Not long after our first visit to Lee's Sandwiches Lynn picked up a ham and cheese sandwich for herself and a grilled chicken bahn mi and a shredded pork skin bahn mi for me. The grilled chicken was less sweet than the grilled pork, and pretty good. I don't know why, but I thought the shredded pork skin would be crispy. It had a texture similar to really chewy noodles, and it had a foul earthy kim chi flavor. It was quite nasty so it was good that I had two sandwiches. I also had a taste of Lynn's sandwich. The ham tasted like boiled ham, but the sandwich wasn't bad. It would have been better if Lynn got something other than American cheese.
Lynn has a standing order that if she stops at Lee's Sandwiches for any reason she has to pick me up a pastry horn. I really liked the first one I had from Lee's Sandwiches, but I prefer my pastry horns covered with rock sugar while theirs is covered with plain granulated sugar. The lightness and crispness of their pastry does easily make up for the sugar though, and the more I eat their pastry horns the more I like them. Lynn also picked up croissants one day for sandwiches (we made some really tasty BLTs). The croissants were light and crisp with an excellent flavor. The plain croissants at Lee's Sandwiches are just as good as the ones from Pleaissant Croissant plus they have the added advantages of not closing at two in the afternoon and being only two miles from my house. (I still have to go Pleaissant Croissant if I want a stuffed croissant though.)
I had high hopes for the bahn mi at Lee's Sandwiches, but I still haven't found a sandwich to rival the roast pork bahn mi at Da Vang. At least the few items I've had from their bakery have been great. I do need to remember to try their ice cream someday.
Writing about Via Marie made me want to eat there so I had Lynn drop by my work so we could eat lunch there. I got a basket of their chips and salsa (65 cents), a green chile beef tostada, and a green beef enchilada. The chips were light and crispy, and the fresh salsa was chunky and full of flavor. It was too hot for Lynn while I found it pleasantly warm. The green chile actually wasn't as good as usual; the only thing I could taste in the green chile was the beef. It didn't ruin the tostada though because there was the fresh tostada shell, refried beans, lettuce, cheese, and green onion to give it flavor too. A little bit of hot sauce (it seemed wrong to put red hot sauce on green chile, but it tasted good so I didn't care) was all that was needed to round everything out. The green beef enchilada was stuffed with ground beef and white onion, and covered in green sauce and cheese. It was simple, but extremely tasty.
For the record, I asked the guy behind the counter if their name was Via Marie or Viva Maria, and he said Via Marie, but he didn't know for sure since it was tax related. I think the IRS is the only one who knows them as Via Marie.
[Previous visit to Via Marie.]
Phoenix suddenly has a few more people writing about the food here. Ken sometimes writes about restaurants when he's not writing about movies or his excessive drinking. Darrin Chandler has written his own East Valley Dining guide, but it doesn't look like he's updated it recently. Seth Chadwick has a food blog called Feasting in Phoenix which has amazingly detailed restaurant visits. Seth seems to hang around my favorite part of town for food, central Phoenix.
[Addendum 06/29/05: As Rob Brooks-Bilson pointed out in the comments I missed his Foo(d) Bar: Yet Another Foodie Blog. He seems to live around my current neighborhood yet manages to eat at all sorts of places I've never been to.]
When Joel Schumacher took over directing the Batman series from Tim Burton I thought I'd never be interested in the series again. Then came "Batman Begins". I gladly went to see it, and was surprised how good it was. Christopher Nolan did a great job with a look appropriate for Gotham, a city both opulent and seedy. I enjoyed Tim Burton's dark stylistic Gotham, but Christopher Nolan's grittier, more realistic, version was interesting to look at too. The story was unique as it focused on Bruce Wayne before he became Batman, and the movie managed to remain entertaining throughout.
The movie wasn't without its faults though. Watching Katie Holmes talk out the side of her mouth was irritating as was the murky fight scenes, long winded speeches, and Bruce Wayne's put on voice when he was Batman. None of that was enough to ruin the movie though.
I thought I went to Carolina's Mexican Food quite a few years ago when I used to work in downtown Phoenix, but I wasn't sure. The only thing I remembered about the experience was that I didn't like their green chile. My mom was picking up food from there last week, and asked if I wanted anything. Interested in a good cross reference of their food I ordered a shredded beef hard taco, a green corn tamale (rarely seen on menus), a cheese enchilada, a red machaca burro (I'd never even heard of "red" machaca before), and a green chile burro. It was way too much food for me, but I split most of it with my mom. All of that food cost less than $11.
Probably the most undervalued item on any Sonoran Mexican restaurant's menu is the shredded beef hard taco; most people eat them without a thought, and restaurants try to get away with murder because of it. Premade taco shells should be proof enough. Carolina's hard taco was beef wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried like it was supposed to be, but it was only decent. I'm sure it would have been a lot better straight out of the frier, but I didn't see a fresh one giving Via Marie a run for their money either. The cheese enchilada came with a pungent enchilada sauce that tasted like a lot of Texas style chile powder (red chile and cumin) that was not my sort of thing. The green corn tamale was filled with cheese, green chiles, and kernel corn. While the masa was firmer than I like the tamale had an excellent flavor. Tamales are one of the least likely things I find tasty on any restaurants' menu so this was impressive. I'd consider ordering a dozen of them next time, and it also make me curious about their red chile beef tamales too. The red machaca burro had a mild flavor with a heat that built up (albeit very slowly). It wasn't bad, but it was too boring for me. I love green chile, but most restaurants have a habit of making green chile that doesn't actually taste of green chile. I don't know why since green chiles aren't expensive. When I tasted the green chile burro I knew it was the same restaurant I had been to years earlier; the green chile was near flavorless green paste that was blander than any green chile La Canasta has served on a bad day.
Carolina's was decent, but the green corn tamales were the only reason they gave me to return. I like other restaurants better for a lot of what Carolina's makes. Of those restaurants Via Marie is the closest to one stop shopping because they make very good enchiladas (I only remember their green ones though), green chile, tostadas, and hard tacos. [FYI, Via Marie is still in the Yellow Pages as Viva Maria.]
Last weekend Lynn and I painted our two living room walls with Behr paint (to cover up that mess left by Glidden). The wall that was already painted deep red only took one coat to achieve a uniform color, and the primered wall took two coats to match it. The deep red color looks very nice in our living room. One odd thing, we got satin finish paint and what's on our walls looks like semi-gloss. It doesn't look bad, and Lynn prefers the shinier finish so we're not repainting.
Today Lynn and I had dim sum at C-Fu Gourmet with Ken and his friends. The highlights for me were all the usual stuff (spicy squid, chow mein, and custard buns), and something I'd never had before, deep fried balls of rice flour stuffed with pork. Rice flour has a natural sweetness that matches well with pork, but it's sort of odd for the uninitiated. It looked like they used a different batter on the squid and it gave the squid a meaty flavor. Even though the squid is normally great Ken and I both thought it tasted better this time. The lo mein had a pronounced ginger flavor, and it also tasted better than normal. Lynn actually thought the squid and the lo mein weren't as good as usual. Someone at the table ordered crab puffs, which we'd never had at C-Fu Gourmet before. There was crab and green onion in the crab puffs, but they were awful. They tasted fishy to me (old crab?), and Lynn thought the cream cheese tasted odd. Whatever the reason we both hated them. The crab puffs weren't nearly bad enough to ruin yet another good dim sum experience at C-Fu though.
"Be Cool" is the sequel to "Get Shorty". This movie has Chili Palmer, the main character, trying to break into the music industry instead of trying to break into the movie industry. In a moment of self aware humor the movie begins with Chili talking about how much he hates sequels. It would have been clever had this been a better movie. "Be Cool" lacked the heart that made "Get Shorty" great. For instance in "Get Shorty" everyone Chili talked to seemed to love movies, but in "Be Cool" the conversations about music didn't seem to ring true. The conversation with Steven Tyler (lead singer of Aerosmith) about the meaning of "Sweet Emotion" was especially bad. The movie was at least entertaining though.
The only noteworthy thing about the movie was the short krumping scene, and even that wasn't that good.
Tuesday Lynn painted our living room wall with its fourth coat of red paint. While the color is close to uniform we can still see lighter and darker color patches in the paint so we're going to paint the wall over with Behr. Those two gallons of Glidden we used on the wall are now just expensive primer. I'm never buying Glidden paint again because not only was it a waste of money it was a waste of time (which pisses me off more since I would just like to get our living room painted).
Anthony Bourdain (chef and author of "Kitchen Confidential" and "A Cook's Tour" among other things) has a new show on the Travel Channel called "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" that premiers July 25th. This show looks to be even more interesting than the A Cook's Tour series because it's about people and food instead of one offs about eating strange crap (like beating cobra heart). If the show bears any resemblence to the writing in his travel journal it should be pretty good.
Jay's Gyros doesn't make great food, but their gyros, steak sandwich, and fried mushrooms are pretty good so it's one of my lunch standbys. The last time Murray and I went there for lunch Murray noticed souvlaki on the menu. It was new to the menu, and I was in the mood for a steak sandwich, so I wasn't going to take a chance on the souvlaki. We decided to split the souvlaki and the steak sandwich so if the souvlaki sucked we'd at least both have something good to eat. Since there was one new item on the menu I searched the menu for more. I was in luck because they offered spanakopita [spinach and feta in phyllo dough].
The steak in the steak sandwich seemed thinner than usual, but the sandwich was still pretty tasty. The souvlaki was grilled pork served on a pita with lettuce and tomatoes. The pork was very well spiced, but also very dry with some fatty parts I didn't care for. I loved the flavor, but it desperately needed moisture. We had some ranch dressing that came with the fried mushrooms so I threw it on, and while the ranch killed some of the flavor of the pork it was exactly what the sandwich needed. I'd order it again. The spanakopita (there were two to an order) were wrapped up in puff pastry like a burrito and deep fried like a chimichanga. I would have never guessed they'd prepare them that way. They didn't look especially appetizing, but the spinach and feta filling did taste very good, and the phyllo was crispy. They were almost a meal by themselves so Murray and I both agreed that it would be better if they cut the price of the spanakopita in half, and only give you one spanakopita.
I'm happy that I have yet another reason to eat at Jay's. When I order the souvlaki I'll be sure to tell them to watch it better though.
One of my coworkers went to a Thai place she really liked, and took Murray and I there for lunch one day. Little did I know that this place was going be out on Route 60 and Greenfield road. When I saw the name, Bola Thai, I shuddered because my experience with Thai restaurants with cutesy names is normally they put more effort into the interior than the food. As soon as we walked in I knew that wouldn't be the case because the place was a hole in the wall. The menu was limited, and written on two different boards. Our coworker said that the rama curry (red curry with peanuts and choice of chicken or beef) was good so Murray and I both followed her lead. I got mine with chicken and was asked how hot I wanted it. They have a four star heat scale that ranges from medium to fiery hot. I went for two stars (just plain hot) since ordering anything too spicy in a Thai restaurant can be dangerous. I also got a Thai iced tea. Murray got his rama curry with beef, and the got a cup of cantaloupe sorbet.
My Thai iced tea was weak. The cantaloupe sorbet tasted like cantaloupe (what a surprise) and was very cool and refreshing. It would have been great after the thick rama curry, but we ate it before we got our food. The rama curry tasted more like peanut butter than curry, but it was pleasant. There wasn't much heat to it so I know I would have liked it better if it was spicier. I had a taste Murray's curry, and I liked it better with beef.
I didn't have a great lunch at Bola Thai, but I would eat there again. Hopefully I can find someone willing to drive out there again next time.
I specifically avoided reading anything about "Howl's Moving Castle" before I saw it so I didn't find out anything about the story. I did read that it wasn't as good as "Spirited Away", but even if the reviews said it sucked I would have seen it anyway.
The animation in the opening minutes looked choppy, and I hoped the entire movie wouldn't be that way since it was annoying. I wonder if that wasn't done for effect to be sort of reminiscent of silent movies. Whatever the reason I didn't like it. Thankfully the animation smoothed out after five minutes. The rest of the movie had breathtaking settings, great music, and lots of humor. There were parts of the story that were tenuous enough that if you missed a line of dialog you wouldn't understand something later, and the thing with the prince was amazingly stupid too. Other than those few thing I thought it was a great movie even though it really wasn't as good as "Spirited Away".
Last weekend I planted two butterfly bushes, leaving only our new rose bush in need of planting. The yardwork turned out to be the easiest of the housework. We had two walls to paint in the living room, and we covered both of them with two coats of primer so their ugly brown color wouldn't cause us a problem. Little did I know the paint itself would be the issue. It's a deep shade of red, but after the first coat it was obvious it would need a second coat because the primer was showing through. After the second coat we couldn't see the primer, but we could see the paint overlaps. Ok, now we put on a third coat, and the color is a lot more uniform, but I can still see the overlaps through it. We had enough paint left to put one more coat on the big wall (the only wall we painted), but we were too exhausted and frustrated with it to finish. At this rate we'll get started with the dining room in a couple of weeks because the second wall will need four coats too. I'm really not happy with Glidden right now.
This comic from VG Cats pretty much explains exactly how I felt about "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith". Enjoy.
Around Dobson and Warner there was a strip mall that was empty for the longest time. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that half the strip mall was lit up like a lighthouse. It was Lee's Sandwiches, and I was amazed that a sandwich shop took up half the strip mall. I was also amazed that the place probably hadn't been open that long and it looked like there were a lot of people there. I told Lynn about the place, and one of her friends said they made bahn mi [Vietnamese sandwiches].
Lynn and I went there for lunch today. Lynn went for the roast beef and cheese while I couldn't make up my mind between the Chinese barbecue pork or the grilled pork bahn mi so I got both (they were only $2.50 each). I also picked up a pastry horn while I was there since Lee's Sandwiches also happens to be a bakery. The Chinese barbecue pork was moist, but too thinly sliced for my tastes. It was good in the sandwich though. The grilled pork was a little too sweet for my tastes. Out of the two sandwiches I think I liked the bbq pork better, but it was close. Neither one of them had me enthralled like the grilled pork at Da Vang, but there are other bahn mi on the menu so there are other options. They also make a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on croissant in case I'm impressed by any of the bahn mi. Lynn's roast beef tasted a little plain until she put on some red onion. The roast beef sandwich was good, but I don't think it can compare to a well made bahn mi. The pastry horn was light, and the cream was very good. I'd get it again.
Lee's Sandwiches is huge, but they make their sandwiches at Vietnamese restaurant prices. It's surprising. They also make ice cream in unusual flavors like jackfruit, soursop, and durian, and smoothies in too many varieties to list. It looks like I'll have to visit there quite a few times to try everything that interests me.
One night we didn't have anything planned for dinner, and I was in the mood for the lamb chops with fondue at Roaring Fork. It was later on a weeknight so I figured we wouldn't have a problem getting a table.
We were seated immediately, and brought a basket of bread with a raisin(?) cornbread and pepper bacon biscuits. Both breads were unique and quite tasty. Lynn and I each got a glass of wine. Lynn had the Cline "Contra Costa County Ancient Vines Mourvedre 2003" and I had the Chateau Potelle "Zinfandel VGS 2001". The Cline was good, but I remembered liking the bottle we had at home better (I checked and the bottle we had at home was the 2002). The Chateau Potelle was tasty stuff.
We knew we were going to get the fondue with lamb chops, butternut squash, and pistachio bread, but I also wanted to try another appetizer. The only thing Lynn and I could agree on was the barbecue chicken, spinach, and queso Oaxaca in blue corn crepes. The fondue was spicy and tasty as hell, but that was how it was last time too. The lamb had a pleasant rosemary flavor, but it wasn't crusty this time. It was good, but there's no way it could compete with crusty lamb. In a moment of balance the butternut squash tasted better, probably because it was fully cooked this time. I decided to try the lamb with the fondue, and while it wasn't bad the lamb was better by itself. I'd still order the fondue again. I had high hopes for the chicken enchilada sort of thing, but instead of being a complex melding of flavors the only real flavor was the smokiness of the chicken without anything else to add interest to the dish.
I had the chile and sugar cured duck breast with green beans, goat cheese, and dumplings. Lynn was going to get the rack of lamb until she found out it was marinated in parsley (she hates parsley even more than I do). She ended up getting the Alaskan halibut and crab fritters in lemon butter sauce. My duck had a good meaty flavor that wasn't as sweet or as spicy as the description would lend you believe. There was something familiar about the flavor, but I couldn't figure it what it was. Too bad I wasn't in the mood for it. The dumplings were hard and tasteless. There was a turnover type thing that was filled with duck confit(?) that was odd. The best thing on the plate was actually the green beans, toasted nuts, and goat cheese, which tasted great together. I may have to try and make that at home. Lynn's halibut was a halibut steak that was well prepared, and good in the lemon butter sauce. The crab fritters were undercooked and gooey, and we both hated them. I thought Lynn's dish was far too common to appear on the menu of a restaurant like Roaring Fork (I'd say the same thing if it was Atlas Bistro), but Lynn pointed out that it wasn't intended to be original. I guess they figured they had to give the people looking for something familiar an option. It did seem uncharacteristic though.
The only dessert that looked good (that we hadn't already been disappointed by) was the creme brulee with fresh berries. The custard was very creamy and very sweet, but it wasn't so sweet that we couldn't taste the vanilla. We both thought it was tasty. It reminded me of the excellent creme brulee at Citrus Cafe.
In two visits I've found a couple of things to be impressed with at Roaring Fork, but I definitely don't find the restaurant impressive.
I didn't get a restaurant visit finished yesterday, and I'm definitely not going to get one done today (I've got a poker game tonight) so I'll probably finish one tomorrow. Of course this is the weekend we start getting serious about finishing the house projects. Lynn has already started painting the two walls in the living room that needed to be repainted (due to the astoundingly ugly brown color the previous owner had painted them). We'll get those two walls done this weekend, and hopefully make some real progress on the dining room.
I'm also going to have to change how I handle my theme weeks. Lynn didn't appreciate my coming home and spending time on the laptop every night trying to write so the next time I do a theme week I'll probably keep the visits down to every other day.
Lynn had to have two birthday dinners because she took me out for dinner twice for my birthday. The first place she thought of for dinner was Christopher's (her favorite restaurant in Phoenix). (The second was Janos, which I should be writing about later this week.)
The tasting menu is really too much food for us so we settled for a three course meal. Lynn got her favorite, the red bell pepper soup, while I got the mussels. The soup was perfect. My first impression of the mussels was that the broth they were served with wasn't as good the first time I had it. I then noticed a couple of the mussels had "volunteered" themselves (they weren't in their shell which means they could have been dead before they were cooked). I avoided the "volunteers", but some of the mussels still attached to their shells tasted a little off. I finally tasted one mussel that was so foul that I didn't dare swallow it, and spit it out. I sent the mussels back, and got an arugula salad with Roquefort, pears, and walnuts instead. It was good, but typical.
I once again ordered the roast chicken, and it wasn't quite right this time. The chicken wasn't seasoned properly, and the skin wasn't as crispy. I was extremely disappointed. Lynn had the hangar steak, and it was just as good as always.
The hot and cold chocolate assortment was our new favorite dessert at Christopher's so we had to order it. We also tried the creme brulee for the first time. The hot and cold chocolate assortment was once again "fabulous" (Alice, our favorite waitress at Christopher's, has a habit of saying fabulous). The crust on the creme brulee was a little burnt, but the custard was very creamy and delicious. There were pieces of strawberries in the custard that were really good. The creme brulee was good enough to be yet another viable dessert option. The rest of the menu at Christopher's might be inconsistent, but at least I can always count on the desserts.
The last time we were at Christopher's one of Lynn's friends was in town so Lynn wanted to take her there for dinner so she could experience Lynn's favorite restaurant. Lynn had the roasted red pepper soup, and I tried the smoked salmon salad. The soup had a thick texture, but a thin flavor this time. I love the soup when they make it perfectly, but they seem very inconsistent with their preparation. I love the smoked salmon that they use in the amuse they give out so I figured it would be good in a salad too. The salmon was sliced thin enough to see through, and very tasty on its own. A squirt of lemon and a dab of creme fraiche was all that was needed to make it a good combination with the greens. I enjoyed it, but I'd never order it again because it was too much work for me.
I wanted to try the duck two ways (leg confit and seared duck breast) again, and Lynn had the rack of lamb (you have no idea how proud I am that she's a reformed lamb hater). The confit was crispy, and salty enough that I had to eat other things to work around the saltiness. The duck breast was slightly gamey, and I didn't care for it. The duck came with turnips au gratin that weren't bad, but I would have preferred potatoes. Lynn's lamb was seared so it tasted better than the time I had it. It might actually convince me to give the lamb at Christopher's another try, but with excellent lamb at Va Bene, Citrus Cafe, and Mes Amis I don't really need to take chances.
We went with two of the best desserts on the menu, the hot and cold chocolate assortment and the creme brulee. The chocolate dessert was great as usual, and I loved the strawberries in the super creamy custard even more than the first time.
Lynn's friend enjoyed dinner, but she didn't get the full Christopher's experience because Alice wasn't working that night. We had Andy that night, and while he was good he wasn't an Alice substitute.
These are the infrared pictures that I took last weekend. Some of them are of Flagstaff while some are of our backyard. I tweaked the color on all the pictures (sometimes converting them to black and white) because I didn't want the heavy magenta color cast typical to the infrared pictures from my camera.
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Last November on the night Lynn and I were headed for Monterey we went to a wine tasting at Village Wine Cellar, and needed something to eat before our flight. We had noticed Mes Amis before, and decided to try them that night.
I got a glass of MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir, and it had a very good flavor, but I wished it had more body.
We started with an order of calamari, and five minutes later we smelt something wonderful wafting through the dining room. We both wondered what it was, and were happy to see that it was our calamari. The squid had a good crispy coating, and was tender too. It was pretty good with the marinara dipping sauce they provided, but it was best with the pan fried tomato and onion sauce already on it and a squirt of lemon. At the time I thought it was one of the best calamaris I'd had, and it's still on my top three list.
I still had memories of the brilliant beef bourguignonne I had in Beaune so when I saw it on the menu at Mes Amis I got it. Lynn gets nervous before she flies so she only had the soup of the day, a cream of broccoli. The beef bourguignonne was soupy, and didn't have any of the depth of flavor I expected. I didn't even think they should have called it beef bourguignonne. My Pinot was too light to go with it, but I expected that. Lynn's soup was very good with lots of flavor. She didn't have much of an appetite, even for a tasty soup, so I finished it off for her.
The waiter had tried to steer me to the profiteroles of the day, but I thought the profiteroles on the menu (with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and crushed walnuts) sounded better. I should have listened to the waiter; the ice cream wasn't very good, and neither were the profiteroles. The best thing about the dessert was the walnuts. I had talked to the waiter about it, and he hinted that most of the desserts weren't good.
It wasn't the best first meal we've had, but Mes Amis seemed like it would be worth a second visit.
The second time we went to Mes Amis I took my mom with us. We ordered the crab cakes and calamari. We were only two small crab cakes, which seemed really chinchy. The crab cakes had more of a bell pepper flavor than a crab flavor, but I still really liked them, as did my mom. Lynn was the only dissenter. The cakes came with a corn salsa that was an excellent match. The calamari was once again crispy and tender, but this time the tomato and onion sauce didn't taste as good. It was a shame since that's what made the difference between good calamari and great calamari.
I had a glass of Bogle "Petite Sirah" with my food. It was opaque and almost black with pleasant mild fruitiness.
One of the specials written on a blackboard was rack of lamb Dijon. I couldn't turn that down. Lynn tried the flat iron steak, and my mom went with the other nightly special, blackened ahi tuna. My rack was small, but they gave me eight bones to make up for it. The rack was breaded with dijon flavored bread crumbs, and it was prepared perfectly. The crustiness of the lamb combined with the excellent flavor of the bread crumbs made it one of the best lamb dishes I've had in Phoenix. My mom's blackened tuna was served medium well, and the meat had a mild flavor because of it. I thought the blackened flavor was very good, although not as spicy as it should have been, and I liked the tuna at Mes Amis better than the tuna at Christopher's. My mom liked Christopher's better. Lynn's flat iron steak was tender with a good flavor, but both Lynn and I preferred the steak at Christopher's. Several of the dishes came with haricot vert that was served with a tasty garlic butter sauce, and they was easily the tastiest haricot vert I've ever had. It's amazing how a little garlic butter can transform an ingredient into something amazing.
We finished dinner with two desserts, a chocolate souffle and a puff pastry apple thing with ice cream. The souffle was molten chocolate cake style, and excellent. I'd order it again. The apples in the puff pastry thing had some sort of plastic flavor that was foul.
Our second visit to Mes Amis was much better than our first, reinforcing my belief in their potential.
The last time Lynn and I were at Mes Amis we had lunch there. Lynn wasn't terribly hungry so she only wanted soup and a salad. She tried the onion soup, and it had a hearty, tasty flavor. It was one of the better ones around, and we both enjoyed it. Lynn also had a caprese salad. This caprese was a little different than a normal caprese because they used basil infused olive oil instead of fresh basil. It was good because you got basil flavor in every bite (fresh basil is always the first ingredient I run out of even though I ration it), but I would have liked fresh basil too because there's no substituting the flavor of fresh basil. Lynn didn't like the salad while I thought it was decent. I had the roast chicken, which was a mistake because it was the first roast chicken after the perfect roast chicken I had at Christopher's. The chicken breast wasn't moist and the skin wasn't crispy, but the chicken did have a great flavor. It wasn't even close to Christopher's though.
This was the most disappointing meal we've had at Mes Amis, but I'm still willing to eat there. The menu is very hit and miss, but the lamb proved that when they make a dish correctly it's absolutely great.
Flagstaff is my local home away from home, but I've never found a high end restaurant there that I've really liked. I'd been to Josephine's a few times, and The Cottage Place Restaurant once, but neither of those places impressed me. One of the places that I used to drive by occassionally was Jackson's Grill at the Springs so I finally decided to try them one night.
They were busy on a Saturday night, but we didn't really have to wait to be seated. Lynn really liked the interior. I thought the interior was alright, but I would have preferred one that wasn't so noisy when they were busy. Lynn got a glass of J. Lohr "Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2001". It was smooth, fruity, woody, and semi-dry. We both thought it was excellent, and it was the first Cabernet I enjoyed (this was a while ago, but I'm still not a Cabernet fan). I got the seared ahi tuna appetizer (greens, avocado, mango, rice, and creamy cilantro dressing) while Lynn got the soup of the day, an asparagus bisque. The seared tuna was spicy and tasty, and the mango and greens were a great combination. The asparagus bisque tasted like a potato soup with the occasional hint of rosemary. We both thought it was very good.
One of my favorite dishes is lamb chops in port demi-glace so when I saw it on the menu I had to order it. The lamb was disappointingly decent. The lamb came with mashed potatoes that were at least above average. Lynn had a New York strip steak with truffled fries and truffle aioli. The steak had an excellent beefy flavor that could have only been made better if the steak had a crust. The steak was supposed to be chipotle marinaded and served in a garlic demi-glace. Lynn was disappointed because she couldn't taste either, but it didn't bother me. The fries were excellent, and even though I don't care for truffles they added a pleasant earthiness. The truffle aioli actually toned down the truffle in the fries, and was light and tasty.
We finished our meal with a creme brulee that was very creamy with an excellent custard flavor. I thought the top was a bit overdone, but it was good nonetheless.
Our first visit to Jackson's Grill was the best fine dining experience we had in Flagstaff so it was only a matter of time before we returned. Our second visit was almost a year later. I didn't make any notes about the bread the first time, but the bread was very crusty on our second visit. The bread didn't have much flavor, but it great with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar they provided for the bread. The balsamic vinegar was very thick and somewhat sweet with a pleasant raisin flavor. I thought they had reduced some regular balsamic vinegar to get it to the thick consistency it was, but later in the meal I had twenty year old balsamic, and it tasted exactly the same. Wow, that seems opulent for bread.
I was in the mood for a good earthy Pinot Noir so I searched the wine list until I found something French, which turned out to be a bottle of Bouchard Pere & Fis "Le Corton Grand Cru 2000" (a Burgundy). It had a lighter body than I like, but it was an excellent earthy Pinot Noir exactly like what I was in the mood for. At the end of the meal I learned I made a mistake reading the wine menu and the wine was over three times what I thought it was. I thought it was worth it, but I wouldn't have ordered it if I read the price correctly.
We started with the seafood sampler (garlic shrimp, truffled seared scallops, dungeness crab and lobster mache salad), which was the only appetizer that looked good. The dish was served on an oval platter divided up for two with one shrimp and scallop on each side with the ring molded mache salad in the center. It was a nice presentation. The shrimp were large, and pretty tasty, but they weren't anything special. The scallops weren't seared, and we learned that truffles and scallops don't taste good together. The salad tasted very green, and the crab and lobster didn't add anything to it. We didn't care for it, and the appetizer as a whole was a disappointment.
While only one of the appetizers sounded good the soup of the night, the crab and corn bisque, sounded good to Lynn and the "sunizona" salad (heirloom tomatoes, Maytag blue cheese, candied walnuts, spinach, shaved red onions and fennel, 20 year old balsamic vinegar, and pink sea salt) sounded good to me. Tom Fitzmorris (the only food critic I like) has used the phrase "ingredient fetishists" to describe restaurants that go insane with the rare or unusual ingredients, and reading the description of the "sunizona" salad I felt that's what they were at Jackson's Grill. I mean, who uses pink sea salt much less on a salad? One of the tomatoes tasted fishy, but the other one was fine. I've never understood the appeal of heirloom tomatoes because the ones I've had have never tasted better than a ripe Roma tomato. The salad was tasty, and something I'd order again. Lynn's soup had a mellow corn flavor with a tiny bit of heat in the finish. I could hardly taste the crab. The soup didn't have enough flavor for me, but Lynn liked it.
There were a couple of entrees that looked good to me, but the roasted chicken with parmesan mashed potatoes sounded the best. What a mistake; the chicken skin wasn't crispy or tasty, and the chicken only tasted ok. Christopher's may have spoiled me for roast chicken, but this wasn't what I considered good roast chicken regardless. The mashed potatoes were pretty good. Lynn had the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and spinach. The beef was well spiced and very tasty by itself, but it was even better with the herby au jus. I thought it was the best prime rib I've ever had. Lynn thought it was excellent, but she thought the mashed potatoes and the spinach could have used salt.
I wasn't in the mood for a specific dessert so Lynn chose the chocolate and pecan tarte with raspberry sorbet. The raspberry sorbet tasted odd, but luckily it was the only bad part of the dessert. The chocolate and pecan tarte had a smooth chocolate layer, a thin pecan layer, and a flourless chocolate torte layer. It had an incredibly rich chocolate flavor that we both really liked. It was good enough that we took it home.
Lynn was happy with everything she ordered, but I was unhappy with half the meal. It looks like my search for a great high end restaurant in Flagstaff continues.
One of the reasons I've never bought a digital SLR is because you have to use the viewfinder instead of an LCD panel that you can pull out and twist around (like the LCDs on the Canon Powershot series) to compose pictures. I was usually unhappy with the pictures I took using the old school viewfinder, but I tend to be happier with the pictures I've taken using an LCD because it helps me see the picture the way it is instead of the way I think it will be. Now a company has come up with a rotating LCD called the Zigview that you plug into an SLR viewfinder to compose your pictures. They're marketing it as a way to take pictures at angles you would never be able to use a viewfinder. I find it an interesting option for those of us who prefer LCDs to viewfinders. I might have to consider getting a digital SLR now, if I ever get over my discomfort wearing a camera when I'm a tourist. The improved photo quality might be worth it though.
I'm pretty relaxed from camping so this week's food theme will be fine dining (I feel up for a challenge). Fine dining visits always take the longest for me to write about since the food usually requires more description, and there tends to be so much of it (three courses times two people). I've even been to a few of the restaurants I need to write about twice, to make matters worse, but if I don't try to get them done they'll never get done. Hopefully I'll get them all done this week.
I had planned to go to Flagstaff early, set up camp, and not do much for the whole day besides some reading and some proofreading. We ended up getting to Flag at about two in the afternoon, and Lynn wanted to stop to see Wil McNabb (the jeweler who made our wedding set) so he could fix her wedding ring (one of the opals in her ring crumbled). We had to walk around downtown for a few minutes while Wil looked at Lynn's watch. By the time we got to Wil's shop I was starving. We were going to eat lunch at Salsa Brava, but I was too hungry to drive. I asked Wil for a restaurant that was close, good, and quick. He recommended Monsoon on the Rim specifically for their spicy calamari. We ate light because we wanted to have an appetite for dinner so we only had three appetizers for lunch, and Wil was right on the money with the spicy calamari.
We got to the camp ground at around five, and it started to sprinkle while we were setting up the tent. It was a good motivator to set up camp quickly. It also reminded us that while we brought cold weather clothes we didn't bring any rain gear. It started hailing about ten minutes after we finished setting up, and it ended up raining for the rest of the night. I thought we'd go cheap for dinner, but we went to Jackson's Grill at the Springs instead. I was very happy with our first meal there, but this dinner was disappointing. There were some good aspects to the meal, but it wasn't nearly as good as it should have been. Flag was cold that night, and it had been so long since the last time we went camping that we forgot the air mattress and our pillows. We didn't sleep easily Saturday night.
We woke up Sunday, and took a hike. I took my infrared camera with me and ended up taking a lot of pictures. I was happy because it's the first time in a while that I've taken pictures when I wasn't on a trip. Afterwards we smoked a cigar and I got a little proofing done (only three pages out of eighteen though). We packed up camp and went to lunch at Salsa Brava, and it was pretty good. Before we left Flag we stopped at Warner's Nursery, and picked up a few plants that we probably should't have.
Overall it was a really fun trip even though it didn't go the way I wanted it to.
Warning, huge spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the movie.
I was looking forward to seeing "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", but I still managed to put off seeing it until last night. It's a good thing I didn't rush out to see it because I probably would've been even more disappointed than I already was. I had quite a few issues with the movie, but
One of the main things a sci-fi movie has to accomplish is to help create that suspension of disbelief so you don't sit there scrutinizing everything. There were times in Episode III (E3) were it was done brilliantly, and other times when it was a complete failure. The scenes that were enveloping like the star ship battle at the beginning of the movie or the light saber duel on the volcanic planet came off amazingly realistic, but some of the interior scenes, like the one close to the beginning where Padme met Anakin in the hall, looked like obvious green screen work. It appeared that the interior backgrounds were an afterthought. It also made it difficult to ignore the crappy dialog when it looks like the characters are standing in front of a painting. The largest failing of the special effects was Yoda, who looked fake. When I saw Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies I was amazed how seamlessly a computer generated character fit into the scene, and (more importantly) I eventually forgot he was computer generated. Yoda's tonality rarely matched the rest of the environment so it gave the appearance that he was pasted into the scene. It was really distracting since he was such a large part of this movie.
Why did George Lucas have to use a different screen wipe between every scene? He took something trivial (how often do you notice screen wipes?) and made it into an irritant. If Lucas only had three or four wipes that he used it wouldn't have been noticeable, but midway through the movie I wondered if he would ever repeat a screen wipe (he finally did about three quarters of the way into the movie). I swear it looked like the type of thing an amateur would do the first time they get their hands on their "My First Movie" editing software.
For a movie about the dark side it was curiously lacking emotion. The scene with the betrayal of the Jedi should have evoked sadness or anger, but when there are a lot of Jedi you don't know being shot in the back you find yourself not caring. When Padme died who cared? The only scene that had any kind of emotion was when the Emperor told Darth Vader that Vader had killed Padme in a fit of rage. Of course it had to be immediately ruined when Vader had to break his restraints like a dark side Frankenstein and yell, "Nnnooooooooooooo!"
The most important area where I felt the movie fell short was in its explanation of Anakin's turning to the dark side. I thought it was great how it showed Chancellor Palpatine/the Emperor (the best character in the movie) working on Anakin's fears, but how Anakin goes directly from being complicit in Mace Windu's death to killing children just doesn't make sense. Anakin's thought process went from, "What have I done?" to, "I'll do anything you want Master," in about 10 seconds. That seemed far from realistic. The fact that he cut off Mace Windu's hand when he could have just as easily blocked his light saber was probably the first indication that Anakin wasn't right, but I would still expect that he would have to be evil for at least a couple of days before he went around killing kids.
Despite everything E3 was a success as entertainment, but if the goal of the movie was to explain Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader then I think it failed miserably.
One night Lynn wanted thick and hearty soup, and the only place I could think of was Claim Jumper and their chicken tortilla soup. We were there at 8:30 on a weeknight and there was a huge crowd waiting outside of the restaurant. I wasn't in the mood to wait 30 minutes to an hour so we sat ourselves at one of the bar tables, and got served immediately. There weren't many people in the bar and considering that Tempe is nonsmoking I don't know why more people weren't eating in the bar.
Lynn ordered a Claim Jumper hefeweizen from their 22 beers(!) on tap. Their house hefeweizen didn't have much flavor up front and had a malty finish. We both thought it was a little boring, and Lynn wasn't happy because she wanted a sweeter style hefeweizen like Rio Salado's (not on the menu) or the Franziskaner (a favorite of mine which was on the menu).
For the most part we just wanted to sample so we ordered mostly appetizers: the cheesy potato cakes, spinach-artichoke dip, calamari, and chicken tortilla soup. The only entree I remembered liking at Claim Jumper was their rotisserie chicken, so I got it. The chicken was tender, and decently spiced, but I think Christopher's has ruined me for roast chicken. I thought the cheesy potato cakes would taste like croquettes, but they just tasted like mashed potato instead. Lynn liked them. I never order spinach-artichoke dip, that's Lynn's thing, so it's no surprise she liked Claim Jumper's dip. For some odd reason the spinach flavor of their dip didn't appeal to me, and I like spinach. The chicken tortilla soup started out a little salty to me, but the saltiness eventually went away. Lynn never tasted the saltiness. The soup was thick, rich, and a little spicy. It reaffirmed my belief that Claim Jumper makes one of the best chicken tortilla soups around, but Lynn wasn't fond of it. I've always thought the calamari at Claim Jumper was great ever since Ken introduced me to it so I wasn't surprised that the calamari was tender and the cocktail sauce was very tasty. It started Lynn and I on a conversation about the best calamari we've had. Here's our list of the best.
My Picks |
Lynn's Picks |
|---|---|
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I'm still not impressed with Claim Jumper so it may be a few years before I eat there again.
[Previous visit to Claim Jumper (and it's really been that long since the last time I was there).]
Back in the days when Lynn and I were doing nothing but working on the floor of our house we wanted dinner after nine one night. We were headed down Route 60 to Nielsen's for some grinders when I smelled fish, and decided that white fish would be great. I had remembered I wanted to try McGrath's Fish House, and since they were a chain I figured they were open later than most places (and probably the restaurant I was smelling) so we turned around to eat there.
When we walked in I was happy to see a large board on the wall listing the fish and shellfish that arrived that day. There were three oysters listed on the board—BC, Fanny Bay, Gigamoto—and I had to try them all. The Fanny Bay were scrawny little things that had an aftertaste like salmon eggs to me. I didn't like them, but Lynn did. The BC (not their real name, but that's what they called them) were plumper, and pretty tasty. I liked them, but Lynn didn't. The Gigamoto were fat round oysters with a very pleasant mild flavor. The Gigamotos were our favorite.
The oysters would have normally been enough for appetizers, but Lynn really wanted to try the crab and artichoke dip. The garlic bread that came with the dip smelled great, and the dip was very creamy, but it had more bell pepper and celery flavor than actual crab flavor. I thought it was enjoyable, and Lynn liked it a lot.
For my entree I tried to order the sole grilled with a Champagne butter sauce, but the waiter said the closest thing they had to Champagne butter sauce was garlic butter sauce. I said that was ok then about five minutes later some guy came out and said that the sole couldn't be made without the hazelnut crust (the way it was on the menu). What the hell kind of seafood restaurant can't make fish without a crust!? I got the sesame seared wild salmon instead. When the waiter brought out my dish it was the hazelnut crusted sole. He took it back immediately and brought out my salmon. The salmon was a little overcooked, but not enough to ruin it. The real problem was that the salmon didn't taste like anything. I couldn't believe that it was completely tasteless. The waiter asked if I wanted something else, and I figured since they already made an order of the hazelnut crusted sole I might as well try it. The waiter said he walked back into the kitchen just in time to watch them throw it away. After that I decided not to have anything, and the waiter took the salmon off our check. Lynn ordered the fresh scallops, and they came skewered (the way they were on the menu). The scallops were lightly cooked and tasty, but Lynn eventually said they were salty. They definitely didn't taste salty to me, but there seemed to be some sort of cumulative saltiness because they really did taste too salty after a while. And once the scallops tasted salty the rice that came with them tasted salty too.
We finished our dinner with the marrionberry cobbler which was way too sweet for either one of us to enjoy it.
Our waiter was very good, but the food doesn't compel me to return. I also have serious doubts about any seafood restaurant that can't prepare seafood other than the way it's described on the menu.
Some days you have a lot to say, and some days you don't. I'm in my don't phase right now. It might because the theme week last week got me writing a lot more than usual. I'm also working on a couple of different pages for the web site right now, and I've never been much of a multitasker when it comes to writing.
This week I'm not doing a theme because this weekend I'll be camping without the laptop. I won't be doing much when I'm camping besides reading and proofing our California road trip the old fashioned way (on paper). Next week I'll either do an Asian, Mexican, or fine dining theme.
The Simpsons have now officially proven to me they're the coolest cartoon ever. Tonight they had an episode that had Frank Gehry, the architect who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (which I hope to see someday), in it. They had fun with his design style showing him being inspired by a crumpled piece of paper. What's even better is they turned the concert hall he designed into a prison. Maybe the Simpsons will have Cesar Pelli on sometime in the future?
I just saw, like one in the morning, Paranoia Agent on Cartoon Network for the first time, and all I have to say is, "Holy crap that was cool!" Even if the story wasn't interesting the music is unique. I may have to get the cd. I love it when Cartoon Network plays stuff with good music in it, like FLCL (Fooly Cooly).
I've been to Rigatony's a few times since I last wrote about them. They're one of my few favorite restaurants that I don't neglect (which is probably because I find their antipasto salad addictive). A few visits ago we tried the bruschetta at Rigatony's for the first time. It was unique because it had eggplant in it, but the eggplant didn't really taste like much though. The tomato-eggplant mixture was aggressively garlicked, and while I normally don't like that much garlic, it was good with everything, and it wasn't so much that we couldn't taste the basil.
Lynn had the four cheese penne with spinach for the first time, and I went with one of my favorite dishes at Rigatony's, the shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta. The four cheese penne had an excellent cheese sauce that tasted like it had a bit of lemon in it. Lynn had to keep me from eating too much of it. The shrimp scampi had excellent shrimp, but the butter sauce wasn't as good as normal. Overall I'd say it was an excellent dinner.
The next time we were at Rigatony's we got the bruschetta again. I was once again very good. Lynn also got the four cheese penne with spinach again. The four cheese penne wasn't as saucy as the first time, and it had too much blue cheese in it. I missed the sausage cacciatore, which was now chicken and sausage cacciatore on the menu, so I asked if they could make it for me. They did. The sauce for the sausage cacciatore wasn't cooked as long as it should have been so it didn't taste right. I got the feeling the "B" team was cooking that night, which was weird because we've eaten at Rigatony's on Mondays before and the food was great. I just chalked it up to being one of Rigatony's rare off nights.
The next time we were at Rigatony's Lynn wasn't feeling too hungry so we decided to do an appetizer only meal, but one of us had to get an entree so we could get the salad. We had the bruschetta, ravioli, and tried the calamari, with roasted red pepper sauce and marinara sauce, for the first time. The squid was very tender, and the sauces were decent, but both sauces cut the saltiness of the calamari so I didn't like them. I did think the calamari was pretty good by itself though. Lynn went crazy over the calamari with the sauces. I had to have the cheese filled fried ravioli in a tomato cream sauce even though the serving is far too large for two people. I figured they would make great leftovers. The ravioli were heavy, but tasty as usual. The bruschetta were still very garlicky and still quite good. I got the daily special of cheese filled tortellini with chicken, bacon, some sort of ham, sun dried tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce. It wasn't bad, but there was too much going on for it to be good.
I was writing about those last three meals when I found myself craving Rigatony's so we went there for dinner tonight. We basically did dinner the same way we did last time, getting appetizers and one entree. We had the bruschetta, fried ravioli, spinach pie, and the shrimp scampi. The bruschetta and fried ravioli were the exact same as the last time (even if Lynn did think the bruschetta tasted differently). The cheese and the alfredo sauce on the pizza was excellent, but the pizza crust was different than it used to be; the crust wasn't as thin, and it was a little more like bread. We both thought the old crust tasted better. Lynn wanted more sauce with the fried ravioli, but when the waiter brought it out it wasn't tomato cream sauce but red bell pepper sauce (the same one that comes with the calamari). It tasted like red bell pepper, but I thought there was something about it that didn't taste right. Lynn really liked it. The shrimp for the shrimp scampi were perfect; they were well seasoned and cooked medium. It was yet another tasty meal from Rigatony's. They are one of my favorite restaurants for good reason.
[Previous visit to Rigatony's.]
Va Bene is my favorite restaurant in Phoenix so naturally it had been a couple of months between visits. Lynn and I went there for lunch one day, and tried the bruschetta for the first time. The bread was piled high with a bruschetta mixture that was very garlicky, a little moist because of all of the tomato, and very tasty. We also tried the insalata con pomodori (a tomato salad with red onion, basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil) for the first time too. The combination of tomatoes and basil is a classic tasty one, and the red onion added just the right amount of piquancy. We'd order the appetizer and salad again.
Lynn got a special of the day, but I don't remember much about it. I got the rigatony with sausage and bell pepper in a cream sauce. The pasta was nicely firm, and the sauce was subtle, mild, and good. It wasn't impressive, but sometimes you want good instead of impressive (which I did at the time). We were both happy with lunch, and I'm not going to let two months pass again until my next meal at Va Bene.
[Previous visit to Va Bene.]
"Casshern" was a movie with a message. Too bad the message was wrapped up in a big ball of deep fried suck. If I saw this in the movie theater I would have walked out. Instead I fell asleep and missed about 20 minutes (believe me those 20 minutes weren't important to the story) of this 140 minute attempt at substance. Repeating "war is bad" 40 times over does not amount to substance though. There were a lot of great visuals in this movie, but there were even more times I felt the director was trying too hard. It was like watching someone who had to decide between between different types of shots, and they choose them all. Besides great visuals are nothing without a compelling story, and the story was so weak and confusing that when it finally came together you didn't care.
This was a perfect example of when the trailer is better than the movie.
Every time I eat at Santisi Brothers I'm always amazed how good their food is. When Lynn and I were driving back from Vegas we met Ken there. Ken was already eating when we got there so we just got a pepperoni and bacon pizza for ourselves. Lynn finds the combination of pepperoni and bacon too greasy on pizza, but she makes special exception for Santisi Brothers because theirs is so good (and not as greasy because they do a good job cooking the bacon before it gets on the pizza). Their pizza doesn't have the tastiest crust, but it is crisp with just the right amount of toppings, and very tasty. Ken had some hot wings so I traded him some pizza for the wings. He had the honey hot wings, and they were crispy, sweet, and caused a pleasant tingle in the back of my throat. I really wish Santisi Brothers was closer to our neighborhood.
[Previous visit to Santisi Brothers Sports Bar and Pizzeria.]
Classic Italian Pizza is one of my favorite restaurants, but also one of the more neglected ones. We finally remembered to visit there not too long ago. I had a serious craving for their bread sticks, but I refuse to pay $5 for them. We'd never had the antipasto before, and it came with bread sticks so we tried it. The antipasto came with three cheeses (two goat cheeses(?) and one Swiss cheese), three meats (one pepperoni, one salami, and one beef), olives, and a roasted red pepper dip in addition to the bread sticks. The roasted red pepper dip was similar to the roasted red pepper dip at Efes Turkish Cuisine only better, and an excellent dip for the bread. Lynn thought the version at Efes was better. All of the cheeses were excellent too. The pepperoni was spicy and of good quality. The salami was good, but not my sort of thing. Lynn liked the salami better than the pepperoni (any surprise there?). The beef tasted like buendnerfleisch [Swiss air dried beef], only a little better. Ultimately neither one of us wanted to finish it though. Lynn liked the olives.
I've always wanted to try the "Sole Mio" (ham with smoked mushrooms and egg) so now I finally got around to it. I don't like ham, but the combination sounded so unique that I was willing to take a chance. Lynn went with a straight pepperoni pizza. I thought the egg would be hard boiled, but it looked like it might have been very lightly fried before being put on the pizza. Oddly enough the combination of egg with the pizza sauce made the pizza taste a lot better. The smoked mushrooms were great too. I'd order it again if I wasn't in the mood for one of my favorites. The pepperoni pizza had too much pepperoni, and it was the standard type pepperoni you get at any pizza place. Lynn liked the pizza, but she would have preferred less pepperoni.
Lynn wanted dessert so she got the tiramisu. It was a standard likable tiramisu. At least it was better than their highly cinnamoned cannoli.
[Previous visit to Classic Italian Pizza.]
Lynn and I have put in a lot of time in the car together in the last month with our road trips to Napa/Sonoma and Las Vegas, but I'm ready to jump in the car again to go camping. A couple of weeks ago when I was smoking a cigar in our backyard the nice weather reminded how long it's been since we've been camping in Flagstaff. I longed for a weekend away from the house, and free from having to do anything. It was far too easy to decide to go camping next weekend. I can't wait. I'm also hoping that I'll be participating in Josh Simpson's Infinity Project, but I doubt they'll respond to my proposal that quickly. (If they accept my proposal I'll document the outcome in my long neglected Art section.)
All the pizzas I've ever had from Tessio's have been delivery so the last time I had a pizza from them was the first time I'd ever been to their location. It's a tiny little location meant primarily for take out and delivery so I wasn't missing much. I picked up a pepperoni pizza to take home because I thought Lynn would dig it. The pizza had their typically excellent pizza sauce and cheese, and despite their tasteless crust I still really enjoy their pizza anyway. Too bad Lynn didn't like their pizza at all. It's a good thing I normally have Tessio's for lunch.
[Previous visit to Tessio's Pizza.]
December I finally got around to making my Atomz search engine public on my site. Today I just noticed that the index it was using for the site was from September even though I scheduled it to crawl my site once a week. That means if you've ever used the search engine it probably didn't give back accurate results because the index was so out of date. How annoying. Needless to say the search engine is now up to date, but it appears I'll have to check to see if it's sticking to its schedule every once in a while.
I was surprised to see an invitation from the owner of Nicantoni's to try their pizza on my web site. They're in my neighborhood, and I'm always on the lookout for good pizza, so I gave them a try. One day Lynn and I met Steve and his girlfriend there for lunch. They got a cheese pizza, and we got a pepperoni pizza. The crust was crisp, and the pizza was good, but it wasn't great. Nicantoni's suffers from the same problem as La Famiglia, you can't taste the pizza sauce. Their tomato sauce was great when I could taste it so I'd definitely prefer the pizza with less cheese.
I finished my meal with a blue raspberry Italian ice. I'd never had an Italian ice before so I didn't know that you were supposed to use the paper cup the Italian ice comes in to squeeze the ice into your mouth instead of using a spoon. It's a good thing I had two east coast people with me to save me the embarrassment of asking for a spoon. I liked the mellow ice, but Lynn didn't think it had enough flavor.
The pizza at Nicantoni's was very similar to La Famiglia, but La Famiglia has a slight edge on them (the cheese maybe?). I do think their calzones and their Sicilian crust pizza would be worth trying though.
I have an incredible backlog of restaurant visits to write up so I think I've thought of a way to push myself to work through them, and make it more interesting at the same time. Theme weeks. I'll choose a theme each week I feel like it, and endeavor to write up at least one restaurant visit per day. This week will be Italian Week. I'll start with pizza, and work up to other Italian food after that.
Today I was looking at Ken's journal, and saw one of those personality tests on it. Normally I don't go for blogtastic personality tests, but I've been known to display the results of one every once in a while. Anything with the title The Personality Defect Test has to be interesting right? Here are my results.
You are the Sociopath! As a result of your cold, calculating rationality, your introversion (and ability to keep quiet), your brutality, and your arrogance, you would make a very cunning serial killer. You care very little for the feelings of others, possibly because you are not a very emotional person. You are also very calculating and intelligent, making you a perfect criminal mastermind. Also, you are a very arrogant person, tending to see yourself as better than others, providing you a strong ability to perceive others as weak little animals, thus making it easier to kill them. In short, your personality defect is the fact that you could easily be a sociopath, because you are calculating, unemotional, brutal, and arrogant. Please don't kill me for writing mean things about you!
Yep, they said I would make a "very cunning serial killer". Anyone who knows me would probably agree unless they take my aversion to killing things into account. I don't agree with the arrogance percentage: I don't think I'm better than everyone, just better than some people at some things because I believe everybody is better at something than your average person (the French restaurant scene in "Tampopo" is the perfect example). Of course Lynn would say I'm arrogant because I think I have better taste in furniture than she does, but I don't think it's arrogance if it's true though. 
Lynn and I are back from Las Vegas having smoked some great cigars, eaten really good food, and generally having a good time. I'd say it's good to be back, but I enjoyed being away.
I'm still bitter about the lack of comments about my really cool restaurant recommendation-Google maps idea. That's ok though, I'll still do it without encouragement just because it's cool. You'll see.
A few months ago I ran across Darrin's Dining Guide, and it reminded me I haven't done much with food on my site. I've tried to make my restaurant visits more useful, but it's not what I've planned for my site. At the very least I wanted to write a page of restaurant recommendations, but I kept putting it off (which is easy for me to do when there are a million other things to do). Ultimately I don't even know if I want to create a food section on this site or create an entirely new web site.
I do have good news though; I think I've found something that'll be useful, and it's a project I can complete in a decent amount of time (hopefully). One of our programmers sent me a link to Cheap Gas, which uses Google Maps to display information about gas station prices. I should be able to do something similar to use Google Maps to display restaurant recommendations. Does that sound cool or what? I can always figure out how to handle the whole food theme after I'm through with the map.
[Addendum 05/26: Of course I think the comment thing is pretty cool, and hardly anyone ever uses that so maybe I shouldn't spend a lot of time figuring out how to do the Google thing. I'm feeling just a little bitter right now.]
I know we just came back from vacation, but this weekend Lynn and I are driving up to Las Vegas. I've wanted to go to Vegas for the various food possibilities, but I wasn't planning on going there anytime soon. That is until Greg scored free rooms. It's amazing how quickly a cheap vacation can push a place up the priority list. It should be a good time this weekend.
On the probable side, Lynn has a friend in Seattle who'll let us crash at his place so we'll probably visit him in August or September. Neither one of us has been to Seattle so it should be interesting. Of course nothing's definite until we buy plane tickets.
Lynn's parents might be able to get us a cheap week's hotel stay in Philadelphia, but that's probably pretty unlikely. Philadelphia was one of the more interesting cities I've been to so I'd dig visiting there again.
Si Senor has become my go-to place for Sonoran Mexican food. One time we were at Si Senor I got a combination plate with green chile beef, a cheese enchilada, a ground beef taco, and a beef flauta. The green chile was very good, as always. The enchilada was excellent; I love the flavor of the corn tortillas at Si Senor. The tortilla of the ground beef taco was slightly crispy, but not deep fried like I was hoping. It wasn't bad, but I still have to go to Via Marie if I want excellent hard tacos. The beef flauta was ok. Lynn got the huevos rancheros covered in green chile, and I was surprised how good they were. Fried eggs aren't the first thing I would choose to smother in green chile, but they were excellent. I told Lynn that if I was ever going to order an egg dish (which would be highly unlikely) that would be it.
The very next time we went to Si Senor I ordered the huevos rancheros covered in green chile, and got a tamale covered in red chile just in case that wasn't enough food. The eggs were once again very good, but the tamale wasn't up to the level of the eggs. The red chile sauce tasted like enchilada sauce, and there was very little beef in the tamale. I wouldn't order the tamale, or the red chile, at Si Senor again. Lynn had a beef chimichanga that was decent, but I prefer the machaca chimichanga at Sylvia's La Canasta.
The last time we were at Si Senor I tried their raspberry iced tea. We both thought it basically tasted like raspberry flavored water. I don't know if the Akela chicken was a new menu item, but I had never seen it before. It was a whole chicken breast covered with green chile and cheese. I don't know why I thought it'd taste better than just chicken, green chile, cheese, but that's all it tasted like. I was disappointed with it.
[Previous visit to Si Senor.]
A few weeks after we went to John Henry's we went to Citrus Cafe because Lynn was still in the mood for them. I actually wanted a white wine, and the Bodega Norton "Torrontes" from Argentina sounded good. It was floral, fruity, and quite tasty.
We started with our favorite appetizer at Citrus Cafe, the shrimp a la Basque. The shrimp in the hot and spicy butter sauce was great. The appetizer completely overpowered my wine, but I knew it would.
Lynn had the soup of the night, sweet potato soup, and I had a cafe salad. The soup had a chicken broth base, and I didn't like the combination of it with the sweet potato. The cafe salad consisted of greens, blue cheese, strawberries, and a sweet dressing that made for a great combination. I think their cafe salad is one of the best salads around.
We both had a glass of red wine with our entrees. Lynn had the Red Diamond "Cabernet Sauvignon" which tasted thin with a good initial flavor, but too much wood in the finish. I had the Clay Station "Petite Sirah" which tasted creamy and fruity with my entree. Lynn had quail and beef medallions with mushroom-Merlot sauce. The quail was good, and the beef tasted like sirloin, and had a very good beefy flavor. The mustard rabbit was a menu item I hadn't seen on their menu before, and I wanted to order it because rabbit is rarely seen in Phoenix. I was a little hesitant though because the only rabbit I can remember having was from the restaurant in Burgundy where the little rack of ribs and skewered organs were good, but the rabbit in mustard sauce was bad. This rabbit was roasted, and very tender. This was the first time I had large pieces of rabbit so I could actually taste it, and it surprised me because it tasted like chicken. The mustard sauce had a lot of mushrooms in it that made it taste very earthy, and it was also a little oily, but it tasted very good with the rabbit. I dug it. Lynn didn't like the rabbit because it tasted like dark meat chicken to her and she doesn't like dark meat.
Lynn wanted a dessert she liked so she went with the chocolate divinity (the white and dark chocolate cake), and I went with the carrot cake. The carrot cake was moist, but it didn't have enough carrot flavor for my tastes. We both thought there was too much cream cheese frosting on it, but that was easily fixed by scraping it off. Lynn didn't like the divinity this time, and I hated it; the white chocolate portion tasted somewhat gritty and funny to me, and while the dark chocolate tasted good to me it tasted like flour to Lynn.
Dessert was the only part of our dinner that wasn't great, but if I wanted a guaranteed winner I would have got the creme brulee. (Of course Lynn thought she was getting a guaranteed winner so that was disappointing for her.) The menu is still limited at Citrus Cafe, but I was glad to see that they're finally changing it up. I may have to start eating there more often.
[Previous visit to Citrus Cafe.]
I didn't know anything about "Unleashed" before I saw it except that it had Jet Li in it. If I had known it was going to be about a guy learning to be human I probably would have avoided it. It had some great fight scenes (the close quarter fight scene was really unique), and there were some very humorous scenes too, but it just wasn't my type of movie. At least Lynn liked it.
One night Lynn and I were both thinking about going to Citrus Cafe, but I wanted to go to John Henry's instead because they have more menu items that sound good to me. I was disappointed when we were seated because we had the same waiter as the first time. He would give us better service this meal though.
We started with the pasta combination sampler (gnocchi in butter sauce, a ravioli with sherry cream sauce, and farfalle in marinara sauce), and Lynn had the roasted garlic soup. The ravioli was the best of the group; it was very good by itself, and very good in the subdued sauce too. The gnocchi was dense with another subdued sauce, but it was still good too. The farfalle wasn't bad, and the marinara sauce was on the spicy side. Lynn liked the sauce better than I did. The roasted garlic soup was more like really good garlic flavored water. Lynn and I both wished the soup was cream based.
I had a glass of Alice White "Semillon-Chardonnay". I normally don't order white wine at restaurants because I normally order red meat, and can't drink the glass fast enough, but I knew I was getting a seafood entree. It had an excellent tropical fruit scent, and a subtle flavor with my food.
I had a salad, and this time I had it with blue cheese dressing. I had a feeling the blue cheese dressing would be good, and it turned out to be excellent; like pure English salad creme with just enough blue cheese. I'll never try another dressing at John Henry's ever again.
I wanted to try the shrimp scampi the first time we went to John Henry's so while I was highly tempted by other menu items I stuck with it. For $20 I expected more than five large shrimp without any pasta so the dish felt like a rip off to me. The other problem was that I didn't like the flavor of the shrimp. It really made me miss the scampi at Rigatony's. Lynn had the steak Diane (choice of New York strip steak or filet mignon in a sherry cream sauce with artichokes, asparagus, and mushrooms) with the New York strip. Lynn was extremely happy with it. The steak had a good grill flavor, but it needed a little salt. I thought the vegetables were a detriment to the flavor of the steak, but Lynn liked the vegetables with the steak.
We had the chocolate mousse for dessert, and it was once again very tasty. I ordered a glass of the Dow's "Late Bottled Vintage 1985", and the waiter offered us a glass of maraska on the house instead (just like the first time we were there). The maraska is an excellent cherry wine, and I could almost say I love it, but I still wanted to try the Dow's even though our waiter didn't seem like he wanted to give me the Dow's. Maybe he knew it was bad because the Dow's was very alcoholic, and neither one of us liked it. We did finish off the maraska.
I wanted to be happier with John Henry's, but the meal was very hit and miss. I do get the feeling when it all comes together it'll be a great experience though.
Last night I was watching Good Eats, and the theme was steak, specifically skirt steak (my second favorite cut of beef) and sirloin (third on the list). I've always liked Alton Brown, but now he's my hero because when he wanted to avoid flare-ups he threw the meat directly on top of the charcoal (natural hardwood). That is so cool! I've got to try that someday.
A while ago the new programmer took us to the newly opened Tempe outlet of his favorite Tucson sandwich shop, Bison Witches. He told us that the sandwiches were huge, and that the best buy was the half sandwich and soup special. I took his word for it and got half a corned beef on rye and the cream of potato bacon soup. The soup was served in a bread bowl, and good in a comfort food sort of way. The rye bread was dark, and it was sliced an inch thick. When I picked it up it was all greasy. I thought it was odd that the menu stated "All Sandwiches are steamed, toasted, or heated in some manner," but now I realized that it was really a means to explain that all sandwiches will be greasy. The sandwich was pretty good despite its greasiness.
The food was good and filling, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to drive into downtown Tempe to eat it.
One of the nice things about being back at work is eating lunch (when lunch is eaten at someplace worth mentioning). Today Long and the new programmer took me to a new place. They had only been there once before so they didn't remember the name of the place. Turns out it was Sub-Culture Cafe. I'd heard of the place because it gets pimped a lot on Chowhound, but I had never bothered looking for it; I'd seen the menu online, and it just didn't look like my sort of thing.
I got the "Friend of the Devil" (cilantro-lime chicken, onions, jalapenos, and cheese) on wheat bread with spicy mustard. I expected the sandwich was made with sliced chicken, but got actual pieces of chicken breast instead (which is a bonus). The onions were sauteed, which was a very nice touch, but if there were jalapenos in that sandwich I couldn't taste them. Overall the sandwich was very good, but it seemed like it was missing something (jalapenos maybe?).
I wasn't impressed, but the food was good enough that I'll make the effort to find what moves me on the menu. I don't even have to remember to eat there because I'm sure the other guys will remember for me.
The big news yesterday was "Court says states can't bar out-of-state wine shipments". The result should be that consumers who can order wine directly from wineries in state should now be able to do it from out of state wineries too. Maybe. It'll probably take a while to sort out the details. I'm not sure if even effects Arizona since I don't know our own intrastate wine laws, but it's good news for someone.
One word of warning though, wineries aren't necessarily cheaper than wine shops: we found that the Sonoma wines that are distributed in Arizona were cheaper locally than directly from the winery itself. That was an irritating little discovery.
Today is the first day I've had an appetite, since I've been sick, that would let me eat something greater than four fork-fulls of food. I had just seen a Taco Bell commercial for the club chalupa (the best thing Taco Bell has ever made so of course it's a limited time item), and thought it was the perfect way to reward my previously depressed appetite. I went to the Taco Bell closest to our house, but they didn't have the club chalupa, they only had the "ultimate" chalupa. I ended up getting the "ultimate" chalupa (hunger makes me stupid and three days of starvation means I probably shouldn't have been driving much less ordering fast food), and I think I should sue that Taco Bell for fraud: the ultimate chalupa is the club chalupa. All the Taco Bell guacamole (I try not to think about its origins), watery pico de gallo, and sour cream on the "ultimate" chalupa couldn't convince my brain that I was eating anything nearly as good as chicken-bacon-ranch goodness. Taco Bell should force all of their locations to make the club chalupa, or at least force the ones making "ultimate" chalupas to make club chalupas and call them the ultimate chalupa instead (since that's what they are).
The Sunday night Lynn and I returned home from California Lynn got sick. I guess you could say it was a good thing that we came back when we did because once Lynn got sick we would have had to come back anyway. Lynn spent three or four days suffering from a fever and other symptoms before she finally took some antibiotics. She started feeling better a couple of days ago, but yesterday I woke up with what Lynn had. Learning from Lynn I started taking antibiotics immediately, and while they've made life a lot less miserable I'm far from well. Hopefully I'll start feeling normal tomorrow.
No one at work is going to believe I'm sick tomorrow.
A few months ago Lynn spotted Philly's Famous on the way to Lotus Cafe. She wanted to go there, but we never got around to it until today when I picked up one of their Philly cheese steaks. The cheese steak was made with beef, onions, cheese, and tomato sauce (that seemed unusual to me), but was missing a crucial ingredient, salt, so I'm never ordering one of those at Philly's Famous again. I also felt that they were a little chinchy with the beef, but it's probably the same amount of beef The Original Hoagie Shop (my favorite for cheese steaks) uses in their cheese steak. Philly's Famous does make hoagies too so I'll try one of those before I decide how I feel about the place.
"Dance, Dance, Dance" revisits the main character from "A Wild Sheep Chase" a few years after the events in that book. He returned to his normal life only to find that he leads anything but a normal life. The book takes off, and you don't know how much of the story is real and how much of it occurs in the protagonist's head, but it's an enjoyable trip even if some of the plot "twists" feel obvious. I liked this book, but enjoy Murakami's offbeat style of writing. I like his books even when I don't think I understand everything he's trying to say.
Lynn and I were working on this during the drive back to Phoenix yesterday so I got it finished pretty quickly.
Category |
Lynn's Pick(s) |
Mario's Pick(s) |
|---|---|---|
Best Appetizer |
Goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms - Budo (Napa, CA) Grilled asparagus with sweet lobster sabayon - Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms - Budo (Napa, CA) Seared scallops - River's End (Jenner, CA) |
Worst Appetizer |
Beef stuffed croquettes - Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA) |
Beef stuffed croquettes - Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA) |
Best Side Dish |
Mashed turnips with garlic sauteed kale - Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Rice with cilantro and sweet English peas - Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena, CA) |
Worst Side Dish |
Black beans - Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA) |
Fennel puree and other stuff - Dry Creek Kitchen (Healdsburg, CA) |
Best Entree |
Lamb chops - Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Trio of lamb - Budo (Napa, CA) |
Worst Entree |
Lobster tasting - Budo (Napa, CA) |
Lamb shank with Moroccan spices - Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena, CA) |
Best Dessert |
Chocolate souffle with creme Anglaise - Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Tres leches cake with strawberry sauce - Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena, CA) |
(Relatively) Worst Dessert |
Chocolate mousse - River's End (Jenner, CA) |
Creme brulee - Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Best Lunch |
Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA) |
Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA) |
Worst Lunch |
Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg, CA) |
Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg, CA) |
Best Dinner |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Budo (Napa, CA) |
(Relatively) Worst Dinner |
Budo (Napa, CA) |
River's End (Jenner, CA) |
Best Atmosphere |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Worst Atmosphere |
Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg, CA) |
Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg, CA) |
Best Service |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Worst Service |
River's End (Jenner, CA) |
River's End (Jenner, CA) |
Best Meal Experience |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA) |
Worst Meal Experience |
The service that started great and declined greatly by the end of the meal at Dry Creek Kitchen (Healdsburg, CA). |
The lamb shank at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (Healdsburg, CA) marring an otherwise excellent meal. |
Best Trip Experience |
Seeing whales for the first time. |
Sipping Pinot Noirs on the winemaker's back porch of Papapietro Perry. |
Worst Trip Experience |
Several different occurrences at Budo (Napa, CA). |
Realizing that I ran out of money about $200 too late. |
Best White Wine |
J Winery "Pinot Gris 2004" |
White Oak "Sauvignon Blanc 2003" |
Best Pinot Noir |
Hartford "Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2003" |
Papapietro Perry "Sonoma Valley Pinot Noir 2002" (wood free) Lynmar "Quail Cuvee Pinot Noir 2002" (balanced wood) |
Best Zinfandel |
White Oak "Estate Zinfandel 2002" |
Hartford "Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2003" (balanced) Limerick Lane "Collins Vineyard Zinfandel 2002" (balanced) Martinelli "Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel 2000" (over the top) |
Best Red (other) |
Belvedere "Sangiovese 2003" |
Belvedere "Sangiovese 2003" |
Best Winery |
Papapietro Perry White Oak |
Papapietro Perry St. Barthelemy |
Best Tasting Room |
Hartford St. Barthelemy |
Hartford St. Barthelemy |
We went from Sonoma to Napa back to Sonoma, and then home. This was our first time in Sonoma, and Lynn and I both liked it better than Napa. Napa is very pretty, but it's also too touristed for our tastes. Paying for all your wine tastings sucks too. Sonoma is pretty in a different way (we were in the Russian River Valley), and it's pleasantly laid back. You could say we developed an appreciation for Sonoma. We also developed an appreciation for Pinot Noir, and I redeveloped an appreciation for Zinfandel. I must admit that I never really paid attention to Sonoma wines before, but that's already changed since I now know how much very good wine they make there.
It would have been nice if we could of hit Monterey and Paso Robles like I wanted, but we ran out of money (we went crazy buying wine). Oh well, I knew it was an extremely likely possibility given the fact that I didn't really save up any money for this trip. It was a fun time regardless.
[Addendum: 05/09 - I forgot to mention that Lynn thinks the wine is better in Sonoma than in Napa. I don't disagree, but it's not like we hit nearly as many wineries in Napa as we did in Sonoma. 05/10 - I keep forgetting to mention that spitting is the best thing we started doing on this trip. I've always meant to spit at wine tastings, but it was Lynn who spit the first mouthful of wine into a bucket. We kept up the practice for the rest of the trip, and we both felt better for it. Wine tasting at many different wineries is a lot more pleasant when you don't have to stumble back to the car. It's a lot safer too.]
We went to Coachella, and it wasn't worth the ticket price to me. Nine Inch Nails was disappointing to me, but some of that was due to the bad sound. DJ Krush put on the best show of the night for me, and Z-Trip was Lynn's favorite.
Heading up to northern California we stopped at Caribbean Bistro in Pasadena for a great lunch. I'm even considering eating there when we come back down through LA.
Yesterday we got into Sonoma, and had excellent sparkling wine (and one very good Pinot Noir) at J Winery. We didn't do much else besides check in at Fern Grove Cottages (which is really cute), walk around downtown Healdsburg, and eat. Today we'll hit more wineries, and maybe go to the ocean afterwards.
Lynn and I are headed to Coachella today (seriously my last time), and then off to other parts of California. You won't hear from me until I get back, or I find an open wireless network (you have to love wireless networks) on the road.
The last time Lynn and I had dinner at Va Bene Lynn wanted to try their calamari. The calamari was in a light crispy batter, and served with a very rich aioli and standard appetizer mixed greens. The calamari was very tasty, and the aioli made it even better. At some point the aioli seemed like it was too much, but it was too good with the calamari to avoid it. I tried the mushroom soup. It was rich with tiny chewy bits of mushroom. I enjoyed the flavor, and even detected a bit of heat in the back of my throat. My only complaint about the soup, and it's not a big one, was that I would have liked bigger chunks of mushroom to chew on.
Our appetizers were so rich that we were almost full by the time we got our entrees.
Lynn wanted a light dinner so she opted for the spinach salad with shrimp while I went with the unbelievable gnocchi with tomato cream sauce. I loved the gnocchi the first time I tasted it, and the second time around I still thought it was an amazing dish. Lynn's salad had a dressing that was spicy and had a meatiness to it that went well with the spinach. The shrimp looked like they were blackened and extremely spicy, but they weren't since they were heavily coated with paprika. The salad was satisfying on a couple of different levels.
I've come to the conclusion that Va Bene is my favorite restaurant in Phoenix. I thought it would be someplace like Atlas Bistro, but Va Bene fits my criteria better than any other restaurant I've eaten at in the Valley: they are consistently great, their food is creative, and there are enough specials that I don't get tired of the menu. It seems simple enough, but many restaurants fail at being consistently great, much less being able to keep their menu fresh enough for those of us with short attention spans.
The last time we were at Va Bene (and it was far too long ago, a situation that I need to correct) I decided to try the mussels in a tarragon cream sauce. The mussels were very plump, and the sauce had a mild creamy flavor, but I wouldn't order it again. It was good, but it missed Va Bene's usual distinctiveness, and it left me pining for the mussels at Christopher's. Lynn had the tomato-basil soup (again), and it was as tasty as always.
Lynn was in the mood for pizza so she tried their Margherita pizza. I was looking forward to hearing about the specials, but the waiter said there weren't any specials. Any normal waiter would have left it at that, but he noticed my disappointment and asked if I was in the mood for anything in particular. I told him I was wondering if they had lamb, and he said he'd check with the chef. He came back and told me they had a rack of lamb with a balsamic reduction if I wanted it. It sounded great to me. Even though the service at Va Bene can be strained on busy nights, I've noticed that they do tend to put more effort into keeping their customers happy than most restaurants, and I appreciate it.
The rack of lamb came with mashed potatoes, ratatouille, and a balsamic reduction. This was the most straight forward lamb dish I've ever had a Va Bene (meaning that the lamb wasn't especially seasoned or marinated), and it was still excellent. The sauce was a little buttery, herby, and had a pleasant tang from the vinegar; I thought it was a perfect compliment for the lamb, and it was very good with the mashed potatoes too. The only thing I didn't like was the ratatouille, which just tasted odd. Lynn's pizza had a good crust although it wasn't yeasty the way I like. The pizza sauce was decent, but there was too much mozzarella on the pizza. We both thought that different pizza toppings would have been better.
Lunch was so good that day that I wished I could have left work early to go home and smoke a cigar on our patio.
[Previous visit to Va Bene.]
One of the things I've been looking forward to from our upcoming vacation to California was a plate of katsu chicken curry at Curry House Coco Ichibanya (which serves the best Japanese curry I've ever tasted). I could have sworn they had a couple of locations around the Los Angeles area, but today when I looked for an address for one I couldn't find any. It looks like I'll have to go to Japan to eat at Coco Ichi. 
Of course with luck I'll get to visit Japan sometime in the next year so it's not as bad as it sounds (which is lucky because I almost got depressed).
I went with Murray to George & Dragon so he could try their fried zucchini (which I think is as close to perfect as fried zucchini could get). We got an order of the fried zucchini, but they weren't zucchini spears like I expected. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since I only had them at the downtown location of George & Dragon, and it wasn't guaranteed that it was going to be the same at the east Phoenix location. The zucchini was beer battered, and had a good flavor, but the ones on the bottom were a little greasy. I'd order them again, but the zucchini spears downtown are better.
I had the shepard's pie (ground beef and vegetables covered in mashed potatoes and baked) topped with cheese and served with a side of gravy. It was alright; it didn't cause any culinary epiphanies, but it was good enough for a decent lunch.
According to "Is Your Town Down?" Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Mesa are all tied for the seventh most depressed cities in the US. Personally I'm pretty happy, but I live in Chandler so that doesn't prove anything. I wonder what it is about those cities that makes people depressed though. The only thing I can think of is that there isn't very much to do around here, but out of all the cities in the Phoenix metro area Scottsdale has the most going on so that doesn't explain it. Maybe the lack of a good public transit system deeply affects people?
"Gong Fu" ["Kung Fu Hustle"] is the funniest movie I've ever seen. If you're a fan of silly humor, then I'd highly recommend seeing it (you don't even have to be a fan of kung fu movies). I think Stephen Chow (writer, director, and star of "Kung Fu Hustle", "Shaolin Soccer", and "God of Cookery") is a damn genius; when most people fail in at least one of those three roles (writer, director, and star) he's pulled it off in every movie of his I've seen. Now I'm going to slick my hair back, get a dark suit and an axe, and practice my dancing.
For the first time since we bought the house all the plants that needed to be planted have actually been planted. Some of the ones planted weeks ago are sprouting and starting to bloom so I'm happy. I can't wait to see what everything is going to look like when the plants actually grow in.
I thought "Kitchen Stories" was quiet, then I watched "Ni Neibian Jidian" ["What Time is it There?"]. This movie had very little dialog, and in some situations lots of noise. It did a good job conveying isolation while in a crowd, but it's a technique that should be used in small quantities, not for an entire movie. Also, I didn't get it: I didn't understand the relationship between the two main characters (if there was one), the ending of the movie, or even the point of it all. Maybe the dullness of the movie numbed my powers of observation, but this seemed like a terrible movie.
One day I was going out to lunch with a bunch of guys from work when one of them suggested Hail Mary's. I'd never been there before, but I'm always open to a new lunch place. I had been told their burgers were good, but their cheese steak was even better. I'm a big fan of the cheese steak at The Original Hoagie Shop, but I'm perfectly willing to see if there's a better cheese steak in Phoenix. I was also considering that the source of this information was someone who's tastes I was unfamiliar with and almost got the burger. I should have went with the burger; the cheese steak was completely ordinary, and the beef wasn't even seasoned. We also got an order of onion rings, and I got a Caesar salad on the side. Both were decent, and decent basically describes how I felt about Hail Mary's. I already have a number of restaurants that at least rate good to me so I probably won't be back to Hail Mary's anytime soon. I will have to go back and try their burgers someday though.
I had heard so much good stuff about "Sideways" from people I knew I had to watch it. "Sideways" was a road trip movie that I thought was like what "Swingers" would be if the characters were 15 years older. There was plenty of humor surrounding a serious storyline about relationships and wine. It was definitely worth watching. The entire cast did a great job, but Paul Giamatti should have been nominated for best lead actor. (I think someone doesn't like him because he also gave an Oscar worthy performance as Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor" and wasn't nominated for that either.)
I hadn't heard much about "Napoleon Dynamite", but decided to watch that anyway. The movie was funny in a stupid way, but it was more like a series of skits loosely held together by a plot.
The premise for "Salmer fra Kjøkkenet" ["Kitchen Stories"] sounded interesting, a Swedish kitchen researcher observes from a highchair a farmer in his kitchen, but it was very slow. It was probably also one of the quietest movies I've ever seen. It was a decent movie, but of the three movies it's the only one I would rather not have watched.
I don't like Iguana Mack's nearly as much as Rigatony's even though they have the same owners, but occasionally I get a serious craving for their sweet and hot wings. The craving struck me a couple of weeks ago so Lynn and I went there for dinner. We started with their sweet and hot wings and the drunken shrimp (my and Lynn's favorite appetizer respectively). The wings were just as tasty as always, but while they could have been crispier they still satisfied my craving. The sauce the drunken shrimp were swimming in wasn't as buttery or as spicy as it should've been so Lynn didn't like the dish. Of course she's been spoiled by the superior shrimp a la Basque from Citrus Cafe too.
It's been a long time since I've had soul good so the chicken fried pork chop sounded good to me. Lynn wasn't too hungry so she only had the chicken enchilada soup. The batter on the pork chop wasn't seasoned, and the meat wasn't especially seasoned either. I liked the white gravy on top of the pork chop, but it wasn't good enough to make up for the lack of seasoning. Oddly, my dish came with grilled vegetables that were lightly charred and seasoned well enough to be great. I also had a side of their sour cream potatoes au gratin, which were also excellent in their creamy way. Lynn's chicken enchilada soup was more like spinach enchilada dip; it was thick, but the flavor was complex and somewhat spicy. I really liked the soup to dip my bread into, but Lynn didn't like it.
Our dinner wasn't bad (in some cases pretty good), but ultimately there isn't much I like at Iguana Mack's.
[Previous visit to Iguana Mack's.]
It had been a long time since I had been to Seoul Garden so I thought it was time to revisit them. I was curious as to what the chicken wings in the appetizer section tasted like so I got them. The wings were thickly battered, but the batter was very crispy so it didn't seem like a bad thing. The wings were served with a sauce that tasted both sweet and sour that I've had on wings in Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian restaurants before. The wings seem like some sort of Asian bar food, but they're good enough snacks to order again. Long must have agreed because he was only going to eat one wing until he tasted it, and he split the rest of the appetizer with me. For my entree I had the pork bool kogi, a normally sweet and very spicy dish. This one fit the style, but it just wasn't that good.
Seoul Garden is decent, but I wish I had a Korean restaurant like Takamatsu or Hodori around Tempe.
[Previous visit to Seoul Garden.]
"Kung Fu Hustle" and "Night Watch" are two movies that look interesting for completely different reasons; "Kung Fu Hustle" looks funny while "Night Watch" looks slick. Hopefully I'll get to see them in theaters (I'd been trying to see "Sideways" in the theater, but things kept coming up to the point that I finally gave up and watched it on DVD).
The more I eat Tessio's pizza the more I like it (despite their sliced sausage). The second time I had their pizza it was with the pesto-pizza sauce combination, and I thought it tasted even better than the first time. I also tried their medium and hot wings. The wings were crispy, but the hot wings were topped with a typical Tabasco style hot wing sauce. The sauce on the medium wings tasted very buttery, and it had a slow red chile heat that might actually amount to hot if you eat enough of them. The medium wings were interesting, but I prefer my wings hotter so I thought the standard hot wings were better.
The last time I had a pizza from Tessio's it was with their regular pizza sauce instead of the pesto-pizza sauce combination, and it was still really tasty. Of course remembering how good their pizza is convinced me to get it for dinner tonight.
[Previous visit to Tessio's Pizza.]
My mom came back from my cousin's wedding in Belize with four cigars (not locally available) and a cookbook of Belizean food. How cool is that? I hope there's a recipe for escabeche since I haven't had that in forever. [Oh yeah, she also got us Belizean coconut rum too.]
The last time Lynn and I rented movies we got an eclectic selection. "The Incredibles" was the best of the group. The animation was great, and the story actually had some depth to it.
"Vanity Fair" was directed by Mira Nair (who also directed the great "Monsoon Wedding") so I was expecting something good even though it was a period drama starring Reese Witherspoon. The movie started well, but it went on too long. Plus, I couldn't get into the story of a girl trying to rise through society. I do have to give Mira Nair bonus points for having a dance scene with Indian music though.
The premise for "The Saddest Music in the World" was pure dark comedic genius; a brewery owner sponsors a contest to see which country has the saddest music in the world during the Great Depression (to increase beer sales). There were even a few scenes that were funny, but overall the movie was terrible. The cinematography was so odd that it made the movie difficult to enjoy. The writing was especially bad, but instead of coming off intentionally cheesy like "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" it just fell flat. And for a movie about sadness it was completely devoid of emotion.
It seems like I say it every year, but I'll say it again; the Miss USA pageant sucks. Miss Arizona was the best looking contestant, and she's an engineer so of course she didn't make it past the first cut. Where do they find those blind crack smoking judges?
I think they should televise the Miss India USA pageant; it looks like it would be a lot of fun.
Cyclo tends to be busier than I like to deal with, but Lynn digs the restaurant, and the food is worth the short wait. Occasionally. The second to the last time we were there I finally got around to trying to green papaya salad. I've had Thai green papaya salads before, and always find them too fishy, but this was light, fresh, and limey. I'd definitely order it again. Lynn tried the beef chow fun, and I had the fried rice noodle with beef, shrimp, and scallops that I had the first time we went to Cyclo. The chow fun had an excellent wok flavor, and was actually one of the better chow funs I've had. My rice noodle dish also had a good wok flavor, but it was tasty in a different way than the chow fun. Both dishes were good enough to earn a spot in my normal order rotation at Cyclo.
The last time we were at Cyclo I decided to try the egg rolls (also called spring rolls depending on which restaurant you go to). The difficulty in making good spring rolls always seems to be in the filling, which needs to strike just the right balance between the meat and the rest of the ingredients. It's not as easy as it sounds, and there are only two restaurants I know that get it right: Khai Hoan in Tempe and Pho Bang in Phoenix. Now I can add Cyclo to my list of viable restaurants to order spring rolls because they get the balance perfect, but that's not a surprise considering their ownership connection to Khai Hoan. I also decided to give the Thai basil ribs another shot, and they were tender this time. They're tasty even when they're chewy, but they're so much better when they're tender.
There aren't any items on the menu that I haven't tried yet that look good to me so now I'm sticking to what I know for entrees. This time I wanted the wokked beef, and I was sure not to order it spicy this time. Lynn was in the mood for their beef chow fun. The wokked beef was much better this time now that it wasn't covered in red chile; the flavor was complex and tasty. The chow fun was once again excellent, and Lynn was happy.
For such a small menu Cyclo does a great job keeping the percentage of very good dishes high. Now if I could only get in there without a wait.
[Previous visit to Cyclo.]
Today Long and I were talking about fruits (it all started with Dragon Fruit), and he was telling me about fruits from Vietnam, and I was telling him about fruits from Belize. Somehow we got on the subject of Belizean food, and Long found this article about Belizean Food. The article makes me nostalgic for some things I haven't had in a long time, and it really makes me hungry for stewed chicken and rice and beans. It would be nice if there were explanations for certain items though because there were some things mentioned that I don't know what they are, and non-Belizeans are likely to know even less. Hopefully everyone finds the article enjoyable anyway.
Saturday I was in Tempe with Lynn when we tried to go to Mucho Gusto for lunch. Their hours are 4 to 11 on Saturday so I had to think of something else. I remembered Arai and the fact that they make nikuman on the weekends. When we got there I didn't see any nikuman. I asked the guy behind the counter (he was a different guy than the one earlier this week), and he said they sometimes have them on the weekend. Sometimes. What a disappointment. I had Lynn get a sukiyaki sandwich on a croissant, and I tried the teriyaki chicken sandwich on a croissant. The teriyaki chicken sandwich was still only decent, even on a croissant. I asked Lynn what she thought of the sukiyaki sandwich, and she said it was good, but not great. She didn't care for the sweetness of the beef, but that's the way sukiyaki is. I still think it's a great sandwich.
After our second visit to Christopher's Lynn was in love with the place. On our third visit Lynn once again got a glass of the Veuve Clicquot "Vintage Reserve 1998", and it was once again excellent. I got a half liter of some Italian red wine (I need to find out what it is) for our table. Normally I'm not a fan of Italian wines, but I knew if it was a recommended item on Christopher's wine list then it must be something good. The wine had a great fruity flavor on its own, and I knew it would be good with food too.
Lynn and I couldn't decide on our dishes so we both got tasting menus to make it easier on ourselves. I got the mussels with some sort of broth, and Lynn had a bowl of the roasted red pepper soup (one of her favorites on the menu). The mussels were decent by themselves, but I always think the real reason anyone eats mussels is for the sauce, and the zippy broth (it tasted like butter, lemon, tomatoes, and tarragon) didn't disappoint. The soup had more body this time than the first time, and the thicker texture was an appropriate match for the slight sweet and rich flavor. I now agree with Lynn about the soup, and I ate as much of is as Lynn would let me. The red wine we had was perfect with the soup.
For our second course we both had salads. Lynn had the Parmesan crusted goat cheese salad, and I had the arugula salad with Roquefort, walnuts, and apples. The goat cheese for Lynn's salad was mild, but quite tasty with the greens. My salad just as great as a classic blue cheese-walnut-[some fruit] salad should be.
Lynn had the truffle infused filet mignon with red wine sauce and potatoes gratin while I had a rack of lamb with rosemary au jus, croquette, and mashed potatoes. My lamb was good, but both Va Bene and Citrus Cafe make better lamb. This lamb did remind me of the lamb I had at La Fountaine du Mars when Lynn and I were in Paris though, and there's something to be said for food that triggers nostalgic feelings. The mashed potatoes were super creamy, and the croquette was quite tasty. I think I'll stick with my favorite restaurants for lamb in the future though. I'm not a big fan of filet mignons, but the sauce was good, and lent flavor to an otherwise bland cut of beef. Neither one of us could detect truffle flavor in the beef. The potatoes gratin were true to the French versions I've had with an overwhelming nutmeg flavor. Lynn claimed she couldn't taste the nutmeg, and she thoroughly enjoyed her entree.
The cheese course included two cheeses per person this time. Lynn had a Point Reyes blue cheese and a Brillat-Savarin. I had a Taleggio and an English farmhouse cheddar. The cheddar had an odd twang to it that kept me from enjoying it. Lynn liked it so I swapped her for her Point Reyes (Lynn doesn't like blue cheese), which is a perfectly enjoyable blue cheese. The Brillat-Savarin was very creamy, but for that style I prefer St. Andre. I don't remember anything about the Taleggio.
For dessert Lynn had to go with the chocolate mousse tower. Strawberry crepes were the crepes of the day, and a fruity dessert sounded good to me. The chocolate mousse tower was as rich, chocolately, and delicious as usual. The crepes came with a strawberry sauce made with copious amounts of butter. The strawberry sauce was sweet, rich, and tasty with a great strawberry flavor. I actually liked the strawberry sauce better than the strawberries themselves, but I'd get the crepes again.
Even though we had a great dinner our waiter Ray did a terrible job. The thing that bothered me the most was that he left us alone for long periods of time when I wanted him to make an appearance because we needed something. Alice (our waitress from last time) remembered us, and she was even nice enough to help us when Ray disappeared. Lynn and I decided that Alice would be our regular waitress. She can be over the top, but once you get used to it it makes dinner more interesting, and she does give great service.
After that dinner Lynn decided that Christopher's was her favorite restaurant in Phoenix. I couldn't blame her because they do make some great food. Their menu isn't as creative as I prefer, but they have a tendency to work dishes to perfection, and there's a lot to be admired in perfection.
The next time we went to Christopher's I took my mom with us. We asked to be seated in Alice's area (I had forgotten her name, but I've since committed it to memory). Both Lynn and my mom started with the red bell pepper soup, and I had the Fermier salad of mixed greens with oil and roasted vegetables. The soup was perfect again, and I probably ate more of Lynn's than she wanted me to. The greens part of the salad was typical, but the haricot vert and roasted tomatoes were notable. The haricot vert were extremely tasty, and the tomatoes were intensely fruity.
We each had a different entree: I had the roast chicken, Lynn had the hangar steak, and my mom had the seared tuna. My roast chicken had highly seasoned crispy skin with succulent meat. It was quite possibly the perfect chicken. My mom tried it and said that she always thought chicken was just chicken, but that was something else. The hangar steak was as tender as that cut seems to get, and had a good earthy flavor. It's still not one of my preferred cuts of beef, but Lynn really enjoyed it. The seared tuna had an herby flavor that was good, but I wasn't in the mood for it. My mom loved it.
I missed the profiteroles so I was going to get them for dessert, but Alice gave a gushing recommendation for the hot and cold chocolate assortment that was too good for me to ignore. Lynn once again got the chocolate mousse tower. The hot and cold assortment included a dark chocolate sorbet served in a black sesame seed brittle cup, a small chocolate souffle served on top of chocolate mousse ice cream, and ripe strawberries. I've had the chocolate sorbet before with the profiteroles, but it was still impressive. I didn't like the full size souffle the time I had it, but the smaller version had a great chocolate flavor without the egginess of before. The combination of it with the creamy chocolate mousse ice cream was over the top, but worthy of a gushing recommendation. The ripe strawberries were a nice way to refresh our tastebuds, and it was a nice touch that the strawberries were actually ripe. Another nice touch was that the black sesame seed brittle cup tasted good, and had a pleasant toastiness that complimented the chocolate sorbet.
Lynn and I had thought the meal was great, which we've come to expect at Christopher's. I was glad my mom enjoyed her meal too.
I don't know what's crazier, "Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain" or the fact that there was a Playstation 2 commercial some time ago for the future "PS9" [video] that connected directly to your brain.
Arai isn't the first place I think of for lunch, but they do make pretty good sandwiches (and one very good salad). Their newest offering is a sukiyaki sandwich, which I got on a croissant today. There was what tasted like American cheese on it, and the beef was just a little oily, but besides that the sandwich was great. The sweet beef, the sparse shaved white onion, and everything else combined into one hell of a sandwich. It's the best sandwich I've had from Arai. (Their teriyaki chicken sandwich was pretty decent, but now that croissants are an option I'll have to give that a shot again to see if I don't like it better.)
I also got a slice of strawberry shortcake in addition to my sandwich. I was typical of their style, very light and lightly sweet. It was good, but I would have preferred more strawberries.
The UFOs and nikuman [meat filled buns] are my favorites of the small stuffed snack breads they make, but a couple of months ago they stopped making the nikuman. I finally asked the guy behind the counter if they're ever going to make those again, and he told me that they make them on the weekends. I'm not usually around the neighborhood on weekends so that was a disappointment. At least I can look forward to when they start making mugicha [iced barley tea] again.
Every year I try to have the type of New Year's Eve dinner that'll start the year right. When I heard Cowboy Ciao was going to have a seven course meal with matching wine pairings I thought they were the perfect choice.
Let me start by saying Lynn was trying to get over a cold for a couple of days before dinner, and she still wasn't feeling well by dinner. The tickets were non-refundable though so Lynn toughed it out. She did end up drinking camomile tea all night to help her cold.
We were seated and given a glass of Billecart-Salmon "Brut Reserve". The Champagne was decent. The first course was listed as a surprise on the menu, and when it came out I was surprised! It was steak tartar, a dish I honestly thought I'd never eat (by choice). Even though a raw beef meatball didn't sound appetizing to me I wasn't going to let it go to waste. The only experience I've had with raw beef was carpaccio, and I found it boring and bland. This steak tartar was coarsely chopped so I could actually taste the beef, and it was highly spiced to make it tasty as hell. I couldn't have been more surprised or happier with the dish. I've been missing out all these years.
The second course was pancetta wrapped scallops with frisee salad and manchego cheese served with Movia "Furlanski Tokaj 2002". The Movia was light, fruity, and very aromatic; it tasted just like a sweet Tokaj, only dry. I thought the wine was great, but Lynn found it somewhat disturbing. Normally I don't like pancetta, but the combination textures and flavors of crispy pancetta with undercooked scallop was excellent. The frisee, manchego, and vinaigrette were a great combination too. The wine was even a good pairing.
The third course was pork stuffed acorn squash with apples and raisins topped with a chipotle cream sauce served with Alban "Viognier 2003". The sweetness from the fruit and pork melded well with the smokiness and heat from the chipotle cream sauce. I don't remember much about the Viognier other than it was an excellent match. Lynn liked the Viognier better than the Tokaj.
I was blown away by the first three courses so the fourth course was a shock. The lentil stew with sausage and mushrooms was thick enough to stand a fork in, extremely earthy, and one dimensional. The first three courses all exploded with flavor, and were perfect; this was disappointing. By the time I hit the fourth course I had already had enough wine so I only took small sips after that. The Castano "Mourvedre 2002" was decent, but it was a nondescript wine for a nondescript course.
The fifth course made me believe that there was one chef who was responsible for the first three courses and one responsible for the second three courses. The fifth course was peppercorn crusted buffalo ribeye with roast red pepper mashed potatoes and fennel broth served with Turley "Zinfandel 2002". The buffalo was on the dry side and slightly gamey. The only thought it brought to my mind was "ick". I didn't like the potatoes either. Lynn didn't like the gaminess of the buffalo (she could taste it more than I could), but she at least enjoyed the mashed potatoes. The Turley tasted like a Zinfandel with the volume turned all the way up. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't already hit my limit.
The final course of the sorry trio was a chile relleno stuffed with braised lamb, figs, and currant relish served with Marquis-Philips "Shiraz 9 2003". The chile relleno sounded good, but it was too sweet for Lynn, and too gamey for me. It was making me ill so I could only stand a couple bites of it. It seemed to me that courses four through six got progressively worse going from mediocre to bad. The Marquis-Philips tasted like a Shiraz with the volume turned all the way up. I really wish I could have drank more of it.
Dessert was a sampler that consisted of a chocolate-Chambord torte, lemon panna cotta, and a brie tart. It was served with some sort of sherry, but I couldn't even deal with sips of wine at this point. Tea is an excellent match for desserts so I asked if they had black tea. They said they did, but it turned out to be Earl Grey. Earl Grey may be a type of black tea, but the bergamot flavoring keeps it from being black tea in my mind (like jasmine tea doesn't count as a green tea to me). Oh well, I didn't have to pay for it. The chocolate torte was thick and decent. Lynn liked it. The lemon panna cotta was light, tart, tasty, and the best dessert in the group. The brie tart tasted like a cheesecake with a slight odd bite. Lynn thought it was sort of gamey, and I found it too rich to eat more than a few small nibbles.
Back in the day when I started eating large multicourse meals I used to try an eat everything, and usually failed. As I became more experienced I ate smaller portions so I could last the meal. These days if I like a course I'll eat the entire thing; I've had too many meals that start great and end poorly to deny myself the great food anymore. The New Year's Eve dinner at Cowboy Ciao was the most schizophrenic meal I've ever had, but I walked away satisfied because I finished the first three courses. Schizophrenic does sum up how I feel about the food at Cowboy Ciao though because I've had some absolutely amazing things there, and I've had things I can't stand too.
Lately I've had the opportunity to try some sodas I've never had before. Normally I like supporting independent makers of stuff, but sometimes the big guys get things right (like Coke's cola), and sometimes the small guys get things wrong. I tried Virgil's vanilla cream soda, and thought it didn't taste creamy and had an odd medicinal flavor. I've tried twice to drink an entire bottle, but I haven't made it yet. Naturally Lynn liked it. I guess I wasn't too surprised I didn't like their cream soda though because I don't like their two root beers either.
The Jones Soda blue bubblegum wasn't much better. It did taste like bubblegum, but not in the same way as Big Red; there was some sort of weird twang to it. I guess they were trying to differentiate it from red bubblegum flavored sodas. Whatever the reason I'm not fond of the blue version. I love the black and white photo labels they use for their products, but this is the second soda from Jones that I haven't liked.
Don't think I always like Coke products though (even though Coke and Barq's are both favorites of mine). Vanilla Coke was terrible, and lime Coke has topped it. I only disliked vanilla Coke, but I hated lime Coke on first taste; it was like Coke flavored Pine-Sol. I found it disgusting, but Lynn didn't mind it.
I'm always on the look out for new sodas so hopefully I'll have better luck in the future.
I bought "Sniffing the Cork: And Other Wine Myths Demystified" at a discount bookstore for $4. It was small, but I figured $4 wasn't too much to pay to see if it was actually educational. The book was aimed at the complete wine novice though because what I learned from the book was that I know more than a complete novice. There was a section about wine as investments that could have been interesting, but it basically said to leave it to the professionals. Oh well, it was a quick read.
One day Lynn and I must have been feeling cerebral because we rented "Garden State" (Lynn's choice) and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (my choice). "Garden State" featured an introspective Zach Braff trying to reacquaint himself to his emotions. There were occasional bits of visual humor, but the movie was ironically emotionless to me. I think Zach Braff was aiming for clever, but hit sterile. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" was a little difficult to follow in the beginning, but as the story unfolded I was intrigued. The relationship between the two main characters was interesting, and I even felt like a had a personal stake during Jim Carrey's struggle to not to forget. It was damn near close to a great movie.
Naturally Lynn liked her movie and disliked mine, and vice versa.
On a completely different note, Lynn and I decided we'll take our vacation driving the California coast enjoying the scenery, visiting wineries, and hopefully eating well. I've made hotel reservations at the more popular destinations (Napa and Sonoma) to get better rates, and I'm just planning on winging it the rest of the way. Maybe. I hate paying more than I have to for a hotel room, and the difference in rates between what I can get online versus in person can be huge.
Anyone have any ideas about which wineries to visit? The only three on my list so far (favorites from previous visits) are Paraiso (Monterey), White Oak (Sonoma), and St. Barthelemy (Napa). Far Niente seems like it would be cool too.
I'm not Catholic, or normally inclined to be moved by the death of a stranger, but the death of Pope John Paul II has me surprisingly sad. He seemed like he tried to use his power to make the world a better place. It'll be interesting to see who is picked as his successor; he'll have a big cowl to fill.
The video for Skinny Puppy's "Pro-Test" has some of the craziest break dancing I've ever seen. What surprised me the most was the krumping at the end of the video. Lynn was unimpressed by the whole video, but she lacks the human trait that connects with dancing.
[More electronic music videos.]
