Motorola SLVR released

What happens when you take Motorola’s astronomically popular RAZR and pack it into a tiny candy-bar chassis? You get the aptly named Motorola SLVR. After some delay it is now available in the US, with this exclusive deal from Cingular.

I’m tempted to upgrade, but only if Motorola has finally fixed its poor phonebook UI.

schadenfreude

Watch as this guy gets what he deserves (Google video, requires Flash).

City CarShare, day 1

On Saturday I learned my first lesson of car sharing: I am at the mercy of my fellow members.

First, some background. As a member City CarShare, you are issued an electronic key fob and access to the online car reservation system. You reserve a class of car at a particular location, arrive at the specified time, and swipe your key fob near the windshield. This unlocks the doors and logs your entry in the reservation system; the ignition key itself is waiting inside tethered to the steering column.

You pay based on mileage and the length of time you have the car. Gas and insurance are included–the glovebox has all the paperwork including a gas card you can use to pump free gas at just about any gas station. It sounds simple, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

In my case, the previous driver of my car left me with a nice surprise. Or rather, he forgot to leave something: the garage key. After throughly checking the car for damage (turns out City CarShare vehicles get pretty beat up), adjusting the mirrors, and generally familiarizing myself with my Scion xA, I read the notice on the dashboard. To paraphrase, “in order to exit and re-enter the garage, please use the garage keycard located in the visor pocket.” But there was no keycard. Doh.

It took several phone calls to City CarShare over the course of about 45 minutes to get the whole thing resolved. Eventually a replacement vehicle became available and I was finally on my way. But it was all good: despite this inconvenience it was still faster than taking public transportation. And City CarShare reimbursed me for my trouble, so it was cheaper as well.

Aside from the garage key mixup, the experience was good. The Scion xA was a nice little car with great gas mileage and decent looks (unlike the hideous box-on-wheels Scion xB).

Now if only the guy before me hadn’t walked of with the garage key. Hmph.

New Restaurant Favorites

After a streak of disappointing restaurant experiences in the Castro and Noe Valley last year (I’ve heard this area described as San Francisco’s “culinary wasteland”), I am pleased to report the discovery of two excellent new restaurants in the neighborhood. This means I can finally get a satisfying meal within walking distance! I can’t underscore this enough: this is huge.

DOSA
South Indian
995 Valencia St @ 21st St
(415) 642-3672

I have the perfect excuse not to like DOSA: they lost my reservation! Even for a new restaurant, this was quite an unpleasant surprise.

Hearing that it was a popular place, I had reserved a table for our group of five a few days in advance by email, and promptly received a confirmation. Yet somehow this information didn’t make it to the hostess, who was completely unaware that the email conversation had taken place. Our party waited out in the cold while the she did her best to bump us to the top of the wait list. To her credit, she managed to seat us only a half hour past our original reservation time, despite the huge Saturday night crowd.

As it turned out, our meal at DOSA was well worth the wait. The restaurant itself is warm and inviting, and the South Indian food they served was top notch. Here’s what we ordered:

• Idli Vada Sambar
  DOSA’s sambar packs plenty of heat, and this was a great way to start the meal.
• Chennai Chicken
  Small pieces of chicken, lightly fried (similar to pakora) and incredibly spiced. Hands down my favorite dish of the evening.
• Masala dosa and paper masala dosa
  The best dosa I’ve eaten (admittedly, this is only my third or fourth time). Spicy? Yes. Yummy? Definitely.
• Paneer & peas uttapam
  First time I’ve had uttapam. Excellent. Served with great chutneys and spicy sambar.
• Tamil lamb curry
  Another standout. Great flavor and extremely tender. This is what I’ll be ordering on my next visit.
• Kulfi and coconut sorbet
  Even the desserts were great. I love this place.

Kiji
Sushi
1007 Guerrero St @ 22st St
(415) 282-0400

I think Kiji has surpassed Tsunami as my favorite sushi restaurant. Tsunami might be more “hip”, but Kiji wins on quality.

On a Thursday night Kiji was packed, and we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. Inside is a great chill-out atmosphere: black tables, chairs and place settings lit by a warm red glow with some great Latin jazz and samba music playing. Dim but not too dark, and not too noisy either. Service was excellent and the staff speak Japanese (always a good sign).

Most importantly, everything we ordered was delicious:

• Grilled Chilean sea bass marinated in miso and sake
  A tad salty perhaps, but still satisfying. The accompanying salad and miso soup were surprisingly fresh and yummy.
• hon-maguro (Blue-fin tuna) and aji (Spanish mackerel)
  Easily some of best I’ve had of either fish. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness, and great rice to boot.
• Eddie cucumber roll
  Tuna, avocado, sprouts, shiso and tobiko wrapped in cucumber with spicy sauce. The shiso was a bit strong, but wow this was a great roll.
• Guerrero roll
  Yellowtail, avocado, eel and tobiko. I’m having a hard time deciding which roll was my favorite.
• Gyoza
  Incredibly juicy, lots of pork and fresh veggies. Best gyoza ever? Or pretty darn close.
• Green tea ice cream with red beans
  I’m normally not a fan of the green tea ice cream, but this was spectacular. Creamy, and without the bitter tea flavor. The fresh red beans on top made for a perfect sweet/savory balance. Yum.

Did I mention Kiji is within walking distance? This is going to do some serious damage to my credit card statement.

Welcome to City CarShare

Today I received my welcome packet for City CarShare. This will be my first time using a car sharing service, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Sometimes public transportation doesn’t cut it here in San Francisco, especially for traveling down the peninsula or for big errands like stocking up at Trader Joe’s. With dozens of shared cars in my immediate area (and in the East Bay!) to check-out and use on a hourly basis, this seems like a decent compromise: less hassle than owning a car, but still convenient for the occasional trip.

I’ll post my CarShare experiences here in the coming weeks.

Dine About Town 2006

I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve heard of this promotion. For the month of January, Visa teams up with dozens of San Francisco restaurants to offer special fixed-price menus for Visa card holders.

Sounds like a great excuse to try some new restaurants and revisit some old favorites. Here’s what I have on my list:

• Baraka
• BIX
• Butterfly
• Côté Sud
• EOS Restaurant and Wine Bar
• Ozumo
• RNM

In some cases the menus are available online, which is great. Take a look at the RNM menu, for example:

First Course
French Onion Soup

Second Course
Panchetta wrapped pork tenderloin on a creamy potato with port whole grains demi sauce

Third Course
Dark chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce

Yum!

Christmas travel

After reading about Richa’s airport nightmares, my travel story is going to sound tame in comparison. But this one has a happy ending.

I arrived at O’Hare on what was a very busy Thursday night after Christmas. Luckily the weather was cooperating. But here’s the thing: I swipe my credit card at the ticketing kiosk, and the machine says, “You cannot check in. Would you like to be added to the standby list of a later flight?” Say what?

Turns out I had arrived at the airport just after the 30-minute cutoff. It was 4:55, and the departure was scheduled for 5:20. The security line was moving quickly, I had no baggage to check, and my gate was literally 10 steps past the x-ray machine. Plenty of time, right?

Nope.

My flight was overbooked and they had given away my seat! Apparently all bets are off if you arrive less than 30 minutes prior to departure. I got stuck on standby for the 6:30 to Oakland. And as luck would have it, this flight was also overbooked, and the standby list was already 10 deep. I joined the group of people that migrated from standby list to standby list, hoping to get a seat.

After a few failed standby attempts, a United employee took pity on me and issued a brand new ticket with a seat assignment. She even put me on an SFO flight, which was much more convenient than my original Oakland itinerary. Not a bad seat either: row 18 on a 757. I was her last customer before the end of her shift. A Christmas present, perhaps?

Thank you, Miss United Employee! (And really, how often can you say that?) And it gets better: I earned mileage on this new mystery ticket, pushing me over the 25,000 mark and into Premier status for 2006. Outstanding.

I was so happy to finally have a boarding pass that I didn’t mind the baggage delays that kept our plane stranded on the tarmac for over an hour. At least I was going home. All in all, I lost about 4 hours.

Moral of the story: check in online and arrive early!

Lazy Sunday

The “Chronic–WHAT–cles of Narnia” rap video has to be the funniest SNL skit I’ve seen in a long time. I know, that’s not saying much.

Free iTunes video download (13.6 MB, requires iTunes account).

via Download Squad

Yoshimi Battles Snoop Dogg

The Flaming Lips vs. Snoop Dogg vs. Will Farrell.
Download the mp3.

via Boing Boing

Miyazaki every Thursday

Turner Classic Movies will be showing original Japanese versions of several Miyazaki movies every Thursday this month. The movies will be introduced by–wait for it–John Lasseter.

Thursday, Jan. 5
8 p.m. Spirited Away (2002 – English-language version)
10:15 p.m. Princess Mononoke (1997 – English-language version)
1 a.m. Spirited Away (2002 – Japanese-language version)
3:15 a.m. Princess Mononoke (1997 – Japanese-language version)

Thursday, Jan. 12
8 p.m. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984 – English-language version)
10 p.m. Castle in the Sky (1986 – English-language version)
12:15 a.m. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984 – Japanese-language version)
2:15 a.m. Castle in the Sky (1986 – Japanese-language version)

Thursday, Jan. 19
8 p.m. My Neighbor Totoro (1988 – English-language version)
9:30 p.m. Porco Rosso (1992 – English-language version)
11:15 p.m. Whisper of the Heart (1995 – English-language version)
1:15 a.m. My Neighbor Totoro (1988 – Japanese-language version)
2:45 a.m. Porco Rosso (1992 – Japanese-language version)
4:30 a.m. Whisper of the Heart (1995 – Japanese-language version)

Thursday, Jan. 26
8 p.m. Only Yesterday* (1991 – Japanese-language version only)
10:15 p.m. Pom Poko (1994 – English-language version)
12:30 a.m. Only Yesterday* (1991 – Japanese-language version)
2:45 a.m. Pom Poko (1994 – Japanese-language version)

via popgadget