One day me and Lynn were in the mood for Italian, but not in the mood to drive to Raimondo's so we went to Naples instead. We started with the stuffed clams, which were pretty tasty, but we really couldn't taste the clams. I guess you have to decide whether herbed bread crumbs with the occasional taste of clam sounds like a good appetizer to you. The salad had a good dressing and I pretty much ate the entire thing even though it was full of iceberg lettuce. I had the shrimp tre pini (tomato cream sauce) while Lynn had some chicken dish with chicken and sausage in a tomato sauce with onions and bell peppers. I didn't like Lynn's dish at all. The sauce was almost tasteless, the chicken was tasteless, and the sausage was too fine and dense for my tastes. Lynn liked the dish, didn't like the sausage, and would have preferred the fat cut off the chicken. I loved the tomato cream sauce in my dish, but the shrimp were only ok.
I was ready to leave when the waiter asked if we wanted dessert, coffee, or a port. Out of curiosity I asked him what kind of tawny ports they had. He said they had a Taylor Fladgate 20 year old tawny. I don't believe I've ever had that one before so I ordered a glass. It had a sugared raisin scent and an alcoholic burn followed by a very nice raisin flavor. I thought the tawny was nice, but it proved to me why I prefer Australian tawnies. Lynn thought it was pretty good.
I'm not a big fan of take out, but Lin's does take out really well. We had their eggplant with spicy sauce, walnut shrimp, and General Tso's chicken. I loved the sauce on General Tso's chicken; it was sweet and spicy at the same time. My only complaint about the dish was the batter on the chicken was too much to deal with. I really could live without eating any battered Chinese food. The eggplant was unfortunately overcooked, but the sauce was good. Of course the sauce could be the best sauce in the world and it still couldn't make up for overcooked eggplant. I loved the walnut shrimp; crisp shrimp with a mildly sweet sauce. Lynn preferred the walnut shrimp at Sanpan which had a slightly sweeter sauce.
I took my mom to San Diego Bay and I decided to order some things that were new to me. I started with the napolitos salad (cactus, avocado, tomato, onion, and cilantro), and I ordered myself the shrimp stuffed chile rellenos. The napolitos was decent, but it seemed like it was missing a flavor. I added a little black pepper to it, and that made it better, but it still seemed like it was missing something. Both me and my mom agreed it was only ok. The shrimp stuffed chile rellenos were pretty decent, but they were covered in ranchero sauce (cooked onions, tomatoes, and peppers which sound much better than it tastes). I hate ranchero sauce. I never expected it to be covered in ranchero sauce either because serving a battered and deep fried chile I would expect you would want it to remain crispy instead of being drowned in a wet sauce that doesn't really taste good. I'll go to Barrio Cafe if I want seafood stuffed rellenos, and I think I'll stick to the machaca fish or mojo de ajo from now on at San Diego Bay.
One day me and Lynn had lunch at Takamatsu. I don't think I've ever been there for lunch before (at least not at the Chandler location) so I didn't realize they have a limited lunch menu. I wanted kalbi and they did have a lunch box with kalbi, four Korean side dishes (one of which was kim chi), a small salad, and something they called spicy chicken. Lynn went for a chicken tonkatsu with a small salad, California roll, and that spicy chicken thing. I was also in the mood for a little sushi so we got a seared tuna with scallions roll (I don't remember the actual name of it). The sushi was really tasty. Normally I like tuna rolls, but this one was better than the typical tuna roll. The kalbi was pretty good too. The salad dressing was pretty weak, and the salad was full of iceberg lettuce. I didn't bother eating it. The spicy chicken was a spicy chicken wing which wasn't bad. The Korean sides were pretty good, but I prefer more of them. If I go there for lunch again I'll see about getting a dinner portion instead. Lynn's tonkatsu was decent, but the chicken wasn't breaded with panko like it should have been. It was only ok. The California roll was just a few pieces of sushi while me and Lynn were expecting an entire sushi roll. It was disappointing. If I was going to lunch at Takamatsu for Japanese I'd once again see if I could just order from the dinner menu. The lunch menu is cheap, but you do get what you pay for.
Today has been spent cleaning up the apartment, doing laundry, and packing. I've got some restaurant reviews left to write, and since I want to get them finished before I leave they'll be extremely brief. I'll be heading to the airport bright and early tomorrow morning, and hopefully the next time I write I'll be in Japan.
If you don't know Todai is a buffet that specializes in sushi, and it's the only buffet that was exempt from my "no buffet" rule. Well today I went to lunch at Todai, and I think it's the last time I go to lunch there. The only thing I go to Todai for is the unagi since most of the sushi doesn't taste that good, and I don't like anything at the hot bar. Today the unagi was merely ok; it was lacking the usual taste and texture that made me love unagi. I'm not sure if it was just an off day for the unagi or if the quality of their unagi has permanently slipped, but Todai is too expensive for me to want to take the chance so I'm saying goodbye to Todai. Oh yeah, and I'm not going to miss their hideous swamp water looking green tea.
Tonight AK1200 is going to be spinning at Freedom. I'll be there.
I was meaning to try the pizza at Raimondo's when Gary mentioned that they made great pizza. It was enough for me to find an excuse to go there. We started with a tomato, red onion, and basil salad which was pretty good, but a little too heavy on the onion. The pizza had a hard crust, and a tasty tomato sauce. Even though we had toppings of fresh tomato, onion, pepperoni, and smoked bacon the pizza wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I don't know what was missing or wrong, but apparently something was. Maybe the crust was a little too crisp? I'll have to pay more attention the next time I have a pizza there.
Gordon introduced me to the only Italian beef sandwich I've ever liked at Luke's in Scottsdale. They closed the Scottsdale location, but Gordon had heard they had a Phoenix location. One day while driving down 16th St. Lynn noticed Luke's on the corner of 16th St. and Indian School. It took me a couple of weeks to remember to tell Gordon about it, but when I did he was immediately up for lunch there.
I had an Italian beef sandwich with hot peppers, sweet peppers, and cheese. It wasn't as stuffed with beef as I remembered, and the bread wasn't soggy with the beef juice (I know there's probably a proper name for it [au jus?], but I'm feeling too lazy to look it up) like I remembered, but the sandwich was damn tasty. The bread had a healthy crust on it, and was much better at absorbing everything than the bread I remembered. I liked it. The beef had a really good flavor without the peppers, and I was surprised to find out the beef was cooked with a little pepper in it so that after a couple of bites you felt it. Knowing that I probably won't get the hot peppers or sweet peppers next time because they were packed in oil, and they made the sandwich a little oilier than I like. Gordon got some fries, and they were thick, crisp, and actually pretty good. I also have to mention that they carry RC cola instead of Coke, but even though I absolutely love Coke RC tastes much better from the fountain than Coke does.
It's doubtful I'll get much beef in Japan so Luke's might be my first food stop when I get back.
I went to George & Dragon for lunch today with Long. I knew the fish and chips were tasty, but I went for the pasties since the last time I had pasties (homemade) they were nice but a little bland. Long went for the roast beef. The pasties came with mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw. The mashed potatoes and gravy were good. The coleslaw was good too, and there was a bit of spice (tasted like horseradish) that would sneak up and burn the back of my throat after a couple of spoonfuls. The pasties were nice, but bland. I ate it with gravy to give it some flavor. I think the idea of pasties are great, but they can be made so much better than they are traditionally. If someone would just add some bacon and a little chile pepper they would taste much tastier. I had a little of Long's roast beef, and it was ok. Long wasn't impressed. I guess I should probably only stick to the fish and chips, and the shepard's pie at George & Dragon.
Today I applied to the Netherlands Professional and Cultural Exchange Program sponsored by my work. If they select my application, and a suitable professional match can be found, then a Dutch programmer will be staying with me for two weeks (I have to pay for their food and entertainment) in October and then I'll go to the Netherlands for two weeks next May. What's sweet is work picks up the airfare and I don't have to use vacation for those two weeks. What's even sweeter is that I'm already taking the month of April off to go to Europe, so it's possible I'll come back to work for two weeks only to go to Europe again. Life is good.
I had heard good things about Cafe ah PWAH, and I was armed with a highly discounted gift certificate from restaurant.com so I was ready to give them a try. Me and Lynn got there and we noticed the small kitchen open to almost the entire small dining room. It did give an intimate feeling to the restaurant though.
I had never tried a vine verde [green wine] before, so I ordered a glass of Aveleda vino verde. I actually thought the wine was pretty good; it had a crispness to it that I enjoyed. There wasn't much to the flavor of the wine, but it was also very mellow, and quite easy to drink. One of the waitresses brought us some bread, but it was far better than the usual free bread. It had a nice crust and an amazing herby flavor. My only complaint about it is that they only gave us one piece; I could of made a meal of that bread and a good soup.
There were only four appetizers on the menu, but they all looked great. We decided on the pumpkin crusted shrimp and corn cake because it reminded us of the style of food at NOLA. The appetizer was fantastic! The shrimp was seared, and had a great flavor. The corn cake had some sort of herby flavor, and a sweet sauce that seemed to go perfectly with the shrimp. The appetizer was so good we cleaned the plate.
Next were our salads, which were mixed greens with a parmesan-peppercorn dressing on mine, and a balsamic vinaigrette on Lynn's. The greens were nice in that there weren't a lot of bitter greens. The balsamic vinaigrette tasted like any other balsamic vinaigrette, but the parmesan-peppercorn dressing was really interesting. It was sweet and had a flavor that reminded me of caramel. I totally dug it.
The waitress brought us a small bowl of peach sorbet after we were finished with our salads. It was unexpected. The sorbet was extremely smooth and not very sweet with a long peach finish. We weren't really sure what the purpose of the peach sorbet was; it wasn't like an intermezzo which is served between the fish and meat course and is supposed to refresh the taste buds, but it wasn't bad.
For our entrees Lynn had seared shrimp, cheesy mashed potatoes, and prawn essence while I had hanger steak, mashed potatoes, and haricot vert. The steak was good, but I wouldn't say it was great. The mashed potatoes had mustard seed in it and tasted like horseradish so I enjoyed those a lot. I believe this may have been the first time at any restaurant I've been to that the haricot vert was actually crisp. It was worth mentioning. Lynn cleared her plate. The shrimp were good, but they tasted like they had a liberal dose of the prawn essence because they had an especially prawny taste to them. I liked the shrimp in the appetizer better. The cheesy mashed potatoes balanced out the prawny taste, and tasted very good on their own. I thought both entrees were good, but I didn't feel like they were on the same level as the rest of the food so I was a little disappointed.
Me and Lynn had a hard time deciding on dessert. The fallen chocolate souffle, banana and cranberry strudel, and creme brulee all sounded good, but our waitress couldn't stop raving about the creme brulee. For once Lynn wanted the creme brulee and I was looking at one of the other desserts. We ended up getting the creme brulee. The sugar was slightly overdone, and despite my proclamation that I'd start sending back creme brulees with burnt sugar I forgot. I slacked, but it was easy to overlook since I'm not a big fan of the caramelized sugar anyway, and the custard was really damn tasty. There was something about it that subtly made it one of the best custards that I've had. There was also an excellent strawberry sauce on the plate that was just a little tart.
Since there was a lot of good looking items on the menu I asked the waitress if it was possible to come in for a tasting even though there wasn't a tasting menu. She asked the owner and said it wouldn't be a problem. The level of food was pretty high, and the style of food at Cafe ah PWAH reminded me a lot of my all-time favorite restaurant, NOLA. So after deciding that Cafe ah PWAH was going to become my Phoenix version of NOLA I did have one negative experience. When the waitress brought the check I put my credit card down along with the gift certificate. When the waitress picked up everything I heard her say something to the owner about the gift certificate. It was loud enough that both me and Lynn heard her, but it wasn't loud enough for us to understand. I don't think she would say anything bad out loud, but the possibility bothered me. I'm still going to go back for that tasting menu though.
I was chatting with Ken today when I was reminded of the crack equivalent of distractions, AberMUD*s. Back in New Mexico during my college days (notice I didn't say years) I spent many a night playing on Infinity, the MUD hosted at my school. Today I looked to see if any of the old MUDs were still up, and while Mirage (the MUD that took Infinity's place after Infinity was taken down by the college) doesn't appear to exist anymore Infinity has been reincarnated, and Northern Lights still exists. I even got my old character back ("Spook") on Northern Lights after being absent for over six years so a large portion of this Friday may be spent MUDing.
Murray also sent me this really cool article "'Blogger' Salam Pax chronicles life in Baghdad under the bombs". I think I'm going to have to check that blog out.
*For those of you who don't know what a MUD is, it stands for a Multi-User Dungeon, and it's a virtual world that many players can log into. It's all text based so you have to use your imigination, but there are monsters (referred to as "mobiles") to kill, quests to complete, and people to talk to. An AberMUD is any MUD that uses the AberMUD engine. MUDs with AberMUD engines all start the same, but after their owners have customized them enough each MUD has it's own personality. There are other MUD engines which seem to emphasize different things. For example, DikuMUDs seemed to be more like a dungeon and dragon type game with lots of training and other solitary things while AberMUDs were more social.
I still don't feel like writing anything. I wish I knew why.
Lynn called her mom this morning and told her to put off coming out for about a week.
Last night I watched "Ringu", which is the Japanese movie that the American movie "The Ring" was based on. (Eventually I'll see "The Ring" too so I can compare the two.) "Ringu" wasn't scary, but it was very erie. I thought it was pretty well made, but I don't think it was as good as "The Rules of Attraction".
Today Lynn informed me that her mom is coming to Phoenix this Wednesday to stay with us for a week. If you're keeping track that means that I get to spend my last five days in Phoenix with Lynn and her mom.
I told Lynn exactly what I think of the situation.
Last weekend I got a bottle of (great) tequila for Steve's host father as a thank you present for letting me stay there. It was Steve's idea, and I thought it was a damn good one. I also got a domino set for Steve's host mother (another one of Steve's ideas). This weekend I finally had an idea of my own for a present. I got the host family a small bottle of Marie Sharp's ["Proud Product of Belize"] mild habanero pepper sauce. I hope they enjoy it.
I've been looking for more reading material to keep me occupied while I'm waiting at airports, and on airplanes. I got a couple of Peter Mayle's other books "A Year in Provence", and "Toujours Provence". Looking at the reviews on Amazon.com it would seem people think that "A Year in Provence" is Peter Mayle's best book. Since I am going to Japan I thought it might be appropriate to have at least one book about Japan so I also picked up Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha". That should be more than enough reading material to keep me occupied.
Recently I decided to resume my search for good chocolate in Phoenix, and Bernard C Chocolates seemed like a good place to start. The store is supposed to be a distributor of Belgian chocolate made by Bernard Callebaut (whom I've never heard of before). I went a little nuts and got about $15 worth of buttercreams, truffles, and various chocolates. It was enough to learn how I felt about their chocolates:
I would say the truffles are worthwhile, but they're not as good as Leonidas chocolates.
Noah recommended "The Rules of Attraction" to me, but I had already wanted to see it so I tried not to hold Noah's recommendation against it. (I constantly kid Noah about his horrible recommendation of "Cube", but I know he doesn't normally recommend bad movies.) Anyway, "The Rules of Attraction" has lots of teenagers, sex, drugs, and violence, but if you pay attention there's a point. It turns out I thought it was a pretty good movie too, with a surprisingly great acting job by James Van Der Beek. It wasn't up there with "Fight Club", but it was definitely worth watching.
Lately I haven't felt like writing anything. Hopefully I'll get some stuff written tonight though.
I went to Lee Lee to pick up some Henry Weinhard's vanilla cream soda, but they didn't have any so I decided to try Henry Weinhard's orange cream soda instead. Today I finally tried one, and damn it's a great soda! It tasted like an orange popsicle and vanilla ice cream mixed together. Normally I hate orange sodas, but this orange flavor was so complex (and not purely orange) that I found it interesting. The vanilla cream soda is still my favorite, but the orange cream soda is impressive.
Now if they'd only do something about their horrible root beer.
Nothing seems to be interesting today. I've exhausted all of my normal web distractions, and can't seem to find any new ones worth reading. The work day before a long weekend is tough. Of course the work day before a two week vacation is even tougher. Got any web stuff worth reading or looking at, send it to me so I have something distracting for next Friday.
This week is Spring Break for the college I work at so all the employees get Thursday and Friday off. I think I'll take my two days off and do something useful like finish the photos on the New Orleans trip page, or possibly finish writing about the Vegas trip.
Actually what I really need to do is brush up on my Japanese. I've started going through my textbook again and I'm picking it up pretty easily, but I would like to return to my previous level of fluency (second semester Japanese or "I'm almost as fluent as a three year old Japanese kid") before I go to Japan in April. I'm probably too lazy to get through (and retain) four chapters in a week and a half, but we'll see what happens.
[I looked it up and I stopped at page 300 in the textbook (actually five chapters, not four), and currently I'm at page 40. It's doubtful I'll make it through all 300 pages, but I'll still try anyway.]
Lately me and Lynn have been really good about making dinner at home instead of going out to eat. Well today I won a couple of ebay auctions for two restaurant.com gift certificates worth $25 a piece (they retail for $12.50 so they're a great deal normally) for about $10 for both. It looks like I'll be going to Cafe ah PWAH and Citrus Cafe some time soon.
Me and Long went to lunch today at San Diego Bay, and I'm not sick of the place yet (but I'm getting there). Both me and Long ordered a lemonade and pineapple juice when I realized that the menu should say lemonade or pineapple juice since you have a choice of one or the other, but not both combined. That explained the complete lack of lemon flavor in the pineapple juice my first time at San Diego Bay. I decided to try the guacamole one more time to see what I would make of it. The answer is I believe that it's mixed with sour cream, and I don't think I'll be ordering it again. I don't how I got all that brilliant avocado flavor the first time, but I suspect the avocados were really ripe. They weren't this time and the guacamole didn't taste like much. That being said, on to the entrees.
Long got the No. 28 (bacon wrapped seafood stuffed shrimp in a mushroom cream sauce), and I got the shrimp verde (cilantro sauce). I got a couple of tastes of Long's food (which looked like three meat balls in a cream sauce), and it was quite tasty. The flavor of the bacon was great, and I couldn't help but "Mmm..." a lot. Now here's the only complaint I have about the dish; the bacon had such a powerful flavor that I couldn't taste the seafood. I mean I could tell I wasn't eating bacon wrapped beef, but I couldn't tell you what the shrimp was stuffed with, or that it was even shrimp. All that said I still enjoyed the dish a lot. I also enjoyed the shrimp verde a lot too. It was good, but in a very different way (much like the machaca fish is good in a different way than the shrimp al mojo de ajo). The large quantity of cilantro in the sauce gave the dish a very fresh flavor. After I ate the shrimp I was using my flour tortillas to sop up the sauce. (By the way, this was very similar to the chicken in cilantro cream sauce I had at Cafe Poca Cosa in Tucson which was really delicious!)
I still want to go back to San Diego Bay because there are still several things I want to try (like I want to see how well San Diego Bay's shrimp stuffed chile relleno compares to Barrio Cafe's seafood stuffed relleno), but I'm really getting sick of their rice and refried beans (which comes with everything). Maybe I'll feel better about them after I eat some great greasy Sonoran food at Viva Maria.
You know I couldn't stay away from San Diego Bay very long so I took Lynn there for dinner the other night. We started dinner with guacamole, and it was odd. When I first looked at it I thought it was mixed in sour cream because of it's abnormally pale appearance, but when I tried it there was the distinct avocado flavor that I normally find missing from sour cream infused guacamoles. Me and Lynn could never agree on what we thought the added ingredient was, but I swear it was cream cheese because every once in a while it would seem like I would get a cheese flavor from out of nowhere. (I've never heard of cream cheese in guacamole before, but it doesn't mean it couldn't happen.) Anyway, even though it wasn't like any kind of guacamole preparation I've ever had before I ultimately enjoyed it, but I think I need to try it a couple more times to get accustomed to the flavor. Lynn didn't really like it because it was missing the citrus component she loves so much.
Lynn tried to order scallops for dinner, but they didn't have any so she got the shrimp al mojo de ajo instead. I always like trying new things so I got the shrimp a la diabla (chipotle and sour cream sauce). Lynn's shrimp in garlic sauce was just as good as when Long ordered it so there's nothing new to say about it. My shrimp were spicy, but the sour cream cut most of the serious heat from the chipotles. The addition of sour cream to diabla sauce was something I've never seen before. (I've noticed San Diego Bay seems to do a lot of things I've never seen a Mexican restaurant do before. It makes me wonder what influenced whoever created the recipes they use because I seem to see a lot of touches that don't seem like traditional Mexican to me.) The sauce tasted familiar and after a couple of bites I realized that it tasted like a spicy version of stroganoff. I'm not a big fan of stroganoff so you'll understand it when I say I didn't like the shrimp a la diabla nearly as much as the machaca fish. It was tasty, just not to my tastes.
Lynn wanted to try the tres leches, but we were both too stuffed. She said it'll give us something to try next time so I think it's safe to say she likes the place. After dinner we walked around the mercado a bit, and I noticed that there's a paved parking lot in the back (which is much better than the dirt lot in the front where I parked). Live and learn.
This morning Long told me about this interesting dish San Diego Bay makes (which he could only remember as "No. 28" instead of the actual name) so me and him are going there for lunch today. This time we'll be sure to park in the back.
Well yesterday's dinner went very well. The apartment was clean, the Belizean food actually tasted like Belizean food (thanks to a lot of help from my mom), and the apple pie kicked butt. It's doubtful I'll make another dinner like that for a while though. Basically yesterday was seven hours of cooking and cleaning that I'm not in a hurry to repeat any time soon.
At least I learned a few things:
I finished reading Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods", and it was alright, but I've decided I'm done reading Terry Pratchett books for a while. The subjects are usually pretty cool ("Small Gods" was about religion), but there's something oddly unsatisfiying about the books. Every time I finish one the feeling I get is like "yeah, whatever" (with the exception of the ending to "Witches Abroad").
Well now I'm looking for other books to read if anyone has any suggestions.
My visa for Japan came in the mail yesterday so it's offical now, I'm going to Japan, and they'll actually let me in! Now I need to buy presents for Steve's host family.
It looks like the latest Japanese movie to get a Hollywood makeover is going to be "Shall We Dansu?", one of my all-time favorite movies. I bet it's going to suck bad. Guess who they want to play the female lead. (Incidentally the female lead isn't the reason I think the remake's going to suck, although the male lead probably will be.)
I tried to get to San Diego Bay last weekend, but me and Lynn went to Cafe Santa Fe instead. (That's what I get for giving Lynn a choice in the matter.) Today me and Long were thinking of places to eat lunch when I remembered San Diego Bay; it's only a couple of miles from work so it's a natural choice. Well after discovering the clutch on Long's car went out, filling my car with gas, and taking 15 minutes to drive one mile through the town of Guadalupe, we finally got there. The only sign I could see of San Diego Bay's existance was their sign on a very large, nondescript building with a dirt parking lot. Once inside the building we found a large courtyard and a mercado, but we didn't look around because we were there for some serious eating. I found it amazing that I used to only live a mile away, and I never knew this place existed.
The restaurant looks like a typical Mexican restaurant where Mexican people actually eat; a sort of cafeteria look with more personality. That's ok, I'll overlook practically anything for good food (illustrated by the fact that I still eat at Vietnamese restaurants despite their lack of decor, and good service). I was looking at the drinks and I had a hard time choosing between the lemonade and pineapple juice and the red cream soda. I love red cream soda, but I also love real lemonade. Ultimately the addition of pineapple juice to the lemonade sounded too interesting for me to refuse. What it turned out to be was more of a fruit water which seemed to completely lack any lemon flavor. I still enjoyed it, but Long would have liked it less watery.
Long ordered the shrimp al mojo de ajo (with garlic sauce) while I had something I've never seen on a menu before, machaca fish. The food arrived, and I was surprised to see that the rice was white rice with some mixed vegetables. I tried it and didn't really care for it. The refried beans were pretty tasty. Finally I got to my machaca fish, which looked like a fish hash with far too many carrots in it, and it was delicious! I was too into eating it to actually pay attention to the flavors, but trust me when I say it's worth eating. I tried one of Long's shrimp, and mojo de ajo has always been one of my favorite preparations, but this one was even better! The sauce appeared to be a real simple butter sauce with garlic in it (scampi style), but it was so amazingly tasty. As I type this I'm thinking of some sort of excuse to return to San Diego Bay tomorrow for lunch and getting some scallops in garlic sauce.
I saw a little placard on the table which advertised tres leches cake among other things (like the dreaded flan, the only custard I've ever found I dislike). I didn't see tres leches on the menu, but I asked a waitress and got an order. It was served in a little plastic cup which lead me to believe it was probably mass produced, but I wasn't sure because I doubt the milky substance that tres leches gets it's name from could have been packaged with the cake, and the whipped cream looked like it had only recently been put on top of the cake. It was odd, but I didn't think about it at all after I tasted the cake; it was light, sweet, and tasty. It was also a very good end to a very good lunch.
The last couple of weeks I've been on a serious seafood kick, and knowing that the seafood at San Diego Bay is that good, and that cheap, will probably only make it worse.
Lately I haven't really been eating out because I'm trying to save some money for my Japan trip. Even if I don't eat out for dinner, that still leaves lunch though. Today Long mentioned going to Best Hong Kong Dining for lunch. It's been a long time since I've been there, but it sounded like a good idea.
We had the roast combo appetizer (bbq pork and roast duck), and I had the garlic chicken lunch special. The roast duck was excellent; moist meat with a delicious flavor, and dripping with duck fat that actually tasted really good too. Even the skin was tasty. The bbq pork was a little dry and not especially flavorful. The lunch special came with hot and sour soup, wontons, and an eggroll. The hot and sour soup didn't stink too much of white pepper, and even though I didn't like it at first it grew on me. I didn't even bother with the wontons, but the eggroll was actually pretty good. It wouldn't compare to a good spring roll, but it was good for an eggroll. The garlic chicken was addictive; the sauce was a little sweet, garlicky, and quite spicy. It was one of the best garlic chickens I've ever had.
After all of that good (and cheap) food at lunch I couldn't remember why I stopped going to Best Hong Kong Dining in the first place.
[This is an old review I never bothered finishing, but since I haven't reviewed anything recently I decided to finish it.]
Lynn loves Pink Pepper, and I think there are better Thai restaurants we could be eating at, but that doesn't stop me from being happy when we find something on their menu that's really good. The last time we ordered from Pink Pepper we got an order of tom kha gai (a chicken coconut milk based soup), and gai ma now (marinated grilled chicken in a spicy lemon-garlic sauce, shredded cabbage, and sliced bell peppers). Both me and Lynn were unhappy with the tom kha gai, not because it wasn't good, but because we thought it was tom yum gai. Tom kha gai is similar to tom yum gai, but since it's coconut milk based the flavors aren't nearly as assertive as we like them. Pink Pepper also makes a very good tom yum gai so it was especially disappointing.
The gai ma now was something we had never ordered before, but it turned out to be one of the better things I've eaten from Pink Pepper. I'm a sucker for practically anything with shredded cabbage (with the exception of fish tacos made out of fish sticks [*cough*Islands*cough*suckyfishsticktacos*cough*]), and the gai ma now gave me more to like than just shredded cabbage. The sauce was very salty and garlicky, and very tasty even if I didn't detect one bit of lemon. The uncooked bell peppers and shredded cabbage added a certain crispness to the texture and freshness to the flavor to balance out the garlic and salt. I thought the dish could have been a little less salty, and I would have enjoyed some lemon flavor, but overall it was a very delicious dish.
Pink Pepper will probably always be one of Lynn's favorite restaurants, and not one of mine. At least I keep finding things on their menu to like. Somehow the eggplant salad has escaped my attention for years. Hopefully it'll be another delicious menu item.
This morning I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show, and Diane Rehm had Alison Owings, the author of "Hey, Waitress! The USA from the Other Side of the Tray" on this morning. I've never read the book, but it was interesting to hear someone talk about the waitron side of the restaurant industry and how they're treated. Listen to the show; it's not as compelling as the conversation about tipping at the beginning of "Reservoir Dogs" (which incidentally is the only part of the movie I like), but it may change how much you tip.
A coworker of mine is somewhat of an apple connoisseur and after my apple pie making episode she's got me interested in tasting apples. It's a good hobby to get into considering it's not expensive and carcinogenic like cigars or just plain expensive like wine. Tonight I had the opportunity to try a Jonagold and a Fuji (my coworkers favorite) apple. The Jonagold was nice, but I would say I prefer the Gala, which was the type I used in my apple pie. The Fuji was not like any other apple I've tried before. The flesh was extremely firm, and the fruit had some sort of tropical citrus flavor that was pretty tasty. It's not something I would want to eat straight, but I think a little of it could add a pleasantly unusual flavor to an apple pie.
I feel like making an apple pie this weekend. Rice and beans and stewed chicken too.
I started writing about Las Vegas and it was enough content that I just decided to make a trip page out of it. It'll be a couple of days before I have it up.
You can tell me and Lynn haven't had enough sleep. We were on the phone trying to determine what to make for dinner when I suggested stuffed pork chops (basically teasing Lynn because I know she hates stuffing). She said that stuffed pork chops sounded like a good idea. I reminded her that she hates stuffing, and she replied that the porks chops could be stuffed with something other than stuffing, like ham and cheese.
You could tell I was tired because it took me a little while to come up with, "You want us to make ham and cheese sandwiches substituting pork chops for bread?"
Maybe ham and cheese stuffed pork chops could be pretty good, but stuffing a pork chop with ham just seems wrong. I assume you don't see bacon wrapped pork loins for a reason.
So I'm back from Las Vegas today with sore legs and shoulders, bruised knuckles, and still aglow from one of the few perfect three course meals I've had the pleasure to eat. Hopefully I'll get the story completely written and posted tonight.
While Lynn and I were running around today I wanted to eat out. I gave Lynn a couple of different choices from places we've never eaten at before, and she chose Cafe Santa Fe. We got there, and not too long after we ordered they changed their sign to closed. It turns out they close between lunch and dinner. Since they were closed when we tried to eat there last Friday night, if they were closed this time I would have taken it as a sign not to eat there. (One of my pet peeves is not being able to eat at a restaurant because they aren't open. I understand family run places need a day off, but at the same time I don't think I want to eat at unusual times so if I show up there I would like the place to be open.) Anyway, we caught them before they closed so it wasn't an issue, but it is something to keep in mind.
Lynn ordered the combo plate (red chile pork tamale, green chile enchilada, and a beef taco) while I had the dish that was recommended to me by my coworker, the green chile chicken casserole (with a fat flour tortilla). Both dishes came with Spanish rice, and pinto beans. Lynn started "umm...ing", and then immediately reached for her water. She found her food a little hot. In the end she found her food too hot. I tried everything on her place, and the red chile pork tamale had a really good flavor, but the meat was hotter than I prefer my tamale filling. The green chile enchilada had an excellent flavor, and a smoldering heat that has probably caused lesser tongues to spontaneously combust. I saw the problem Lynn was having because I was having it too. I tried the taco to keep my mouth from exploding. The taco wasn't that good. Lynn really liked the flavor of the tamale and the enchilada, but the heat was really too much for her, and I ended up swapping her food for my casserole. My casserole was tasty with a nice bit of spice. My only complaint was something I also noticed about the enchilada, which was the onions weren't cooked enough making them a little too prominent in the dish. It wasn't too bad, but I would prefer less onions or onions that are more well done. As for the sides, the beans were ok, the rice actually tasted pretty decent (which is amazing considering I hate Spanish rice), and the tortilla was great (it reminded me of the fat tortillas my mom used to make).
Lynn saw the Kahlua cake on the dessert menu and was immediately taken with the idea (even though we had a couple of slices of cake from Cathy's Rum Cake waiting at home). The cake itself was alright and a little dry, but the sauce made the cake edible. Obviously I wouldn't recommend the cake. In fact I wouldn't recommend Cafe Santa Fe unless you have a healthy heat tolerance, and like your food hot. If you do, then anything with green chile seems like a good bet (except for the pork green chile which didn't taste nearly as good as a beef green chile tastes to me, but that's probably more of a personal preference). Next time I go back I think I'll try the pork adovada. I'm pretty sure Lynn's going to stick to the casserole, or maybe a bowl of pozole.
I think Food TV is actually airing new episodes of "A Cook's Tour". I don't remember reading in the book about where he's been the last couple of episodes.
Lynn thought it would be a good idea to buy a hardside suitcase for my trip to Japan. I've been needing a good suitcase for a while so now seemed like the time to stop putting it off and get one. Costco has really good Samsonite hardcases for an exceedingly good price so that's where me and Lynn went to buy one today.
While at Costco I started thinking about what I would do on an airplane for 18 hours. Lynn borrowed a ton of Terry Pratchett books from DJ, but I don't think I want to count on those for airplane reading material. Almost all the Terry Pratchett books I've read have been good, but only a few of them have managed to be addictive. For instance I've just finished reading "Reaper Man" and while it was a good book overall, one of the two main storylines didn't keep my interest. I started "Small Gods" last night, and while it seems interesting it hardly seems engrossing. I browsed the books at Costco looking for something I'd find addictive. I was disappointed by their selection; it all seemed to be detective novels and stories about people's feelings. Eventually I found a book by Jim Crace titled "The Devil's Larder: A Feast" which piqued my curiosity. I read the summary and the book is a collection of short stories about food. Sounded like my kind of book. I also saw another book by Peter Mayle titled "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew" which jumped out at me. It seemed like an especially appropriate book since in April of next year I plan on exploring France and Switzerland for three weeks with Lynn.
While I sat on the patio enjoying a cigar and the beautiful weather this afternoon I started reading the first chapter of "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew", and I have to say I was impressed. I'm a sucker for food-travel books, and this seems like the ultimate food-travel book. French cuisine is something I don't have nearly enough experience with, and this book seems like the perfect primer. Hopefully I can actually hold off reading it until I leave for Japan.
Well it's settled, I'm going to Japan. I've got an airplane ticket even if the airline won't let me on the plane. I've still got to get my visa and I only have three weeks to do it. I have to wait for that invitation letter from Steve's host parents, the Uedas, to arrive before I can send in my application to the Japanese Consulate. It makes me a little nervous. If I have to cancel my ticket I think I'll be eating a $150 cancellation fee and I'll have credit with an airline I don't use.
Actually, going to Japan makes me nervous too. It's something that I've been looking forward to for a while so with it being so close I'm excited. I keep trying to imagine what it's going to be like and I know it won't be how I expect it to be. I also keep wondering how well I'm going to do in a country where I don't even speak the language. At least I have a month to brush up on the little Japanese I used to know.
Anyway, tomorrow Lynn and I will try Cathy's Rum Cake to see if we want them to make our wedding cake. Sunday we take our quick trip to Las Vegas. Life is good, but I'm getting a little tired of planning things and trying to figure out how to pay for them.
Today I got written up for a comment I made to my manager yesterday. When she told me I might not be able to take my vacation I told her that if I didn't I probably wouldn't be much good at work. That's the way I felt. She took it as a threat that I might not do my job if I didn't get my vacation. When she asked me about it I told her it was meant that I wouldn't have any reason to want to be around work. How could she expect me to want to be there after she killed my vacation request which can't be rescheduled? She then told me that's not what I said (like everyone always says exactly what they mean much less everyone else interprets it as it's meant), and then told me she was writing me up. I guess I was a little too honest for her, but did she think that I would happily miss what might very well be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me?
Whatever, if she dislikes the fact that I place my life at a higher priority than whether the team gets a project (for which I could make only a peripheral contribution at most) completed on time then she can write me up all she wants because it won't change my opinion of work and it's role in my life. If I had more involvement with this project I might understand, but up until now I haven't had anything to do with it. If they really needed my help at the last minute on a large and complicated system that I've never even looked at before, then it's doubtful things would be done on time, with or without my help. Besides, aren't there three other programmers she can tap?
I'm sure everything will get completed on time and she'll forget all about this incident. Of course I won't.
[Long wanted to make sure that I knew I could have handled the situation better. I already knew that, but when she told that I might not be able to take my vacation because of an unrelated project, it so shocked and pissed me off that my first reaction was to remind her that I could shock and piss her off too. Unfortunately I went with that. Now things are what they are, but I still stand by my statement.]
I finally got a chance to talk to Erin about her recent trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. She told me about her dining experience at NOLA, and I have to say I was captivated. It was a cool, and completely different experience than I've ever had there. If you guys are lucky she'll (hint, hint) write her story down so you can all share in the experience.
I do have to mention that she said the best meal she had while in New Orleans was at NOLA. That makes me happy since I love NOLA, and recommend it to the point of sounding like a shill sometimes.
<NOLA Shill Mode>
If you want to find out why I'm so enamored with NOLA read about any of my past New Orleans trips on the travel page, especially this last one (for which I'm still trying to finish editing the pictures).
</NOLA Shill Mode>
I was just told that I might not get my vacation time off to go to Japan because they might need to pull me in at the last minute to help finish a project. Do they really expect I'm going to want to be cooperative after they tell me I can't go on my trip? Perhaps if they told me sooner I wouldn't be so pissed off. It seems like they miscalculated their deadline/resources and I might have to pay for it with my vacation.
Long took me to a Vietnamese restaurant in Tempe I'd never heard of named Nhat. The place was busy, but it looked like your typical Vietnamese restaurant; short on ambience. I normally don't care about ambience if the food's good, so I ordered their spring rolls (which are called egg rolls on their menu) to test their menu. I knew it was a bad sign when the waiter dropped the spring rolls on our table without anything else. Vietnamese spring rolls have to be served with fresh lettuce, cilantro, and mint or they're just not the same. Long started to ask the waiter for the condiments, but the waiter already knew what he was going to ask for so he went to get it before Long could finish. He brought us a plate of lettuce. Lettuce. We made the best of it, but the spring rolls weren't good anyway. They tasted funny, and had far too many carrots in them. I so disliked the spring rolls that didn't even bother eating my second spring roll.
I ordered the pork chop with rice for my lunch. The pork chop was a hell of a lot better than the spring rolls. I liked it just as much as the pork chops from Pho Bang, except that this one was a little sweet while Pho Bang's isn't. I also had a Thai iced tea with tapioca. I learned I don't like little chewy bits in my drinks. I suspected that was the case after the first time I tried a grass jelly drink, but I actually like Thai iced tea so I thought I might enjoy the concept more with a drink I enjoy. Lesson learned, but I may still try a different type of drink with chewy bits in it someday.
Nhat didn't impress me, and Khai Hoan, who makes excellent spring rolls (also referred to as egg rolls on the menu), is just down the street, but their great weakness is pork so it looks like Nhat does fulfill my need for an east side Vietnamese restaurant that makes good pork. Maybe next time I'll try one of their soups.
Last night I went to Shepherd's to see Noah play. He was there to compete in a dj contest. It was a fun time, but waiting two and a half hours to hear Noah spin for only 15 minutes kind of sucked. At least I had a chance to catch up with him.
His set was pretty good, but the other djs were driving me nuts with the type of music they were playing so I left before I found out who the winner was. Noah was the best out of the four djs I heard so I thought he should have won, and today he told me he did. Good deal. Anyway, Noah will be spinning what he promises to be a great drum and bass set at Simon Says Dance III April 19th so check him out if you like jungle or drum and bass.
Me and Lynn went to eat at Cafe Santa Fe, a restaurant recommended to me by a coworker, but when we got there we found them closed. It was only nine o'clock on a Friday night so it was a little unexpected. I was bummed, but Lynn mentioned Blue Adobe Grille, which we hadn't been to either and they also served New Mexican food. It didn't take me long to forget my disappointment.
We walked into Blue Adobe Grille and the Southwest theme was immediately obvious, but at least it wasn't as annoying as Richardson's in Phoenix. I was going through the wine list when I noticed they had a Zinfandel by the glass so I thought it would be worth a try. (Lynn is on a Zinfandel kick right now and since it's a red varietal I can actually enjoy I try to encourage it.) The Zinfandel was by Zingaro and it had the scent of berries followed by oak. The flavor was slightly grape and berry with a dry finish. I liked it.
We started dinner with a quesadilla filled with grilled shrimp and caramelized onions with chipotle salsa and adobo sour cream on the side. The quesadilla was very tasty, but it needed more caramelized onions. They were the entire reason I wanted the quesadilla so I was disappointed when there wasn't caramelized onions in every bite. The chipotle salsa was spicy and smokey, and I couldn't ask for one better. I didn't care for the flavor of the adobo sour cream, but Lynn liked it. The most amazing thing was how the wine was affected by the quesadilla; it had a very oaky scent with a spicy flavor and a very long spicy finish. It wasn't something I could drink an entire glass of, but I did like it.
For dinner I chose one of the specials, lobster enchiladas with rice and beans, while Lynn had the land of enchantment combo (tenderloin with jalapeno hollandaise, grilled shrimp, a chicken enchilada, vegetables, and a green chile potato). I loved my enchiladas; the sweet corn, green chile, and lobster all seemed perfectly matched. There was a sweet lime sauce on top of the enchiladas that reminded me of key lime pie; it was pretty tasty although it might be too sweet for some people. The beans were pretty good, which is always a surprise since most restaurants don't know how to make beans with flavor. The rice tasted like dirty rice without the ground beef to me, and I didn't care for it. Lynn thought it just tasted like a lot of chile powder and didn't like the rice either. Her grilled shrimp had a good flavor, but very overcooked. They were so overcooked that neither one of us wanted to eat the third shrimp. The tenderloin tasted underseasoned (Lynn thought completely unseasoned), and the hollandaise didn't help things at all. (Did I mention I really find hollandaise pointless these days?) The chicken enchilada tasted like it was seasoned with ancho chiles, which is different from you typical red chile flavor, and I totally dug it. Lynn thought the enchilada was pretty good too. The vegetables totally sucked because they had some sort of odd flavor that neither me or Lynn liked or even considered eating again. The green chile potato was unexpectedly spiced with chipotle or ancho, but it was tasty as hell. I was surprised I liked it because twice baked potatoes aren't my thing. Lynn said she could see coming back and ordering a salad and the potato and being quite happy.
I saw that they made creme brulee and had to order it. It was presented in a large bowl, and it was huge; it could have fed four people. The first thing I noticed was the sugar was caramelized without being burnt. I'm still amazed by the number of restaurants that serve creme brulee with burnt sugar on top. (I think I'll start sending those ones back until they get it right now that I think about it.) Anyway, it was one of the better creme brulees I've had. The bowl presentation made it a little too shallow to taste the custard properly, but it was easy enough to get rid of some of the caramelized sugar to get a big enough scoop of custard. I'd definitely order the creme brulee again.
Even though there were obvious problems with Lynn's combination plate we were happy with Blue Adobe Grille. It's not that everything they made had to be great, but that they made enough great thing to make returning worthwhile. Do you know of a better New Mexican food restaurant in Phoenix, email it to me.
I finally managed to do something with my mom on a Sunday so I could take her to Barrio Cafe for lunch. It was a little early, but me, my mom, and Lynn were all starved. We decided to split a mango shrimp salad between the three of us. The shrimp were grilled and quite tasty, but it would have been nice to have more than three of them. The rest of the salad (mango, avocado, tomato, and red onion) was pretty good too, with the mango, tomato, and red onion being a combination that really worked.
I made sure my mom tried the tamal de la Huasteca with black mole while I got the chicken and crab torta with spicy hollandaise sauce. My mom really liked the tamal, and the black mole changed her opinion of mole altogether. I enjoyed my sandwich, but I've learned I hate hollandaise sauce. It always starts out tasting good, but I always end up scraping it all off after a couple of bites. I got tired of the crab too, but by that time I was almost done with the sandwich. I don't remember what kind of sandwich Lynn had, but I do remember it being delicious. Better than mine even.
Everyone still had a little room left so I finally got to order the churros! (Every other time I'm at Barrio Cafe I seem to be the only one with room left for dessert, and I feel it's a waste to order them just for me. It is tempting though.) Me and Lynn had already had the churros before so it's no surprise we liked them, but it was new for my mom and she totally dug them. It was a great way to end our lunch.
The only thing that was keeping me from going to Japan was not knowing the format for the invitation letter that has to be attached to my visa application, and I just found it this morning. Looks like I'm going to Japan in April. Coachella too since the dates don't conflict.
I couldn't remember when me and Lynn were going to Las Vegas so I looked it up, and it turns out we're going this Sunday. That was a pleasant surprise.
This morning me and Lynn were talking about trips that we're going to take (so I can make my vacation requests), and I asked her what she thought of going to Mardi Gras in 2005. She thought that would be fun so we now have travel plans for two years from now.
When I left for work and walked to my car I caught the scent of something familiar wafting through the air. It was unmistakably gumbo. Scent really is the strongest trigger for memory because in that instant I was in the middle of the French Quarter walking down Chartres, thinking about where to eat for lunch. My fantasy was rudely interrupted by the thought that I was going to be late for work, but the fantasy made it very clear to me that I can't wait to go back to New Orleans.
Tonight me and Lynn made one of the best Italian dishes I've ever had. We made vermicelli with our homemade alfredo sauce, seared scallops, and steamed broccoli. Lynn misplaced her alfredo recipe, but she actually remembered it pretty accurately. We used a different parmesan cheese for this sauce, and I used roasted garlic instead of sauteed garlic so it was a little different, and a little tastier than last time. I also made the seared scallops a little better than last time too. I put the frozen scallops in my cast iron grill pan, and put that in the oven to defrost them. Draining the scallops made a big difference; they seared a lot easier without all the extra moisture. They weren't as good as the best ones I've had from various restaurants, but they are getting better.
I'm quite proud of the dinner we made tonight, can you tell?
This was the second time me and Lynn ate at Raimondo's. (The time we went to talk to Ray was our third time eating there so this is a little chronologically out of order.)
I got to Raimondo's, and found out there's a nonsmoking dining room. It's a good thing to know. This time I ordered the wedding soup myself, and it was excellent. The combination of meat, greens, and fennel(?) really makes for an interesting soup.
I wanted to try a new pasta that might be useful for the reception, but I was really in the mood for seafood so I got the filet of sole meuniere (lemon, butter, and wine sauce). Lynn had the pollo alla Genovese which was sauteed chicken breast with mushrooms and artichoke hearts in a lemon, butter, and wine sauce. The filet was just cooked enough so it wasn't chewy, and the fish had a great flavor. The sauce was subtle, but very tasty. The pollo alla Genovese was like a milder version of the pollo alla Dario. The alla Dario had a better flavor than the alla Genovese, but the alla Genovese didn't fatigue the taste buds like the alla Dario. Ultimately me and Lynn preferred the alla Dario.
We ordered the tiramisu for dessert, and they actually had it this time. We were not disappointed. It was light and mildly sweet; flavorful enough to make you want to eat it, but not so sweet or coffee flavored that you got tired of it.
Raimondo's seems to impress me every time we eat there. I wish they were located a little closer to Chandler so we could eat there more often.
After all this time me and Lynn finally got around to trying a New York style pizza from La Famiglia. We ordered a pepperoni and onion pizza, and the crust was absolutely perfect, and the cheese was tasty. The only gripe I had was there needed to be a little more pizza sauce on the pizza. It didn't have nearly tomato flavor, but I'm sure if we order extra sauce next time it'll be the perfect New York style pizza.
Think you know of a better New York style pizza in Phoenix, email it to me.
Today Lynn found a white hair. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't on my head. My first white hair... it's a little depressing.
Some time ago I was in the mood for Chinese and remembered Lin. It seemed both me and Lynn were in a seafood sort of mood because she got the scallops in garlic sauce while I had the crispy sea bass in spicy sauce. The garlic sauce on the scallops was excellent, but it overpowered the scallops. (Lynn disagreed with me and said she could taste the scallops.) I thought the sauce was more suited for chicken or pork than for scallops. The crispy sea bass taught me something important; it's possible for a marine fish to not taste good. I've eaten a lot of ocean fish, and I've enjoyed every one of them, at least until now. I don't think the fish was old, because it didn't taste old to me. (After that Ichi Ban on Rural and Southern in Tempe served me that old sushi I'll never forget the taste of old fish.) I don't think it was the preparation of the fish either, because it was a very simple fry job. The fish just didn't have a good flavor. It was odd in a bad sort of way. The sauce was at least interesting (with practically everything in it such as tomatoes, mushrooms, ginger, peanuts, peas, carrots, pineapple(?), and chile). While I enjoyed the sauce enough to use it to flavor the plain white rice it couldn't cover up that odd sea bass flavor. Maybe next time I eat at Lin I should stick to the walnut shrimp.
Know of a place that makes sea bass taste good, email it to me.
You people are absolutely disappointing when it comes to sending restaurant recommendations. I thought I asked for something simple (a little bit of thought and typing were all that were required) in small exchange for restaurant reviews, but apparently that was even too much to ask. If you actually read these restaurant reviews (and maybe even enjoy them) then you're lucky I don't care that you're a freeloading bastard, and don't care to contribute even a little when asked. I really do write this site for myself so I don't care if people contribute restaurant recommendations. It would be nice, but it's not necessary since I enjoy writing about good and bad food regardless (read it's compulsive behavior). Anyway, I'll just include an email link at the bottom of my reviews, then maybe someday I'll say something inflammatory enough about someone's favorite restaurant that they'll actually email me about what's worth eating on the menu.
Now on with the reviews.
Earlier this week I finally finished Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad". As tedious as I sometimes found the book to read, it did have it's moments, and I did enjoy the ending a lot (which was the perverbial big payoff like the movie "The Usual Suspects" had). Currently I'm reading "Reaper Man", which is a lot more interesting than "Witches Abroad", but how can you compete with the storyline of death getting fired?
Lynn pointed out to me last night (as we were watching a Jack in a Box commercial) that chipotle seems to be pretty trendy right now. I have to agree now that Wendy's, Jack in a Box, and some other fast food joint I can't remember the name of all mention their chipotle sauce in commercials.
It's not a bad trend if you ask me. Chipotles are one of my favorite types of pepper (next to what is probably the national pepper of Belize now, the habanero). Chipotles are smoked ripe jalapenos so they've got some heat, but they have more flavor than your average pepper because of their ripeness and the smoking preparation. Pair that with the adobo sauce they're usually canned with, and you've got something that'll kick up beans, barbecue sauce, or anything else that benefits from a nice smokey flavor.
The only way I could see this being a bad thing is if the chipotle sauces are so devoid of chipotle as to actually not taste like chipotle, and give people the wrong idea about it. I think I'll have to try one of those Jack in a Box chipotle chicken sandwiches. (I already know Wendy's chipotle sauce is amazingly weak so no need to mess with that.)
Last night me and Lynn met with Ray, the owner of Raimondo's to discuss catering for our wedding reception. (We've eaten at Raimondo's twice and the food's been excellent, so we decided to finally speak to Ray about catering.) I expected to go there and have a nice dinner while Ray talked to us, but instead Ray had the kitchen make us sampler plates of food. He wanted to make sure we had a good idea of the quality of food they serve. The dishes he had made up for us were eggplant parmigiana, farfalle in tomato cream sauce, pollo marsala, and herbed vegetables. The eggplant parmigiana was excellent and demonstrated how properly cooked eggplant can be one of the tastiest vegetables on the planet (even tasting better than most meat because I'm sure the eggplant version is probably superior to it's chicken counterpart). The tomato cream sauce was great too. As soon as I tasted it it reminded me of the tomato cream sauce at Naples, which is the standard by which I compare all other tomato cream sauces. While I thought they were comparable, Lynn thought Raimondo's was better. The herbed vegetables were ok. The chicken marsala had too much of a mushroom flavor for my tastes, but Lynn liked it. She did think the pollo alla Dario was a much better dish though. Ray ended our meal with an order of excellent tiramisu. Both me and Lynn enjoyed it because it wasn't too sweet or too strongly expresso flavored.
Ray is a nice guy, and we have the same barber (that's how Gary knew about him). Ray hasn't quoted us a price yet, but I have a strong feeling we're going to go with Raimondo's for our reception. The food at Raimondo's totally reminds me of the great Italian I had when me and Lynn were in Philly (it turns out Ray is from south Jersey), and pasta dishes make for cheap catering. Barrio Cafe is the other restaurant/caterer we're looking at, and me and Lynn agreed that if we don't go with them for the reception we could always have the rehearsal dinner there.
This is going to be a very tasty wedding.
My car's engine light wasn't on this morning so I didn't need to drop it off at the dealership.
Lynn and I are engaged again. Lynn is different from a lot of women I've gone out with in that she actually tends to learn from things. Unfortunately that doesn't meant she doesn't occasionally do something incredibly stupid and inconsiderate. I don't deal with incredibly stupid very well, and it's not a possibility I want to live with for the rest of my life. Lynn's convinced me that I don't need to worry about it again. Hopefully our re-engagement isn't a decision I come to regret.
If you enjoy reading about restaurants on this site then I suggest you send me a restaurant recommendation, otherwise that aspect of this site will go away. It's already started if you didn't notice.
I don't think I'm meant to be married. I've been engaged twice now, and both have ended in something other than marriage.
Last night I broke it off with Lynn. It's a long story that I'm not going to go into.
Yesterday while I was driving to pick up my mom to go to the art museum my engine light came on. My car is about a year old so that was quite unexpected. I was going to drop it off at the dealership's service center this morning, and when I called the guy told me it might be the gas cap. He said if the cap was loose then the car's computer might register low fuel pressure. He also said that if I tightened the gas cap the engine light might go off. I didn't really buy it, but my car wasn't running badly so I thought I'd give it a try.
I tightened my gas cap before I left for work, but the engine light didn't turn off all day. It looks like I'll be dropping it off at the dealership Wednesday morning.
There were a lot of things me and Lynn could have done this last weekend like the Matsuri Festival (a Japanese festival) in Phoenix, the Peoria San Gennaro Feast and Street Fair (an Italian festival blessed by the Pope himself), the Fountain Hills Great Fair (an art festival), the Scottish Highland Games in Mesa, the Renaissance Festival way out of town, or skiing in Flagstaff. We didn't do most of those due to poor planning. I didn't realize that most of that stuff was going on until the middle of last week, which was too late since we had already made plans for the weekend. We did make it to the Matsuri Festival after we went to the Phoenix Art Museum to see the El Greco to Picasso exhibition. (The Renoir painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" is far cooler than I ever would have imagined. In person it's a lot bigger, and a lot more vibrant and alive than it's depicted in print.) I was disappointed not to see the little old lady who paints those great bamboo pictures (and sells them for a reasonable price) at the Matsuri Festival this year. She wasn't there last year either because she wasn't feeling well, but she sent her daughter in her place. I hope she's doing well.
I was a little bummed at not making the San Gennaro thing because I didn't even know it existed until this year, and it's been around for a few years. I've also never made the Scottish Highland Games even though every year I try to make it.
Oh well, maybe next year.
It looks like the line-up for this year's Coachella is official, and there were a few people added to the line-up that I really do want to see on Saturday. It looks like I'll be going to Coachella both days unless I go to Japan and the dates conflict.
Today I was reminded that I don't have one link to my site from another web site (at least that I know of). It's a little depressing considering how long I've had my site.
I guess it's depressing depending on what I want this site to accomplish. I've had time to think about it for a couple of hours, and I'm obviously not going for notoriety. The only thing I can think of that I want out of this (besides money) is restaurant recommendations. If you happen to have a favorite restaurant, and a favorite dish or two there, send them to me. Any recommendations will be appreciated, and it'll definitely make me feel like my site is worthwhile. If I don't get any recommendations then I'll stop writing about restaurants and make this site just about myself, and no one wants that. (Did you notice I didn't mention anything about which city I wanted recommendations for? The reason for that is I don't care which city they're for. I never know where I'm going to end up, so any city might be useful.)
If you go to DPreview's article "Fujifilm Finepix F700 comparison" you can see images that demonstrate the difference the new Fuji image sensor and it's increased dynamic range can make. The results aren't as impressive as the initial images from the Foveon X3 sensor, but it's still a step in the direction of better digital images.
Remember to refill the gas tank before the gas light comes on.
[FYI, that doesn't mean I ran out of gas last night. It's just driving is a lot less stressful when you don't have the gas light glaring at you accusingly while driving down the freeway trying to make it to the gas station.]
Last night both me and Lynn got home late and we couldn't think of anything to make for dinner. Lynn suggested getting a pizza, which sounded good to me because it meant I could finally order a New York style pizza from La Famiglia. It turns out I couldn't because La Famiglia was only open another 10 minutes. Lynn suggested we get a pizza from Extreme Pizza (who had slapped a flier on our door the other day). I thought their name sounded dopey, but their pizzas did sound good to me, and they delivered which made them that much more appealing. I ordered the Wingin' It which it sounded worthy of the restaurant's dopey name since it's toppings were chicken, spicy wing sauce, gorgonzola, and mozzarella cheeses. I'd never tried anything like that before, but it sounded promising.
Our pizza arrived, and the first thing I noticed about it was the crust was flat. Not flat in an thin crust Chicago style way, but flat like, "Opps, the dough didn't rise." I thought the flat crust would bother me a lot, but it didn't; the toppings made up for it. The chicken was good, and the sauce was spicy without being vinegary. The sauce was a little heavy on the black pepper, but once again, it didn't really bother me. I loved the combination of spicy chicken and gorgonzola cheese. Lynn thought it was pretty good, but she wasn't as crazy about it as I was. (Lynn doesn't care for blue cheese, but they did use it sparingly. I thought it was in the proper proportion to the rest of the toppings.)
Lynn had ordered tiramisu, and initially we both thought it was good. After I ate a couple of bites I noticed the cream layer was too thick (or possibly too sweet) making the entire dessert too sweet. Lynn noticed it too, and we threw out the tiramisu.
Extreme Pizza may have a dopey name and a flat crust, but it seems like their toppings are quality and well thought out. I'll probably order from them again just to try some of their more original combinations (like their hummus topped pizza).
So far I've addicted two people at work to Henry Weinhard's vanilla cream soda. Long only had a capful yesterday, and he was begging me to bring in a bottle for him today. Of course I brought him one... the first one's always free.
Henry Weinhard should reward me with free bottles of vanilla cream soda for my efforts.
Recently Lynn found a mixed drink that she really likes. It's one part creme de cacao, one part stoli vanil, and one fourth part praline pecan liqueur. You can put it in a martini glass with little bit of chocolate sauce around the lip of the glass for a chocolate turtle martini, or you can blend it with a couple of scoops of chocolate ice cream for a not-so-frozen chocolate turtle. It's very good either way (and surprisingly smooth), but it's also extremely potent so watch yourself.
Steve finally asked his host parents if I can stay with them for a week or so, and they approved. It looks like I might be going to Japan in April. It all depends on how long it'll take to get a visa from the Japanese Consulate General in Los Angeles. I have to give them a call, and start looking at airline tickets now if I want to make it in April.
Yesterday Noah sent me the line-up for this year's Coachella. They're going with the two day event format again, which isn't a bad thing except that they don't have enough people scheduled for Saturday that I want to see to justify paying $65 (or however much they're charging) for the day. The line-up for Sunday looks great, and I'm willing to go on Sunday, but Noah wants to go both days so we'll see what happens. At least Noah said the group going to Coachella this year would be the same group that we went with the first time, which is good since I like all of those guys.
When I was getting my hair cut I told Gary (my barber) that I was looking for a caterer. He reminded me that Sylvia's La Canasta does catering, and he also told me about an Italian restaurant I'd never heard of before (since I said I was interested in Italian). Last night me and Lynn decided to check out Gary's Italian recommendation.
Raimondo's is a restaurant & lounge, and when you walk in you quickly realize that means a bar that serves food. Most of the space is taken up by a large bar with booths against the wall. I do have to give them credit for not smelling like stale smoke, but that didn't do us any good when someone at the bar would light up.
The first thing Lynn noticed on the menu was the Italian wedding soup. Her grandmother makes wedding soup and it's been such a long time since Lynn's had good wedding soup that she jumped on it. I wanted to gauge the quality of their food so I ordered the eggplant rollatini appetizer. I was basically setting them up to fail because their eggplant rollatini is thin slices of eggplant (one of the best cooked veggies around) stuffed with ricotta (cheese of the devil) and breaded, then covered with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce and baked. Before the rollatini came out a basket of bread, my dinner salad, and Lynn's wedding soup were all brought to the table. The bread was impressive; it had a thin crispy crust with a fluffy moist center that was great with butter. The salad was iceberg lettuce, and the Italian dressing I had ordered was creamy Italian. Things were not looking good for Raimondo's since I hate iceberg lettuce and creamy Italian dressing. As I was about to start eating my salad I heard Lynn cooing about how great her soup was. I had a spoonful, and immediately wanted another. I've never had wedding soup before (or if I have it hasn't been memorable), but the combination of the sausage, chicken, and greens in the broth was excellent. I turned my attention back to my salad, and it was ok. At least the creamy Italian dressing was good.
The waitress brought out a large dish of eggplant rollatini (which was big enough to eat as an entree if you're so inclined). I took my first bite, waiting for the flavor corrupting effects of the ricotta to hit, and it never did. The dish was excellent! It was even better with the marinara sauce, which was bright, fresh, and a little spicy. I could be very happy at Raimondo's only ordering a bowl of the wedding soup and the eggplant rollatini for dinner.
Speaking of dinner, we still had the entrees to try. I had the cannelloni (stuffed with meat and spinach and topped with alfredo sauce) while Lynn had the pollo alla Dario (grilled chicken with a lemon, garlic, mushroom, and wine sauce). Lynn loved her entree while I discovered Raimondo's weakness. Normally I hate wine sauces, and mushrooms too, (although there have been a few exceptions), but Lynn's chicken was incredible. The sauce gave the chicken a certain piquancy. I eventually learned that the sauce could be a bit much, but Lynn insisted that if you ate the spaghetti that came with the chicken (topped with their excellent marinara sauce) that it would refresh your taste buds. I did try the spaghetti, and you couldn't ask for any better al dente spaghetti. Maybe I thought it was so good because my entree was horrible. The alfredo sauce was entirely too salty, and the cannelloni wasn't good enough on it's own to make it worth eating. Still, three great items out of four wasn't bad.
At the end of the meal I wanted to sample one of their desserts. I tried to order the tiramisu, but they were out. The bread pudding seemed like the next best thing. It was your standard bread pudding with raisins and a super sweet flavor. I liked it, but I wouldn't say it was mind blowing.
Don't let the ambience at Raimondo's fool you, there's a lot serious cooking going on in their kitchen. Me and Lynn may become regulars (at least as regular as we are at any place) even though we both have issues with cigarette smoke. At the very least we're definitely going to give them a call about their catering services. I can't wait to tell Gary how well his recommendation turned out.
Yesterday I didn't have access to the internet from my computer because my dial-up was screwed up. Did I slack? No! Instead I worked on New Orleans pictures on another computer. I wasn't able to put them on the page, but at least they're ready to be linked. I also finished reading "Eric" and restarted "Witches Abroad". I didn't care too much for "Eric". It was entertaining, but not that entertaining. At least "Witches Abroad" is interesting now.
Today, at work, I cleaned out my Yahoo email box. Lately it's been getting full as I've been getting HTML filled emails so I decided it was time to delete a lot of stuff.
Here's an excerpt from one of my old emails (that I ran across today) from Steve.
> Most things went well. I found out that I love the
> city of Philadelphia.Cool. I take it the food is pretty good, huh?
This has been a good weekend. We went to C-Fu Gourmet for the best dim sum I've had in a while. Of course it was the only dim sum I've had in a while, but I swear the dim sum at C-Fu keeps getting better. Afterwards we went to Lee Lee and I got a couple of six packs of Henry Weinhard's vanilla cream soda (Lee Lee seems to be the only place I can find that carrries it), Australian tawny port, and oyster sauce. Obviously Lee Lee is good for much more than just Asian food. After Lee Lee me and Lynn went to Chandler's Greek festival, but we didn't stay for very long. We decided not to pay to go in because it seemed like the only Greek stuff they had there was food, and we were still stuffed from dim sum.
 or yellow.',359,418,452,472,'#F7F4EF','#000000'))
I had to pick up my mail from my post office box so we headed to the west side of Phoenix. Picking up my mail was really just an excuse to take Lynn to La Purisima Bakery though. We got some pan dulce, empanadas, and looked at their wedding cakes (which they make tres leches versions of most of them). Lynn really liked their baked goods.
Today Lynn and I rollerbladed to a nearby park where we both read while I smoked a cigar. We sat in the sunlight the whole time. It was nice to be able to enjoy the sun because I'm sure it won't be too long before the sun feels like a microwave oven again.
Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I remember reading something about how Valentine's Day is one of the four busiest days for restaurants. I wondered exactly why that was when I noticed this quote: "After a perfect meal we are more susceptible to the ecstasy of love than at any other time." -Dr. Hans Bazli. Valentine's Day being one of the busiest restaurant days suddenly made sense because that quote's true. I know that after one of those mind blowing meals I feel compelled to express any kind of positive feelings that I may have, and everything good seems to be greatly magnified too.
I took Lynn to Copper Kettle for Valentine's Day. Indian cuisine may not sound very romantic, but the food at Copper Kettle is pretty sexy. It's spicy, complex, well balanced, and as good as the best Thai food. Lynn had the chicken boti sultani which is marinated and grilled chicken finished on a hot cast iron pan with onions fajita style. It's tender and juicy like tandoori chicken, but it's flavor is very reminiscent of Mexican barbecued chicken. It's really one of the best preparations of chicken I've ever had. I had the sindhi bryani, a dish that combines basmati rice with all sorts spices, and lamb meat. It's a light, pungent, spicy, completely unique dish that ranks above great fried rice, or arroz verde for me. Combine both of those dishes with fresh naan (only one of the tastiest breads around), and you've got a meal that's got all sorts of synapses firing, and warm fuzzy hormones flooding the brain.
The only thing that I felt could make the meal better was dessert. Normally I avoid dessert at ethnic places (where the food originates from other continents [not including Europe]) because nothing tends to be more foreign than desserts where processed sugar isn't highly involved. Yesterday I was determined to try one of Copper Kettle's desserts. I wanted to try a rice pudding, but I didn't know the name of it so I asked the waiter to name off the desserts. Well he said one that sounded like "vermicelli", so I ordered the vermicelli not knowing if it was the rice pudding or not. It turned out to be a bowl of vermicelli in spiced cream with crushed pistachios on top. It was an excellent dessert. It reminded me of sweetened cream of wheat or some other sweet comforting breakfast item. Both me and Lynn loved it; it was a soothing way to end a spicy meal.
So I hope everyone had an excellent meal with someone worth experiencing that meal with on their Valentine's Day.
Wow, it looks like I'm all up to date on restaurant stuff. I guess that means I should work on the photos for my New Orleans page.
My shoulders are still killing me.
Last night Noah talked me into seeing Dieselboy and Bad Company at Club Freedom. I got to Freedom after midnight so I only saw the last five minutes of Dieselboy's set. (Dieselboy was who I really wanted to see, but missing him was the chance I took by getting there late.) I'd never seen Bad Company before, but Noah had told me a long time ago that they sucked. Well I didn't have anything better to do than go to sleep so I stayed and watched Bad Company. Sure enough, they sucked. If you want the specifics of how they sucked it's on my Electronic Music Show & Event Reviews page in the "Disappointing Shows" section.
I don't feel sleepy today, but my shoulders are killing me. The funny thing is that even though I got very little sleep last night (although it was technically this morning), I actually got to work on time today. That may have been the first time I haven't been like five minutes late this week.
Lynn wrangled me into going to George & Dragon this last weekend. It's not that I didn't want to go, it's just I didn't think pub food sounded like a good idea at the time. We were there with a group of people so there were a couple of different appetizers to sample: specifically the zucchini medallions and the hot wings. I was actually impressed by both. The zucchini medallions were cut into spears instead of the usual disks, and it made a difference. I think the difference was the higher batter to vegetable ratio determined by the shape, but since G&D had a tasty batter it worked in their favor. The hot wing sauce was spicy, and more importantly, it wasn't one of those vinegar-cayenne based Tabasco crap type hot wing sauces. I really hate those.
For dinner Lynn had the fish and chips and I order the flaming chicken (which was described as a rotisserie chicken breast topped with a spicy creole sauce). Lynn's fish was excellent, but a bit greasy. My chicken sucked in a major way. It tasted like an unseasoned piece of chicken breast covered in one of the worst sauces I've had the displeasure to eat. I think the sauce was supposed to be remoulade, but it bared about as much resemblance to remoulade as ground beef does to steak. Scraping the sauce off made the chicken was somewhat edible, but not enough to make me feel like I didn't waste my money.
I'm not going to let the one bad dish diminish the fact that there were a lot of good things that came out of the G&D kitchen. The appetizers and the fish and chips definitely warrant a return. At the very least the hard apple cider they have on tap is worth the visit.
Right now I could get five nights hotel stay, and a round trip airline ticket to go to Carnaval in Rio for about $1,000. Or I could get a nonstop round trip ticket to London on British Airways for about $300, or a round trip ticket to anywhere else British Airways flies in Europe for about $400. Damn it's frustrating having my money tied up in the wedding right now.
The orchid Lynn bought drips sap. I'm not sure if all orchids do that or if it's just something the particular type orchid we have does. I think the sap accounts for the way the plant smells because I've sniffed the flowers before and I can't detect any scent.
Last night Lynn asked me if I thought the sap was poisonous. I told her I didn't think it was. She said, "I was just wondering because it tastes sweet."
Recently a couple of things have reminded me to find a Mexican bakery for some pan dulce (or sweet bread [not to be confused with sweet breads which are a completely different animal]). A recent "The Best of" show, on the Food Network, featured El Sol Bakery in Chandler. I've tried to go to El Sol Bakery once or twice in the past, but my being there never seemed to coincide with their being open. Well that show planted the suggestion to remember to go there sometime when they might actually be open, and it worked. There were so many things to choose from I had a difficult time deciding what to get. (I now understood how predators have a hard time focusing on one prey out of an entire group.) Well since I was there for pan dulce I got a couple of plain ones with the colored stuff on top (you'd know them if you saw them), and I also got a cream filled pastry horn. I started on the pastry horn as soon as I got home. It was delicious. The cream filling wasn't nearly as sweet as you might expect, but that was the way it needed to be to balance out the sweetness of the rock sugar on the pastry. Did I mention I love rock sugar? (I'm actually looking for someplace that makes good apple turnovers covered with rock sugar. If you happen to know of any places that do that in the Phoenix area email me.) I was so happy with the pastry horn I couldn't wait to try one of the pan dulce. Boy was the pan dulce disappointing. The bread was a little too dense and very chewy, and the colored stuff on top tasted really dry and crumbled off. I'd never seen that stuff crumble off before! I was a little distraught; it had been a while since I'd had a pan dulce and I was worried that my memory was fooling me into remembering them better than they really were.
The next day I was on the west side of Phoenix looking for a Mexican bakery Murray told me about. I didn't know it's name, but Murray gave me pretty good directions so it was easy to find. The name of the place is La Purisima Bakery and it's on the Glendale side of 43rd Avenue. I walked in and was once again overwhelmed with choices, but it didn't take me long to find the pan dulce I was looking for against one of the walls. While I was waiting to order I also noticed some apricot filled empanadas. I couldn't resist those since apricot is my favorite underappreciated fruit (which I learned to appreciate during my Europe trip where it seemed to be in everything). As I was ordering I noticed they also had a cream filled pastry horn similar to El Sol, so I got one for comparison. I tried to wait until I got home to start eating things, but the pastry horn was too tempting. I then learned that it's too messy to eat in the car while driving. I ate the apricot filled empanada instead. The first bite was disappointing; it was all pastry and none of it was sweet. I didn't think I'd enjoy the rest of it, but once I got to the fruit I fell in love with the empanada. The apricot empanada is enough to make La Purisima a regular stop when I'm on that side of town. Eventually I got home and was able to try the pastry horn. It was covered with pastry frosting instead of rock sugar, but it was still tasty. The true test was the pan dulce though. Would it taste like the pan dulces I remembered loving? It did. The bread was light and airy, and the colored stuff was part of the bread, not some sort of weird dry crumbly thing. After I finished it I wished I picked up four more of them. That's the pan dulce I loved.
If you're not familiar with pan dulce, they're any one of a variety of Mexican sweet breads. The ones I like are the simplest, with some sort of colored stuff on top. There are other ones topped with coconut or filled with things, but the simple ones are slightly sweet and light enough to eat four without feeling full. I still remember the first time I ever tasted them I was at some Mexican reception that a friend of mine had brought me to. There were only two things to eat there, and I was starving. One was menudo and the other was pan dulce. I didn't feel up to testing my ability to ignore my nose while eating (menudo is made with tripe and really stinks) so I went for the pan dulce. I'd never eaten pan dulce before, but the name was self explanatory so I had a pretty good idea what to expect. I was surprised by how sweet they weren't. I was also surprised that I ate six of them, and still felt up for more. Pan dulce demonstrates one of the odd things about Mexican sweets; sometimes they're super sweet (like cajeta or tres leches cake) while other times they're subtle. The truly amazing thing about that is either way they turn out great.
Even though I wasn't raised eating pan dulce it's always felt familiar. The other day in the grocery store I think I figured out why. My mom used to buy King's Hawaiian bread every once in a while, and that stuff was always a treat. I never considered it a dessert, but it was sweet bread, and I used to love it as a kid. I bought a loaf when I noticed it the other day, and it turns out I still love the stuff. It didn't take too long to notice how similar it was to my favorite type of pan dulce either.
Today me and Ken went to Diamond's Chinese Restaurant (on Long's recommendation). I'd actually been to Diamond's once before about five years ago, but it wasn't a pleasant experience so I never returned. The last time I had been there the restaurant was full of a combination of cigarette smoke and smoke from hot oil (neither of which are easy on the eyes or lungs). The restaurant has definitely changed since the last time I was there; all the booths had been replaced by tables, and dining room is pleasantly smoke free.
Me and Ken went a little overboard with our ordering, but that's the way we are with new places. We have to order certain dishes and see how they compare with other places. Today we ordered shark fin soup, potstickers, subgum chow fun, and beef with Chinese long beans. I've never had shark fin soup before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but seeing Iron Chef Chinese (Chen) make it all the time piqued my interest. Now I don't know how shark fin soup is supposed to taste, but I wasn't impressed with Diamond's. It tasted like it used a chicken base, but there wasn't anything about the flavor that made me want to eat it. The potstickers were much better. The filling was tasty with a nice hint of ginger, and the wrapper was thin and crisp, although a couple of the potstickers were a little black on the bottom. The best thing about the potstickers was the sauce they were served with; it was completely different from any other potsticker sauce I've had. It seemed like they browned some ginger and green onions, then put them in soy sauce along with a little chile, and reduced it all. The resulting sauce was quite a bit thicker than your usual potsticker sauce, and it had a rich flavor that made you want to pour it on everything. The subgum chow fun was full of bok choy, snow peas, chicken, beef, pork, squid, and shrimp. The snow peas were perfectly cooked so they still had a little snap. All of the meat had that wok taste. Of all the last three chow funs I've had from Lin, House of C-Fu, and Diamond's, Diamond's had the strongest wok flavor. It was impressive. The beef with Chinese long beans was even more impressive. The beef was so good I actually liked it; I typically hate Chinese beef.
The Chinese menu at Diamond's isn't the most extensive I've seen (it fits on one page unless you count the Vietnamese menu, then it's two pages), but the food is excellent and there are still quite a few things I'd like to try. If you go there be sure to look at the walls as all the dishes that didn't make it on the menu are on the wall. I would never have seen the potstickers otherwise.
Lynn told me a while ago that she had a good recipe for alfredo sauce. Last night I decided to put it to the test. Lynn did most of the work, but I helped out here and there. The recipe called for heavy cream and butter, but I didn't think there was nearly enough fat in it so I added my own personal touch in the form of bacon. (I added garlic too, but garlic isn't like 50% fat.) The alfredo sauce was excellent although it seemed like it was missing something. It had nutmeg, black pepper, garlic, and bacon, but it seemed like it was one balancing flavor shy of culinary perfection. Any ideas as to what was missing?
[archived comments]
poppy: Alfredo- I've made it with egg yoke too. Also I think white pepper instead of black. I assume you used alot of good parmesean (sp -- it's late late) melted in there too. Also I have some rest tips if you return to nola. Try Jacques Imos uptown (it looks like a dive but is AMAZING -- esp their crawfish and sausage cheese cake app. Disregard the decor. I SWEAR, I took some foodies from LA here and they all thought I was crazy, then were raving about it at the end of the meal! Also a small romantic french pla
"Han Fei-Tzu was exhausted, his eyes hurting from all that he had read. He had adjusted the colors on the computer display a dozen times, trying to find something restful, but it didn't help."
Ever since I came back from the holiday break my eyes have been giving me problems at the end of the work day. It hasn't happened every day, but it has been often enough that I've noticed it. I've tried adjusting the brightness and contrast on my monitor, but nothings helped. I wonder what could be causing it. I might need new glasses.
Yeah, so I went over my notes from my New Orleans trip and I need to make a couple of changes to the page. I was going to go over my notes before I made the page public, but I was feeling lazy so I didn't even read my notes until last night. I'm not feeling lazy anymore.
We've got a location and we've got a photographer. The next major thing we have to find is a caterer. Right now I'm looking at Barrio Cafe (one of my new favorite Mexican restaurants) and Sylvia's La Canasta (one of my old favorite Mexican restaurants). I'm still open to other caterers, but I'd like to see what kind of options the two restaurants present me.
I finished Orson Scott Card's "Xenocide". The book started out very well, and by the middle of the book I was convinced that it was going to be Card's best novel, but it got a little too weird towards the end. There were a lot of interesting conflicts (ethical, religious, philosophical, etc...) in the book that make you think, but it did get really crazy by the end. I'll still read "Children of the Mind", but now it's more like an obligation than a real desire.
Before I get to "Children of the Mind" I need to read a couple of the Terry Pratchett books Lynn borrowed from DJ so we can return some of them. Right now I'm starting "Eric", mainly because it's very short.
Someone at Lynn's work asked her if she would be interested in attending a charity dinner sponsored by the Asian American club. It was a ten course meal at Sampan, and Lynn wanted to see if I was interested. I've been to Sampan before and enjoyed their food so I was definitely interested.
The ten courses we were to be served that night were a cold combination, fish maw soup, walnut shrimp, fried rice yang chow, scallops with Chinese broccoli, crispy fried chicken, beef tenderloin, mushrooms with greens, flounder with ginger and scallions, and mixed fruit. I didn't how they were going to serve the food, but I was pretty sure it wasn't buffet style. When we were at the event they served each table with one big plate family style. I greatly appreciated not having to stand in line.
The cold combination was a mix of noodles, chicken, vegetables, and fruit. The noodles were odd because they tasted sort of like chicken fat, and the overall combination was strange. It's not something I would choose to eat again. The fish maw soup was interesting; it was like a toned down version of hot and sour soup, but it had some translucent bits in it that were tasty. Someone at the table said that they had looked up the definition of fish maw, and it was another way of saying fish stomach. I'm going to have to verify that for myself. The walnut shrimp was tasty. The shrimp had a light dough that went well with the slightly sweet sauce. The fried rice yang chow was average. The scallops with Chinese broccoli was also tasty. The scallops had a nice wok flavor, and the Chinese broccoli were still firm. The crispy fried chicken was exactly what it said, crispy fried chicken. If I had some habanero pepper sauce to squirt on top of it I would have liked it more. I didn't like the beef tenderloin at all. The texture was very not like beef, and there was a distinct aftertaste of liver. The mushrooms and greens were alright. The vegetables were nice and firm, but the sauce they were in didn't really accentuate them. I really liked the flounder with ginger and scallions. The flounder was perfectly cooked (not chewy), and the ginger and scallion preparation is a classic. The mixed fruit was just that, and there isn't anything to say about it.
The dinner was a nice way to sample a lot of Sampan's dishes, and it's obvious that seafood is their strength. Hopefully I'll remember to go back there for scallops sometime.
Normally I hate personality quizzes, but occasionally I run across one I like like the Megatokyo Quiz. I don't think the questions were that good, but I can't argue with the results.
If you don't know what Megatokyo is, go read it now you slacker!
When I write about ethnic food you may see something spelled in a way that you're not used to. That's probably due to the fact that there aren't set conventions for representing their language with the English alphabet. Languages like Chinese and Japanese have known conventions for writing out their language in English (or in the case of Japanese at least three, but they're all very similar). Other languages, like Thai or Korean, don't seem to have those so the spelling of a word can vary wildly. An example of this is when Lynn was reading through my New Orleans trip page she said "bool kogi" was misspelled. She remembered that Takamatsu spells it "bul kogi". I searched online and there were at least eight variations of the spelling "bool kogi" with the most common spelling being "bulgogi". I left the spelling as "bool kogi", and the reason for that is "bool kogi" is the spelling that was used for it the first time I ever saw it in writing. As a matter of respect to Steven Raichlen and his book "The Barbecue! Bible" I'll continue using his spelling since there really isn't a clear-cut right or wrong.
There are also quite a few ways to spell "tom yum gai", and that's what reminded me to write this.
Today I had to go to central Phoenix to get my haircut, and as always I set my appointment around lunch time so I could eat in the area. I was going through my mental roladex when I remembered that I'd try to eat at Thai Rama a little more often. Thai Rama seemed like the perfect place to eat today because their lunch specials seem to offer a lot of food for a cheap price (and the fact that make good food helps too). When I got there and looked at the menu I noticed the lunch specials are only good Monday through Friday. I was a little disappointed, but it didn't bother me too much. Instead I scanned the menu for something that sounded good. Menu descriptions never do Thai food justice so I decided to go with something I know and love, tom yum gai. For those of you not familiar with tom yum gai it's one of the best soups around. On my list of the five best soups I've ever tasted this is the only one that isn't cream based. What it is is the best of Thai cuisine made corporeal in the form of a soup. It's complex, spicy, and balanced with nothing getting out of hand (except maybe your sinuses). There's even a splash of coconut milk for richness. Because it's so complex it's impossible to describe the flavor, but the ingredients that are obvious (lemongrass, cilantro, green onion, mushrooms, chicken, and chiles) should tell you enough to know whether or not you'll want to try it. The only thing you want to watch out for is that everything is not meant to be eaten. There's usually a few pieces of some woody root and fibrous lemongrass that are there purely for flavor, and difficult to eat to say the least.
Another good thing about tom yum gai is that it's been good at every Thai restaurant I've ever had it at. It's never been bad so much as less generous. It's a good bet at any Thai restaurant, and the tom yum gai at Thai Rama was especially good.
Lin Chinese Dining was a restaurant I used to frequent, but I stopped going to for no particular reason. One day me and Lynn drove past it and I was reminded the place existed when Lynn said we should try it some time. I vowed to eat there again someday soon, and I did. We wanted some good take out and Lin was the first thing that popped into my head.
We went there and I ordered grandma's spicy salad and beef chow fun (dry). Lynn got an order of hot and sour soup (since that's her thing), but she was having some trouble deciding on an entree. I pointed out the poster with Chinese New Year specials because they came with asparagus soup, and I wanted to give it a try. Lynn thought the black pepper beef looked good, and since that was one of the specials I was happy.
We got the food home, and the food was better than I remembered it! I've always thought the spicy salad at Lin was second to the one at Yang Dynasty, but this salad was every bit as spicy and as tasty as Yang Dynasty's. Definitely it's equal. I tried a bit of Lynn's hot and sour soup, and it stunk of white pepper. Hot and sour isn't my thing so it wasn't a surprise. Lynn really didn't like it either though. I tried my asparagus soup and it had a mild corn flavor, but it wasn't anything special. The chow fun was excellent; it had an amazing wok flavor (very much like House of C-Fu). The black pepper beef was a lot more interesting and better tasting than I expected it to be. It had a mild, sweet flavor which was balanced nicely with black pepper. It was one of those dishes that makes you rethink your preconceived notions concerning Chinese food. How did I ever forget about this place?
I've finally finished writing the text for my 12/02 New Orleans trip page. I'll try my best to get the photos up quickly.
Thai Rama is a Thai restaurant right around central Phoenix that I don't eat at too often because I'm not in central Phoenix that often, and there are a lot of restaurants that usually occupy those times when I am in central Phoenix. Last week I was headed to central Phoenix to meet Ken for lunch, but since The Culinary Cafe was completely booked we went to Thai Rama instead.
We started with an appetizer that I hardly ever find at Thai restaurants here, fish cakes. There was a Thai place on Bell Road that made excellent fish cakes, but it's been years since I've been there so I was really looking forward to these fish cakes. They were disappointing. I can't describe what was missing, but I knew something was.
We had three people at lunch (Ken, Murray, and myself) so we each ordered a dish to split with the rest. Ken ordered the spicy eggplant with beef, but he got it mild because he said it doesn't taste right when it's spicy. Murray ordered the sweet and sour pork on Ken's and my recommendations. I wanted something spicy so I ordered the pork in spicy garlic sauce. The sweet and sour was light, crispy, and tasty. I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better one. The eggplant dish was also tasty. It was mild, but it had a very good flavor. My only complaint about it was there wasn't enough eggplant for a dish that was supposed to be predominately eggplant. The dish I ordered sucked. It had a weird porky flavor with a hint of liver, and the garlic sauce didn't even taste like garlic to me. At least the other two dishes were good.
Thai Rama doesn't seem to make spicy dishes very well, but I'm going to have to add them to the list of restaurants I visit on that side of town because they make some things well enough to merit exploring their menu to find what they're really good at.
When DJ told me and Lynn he wanted to take us someplace for dinner, and the restaurant that popped into my mind was Barrio Cafe; their food is unique and delicious, and their prices are reasonable. DJ had also never been there before so I knew this was going to be a new experience for him. While we were waiting to be seated I bought him one of their sangrias as a thank you for taking us out. He totally loved the sangria! (I knew he would.)
We ordered the queso dip with spinach and chorizo for an appetizer. It was absolutely delicious and more than enough food for the three of us. I reminded Lynn and DJ to save some room for churros, but they were devouring the queso dip. I paced myself because I really wanted those churros!
Lynn ordered a seafood chile relleno, I had the goat cheese ravaoli in a cream sauce with grilled chicken, and DJ had mushroom enchiladas. I had a piece of Lynn's seafood chile relleno, and I was surprised to find that the seafood was perfectly cooked. I wanted to eat a lot more of it than Lynn was willing to offer, lucky for her the chile was flaming hot. I've never had a hot poblano chile before, but this thing was smoking. I found the pasta of goat cheese ravaoli a little too thick, and a little stuffed with goat cheese. Goat cheese is a powerful thing and should be used in moderation, or at least not paired with a cream sauce. Now the grilled chicken (which was an add on for those who don't fancy the vegetarian version of the entree) and the cream sauce combination was great. I liked it so much that I thought it should be a regular menu item. I didn't taste DJ's entree, but judging from the number of times DJ said, "Mm. This is great," I took it as he liked it.
Both Lynn and DJ were too full to contemplate dessert which was really disappointing because I'd told them more than once to save room for the churros. I'm sure if DJ had had the churros once he'd start saving room for them.
"When I grow up I'll be stable. When I grow up I'll turn the tables."
-Garbage "When I Grow Up"
A while ago I remember asking several guys about the time they were happiest. All the responses had three common threads that I noticed: having enough money to do what you feel passionate about (not necessarily all the time, but often enough), the time to do it, and having someone to do it with (guy friends don't count). I have all three of those things right now, so why am I intermittently unhappy?
I believe there was a fourth common thread that I missed. Having a job that you enjoy is just as important as the other three. You spend a vast quantity of your waking hours at work so it's important that you actually enjoy it. I enjoy my job. Usually. Being a programmer requires almost daily problem solving, and that makes work interesting. The last couple of months my job has been somewhat annoying. Lately it seems like I'm being asked to do a lot of stupid things. I don't deal with that too well. Being forced to do stupid things was the reason I left my last job. Hopefully this won't last much longer; I have to keep this job a little over a year so I can take a month straight of vacation next April. (If I get a new job it's unlikely I'd have a month's worth of vacation much less being able to actually take an entire month off.)
Anyway, I'm done whining. Tomorrow I'll be back at work early because I've been scheduled to attend a meeting to figure out ways to change people's (possibly unfounded) ambiguous negative perceptions of our work. Joy.
Normally I don't comment about current events, but I watched Colin Powell's address to the United Nations (UN) this morning and I think he did a good job making the argument that Iraq will be a persistent threat as long as the current regime remains in power. The two main points I heard was: one, there is an indirect threat from terrorist organizations who receive support from Iraq, and two, Iraq's ongoing effort to build a nuclear weapon (and other weapons) despite UN resolutions not to. He also contends that the reason UN weapon inspectors haven't yet found a "smoking gun" is because Iraq is doing what it always has, which is hiding their activities from weapons inspectors. All of his accusations were presented with proof, albeit sometimes weak proof, but I it was a convincing justification for removing Saddam Hussein and his government from power. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome of this will be.
If you want to find out more about Colin Powell's address read this CNN article.
I think I actually got that anarchy advocating dollar bill at La Canasta the other day when I got, per Long's recommendation, the shrimp fajitas. The shrimp were well prepared and the dish was excellent overall, but I don't think it was worth $13. I felt that for $13 I should have got more shrimp.
I've often thought about how to get a message out to a lot of people through less than conventional means, but I've always lacked a message. The other day, to my amusement, I noticed this in my wallet.
 that says, \'[line from George Washington] smokes chrome so legalize it (every on [sic] does it)\'. I think the message would be more convincing if it didn\'t use slang that probably only other marijauna smokers understand, and if the message was written grammatically correct. I bet Boner is this guy\'s nickname.<P>In case you didn\'t know, you use [sic] if you are quoting something that you know is spelled incorrectly just so people don\'t think you spelled it incorrectly.',247,447,546,566,'#000000','#FFFFCC'))
These are some sucky pictures I took yesterday while me and Lynn were out and about. Most of them were taken while we were walking around Boyce Thompson Arboretum.
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It had been a long time since I'd been to Havana Cafe, but this weekend I finally remembered to take Lynn there. I also remembered how disappointing I tend to find their entrees so I planned on only getting appetizers for lunch. I started things out with drinks since the mojitos at Havana Cafe are among the best alcoholic drinks around. I ordered Lynn a dark rum mojito so she could revel in the lime and mint combination while I had a caipirinha simply because I've never had one before. The caipirinha resembled a margarita, but I wasn't impressed. In my opinion I make the best margaritas and it's a rare thing for a restaurant/bar to make one as good (in fact the only restaurant/bar margarita I can think of off the top of my head that I like is Cafe Poca Cosa's in Tucson). Lynn didn't enjoy her mojito that much because the dark rum overpowered the lime juice so we switched drinks and she really enjoyed the caipirinha. I think next time I order a mojito I'll get it with half dark and half light rum, that way it can have the smoother flavor and sweetness of the dark rum, but will still allow the lime to shine through.
For lunch we ordered a lot of appetizers that sounded good to us: a daily special that I had never seen before called sopa de xin xin (a somewhat spicy soup with beef and peanuts served with corn fritters), black beans (so Lynn could compare them to the black bean soup at Bayona), seviche (raw fish, shrimp, and scallops marinated in lime juice with some other tasty things), calypso chips (fried plantain chips) served with a black bean dip, tostones (twice fried plantain chips) served with a garlic sauce, papa rellana (a beef croquette sort of thing), tamal cubano (masa, pork, and other things), and pastelitos de carne (baked turnovers filled with beef, fruit, and spices). Everything was good except for two items: the seviche, which didn't have enough lime juice to cover up the raw fishy taste, and the tostones, which required a lot of chewing because they were sort of thick and quite dry (even if the garlic sauce was excellent). I was really disappointed with the seviche since I love seviche and there aren't that many places that make it. The item that surprised me the most, in a good way, was the calypso chips; they were more flavorful than I expected plantain chips to be, and the garlic heavy black bean dip was the perfect accompaniment. Lynn's favorite items were the calypso chips and the papa rellana (something about the potatoes and salty beef did it for her). My favorite items were the tamal cubano (it was moist, and the masa and other ingredients were superb), pastelitos de carne (it was a crispy baked turnover that had an odd fruit-beef combination that worked well), and the black beans (which are the standard by which I measure all other black beans, including my own [which, unfortunately, aren't as good]). Lynn liked the blacks beans at Havana Cafe better than the black bean soup at Bayona however she said she liked the texture of Bayona's black bean soup better. Me and Lynn both enjoyed the sopa de xin xin with it's spiciness, chucks of beef, cilantro, and the occasional peanut. We were both pleased with lunch, proving that appetizers are really the way to go with Havana Cafe.
We were so stuffed that I didn't think we could manage a dessert, but I had already place an order for the pastelitos de guava when I ordered the food because they take over 30 minutes to prepare. The pastry was exactly the same as the pastry used for the pastelitos de carne, which is a good thing, and the filling was spiced guava and sweetened cream cheese. The guava filling was dangerous! It was like molten lava in the pastry, and I learned that the hard way when I bit into the pastry and it squirted out and burnt my lip. Once the filling cooled down from hellfire temperatures I found the flavor of the guava interesting; it was reminiscent of sweet potatoes when eaten by itself, but eaten with the cream cheese it was great. Lynn couldn't finish her's so I ate it; I hate to see a good dessert go to waste (which is why I haven't ordered the churros the last three times I've been at Barrio Cafe as no one seems to save room for dessert).
I'm kind of sad that it'll probably be awhile before I make it back to Havana Cafe (curbing unnecessary spending and all that), but I think I've exhausted almost everything I wanted to try on the menu already so it won't be missed too much... I hope.
My site is still showing a steady rise in usage (if you don't count November [super low number] since I was gone about a third of the month, and December [higher than normal numbers] because people were looking for Tia Carrere Playboy pictures and trying to download Punjabi MC's "Mundian To Back Ke [Knight Rider remix]") which makes me happy because I assume that means some people actually like this place enough to return. Anyway, there were some search terms that I thought were worth mentioning.
Yesterday me and Lynn met with Scott Schauer, a wedding photographer. We really liked Scott and the work he does so he's now our wedding photographer. Afterwards we had to find something to eat, and since we were in Scottsdale I remembered that I've been meaning to take Lynn to Havana Cafe for a while. Lunch at Havana Cafe was great. On the way home from Havana Cafe we stopped at a nursery, and looked at roses, desert plants, and even orchids. Lynn liked one of the orchids so much she bought it. Hopefully we can keep it alive. (I don't have much luck with humidity loving plants, and Lynn just doesn't have luck with plants.) Later DJ treated me and Lynn to dinner at Barrio Cafe. DJ had never been to Barrio Cafe before, and he loved the place. I don't know what impressed him the most, but it might have been the sangria.
Today my and Lynn visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. It was my first time, but I wasn't impressed. I think the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, and the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson have a better set up. Tonight we attended a Chinese New Year dinner banquet at Sampan Seafood Village. It was ten courses, and not at all expensive (which was amazing since the proceeds went to charity).
I've even made headway on my trip page editing and reading. I'm a happy camper. Tomorrow I have a lot of restaurants to write about.
Deadline met (at least the important stuff), my manager didn't seem like she thought I sounded unreasonable when I told her that what was asked for wasn't realistic, I told my boss I wanted a month off next year and he didn't even care, and I've got plans for this weekend. Today has been good to me, and now I can relax again and get back to normal. So, without further ado... food!
Recently me and Lynn have been trying to figure out the difference between strombolis and calzones. Since the only strombolis I've had have been from La Famiglia and Boston's I'm far from an expert, but Lynn says the strombolis from La Famiglia are exactly like the ones she's had in New Jersey; meat and cheese, but no sauce. Calzones are another story. All the calzones I've had have had ricotta cheese and sauce in them, but Lynn says the ones in New Jersey didn't have either. (It makes me wonder if strombolis and calzones are interchangeable in New Jersey.) Anyway, La Famiglia sells both so I finally broke down the other night and bought a calzone (pepperoni and bacon). The calzone didn't have any sauce, but it did have a mess of ricotta in it. I didn't like it. I dislike ricotta normally (which is why I don't eat calzones all that often), but I was surprised to discover that even bacon can't improve ricotta! That doesn't seem possible since bacon exemplifies everything good in meat and improves everything which leads me to believe that ricotta is the anti-bacon and should be destroyed. Now I'm not advocating going to the super market and trying to stake the ricotta through it's nonexistent heart, but it definitely deserves it.
So what did I learn from this besides ricotta is evil? Stay away from calzones since evil seems to be the main ingredient, and that bacon is no match for evil (which is probably why you don't see pictures of angels wielding crispy pieces of bacon instead of flaming swords). Oh yeah, and the bacon at La Famiglia sucks. Seriously. It had some sort of porky flavor that would have instantly had any taster on Iron Chef say, "It really tastes like you're eating pork [and not in a good way]."
I know why angels wield flaming swords, they're multifunctional; in addition to being able to vanquish evil (and ricotta cheese), they can use them to skewer seafood and grill it. The other night I was in the mood for seafood so we went to Red Lobster. (Kids don't try this at home; I'm a trained professional on a closed course. I don't know about the other Red Lobsters locations, but I know for a fact that the one at Route 60 and Alma School knows how to cook seafood properly.) I had a hard time making up my mind about what to get. I wanted scallops, but at the same time the Shrimp Rockefeller (shrimp, bacon, and spinach) sounded really good. The problem was that scallops only appear about twice on the Red Lobster menu, and neither of those items included Shrimp Rockefeller. It was strange for me to even want shrimp since I like shrimp, but I hardly ever crave it. It was even stranger that I decided on the lobster chops. I like lobster even less than shrimp, and almost never get it, but the lobster chops did sound really appetizing. They were split lobster tails (in-shell) wrapped around a scallop, skewered, and grilled. The reality of the dish turned out to be even tastier than it sounded on paper. It was so good it had me "Mmm..."ing and wanting to dance around in my seat. If all lobster tasted that good all the time I would be a lobster lover. I swear that grilled seafood (be it scallops, shrimp, lobster, or fish) is the food of angels, or at least invented by them.
Today I've been super busy trying to finish a request that's due tomorrow, but I tried to finish yesterday unsuccessfully. I'm at work late right now and I still haven't finished it, but it is close. I'll get it done tomorrow, but it's exteremly unlikely that it'll be the way it was promised (not by me mind you), unless of course God enables SQL Server to read peoples' minds THEN write reports from scratch. Tomorrow morning I get to break the bad news to my manager, and tell her that the way the request was promised (once again I have to point out that I didn't promise it this way because I don't promise stupid or impossible shit) probably isn't even possible.
While I don't like being under the gun, my work lately has been pretty damn good. My SQL code is 222 lines of sheer sexy programming that can examine a years worth of information and return the useful bits in less than 10 seconds. Basically it's an overglorified report, but what they asked for was something that had never been done before (here) so I'm rather proud of it. Anyway, it's far past my quitting time so I'm leaving.
I've already got a free ticket from Southwest Airlines through their frequent flyer program, but Lynn is one flight short of getting a free ticket. Since the next time we were planning on flying on Southwest is to San Francisco for our honeymoon (or New Orleans as the case may be), I did the math and there's not that much difference between the price of Lynn's airline ticket to San Francisco (or New Orleans), and the cost of both of us flying on Southwest (so Lynn can get her free ticket) to Las Vegas and staying there one night. Naturally I prefer the option that includes me being able to get out of town so me and Lynn are going to Las Vegas on Sunday March 9th. Lotus of Siam here I come! (I better check to make sure they're open on Sundays.)
I'm more or less done with the text for my latest New Orleans trip page. I still have to proofread and edit it so it'll probably be a week before I put it online. Then I can start working on the photos for that page.
Today I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) [talk radio for those of you who don't know], and they were playing Amon Tobin's "Slowly" during one of the breaks. I couldn't believe it. At least I don't feel so old listening to NPR now.
Yesterday we went grocery shopping at the Albertson's down the street because the selection of New York strip steaks at the Fry's right by our apartment has been sucking lately. Albertson's didn't have the steaks as thick as we wanted, but we called the butcher and he cut them the weight we wanted. The one thing Albertson's didn't have was creamed spinach, at least not where it was easy to find. We scoured the freezer isle and found Green Giant creamed spinach. It wasn't what I wanted, but I didn't have a lot of choice. I made it (with some really tsty steaks) later during the Super Bowl, and it sucked; there wasn't nearly enough "creamed" in the creamed spinach.
Tonight I had to get some stuff from Fry's for green chile, and I decided to grab some Boston Market creamed spinach, and they didn't have any! Bastards. They stopped carrying Stouffer's creamed spinach too.
I'm working on a request (project, job, or whatever you want to call it) at work right now, and it's driving me a little nuts. It was given to me last week, and I finished about half of the request without any problems, but the other half of the request doesn't make a lot of sense to me. What I'm being asked to do doesn't seem like it'll result in what they want so I'm sitting here trying to figure out a way to make it work. The thing that irks me is the person who gave it to me is paid to make sense of what the clients want, then communicate it clearly enough to me that I can work on it without having to figure out what's being requested, but I'm not finding that to be the case. This person is just as bad as a confused client. Anyway, I need to get back to figuring this out.
Oh yeah, I didn't talk to my boss about what I thought of his meeting last Friday, but I did talk to my manager about it. We'll see what comes of it.
Yesterday I finished "The Fifth Elephant" and started Orson Scott Card's "Xenocide" (which is one of the two books I need to read to finish the Ender series). I haven't read enough of it to say if it's good or not, but it has been interesting so far.
Yesterday (and today when I wasn't watching the Super Bowl) I was also busy writing my New Orleans trip page. It shouldn't be too much longer before I get the text for the entire trip page finished since I'm almost done with our last night there. The only thing I need to write after that is the day we left, and there wasn't too much to it. I was surprised to learn that the only other trip page I've written that was bigger was the Europe page, and after I get this one done it might be bigger. That's pretty amazing considering I didn't think we did much on this trip.
Earlier today me and all the other programmers were called into our boss's office for an impromptu meeting with our manager and our boss. Our boss proceeds to tell us that he was in a meeting with some important people earlier and they said something about how the programmers don't do a good job, and we need to help him figure out at way to change their perception. There was also mention that if we didn't find a way to change perception that a year from now we might find ourselves only doing maintenance work because all the work of creating applications would be done by [smarter, sexier] consultants.
Now I know he doesn't believe we do bad work. I know he remembers that the only thing that most consultants have over us that ends in -er is "higher paid". It seems odd that he would do this, but it's not unexpected. I didn't realize it at the time, but the situation was pretty familiar; this kind of bullshit was sprung on me by my last boss. Both of them seem to excel at delivering ambiguous negative messages about our work, and making it our responsibility to fix it. It's funny because they never ask the nameless accusers about specific issues that could be addressed. It's impossible to fix the non-specific because it's non-specific; how would you ever know when it was fixed? Feh! Now that I'm thinking about it I need to let my boss know how unfair it was doing that today. I don't know what he thought the outcome would be, but he seems to have pissed off some of his programmers.
Recently Fuji announced that it's created a new type of image sensor. What's interesting about it is that instead of having one sensor per pixel it has two; one to pick up the general image and the other to pick up the details. (It's a lot more complicated than that, but if you want the specifics you can read the article.) Fuji claims that the two sensor combination will extend the dynamic range of the photos taken with their new image sensor. (Dynamic range is important because the greater the dynamic range the less likely you are to have highlights that appear as only white instead of actual detail. If you still don't understand the concept of dynamic range look at DPreview's explanation.)
With this announcement from Fuji it finally seems like digital camera manufacturers are coming up with real second generation type image sensors. The new Foveon and Fuji image sensors demonstrate that there are more ways to improve digital cameras than by merely making larger sensors. I hope this is something that continues, and we see even more different types of images sensors that raise the level of digital photography.
Recently I've received the cigars from my two trades. I have to say that trades are a great way to get random cigars. They're also a convenient way to off-load cigars you don't like without wasting them by throwing them away. Since everyone's tastes are different it's even possible that they'll actually enjoy them. (The other thing is that my tastes tend to be so different from other cigar smokers that I like what they don't, and vice versa.)
After finally getting finished writing about the first day of my New Orleans trip I started reading Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad". The book never seems to pick up, but a couple of people have told me that it does get better, although I may never find out. I didn't finish it (although I probably will someday) because I found an even better book to read; Terry Pratchett's "The Fifth Elephant". It's amazing because this book is completely different from the every other Pratchett book I've read; this book is all about politicks and international intrigue. It's a pretty good distraction while I wait for the next George R. R. Martin book.
Today I found out the owner of The Rebel Alliance Network has decided to pull the plug on his site. I guess he was really burnt out. Too bad since the site had some really funny stuff on it. What really sucks is that I had to go through and delete or update links I had to that site. I really should learn to just archive [steal] other people's stuff.
Work actually has me busy these days. I don't get to write much, and I hardly get a chance to listen to as much music as I normally do. I can't say I'm not enjoying the work though.
I have been hard at work on my New Orleans trip page in case you were wondering.
Tonight I made the ultimate corned beef and cabbage! My corned beef has always been good, but tonight I decided to do something a little different. I boiled the corned beef like normal, but after the corned beef was done boiling I put it fat side up in the oven and broiled it until the fat got crispy. (It didn't get completely crispy, but it was a quarter inch of fat so what do you expect?) I then took it out of the oven and covered it in my usual mustard and brown sugar glaze, and put it back in the oven to brown the glaze a little. The crispy fat made all the difference in the world.
I didn't do anything different with the cabbage, but I did use less water to boil the corned beef so I think the flavor in the corned beef water (which I used to boil the cabbage) was more concentrated than usual.
Anyway, if you're a corned beef fan give the broiling trick a try, I think you'll like it.
Today, my favorite yokozuna, Takanohana retired.
I was feeling a little too good about my New Orleans restaurant picture (from my 1/3 post), so I decided to have someone evaluate it for me. Picture evaluation is something I grew accustomed to in photography class; it could be brutal, but it also provided useful information. The only person I could think of with the experience to do a useful evaluation was Gordon, who has probably taken good pictures for longer than I've been alive. (The last time me and Lynn were at Gordon's house he showed us his collection of vintage cameras, most of which were bought when they came out and he just never got rid of them.)
Needless to say Gordon was brutal; he was nice about it, but he was still brutal. He did start by telling me that he liked the picture and he would rate it a 7.5 out of 10, then tore into it. He didn't tell me anything I didn't know, just what I chose not to notice too closely. In the end he reminded me that I'm not shameless enough to be a real photographer. If he had taken the picture I have no doubt that he would have stood there as long as it took to take the perfect picture. I'm a ninja photographer. I prefer to take the picture so quickly that no one could even tell that I've done it. I'm slowly getting over it, but I still feel that way in overly public places. The picture could have used some fill flash, but my camera doesn't have a fill flash option. I'm sure Gordon would have had a 35mm SLR with a real flash attached to it. I like having an inconspicuous camera that fits in a jacket pocket. (Part of being a ninja photographer is keeping the camera hidden.)
Anyway, the other night I looked at the photos I took on that first day in New Orleans with a more critical eye, and I wasn't satisfied with my pictures. They look decent, but now I see all the problems with the pictures. I guess it'll be a while before I start feeling smug about my photos again, but maybe my pictures will get better though. Thanks Gordon.
New York style pizza is good, but it doesn't compare to the Italian style pizza I had in Philadelphia that started my quest for great pizza in Phoenix. I prefer the thinner crust and more natural sauce of the elegantly simple Italian style pizza to the thicker crusted and overly doctored pizza sauces I've had on New York style pizzas. I haven't run across too many Italian style pizza places in Phoenix; only one I can remember and they didn't impress me at all.
Yesterday I remembered that Naples has a few Italian style pizzas on their menu. Last night I ordered the capricciosa (prosciutto, artichoke hearts, and olives [which I later removed because I really can't stand olives, at all]) which was very similar in ingredients (prosciutto, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms) to the pizza I had in Philly. The ingredients on both pizzas were very good. They were also similar in that both of their pizza sauces had the same bright, fresh tomato flavor that bewilders you with how great tomatoes can taste. The crust of the Naples pizza was thicker, and it had a sourdough flavor which I found a little odd, but I learned to accept and enjoy. Overall the Naples pizza was pretty damn good, and I'll get it again in the future, but it wasn't as good as the Philly pizza. At least if I don't find a pizza in Phoenix as good as the Philly pizza I'll have found a lot of really good pizza in the process.
Yesterday I sent my "Pay it Forward" winner his cigars (which included a lot of my favorite cigars). Today I got an email from Cusano saying they sent me a Killer Cameroon "Toro". I had sent my "Pay it Forward" winner two of these because the Killer Cameroon "Toro" is my second favorite cigar of all time! How's that for karma?
The likelihood of me and Lynn skiing this weekend is pretty much zero. We got into a fight about something this morning, and the ski trip was one of the casualties. We'll see if they're any more later today.
Since it's going to be a while before I can afford to buy all sorts of cigars I decided to take advantage of the trading board on Herfer's Paradise. Right now I'm involved in two different trade type things, and I have no idea what I'm getting in return. The first is a "pay it forward" game where you win and the winner from the day before sends you cigars, then the next day you send the next winner cigars. I won yesterday (it'll probably be this weekend before I find out what I've won), and today I'm gathering up cigars to send to today's lucky winner. I hope he likes the stuff I'm sending him. The other thing is a "newbie trade" where someone buys one of the older guys (or FOGs as they refer to them) a box of something they want, then the FOG bombs them back with cigars at least worth as much as the box. Both depend on trust and a certain amount of generosity, and amazingly the system seems to work. I just hope I'm being generous enough, since generosity is not a normal thing for me.
Yesterday I noticed that I have Monday the 20th off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It's a good thing because time off is always good, but I also remembered me and Lynn are supposed to go skiing this weekend. On a three day holiday. I'd like to put skiing off for another week, but I think Lynn would kill me.
Yesterday I was happy because I finally finished writing the first day of my trip page. I felt accomplished, and it felt like I finished it faster than normal. Later I thought about it, and it took me a month to finish. Given that it takes me about three months to finish the text for one three day trip I didn't get it done any faster, I did it just as fast as normal. How disappointing.
These are places I eat at so often I don't bother to write about them.
In the same shopping center as Naples there's a pizza shop that I had been avoiding. They have a large sign on the window which states "Pizza by the Slice", which isn't exactly a sign of quality pizza to me. Well after mine and Lynn's pizza experience in Philadelphia I became a lot more aware of pizza places. Not that long after we came back I also noticed another sign on their window, "Real New York Pizza". I was ready to give the place a try.
The first time I went in I got a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza and an antipasto salad. I wasn't impressed by the slice of pizza; the crust was very good, but there was too much cheese and not enough sauce on it. I thought it would be worthwhile to try one of their whole pizzas some other time. The antipasto salad was very good with all sorts of quality ingredients except for the iceberg lettuce. They could have made it with romaine.
The second time I tried the place I got a pepperoni and ham stromboli, linguini with broccoli, garlic, and oil, penne with sun dried tomatoes and artichokes, and a cannoli. The stromboli totally kicked butt! The cheese was really good, the balance between cheese and ingredients was perfect, and their tomato dipping sauce was excellent. The linguini sucked; it was practically tasteless. For something that was supposed to feature garlic as a main flavor I hardly tasted it. The penne was much better. It was in a cheese sauce that was tasty and rich. You couldn't eat a lot of it, but you didn't have to since it reheated well. The cannoli was bad; it had the same somewhat pasty texture that most poorly made cannoli have.
The third time we had a pepperoni and ham stromboli, an Italian sausage, pepper, and onion stromboli, and a dozen hot wings. The hot wings were typical of hot wings you can get from anywhere. The strombolis were both great. The Italian sausage was the sliced variety (which I've come to recognize as less than quality sausage), but theirs was really good.
The other day I ordered a bruschetta pizza (tomato sauce, fresh tomato, onion, garlic, basil, and olive oil on a Sicilian crust), a pepperoni and ham stromboli (which Lynn is addicted to), a caesar salad, and a slice of mango-raspberry cheesecake. When I went to pick up the pizza I was surprised because it was one of the largest pizzas I've ever seen. I didn't ask what a Sicilian crust was, but what I saw was a large, thick square crust that hardly fit into a large pizza box. It would have been enough to feed at least five people! When I got it home I picked up a rather hefty slice of pizza, and was amazed by the beautiful crust; it was crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. It wasn't dense like you might expect. The topping was fresh, pungent, and delicious. The only thing I think would have made it better is a bit of feta cheese to give it a little saltiness and meatiness. The caesar salad had a better than average caesar dressing. The cheesecake was disappointing. The raspberry portion of it was good, but the mango wasn't very well expressed so it wasn't obviously mango and it just tasted weird. That's the second dessert from La Famiglia I haven't liked. They also make tiramisu, but I don't think I'll try it any time soon.
I've been holding off on writing this review because the whole reason I went there was for their New York style pizza, and I still haven't had a chance to try it. (I really don't think a couple of reheated slices is a proper way to judge their New York pizza making skills.) Well after this last time I realized that La Famiglia is our neighborhood Italian place, and that more than merits a review. They have a good variety of items, good food, and they're cheap enough to eat at often. I'm happy I stopped in.
Today me and Lynn went back to the housing development to look at the layout of the two story model we liked. It actually seemed very well done. I'm not crazy about the windows they used, but other than that it seemed better than your average new home. Too bad we don't have the money to get a house right now.
Me and Lynn talked about it, and for a variety of reason we're putting off skiing until next weekend.
Me and Lynn are supposed to go Flagstaff to ski this Sunday, but Lynn doesn't feel well today at all so we'll see if we actually make it this time.
)
Far from a recent picture, this is one of the first pictures I took with my digital camera. I was just screwing around just trying to see what the capabilities of the camera were, and what the pictures would look like. Normally I loathe still lifes because they're so damn boring, but I think you'll find this one a little more interesting if you look at it closely.
So I've just spent more time reading restaurant reviews than I probably should have, and I've come to the conclusion I'm not a thing like a professional restaurant reviewer (other than the very obvious lack of getting paid for writing about food). I don't write a thing like a professional restaurant reviewer, and, for the most part, I don't want to. Professional reviewers always seem to have to do their homework and write about the history of a restaurant, and interview the chef or owner. Sometimes it's interesting, but often I feel like they're trying to stretch their content to make their 1,000 word minimum (or whatever it is) instead of talking about the food. Then there are times when they do talk about food, and I'd wish they'd stop. Everything is described in such flowery language that it's like the written equivalent of the "dj voice" of a radio dj.
Anyway, there are the other occasions when professional reviewers write about food in a way that seems perfect (to me), but I know I'll never be able to write that way. Sometimes I'm surprised people read my stuff; not that I think it's all bad, but it could definitely be improved. Maybe in time I'll pick up some of the things I like about professional reviewers, but lately I've felt like all my reviews have started to sound the same. Everything seems to take forever to write too. I think I'm burning out. Maybe I'll just take a picture and save myself 1,000 words.
I looked at Mainichi Daily News today to see what was going on in Japan when I saw an article titled "Takanohana takes up tournament challenge". Takanohana, my favorite sumo wrestler from back in the day when ESPN or ESPN2 used to actually show sumo on tv, will be demoted from his yokozuna status (the highest ranking in sumo) if he doesn't perform well in this next basho in January. I hope he does well, or at least retires while he's still a yokozuna.
This morning I had a hard time getting to work on time because I was just flipping through channels when I turned on some show on the Food Network called "Cooking Live" (which sounds like a loser program to me), but it turns out the guest chef was Walter Staib, the owner of City Tavern. I was glued to the tv for about 15 minutes watching Walter Staib make a delicious looking dish of stewed turkey with fried oysters. It's not something I would normally eat (only being able to stand turkey about twice a year), but after watching him make it I'd give it a try.
I haven't written a review for City Tavern yet, but City Tavern is quite a unique experience. They're a historical recreation of a colonial restaurant so the food, drinks, cutlery, and waitron style of dress all match the period. You'd think that the restaurant is just a novelty, a favorite for school field trips, but the food there is really good. It was actually one of the best meals I had while me and Lynn were in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey area for Thanksgiving. (I say one of the best because we had so many great meals that it's impossible to say that only one was the best.)
Anyway, if you're in Philadelphia I'd definitely recommend City Tavern. I know I'd be there often if I lived in Philly.
"American Pie 2" didn't suck as much as Austin Powers, but it wasn't as good as the original "American Pie" (which still isn't saying much). It was a typical sequel; not a complete waste of time, but not worth the price of anything over a matinee ticket either.
What is there to say about "Austin Powers in Goldmember" besides it sucks? I think I'm just in a bad mood because of looking for a wedding photographer, but it's still true that the movie sucked. There were remarkably few funny moments in it for a comedy.
Lynn has decided that since I'm the one who's picky about photographers that looking for the wedding photographer should be my responsibility. I don't disagree. Yesterday I started looking at web sites for local wedding photographers and I was reminded—and this isn't true of all of them, but the vast majority#151;just how little talent wedding photographers have. It seems like most people who aren't good enough to be commercial photographers (or even fine art photographers) become wedding photographers. Most of the sample pictures I saw yesterday looked like snapshots your friend Bob could have taken. It makes me wonder if most people don't know the difference between good and crappy photography, or if they just don't care. I guess this is how Noah feels when he listens to a famous dj put on a bad show, and then hears people talk about how great the famous dj was afterward.
There were a couple of photographers who were actually decent (their shots looked well composed, and poor composition is one of the easiest and worst mistakes a photographer can make). I was especially impressed given that wedding photography is tough: bad lighting, busy backgrounds, too many people to deal with, and extremely dependent on good timing it's not a profession I would choose to get into. The nice thing about being an amateur photographer is I get to have an opinion about other peoples' photography, and there's no expectation that mine will actually be any good.
In addition to finding some good photographers I also saw a particular type of shot that I think I'm going to steal. This one (very expensive) photographer used infrared black and white film to take pictures of couples surrounded by trees and bushes. Infrared black and white film records reflected infrared light as white, so the leaves of plants and trees have a white, warm, fuzzy appearance that gives the entire picture a certain fantastic look that I dig. It looks like I'm going to have to practice with infrared film so that I understand how to use it well enough that I can instruct someone else how to take the pictures. (Cameras don't meter for infrared light which makes exposure a little tricky, and because it's not in the visible light range the image looks slightly out of focus when you're trying to properly focus it for infrared. Fun stuff.)
When your favorite chef recommends a restaurant to you, it would do good to listen. That's what Lynn and I did when Chef Neal (NOLA's Chef de Cuisine) recommended Janos in Tucson. Chef Neal told us that Janos was where he started his culinary career, and he also said the food there was insanely good. That's as good a recommendation as any place can get to me so I looked up the menu online. The food on the sample menu looked very creative and very good. If the combination of French and Southwest cuisine from Janos' kitchen are Chef Neal's roots then I can see why the eclectic cuisine of NOLA seems to suit him.
Saturday we had a reservation, and this time Lynn was not feeling sick so we didn't have to cancel it. We got there a little early, and were seated immediately. The menu didn't have the largest selection I'd ever seen, but Lynn and I were able to find a couple of items that sounded good to us. We were looking for a little wine (neither of us was really drinking) to compliment our meal, but the wine list was actually a very large book so we needed the services of the assistant sommelier. He recommended a couple of half bottles that could go well with most of our meal, and we decided on the Ridge Vineyards "Lytton Springs Zinfandel 2000" from California. It was slightly bitter with a dry finish. I thought it was ok while Lynn really liked it.
Lynn and I both ordered an appetizer, and the waitress asked us if we wanted them split. I said yes, but I was surprised when they brought the food out. The first appetizer came out split on two plates as the first course. Later the second appetizer would also come split on two plates as the second course. I've never been to a restaurant where they bring the appetizers out separately as courses (unless it's a tasting menu) so this was a nice experience.
Our first appetizer was the lobster tail in champagne butter sauce with pureed carrot and spinach mousse, papaya, fresh mint, and garnished with julienned carrots. It was absolutely amazing! The champagne butter sauce was rich and had a great mellow flavor (which occasionally got a nice kick from the fresh mint), but it wasn't so rich that you couldn't eat it after a couple of spoonfuls. It was so good I ate everything on my plate just to have an excuse to eat it, even the carrots (which I hate)! The mousse was also pretty tasty. The only thing that wasn't tasty was the papaya, but it's easy to overlook when it's still something you can slather in the champagne butter sauce.
Our second appetizer was the carnitas stuffed bacon wrapped quail on top of caramelized onions and a johnny cake. I don't remember what kind of sauce came with it, but had a nice earthiness and it was excellent. The quail and carnitas were overpowered by the bacon, but I found myself not really caring about the details again; the total combination was something warm and delicious that I just wanted to enjoy without examining. I tried the wine with the appetizer and it had a slight oak scent, and pleasant mild oak flavor. I'm not a big fan of oak, but it tasted much better with the appetizer than without.
My entree was a brown sugar glazed apple stuffed pork chop with succotash, apple fritter, and fresh baby vegetables. Once again I don't remember what sort of sauce was on my food, but it tasted like a sweet and hot barbecue sauce. The pork chop was great with or without it. The big surprise for me was the succotash; it was such a good flavor combination I could have eaten an entire bowl of it. The apple fritter was good by itself, even though it could have used a crispier batter, and excellent with the sauce. The baby vegetables were delicious, and I ate almost all of them (I believe I only left the baby carrots and baby turnip). If I wasn't as full as I was I would have wiped my entire plate clean of everything edible (including the carrots and turnip). I tried the wine with my pork chop and it tasted like it's regular flavor without the bitterness; not great, but a definite improvement.
Lynn's entree was the beef tenderloin with a chile infused hollandaise and a red wine sauce, potato croquettes, sauteed mushrooms, and fresh baby vegetables. The tenderloin was excellent. The chile hollandaise provided a nice flavor, but I quickly got tired of it. It was too rich, and it's flavor a little too strong for the steak. The red wine sauce proved to be a more sustainable combination. Towards the end I tried the steak without any of the sauces and it was good enough to eat on it's own. The croquettes were ok so it was a good idea to eat them with a sauce. The mushrooms were excellent with a meaty flavor and texture without the usual earthiness I hate in mushrooms. I tried the wine with the beef, and it had a heavy oak scent and flavor which I felt was too much. Naturally Lynn thought it was the best combination, but she was still a little stuffed up so she didn't get the wallop of oak that I did.
For dessert Lynn had a rum creme brulee and strawberry napoleon, and I had a dark chocolate jalapeno ice cream sundae with candied pecans. The selection of dessert wines looked really good so we both ordered one. Lynn had a glass of Callaghan Vineyards 1999 Zinfandel port because it was from Arizona, and I had a Chambers Rosewood Vineyards "Tokay" from Rutherglen, Australia which was recommended for the ice cream. The wines arrived before the desserts did so we took a couple of swallows of both. The Callaghan was a deep red color, and had a very light raspberry type scent. There was not much flavor, but it was very smooth with a dry finish. Lynn insisted that it would match well with the creme brulee. The Chambers was a thing of beauty; it had a mostly tawny color fading to a light red. There were raisins and brown sugar in the nose, and in the flavor. It was also super smooth with a nice medium body. I totally dug it; it's definitely one of the best dessert wines I've had which means all three of the best dessert wines I've had have been Australian. The desserts arrived, and I couldn't wait to taste the chocolate jalapeno ice cream. It was cool, chocolatey, and creamy, but it also started a slow burn in my mouth. I was surprised with how hot they made it, but I liked it! I tried the wine with the ice cream and I didn't think it was well matched with the dessert; it had lost most of it's flavor, and it moved the fire from my mouth to the back of my throat. It wasn't a very pleasant sensation, and the mild finish that followed was nice, but not as good as it was without the dessert. Lynn's wine actually matched very well with her dessert, just like she said it would. After eating some of her dessert the scent of the wine was significantly stronger, with lots of berry scents, and the berries really came out in the flavor too. It was impressive. I wasn't impressed with Lynn's dessert though. The strawberries were ripe (and this is only the second time I've ever been served ripe berries anywhere), but the creme brulee didn't taste like custard. Naturally Lynn liked it because it didn't taste like custard. To each their own.
In the end I would say the food at Janos was amazing, and the service was impeccable. They also served me one of the very few perfect four course meals that I've ever had the pleasure of eating. The price is comparable to Restaurant Hapa, but unlike Hapa I don't have to think about whether the food is worth it, I already know the food is worth it. In fact I would say Janos is second only to NOLA, and NOLA gets the edge for the chef's bar, and their consistency. I'm sure given a couple more meals Janos would prove itself consistent, leaving the chef's bar NOLA's only advantage (but what an advantage). If you're in Tucson and looking for a good meal I would definitely recommend Janos. I would even recommend Janos if you're in Phoenix and looking for a good meal; it's worth the drive.
Right now I have the same problem that everyone who probably owns a digital camera does; not enough storage. Lately I've been taking pictures at less than my camera's highest resolution because I'm worried about running out of storage space. I started looking into buying a 512 megabyte compact flash card, and a card reader for about $200. I was pretty much set on them when I remembered digital wallets. A digital wallet is basically a portable hard drive with a slot for a compact flash card so you can download images from your memory card into the much higher capacity digital wallet. It basically gives you unlimited storage out in the field. I can get a 20 gigabyte (gig) digital wallet for about $340, or 30 gig digital wallet with a color lcd panel so I can review my pictures for about $570. It's tempting. Getting a larger memory card would solve the problem for now, but a digital wallet would be more useful over the long run if I get a higher resolution digital camera.
Maybe I just need to clear all the pictures currently on my memory cards.
Yesterday me and Lynn decided to look at a new housing development that's right by our apartment. It didn't take long for me to remember how much I hate new homes. Half of the home designs had the garage in front of the house so that when you looked at the house all you pretty much saw was the garage. I can't believe people like that sort of thing. Anyway, we liked the blueprint and elevation of the only kind of one story house they built, so we took a tour of one. Walking through the layout, and seeing it in relation to it's neighbors we realized that it sucked. There of walls with 45 degree angles (which makes furnishing difficult), and there were lots of windows looking at either a wall or the neighbor's house. We were given a packet with all the layouts, and later we did find a two story design that we might actually like. We'll check it out sometime in the future, but I seriously doubt we'll be able to pay off a mortgage and the wedding at the same time. At least looking at houses I can afford is a lot more fun than going to central Phoenix and getting depressed and pissed off at the high prices of the homes in the neighborhoods I would like to live in.
Last night I watched the Fiesta Bowl. It was an amazing game. Normally I don't watch football, but one of the guys from Torano cigars had a contest where if you guessed the correct outcome from last night's game you'd get a free box of Toranos. My prediction was 31 to 17 in Miami's favor so I was disappointed when Miami lost. I was even more disappointed to discover that my prediction had already been used by someone earlier, and I didn't notice it before writing my own, so even if the game came out as I predicted I still wouldn't have won the box of cigars.
After the game I decided to smoke the excellent Torano Nicaraguan Selection "Petite Corona" to mourn Miami's loss and my lack of paying attention. I forgot to grab a Dr. Pepper instead of a Coke, and cigars that match well with one don't match well with the other, so the cigar didn't taste as good.
Me and Lynn actually made it to Freedom to see Dara, and Dara sucked. We couldn't even stand to listen to him for an hour. The show was pretty cheap so it wasn't a real waste of money, but it was a disappointing way to end the night.
At least tonight we finally get to eat at Janos.
)
Wow, traffic increased 30% from it's previous all time high in October. That makes me pretty happy considering how low traffic was in November, even if I could explain it. Amazingly enough no one found my site using really strange search terms so there's no free content from the access logs this month. Maybe people will get back to finding my site using strange porn searches this month.
Tonight is Dara at Freedom. I'd like to say I'm going to go, but I've changed my mind before.
From Steve:
Thanks guy.
This New Year's Eve we had dinner at Restaurant Hapa (just like last year). This year they offered the choice between a prix fixe menu or a seven course tasting menu. The prix fixe sounded good, but there were a couple of appetizers that I wanted to try, and with the prix fixe you could only choose one. Well, the tasting menu had a lot of the dishes we wanted to try, and it had an optional wine pairing that sounded good to Lynn so we both got the tasting menu, and Lynn got the wine pairing. Since I didn't get a wine pairing I just ordered a glass of Gunderloch Riesling kabinett since I can't seem to go wrong with German Rieslings lately. It turned out it was a good wine, with a short finish that tasted exactly like the Austrian Riesling Lynn had in New Orleans.
The first course was seared foie gras with marmalade and 50 year old balsamic vinegar, and the wine was Bella "Late Harvest Zinfandel". I don't know why seared foie gras sounded good to me since the last time I had it I thought it tasted like warm fat, but it did sound good to me. It still tasted like warm fat, but it was pretty decent with the balsamic vinegar. The Zinfandel smelled very much like grape juice, and even tasted like grape juice (which surprised me because I had yet to taste a wine that actually tasted like grapes) with hardly a hint of alcohol. Lynn loved the wine, and it's something I could drink too.
The second course was something Lynn was really looking forward to, the hamachi sashimi. There were two slices of hamachi on the plate and there was also yuzu juice, hijiki, red onion, that Japanese black sesame seed stuff (that I don't know the name of), and a little rock salt. The wine for the course was Fukucho "Moon on Water" junmai ginjo sake. The hamachi was pretty good. The yuzu juice kept it from tasting fishy, while the red onion had the opposite effect and seemed to make it taste super fishy, and the little bit of black sesame seeds and rock salt would punch up the fish a little bit. I don't care for sashimi (all raw fish and no rice!?), but I readily finished off both pieces of the hamachi. Lynn loved it. The sake was ok; subtle flavors followed by a lot of alcohol flavor. I've had better.
The third course was braised Chinese style bacon, and the wine was Beckman "Grenache Rosé". My "bacon" was a cube of fat with a very thin layer of meat on the bottom. Actually, I guess that's almost exactly like bacon, but I wanted it to be meatier. I think Lynn's had twice as much meat as mine, but that's still not to say she had very much meat. The flavor was ok. If you ate it with the seared scallion and the sauce it could even pass for good. I had a minuscule bit that was crispy, and I would have to say that it was brilliant, but it was tiny, and Lynn's piece didn't have any crispy bits. I didn't taste the Grenache, but Lynn tried it and she's learned that she's not a fan of the varietal.
The fourth course was roast monk fish with curried vegetables (potatoes and other stuff), and the wine was Mark Tempe "Riesling". This course was amazing! The monk fish went perfectly with the spicy Thai style yellow curry, and the curried vegetables were absolutely delicious. I would go back to Hapa for this dish alone. Even better, the Rieslings interacted with the curry in a way I've never had wine interact with food before. Both of the Rieslings had a noticeable alcoholic scent, and that seemed to completely disappear after you ate the curry. What was left was this heavenly scent that just made you want to drink the wine. When you actually drank the wine it started a little bitter, but once the bitterness disappeared you were left with a flavor that was exactly like the scent. It was impressive. Lynn's Rieslings didn't taste like the glass I had; it was a lot more bitter, and it had a longer finish. It's saving grace was yet another new thing for me; when I drank the wine I could feel the top of the tip of my tongue sort of puff up. It was actually a very pleasant sensation. After eating the curry I got the same sensation, but this time it occurred on the back of my tongue. Very curious.
The intermezzo (fifth course) was an Asian pear sorbet, and a champagne that I hated and Lynn loved with the sorbet. The sorbet was excellent; a little more than mildly sweet, with tiny bits of pear still in it. Very refreshing.
The sixth course was Snake River Farms Kobe style beef with taro puree and galanga glaze, and the wine was Merry Edwards "Pinot Noir". [In case you didn't know, the cows from Snake River Farms are the same type of cows as the famed Kobe beef cows hence the "Kobe style".] Kobe beef is something I've always wanted to taste ever since I heard about it so I was really looking forward to this dish even if it wasn't exactly Kobe beef, it was close enough for the time. Surprisingly the beef tasted obviously different from any other beef I've had. Lynn summed it up when she asked, "Where's the beefiness?" It lacked the normal beef flavor, but what it lacked in obvious beef flavor it made up for in a mildly delicious kind of gaminess that seems reserved especially for beef. Sometimes it was so mild you had to concentrate to notice it, and other times it was more apparent, but I totally dug it either way. The galanga glaze (and I'm going to have to find out exactly what galanga is) was sweet, and went very well with the steak. The only odd thing on the plate was the pureed taro; it wasn't bad, just a little pasty and not especially good. I tried the Pinot Noir, and all I tasted was alcohol. Lynn pretty much had the same experience with the wine.
The final course was assorted desserts. This was the first course where me and Lynn didn't get the exact same thing. We both got four different little desserts apiece: assorted cookies, mandarin orange creme brulee on top of expresso mousse, expresso and cocoa creme brulee, tropical fruit pound cake, chocolate truffle cake, coconut sorbet (which tasted exactly like Thai coconut ice cream), and Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream. The big winners were the coconut sorbet and vanilla bean ice cream, everything else was merely ok to below average.
Twice I've been to Hapa and twice I've had mixed feelings about the place. The first time I enjoyed the experience more than I enjoyed the food. This time I loved the entrees, and I was impressed with the creativity of the food, but I wouldn't order any of the appetizers a second time, and the only dessert items I liked were the frozen ones. I would like to go there and actually order from the regular menu at least once, but I'd feel a little guilty knowing that for the money NOLA in New Orleans is a much better value. I guess I'll deal with the guilt once, and maybe Hapa will prove itself worth the money with it's regular menu.
Recently I bought a Prometheus Legend X lighter because I didn't have a torch lighter, and they come in
really handy when you're trying to light your cigar in the wind (and since I always smoke outside the
situation comes up often enough). I ordered the lighter over the internet without first finding one
locally to examine. That was a mistake; the lighter arrived, and I wasn't too impressed with it's
build quality. The lighter part worked like a charm, but everything seemed put together a little looser
than I expected. I decided to give it a try and smoke a couple of cigars with it. The lighter worked
as expected, and the little bullet punch in the bottom of the lighter was sweet, but in the end I
couldn't get over how loose everything felt (and the fact that I chipped part of the finish on the lid
one of the times I closed it) so I decided to return it. The experience left me not wanting to buy
another Prometheus lighter, and it also made me dissatisfied with my current bullet punch.
I found an Xikar bullet punch somewhat cheap so I bought it. The blade works
just as well as the one in the bottom of the Prometheus lighter, but it doesn't have the whole "hot
knife through butter" feel the Prometheus one did. Too bad Prometheus doesn't make a bullet punch
that's not already attached to a lighter.
One of the Christmas presents Lynn got me was a Coleman stainless steel cooler (I wrote about wanting one in October). It only arrived earlier this week, but I've already converted it into a coolador. Not that I really need that much storage capacity, but it will be nice to buy a box or two, and just store the entire box. Anyway, when I checked on the cooler yesterday it was at 72% humidity and ready for cigars. It'll be a while before I buy a box of anything, but it is nice to have the option.
I'm back to work today.
