. Celeriac

Last week we came into possession of a mystery vegetable.


Brief research on the internet proved it to be Celeriac (Apium graveolens rapaceum) also known as "celery root," or "knob celery."


Should you ever happen upon such a thing yourself, here is something you can do.

Slice it up.


Boil it with potatoes, then mix it with sauteed onions and artichokes.


Top it with garlic, milk-soaked bread, and parsley.


Bake it .



Eat it.

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Whenever I go grocery shopping by myself, people talk to me. I don't know why. It's not like I go around making eye contact or anything. Old ladies will stop me in frozen foods wanting to know the location of tinned soup. Teenagers will appear by my side while I'm loading up on bulk bath products and tell me their entire medical histories.

Last weekend I went to the new Whole Foods in Noe Valley. I was perusing the beer selection, wondering what to try next, when an old man about my age sauntered over and said, "They have a lot of beer here."

I said, "Yes they do."

He said, "What are you looking for?"

And suddenly I felt like Mary Ann Singleton in the melon section of the Castro Safeway at the beginning of "Tales of the City".

"Um... this." I said, picking up a small bottle of something close at hand.

And that is how I happened to try Harviestoun Brewery's "Old Engine Oil." A fine stout from Scotland.


It's very nice. You should try some. It tastes a bit like licorice. But more like beer.

Noe Valley Whole Foods also sell Dorset Cereals "Berries and Cherries." A fine muesli from England.

You should try that too.

. Phase 1

. Pressure

On Valentine's Day we did some pressure printing at Nif's college. You stick a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper and then run it through a letterpress machine. It's good for making interesting textures and backgrounds. Nif told me this repeatedly before we began. But I wanted to make a complete picture, not just a background, so that's what I did. And then when it turned out a bit crap I asked Nif why she hadn't told me just to make a background.

. Book of the Month

Did you read it?

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson?

You said you were going to read it. What did you think?

After the first chapter I did not like it at all. The language is boring and ugly (especially after reading Voltaire) and there is way too much guff about financial espionage that no one could possibly give a crap about.

But then the second chapter introduces an actual character (the girl with the dragon tattoo) and Nif was busy with school work, so before long I was half way through the book.

This is a crime thriller. The plot grows as thick and insidious as DreamWorks split-pea soup. But there's just enough dark humour and character development to keep you coming back for more (very much unlike the soup).

In the end it all ties up a bit too neatly, but maybe that's what detective fiction is supposed to do.

There are two more novels in the series - "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". But shouldn't that be "Hornets' Nest" ? Surely the possessive apostrophe is in the wrong place. Or do all hornets live alone? Anyway, I enjoyed the first one, but I don't think I will read the other two.

Did you know there was a movie?


I'm waiting for the dvd to come out.

And Hollywood is going to make a version starring Brad Pitt.

Oh dear.

Next month we are reading "The Book of Genesis" Illustrated by R. Crumb. (I don't think that one ties up too neatly).

I very much look forward to hearing all of your fascinating opinions.

. SF Beer Week

It's Beer Week here in San Francisco, so we took the bus up Haight Street, past the long line of people queued round the block to get into the Toronado, and went to Magnolia instead.

They had "strong beer and cheese pairings." Here is our in-depth report on the situation.

. Superbowl Sunday

. Happy Nif Year

Today is the first day of 'Year of the Tiger', the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle. It is also the sign of my birth year. Hooray! I have another 24 years to wait for my particular Wood cycle, but I still have high expectations. Tigers are able to ward off the three main disasters of a household: fire, thieves and ghosts. And this will come in handy, because there is a ghost in the graduate studios in Tiburon.

Fear me and my awesome earthly branch symbol: 寅.
Happy New Year!

. Naked Trees

My favorite time of year...