T minus 130 Days

That is how long until A Dance with Dragons hits the bookstores. 

For those unfamiliar, A Dance with Dragons is the fifth novel in George R.R. Martin's commercially- and critically-acclaimed fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire.  It has been over 5 years since the last novel, A Feast for Crows, was published.  A Song of Ice and Fire's popularity is largely a result of the wide cast of characters and its gritty, low fantasy realism -- major protagonists (along with antagonists) are killed off or maimed with brutal regularity.  I remember when the first main character died -- I was shocked.  Then more kept dying.  Now it is pretty much expected.

So the series is popular, it is edgy, and its fans have been waiting a long time for the next installment -- hence the noteworthiness of this announcement.  For me personally, it is also worth mentioning, because A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the few series where I violate my fantasy novel rules:

1. I do not read series more than five books in length.
2. I do not read as-of-yet-unfinished series.

Why these rules?  Four words: The Wheel of Time.

A Song of Ice and Fire is also notable because HBO will soon be premiering Game of Thrones.  The casting looks pretty darn good and given HBO's track record, I think it has a chance to be a real success.  Not to mention that HBO can give proper treatment to the violence, cursing, and sex that is so common, and frankly integral, to the novels.

Cthulhu...Gesundheit!

For those that do not know, I am a massive nerd.  Thus far, the blog has not really shown this (you probably just think I am a professor who eats a lot, which would be true), but today that changes!  Cthulhu Chick recently posted a list of awesome words from H.P. Lovecraft's complete works. She also posted a Wordle:

I learned the word 'antediluvian' because of H.P. Lovecraft.  Good times.  If you have not read any H.P. Lovecraft, or want to read more, Cthulhu Chick has also posted a free eBook of his complete works.  If you are a sci-fi or horror fan, this is seminal stuff. Cthulhu fhtagn!

The A to Z Blogging Challenge!

Via a link from my RPG Bloggers feed, I found out about the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2011, and decided to enter.  My blogging has tailed off tremendously of late (I blame teaching and the general malaise accompanying winter), but hopefully this, along with the end of the winter term, will get things kick-started again.

I haven't decided if I will blog about random stuff that happens to match the day's letter, or if I will pick a theme and run with it through the month of April.  Food would be an obvious topic; so would things associated with Philadelphia.  I am also toying with an A-to-Z of Switzerland, since I lived there for 4 years.  And finally, lest you forget, I am a scientist, so maybe I will blog about all things science.

Or perhaps just a melange of all those topics.  That would be good too.

Epic Fail -- and Win!

It is January 29, and I think I have broken all but one of my New Year's resolutions.  Which one am I keeping?  Well, I am trying to become a tea connoisseur (because of my brother and sister-in-law, thanks you two!), and I think that, so far, I am doing a bang-up job.

One of the resolutions I have failed at already is posting more regularly to my blog.  I imagine this is a common problem for neophyte bloggers, but I still feel bad about it.  But here I am now, blogging for the first time in 2011, and guess what my subject is?  The Philly food scene, of course, and one of the reasons why I am failing some of my other resolutions...

Since 2011 started, I have eaten at JG Domestic (Jose Garces's newest joint), Estia, and Tinto.  The visits to Estia and Tinto were part of Philadelphia Restaurant Week, while JG Domestic was before that.  JG Domestic was fantastic -- the theme of JG Domestic seems to be American-sourced ingredients of the highest quality, and my dad and definitely took advantage.  Highlights included Hudson Valley duck rillette, Texas wild boar, and California squab.  Like almost all of Jose Garces's establishments, JG Domestic features small plates, so there are so many more dishes that I need to try.

My dad and I also visited Estia, which is an upscale Greek restaurant.  Their signature dish is whole fish, cooked simply but superbly.  My dad had loup de mer, while I had dorade, and they were both exceptional (the nod goes to the loup de mer, I think).  They have more exotic fish on the menu, and the octopus appetizer was also a standout -- grilled to perfection, tender instead of the often chewy texture that octopus can suffer from.

Tinto is one of my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia, and yet another Joses Garces standout.  The small plates here are inspired by Basque cuisine, and just like the first time I was there, Tinto did not disappoint.  This time around, I particularly enjoyed the duck, the saucisson sec, and the idiazabal cheese.

While Restaurant Week is over, I was telling a friend that, for me, every week in Philadelphia is Restaurant Week.  I still have a long list of restaurants to visit -- led by Amada, Bibou, and Fork -- and I can't wait to keep breaking those New Year's resolutions...

Teaching 101

This isn't a post about how to teach, but rather a quick glance into preparations for my first class at Drexel.  I have never taught an introductory course to undergraduates before, so I am excited and anxious.  The course is an introduction to biomechanics, focusing on the mechanics of deformable solids, a.k.a. mechanics of materials. 

Even before preparing this course, I've been exposed to a number of ideas on teaching.  The new faculty orientation at Drexel, and another symposium two weeks later, were filled with new ideas about teaching.  I sometimes forget that it has been 10+ years since I was an undergraduate student, and many things have changed.  Here are some of the ideas I am bouncing around in my head for this course:

• Lots of in-class quizzes: This is partly to encourage attendance, but it also provides feedback, both to me (about how well I am conveying the concepts in class) and to the students (about how well they are learning said concepts).  "Frequent low-stakes grading" is the education-speak term for it.
• Lots of assignments: I want to keep the assignments short, and intersperse the traditional problem sets with short reading, research, and writing assignments.  This is an unorthodox approach for a mechanics of materials class.  Why am I doing it?  Because I want to engage the students and get them thinking about the applications of what they are doing.  I will also be grading relatively leniently -- the students will get minimum 75% credit for attempting the homework (what constitutes "attempting" is a bit subjective).  This is another example of frequent low-stakes grading.
• Every example will be from biomedical engineering: This is the hardest part of the class.  All mechanics of materials textbooks use civil or mechanical engineering examples.  A few biomechanics textbooks have mechanics of materials content, but it is too conceptually simple, and even in those texts, some of the examples are abstracted far away from biomedical engineering.  One of the things I noticed when I was an undergraduate bioengineer was how poorly professors integrated biology into our engineering courses.  That is one thing I really, really want to succeed at.
• Writing on the blackboard versus Powerpoint: I don't think Powerpoint is a good medium for this type of class, and I like the blackboard because it makes you pace yourself.  At the same time, students often complain (and rightfully so) about the inconsistency and illegibility of hand-written text.  This is something I am really thinking about.

I am sure I will continue to post about this class.  Since it is a new course, one of my own design, though covering a traditional topic area, I really want it to go well and enrich our students.  We shall see!

A Christmas Miracle

They're already calling it the "Miracle at the New Meadowlands" or the "New Miracle at the Meadowlands," but any way you slice it, yesterday's Eagles-Giants thriller was amazing.  It featured the most flawlessly executed onsides kick I have ever seen (the Saints' onsides kick to open the 2nd half in the Super Bowl was better because of the situation, but not in its execution) and the second-greatest Eagles play I've seen personally (not from highlights or NFL Films), in DeSean Jackson's walk-off 65-yard punt return.  Incredible.

Wait, you ask, what is the greatest Eagles play you've seen?  Eric Allen's 94-yard interception return against the Jets in 1993, hands down.  If anyone can find a video for this play, I'd love to watch it again. 

I am still smiling about this game :)

Degustazione

That is what chef Marc Vetri's tasting menu at Vetri is called.  My friend and I went there on Saturday night, and what an experience it was.  To preface, Vetri is in the very top echelon of Philadelphia restaurants; I would hazard to guess that most critics, and people familiar with the Philly restaurant scene, would place it in the top five without a second thought.  I have been wanting to go for several years, and this dinner was a celebration of sorts -- I hadn't seen my friend in two years, and she and I both recently started our first real jobs this September.

The degustazione is a multi-course meal, prepared using seasonal ingredients, and in our case, complemented by a selection of wines paired with each individual dish.  Below is a picture of the menu; we were given a copy of the evening's menu, along with two huckleberry muffins for breakfast, which is pretty awesome if you ask me:

  

We did not have everything on the menu, just almost everything.  Again, nearly each dish (not course) was paired with a different wine (all from Italty).  Here is a quick rundown:

• Prosecco as an aperitif
• Three amuse-bouche: burrata wrapped in Kindai tuna; purple cauliflower dressed with olive oil; and brussel sprouts cooked with brown butter
• Shrimp a la plancha on zolfini beans -- paired with a 2006 Cantina Terlano Pinot Bianco (Alto Adige)
• Persimmon and scallop crudo -- paired with a 2009 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner (Alto Adige), a Riesling/Trollinger hybrid
• Sweet onion crepe -- paired with a 2008 Paitin Dolcetto d'Alba (Piedmont)
• Smoked pork shank, barley, and cabbage soup -- paired with a 2008 Tenuta Luisa Cabernet Franc (Friuli)
• Spinach gnocchi -- paired with a 2007 Bramosia Chianti Classico (Tuscany)
• Farfalle with lentil veloute and kale -- paired with a 2006 Iuli Barbera del Monferrato Superiore (Piedmont)
• Cardoon risotto with castelmagno cheese -- paired with a 2008 Germano Ettore Nebbiolo d'Alba (Piedmont)
• Pork belly ravioli with apples and brown butter -- paired with a 2008 Farnese Pecorino (Abruzzo)
• Venison (cooked sous vide) with pear crema -- paired with a 2004 Bussola "L'errante" (Veneto), a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend
• Dover sole alla mugnaia ("miller's style") with spinach -- paired with a 2009 Niedrist Sauvignon Terlaner (Alto Adige)
• A mango creme brulee as an intermezzo, pre-dessert!
• Chocolate polenta souffle and butterscotch pudding with chocolate and streusel -- both paired with a 2009 Elio Perrone "Bigaro" frizzante rosato dessert wine (Piedmont)

So, if you include the amuse-bouche, we had 16 different dishes and 12 different wines over a three hour dining experience -- that borders on ridiculous (your borders for the ridiculous may vary).  My favorite dishes were the pork belly ravioli (ldo), pork shank soup, the spinach gnocchi, and the shrimp.  My favorite wines were the Germano Ettore Nebbiolo d'Alba and the Bussola "L'errante".  But I enjoyed every dish and every wine.   

Fantastic dining company, wonderful food and drink, a very knowledgeable, friendly, and sometimes quirky staff, all resulted in one of the best dining experiences I've had.  And now I feel ready to make a top-10 Philly restaurant list -- watch for that post soon!