Law, Partially

Continuing our comparative American and French wine journey, we traveled to the Walla Walla Valley AVA, famous for grapes grown in Bordeaux (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) and the Rhône Valley (Syrah). In particular, we wanted to visit L'Ecole No. 41 , my dad's favorite winery. His cellar is still well-stocked with their wines (and I'm drinking and restocking). Tasting the wines and talking to the winemakers at L'Ecole was a transcendent experience as we remembered my dad and what he liked so much about this place and these wines. The L'Ecole No. 41 Tasting Room. It's actually a repurposed old school building (hence the name, L'Ecole, French for the school). The Walla Walla Valley features some unique geography, which is how we get this wine region tucked away like this so far from the famous coastal regions. Found in southeastern Washington and spilling over into northern Oregon, the valley is like a dry lake bed with ridges, hills, and mountain...

Christine and I love wine because of how the drink is so wrapped up with the place and time, and we travel because we are interested in time and place . Pinot Noir is one grape variety that can be experienced on an axis stretching from New Zealand, to northern California, to northwestern Oregon, to Burgundy, France. Pinot Noir is also the varietal that Paul Giamatti famously lusted over in Sideways because of its mercurial nature . The Willamette River flows in northwestern Oregon between the Oregon Coastal Range and the Cascades. Along the hills of the western bank are vineyards famous for their Pinot Noir grapes. Thousands of miles away, Burgundy, France, is the spiritual home of Pinot Noir, where monks grew grapes for centuries. The monks discovered where the  terroir  (i.e., combination of soil, slope, sunlight, and climate) was optimal for Pinot. The methods and organization of Burgundy wine making and marketing are constrained by these centuries of traditions. Findin...

In Japan, raw fish and rice taste better, on average, than in the US, so trips to Japan must involve as much sushi consumption as possible. Owing perhaps to their training or the tacit cultural nous that may explain much of Japan, Japanese sushi chefs exhibit a surprising amount of control over the supply chain that sees a slice of raw fish stuck atop a oblong block of sticky rice. Compared to the US, the markets in Japan offer greater rice and fish options (because demand is just so huge), and chefs often have specialized for longer in the art of sushi (sushi chef is a career rather than a job). See Jiro Dreams of Sushi , again, to see the importance of rice and fish control to elevating sushi. The degrees by which some sushi is better than others are subtle, and I am certain my palate lacks the sophistication to distinguish among the best. But when you eat good sushi, your brain becomes dosed with the good chemicals. You are happy. Sushi can be very good in the US, but you will l...

Visiting Singapore means for us a lot of visiting with friends and family. With less than one week left in country, time was running out to see everyone. We were going to need to eat a lot of food and take a lot of bus, subway, and Uber rides, but we were committed. On Saturday we went to a Chen family dinner party. On Sunday we ate dim sum in an old school restaurant with an old friend. On Monday I drank craft beer, talked to ang mohs (white people), ate curry, and still made it home in time to put Bobby to bed. Along the way, I engaged in one of my hobbies: spying traces of an older Singapore. Sometimes it's hard to find such artifacts because this island is always tearing down and building new. Chen party Christine's cousin, Justin, hosted us on Saturday for dinner. Justin and I are buddies because we both stayed at the Chen household back in 2011 and 2012. He was saving up some money before striking off on his own by staying with his mom's brother, Mr. Chen. I was s...

On Sunday, Christine, Bobby, and I knocked back a few pints at 3rd Culture Brewing Co. First, a little back story. Back in the old days (2009-2012), it wasn't that easy to get a good pint of craft beer in Singapore. Certain restaurants catering to Western expatriates may have had some imports, but by design, these restaurants are expensive. Back in my student days, I wasn't going to spend much time at such places. I mostly hung out in the coffee shops and hawker centers drinking the local brew, Tiger. Tiger is not bad, and it is cool and refreshing on a hot day or night. But in the US we are spoiled for beer choice, and it may be hard to live in a mono-beer culture when you've grown used to a culture where craft beer proliferates, with each sip tastier than the last. Well, craft beer is coming to Singapore. There are now a number of microbreweries around (there was only one -- that I knew about -- when I was a student here). Proper restaurants may still, of course, offe...