Skyfall

My friend called me at six for a six o'clock Twilight showing. I was still in bed, passed out hardcore. Twenty four of the last thirty six hours had been spent in front of my computer, trying to make the infinite deadline. I came close this time, really close, but ultimately the work was not where it needed to be.

What I realized is that my schedule will look like this for a couple months, as there will be no writing reprieve after this book. The due date for the next one looms early next year. Hopefully I'll be better prepared for it, and with this one 90% under my belt, I'll have learned what their expectations are and also what I'm capable of.

I'm hoping to take a breath to prioritize what I need to do in 2013. I feel like I've neglected all manner of things, from work to social, and I should probably literally make a list. I need to get back on track doing other projects, as my days can't revolve around writing this one thing. My general strategy of holing up until something is done isn't sustainable.

Here is a short video of Shanghai's marriage corner, made by a family who has taken a year off to travel the world and explore. Just looking at their itinerary makes me tired. The marriage corner is a park in Shanghai for the parents to go and exchange profiles of their unwed children. The detail that fascinated me is that some of the profiles contain information about when the parents are looking to retire, and how much financial support they will require in their old age. You aren't just getting a husband/wife, but the whole family too. Very Confucian.

Someone needs to make an online version of this for immigrant parents in the United States, as I'm sure they'd love to hook up their American children in a similar manner. This is my great idea nobody will invest in: social networking -- and matchmaking -- for Asian parents.

I've been obsessed with David Chang and his new PBS show, The Mind of a Chef, produced by Anthony Bourdain. The episodes are available online and I can't recommend them enough. Really, I can't shut up about them and I literally talk about something I saw on the episodes to anyone who'll listen. AMR took the effort to poach some eggs Chang-style, so clearly he is a true friend.

I met some Danish people the other night and totally forgot to ask them about Noma, holder of the title for "greatest restaurant in the world." Chang visits Rene Redzepi in episode six of his show. It's not my favorite episode, but coming on the heels of just reading a lot about Noma, it was interesting to get a look at Redzepi and his restaurant.

And then there's Eddie Huang and his series on Vice, Fresh Off the Boat. The current episodes are set in Taiwan -- earlier ones were in the Bay -- and regardless of how you feel about Huang's personality, the episodes are great simply for showing you spots you'd never find on your own. Here's an earlier video of Huang's trip to Flushing for soup dumplings. A couple of years ago I read through all of Huang's blog and followed him for awhile. Now he's got a memoir coming out. The actual buns he kicks out at BaoHaus? Decent, nothing amazing.

We've been eating recently at a few hipster-y Asian places (see "The Year of Asian Hipster Cuisine"). The food is Asian but the presentation is white people. M-Noodle is open late and it serves Chinese food that's exactly home made. The entire front and wait staff are Williamsburg hipsters and the people making the food are straight Chinese. The one time I went there with JMZ, in the mid-afternoon, we sat at the counter and watched them bang out the dumplings while JMZ talked to them about where they were from.

I've been trying to figure out how this setup happened, like the owner just went out and found these cooks after he decided he wanted to open up a semi-trendy but very traditional Chinese food spot? Or was it the other way around? At Talde, located in Park Slope, the food was quite good but a little overpriced. Most of all, the decor was interesting/jarring. It was half Oriental-looking stuffs, and then paired with a dark wooden pub sort of feel. I guess JMZ nailed it by saying it was like a trendy PF Chang's.

Talde has this variation of halo halo with Cap'n Crunch in it. It comes in a huge bowl and I had to bring the rest home because it was so damn good. The next thing I need in my home: a shaved ice maker. George and I had this Snoopy one growing up and I may now need this Doraemon shaved ice maker. I'll blast some music through my new speakers and we'll go heavy on the condensed milk.