I wish all the chefs out there, in particular Pastry Chefs aka SugarHeads, all diners, all hotel guests and all Food bloggers a Happy New Year 2008! I am sure you will cheer the new year with your favorite Champagne, beer or even sake like me.

Happy New Year!

I can’t live without two things; iPod and coffee! My iPod currently is packed with 6786 songs of 64.25 Gb; my entire CD collection and a year of Bittorrents downloads. 12 Gb alone is dedicated to the number one Dj Armin van Buuren. A State of Trance (ASoT) year 2005 – 2007 are all present including special gigs from Europe. One more thing: got above GettoBlaster the other day from JBL to play and re-charge my iPod in the bed room. Yup, even there I got to listen to chill-outs. And what a toy it is!

iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple and launched on October 23, 2001. The line-up currently consists of the original style hard drive-based flagship iPod classic, the iPod touch, the mid-level video-capable iPod nano, and the entry-level screenless iPod shuffle. Former products include the compact iPod mini (replaced by the iPod nano) and the high-end spin-off iPod photo (re-integrated into the main iPod classic line). iPod classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all other models, aside from the Microdrive-based mini, use flash memory to enable their smaller size. As with many other digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices.

Apple’s iTunes software is used to transfer music to the devices. As a jukebox application, iTunes stores a music library on the user’s computer and can play, burn, and rip music from a CD. It also transfers photos, videos, games, and calendars to those iPod models that support them. Apple focused its development on the iPod’s unique user interface and its ease of use, rather than on technical capability. As of October 2007, the iPod had sold over 119 million units worldwide (stated in “The Beat Goes On” conference) making it the best-selling digital audio player series in history.

I have not been able to post lately as I am working on a big project of mine. The other day, B from Chefs!! Dubai came to see me to show his new range of Valrhona products. My immediate attention got the mini pralines with the colorful pattern in pink, yellow and brown. As all of you know, I am a big fan of chocolate all my life and I am ready to try all kind of chocolates there is out there. However, same with coffee, I make sure I only get the best to sample and Valrhona has always been one of my favorite chocolates!