Friday, July 28, 2006
More London Mexican food -- closer to home!
Yesterday we visited yet another new Mexican restaurant in London, Mercado (I've linked to their website even though it's still quite inactive. You never know). It's actually relatively close to our house (31 minutes' walk according to journeyplanner.org. So how could we resist the suggestion by a certain gentleman of our acquaintance to give it a try?

Mercado is at the top of Stoke Newington Church Street, and occupies the former location of Yum Yum Thai Restaurant (now moved to a fancy new location just around the corner). There's no sign of Thai there now; it's been redecorated in a colorful Mexican manner (not just sombreros and piñatas). When we sat down we were given a (small) serving of tortilla chips and a smidgen of salsa verde. The chips were nice and did not seem to have come from a bag (always a major strike). They have quite a range of cocktails and I can definitely report that the house margarita is quite tasty. Due to some sort of miscommunication (errr, a nice way of saying that I just wasn't paying any attention) both Mrs. Dunce and I ordered guacamole with chips. I understand that some previous reviews (which I haven't seen) have complained about the stingy portions of chips, and we felt the same way when we got our guacamole: each order had a nicely hefty portion of guacamole, but only a little handful of chips. However, as we got to the end of the chips (but nowhere near the end of the guacamole), the waitress brought us more (we didn't have to ask, nor were we charged). The main courses were really good as well. The menu is fairly brief, and features a number of dishes you wouldn't exactly call "ordinary". I had, erm, I've forgotten the name but it was a poblano pepper, stuffed with cheese and black beans and stuff, covered in a lovely-spicy almond mole (and with a side of new potatoes and spinach). Mrs. Dunce had a crepe with cuitlacoche (a much nicer term than "corn fungus" or "corn smut", never mind the description "a bulbous black fungus (Ustilago maydis) that infects corn, producing silvery, swollen, pebble like kernels") and cheese, covered in a light sauce whose ingredients failed to register with me. Cilantro, perhaps). And our gentleman companion had a chicken mole dish. Portions were quite large, but we somehow managed to make short work of them anyway.

The bill came to something like £75 (+ tip) which isn't bad at all, considering that we each had two cocktails. We'll definitely be back, it's really worth a repeat visit or two.

consume
Friday, July 28, 2006 2:24:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Thursday, July 27, 2006
The great helmet debate
I've recently noticed a major increase in the number of London cyclists who have taken the middle ground on the helmet debate. Rather than wearing their helmets all the time, these people have apparently decided to bring their helmet along, not wearing it but keeping it accessible by hanging it from a handlebar. Presumably this is so that, in the event of a predictable accident, the helmet is accessible enough that the well-prepared rider can put it on before crashing and landing on his/her head. And even if the accident is unpredictable, there is a nonzero chance that the rider's head will land on the helmet, preventing it (the head) from cracking like an egg. Now the only question is which handlebar is the better choice for your helmet.

bike
Thursday, July 27, 2006 9:38:50 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Friday, July 21, 2006
Insert your favorite Arsenal pun here
Just about every day my cycle commute takes me past a giant construction site: the future site of Arsenal's new ground, Emirates Stadium. In the last couple of days there's been a sort of unveiling, and finally the stadium area is freely wanderable by even the lowest sort of riffraff (even the Dunce himself). Here's the new stadium in all of its glory (or at least a sizable chunk of its glory):



My juvenile, immature side took over quickly....







(arse-backwards, of course)



But I finally finished arsing around, and made my way into work. I've been riding the touring bike a lot lately so that I'm completely used to it by the time our major trip arrives. Here's what it looks like parked in my workplace's handy under-the-pavement hidey-hole (the fenders are the most recent addition):

Friday, July 21, 2006 2:21:15 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Monday, July 17, 2006
Tour de France
I've been paying quite a bit of attention to the Tour de France this year. Every evening there's one hour of TV coverage summarizing the day's events, but really I'm most enjoying the various information available online. In addition to your run-of-the-mill live text coverage and radio coverage in an assortment of languages (all available through cyclingfans.com), this year it's also possible to see real-time telemetry for some riders (LIVE LINK; some previous races). This includes live heart rate, cadence, speed and power output (more information about it available here). It's especially interesting to see a rider's heart rate and power output shoot through the roof as he goes up a climb. I've also found it interesting to check out the real-time fluctuation in betting as a given stage comes to a close. Betfair.com operates very much in real time, and on last Friday's stage there was a four-man breakaway, running far enough ahead it became quite clear that one of the four would win. Each time one of the four made an attack, you could see his odds drop rapidly as punters started throwing heaps of money on him to win. Not just the stage, but you could also see the odds to win the entire Tour fluctuating as well. It could make a lot of sense to keep an eye on the telemetry to help make these high-speed, real-time betting judgments. Except there are not so many riders for whom live data are available, and they are not exactly in the hunt for the win:

58. Voigt, no odds available to win the Tour. Currently 40min 50sec off the lead (although he did win stage 13)
59. Martinez (can back him to win the Tour on Betfair at 1000-1)
69. Ventoso
76. Lang (can back him to win on Betfair at 1000-1)
77. Padrnos
85. Vasseur
93. Scholz
96. Grabsch
117. Zberg
142. Tankink

Anyway I'll certainly enjoy having assorted real-time information at my disposal. Until I can see them riding in person when next year's Tour visits the UK.

bike
Monday, July 17, 2006 12:08:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Friday, July 14, 2006
Taking a leak
On special offer today at the coffeeshop near my office:

LEAK AND POTATO SOUP

too bad I brought my lunch today.

consume
Friday, July 14, 2006 2:30:22 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Mexican food in London: still another contender
I've been writing a lot about Mexican food in London, and since our first visit to El Panzon I've been repeatedly (perhaps annoyingly) enthusiastic that London finally has a great Mexican restaurant. They've recently left the Hobgoblin and moved to a more convenient (for us) new location, the Dogstar in Brixton. And I'm pleased to report that the food is still fantastic.

But things are going crazy with new places popping up all over town. Earlier this week I finally made it to Daddy Donkey, a burrito (errr, I mean "burro") stand in Leather Lane. They're open only at lunchtimes M-F, but I have to say, mmmmmmmmmmm! I had a big-ol veggie burrito: beans, rice, guacamole and a tasty hot salsa. Although I gulped it down like a madman (I was in a bit of a state, getting ready for my British Sign Language assessment) I can report that it was excellent. I'll have to go back again (soon!) when I have a little more chance to savor my lunch.

But this is only one of many new places; I'm way behind the times ("the times" being most clearly illustrated on the long-running comments section on Phil Gyford’s prescient 2003 post "London's lack of Mexican"). There's apparently a new place called Beach Burritos just opened (4 Berwick Street). And a stall that sometimes appears at Chapel Market called Poblano. Not to mention Mercado Cantina which has recently opened just down the street from us. Heck, we haven't even visited Crazy Homies or Green and Red (not sure why the latter is listed as Argentinian) but they sound really good too.

consume
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:16:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Friday, July 07, 2006
Riding the bike more? A year on
It's one year since the London bombings, and numerous members of the media have descended upon the area where I work, right by Tavistock Square, just up the road from Russell Square (my blog entry from the day is here). Guys with very fancy camera rigs and other guys with laptops are everywhere (I say "guys" because women seem quite underrepresented), and a helicopter overhead is massively disrupting my attention span at the moment (explaining why I'm writing this entry first thing instead of my customary just-after-lunch blog-break where I take advantage of the extra "lunch time" gained by staying at my desk and wolfing my lunch in a couple of minutes).

There are loads of police officers around the area, so I was a bit more careful to stop for red lights than I normally am*. So it wasn't much of a surprise at all that I was approached by a journalist in search of a unique angle on "London Bombings: One Year On". I was asked almost exactly the same question that I was asked by some other journalist on 11 July last year. Then: "After the events of last week do you find you're cycling more?" Now: Have you been cycling more since the events of last July 7th?". No, I still haven't. He also asked whether I've noticed more cyclists on the road (or on the other hand, am I completely oblivious that the number of cyclists has doubled since 2000). My answer may have reflected my frustration with so many confused cyclists (usually of the fair-weather sort who ride dangerously and without paying attention to anyone else on the roads (or pavements)**, "Yes, I think a lot of people have and you'd think they'd bloody learn the rules of the road by now." I have no idea where the word "bloody" came from, and I fear this comment (if heard, which is unlikely) will be misconstrued as a strictly anti-red-light-jumping statement where my intent was really just "they should learn to pay attention and ride sensibly".


*Red light jumping is one of those issues that makes people crazy. Just use the word "red" in any cycling forum and you'll see what I mean. I am definitely a red light jumper, but a cautious one in that I watch closely for any crossing traffic, and always give pedestrians the right-of-way when they have an indicator (green man) or are in a zebra crossing. Yes it's definitely against the law to do this, and I'll stand up and take my fine if I get caught doing it (as in, if anyone starts enforcing it). See also things like jaywalking, speeding, parking without paying, assault and battery, murder (pro-red-light-jumpers tend to use the first three as examples of crimes that are a matter of personal decisions; the anti faction like to bring in the latter as the sort of thing unrestrained red light jumping will no doubt bring as we all throw respect for the law into the gutter). Anyway that's all to say my own personal preference is to disregard certain traffic ordinances while still remaining a good citizen of the road when it comes to my fellow road users (not just giving people the right of way, but also courtesy waves, eye contact and so on). This is probably an indication of my own personal philosophy as well, but frankly I don't have the time or inclination to expand on that.

**I've got no gripes against people who choose to ride their bikes only when it's nice out. It's just that it takes a while to get a good sense of the road, the flow of traffic and how to ride effectively in a way that minimizes your interference with other traffic.

bike
Friday, July 07, 2006 10:05:19 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Urgent Message!
Compliments of the day to you, or if you prefer, compliments of the season. Yes, I'm linking to urgentmessage.org which is an impressive repository of scam email (40,700 cases at present), set up as a sort of public service, in the hope that some potential victims might search for email addresses, phone numbers, etc. and thus come across proof that they are indeed being scammed and there is no MILLIONS OF US DOLLARS (US$) nor unexpected lottery wins, etc. The search functions allow you to find a whole slew of messages containing your favorite scam-phrases (258 containing "Calvary Greetings", 35 containing "ghastly plane crash", 48 using the name Wang Qin, and would you believe over a thousand which "come to you as a surprise"?). But perhaps the most interesting function (to me) is this site's ability to display links between related scams. Letters are graphically cross-referenced if they refer to the same phone number or email address, and phone numbers and email addresses are similarly linked if they are referred to in the same letter. Here are a couple of examples (Urgent Reply, We need your assistance).
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 4:12:49 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Tuesday, July 04, 2006
An unexpected extended silence over in these parts
No, I didn't decide to take on bike thieves single-handed, ending up in the hospital or worse.
No, I haven't been spending every spare moment training for a mountain bike journey.*
Instead there's been quite a conspiracy of external factors that have pretty much wiped out the time I would ordinarily spend on blog entries. I had a couple of (work-related) visitors from sunny California (and the crunch-time work associated with their visits). And a couple of minor sporting events that have drawn my attention in a somewhat predictably obsessive way (World Cup, and now the Tour de France). And this year's journey to renowned music festival Tapestry Goes West (perhaps deserving its own entry, although I fear I'll end up writing more about buying loads of books in Hay, and watching England v. Portugal in a rugby-preferred pub in Port Talbot, Wales, then about the festival itself). And all sorts of work-related work that has somehow found itself all plopping onto my desk at once. Surely this will all evaporate soon.


*Although I have been doing a lot of investigation about the possibility of improving my touring bike's gear ratio for mountain climbing. It seemed like a fairly simple process to upgrade the rear cluster to an 8-speed (currently six), although I would need to obtain a new wheel with a slightly longer axle. Too bad the bike is of a retro style, most notably with 27" wheels which are not exactly easy to find in this day and age (the 700c is now standard). Switching wheels to 700c... well first of all it would probably require switching both front and back (additional cost) + tires for both. And it also seems I'd need to change the brakes as the current ones aren't very adjustable (when it comes to wheel diameter). So it seems I may be returning to my original plan: just putting on a different 6-speed cluster on the rear, one that has a serious granny gear. Plenty of wasted time getting to this conclusion, though.
bike | meta
Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:21:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   |