Random Links

It's been a surprising tough week this week - though I should have seen it coming. Errands to run for the Tokyo trip (visa, tickets, etc.) and things at work are picking up. Anyways here are some random snippets and thoughts...

1. Have a secret? Here's an anonymous say to let it all out: http://postsecret.blogspot.com (scroll to the bottom to see instructions).

2. There's quite a surprising variety of advice columns in the world. Some of my favorites:

• Dear Economist: The tagline is 'Resolving reader's dilemmas with the tools of Adam Smith'. I read it from the weekend edition of the Financial Times. You'd have to say it's not particular useful (low utilility) although it's kinda funny in a nerdy way how hard the guy tries to answer everyday problem in terms of the dismal science.
• Savage Love: Sex advice (mostly) for straights from a gay man. He's not called 'Savage' for nothing - notorious for the one-liner put down. The people who write him and his advice are both hilarious. I do think beneath it all he gives pretty ok advice though.
• Word Court: From the Atlantic Monthly, this column tackles nit-pickingly obscure questions about the English Language. Is there really no difference between being a postgraduate or graduate student, etc?

3. Dish of the week - Linguine with pesto.

I somehow felt the urge to do it the traditional pestle-and-mortar way, as urged by Neil Perry in his XXX food porn of a book:

[Pesto] is usually made in a blender, ends up tasting more of roasted nuts and garlic than it does of basil and comes out dark green. It should be made in a mortar and with a pestle so that the basil leaves are creamed and their oils are released, rather than chopped and heated. It sounds hard, but it is really simple.

Yeah right! Trouble was that I didn't have a pestle or mortar handy in Singapore... so I improvised to use the bottom of a tea cup. Housekeeping must be pissed at the mess I'm making these days. This is after a good 20 minutes of pulping...

End resulting turned out to be quite worth the labour... with fresh basil aroma + kick of garlic/pepper + creaminess from olive oil and parmesean + a sweet nuttiness from the pine nuts. Definitely will make this again.

Any of you out there thing it's weird if I go out and buy a ครก (mortar)? Comments please... I could get a designer ครก:

Well-known architect Duangrit Bunnag has expanded his creativity to design a collection of furniture and household items for Anyroom. For this show, he presents a low wooden table, Alone, in a natural brown colour in minimalist style, and Krog, a granite mortar that retains its normal function but assumes contemporary form. [Nation, Sunday June 19]