Full Site Redesign + Wine Adventures

Boy, I'd like to have a bowl of this Santouka ramen for lunch...(btw, this is at 550x364 pixels..do you like? read below)

I've decided to redesign the layout of my site since the old one was starting to get stodgy and dusty. I figure I'd go for a fresher, more modern look that's more conducive to reading. I'm also wondering if my photos at 600 pixel width is just too gargantuan for more screens. On my iMac at home they're not too large but at the office, where I'm using Windows XP, they can envelope nearly half the screen. Anyways, I'd love to hear your input about what you think about the size of my photos. Do you want them smaller? Or larger?

Anyways, I'm using a more modern Arial font, which is really a crappy copy of Helvetica, a classic font that pervades society. I've been ingrained with this font because my close friend who attended Art Center seems to be obsessed with it (as are most typographers). Actually I think most typographers either love or hate the hegemony of Helvetica but I figure at this point it's not objectionable to most of my readers. I'm settling for Arial since that's the only thing that Blogger lets me set to (other than a slew of other BORING fonts). I need to switch to Wordpress like my girl Christine has done. She was smart and started on Wordpress while I'm still suck in the Myspace of blog engines, Blogger. Damn you Google for not making Blogger any better! Please get to work and make this platform competitive or else there will be a mass exodus! (Yeah right...)

When it comes to blog design, I like uncluttered and simple; a layout that accentuates and improves the understanding of the content. Hope you enjoy..many more food posts to come...


Learning About Wine


The first photo of our beloved friend Wilder (his real name) at Silver Lake Wine. It was actually taken on our first date!

I've pretty much failed most of my New Year's Resolutions except one of them, which was to drink more wine and coffee this year. Last night was a wonderful evening in wine, where I tasted three delicious wines at Silver Lake Wine's easy-going Monday Tasting and then ventured to 55 Degrees where a slew of Yelpers joined in on the fun. I recall an excellent Pinot based sparkling wine from Italy, a number of Syrah, Grenache, and other sundry Italian varietal reds, and a refresher Gruner Veltliner. It was nice seeing Jackie G. after almost half a decade (went to high school together). It was fun hanging out with Winston and Tatertots, as well as chatting it up about restaurants and sports with Austin S. Tony C. of Sinosoul was there too, but I think he was engrossed with entertaining his party so we just had a brief salutation.

If you're interested in learning about wine, there's no better way than to just taste. You can read all the Robert Parker or Wine Spectator you want, but there's no replacement for smelling and tasting. Silver Lake Wine has been a frequent stop of ours, where we can either participate in one of their weekly tastings (except Sunday) or open up a bottle without a corkage charge (naturally). I think this year we've already samples 30-some wines, perhaps more. At this rate, we will have tried hundreds of wines by the end of the year. I invested in one of those adorable little red wine journals on salt at Silver Lake Wine so I could keep track of all the tastings. Also, I need to employ Matthew Kaner's strategy for remembering all of these wines; see it here on FoodGPS.