I built a new lightbox out of pvc and fabric replacing the old primitive cardboard box with holes cut out of it and covered with tissue paper. This one breaks down easily and the colors easily changed. I’m quite happy with it.

The first project using it was Milton, our miniature longhaired dachshund.  Being a black-haired dog, Milton has always been difficult to photograph since light levels are always set taking the ever-lighter background into account. The solution is to set him against a dark background with good side lighting. I really should have ironed the backdrop, but here are photos taken in the lightbox, with much better results.

The second big Asian grocery opening of 2009 in Concord CA was Seafood City. (The first was 99 Ranch back in September.)

Filipino in focus, you’ll find ample provisions for that cuisine. Like much of SE Asia, salt is usually found in fermented seafood. Here there are pastes and as well as fish sauce. The fish sauce is called patis: it tends to be much more aggressive and pronounced in its saltiness than the products from Thailand and Vietnam.

Lumpia, which are rolled, deep-fried pastries reminiscent of the more common eggroll, are plentiful. You can get the wrappers to make your own or choose from an entire freezer case of different varieties of ready-made:

And speaking of ready-made, Goldilocks, the local Filipino bakery, is featured. Think Entemann’s but with different stuff.

The store’s real strength, not surprisingly given its name, is seafood. More precisely: fresh fish.

Shellfish doesn’t make as strong a showing here as it does at Ranch 99, but the fish selection is fantastic. The first day we visited, there were 44 kinds of fish on offer, from blue anchovy to barracuda:

Like any good seafood counter, they will clean and gut your fish, fillet them, get rid of the heads and tails, as well as steam or deep fry them.

Along 99 Ranch, County Square Market and Las Montañas, Seafood City is yet another great ‘ethnic’ grocery here where we live.

Seafood City website

Concord location: 2030 Diamond Boulevard (in the old Circuit City)

China, India, Bhutan, Turkey, Kenya,

Egypt, Spain, Morocco, Portugal, Costa Rica

29,726 miles = the trip of a lifetime

In a paroxysm of generosity, my partner decided to mark a new decade of me with a trip around the world. What a guy, eh?

For a little over two months, every place we’ll be is a place we’ve never been before. What an excellent thing to look forward to in the new year!

Most of the visitors to chaosweb have come looking for travel info, going through our past trips to Southeast Asia. I’ll try to keep up, sharing the how-to, where-to and what-to-do as the trip planning moves along.