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San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Go to this new Bay Area restaurant for a devastating cake
Each week, critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan shares some of her favorite recent bites, the dishes and snacks and baked goods that didn't find their way into a full review. Want the list a few days earlier? Sign up for her free newsletter, Bite Curious. The morning after eating at Amara, a Mediterranean restaurant from the owners of Rasa that opened earlier this year, I messaged my colleague and fellow person-with-a-sweet-tooth Elena Kadvany. 'There's a dessert you should know about,' I Slacked. The dessert in question is Amara's praline pistachio opera cake, a nutty, chocolatey, salty layered confection that checks all my boxes. I loved the textural contrasts of the tahini pistachio and chocolate caramel mousses with the crunchy feuilletine and candied nuts. I would drive down to Belmont and make a light, pistachio-heavy dinner of Amara's green hummus (so hued because of ramps and herbs, in addition to pistachios) and that opera cake. The liminal zone around Memorial Day is one of my favorite times of the year to eat. Summer fruits and veg are tiptoeing their way out of the wings while spring produce is on stage, belting out its swan song. Case in point: the halibut crudo recently on the menu at Nopa. Yes there are the season's first cherries, roughly smashed and perked up with finely minced shallots, but there are also peas. It's a colorful composition, very Abstract Expressionist, with the fish, cherries and pea pistou sprinkled with poppy seeds and drizzled with herb oil. Nopa. 560 Divisadero St., San Francisco. Delfina served me another blisteringly good spring-summer mashup in the form of a fried soft shell crab dish, smoky with chile oil. There was also a puddle of what the menu described as 'granturfo' aioli — a term that I am now finding to be unGooglable (perhaps a typo for 'granturco'), but which our lovely server described as the Italian version of huitlacoche. On the side? The first corn I've had this season tangled together with the cultiest of spring cult vegetables, ramps.
Fashion Network
26-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Rasa launches two new jewellery stores in Bengaluru
Jewellery label Rasa has expanded its retail footprint with the launch of two new stores in Bengaluru, opening boutiques in the metro's HSR Layout and Commercial Street. With these openings, Rasa aims to offer an immersive retail experience that brings together traditional silver jewellery craftsmanship and contemporary design offerings. The new stores showcase Rasa's full collection, including uncut Kundan glasswork, gemstone-studded Vivid Stone pieces, and antique gold temple jewellery inspired by South Indian heritage, the brand announced in a press release. Also featured are Moissanite and Polki designs, as well as Nakshi, Jadau, Deep Nakash Kundan, Victorian pastels, and spiritually inspired Navaratna jewellery. 'Bringing Rasa to Bangalore feels like a homecoming," said Rasa's co-founder Manan Bohra in a press release. "The city's deep-rooted heritage and vibrant, forward-thinking spirit mirror everything our brand stands for. We're not just launching spaces, we're creating experiences where people can truly connect with the artistry, culture, and stories behind each jewellery piece.' Designed as more than traditional retail spaces, the stores offer interactive showcases on jewellery-making techniques, sustainability, and slow fashion, reflecting the brand's commitment to conscious craftsmanship. To mark the launch, Rasa is offering gold coins worth 25% of the order value as a seasonal promotion. The brand also plans to open six more stores across Bengaluru and South India over the coming year.
Straits Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Feeling stuck in your career? Join the conversation on how to level up with ST Podcasts on June 3
ST Engineering telecommunications system engineer Noel Png (centre) and Workforce Singapore senior career coach Parameswari Seenivasan (right) will chat with Headstart on Record host Tay Hong Yi about how to build a meaningful career and stay relevant amid changes in the job landscape at Rasa at Republic Plaza on June 3. ST GRAPHIC: AMIRUL KARIM Feeling stuck in your career? Join the conversation on how to level up with ST Podcasts on June 3 SINGAPORE – Is your career failing its health check? Wondering how to pivot, grow or stay ahead in a constantly changing world? Join a discussion and learn practical strategies on how to build a meaningful and rewarding career during the upcoming ST Podcasts Live event on June 3, at Raffles Place's new hangout space Rasa. Titled 'How to build a career for the ages', the dialogue is part of The Straits Times' Headstart On Record podcast, which aims to help young listeners level up their careers and personal finances. ST correspondent Tay Hong Yi, who co-hosts the podcast, will be speaking with Mr Noel Png, a telecommunications system engineer at ST Engineering, and Ms Parameswari Seenivasan, a senior career coach with Workforce Singapore (WSG). Having transitioned from engineering to sales before returning to engineering, Mr Png, who is in his early 30s, was able to tap his transferrable skills to manoeuvre through different industries in a strategic manner and eventually find his purpose. He also has experience working in Europe, spending four years there before returning to Singapore in 2024 . Meanwhile, Ms Seenivasan brings with her more than 15 years of career coaching expertise, and she believes in helping individuals align their career choices with their personal values and long-term objectives. The Headstart On Record podcast airs every first and third Monday of the month. The live recording on June 3 is organised in partnership with WSG in support of Career Health, a SkillsFuture initiative that aims to empower Singaporeans to develop resilient and fulfilling careers. The ST Podcasts Live recording on June 3 will take place at Rasa at Republic Plaza. PHOTO: MARTIN YEOH Following that dialogue, a second podcast recording will take place. The Music Lab podcast will be hosted by ST music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi, who will be interviewing award-winning music director and producer Evan Low on how he built a music career in Singapore, scoring big projects such as composing National Day Parade songs and touring with regional stars. The audience will be able to pose their burning questions to the panellists during the question-and-answer session after each podcast. Those who are interested in attending the podcast discussions can sign up at The first ST Podcasts Live event took place on Feb 12 at social impact hub The Foundry, kicking off The Straits Times' 180th-year celebrations. This was followed by the second podcast event on April 15 at The Projector, with about 100 people attending the recording. ST Podcasts Live at Rasa Where: Rasa, 9 Raffles Place, Republic Plaza Tower 1, #02-01/02, Singapore 048619 When: 6.30pm to 9pm on June 3, 2025 Topics: (Headstart On Record podcast) How to build a career for the ages; (Music Lab podcast) How I make a living out of music – interview with Evan Low How to sign up:
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Coffee, hold the beans. The new wave of brews are made with mushrooms, date pits and more. Are they worth trying?
While you don't need to give up your morning cup of joe if you don't want to, coffee alternatives do offer some benefits. (Getty Creative) For people obsessed with all things coffee, an iced latte made by their favorite barista or a hot cup at home in the morning can make all the difference in their day. But while many people have a passion for coffee, some are trying to scale back, whether that's because it's affecting their sleep, upsetting their stomach or giving them the jitters. These days, you don't have to look too far for coffee alternatives: There are oodles of beverage brands, such as Atomo, that tout themselves as healthy alternatives to java, which has so-called upcycled ingredients and mimics the taste of coffee. Another popular alternative is mushroom coffee, made by brands such as Four Sigmatic and Ryze. There's also functional coffee, such as MUD\WTR's adaptogenic drink and Rasa's herbal mix with ashwagandha and chicory. Then there's Everyday Doze's functional coffee, which is infused with nootropics and superfoods in addition to Arabian coffee beans. Should you try these new beverages, or even replace your regular cup of coffee with them? Here's what to know. Do coffee alternatives contain caffeine? Many coffee alternatives are low in caffeine or don't contain caffeine at all. Instead, their claims of boosting energy come from other ingredients, such as adaptogens. This could benefit people who want to scale back on caffeine in general. The caffeine in coffee (about 95 mg per cup) may cause uncomfortable side effects, says Davis, especially for those who suffer from anxiety. Intolerance to caffeine, which varies greatly from person to person, may exacerbate anxiety symptoms, including rapid heartbeat, sweating and even shortness of breath. Drinking caffeine too late in the day can disrupt sleep, which, over time, can lead to poor health outcomes like high blood pressure and weight gain. Those who are especially sensitive to caffeine can also experience other side effects like jitters, headaches and gut issues — and the more caffeine you drink, the more likely you'll experience them. Some studies show a risk to drinking too much caffeine — a 2024 study found that drinking more than 400 mg of caffeine per day (a little more than four cups of coffee) could increase the likelihood of developing heart disease, for example — but a major reason people may consider scaling back is the risk of developing a dependence. When your body gets used to a regular caffeine fix, skipping it can trigger withdrawal symptoms like headaches, irritability and fatigue. Are there health benefits to drinking coffee alternatives? Many coffee alternatives boast ingredients like adaptogens, which are natural substances believed to help the body manage stress, or nootropics, which are compounds thought to enhance cognitive function — things you won't get in your average cup of coffee. Dietitian Amy Davis tells Yahoo Life she's a big fan of mushroom coffee. 'With functional mushrooms, the more you take them on a daily basis, the more you feel the benefits of them,' Davis says. 'Lion's mane, for example, is the OG brain booster mushroom — it's going to support cognitive function and focus, which is one of the main reasons why people drink coffee.' Davis also points to other ingredients common in these coffees, such as chaga, a type of mushroom that she says is 'great for immunity,' while another mushroom, cordyceps, may help provide energy. However, more research is needed to assess the actual benefits of these substances. Other coffee alternatives promise similar benefits to java but promise fewer side effects. Atomo, for example, claims that their upcycled coffee is 'high in antioxidants' — similar to regular coffee, which is also rich in antioxidants — but with 'a clean caffeine experience giving consumers a superfood-based approach to your caffeine ritual that is easier on your stomach.' Davis says that date pits found in Atomo are a healthy coffee alternative because you'll get a 'really concentrated source of the nutrients that are found in dates,' such as potassium. Are coffee alternatives more environmentally friendly? One environmental problem connected to the coffee industry is deforestation: the demand for coffee, and specifically sun-grown coffee, means trees must be cleared out to build large plantations. Since this sun-grown method also leads to a loss of nutrients in the soil, coffee farmers must keep finding new land once they are unable to grow in that particular area. Plus, growing coffee requires a lot of water — around 140 liters are needed for a single cup. These issues led Atomo to create a coffee-like beverage that is not only more sustainable than coffee production, but also uses parts of plants that would otherwise become garbage. It's made from so-called upcycled ingredients like chicory root, grapeskin, date pits, sunflower and lemon and mimics the taste of coffee. The bottom line Matthew Badgett, an internal medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic, doesn't think choosing a coffee alternative in lieu of a cup of joe will do much to improve your health. 'Maybe a coffee alternative provides benefits that are equally valuable, but we don't know,' Badgett tells Yahoo Life, referencing the lack of studies on these alternatives. 'But we know that coffee is good for you.' So you don't necessarily need to give up coffee if you enjoy it. Coffee is rich in polyphenols, which help fight inflammation and protect against cell damage, and several studies show people who drink coffee regularly have lower rates of cancer and chronic disease. Davis says that whether you opt for a coffee alternative comes down to how you feel about your coffee habit. 'If you're someone who is prone to feeling anxious or jittery after having coffee, this is going to be a good fit for you,' she explains. While Davis says that coffee alternatives like mushroom coffee provide energy and help improve cognitive function, so does the caffeine found in coffee. Love coffee, but are sensitive to caffeine? Badgett says you can always go for decaf, which has similar health benefits but significantly less caffeine.
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Structured Automation Beats Prompt-And-Pray For Enterprise AI
Alan Nichol is Co-founder & CTO of Rasa, a conversational AI framework that has been downloaded over 50 million times. getty Enterprise AI leaders want systems that work, not just in demos but in real-world operations. Large language models (LLMs) promise flexible automation, capable of reasoning through complex workflows with minimal programming effort. The idea was simple: Build a prompt, connect an API and let the model handle the rest. But as enterprises push AI into production, many are hitting the same roadblocks—unpredictable outputs, escalating costs and security concerns. We've seen this challenge unfold repeatedly as enterprises attempt to scale AI. We hit a breaking point after six months of testing LLM-powered automation for our core business processes. The fully agentic approach, where AI autonomously handled tasks, proved too inconsistent for production use. It became clear that we couldn't achieve the reliability, security and cost-efficiency enterprises demanded without structured automation. That realization reshaped our approach to AI implementation and revealed what truly works at scale. The Reliability Crisis In Enterprise AI Unpredictable system behavior is the top reason enterprise AI projects fail. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2025, at least 30% of generative AI projects will be discontinued after the proof-of-concept stage due to challenges such as poor data quality, insufficient risk management, rising costs or a lack of clear business value. This aligns with findings from the LangChain "State of AI Agents" report, where 41% of respondents cited performance quality as the biggest limitation to putting more agents into production. These failures often stem from what we call the "prompt-and-pray" model—where business logic is embedded entirely in LLM prompts, with developers hoping the model will consistently follow instructions. This approach creates fundamentally unreliable systems. Across multiple tests, agentic AI assistants introduced inconsistencies in execution over 80% of the time, often misinterpreting requests, generating conflicting responses, or failing to follow business logic. This inconsistency is unacceptable for enterprises handling thousands of customer interactions daily. Beyond reliability issues, cost is another significant factor. While LLM pricing fluctuates, enterprises must consider long-term cost efficiency at scale. Fully agentic approaches introduce unpredictable resource consumption, inefficient token usage and increased latency, all of which compound over millions of interactions. Structured automation significantly reduces these inefficiencies, ensuring AI systems remain cost-effective, scalable and operationally predictable. The Three Paths To Enterprise AI Implementation Through our experimentation, we've identified three distinct architectural approaches to integrating LLMs into enterprise systems: 1. Full Agentic Model: Business logic resides entirely in prompts, with LLMs making all decisions about execution paths. While this provides flexibility, it comes at the cost of reliability. 2. Hybrid Model: LLMs manage some decisions, while rule-based systems handle others. This setup improves consistency compared to fully agentic approaches but still relies on traditional logic for high-stakes decisions, limiting scalability and flexibility. 3. Structured Automation: This approach separates conversational ability from business logic execution. LLMs handle intent recognition and response generation, while predefined workflows execute business processes deterministically. Our metrics show that structured automation consistently delivers better results across key performance indicators. By separating conversational ability from business logic, we reduced costs by up to 77% per interaction, decreased latency by a factor of four and achieved 99.8% execution consistency compared to 68% with purely agentic approaches. Building For Enterprise-Grade Reliability Structured automation acknowledges that LLMs excel at understanding natural language but struggle with consistent execution. By playing to these strengths and weaknesses, enterprises can build systems that combine conversational AI's flexibility with traditional software's predictability. Key architectural considerations include: • Using LLMs For Interpretation, Not Execution: LLMs should recognize intent and generate responses, but deterministic workflows should handle business logic. For example, an LLM can identify a customer's request to change their subscription plan, but the execution of that request should be controlled by predefined system logic. • Optimizing Data Operations To Reduce Token Usage: Every unnecessary token increases costs and latency. Optimized prompt structures in our testing reduced token consumption by over 60% compared to naive implementations. • Implementing Robust Validation Layers: No matter how refined prompts become, LLMs will occasionally generate unexpected outputs. Validation layers prevent incorrect AI-generated actions from affecting production systems. The Future Of Enterprise AI As generative AI adoption matures, enterprises shift their focus from raw capability to operational reliability. Organizations that succeed in this phase will integrate LLMs effectively while maintaining enterprise-grade performance, security, and compliance standards. This shift enhances AI's transformative potential. By building AI systems that consistently deliver value rather than simply impress in isolated cases, enterprises can confidently deploy conversational AI at scale into mission-critical processes. Structured automation is the foundation of this evolution. It allows AI systems to behave like traditional software (reliable, predictable and maintainable) while benefiting from modern language models' breakthrough capabilities. Conclusion The prompt-and-pray era of enterprise AI is ending. As organizations move from experimental implementations to production systems, the focus is shifting toward structured automation as the key to reliable, efficient and scalable AI systems. This transition mirrors the natural progression of other technological revolutions: early excitement around raw capabilities followed by a maturation period focused on harnessing those capabilities reliably at scale. For enterprises navigating this shift, the key is finding the right balance—using LLMs for what they do best while using structured workflows to ensure consistent execution. By separating conversational ability from business logic, organizations can realize the promise of AI without compromising the reliability that enterprise applications demand. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
