It's been a long time since I've eaten at Via Marie because I'd been holding a grudge against them for not being open the last three times I went there. Well it's been a while since I've had a great shredded beef hard taco (the ones at Restaurant Charo's don't count even though they're great because they're a completely different style) so I went there for lunch today. I had a shredded beef hard taco and a green chile tostada. It's amazing how good beef, lettuce, and cheese combined with a deep fried corn tortilla can be. I really missed Via Marie so I hope they don't start acting flaky again.
When Lynn and I were laying the bamboo floor for our house the only things we did were lay flooring and eat. We could have cooked ourselves, but I needed to eat out to preserve my sanity. One night we were really grubby so I didn't want to eat at one of my regular restaurants. It had been forever since we had been to Frank & Charlie's (ever since they replaced their excellent barbecue sauce with cloying crap), and I doubted we would return there again anyway so it seemed like the perfect choice.
One of best things at Frank & Charlie's used to be their garlic dinner rolls so of course they don't make them anymore. We started with onion strings which were a little over battered, but not bad. They even tasted pretty good with spicy ranch dressing, but I still missed their garlic dinner rolls.
I had a New York strip steak with roasted red potatoes. The steak was well seasoned, tender, juicy, and pretty good. The red potatoes weren't fully cooked. Lynn had the prime rib, which I thought was only decent, but I'm not a fan of prime rib.
I should have tried their barbecue to see if it had gotten better because then I'd have a reason to return; even though the steak was good I hardly ever eat steak out (I'm pretty happy with my own).
Today we wanted to grill some steaks for dinner so we stopped at Von Hanson's Meats, but they were closed over half an hour early. I was pissed because they were my only source of good beef. I used to get beef from Fry's, but after I tried Von Hanson's I couldn't stand their beef anymore. Once or twice I tried the beef at AJ's Fine Foods when Von Hanson's was closed, but I didn't think it tasted as good as Von Hanson's, plus it was more expensive too. Lynn picked up the mail when we got home, and there was a flyer from Sunflower Market. I flipped through it, and they had New York Strips (my favorite cut of beef) on sale. I had been meaning to visit Sunflower Market for a long time, but never got around to it. Sunflower seemed like they might have good beef, so now I had an excuse.
We walked in and the first thing I saw was their bakery, specifically the pan dolce [Mexican sweet bread]. The last time I tried supermarket pan dolce on a Sunday it was day old and inedible so I only got one this time. I pointed out the chocolate croissants to Lynn. We found our beef, some andouille sausage, and I went through the wine section. Their selection of domestic wines was typical of a supermarket, but their import section had some interesting wines. I even found an Australian vintage Shiraz port, which was a type of port I'd never even seen before.
I barbecued the steaks (with real mesquite charcoal that I had to go to Albertsons for since Fry's stopped carrying it), and they were great. The smoke flavor was a little strong in the steak so I couldn't taste its true beefiness, but it looks like I finally have a substitute for Von Hanson's. I had the pan dolce for dessert, and it was day old hard. How disappointing. Lynn's chocolate croissant wasn't a day old, and it was actually pretty good. Since they make their own andouille I can't wait to taste it to see if it's any good.
A few weeks ago Murray and I went to Knock Kneed Lobster (the best place I know for fried fish) for lunch. I had the fried fish with hush puppies and fried zucchini. I would have gotten the seasonal fruit, even though it was only canned fruit cocktail the last time I was there, but they got rid of it anyway.
The fried fish was perfect (as usual). Normally I love the hush puppies at Knock Kneed Lobster, but they tasted like they were missing an ingredient this time. The batter on the fried zucchini used to be too thick, but in a moment of cosmic balance they changed the batter so it was thinner and crispier. If they had seasoned the batter a little the fried zucchini would have been perfect (like the ones from George & Dragon).
I love the fish at Knock Kneed Lobster, but I really wish they'd make a good side dish that wasn't deep fried.
[Addendum 04/05/05 - I forgot to mention that Murray had the baked garlic cod. It was nasty. The cod came with a ton of soggy garlic thrown on top. It didn't smell like garlicky goodness, and the fish didn't taste right either. Just goes to show that it's not a good idea to order baked fish at a fried fish place.]
Today was Lynn's last day at work. She's basically considering her severance vacation pay so she has a three month vacation. I'm trying to find a way to take advantage of that. One of the problems we've always had was that I have more vacation time available, and more leeway to use it. Now we can take a vacation anytime in the next three months, but now we need to be able to do it cheapy (for obvious reasons). Lynn and I can't seem to come to an agreement about where to go though so we might not go anywhere. I'd like to go to Vegas because we can drive there, get a cheap hotel room, and eat very well. Driving north along the California coast to Monterey and then Napa would be fun, but it would be more expensive. Where I'd really like to go if I didn't have to worry about cost is New Orleans since I never got to go there last year. Lynn wants to go to San Diego, Disneyland, or Lake Tahoe. I don't have anything against San Diego or Lake Tahoe, but I really want to eat well.
I was so impressed with the pozole that Mucho Gusto brought to the West of Western Culinary Festival that I made it a point to visit them sometime soon. I had planned my first visit to Mucho Gusto to be lunch today, but Lynn talked me into eating there last night.
I had read about their bag chips in the AZ Central review, but it looked like they stopped that practice because the chips we were given tasted homemade. They also tasted stale, like they were a couple of hours past their prime. The salsa was somewhat hot, but it didn't have much flavor besides red chile. Lynn had a margarita with tamarind syrup, and it was tasty (there's no substitute for lime juice), but too sweet for me. Lynn liked it.
We started with a cup of pozole, and an order of the queso fundido with chorizo. The cup of pozole was served in a bowl, and seemed like a full order. Lynn decided she'd keep the bowl, and we split it (we were only charged for a cup). The soup had a white onion/white vinegar flavor that reminded me of Belizean onion sauce (made with white onions, white vinegar, and jalapeno) that I really enjoyed. This version was a little more subtle than the one they brought to the culinary festival; while I found it a little disappointing I'd order it again. Lynn was able to enjoy the soup more because the heat was toned down. I looked at the queso fundido, and it didn't look like it had chorizo in it. A quick probing with my spoon verified it. I tried it, and it was cheesy, and only alright, but Lynn liked it. I had the waitress correct our queso, and discovered that I didn't care for their chorizo (which was greasy and not very tasty). Lynn liked the queso better without the chorizo because she said it made the queso taste too salty. The queso fundido at Barrio Cafe is far superior, but the pozole as Mucho Gusto is much better than Barrio's so it's a wash comparing the two. Worth mentioning were the flour tortillas that came with the queso that were fresh and tasty enough to eat by themselves. After thinking about it I wonder if those are the raw tortillas from Costco (which I rather enjoy too).
I had the gaucho steak with chimichurri sauce, and Lynn had the amaretto shrimp. My steak had a very good flavor, and the crispy bits were especially tasty, but there was too much oil in the bottom of the plate to the detriment of my steak; I would have enjoyed it a lot more without the excess oil. Lynn didn't like the rosemary flavor of the steak. Her shrimp were in a slightly sweet amaretto butter sauce that I thought it would have been great on a pound cake, but seemed out of place on the shrimp. Lynn really dug it. Both of our dishes came with roasted vegetables and red chile mashed potatoes. The vegetables had an even stronger rosemary flavor than the steak so I knew Lynn wouldn't like them because I couldn't even stand them. The red chile mashed potatoes had a generic red chile flavor, and tasted sour to me so I couldn't stand them either. The potatoes didn't taste sour to Lynn, and she liked them.
I would have went with the walnut pudding for dessert, but they didn't have it. We finished our meal with the brownie topped with cinnamon ice cream. The brownie was somewhat dry with a generic store bought brownie flavor. We both disliked it. The cinnamon ice cream was decent.
Mexican food has so much potential that when a restaurant comes along that makes the effort to fulfill that potential it's usually impressive (like Cafe Poca Cosa or Barrio Cafe). I was expecting Mucho Gusto to make that higher level Mexican food so I was disappointed that the menu was a mix of hispanic foods. Their lunch menu was at least more taqueria style. Since I had dinner at Mucho Gusto last night I could have canceled my lunch there today, but I wanted to take the opportunity to try their lunch menu. My dinner made it obvious to me that they had potential, but other than the pozole I hadn't experienced it yet (similar to the entrees at Los Sombreros compared to the appetizers).
As it turned out I had lunch at Mucho Gusto with three other coworkers today. We were brought chips, and they weren't stale. Even the salsa seemed to have more flavor! (Maybe I only thought the salsa tasted better because the chips weren't stale?) My appetite was thoroughly whetted for lunch. I had the three fat deep fried corn tortillas (I don't remember what they called them, but I know them as gorditas) smothered with black beans and topped with (my choice) carnitas [roasted pork], carne asada [grilled beef], and machaca [stewed or shredded beef depending on who makes it]. I like my lunch quick, and they took forever to serve our food. We were all hungry and getting irritated. When the manager delivered our food he apologized for the wait, and took 15% off of our bill. That made the wait forgivable. The tortillas were very good with the black beans, and even better with the meat. The carne asada was the best of the three meats being an above average carne asada, but it could have used more flavor. The carnitas were stewed (that's the first time I've had stewed carnitas), but they were pretty good, and a close second. The machaca was shredded beef without much flavor, and I had to douse it in habanero picante sauce to make it eatable. It probably doesn't sound like it, but I was very happy with my food. I was worried that it might not be enough food to get me full, but I was stuffed when I was finished.
One of the guys had chicken tacos and Long had a torta. The guy said the chicken was pretty good, but he said the carne asada was better. When I asked him if it tasted like they salted the chicken he said it didn't. That's enough to keep me away from the chicken tacos. I didn't think the torta looked that good, but Long told me it was tasty, and since I know Long's experience with tortas I'll give their tortas a shot someday.
I was much happier with lunch today than last night's dinner, and it confirmed that their menu would be worth exploring. At least if I can't find a dinner entree I like lunch is always a viable option. Hopefully they'll start paying attention to whether the chips are fresh for dinner though.
I can't believe they're making "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" into a movie! It seems like it would be quite a challenge to adapt to film, but the trailers actually look pretty good. I wish I had time to reread the books before seeing the movie.
Lynn and I were both enthusiastic about Benjarong, but it's easy to be enthusiastic about a restaurant you haven't eaten at very often. After our last three visits we're still enthusiastic about Benjarong. On our third visit to Benjarong we tried to order the beef sate, but they were out. We ended up getting the pork wonton instead. The wonton wasn't curry flavored like any Thai wonton I've had before, but the flavor was still good. It wasn't the best appetizer we've had an Benjarong, but it was good enough to order again.
I had seen the fried whole pompano on the menu on one of my previous visits, and couldn't wait to try it. It came smothered in julienned ginger, cilantro, and other stuff. The combination was well thought out, pungent, and very tasty. The fish was very satisfying too. Lynn had the panang curry with chicken. Mr. Moo, the owner, explained to us that the yellow curry doesn't have any chile in it while the red and green curries are loaded with chiles. He also explained that the panang was yellow curry with chiles. The panang was very thick with a sweet, almost candy-ish flavor that wasn't bad. It was a little too sweet for me, but Lynn liked the flavor of the curry. She thought the dish might be better with beef though.
We ended our meal with the coconut ice cream, which was topped with sweet beans instead of roasted peanuts. The sweet beans were sweet and starchy so they weren't bad, but I prefer roasted peanuts with my coconut ice cream. Lynn didn't like the sweet beans at all, but she enjoyed the coconut ice cream.
The next visit we had the beef sate. It was served with toast points, peanut sauce, and cucumber sauce. The peanut sauce was amazingly tasty, and was a great match for the beef sate. It was also so good that when we finished the beef sate I finished off the peanut sauce with the toast points. The cucumber sauce was good too, but it wasn't as good with the beef sate as the peanut sauce.
I was in the mood for noodles, and the chicken drunken noodles (chow fun, Thai basil, fresh chiles, onions, bamboo shoots) sounded interesting. The flavor was typical Thai, being very good and very spicy. Lynn was still on her curry kick so she tried the red curry beef. I thought the flavor was sweet like the panang, but with some heat to it. It still wasn't nearly hot enough for my tastes, and I've never been a fan of sweet curry either. Lynn liked it.
The last time we were at Benjarong we didn't feel like getting an appetizer so we decided to try the nam sod (from the salad section). The nam sod was ground pork with red onion, green onion, fresh ginger, cilantro, fresh chiles, and lime juice. My first bite about killed me, but I think it was because I got half the chiles in the entire dish in that first bite. Subsequent bites were easier to deal with. The flavor was powerful, even somewhat overwhelming, but it was absolutely great. Lynn couldn't stop raving about it.
I liked the pork pad gaprow enough the first time to order it again. It was good, but the nam sod kind of muted the flavors of the pad gaprow. It like a very similar situation to the last time I ate at Los Sombreros; maybe the jicama salad really did mute the green mole. Lynn tried the masaman curry. It consisted of chicken and potatoes in what looked like the yellow curry with some chile in it. It also had that candy like scent to it that I've come to expect from their curry. The masaman was the closest thing I've tasted to a curry I'd like at Benjarong, but after four curries there I've come to the conclusion that those are the only menu items I don't like at Benjarong.
After five visits Benjarong has proven itself my favorite Thai restaurant. It's Lynn's too.
If you read "Deal Aims to Prevent Web Cigarette Sales" you'll see the sort of abuse of government power that drives me nuts. The government has circumvented the law by making an "agreement" with the major credit card companies to stop processing internet tobacco sales. They've basically taken the predominant form of payment for an internet based business (credit cards are probably used for 100% of the purchases) and disallowed it at the source. The government states there are many reasons this is necessary, but the only real motivation is the loss of tax revenue. Below are their socalled issues.
The effort is important because enforcement has been difficult, even though in many states, including New York, the Internet sale of tobacco products is illegal.
New York has a problem enforcing their law against internet tobacco sales so how do they think this "agreement" is going to help? The businesses that were breaking the law probably weren't reporting their tobacco sales as tobacco sales to begin with. If they aren't being honest with the state it's unlikely they were being honest with their credit card processor. It's almost a complete failure as a measure to stop illegal tobacco sales.
The trade undercuts traditional business operators, often avoids sales tax for states and localities, and can be a way for underage consumers to buy cigarettes and chewing tobacco before they turn 18.
The reason traditional business operators are placed at a disadvantage is because of local laws that artificially inflate their prices. If the goverment really wanted to help local business they would remove their state imposed competative disadvantage instead of trying to make it more difficult for like businesses to operate. Cigar King does brisk internet sales of cigars, but they are located in Arizona. Doesn't their dual status make them a business AZ should be trying to protect instead of making it more difficult for them to conduct their business? Almost all of these internet (cigar at least) companies are located in some state, and are local to someone.
As to underage tobacco users, how many of them really have credit cards!? This probably isn't even a real issue, but thrown in because it sounded good. If it is a real issue then wouldn't it be better addressed with more stringent credit card application screening or even plain ol' parental attention?
"ATF investigations show that millions of dollars each year in illegal sales of cigarettes are diverted to fund terrorists and criminal organizations," said Michael Bouchard, ATF assistant director for field operations. If the ATF knows so much about how illegal cigarette sales fund terrorists, why don't they work at busting those individual businesses instead of harassing legitimate businesses as a whole? Are they eventually going force credit card companies to stop processing transactions for non-profit organizations too (they've also been known to fund terrorists)?
It's all about money, and I'm offended they even pretend it's about anything else. The ultimate goal of this "agreement" is obviously for the states to collect sales tax from local tobacco sales. It's astounding that states levy heavy taxes on tobacco products, then whine when people buy their tobacco products out of state (thereby avoiding state taxes). It's despicable that they can take a legal activity and surreptitiously attempt to destroy an industry because they're losing money due to their own actions.
The World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel was the tv show that got me interested in poker, but now days my poker show of choice is Celebrity Poker Showdown, and it's not because of the celebrities. It's because of Phil Gordon; I actually learn things from his commentary, plus it's great to watch him get angry when someone makes a truly boneheaded move (which can also be a learning experience). I don't play poker often, but these days when I do I'll ask myself "What would Phil Gordon do?", and I'll usually remember something useful he said about betting or raising. Listening to Phil has been a good way for me to get some of the technical skills down. It would be great to get the psychological aspect of the game too, but it's difficult to notice tells when you're self absorbed.
This weekend I somehow managed to do pretty well. I played with four people I didn't know from Lynn's work. I got in late in the game so everyone had about three times the chips I did, but it wasn't long before I started winning hands. I got beat a couple of times, but I got the good hands when I needed them. When everything was said and done I busted three people, and the last guy didn't want to play heads up with me (which was ok because I didn't feel like playing heads up either). We'll see how well I do in a couple of weeks when Lynn and I play at Greg's house.
Friday Lynn and I dragged my mom with us to Village Wine Cellar for their "wines for Easter" wine tasting. I wasn't crazy about the idea of drinking fruity whites and light reds, but I hardly get a chance to go to their wine tastings so it sounded fun. We started with a Piper-Sonoma "Blanc de Noirs" that had a slight bitterness, but was very crisp and surprisingly good. The next wine was Louis M Martini "Del Rio Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2001". It was super light with fruit and dill in the flavor. I thought it was ok, but Lynn really liked it. The third wine was Dr. Loosen "Riesling 2003", which was one of the better Rieslings I've ever had; it had great fruit flavor with just enough sweetness. The last wine was some French Rhone Syrah. It was very dry with a musty flavor. Needless to say we didn't like it.
I ended up buying way too much wine (there were a few Chardonnays that looked really good, and other wines I wanted to follow up on) so no more wine buying for me. We have more than enough to last us until the next time Callaghan releases something.
Yesterday Lynn and I went to the West of Western Culinary Festival, and it was very disorganized. Our tickets were at the will call window, but the location of the will call window kept changing. There was a booth that had a sign for will call, but no one was working at that booth. We stood in that line until we found out they were handling will call at a different booth so we had to change lines. Eventually the people handling will call set up at the proper booth, and we had to change lines again. It wasn't a pleasant start.
We finally got our tickets and the lady who gave us the tickets said the people in the gold shirts will check our ids. The people in the gold shirts could care less about our ids. I was planning on starting with food, then working up to the wine, but I was annoyed and ready to drink. We went searching around the food, and didn't see a wine table anywhere. I finally asked someone about the wine, and they said it was down the sidewalk in a completely different area. It would have been nice if there was a sign pointing that out. Something that said [ <-- Wine | Food --> ] wouldn't have killed them, but nonexistent signage was the theme of the event.
We went to the wine area, but they said they weren't open yet. I didn't get that, but they were open five minutes later. We found the table with Echo Canyon and preceded to drink everything they had. Their Sauvignon Blanc had an excellent nose and a great finish. I didn't like the flavor, but I think I'd overlook it for the aftertaste. Their Chardonnay had just enough oak in the flavor to make it interesting, and it was super buttery. If you like big buttery Chardonnay, then it would be great. They had four reds, and the one I liked was the Zinfandel, which was utterly savage; I'm not even sure I could drink an entire glass of it! Lynn's favorite was their Syrah. We tried wines from other producers, but most of them weren't nearly as good. There was a Syrah from Butterfield Station that was interesting.
We went on back to the food area, and Lynn and I both agreed that the best dish of the event was the tuna tataki with Pinot Noir-beet sauce and micro arugula from See Saw. Lynn didn't like the way See Saw looked when we went to Cowboy Ciao for New Year's Eve dinner, and she decided she didn't want to go there, but she's willing overlook her initial impression now. The surprise was the Arizona Biltmore, who made two excellent dishes: lamb chops with some sort of creamy mint sauce that was far better than any mint jelly I've ever had, and some sort of seared tuna thing in a pastry cup that was quite tasty. One of my other favorite dishes was from Deseo, who served an unusual combination of spicy crab salad with beef topped with basil chimichurri sauce on some sort of johnny cake type thing. It was bursting with flavor, and even though the combination sounded incongruous to me it actually worked. Lynn hated it, probably because she got a mouthful of oil from the chimichuri sauce on her first bite.
Elements also made a good showing with their shrimp summer rolls. It was one of the more subtle dishes, but the flavors were excellent. The dish for The Compass Room was pretty decent (it would have been a lot better if the little polenta cake it was served on wasn't overcooked), but what made me pay attention to it was the great salsa. I don't know what they did to it, but I liked it. Other honorable mentions were Frank & Lupe's, who made tacos whose modest appearance belied the brilliant combination of flavors and heat. These were far better tacos then you get at your average taqueria. They were so hot that I doubt I could have eaten more than two though (but it would be a very satisfying two). Mucho Gusto served a pozole that impressed both of us. The best thing about the restaurant is that it's located near my work so they're going to get a visit from me real soon (maybe even tomorrow).
The disappointments of the festival were Barrio Cafe and Kai. Barrio Cafe served a stewed pork that tasted nasty; it was the only dish both Lynn and I both considered spitting out. I was surprised considering the vast amount of excellent to great food they make at the restaurant. Kai was disappointing in a completely different way; the food wasn't bad, but it didn't taste like anything I really wanted to eat. The salmon cooked on mesquite planks had too smoke flavor for me, although Lynn sort of liked it. The game pudding was decent. They did have a side dish with corn, cilantro, and queso fresco that was pretty good, but it didn't change how I felt about their food.
Of the desserts my favorite was the macaroon with a chilled peach soup from The Compass Room. The macaroon was quite sweet and dense so it paired well with the thinner and slightly tart peach soup. I tried the peach soup by itself and didn't like it. Lynn's favorite (and an honorable mention for me) was the panna cotta with raspberry sauce from Cowboy Ciao. Another honorable mention for me was The Four Seasons, who made a chocolate and hazelnut cake with chipotle in it. There was a hint of smokiness, and a heat that snuck up on me.
There were three restaurants that didn't show up that we were looking forward to: Janos, Pizzeria Bianco, and Christopher's Fermier Brasserie. Lynn figured that maybe they'd be at the festival on Sunday.
The food and wine were both very good, the only thing that detracted from the event was the poor signage and organization. Hopefully they learned something from yesterday, and made improvements for today. If they aren't inept they should at least be better next year.
[Addendum 03/21/05: I forgot to mention that the dish Atlas Bistro served was disappointing. They had some sort of chicken salad that did not taste good at all. I at least didn't consider spitting it out, but Lynn did (I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on her face). I find it difficult to reconcile the relationship between the food they brought and the food they serve at their restaurant (which can be excellent, but it's never been gross). What makes it even harder for me to believe is that it was the same chef that brought the kick ass pozole.]
Last night Lynn made green chile buttermilk pancakes for dinner. When she mentioned the idea to me I thought it was nuts, but after about 10 seconds I thought, "Why not, sweet and hot are a good combination." I figured that green chiles and maple syrup might be good together.
The pancakes tasted pretty good, but the longer I ate them the more I kept thinking that they would be better if the pancakes weren't so fluffy. Then I thought some whole corn in the batter would be good too. Eventually I realized that what I really wanted it to taste like was green corn tamales. I'd say the experiment was a failure. Oh well, live and learn.
Lynn had the day off of work one day so she came by my work so we could go out to lunch together. I wanted someplace we could sit down and have a good meal, but someplace that could still deal with my time constraints. Sahara fit the bill. We started with fool modemmas [ground fava beans], and they reminded me of mashed red beans. They were topped with stuff that made them spicy and tasty, and I was glad to finally find an appetizer I like at Sahara. Needless to say I'd order the fool modemmas again.
Lynn had the chicken tikka, and I played it safe with the chicken feta. The chicken feta was as good as it should have been. The chicken tikka was moist skewered chicken which had a pleasant flavor that reminded me of Mexican barbecue chicken. It would seem that the chicken tikka is my second viable entree choice at Sahara.
I enjoy the food at Sahara, and hope I can find more time to eat there.
[Previous visit to Sahara Middle Eastern Restaurant.]
Not too long ago I heard The Chemical Brothers "Galvanize" on the radio. Instantly I was in love with the Middle Eastern loop that they used, and the energy of the song. The Chemical Brothers usually have good videos for their songs so I went looking for the video to "Galvanize". When I saw the video I wasn't sure what to make of it. The combination of the choreography and cinematography in the club scene was brilliant, but clowns? I didn't get it. I had remembered seeing clowns in the Missy Elliott video for "I'm Really Hot", but Missy does crazy things with her video so I assumed it was a take off of "Kill Bill". I had also seen an MTV story where they talked about the newest urban trend was to wear clown makeup and dance, but I thought it was a joke; it just didn't seem like something someone would do. After seeing The Chemical Brothers video it seemed like there might be something to it.
I went looking for more information about the whole clown thing and found a page on David LaChapelle's site about his documentary "Krumped", which is about krumping as the whole clown makeup/dance battle thing is known (this Spin article explains krumping pretty well). I'd like to see "Krumped", but when I read LaChapelle's page I couldn't help but think he was trying to take credit for discovering this underground dance scene. Maybe it's just shameless self promotion and I'm misconstruing it as something else?
[More electronic music videos.]
To kill time while Lynn and I laid our wood floor I challenged Lynn to come up with a list of her top ten movies. I came up with a list for myself, but I ended up missing some of my favorites. Here's my finalized list.
Your favorite movies say something about you. Over half of my top ten are foreign, which might say something about my desire to travel and see new things (or maybe it just says that the American movie industry doesn't encourage production of the type of movies I like). I know what DJ's movies say about him. His top six are the Lord of the Rings trilogy followed by the Star Wars trilogy proving that he's the biggest geek I've ever known. What are your top ten movies?
The web site has a new toy, it's the comment link below each entry. I've always wanted that type of functionality, but I was too lazy to find something that provided it. Everyone thank Ken for pushing me.
I was on the web site that sold the Nine Inch Nails tickets, and in a matter of about ten seconds the tickets went from "Not yet available for sale" to "Sold out". I persisted in trying to get tickets because I knew that eventually some of the tickets being held for people trying to complete their ticket purchase would time out and become available again. Ken was lucky, and got his three tickets immediately. That irritated me because he wouldn't have known about the show if it wasn't for me, and I still didn't have my tickets! I lucked out about ten minutes after they went on sale, and got a couple. I almost bought another two in case I knew some friends who wanted to go, or just to scalp them, but ultimately decided against it.
The other day I went on eBay to see how much it would have cost me if I didn't already have my tickets.
Me: Damn NIN tickets are going like $270 a pair.
Me: I should have snagged that second pair of tickets.
Ken: Damn.
Ken: I'm going to have to call Derek and Brad and tell them there was an error...
When I was at The Farm they had a poster up for the West of Western Culinary Festival. I'd never heard of it before, and it turns out this is its inaugural year. The list of participating chefs reads like the who's who of the Arizona culinary world so the food should be excellent. The only disappointing aspect of the event is that there's only one Arizona winery (that I could tell) represented at their "Wine Table". Of course the one Arizona winery is Echo Canyon so that's enough reason for me to buy a ticket to drink.
Hopefully the event turns out as good as it looks.
[Addendum 03/15/05: I wonder if this event will get more ambitious in the coming years. It would be cool to have an Arizona version of the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience. Addendum 03/20/05: I knew I was forgetting about a major culinary festival. The Scottsdale Culinary Festival has been around for a while, and I've been meaning to attend one of their events for years. I had to laugh when I saw their slogan for 2005; "Eat, Drink, and be Pretty". It seems appropriate for Scottsdale.]
Last Thursday I picked Lynn up at the airport right about lunch time. I knew she'd be hungry since the flight from Philadelphia was about five hours, and she'd been at the airport since six in the morning. I had the rest of the day off so we could have eaten anywhere. I asked Lynn if she was interested in trying Quiessence (located inside The Farm), and she was fine with the idea.
We were seated on the patio, and brought menus and a wine list. I was feeling happy, and didn't have anywhere to be, so I scanned the wine list. It wasn't terribly long, but there were plenty of interesting wines I would have liked to try. I went with the C.L. Wines Pinot Noir. It had an excellent scent full of red fruits, and there was a lot of cherry in the flavor. I often see cherry as a descriptor, but it's rare I actually taste cherry. I liked it, and Lynn did too.
We started with the hazelnut pesto fondue. The fondue was cheesy and delicious, but I hardly tasted the pesto. I could taste the hazelnut and olive oil, but you would think the basil would have been perceptible. I liked it even without tasting the pesto, and I noticed it tasted familiar. It took me a little while, but eventually the hint of nutmeg in it made me realize that it tasted like Lynn's alfredo sauce. I'd get it again.
The last time I was at Quiessence I wanted to try the New York strip sandwich (with blue cheese and caramelized onions), but went with something else that I didn't like. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. I wanted a side salad, but Lynn wanted me to try the mushroom bisque with truffle oil, and she figured I'd have some of her salad. The mushroom bisque was uncomfortably thick, and the truffle oil made it too earthy and musky for me. Lynn liked the soup, but she couldn't eat very much of it. Lynn had the salad with seared scallops, fennel, grapefruit, and blood orange. The scallops were obviously more than just seared; you could look at them and see they were a little overcooked. They weren't disgustingly overcooked so they were eatable, and they had a good flavor. The salad was placed in the center of the plate, and it was very skimpy. Lynn thought that for $12 she should have gotten more than 3 scallops and a minimum salad. There's no reason to be cheap with greens so I concurred.
I tried to order the farm Napoleon for dessert, but it was once again not available. I settled for the apple crisp, which was a mistake because it wasn't what I really wanted, and I found it disappointing. All it was was apples with some sort of oatmeal type thing on top; decent, but far from interesting or great. Lynn had a rosemary-chocolate tart. The chocolate was very rich with an obvious rosemary flavor. It would have been better if they curbed the rosemary, but I still enjoyed it. The rosemary flavor was too much for Lynn. Even if Lynn liked it I doubt we could have finished it off.
We had a good time relaxing, and watching the chickens walk around the yard, but lunch took over two hours. I don't mind long meals, but that felt needlessly excessive. I wonder how long they take for dinners.
[It's about time I get some of these old out of town visits done.]
Last August Lynn, my mom, and I headed to Bowie, AZ to go to Fort Bowie Vineyards. We were starving before we ever got to Bowie so I hoped to find someplace that looked good so we could stop there on the way back. The best looking place was Salsa Fiesta in Wilcox, AZ. I reluctantly stopped there because I figured it wouldn't be very good (I've had bad luck with Mexican restaurants in small towns), but it was still the best looking restaurant we had seen.
We were seated and given chips that tasted homemade, but like they were a day old. There was a salsa bar so we snagged the picante, hot tomatillo, hot red, and pico de gallo salsas. The pico de gallo didn't have any pepper in it which made it dramatically less tasty than it should have been; the picante tasted like stewed tomatoes, but Lynn liked it anyway; the hot tomatillo was a little salty, but very hot and very tasty; and the hot red sauce was pretty tasty too. Despite the near stale chips I was happy.
My mom and Lynn both had green chile burros while I had a green chile chimichanga and chile relleno covered in green sauce. We were all surprised to find that the meat in the green chile was chicken. I've had beef and pork green chile, but never a chicken one from a restaurant. You'd expect that they'd warn you about it. The chicken wasn't bad, but I prefer beef in my green chile. The chile relleno was covered in a light batter with a good flavor, and was excellent overall.
If I ever find myself hungry in southeast Arizona again I'll be sure to stop at Salsa Fiesta, and get a chile relleno. They started me on a chile relleno kick, and even since then I haven't found another nearly as good.
Someone told me the Arizona Republic just ran a story on the wineries down in Southern Arizona. It didn't take me much to find "Slip away for a sip of wine country". It doesn't seem like a very in depth piece, but it probably wasn't meant to me. Even so it's hard to excuse "The heavenly drink floated over my tongue, leaving behind a soft trail of fruit and sugary bliss," but I was once teased for writing that an ice wine tasted like liquid sunshine (I'm sure if you've tried the Bonny Doon "Vin de Glaciere" you'd understand).
At today's early dinner at Cafe Poca Cosa both Lynn and my mom wanted to avoid the mole chicken that has a habit of appearing on the plato Poca Cosa (their sampler plate which comes with three random dishes) so for the first time in my many visits there we didn't order the plato. Lynn got the barbacoa desebrada (shredded beef in a beer based sauce), I got the carne asada catarina(?) (strips of steak in a sauce with tomatoes, onions, and chiles), and my mom got the pork in tomatillo sauce. Lynn also got one of their excellent margaritas. When the waiter (Hector) came back with the drink he had two margaritas. He thought when I had ordered Lynn's I had also ordered one for myself. I was going to have him take it away, but my mom volunteered to drink it. Hector came back a couple of minutes later to say the margarita was on him. That was good of him.
Lynn's favorite dish at Cafe Poca Cosa is the borracho beef [drunken beef], and since the barbacoa desebrada was in a similar beer based sauce Lynn was thrilled with her dish. My carne asada was well spiced beef in a tasty sauce. The beef wasn't the most tender that I've had, but I thought the flavor was great; it reminded me of the carne asada tacos (without the bacon though) Lynn and I had at Los Sombreros. I liked my beef dish better than Lynn's, but both Lynn and my mom seemed to think Lynn's was better. My mom's pork was very tender, and the tomatillo sauce was quite good. I couldn't help but compare it to the pork in green mole I just had at Los Sombreros, and found Poca Cosa's superior. I was amazed how similar the food is at the two restaurants, but so far Poca Cosa makes better food.
We finished our meal with their chocolate mousse. The mousse was very good, but it seemed to be missing something. It could have been the little sprinkle of espresso grounds they normally put on top, but I think they might be using a different chocolate for it.
Two out of three entrees were excellent, and even the other one was very good. Cafe Poca Cosa is one of the few restaurants that if something sounds good it'll actually taste good.
[Previous visit to Cafe Poca Cosa.]
Today Lynn, my mom, and I went to Callaghan for their library tasting. I was disappointed to see that they only had three library wines for tasting. Of the three we tried, we enjoyed two of them ("Caitlin's Selection 1997" and the "Buena Suerte Cuvee 1997"). I also retasted a few of the reds that were released last year. The big surprise for me was the "Syrah 2003"; it was the only 2003 red Callaghan made that I didn't care for the first time. It's amazing how a couple of months of settling in the bottle transformed the wine from something one-dimensional and boring to something pleasantly smokey and fruity. I should have had more faith.
We were starving after we finished with Callaghan so we once again didn't stop at Village of Elgin (I've really got to plan my stops there better). We had an early dinner at Cafe Poca Cosa, and the food was absolutely great. It was a very good day.
The article "Damn the vintage, just pass the pinot (A drinking woman's guide to wine)" is amusing. It does make an important point about wine though. What's funny is that I'm one of those guys who dislikes Pinot Grigio "because it 'doesn't taste of anything much'", but that's because light Pinto Griogios really don't taste like anything to me.
Lynn's and my first experience at Los Sombreros was mixed so while I looked at the positive side Lynn looked at the negative. She'd go back there, just not anytime soon. I thought I'd take advantage of her absence, and go there Tuesday night to try and find some good things on the Los Sombreros menu to convince Lynn to return. I started with the jicama salad, which was very unlike most salads; it consisted of jicama sticks, orange slices, radish, cilantro, chile oil, and season salt(?). Hot, sweet, and salty isn't an unusual combination for a Mexican snack, but it was pretty unusual to see it in a restaurant salad. The combination was near brilliant, but I think some mango would have rounded out the flavors nicely. The serving was quite large, and would have easily fed two. Even though I loved the salad I had to stop before finishing it.
After my last visit I figured chicken or beef would have been a good entree bet, so naturally I went against my better judgement and got the pork in green mole. The salad really had me looking forward to my entree, but I feared that this meal was just going to be a repeat of the last one; great appetizer followed by a so-so entree. Before my entree was placed before me I could smell it, and it smelled great. The dish consisted of chunks of pork smothered in green mole, but while the pork was tender it didn't taste like it was seasoned beforehand. I don't like the sauce providing all the flavor approach to cooking because you can taste the difference (kind of like not salting meat before you cook it). The mole itself had a good flavor, but it wasn't even close to the amarillo mole at Cafe Poca Cosa. Ultimately the dish smelled a lot better than it tasted. I did consider the possibility that the jicama salad was so assertive that it blew my tastebuds. I got a side of black beans, and the vegetable which turned out to be calabacitas [this one was corn, squash, zucchini, carrot in lots of butter]. The black beans weren't half bad with the melted white cheese on top, but once I ate through the cheese the black beans lost all of their flavor. The calabacitas were pretty good when they tasted like buttered toasted corn, but occasionally I'd get a piece of squash that tasted fishy. Fishy vegetables are a good way to ruin a dish, but I just ate around the squash.
Not satisfied with my entree I thought I'd try their dessert special, the pumpkin seed brittle ice cream. I remembered the ice cream being pretty good last time, and I like pumpkin seeds so it seemed like a no brainer. Wrong, I never considered how they could possibly screw up the dish. The brittle was burnt, and forced me to eat around it. The ice cream didn't even taste as good as it did last time, so part of how much I liked it might have directly proportional with the oddness of the chocolate tamale.
I'm beginning to think that Los Sombreros is going to be an appetizer only restaurant for me because I'm getting really tired of trying to find a good entree (although I'm still convinced that their beef dishes are probably excellent, but if they make their chicken like their pork then the chicken is pointless). I know Lynn will would agree to go there for apps and drinks because she made that suggestion immediately after we left the first time.
[My last night of "Eating Without Compromise" was ruined by the fact that I had to work late and got out of work at just about 9 o'clock. Lynn's going to be a sport and go to Silver Dragon with me even though she hates the place.]
Lynn says she doesn't dislike Charo's, only the fact that she feels very uncomfortable in any restaurant where they don't speak English. I thought it might be some sort of closet racism thing (which would have been funny considering who she's married to), but then I saw Lynn get weirded out in some of the restaurants in Germany too. Whatever her motivation it's resulted in it being at least a year since the last time I ate at Charo's (located south of Knox on Arizona Avenue in Chandler, even if Dex doesn't list it).
Last night I went there famished, and ready to over order. I got a combination plate, because I actually like their lard laden Spanish rice, with carne asada zacatecana [two thin slices of beef with cheese sandwiched in between]. The carne asada zacatecana isn't my favorite dish, but it tastes pretty good, and it's the only restaurant I know that makes it. I balanced out all that beef with a couple of tacos dorados [hard tacos], and a side of guacamole. The carne asada zacatecana was pretty good, but it's definitely not something you order for the quality of the beef (that's why it's sliced thin). It could have been seasoned a little better too. The Spanish rice and the refried beans were somewhat salty together, but I still enjoyed them. The tacos dorados were fried until the beef was somewhat crispy, and while it's skimpy on the beef they're tasty little items that work perfectly with the guacamole. Even though I ordered too much food to finish the bill still ended up being less than $10. You have to love real Mexican restaurants.
If I thought about it I would have eaten dinner at Charo's on a Tuesday or Wednesday so I could have gotten seafood (because of Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" it's a rare day I order seafood on Monday), but there's always next time. Hopefully.
[Apparently it's been a few visits since I've last written about Lotus.]
Lynn and I met Jamie and Sarah at Lotus for dinner one evening. There was a huge group in the restaurant that almost filled the entire place. We were sitting outside deciding where to eat instead when the co-owner(?) came out and told us that the group had called ahead so there wouldn't be any problems. We sat at one of maybe two unoccupied tables in the place. I might have been the only person at our table not bothered by the din created by the group celebrating Chinese New Year.
The menu had changed since I had last seen it, and the beef croquettes were one of the items removed from the menu. I wasn't happy about that since there are very few places that make croquettes, much less good ones. They were also Lynn's favorite appetizer so she was extremely disappointed. We went with a couple of orders of the corn fritters, and tried a new appetizer, the sticky rice with chicken. The corn fritters were their usual crispy and tasty selves. The sticky rice came wrapped in banana leaves (not eatable) kind of like a tropical onigiri [nori wrapped Japanese rice balls]. The chicken filling had a good flavor while the flavor of the appetizer was subtle but tasty. I'd order them again.
We ordered the house noodles with shrimp, the chicken in yellow curry (I'm not sure which yellow curry), coconut milk marinated fried chicken (new on the menu, not the galanga version), and the shrimp stuffed squid (another new menu item). I'd had the noodles before so I knew they'd be a little sweet, and quite tasty. The chicken in yellow curry was ok. The fried chicken was sweet, very tender, and had a good flavor, but I prefer the spicier version. The shrimp stuffed squid was unusual in that the squid was wrapped around shrimp and deep fried. The batter was very crispy, but the dish was so-so by itself. It was quite a bit better with the vinegary pepper sauce that it was served with (the same one that comes with the corn fritters).
Jamie and Sarah both said they enjoyed dinner, but I don't think they're as crazy about Lotus as I am. Of course the crowd might have had something to do with that.
The next time we were at Lotus it was just Lynn and I. It was a cold night out so we both ordered jasmine tea. We were brought a cup of hot water, and a tea bag. The jasmine was so strong in the tea that it made the teat taste perfumey. I couldn't finish my cup. We started with the shrimp dumplings (shrimp wrapped in wonton wrapper and deep fried), yet another new appetizer on the menu. They reminded me of the coconut shrimp (shrimp and coconut wrapped in a wonton wrapper and deep fried) at the now defunct Bangkok Express, which tasted a lot better than they sounded. The flavor of this shrimp appetizer wasn't the same, but it tasted like the shrimp were marinated in something good. It's not my favorite appetizer at Lotus, but I'd order it again.
I was feeling like noodles so I got the house noodles with shrimp and chicken while Lynn got the chicken kari [yellow curry]. The kari tasted watered down, and I hated it because of that. Lynn somehow didn't think it tasted like watered down nastiness so she didn't mind it. The noodles were still very good.
We were pretty full, but we both felt like dessert. We weren't in the mood for coconut ice cream so we tried the fried bananas, (which looked like they were coated in corn starch and deep fried). The bananas were somewhat ripe so they tasted pretty good. My only suggestion would be to have a little honey drizzled over them to give them a little more sweetness.
I never got through the old menu so it seems doubtful I'll ever get through the new one. It is fun trying though.
The reason I call this "Eating Without Compromise" is because while Lynn is gone I get to eat at restaurants she doesn't want to eat at for whatever reason. The first restaurant I went to was Lotus, because while Lynn likes the place she can only deal with it about once a month. I could eat there a lot more often than that. I had the fresh limeade, and it was extremely sweet. I let the ice melt in it a bit to water down the sugar. Of course the problem with that solution is that it also watered down my limeade too. Maybe I'll just stick to ordering limeade from Vietnamese and Mexican places. I started with the corn fritters, and they were once again tasty. No surprise there, and this is probably the last time I'll mention them.
I was in the mood to try something different so I got a combination plate with gulai chicken (some sort of yellow curry that's somehow different from the kari), spicy young jackfruit curry (now that sounds exotic), and beef rendang. The gulai chicken and jackfruit were served on top of each other so I can only guess they use the exact same kind of curry. I tried the jackfruit, and the texture and flavor reminded me of artichoke hearts. It wasn't bad, but it didn't seem to absorb the flavor of the curry either. There was also some cabbage in the curry, and, to the cabbage's detriment, that did absorb the flavor of the curry; the combination of the two tasted sort of foul. The gulai chicken, on the other hand, was pretty decent. I didn't ask for the beef rendang spicy so I ended up with the mild rendang. The last mild rendang I had wasn't bad, but this one was so mild that all I could taste was coconut milk and galanga. I'm not too crazy about the beef they use for the dish either so I need the sauce to be good to distract me from it.
The next time I can manage to get Lynn to Lotus I think I'll stick to the galanga fried chicken.
[Previous visit to Lotus Asian Cafe & Grill.]
A coworker of mine overheard my phone conversation with Lynn and was laughing out loud. Maybe you had to be there for the entire thing.
Me: Your cats are scratching the hell out of my couch.
Lynn: What do you mean?
Me: I mean your cats are scratching my couch.
Lynn: What does it look like?
Me: You know what it looks like when the cats scratch your arm? It's like that only instead of your arm it's my couch.
The high speed internet is set up at our house, and we now have a large capacity washer and dryer. It's scary that both now have more capacity than I can throw at it. I swear it's like I just jumped ten years into the future; too bad it's just really catching up with the present. I am happy with really being able to work on my web site at home (I might actually get some pictures done for my trip reports). At the very least I'll probably start catching up on our past restaurant visits tomorrow.
A friend of Lynn's family died last week so Lynn went to Philadelphia this weekend for moral support. She won't be back until Thursday so I get to eat at all my favorite restaurants until then. I'm amazed that the house seems empty without her. For someone who's only like 5' 1.5" she seems to take up a lot of space.![; ]](/images/Smiley-wink.gif){kind=small}
Thursday my manager announced that she's going to be reorganizing the programming area into two teams with team leaders who will report to her. The team leaders are basically going to be supervisors. Long, who was the acting manager while our manager was on maternity leave, is one of them, and I'm the other one. When I was told about this on Monday I was surprised since I'd never even heard a hint of it. What's worse is that I haven't been acting like someone who wanted the role, even though I've been in that position before. When I was a web developer I created the job path that still exists (developer, supervisor, and manager), and when I left management I was happy to have less responsibility. Of course it wasn't the responsibility of my previous position that I disliked, but the politics associated with it. I had never really considered going into management again, but I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to be a supervisor; it's a happy medium between being a programmer, and having to attend way too many meetings, and it will eventually mean a salary increase.
Thursday night I went to leave only to discover that someone had sideswiped my car in the parking garage. It was obvious they had hit my car, and I know my car alarm had gone off too. It really pisses me off that they hit my car and ran away without taking any responsibility; they were the bastards who hit my car so they should have to pay for the repairs to both of the driver's side doors they wrecked. I need to call my insurance company.
A long time ago I was reading an interview with Timo Maas (one of my favorite djs), and the interviewer asked him if he thought dance music was salvation. I thought it was a strange question, but the reason the interviewer asked the question was because to the title of one of his songs, "Ubik", which is named for the novel by Philip Dick. I'd never heard of Philip Dick, but I was intrigued. I looked into Philip Dick, and he wrote "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which was the book "Blade Runner" was based off of (he also wrote "A Scanner Darkly" which is the basis for the movie by the same name).
I started reading "Ubik" before we started moving, and while the first chapter was a little boring it soon grabbed my attention. I packed the book when we moved, but not too long after we were finished moving I tore through my book boxes to find it. It's an odd sort of book that defies description without having to explain the whole thing. I can say that the combination of sci-fi and unreality reminded me of Haruki Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World", although there was probably less depth to "Ubik" (unless of course I missed it). "Ubik" was enjoyable enough that I may check out a couple of Phil's other books.
Nine Inch Nails, one of my favorite groups, is going to be in Phoenix on May 27th and 28th to promote their new cd. With about six years since their last album I can't wait to hear the new stuff. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Seeing them at Coachella won't be enough.
It's about that time of year again; Noah reminded me that Coachella (my favorite music festival) existed, and there are actually a couple of groups on Sunday that I'd like to check out (like Nine Inch Nails, DJ Krush, and Roots Manuva). I know that after the last couple of times I've gone to Coachella I've said it'll be the last time, but as long as they keep bringing in groups I want to see I'll be tempted to go. Notice that I only want to go for one day this time.
I also want to go to Tucson because Callaghan is having a library tasting, and selling off a portion of it. There's some interesting looking bottles for sale.
Naturally I also want to go to Flagstaff, but I have a real excuse this time; one of the opals in Lynn's wedding band disintegrated, and it needs to be repaired. The jeweler who made the rings is located in Flagstaff.
That seems like an awful lot of traveling for people who just moved into a house, and need to get everything situated, a couple of rooms painted, and to finish the floor in the den. We'll see if we manage to do everything.
Saturday, thanks to the help of a 17 foot U-Haul and some friends, we finished most of our move fairly quickly. Sunday was spent taking care of the odd bits, cleaning up the apartment, and having a great celebratory dinner at Christopher's Fermier Brasserie. I'm hoping to have our high speed internet hooked up in a couple of days so I should be returning back to my regular schedule of updates.
Last Wednesday I spent the day buying and borrowing tools (we now own a compound miter saw, which is good because if I rented one I'm sure I would have paid enough to buy one by now), gathering supplies, and trying to find out what sort of glue to use to float an engineered wood floor. The problem with the glue is that in all of the directions I found for floating a glued together floor no one ever mentioned what type of glue to use. I thought it would be carpenter's wood glue since you're gluing wood to wood, but I had to make sure since it's an expensive mistake to make. After lots of searching the only thing I found were a couple of references to aliphatic glue (which is better known as good ol' wood good). There are other types of glue that can be used, and anything has to be better than wood glue if requires less clean up.
For the last six days straight Lynn and I have been laying the floor. We've only finished about 75% of it, but at least we finished everything necessary for the carpet guys to do their job tomorrow. It's been tough work that has left us both with sore hands, feet, and practically everything in between. Lynn surprised me because she was really efficient, and we worked well together. I didn't want to kill her once in six days, which is a far better record than most of our vacations. Returning to work today has been like a mini vacation for me since programming is far preferable to working on the floor.
None of the things I read mentioned the fact that floating a glued together floor is the most time consuming manner in which to lay a floor otherwise I would have just glued the floor directly to the concrete. One warning I did hear from some people is that floated floors can sound "hollow", but we haven't experienced that. Maybe it's because the planks are over half an inch thick, or maybe it's because we sprung for the spongy moisture barrier. Either way our floor sounds a lot better than the wood floors at flooring stores (I would like to know how they installed their floors for future reference so I don't install mine that way).
This weekend we get to move everything from the apartment to the house so there's no rest for the weary. Hopefully I won't still be sore by then.
There are a lot of places that excel at giving good service, but service after sale is where most businesses fail. For example, John at The Carpet Broker (where I got my carpet and tile) was absolutely great when we were looking by being helpful and giving us ideas. For instance, when he found out we were going with bamboo he suggested we take a bamboo sample with us while we looked at tile so we knew how they would look together. His service was the reason I got my carpet at The Carpet Broker (which indirectly led to the tile sale too).
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John's tile guys did a great job on the tile, but John and the tile guy both failed to contact me to let me know when the job was completed, and how soon I could move my appliances back into the kitchen. What really ticked me off is that I expected the grout to be sealed only to find out that they don't include that with standard installation. Neither one of them told me until I asked about it. You would think the tile guy would've mentioned it since he charges extra for it, but not a peep from him. If he told me about it earlier I would have had him do it, but I decided that I'm not going to spend money with any company that can't take three minutes to call me with important updates. That small job may have cost him our bamboo install too since I was considering them for it.
We've actually accomplished some things with the house despite losing valuable time because of the tile: most of the weeds have either been pulled or poisoned, we've planted three bare root rose bushes in the backyard, we've planted two flats of ice plants next to the driveway, the grout and medallion in the kitchen have been sealed (we did it ourselves), all the baseboard in the areas that will have tile or wood has been removed, and we've moved some kitchen stuff to the house. Tomorrow we'll attempt to install the bamboo ourselves so we can start moving in this weekend. Wish us luck.
Yesterday and today The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is on tv, and it has me glued to the couch. I would've never guessed that it would be entertaining, but I watch it whenever I catch it on. Which dog will win "Best of Show" has more interesting than the Superbowl the last couple of years.
It's odd that I like the Dog Show though because it's contrary to how I feel about purebreds. Purebreds seem to encourage inbreeding which results in genetic defects that ultimately aren't good for the breed. I know any reputable breeder wouldn't encourage inbreeding, but the price tag for a purebred is enough to encourage a lot of less than scrupulous breeders to do things that are less than natural. Oh well, I'm off to look at cute dogs.
When I used to live on Baseline by Priest I accidentally ran across Baseline Sports Bar one day. I tried a few things on their menu, but the best thing I found was Bob's bacon cheeseburger (notice the only menu item named for Bob is the best menu item). When Long told me that the Philly cheese steak at Baseline Sports Bar was better than the cheese steak from The Original Hoagie Shop I had to try it. I didn't remember Baseline's cheese steak being that good, but saying it was better than The Original Hoagie Shop (the best cheese steak I've had in Phoenix) piqued my curiosity.
I tried the cheese steak the last time I was at Baseline Sports Bar, and it was greasy. Way too greasy. Long mentioned that it was the greasiest they've ever made it before, but even without the grease problem it was obvious to me that The Original Hoagie Shop is much better (Long disagrees). Next time I'm at Baseline Sports Bar I'll stick to Bob's burger.
[It's about time I get some of these old out of town visits done.]
Lynn, my mom, and myself went down to Tucson in August to help Leo with his grape harvest for Charron Vineyards. We got into Tucson Friday night, and wanted a good meal. I would have liked to have gone to Janos, but I didn't have that kind of money so we went to J Bar (Janos' cheaper sister restaurant that I had heard good things about) instead. We started with margaritas and a sangria, all of which were tasty.
We got chips and a trio of salsas (which wasn't free), none of which were spicy. There was one that was like a pico de gallo with basil in it that I thought was interesting, but none of the salsas were compelling. It was a bad sign. Either my mom or Lynn had a salad that was very good. I had the watermelon soup with shrimp because it sounded too unique to not try. It had a light watermelon flavor that was just a little too sweet. There were little bits of fresh mint in the soup that made it seem more appropriate for dessert than as an appetizer. The shrimp tasted kind of shrimpy so I avoided them. My mom and I enjoyed the soup, but Lynn didn't.
There were a lot of entrees on the menu that sounded good so it was tough choosing only one. We got three entrees that I thought would be full of flavor: Cuban pork with Peruvian potato gratin for me, el presidio (ground chicken with spices) and calabacitas con queso for Lynn, and jerked pork topped with cranberry-habanero chutney with cilantro coleslaw for my mom. My Cuban pork was flavorless, and the purple Peruvian potato gratin was odd. My mom's jerked pork would never be mistaken for jerked pork; it was definitely a sweet barbecue pork. I would have liked it if I wasn't expecting jerk pork, and my mom enjoyed it. You'd expect that the cranberry-habanero chutney would be spicy, but it was basically cranberry sauce without any habanero. The cilantro coleslaw also sounded promising, but it was disappointing. Lynn's chicken had an odd flavor, and it wasn't pleasant. The best thing on all three plates was the calabacitas con queso which were crunchy, flavorful, and complex. The calabacitas were as good as I hoped everything else would be.
Following my theory that restaurants that make bad entrees make good desserts we ordered two desserts: the mango tart with a strawberry shake, and the espresso creme brulee and lemon-plum creme brulee. I also had a glass of the M. Chapoutier Banyuls. The dough of the mango tart was too thick, and the filling had a dull eggy mango flavor. My mom finished it off. The strawberry shake had a great strawberry flavor, but the serving size was only two or three swallows. The espresso creme brulee was pretty decent, and Lynn really liked it. The lemon-plum creme brulee was strongly flavored, and way too odd for me. I don't think plum and creme brulee were ever meant to be combined. The M. Chapoutier was my first experience with French dessert wines, and it was a positive one. The flavor of the wine was very unlike a port.
I found Janos impressive, and had hoped that J Bar would be close, but even though the menu sounded like pure Janos Wilder the food was bland. I doubt I'd give J Bar another try, even if I wasn't paying for it.
The tile guys finished the grout, and our kitchen looks bad ass! Lynn called the correct color for the main grout, and I called it for the medallion grout. I'll post a picture or two sometime soon. (Now we just need a countertop that looks as good.)
Today I picked up the bamboo to get it acclimated, and it looks pretty good too. The boards were lighter than the sample I received, but that's cool since they're more of a honey brown instead of just brown. I can't wait to see it installed (and we can move in).
I'd heard nothing but raves about Los Sombreros on Chowhound so I decided to give it a shot. Lynn, DJ, and I went there for dinner one night, and although the place was packed we were still able to get a table immediately.
Lynn had a margarita with Sauza "Hornitos" (my favorite tequila), some sort of liqueur I'd never heard of, and lime juice. It was excellent. Since Los Sombreros is a Mexican restaurant I got fresh limeade. It was tasty, but a little too sweet. Chips and two salsas (a red and a green) were brought to the table. The green salsa was sweet and kind of hot while the red had a nice smoky flavor. We all enjoyed both, but I found the flavors a little thin.
We ordered an appetizer special, the carne asada, bacon, and poblano tacos. The beef had an excellent flavor that was complex and spicy, and reminded me of one of the beef dishes I've had at Cafe Poca Cosa. Guacamole came with the tacos, which was good because Lynn almost ordered the guacamole appetizer. It had a good flavor, but it needed salt and black pepper. Lynn and I like our homemade guacamole better.
For our entrees I order the lamb shank adobo while Lynn and DJ got the crab enchiladas. As good as the tacos were I couldn't wait to try the lamb adobo. The lamb shank was served in a bowl of the most unappetizing looking adobo I'd ever seen; instead of a robust red sauce it looked thin and greasy. The lamb was tender, but it had a gamey flavor that I didn't like. The odd thing is that not all of the lamb tasted gamey. The adobo sauce had some flavor, but not even as much as the canned stuff that comes with Embasa chipotles.
Lynn and DJ both hated the crab enchiladas because they said the enchiladas had a nasty crabby flavor. The enchiladas were covered in an excellent chipotle sauce that completely overpowered the crab (it was like using a Ghallager style mallet to crack open a crab leg). I tried the enchiladas without the sauce, and they were only ok, but I saw how Lynn and DJ tasted a certain crabbiness.
I ate as much of the lamb as I could stand, but that didn't amount to much so I was hungry for dessert. A couple of desserts sounded interesting, but the chocolate tamale sounded too unique to skip. I thought the chocolate tamale would be some sort of chocolate cake, but it was chocolate masa served in a corn husk! Tasting chocolate with corn was too damn strange for me, but Lynn and I were too hungry not to finish it off. Needless to say we'd never order it again. The ice cream that came with it was very good though.
The restaurant was packed so I was a little more forgiving about the slow service, but our waiter was so slow that he pissed me off on more than one occasion.
I was disappointed that the meal started very well, but fell apart at the entrees. Los Sombreros seems like they have real potential, but it's probably in the chicken or beef dishes. I'd like to go there again to find out, but I'm going to have a difficult time getting Lynn there a second time.
Wow, Superbowl Sunday, Mardi Gras, and Chinese New Year all in the same week. I bet Asian football fans in New Orleans probably took the entire week off. I wish I was in New Orleans, or knew people who really celebrated Chinese New Year.
Friday night Lynn found out she might be able to keep her job if she moves to Pittsburgh. Normally I wouldn't think it's a good idea, but she has the opportunity to get a lot of money for only being there for a maximum of nine months. We could use the money to pay off the flooring, and use the rest as seed money for the wine shop. It also has the added benefit of being close to Lynn's family (they'd only be 1.5 hours away). Lynn hasn't decided if she wants to do it because I'd stay here during that time, and we just got the house. She has to make up her mind by Monday.
Saturday we went to the house early to meet with some floor guys. They all wanted too much to put the wood down so we'll probably do it ourselves (which is easier than doing tile, but people charge less for tile). We pulled the weeds in our front yard for the first time between floor guys showing up.
Sunday we went to Home Depot to pick up various little things, like tools and a book on how to install wood flooring, we need. (There are a lot more little things you need for a house than I thought.) Afterwards we joined Ken and his friends at Santisi Brothers to watch the Super Bowl. They had a buffet there that was actually pretty good: the hot wings were better than most places, the pizza was still better than 95% of the places I've been to, the ribs were pretty good for a non-barbecue place, and the crab legs were tasty. The only problem I had with their buffet was they used the same water to boil all of the crab so the crab at the end of the meal had a fishy smell to it that the crab at the beginning didn't. Normally I'd be amazed that a good buffet even existed, but Santisi Brothers seems to specialize in making good food. It was a fun time, but Lynn and I have decided we prefer to do the Superbowl at our place.
Yesterday the tile guys came in and laid most of the floor, which looks pretty good. They might have finished today; I'll know when we stop by later tonight.
Tomorrow I'll probably pick up the 22 cases of bamboo that was shipped to me, and get it ready for installation.
The last time I wanted Chinese for dinner I was more interested in getting food from Jong Wah than my favorite, Lin Chinese Dining. Lynn was sick so I picked up the food to go.
We had the wor wonton soup, which I hoped would be good, but the broth was damn near tasteless, and the wontons were nasty. Normally I feel bad about throwing food out without really eating it, but I didn't feel guilty about tossing the soup. I got Lynn the chicken lettuce wraps, and they were excellent as always. I got the double dragon ("Grand Mamier" shrimp and sweet and pungent shrimp) for myself. I wasn't sure what the "Grand Mamier" (I assume it's really supposed to be Grand Marnier) shrimp would be, but it turned out to be walnut shrimp. It had a subtle orange flavor, and wasn't too bad, but I prefer the walnut shrimp at Lin's. The sweet and pungent shrimp was a disturbing shade of red that made me think it was going to be like terrible sweet and sour, but it tasted much better than it looked. It was seasoned with orange rind, and had a sweet spicy flavor that I dug. I'd order it again, but I'd like it better if they didn't color it so red.
Jong Wah is really proving themselves a viable option for good Chinese, and I'm still enjoying eating through their menu.
[Previous visit to Jong Wah.]
The night Lynn and I found out that our bid was accepted on the house we were having an omakase [chef's choice] dinner with Steve and his girlfriend at Shinbay. I love to celebrate with good food so I couldn't believe our luck. Lynn and I started with a sake sampler that had three sakes that we liked. Between the two of us we didn't finish all the sake though.
Our first course consisted of four small dishes: two raw oysters, monkfish pate, clams with seaweed, and raw shrimp. The oysters were very good, tasting quite fresh. The monkfish pate was less fishy, and tasted better than the first time we were at Shinbay. There was still something about the flavor that kept me from being able to eat the entire portion though. I've never been a fan of raw shrimp because the texture. It was also one of the very first pieces of sushi I tried, and it was enough to keep me from trying sushi again for a couple of years. I've tried it a few times since then, and have always felt the same. Always willing to give something a fair shake I tried Shinbay's raw shrimp anyway, and I still found myself being grossed out by the texture. I think I've tried raw shrimp enough times now that it's safe to say that I don't need to ever try them again. My favorite item was the clams with seaweed; there was something about the flavor combination that tasted a lot better than I would have guessed.
The second course was the amazing clams with mushrooms. What can I say, it's a great dish that appeals to even clam haters (that's me, Lynn, and either Steve or his girlfriend). The buttery broth is too delicious not to eat, and even when it's being cooked it whets your appetite.
The third course was the seared tuna with salad. The salad and dressing were once again very tasty, but the first piece of tuna I had tasted funny. Given my fairly recent (within the last year) experience with food poisoning I wasn't enthusiastic about eating a second piece. I don't learn some lessons very well so I did eat a second piece of tuna, and that one was great. Lynn didn't like her tuna so I ended up eating hers too.
Our fourth course was sashimi [raw meat]: tuna, salmon, yellow tail, fatty tuna, squid, and clam. I like salmon cooked, but I don't really care for it raw. The salmon at Shinbay was so delicious; it didn't have the usual raw salmon fishiness, and it had a racy vivid flavor that was unlike most salmon you eat. Lynn was ecstatic because she loves yellow tail, and the yellow tail was excellent. I don't care for yellow tail because I it tastes way too fishy for me, but even I had to admit that Shinbay's yellow tail was pretty good. The fatty tuna was tasty, and it was an interesting to compare its pale pink color to the deep crimson of the regular tuna. The regular tuna was also very good. Squid is another item I prefer cooked because of its texture, but I gave it a try. I had the same reaction I had to the shrimp. I thought the clam might be better (I don't think raw clam is good eating, but at least it's not repulsive), but it was very tough and chewy raw. After the sashimi I was getting tired because all the fat and protein was putting me sleep.
The fifth course was fluke with olive oil and cheese. I didn't care for it, and didn't like the fact that it took up an entire course either. The dish just seems like an oily mess that should be avoided, especially considering that you don't really taste the fish.
The sixth course was nigiri sushi (salmon, tuna, and needle fish), and I was never so happy to see rice. Once I got some carbs I started to immediately feel more active. All of the sushi was very tasty, and I was happy that there weren't any wasabi bombs this time.
The seventh course was soup with green tea soba, some kind of fish (sea bass?), scallops, and mushrooms. The broth was well done, and made an excellent base. The soba had a firm texture, and was very tasty. The chef should serve it more often because it's doubtful anybody in Phoenix gets soba that good very often. The fish and scallops were both very good, with my preference being the fish and Lynn's being the scallops.
The dessert was the usual understated but visually appealing fruit: three grapes (two green, one purple), and three pieces of ripe mango. It was actually pretty good, and it wasn't so much that it bothered people with full stomachs.
I was disappointed by several things at dinner: we didn't get the fish in the warm oil (which I think is amazing), and had the fluke with oil (which is probably the worst dish they make) instead; there was a sashimi course in addition to sushi (which seems like a bit much); and this omakase was similar to the one we had before. All that being said I still thought we had a great meal, and would happily return to Shinbay. I do think I'd enjoy Shinbay more if I went there and ordered everything I liked a la carte though.
I'm excited right now. Is it because of the new house or that I've got half of the flooring taken care of (buying materials and scheduling installation)? Nope, it's because a couple of days ago someone from work told me about this spiffy Javascript that opens images in a new window, and resizes the window to fit the image automatically. I used to have to figure that stuff out manually for every picture so this will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes me to put up images on my travel reports. It was so simple I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier (what kind of programmer am I?).
There was one problem with the script though: most of my travel photos have captions, and this script didn't have that functionality. Today I thought about the problem and came up with a solution that I think works very well (if you want to see click on one of the two non-map images on the Europe page). Of course I just noticed that the two pictures I added to the Europe page look really dark which means I'm going to have to re-edit all the pictures (about 25) I already edited on Lynn's laptop. I knew laptop lcds looked different from monitors, but I didn't realize the difference was so vast. I either need to calibrate the laptop lcd panel (which will never happen) or edit my pictures on a real computer.
I'd never heard of Sahara before, but my ex-boss wanted to go there for lunch so I was up for trying it. We started with hummus that was so-so; I don't think it would be worth ordering again. My entree came with a choice of soup or salad, and being the vegetable eater I am these days I went with the salad. For a standard green salad with a little dressing on top it was pretty decent.
The dish that was recommended to me by my ex-boss was the feta chicken, which as they state on the menu, doesn't contain feta. What it does consist of is tasty basmati rice, moist well spiced chicken, and crispy bits of what tasted like fried wonton wrappers. My first bite had me questioning whether I wanted to follow it up with a second because the spices were unfamiliar, but the dish soon grew on me, and by the time I was finished with it I thought it was great.
I went back to Sahara with Murray about a week later. We tried to get the appetizer with green beans and garlic, but the guy said they don't make it anymore. We got baba ganoush instead, but it wasn't very good. I get the feeling Haji Baba will be the only place I'll ever like baba ganoush. I was tempted to get the feta chicken, but I thought I should try something new. I saw something with stewed beef and lamb that sounded interesting. It tasted the way Haji Baba smells; it was a full on assault of spice and incense. I had a difficult time eating it, and it really made me appreciate their basmati rice.
We finished lunch with their walnut baklava. It was good despite a heavy dose of orange blossom water, but a little too sweet for me. When we paid our bill we saw a sign for rice pudding with walnuts and caramel that sounded good.
I can't help but think that Sahara is one of the most Middle Eastern restaurants in town; there are the usual dishes that you see at every other Middle Eastern place, but there's plenty of dishes to remind you how foreign Middle Eastern food can be. Sometimes that's even a good thing, but I might stick with the feta chicken in the future.
Yesterday I was in the mood for beef hard tacos, and the only place I could think of was Si Senor. Lynn had the green chile beef, and I was tired of ordering combination plates with mediocre rice and refried beans so I got two shredded beef tacos and a cheese enchilada (which ended up being about $2 less than a comparable combination). Lynn enjoyed her green chile, and I thought it was pretty good too. The tacos weren't deep fried, but the tortillas were grilled so they were a little crunchy. The beef was flavorful too so I was satisfied. The enchilada sauce tasted like your typical enchilada sauce, and there wasn't much cheese in the enchilada. Despite all that the enchilada actually tasted pretty good (probably because their corn tortillas taste pretty good).
I didn't get my hard tacos, but I was happy with lunch. It looks Via Marie is my only source for excellent hard tacos (although Ken says the ones at Sylvia's La Canasta are pretty good).
[Previous visit to Si Senor.]
A while ago Lynn and I had driven down Country Club and I noticed Benjarong Thai. I said we should try them some time, and one day when we didn't have any lunch plans we did. The restaurant looked like your standard hole in the wall Chinese place from the exterior, but when we entered we were surprised by the cute Thai decor. It wasn't fancy, but it was much better than what I was used to seeing. I was also happy because the restaurant was filled with the scent of jasmine rice (my favorite rice).
The waiter was friendly, and we'd later learn that he was educational too. We got a Thai iced tea and Thai iced coffee. The iced tea tasted pretty good, and it must have been a long time since I've seen a Thai coffee because I was surprised that it was jet black. I tried it, and even though I don't like coffee, it tasted pretty decent to me.
I saw fish cakes on the menu, and I was going to get them, but then I saw nau num tok [spicy beef salad]; I thought it would be good to get the nau num tok so Lynn could compare it to Cyclo's. The waiter (his nickname is "Mr. Moo") explained that the name basically means "waterfall beef". The waterfall part of the name originates from the fact that the beef is cooked on a dome shaped grill, and when the juices run down they resemble a waterfall. Interesting. We ordered it medium spiciness, but it was very spicy. I soon found myself eating cabbage just to cool my mouth off. A minute later Mr. Moo told us to eat the vegetables when the pepper started getting too hot. Lynn and I both enjoyed the flavor, but the dish was hotter than Lynn could take. It made me think their prig king [chicken and green beans in a roasted red chile sauce] would kick my ass.
Tom yum gai is one of my favorite soups of all time so I wanted to give it a try at Benjarong. Their version was spicy with a complex flavor, and very tasty; everything I expect tom yum gai to be.
Lynn got the gaeng kari [yellow curry with chicken and potatoes], and I had the pork pad gaprow. Lynn's curry was ordered medium spiciness so I thought it'd be flaming hot given our experience with the nau num tok, but it had a sweet flavor that I didn't care for. Lynn liked it. Bangkok Express was one of only two restaurants (and the better of the two) that made pad gaprow with ground pork with fresh chiles and Thai basil over rice. Every other restaurant I've tried it at made it with sliced pork, and served it in some tasteless brown sauce with Thai basil. I don't know why I ordered a dish that I've hated at all but two Thai restaurants, but even though the Benjarong Thai version was sliced pork in a brown sauce it could never be confused with the other ones. Benjarong's was a little sweet, complex, and occasionally spicy. There were also a lot of bamboo shoots that added a crunchy texture to the dish that was a nice touch. I was actually impressed with their pad gaprow!
We were both extremely happy with Benjarong Thai on our first visit, and we looked forward to our second visit, which was a week later. I got my fish cakes this time, and they were as expected: five somewhat rubbery spicy patties of fish that were good by themselves, and very tasty with cucumber sauce. Lynn didn't care for them, but she doesn't like fish cakes. As with most orders of fish cakes there was too much food for two people to eat.
There were a lot of things that we wanted to try on the menu, but we settled on beef and Chinese broccoli in black bean sauce, and eggplant with chili and Thai basil. Thai black bean sauce tastes very different from the Chinese version, being mild and slightly sweet, but still tasty. We'd order the beef and Chinese broccoli in black bean sauce again, even if it wasn't an impressive sort of dish. The eggplant in the eggplant dish was sliced too thick to be adequately flavored by the spices it was cooked with, and it didn't have a sauce to give it any more flavor. It wasn't bad, but it was far from good.
I wasn't as happy with our second visit as our first, but we still had some really good food. Next time I'm going to have to try the fried whole pompano, and Lynn wants to try the panang beef [red curry with coconut milk].
This morning I had to wake up very early to get my hair cut. Even though I live in Chandler my barber is located in central Phoenix (I've been going to him since I was 16 so I don't think 15 miles is too far to drive for me to keep him) so I usually use the trip as an excuse to eat something in my old neighborhood. Normally I make my appointments around lunch time, but it wasn't possible today.
It was so early that nothing was open. Loathe to waste an opportunity I went through businesses that could possibly be open before 7. The only thing that came to mind was bakeries. I wasn't in the mood to hit anything on the west side, but Lynn commented the other day that we hadn't had any croissants from Pleaissant Croissant lately. Normally Pleaissant Croissant is closed before I'm active enough to leave the apartment on the weekends so I happily picked some plain and stuffed croissants from the only place in Phoenix I know of with perfect croissants.
Bakeries seem practically common in every other city I've been to, but Phoenix suffers from an absolute dearth. There is hope though; on the way to Pleaissant Croissant I saw that there was a place called AZ Bread Co. on Kyrene and Elliot. I didn't stop there this morning, but I'll check it out some other time since I'm always looking for good bread. Of course I've been meaning to check out Alpine Valley Bread Co. for a while, and that hasn't happened yet.
Lynn and I are officially homeowners; now all the hard work begins (e.g., floors, painting, moving, etc..). Wish us luck.
It's official, Lynn found out today that she only has a job for another 60 days. After that AT&T will close the customer service center she works at. It's going to be rough for a little while because Lynn made a decent salary, and it's unlikely she'll make that much starting anywhere. At least she gets some severance pay. We knew this was coming for a while so the other reason I chose the mortgage options I did was this one had the smallest mortgage payment so even though I plan on overpaying every month it's small enough that I can carry it on my own if I have to.
Speaking of mortgage, the guys completing the repairs on the house won't be finished until Thursday. Our schedule now looks like I'll be signing the house paperwork tomorrow, doing the final walk through Thursday, and closing on Friday. It makes me almost wish that Lynn lost her job immediately so she could lay the kitchen tile.
Ok, it wasn't all proofreading this weekend; I saw "House of Flying Daggers" Friday night. The movie started pretty well with its unique use of color and emphasis on sound capturing my interest. There was even plenty of humor to keep things interesting. Somewhere along the line I even grew to care for the characters, and I could feel one of the characters inner conflict. It seemed like this was going to be another great by the same director as "Hero".
Then the movie was about halfway through when it seemed like it started dragging, and it never stopped all the way up to the ridiculous last ten minutes. You could see certain plot twists coming a mile away, but they weren't necessary to the enjoyment of the movie (assuming you enjoy it). It seemed like the director was trying too hard to make this a relationship movie though, and he succeeded in making a boring relationship movie. (I do have to give the director credit for having the best bamboo forest fight scene I've ever seen [which is difficult for such a played out visual].)
I spent the better part of my weekend proofing my Europe trip (instead of wasting it sleeping) so I could finally finish it. As the link should tell you, it's now readable, which is good because I have a feeling life is going to be really busy once we get the house. Someday I'll even get around adding pictures to it.
A few weeks ago Lynn noticed that Wild Bill's opened up in the location previously occupied by The Spaghetti Company. One night we went to eat at Lotus Asian Cafe, but they were closed. Wild Bill's was still open so we stopped there for dinner instead.
We were seated at a table with an lcd monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse. I thought the combination of barbecue and computers was weird and incongruous (greasy fingers covered in barbecue sauce shouldn't be near keyboards). I asked our waitress if they had any combination plates, and it was a bad sign for the service when the waitress had to go ask someone else. When she came back she said they didn't so I had the St. Louis rib dinner with garlic mashed potatoes and dirty rice (which I don't see often). Lynn had the brisket dinner with baked potato and vegetable medley.
My ribs had a decent smokey flavor, but they were chewy. It seemed like they were cooked at a temperature that was just a little too high. The garlic mashed potatoes reeked of garlic, and I could see the flecks of crushed garlic. There was too much garlic in the mashed potatoes, and it didn't taste good. The dirty rice had chicken in it (all the versions I've had before used ground beef), but it needed a heartier meat, like a pork sausage, to compliment the flavors. The rice did have a nice flavor with a bit of heat though. Lynn's brisket came chopped up, and Lynn did not like that a bit. The brisket was dry and very chewy, but that wasn't a surprise considering my ribs. The vegetable medley consisted of peas and carrots that Lynn was convinced came from a bag of frozen vegetables. I thought the baked potato would at least be good, but Lynn pointed out that it had some nasty spoiled parts that anyone would have seen if they looked at the potato.
The waitress left the check and went wandering. I waited as long as I could stand, but I had to go find her to pay the bill. Times like those I get real tempted to skip out on the bill.
I thought with some work the food at Wild Bill's might be decent, but Lynn is permanently through with the restaurant. I can't say I'm heartbroken about it.
We got official word that the seller was going to make the repairs we requested, and they had someone out to bid on it. It looks like they'll have all the repairs made this weekend, and we'll still close this Thursday as originally planned. If that goes well then I get to worry about flooring, and if I'm going to lay kitchen tile myself or pay someone else to do it (assuming we can afford it).
I'm two thirds of the way proofreading my Europe trip report. It's been going pretty quickly as far as proofreading goes, but it's still a huge report so it takes time. Hopefully I get it finished soon (sometime next week might actually be realistic) so I can get back to restaurants reports.
The only appetizer at Na Zdrowie that didn't appear to be bar food was the Polish platter, and we ate that the first time we went there. Without interesting appetizer choices I decided to try the chicken soup on our second visit. The flavor of the broth was decent, but there were too many carrots in the soup for my tastes.
I knew Lynn would get the kielbasa so I went with the other dish I almost got the first time, the hunters stew. The hunters stew was described on the menu as sauteed chopped cabbage with a mix of meats served with mashed potatoes, and it looked like a big pile of red sauerkraut (not the red cabbage stuff, but sauerkraut colored by something red). There was some sort of seasoning in it that I found foul. I tried to eat the meat, but it had absorbed the flavor. The mashed potatoes were good, and I ate them all along with some bread and butter. I don't hold the hunters stew against Na Zdrowie since I've never had that version of hunters stew before, and it may be a dish that I'll never like. Besides, if I wanted to play it safe I would have had the kielbasa like Lynn. Her kielbasa came with sauteed cabbage and mashed potatoes, and everything on her plate was excellent. Lynn felt sorry for me so she let me eat a decent amount of her food. The only disappointment with the kielbasa was it didn't have the charred skin it had the first time around, and to my surprise the charred skin really made the kielbasa great. It wasn't a big deal though.
I needed something really good to take away from our meal so we got the cheese blintzes. Once again the crepes were crispy, and the cheese was just sweet enough. A single order did prove to be too big for the both of us to finish.
The next time I go to Na Zdrowie I think I will play it safe and just get the pork chops.
It had been forever since I'd been to Aloha Kitchen, but my lunch at North Shore reminded me they existed. I really wanted to try their Hawaiian plate (Kalua pork, lomi salmon, and chicken long rice) since I'd never tried any of the items before, but I had to wait for a Wednesday or Sunday, which are the only days they make it.
The Wednesday night I went to Aloha Kitchen they were out of the chicken long rice so I got extra green salad instead. How disappointing. At least they had manapua [steamed barbecue pork buns], which they don't make on Sundays. I love Chinese barbecue pork buns, and I dig the manapua at Aloha Kitchen too.
The Kalua pork was a stewed pork dish that tasted like it needed more flavor. I had no idea what the lomi salmon would be, and it still managed to surprise me; it was like a pico de gallo (sans cilantro) with chopped bits of salmon. It tasted way too fishy for me to try more than twice. Lynn had the saimin (ramen like noodle soup) with fish cakes. The noodles were tasteless, but the broth had a pleasant mild salty flavor. It made me wonder if the saimin at North Shore was better. Lynn doesn't like fish cakes, but I thought they were good so I ate them for her.
It was years between the time I read about the Hawaiian plate, and when I actually got to eat it, but I don't think I missed much. Of course I didn't have the chicken long rice so it's possible I missed out on the best part of the dish.
[Previous visit to Aloha Kitchen.]
When Rikki and I were at training in downtown Phoenix he told me about John Henry's. I had never heard of the restaurant before, but the food he described was very old school continental cuisine that sounded like the type of place I wanted to try someday.
A few weeks ago Lynn had dressed very nicely for work so when she came home she wanted to eat somewhere nice to show off. That sounded like a good excuse for us to eat at John Henry's. We arrived there, and there wasn't anyone at the host's station. We stood there being passed by several wait staff, but no one acknowledged our existance much less sat us. I was getting pissed, and about to walk over to one of the waiters to get some service, when one of the waiters noticed the look of death I gave him and seated us.
Lynn started dinner with a glass of Armstrong Ridge which was very creamy, and somewhat sweet. We both thought it was pretty good although it was a little too sweet for me. There were a couple of appetizers that looked good to us, but once I saw the oysters Rockefeller I had to have them. The oysters were slightly overcooked, but not enough to ruin the dish. The butter sauce, which was amazingly tasty, more than made up for the oysters, and made a strong case for any dish on the menu with a butter based sauce.
Dinner came with a side salad. There were three or four dressings to choose from so I went with the orange-poppyseed, which sounded interesting to me. That was a mistake because the salad was drowning in the dressing, and the orange flavor didn't taste like it belonged on the salad. If I have to have a salad drown in something next time it'll be blue cheese dressing.
There were plenty of interesting entrees to choose from, but Lynn surprised me by suggesting the rack of lamb for two. I think it's safe to say that she doesn't hate lamb anymore. The lamb was brought tableside, and carved by our waiter. His presentation lacked grace, and really made me wish we had eaten a second dinner at Anton y Michel in Carmel, California (who seemed to specialize in excellent tableside service). The lamb was very good, but it didn't have a crust. I enjoy eating the crispy bits of meat off the bone so I was disappointed. The lamb came with vegetables and potatoes, and I don't know what they did with the potatoes but they had an excellent flavor. The vegetables were decent. Lynn and I both agreed that the lamb chops might be better than the rack of lamb.
For dessert we had the chocolate mousse, and the creme brulee. When I asked the waiter for a glass of port he said he had something for us, and left. He returned with two glasses of Maraska cherry wine (on the house). I was disappointed in the selection because my experience with fruit (non-grape) wines is that they're usually too thin, and not very good. I also don't care for the flavor of cherries (there, of course, have been exceptions). The Maraska was one of those exceptions; it wasn't overly sweet, and the cherry flavor was mellow. We both thought it tasted great, and was an excellent match for the chocolate mousse which had both a light texture and flavor. We'd order both again. The creme brulee was another story. While it had a good flavor it was also overcooked, and the sugar wasn't caramelized. Basically it was as bad as the chocolate mousse was good.
I wasn't happy with the waiter the entire night because I kept getting the feeling that he was trying to speed through our table so he could return to one of his other ones. The only thing that kept him from getting a bad tip was the Maraska (which they probably give out to everyone).
We both enjoyed the food at John Henry's, and there's plenty of menu for us to explore so we'll probably be back there when some cash frees up after this whole home buying experience. [Update on the house: the seller is making our requested repairs so the sale is still on. Yeah!]
I've seen The Original Wineburger on 19th Avenue for as long as I could remember (maybe because they've been open longer than I've been alive), and always wondered how a wineburger tastes different from a regular burger. Well this past weekend I actually stopped there to find out.
When I pulled up I had the feeling that it was a seedy neighborhood bar, and when I walked in it was obvious I was the youngest person in this seedy neighborhood bar. That didn't bother me since they had the Jets-Steelers game on so I just pulled up to the bar, and got a beer and a wineburger with bacon. I watched as the cook filled my order, impressed by how efficient he was, and how in his spare time he refilled his food bins. The burger was only a patty and bacon in a bun that was warmed on the griddle. It was a better burger than what you'd get at a fast food place, but not one of the best. I was disappointed because it didn't taste any different than a regular burger. I thought with a name like wineburger it might be marinated with wine. If it was, then I didn't taste it. Maybe someday I'll marinade ground beef in Zinfandel to see how that tastes.
It's unlikely I'll ever be back to The Original Wineburger because I'm not much for eating at bars, and even though the burger was good, it wasn't good enough to overcome that (unlike Baseline Sports Bar who make better burgers, or Santisi Brothers who have an excellent all around menu).
I had a serious craving for El Tlacoyo for a while so Lynn and I went there for lunch one day. I noticed that, for the first time, the red salsa was actually hotter than the green. It was also the first time I payed attention to how extremely consistent El Tlacoyo used to be; everything I'd had there over the course of many lunches always tasted the same. I wondered if one of cooks left.
Lynn and I split a carne asada torta, and I had the enchiladas suizas. One positive difference in the food was that the beef in the torta was tender. I was happy that they fixed the only weak aspect of their excellent carne asada torta. Normally the enchiladas suizas are hot enough that I can't eat them with impunity, but this time they were barely hot. I liked them better spicy so I hoped the adjustment to the heat was only temporary.
The enchiladas suizas are one of my favorite dishes at El Tlacoyo, but I don't go to El Tlacoyo often enough that I want to order anything else. Since I had the time I ate at El Tlacoyo again later in the same week. This time I tried the pescado al mojo de ajo [garlic shrimp] instead of the carne asada torta or the enchiladas suizas. The green salsa was still mild. One of the things I love about garlic shrimp is that almost every restaurant makes theirs differently, but usually they're all great so I looked forward to trying El Tlacoyo's for the first time. The garlic shrimp came with a mound of sliced garlic. It tasted like garlic and shrimp, but not garlic shrimp. I didn't like it at all, and filled up on the rice and refried beans. Maybe it's better that I already know two things on the menu I love. As for one of those things, someone I was with tried the enchiladas suizas, and she said they weren't spicy. It looks like I might be losing one of my favorite dishes.
A couple of weeks ago I forced Lynn (since she's not real fond of the place) to go to Lotus Asian Cafe. For the first time I noticed limeade on the menu, and it tasted just like Vietnamese limeade, which I consider a good thing. Lynn ordered her favorite thing on the menu, the beef croquettes, but when they came to the table they were vegetable croquettes. I told Lynn to send them back, but she thought she'd try them once. The vegetable croquettes were just like the beef croquettes, but with tofu replacing beef. I thought they tasted very similar, but the flavor provided by the beef was better than tofu. Lynn hated the vegetable croquettes. I also had my favorite corn fritters, and they were once again excellent.
Lynn still hadn't found an entree she likes at Lotus so she thought she'd try the calamari curry. For once I didn't feel like the galanga fried chicken, and I was in the mood for seafood, so I tried the fried mahi mahi with shallot soy sauce. Lynn's curry was full of baby squid, which was a first for either of us. The baby squid didn't taste any different from adult squid, but they were cuter. I liked them a lot more than Lynn did although she didn't leave very many for me to eat. The yellow curry had plenty of coconut milk in it, and tasted almost like Thai yellow curry, but not quite. There was some sort of seasoning in it that made it unique. Even though Lynn ordered it mild it was pleasantly spicy (which I loved, and Lynn found a little too hot). My fried fish came with a sweet sauce that was decent, but was rather plain, especially compared to the curry. Oh well, live and learn.
[Previous visit to Lotus Asian Cafe & Grill.]
Things had been going well with getting our house. We got the appraisal taken care of, and I even got a lower interest rate than what I was originally quoted. The only thing I was worried about was the home inspection, which was this morning. The home inspector found what could be a large problem; the water heater appears to be leaking, and it looks like it's been doing it for quite some time because three walls (one of which is an exterior wall) have water damage. The water heater might need to be replaced, and even worse, if there's mold it'll have to be remediated (which is expensive). Our contract is now contingent on them finding and repairing the leak, repairing the walls, and replacing the water heater if necessary. Tomorrow we might be looking for yet another house.
The last time I went to The Cove Trattoria it was with five other people (Lynn, Steve, DJ, and a couple of other people). I got the shrimp verde (shrimp in pesto with sun dried tomatoes and parmesan), and Steve got a piccante pizza (mozzarella, Italian sausage, pepperoni, garlic, and basil) for the table. The shrimp were excellent, and the pesto tasted so good I ate it straight with a piece of bread because I didn't want to waste it. The pizza was very good to excellent. I couldn't find anything lacking with the crust, pizza sauce, or toppings. I was happy because it validated my original assessment of the pizza.
Oddly enough all three guys at the table had the lobster ravioli with scallops and shrimp in vodka tomato cream sauce for an entree. I never thought of it as a guy dish, but maybe it is. My scallops were overcooked, and so were Steve's. DJ was the only one without rubbery scallops so I'm guessing his was the last portion made. At least the shrimp weren't very overcooked, and actually tasted good. Of course the thing that made the dish was the vodka tomato cream sauce, which had an outstanding bright tomato flavor that was on par with the best examples of that particular sauce I've had (like from Naples or Va Bene). Lynn had an artichoke pizza (mozzarella, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and garlic), and she was disappointed that it didn't have any tomato sauce on it. Worse than that was the fact that the artichokes were terrible. I've always thought that pickled artichoke hearts don't have any place in cooking, and this at least proves they don't have any business on pizza. Even without the artichokes the pizza needed something. None of the women were happy with their dishes.
Lynn hasn't been overly pleased with The Cove Trattoria, but I've had some very good things there so they're on my list of restaurants worth eating at.
[Previous visit to The Cove Trattoria.]
The Monday after Christmas Lynn and I were in the mood for Italian. We went to Rigatony's, and the place was packed. I was amazed since it was a Monday night, but Lynn thought it made sense for the first weekday after Christmas. We decided to get our food to go to expedite our meal. I don't know how much that helped since it still took 40 minutes for us to get our food.
We had a pizza with alfredo sauce, spinach, and cheese (a new addition to the menu), baked rigatony (for Lynn), and shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta (for me). I like the pizza crust at Rigatony's, but hadn't found a pizza there I really liked. The combination of the alfredo, spinach, and cheese was excellent. I'd definitely order it again. Lynn liked her baked rigatony, but I thought it tasted odd. The shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta turned out to be exactly what I wanted; something light and tasty. I was worried that the shrimp would taste old, but they were fine.
I didn't appreciate the wait, but the dinner salad, pizza, and scampi still make Rigatony's worth the occasional wait.
[Previous visit to Rigatony's.]
Our second visit to Efes was very similar to our first; we were there with a couple who hadn't been there before so we ordered almost the exact same items. The only difference was the bottle of Turkish red wine, and the coban salata. The Turkish red wine was a light, fruity, and easy to drink wine that I'd order it again. The coban salata had diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and other good stuff. It was a lot better than the minted coleslaw type thing that comes with dinner.
We had the appetizer sampler with hummus, babagannosh, patlican soslu [stewed eggplant, tomatoes, and green peppers], stuffed grape leaves, and acili ezme [a spicy Turkish salsa type thing]. The favorites of the table were split between the acili ezme and the patlican soslu. For dinner we had the Efes mix (lamb sis [grilled lamb], tavuk sis [grilled chicken], adana [grilled ground lamb], pilic [grilled ground chicken], doner [grilled beef]), and the iskender doner [doner with pita, yogurt, and tomato sauce] (my favorite from the last time). I would say the best of the sampler was the doner, which was tender and tasty. The only thing that could make it better was pita, yogurt, and tomato sauce (the other ingredients in the iskender doner if you missed it). They added an extra something to the doner that made it great. My least favorites were the pilic and lamb, which were neither good nor bad. I did have to admit that all the meat seemed to taste better than the first time we were there.
Next time I'd like to try something new, like the ispanak borek [baked pastry filled with spinach and feta that sounds like a spanakopita] or the taze fasulye [stewed green beans].
I have to make a decision about what kind of mortgage to get for our new house. My immediate inclination was to get a 30 year fixed rate, but last night I read a lot about mortgages, and how they work. I've come to the conclusion (after lots of number crunching) that in my situation a combination of a 5 year interest only adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) for 80% of the loan and a 30 year fixed rate for the other 20% works out well for us. I almost dismissed the 5 year interest only ARM because it seems counterproductive to only pay interest instead of the principle plus interest. That is until I realized that I can pay the money that I save from the smaller interest only payment towards the smaller loan. This works well because the interest rate is higher on the second loan, and since it's a smaller loan more of the overpayment goes to the principle. Compared to two 30 year fixed loans the difference after 5 years is an extra 2% of principle paid off. The same payment pays for 2% more house! That may not sound like much, but at the front end of a mortgage it's pretty good since it gets a lot larger later.
The ARM gets interesting when the variable interest rate kicks in, but I've figured out the percentage rate that signals when I should refinance the loan, and it doesn't look too bad. I guess I'll know if I've made a mistake in four and a half years.
A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Korean barbecue so we went to Hodori; Gordon still insists Hodori has the best kalbi in town, and I had to try it again to compare it to Takamatsu. We started with an order of mandu [deep fried dumplings like gyoza], and I'm really sure why since I have yet to have mandu that I like. Mandu always have an odd flavor to me, and the Hodori mandu weren't any different. We ate enough to feel like I didn't completely waste my money, but not any more.
We of course had the kalbi. The flavor was great, and it was excellent. I still don't think the kalbi at Hodori is better than Takamatsu, just different. The meat is the known factor of the meal, but it's still the unpredictable selection of condiments that appeals to me. Of course there are times you wish they had a particular favorite of yours. I'm not a big fan of kim chi, but the meal would seem incomplete without it. This time the kim chi tasted like it was made with aquarium water. I don't know if it was the worst kim chi I've ever had, but it was definitely one of the worst. There was a dried fish jerky type thing that was pretty tasty, and only a little fishy. Lynn was being finicky, and refused to try it. My favorite condiment this time was the sweet and spicy pickles.
I still think Hodori and Takamatsu are both excellent, but Takamatsu still has a couple of advantages for me: their pork is amazing (I haven't tried the pork at Hodori yet), and Takamatsu serves sushi (I've been known to enjoy a few pieces of sushi). Either choice it's good eating though.
[Previous visit to Hodori.]
I grossly underestimated how much work it'll take to proofread my Europe trip report. I printed it out, and it's 35 pages long. It's almost a novel, and it looks pretty dry without pictures. Maybe my emphasis should be on pruning it down to a more manageable read?
I had read about the Marquesa brunch on AZ Central, and it sounded interesting. Normally I wouldn't go anywhere near a buffet (I believe food is best when it's made specifically for you), but it did sound like the perfect place to take my mom for her birthday lunch because they had a large selection of food she wouldn't normally run across (like seared foie gras with mustard-caramel sauce, which I wouldn't normally run across either).
We drove up to North Scottsdale, and found The Princess Resort, and the restaurant, pretty easily. We were seated, and the waiter poured us all a glass of Taittinger "Brut Reserve" (which is quite good). The waiter gave us a tour of the various food stations (sausage, meat, smoked and cured fish, tapas, cheese, fruit, dessert, and a couple of hot stations). It was a lot of choose from.
I started with a couple of sausages, some smoked fish, gravlox, and prime rib. The roast beef was ok. The chorizo (Spanish style) was ok. The smoked fish was ok. The only thing that stood out was the gravlox, which is practically the only other way I think salmon tastes good besides grilling. Lynn had the brandy and honey cured salmon, and asked me to taste it. I knew it was pretty bad because of how she asked me to try it, and it was absolutely foul. We had other things like lamb chops that were a little too fatty. Lynn, who still claims not to like lamb, dug them, but I didn't. The best meat sort of thing I had was the poached rabbit crepe (from one of the hot stations). I don't remember if I've had rabbit before, but the poached rabbit had a good flavor. The most interesting item was probably the seared foie gras with mustard-caramel sauce. It had a unique flavor, but the foie gras had a gamey aftertaste that neither Lynn or I liked. My mom dug it though.
I tried the exotic fruits they had (star fruit, rambutan, and other stuff I don't remember), but they didn't taste exotic. The rambutan was the best of the bunch tasting very similar to lychee or longan berry, but much cooler looking with curly purple spines. There were about six or seven cheeses so I checked those out too, but the cheeses tasted pretty boring.
I had hoped the desserts would prove better than the rest of the food, and they were. The chocolate marsala bombe was rich and tasty, and would be the perfect way to end a great meal if you like chocolate. If you prefer fruit desserts then the raspberry angel food would serve just as well; it was creamy with great fruity flavors. Those should have been the only two desserts I had, but most of the other ones weren't bad. The fruit tart was the only exception because there was something nasty in the flavor.
My mom enjoyed brunch, which made me happy. I didn't care for it, but I thought they did a good job for a buffet. The food had enough potential to convince me to someday check out their normal meal service.
Lynn pointed out something unusual about our meal; she said we seemed to be seated in the minority room. I thought she was joking, but when I looked at the other two tables in the room (one large table with an Asian family that was seated before us, and one table with a black family that was seated after us), I thought she might be on to something. The only white people in the room were Lynn and a couple of people with the Asian family. Lynn also pointed out that even our waiter was a minority. I thought he was French, but when I looked at his name tag it said Juan (apparently I'm really bad at recognizing accents). I think it was probably a coincidence, but it would be interesting to see where we get seated next time.
Saturday started off pretty well when we went to Benjarong Thai Restaurant. We had driven past them a couple of times, and Saturday we finially decided to eat there. I didn't expect much, and they were much better than I could have guessed. Everthing about the experience was good.
After lunch we went with our realtor to look at houses. There was one house in the neighborhood we wanted (about a mile from where we live) with vaulted ceilings and a north-south exposure. It wasn't huge, but it felt a lot bigger than the listed square footage. The only real problem with the place was that it didn't have any flooring. That didn't bother me since I almost always hate the carpet in the places we've looked anyway. We went back to the office, and wrote up a contract in which they took the carpet allowance and paid money to the closing costs. I didn't expect much to come of it since we didn't do anything to sweeten the deal (unlike the previous house we lost our bid on).
We had reservations to eat dinner at Shinbay with Steve and his girlfriend. On our way to the restaurant our realtor called to say we got the house (we're scheduled to close on the 27th). Dinner was the omakase [chef's choise], and even though I had a couple of disappoints with the meal, I thought it was still excellent. It was a great day from beginning to end.
The one bad thing about getting this house is that now that we have to pay for new flooring immediately it seems unlikely I'll be able to go to Belize for my cousin's wedding.
I've been to Cyclo twice since the last time I wrote about it. The second to the last time we were there I had to have the Thai basil short ribs again, and try the spicy chicken wings. The ribs were tasty, but they overcooked and chewy instead of tender. It was very disappointing. I didn't write down what I thought of the spicy chicken wings, and now I don't remember a thing about them. I'll assume they weren't especially bad or good since they didn't make an impression. I also tried the lemongrass chicken for the first time. The chicken was diced and fried crispy with a good spicy flavor. I would have enjoyed the dish a lot more if it came with sauce or vegetables though. While I love meat I prefer to eat it with other things. Lynn was in the mood for the jasmine creme brulee, and it was pretty good as usual.
The last time we were at Cyclo Lynn had to have the spicy beef salad again, and the black pepper shrimp too. Neither of those are appetizers I cared for the first time so I ate as much of the beef salad as I could stand (it's good, but the flavors don't speak to me). I had liked Lynn's wokked beef so much when she had it that I got it this time. I didn't think about it when the waiter asked me if I wanted it spicy, and responded yes. That was a mistake because making the dish spicy threw the balance of flavors off so it wasn't as good as it could have been. It was a little too spicy for me too. I learned to treat Cyclo like a Thai restaurant, and not to specify that I want something spicy.
After the great potstickers I had at Golden Gate in Gonzalez, CA I had to compare them against the potstickers at Yang Dynasty (which were the best I knew of). Yang Dynasty was the very first restaurant I ever had potstickers, and they've remained the restaurant for potstickers throughout the years. Lynn and I went there one weekend and had potstickers, an order of grandma's spicy salad, hot and sour soup, walnut shrimp, and pepper beef. It was way too much food. The potstickers were nicely crispy from the pan frying, and were very good, but there was too much ginger in the filling. I had to admit that I actually liked the potstickers from Golden Gate better, even though they weren't as crispy. The grandma's spicy salad was just as spicy, pungent, and tasty as ever. I don't know why Lynn got the hot and sour soup since I didn't remember her liking it, but she had forgotten. The soup reminded her. It wasn't bad, but it didn't have enough vinegar for her.
The one thing that keeps me from eating at Yang Dynasty more often is that I've never found an entree there to love (the mu shu pork is nice though). I've had walnut shrimp at quite a few Chinese restaurants, even though it's not the type of dish I usually order (Lin's makes it very well thus encouraging me to compare it to other restaurants), but I've never tried it at Yang Dynasty. I didn't like it. The batter they used for the shrimp was the doughy egg type that Chinese restaurants use for their standard fried shrimp instead of the thinner crispy dough they should have used. The dough ruined what could have been a decent dish. Lynn's pepper beef was nondescript, but pepper beef is like that.
I still haven't found an entree to love at Yang Dynasty, but a great entree would just be icing on the cake after the potstickers and grandma's spicy salad.
New York Bagel Deli is close to my realtor's office so one day while I was at her office I stopped in for some donuts. The scent of their pizza was great, and I made a mental note to try it some time. (In case you were wondering, their buttermilk bars were very good.) Unlike most mental notes I actually remembered this one, and we had a pepperoni pizza from New York Bagel Deli last weekend. It wasn't good. The smell at the restaurant was yeasty, which promised lots of flavor, but the pizza crust hardly tasted like anything. They didn't put enough tomato sauce on the pizza to taste either. We ate enough pizza to keep from starving, but not more than we had to.
New York Bagel Deli also sells stromboli, but Lynn was the first to say she wasn't interested in trying it. Neither am I.
One of the things I've written about in my Europe trip report is chocolate. It put me in the mood to write about the best chocolate I've run across over the years. (Keep in mind that you have to handpick your chocolate no matter where you buy it from because if it comes in a box there's no telling how long it's been around. Even the best chocolate doesn't taste good old.)
I didn't get my Europe trip report finished like I wanted to, but I only have one day left to write about. It's not that much considering how much text is there for the other 20 days. In fact it's so big that I'm probably the only person who'll ever read it. I don't know how many pages it is, but it's over 170kb in physical size. To give you an idea how big that is, it's bigger than anything I've written before (including my cigar page), and that's without the pictures (which will probably take me another year to put up).
Hopefully I'll have all the text finished, proofread, and fact verified (I don't even come close to remembering the names of everything I've seen) by the middle of next week.
We get the time between Christmas and New Year's off at work, so I've been home this week. The one thing I wanted to get accomplished during this time was to finish writing the text for my Europe trip. I've only got four days left to write about so it's possible I might actually get it finished by tomorrow. Next week I'll start editing the trip text (assuming I get it done), and get to my backlog of restaurant visits.
Yesterday Lynn and I looked at a house we both liked and submitted a contract (our first sice we started looking in September). I hoped it would be accepted, and we could start the new year with a new house. That didn't happen, and while our offer was good we were ultimately outbid. It's hasn't been the best start to the new year.
