Early Bird Gets...No Sleep

I need to enroll in a sleep study. Seriously, how can it be that I'm exhausted but my body decides to wake up only after 5 hours of sleep. Not good! I report on all these health issues that arise from lack of sleep! I think my problem is, I start to unwind from my day, then I pick up on little bits of work...and end up burning the midnight candle. Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Please Try Your Call Again

Do I defeat the purpose of having a cell phone if I don't check my voice mail? Because I don't...well let's say I can't. I currently have 15 voice mails on it. My phone, you see, is a bit broke. It's a sturdy one, indeed. I've dropped it numerous times, and the last time I did, I lost several pieces of my Nokia. But it still works. It's being held together by duct tape (ghetto, right?). Now of course, if I'm interviewing the Queen of England, I won't pull out my phone in front of her, but it works for me now. I get calls and I make calls.

But I'm one of those people who sees the missed call and I call the person back. I don't check the voice mail, I just call. Unless I tell someone to leave me a message with some important msg, or I'm expecting an interview, or important person (sorry, don't mean to come off snooty), I won't hear your message. And if I do, it would be like a month after you've left it and my phone decides to "beep" to let me know I have a message. So if you call me, and I don't pick up, don't leave a message. Your "missed call" is all I need to know that you rang.

SNL: Motherlover

Too funny. It's the return of the "D*ck in the Box" boys. Is it me or is JT (*swoon*) becoming a better comedian? He and Andy Samberg are great together. This is the censored version from Hulu. OMG! Props need to be given to Patricia Clarkson and Susan Sarandon who are SO cool to play along with this. "I'm gonna be the syrup, she can be my waffle." Enjoy.

What do you read on the subway?

I've always thought this was interesting. Anytime I'm on the train, I always scope out what people are reading. Sadly, this Gawker post kind of proves what I've been noticing more of during my recent trips to NYC -- print is "effed", gadgets rule.

Oh Anna

It's a highly anticipated interview. 60 Minutes will feature Anna Wintour -- editrix of Vogue Magazie -- this Sunday. Only a handful of people know who Anna Wintour is, and a smaller handful care about her and fashion in general. I have followed Anna Wintour since I saw an interview with her on Charlie Rose more than a decade ago. However, I didn't carve out a career path to follow Wintour or to be a Bush league "fashion" writer. There are great journalists out there who cover fashion; but they also have an understanding and command of prose and see the "bigger picture" -- beyond fashion claptrap, wedges for summer and free lipstick as part of a job perk. Don't get me wrong, I've been following Gawker's posts on Anna and will be watching this Sunday, but I know this isn't ground-breaking journalism, it's not life-changing, it won't make the world a better place. It's a fluff piece, done up to air on what many regard as one of broadcast journalism's most respected shows. Morley Safer will be interviewing Anna, and I hope he will bring everyone back to reality. Because in the end, underneath the veneer of glossies, photo shoots and runways, the fashion world breeds a lot of ugliness.

China Marks Quake Anniversary

(Photo courtesy: Jason Lee/Reuters via The New York Times)
A mother sitting among the rubble in Beichuan county on Tuesday mourned the death of her daughter, Xiang Yazi, at left in photo, in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

May 12 is the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China. It still haunts me to think how a few minutes took the lives of -- what some believe -- nearly 90,000 people. Among the largest group of victims, children, who were in school. News of this magnitude always affect me, but having taught in Sichuan, China hit a little bit closer to home. The town in which I lived and taught was very close to the quake's epicenter, and many of my students lived in the villages that saw so much destruction. Last year, I spent the whole day trying to reach my relatives, my former students. Thankfully my family was okay, I heard back from some students, but not all.

The Chinese government has not been very supportive to the parents of quake victims. Officials have recommended parents not visit the quake sites or hold memorials. And as a way to "move on" from the tragedy, some parents were granted permission to have a second child.

The Washington Post has a really good piece and video about how some families are coping with the quake aftermath.

More Pebble Beach Food & Wine pics

At the Saturday Lexus Grand Tasting at Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival. You can't tell here, but I was operating on about 6 hours of sleep in a span of four days.

Let's just say a lot of calories were consumed -- the duck burger from Cindy Pawlcyn contributed to that delicious calorie count.

Ratatat-a-tat-a-tat...

Can't stop listening to them. I know they've been around for a while now. But had a Ratatat resurgence in the past few weeks.

My 3 obsessions of the week:
1. Annick Goutal's Mandragore Body Cream
2. Popcorn, Indiana Kettle Corn
3. Ratatat

Dear Diary...

This is on the top of my book wish list right now. I love the little snippets of Manhattan and slice of life stories I get from the NYT's Metropolitan Diary entries. The best thing is, I can read about them and I can jog my memory to relive some of those New York stories. What is it about Manhattan that sets the scene for these little stories to play out. Not forced, not staged...they just happen, like magic.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I forgot which hole the pulled pork barbecue sandwich stand was at Pebble Beach during the Food and Wine Festival...but it was one of the best dishes I tried in the entire event. (This was during the celebrity chef golf tournament on the first day of Pebble Beach Food and Wine.) I made a new friend, this monkey was right in front of the table, and I couldn't resist. Had to take a few shots with him/her. Say cheez!

Didn't intend on raising my arm up, a gust of wind came through and the picture was taken.

Me and Thomas Keller

Taken a week ago today. The celebrity chef golf tournament at Pebble Beach kicked off the Food and Wine Festival. Things got started with a Cristal champagne breakfast. Thomas Keller of The French Laundry was there. Ming Tsai wasn't there and Colicchio sat out because of surgery. There were other chefs including Rory Herrmann of Per Se (and soon be to Bouchon of Beverly Hills) and David Kinch of Manresa. Aside from golfing, the chefs and invitees enjoyed mojitos, champagne, Patron margaritas and such snacks as Kobe beef burgers, lobster sandwiches, and pulled pork sandwiches along the 18 holes. Pas mal.

Kobe and wagyu burgers for the tired and weary.

Patron, anyone?

From left, Ed Kelly, president and CEO of American Express Publishing Corporation, Rory Herrmann, Per Se and Bouchon Beverly Hills, and Thomas Keller.

The First of Many Pebble Beach F&W Pics

Having a hard time fall asleep tonight. Love the the warm temps, unfortunately hate the sore throat that came with it. I have a jug of lemon water on my nightstand, hopefully that will help me.

Going through my Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival pictures. Have a lot, but half of the pictures I took didn't come out because I had a bad SD card (fail). But what I have, is good. So instead of inundating my blog with pics, I've decided to create an album on Facebook as well as Flickr. I will still post some pics on my blog and through Twitpic. The first batch of photos will be from Thursday (opening night reception at Spanish Bay). Unfortunately, many of the food and wine pics I took on Thursday disappeared. I have pics from the celebrity golf tournament saved on my work computer, and will post those tomorrow. (Darn, forgot to write down which restaurants made these dishes. And I lost the pictures of Daniel Humm's sturgeon sabayon as well as Roy Yamaguchi's spicy tuna roll and fish and braised beef ragout. I didn't photograph one of my favs of the night: Cyrus's oxtail consomme with umeboshi -- Oishii!!!!!)

Homemade marshmallow smore with chocolate ganache and avocado sauce.

One of my favorites of the night: buttermilk poached trout with trout roe -- unbelievable!

Tequila marinated shrimp. I think it was Patron. Need I say more?

The light was really nice. Unfortunately the person taking the photo had shaky hands. This was in Spanish Bay.

Some Pics from Pebble Beach F&W

Omigosh, I have a new favorite toy. It's the Mark van S. digital photobooth. Discovered it at the Patron after-party at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine. Parties or events can rent this booths, and people take self-portraits. It's like those picture booths in malls and amusement parks, only this one takes REALLY nice portraits. Once the photo is taken, it's displayed on monitors across the room. Really cool. You get a print of your pics, and then you can go online to download your pictures and see who else had their pics taken. Here are some with me. The people in the photos with my are my camera guy, Andrew, and a film crew hired to document the festival.
Andrew, Craig, me and Craig's friend.

Craig and me

Haha, funny photo. The third guy is the owner of the photography/film company who was shooting the event.

Found some cool candids from Iron Chef Morimoto and Hubert Keller.

I promise to blog about the festival and upload my pics of the event soon. Stay tuned! Today was rest and run day even though my run this afternoon was brutal! Got home, drank a gallon of water and passed out. Need to go back to gym for some more.

Pebble Beach Food & Wine Grand Tasting

A report on Saturday's Grand Tasting. 60,000-sq ft tent of amazing food and wine...and interesting folks! Enjoy. Check back soon for pics and more posts.

***See below for clip on Cristal Dinner on Friday night.***

Cristal Dinner at Pebble Beach Food & Wine

Am putting together my final piece for the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival. I've been on a whirlwind running from Spanish Bay to Pebble to Monterey. Promise will post pictures and full in-depth blogs on Cristal Dinner, Keller-Coliccho Dinner, Grand Tastings/Grand Finale Dinner and the Patron after-parties (which my feet are still hurting from after dancing in four-inch heels.)

Meantime, here's a piece a I did on the Cristal Dinner including an interview with Chef Eric Ripert -- and apologies to Chef Portay for butchering his name.

From Beer to Bubbly

Touched a vintage jeroboam of Cristal today. Had a great interview with Champagne Louis Roederer president, Frederic Rouzaud. Also covered the Belgian Beer and Food lunch at Pebble Beach Food and Wine Fest. Wrapping up my package, do a live shot, then will cover the Cristal dinner tonight. Eric Ripert of Le Bernandin will be there, he's cooking the fifth course. Met and hung out with Stefan Richter today, great guy.

Stayed tuned for my post on tonight's dinner. Will cover Cristal/Michelin dinners.

Opening Night at Spanish Bay

How many hours and am I running on...lost count. I'm okay though, the adrenaline from Pebble Beach Food & Wine is keeping me going. I promise photos will be coming soon!

A quick wrap of the day. Celebrity chef golf tournament this morning. Thomas Keller and others were out on the fairway. Unfortunately, no Ming Tsai this year, or Tom Colicchio. Tom C is recovering from surgery. Met up with him at the kitchen inside Spanish Bay, and I like him even more after our interview. Oh, also met the CEO of Louis Roederer Champagne -- or Cristal. The Cristal dinner tomorrow tonight should be fabulous. The Rouzaud family will be sharing -- I believe -- 9 bottles of vintage Cristal. Pretty historic. It will be a vertical tasting paired with amazing food. David Kinch of Manresa will be cooking some of the food. Will be covering that as well as the Michelin Stars of San Francisco dinner.

Quick wardrobe change -- the opening night reception at Spanish Bay was like half Oscars, half Iron Chef, half Napa Valley Wine Tour. Seriously, 20 top chefs cooking amazing food paired with 200 wines. The food -- don't get me started. Some of my favorites of the night:
1. Cyrus - Oxtail consomme with a umeboshi
2. Buttermilk poached trout with trout roe
3. Spicy tuna handroll from Roy's

Wish I had time to sample more...but I was running around reporting. Met Dana Cowin from Food & Wine -- charming woman and wonderful editor. Got an invite to the very VIP chefs' party. Couldn't stay because needed to feed stories over to 10 and 11 shows, and needed to get some well-needed shut-eye. But it looked amazing...and on one corner, boxes of Patron piled to the ceiling. A fun night for all.

Wonder if I can squeeze in quick 10k tomorrow morning before work. Okay, be back tomorrow night with a wrap of the Cristal and Michelin dinners. Stay tuned!

How many magnums?

A short post before I pass out from a long day. Today is the start of the Pebble Beach Food & Wine. On Wednesday night, there was a very exclusive, private dinner for 20 wine collectors in an undisclosed location in Pebble Beach. Basically these folks were flown in from all over the world, and brought in with a motorcade to a home in Pebble. Why the security? Well, they were all carrying very expensive and rare magnums of wine (mainly French). I had to cover this. I arrived at this amazing mansion and...standing there in the front was none other than Chef Thomas Keller from French Laundry. I think I squealed -- while remaining professional.

This was the kick-off to Pebble Beach Food and Wine. The founders hosted the 9-course meal cooked by Chefs Thomas Keller, Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Mark and Sherry Yard of Spago. On the menu: truffles, caviar, frogs legs, kobe beef, Atlantic halibut, etc. I think one of the trio of desserts was chocolate cake with candied orange peel -- to go with an 1863 Madeira.

Need to go to bed now. Another long day ahead of me. Celebrity chef golf tournament is at 8:30a-2:00p at Pebble Beach. Then opening night reception at Spanish Bay 6pm. Will do several "wardrobe changes" as I go from the fairway to the dining room.

Stayed tuned for pictures and more blog posts!

Pebble Beach Food and Wine

Am excited -- we're about a week away from the 2nd annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine. I need to brush up on wines, magnums. and the 30-plus chefs that will put their art to the burners. I have a full schedule on tap, since I'll be covering the whole event (April 16-19), and will have total, full, complete access to everything. Yay!

Last year, my station didn't really cover the event -- I think they didn't think they could get access. I was lucky to meet a woman who took me through the Pebble Beach golf course where I followed the Cristal chefs' golf tournament on opening day. It was pretty amazing to see Thomas Keller, Tom Colicchio, Ming Tsai, Masaharu Morimoto (aka "Iron Chef Japan"), et al hitting the green.

This year should be another exciting event. I'm so thrilled to meet Eric Ripert, Jaques Pepin, Michel Richard, Rick Tramonto, Hubert Keller, Michael Mina, Nancy Oakes -- and looking forward to seeing Thomas Keller and Tom Colicchio again. (Forget Hollywood, these top chefs are my idols). Some highlights this year: the "Tom-Tom" dinner (Keller vs. Colicchio) and The Cristal dinner presented by Champagne Louis Roederer, battle between San Francisco and Los Angeles chefs (Mayors Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa will there!) Also, Stefan Richter and Jamie Lauren will also be there doing a "Top Chef" cooking demo.

Whew, there's a lot more on my plate. Stay tuned for more PB Food and Wine coverage. I will be blogging about the event and will post pictures. Come back soon!

Gym Etiquette

Just a few requests (cough, alright gripes) for people who go to the gym. I'm usually pretty zoned out at the gym. Total tunnel vision, concentrating on my workout and my breathing, in my own sweaty (TMI) bubble. But I do observe some behaviors that...well, I just have to blog about.

What precipitated me writing this? Hmm, probably the man who played musical treadmills tonight. I'm at the gym, headed straight for an empty row of treadmills. I go to one in the middle. Four treadmills to my left, a man starts clodding on the machine. He gets off and gets onto another one. Five seconds later, he moves to another one...and another....and another. He ends up right next to me. Seriously? All I could think about was Goldilocks sampling the porridge and beds of the three bears.

Here are some others:

1. Get off your cell phone. If you can talk and laugh, you're not working hard enough.

2. Spit out your gum. If you're smacking, popping or blowing bubbles, you're not working hard enough.

3. Wipe off the machines. I thank you if I were a CSI, but unfortunately I'm not, and I don't want to see or accidently touch your sweat.

4. Zip it. No one cares to hear your loud and annoying chatter. (Also, no one cares to listen to you try and sing out loud what's on your earphones.)

5. Bathe and do laundry. I get it, it's a gym. But there are also things called soap and deodorant. And ladies, there may be a "club" in your gym's name, but that doesn't mean you should treat it as a "club" and douse yourself in toxic perfume or air-freshener scented lotions. Clean gym clothes are always nice.

Stay tuned for my "requests" for drivers.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Priceless. A freeze frame of me anchoring a story about Bush and the economy. I think my face says it all. To be fair, I was reading the story, and my friend happened to find this clip of me.

Click on the image for a better view.

The Express Line

As I stood in the checkout line this morning at Safeway, waiting to pay for my fruit, milk and cereal, I didn't think the Express Line was going to take long as it did. There were two customers in front me: the first had a bag of Tostitos chips and the second, two flats of water and baby wipes. There was a hold up in the line. I thought it was just a simple matter of the chips being scanned twice. But that wasn't the case.

The customer, an Asian man in his late 50s or so, was trying to tell the checker that the chips were only suppose to cost $1.77, instead of the $3, or something. The woman standing next to him, I assume his wife, looked confused. She didn't say anything. As the checker tried to explain to the man that he got his discount from his Safeway Club Card, he kept on insisting that his separate cut-out coupon on top of his Club Card should have made the final cost $1.77. As the minutes went on, the transaction continued. I picked up on the fact that he didn't speak English well, and was trying to understand why the total didn't turn out to be the same as the three numbers on the coupon. The guy in front of me picked up the Enquirer and the little kid behind me picked up a copy as well. (I let out a little giggle when I saw that). I thumbed through an issue of Vogue. I admit, I was a little frustrated.

But as I stood there, superficially flipping through the glossy pages of Vogue, I was listening to the man with the chips. I think he honestly believed that he was overcharged. He and his wife glanced over at the growing line and looked embarrassed. He placed his hand on a neck and gave a nervous smile. I wanted to mouth the words, "it's okay," but part of me was also annoyed. I was foolishly impatient.

After 10 minutes or so, it was finally understood that you needed to buy two bags of Tostitos, to get a deal. There was a twofer deal with the Club Card, and with the Sunday paper coupon, you could get a third bag for $1.77. (...or something like that.) The man and the woman walked away, I don't know if they went back to get the other two bags of chips or if they left.

Every day, we read and hear stories about people affected by the recession. Families having to foreclose their homes, kids putting off college and people losing their jobs. On print, we know these people by their names. On television, we hear sound bytes from them. But we all know someone on a first-name basis who has lost a job, lost a home, lost their savings. I'm seeing more people -- strangers -- affected by the down economy. They're not people I know, or read about, they're people I see. People who stand in line in front me at the grocery store.

Bach: Violin Sonata #1 in G, BWV 1001

I have Nathan Milstein's beautiful version of Bach's Violin Sonata #1 in G, BWV 1001 on repeat. It is my piece of the moment. It's simply a work of art. I've included the fourth part of the sonata, "Presto."

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

My current running song.
(Wish I were there: BK.NYC.07.)

"Is that like, a restaurant?"

A funny phone conversation I had with my friend today that manifests I am a (Northern) California girl. Greg lives in Wyoming.

Me: So what are you doing today?

Greg: I'm driving up to Duncan Ranch.

Me: Is that like, a restaurant?

Greg: May, you've been in California too long when you think a ranch is a restaurant.

Me: Well, I don't know...I mean, there are animals and wooden fences. But, there's like a restaurant there too with like a wheel spoke out front, right?

Greg: (Laughs.)