Party in Style (N. America excluded)

While working on compiling Travel Packs for PlanetEye, I found some pretty interesting spots. Reading Forbes Travel makes me so much more excited about traveling in general. First of all, their writers are amazing. Second of all, they really do know what to select, especially if you have your AmEx ready to pay for the recommendations.

The story on Insomnia in Style a.k.a. after hours locations from Madrid to Hong Kong. What caught my eye is the fact that people start partying later, and go all the way to the morning, ending a night on town with breakfast. The place I wanna go to in London after hopping from place to place is “London’s first 24-hour upscale brassiere, Vingt-Quatre, is a cross-Channel import meant to fill the hungry stomachs of Chelsea’s party clique with staple French food.” Yeah! Yeah!

I’m not a big fan of extremely upscale venues, because usually the music is not so good and it becomes more about your designer outfit or a quid stack. Maybe I’m too young Oh yeah, since this post is about “partying in style”, London’s Intercontinental recently started to offer the “3am to 10am exclusive experience” priced at $7,000. It buys you one of the four Signature Suites at the Park Lane property and plenty of Belvedere vodka, mixers and soft beverages for you and 9 others.

Oh, also a while back when I had an issue with squirrels, I wanted to find out if any restaurants cook it. And what do you know, London’s St John Restaurant offered squirrel. Apparently it’s like tender rabbit, or a very gamey chicken or something like that. Point being, why not try that. Unfortunately, it seems that August is not the squirrel season, and I won’t get to try it. When I live there, then.

PS. Jebus Christ, I really do blog about food too much. Well, excuse me, fine food, company and conversation are some of the most important things for me. As are respect, productivity, health and trendhunting.

Filed under: moving up , animals, dancing, food, fun, London, nightlife, planeteye, plans, restaurants, self, squirrel, travels

Penchant for Caviar

Originally uploaded by Tatters

I love caviar, what can I say. Caviar is important. Caviar is good for you. Caviar should be eaten all the time. With almost anything. Preferably by itself. When I was a kid, back in Russia, I’d always eat it by the tablespoonfuls. I’m the Behemoth from Master and Margarita.

I also enjoy it with bliny. Don’t like the beluga caviar so much. I mean, it’s all right, but I prefer the red one better. I can also consume much more red caviar than black. Hence my red hair.

My two most memorable instances of consuming caviar are from 1997 and 2007. In 1997 I remember celebrating the Day of Fishermen back when we lived in Magadan. My dad and I went with his boss and friends on this massive boat and for lunch I consumed a whole bowl of caviar. I remember just sitting there with a big spoon in my hands and taking my time with the product. Yum Yum. Later on that night I got to control the ship since everyone except me, my dad and the dog were drunk. (Someone woke up eventually ) In 2007, I went home to Vancouver for Xmas holidays and my parents managed to get half a pound of red and black caviar for my visit. That was the first time I ate so much caviar since we moved to Canada.

You can buy it in bulk in Russia (and that’s the way it should be!) for $50kg in Sakhalin. Sigh.

Filed under: memories , caviar, food, memories, obsessions, penchant, russia

Professional Tennis

I am going to the Rogers Cup quarter-finals game tonight to see two matches – Andy Murray vs. Novak Djokovic followed by Richard Gasquet vs. Rafael Nadal. That would be my first professional tennis game.

Filed under: simple life , sports, toronto

Dinner at Cajú on Saturday

July 19th was the second last day of Summerlicious, and so Jesse and I went to savour the food. Interestingly, about five or six of my friends refused to go to Cajú for various reasons – sick, birthdays, don’t like Brazilian (!), expensive, etc, until le gourmand Jesse came along.

1. Gazpacho Soup
2. Grilled pork and beef skewer, served with cassava chips, farofa (sautéed, toasted cassava flour) and tomato salsa vinaigrette
3. Coconut flan

That’s a twilight picture of my coconut flan. Perfect portion (the radius of these tinies equals that of a Canadian toonie coin).

As pointed out by my companion, the coconut was kept rather moist as opposed to dried out, as in the macaroon fashion.

Filed under: moving up , food, restaurants, summerlicious, toronto

Stevie Nicks “On The Edge of Seventeen” + Mp3 Download

This would have been more relevant a while back, but it’s nevertheless an amazing song. Ah, the seventeen year old me ! Stevie Nicks “Edge of Seventeen” (click to download)

Just like the white winged dove…
Sings a song…
Sounds like she’s singing…
Whoo… whoo… whoo…
Just like the white winged dove…
Sings a song…
Sounds like she’s singing…
Ooo baby… ooo… said ooo

And the days go by…
Like a strand in the wind…
In the web that is my own…
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby…
Nothin’ else mattered

He was no more… than a baby then
Well he… seemed broken hearted…
Something within him
But the moment… that I first laid…
Eyes… on… him… all alone…
On the edge of… seventeen

Filed under: Quotable , memories, mp3, music

Snippets

The Watchmen trailer is out. The Dark Knight broke the opening night record. It grossed around $155 million on the opening weekend.

* * *

I had a great weekend – saw professional tennis (Toronto is currently enjoying its Rogers Cup), some of which included Nadal sitting in the middle of the court and posing for cameras. We concluded that Nadal should instead do what he born to do, and that was tennis, not modeling.

I also played video with Jeremy for 7 or 8 hours straight! Unheard of! I felt a little guilty for spending so many hours completing quests and such (we played The Simpsons Game), but on the other hand I’ve never done things like this when I was in high school, which seems to be the universal prime time for these activities.

When I was in high school I never spent hours watching TV or playing games. I did chop up fashion magazines for my collages, I wrote stories, took photographs with my 35mm camera and developed them, read tons, had tea with friends, did my homework and generally kept myself busy.

Actually, the one thing I did do at some point in grade 11 (fall 2002) is wake up around 7am – and sometimes 6am – in order to play Warcraft III before going to my first class. And I vividly remember how I would wolf down the pages of American Psycho as I waited for the game to load.

Filed under: simple life , american psycho, bret easton ellis, games, high school, memories, pop culture, warcraft

On Batmans

Jeremy, Ian, Elia and I went to the 12:50am screening of the latest Batman affair. It nearly sold out, too.

Right after I purchased my advanced tickets at work yesterday, I announced that I was going to spoil the movie for everyone in the office. Obviously, that was a joke. My coworker took it to heart, however, and seriously uttered: “You better not spoil the movie!” I said: “Yeah, yeah, I better NOT indeed” in a manner that was rather saying, “what are you going to do about it?”

It’s a great movie – it’s intense, dark, shocking, unrelenting in the distance it’s willing to go. Very effective.

But there is nothing to spoil! Don’t tell me you don’t have the slightlest clue on who’s going to get caught, who is going to die, who should die, who doesn’t die, who ends up worse than before. In fact, everyone ends up in a worse state than they originally started with. I thought of Prisoner’s Dilemma when the movie ended, although the two are not directly related. The only way I’d spoil things is if I outlined particularly effective action scenes. But I wouldn’t do that! :-p

Go see it in IMAX if you can. I probably will.

PS. Yes, Joker is amazing. Amusing fellow, in fact.

Filed under: simple life , batman, joker, movies, pop culture, prisoners dilemma

Dinner at Fuzion on Friday

Tomorrow I will be seeing Viktoria, and we will be going to Fuzion at 580 Church Street to catch up and have a great girls night out time

My Summerlicious dinner picks are:

1. Composed Salad of Watermelon, Heirloom Tomato and Greek Feta, Pistachio and Pickled Shallot Dressing
2. Soy-grilled Bison Bavette, Gratineed Potato “Chips,” Honey Mushrooms, Warm Truffled-Soy Dressing
3. Thyme Roasted Stone Fruits, Polenta-Olive Oil Cake, Whipped Vanilla Ricotta

Life is delicious, folks!

Filed under: moving up , food, restaurants, summerlicious, toronto

Dinner at Toula tonight

Gotta love Summerlicious – I’m going to reconnect with Ian at Toula (1 Harbour Square, 38th Floor) tonight, and I am mighty looking forward to the meal.

My picks are:

1. Jumbo Tiger Shrimp Wrapped in Prosciuto di Parma and Aged Balsamic Reduction ORRR Spinach and Baby Arugula Salad with Roasted Almonds, Cherry Tomatoes, Jumbo Sea Scallops au Gratin over Lemon and Oil
2. Ricotta & Herbs Stuffed Free Range Chicken with Grilled Portobello, Shiitaki, Oyster Mushrooms (Alla Cortinese)
3. Toula’ Home made Sorbet Trio W. Cookies

Yum yum yum. More Summerlicious on Saturday night and Sunday night.

Filed under: moving up , food, restaurants, summerlicious, toronto

PlanetEye – where I intern

Well, well, well!

Rock Band Set Up in the Media Room

PlanetEye Inc., the company for which I am interning this summer, moved to a new office, which delights me! Until now, me and two other interns used to work from an office down the hall, thus being apart from the team. However, now we’re all together like a big family that we are, and I must say my productivity shoots through the roof as a result of that!

Today I’ve been very busy and also brimming over the top with all sorts of ideas. Lotsa good things are in store!

By the way, one of the raddest new additions to our office is Rock Band in the new media room. I’ve never played the game before, and got my first chance last night. I’m gonna be the guitar rocker in the office. I’m going to be obsessed with this video game in no time.

Moreover, PlanetEye is running a new contest – win a $2,000 travel voucher for Travelocity Last Minute Deals – all you have to do is sign up for a free account at this awesome travel site. Contest closes August 11, 2008. Go for it!

Filed under: simple life , fun, job, planeteye, promo, rock band, work

Lobster Trivia

So, as it turns out I am obsessed with lobsters at this moment in time. Luckily, on Mondays I can enjoy it for $20 at the Ultra Supper Club (which is a place I wouldn’t usually go to).

Lobsters are very low in saturated fat and carbs, whilst high in protein! As a matter of fact, it’s a perfect item to include in your diet – it’s even better than chicken or lean pork and all that. If you eat 3.5 ounces of lobster meat (minus the butter!) you’d be getting 93 calories. That’s less than the calorie content of chicken of the same serving.

Lobsters can be cannibals! Blue lobsters occur once in every 3-4 million lobsters! They all turn red in the end though The largest lobster ever caught was over 44 pounds! It takes lobsters 5-7 years to grow to legal size; 3 pound lobster is about 15-20 years old. Takes a while. Unfortunately, no one has yet figured out a way to raise lobsters in captivity (much less make profit from such operations), hence no lobster aquaculture. Keep paying high prices!

How to eat a lobster.

Atlantic Canada Lobster Promotion group provides us with a very interesting nutritional comparison chart here – lobsters seem to be the best choice if you can afford to eat them on a daily basis.

PS. Wow, geez, during my lobster research I found the Nutrition Data website – check it out, it’s pretty hardcore when it comes to everything you want to know about the things you consume!

And with this I go to sleep!

Filed under: random facts , food, fun facts, lobster

Karin Planet

Oh, hey, there’s a planet bearing my name – 832 Karin. it “is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It is the largest member of the Karin Cluster, which is named after it. Found in 2002, the Karin cluster is notable for being very young. It is currently believed to have formed in a collision only 5.8 million years ago ^[1]. 832 Karin is an S-Type asteroid, approximately 19km in diameter.” Thx, Wiki!

Filed under: random facts , 832 Karin, astronomy, self, vanity

The Best Dog in the Whole World!

Bugs Tomato!

When he was 6 months old! (Click for a larger version)

Bugs Tomato is now 2.5 years old, and he’s a damn smart chihuahua – he knows many tricks, listens to my dad all the time, and even sings songs. He’s with my parents in Vancouver. He licks the phone every time I call, and is the happiest dog in the airport every time I get off the plane back home.

He also knows words like “Karina” (that would be me), “kurochka” which is chicken in Russian (a very loving term for it, as a matter of fact) – his favorite food, and he knows the word “muha” which means ‘fly’ in said Russian. The fly is his enemy as the buzzing noise makes him really afraid. Same with the vacuum. He runs under the bed to hide. Yes, he’s a bit of a sensitive soul.

Filed under: simple life , bugstomato, chihuahua, dog, fun, joy

My midterm topic

According to Hesiod’s Theogany, discussed in the opening contextual lectures for Symposium, women mean something quite different from men when they use the terms “love” and “sex”. In your essay, do the following:
1) With reference to Gaea, explain what women seek as the goal of their erotic desire.
2) With reference to Uranus, Cronos and Zeus, explain what men seek as the goal of their erotic desire
(For both 1 and 2, support your answers with examples from the story)
3) Explain why the Theogany a tragedy (again support your explanation with reference to the story)

Not hard. One page per question.

Filed under: moving up , exam, hesiod, paper, philosophy

Peculiar city names

Andy and I were talking on the phone tonight, and the conversation stirred in the direction of his opinions on the town in which he lives. He’s in Arcata, California, and he mentioned Eureka, California and its list of disadvantages.

I got slightly distracted (just a little, Andy!), and thought of how someone got the idea of calling a place “Eureka”. What’s with the Archimedian streak? Then I started laughing quite a bit at the thought of some nitwit leaping into the air, squeaking “Eureka!”

Andy, however, shared an even better insight – Truth or Consequences, New Mexico! Whoa, I must say. The town bears the name of an old American quiz show. Towns with names like these definitely have a higher place on my dislike of some North American city-naming traditions (I have a penchant for discrediting towns with names such as Paris, [insert states] or Moscow, [insert state])

Did you know?! -> Carl Friedrich Gauss, echoed Archimedes when in 1796 he wrote in his notebook, “ΕΥΡΗΚΑ! num= Δ + Δ + Δ”, referring to his discovery that any positive integer could be expressed as the sum of at most three triangular numbers. Thx, wiki!

Filed under: simple life , archimedes, cities, eureka, fun facts, funny words, gauss, names, truth or consequences