After writing about Fate, and the music they were playing there, I had a serious urge to listen to Portishead. I was hoping Noah had the album "Dummy", but he didn't (at least where I could find it) so I just downloaded some stuff from the albums "PNYC" and "Pearl". I really liked some songs from "Pearl" so I was thinking about buying it. I looked online and I couldn't find any Portishead albums by the name of "Pearl". After a little research I found out the songs were really from a group named Mandalay, and their album "Empathy". I forgot where I was going with all this, but Mandalay is good stuff.
Newpotato2 hasn't responded to the last email I sent him so I finally just left him negative feedback. Bastard.
I'm still going to contact my credit card company to see if I can dispute the charge.
Lynn's suggestion about going to Restaurant Hapa for her birthday reminded me that we should go there and try their food again. Not too long after her birthday I still remembered to go there. We had ordered our dinner and a waiter brought out a little snack of a quail leg katsu with blood orange sauce. The katsu wasn't really like Japanese katsu, but I still liked Hapa's version; it was salty and tasty, but the quail was too awkward to eat to bother finishing.
I had ordered Hakkaisan sake with our meal. It had a most unusual banana pudding scent and a light banana flavor. Both Lynn and I really enjoyed it.
We had two appetizers: the fiery scallops (which the waiter told us was a signature dish), and the seafood tasting (which was a small serving of four different dishes). The seafood tasting had an oyster katsu, mussels in curry, a crab cake, and tuna and lobster sushi. Of the four dishes the oyster katsu was the best, similar to the quail katsu, but not nearly as awkward. The curry with the mussels was yellow with lots of coconut milk and zero spice. If there had been some heat to it I think the mussels would have tasted better. The crab cake tasted ok, but it wasn't special or nearly as good as the crab cake at Cafe ah PWAH. I thought I would enjoy the sushi, but I couldn't tell what we were eating except for some citrus flavor. The fiery scallops were great; the scallops just touched the pan so they were very close to raw, and the spicy-sweet sauce with mango and papaya made for an excellent combination. The scallops were so good I would go back to Hapa just for the scallops.
For my entree I ordered the curried monkfish, which was a dish that was outrageously great when we were there on New Year's Eve. The first thing I noticed was that the curry didn't really taste like curry, it tasted more like water. Since the curry is what makes that dish so great, the curry not tasting right ruined the dish; water doesn't exactly compliment monkfish like curry. I also noticed that the fingerling potatoes weren't cooked in the curry like they were last time (or maybe they were and didn't taste like it because the curry was so weak) so they didn't have that amazing creamy curry flavor potatoes get when they're cooked in curry. Overall, my entree was a huge disappointment. Lynn had the Chinese mustard seared tenderloin. Damn was that steak spicy! Lynn thought it was too hot, but she still loved the steak. I didn't think it was too hot and thought the steak was pretty good. The teriyaki flavor of the steak itself and the Chinese mustard complimented each other nicely. The only thing I didn't like about the entree was the sticky rice that was served with it.
I wasn't originally planning on getting dessert (two previous experiences with dessert samplers at Hapa and not really liking any of the desserts will make you feel that way too), but the dessert menu had a creme fraiche panna cotta with basil ice cream that sounded irresistible. The panna cotta sounded good, but the basil ice cream sounded so outrageous that I had to try it. The panna cotta was very rich, and much sweeter than I was expecting. It was good, but not better than the panna cotta at Bacco. I thought it would take a while for my brain to wrap itself around the idea of basil ice cream, but it only took a couple of seconds. After that I loved it! It's difficult to explain the appeal of basil ice cream, but the flavor and slight astringency of the basil and the light sweetness and richness of the ice cream made for a refreshing combination. The basil ice cream even caused strange fantasies of an accompanying tomato ice cream creating a perfect pairing. I ordered a glass of Bonny Doon Muscat to go with dessert. The wine had an explosive spiced honey-fruit flavor that felt like drinking liquid sunshine.
There were some things I really liked at Restaurant Hapa, but my feelings of them being too expensive for the quality of the dishes has never really changed. I would go there for the fiery scallops, but I don't know if I'd have a full meal there again.
A long time ago when Lynn's parents were in town we all went to lunch at Barcelona. Neither Lynn or I had ever been there before so it was going to be a new experience for everyone. I looked at their wine list and ordered a glass of the Kris "Pinot Grigio" as Lynn's current varietals of exploration are Pinot Gris and Zinfandel. The wine had an apple flavor with some bitterness which reminded me of Chardonnay so I didn't care for it.
None of the entrees looked really good to me, but there were a ton of appetizers that did so we went crazy with the appetizers. We had the phyllo wrapped baked feta, chicken sate, smoked shrimp, spinach salad, and chicken tortilla soup. The phyllo wrapped baked feta with spicy tomato sauce was an obvious variation on phyllo wrapped brie, but it wasn't as good as the brie version. It had a very nice salty flavor, but tomato sauce helped balance it out and make the flavor rounder. The chicken sate came with a romaine salad and roquefort dressing that was great. The chicken was very spicy, and great with the dressing; it was like refined hot wings. The smoked shrimp was barely cooked (which is the way I like it) and had a nice smoky flavor, but it covered up all the other flavors. The garlic sauce that came with the shrimp tasted very good with the accompanying rice, but something about it irritated the back of my throat. The spinach salad (spinach, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and citrus dressing) was a disappointment; I couldn't taste the citrus dressing and the roasted red peppers didn't taste good in the salad at all. The chicken tortilla soup was Lynn's so I didn't really concentrate on it, but I thought it had a good flavor. It wasn't as aggressive as some, but nice and mellow.
The food was pretty good, but something about Barcelona turned me off. I would go back there again, but I'm not going out of my way to do it.
Last week Ken sent me the article "Chef tries to create own Fate in downtown Phoenix" and I decided I had to try Fate for two reasons: one, there aren't many options for late night eats in Phoenix, and two, I appreciate that the owner of Fate is trying to encourage any kind of activity in Phoenix after 10 PM.
Last Saturday Lynn and I helped DJ move to his new apartment, and by the time we were done it was 11:30 at night. Perfect. We headed downtown with sketchy directions (it's somewhere on 4th St.), but the place was easy to find; at 11:30 it was obviously the only place open. The restaurant is a converted house with a tiny parking lot. When we got inside there was a dj playing downbeat (I surprised myself by recognizing Morcheeba and Portishead), and the lighting was low and blue; it felt more like a club than a restaurant. The music was also closer to club volume than any of us cared for. (I strongly believe in the importance of dinner conversation, and the loud music made it too difficult to speak to each other. As a result we ate and left rather quickly, but that might be the intention since the place is pretty small.)
The menu was limited, but I still found a couple of things I wanted to try. You'll notice this is a lot less food than we normally order, but Lynn wasn't really hungry and I was in the mood for something light. I got an order of pot stickers and a bowl of seafood bamboo soup. DJ got the house spicy chicken. The pot stickers were fried so they were like gyoza, but they were still pretty good. The pot sticker filling and the sauce were both tasty so my only complaint was that they were fried. The seafood bamboo soup had a very mild broth which I enjoyed it. It had some nice sized shrimp, imitation crab, and various vegetables. (I really wish restaurants would stop using the word "crab" when they're talking about imitation crab. The two are so unrelated that it's almost fraud. I mean, would you accept beef as an accurate description of imitation beef?) There was a familiar flavor in the soup that went really well with the vegetables which I eventually figured out was sesame oil (I'll remember that the next time I steam broccoli). I had a couple of bites of DJ's spicy house chicken, and it wasn't bad. The batter on the chicken was very light, which was good, and the sweet sauce was decent, but it seemed like it was missing something. It was my old friend salt. I think salting the chicken before it's battered and fried would greatly improve the dish.
I didn't think the food at Fate was so great that I had to return, but it is nice to have a decent restaurant option after 10 PM besides Denny's and 5 & Diner.
"Superior Wine-Tasting Abilities Are in the Mind, Study Finds" is an interesting article about how a study shows that trained sommeliers show more brain activity while drinking wine than the average person. Duh! I've noticed that there's a big difference between drinking something, and actually tasting it (the same applies to cigars too). It takes a conscious effort to articulate tastes into flavors, and that's part of a sommeliers job so it's no surprise to me that they show more brain activity while drinking.
The architect of the study said she'd like to test women next. I think that would be interesting, especially if they compare the men's responses with the women's. I've noticed that Lynn is better at connecting tastes to flavors (with wine) than I am, and I wonder if it's due to a different kind of thought process or something else.
I guess I'll have to see if my credit card company will reverse the charges. I doubt it, but we'll see.
Dear Mario xxxxxx,PayPal has concluded our investigation of your Buyer Complaint:
------------------------------
Complaint Details
------------------------------
Transaction Date: May 21, 2003
Transaction Amount: -$39.00
Case Number: PP-018-717-064
Seller's Name: Benjamin xxxxxx
Seller's Email: newpotato2@xxxxxx
As stated in our User Agreement, PayPal's Buyer Complaint Policy only applies to the shipment of goods, not to disputes about the attributes or quality of goods received. Therefore, we cannot reverse this transaction or issue a refund. We encourage you to continue to work directly with the seller to amicably resolve this dispute.
PayPal does not tolerate fraud or illegal activities. Your complaint has been noted in the record of the PayPal user you reported. If we find this user has violated our policies, we will investigate and take appropriate action. If this occurs, you may be contacted in the future about the status of this complaint.
We appreciate your business, and regret this experience. To make sure future transactions proceed smoothly, we suggest reading these Security Tips:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fraud-tips-buyers-outside
Sincerely,
PayPal Protection Services Department
"Donnie Darko" was an odd movie that didn't provide much explanation for the many strange things that occurred in the story that would have benefited from some explanation. It was sort of like "Dark Highway", only without the really good ending. The movie did have its odd humorous moments, and was interesting to watch, but I wouldn't waste my time watching it again to try and figure everything out. While "Dark Highway" made me want to engineer a plausible explanation for what I'd seen, "Donnie Darko" just left me thinking, "What a cop-out." If it was supposed to be deep I missed it.
All the actors did a good job, except Drew Berrymore. Her performance was dead, like she was only in the movie to collect a paycheck. I couldn't figure out why they had her in the movie until I noticed in the credits that she was one of the execute producers. I guess financing movies does have its benefits (like casting yourself in a role you don't seem to fit, and then not even bothering to act). I wonder if Drew Berrymore has enough money to buy herself a senator?
I was at the grocery store yesterday and noticed Newman's Own made chocolate bars. I like their salad dressing so I thought their chocolate might be pretty good. (I wasn't equating salad dressing making skills to chocolate making skills, but hoping that the quality of both might be similar.)
It was some of the worst chocolate I've ever tasted! It smelled funny and tasted like it had coffee grounds and dirt mixed into it. It was so bad it made Hershey's seem good. I can't believe anyone would actually admit they made it much less put their name on it. Bleh.
Read the article "Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?" and decide if Orrin Hatch is acting in the best interests of his constituency. It does make me wonder whose interests he's acting in, although it's not difficult to guess.
Today I was taking my shoes off when I noticed a small scorpion crawling out of one of my shoes. I don't know if it was in my shoe the entire time I was wearing it, or if it was only on my shoe and looked like it was in my shoe. Either way I took it outside and squashed it. I noticed long after its body was nothing more than a smudge its tail was flexing in a stinging motion. You have to admire that kind of determination, or at least muscle spasms that may result in killing the thing that killed you.
Today Long and I went to Viva Maria for lunch, or at least we tried to go there for lunch. When we got there the open sign was lit up, and there was an open sign on the door, but the door was locked. We looked in and knocked on the door, but no one came to open the door. Long suggested San Carlos Bay instead, and I agreed, but I noticed we passed about eight different Mexican restaurants on the way there so I mentioned that we should just stop at a random one. That's how we ended up at Rosita's Place.
Long and I walked into Rosita's and the place was packed. The interior of the place was nice in the typical Mexican restaurant sort of way of bright colors and uncomfortable looking chairs. We were seated and immediately brought out a bowl of chips just out the fryer that were still steaming. That was impressive. Too bad that's where the restaurant stopped being impressive. I didn't really work out the menu vigorously, but I did try enough to know that I probably won't be making a return visit. I saw tacos dorados (hard tacos) on the menu so I ordered a machaca hard taco and a chicken hard taco. The variety of meat for the hard tacos was a little limited so I got a carnitas soft taco too. The chicken needed salt (I never order the chicken at Viva Maria for the exact same reason [good chicken can be found at Sylvia's La Canasta if you're interested]), and the machaca was ok (the shredded beef hard tacos at Viva Maria are much better). The carnitas were a little salty, but they were also crispy and had a good flavor. I enjoyed the meat, but the usual white onion and cilantro toppings were missing and made for a rather plain taco.
It's official, next week I have to start working overtime (without any compensation) to help finish a project. I wish they would assign realistic deadline dates to projects so overtime wouldn't be necessary.
Have I ever mentioned that one of the few reasons I have this job is because I hate overtime, and this job never used to require it?
...and he appears.
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Archangel, EBAY]
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 20:21:55 EDT
From: Newpotato2
To: meMario, I don;t think I got the last email from you.
Last I knew, I responded with I would not sell Exalted Angels that were not NM/Mint as I have only gotten Angels to sell out of packs.... Bring me up to speed as to where we are and please keep in mind when threatening negative feedback that:
A: It works both ways, and do not think I will not leave it in a heartbeat for you if I think you left me unwarrented Neg Feedback
B: Look at my rating.... Neg feedback doesn't phase me that much and it hurts your rating a lot more then mine.....That said, I am looking forward to your response so that we can just clear this up and leave it behind us
Thanks!
Ben
Today I filed a Buyer Complaint with Paypal about Newpotato2. I had to file it today, even though I gave him until tomorrow to respond, because there's a 30 day limit on filing a Buyer Complaint, and today was my last day. I figured if I hadn't heard from the guy in 16 days the likelihood of hearing from him tomorrow would be pretty slim. We'll see if I get my money back.
Lynn and I were looking for a restaurant to eat at Monday, and I remembered I've been meaning to go back to Convivo for about three years now. When we got to Convivo we found it closed (we suspected they'd be closed on a Monday, but we were too lazy to call ahead). For some reason I thought the Marco Polo Supper Club sounded like a good idea, and to my surprise, they were open.
The first thing I have to say about Marco Polo Supper Club is that I love their interior; the low lighting, dark wood, and plush booths. It definitely had that "old men's club" feel about it. The place put me in a relaxed frame of mind that made me want to stay there for a long time eating and smoking cigars.
Since I was barely getting over being sick I didn't want to order a glass of wine for myself, but Lynn tried a glass of the MacMurray Ranch "Pinot Gris". It had a sweet apple scent and a very light flavor that was enjoyable. Lynn tasted a strawberry flavor in it, and really loved the wine.
We started dinner with the strawberry-gorgonzola salad and stracciatella "Italian Wedding Soup". The strawberry-gorgonzola salad was mixed greens, strawberries, and small cubes of gorgonzola cheese with balsamic vinegar; it was amazing. The sweetness from the strawberries and the balsamic vinegar was well balanced by the saltiness and pungency of the gorgonzola. The flavor was much more sublime than it sounds. The stracciatella was filled with mushrooms, greens, and egg whites. The soup was very tasty, despite all the mushrooms, but you'd never mistake it for Italian wedding soup; it's flavor was definitely Chinese. Even if it didn't taste like Italian wedding soup Lynn and I both enjoyed it a lot.
For our entrees Lynn had the fillet alla Mastro (beef tenderloin topped with Mozzarella cheese and served with Bordelaise sauce and garlic whipped potatoes) while I had the lobster spedini (broiled lobster tail served with fried spinach, butter sauce, and penne alfredo). I'm not a big fan of lobster, but this lobster was great. Broiling does almost as much for lobster as grilling, which is to make it taste much better than it normally does. The fried spinach was ok, but Lynn really liked it in the butter sauce. The penne alfredo was served in a separate dish, and it's the second best alfredo sauce I've ever had (the alfredo me and Lynn make ourselves being the best). The sauce was thick, cheesy, and pungent. Lynn's tenderloin was pretty good. The steak was perfectly cooked, but it needed the Bordelaise sauce to taste good. The potatoes were nice and whippy, so much so that Lynn suspected the potatoes might not be real until I hit a lump.
There was one Muscat they sold by the glass for dessert so I had to try it. The wine had a light scent that seemed like a combination of peaches, perfume, and spice. The flavor was very light and perfumy, with a finish like lighter fluid. I didn't care for it, but Lynn liked it. Along with the wine we also had a couple of desserts: the bananas Foster and berried creme brulee (creme brulee with seasonal berries buried in it - don't blame me for the bad pun). Even though I've been to New Orleans six times I've never had bananas Foster once; it might have something to do with the fact that I don't really care for bananas. The bananas Foster were actually quite good though. Lynn demolished the bananas, but I had a couple of the slices too. There was some vanilla ice cream covered in the sauce, and that tasted great. The caramelized sugar on the creme brulee wasn't burnt, which is sadly still the first sign of a quality creme brulee even though it should never be an issue, but the custard wasn't properly set. The custard was very good (just sweet enough with a creamy texture) despite not being set, and the strawberries buried in the creme brulee were very nice.
Since the biggest complaint Lynn and I could come up with about Marco Polo Supper Club was that the Italian wedding soup didn't taste like Italian wedding soup it's no surprise that we would readily return there.
Today has been an annoying day for me at work because nothing I've written today has actually worked properly. I was getting really stressed, but then I played Lee "Scratch" Perry's "Chicken Scratch". That song has a knack for making me happy, and I think it's because something about it reminds me of New Orleans. The attitude of the song is upbeat, but laid back at the same time. The song makes me visualize sitting at some random cafe in New Orleans, leisurely reading a book without a care in the world. It's hard to be stressed with that image in my head. Thanks Lee Perry.
Out of my 60+ transactions on eBay, I've finally had my first negative experience. I recently won three auctions for four Magic cards, and when they arrived they were not in the near mint to mint condition they were advertised as. I emailed the seller about this, and requested to return the cards for a refund. He replied saying that two out of the four cards shouldn't have been advertised as near mint to mint, but completely ignored my request for a refund. I wrote to him once again asking about a refund, and he never responded. After not hearing from him for two weeks I let him know that if he didn't respond in a timely manner that I would leave negative feedback for those three auctions. I also researched if there was anything else I could do to make sure this eBay seller doesn't try this again with someone else, but eBay won't investigate for fraud unless the item was "significantly misrepresented". It looks like my only recourse with eBay is negative feedback (I may be able to get my money back from Paypal though).
Anyway, I've included all the emails below so you can read exactly what's happened.
Subject: Re: Archangel, EBAY
Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 22:11:52 -0700
From: me
To: Newpotato2Ben,
Today I picked up my mail and received the cards from the three auctions (3131950330, 3131950633, 3131953467) you posted that I recently won. All the cards were posted as mint to near mint, but I think the conditions of the cards were misrepresented. The Radiant Archangel and Blinding Angel look like they've been played and only in good to very good condition. The Exalted Angels are better, but I'd still say they were only in excellent condition, not near mint.
I wish to return the cards for a full refund. I've also won another auction from you very recently (3131950237), and if that card is anything less than near mint I'd rather not receive it and just receive the refund for it.
Mario
Subject: [Fwd: Archangel, EBAY]
Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 08:48:15 -0700
From: me
To: Newpotato2I don't know if you received this, but you haven't responded yet if you have.
Mario
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Archangel, EBAY]
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 15:57:10 EDT
From: Newpotato2
To: me
Mario, the 2 angels should not have been advertised as NM/Mint, but every Exalted Angel I have ever sold has been from a pack so I do not know what your grading scale is, but I have been selling for 3 years and have had few problems with condition of my cards.
Talk to you soon
Ben
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Archangel, EBAY]
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2003 16:09:22 -0700
From: me
To: Newpotato2
Ben,
You never mentioned if I can return the two other angels for a refund or not (which I would still like to do). As for the Exalted Angels, I don't have a guide by which I rate from other than looking at a card to determine if it's NM/Mint or not. I've purchased enough packs to know what they look like fresh (including the minor imperfections that will sometimes be present), and I've purchased cards from enough people on eBay to see that their definition matches mine. I looked at the two Exalted Angels and thought they looked like they've seen play. I asked someone else what condition they thought the cards were in, and they also said the angels looked like they've seen a some games.
I'm sorry I disagree with your quality rating, but I feel strongly enough about it that I want to return the cards.
Mario
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Archangel, EBAY]
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 16:02:17 -0700
From: me
To: Newpotato2
Ben,
I sent you an email on 5/28 trying to come to some sort of resolution on the Blinding Angel, Radiant Archangel, and two Exalted Angels that I got from you, but you still haven't responded to me. If I don't hear anything from you before Friday (6/20) then I'll leave negative feedback for those three auctions.
Mario
Not far from Lin Chinese Dining there used to be a steak house named Chops (owned by the same people who own Rigatony's). I don't why the people at Rigatony's decided to close Chops, but they redecorated and reopened the location with the name Iguana Mack's. It seems to do brisk business as a bar, which has kept me from wanting to eat there. The curiosity over whether the crab corn fritters (an appetizer on the Chops menu that was one of the best appetizers ever) were on the new menu won over my dislike of crowds of drinkers. My hope was not to be rewarded though; the new menu was completely different.
Lynn tried their sangria, to compare it with the excellent sangria at Barrio Cafe, and it was pretty tasty. There was pureed strawberries in the bottom of the sangria that did a great job covering up the alcohol flavor, and adding a nice bit of sweet fruitiness.
The dinner salads were above average; worth eating for the mix of ingredients and for the fact that the lettuce wasn't all iceberg. We were given some bread, but it wasn't very good. There was some sort of odd blue-green colored (compound?) butter that came with the bread and even though I kept eating it I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be flavored with. We had ordered some fried zucchini as an appetizer, and that was pretty good. The batter was a little thick for our tastes so if they cut the zucchini a little thicker we thought it would have been better.
For our entrees Lynn had a cheese burger and I had the jambalaya pasta. I didn't like the chicken in the jambalaya pasta (it was in serious need of salt), but the shrimp and the andouille sausage were pretty good. There was a herby flavor to the pasta sauce that I found a little annoying, but overall I enjoyed the dish. The patty on Lynn's burger needed salt, but once salted it was pretty good. It was definitely better than the burger they named it after, the Big Mac, but the burger at Josephine's was better.
There were a couple of things that looked interesting on the menu, but the food just doesn't compel me to return. I liked the place much better when it was Chops.
In the location that used to be Chopstick House is now Tao Garden. I've noticed it for a couple of months, but I was never really interested in trying it until someone on Chowhound recommended it. One night I wasn't in the mood from Lin Chinese Dining so me and Lynn tried Tao Garden instead.
The menu at Tao Garden is pretty extensive, and there's a lot of intriguing items on it too. Since it was our first time we just ended up ordering the Mandarin combo dinner because it offered a couple of dishes that me and Lynn have to order at any new Chinese restaurant; pot stickers for me and hot and sour soup for Lynn. The combo dinner also included hunan beef, spicy garlic shrimp, and yang chow fried rice. The pot sticker sauce was very good, along with the pot sticker filling, but the wontons that were used were too thick for my tastes. I'm always amazed by the fact that there are only three things that really go into making great pot stickers, and that most restaurants get at least one of them wrong. (If you're interested in great pot stickers try them at Yang Dynasty or P.F. Chang's. For pot stickers that're interesting enough to order for the unique sauce alone try Diamonds.)
Lynn likes her hot and sour soup with a lot of white pepper and vinegar, and Tao Garden's didn't have enough vinegar for her tastes. I'm not a fan of hot and sour soup so it's typical for me not to like all but the best. Of the three entrees the hunan beef was the best. As a normal rule I hate Chinese beef dishes because the beef never tastes quite like beef to me. The hunan beef didn't have an especially beefy taste, but it was a little spicy and had an overall great flavor so I enjoyed it. The spicy garlic sauce was great, but (to me, not to Lynn) the sauce covered up the flavor of the shrimp. (I also had the same problem with the spicy garlic scallops at Lin Chinese Dining.) Finally, there was something odd about the fried rice that kept both me and Lynn from enjoying it.
Even though I only found one dish I really liked out of the five we had, Tao Garden has definitely proven itself worthy of exploring the menu to find the really great items.
It's About Time has been dark for a week or two and me and Lynn finally stopped there the other night to see why. If the notice from the landlord is an accurate indication then it would appear that It's About Time is no longer in business. That's too bad since they made some of the best fried chicken in Phoenix.
Last weekend me and Lynn rented more than a few movies. Here's a quick review of all of them.
If the near future is the world seen in "Gattaca", then I'd rather not be in it. It's an interesting movie about destiny, potential, and human will with a story that should have you discussing genetic manipulation when it's over. I enjoyed it.
"Sin: The Movie" started out well enough, but soon the story and the animation started sucking and it never got better. I know better than to watch anime based on video games (even if I don't know which game the movie was based on), but I thought this one might be different.
"Secretary" was about a woman who finds freedom through being submissive. It's difficult to explain, but it actually was a pretty good movie. There's spanking in it too.
"Dead Pet" is an independent film that would have been better left not made. It was starred, written, and directed by some guy who obviously doesn't know that the problem with actor-writer-directors is they can't act. It was 90 minutes of him yelling lots of stupid things at people; not fun to watch at all. It really made me miss The Monkey Show and the movies that Jeff starred, wrote, and directed himself.
"Tampopo" has to be the best food movie ever. In the course of learning to make the perfect bowl of ramen the film goes through all sorts of little vignettes that are and aren't related to the main storyline exploring food and how it effects us. There are even a couple of scenes in the movie that are among my favorites in all of cinema.
I have a lot to write about these days, but I haven't found the time to do it so it's been stacking up. I wish I could smoke a cigar while writing indoors, but I don't want the stench of old cigars in the apartment.
I started receiving the Dilbert Newsletter a long time ago, and back in the day it was some of the funniest stuff committed to email. In the recent years I haven't enjoyed it nearly as much, but today I read something in the newsletter that reminded me of the old stuff. Here it is below for your reading enjoyment.
Dumb Rich People
----------------I recently read an article by an economist who said that poverty causes people to become terrorists. He used big words and was very convincing.
Then I watched TV coverage of a high school hazing ritual in an upscale suburban neighborhood. Dozens of well-to-do Induhviduals paid for the privilege of sitting in a field and having mud, paint, garbage, eggs, pig guts, and excrement shoved up their nostrils while being beaten with blunt objects.
I'm not an economist, but my theory is that you can convince a certain percentage of Induhviduals to do any dangerous thing, whether they happen to be poor or not. So let's stop picking on poor people. If peer pressure can convince 20% of rich kids to start smoking cigarettes -- and it does -- it isn't much of a leap to convince them to grow scraggly beards and drive exploding cars. It's mostly a difference in timing.
Osama inherited half a billion dollars. So I rule out poverty as a cause of terror. I blame rich Induhviduals, and peer pressure.
Peer pressure is the most powerful force on the planet, and we need to use it to our advantage. For example, I recommend that the Western media and politicians stop using the menacing-yet-cool phrase "Al-Qaeda" and start referring to the group as the "frickin' Induhviduals."
Like the proverbial dog chasing a car, the Induhviduals haven't considered what would happen if they caught one. For example, let's say they (the Induhviduals, not the dogs) accomplish their stated goal of destroying the economies of the Western world. Is that really a good plan for people who live in a desert and import most of their food?
Just for the record, if I'm down to my last potato, I'm not sharing it with a guy who wants to kill me so he can get a better supply of virgins in paradise. That lesson is a little thing I call Economics 101, infidel style.
For the Induhviduals, it must look as if Americans are really dumb to have the most awesome arsenal in the history of the world and still be unable to stop terror attacks. They don't realize that the way Americans look at it is that, so far, we're "really mad," but not yet "REALLY, REALLY mad." Oh, there's a difference. Americans understand that somewhere between "inconvenient air travel" and "complete breakdown of Western civilization," the "REALLY, REALLY mad" part kicks in. I won't give away what happens then, but remember you first heard the phrase "New Iowa" in the Dilbert Newsletter.
And let's stop calling the terrorist supporters "fundamentalists," because that sounds like it could be a good thing. I recommend a more descriptive label, such as "slow learners," to keep things in perspective. Then let's airdrop science and economics textbooks on their terrorist training camps with condescending notes, such as, "Maybe this will help. Call us if you have questions."
This would be a small step, in the sense that reading books about economics is only slightly better than suicide. But you have to start somewhere.
That's my plan. If you have a better one, be sure to include it in your next newsletter.
I can now access my Yahoo email account again, no thanks to the people at Yahoo! Account Services. I told them how I forgot my password and the answer to the personal question. They said they could change my password if I had access to my alternate email account on record (which, of course, was the email account I was sending my message from if they were paying attention) without the answer to the personal question. I asked how, and they then sent me a list of the information I needed to provide them. I sent it back and then they responded saying I needed to answer the personal question. Didn't they just tell me two emails earlier that I could change it without the personal question!?
Anyway, I remembered the password on my own and hopefully I'll never have to deal with those people every again.
This has been a good week for me and music. Lynn helped me figure out that the dance tune I've been loving since Coachella, but have been unable to figure out what it is is No Doubt's "Hella Good". Murray sent me this really cool music video, Tiga's "Hot in Herre", which is a dance remake of Nelly's "Hot in Herre". Today I got the new Bonobo album and some other kick butt trip hop by Quantic from Noah. Now if I could only get into my email account everything would be great.
I changed the password to my email account yesterday, and apparently I didn't remember it correctly this morning so my account is now locked out for the rest of the day. I tried to reset my password, but I also didn't remember how I answered those stupid personal questions when I opened the account all those years ago so I can't do that either. I may never be able to access my Yahoo email account ever again.
Against my better judgement I'm giving Lynn another chance. After a lot of arguing, fighting, and some (hopefully) sincere apologies and promises on her part we're more or less fine right now so the wedding is still on.
Of course Lynn tends to screw up pretty quickly so I probably won't have to wait too long for it to happen again if it's going to happen at all, then I can just get on with the rest of my life without her.
Canon recently announced their new PowerShot G5, the 5 megapixel version of the Powershot G3 (which seemed like quite an improvement over my Powershot G2). I can't wait to see DPreview's review of the camera to see how it stacks up to the comparable Sony and Nikon cameras.
Lynn now knows the URL to my web site. If it surprises you that I didn't give her the URL earlier let me know; I'm curious to see how many people thought I would have done that a long time ago.
Obviously I have mixed feelings about giving her my URL. On one hand most of my web site is typical public stuff that, while being of personal importance to me, isn't personal. There is the rare occasion that it's an outlet for my thoughts, much like a diary, and even though it's open to strangers to read the idea of someone who is as close to me as Lynn reading through my thoughts does make me a little uneasy. Maybe she'll get upset about something I wrote. Maybe she won't, who knows? Anyway, I did give her the URL, and once it's known it can't be un-known.
Some time ago Ken and I went to Fusilli's for lunch. There were a couple of things that looked good on the menu, but the signature calzone (chicken, artichoke hearts, and spinach) sounded the best. I should know better than to order a calzone since I detest ricotta cheese, but there isn't an ingredient so bad that I wouldn't try it again (although I haven't seen anything interesting enough to make me want to try uni [sea urchin roe] again). The calzone I ordered was ready only a couple of minutes after I ordered it, which is great if you're in a hurry. The calzone itself was pretty good, but there were a couple of things that I think that would have made it better: one, less ricotta (yeah, surprise there), two, put more than one artichoke heart in the calzone, and three, salt the chicken! There isn't too much worse than unsalted meat to me so if they salted the chicken it would improve the calzone about ten fold for me.
Overall Fusilli's wasn't bad, but I wouldn't make much of an effort to eat there unless I found something else on the menu I really liked. They do have a calzone of the day so that might be promising.
Saturday I caught Lynn lying to me for the third time about doing something she's promised numerous times not to do. I told her the last time we went through this that if it happened again we wouldn't be getting married. Well we're not getting married, but it won't be official until we miss the monthly payment on our wedding location and lose all the money we put into it. Right now I don't know if I still want to try and work on our relationship or move out this month and never talk to Lynn again. I would like to believe that Lynn could be honest with me; she has demonstrated in the past that she can improve, but what I'm afraid of is that she doesn't want to change. The fact that this was the third time leads me to believe that she doesn't mind making empty promises to me, and lying about her actions when I ask her directly about how she's keeping her promise.
Of course Lynn's mad at me for invading her privacy. I'm surprised that she hasn't picked up on the fact that I try not to take anyone's word for fact if I don't have to. I told her I take marriage very seriously, and that I would take whatever means necessary to avoid making a very costly mistake (both monetary and emotionally). She doesn't like my callous attitude about it because she said she would never invade my privacy, but since I haven't put her in the same situation I don't think she can really say that. Right now I feel that the only way she deserves privacy is when she proves that she can be trusted with it. Maybe that makes me a bad fiance, but I was never like this with Mary (the other exfiancee) so it's just my reaction to Lynn's actions.
Of course I found out that she lied to me on Sunday about something concerning the same situation. Every time I think I've got the full truth I seem to find another layer of dishonesty just below it. It makes me wonder where it ends and if it's even worth figuring out.
There are days I think getting married to Lynn is a mistake, and I find myself thinking it a lot more often than I think would be normal. The thought always seems to be triggered by one small reoccurring issue that reminds me why it would be a mistake to commit spending the rest of my life with her. It is a small issue, and maybe most people wouldn't even care about it if they were in my position, but it does involve my trust. If I don't feel like I can trust Lynn then I know the rest of my life will be miserable, but I'm somewhat of a paranoid under normal circumstances so this might just be a case of my upcoming nuptials fueling my paranoia. I don't know, but the possibility of me breaking it off with Lynn is quite real.
I get a daily newsletter from Tom Fitzmorris (http://foodfest.neworleans.com/newsletter/) called "The New Orleans Menu Daily", which covers the food scene in New Orleans. I think Tom does a great job for his locale, and I also think he does a good job covering topics that you hardly see. Here's an excerpt from yesterday's newsletter.
Some dishes get better as they get bigger. Steaks, pork chops, oysters, and scallops are that way. But hamburgers are not one of these. The only one reason gigantic hamburgers took hold was that most diners (not you or I, of course) equate portion size with goodness.There's another thing that bugs me about hamburger buns. Far too few burger joints toast them. That one little step makes a huge contribution to aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel. The fact that Bud's Broiler has always toasted its buns contributes a great deal to the reputation of its sandwiches.
I swear it was like he was reading my mind.
I walked outside this morning to go to work and it was 101 degrees! Some days the weather here can be too much, but at least it beats being cold.
It's been a very long time since I've been to Joe's Real Barbecue so when me, Lynn, and DJ went there on Saturday it was like the first time all over again for me. I couldn't remember what was good on the menu so it was all a shot in the dark. Lynn got a meat plate with brisket and a side of cheesy potatoes, while I got a two meat plate with chopped brisket (brisket that's chopped and cooked in barbecue sauce) and ribs with a side of potato salad. We both got their homemade lemonade too (which was a little too sweet for Lynn, but I thought it was pretty good). DJ had a sampler plate with brisket, pulled pork, barbecue chicken, and ribs.
The brisket is definitely the reason to go to Joe's; it's smokey, moist, and quite tasty with the barbecue sauce. The chopped brisket on the other hand was very dry despite the fact that it was cooked in barbecue sauce. (Has anyone else noticed that meat cooked in liquid tends to be dry?) The ribs definitely aren't the reason to go to Joe's. They're smokey and have a nice crust, but they aren't very moist or nearly flavorful enough. I had a little of DJ's pulled pork, and while I thought it was better than the chopped brisket, I didn't think it was as good as the brisket. (FYI, even though I love pork I find almost all pulled pork too dry for my tastes so if you really love pulled pork you might think Joe's pulled pork is better than I do.) I have no idea how DJ's chicken tasted, but it was the first thing he finished so it must have been pretty good.
The sides weren't anything special. The potato salad was average, and the cheesy potatoes tasted literally like cheese and potatoes (a combination which doesn't taste as good as it sounds unless you doctor it with other things).
It may sound like I've had a lot of bad things to say about Joe's Real Barbecue, but it is worth eating at if you're looking for great barbecue brisket, excellent beans, and homemade root beer (the beans and root beer I do remember being pretty damn good from previous visits). I know I don't have nearly enough good barbecue places in my mental rolodex so I'll keep Joe's in mind, just not on Sunday's when they're closed.
I finally looked at my site statistics for the last two months and they've been horrible. Basically they're as bad as when I first got my own domain. I thought maybe it was due to my recent problems with my web host and the site not being available, but I checked and according to the logs there were only a few days that the site was completely down. I know that doesn't show the number of days my site was unavailable because I couldn't upload my homepage to overwrite the blank page that was there though. Maybe it's the fact that I wasn't writing much for a couple of months. I'd like to think it was due to the site problems, but who knows?
There is a bit of good news though, I've got my first link. Ben (aka Pastey, the same guy who made that really cool mix I've been listening to lately) has linked me from his blog. I doubt anyone who reads his blog will be interested in reading about food (or me for that matter), but I definitely appreciate the thought.
My first exposure to the idea of a tobacco infused food item was from the book/tv show "A Cook's Tour" when Anthony Bourdain went to French Laundry for dinner and the chef there made him a Marboro infused something or other so he didn't have to go outside and smoke. I don't know if it was the original creation of the chef at French Laundry, but apparently it's becoming a trend. If you don't believe it read "Tobacco in Your Tiramisu?".
I eat at Raimondo's and La Famiglia so often that there isn't anything interesting for me to write about those places unless I get something new. Well I've new things at both. Last night I got a pizza (pepperoni and onion since their bacon sucks) and some hot wings (for the first time) from La Famiglia. I knew the hot wings were going to be good just by smelling them. There was something inviting about their scent that almost kept you from noticing the threat of the pepper scent coyly underneath. I have to commend La Famiglia for having a hot wing sauce that's better than the usual generic "Tabasco"esque sauce most places use. The wings had a great flavor, and even though they were quite spicy they were well within my heat tolerance. Of course if they were any hotter I doubt I would have enjoyed them that much.
One of the times I went to Raimondo's I decided to try one of their house wines, the Nathan Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. It was very cheap, but it's pretty much the only red wine I've thought was decent which probably proves I'll never be a wine connoisseur. I am a food connoisseur however so I thought I'd test myself with what is probably the worst dish served at any Italian restaurant, spaghetti and meat balls. Ordering meat items that have some sort of filler as an intentional ingredient is asking for trouble because most restaurants seem to want to maximize their profit on that $8 slice of meat loaf so instead of using the 50 cents worth of ground beef it would normally call for they load it up with bread crumbs so they only have to spend 35 cents on the beef. Luckily Ray has better sense than that, and the meatballs he serves are beefy, and quite tasty. I think I've raved enough about his marinara sauce in the past so that you should already know how great I think it is.
Another time we were at Raimondo's I tried a nightly special, stuffed shrimp in a lemon-butter sauce. The plate came with about six deep fried stuffed shrimp on it, which were much better than I expected. The shrimp weren't overcooked, the stuffing had a great seafood flavor, and the lemon-butter sauce was a nice little rich accent. If there was any way to make the dish better I couldn't think of one.
Did I mention Ray is catering our wedding?
The second lunch we had in Flagstaff was at Bun Huggers, which was not a second chance restaurant. I had a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and fries. The bacon cheeseburger was good, but not actually as good as the burger at Josephine's. I thought the breading on the onion rings was a little heavy, but it didn't cover up the flavor of the onions. I didn't care for the fries, which weren't very crispy, but Lynn dug them.
The food at Bun Huggers isn't impressive, or fast, but it is a nice change of pace from the usual fast food places.
Continuing the second chances food theme in Flagstaff me and Lynn went to dinner at Pasto. We had eaten dinner there once before and had an outrageously great appetizer (the scallops formaggio) followed by mediocre entrees. When we got there I was disappointed to see that the scallops formaggio weren't on the appetizer list so I ordered a special they were running that night, the portobello gorgonzola (a portobello mushroom topped with roasted red pepper, spinach, gorgonzola cream sauce, and bread crumbs), which sounded quite delicious. It turned out that the portobello gorgonzola was almost every bit as good as the scallops formaggio; the sauce was creamy with a great gorgonzola flavor that wasn't overpowering. I think the bread at Pasto is too thick and chewy to eat by itself, but when you have an excellent cheese sauce it becomes the perfect accompaniment. Me and Lynn would have wiped the bowl clean of all the sauce if we didn't have salads and entrees coming.
The salad was the typical, but solid, combination of romaine lettuce, tomato, cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. The rosemary ranch dressing, which had a suprisingly strong rosemary flavor, made the salad a real standout though. Even Lynn, who doesn't really like rosemary, found it quite tasty. I left about half my salad in anticipation of our entrees. So far everything had been pretty good to great, but I had a feeling disappoint was just around the corner and would punish me for not eating everything I wanted to.
We found the scallops formaggio (with some slight modifications, like the addition of capellini) on the entree list so Lynn ordered it. I had the creamy capellini, which was capellini served with a pomodoro sauce and shrimp. I tried my entree and I immediately noticed two things: one, the pasta was overcooked, and two, the sauce was tasteless. I figured I could salvage the entree with the shrimp, but it didn't happen. The shrimp were so overcooked they had squeezed themselves into tight rubber balls. This was the disappoint I expected. I tried some of Lynn's scallops formaggio, only to find out that the capellini was also overcooked, the scallops were also hard little rubber balls, and the cheese sauce was different (inferior) to the one we had the first time! I had moved on from disappointed to seethingly disgusted. Overcooked pasta, or overcooked seafood, I could have dealt with, but to have overcooked pasta and overcooked seafood on both of our plates was more than I could take. I wanted to send both dishes back to the kitchen, but Lynn was hungry and kept eating her's to the point where it didn't seem right to send it back. I sent my entree back, and the waiter removed it from my bill plus an additional ten percent. I thought the situation was handled well, but I prefer to eat at restaurants that I don't require sending the food back.
When me and Lynn went to Flagstaff last weekend I didn't know where we were going to eat, but I eventually figured out a theme; second chances. We went to Josphine's once before for dinner and weren't impressed, but I thought I'd give their lunch a try. We started with the ahi tuna sashimi with wasabi-cucumber salad. The tuna was marinated in something mild and sweet, which gave it a very pleasing flavor, but the presentation was sloppy. The slices of tuna were piled on top of each other in a haphazard fashion that would have embarrassed any competent Japanese sushi chef. The wasabi-cucumber salad had a lot of cucumber, but I didn't taste any wasabi. In fact, I didn't taste much of anything in the salad (which was unusual considering the green onions and other salad items that I should have been able to taste). Lynn hypothesized that there was too much oil in the dressing, and that's what stifled the flavor.
I also ordered their homemade lemonade. It was watery so I didn't enjoy it.
All of the lunch entrees at Josephine's were sandwiches so I did something that just seems wrong to me (because of the type of food they normally serve) and ordered a cheeseburger, with bacon, and Southwest coleslaw. Lynn had a special of the day, the Southwest pot roast (although Lynn swears it was called Southwest roast beef) sandwich and potato salad. My burger was served on a homemade toasted bun, and quite tasty! It was dressed with caramelized onions and mustard (otherwise known as "animal style" at In-n-Out Burger) that harmonized perfectly with the beef and the thick cut bacon. The Southwest coleslaw was nice, thanks to a large quantity of cilantro and a little corn, but there was too much red cabbage in it making it bitter. Lynn's sandwich was greasy and tasteless, and her potato salad was average. I was surprised her sandwich was tasteless because it was topped with pepper jack cheese and a roasted poblano chile. Lynn noticed that the cheese on her sandwich was too melted, causing it to be tasteless. She noticed the same thing about the cheese on my burger too (which would explain why I forgot I was eating a cheeseburger).
Lynn wasn't happy with how our waitress seemed to ignore our table even though the place was almost empty, so we didn't stay for dessert. Overall we were both disappointed in Josephine's again and probably won't eat there unless we're going there for a burger.
I finally managed to see "The Ring". Basically it was like its Japanese original ("Ringu"), only creepier. I didn't expect to like the American version better than the original, but I did.
The other night I watched "Monsoon Wedding", and I have to say I was impressed. The movie reminded me of an Indian version of "Amelie" (in the feelings it invoked, not the story). The story follows a few days in the life of a family trying to get ready for their daughter's wedding. Far from being the mindless romantic comedy its plot makes it sound like, this movie involves you in the lives of all these different characters and compels you to care about their relationships, hopes, and futures. The perfect example of this is one of the first characters we're introduced to; he's an annoying minor character, but through a short innocent exchange you see an unexpectedly likeable side of him, and you never look at him the same for the rest of the movie.
In addition to interesting characters there was a variety of Indian music that was used to great affect to express a certain love for life that you don't often see in movies. I liked the music so much that I'll probably buy the soundtrack in the near future. I may even buy this movie.
I've received a couple of emails stating that Feature Price is going out of business so it appears that I'll have to find a new web host. It's funny though because you can't tell they're going out of business by looking at their web site. Either they're going out of business and not updating their web site (not completely unheard of), or some competitor is trying very hard to make all their customers think they're going out of business. My contract doesn't expire until July so I'll just wait and see which is the reality of the situation. If Feature Price really is going out of business then my site could be down for about a week while I relocate it.
The trip to Flagstaff this last weekend was great. The weather was beautiful, even if it was very windy. When me and Lynn weren't worrying about the tent flying away we gave a couple of restaurants second chances (with mixed results), and tried some wines at The Wine Loft. I was lucky enough to find Yalumba's "Museum Muscat", which is the single best wine I've ever tasted. As the day goes on I'll try to fill in the details.
I was going to write this after I saw "The Matrix Reloaded" Wednesday night, but I put it off and saw it again on Friday. I thought I might pick up something more watching it twice, but either the movie wasn't as deep as it tried to appear or I'm just too shallow to pick up on the profound message it was trying to send. Either way it's a good action movie without the philosophy. There were a couple of things that I didn't like about this movie though: Morpheus' speech pattern sounded more like an agent than a person, I thought one of the action scenes looked pretty bad, and there was a cheesy part towards the end of the movie involving some bad graphics. It really couldn't compare to the original, but it wouldn't be fair to try to compare the two since most of the mystery was gone. It was well worth watching though.
Speaking of lunch, I had lunch at Barrio Cafe not too long ago. The only new things ordered were the shrimp tacos and the mole enchiladas. The shrimp tacos were pretty tasty, but how can you go wrong with shrimp, lime juice, fresh cabbage, and pico de gallo? The mole enchiladas were another story. They didn't taste good, and they were a complete rip off. The idea sounded good on the menu (Oaxaca cheese and grilled chicken wrapped up in tortilla and covered with mole), but the reality of it was a disaster. The enchiladas were completely overpowered by the mole so that the mole was all you tasted. It could have been cardboard under all that mole for all the good it did, and I kept looking for the grilled chicken that was supposed to be in the enchiladas and didn't find any. Why was the dish $16? There was nothing in it that made it even close to being worth $10, much less $16. I hope they realize how bad that dish is and retire it permanently. Issuing refunds to everyone who had the misfortune of ordering it would be good too.
Cafe ah PWAH really is becoming me and Lynn's favorite restaurant in the Phoenix area. The two times we've been there for dinner the food has been great, and seems to keep getting better. Well, we recently had an opportunity to go to lunch at ah PWAH, so I took it. I had the crab cake with potato salad, and a small green salad while Lynn had the hanger steak wrap (hanger steak, gouda cheese, roasted tomato, and greens with a balsamic vinaigrette). My crab cake was good, but not as good as the one we had as an appetizer the last time we went to ah PWAH. The potato salad was decent, and the greens were as good as always. Lynn's hanger steak wrap was good, but I actually liked it better without the steak; the combination of the greens, balsamic vinaigrette, roasted tomato, and gouda was much better than it actually sounds.
I was hoping dessert would help make up for the disappointing lunch entrees, and did they ever! We had a slice of the honey-lime cheesecake, and an order of the homemade strawberry ice cream. I can't even begin to explain how good the ice cream was, but I'll try. There's a certain kind of creaminess and texture that homemade ice cream has that I love (the two best vanilla ice creams I've ever had were homemade) that was present along with fresh strawberry flavors. It was great! I was surprised to find out that the cheesecake would also be great. I'm not a big cheesecake fan since it usually ends up being similar to death by chocolate desserts in that they're too rich for you to enjoy more than three small bites. This one was different; it was shallow for a cheesecake (which I thought was actually a good idea), the crust was nutty so it provided a good bit of textural balance (and the flavors interacted nicely with the cheesecake filling too), and the little bit of citrus in the cheesecake was sort of refreshing. It was one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had, ranking right up there with the outrageously delicious sweet potato cheesecake from NOLA.
Lunch is usually a different animal from dinner at fine restaurants, at the very least being a lot cheaper, and this one was disappointingly so. The well thought out flavor combinations that seem to pervade the dinner entrees were strangely absent during lunch. I actually wondered if the normal chef even prepared the lunch menu. Anyway, there were a few things on the lunch menu that I thought looked interesting, and lunch wasn't expensive, so I can afford to try ah PWAH's lunch a few more times before I decide whether to give up on it completely.
It feels like I haven't written a restaurant review in forever even though my eating habits haven't changed. Well thanks to the notes I've been diligently keeping tomorrow should signal the return of the restaurant reviews.
Wednesday night me, Lynn, and DJ are going to the midnight showing of "The Matrix Reloaded". I've tried very hard to avoid the previews (other than the commercial that was aired during the Superbowl) so that it'll all be new to me. This weekend me and Lynn are going to Flagstaff to go camping. The weather up there should be just warm enough to be comfortably frigid.
I wasn't sure what to expect from "Slums of Beverly Hills", and it's a good thing since it was such an odd movie I still don't know what to make of it. The story follows a teenage girl and her family as they lead, what I would consider, a depressing life. There are some amusing scenes in the movie, and I know I'm not the audience the movie was trying to speak to, but I didn't see any real point to it even though I know there was an attempt at one at the end (which didn't feel quite natural). Maybe if the script went through a couple more revisions it would have been a better movie, but as it was it's just 90 minutes I'll never get back.
I've been getting a little reading in lately, but not much. I did manage to finish Terry Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies", which despite my current feelings toward Pratchett books had a unique premise that was irresistible; elves are evil. It was an entertaining read, but nothing special.
I asked Lynn to recommend one of her favorite books to me and she let me borrow Lois Bujold's "Cordelia's Honor". So far it's the best book I've read in a while.
"X2: X-Menu United" was much better than I expected. The special effects were pretty decent and it was pretty fun to watch. I'd even watch it again a second time (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was pretty hot as Mystique).
One of the restaurants we ate at with the folks was Pink Pepper. It's not one of my favorites, but I really wanted to try their roasted eggplant salad so I was the one who actually suggested going there. The roasted eggplant salad was very spicy in every sense of the word; there was citrus, pepper, onion, and anything else that might perk up your tastebuds in it. There were shrimp in it that were cooked on the rare side (which is to my taste), and I enjoyed it, but the eggplant was a little more firm than I prefer it.
Combined we got three entrees I've never had at Pink Pepper before: the chicken in spicy cream sauce, tempura pork, and sizzling Thai steak. The chicken was terrible; they should have named it tasteless fried chicken smothered in Thousand Island dressing since that's exactly what it tasted like to me. The tempura pork had a thin coating of tempura and was served with a very sweet sauce. You wouldn't mistake it for Japanese tempura, but it was pretty good if you enjoy sweet sauces. The sizzling Thai steak started out promising, but I quickly noticed an earthy flavor (I think it was molasses) that I didn't like in it.
Overall it was what I would consider my typical experience at Pink Pepper; a combination of dishes that demonstrate the best aspects of Thai cuisine and complete garbage. At least the folks were happy with it, and Lynn was happy with her yellow curry (which I really enjoy too).
Lynn's parents were in town this last weekend. Oddly enough we get along just fine so long as Lynn's mom doesn't bring up how much money they're giving us as a wedding present (which seems to change every two weeks and is far beyond the point of me not caring about it). We were going to show them around town, but there's not much to see in Phoenix, and they've been here before and have seen most of it before so we just played games and ate good food instead.
Yesterday I actually felt like writing so, of course, I can't access the internet from my computer. Today I'm at work (which isn't making me feel any better because the temperature around my office feels abnormally hot) so I might get some writing done.
It figures. I fly 3,000 miles to Japan and sleep in a cold house, and do I catch anything? No. I drive 300 miles to California, sleep in a comfortable hotel room, and I get sick. Bleh.
I had a feeling this was going to be my last Coachella forever, and after this trip I'm convinced it will be. We had six people going this time which was much more manageable than the ten we had last year. I even knew almost everyone this year so it was very similar to the first time we went to Coachella.
The first day was definitely not an electronic music day. It started with the hip-hop group Tha Alkoholics (who put on a good show). We wandered around and listened to Hernan Cattaneo (a dj I've never heard before), but we didn't listen to him too long since half the music he played was good and the other half totally sucked. We went and listened to N.E.R.D for a little while, but the guy who was speaking to the audience was annoying and we went on our way. We listened to another hip-hop act named Peanut Butter Wolf, and about this time I parted ways with everyone and went to listen to Blur (one of my favorite English bands). They put on a great show although I wished their set was longer. While wondering around I saw the show for an odd act from Los Angeles called Mutaytor. They're kind of like an electronic group, but I counted and they had seven drummers, and a show. It was worth watching. I went from Mutaytor to Blue Man Group, who also put on a good show. The last group I saw that night was the Beastie Boys. While I thought their show was pretty decent they annoyed me with all their messages like, "Everyone say, 'I'm special.'". I was disappointed in their dj Mixmaster Mike. After seeing some of the stuff that he did in the movie "Scratch" I had some high expectations which he just never delivered on. At the beginning of the Beastie Boys set he even did some scratching and beat juggling, a lot of which actually sucked.
I thought I'd run into someone I knew before the end of the night, but that was not meant to be. The problem was we didn't pick anywhere to meet after the show so I waited by the entrance to see if I could spot one of them. I didn't and eventually went to look for the vehicle. I ran into a slight problem finding the vehicle, which was I didn't really pay attention to where we parked because I didn't think I'd go wandering off by myself. I jogged my memory and thought I remembered approximately where we had parked, but I couldn't find the vehicle. I was searching until the parking lot pretty much cleared out and I still didn't find it. I tried my best not to doubt those guys (especially Noah), but I started thinking about alternate ways of getting to our hotel or getting back to Phoenix. Eventually I just stood in a spotlight to make myself as conspicuous as possible in case they were looking for me. After standing there for who knows how long I heard someone call my name. It turns out I was in the right location of the parking lot, just in the wrong parking lot (which is why it took them so long to find me). That's an experience I hope to never repeat, and I was sure to pay a lot of attention to where we parked the next day.
I really wanted to see FC Kahuna, but we only got there in time to hear their last song. It did sound good though. DJ Irene was on next and we stayed for about the first ten minutes of her set, but we couldn't stand the music she was playing. I also heard DB, who also played music I didn't like. I was really waiting for Timo Maas (one of my favorite djs), and he didn't disappoint. I totally dug his two hour set, and I was surprised to discover that I really liked the music Deep Dish played after his set. Four hours of great dance music put me in a really happy mood. Somewhere along the way I had separated from everyone several times, but I still ran into them throughout the day. Me and Mike went to listen to Thievery Corporation (who played some great downbeat music), and actually ran into Noah, Ben, and Ryan while we were there. We eventually left, but came back to see Blue Man Group again. After I had seen the part of the show I missed the night before I went to see G. Love and Special Sauce. They sucked and I went to see Richie Hawtin instead, but I didn't like the music he was playing. I ended the night at Fischerspooner, who not only sound like an '80's band, but also have a stage show like an '80's band. It was a lot of fun.
I heard a lot of good music and had a lot of fun on this trip, but I'm not equipped to handle two day music festivals. On the way back home I was sore, was slightly sunburnt, had a pounding headache, and couldn't wait to get back home and not travel again for a long time. Three years is a good run, but I think my ears are still ringing so it's probably not a good idea to make it a forth.
I'm back from Coachella and I should have an update about it tomorrow. Feature Price finally fixed their ftp problem, but they didn't do it before I left Friday so my homepage displayed as a blank page the entire weekend. Bastards. Did I mention Feature Price sucks?
People with beliefs that differ from mine don't bother me so long as they aren't trying to get me to change mine. Well vegetarians have a tendency to get on my nerves, and the story "PETA Urges Hamburg, N.Y., to Change Name" is a good example why.
My web host (http://www.featureprice.com) is once again royally screwing up so instead of uploading my updated homepage it saves a blank file instead. Bastards. Obviously I wouldn't recommend anyone go with them.
I still haven't really felt like writing about my life, but here's recent events in a nutshell. Me and Lynn have been dealing with wedding stuff like looking at invitations and nailing down our caterer. The other night I was paying too much attention to watching Helen of Troy on USA (a total titillation flick) and not enough attention to the food I was making, and I grabbed a cast iron frying pan I had just taken out of the oven with my bare hand. Luckily the pan was only in the oven at 250 so it wasn't serious. I've really started a seriously bad habit; buying Magic cards. Hopefully it'll be a short-lived hobby, but since Lynn and DJ both play the possibility of trouncing them might be too tempting to resist.
As for future events, this weekend is Coachella so I'll be leaving Phoenix Friday night and returning Monday. Last Saturday I went to Let's Be A Kid Again III to see Noah spin, but I really didn't enjoy the music at the event so I left after less than two hours. It'll be interesting to see if I can handle two days worth of music that I may or may not like.
I wanted to try something a little different with my cigar so tonight I decided to try smoking a cigar with a wine instead of my usual soda. The wine was very dry so I was surprised that it actually kept my mouth from drying out while smoking the cigar. The cigar actually had an interesting effect on the wine too. Before I smoked the cigar the wine had an alcoholic and oak scent, but after smoking the cigar it took on an inviting berry scent. Unfortunately the flavor of the wine didn't get better, but bitter.
Lynn was baking chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen and I couldn't wait until I was finished with my cigar to try one. I thought they might not make for a good combination, but the chocolate chip cookies and the cigar didn't interfere with each other at all.
I'm really beginning to hate my web host. Yesterday I couldn't view my site and today when I tried to upload my updated homepage it deleted the old one, but wouldn't load the new one because "no space left on device". So if you tried to view my site today and all you saw was a blank page that wasn't because I finally got tired of my site and killed it, but because my web host is busy screwing stuff up.
Last night me and Lynn had plans for meeting a friend of Lynn's at Nielsen's for dessert. Neither me or Lynn had eaten dinner and I had forgotten how great the grinders at Nielsen's are, but Lynn reminded me when she mentioned that she was going to get a sandwich. Well I had to order a roast beef and guacamole grinder. It was great; the bread was toasted, the roast beef had just a bit of spice, and the guacamole and mayonnaise added just the right amount of richness and depth. Sandwiches really don't get much better.
After we finished our sandwiches we ordered the dessert we originally went there for. I had a chocolate frozen custard with almonds, and Lynn had vanilla frozen custard and fresh strawberries. Normally I hate chocolate flavored items, but there are a couple of exceptions and the chocolate frozen custard at Nielsen's is one of them; the chocolate flavor of their frozen custard tastes completely natural. The vanilla frozen custard with strawberries was really great too.
I really hate forgetting about sources of good food, but it is nice to "rediscover" a place.
Probably the only good thing about spending about 24 hours in airports and on airplanes is that you have a lot of time to read. On the way to Japan I read Peter Mayle's "French Lessons". It was interesting, but it also put me to sleep three times on the flight. After the third time I decided that it wasn't the book I should be reading on the flight. I started Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha", and I was hooked. The Friday I didn't do anything in Japan I spent the entire day reading it. For some unknown reason I started Orson Scott Card's "Children of the Mind" on the way back from Japan before I finished reading "Memoirs of a Geisha". "Children of the Mind" was actually a decent book, but there was some very annoying things about it: the ending sucked, the characters were too damn introspective, every woman in an Orson Scott Card novel seems only exist to support their man and their life's goal is to get married and have his babies, and finally, there was too much rehashing of previous books. For the last book of the Ender series it was much better than "Shadow Puppets", the last book of the Bean series.
I've only finished reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" a couple of days ago, and it's the best book I've read in a while. The subject's life is facinating, and there isn't too much more I could say about it.
Today me and Murray had lunch at Ichi Ban. We both ordered dinner portions of the tempura for the first time, and while their tempura is impressive, the dinner portion was too much for me. Halfway through it I felt like I was swimming in oil. It was just too much of a good thing.
The other night me and Lynn were around central Phoenix so I had a strong urge to eat at Barrio Cafe. Me and Lynn were feeling pretty good so she got a sangria and I tried a wine from Mexico (my first), L.A. Cetta "1999 Zinfadel". The wine had a hint of cedar in the scent, but not much flavor. It had a medium cedar finish, and I learned that I dislike all wood flavors in my wine. (Previously I only knew I didn't like the taste of oak in wine.) We also got an appetizer of guacamole which was a little different than your standard guacamole; it was prepared with balsamic vinegar, oil, and there appeared to be dried cranberries (I've since read a couple of articles that said those were pomegranate seeds). Those extra ingredients made the guacamole unique to Barrio Cafe, and still kept it pretty tasty. After eating the guacamole the nose of the wine took on a honey scent, and it had a flat flavor of some sort of fruit. It was good, but I wasn't impressed by the wine.
My entree was the pasta de mariscos (lasagna with scallops, shrimp, and crab covered in cheese and jocoque sauce(?)) while Lynn had the pollo poblano (a grilled chicken breast stuffed with poblano chiles and onions, and topped with pine nuts and cheese). I enjoyed the pasta de mariscos, but it didn't take long for me to recognize it as a variation of the enchiladas del Mar and the seafood stuffed rellenos. Out of the three I think the rellenos are the best because the green chile adds a bit of depth to the dish that's missing from the other two. Lynn's entree was amazing. Everything contributed to the flavor, and it was sitting in some sort of cream sauce that wasn't too creamy, and had an interesting and unique flavor to it. I'm sure that's what I'll be ordering the next time I find myself at Barrio Cafe
We ended our meal with the crepes (a crepe wrapped around vanilla ice cream and covered with cajeta, a Kahlua and espresso sauce, and candied nuts). I love the churros at Barrio Cafe, but I believe I love the crepes even more! Ice cream on its own is one of my all-time favorite things to eat, but cajeta, ice cream, and candied nuts made for a killer combination. We didn't really notice the Kahlua and espresso sauce (which cost about a dollar extra) so I don't know if it's even worth the money, but since that was our first time trying the crepes it's difficult to gauge how big an impact the Kahlua and espresso sauce had on the dessert.
Barrio Cafe continues to impress me with their new dishes, or just the dishes I've never tried before, which is why they're still one of my favorite restaurants.
Ever since I got back from Japan I've eaten at El Torito, Lin Chinese Dining, and La Canasta (all old favorites), but none of them have been satisfying. It might have been that the food in Japan was really tasty and that I can't get that kind of food in Arizona, or that my last meal in Japan was pretty damn great. I'll probably never know.
Well I missed Lynn's birthday while I was in Japan so I took her to dinner last Saturday night to make up for it. The best place I could think of taking Lynn was Cafe ah PWAH since they had the best food we've tasted since NOLA in New Orleans or Janos in Tucson. Last time we were at ah PWAH I asked about a tasting menu, and even though they don't offer one they did say it was possible. Well a tasting menu at a great restaurant sounded like the perfect place for Lynn's birthday dinner.
Saturday Lynn kept asking me about where we were going to have dinner. Earlier I had told her it was a surprise, but she bothered me so much about it on Saturday that I told her I didn't plan anything. She was disappointed, then quickly suggested Hapa (which was actually a pretty good suggestion). I played it off like we were going to Hapa when Lynn mentioned that she thought that Cafe ah PWAH would be cool, but they couldn't do a tasting menu on Friday or Saturday night. Apparently I forgot the waitress telling us that little fact so I let Lynn know that we had reservations at ah PWAH and called them as soon as we got home. The person I talked to talked to the chef, and they couldn't do a tasting menu that night. Oh well, Lynn was still excited to go there.
We started dinner with a couple of glasses of wine. I tried the Riesling while Lynn went with the Pinto Grigio. I really liked the Riesling with its slightly sweet flavor, but Rieslings are starting to all taste alike to me. Lynn loved the peach scent of the Pinto Grigio, and its good flavor. It's too bad we didn't remember the name of the maker.
Since we couldn't get the tasting menu I wanted to try a couple of the appetizers. We had the crab cake with tomato tartare and arugula, and a leek and tomato strudel with mustard sauce and mixed greens. Crab cakes usually aren't impressive, but this one was quite impressive. The crab cake had a great crab flavor while the tomato tartare complimented the flavor nicely. Of course it wasn't until I had a bit of the arugula with everything else that I realized that the dish was damn brilliant. The pepperiness of the arugula transformed the dish from a very good crab cake to something extraordinary. I was so impressed by how well everything on the plate was thought out. The strudel was also amazing. The buttered up leeks and the crispy pastry made for an excellent subtle combination. I am constantly being impressed by how delicious vegetable dishes can be. When you added the pungency of the mustard sauce to it it was very well balanced. The only thing I didn't understand were the mixed greens on the plate. The mixed greens seemed extraneous since dinner salads come with the entrees. Both me and Lynn thought that both the appetizers were outstanding, but she preferred the crab cake and I preferred the strudel. No surprises there.
The salads were as tasty as usual and we were given the same peach sorbet intermezzo as last time. I still don't get the peach sorbet as intermezzo, but I know that's due to years of being served tart sorbets for the intermezzo.
Lynn tried to get the seared scallops, but once again they weren't available. She thought the night's special of guava and papaya glazed mako shark (it was her first time eating shark) with Israeli cous cous salad and bitter greens sounded good though. I was feeling usually unadventurous so I had the roasted game hen with herbes de Provence and mustard mashed potatoes. When me and Lynn were in New Orleans last December we ate at Bayona and experienced Israeli cous cous for the first time. There were several things we didn't like about Bayona's Israeli cous cous, but we thought it was an interesting ingredient. When I heard it was part of the night's special I asked the waiter if I could have a small taste of it. He kindly granted my request, and I have to say that ah PWAH's Israeli cous cous was better than Bayona's; the herby flavor was similar, but Bayona's had bitter asparagus tips while ah PWAH's had avocado which seemed to be a better match. The Israeli cous cous also made for a very good match with the mako (unlike the Bayona pairing of Israeli cous cous with seared scallops which didn't match at all). The flavors started herby then gradually faded into mellow shark goodness. Lynn liked it with the bitter greens, and while I didn't care for it I was still amazed how much thought was put into the plate. The combinations at ah PWAH really impress me. The skin of my game hen was crispy, the meat was moist, and it was well seasoned. I couldn't ask for a better game hen, and I would rank it evenly with the deep fried game hen at Baby Kay's Cajun Kitchen (which is actually the only dish on Baby Kay's menu that I like). The mustard sauce was unexpectedly mild, but very tasty. The mustard mashed potatoes on the other hand had a great deal of horseradish spice, but they were also very tasty.
Me and Lynn were quite full after the entrees, but we planned for dessert. We were informed that one of the two desserts we were looking at was unavailable (the banana and cranberry strudel) so we easily decided on the fallen chocolate souffle with chocolate ice cream and chambord spiked creme anglais. The souffle was disappointing; it tasted like a mediocre chocolate cake. Part of the problem might have been the comparison to the absolutely amazing chocolate souffle me and Lynn recently had at Pinto Brasserie in Las Vegas, but I think even if we had never had that chocolate souffle we still would have been disappointed in this one. The sauce was great though, and it was one of the better chocolate ice creams I've ever had so we finished off the ice cream and left over half the souffle.
Even though dessert was disappointing Lynn was extremely pleased with her birthday dinner, and that was my first satisfying meal since I'd been back. It's safe to say that both me and Lynn love Cafe ah PWAH. Hopefully we can actually try a tasting menu there someday soon.
I got back in town on Wednesday. Basically I've been relaxing, enjoying Lynn's company, and trying to deal with the jet lag.
The trip was fun, but while I think Japan is an interesting place it'll be a while before I want to return. Lynn still wants to go to Japan so I'm sure I'll be enthusiastic by the time me and her can go to Japan.
Anyway, I still don't feel like writing anything, so I'm not.
The last two and a half days I've been running around so much that I took today to do nothing. I might feel like going out later tonight, but it's been a cold and rainy day which means it'll be a cold (if not rainy) night.
I miss my fiancee.
I arrived in Japan yesterday afternoon. So far the only thing I've had a chance to do (besides spending an hour or two on taking the train from the airport) is have dinner at Steve's host family's house. It was good stuff. Anyway, I'm off to do something else.
