A wedding is a special but stressful event. When the couple come from two different cultures, it’s challenging to incorporate both sets of traditions. A growing number of wedding planners are helping out.

Berkeley, CA-based ZahZoom Weddings helped Rachel Carroll, of Jewish faith, and Trinidadian Michelle Matt in their cross-cultural nuptials. The couple walked down the aisle to Caribbean steel drums and were read the Torah by a rabbi under a chuppah, or wedding canopy. Chinese American Ada Chen and Sachin Rekhi, who is Indian American, had Oakland-based wedding planner Marilyn Ambra assist in blending the styles and traditions of both cultures.

As more people from different ... Read more »

Beyond Robson: Vancouver has a new connoisseur – the craft beer drinker.

They arrive at parties with bottles of beer you have never heard of, stouts, ales and lagers with names like Dogfish Head, Anchor Steam and Polygamy Porter, cases brought back from a trip to the States and recycled glass jugs they get refilled by their friends who work for local watering holes and breweries. They have beer memberships, wear beer pins and forgo music festivals for ones about beer.

You can’t blame them though. With specialty beer stores popping up all over and existing stores expanding their craft beer selection, it is actually becoming more difficult to ... Read more »

Cnet News: URL-shortening services are abundant and becoming more so. They’re usually designed with a priority on minimum character length, not easy reading: Is.gd, Bit.ly, Twurl.nl, Tr.im, Sn.im”, Cligs, and TinyURL.
So what’s new now? First, Twitter, and second, shortening URLs is becoming an actual business–notably at present through the addition of "analytics” features that can let those who use the service see data about how many people clicked on links, when, where they’re located, and the Web page where they found the shortened link.
One of the problems with short URLs is knowing what you’re getting into when you click them. Is that link really the fun video of the guy tripping into the lake, or is it site that will spam you or attempt to install malware? Is it r... Read more »

FT.com: In recent years, some forward-thinking chefs, who believe that personal expression and creativity are more important than slavish devotion to symbolic luxury goods, have abandoned the antiquated approach of haute cuisine, a style of cooking traditionally based on a few select ingredients.
These forward-thinking chefs are seeking out the highest-quality ingredients, usually from their area, without regard to their place in the traditional fine dining canon. Combined with a deeply held belief in the transformative power of the cooking process, they are setting an example that, if it catches on, could change what we grow and eat, both in restaurants and at home.
Revaluing ingredients – starting with the assumption that a potato or a carrot can taste as exciting as foie gras – i... Read more »