I've been meaning to go back to The Wok Shop for some time because I've been wok-less for too long. Finally, we went there yesterday and bought this unseasoned wok:
Apparently, Barbara who writes Tigers & Strawberries bought the same exact wok (from the same place) and wrote about seasoning it. I decided to go along with the instructions the lady at the store gave me when I was seasoning it:
Classic iron wok from China, flat bottom
This flat bottom wok from China is black iron interior and black enamel exterior. To season, wash wok throughly and dry. Coat interior with cooking oil. (Place in oven upside down). Bake in 350 degree oven (moderate) 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool and coat with oil again and repeat baking process with wok upside down. Wok will be seasoned and ready to use. (The plastic handles will be fine in a moderate oven).
After your wok has been seasoned, it would be a good idea to preheat the wok, add a little bit of cooking oil and preheat oil; then add some pungent veggies, e.g. chives, green onions, onions, garlic, ginger, or scallions (these veggies contain the chemical allium which removes any metallic flavor in the wok) and stir fry till charred. Then toss veggies out. Your seasoned wok will be ready and the wok will be so nice.
You can't go wrong with an endorsement like that, right?
I ran across this job posting on Craigslist in the SF Bay Area. I read it out loud just to confirm what it sounded like to me. Here is what I think it boiled down to:
I have a nebulous idea for a "company" that I want to run.
My company should be able to save the world, somehow.
I want you to "implement" my company for me. I'm just an "ideas" person. I need an "everything else" person.
And by "everything else," I mean even the rudimentary search engine-based research that I should have done the very first day I had this idea. That's your job.
Preferably, you can work for free.
If you can't work for free, can you work just slightly above the $7.50/hr CA state minimum wage?
Know any good venture capitalists?
Know any good clients?
Know any good programmers to build my idea?
Know any business development people to put together my business?
Oh, and I'll totally pay you back when the checks start rolling in.
Did I mention that I'm going to save the world?
But maybe I'm being uncharitable. Good luck to you, my friend.
I'm certain I can't be the only person who has ever noticed that the Reggie and the Full Effect song "Thanx for Stayin'" is built on a sample from one of the Short Circuit movies. I think it's from the first one, but I'm not certain. I noticed this years ago, but for some reason I only now feel compelled to post it. Unfortunately, I don't have the movies, so I can't find the actual sound clip, but here is the sample from the song. Maybe someone else can figure out more on its provenance.
(20 sec. mp3 clip)
On Sunday, I went to Trader Joe's in El Cerrito and I saw a bottle of single malt Scotch whisky that was labeled as "Trader Joe's Rare Aged Scotch Whisky" from the "Single Malt Collection," distilled at the Macallan distillery and aged for 18 years. The official Macallan-labeled 18-year bottle costs about $140 at BevMo, so I was shocked at Trader Joe's $42 price tag. It wasn't that I thought Trader Joe's was lying, I was just a little skeptical of the 85% discount.
So I asked the internet. Apparently, everybody has an opinion and feels that I need to know about it. Opinions are fine, but nobody has the facts. The one fact I did learn was something I had already suspected: the Trader Joe's bottle had a different alcohol content (40% ABV) than the regular Macallan (43% ABV). Finally, I decided to go to the source; I got in touch with the Macallan distillery. I emailed them after 5:00 PM, Scotland time. They emailed me before 10:00 AM the next day. So, if you ended up here searching for the real deal, here it is, devoid of my opinion.
My original query: I recently saw a Macallan 18 year bottle at Trader Joe's in northern California. The label said Trader Joe's Rare Aged Scotch Whisky and also said Macallan on it. How is this different from the 18 year old whisky that is not branded with Trader Joe's name and is sold normally with just the Macallan label. Is the Trader Joe's bottle a real Macallan?
The response from Macallan's marketing staff: This is what we call a third party bottling. When we were producing more new make spirit than we needed, we were happy to sell the surplus on for blending. We are no longer in the position that we have surplus available so this practice has been greatly reduced. However, casks still pop up from time to time and this is a case in point.
We have no control over the quality of the spirit that is bottled. Technically it is a Macallan in that the new make spirit was indeed produced from our stills. However, it has not been subjected to the quality controls that we impose on all official Macallan bottlings and we have no idea what quality the finished product is. It may be very good or it may be very substandard. We have not sampled it and cannot pass comment.
I hope this clarifies the situation.
It does indeed clarify the situation (for me, anyway). I want to taste what the distillers consider to be their best 18-year single malt. I don't want a blend (that's not what Trader Joe's is selling) and I don't want product the distiller did not bottle. The different ABV alone might not be enough to reject this spirit out of hand, and I'm open to the possibility that the Trader Joe's bottle is a wonderful Scotch, but it is not the Macallan 18-year single malt.
At Muhammad's recommendation, I just watched Startup.com, a documentary about two friends and the startup dot-com business they started in the late nineties. As is always the risk when reading or watching something that directly impacts what I'm doing (in Shiny Metal Assets), I may have just seen the conclusions I wanted to see. Anyhow, these are the lessons I took away from it:
Build your business organically. Instead of building massive infrastructure for tomorrow, address today's needs. Stay manageable and let the organization grow as your business grows, not vice versa.
Retain control over your business. Your goal should not be gaining venture capital; it should be gaining profitability. If you have a wonderful idea that will change the world but is expensive, you might need to seek funding. But let's face it, there are plenty of manageable products and services you can offer and create with limited resources. Scrounge, work after hours and weekends, and make ends meet on your own. govWorks, the company featured in Startup.com accepted funding and lost control of its own destiny. I don't want to be in that position.
Address a specific market. govWorks wanted to be the premier site for dealing with municipal government, but perhaps it aimed too high. If they'd started with just one municipality and worked organically from there, their team could have grown with their business. Finding a small, lucrative niche and building from there is much more tenable than trying to take the world by storm.
The trust between friends who start a company is an asset. Money makes people do strange things, but power struggles are far more dangerous. If you have equal partners, make sure everything is clear and in the open before you start. If there is a chain of command, be willing to follow decisions you might disagree with. Ego can destroy your business just as easily as confidence can build it. It might be a fine line, learn to tread it.
