Sheesh! Once you start preparing to move, you start to notice so many things.

For example, my couch (sofa?) is in distress.

1) The back cushions are all warped out of shape so that instead of being tall, they’re now wide. Making it a bit hard to sit on the couch since they push you off.

2) It’s dirrrrrrrrrrrrrty. The couch hasn’t been cleaned in a long time. It’s dirrrrrrrrrrrty.

Any one have a recommendation for a cleaning service? Or a way to make the back support cushions the right shape again?

Or maybe I should just buy a new one…

Is there a long distance telephone service provider that doesn’t charge a monthly fee if you don’t make any calls, and has no calling minimums?

It seems that most of them charge about $0.59 per month even if you don’t make any calls.

Needless to say, skype doesn’t make sense when you want to pay $0.00 a month for 0 minutes worth of long distance phone calls.

Thoughts?

So to celebrate my 27th birthday, my g/f took me to Alexander’s Steakhouse.

Now, I’m a big fan of steak. Some of the great places I’ve enjoyed in the past are Ruth’s Chris in San Francisco, Daniel’s Broiler in Seattle (Lake Washington), Boboquivari’s in San Francisco (bizarre d?cor), and especially Peter Luger (the Brooklyn one). Mmmm…. Peter Luger.

(To be meat-complete, I’ll also add that I really enjoyed Churrascaria Plataforma in both Midtown and Tribeca, House of Prime Rib in San Francisco, and Churrascos in Houston. Morton’s in SF was ok, as was Harris’ in SF. And I’m not sure that I’d recommend Bob’s Steak and Chophouse in SF. Per Se, while not a meat place - serves fantastic beef from Snake River Farms)

((My last physical showed that I was in the healthy category of cholesterol… but thanks for wondering.))

(((When I was an intern on Wall St, I had a cholesterol reading that was 3x the acceptable limit for a human being. They thought it was a mistake at first. Lesson learned: Corned beef hash for breakfast everyday may taste good, but probably isn’t a good idea.)))

Anyway, usually I make fun of the South Bay because the dining experience doesn’t tend to be on-par with those in real cities. Alexandar’s, which is fairly new and located in Cupertino at the Valco mall (which, btw, is the definition of “Dead Mall“) stands out.

Ok, the dress code says business casual, but if dress codes can’t be enforced in a real city like San Francisco, they certainly don’t stand a chance here in the South Bay. So while I encourage you to grow up, be civilized, and wear something nice for once - the sad reality is that if you’re wearing a Hawaiian shirt that isn’t too loud, and sandals that aren’t too nasty, you’ll be ok Alexandar’s. (Wearing a shirt from Theory with French cuffs might be overdoing it.)

When we walked in, right away it was clear that this wasn’t going to be Hot Pot City or Outback steakhouse. (BTW, I honestly believe there are people in this country who go to Outback steakhouse because they want to try “foreign cuisine.” And also, I’ve never eaten at Outback.)

Immediately after the front doors is a giant display case of the beef being dry aged!! WOW WOW WOW Those who aren’t meat lovers may want to walk past the display case quickly - but those who care about things like marbling can stand there and study the carcasses they are about to enjoy. Marbling!

(BTW, what is Dry Aged Beef? Click the link to learn more. But basically for this review’s purposes, all you need to know is that dry aged beef=serious steaks)

Further in you can see behind a glass where they grill you meat. Mmmmmmmmmm.

I covered the dress code already - the rest of the restaurant was fairly modern, with slight Asian stylings. It was comfortable, pleasantly lit (not nearly pitch black (coughcoughRUTHCHRIScoughcough)), and didn’t reek of butter (coughcoughRUTHCHRIScoughcough). The chairs were comfortable and seemed to be designed for the trend in American… uh… body shapes. Unlike some places where the seats were made in the 1887 (coughcoughPETERLUGERcoughcough)

(Hey Ruth and Pete… I’m just kidding. Your steaks are awesome. I’ll still be coming back. And Pete… please enforce the dress code more. The last time I was there, there were people in athletic clothes. Come on!)

Service was efficient and friendly - good.

The menu, however, leaned towards being not a serious steakhouse. A good steakhouse menu is that of Peter Luger’s - where they don’t give you a menu. And if you ask for one, the 85 year old waiter (they’re all 85 year old men) gives you a nasty look - because no one asks for a menu because it’s pointless. The menu was printed in 1887. There, you just order by saying “Steak for x” where x is the number of people in your party. That’s it! Alexander’s menu had all sorts of stuff - including chicken, fish, vegetables, etc. I guess that’s a good thing from a diversity perspective.

However, for $100, Alexander’s does offer a Kobe steak meal. They claim to be the only place in the Bay Area that offers true, imported, Kobe Beef - interesting! For $39, you can get a four dish set of beef which includes a sampler of Kobe beef sashimi (read: raw). We got the 4 dish sampler, as well as the Alexander’s Steak (comes with a truly fresh Maine lobster tail… yummmmm). We also got scallops with bacon (set of 3), and… uh…. well… corn.

FWIW, the corn was absolutely awesome - shockingly crunchy. It was so good that I actually mentioned it first here before the beef. Unsurprisingly, the beef plates, the lobster, the scallops with bacon, and the bread were fantastic. They were cooked perfectly and as expected. And the Kobe beef sashimi was raw, but definitely not bloody. It was als incredibly soft - almost like fish. And incredibly incredibly rich.

(BTW, I have to include the bread because they don’t make the cardinal sin of including the horrifically nasty sourdough bread that Northern California restaurants love to serve. Everyone - please. We have Fedex now - no need to eat sourdough bread.)

Everything was done perfectly.

So… go figure! All that steak turns out to be pretty rich - limiting room for dessert. So we got the “t-bone” dessert which was an assortment of wheatless cake, chocolate this, sugar that, and other fancy delectables that I can’t remember. However, the one truly unique item on the plate was the scoop of pepper ice cream. Yes… that’s right… pepper ice cream. Like… black pepper. It wasn’t spicy - it just had sort of a weird kick. Truly fascinating.

All in all, I’d give Alexander’s a 8 and highly recommend it as one of the few great (non-Asian) restaurants in the South Bay. The food is great, prices are great, the ambiance was great for Silicon Valley, and they show a true commitment to steak.

(Note about the scale: 10 is Per Se. 9 is Peter Luger’s.)

Sorry there are no pictures - my Canon doesn’t have a Food Mode unlike my friend’s Casio. That and I forgot it at home. And I didn’t want to fulfill the Asian Stereotype.

Congrats to San Jose and San Francisco for being in the Forbes 2005 Most Overpriced places in the US! San Jose came in at #5, and San Francisco came in at #7.

Here’s how it is calculated at.

Most Overpriced Places In The U.S. 2005 - Forbes.com

To determine the ten most overpriced places in the country, we started with the 150 cities examined in Forbes? 2005 list of the Best Places for Business and Careers. They were ranked from 1 to 150, with 150 being the worst. We extracted the rankings for job growth, income growth and cost of living (which includes the cost of housing, utilities, transportation and other expenditures), then added to the mix a housing affordability index from research firm Economy.com. The index measures how much of a local median-priced home (the price at which 50% of homes are more expensive and 50% are less expensive) you can buy if you earn the local median income, given current interest rates. We totaled everything to see which cities come out on top–or on the bottom–depending on your perspective.

Good to know!

I love this closing remark though:

If you?re unfortunate enough to live in an overpriced city, stop your whining. After all, there must be something keeping you there, whether it?s the museums or the easy commute. And if you?re lucky enough to live outside of the top ten, count your blessings–and your dollars.

Hm… Museums and culture in San Jose? Easy commute?

Oh dear.

Hey everyone,

I need boxes. Lots of boxes. And soon! So I can move at the end of the month.

Any good ideas as to where I can get these boxes?

Thanks!

Those of you who read this blog know that I normally rant about Alaska Air - due to its horrible on-time performance.

Well today I’m actually going to write something positive about Alaska Air! Why? Because of how clean their 737 from SJC-SEA was this morning.

Yes, that’s how sad my air travel has become when I notice a plane that is clean.

The biggest offender in my travels lately has been American Airlines - some of the tray tables are ash with filth. With stains on the seats. And trash in the seat back pockets (which is partially the fault of slobby pax.)

On this flight however, the seats were new and free of filth, the trays were clean, and the bathrooms were sparkling. Wow!

Oh and they had pillows too - something else a lot of airlines don’t offer these days.

Talk about lowered expectations.

This flight though departed and arrived on time - a minor miracle!

Finally, here’s a picture of what it looks like to board an Alaska plane at San Jose:

I wonder how they board planes in the other San Jose (Costa Rica)

For the first time in over 5 years, I will not be living in Mountain View.

Starting on August 1st, I will be living about 2 miles away from where I do today in Sunnyvale.

Moving is such a time and money suck.

So I’m in the market to buy a microwave oven for next month. This one caught my eye:

Panasonic Model Details

Inverter Turbo Defrost Adds a Little Cooking Boost
Panasonic has succeeded in evolving Turbo Defrost?, which allows you to defrost foods even faster than previous Panasonic Auto Defrost. Panasonic Inverter Turbo Defrost technology is an advanced microwave sequencing system using the Inverter low-power delivery feature. It was developed on the basis of what scientists call “Chaos Theory.” This design makes it possible to distribute microwave energy with the most appropriate combination of regularity and irregularity.

Our Keep Warm and Simmer Features Help You Keep Your Food Warm until You are Ready to Eat
A pulsing delivery of very low microwave power keeps food temperature at a constant level-without overcooking. Our improved keep warm menu now includes five items. So, food like stew, gravy and desserts remain warm in the oven until you are ready to serve.

Whoa… this microwave keeps food warm and uses Chaos Theory? And it’s available in both black or white!

Sign me up!