Archive for July, 2011

Assorted Links

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Thanks to Dennis Mangan.

Unofficial Beer Tasting Winner: Uncommon Brewers

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Last night I went to a beer tasting in San Francisco. I didn’t taste all the beers but of the 15-odd I did taste the best were by Uncommon Brewers — especially their Siamese Twin (“the floral notes of lemongrass and sharper bite of kaffir lime blend with the deep malt”) and Baltic Porter (“whole licorice root and star anise”).

Five or six years ago I went to a sake-tasting event in San Francisco called “The Joy of Sake”. About 140 sakes. In a few hours I became such a sake connoisseur that the sake I could afford  — and used to buy regularly — I now despised. The only sake I now liked was so expensive ($80/bottle) that I never bought another bottle of sake.

 

Ancient Wisdom: Butter is Brain Food

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

In Ayurvedic medicine (Indian traditional medicine), ghee, a type of clarified butter, is believed to improve brain function. For example, “Vedic medicine extols the virtues of ghee and dairy for the brain.” I found that butter improved how fast I could do arithmetic.