sigh. The email server has been down since Friday with only a brief glimpse of mail in between. So here I am in the world without email. How did I ever communicate before then? oh yes, phone and in person. I've been on the internet since 1992 and it amazes me how we become total junkies crashing hard when we don't have it and that's just email. People can't DO anything when email is down. No one remembers what people's phone numbers are. No one remembers what they had been discussing over email in the first place. The stream of information is so fast and furious, when it's not coming at us at light speed velocity it's like something is missing as if the world has suddenly gone into time worp.

Delicious Restaurant Alert: If you're ever in Berkeley, stop by Telegraph (between Dwight and Parker in Berkeley) to Saigon City Restaurant for the best Vietnamese and Asian Fusion cuisine. Oh, I know Asian fusion was this hip thing (there are two other restaurants doing Asian fusion on the block), but this is Asian fusion that's really good. While you can still get the rice noodle soup Pho, you can also get rack of lamb and peppered tuna. I had the pan seared sea bass served with Jasmine rice and stir-fried pea sprouts. For appetizers, we had the squid salad that just makes your tongue understand its purpose in the world. It's a very fine balance of vinegar, peanut, onion, cabbage, and delicate squid rings that give it body (yes, I know that's a wine word, but if food can have depth and body and legs, this would be it). Also on the appetizer plate was fried chicken and basil in a sweet and spicy sauce that'll make the Colonel lick his fingers. And the absolutely best part! The price! Most appetizers aroun $5-$7 with entrees going for $10-$15. Sure it doesn't have the ambience of restaurants down the street, but who cares!

The head chef and owner (whose name I never know) came from the culinary academy 4 years ago and picked up this little spot, so he could go and cook the food he wanted to create. And if you ever eat at the Bison Brewery/Dragonfly a few doors down, you might taste his cooking as he provides a few dishes for that Asian fusion restaurant.

So, if you stop by, pick anything on the menu, it's all good. Plus, if you need something modified because of your diet needs, sometimes he'll just whip something up on the fly. Early on, he had a lot of meat heavy dishes. My friend vaguely described some sort of vegetarian dish, and he came back with this huge flaborful steaming plate.