The Stressful Life of Professional Musicians

Mao performed flawlessly on three hours' sleep

It's a tough life being a professional musician who travels around the world performing. Not only do you have to learn lots of pieces by memory, but also play them flawlessly despite jetlag and not enough sleep.

That was the case of Mao Fujita, 27, who was in Vancouver this past weekend.

He was supposed to fly direct from San Diego and arrive Saturday at 9pm to perform the next day at 3pm at the Vancouver Playhouse.

However, he texted the organiser of the Vancouver Recital Society, to say his flight was delayed until midnight.

Then he phoned a few minutes later to say he would have to cancel the concert because his flight was cancelled!

She told him to tell Air Canada he had a contractual obligation to perform the next day and he had to get on the flight.

He managed to get the last seat on the plane Sunday morning at 6am -- but that meant leaving his wife behind to get the next flight to Vancouver.

Mao arrived at 11.30am and went straight to the venue to practice despite having only three hours' sleep.

A few hours later he performed in front of an almost sold-out show, playing works by Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Berg.

I sat in the fourth row on the left side to watch Mao's fingers dance on the keys, and during intermission, the couple on my left switched seats with another. 

The new couple told me they had been sitting on the other side where they could see the expression on the pianist's face. They observed that it was as if he was in a trance, or another world as he played.

Needless to say many in the audience jumped up to give him a standing ovation and Mao treated us to an encore by Rachmaninoff, How Fair This Spot, Op. 21, No. 7 that he himself transcribed for the piano.

After the concert, Mao's wife Haruki arrived and the concert sponsors treated them to dinner and he was so excited to eat! He hadn't eaten pretty much all day!

The Chinese dinner included poached geoduck, stir-fried beef with eggplant, choy sum with braised tofu, spare ribs, Chiu Chow braised duck, soup with tofu, mustard greens and more geoduck, and dessert of taro with sago.

With a filled stomach, Mao and his wife went back to the airport to catch their next flight to Seattle where he performed last night, and then took the next flight to New York. He plays Carnegie Hall tomorrow!

Mao performs 70-75 concerts per year on top of his studies, which he will complete this year. 

We sure hope he makes time in his busy schedule to come back to Vancouver again soon!

Yunchan Lim Dazzles Vancouver Audience

Standing ovation for Lim at the Orpheum

South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim is 20 years old and burst onto the international music scene two years ago when he was the youngest person to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition two years ago.

He was in Vancouver today to perform for a concert put on by the Vancouver Recital Society at the Orpheum Theatre and not surprisingly most of the people in the audience were South Korean!

Youngest Van Cliburn winner at 18

Lim arrived this morning from San Diego and immediately went to the Orpheum to get used to the piano and his surroundings; when he arrived there was already a female fan waiting outside at the side entrance!

On stage he looks even younger than 20, and is painfully shy, partly because he doesn't speak much English, and suddenly becoming famous must surely be overwhelming.

The concert program started with contemporary composer Hanurij Lee's piece "... Round and velvety-smooth blend..." which sounded like raindrops. It was a very short piece of about five minutes and Lim left little time for the audience to react when he immediately launched right into JS Bach's Goldberg Variations, which consists of an aria and 30 variations.

Lim played all of them in succession, with a lot of expressive range, from conservative and quiet for the aria, which built up to tremendous energy and movement for the 30th and last variation, and then back to the soft delicate notes of the aria again.

Lim receiving bouquets from fans

Needless to say as soon as he finished playing his last note, the audience jumped to their feet and clapped and whooped loudly. Lim came out three or four times, bowing, and fans rushed to the stage to give him several bouquets of flowers, and even a teddy bear which he placed in the piano as he played an encore (Liszt). He didn't even wait for the crowd to sit down when he started playing his encore piece.

He leaves tomorrow morning for New York to play at Carnegie Hall and then back to South Korea for more concerts. 

It is clear that music is the medium through which Lim communicates with the world; he feels right at home with the instrument. At only 20 years old -- 21 later this month -- Lim is definitely one to watch in the years ahead.

Yunchan Lim 

Hanurij Lee ... Round and velvety smooth blend...

JS Bach Goldberg Variations

Live Like a Local Alaskan

Blasphemous Bill's tagline is "Rest in Pieces"

As I signed up for some excursions as part of my Alaska cruise, the tour guides tried to give us a sense of what life is like where they live and gave suggestions of where to hang out in our precious few hours in each port.

The towns of Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan are very small, with populations of a few thousand people each, but the numbers double when cruise season starts; students and young people with a yearning for adventure come to Alaska to earn money (though food and lodging can be expensive) and have a few good stories to tell their friends and family back home.

Spruce tip soda is among four flavours

Our rainforest tour guide from Montana asked us to write a Google review of our visit and to mention her name so that her mom could see her daughter was still alive and well in Ketchikan.

The guide who took us kayaking also asked us to review the excursion on Google too and if their name was mentioned they would get US$10 extra from his employer. What an incentive.

One of our guides who took us around Skagway was decades older, but it seems he enjoys the lifestyle in Alaska too much. He is happy to take tourists around to see mountains and glaciers from May to October, and after that he and his dog decamp to San Diego and enjoy the sun in the winter.

He suggested that we go to the Skaguay News Depot & Books to get a copy of The Skagway News for US$2 where we can read the section called "Police and Fire Blotter". 

It lists the police reports of what happened in a two-week period. Some are mundane like someone losing a mobile phone or a credit card was found in a store and reunited with its owner. Some involve passengers on cruise ships like losing their ship identification badge, or a medical emergency on the ship.

Colourful donuts assembled upon ordering

Others are more bizarre, like the one about a suspicious pill found on the floor of a bar and was turned over to the police. It turns out it was arthritis medication.

Someone called the police asking about the legalities of standing next to the Alaska sign dressed up as a bigfoot, or how about a person asking the cops to do a welfare check on a friend; the friend was fine but wanted to be left alone...

Another guide in Ketchikan suggested getting a salmon donut (US$10) from Jellyfish Donuts near where the Ruby Princess was docked. He also suggested trying spruce tip beer, bitters and even gin. We could get spruce tip soda from Blasphemous Bill's. 

So after my tour ended and dropped us back at the pier, I walked back to Blasphemous Bill's to get the spruce tip soda. I had to ask for it because I couldn't find it but it was in a small bar fridge near the cashier. 

Having tried pickled spruce tips that taste like capers, I was hoping the soda would have a pine-like smell or taste. Instead it was more of a lemon-lime soda that was quite sweet.

Salmon and maple bacon donuts

Then I hit Jellyfish Donuts and it's a small quaint shop and the donuts are actually brioche buns with creative toppings like sour patch kid and peanut butter and jelly. The signature one is salmon which I had to try. It's actually a smoked salmon spread with a few chopped spring onions on top. 

It's actually pretty good, fluffy donut that's a bit sweet and balanced with the savouriness of the salmon. I also tried maple bacon with actual bacon bits on the glazed donut, but it was more on the sweet side with a lot of icing on top.

Nevertheless, it was fun just to try these items even if they are a bit of a touristy gimmick!

San Diego: Vigilucci's

Succulent cioppino with mussels, clams, prawns and calamari

We hit the jackpot in finding a fantastic Italian restaurant in Carlsbad, near San Diego on our first night. Vigilucci's looked packed but we managed to snag a table outside under a heating lamp.

Since the pandemic the restaurant has expanded to not only convert its retail space into dining space, but also the business next door too.

The server was Italian, friendly and when he told us the special of the evening was sea bass with white asparagus, we were sold. Three out of the five of us ordered that dish. The fish was lightly pan-fried with a crispy exterior and tender and flaky meat inside.

Sea bass with white asparagus, mashed potatoes

White asparagus in February? Apparently. I asked the waiter where it came from but he never got back to me. They were fresh, stalks were not cooked enough, but we were thrilled just to be able to eat them with a potato mash and roasted Brussels sprouts. 

Needless to say we were stuffed and had no room for dessert after, but promised we'd be back.

Valentine's Day we ambitiously tried to get a table -- at 8.15pm. When we got there it was raining lightly which put a damper on many couples' dining plans. When we arrived at the restaurant there was a very long line of people waiting to be seated, but we marched to the receptionist and asked for our table.

Would they give it to us as promised or would we have to go to the back of the line on the most romantic day of the year?

As luck would have it, a booth opened up and we were able to have our table! Amazing!

The valentine's dinner menu looked very appealing but it was the cioppino that interested me. I knew it would be a huge portion, but heck, it's Valentine's Day -- to me.

Cozy booth seating at the back of the restaurant

I resisted eating bread while waiting for the dish -- actually a large shallow platter that was filled with seafood in a delicious herbed tomato saucy soup -- with three pieces of grilled bread on top.

When I dug into the cioppino I was in seafood heaven, the pieces of salmon perfectly cooked along with the plump mussels and clams, there was also a lot of fresh calamari and baby shrimp. Sadly the prawns were overcooked and a bit tough, but everything else was so good. 

I focused on the seafood and managed to finish almost all of it, save for several calamari rings and left the bread behind. I was stuffed to say the least. The dish could have easily fed two.

Again we were too full to even contemplate dessert, but at the end of the evening each lady got a long stem red rose which was a nice touch. They even stayed fresh several days afterwards!

Vigilucci's Cucina Italiana

2943 State Street

Carlsbad, CA

92008

(760) 434 2500

San Diego: Old Town

Verdant greeting at the Old Town in San Diego

On our second last day in San Diego we drove south to the Old Town to check it out. It is the first European settlement in California, and the oldest neighbourhood in San Diego (though it's literally just a tourist spot now, no one lives here).

Conveniently there's a parking lot nearby where you can park for four hours for free, but it's not necessary! The area is divided into several sections -- a Mexican-themed place with restaurants and gift shops, and then a more open area with individual shops, sadly many of them have closed. Keep walking up and you'll hit the main street of the area where there are cafes and restaurants serving mostly Tex-Mex food.

Gum Saan sells non-Chinese trinkets

The Mexican area is very colourful with lots of succulents and flowers mixed with skeletons. It's like a perpetual Cinco de Mayo there. Souvenir shops sell colourfully embroidered clothing -- made in China, or jewellery and items made by local artists. There were also tile shops, one selling very spicy chilli sauces, and ceramics.

We then headed to the more Western area that sort of looked like a hastily assembled Wild West Main Street. The City Hall had two women dressed up in clothing from two centuries ago, and there was a candle-making shop that was quite popular that also sold soap.

Another one with many customers was the candy shop where people could not resist buying fudge to stuff their faces with. Interestingly ther was a shop called "Gum Saan" or "Gold Mountain", as many Chinese migrants came to California to try their luck and pan for gold. But the shop actually sold Tibetan and Nepalese items, including bracelets, singing bowls, statues, and incense. Nothing to do with Chinese!

In the end we had a bite to eat in a Tex-Mex restaurant, and I ordered two tacos, one was seared Mahi Mahi, the other pulled pork with a side of black beans. I was full after eating those two tacos and only managed to make a dent in the black beans!

Mahi mahi taco (left) and pulled pork, black beans

We then tried to get on the Hop On, Hop Off bus, but found out it would be a two-hour ride and about US$50 a person, so we made our way back to the parking lot and came home!

San Diego: Chin's Gourmet

Roast duck that was not deboned and served with bread

Aside from Din Tai Fung, there is decent Chinese food in San Diego in the form of Chin's Gourmet. There are four in the city and one near us in Carlsbad. We checked it out -- twice.

The decor sadly perpetuates Asian stereotypes with round paper lanterns and wooden screens, though strangely the lighting is very dark for a Chinese restaurant!

Sweet and sour pork was enjoyable

When we arrived there were lots of non-Chinese people by the door waiting for takeaway orders, and throughout the evening it seemed most of Chin's business was takeout. No one wants to sit in the dark restaurant to eat?

The extensive menu has dishes listed in black and orange. It was only later when the Taiwanese owner and chef came out to greet another customer in English that he saw a table of Chinese people that he explained to us the dishes in orange were what Chinese people ate, ie not Chinese-American food.

The staff didn't bother tell us though the menu says, "Orange colour: Traditional Chinese Food".

Eggplant was delicious with a touch of spice

On the first night we ordered the Taiwanese three-cup chicken, which looked good, but wasn't well executed. The chicken was overcooked, the sauces not quite melded together. Sauteed string beans was a winner, as well as the eggplant in a slightly spicy sauce. 

The roast duck came out hidden under clam-shaped steamed bread and it was strange to put slices of the duck in the bread when it wasn't deboned. It was a bit of a miss and a struggle to finish because the meat was tough and the sauce wasn't enough to make it more edible. The stir-fried pork with onions were pretty good though.

We had no room for dessert, but were handed fortune cookies! 

Japanese tofu with mushrooms and vegetables

The next evening we came back again, same table.

Most disappointing was the gon chau ngau ho, or stir-fried beef with rice noodles. It looked more wet than dry with no char or wok hei. Guess the owner/chef was not there. But we repeated our order of Japanese tofu with enoki mushrooms, mushrooms and vegetables. So good. We also had eggplant again but wasn't as good, sadly. The gai lan was crunchy and fresh -- gai lan in San Diego!

Sweet and sour pork was not bad, crunchy exterior, tender inside. For dessert we ordered banana fritters but then were told the kitchen didn't have any bananas. Seriously? We instead had black sesame dumplings in sweet soup and they turned out to be very tiny, in a sweet glutinous rice soup. 

Maybe we should have just gone the first time, but our craving for Chinese food was too great.

Black sesame balls in sweet glutinous rice soup

Chin's Gourmet

West Bluff Plaza Shopping Center

6990 El Camino Real

Carlsbad, CA 

92009

(760) 438 7886

San Diego: Tip Top Meats

I took a bite into my pastrami sandwich before taking a photo!

A friend who drove from Orange County to San Diego to visit me wanted to have lunch at a German deli and I didn't say no.

So after we did some shopping at the nearby Carlsbad Premium Outlets, we stopped for lunch at Tip Top Meats. 

Customers order here before eating at their table

When she used to live near the area, on the weekends they would come here for lunch or to pick up some German sausages before going home because it's part restaurant and part grocery store, specialising in food items from Deutschland since 1967. 

The restaurant is actually more of a cafeteria where you order at the cashier and then the food is served to you at the table. But the day we went there was quite a line so we checked out the grocery part first and it was impressive to see all kinds of items, from apple strudels to marzipan, cookies, many kinds of sausages including currywurst, lots of Haribo products to keep kids on sugar highs for days, chocolates and giant slabs of cheese. 

We went back to the lineup and perused the menu printed on a brochure. For a small eatery, it has an impressive array of dishes from breakfast served from 6am to noon, then for lunch and dinner there are cold and hot sandwiches, soups, burgers, meat loaf, osso bucco, beef stroganoff, liver and onions, schnitzel, smoked pork chops, chicken cordon bleu and zwiebel rostbraten or sweet onion stuffed pork roast, all very reasonably priced.

The grocery is stocked with lots of German foods

It probably explains why there are so many seniors who eat here, having a giant portion of food with a pint and then taking the leftovers home for dinner.

I was conservative and had a hot pastrami sandwich that instead of fries came with German potato salad -- with bits of bacon and slightly vinegary. 

When it arrived I was surprised to see three half sandwiches of hot pastrami with melted cheese in between two slices of toasted rye bread and pickles. I only had room for two halves and took the third half home with some potato salad.

If I was hungrier I would have tried the schnitzel but was trying to save my stomach for later. 

Nevertheless what an interesting place to eat at and have a taste of Germany!

Tip Top Meats 

6118 Paseo Del Norte

Carlsbad, CA

92011-1116

(760) 438 2620

San Diego: Din Tai Fung

Love this xiaolongbao guy who greets everyone at the door!

The only place I booked ahead of arriving in San Diego to make sure we got a table was at Din Tai Fung! There are none of these Taiwanese dumpling chain restaurants in Canada and the last time I ate at Din Tai Fung was in Hong Kong almost a year ago.

Xiaolongbao with kurobuta pork

We drove about 25 minutes south to a shopping mall called Westfield UTC on La Jolla Drive. It's a huge mall complex with Nordstrom's and Macy's, and I later heard in the last few years the mall has blinged its way up the luxury brand ladder with boutiques like Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Michael Kors alongside H&M, Zara and Apple.

The mall is an outdoor shopping format, taking advantage of the weather and giving people lots of space to walk around and grab bites to eat in kiosks and restaurants scattered all over the shopping space.

Din Tai Fung has its format well established, from greeting customers outside the restaurant -- all members of the party must be present before they can be seated -- and watching the kitchen staff making dumplings right by the window. Some don't want to be photographed or videoed (despite wearing masks and head coverings) that they turn their backs slightly to the window.

Vegan dumplings with so many foldes

Over 10 years ago I visited the branch in Arcadia in Los Angeles and was impressed by the Mexicans deftly making xiaolongbao, but here the wait staff were both Asian and non-Asian which threw me off a bit. Almost all of them wore black masks along with their black uniforms, women had their hair in simple buns.

The interior is very contemporary and hardly Asian -- there are elongated booth seatings for up to four that slightly curves in on each side -- another two people can sit on the outside.

The menu is not like Hong Kong's -- was surprised to find there was no kaofu or braised wheat gluten with mushrooms and edamame, but mostly spicy dishes were there like cucumbers in chilli sauce. We ordered the seaweed and beancurd in vinegar dressing and wood ear mushrooms with vinegar dressing.

Sauteed string beans with garlic

These arrived very swiftly, followed by a slew of dumplings. The signature xiaolongbao with kurobuta pork had the memorably thin wrapper, but the filling was too pureed for my taste; it did not have a meaty, firm texture.

A new one for me was chicken dumplings with so many folds, but seemed thin with the filling and also quite pureed. The vegan dumplings were not quite what I remembered. Biting into it you couldn't quite identify everything in there by sight, though the description said there were glass noodles, bok choy, dried bean curd and shiitake mushrooms and spinach juice to dye the wrapper green.

We also had a portion of wontons in soup, sauteed broccoli with garlic and sauteed string beans with garlic, potstickers, as well as the fried rice with chicken which was very good. The vegetables were parboiled before being stir-fried to stay so crispy and fresh looking.

Fried rice with large pieces of chicken

The staff were very friendly and knew answers to all our questions. One person traveling with us has an allergy to sesame seed oil and the waitress immediately pulled out her copy of the menu with items highlighted in pink that had sesame seed oil. Impressive.

We thought we didn't have room for dessert, but we couldn't pass up the taro xiaolongbao; we could also rest our stomachs for around 10 minutes waiting for them.

They definitely hit the spot, 10 pieces and here the filling was rightly pureed, smooth and creamy, but no dairy, encased in a thin wrapper. Glorious.

Afterwards we rolled out of there, and there were many more people waiting outside for their turn to fill their stomachs with dumplings...

Taro xiaolongbao for dessert

Din Tai Fung

4301 La Jolla Village Drive

San Diego, CA

92122

(858) 375 5988

San Diego: Batiquitos Lagoon

Dark clouds threatened rain, and there were light showers

Thinking we were getting away from the cold temperatures in Vancouver by flying to San Diego, we were shocked to discover it was chilly in this part of California. Temperatures ranged from 17 degrees Celsius during the day and 7 degrees Celsius at night -- it was the wind that made it feel cold.

On the day I went for a walk along Batiquitos Lagoon, it was a bit overcast and then light showers! Luckily I had brought my mini umbrella with me and pulled it out a few times.

A tree shedding its bark

First off it's good to know that batiquitos means "little watering hole" in Spanish, and the one here dates back 9,000 years ago. The area is looked after by the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation, where volunteers help maintain it with help from sponsors. 

The lagoon is a short walk from where I was staying and the path is a long thin strip along a lagoon that's 1.6 miles (2.57km). People are walking their dogs, or with friends, or jogging. There are one or two avid bird watchers with long-lens cameras and binoculars. 

Perhaps because it's winter, in terms of greenery there wasn't much to see and the birds that were out there in the lagoon were too far to see clearly. 

Some of the birds that can be found in the lagoon include "swimming divers" that swim into deep water to find fish. These include ruddy ducks, buffleheads, and redheads.

There are "surface swimmers" who feed near shallow water, like mallards, northern shovelers, northern pintail, green-winged teal and American wigeon.

"Flight feeders" forage over deep water and then when they spy their prey, they plunge into the water. Examples are osprey and phoebes.

Osprey (left) and great blue heron on chairs

Another kind of bird are "walkers/runners" who search for food while they walk or run across mud or sand flats, or through shallow water. Sandpipers like western and least sandpipers, willets, long-billed curlews, and marbled godwits are spotted at this lagoon.

Finally "waders/fishers" are herons like great egret, snowy egret, and great blue heron.

Funnily enough as I was walking back to where I was staying, I saw a flock of ducks hanging out on the golf course!

The path for walkers is mostly sandy, and towards one end of the walk is the Nature Center where visitors can have a bathroom break and check out souvenirs; they are also encouraged to make a donation to the lagoon via buying a brick and there are many with people's and family's names on them.

There's also a pair of wooden beach chairs that are beautifully painted birds, one with an osprey, the other with a great blue heron.

While it's nice there is a protected area for these birds, it's sad to see just across from the lagoon a very busy highway and the noise from the fast-moving vehicles must detract many more birds from going there... 

Dismaying to see birds so close to the highway

Batiquitos Lagoon

It's located east of Interstate 5 at the end of Gabbiano Lane and goes most of the way to El Camino Real on the east end of the lagoon. Visitors can park in one of five parking lots, one by the Nature Center and four on Batiquitos Drive.

Picture of the Day: Discounts Galore

Want to get outfitted for Christmas 2023?

My friend and I went to a shopping mall and checked out some stores we would normally not walk into, like Forever 21 -- cause we're no where near 21 anymore!

In the back of the store was one of several discount racks where I spied this dress left over from Christmas...

Anyone want to pick up their ugly Christmas outfit now in February?

This one's only US$15.00...

It's shocking how much unwanted clothing there is, and how low they have been marked down. At H&M there were T-shirts for under US$6.

There has to be a way to figure out how much meeds to be produced and at a decent price otherwise retailers can't make as much of a profit when it's marked down so much.