Miso is a versatile seasoning made by fermenting soybeans and a grain like barley or rice. I often get asked how it can be used, aside from in miso soup, and my answer is that it can be used almost anywhere in place of salt.

It’s delicious in breads, dressings, sauces, soups, stews, pastas…well you get the idea. Here’s an easy way to turn boiled new potatoes into an irresistible side dish by caramelizing miso with a few other ingredients onto the bite-sized taters.

With butter, chili paste, garlic and miso, I kind of figured this would taste good as I planned the recipe out, but I was honestly surprised at just how good they were. The aroma of browned butter and caramelized miso with garlic will open up the taps on your drool glands and make you want to lick the air around you. It took all the restraint I could muster to keep myself from popping the sizzling spuds straight into my mouth from the pan.

Pair these with a frosty IPA and you’ll swear you’ve died and gone to heaven. They’re also just as good cold, so if you’re planning a picnic or are headed to a potluck, here’s the dish to bring.

---

Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marc’s been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.

The post A New Way to Use Miso: Spicy Miso-Glazed Potatoes appeared first on PBS Food.

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: HALLS OF AGONY

I AM DIABLO, LORD OF TERROR, DESTROYER OF SOULS, THE FIRST AMONG THE EVILS OF HELL. ONE WEEK AGO, A HERO STRODE THROUGH MY HALLS OF AGONY, DESTROYING MY RACKS, AND IRON MAIDENS, AND UNCOMFORTABLE CHAIRS, AND PICNIC TABLES, AND OTHER KINDS OF RACKS. I WISH TO SEE THE HALLS OF AGONY RESTORED SO ONCE AGAIN MY MINIONS MAY REND THE FLESH OF THE INNOCENT AND BREAK THE BONES OF MY ENEMIES.

DIABLO, LORD OF TERROR

From: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
To: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
Subject: re: HALLS OF AGONY

Hello there,

Thanks for contacting Aaron and Sons Contracting, a licensed general contracting company approved by the Better Business Bureau.

Can you be a little more specific about the scope of this job? Or otherwise I can send Douglas over later this week to take a look and give you a formal estimate.

Thank you,

Aaron Andersen
Aaron and Sons Contracting

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

ALL THE RACKS ARE BROKEN. MOST OF THE IRON MAIDENS. LOTS OF METAL GRATES THAT HELD HOT COALS. EACH OF THE HALLS OF AGONY NEEDS AT LEAST THREE PICNIC TABLES SO THAT BREAK TIME CAN HAPPEN.

ALSO, I WOULD LIKE SOME MORE CRATES OR BOXES OR SOME OTHER STORAGE THAT IS CONVENIENT AND ATTRACTIVE, MOST OF THAT WAS ALSO BROKEN.

DIABLO, LORD OF TERROR

PS: I WAS REFERRED TO YOU BY ANGIES LIST AND WOULD LIKE MY 5% DISCOUNT.

From: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
To: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
Subject: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

Diablo,

I think it’ll be easier if Doug just swings by and takes a look at the job, then we can give you a clean estimate that takes everything into account. Will you or an employee be around this Thursday morning sometime between 8 and 10am?

Aaron

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

YES, AN EMPLOYEE. HE IS NAMED BORGOZ, CRIPPLER OF PRINCES AND HE IS A GIANT GLOWING YELLOW BAT THAT EMITS A LETHAL ELECTRICAL CHARGE. INSTRUCT DOUGLAS TO RING THE SECOND BUZZER, THAT SHOULD GET THROUGH TO HIM, OTHERWISE YOU CAN CALL MY CELL AT 612.666.6666 AND I WILL TRACK HIM DOWN.

I WANT TO SEE THE ESTIMATE BEFORE ANY WORK STARTS, THOUGH. BORGOZ WILL BE ABLE TO SHOW YOUR MINION AROUND, HOWEVER AND HELP HIM GET STARTED ON PLANNING THE PROJECT.

From: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
To: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

OK! Douglas is back, it sounds like you’ve got quite a place over there. I’ve attached a proposal that outlines the work we’d do, the schedule for completion, our fees, and so forth, we hope you’ll consider us for the job.

Douglas mentioned that he found significant structural damage in the second Hall of Agony, and recommends strongly that we rebuild some of the foundation in order to prevent future damage or even a possible collapse.

You’ll note the Angie’s List 5 percent discount at the end of the proposal!

Aaron

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

THIS PROPOSAL IS OUTRAGEOUS. WHO DO YOU TAKE ME FOR, SHITBRAINABLO, LORD OF JUST FALLING OFF THE TURNIP TRUCK? AT $850 AN IRON MAIDEN I MIGHT AS WELL BUY RETAIL AT MENARDS. AND MY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FLAYING HIDES AND DISLOCATING JAWS AND SO FORTH IN THE SECOND HALL OF AGONY SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, AND NOBODY’S EVER MENTIONED ANY STRUCTURAL DAMAGE.

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

I NOTICE THAT IT HAS BEEN SEVERAL DAYS SINCE YOU LAST RESPONDED TO MY EMAIL, AND I REALIZE THAT I MAY HAVE BEEN OVERLY HARSH REGARDING YOUR PROPOSED CONTRACT. HOW ABOUT WE KNOCK 10 PERCENT OFF THE TOP AND CALL IT A DEAL?

YOUR FRIEND IN UNHOLY TERROR,

DIABLO

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

5 PERCENT?

From: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
To: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

I think we can do another 5 percent.

We’ll have our guys over next Monday. And if you can have your people clean up all the skulls and blood before we get there, that’d be great.

From: TheBigD@diablolordofhell.com
To: aaron@aaronandsonscontracting.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: HALLS OF AGONY

FINE, WE’LL CLEAN UP THE SKULLS.

With the recent AGC event about the human side of BIM I thought I would write a post about something related that has bothered me for some time.  As part of BIM we all know that often what we are trying to do is solve the issues before they happen.  While trying to solve some workflow issues a problem occurred to me that I don't think is a usual consideration.  We don't really think about the fact that by solving issues virtually we remove the need to solve them in reality.

What I mean by that is that some thought has to be given to the effect of the removal of problem solving in the field rather than just the celebration of its removal.  In my experience some of the most intelligent people I have ever worked with are those that have a vast understanding of construction and how to achieve building something successfully.  A lot of those same individuals are not college educated and could be considered by general society as being less educated.  But in my experience they have more empirical knowledge than a lifetime of college could teach.  And yet through the BIM process it seems to me that the end goal is to solve issues so that those same individuals don't have to use their experience to solve issues in the field.  I have to ask myself if this is a good idea.  What is the effect on these individuals if we remove their ability to make judgement calls about putting work in place at the time work is installed?

My concern is that this will remove the one thing that I think keeps them motivated to be excellent at their jobs.  I think that at the end of the day people want to be able to go home to their spouse and crow about what problems they were able to solve that day.  To show to others that they have provided something special through their ability to solve problems and provide answers.  I worry that when we solve those issues in advance, down to the smallest detail, that what we are doing is removing the ability of the individuals putting work in place  to solve those same problems.  Essentially turning our workforce into mindless automatons that are just supposed to follow instructions.  Where's the motivation in that job?  What are those individuals supposed to brag about to their spouses when they get home?

There is some precedent to this question that I plan to investigate but I find the question no less interesting.  It seems that manufacturing has already walked this path.  That industry has seen an incredible increase in production as a result of automating their workflows.  Does that mean that the morale of the average UAW worker is higher or lower as a result?  Should this even be a consideration of the AEC industry?  Should we care about the individuals need to feel effective if we can increase productivity through virtual methods?

I seriously struggle with this idea.  I don't see that we have effectively gotten to the point where this is an issue but I think it is the inevitable result.  My only solution to date is to involve those putting work in place as much as possible.  Bring them in as soon as possible so that they own the solution to the virtual problem as much as the physical problem.  I just don't know if it is enough to keep our workforce motivated.  In an industry with a workforce that is decreasing in both size and competency I am not sure that removing simple human motivating factors like pride in individual achievement is a good idea.

I could see how one might disagree that this is an inevitable result.  I could even argue that if it was an inevitable result, that it is better overall.  But neither of those ideas help me reconcile the fact that we could unintentionally be decreasing the morale of our our workforce while trying to increase their productivity.  I have been given the privilege to work with some amazing individuals and I am not totally convinced that even the best BIM /VDC process is an acceptable substitute for their construction judgement.  If there is a human side of BIM that needs to be considered, it's that of the individuals who on a daily basis try to make real the plans of those that do not fully understand the skill and dedication it takes to achieve them.

The newest and best PMBOK Guide is out, and we are here to welcome the Fifth Edition with a huge bear hug. Call us nerdy, but we like this edition the best. Why? Because we think that stakeholder management has been put in a corner for far too long, and it is great to see it out in its own knowledge area, as it should be.

The introduction of Chapter 13, Project Stakeholder Management, as a new knowledge area is perhaps the most significant change between the 4th and 5th editions of the PMBOK Guide. While stakeholder management was present in the PMBOK Guide 4th edition (primarily in the Communications Management knowledge area), the significance of this addition is that it raises the importance of engaging stakeholders to the same level as all of the other project management knowledge areas. Lets go through the four processes to see why this addition is so important.

13.1 Identify Stakeholders
This process group focuses on identifying everyone affected by the work or the project outcomes. In the 4th edition, this lived in the Communications Management knowledge area.

13.2 Plan Stakeholder Management
This process group focuses on deciding how exactly you will engage with the stakeholders that you identified in the prior process. This is a brand new process, and is consistent with all of the new planning processes introduced in the 5th edition, which provides a detailed plan for each and every knowledge area.

13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement
This process details how you communicate with stakeholders and ensures appropriate engagement levels. In the 4th edition a similar process, ‘Manage Stakeholder Expectations’ lived in Communications Management.

13.4 Control Stakeholder Engagement
In this process we focus on monitoring the relationship with stakeholders and adjusting our communication as needed as requirements change. This new process has nothing comparable in the 4th edition, and is an important addition to note.

This added stress on stakeholder management is so important because effectively managing stakeholders is one of the hardest tasks in a project. This is because projects cause change, and people need to be prepared for those changes in order to accept them. The more you can involve stakeholders in a way that facilitates change and enhances the project’s objective, the better.

While we may know that stakeholder management is important intuitively, if we don’t have a concrete plan in how we will manager our stakeholders, our best intentions can fall to the wayside as other project priorities consume the team’s time and energy. This is why having a Stakeholder Management Plan (an output to Plan Stakeholder Management) is so important.

We have all heard the saying, “a project manager’s job is 90% communication”. That is right. And who are we communicating with? Stakeholders! And it makes sense, because practically everyone who touches or is affected by the project is a stakeholder.

Consider the 5 major types of stakeholders:

1. Project manager
2. Project team
3. Sponsors
4. Customers
5. Functional management

And consider that within each of these broad groups, there are both internal (those directly affected by the projects, such as employees) and external (those not in the business but still have an interest in the project outcome, such as suppliers) stakeholders.

There are also primary (have major interest in success of a project, such as project sponsor) and secondary (assist with project completion, but have less of a stake in the projects success, such as legal counsel), stakeholders.

Then there are direct (concerned with day-to-day activities of the project, such as team members) and indirect (those concerned with just the finished product, such as your customers) stakeholders.

I think you get the picture. Pretty much anyone walking or breathing near your project is a stakeholder. They are important. And we would like to give the Project Management Institute a big high five for giving stakeholders the distinguished category that they deserve: their very own knowledge area.

Make sure to pick up the brand new PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition book. Happy stakeholder managing!

Co-authored by Kristen Medina

Urban Radish, a new specialty market in the Arts District, is enrolled in the Restaurant and Hospitality Express program. They're currently wrapping up their construction phase and waiting on final approvals to open. Photo by Hayley Fox/blogdowntown.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is on his way out, but some of his initiatives are here to stay. Among them, the Restaurant and Hospitality Express program, which streamlines the development process for prospective business owners in an attempt to encourage more development.

"We were hearing a lot from our stakeholders that restaurants in particular were some of the most challenging things to open and those also tend to be the types of small businesses that operate on a shoestring budget," said Sarah Clarke, a development reform analyst with the City of Los Angeles.

She said it was the Downtown-based business advocacy group, the Central City Association (CCA), which really led the charge for change. That may explain why about one quarter of the 200 businesses that have opened under the express program are located in Downtown.

The program began in 2010 with only a handful of people, and now more than 350 business owners are enrolled and working their way through the process of opening a bar or restaurant.

But opening a small business is a gauntlet of permits, inspectors and fees. With so many steps, delays are inevitable. And although the express program is designed to help mitigate these issues by assigning each business owner a case manager, it's still a daunting process.

Yuval Bar-Zemer is with the development firm Linear City and has been working in Downtown since 2000. He's helped open multiple loft spaces, restaurants and bars — including one of his current projects Urban Radish, whose owners are enrolled in the express program.

Bar-Zemer was also involved in the opening of Church and State, which for the past four years has been flourishing in the Arts District. The wine bar next door, which Bar-Zemer also helped open, wasn't so lucky.

"The process is clearly not designed for the young entrepreneur that wants to start his first business," said Bar-Zemer.

He added that bureaucratic hurdles delayed the wine bar's opening.

"If he could have opened much faster he would probably still be in business today," the developer said. "But the upfront capital costs were so big that at the end of the day he had to bail out and basically sell the business."

The express program is designed to help mitigate these issues by giving each business owner a case manger, who coordinates with all the different departments and helps secure approvals. This manager helps with everything from permits from the Health Department, to licenses from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

The program aims to shave off three to nine months of the planning, permitting and construction process.

"The building code is so complex, it's worse than dealing with the IRS," said Mitchell Frank, who owns multiple businesses on the Eastside including Más Malo in DTLA.

He is currently enrolled in the express program as he renovates and re-opens Downtown's Regent Theater.

"Before we had the express program it was like pulling teeth to get anything done through the city," said Frank. "And now you actually have a phone number and they're very helpful, they're very service-oriented."

One of the first businesses to use the Restaurant Express program was Handsome Coffee Roasters in the Arts District. Tyler Wells, one of the co-founders, said that from the time they submitted their plans to opening their doors, it took about six months.

"So we got involved in the Restaurant Hospitality Express not really knowing what was going on," said Wells. "Like a lot of people who open businesses in L.A., we were nervous because you hear horror stories. There's a lot of bureaucracy, it's very difficult."

But Wells said the help they got from their case manager was "invaluable," and they were lucky enough to get into the program on the ground floor. Now, there are hundreds of businesses owners working with only a handful of case managers, meaning less one-on-one attention and longer wait times.

Frank said that some basic technology updates, such as moving portions of the process online instead of using hard copies, could save everyone time and money.

But Bar-Zemer said that to really have an impact on the process of opening a business in Los Angeles, there would need to be a total overhaul of the system.

"From my perspective it's not just, 'Oh the city doesn't know what they're doing,' and so no, they actually know very well what they're doing," he said. "However it's such a big organization which is bifurcated to all these different departments. Each one of them has their own agenda and their own territory they're protecting."

The Restaurant and Hospitality Express recently added a plan checker to their staff of folks, who will work exclusively with business owners enrolled in the program to help them move through their process even quicker.

By Hayley Fox.

Good morning, marketers. We're trying out a new feature -- a little roundup of news to help you start your day. Sort of an Egg McMuffin, but made out of content. If you like it, we'll keep doing it. If you don't, well, we'll just have to find something else to do in the wee hours of the morning. Give us some feedback in the comments? Thanks.

1) Vine on Android

Twitter's short-form video app, Vine, is finally available on Android, Gizmodo reports with a hearty “Huzzah.” To date, we’ve seen limited opportunities for marketers to use Vine, though people are doing some interesting things with the 6-second form. Twitter boss Jack Dorsey (below) is making creepy mini-movies. Some other guy used Vine to create the saddest marriage proposal in the history of the human race. Putting the Vine app on Android opens up a bigger audience, so maybe Vine will evolve into a must-have weapon in every marketer’s arsenal. We’ll see.

2) Google+ Surging

Google+ is now the second most popular social network among U.S. internet users, leaping past Twitter, eMarketer reports, drawing on a survey from Burst Media. Women remain more active users of social sites than men. Frank Reed of Marketing Pilgrim says people are starting to believe that Google+ has real value. Huzzah.

3) Xanga Death Watch

Xanga, a social website that you probably never paid attention to anyway, is close to shutting down, Valleywag reports. Xanga is asking users to kick in some cash. If Xanga can raise $60,000 by July 15, they’ll stagger along for a while more. Otherwise, it’s curtains.

4) Apple Ad Exchange

Apple is rumored to be thinking about maybe possibly planning to launch an ad exchange, Business Insider definitively reports. So far Apple’s iAd business hasn’t set the world on fire. Yet, in theory, Apple has a strong hand to play, thanks to its huge ecosystem of apps and content, according to AdExchanger. Only drawback (but it’s a big one) is that advertisers want to place ads across all operating systems, and Apple doesn’t play well with others.

5) Burger King Marketing Win

Marketing win: Burger King introduced a hands-free Whopper holder (above) to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Puerto Rico. They also made a movie. How could this not go viral?

And finally, our special bonus ...

Glasshole of the Day

Captions anyone? Mine goes like this: "These glasses make me feel like I've traveled into the future. And in the future, I'm still alone."

[caption id="attachment_2889" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Two plants in one. Both are mosses, but they look wildly different. Creative Commons ndrwfgg. Click image for license and link."] [/caption]One of the most astonishing secrets in biology is this: every plant you see makes two different plants from the same genome. And, scientists recently reported, a single gene from an ancient, powerful lineage can make the difference. [More]

Let’s Make Mary
Hanley
1959
(original copyright 1937)

Jack Hanley is one of the godfathers of sleazy materials.  Evidently this book is still in publication.  In 2011, Curzon Press released another edition.  Before the 2011 edition, the last published copy was in 1964.  Library holdings are in university collections.

Hanley has all sorts of good advice about making “friends” with the ladies.  (He also reminds us she probably is no lady, if she is “friendly”).  Other strategies include alcohol, overwhelming physical attention (read: rape), and how to choose the right target.  I can’t decide if this is a hilarious attempt at dating advice or semi-serious.  This is what my father would call a dirty book.

Anyone know anything about this book?

-Mary (Not the one on the cover)

 

Other dating tips:

Bom Chicka Bow Wow

Dating for the Mature

Chicks, Man

 

The above is, technically, an intro to the Chicago restaurant Alinea, led by restaurateur Nick Kokonas and chef Grant Achatz, whose story I recount in The Reach of a Chef. The question “Are chefs artists?” almost always annoys me. Grant told me he considers himself as such (and not without reason). His mentor Thomas Keller considers himself, the chef, a craftsman. In a long-ago post I reprint from Reach of a Chef my chapter on chef Masa Takayama, making a case I almost argue against: that the chef can, in certain instances, rise to the level of artist. That chefs are artists is a facile assumption that is almost always wrong.

To complicate matters in the funnest of possible ways, in walks Christian Seel, a chef as actual filmmaker, creating this, one of the most dramatic series of food, cooking, dining images I’ve encountered. If the Food Network/Cooking Channel/Bravo/Travel Channel ever gets its collective act together and discovers the balls to broadcast this kind of work, I’ll be there. Kokonas noted that Alinea patron, friend, and consultant Gary Adcock of Studio 37 was a consultant on the above film. Seel, a CIA grad who has cooked in some of the world’s best restaurants, is currently the media director for the Next/Aviary/Alinea group. I’ve asked him to discuss the film and his thinking:

By Christian Seel

I just read a great book by the Academy Award–winning film editor Walter Murch (In the Blink of an Eye). In it, he prioritizes the six most important elements of film editing. At the top of the list is emotional content. With any short, the first thing I personally do is try to identify an emotion and a story that I want to convey, and work from there. It sounds very obvious put like that, but its not always so, given that you start with something abstract and no characters or dialogue.

Music and sound are always critical with any production. As I’m behind the camera, it’s often difficult to simultaneously capture great images and record quality audio—fundamental aspects of a dining room or kitchen. With the Alinea Intro here, I was lucky enough to find a song that had the exact characteristics I was looking for—an experience larger than life, grandiose. When you have the right music, it does a lot to carry the emotional content. A short really starts to come together and have a life of its own. When you edit with the music, it kind of tells you what it wants to be. A good song or music will have kind of a “drive” to it. It carries or drives you along, which in turn carries the video. Good music/songs will also have emotion and obviously rhythm that you can play off.

I was lucky enough to be able to use a RED Epic camera recently. It records at 5K resolution—roughly five times the resolution of HD video. It’s a serious Hollywood camera used to shoot The Hobbit, Oz The Great and Powerful, The Great Gatsby, and dozens of other major productions. You can play footage from that camera on an IMAX screen and it would still look sharp. It’s really cool how far technology has come. From a practical standpoint, I can stabilize and crop footage and still maintain a very high playback resolution.

With this short in particular, I wanted to convey first a sense of excitement and anxiety that comes from sitting down at a highly anticipated restaurant meal. With Alinea specifically, there are so many hundreds of thousands of movements that go into the production of a meal. If you observe, you can see how all these movements have to fall into place in a very precise way, almost like a choreographed show or a symphony. It’s really impressive and amazing in my opinion. When I cut the piece together, I tried to convey that. The cuts in the video are based almost entirely on these individual movements—as if the employees themselves are moving to this internal rhythm. Each action in the restaurant is like a note being played on an instrument. I don’t pretend to take credit for this concept. I wanted to show bold and decisive movement, which is extremely agile and precise at the same time. With Alinea, the food is so carefully conceived and executed that I try to light it and shoot it as simply, honestly, and straightforward as possible, in hopes of doing it justice.

You can respond to Christian on Twitter: @XtianSeel

If you liked this post, check out these other links:

• My Had Something to Say Video on Stupid Kitchen Tools.
• Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple are the ones who made my Had Something to Say series.
• Emilia’s favorite Alinea movie made by Christian: 21st Century Ltd.
• Chef Brian Polcyn’s video on trussing a chicken.

© 2013 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2013 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.