Month: December 2025

December 31, 2025 – Save This For Later

December 31, 2025 /

I won’t lie, I am a little snooty about my beef. My whole life I have primarily known the source of my beef. When given the choice from the butcher, I would cut up the rib roast or prime rib into ribeye steaks. I am generally not a fan of prime rib because I don’t find it to be cooked particularly well. That being said, when you have a $165 piece of beef, you want to honor the results, regardless of the source.

This was our Christmas prime rib. I calculated 12 people and so I figured that a six plus pound roast was adequate. However, when I looked at it at the store, it didn’t seem nearly large enough, especially considering shrinkage from cooking. We ended up eat about 2/3 of this nearly 13 pound roast so I would gauge one pound per person rather than half a pound. Ideally, I would have sliced it much thinner than I did with a knife. That more than likely would have made it go farther but I was in a time crunch so slices ranged from a quarter to half inch.

This particular roast was bone in. This means that some of that weight was also the bones. I actually didn’t realize that until I was cutting for serving. It came out fine but it was a surprise when I started getting ready for serving. Actually, it came out more than fine. The day after Christmas, I trimmed the bones and made beef stock for Au Jus for our French dip sandwiches. From the rib trimmings, I chopped those up with some potatoes and made a breakfast hash. We gave our newly moved out son a pile of meat to eat on and I still have some leftover meat for dinner.

The hardest thing about prime rib is cooking it properly. You certainly don’t want it over cooked and you definitely want it done by dinner time. No matter what recipe you choose, it is essential to have a probe thermometer. I use the same technique that I use with a turkey. Take it out early and cover first with foil and then with towels. This allows the meat to continue to cook and rest.

In my roast, I turned the oven on at 500 degrees. I put the roast in for twenty minutes and then the temp went down to 325 until the center measured 125. A rough estimate for the timing is about 15 minutes per pound. That made my overall oven time about three hours. I took it out about an hour and a half before dinner and covered it. About an hour later, the thermometer read 145 degrees. I wasn’t paying total attention at that point as I was busy with other things.

If you ask me, it was probably a little over cooked. Portions around the bones and in the middle were still pink. All things considered, it was about perfect given the variables although maybe I would take it out at 120 next time. One of the key steps that almost every recipe gets wrong is the initial rest. Most of them give very silly instructions such as let the roast sit on the counter for thirty minutes to come up to room temperature. I have news, a 12 pound roast will not come up to temperature in thirty minutes after being in the refrigerator. My picture is after sitting on the counter for four hours and it is still 39. If I really loved my family, I would have gotten the roast out about 3AM instead of 6AM to give more time to come up to temperature.

This step is critical to having a good outcome. A nearly freezing hunk of meat is going to cook more unevenly considering how much mass there is to cook. I will also make your cook time shorter, the longer it warms on the counter. If I could let it get up to 50-55 degrees, I would.

Cooking a prime rib is not hard, it just requires planning and attention. Back calculate eating time plus an hour rest, divide the weight by four and add that to your start time. The rest time also acts as a little buffer time if more cooking is required, but I would err on the side of starting earlier and giving more rest time if you are unsure. Just like it wont come up to room temperature in thirty minutes, it won’t come out of the oven to room temperature in thirty minutes.

End Your Programming Routine: Some people like horseradish or mustard or au jus. To me, the meat was the star here and plus I forgot get horseradish and all the stores were closed by the time we realized it. That is Ok because the results were fantastic anyway. Other than the price, you shouldn’t be intimidated to make prime rib. Paying attention will yield better results than any restaurant can achieve.

December 30, 2025 – 100 Years

December 30, 2025 /

I should have got to this a few weeks ago. It would have been closer to my Grandmother’s birthday. With all of the holidays and me being behind with everything, I just found the time. Normally, I wouldn’t publish a photo without permission, but I think that my grandmother would not mind. I suspect that if I ever made it that far, there wouldn’t be much for me to be worried about either.

I wasn’t born yesterday. In fact, I have fifty years of experience on me. While getting to 100 is something that most of us will never achieve, I kind of see it as bittersweet. My grandparents were married for a little over fifty years and then my Grandfather died suddenly in 1994. If you are doing that math, that is over thirty years of being a widow. For a short while, my Grandma had a friend who was a lifelong neighbor and also a widower. Unfortunately for her, he was in his mid 90s himself and died a few years ago.

Probably the saddest turn of events was that my Grandma was a twin. Approximately ten years ago, her sister and life long best friend developed dementia. While they lived at the same facility, the disease took her sister much earlier figuratively and then literally. I know it was hard for her, but this is not a sad sack story. It is just a realization that life can have unforeseen difficulties when you do something that very few people ever do.

I think one of the funnest stories about my Grandma is that my great grandfather did not like like my grandfather when they were dating because he drove too fast. But, she got the last laugh when they eloped in high school. Imagine that! My Grandfather was drafted for World War II and she followed him to basic training where she finished high school. Just in case it wasn’t clear, they eventually got over the fast driving.

After my grandfather’s service he had a burning desire to be a farmer. That was not the most lucrative career. After living in a tent and a converted chicken coop, my grandmother laid down the law when my dad was school age. They purchased their first house and had some stability with my grandfather starting to work a local specialty metals mill. When my dad got college age, both he and Grandma went to the local community college, graduating at the same time. She went to work as a medical assistant where she eventually worked with her sister until she retired.

One of the greatest songs ever is “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. I have written enough and have a long enough track record, I see it in my work. I keep thinking about someday I am going to do this or that and then before I realize it, life has just flown by. Before I started writing on AltF4, I was journaling about once a week. I have been doing that for probably fifteen years.

When I read my original writings, I still have the same delimas and I have the same unfulfilled desires. Even the lyrics of the song ring true. We we are young, we want to be older, then we are concerned with our career and future. Before we know it, we are caught up in work and family until all of the sudden, we are in our twilight. I know that I am definitely into the same pattern, where I am so busy trying to get ahead that i am missing the present.

We actually had two parties for my Grandma. The first one was family only and the second one was pretty open. It is a good sign when a couple hundred people come to to your birthday party. I have been to a lot of social events and it isn’t that often that you get that many people to an old person’s event. That says a lot to the lot about the kind of life that she leads.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s kind of hard to get dedicated time at someone’s special day. It is always like that at birthdays and weddings. But, I recently I spent an hour on the couch reminiscing about her party certain life events that I had never heard about this previously. It was a good conversation and I didn’t want to leave her in the room alone when everyone went to another room. It was a good time and I wish many more but I realize that there probably won’t be too many more. Not only do I need to take my own advice about my own life but I need to make sure that I take advantage of this relationship while I still can.

December 29, 2025 – AltF4’s 2025 Year In Review

December 29, 2025 /

Today I go through my work in 2025 and sum up the highlights for the year. I analyze the general theme of the month/quarter/year as well as highlight my favorites of the year. When I look back at previous years, I realize that this has typically been a post and not a podcast. Oh well, I already planned it this way. See you in 2026.

December 24, 2025 – Good Times

December 24, 2025 /

Tomorrow is Christmas. For kids and some, it is a good time. I don’t particularly like it and I sort grit my teeth to get through it. There will be no AltF4.co tomorrow, but I wanted to leave on a high note. I am recapping a little bit of some of the finds I stumbled upon while I was on my hunting trip. This was in my plans for October but got buried under all the things that I didn’t get to. When I look at these pictures, I have a good feeling and so I thought that I would share.

Starting with the upper left, I had some kind of giant bird fly into a nearby tree. I think it was a Peregrine falcon but I am not 100% certain which is why I took the picture in the first place. Strange things sometimes happen in the woods, I have had owls fly around as if they are protecting something that I never saw. Sometimes there are occurrences that I have never experienced just by proximity to new or unusual circumstances. It was odd to have a giant bird land so close to a tree that I was next too.

To the right of that picture is a clear sign of predator activity. It was getting late in the week and the weather had finally changed from Indian summer to wet and freezing in the morning. I was walking a clear area and I stumbled upon some rib bones that were still bright red. If I had to guess, this was a remnant from a hunter’s recent butcher job that got carried away by a coyote. It was the only bones in the immediate vicinity but not the only bones in the area. It reminds us that this is a wild area with real, wild activity, even if it is not seen.

The picture on the farthest left is another thing I ran across in the woods. It is hard to say how old that can actually is. But I will say this, I have never seen a can like that before. This tells me that it was probably in the 1950-60 range. My guess is that this is a remnant from the original timber cutting of the area. Not only that, but I have never eaten canned potatoes. It makes me wonder what life was like back then. Is the person that left the can still alive? What were they actually doing in the woods? I see a lot of trash in the woods, but something vintage has a nice pedigree to it.

The last picture is some kind of plot marker. I spent some time looking at the sign because it was fascinating. First, it was made with super tight growth ring timber, likely ponderosa pine. It had both embossed and painted information on it. I don’t know if the marker was embossed first and then painted or repurposed by the painting. The sign was clearly hand painted and had some kind of cartographic information on it. Finally, it was nailed to the tree. Once again, I would guess that this hails from the 1950-60s.

Last week, I showed a picture of me standing in front of a defunct fire tower. That tower was build in the mid-1990s and taken out of service in 2023 because it was deemed unsafe. It looked pretty good to me but if I had to speculate, I would guess that the galvanized hardware had started to corrode. It is too bad because fire watch today is predominantly done by satellite, airplane and cameras.

There are still a few active fire towers in Oregon. It used to be that people like teachers would camp out during the summer months to keep an eye out for smoke, likely after lightning storms during the summer months. These things would dot the forests from line of sight to line of sight and were crucial on getting the jump on fire response. Some of them are available to stay overnight as a sort of weekend getaway. I helped myself to use of the vault toilet. It was very clean and private and it sure beats digging a hole. It also helped that the best cell phone reception in the area was at the tower. I actually conducted some business up there.

End Your Programing Routine: A hunting trip is a lot more than shooting an animal to me. It’s a good thing too because I haven’t shot any animal in ten years. It was camaraderie that doesn’t exist in the in-between years. It is the treasures that are found, some of which I documented. It is the wonder and mystery of man kind and nature. This is why I look forward to a hunting trip every couple of years. Merry Christmas everyone.

December 23, 2025 – When It Rains, It Pours

December 23, 2025 /

When it comes to winter storms, certainly the ones that have snow and ice are the ones that get the most attention. These are the ones that snarl traffic on the ground and the airport, they freeze pipes and generally make life miserable. While it might snow here a time or two a year, there have definitely been years without snow. We also get another type of storm that rides the jet stream in from Hawaii. This is our second ‘atmospheric river’ this month.

When we moved into this house twenty-one years ago, it was in the beginning of January. We lived a whole year without seeing any kind of water in the basement and the previous owners only owned the house for nine months. It was never disclosed that the basement got wet. More than likely because they didn’t know. The second January, I walked down the stairs and then stepped in water up to my ankle. The house inspector mentioned where a good spot to put a sump pump but it had gone in one ear and then out the other. After the mess was cleaned up, it was time to start planning.

I can’t believe that I have never written about this before, but I haven’t. Since I have installed the sump pump, I have not stepped up to my ankles in water. It has made a huge difference but it doesn’t stop it all. If it is wet enough, water will weep through the concrete block foundation and it will start coming through the expansion joints in the floor. Believe it or not, most of the water runs down the outside sidewalk, down the basement stairs and then under the door.

If we were going to stay here forever, I would put a drain at the bottom of the basement stairs to prevent much of this. The reason that I have not is that it would really require rebuilding the entire stairs in concrete. It is probably somthing that I should have done but life have been busy. Let’s call it a long term plan.

I have a submersible pump that will go to the worst areas like the one pictured. When the water gets high, it can take up to ten minutes to pump dry. Additionally, when the water is that high, one pumping is not enough. The sequence goes fill, pump, fill, pump until the ground drains, which can take days. For this most recent storm, there was only one day that I had to pump. By then, the rain event had already passed so I knew that I was in the clear.

The good news is that this is not every time it rains. It happens under two conditions: an atmospheric river or when a heavy snow event starts to melt. The bad news about the second one is that when it snows, it tends to freeze. This makes the pump deadhead against a pipe full of ice. I have had to come up with emergency procedures to pump out with a hose into the yard rather than down the driveway and into the storm sewer system. The other bad news with that is that the water tends to run back into the basement by way of under the door. But it is better than waiting for the pipe to thaw.

Last year, there was a forecasted atmospheric river. I got everything ready by getting stuff off the ground, staging pumps and hoses and all that prerequisite work. The rain came and went and the basement did not flood, not one drop. Consider that dodging a bullet because I would much rather roll up a dry hose than spend time fighting the rising tide. It was the only time I had to go into action last year. So, you see it is not every year.

This is one of those things that is part of the rhythm of life. The first time it happened, it was probably a week of trying things and constant vigilance. At this point, I just make sure anything that can get wet is off the floor and stage pumps and hoses. Since I have been working in my office, there has not been a time where I haven’t found a minute to step away an pump for sixty seconds and I don’t worry about it.

We got three inches of rain in a 24hr period of time. When I look at the local rivers, they are not the highest I have ever seen. I would concur that this was not the wettest my basement has ever been. In 2016, we had record setting rainfall, I did take the day off to keep up with things that year. But, then again, there was river water on Highway 99W. That was the first and only time I have ever seen that. That time, I did take a day off of work so that I could deal with the water.

Snow and ice do a pretty good job of messing up the roads temporarily. This is not that but when the rain causes a landslide that wipes out a half mile of road, this can be a whole lot more costly than snow. There are at least three different road closures for damaged highways that the foundation has been washed away. The label is ‘indefinite closure’. An atmospheric river is nothing to sneeze at.

End Your Programming Routine: I love my basement. It is an extremely valuable space for me and completely worth the effort. But, I will be honest, I will not miss this exercise. It changes plans and sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night. We were going to spend two nights at the beach but I told my wife that I needed to stay and monitor the situation. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and we are waiting for the next event. Hopefully, this is it for the year and forever for me.

December 22, 2025 – Festivus 2025

December 22, 2025 /

I’ve got a lot of problems with you people. It is time for the annual airing of grievances. You can probably guess some of the items because it seems like they are on my list every year. However, there are some new ones this year. Thank goodness because I get tired of brining up the same issues. Stay tune to the end if you want to hear about how this process has effected me and the impact to the new year.

December 19, 2025 – Better Late Then Never

December 19, 2025 /

This is just another sign that I am over my head. Typically Fridays would be a book review or nothing at all. That being said, I have not had a single chance to read in the last couple of weeks. My typical day lately starts work at 5 AM and my head hits the pillow around 9:30 PM at the earliest. I am packing, wrapping or attending social obligations. However, this post was supposed to happen some time in October.

I probably have enough content to do two posts, so I will probably do something next week on my hunting trip. I really wanted to talk about the binocular harness and how it did so that is today. I invested pretty significantly in this setup based on hearsay from Meat Eater and you might want to know if it is worth the money. You can also tell that I am no good at selling things because I don’t even show the product in my picture. Here is a link to my previous article.

Today I won’t rehash the previous article but my thoughts on how the product worked. We are talking about the Badlands Bino Harness that I used every day for my week long hunt. First and foremost, I would put it on first things in the morning as we were getting ready to leave camp. When you try to put the harness on with the binoculars in them, gravity tends to pull the harness down making it difficult to snap together. It would be helpful to have a second set of hands when trying to get the apparatus on. Another added issue I had was that with my shoulder pain, I had some mobility problems reaching around. I never tried to put it on dry or empty.

Once I got the harness on, it was comfortable. I never really felt constrained when driving or sitting at the table for lunch. I also never felt any weight strain on my back or neck. I had no issues putting my coat on and my backpack after that. Some of the early days were in the upper seventies so I didn’t need a coat but only in the early morning and late afternoon. Due to the fact that it was difficult to get rigged up, I left it on from sunrise to sunset.

Later in the week, it started raining. The harness is water resistant but that doesn’t mean that I am. I was able to zip my coat over the the whole thing without problem. Another indication that it is not too bulky. If you are out of shape and hence a sweater, Wearing a bino harness is going to cause addition perspiration due to its padding and footprint on your chest.

It was comforting having my best pair of binoculars handy. Previous to owning this, I would carry a compact set of binoculars around my neck. This worked OK, except that sometimes I didn’t wear a shirt with a front pocket. There is no way I would walk around with loose binoculars banging around as I step over logs and such. The visual quality of my full size binoculars was certainly an upgrade.

I actually have more attachments/pockets for my harness then I used. I had it setup with the rangefinder and the utility pouches on the harness. I can say that I used my rangefinder for the first time where I wasn’t sitting still because I didn’t have to dig it out of my backpack. The utility pouch held my phone securely enough and I would be able to access it to look at maps while I was hiking. There is also room for my compass that I kept for backup and navigation purposes. One caveat is that the utility pouch is not waterproof. If you phone or whatever you put in that pouch is not, keep that in mind.

Did I like it? Heck yes. Here is my review.

ScoreScoreAdvantagesDisadvantages
Value2/5Badlands have lots of accessories to customize your rig how you want it.Of all the choices out there, many are significantly cheaper with the same configuration that I used
Quality5/5This is a well built rig that fits binoculars snugly
Performance4/5All the gear you need in a place to easily get at when you want it.It is not the product’s problem that it is difficult to put on but maybe there is a better way.
Because of the semi-custom sizing, sometimes the flaps (magnets) would come open dug to snug fit
The small amount of MOLLE led to a compromise placement of the rangefinder pocket.

End Your Programming Routine: You may think that based on my scores, I didn’t like the product. I did, I really did. That being said, I probably should have purchased the cheaper option based on how much I am probably going to use it in the future. I would recommend this for a multiple season hunter. They can take advantage of the modularity based on multiple uses. I am one of those guys that has more money than time. No problem buying the best, just be aware that there are suitable alternatives.

December 17, 2025 – Who Do You Want to Be?

December 17, 2025 /

While the deal is not completely done, we are in the process of packing. We are also paying rent in the new house and so we have the keys but I am a little leery of doing too much until the deal is done. It does allow us to do some advanced planning about how things are going to be arranged at the new house. As I pack, I am wondering how I am going to cram things into the places that no longer exist. It makes me feel like I missed my window on some hobbies and that maybe I should consider down sizing. My internal debate today.

December 12, 2025 – Mere Christianity, Book Three: Chapters 7-12

December 12, 2025 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

Two weeks in a row, what is happening? Did I get my mojo back or have major roadblocks been removed? No. But, I have gotten this far in the book and I would really like to keep the rhythm of at least the Friday reviews going. My neck is feeling a little better than it has in week’s past but this recent flurry of activity really has more to do with topics stubbed out months ago. Don’t hold your breath because we have a valid offer for this house which means that the move is one step closer.

This is the conclusion to virtues that we started last week. When I look at these six chapters as a whole, these are supposed to more important then the ones from last week. There are a couple of things jumbling around in my head, including pride is not actually a virtue but a sin and the opposite of the rest of the group. That weakens the overall argument when things are not completely buttoned up. Below is a couple words on the points of each chapter.

  • Love your neighbor
  • Pride is the worst sin
  • Love without like
  • Christianity is focused on Heaven without any real knowledge
  • Faith is a prerequisite to be a Christian.

When I look at this group, I see all of the most popular sermon topics. Faith, charity, hope, forgiveness and fighting pride are all of the tenants of Sunday morning. This is not to say that chastity or or marriage virtue are not important but they are typically not the focus in my experience. It seems appropriate that Lewis would put the focus on these virtues this week as they are in line with the typical Christian dogma.

I think that Lewis actually make some really good points this week. The Christian focus on things that we have no knowledge such as Heaven are pretty good fodder for non-believers. We like to come off as authorities in things that we really have no basis. In fact, we barely even have sources inside of the Bible and hearsay. While I choose to believe in the Bible, I will admit that the text has some dubious origins. I guess that is the very definition of faith.

Speaking of faith, this is an interesting topic. My definition of faith is belief in something that is not fully provable because of the desire to want it to be true. This can have what I would call good intonations and bad ones. We use that word in context of belief that a new coach will recruit better, hire better assistants, be able to see things other coaches did not. In other words, there is no definitive proof that the future will be better but that we want it to be.

We use faith as a transference of things that are too distant or outside of our circle of influence. I have faith that the fund managers for the mutual funds in my 401K are being executed to the best of their goals. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I want to believe it and as long as the funds are meeting my expectations. I have no idea whether those funds could have made 50% more and I never will because I am not there.

Faith has to have some ambiguity to it. If it is 12AM, it is not really faith to say that by 9AM the next day there will be daylight (in most months). Unless the sun explodes overnight this is more of a fact than faith. We can have faith that we will wake up the next morning, but that is not guaranteed. People of all ages go to sleep and don’t wake up. This is not to mention that there will come a day that will be our last. That being said, the probability that I will go to sleep and not wake up is extremely low. It is not nothing so I have faith.

I used the word dogma earlier in this post. That was intentional. I think where Lewis’ arguments here break down is the overall purpose of the work. You cannot use circular logic to prove something. God exists because you should take care of people less fortunate than yourself. It is commanded through the Old Testament and approached in softer ways through Jesus. That is not proof, the supporting the argument is reinforced by the very subject in doubt.

I don’t think anybody ever said that Lewis was a trained philosopher. Maybe his reputation as a celebrity was the best way to make a convincing argument. It happens all the time in this current culture. I guess what I am saying is that the overall argument is weakening for me. We will see if by the time we get to the end things hold up.

End Your Programming Routine: It is not explicitly stated in the book or in some of the other analysis that I read that we have shifted from proof completed to what is inside of Christianity. I am speculating that this where we are at this point. That being said, I go back to this work being a message of hope during the Nazi air raids of WWII. Strict adherence to Christian chastity doesn’t really do that for most. They might have wanted some faith that their bomb shelters were good enough. I don’t know, I am getting a little lost in the point now.

December 11, 2025 – Nobu: A Memoir

December 11, 2025 /

Do you know Nobu? I really didn’t until I read this book. Nobu: The Memoir is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club for November. Yes, I know that it is mid-December and that is how far behind I am. The good news is that this month we will be doing a comfort themed book with everybody using the Betty Crocker cookbook. I am not reading that one.

So, who is Nobu? He is the celebrity chef that is credited with popularizing Japanese food in America. According to his story, he opened his first and flagship restaurant in the LA area in the mid-1980s. My truth is that I have never heard of him until I read the book, but I am certainly aware of his protégé Morimoto from Iron Chef fame.

I think that his fame to me is a bit circuitous in my life. Living on the West coast, we have always been closer to Asia. When I was in early middle school (about that time frame), we hosted a Japanese Exchange student. My wife had a Japanese student as a roommate (mid-1990s) and they are still close today. This is a long way from eating and liking Japanese food but it was exposure.

This was also the time frame that Japanese cars became main stream acceptable. You have to understand that there was a lot of anti-Japanese bias prior to this point. There were too many long memories about war in the Pacific as a result of World War II. My own grandfather, refused to even be passed on the road by a Volkswagen. But, he did buy a brand new Honda Accord in 1982. As new generations succeed older generations, that icy acceptance starts thaw.

None of that has anything to do with the book but I was setting the table about how this was something new. I won’t give away all of the book but Nobu’s path was interesting. As a result of getting in trouble as a teenager, he was sentenced to supervised training as a sushi chef. That foster relationship turned out to be a globe trotting opportunity for Nobu.

Adherence to principals, proximity and providing something unique were also fortuitous to Nobu as well. This is where he met Robert DeNiro and where his celebrity status became solidified. With DeNiro financially backing exclusive expansion Nobu went from being a principled establishment to a luxury brand.

It is kind of surprising that I had never heard of him before. But then again, I don’t live my life by the Food Channel or food media; I participate in it I suppose. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to the point in the book where he had an establishment in Las Vegas until after we came home. Otherwise, I would have made a point to go there considering I was reading the book on the plane there and back.

I never want to attribute success to luck. I do think that there was a bit of luck involved but I do not want to discount that Nobu created a lot of that luck. He is a big believer in craft mastery and good ideals. This would be things like making sushi to the best of his ability as well as greeting all of the guests at some point in the meal. If he would have just stayed behind the prep station, he possibly would never had met DeNiro.

I think that Nobu’s personality really resonates with me. He has no faith in pedigree. A person may not have all of the ultimate abilities to become a head chef when they are a dishwasher. But, on the other hand they are almost always capable of more. Master one skill and take the opportunity to do the next thing. There is a lot of grounding in that methodology as well. It helps a person have compassion for others.

I have found this in my own career when I started working for these mega corporations. My experience got me hired but my degree status has kept me pretty static over the last five years. I don’t have an MBA and I am not really that interested in it. But because I don’t, I just keep doing what I am doing regardless of the fact that I am capable of so much more. Nobu definitely doesn’t run my company.

He also talks about the concept of fusion as well. Nobu says that fusion is not two dissimilar things put together but a respect for local ingredients adopted under the practices of a Japanese restaurant. He used an example of a popular slider that got nixed from the menu because the Japanese palate traditionally doesn’t use bread buns. They instead developed a rice cake version. I respect that.

End Your Programming Routine: I like this book because I found it inspirational. It is a true American success story. It doesn’t talk too much about the food, but it definitely has inspired me to respect the craft of sushi more than I have. With my experience being almost exclusively national chains and ‘Asian’ restaurants, I really would like to try something made with passion and an eye toward excellence.