http://www.supertsai.com/ en Copyright 2008 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:33:36 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss www.petertsaiphotography.com. It's going to be a portfolio site of some of my best work. I've been getting really serious into this photography hobby lately and this site is just the next step - I'm going to have a focus on portrait, architectural, and travel photography. Ultimately, I'd like to get some work out this site so feel free to pass it along to your friends. Also, check out my flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/supertsai ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2008/02/peter_tsai_photography.html http://www.supertsai.com/2008/02/peter_tsai_photography.html photography Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:33:36 -0600 my recent rave review about Estancia on Yelp recently, I tend to agree - so here it goes: Pinkberry - the food, the myth, and the legend. Pinkberry is the new dessert yogurt\ice cream craze that's sweeping LA and New York. Pinkberry is so popular that people line up around the block at all hours of the day just to get a taste. While it's sort of an ethnic Asian dessert, apparently Pinkberry has gone so mainstream in NY and LA that even the characters on the show "The OC" eat there regularly. How crazy are people for Pinkberry? The first time I went it was 3:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday and there were 10 people in line. 5 minutes later we ordered and the line was out the door and at least 20 people deep. After we finished eating, the line wrapped half way around the block and was at least 50 people deep! What's so great about this place? Why all of the madness for a 6 dollar cup of ice cream? Honestly, I am not sure that it lives up to the hype but it does taste pretty good. So what exactly is a Pinkberry? Apparently Pinkberry is just a random name assigned to this Asian yogurt flavored soft serve ice cream - think TCBY with a twist. This Asian yogurt flavor is nothing new, I remember as a kid having all sorts of products that taste almost the same as Pinkberry. There's yogurt flavored soft drinks, candies, and yogurt flavored sake and soju. Apparently, a few years ago some enterprising Koreans decided that it was time to put this tasty yogurt flavor into ice cream. I heard that Pinkberry is not the original yogurt ice cream company, but it was the first to make it big in the States. How does it taste? If you've ever had Asian yogurt flavored products, Pinkberry tastes exactly how you would expect it to, just a bit more tart. If you've never had Asian yogurt treats, it's a little hard to describe the taste. Think normal yogurt but sweeter and lighter, with a tart kick. It has a pretty clean taste to it, and it's not overly sweet like other ice cream. Sometimes with American ice cream I will only be able to taste the first couple of bites then the sweetness will overpower my taste buds and I'm just eating cold texture after that. Personally I was a bit underwhelmed with the regular Pinkberry flavor probably because of all the hype built up around it. When I took my first bite I thought that it tastes exactly like the same yogurt flavor I've had for half of my life. I was expecting something totally new. After about half of a cup though, the taste had grown on me a bit. I could see why some people are in love with this stuff. Texture-wise Pinkberry is similar to soft serve ice cream - it's pretty fluffy and airy right out of the machine. Pinkberry is a pretty light dessert and it wont feel sluggish after eating one. Another thing that fuels the Pinkberry craze is the fact that they offer fresh fruit toppings such as blueberries, strawberries, mango, kiwi, blackberries, etc with no sugar added. I'm a big fan of eating healthier, but you might want to not mix in the toppings with the yogurt because the tartness of the fruit doesn't always go that well with the sweet and tart yogurt. To get past this problem, I ate my fruit as a palette cleanser on the side (sort of like a pickle for a sandwich or pickled ginger for sushi). The best fruits for me were strawberry and mango - the others were a bit too tart. They have other options like mochi (rice balls), cap'n crunch, oreos, and fruity pebbles too. There is also a green tea Pinkberry flavor which I think is better than the original. Green tea is huge in Asia - and I'm a big fan of all things green tea. That said, the green tea Pinkberry is a little hit and miss. They almost certainly use Japanese green tea powder in the mix, but the powder was not distributed evenly in the ice cream. This inconsistency makes some bites of the green tea flavored Pinkberry taste the same as the regular, and some bites make you feel like a bag of green tea punched you in the face. While these punch you in the face bites taste good, it's way too much. I would rather have one consistent taste instead of constantly having to guess if the next bite will be good or bad. Advice - don't get fruit in the green tea pinkberry - you will regret it. Something about the flavor combination isn't right. I noticed that they had a mochi topping after I had finished mine - that would probably be the best flavor combination for the green tea. Pinkberry is being marketed as healthy - and for the most part it's true. The Green Tea Pinkberry seems to be very good for you, and the regular pinkberry seems like a relatively light dessert - a little less sugar than a can of Coke. here are the nutrition facts: Regular Pinkberry Green Tea Pinkberry --- Pinkberry Green Tea - best eaten plain Closing out, While Pinkberry tastes good, there are a couple of downsides. It seems pretty random as to how bad the line will be no matter what time of day - be prepared for a wait. Also, the ice cream is pretty expensive for what you get. The cheapest thing there is the $3 small 8oz and because each topping cost a dollar extra, it's easy to end up paying 6 bucks for a small with 2-3 of toppings. They also kind of cheat you on te ice cream by making the center of you ice cream swirl hollow instead of packing the ice cream in like other places do. Would I recommend Pinkberry? If you have never had it - sure give it a try. It's good people watching and the stores are pretty cool looking inside. It's pretty crowded and sort of an 'event' so take a friend or two. If you go with good friends who don't mind sharing, I would recommend splitting one of each flavor - get the green tea with no toppings or possibly mochi and the regular with one or 2 of the sweeter fruits. Going to Pinkberry is good times for newbies just to see what the craze is all about but i wouldn't go there all the time unless one was close by or I was taking someone who had never been. If Pinkberry fixed their green tea consistency problem though, I would be tempted to go more often. The line is kind of a downer too, but it seems that a lot of copycat places are springing up so maybe go to those if you want a similar product without the wait. *** 2.5 out of 4 stars]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/10/pinkberry.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/10/pinkberry.html berry food pink Pinkberry review Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:43:24 -0600 Something I've been saying for years now: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092000465.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/09/soccer_better_for_exercise_tha.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/09/soccer_better_for_exercise_tha.html exercise soccer Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:08:10 -0600 www.simpsonizeme.com Check out mine - what do you think? ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/08/make_yourself_a_simpsons_chara.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/08/make_yourself_a_simpsons_chara.html Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:20:14 -0600 New York Stock Images ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/07/new_york_stock_photography.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/07/new_york_stock_photography.html Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:27:23 -0600 Supertsai's Texas Stock Photos. I've been posting the images to a stock agency and you can follow the links on my page to the stock agency's pages (Alamy). ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/06/austin_texas_stock_photography.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/06/austin_texas_stock_photography.html Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:11:17 -0600 Today I gave blood for the first time - pretty cool experience for sure. I've always known that I should but was glad that I finally got to. After donating it felt like I did my part to help out - even more so than simply donating money. I think I just procrastinated before and didn't want to take the initial step due to indifference or fear of needles. I actually tried to donate once, but was relieved to find out that I wasn't allowed to due to recently traveling to countries that are malaria risks. Well, it wasn't scary and didn't hurt very much... just two very small pokes - one for the fingertip, and one into the arm. The most painful part of it is actually the 10 minute questionnaire before the entire procedure. I think I filled up my pint bag of blood in less than five minutes. I was slightly weaker afterwards, but fine once I got some food into my system. You get snacks at the end, which is kind of cool to look forward to as well (especially since I don’t have junk food in my house much anymore). If you haven't donated yet, don't be afraid and don't procrastinate -- you'll do your part to help others and in turn you will feel better too. http://www.supertsai.com/2007/06/giving_blood_for_the_first_tim.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/06/giving_blood_for_the_first_tim.html Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:15:01 -0600 I just got a call from the credit card company saying that someone has tried to make very large charges on one of my cards to several online betting sites and also some religious organization. The charges got denied, but it was a close call. I just saw a news segment about credit card fraud this morning too... be careful. http://www.supertsai.com/2007/02/credit_card_fraud.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/02/credit_card_fraud.html Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:36:59 -0600 They didn't have the option for green hair in the Mii channel but I think it's pretty darn close

My Bruce Lee - the hair isn't quite right but close! ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/i_got_a_wii_1.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/i_got_a_wii_1.html Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:36:33 -0600 I had the last 3 days off of work due to an ice storm. I don't trust Texas drivers on ice. LOTS of accidents these few days. Look how bad it is in Portland right now, and these people are used to snow all the time. I think this first guy just wanted to see how many cars he could hit.]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/why_i_didnt_go_to_work_today.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/why_i_didnt_go_to_work_today.html Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:32:27 -0600 vote for your favorite Peter Tsai contest on my old xanga page. Good times. Today I decided to search for "supertsai" to see how popular my web pages are since I'm starting these new blogs and looking to advertise on them. On Google I found a bunch of links to my websites - my xanga site, my pbase photo site, my ebay page etc. I thought this was a good start and felt pretty confident about my web presence. But then I saw something that made me think that I'm not so popular in the grand scheme of things: Hopefully one day when someone searches for "super taco", Google will ask them if they are looking for "supertsai" instead.

]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/supertsai.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/supertsai.html Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:12:35 -0600 http://acl.supertsai.com or http://www.supertsai.com/ACL ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/my_acl_reconstruction_diary_1.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/my_acl_reconstruction_diary_1.html Sun, 07 Jan 2007 11:41:46 -0600 ]]> http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/first_entry_1.html http://www.supertsai.com/2007/01/first_entry_1.html Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:22:54 -0600