1.76 million, two-bedroom with a wraparound terrace on the 14th floor with a waterfront view, has a $1.025 million minimum price..."

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/09/06/going_once/

Randy,

I'll defer to your vastly superior (since I know almost nothing about these markets aside from some rather old Economist article) knowledge in this area. Though I will note that the Chinese cellphone service charges went down dramatically after the entry of a second player in the market. While I understand that multiple competitors in a single market can present technological challenges and bad for the companies involved, I'm far less convinced that the presence of competition is bad for the final customers.

"Also, you are confusing natural monopolies from socialized/state-run monopolies. The two are seldom one in the same."

Huh? I assume natural monopolies are utilities & railroads & airline & phone service and state run monopolies are patent monopolies & radio/TV stations given out to serve a stated public interest.

Rat_Patrol,

That's some great footage of Ronnie Montrose and the boys. I'd love to be able to get my hands on the version of Ronnie backing Edgar Winter doing a timeless classic "Tobacco Road" on Don Kirshner's Rock and Roll in Concert. All 17 minutes of it!

The version of "Bad Motor Scooter" on their first album had a "slide guitar" intro that was out of this world. Unlike Tom Sholz of Boston that leaned heavily on artificial "sustain" Ronnie was just fine with the raw sound of his Les Paul straight through a Marshall stack. I'd pay money and stand in line to see him play today.