S2H

Ok, this idea, I like.
Take a look at the S2H - really a good idea, i think. You wear this little wrist watch device during the day and it registers how much you move. The more you move, the more points you get. The more points you have, the more you can trade in for real physical goods. Or digital goods. So I am liking the idea that if I wear this this thing at the gym, i rack up points that I can trade in for itunes goods. Or other things. And it doesn't even look half bad. In fact, kinda cool.
The website is here in case you are interested in reading more about it...

It was created for kids mainly. Like the kind that just sit on the sofa all day and watch tv...

The Sports and Food Weekend

Last night was Swiss food over at Mel and Philippe's (thanks guys! was lots of fun - looking forward to the next get-together, wherever and whenever that is). Fondue (yum) and a dessert I had never had, but always wanted to try: a chestnut puree with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I read about it in a Marcella Hazan cookbook and wondered how it would be. I thought it was therefore an Italian dessert, but in fact it is (also) Swiss, and Philippe brought the chestnut puree when he was in Switzerland a couple weeks back. I have to admit - I was happy to try it finally. :-) And the cheese fondue with mushrooms and potatoes - very nice.

The gym, both yesterday and today, compensated for the calorie bomb (but very pleasurable food experience) weekend. Must have burned around 1000 calories both days - felt really great.

I decided to FINALLY GO FOR IT with Küchenschlacht (the hobby cook tv show here in Germany on ZDF) and am assembling my application and recipes this week and next. Tried out a recipe tonight (needed to time things) that is at least under consideration: Salmon roulade - butterflied salmon fillets stuffed with an artichoke, mint and almond stuffing. Results: very good, but possibly a bit too long to assemble (I would have 35 minutes from start to finish.) Let's see. Have a bunch of ideas...

When in Switzerland...Eat Bircher Muesli

Breakfast. Bircher Muesli...uuuuuummmmmm. And healthier than croissants...

The Ei Phone

Haven't run into this one at the grocery store yet, but I will be looking now!!! (I am guessing this is an old joke...)

and...

Really nice views from the top floor of our client's building. A nice open airy space - a pleasure to have meetings in.

Hello Allgaeu

Beautiful landscapes on today's trainride

Breakfast for Dinner

Had a craving for south Indian food this past week so decided to make a traditional south indian breakfast...for dinner tonight. Turned out quite well, even if I did cheat a bit on the Idlis.

What is it?
Two different kinds of chutneys - both delish - a coconut chili chutney with mustard seed and a roasted red pepper chutney with cashews.
Yogurt (actually not south indian - you don't find much yogurt down there, at least not in my experience which is admittedly quite limited...but we needed it cause everything else was pretty spicy)

and
Idlis - essentially cornmeal-texture muffins (although technically I think they are made out of ground rice...). Here is where I cheated. I used a mix. You mix the powder with yogurt and sauteed and chopped vegetables to make a batter and then steam them. They are also not the traditional idli shape, although fairly close...next time I'll try from scratch - I don't think they are that difficult. Need to find an idli steamer...

I remember the first...and second time I ate idlis. The first was actually in Singapore. A friend who I was studying with there (Amarpal) dragged me off to a food court to try them out (not much dragging was needed though). We were both sadly disappointed though. They were not fresh enough - idlis should really be fresh out of the steamer to be really good or else they have a tendency to get heavy. But the second time was another thing completely. We were travelling from Cochin down to Trivandrum by train. It was 6 in the morning and we had just landed the night before quite late. Had slept perhaps 5 hours and then it was time to get up and run for the train. After breathlessly grabbing a berth, we settled in for the 4 hour train ride and I realized we'd not had dinner the night before and breakfast/lunch was looking pretty far off. A guy who worked on the train asked if we wanted something to eat. (Of course we did!) and so on the next stop, he jumped off the train and bought us breakfast from a vendor working just next to the tracks. He brought us back Idli and Appams - both breakfast breads - with chutneys. So good.

Manam

The problem with a lot of ethnic food here in Germany is that the cooks try to adapt it to the tastes of the German palate. Namely (often, not always): bland, salty, heavy, meaty. So once in awhile you come across a real AUTHENTIC place and you get really happy because the original flavors all burst out at you. And in such places, you don't care if you're sitting on a tiny little wooden stool in a tiny space with 10 chairs with your coat on the floor behind you. You are focused instead on the kitchen behind the counter where the cooks are chattering in their native language, sauteing the dishes on the spot, and pulling other amazing things out of ovens or steamers, etc. The menus are generally short and provided in the native language (and english/german), there is a secret special of the day that is not on the menu which they will offer to you if you are nice, and you find that when you leave the place, you want to keep it to yourself.

Yes, well, some people have big mouths. ;-)

I've been wishing for a great Thai place around where I work and finally there is one. Manam apparently opened up about 6 months ago. It's a hole in the wall (as my mother would call it), crushed into a little corner of a "hinterhof" (parking yard in this case) just off of Rosenheimerstrasse. The guys who work on the second floor in my building discovered it one day about a month ago and apparently have been keeping it a secret. But Ranjith came and grabbed me for lunch today and then we grabbed another 4 people and traipsed over to the little place, crossing our fingers that it wouldn't be crowded with the Thai lunch crowd that is apparently frequenting the place.

I had my favorites: a green papaya salad (didn't beat the amazing green papaya slad I had the last time I was in Singapore, but it was really really really good - although be careful if you don't LOVE garlic...) and some green curry with squid. We were all trading bites of each others' dishes and I can tell you the pad thai was great, as was the steamed fish with lemongrass and coconut that Ranjith ordered.

Looking forward to Monday next week - Mallorie and I agreed we'd go again.

This Gives Me A Headache

In recent meetings with clients, I can't seem to shut up about Augmented Reality and how cool it is going to be when someone finally gets one of these apps working in Germany. (Buncha cool stuff already working in the US. Unfortunately, I don't dare use my iPhone in the US because of how outlandishly expensive it would be...).

I am guessing that not everyone knows what I am talking about when I casually throw out the words Augmented Reality - this is the ability of an application to take something like a photo or a video or merely a glimpse through a camera lens, combined with your GPS-sensed location and layer on additional, potentially useful information.

Here are some examples below - ripped directly from GigaOm. (Thanks for the tip, Scholly!)






So you can use this kind of info to help you find the subway, get recommendations at a restaurant, etc.

But with all the hype over Augmented Reality, you might imagine that things could get a bit out of hand. And they have. According to AdFreak, this little video showcases the crazy imagination "from London architecture student Keiichi Matsuda, who envisions just how bizarre your life might look in the not-too-distant future—a logo-dominated age in which every structure and visual space is aglow with advertising and the insignia of global commerce is woven into all aspects of your existence."



Augmented Reality Overdrive. And I already have a headache. No thanks. Pass on this one.

Phil, The Social Media Groundhog

Well, the news is in apparently. In Punxsutawny, Phil has spoken:
Winter will continue for six more weeks. (At least in the United States...)



But apparently he transmitted this unwelcome piece of information in a number of new ways this year:

via text message.

The article also mentions the other social media platforms Phil is apparently using:
"On the Pennsylvania-tourism Facebook, Punxsutawney Phil fans responded to his prognostication with lots of "nos" and "boos." One commenter asked, "Does this forecast count for Europe? In which case I am pushing the dislike button."

People interested in Punxsutawney Phil's prediction also had the option of receiving his forecast by text message or through Twitter. Unfortunately, many of the Groundhog Day text messages did not go out on time, and the Twitter account for visitpa.com was apparently hacked, so Phil's forecast was not posted there either.

"Somebody got into our Twitter account. It was compromised," Bonds said.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, this National Geographic article describes what I am talking about: "Tradition has it that if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day—always February 2—winter weather will continue for six more weeks across the United States. But if Phil doesn't see his shadow, then spring temperatures are just around the corner." Read the article further for the whole history of this "holiday."

Meanwhile, I'm just happy to see that Phil is able to communicate with us in so many more channels...