Well Done!

I think what makes people interesting is that we all have very distinctive tastes in everything. I think that's why myspace.com is interesting to young kids. You get to read about what turns others "on" as well as be a bit narcissistic and list exactly what turns you "on." As for this post, I'd like to discuss what goes into cooking a steak. At restaurants, the wait staff will generally ask how you'd like your meat prepared. For those of you who are vegetarian or just don't know anything about meat, there's rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done...in that order, generally. There may be others, from a master chef's point of view, but for general recourse, these are the main ones. Well, I had dinner with Anthony and Carrie Friday night at Frida, an upscale spanish/mexican restaurant in Beverly Hills. I ordered a filet mignon, and to the horror of my dinner companions, chose to have it made "medium well." When it arrived, it was not medium well. It was not medium (which I can tolerate), it was medium rare to rare (depending on where you would cut the steak). So rare in some parts, that it was purple! So, I cut up my steak into smaller pieces and sent it back. When it came back to me, it was seared almost black on the outside and still rare to medium rare on the inside! The manager came by at one point and asked about our food, and I mentioned the "inedible." She took the steak back to the kitchen and had them re-make it a third time. All the while, our waiter never came to the table. When I finally got my food back...the steak was well done, not "well done!"...and tasted like burnt beef. Gross. And...I didn't get any discounts or apologies from the waiter.

On Public Restroom Etiquette

I was just in the restroom at work. While washing my hands, I saw a woman go into a stall next to another woman. Now, why in the world do people do that?? All of the other restroom stalls were empty! Why would she choose the one stall that's right next to someone else? It must've been unpleasant for her...since the woman next to her had been in that stall since before I even got in!

Asian Pacific Americans Unite!

I have always been interested in politics and always try to vote (except for a couple of unforeseen circumstances), but I have never been outwardly extremely political. When I was a journalist, we had to maintain our lack of bias in order to have credibility. And after I started working in entertainment, no one seems all that interested in discussing politics. But this weekend, after attending the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival (The Queen from Virginia screened to a big and enthusiastic crowd)...it started me thinking about issues that affect us all. I had not even heard about Senator George Allen's racially charged comments..until I read this blog entry by Eric Byler, a director of one of the films screening at the festival. I encourage everyone to pass these on to your Asian Pacific American friends:

http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/Asian/dialogue_opinion_letters/byler_george_allen_macaca.asp

http://apafilm.org/blog/

If nothing else, let's start the dialogue.