New Time Zone
We are in Asia for the next three weeks and I will likely be posting in the mornings Asia time which means late afternoon/evenings in the US.
As much as I would love to meet regular readers on this side of the world, this is a long planned vacation with my wife and some good friends so I won’t be working or taking meetings.
But I do plan to blog. Some habits die hard and that is one of them.
Comments (Archived):
Enjoy Fred and Joanne!
Fun. Hope you make it to Singapore and Bali.
The first 1-2 days in Asia could be brutal on the jet lag scale. You might not sleep well the first night and end-up blogging in the middle of the night or something like that 🙂 Day 3 will be the new normal.
As someone who commuted to Singapore every month for five years, that would have meant that I spent 120 jet lagged lost days.Don’t think so 😉
If you do it a lot, that’s a different story. And going from the West Coast or Europe is different than from East Coast.I have been to India 3 times and the first 2 times were tough on the adjustment scale. I remember being at 3AM in my hotel room, not able to sleep, and then fighting to stay awake during the day. Coming from Europe is a bit easier as the time difference isn’t that big.
The truth is it depends on the cycles and your level of fitness.Old and true rule of thumb is to put yourself in the time zone of where you are going of course.Possible from lets say anywhere in the US to Europe via redeyes, harder back.When the transport time is longer than sleep cycles it depends totally on your bodily and head self control.It’s tough I agree.
Try jetzone or no jet lag herbal pills, amazing
I’ll check them out. Lianna is a wellness practitioner and manages me towards something similar I bet.
The key is to get past the first day of pain after lunch for me. Power past that and the next day you are good
Yup.When I reported into Singapore and needed to present once a month, my deal was then–fly business or first and we meet the day I get there. Coach and i need 48 hours.I used to come in, work in office for 2-3 days then go dive somewhere, then head to Europe.
This old man can’t do coach anymore for overseas trips
This was a while ago ;)But I still get caught now and again, and people send me a ticket now and again to come get familiar with a wine spot, like Marsala and I just do it.
Always found coming back east harder. Was glad to learn that was backed by science. Perhaps common knowledge:https://www.nytimes.com/201…
Right, I’ve noticed the same jet lag effect in both US colleagues who visited our India offices, and in myself when coming back from the US. It seems to be worse in that direction than the other way around.
yup. definitely.
Enjoy and please can we have a few photos of:(1.) Amazing architecture;(2.) Tech accessories which only exist in Asia that you happen across; and(3.) Food.Thanks!
I say #2 only unless the #1/3 contain pictures of them. [1][1] Whenever my daughters travel I tell them not to send any picture unless they are in the picture.
Oh you spoilsport, LE! Lol. Amazing architecture is their chance to be creative about shooting it from unusual angles and with different filters!We take food photos so that when we get home, we can recreate the dishes by finding the right YouTube videos.
I want the translations on the board :-). I was seated up front for the first time in this place. We love their food. https://uploads.disquscdn.c… After Fred’s trip I’d love to know his iteniary. I want to visit Asia as a tourist. I go four times a year but purely for business
Funny the owner saw me take that picture and translated for me. They are new items that have not made it to the printed English menu. I am going to try the Singapore noodles
I love Char Kway Teow, the Malaysian Chinese flat rice noodle. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…Chicken vermicelli is also good. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I lived in Penang which is the street food capital of Southeast Asia and Char Kway Teow capital of the world.Lived in Singapore as well, but Penang’s Char Kway Teow is something else.Not healthy though. I did not eat it often.
Lucky you! My favorite cuisine is Nonya.
I had been to Malaysia (KL) for a while and had tried out many Malay, Malaysian Chinese, and Malaysian Indian dishes. Pretty good stuff.The Malaysian Indian food is, interestingly, both similar to and somewhat different from the Indian Indian food (mostly from South India, from Tamil Nadu), since (I think) the majority of Malaysian Indians came from there to Malaysia a century or more ago.Roti canai is a good snack you get in those Chinese tea / snack joints. Cozy atmosphere too.
I don’t love the thick noodles. I like the vermicelli. Are those on that white board? He didn’t say those, but he knows I like the thin noodles. When we get a new waitress sometimes she will point to her tongue and say “numb spicy” because some of their food does in fact make your tongue numb. He will say something in Mandarin and all is solved. He was watching me (not in a bad way at all) as I was noticing all the Chinese people looking at the board as they came in. When I took a picture he asked if I needed a translation.The best part about living here is I can live rural but be two miles from Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Moroccan, Syrian, Greek, Jewish, Mexican, Spanish, (Northern and Southern) China, Italian and India restaurants among others and I will be in the minority and English is definitely not the predominate language,My business partner and I have a meeting over lunch every day we both are in the office.They all recognize us and welcome us.
Chicken and wood ear in glass noodle soup is better than pho.https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Recipes?
https://www.youtube.com/wat…I LOVE wood ear fungus:https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Mmmmm we don’t have any Philippine restaurants here we do have Malaysian.Although we do have some Filipino people here as we have a decent amount of Merchant Marine members. Not sure why but they seem to skew Filipino maybe because of the amount of Islands there, that was why the Balut and Durian comment the other day.
The “numb spicy” feeling is probably from a mixture of Sichuan peppers and other peppers (like chillies and black pepper):https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…which is used in Sichuan as well as other cuisines.Just googled for it and also found this blog, which (as well as the Wikipedia article) shows that it is used in Indian (and other Asian) cuisines too:http://www.aayisrecipes.com…Never known it to be present myself in Indian food, though I’ve experienced cuisines of many parts (but not all) of India. I should check it out sometime.
Oh it is very apparent and you are exactly right. There are at least a cup of Sichuan peppers in the dish.They worry about us because of our appearance but they have gotten used to us.We have so many restaurants near us:https://www.google.com/sear…My favorite takeout is this place:https://www.yelp.com/biz/ba…
Wow, a full cup seems like a lot.Will check out those restaurants.
Spanish: https://www.oletapaslounge….Korean: https://www.facebook.com/pa…Mexican: http://eljeferestaurant.com/Brazilian: http://eatsteaks.com/Southern Indian: http://www.godavarius.com/d…Northern Indian: http://www.indiapalacede.com/Southwestern Chinese: https://eatstreet.com/newar…Northeastern Chinese: https://eatstreet.com/newar…Moroccan/Syrian: https://www.zomato.com/wilm…Greek: https://www.seamless.com/me… Palestinian; http://gyrokingde.net/GyroK…Southern Italian: http://www.tavernamainstree…Northern Italian: http://caffegelato.net/Seafood: http://skipjacknewark.com/m…English Pub Grub: http://www.twostonespub.com…Gatro Brew Pub: https://www.ironhillbrewery…Japanese: http://places.singleplatfor…Malyasian: https://www.facebook.com/pi…Vietnamese: https://www.zomato.com/wilm…Pho: http://www.phonhuvu.com/That and every “American” type restaurant you want In quotes because they are all American, but I am talking sports bars, delis, steak places, wing places, pizza places etc within 5 to 10 minutes of my office.This is my list for visitors.
A lot of variety there. Thanks for the links.
Diverse list. Will check them out, thanks.
Enjoy!
Awesome! Anything interesting lined up on the itinerary?
Welcome!
Travel safe and have fun. Forget trump
Shenzhen is where much of the action in China is these days. It remains the world’s manufacturing shop, but also has tons of serious internet and IT all around and is really progressing with an international scene. And winter weather is great there (and in HKG). Taking a lot of buzz away from Shanghai and Beijing.We will be spending part of the winter there, for those reasons.
Good travel tip, thanks!
…Watched this recording again today.https://www.youtube.com/wat…
In your video and the one that I have below that’s George Harrison’s son next to Tom.https://www.youtube.com/wat…https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Was played multiple times in our house after Prince died. Last night for Tom. The talent on that stage is mesmerizing.My husband knows the drummer, who told him that he never saw Prince’s guitar come back down after he threw it up in the air.
The tossed guitar at the end that doesn’t come back is the ultimate mic drop.
Exactly what my husband said last night.Great minds…
@girishmehta:disqus: Thank you for posting this here even though it has nothing directly to do with @fredwilson:disqus’s sojourn in Asia.Epic! Brought tears to my eyes. Reminds me so profoundly of my own experiences with the UK Rock Band – The Brewers – in the early 60’s which I still miss and often yearn for even so many years later. Both Tom and Prince are sorely missed from the music scene along with several other recently departed musically talented Souls from our era.
It’s that Japan Kickstarter thingie that’s getting you over there, we know! Can’t fool us!
Fred, would you like to meet-up in Tokyo towards the end of October? A few of us living in Tallinn, Estonia will be in Japan and would love to meet personally. – Björn Lapakko (@Lapakko)
I blogged every day for a few years and then got too frustrated and busy so quit. I’ve barely blogged since. I’m convinced it is a habit that, once quit, is very hard to pick up again. (Then again I suspect most habits are that way.)
Nice – have fun!
Have fun. (and RIP Tom Petty.)
Slacker.
FRED:we might be the only ones but your blog is the main social media interaction we use. (Just included Periscope to watch live events not in our locale)The word that can be used is anticipation.We will always hold you to the highest standards. The New York City combative and competitive nature will rarely leave the New Yorker. Many tow the line just based uponyour financial sucess. We acknowledge and support the majority of your Philanthropic endeavors.To whom much is given much is expected.We look forward to your photos.Taiwan and Bora Bora is on our travel list for 2018.
.Be careful, be wary, be safe. Bon voyage.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
going to North Korea?———————————–what is ‘Asia’?
Have fun!
Fred’s on vacation, but the news cycle isn’t. Would suggest everyone read Thomas Friedman’s very poignant editorial on Sunday’s shooting. Context matters. Hypocrisy at play. #truthhttps://mobile.nytimes.com/…
Tom Friedman was on a late night talk show and explained how CO2 can cause global warming. He claimed that CO2 absorbs sunlight.Okay, let’s see: Let’s walk out, get some CO2, and see if it blocks sunlight. So, for the source of CO2, just exhale. Now look: Do you see any visual effects of the CO? I don’t. Uh, no one does.Friedman just spouts off about important subjects he knows nothing about.That example and more are why I flatly refuse to take anything from Friedman or the NYT seriously or even read it.As I wrote the NYT publisher long ago, the NYT is “dead to me”. On paper it can’t compete with Charmin, and on the Internet it’s useless for wrapping dead fish heads. Useless down to worse.
Nice, concise rebuttal that says absolutely nothing. How about offering some comments and/or criticism specific to what Friedman speaks to in his column. Take apart the hypocrisy, if you so disagree w/ his thinking. An overarching indictment of Friedman and/or the NYT serves no ones interests, least of all yours. You can do better.
You are being a bit tough to please, or fast to be displeased. Likely I’m the all time super detailed, links, references, facts, data, even math, poster at AVC, but for Friedman I was brief. Now you wanted me to write more — gads.What I said about Friedman and CO2 needs some background on CO2, Friedman, and the NYT: In simple terms, the NYT, with Friedman, is in the mainstream media (MSM) the grand champion of for years and years pushing the outrageous, nonsense, destructive, flim-flam fraud scam of CO2 from human activities causing and being a threat of causing destructive global warming. If you don’t know this, then figure it out for yourself, which is super easy to do, or read it elsewhere. In the words in a famous movie about newsies, that NYT-Friedman CO2 stuff is “total BS”. So, I shot down Friedman’s knowledge and expertise to talk about CO2 in a few lines with a simple experiment: Exhale. Done.For the rest of the NYT, sure, just need some background, e.g., their big piece, above the fold, centered, that Trump had molested some women on some commercial airplane flights. Well, I have some of the details (but better things to do, e.g., this evening with a Microsoft CAB file, than track the NYT), but that whole story was, again, “total BS” as was clear a few days later.From the long stream, back to at least Trump’s announcement, apparently one or more stories daily, from the NYT with nothing but total BS about Trump, the NYT is a propaganda arm of the Democrat party, Hillary, Schumer, Pelosi very much as in the Goebbels, IIRC, “If you tell a lie often enough, then people will believe it and eventually you will believe it.” On Trump, CO2, and illegal immigration, the NYT is Goebbels propaganda — lies over and over. So, with that, and you can fill in the rest, on paper the NYT can’t compete with Charmin.Look, for anything about politics or government, the NYT is just nasty, lying propaganda, part of people in or close to the Democrats to start a so far mostly non-violent civil war. It’s strongly socialism and not so long ago was essentially communism or Communism.That’s what the NYT wants to push — a socialist and/or communist revolution. They are convinced that they have morality, economics, etc. all on their side — they don’t. They are totally closed minded, totally in that in-group, totally partisan, just fighting a civil war. Uh, in many ways, NYC is a totally Democrat party, socialist, far left wing politics town. It has some things in common with SF and DC and otherwise is, for the rest of the country, out in La La, wack-o land.Instead, I want facts, rationality, honesty, debate in good faith, good engineering, occasionally some good applied math, etc. As is totally obvious here at AVC, I make no effort at all to fit in with an in-group. I just say the best thoughts I can come up with for the time I spend writing no matter what feathers get rubbed what way — period. I write like a write a mathematical proof, with zip, zilch, and zero attention to what the reader might “feel”. That’s no way to fit into an in-group.It’s a free country. We have a free press, free to push total BS. The NYT is not nearly the first total BS rag. You can swallow that NYT toxic Kool-Aid if you want, but you will look back and regret it.
CONTRIBUTORS:Our best Asian cuisines not in any order:Vegan Singapore NoodlesDragon NoodlesVegetarian PhoStickly Sesame Cauliflower Vegan Dan Dan NoodlesVegan Fried Rice (There is no Fried Rice like Chinese Fried Rice in NYC, Period, end of story)Rainbow Vegetarian Pad Thai with Peanuts & Basil
Had not heard of Dragon Noodles, checking it out.
Exactly. 🙂
And why not Fred’s “good eats”? Are we failing to be gender correct here? Donna, I’m surprised at you! 🙂
What does this have to do with gender?
Pictures? Especially if you see a Panda?
You’re about to see plenty of people then.
CONTRIBUTORS:GO YANKEES.ALL RISE! AARON JUDGE!
Ah, sounds like you will be in Asia for the big Trump visit, several US aircraft carrier battle groups, maybe a ship or two from England, lots of US B-1s flying overhead, and lots of talk about Dumb Ding Dung Dong Ill Uno a.k.a. Little Song Pong III Rocket Boy.So, if Little Rocket Boy explodes a nuke on or over the US, you will be in Asia?Hmm???You are a part of the Trump party? 🙂
Actually the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Chafee both sailed past my house on Monday. The latter is currently berthed in Victoria Harbour, the former is moored near the PLA Navy’s Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base. Apparently there are joint exercises with South Korea next week.Fred and GG arrived in HKG the next day. Coincidence?!
“Coincidence”? Definitely — just look up the meaning of the word. Mere coincidence? Hmm, I’m not sure!
Ah, wok talk?I got one. The back porch has a propane fired turkey cooker, IIRC about 40,000 BTUs, and can heat up a wok full of food in a hurry!I struggled to cook Chinese food, e.g., just as a start, like in the many NYS Chinese carryout shops. It was always nearly a total failure. Bluntly, I could never get sufficiently good information.Just by some looking, watching, listening, reading, guessing, and trying I was finally able to do a decent Moo Shu Pork. Insight: It’s mostly just a lot of cooked, shredded ordinary green cabbage. It’s surprising how easily it cooks.Ah, the computer industry is awful on documentation. Well, the good cooks of Chinese food are much worse!So, basically I gave up on cooking Chinese food.So, two weeks ago, I returned to beef stew.As of now, in the refrigerator, the one in the kitchen and the other one in the basement, I’ve got proof, in VC terms, “traction”!I tried beef stew, right, from the videos and books of Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, etc. I wasted lots of beef, red wine, onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, time, money, calories, and energy. Always the results were disasters.But now I have a good start on what the heck to do, and why!Either Child, Pepin, etc. flatly didn’t know how to make beef stew or they were keeping the information to themselves.There’s an old statement about installing some tricky, high end IBM software from an independent expert who made a good living getting those installs to work: “If you just follow the printed instructions, the I’ll guarantee you it won’t work.”Well, if you just follow Child, Pepin, etc. there’s a slim chance it will work a little and otherwise there’s no chance, zip, zilch, and zero.So, the secret to my progress was some information. For that, the means was the Internet.So, there are some BBQ sites, including for beef BBQ, with discussions from competition winners. Some of these guys are serious about actually getting good results. In wild contrast, IMHO the published cook books are from the book publishers who like fiction. Then their cookbooks are examples of fiction, are vicarious escapist fantasy emotional experience entertainment (VEFEEE). So, the reader is not supposed actually to cook but just to imagine having an experience cooking.So, reading the information from the beef BBQ champions, I learn that, first, get a thermometer. Second, find 160 F on the thermometer. Third, arrange a covered pot, say, 8 quarts stove top setup that can maintain 6 quarts or so of water-based liquid with maybe five pounds of beef cubes for at 160 F for about 24 hours.If you start with beef chuck roast, then you can get lucky. Otherwise, say, round roast, top, eye, or bottom, likely also shin and any of the tough cuts, you’ll need the thermometer and the 24 or so hours.Why? Well, here’s the theory, the secret Child, Pepin, the NYT, etc. never tell you:In beef, the muscle fibers are all always tender. If beef is tough, then the reason is collagen. The parts of the animal that get a lot of exercise have a lot of collagen.To make that meat tender, have to melt out the collagen. Well, you can do that in about 24 hours at about 160 F.If you let the temperature get much above 160 F for very long, say, near 212 F for an hour, then you will get what I always got — disaster. Your chunks of very carefully cubed beef will be about like charcoal.Why? Because much above 160 F for very long, the meat proteins change, expel their water, and turn into little, dry, brittle, chunks — stew disaster.Broadly the old supposed wisdom that simmering, typically close to 212 F, will make any meat tender is just nonsense down to ignorant down to a lie.So, a week ago, I got a chunk about 5.5 pounds of Choice beef eye of round. I cut it into cubes about the size I wanted to serve, browned them briefly in olive oil, and set them aside. I got a 5 quart bowl about full. I dumped the bowl contents into an 8 quart classic Farberware pot, added water to cover, got the temperate right at 160 F, and left it for 24 hours.Meanwhile, I cut up and browned (separately) onions and carrots and put them in a 5 quart classic Farberware pot. I added celery, minced garlic, Campbell’s Beef Consomme, added water to cover, and simmered (no thermometer needed) until the carrots were done.Then I refrigerated the two pots, one with the beef (now fit in a 3 quart pot) with its liquid to cover and the rest of the liquid with the vegetables.So, for a dinner, I get a 2 quart classic Farberware pot (I have a collection, some still in their original boxes), add about 1 quart from the vegetable pot, simmer, add 1/4 cup corn starch as a slurry in 1/2 cup of water, off heat add and stir until the corn starch is cooked. Then, all in about 3 minutes, I add about 1/2 quart from the beef pot (still cold from the refrigerator), mix, get the temperature at 160 F to about 180 F, mix some more to be sure the beef is up to that temperature, and then serve and eat it.Disaster solved! It works! The beef is soft, moist, succulent, fork-tender, etc. No more chunks of charcoal!The eye of round I got was in Cryovac.While I used USDA Choice eye of round, I suspect I’d prefer USDA Select (one grade lower than Choice) bottom round for more flavor (old Escoffier remark) and maybe lower cost. Source? Maybe NYS retired dairy cattle.The secret is to cook the beef separately, right, covered with water, in a covered pot, right at 160 F for about 24 hours.Separately? Sure because don’t want to cook the vegetables that long.How to get the 160 F? I looked into building or buying an automatic temperature controlled water bath, but I was not thrilled with the options I found. So, this time I used a thermometer and kept measuring the temperature and adjusting the stove. In the end I used a small electric stove burner set just above the lowest setting and with a wire frame between the burner and the 8 quart classic Farberware pot. The wire piece was purchased but could have been just from a wire coat hanger bent to a star shape to supply stable support for the pot.There are hints that the temperature will “stall” near 160 F anyway.For more, can do this and that with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, thyme, rosemary, parsley, red wine, beer, pork lardons, tomato paste, fancy cuts of the carrots, slightly browned tomato paste, various amounts of browning of the onions, crushed tomatoes, brown glazed boiler onions (really only as a garnish, see Julia), potatoes, pasta, rice, and no doubt none of these will ruin the beef! They also, if follow the Julia, Jacques, NYT advice to “simmer” the beef, won’t save the beef.Julia, Jacques, shut up, sit down, listen up, and learn something.
I’ve never had this sort of problem with beef. Slow cookers tend to work very well, and my fiance had an excellent bbq
I thought about slow cookers. Sure, they would, could, should, and might work.But (1) I have a lot of kitchen junk and (2) they just said “slow” which to me is way, way short of good enough, and never said what specific temperatures they could hold. To me “slow” sounds like marketing BS. I had already wasted time, money, effort, ingredients, and calories on Julia and Jacques, did the work as carefully as anything in a chemistry lab, with my wife, college PBK and long enough in pre-med to get through organic chemistry (A as usual).Sure, the standard advice for beef stew is “low and slow” which does not conflict with the “simmer” stuff in Julia, Jacques, and the NYT.Best I can guess, it’s the formula fiction book editors wanting an emotional experience and with a phobia about actual numbers, low = 160 F and slow = 24 hours.Progress: Microsoft’s NTBACKUP ruined the three boot partitions on my development computer, and after several 18 hour days, sure, including weekends, I have good progress getting the main partition back to working — e.g., can type this now. There were lots of problems, things that had to be done five ways before one worked, many hours searching for crucial information on Google, Bing, etc. I have really good notes.Just finished dinner, the last of the beef stew I tried, the first that was ever really successful, the first effort in many years. The 160 F was the secret. The rest of the details from other kitchen skills came out quite good. I ended up with a really good 1 1/2 quarts of beef stew. Will get another piece of round, hopefully bottom, go again, and this record all the weights and times. The crucial temperature I’ve got — 160 F. E.g., next time more onions, carrots, and celery, don’t cook the onions as long, and cook the celery longer. Try some “beef base”. Etc.
Old habits.https://youtu.be/0fLvv6qq4Vc
Speaking of old habits dying hard.. hopefully, you don’t totally turn off your VC radar. Would be interested in your perspective how the different Asian cultures support entrepreneurship.As a first-gen immigrant from that part of the world, when I was growing up, there was a strong emphasis on education as a sure-fire way to climb the ladder of a Big Business (preferably, a multinational firm), and entrepreneurship was not strongly encouraged/celebrated.Thankfully, that has changed a bit in the Philippines, but not as much as I hoped. Certainly, not to the same extent as India and China – where govt jobs were the preferred career path in the past.