List 21

Love: Wong Kar Wei's "In the Mood for Love." Where to start? The era (1962 Hong Kong.) Christopher Doyle's lush cinematography. The heartbreaking performances by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. The soundtrack, including Nat King Cole's Spanish-language songs. The clothes (Maggie Cheung's endless parade of gorgeous Cheongsams.)

It's a quietly devastating film about longing and restraint.

Like: This cocktail recipe I got from my brother: equal parts sake and vodka with splash of Torani pink grapefruit syrup, shaken then served up with a cucumber slice. It's a pearly, barely pink color and really easy to drink too many of.

Discovery: I had the chance to spend a week in Hong Kong earlier this year and few things are as nice as drinking a glass of champagne in some swanky bar 80 stories up on the Kowloon side, looking out across the harbor view.

Obsession: A Thai steak salad. I love this "Evil Jungle Salad" recipe. The heat of the steak and the spice of the dressing contrast with the cool salad (which has lettuce, cucumber, green onions, Thai basil, mint, cilantro, mango, tomatoes, carrots and crushed peanuts.)

http://boards.epicurious.com/message.jspa?messageID=562354&tstart=0

Complaint: I am a big fan of Korean food but as has been revealed in previous lists, I have some specific interior design requests. I really wish Oakland had a place that offered great, authentic, homestyle Korean food but delivered it in a cool (florescent-light and acoustic ceiling tile-free) space.

List 20

Love: Sixteen Candles. Jake Ryan. Sigh. Happily, the basic premise - having your birthday blown off by pretty much everyone - has been rendered null and void by Facebook and all those very nice Happy Birthday wall posts.

Like: A Red Velvet Cupcake is my birthday treat of choice. Love at First Bite in Berkeley makes a great one.

Discovery: Yo Gabba Gabba is the kids' show for adults. They got the Ting Tings to cover "Happy Birthday" - the song from, yes, Sixteen Candles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veN2gyCEj8s

Obsession: I want a Mini Countryman. Bad. First, it has to make it to the States. But by my next birthday, I'm hoping that this will be my ride.

Complaint: None so far today. Oh, except aging.

List 19

Love: The simple but divine Jambon des Trois Fermes at Le Comptoir in Paris. It was so good we went twice within 5 days. And it's inspired some simple dinners back home: a pot of mustard, some cornichons, slices of a great jambon, jamon or proscuitto, some bread and a green salad.

Like: Amelie. I am a sucker for its sweet, romantic take on fate, the connections we choose to make, and the beauty to be found in the small and everyday.

Discovery: Françoise Hardy. '60s French chanteuse and perhaps the Coolest Style Icon Ever. And her music is as cool as she is.

Obsession: The Glace Caramel au Beurre Salé at Berthillon (which is also on dessert menus all over Paris.) The butter adds a certain je ne sais quoi that traditional Salted Caramel ice creams are missing.

Complaint: San Francisco just can't seem to nail that French brasserie thing. Cafe des Amis is very much a poor man's Balthazar in my book. It just feels too new and too Marina. (And don't get me started on the weird back room with that horrible mega chandelier.) For now, to scratch this itch, a drive to Bouchon in Yountville remains in order.

VS

List 18

Love: Saul Bass's poster for the 1961 San Francisco International Film Festival. We bid for and lost it on eBay but then later found it at the Alameda flea market.

Like: My brother's Millionaire Playboy series. davidrourkeevans.com

Discovery: Art where you least expect it: (1) In looking though a brown paper bag of old Pfeifer family pictures, we saw this photo which appears to have been a happy accident. We blew it up and voila: a cool photograph that we've framed and hung in a bathroom. (2) The James Hotel in Chicago runs this cool video on a loop on the TV in the hotel gym. Commissioned by a Swedish artist, it's 24 hours in the life of the city and it's hypnotic and fun to watch.

Obsession: I want to create one of those eclectic gallery walls in our house. I still haven't figured out which wall to use and what pieces to fill it with.

Complaint: We have a bad habit of buying pieces of art that are huge and then have hard time finding the wall space to fit them.

List 17

Love: I'm just part way through it but I am devouring and loving Jonathan Franzen's Freedom: A Novel (much as I did his last book, The Corrections). In both novels, he uses a family from the Midwest as a subject and a prism through which to observe and comment on contemporary American life and culture. Believe the Great American Novel hype.

Like: Alterra Coffee in Milwaukee. Started by some old friends, Alterra roasts and brews great coffee and they've created a mini-empire in my old hometown. The un-Starbucks, they take historic locations - like the long-abandoned Milwaukee River Flushing Station, built in 1888, on Milwaukee's lakefront - and create cafes unique to those spaces.

Discovery: The Midwest has a perhaps surprisingly strong art scene. Of course, the Chicago Art Institute has always been world-class, and its new modern wing only cements its status. But the Milwaukee Art Museum and Minneapolis' Walker Art Center with its Sculpture Garden are worth a trip too and proof that you needn't be on the coasts to experience a great art museum.

Obsession: The Friday Fish Fry is Milwaukee's (and Wisconsin's) own unique tradition/obsession. Nearly every restaurant serves some form of it. It's crispy, beer-battered goodness, rooted in old-fashioned no-meat-on-Fridays Catholicism. I've been contemplating starting a monthly Friday Fish Fry dinner party in Berkeley.

Complaint: It's not the heat it's the humidity. Of course.

List 16

Love: I fell off the low-carb wagon a few years ago. One thing I'm glad is back on the menu, at least in moderation, are sandwiches. Specifically those decadent high brow-low brow sandwiches. The ones made by really good chefs using really good ingredients. Like Bunk's tuna melt and pulled pork (in Portland), and The Sentinel's Reuben.

Like: San Francisco magazine's Best Sandwiches issue. Some co-workers of mine are in the process of trying everything on the list and sharing the results on their blog Club Sandwich: A Sandwich Club. http://csasc.tumblr.com/

Discovery: Star Wars sandwich cutters for Stella's lunch, from Williams Sonoma. My girl has inherited my geek gene.

Obsession: Sandwich-y desserts. Like the sandwich cookies from Seattle's Dahlia bakery, which my sister introduced me too. (Thank God I don't live there. It could get ugly.) And when it's hot out, my go-to summer dessert is homemade ice cream sandwiches. Actually, more accurately, they're merely home assembled. I use Nabisco's chocolate wafer cookies and an assortment of ice creams like coffee, dulce de leche, chocolate and mint. You can even get fancy and roll the edges in crushed nuts.

Complaint: When a sandwich's bread gets soggy.