Hunter-gatherers and Farmers. Which are you?

There are truly no new ideas so I won't claim authorship of this one. Just rediscovery. I have been thinking a lot recently about who I am in relationship to the work I enjoy and have developed a set of mental models (analogies at best, self-deception at worst) to help me understand this better. I recently read Is the World Half Crazy? and came to the realization that I am a Creator Hare (as opposed to an Advancer Hare, Refiner Turtle or Executor Turtle). This explains why I like creating things out of whole cloth, but enjoy iterating and operating much less. Another distinction hit me today which I call "hunter-gatherers and farmers." An operating role is like being a farmer. You decide what crops to grow (where you want to place your bets and investments), you plant the seeds and nurture them until you can harvest the crop. How well you plant and cultivate, along with the randomness of the weather, determines what your yield will be. The hunter-gatherer, which I believe describes some aspects of what I enjoy most, surveys the landscape and goes after what is already out there that fits the need. My current role involving M&A-type activities fits this model as does my passion for recruiting talent for Amazon. Are these answers? No. But they are interesting lenses to view the world through and understand our place in it.

In Search of the Best of Seattle: Croissants (Part 1)

I am an inherently cautious person. Thus, it would be premature for me to crown the 'Roi de Croissant' from just one sampling from a limited selection. However, I had to start somewhere. I am fascinated and obsessed with finding the 'best' of anything. I would rather have a little of the best than an abundance of the mediocre. For the past year or so, I have been wondering whether it was possible to find a good croissant in Seattle. From our fairly frequent recent forays to Paris, I have developed a better appreciation for French food and wine and want to approximate if not closely replicate my gastronomic experiences there with what I can find here.

So, to the competition. The goal is to find the most authentic croissant in Seattle. If you are like me, you have noticed that what passes for a croissant here is a soft, fluffy, bread-like pastry whose only croissant-like feature is that it is in fact crescent-shaped. Enough is enough and I firmly believe that if you are going to eat a croissant, you are obliged to find a real one. For this particular taste test I chose to compare Besalu, located in Ballard with Cafe Presse near Seattle U, the offshoot and sister restaurant of Le Pichet near Pike Place Market.

Early Sunday morning I drove to Besalu and was pleased to run into my friend Gordon Waddell. I am glad he is well and he has a beautiful 14-month old daughter. I bought a croissant and a coconut macaroon (they looked so good and it occurred to me that I may want to do some early research into 'the best macaroon in Seattle' at some point). The croissant was still warm and they also gave me a little container house-made apricot confiture to go with it. I resisted the urge to tear into the buttery pastry right then and there and carefully raced to Cafe Presse to pick up the other contestant contemplating whether to plug in the incubator that I have been carrying around in the back of my car for a week to keep the croissant warm. The croissant I picked up at Cafe Presse was not piping hot having been prepared earlier in the morning. They also gave me some apple-rhubarb confiture.

Once home, I put on a pot of coffee and prepared my experiment, layout out both croissants, butter, the confitures, coffee cup, orange juice and some sparkling water to 'cleanse the palet' between samplings. The end-of-cycle spluttering of the coffee machine signaled that I was ready to start tasting.

Below is a picture of the matchup. Besalu's croissant on the right and Cafe Presse's on the left. Each came with a little house-made confiture, apricot and apple-rhubarb.

Visually the Besalu croissant was more appealing, having a slight shape but not overdone. The flaky exterior was also more authentic. On the texture front, Besalu won again with the right amount of crunch on the outside with glutenous stretch inside. Cafe Presse's croissant scored higher on smell and 'mouth feel' though with a silkier, more buttery finish. In the final analysis, though, I declared Besalu the winner.

Next matchup will be Besalu and Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle. With this face-off I hope to identify the best croissant in Seattle, though I am happy to also consider other contenders.

Kitty Cargo Cult

Every so often when I wander into my kitchen, I find Booger and Shy sitting on the floor staring up at the counter beside the stove. This has happened a number of times and I have pondered why they do this. It seems completely random. I never feed them from the counter and except for a very few times, they have never had anything other than their dry food and always from their bowls. Whenever I am making something interesting, they congregate and mill around my feet hoping, I think, that some morsel will fall on the floor (which I don't think it ever has). So what's the cargo cult part of this? Like the natives of Vanuata, in cat magical thinking, perhaps they believe in a causal relationship between them waiting for something to fall and me coming in and preparing something that interests them. In other words, they believe that sitting and staring at the counter will make me and food appear. Good luck you guys. It hasn't happened yet.

Day Sixteen - Park City, Utah

Alas, all good things must come to an end and it was time for me to come home. Having been on the road for two-and-a-half weeks I missed my own place, my cats and my city. Alan, Josee and I went skiing for a couple of hours mainly to look at the new houses being built slope-side in Deer Valley. A soak in the hot tub, a steam shower and a fresh set of clothes later I was ready for a late afternoon departure to begin the long drive back to Seattle but not before stopping at Robin's office to say goodbye and thank you to her, Kelly and Jim.

My goal was to make it to Boise before stopping for the night. However, fatigue overtook me near Twin Falls and I checked into a hotel where I slept instantly and deeply for nine hours before the alarm woke me.

The following day, Thursday was an uneventful if long drive up through Oregon and Washington to reach Seattle at about 6pm. Along the way I picked up a lovely home-baked apple pie that I shared with Helena and Vanya whom I stopped to visit in Issaquah on the way home. Finally arriving at my own house at 7:30, I grabbed a quick bite and hit the sack. The long, adventurous, satisfying roadtrip was done!

It was a lovely time with just the right amount of solitude, action, adventure, skiing and meet new people. I am very pleased I went. It was 16 days well spent!

Day Fifteen - Park City, Utah

Another day of no skiing and Josee was kind enough to take me to Sundance for lunch and to see her studio. It is beautiful up there and Robert Redford has done a great job of keeping it pristine and undeveloped. Josee's art is beautiful and I will post some images and descriptions of the pieces here when I get the chance.

Dinner that night was fondue, something I volunteered to prepare. Finding the cheese was less difficult than I thought it would be but the Kirschwasser, bread and wine were a different matter. It is hard enough to find authentic baguette in Seattle, let along Park City. The problem is that the crust is always a little too soft and the bread itself too doughy. How I long for a Parisian baguette! Also, Utah has some of the weirdest alcohol laws ever. First of all, wine and liquor are only sold in state liquor stores and second the selection is terrible. Alan, Philippe (Josee's 15-year old son) went into the store to procure the right ingredients and at the register I was asked if Philippe was my son. I said no and was told that state law prohibited me from buying alcohol for 24 hours since there is some presumption that I was buying it for Philippe. Very weird. We went to another store and picked up what we needed but that was a real shocker. What passed for Kirschwasser in Utah is not what I usually use so while the fondue was good, it was not great. Memo to self - bring own kirschwasser next time I want to prepare fondue in Utah...and bread?

Day Fourteen - Park City, Utah

No skiing for me. The knee was still sore and after four days straight I needed a break. Spent most of the day hanging at Mike's place, browsing the Internet and generally goofing off. Was fun though.

Day Thirteen - Park City, Utah

Once again, we convened at Mike's house (the perfect ski-in/ski-out rendezvous in Deer Valley, I must say) and had breakfast and lounged a bit before hitting the slopes. Bettina was on skis as she had been the day before and was kicking all our butts on the slopes. Today it was just she and I and we took the advantage of some new snow and the opportunity to ski some more aggressive terrain - such as there is in Deer Valley. The best part was the black diamond under the Empire Express lift. Steep, open and with some nice powdery moguls. The first time we skied the slightly shallower side of the bowl and it was a lot of fun. In fact it was so much fun we decided to do it again and went for the more challenging steep under the chair. This where I fell and lost a ski in the process. Kind of a mini yard-sale. I tweaked my knee (old medial collateral ligament sprain) and lost my confidence which pretty much ended my day though we did do some easier stuff on the way back to the house. A soak and a shower soon helped me feel better though the knee was and still is a little sore.

It was Sunday evening and unfortunately Bettina had to head back to Seattle so I saw her off at SLC and went back to Deer Valley for a quiet evening meal at Mike's. Dinner was prepared by Alan and Josee that night and it was fun to visit with them, Seanie, her daughter Hailey and Seanie's mom.