It had been quite a few years since the last time I ate at Saigon Pho and I wasn't even sure why so Lynn and I visited them one night. Saigon Pho's parking lot is shared by Lin Chinese Dining and Iguana Mack's, and it's usually full at night. I know the crowd isn't at Lin, even though they make some excellent food, so I assumed the crowd was for the bar at Iguana Mack's. Walking into a packed Saigon Pho suggested that everyone wasn't at the bar.
We had a seat and I had a "lemonade" (limeade). It ended up being too sweet, but too sweet limeade is better than no limeade. I have to try the egg rolls at any new Vietnamese restaurant I visit (or in this case an old one that I forgot about) so I got an order. They were crispy with a lot more meat in them than I like in my egg rolls. They weren't bad, but I probably wouldn't get them again.
Lynn's not a big fan of Vietnamese food so she tried to play it safe with the charbroiled beef and shrimp vermicelli. Lynn didn't like something about the dish, but I thought it was great. The beef had an excellent flavor, like teriyaki, and it was still moist even though it was thinly sliced. The shrimp were a little dry, but they had a tasty grilled flavor that made them meaty.
The one problem I have with Vietnamese food is the lack of sauce so I specifically got the curry-lemon grass chicken with rice in hopes of some sauce, but it was just meat, rice, and a pile of shredded lemon grass. The chicken was moist and somewhat spicy with a coconut milk flavor that was good, but I was more in the mood for Lynn's food than my own.
I liked the food we had at Saigon Pho and the menu looked interesting so I'd like to eat there more often, but for that to happen Lynn will have to find something she likes there.
Right now I'm on a site development kick, meaning more interested in working on the site than writing about restaurants. I still can't seem to get motivated to work on any photos, and there are plenty to work on, but my Europe trip now has a shiny new map that shows our route through Europe. I'll probably work on a couple of trip reports next (unless I can find another trip report a map would be useful for).
Recently two sites I frequent have changed their site designs. The biggest change for me is that their text no longer stretches from edge to edge, but only occupies about 400 pixels in a center column. I never realized it before how much I like the text to use the full screen, but practically every web site is designed the exact opposite way. Is it difficult to read longer lines of text or easier to read shorter lines of text? Should I create a fixed width display option?
Our house doesn't have an automatic sprinkler system, and the sprinkler system we have only covers about 40% of the plants it could hit so we do a lot of watering by hand. During the summer the watering becomes quite a chore because we have to do it a lot more often, and I wonder if it's worth the trouble.
Last night it was late when I was watering, but it was cooler than normal and something of ours was blooming. I don't know if it was the rosemary, the funky sage with the alien flowers, one of the lavenders, any one of a number of roses, or any combination of them, but it smelled amazingly fresh. The five minutes I stood outside was cathartic and made me want to camp in the back yard. I was happy we had our plants, even if it means taking care of them daily in the summer.
It also reminded me that I haven't been camping this year. I miss waking up in the morning with the scent of pine trees and the screeching of ravens (ok, I don't really miss the ravens). Believe it or not Lynn is still up for camping (she's only got seven weeks left), but the forest is closed right now because of the forest fires. Maybe that'll get resolved before Lynn doesn't want to go anywhere.
Last week Lynn suggested we go to Espo's Mexican Food for lunch and since I wanted to try the machaca again I was all for it. We got there and the place was once again busy, but it looked like we got there at the tail end of the lunch rush. I got a machaca tostada and a hard taco. The cashier asked if I wanted a ground beef hard taco, but a got a shredded beef taco instead. Lynn was still trying to figure out what she liked at Espo's so she got the chips and hot sauce and a green chile quesadilla.
I dug into my tostada, but there was something different about it. The machaca was good, but the flavor was missing something vital. The beef had a good flavor, but whatever its spark was was gone; it tasted like any other machaca now. The tostada was good, but not even close to the one I had the on my first visit to Espo's. I figured at least I had a hard taco to look forward to. My taco needed Viagra because it was only half hard when I got it and it only took it about ten seconds before the shell completely split. The meat tasted familiar and after I thought about it I realized it was the machaca. I guess they're synonymous at Espo's. I couldn't bring myself to finish the taco.
Lynn's food was better than mine and she liked both of her items. The chips were crispy, thick, and looked to be recently out of the frier. The only problem with them was that I could taste the cooking oil, but it was easily covered up by the hot sauce. I thought the green chile quesadilla would only have green chiles and cheese, but it was green chile beef and cheese. The green chile had a very straight forward green chile flavor with some heat, but without any complexity. It was actually quite tasty with the cheese and the crispy tortilla though, and I'd get it again.
Consistency is the killer for most restaurants and Espo's doesn't seem any different. I was disappointed with our meal, but I do have reasons to return. At least I know Lynn won't be opposed to returning.
I basically spent today upgrading the Food Map from Google's version 1 API to version 2. The only person that probably cares about that is me, unless Google suddenly killed version 1 and the Food Map stopped working for everyone. The tabs look different now, but probably the only person who preferred the "home grown" tabs. I tested it, but if the map doesn't work for you let me know which operating system and browser you're using.
Maybe someday soon I'll get around to adding some new features (like filtering). Any suggestions?
I'm still exploring the menu at Ma'i Island Grill so the last time I went there for lunch I got a large order of the grilled chicken. Wow. The chicken was thin, but succulent with a good, slightly sweet flavor. The large order provided enough chicken for me to get thoroughly stuffed. I also had a bite of the short ribs, and they were still tasty. My favorite isn't as clear cut as I thought it would be, but I'd highly recommend both of them. Maybe I'll try the mixed grill (grilled chicken, short ribs, and beef (aka bool kogi)) next time.
[Previous visit to Ma'i Island Grill.]
Earlier this week I wrote about my fantasy Iron Chef America lobster battle menu and tonight we actually made one of the courses. Earlier this week Lynn had asked me what I wanted for dinner and I jokingly told her lobster. She took me seriously and bought some mini lobster tails. Since we had them we made grilled lobster with poached asparagus, goat cheese potatoes au gratin, and lemon butter sauce. We left the shells on the lobster tails and skewered them. They grilled up nicely, but next time I'll shell them; the point of grilling them is the direct heat and the shells interfered with that. The only time I got a piece of lobster that felt the heat directly it tasted like lobster bacon. Amazing, and so much better than steamed or boiled lobster.
The lobster was good, but the goat cheese potatoes au gratin were the best part of the meal. I had the dish once before at Convivo (when they were under previous ownership) and found it simply impressive. I had a general idea how to make it, but I still had to find a recipe to modify. Our version wasn't impressive like Convivo's, but it was still quite tasty. This is a recipe I'll keep making so I can perfect it.
Goat Cheese Potatoes au Gratin:1 pound red potatoes, sliced
creamy, mild goat cheese
heavy cream
salt
pepper
garlic (granulated ok)Place a layer potatoes in a reasonably sized casserole dish then sprinkle them with a little salt, pepper, and garlic. Sprinkle goat cheese on the potatoes and repeat the process until you run out of potatoes. Try to get a nice, uniform layer of goat cheese on top. Pour in heavy cream until it's at the top layer of potatoes. Bake at 350 for an hour or until browned and bubbling.
I probably wouldn't have gotten too many originality points for this dish on Iron Chef, but I think I would've scored high on taste.
I'd heard about Crazy Jim's Restaurant about ten years ago, but never got around to visiting (probably because I'm not a huge fan of Greek food). The other night I was going to meet Ken for dinner, but I didn't have a specific place in mind. When he mentioned Crazy Jim's I thought it was about time.
I parked in Crazy Jim's parking lot and when I got out of my car I immediately smelled crusty lamb and crispy bread. If I wasn't hungry before I was starving now. Lynn and I met Ken inside the restaurant. The restaurant was smaller inside than it looked and rather spare with bare concrete floors.
Ken tried to get an order of hummus, but they were out. We went for the shrimp scampi instead, which turned out great. We got six(?) plump shrimp cooked in a great butter sauce served with a basket of homemade pitas. The shrimp were good, but the real draw of the dish was the pitas with the sauce. The pitas weren't quite crispy, but they were fluffy and quite tasty on their own, but they were great with the sauce. I could've eaten three pitas with the butter sauce as a meal.
I was in a quandary since the scent of crusty lamb got me in the mood for a gyro while the pitas made me want to try their pizza. The answer looked so obvious, a Greek pizza (gyro meat, mozzarella, black olives, and feta)! The pizza crust was crispy, thick, and fluffier than their pita with a good flavor. Their pizza sauce had a very good tomato flavor when I could taste it, but there was so much mozzarella on the pizza that I could only taste it at the edges. There was also a ton of black olives on the pizza, which isn't good for someone who doesn't like olives (like me), but they were good in small quantity. The gyro meat was good, but there wasn't enough of it on the pizza for me. The Greek pizza was satisfying as a pizza, but not as a gyro.
Lynn had the steak pita with peppers, onions, and mozzarella. Even though the pita was good the steak was fairly bland and the grease soaked through the pita pretty quickly. I also got a bite of gyro meat from Ken. It was good, but the texture was a little "puffy". It'd probably make a tasty gyro with their homemade pita and a little of their garlic heavily tzatziki sauce.
I was extremely happy with the shrimp scampi and I would've liked the pizza better with different toppings. It looks like I'll be returning to Crazy Jim's. Of course it doesn't seem like I had any Greek food.
After reading "Top chef lures diners to quiet Catalan village" I want to visit Spain just to eat at Sant Pau. It's sounds like just as much an experience as a meal.
Today I had to run an errand in Tempe and had to think of someplace to eat. I had been to Someburros years ago and never returned, but they were in the neighborhood, and they did make hard tacos so...
I walked into the place and it was packed. Amazing business for a Monday. The interior was typical of most Mexican fast food places only a little cleaner. I ordered a hard taco, a green chile chimichanga in green sauce, and a horchata to go. I got my horchata while I waited for my food, but wasn't impressed. It was very creamy with more cinnamon flavor than I like.
I took my food back to work and started on my hard taco. It's not really fair to evaluate a ten minute old hard taco, but it held up surprisingly well. The shell was still crispy even if the taco wasn't hot. The beef had a decent enough flavor and the taco was pretty good, but the hot sauce (thick, flavorful, and hot!) made it tasty. There was a ton of grease dripping from the taco, but it didn't taste greasy so I didn't mind. Of the recent hard tacos I've had, this was the best.
I wondered why I never returned to Someburros, and then I tried the chimichanga. It was horrendous: part of the chimichanga was overcooked, the green sauce on top of the chimichanga was bland, and while there was plenty of cubes of beef they didn't taste good, much less like green chile. I had to force myself to eat it to keep from starving, and it's possible my intestinal tract paid a price for that. This is exactly the type of food that would cause me never to return to a restaurant. It's a good thing I had the hard taco first.
There are a few other things on the menu so it's possible I'll find something else (like a chile relleno) to order with the hard taco.
Watching the lobster battle on Iron Chef America tonight inspired me think of my own lobster themed menu. Since I didn't have to worry about actually having to cook the dishes here's what I came up with.
Now if I could only find a restaurant that would be willing to make that menu for me so I could try it out. Anyone else have any idea what kind of menu you'd create for a lobster battle?
)
The Garmin Nuvi 350 is a GPS navigator that's about the size of a deck of cards and audibly gives you driving directions in addition to displaying your position realtime. It's pricey, but if we had one of these during our Europe trip we never would've gotten lost. To Lynn that's worth a lot. The Nuvi would also be useful if you're road tripping in the US, but the device only comes with one set of maps (Europe or North America), and the additional set costs between $300 to $400. I might get one of these before our next European road trip, but they'll probably have a few new models before that happens.
The great machaca at Espo's Mexican Food made me want to compare it to the deshebrada [shredded beef] at Restaurant Mexico. Friday I went to Restaurant Mexico for lunch to find the place was packed, but luckily there were still a couple of free tables. (On my way out there was a line of people waiting to be seated about twelve people deep.) I ordered a deshebrada tostada and a beef and avocado tostada since I couldn't bring myself to order two of the same item. I snacked on their chips and salsa, but I hoped my food would arrive shortly; the chips were very thick and crispy, but the salsa tasted like stewed tomatoes with a smidgen of black pepper in it.
Both tostadas arrived covered in a mountain of shredded iceberg lettuce with a little diced tomato and fresh white cheese on top. The shells were crispy and the shredded beef had a straight forward beefy flavor that was tasty. It wasn't brilliant like Espo's machaca, but it's good enough for me to go back to Restaurant Mexico for it. I couldn't really taste the beef on the beef and avocado tostada, but the guacamole was pretty good even if had an unusual sweetness to it. I'd probably get it again.
I can't say Restaurant Mexico is great, but they definitely have food worth eating, and there are plenty of items I haven't even tried on their menu.
[Previous visit to Restaurant Mexico.]
Thursday night Lynn and I went to AZ Wine for their Icon Estates tasting. The focus of the tasting was Napa Cabernet, which I'm not crazy about either, but Lynn was invited by a coworker so we went to be social. We'd been to AZ Wine before, but never to one of their wine tastings. Lynn asked the AZ Wine people if she could get a discount since she wasn't tasting, and they didn't charge her even though Atlas Bistro was providing food. I thought that was extremely cool of them. What was funny is they had the tasting set up for Lynn even though she wasn't.
There were six wines for the tasting. The first was the Franciscan "Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay 2004". They call it sauvage because it was wild yeast fermented. It had some nice acidity, but most of what I tasted was the trademark Napa creaminess, vanilla, and oak. I don't understand why you'd go through the trouble of a wild fermentation just to treat it like a standard Napa Chardonnay.
The second wine was the Estancia "Stonewall Pinot Noir 2003" from the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterrey. Pinot Noir is one of my favorite varietals and the Santa Lucia Highlands redeemed my opinion of Monterrey wine. The Estancia had a great blueberry scent that had me looking forward to the wine, but all I tasted was oak. It was a huge disappointment.
The third wine was some Syrah from Columbia. On first taste I didn't care for it, but subsequent tastes were enjoyable. I didn't taste any specific flavors, but the flavor was good and it was full bodied.
The last three wines were the Mount Veeder "Mt. Veeder Reserve 1997", "Mt. Veeder Reserve 2001", and "Mt. Veeder Reserve 2002". All three were blends with the amount of Cabernet increasing from 50 something percent in the 1997 to 93% in the 2002. The 1997 was ready to drink and very enjoyable. At that point I wasn't thinking about it so much as drinking it. The 2001 was highly alcoholic and wasn't my sort of thing. The 2002 was very tannic, but I got hints of cocoa and coffee that I know will taste great in a few years. The Syrah was my favorite wine, but the only one I wanted to buy was the "Mt. Veeder Reserve 2002" because it will eventually be the best of the bunch.
The food came on large platters throughout the tasting. The first platter had wedges of pitas topped with hummus, mushrooms, and some sort of red meat. There was an interesting flavor to it, but overall it was only decent. The second platter was nachos made with black beans, stewed pork(?), and guacamole. Most of it was nondescript, but the guacamole was excellent. The last platter was skewers of beef and mashed potatoes covered in some sort of berry sauce. The beef was chewy and had a good flavor. The mashed potatoes were chunky, buttery, and very good with the sauce. The beef dish was the best of the food, but Atlas Bistro has made far better.
I liked the tasting at AZ Wine better than Sun Devil Liquors because it was easier to socialize with people you don't know and it wasn't overly warm. It was also more expensive so I'm less likely to go to a random tasting at AZ Wine than Sun Devil Liquors. It was a fun experience, but I shouldn't attend wine tastings because I walk away with too much wine.
One of my coworkers took me to Ma'i Island Grill a few weeks ago and I've been returning ever since. The restaurant is tiny with only three tables and a bar for seating. True to a tiny place they only take cash. My first visit I wasn't in the mood for the usual Hawaiian versions of Korean barbecue so I tried the chicken adobo instead thinking the adobo would be like Mexican adobo. Turns out it's a Filipino dish that uses plenty of vinegar and onions. The chicken was tender, but it had the unappetizing pasty white look of boiled chicken. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't nearly as tasty as Mexican adobo. It took several squirts of sriracha for me to like the dish. I did take the experience as a positive; if they could make boiled chicken taste half way decent then they'd probably do a lot better with dishes more to my liking.
My coworker told me the best things he'd had there were the teriyaki burger and the grilled chicken. The next time I went to Ma'i Island Grill I tried the burger even though I'm not a fan of teriyaki beef. The burger was served on a dense Hawaiian bread which I found too sweet for a burger. The hamburger patty itself had a very good flavor so it wasn't a bad burger. I wouldn't order it again, but it had me eyeballing the plates of "Moco Loco" (a burger patty topped with a fried egg and gravy) at one of the other tables. The burger came with a macaroni salad that was creamy, bland, and had macaroni that was too firm for my tastes.
I was having lunch with Gordon and he was nice enough to let me taste his grilled chicken. It was moist and pretty damn tasty. That was food worth returning for.
The last time I was at Ma'i Island Grill I got the short ribs (aka kalbi) rather than go with the grilled chicken (a sure thing). The ribs were thin slices of meat and rib bone, which I like much better than when the meat is cut off the bone. The meat was tasty, marinated with a slightly sweet sauce. I thought it could've used some heat so I hit it with the sriracha. It was one of better kalbis I've had, but the grilled chicken is still the best thing I've tasted there. I still didn't like the macaroni salad.
Ma'i Island Grill is the best Hawaiian restaurant I've been to in Phoenix and there are still three or four other dishes at that I'd like to try so they can expect quite a few return visits from me.
Another hard taco recommendation from Chowhound was Julio's Too in downtown Tempe. I had eaten there once long ago, but since I never wrote about it I had no idea if I liked it or not.
Earlier this week I went to Julio's Too with a coworker and before we even got in he noticed their "Every hour is happy hour" sign. I didn't pay attention, but I think their Mexican beers are $2.25 a bottle. The place was the standard hole in the wall with a serious need for clean tables. We went to the register and placed our order. I got a custom combination with three items: a shredded beef hard taco, a green corn tamale, and a chile relleno. The combination plus soda cost me less than $8 (with the 20% student discount). Very nice.
We picked up chips and salsa, and had a seat at the cleanest table we could find. The chips were on the thick side and had an odd flavor, but once I drowned the chips in salsa I couldn't taste it. There were three salsas to choose from: original, hot sauce, and macho. The original tasted like stewed tomatoes with some black pepper in it. Basically it sucked. The hot sauce was a smooth red sauce that had a good flavor. It was our favorite. The macho reminded me of the tomato free red chile salsa an ex-coworker of mine used to make. The macho had some heat, even though it was less than you would expect considering the quantity of red chile in it, and a decent flavor, but it was only alright. Maybe it needed to sit for a day for the flavors to marry (like my ex-coworker's)?
The shredded beef hard taco was the first thing I tried so the shell didn't get soggy. The taco shell was fresh and crispy and the shredded lettuce and cheese were copious, but the beef tasted more like the vegetables it was stewed with than beef. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The green corn tamale was huge, which usually means too much lard in the masa, but the masa had just the right texture (not too soft and not too hard) with an excellent cheese filling. I'd get it again. The chile relleno was covered in so much cheese that I couldn't even see the chile relleno. Amazingly, for a cheese stuffed chile covered in cheese I could actually taste the battered chile, and it all tasted good together. The chile relleno was smaller than the other items, but I'd probably get it again.
I failed to find a great hard taco at Julio's Too, but they do make other things well enough that I'll return.
Murray sent me the trailer to "Ratatouille", a movie that looks like it was made for me. If you watch the trailer you'll see why. It's an interesting premise, but it does make me wonder what the full storyline will be.
I had asked the same question about Chandler/Mesa hard tacos on Chowhound that I asked here and got a couple of suggestions. One of the places I'd never heard of before was Espo's Mexican Food, just down the street from Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy. Since I'd been in the area more than a few times and had never seen the place before I gave them a shot.
Espo's Mexican Food is only a block or two from Chandler Mall, right next to Espanoza's Market. It had the look of a family place that expanded as their business grew (a good sign). The interior was slightly above hole in the wall, but there were quite a few tables that needed bussing. We ordered and paid at the register, then sat at the cleanest looking table we could find.
Both Lynn and I had a horchata, which started with a pronounced cinnamon flavor followed by something peculiar. Lynn said it tasted green, like green chile skins. The flavor reminded me of dish water, but it was kind of vegetal. No need to remind me not to get that again because it made an impression.
I got a carne asada soft taco, a machaca tostada, and a red chile beef tamale. My first bit of machaca tostada was sheer bliss; the meat was tender with an excellent meaty flavor, and great with the refried beans, cheese, and deep fried shell. The only thing I love more than a great hard taco is a great tostada and this was one. The carne asada soft taco had well seasoned beef with a jalapeno heavy pico de gallo (I wasn't complaining) that made for an excellent taco. The red chile beef in the tamale was generous, which is almost as bad as too little meat because tamales are better when balanced. The meat had some heat to it, but I could hardly taste the masa.
Lynn had a machaca hard taco and a carne asada soft taco. She liked the carne asada, but said the corn tortilla overpowered it. Naturally I disagree with her. She thought the machaca taco was decent. It was properly deep fried, and the machaca was just as good as the stuff on my tostada, but without beans the taco was too dry.
I didn't see shredded beef hard tacos on the menu, but they might have been hiding under the generic "hard taco". I'll find out next time. I was very happy with my lunch at Espo's, but it did make me question my ability to sniff out good food since I only missed it by about two blocks.
I had other restaurants I wanted to write about first, but sometimes I eat a meal that compels me to write about it to the detriment of what I've planned. I had a few issues with Marcellino Ristorante the first time we ate there, but this time I was damn near in love with the place.
Friday night Lynn and I were trying to think of someplace to eat dinner. We both wanted to eat at Tomaso's, but the parking lot was full despite it only being seven. The only alternative I could think of was Marcellino Ristorante and I'm glad I did.
It was early for a Friday night so I didn't think the restaurant would be full, but it was less than half full when we got there. My memory of their menu was hazy so I was surprised to see three appetizers that sounded good that we hadn't tried yet. I love having too many options. Lynn didn't feel like trying either of the carpaccios (beef or tuna) so we tried the scallops in pesto. There were three well prepared scallops served with a creamy pesto that had an unexpected cheesy sharpness that I loved, but Lynn didn't. We both enjoyed the scallops, but we were split on the dish; I thought they were excellent with the pesto while Lynn thought the pesto overpowered the scallops. She prefers the scallops "Va Bene" (seared scallops with pesto) at Va Bene, but I think they're both equally tasty even if they've very different dishes.
There were six pasta specials that night and this time our waiter listed off the prices. It put me at ease knowing how much damage the porcini fettuccine with shitake mushrooms, lobster, and white truffle oil was going to be. At $29 it was expensive for a pasta dish, but it sounded worth it. Once I knew I was getting it I wanted to get a glass of red Burgundy (basically an earthy pinot noir to compliment the mushrooms, but light enough not to overpower the pasta), but Marcellino mostly carries Italian wines. Our waiter suggested the Cesari "Mara 2002" because it was mellow. That didn't sound as good as earthy, but nothing would. The "Mara" was a ripasso, partially made from grapes used to make Amarone (harvested late and dried for 3 to 5 months), and it started with a sharp flavor with some cream and fruit in the finish. I thought it was ok.
The fettuccine was firm and full of mushroom flavor. Combined with the sliced shitakes and the truffle oil in the sauce it was great. The lobster was overcooked and it was overpowered by the mushroom flavors, but their chewy texture was a nice addition so I didn't mind. The pasta took the sharpness from the wine, making it very creamy and pretty tasty. I was completely in love with my pasta, but there was too much mushroom flavor in it for Lynn.
Lynn had a different pasta special, the rosemary pappardelle in wild boar ragu. There was plenty of rosemary flavor to the pasta and the meat had broken down into the usual ragu mush. Despite being made with wild boar the flavor was typical ragu. I don't like ragus, but Lynn does, and she liked Marcellino's. It was also $29, which seemed excessive to both of us.
We weren't planning on getting a dessert, but we had the waiter list them off just in case. There were two desserts we couldn't agree on so we got both. Lynn's choice was the chocolate mousse and mine was the apple galetta with hazelnut gelato. The galetta had a good apple flavor with a crust that wasn't crispy, but pleasantly buttery. The gelato was creamy with some hazelnut flavor, and I liked it on its own, but it didn't pair will with the galetta. The chocolate mousse was light and whippy with a rich chocolate flavor. It was one of the best I've had and the best dessert of the three we've had at Marcellino.
I liked the food the first time we ate at Marcellino, but the problems with the service and ambience tarnished the experience. The service we received this time was good and the music wasn't too loud so we were a lot happier. It seems that Marcellino could be one of the most complete restaurants in Phoenix, which would be ironic since Va Bene is currently the most complete restaurant in my book.
In an attempt to find a good hard taco for Lynn we went to Abuelo's for dinner tonight. We sat indoors this time, close to the back wall with the mural. If there's one thing I can say I like about the place, it's the mural.
After we were seated a bowl of chips and two bowls of the same type of salsa were brought to our table. The waiter said they also had a hotter salsa if either of us was interested. Lynn may not be able to eat as much spice as she used to be, but I don't have any sympathy pains for spicy food. The waiter brought out a brownish salsa that he said was served warm in addition to being spicy. The chips were extremely thin and light, and I almost wished there was a little more substance to them. The red salsa tasted like cooked tomatoes with some chile in it. It wasn't bad. The brownish salsa was hot, and reminded me of the green chile salsa at Si Senor, but there was something about it that I found disturbing. I was never able to put my finger on it, but I stopped eating the salsa nonetheless.
The first time I went to Abuelo's Lynn told me the cilantro-lime soup was good, but I didn't follow her recommendation and got a terrible soup. This time I decided to listen to her. The soup was basically pozole with a lot of lime juice in it. There was so much lime that the hominy in the soup didn't taste right. It wasn't a bad soup, but it gave me a serious urge to go back to Mucho Gusto to see if their pozole is still creamy or back to its old spicy self.
Lynn only wanted three hard tacos, but there wasn't an a la carte section of the menu so she got the Laredo combination (beef enchilada, cheese enchilada, and beef hard taco). I was in the mood for hard tacos too so I got the Juarez combination (beef hard taco, tamale, chicken enchilada, and cheese enchilada). Our plates arrived and the first thing I noticed was the premade taco shells. I didn't even have to eat the taco to know that I came to the wrong place for hard tacos. What a disappointment. To top it off the filling was ground beef. It was nicely seasoned ground beef, but when I think of a "beef" taco I think shredded beef. Despite everything the shell was crispy and it wasn't a bad taco, just not a taco I'd go out of my way for (or in this case travel three miles for). The taco on Lynn's plate was chicken so she had the waiter replace it with a beef taco (like it was supposed to be). The masa for the tamale was a little hard, but the tamale filling had a good flavor and a kick to it that made it the best thing on my plate. The chicken enchilada was pretty good, and worth ordering twice, but the cheese enchilada had too much cheese for too little sauce.
One of the specials was tres leches [three milk cake], which I had to try since it has been a long time since I've had a good one. To my surprise their tres leches wasn't bad. The cake had three layers and was probably fairly fluffy before the milk treatment. The cake was too sweet for Lynn and eventually it was too sweet for me too.
I wasn't thrilled the first time I ate at Abuelo's and I wasn't thrilled this time either so I just don't feel like giving them another chance.
Anyone know where to find great shredded beef hard tacos in the Chandler/Mesa area? Lynn is in the mood for them, but I don't feel like driving to 32nd Street and Thomas (Viva Maria/Via Marie) to get some. What I'm specifically looking for is seasoned shredded beef wrapped in a corn tortilla, deep fried, and topped with shredded lettuce and cheese. It's amazing how ubiquitous they are and how rarely they're great.
To the person who did a search for "muds", were you looking for something about the old school telnet game? I'm really curious what you thought I might've said about 'em.
Last week I tried to go to Irie Jamaican Restaurant for lunch, but they were closed. I thought maybe they weren't open for lunch, but according to this New Times review they open at 11. Today I tried to go to lunch at Comedor Guadalajara, but they had a sign in their parking lot stating they are closed until about 6/29. I figured since Irie was on the way back to work I'd try eating there again. Wrong: they were closed again. I may never get to eat at Irie.
This morning I went to Tempe's traffic court to fight a $28 parking ticket because I had actually paid for the space. It was interesting watching some guy try to talk his way out of a speeding ticket, but the judge wasn't having it. That kind of worried me because the guy was arguing mitigating circumstances. The judge ruled that I was responsible for the ticket, but because of the mitigating circumstances he only charged me $5. That was better than $28, but it was still $5 too much for a space that was paid for. Remind me never to fight a speeding ticket.
The other day Lynn had an ultrasound. Towards the end of the ultrasound the technician was doing the 3d ultrasound and she tried to get the baby to move by tapping Lynn's stomach. The kid instantly transformed from a peaceful, sleeping baby to a snarling terror shocking everyone. He looks like he might have a combination of mine and Lynn's tempers, which is not a good thing. He returned back to normal as soon as the technician stopped so that might be a good sign.
The in-laws leave tomorrow so things should be returning back to normal in our house. On the site too.
I've driven by Scout's Burgers & Custard for months now meaning to try their frozen custard so last week I finally hit their drive through. I got a bacon cheeseburger dressed with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, ketchup, mayonnaise, and pepper jack cheese with a side of fries. I wanted a couple of scoops of frozen custard, but none of the flavors were listed. The guy at the drive through said they had chocolate, vanilla, and a flavor of the day (smores). I got one scoop of chocolate and one of vanilla.
After I paid for my food the drive through guy handed me a sample spoon of the smores frozen custard. It had a nice chocolate flavor, but I didn't like the small marshmallows in it (which makes sense since I don't like marshmallows). After a minute the guy took the used spoon from me and asked me what I thought of the frozen custard. He even seemed genuinely interested in what I thought about it. A few minutes later I got my freshly made food and was on my way back home.
I couldn't resist trying the fries immediately, and they were very crispy, but needed salt. That was easily fixed. The burger was large and juicy, but my first impression of the flavor was that it tasted odd. Then it reminded me of the burgers I used to get at the school cafeteria (not a good thing). Finally I realized I couldn't finish it because it tasted too odd. I thought the beef might be the problem so I tried it by itself, and while the beef tasted unseasoned it wasn't terrible. I couldn't determine if it was the grilled onions or the bacon (or even more likely a combination of the two) that kept me from eating my burger.
Disappointed with the burger I hoped the frozen custard would be better. The vanilla was mild and very creamy, which I thought was very tasty. The chocolate was also very creamy with a heavy dose of cocoa. I definitely prefer the chocolate frozen custard at Nielsen's Frozen Custard, but I'd be happy with either vanilla.
Since I already know the beef is unseasoned at Scout's I don't need to try a burger without the bacon and grilled onions to see if it's any good, but I was impressed by the care they demonstrated. I think I'll give them another shot, asking for the patty to be preseasoned. It would be a good opportunity to pick up some frozen custard.
Haagen Dazs makes some great ice cream flavors (Baileys Irish cream, macadamia brittle, and the dulce de leche with pecans), but their almond hazelnut swirl might be the best ice cream I've ever had from a super market. I've always liked ice creams with nuts and the almond hazelnut swirl seems to be the perfect combination of creamy ice cream, crunchy almonds, and chocolate. At first I wasn't even sure I'd like it because I don't usually like chocolate in my ice cream, but I found it addictive. I think they did an amazing job.
I wonder, how do I get a job at Haagen Dazs developing flavors? It might be a little more satisfying than programming. At least to my stomach.
The in-laws are in town and staying with us so I haven't had any time to myself to write. On a positive note today Lynn started messing with our ESPN fantasy football league, and we found a feature new to us, trophies, so I spent some time creating some for the league. I also adjusted the scoring rules to hopefully make this season even more fun. I can't wait for the start of fantasy football season.
How do you follow up an excellent sandwich at lunch and a very good sandwich for dinner? If you're as single minded as I am then you do it with a great sandwich. Yesterday I was in central Phoenix for lunch so I went to Da Vang with Ken and a coworker of his.
I got a "lemonade" (limeade) that was watery. That's the first time that's happened to me at Da Vang so I'm not going to hold it against them. Ken ordered some egg rolls, which are normally only ok at Da Vang. To my surprise they were very good. Ken and his coworker thought so too. I think they put less pork in them which made them more balanced.
We ordered a few barbecue pork bahn mi (a sandwich with pickled daikon radish and carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, fresh jalapeno, and mayonnaise on French bread). The pork was sweet and tender while the vegetables were crisp. Combined with the creaminess of the mayonnaise, heat from the jalapeno, and the cilanto it was a great sandwich. Everyone was happy with their sandwich. At $2 it's my baseline for food value, which probably explains why I hate going to Pane Bianco and getting anything less than great for $8.
Ken's coworker said he wanted to return to Da Vang and I was glad to hear it.
[Previous visit to Da Vang.]
The last time I was at Arai Pastry I noticed they were offering their sukiyaki sandwich on a French roll. Since I find their sliced bread too thick, but I like their sukiyaki sandwich, I decided to give the roll a try. I actually got the spicy sukiyaki which meant they marinated the thinly sliced beef in a spicy sweet sauce and includes pickled jalapenos in addition to the shaved white onion, lettuce, American cheese, and mayonnaise. The sandwich was spicy and the flavors were excellent. I've found my sandwich at Arai.
I also picked up a "tropical fruit" dessert. It was a sweet cookie topped with cake, sliced strawberries in whipped cream, more cake, and custard with slices of fruit embedded in it. The fruit was good, and it wasn't very sweet like most Japanese desserts, but it wasn't something I enjoyed enough to get again.
[Not my previous visit to Arai Pastry.]
Lynn's parents will be visiting us this week so most of last weekend was spent getting the house clean (that's a real challenge since it's never been clean since we moved in) and getting the dining room floor done so the dining room table they're bringing us actually has a place. We finally finished the floor Tuesday night. It looks like crap because a lot of the boards warped horizontally leaving gaps. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I will never lay another wood floor ever again.
Saturday we took a break from housework and went to a barbecue at one of Lynn's friend's house. When we walked into the backyard everyone seemed to be staring at two guys digging a hole. I didn't understand their fascination with those two guys until I noticed a third guy holding some wires that dropped into the pit. There was a roasted pig in that pit! It was my first time at a pit roast (not including when I was a small kid and too small to appreciate it) and it turned out it was their first time roasting a pig. They took a 120 pound pig, buried it in a four foot deep hole with 300 pounds of charcoal, and cooked it for about 24 hours. The pork was a little overcooked, but still tender. It needed salt though. I wonder what it would take to brine an entire pig.
Today I had an excellent sandwich for lunch so of course we made steak sandwiches for dinner. I wanted to do something different so I seasoned my thinly sliced New York strip with season salt, black pepper, garlic, and spearmint. The spearmint wasn't as assertive as I thought it would be unless you got a piece of fat (which I later trimmed off). I liked it with the beef, but Lynn thought it made the beef taste like lamb (in a bad way). The steak sandwich was very good with a slice of thick cut bacon, sauteed onions, and tomatoes on French bread from Lee's Sandwiches. The sandwich was a little dry, but damn tasty. I'll have to try the beef and spearmint combination again just to make sure I wasn't smoking crack tonight.
Cornish Pasty Co. is one of my favorite restaurants so when Ken was missing the place I was more than happy to have lunch there with him. We sat at the bar and ordered some beers. The restaurant is small, but their beer selection is pretty good. It had been a long time since I had a Four Peaks "Kilt Lifter" so I got one. I must've really been in the mood for it because it was great.
I wasn't in the mood for any particular pasty so I finally got around to trying the Bangers and Mash [sausage and mashed potatoes] pasty I'd heard was tasty. The pastry was crispy and perfect, which is the one thing you can count on even though some pasty fillings are inconsistent. The bangers had a meatier flavor than I expected, and the combination of the sausage, mashed potatoes, and caramelized onions was tasty enough to make the Bangers and Mash one of my favorite pasties. Ken tried the Rosemary Steak for the first time and dug it.
Excellent food and tasty beer made for a great lunch. Hopefully I'll be around the next time Ken gets a hankering for pasties.
[Previous visit to Cornish Pasty Co.]
I'd heard some great things about Binkley's Restaurant, and chef Kevin Binkley has an impressive resume which includes French Laundry and The Inn at Little Washington (possibly two of the best restaurants in the US) so I was dying to try Binkley's. I wanted to do something special for Lynn's birthday and Binkley's sounded like the perfect place. I made reservations and we made the 45 minute drive north to Cave Creek.
The restaurant had a lively dining room that was noiser than I wanted for our dinner. We sat for a couple of minutes while the hostess did something which looked like placing menus in the menu holder. I was happy when the hostess sat us at probably the most private table in the restaurant, a two person table in a nook that was only adjacent to a large table of eight. When we opened our menus we were both surprised to see that they said "Happy Birthday Lynn!". It was a small detail, but we both appreciated it.
I had planned on getting the six course menu, but I was a little disappointed to see it was a few dollars more than it was stated on their web site. I wasn't too disappointed though because even at $72 per person it was a significantly better deal than a lot of high end places I've been to. There was was a catch though; some menu items incurred additional cost. The additions seemed reasonable, and only the black truffle potato appetizer at plus $22 seemed cost prohibitive. Minds made up we ordered and found out we had to order dessert at the same time. I would've preferred to do it at the end of the meal since the progression of dishes affects what I want for dessert.
I got a glass of Corazon "Gewurztraminer 2001", which was served a little too cold, but was ok after a few minutes in the glass. It was a good acidic Gewurzt with lots of flavor. Lynn was celebrating so she wanted a sparkling wine. The sparklings by the glass were limited so she got a glass of the Zefiro "Prosecco Brut". It had a toasty finish with some chalkiness to it that was enjoyable.
We were brought two different types of bread, one French and one pecan-raisin. The French bread was typical, but the pecan-raisin bread was extraordinary. It had a crispy crust and an excellent flavor that was especially good with their salted butter. I liked the bread so much I asked where they got it from, but to my disappointment it was from a bakery that sells wholesale only.
We where brought out an amuse of roasted parsnip soup in a demitasse. The soup was mild with a creamy, sweet flavor that was great in a comfort food sort of way. The Prosecco was a good match with the soup tasting very clean and refreshing. The servers irritated me when they brought out the second amuse before we finished with the first. It was a baby zucchini topped with a relish of eggplant, tomatoes, capers, and other stuff. I don't know how to describe it, but it was great. There was a final amuse of sweet potato cannelloni with some sort of cream sauce with duck in it. I thought it was ok, but Lynn didn't like the duck flavor in the cream sauce. We felt like they should've quit while they were ahead.
The first course was a choice of cold appetizer. I had the salmon tartare which came out plated like a painter's palate with a large round of chopped salmon flanked by smaller rounds of sliced radish, pickled ginger, charred green onions, chopped shitake mushrooms, wasabi mustard, and mashed avocado. The salmon by itself was excellent, and tasted great combined with either the mushrooms or the mustard, but not all together. The other condiments didn't fare as well: the radish sucked the life from the salmon, the charred green onions were too stringy, and the avocado was indifferent with the salmon. This was a dish that seemed like it would have been better doing less (sense a theme yet?).
Lynn had the steak carpaccio with fingerling potatoes, truffles, pickled turnips, wax beans, and haricot vert. Lynn gave me a bite with beef, potato, truffle, turnip, and wax bean that was great. The flavors melded together perfectly in a way that made me enjoy the truffle (which is a flavor I'm not crazy about). My second bite didn't have turnip and it tasted like something was missing. I enjoyed the appetizer, but I don't think I'd get it myself because it requires too much work hunting down all the ingredients. Lynn liked it, but she thought the beef needed salting.
The second course was a choice of hot appetizer. I'm not a huge fan of soft shell crab, but the fried soft crab with fried green tomato and slaw sounded too good for me to pass up. The crab was coated in finely ground panko [Japanese rice flour bread crumbs] and fried perfectly. It had a great flavor and was quite possibly the best soft shell crab I'd ever had. Fried green tomatoes are about texture so while it was ok by itself it was very good with the crab and the onion heavy slaw. The only thing I didn't like about my appetizer was that it was served in an oversized bowl that made it awkward when I set my fork or knife down because they'd slide into the bowl.
Lynn couldn't pass up the seared foie gras with blueberry charlotte (a pastry cup topped off with blueberry filling) and kumquats. The foie gras was a little gamey on its own, but combined with the blueberry (which was barely sweet) it was absolutely perfect. The blueberry filling covered up the gaminess and the fat from the foie gras enhanced the blueberries. I'm not a fan of seared foie gras, but I was in love with it as was Lynn. The kumquats were ok with the foie gras, but not nearly as good as the blueberries. Yet another example of less being more.
The third course was a choice of fish and there were a couple of fish dishes that sounded good to me. I went with the alfonsino because I'd never heard of alfonsino before and it came with wild mushrooms. The fish was crispy pan fried and still very moist. The fish was very light and the crispy parts were pretty tasty. The sweet onion creme fraiche that served as a sauce was tasty with the fish, but there wasn't enough of it for the fish. The wild mushrooms were good, but they were a little tough and not as good as I thought they could've been.
Lynn chose the black cod with curried pineapple and soy-miso lime emulsion. The cod was tender, but completely bland. The emulsion gave the fish a good flavor, but it was also very salty. Lynn thought the pineapple would have balanced everything out, but the cooking and curry spices killed all the vibrancy of the pineapple.
Between the fish and meat course we were brought an intermezzo. Lynn's was a guava sorbet while mine was an orange-ginger sorbet. My sorbet was gingery to the point of being hot, but we both liked it. The guava sorbet had a heavy guava flavor that lingered forever that we both hated.
The fourth course was a choice of meat. The meat dishes didn't appeal to me as much as the fish options, but the ribeye with blue cheese scalloped potatoes sounded good. The ribeye was perfectly seared on one side, and a good steak, but it was too oily for my stomach to handle after the other courses. It came with an excellent blue cheese sauce, but the steak was already too much for me without the addition of a rich sauce. The blue cheese scalloped potatoes were over the top and excellent, but I didn't taste any blue cheese. I took the steak and scalloped potatoes home and they were great the next day. There were vegetables on the plate too, but those weren't memorable.
Lynn had the pork chop with roasted brussel sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, and maple sauce. The pork was tender and pretty good, but I didn't care for the maple sauce because I didn't want sweet. Lynn thought the maple sauce complimented the meat nicely and wasn't too sweet. She also liked the brussel sprouts because they were a little bitter, offsetting the sweetness of the maple sauce. Lynn didn't think the mashed sweet potatoes tasted like sweet potatoes so she didn't like them. I thought they tasted like sweet potatoes so the entire dish would have been too sweet for me.
The fifth course was a choice of three cheeses from their interesting cheese menu. All the cheeses I tried were new to me: the epoisses de Bourgogne, Balarina, and Thomas Hoe Stevenson stilton. I got the epoisses de Bourgogne because I couldn't pass up a cheese from my favorite region of France. It was creamy, fatty, salty, and full flavored with a hint of burnt rubber. Despite the burnt rubber I loved the cheese. The Balarina was a goat milk gouda that tasted like a parmesan with a hint of goat. It was quite tasty in addition to being unique. The stilton was half creamy, half chalky, and quite strong. It wasn't the best stilton I've had.
Lynn was limited in the cheeses she could select since her doctor recommended staying away from fresh cheeses, creamy cheeses, and blue cheeses. She got a gruyere, double gloucester, and a four year old aged gouda. The gruyere was very mild and bland. The double gloucester was Lynn's favorite because she said it started mild and worked up to a sharp finish. I thought it was sharp from start to finish. My favorite of Lynn's cheeses was the gouda because it tasted exactly like a parmesan with the some crystals in it. Lynn doesn't like crystals in her cheese so she didn't like the gouda.
Our cheeses were accompanied by grapes, candied pecans, fruit cake, and bread chips. The fruit cake tasted like dry week old bread pudding, which I thought was pretty nasty. The bread chips tasted like popcorn, which was a good thing to me but not for Lynn. The candied pecans were tasty with a little heat and our favorite item. I don't need all the accompaniments for a cheese course, but it was a nice touch. The one thing I didn't like about the cheese service was that the cheeses were served in reverse order (strongest to mild).
Before dessert we were brought a shot glass with a straw that was supposed to be a blood orange creamsicle. It was very creamy with barely a hint of blood orange. It was disappointing because I wanted to taste the blood orange.
The final course was a choice of dessert. There wasn't much that sounded good to me so I tried the poached pear with port ice cream and almond brittle because at least the port ice cream sounded interesting. I had hoped the poached pear had more going for it than just pear flavor, but the poaching liquid didn't add anything to the pear. The port ice cream didn't taste a thing like port, but I liked anyway. The almond brittle looked perfect, but it tasted burnt. I'm not sure how that happened. I wasn't happy with my dessert since the best part of it, the ice cream, was gone in three bites.
Lynn had the chocolate-macadamia nut pate topped with creme fraiche mousse and a balsamic shake. The dessert came out with a pastry that said "Happy Birthday" on it which was a nice touch. Too bad the dessert wasn't good. The chocolate was rich and somewhat bitter so it overwhelmed the macadamia nuts and didn't match with the sour creme fraiche. The balsamic shake was very similar to the blood orange creamsicle in that it was very creamy with barely any flavor. I scraped the thick balsamic vinegar from the sides of the shot glass with the straw, but there wasn't enough to taste it. There was a swirl of colored glass that ran around the shot glass the shake came in, but half of it had broken off. I was surprised that a restaurant aiming so high would miss a broken dish, even if it wasn't as obvious as a chipped lip.
Lynn had coffee with her dessert and she thought it tasted like the coffee had been sitting. Lynn also thought the cow shaped creamer with the mouth for the pour spout was out of character for the restaurant, but I just thought it was hilarious.
The mignardises were chocolate truffles, ginger snaps, some raspberry gelees. The truffles were too bitter for us. The raspberry gelee wasn't sweet and only ok. The best things were the ginger snaps, and they tasted like molasses cookies (which have more molasses and less ginger than ginger snaps). Dessert really seemed to be Binkley's weak point.
Binkley's obviously has ambitions at greatness and considering chef Binkley's experience I'm sure he's been there before. I wouldn't say Binkley's Restaurant is quite there though. The food (not including dessert) was excellent, and the service was very good, but neither were consistently great. The servers were friendly, and it was great when they gave us the menu wrapped in a ribbon, but even though they checked on us often Lynn had to ask for water several different times. We both felt the food would have been better served with the one or two things that were perfect instead of forcing more items into the dish. To me the food was also more subtle than exciting. I can appreciate subtle, but my preference is for exciting. I will return to Binkley's sometime in the next couple of months (after a couple places higher on my personal to do list), and hopefully I'll find the restaurant even better. I'll probably skip dessert though.
Murray and I tried to go to Cafe Istanbul for lunch, but I got the location wrong and ended up at Gandhi India's Cuisine instead. They had a lunch buffet, and normally I loathe buffets, but Indian cuisine has a lot of stewed items that keep extremely well on a hot table.
We hit the buffet and the first thing I looked for was the naan. I didn't see any naan so I hoped they would come later. Hedging my bets I chose the biryani [a spiced rice dish] over the pilaf as my starch. The biryani was good, but it didn't blow me away like the biryani at Copper Kettle. A few minutes after we dished up our food the waitress brought us some naan. The naan was doughy, but pretty tasty. Good naan makes up for a lot in my book so I was pretty happy. On our third basket of naan they changed cooks, and the new cooked pulled the naan a lot thinner giving it more of a crispy texture. Either way the naan was tasty.
There were a lot of options and I tried almost all of them. There were eggplant, lentil, and other vegetable based dishes (although no spinach dishes), but the only one I really liked was the eggplant. The only meat dishes were four chicken dishes (tandoori chicken, "chicken cocktail", curry chicken, and chicken tikka masala). The tandoori chicken was moist and had a slight kick to it that I liked, but the "chicken cocktail" (chicken with bell peppers and onions) was my favorite chicken dish. The "chicken cocktail" was annoying because the chicken was cut into small pieces while it was still on the bone, but the flavor was good enough that I was willing to eat around bone fragments. The chicken tikka masala was light in color and primarily tasted of coconut milk. The curry chicken was ok.
They had kheer [rice pudding] and something else for dessert. I only tried the kheer, which was plain and thin, but not a bad way to end the meal.
I would have liked a lamb dish or two and some spicier dishes, but it was a good meal, and at $7, including the drink, it seemed like a good deal to me.
Japan brings out the geek in me. When I was in Japan I spent a lot of time looking at Gundam models, playing Gundam video games (Gundam Z DX A.E.U.G. vs. Titans was my favorite), and putting together Gundam models. You sensing a theme? When I watched "Otaku from America", a news story about anime fans visiting Japan, I sort of related. I was even at a Naruto capsule machine trying to get a specific figure (Rock Lee). Oh well, if you can't go to Japan to go crazy over cute things/giant robots where else are you supposed to go?
In an attempt to spread some geekiness let me recommend Naruto. It's an anime [cartoon] about a young ninja who wants to gain the respect of his village by becoming the head ninja. It's much better than it sounds. I've always liked anime, but it's always been more of a matter of opportunity than something I make an effort for. Naruto is actually better written than any other anime tv series I've seen and worth the effort. If you go to someplace like Naruto HQ you can download all the fan subtitled episodes to see the series thus far.
Speaking of Naruto, I noticed that the theme song (Flow "Re:member") for the Naruto eighth season opener has grown on me. The Naruto fifth season opener was another one that grew on me. I only like about half of the animation in the opening, but the song (Sambomaster "Seishun Kyosokyoku") has a certain sadness to it that I like. My favorite Naruto opener is the Naruto second season opener, which I think has the best song (Asian Kung-fu Generation "Haruka Kanata") and the best animation sequence. See, with cool opening songs like that the series has to be worth watching right?
Next to Steve's site (it's 100 times better if you see his friends only stuff) I am a Japanese Teacher is my favorite gaijin in Japan site. Just a few days ago I read his "Gaijin Perimeter, Revisited" post, and was surprised that I experienced it firsthand. There were times I noticed that people wouldn't sit next to me or Steve if they could help it. The ironic thing is I also experienced the opposite too. There were plenty of times when people sat next to me including some old guy who squeezed in between me and the person next to me to get a seat and some cute girl who kept leaning on me after she fell asleep. I think Japanese people's unwillingness to sit next to foreigners depends on how full he train is.
While in Japan I probably got more exercise in two weeks than I probably had in the previous two years. I thought walking miles per day would result in some serious weight loss, but I only lost half a pound. It was disappointing. I'm sure if I spent more time in Japan I would've lost more. I miss walking.
I like the large croissants at Lee's Sandwiches, but I prefer the small ones for making sandwiches. I also have terrible luck getting them. Today Lynn and I tried to pick up a couple of them and they only had one. The time before that they didn't have any. It's annoying to find them out of small croissants, but I like them too much to stop trying to get them. Today we also finally tried a smoothie (strawberry) for the first time and we both found it too sweet.
I think the green chile at Sylvia's La Canasta has finally become too inconsistent to recommend. Today Lynn and I both had green chile chimichangas with beef being the only discernible flavor. Green chile deserves better than that. The food map has already been updated.
I tried a lot of Japanese food this trip, but there is amazingly little that isn't available in Phoenix that I'll miss. Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake like dish that's extremely popular in Osaka, and the Indian okonomiyaki (okonomiyaki batter flavored with curry and mixed with chopped hot dogs) I had was great, but I don't think I'll miss it. Ramen and udon both exist in Phoenix, but I haven't found one I'd eat twice yet. Finding great ones in Japan wasn't that easy either. I'll miss both of those. Japanese curry, an unappetizing looking brown concoction with a flavor like no other curry, was my favorite dish last time, and I'll miss it dearly, but it's not the item I'll miss the most. I'll miss korokke [croquettes] the most. They're mashed potatoes usually mixed with a little meat, coated in panko, fried, and served with tonkatsu sauce. They're simple, inexpensive, tasty, ubiquitous, and most places in Japan, even supermarkets, usually make them well. If anyone knows of a place that makes good korokke (or tonkatsu that's more than a quarter of an inch thick) please let me know.
Japanese beef deserves a special mention because I doubt there's a better beef in the world. And yes, that includes Wagyu beef from other countries (not that I've tried the high end Australian stuff). I didn't get to eat any of the famous Japanese beef (Kobe, Matsuzaka, or Omi) this trip because it was too expensive, but the unnamed upgraded beef we had at yakiniku [Korean barbecue] was well marbled and at least 50% fat with a good beefy flavor. Is there another beef that can top that, much less the really high end Japanese beef?
Not quite food, but I'll also miss having bakeries everywhere. Japanese bakeries may not understand how to make a good donut, but the pastries tend to be at least very good.
I'm back from Japan so things should be getting back to normal on the site very soon. I was looking forward to eating a lot of different Japanese dishes so I was surprised how quickly I got tired of Japanese food. I thought my first dinner would be a steak or Mexican food (both of which I didn't get in Japan), but I wanted a great salad instead. Tonight Lynn and I had dinner at Citrus Cafe, and I experienced something that rarely happened in the last two weeks: I was full and satisfied.
I may not have eaten as well as my last trip to Japan, but at least I had more fun.
When Lynn and I were running around one Saturday we picked up lunch at Pane Bianco. Apparently it was a bad day for Pane Bianco.
I hoped they'd have the soppressata sandwich with peppers (not onions), or an interesting market sandwich, but the soppressata was with onions and the market sandwich was the terrible lamb with cabbage. Out of luck I went with the tuna sandwich while Lynn went with the only sandwich she gets there, the tomato, mozzarella, and basil sandwich. We also got a market focaccia (tomatoes, some sort of cheese, black pepper, and basil) and a market salad (mixed green with red wine vinaigrette).
It was a nice day so we ate lunch at Steele Indian School Park. I tried my sandwich and was immediately hit with fishiness. Luckily that was one of the few fishy bites. I guess I'm a tuna with mayonnaise person because I just didn't care for the sandwich, which didn't have mayo mixed into the tuna. Lynn noticed that her sandwich wasn't salted, and the mozzarella needed salt. I had a bite of it, and the combination of soggy bread (it was towards the end of lunch) and unsalted mozzarella was gross to me.
The focaccia was tasty, but Lynn noticed the basil was missing. That made the difference between a very good focaccia and a great focaccia because even though the heavier cheese was perked up by the pepper the basil would have added another dimension. When we were ready to eat the salad we discovered they forgot to give us dressing. I was irritated because that meant I'd have to deal with turning in and out of Pane Bianco's parking lot again (which normally isn't bad, but with the current construction it can be a pain).
When we finished with lunch we returned to Pane Bianco to get our salad dressing. Lynn also asked if the focaccia was supposed to have basil on it because our's didn't. Chris Bianco said that it was, apologized, and asked if we wanted some basil for it. That was enough for Lynn to forgive and forget, but they forgot more things than I consider reasonable, plus I'm tired of never knowing if Pane Bianco will have a sandwich I actually want to eat so it'll be a while before I return.
We ended up eating the salad the day after our visit, and while the greens were good there was so little red wine vinegar in the vinaigrette that all you could taste was the oil. I guess it was a good thing we ate it at home so we could toss more vinegar on the salad.
[Previous visit to Pane Bianco.]
I noticed Bamboo Bakery on the way to La Purisima one day, and made a mental note to try it sometime. Last weekend Lynn and I stopped there. There was a guy sitting at a table when we walked in, but there wasn't anyone else that we could see. We looked in the cases, but no one showed up before we finished. We saw someone in the back, but she seemed oblivious to the beep when we came in. I was about to call back when the guy at the table got up and went into the back with the lady. I thought he was going to tell her she had customers, but neither one of them seemed concerned that there were people at the counter so we left. Needless to say we'll never return to Bamboo Bakery. Bah.
Normally Lynn and I play it low key for Valentine's Day, but Zest Spirited Dining seemed like a romantic place with sexy food that would be a great place to have a Valentine's Day dinner. When we arrived the restaurant was packed.
Once we were seated the guy who filled our water glass asked if we wanted a slice of lemon or lime for our water. I've never liked lemon in my water, but lime sounded interesting. The slice of lime was too thin to actually taste it in the water, but it was a nice touch. Since we were celebrating we started with some sparkling wine. Lynn got a glass of Moet & Chandon "Nectar Imperial Rose", and I got a split (quarter bottle [187.5 ml]) of Kenwood "Yulupa Cuvee Brut". The "Nectar Imperial Rose" was a little too sweet for me, but Lynn enjoyed it. The "Yulupa Cuvee Brut" was actually one of the better American sparklings I'd had, and I'd get it again.
I wanted to try the eggplant cheesecake, but one of the appetizer specials, the hood canal oysters with strawberry salsa and grapefruit-champagne mignonette, sounded way too good to pass up. Naturally we got both. When our appetizers arrived we were surprised that the waiter didn't give us appetizer plates. There always seems to be one odd wrinkle to the service at Zest. We started with the eggplant cheesecake, and it was amazingly creamy. I didn't really taste eggplant, but I didn't care because the combination of flavors was excellent. We'd definitely get it again. The oysters were covered in parsley in addition to the strawberry salsa, and it reminded me to tell them no parsley for our entrees. The oysters were amazingly fresh, and the combination of oysters and strawberries seemed natural. I've always preferred my oysters cooked (like oysters Rockefeller), but this ranked as one of the best oyster dishes I've had. Next time I'll try to remember to get them without parsley.
Next was their excellent house salad. I once again got it with all the fixin's (pecans, gorgonzola, oranges, and cranberries), and Lynn got it without oranges or gorgonzola, and with extra dressing because she said they didn't put enough on normally. We were both very happy with our salads. We were also brought bread that was just out of the oven. I still wasn't crazy about the rosemary-sour dough combination, but very the flavor was good, and the crust was crispy. We tried the bread with their olive oil, which I found overly floral, but Lynn liked it.
I was thinking about getting a regular menu item, but they had an entree special of lamb chops with port demi-glace, mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Lynn was in the mood for meat so she got a different special of a New York strip steak with creamy goat cheese-rosemary sauce, potatoes wedges, and grilled asparagus. First let me mention that my special cost $33 so I was incensed when my entree arrived and there were only three lamb chops on the plate. At that moment I decided to never order lamb chops at Zest again. My lamb was seasoned with mint and mustard, and even though the flavor was mild the lamb was tasty. Port demi-glace is my favorite sauce for lamb, but Zest's sauce seemed too thick for me. I would have been a lot happier with my lamb if I didn't feel like it was a rip off.
There was a dessert special of pomegranate creme brulee that sounded good. It had an unappetizing grey color (at least that's what it looked like in the low lighting), and we were surprised by the amount of citrus flavor. It was too odd for us so we wouldn't get it again.
I was worried that our second meal at Zest wouldn't be as good as the first, and it wasn't. We were happy with our meal though despite the dessert. I really hated feeling ripped off for the lamb chops, but I was willing to overlook it once given the quality of the food. I decided to stick with seafood and slow cooked meats at Zest though.
One night we tried to get dinner with Ken at Lola Tapas (this was before our first visit there), but we didn't want to wait 90 minutes so we went to Zest instead.
We started with the jerked scallops and the crawfish cocktail (blackened crawfish tails, roasted sweet corn, avocado, and tomato sauce). The scallops tasted just as good as the first time, and they're still one of our favorite appetizers. I wanted to try the crawfish cocktail our first time there, but even I find ordering three appetizers excessive. It was served cold, and the tomato sauce was like a spicy gazpacho that was nicely complimented by the corn. There was something I didn't like in it, and I figured out it was the crawfish. They tasted fishy so I picked them out.
I hate that they don't give appetizer plates; it makes sharing multiple appetizers awkward. We didn't get offered lemon or lime for our water this time either.
We got the house salad, and Lynn loved it since she found the combination that works for her. I consider Zest's house salad one of the best so I was happy although the oranges were sour this time. Ken got his salad with everything plus extra dressing and he seemed pretty happy with it.
The meatloaf caught Lynn's eye the first time we were at Zest so she finally tried it this time. To me it tasted like any type of meatloaf, but she really liked it. Ken got the ribeye special, against my recommendation based on the our experience with Lynn's steak, but it was tasty as hell. It was atypically lightly seasoned, but it was so well prepared that it didn't matter. I'm not even a fan of ribeyes, but I'd consider getting it if it was on the menu again.
There was a nightly special of blackened game hen with sausage beans, cornbread stuffing, and fried okra that sounded good, and I ordered it even though I didn't think I should've. Mistake. When I cut into my game hen it was undercooked. I had to send it back, and it came back fully cooked, but now it had a strange unsalted chicken scent that was repulsive to me. I tried a bite or two, but it tasted the way it smelled. I couldn't eat it. The stuffing was so-so, but the beans had a good flavor, and I loved the fried okra. Don, one of the owners, came by to check on the game hen, and I had to tell him that it wasn't good. He said he likes people to be thrilled, and asked if I wanted it replaced or to have anything else. By this time everyone else was almost finished with their food so I didn't want anything.
We were going to order the chocolate bread pudding bananas foster when our waitress brought one out for us. She didn't say why so I didn't know if it was Don's doing or if they were giving out free bread puddings because it was one of the owner's birthday. Either way the gesture was appreciated. The bread pudding tasted especially eggy, but the great sauce made up for it.
The game hen and the bread pudding weren't on the bill. I wasn't thrilled with dinner, but it wasn't bad either. Ken wrote about what he thought of his first meal at Zest a long time ago.
The last time we were at Zest was last Saturday. I got a sangria that was pricey at $10, but there was plenty of alcohol. It was slightly fruity, not sweet, and it had a crisp finish. I enjoyed it.
I thought we'd get the eggplant cheesecake and the jerked scallops, but there was an appetizer special of hood canal oysters with tomato, kiwi, and artichoke relish that we had to try. Lynn was going to get a scallop entree so we got the eggplant cheesecake to go with the oysters. We started on the oysters, and they were topped with some sort of nuts (sliced almonds?) in addition to the relish that seemed completely out of place. The relish was good with the oysters, although not as good as the strawberry salsa from our second visit. The oysters tasted so fresh that they would have been great on their own. The eggplant cheesecake was the perfect compliment to the oysters. The creaminess of the cheesecake and the zip of the fresh basil it was garnished with were great as their own dish, and after the oysters made me want a creamy baked oyster dish (like oysters Rockefeller).
The house salad was great. I've said it enough times now.
Lynn had an entree special of orange crusted scallops with some sort of carrot salad, parmesan polenta, and garlic spinach and shitake mushrooms. There were seven plump scallops on the plate, which was more than we expected. The deep fried scallops were a golden brown and topped with a cream sauce with dill in it. I thought the scallops might be overdone, but they were closer to rare than well done. Perfect for me. There wasn't very much sauce, but the quantity was exactly the amount needed to enhance the already great scallops without overpowering them. The only misstep was the salmon roe on top of the scallops; they had an initial salty flavor, but then they tasted the way the salmon eggs I used to fish with as a kid smelled. We scraped them off. The carrots were julienned and marinated in a very light sauce that reminded me of Vietnamese pickled daikon [radish]. The carrot salad was refreshing, and tasty with the scallops. The polenta tasted like it was made from hominy instead of yellow cornmeal, which gave it an odd flavor didn't go with anything else. The spinach and shitakes were garlicky, which tasted good to me, but not to Lynn.
I had a different entree special of jerked arctic char with mashed sweet potatoes, wax beans, and tomatillo sauce. The arctic char tasted like salmon without the fat, which I later learned made sense because arctic char is in the salmon family. I would have liked it if I was in the mood for salmon, but now I know. The tomatillo sauce was probably the best thing I've ever had made with tomatillos, and it was great with the fish. It was even better with the mashed sweet potatoes, which were somewhat sweet and savory. The wax beans were alright by themselves, but they were also better with the sauce. Can you tell that I really loved the sauce?
I didn't think we'd get a dessert, but we tried the lemon-poppyseed pound cake with lemon creme fraiche and berries (strawberries, raspberries, black berries, and blue berries). There were alternating layers of pound cake and creme fraiche, and I found the first bite repulsive because I didn't expect the sourness (either it didn't say creme fraiche on the menu or, more likely, I didn't see it). It wasn't a very sweet dessert, but it grew on me. I even found it kind of refreshing with the sour flavor, but I thought the berries would have been much better with a sweet sauce instead of the creme fraiche. Lynn really liked it, but I'd have to be in the mood for it to order it again.
It's been a while since I've had a perfect meal at Zest, but they really are one of my favorite restaurants in the Valley.
One of my coworkers talked about how great Phoenicia Cafe was so we tried it for lunch. Normally I hate going into downtown Tempe because of the parking situation, but Phoenicia Cafe has its own parking lot, which is perfect for us cheap, impatient people who hate looking/paying for parking.
The weather was nice (in the shade) so we sat on their patio. One of things I love about Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, and some Mexican restaurants is real juices so I tried Phoenicia Cafe's lemonade. It was too sweet and watery for my tastes, but they did have a few other juices I want to try.
There were three of us at lunch so we split a vegetarian appetizer platter with hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, dolmades, tabbouleh, and pitas. The platter was a little odd because we got about six falafel, but only one dolmade. That wasn't a bad thing because the dolmade [rice stuffed grape leaves] didn't taste like anything good. The falafel [fritters made from chick peas and other ingredients] were crispy, and fairly grease free, but there wasn't much flavor to them. They were decent wrapped up in a pita and eaten with some baba ganoush. The hummus [ground chick pea dip] was very moist and too plain for me. I hate parsley, but the tabbouleh [a parsley salad] actually had a good lemony flavor. The only appetizer I really liked was the baba ganoush [roasted eggplant dip], which was creamy with a little cheesiness to the flavor. I didn't like it quite as much as the baba ganoush from Haji Baba, but I'd get it again.
I would have tried the lamb shank with basmati rice if I wasn't eating lunch, but I had the chicken schwarma pita instead. The chicken was good, but it's the garlic sauce that makes a schwarma, and this sauce was painfully garlicky at times making the sandwich less enjoyable. It looks like my search for a great chicken schwarma continues.
There wasn't much I liked about my lunch at Phoenicia Cafe, but I'll try the lamb shank before I make a decision about the place.
I'm not sure how I missed it, but the Kodak EasyShare V570, dual CCD is pretty cool. The camera contains two separate lens and CCDs so it has a combined focal range of 23mm - 117mm, which I'm pretty sure is unmatched in any compact digital camera. What makes it even cooler is that neither of the lens protrude from the camera body so it's an extremely slim package. I'm impressed since I hate carrying around my camera so a small camera with a large zoom (including an ultra wide angle) sounds like my near perfect camera. I'll probably check it out someday soon.
Soon to experience dreaded airline food again I was curious about The Chef's Challenge: Airline Food. Conde Nast asked a chef to come up with "the perfect in-flight meal". His creation sounds great, but it's probably far too labor intensive to be served on an airplane. I think I'll try out the recipe myself someday though.
One of my coworkers seems bent on taking me to all sorts of new places in Tempe for lunch so yesterday we went to Restaurant Mexico for lunch. I'd seen the restaurant for years, but never visited. We walked in, and the restaurant was a lot smaller than it appeared from the street. The interior was your typical hole in the wall, but being seated with a view of University had some advantages.
We were brought a basket of thick, crispy chips and watery salsa. The only flavors to the salsa were tomatoes and heat so I didn't think it was very good.
I wanted to sample a little bit of everything so I got a picadillo [ground beef and potatoes] hard taco, a deshebrada [shredded beef] tostada, and a carne asada soft taco with pico de gallo. The salsa on the carne asada taco had too much black pepper in it, but after I removed some of the salsa I found out the carne asada was tasteless. The ground beef in the picadillo was (s)lightly seasoned so the filling was fairly bland. Lunch wasn't looking too good, but the tostada redeemed it. The shell was crispy, and the shredded beef had an excellent beefy flavor. The beef wasn't complex, but sometimes you just want simple and tasty. The deshebrada tostada will be the reason I return to Restaurant Mexico.
My coworker got the daily special of steak ranchero (which was on the menu, but about $3 cheaper). It was an unappetizing plate of sliced steak simmered in tomatoes and onions. He confirmed that it didn't taste very good either. Murray had a combination plate with a chorizo sope, a "Mexico City" quesadilla, and something else. Murray thought the chorizo was greasy, not spicy, and not something he'd get again. The "Mexico City" quesadilla was a fat corn tortilla stuffed with picadillo, lettuce, and cheese (basically a gordita). Murray also found the picadillo bland.
Most of the food at Restaurant Mexico was ok, but the deshebrada was quite tasty, and that's almost enough for lunch. I also hear the enchiladas are good so I'll have to give them a try.
Friday Gordon and I went to lunch at Long Wong's in Tempe. I was surprised when Gordon told me that's where we were going because I didn't know they opened up again. I used to enjoy the hot wings and burgers at the downtown Tempe location so I was looking forward to trying to new location.
Long Wong's is in the spot previously occupied by Saigon Healthy Cuisine, and it looked like they raided a couple of thrift stores for stuff to put on the walls. The interior seemed to be more random than funky like the original, but I'm all about the food anyway.
I got a bacon cheese burger with fries while Gordon got a dozen mild wings. It wasn't long before we got our food, and were able to dig in. The hamburger patty was seasoned, but occasionally it tasted salty. The bacon and cheese didn't add as much to the burger as it should have, and overall the hamburger was only decent. The fries were crispy, tasty, and made more of an impression.
I had a couple of Gordon's wings, and despite their mild nature they were pretty tasty. The wings were moist and crispy, and even though I'm not crazy about Tabasco style sauces, the sauce had a good flavor. They weren't quite as good as my favorite hot wings, but they're more convenient for me so I'll probably be making a return visit for wings in the near future.
When did restaurants become religions to be defended by zealots? Recently it seems that some people don't just love their favorite restaurants, but worship them. How else do you explain their undying belief that it's impossible for another rational human being not to acknowledge the superiority of their favorite restaurant? It explains their personal attacks on the offending reviewer; if you can't kill a heretic then you can at least call them stupid. For example, I just read this negative review of Frank & Lupe's Old Mexico on azcentral, and the first two comments started by belittling the author. It's only a restaurant review, not an attack on your belief system.
Before I go to Japan I'm trying to visit some old favorites so today Lynn and I had a great lunch at J.P. McGurkee's Sandwich Shop followed by ice cream at Mary Coyle's. Lynn got a coward size sundae (1 scoop) with burgundy cherry ice cream covered in chocolate sauce while I got a regular sundae (3 scoops) with black raspberry (my favorite), pecan praline (an old favorite I haven't had in forever), and strawberry ice creams with strawberry sauce.
The chocolate sauce was pretty good, but the burgundy cherry ice cream didn't have much flavor other than sweet. The cherries in ice cream were also very sweet without much cherry flavor so I guess that explained the ice cream. Lynn was happy with it. The strawberry ice cream also didn't have very much strawberry flavor, but the tasty strawberry sauce made up for it. The black raspberry ice cream was a lot more assertive, and damn tasty. The pecan praline was buttery, but could have used more pralines. Overall I really enjoyed my sundae even if the only coherent theme to it was "I want to try that flavor".
I've wanted to eat at Lola Tapas ever since I saw "tapas" on their sign. Last Tuesday night Lynn and I ate dinner there for the first, and probably last, time. I remember when the building was a cigar shop, and the interior didn't remind me of it a bit. The interior felt hip, but comfortable with its earth tones and low lighting. We were seated at a long, communal table with well padded bar stools. I have to give them credit for making the bar stools as comfortable as possible, but backless chairs aren't the most comfortable to sit on for any length of time.
We were brought a basket of bread and olive oil. The bread was doughy and crusty, and the olive oil was mellow, but I didn't feel like there was any reason to eat it. I was thinking about getting a red wine, but I was more curious about their sangria. The sangria came in a large glass tumbler, which was more sangria than I expected, but not unwelcome. It was somewhat thick, and the first couple of sips were heavy with wine, but then it balanced out with less wine and more fruit flavors. It was very good.
The menu seemed limited, and we probably tried 75% of it in the six dishes we ordered. We got three vegetables dishes and three meat ones. The first dish to arrive was the gazpacho, which was served in a small glass tumbler. We were told to shoot it, but it was too thick for a soup that was meant to be shot. I hoped the flavor would make up for the lack of thought, but it was bland, bland, bland. Easily the worst gazpacho I've had.
The other two vegetable dishes were the asparagus with pistachios and olives and spinach with chick peas. The asparagus were oily, and the cracked black pepper was too course to stick to the asparagus. The pistachios were good with the vinegar and oil sauce, but those cracked pepper corns had a habit of getting scooped up with the pistachios. Lynn wouldn't touch the olives because of how they smelled, and I don't like olives. The first thing that struck me about the spinach dish was that was a weird flavor to it (vinegar maybe?). There was also a lot of garlic, and enough red pepper to make the dish somewhat hot, so I could eventually ignore the flavor, but Lynn couldn't. I'm not a fan of chick peas, and they weren't bad with the spinach, but the dish could have used something with more crunch. We wouldn't order any of the vegetable dishes again.
The meat dishes we got were the shrimp cakes, Moroccan spiced skewered pork with pickles, and serrano ham with manchego and mahon cheeses, almonds, and dates. The shrimp cakes were crispy with a pleasant paprika flavor. They were oily at times, but not enough to bother me. Lynn didn't like them because she doesn't like the flavor of paprika. Unfortunately there're more shrimp cakes than I could eat on my own. The skewered pork was very tender, and the pork was fairly well spiced, but the flavor was just kind of boring. Lynn seemed to like it better than I did. The pickles tasted like a combination of dill and dishwater. The serrano ham had a very hammy aftertaste that kind of put us off. The manchego suppressed the aftertaste, and the combination of ham, manchego, and almonds was perfect. The mahon had a sharp aftertaste that didn't work as well with everything as the manchego. The dates weren't sweet, which was a good thing, and were dry and chewy making them somewhat meaty. The serrano ham dish was best dish we had thus far, but it didn't have much competition.
I wasn't planning on getting a dessert, but we were so disappointed with that food that I wanted a dessert to hopefully redeem the meal. There was only one dessert offered, a special of sweet potato empanada with cajeta [goat milk caramel]. A sweet potato filled empanada sounded weird, but I love cajeta so I had high hopes. The pastry was crispy, and the dessert had an odd flavor I wasn't sure I liked. After my second bite I was hooked, and considered getting a second order. I thought the sweet potato caused the odd flavor, but it was from the cajeta, which tasted like it was seasoned. I was glad we ordered it because it was the highlight of the meal.
I love variety, and trying new things, but we found very little to love at Lola Tapas. We didn't feel like we missed anything with the other menu items so it's doubtful we'll return.
Yesterday I didn't feel like getting anything worthwhile done so Lynn and I went to the farmer's market at Vincent's On Camelback. It was small, but worth visiting. We got to sample some bread from Simply Bread including a sourdough with a thin, crispy crust that wasn't especially sour. We didn't really try any other stuff, or eat anything from the food vendors (even though the grilled chicken looked and smelled great), but we did pick up some shitake mushrooms and wax beans. We also got some baked goods from Vincent's Market Bistro.
We got a mini croissant, pain au chocolat, and a blueberry muffin. The mini croissant looked like a dinner roll, and while it was very buttery, it tasted like a dinner roll too. The dough for the pain au chocolat had a good flavor, but there wasn't much chocolate filling, and the cocoa powder sprinkled on top of it made it bitter. The blueberry muffin wasn't sweet, and didn't stand out in any way. I can't say I was impressed.
A few weeks ago I could smell some neighbor of ours making steaks, and they smelled great. What made me jealous was when they made a cream sauce. The neighborhood smelled better than what most French restaurants! I can make a great steak, but I've never made a sauce to go with them. The amazing scent of cream sauce convinced me to do it someday.
For dinner yesterday we made steak au poivre with mashed potatoes, creamed wax beans, and a shitake-red wine sauce. The presentation could have been better, but the meal was awesome! I'd never made steak au poivre before, but it's a simple technique. I don't think I ever had wax beans before either, but they had a pleasant mild flavor that went was perfect for creaming, and helped balance out the spiciness of the steak. I liked them a lot more than haricot vert, and I'm surprised more restaurants don't use them. For the sauce I used pan drippings, chicken broth (it's all I had), red wine, onions, shitakes, butter, and salt, pepper, and rosemary to taste. The sauce was earthy with the occasional flashes of rosemary that complimented the pepper steak nicely. This was a better meal than I've had at most bistro type places so it wasn't bad for a first attempt.
Today I bought my ticket to Japan to visit Steve. I almost chose not to go for reasons including the ticket cost me more money than I hoped it would, and I can only go for less time than I wanted to, but then I remembered it will probably be a very long time before I can do something like this again. I'm going to be busy trying to get some stuff done at home and studying up on what little Japanese I used to know so I can at least communicate in a limited fashion. Being Japanese illiterate is going to drive me nuts though.
Last night I was watching Top Chef, and they had to blind taste 20 hispanic and Japanese ingredients and guess what they were. The best person correctly guessed four. Was it really was that difficult to taste something blind or were they just not that familiar with the ingredients? I wonder how I'd fare given the same challenge. I can't help but think I'd own it though because there's no way I'm missing stuff like tamarind or umeboshi. One of the ingredients was hibiscus extract, which put me in the mood for jamaica [a hibiscus drink]. Real Mexican restaurants commonly carry jamaica so I had to decide on one for lunch. I remembered the great adobada taco Lynn had at Restaurant Charo's last time so it was my place of choice.
When I sat down I was given a bowl chips and salsa. The chips were thin, crispy, and none of them were overcooked this time. The salsa was also thin, and quite hot with a good flavor. The jamaica was a little thick with a delicious slightly floral cranberry juice flavor. It had just enough sweetness to counteract the heat from the salsa. I was really happy with it.
One of the things I used to love about Restaurant Charo's was that they had a unique menu that wasn't the typical taqueria stuff, even if they did offer the usual tacos and tortas. I got two adobada [marinated pork] tacos, a carnitas [roast pork] gordita, and a carnitas tostada. The adobada tacos were regular Mexican soft tacos with meat, cilantro, and white onion wrapped in corn tortillas. The adobada wasn't great like last time, but the grilled seasoned meat was damn tasty with everything else. The gordita was a small, thick corn tortilla stuffed with carnitas, lettuce, and cheese. The carnitas were salty and chewy so the gordita wasn't very good. The tostada was a crispy tortilla with carnitas, a thin layer of refried beans, lettuce, and cheese. The tostada shell had a great flavor, but once again the carnitas were detrimental. I'll have to try it with a different meat some other time.
I'm not as crazy about Restaurant Charo's as I used to be, but they still make some worthy food.
Today I went to lunch with Gordon and a couple of other coworkers. We didn't have any real ideas about where to go, I just knew I wasn't in the mood for anything less than very good Chinese food. One of the guys suggested Manuel's Fine Mexican Food, and it was seconded by someone else. I knew the place was in the same class as Macayo's and Garcia's so I didn't expect the food to be good, but I wasn't opposed to trying it.
The interior looked like any generic Mexican place, and the menu was generic too. It was funny because one of my coworkers said it was his favorite place for generic Mexican food. I asked what he recommended, and he said the enchiladas and chimichangas were pretty good. I wanted to try the hard tacos so I got a #2 combination plate with a shredded beef taco, beef enchilada, and Spanish rice.
We were given two bowls of chips and salsa. The chips were crispy, but the salsa was bland with the rare hint of flavor. My weakness for chips and salsa still forced me to eat more of the salsa than I wanted to though.
When my food arrived I started with the taco because hard tacos become soft tacos very quickly. Unfortunately something on the plate had already made the bottom of the taco soft, but there was still plenty of crispy taco shell. The beef was tender with a good flavor, but it needed a better salsa. Halfway through the bottom fell out of my taco, and I had to reassemble it. The taco was good enough that I might get it again even if it wasn't up to Viva Maria standards. The enchilada was stuffed with cheese and nicely seasoned ground beef with some white onion. The little shots of white onion kept the flavor of the enchilada from being monotonous, and the sour cream rounded the flavors out. I thoroughly enjoyed the enchilada, and I could see that compelling me to return to Manuel's. The Spanish rice had some tomato flavor to it so it wasn't bland, but I've never liked weak tomato flavor with rice.
Manuel's was above average depending on what you value, and seems like a good choice in a pinch.
Today Murray, Long, and I headed to McGurkee's for lunch. Normally I get a Sicilian at McGurkee's, but the tasty Italian sub from Capistrano's satisfied that craving even if it wasn't as great as a Sicilian. I was going to get my other favorite, the Athenian chicken, when I remembered that Ken recommended the meatball sub. Ken is rarely wrong (if ever) so even though I hate meatball subs I decided to give it a try.
There were six meatballs in a thick marinara sauce on their excellent toasted bread. Normally I find meatball subs too plain, but the combination of nicely seasoned meatballs and tasty marinara sauce made up for the lack of other ingredients. The meatballs had a firm, satisfying texture, and the thick marinara sauce seemed well thought out because if it was thinner it would have soaked into the bread immediately. It was an excellent sandwich that I'd get again.
Murray had the Super Sicilian, and loved it. Long had a pastrami sandwich, and said the pastrami was too chewy. He preferred the "Straw" (hot pastrami, Swiss, and sauerkraut) at Park Central Deli.
[Previous visit to McGurkee's.]
Terry asked about the meal Lynn and I had at Binkley's Restaurant on Saturday so I thought I'd give a quick summary of some restaurant visits I hope to have finished before Monday. Our dinner at Binkley's was excellent, and it definitely merits a return visit. Lola Tapas, on the other hand, was so underwhelming that it's unlikely we'll make a second visit. I got my two favorite items from Efes Turkish Cuisine only to be disappointed by both. Hopefully they're up to their usual quality the next time.
Today a coworker and I tried to get some Mexican food for lunch. In our search for a Mexican restaurant that wasn't closed we found ourselves in an odd shopping center that wasn't fully visible from the street. My coworker noticed Capistrano's Italian Deli in the shopping center, and it seemed so improbable that anyone would accidentally find the place that I thought we were meant to stop there. I hoped it was as good as a hidden restaurant that manages to stay in business should be.
The shopping center was grungy so it was no surprise that the deli's interior was somewhat dark, and looked like it had seen better days. There was a line at the register in the back, and a menu on the back wall. We had a couple of minutes to order so I looked the menu over. I got an Italian sub (genoa salami, mortadella, capocolla, and provolone) and a small cannoli. My coworker got the honey maple glazed turkey with munster panini.
The small cannoli was so small and cute that I wanted to eat it immediately. Then I worried about it getting soggy while I ate my sub so I ate it. There were too many mini chocolate chips on the end of the cannoli so chocolate was practically the only thing I tasted with my first bite. It was a small cannoli so I only got two other bites out of it. The pastry was crispy, but the filling tasted powdery. I wouldn't get the cannoli again.
The meats, cheese, and fixin's (shredded lettuce, tomato, shaved onion, and oil) in my Italian sub were all harmonious together, and quite tasty. It wasn't as good as the great roast beef sandwich from Zero's Subs though because Zero's uses better bread. I also learned that I need to go light on the oil at Capistrano's because it made half my sandwich was soggy.
I got to try a piece of the panini, and it was way too dry and plain for my tastes. My coworker thought it was pretty good, and he didn't like my Italian sub.
We both enjoyed our lunch at Capistrano's Italian Deli so it looks like we'll be eating there again.
Lynn and I almost went to Havana Cafe the night we went to Marcellino Ristorante. Despite the severe disappointment of our last dinner at Havana Cafe we both felt like eating dinner there so we went there last Friday night. We got the last available non-valet parking spot, but there were still tables available when we walked in.
Havana Cafe makes the best mojitos I've had so I got one with light rum and dark rum. The mojito didn't taste good because there was an acidic citrus rind flavor to it, which was a first for me. I have no idea how they got that flavor into the mojito.
We were brought a basket of bread and butter, which reminded me of how much I liked the bread at Havana Cafe. It's light and fluffy with a thin crispy crust, and it's perfect with butter. Their buttered bread with a bowl of their excellent black beans could make a cheap, great meal.
Normally I only get appetizers at Havana Cafe because I don't care for their entrees, but after our last visit I felt like giving their entrees another chance. That meant we could only order a few appetizers. We had our favorite, calypso chips (fried plantain chips with black bean sauce); Lynn's favorite, papas rellenas [beef stuffed potato croquettes in cream sauce] (Lynn's favorite dish); and an appetizer special, mofongo [ground plantains and pork cracklings in garlic sauce]. The calypso chips were crispy, and the garlic heavy black bean sauce was as tasty as ever. The beef filling in the papas rellenas had a good flavor, and the cheese complimented it nicely. In the half dozen times I've had the papas rellenas this was the first time I've ever liked them. The mofongo were dense round dumplings with a mild flavor. They were almost bland except for the pork undertone and the garlic sauce. They didn't light up my tastebuds, but I enjoyed them enough that I'd probably get them again. Lynn didn't like the garlic sauce, the texture of the dumplings, or the pork flavor in the dumplings.
The only entree that sounded good to me the parilla mixta (lamb tenderloin, beef tenderloin, Spanish chorizo, and vegetables) so was my default choice. The dish was actually a de-skewered shish kabob served in sauce. The beef and lamb were both tender and had a good flavor, as did the vegetables. Normally I don't like Spanish chorizo, but the grilled chorizo had a smokey paprika flavor that wasn't bad. The sauce tasted vinegary, but it worked with the meat. I was happy that the parilla mixta came with white rice and black beans garnished with chopped white onions and cilantro; I love the black beans at Havana Cafe, and I doubt there are better black beans anywhere. This was a night of firsts because this was the first entree at Havana Cafe I'd order again (that I can remember).
Lynn got a nightly special, the pechuga rellena (chicken breast stuffed with serrano ham and manchego in a sherry cream sauce). The chicken breast was tender, and the ham provided a pleasant saltiness without being overpowering. The cream sauce was mellow with something floral in it (cardamon?) that made the dish taste French to me. The chicken came with a side of white rice, and some of the most overcooked asparagus I've ever seen. I wasn't crazy about the dish, but Lynn liked it.
The pastry dough has tasted odd to me the last couple of times I've been to Havana Cafe so I was leery of anything baked in pastry (including my favorite pastelitos de carne). Since everything had went so well this time I wanted to try the pastelitos de guava [guava turnovers], but Lynn wasn't in the mood for them. They'll have to wait until next time.
I needed to have a good experience at Havana Cafe to reassure me they hadn't fallen off after the last couple of disappointments, and they delivered. I was very happy about the meal, and once again look forward to eating there. One minor note though, the bill was too high for a place with plastic chairs.
Today is Lynn's birthday. If I was a good husband I would have known the perfect gift for her, but I couldn't think of anything. She'll just have to wait until one of us figures out what to get her for her birthday. Saturday we're going to Binkley's Restaurant for her birthday dinner. Tonight she'll just have to settle for a grilled New York strip steak for dinner.
Not that long ago the only people who commented were people I knew personally. The last couple of weeks I've been seeing more and more comments from people I don't know. I love it; it lets me know that people who don't feel any kind of personal obligation actually read my site. Thanks to all those that comment for letting me know there is an audience.
I just went through a training about communication so I feel obligated to explicitly state that I encourage dissenting comments just as much as other comments. It's not unusual for people to have different experiences or opinions so I don't take in personally (unless it's made personal). Anyway, don't feel uncomfortable leaving an opposing or critical comment.
The location that used to house Manila Cafe and Austin's Best Texas Style BBQ has returned to its Filipino roots as Eggroll 'Lumpia' Factory. I don't know what it is about Alma School, but it now has three Filipino restaurants: Eggroll 'Lumpia' Factory at Elliot, Jeepney Bistro north of Warner, and Asian Cusina at Chandler (in Lotus Asian Cafe's location). I'm not familiar with Filipino food so I'd feel remiss if I didn't try to become a little more knowable with these resources close by.
Over two years ago Saul, a site reader, wrote me about his first visit to Marcellino Ristorante, and it piqued my curiosity. Here's the slightly edited version of what he wrote.
Last Saturday my dad took Beth, Josh, my sister, and I to Marcellino Ristorante (at 13th Place and Northern, where Allegro used to be) to celebrate my mom's birthday. Howard Seftel of the Arizona Republic had given it a 5-star review, and my parents' friends had said it was good. The entrees were great, but unfortunately the rest of the experience was not.The specialty of the house is homemade pasta, which we all had. I had the squid-ink pasta with seafood in the shell including clams, mussels, lobster, and other stuff. Awesome! The other adults had pasta mixed with lobster pieces and truffle oil, which they liked but tasted too rich for me.
So what could have been wrong if the entrees were great? When we tried to look at the menu to see what we wanted we had to take turns with a flashlight to be able to read the menu, even with 3 candles on the table. The place was so noisy (helped by the hard floors) that we couldn't carry on a conversation. When the waiter came to tell us about the specials I had to have him repeat what he had just said because I couldn't hear him.
My parents split a salad, and Beth and I split a different salad. I realized after we had started eating that they had given each of us the wrong salad, so we exchanged them. Beth and I had tossed salad with vinaigrette, my favorite. But it was so oily that all you could taste was the oil, not the spices or the vinegar.
My dad had to ask repeatedly for water. The busboy finally brought water and glasses, but there wasn't enough water to fill all the glasses.
After dinner we ordered coffee and dessert. They brought the coffee first so we were ready for refills by the time the dessert came, but the kitchen ran out of coffee so we had to wait for more coffee before having the dessert.
That's how you can have great food but a negative experience.
Saul
Last night I had to go to the west side so I tried to think of a good restaurant for dinner, which is almost as difficult on a Monday as finding lunch at a good restaurant is on a Sunday. The only places I knew were open were Va Bene, Havana Cafe, and Chrisopher's Fermier Brasserie. As much I love Va Bene I've eaten there twice recently, and I wasn't ready to try my luck with the roast chicken at Chrisopher's. Havana Cafe sounded like our best bet, but then I remembered Marcellino Ristorante existed. I didn't think they'd be open, but I was curious enough to check. When we drove by them, and saw the white Christmas lights around their patio it was obvious they were open. Finally some good luck.
It was a balmy evening so I wanted to sit outside, but Lynn didn't want to eat next to the street even though there was an entire parking lot between the patio and Northern. We walked through the door into a tiny anteroom created by a thick red velvet curtains. It reminded us of a restaurant we ate at in France, plus I'm a sucker for red velvet, so we dug it. We were seated, and the interior impressed us. It cool with a warm, inviting feeling to it. The lighting was very low, but we could still make out the menu.
The wine list looked like it was at 200% mark up. I must be getting cheap because I'd only pay that much mark up for a bottle if I was either really in the mood for it or if it was rare. I got a glass of Cascina Val del Prete "Barbera d'Alba 2004". It had a good initial flavor, but I didn't like the hot alcoholic finish.
We were brought two breads with a thick red pepper dip. The dip had a decent red pepper flavor, but it didn't come close to the red pepper dip at Classic Italian. It was pretty good with the lightly toasted bread though. Lynn didn't like the dip because she thought it tasted like pimento. The other bread wasn't toasted and tasted like an average bread.
Our waiter told us about the week's pasta specials, but he failed to mention the nightly specials. I didn't even know there were nightly specials until we overheard another waiter tell his table about them. That was irritating. Nothing on the menu jumped out at Lynn so she wanted to get the three course tasting menu, but our waiter informed us that the tasting menu had to be ordered in pairs because of the portion sizes. Lynn was forced to pick something herself.
There were a couple of appetizers that sounded good, but the grilled polenta with mushrooms sounded too unusual to pass up. I like polenta as an ingredient, but I've only ever had it well made once. Now I can say twice. The polenta was soft, and the grilling made them a little crispy. It had a mild corn flavor that served as the perfect palate for the mushrooms and sauce. There was a mix of sauteed brown and porcini(?) mushrooms that provided a good variety of mushroom flavors. The sauce had a lot of black pepper flavor, and worked perfectly with everything else. I loved the appetizer, but Lynn thought it tasted too much like mushrooms. The only thing I thought could've made the appetizer better would be the addition of enoki mushrooms to round out the flavors. To my surprise the wine was greatly improved by the appetizer; the fruit flavor became more apparent, the alcoholic heat disappeared, and it had a very long finish. If I knew it was going to be such a good pairing I would have tried it before I finished the appetizer.
Lynn got the appetizer special of mozzarella and tomato wrapped in prosciutto with basil, asparagus, and roasted red peppers. The prosciutto tasted porky, but the tomato, mozzarella, and basil combination was good enough that I wanted to try their caprese salad. Lynn gave me some prosciutto with the roasted red peppers, and the flavor was so overwhelmingly porky that I took a big swig of wine to get the taste out of my mouth. Lynn enjoyed her appetizer, and even ate all of the prosciutto even though she normally doesn't like it.
Of the five different pasta specials the linguine made with romano and black pepper in an amatriciana sauce [pancetta, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, and romano] sounded best to me. The texture of the pasta was denser than dried pasta in a good way. The sauce had a concentrated, robust flavor that tasted like it was slow cooked. I thought it was exceptional. The black pepper in the pasta gave every bite a peppery finish, and the pepper kept the pancetta from tasting porky (a problem I have with pork cooked in tomato sauce).
Lynn had the linguine portofino with shrimp and scallops (a dish I considered trying). The linguine was unadulterated, but the texture was once again very nice. The sauce was primarily tomatoes with some red pepper flakes, but managed to be plain and somewhat thin to me. It's possible that my dish muted my tastesbuds though. The scallops were sliced thin so they were very chewy because they were overcooked. Lynn liked them thin and overcooked because she thought it made them meaty while I didn't care for them. I do think the overcooking was intentional because the shrimp were perfectly cooked. About half them had a really good flavor while the other half were bland. I was glad I didn't order the linguine portofino, and Lynn felt the same about my dish.
After our entrees were delivered our waiter was replaced by a different waiter. Unfortunately the service didn't get any better because Lynn had to ask for water on two separate occasions.
I didn't plan on getting a dessert because we had gelato earlier in the day, but we listened to the desserts anyway. The panna cotta sounded like a good way to end a meal full of assertive flavors. It was creamy with a simple sweet flavor that grew on me. Lynn liked it from the first bite. It was served with half ripe strawberries and homemade caramel that was overdone enough to taste, but not ruined. I liked the caramel with the panna cotta, but Lynn didn't. We both would have preferred the panna cotta with a fruit sauce though.
I found it interesting that two years after Saul's visit I experienced some of the same problems he did. Even though the restaurant was less than half full it was very loud. I'm not a fan of listening to other people's conversation, but that wasn't nearly as annoying as the loud music. Lynn noticed that the music seemed to get louder each time they changed cds. The service could have been better too. Our first waiter made a habit of disappearing on us. My last problem was all my own though; the price of the specials seemed excessive to us. The appetizer special was $17, which seemed a little high but not outrageous. My pasta special, however, cost $27! It was just pasta and pancetta so there's no way I could justify the cost. It seems to me that they're discouraging ordering the specials. Lynn said the other waiter stated the prices of the specials when he told his table about them.
Service issues don't bother me as much as other people, but even though I loved my food the problems I experienced tempered my enthusiasm for Marcellino. I'll eat there again, but I'll never eat there on a busy night because of the noise, and I'll never order an entree special again unless it's reasonably priced.
I picked up "The Nymphos of Rocky Flats" on a whim because I thought it would be an entertaining read. The book is over 350 pages, and even though I'm a slow reader I read the entire thing while in the hospital (that should give you an idea how much time I've spent at the hospital in the last five days). I only need three words to describe the book. Vampire pulp fiction. How else would you describe a story about vampires, nymphomania, and top secret government installations? The book could have been written better, and it got very improbable at the end, but it was entertaining.
Lynn had her follow up exam today, and the news was good. The doctors have concluded, for now, that the shortened cervix is not a problem (I could have told them that abnormal is normal for Lynn). Lynn can now return to her normal routine, which should make her happy because bed rest was driving her nuts. She's scheduled for a follow up next Monday so hopefully there aren't any negative changes because the doctors can always change their mind.
Lynn is worried though because just having a shortened cervix means she has a 10% chance of giving birth prematurely even if a shortened cervix is normal for her. I tend to remember the 90%.
I had no idea if or when I'd hear back from azcentral about our Chow & Tell application. Tuesday they sent an email saying they accepted our team! It wasn't exactly the arrangement I hoped for though: they wanted us to do a different theme, and gave us a deadline of this Tuesday if we accepted. I didn't think changing the theme would be a problem since we're all open to most any cuisines, but the short deadline seemed like it would be an issue. Everyone was committed to the project, but I didn't know if they would/could get it done on short notice.
One of our team was headed out of town for the weekend, but we could all make it to Los Sombreros Thursday night so we were going to accept. I wanted to clarify a couple of details before signing the contract, and ran into an issue. Someone didn't want their face visible in the team photo, but azcentral wanted to see everyone in the team photo. I understood azcentral's position because the feature is meant to get reader involvement by showing real people. I also understood wanting to remain anonymous (notice no pictures of me on the site). I withdrew our team. It would have been a great opportunity, but people need to do what's right for them. Considering how Thursday night turned out it's a good thing I didn't sign a contract because I would have felt guilty about letting my team and azcentral down.
Speaking of azcentral, Howard Seftel (food critic for the Arizona Republic) has his own blog on azcentral now. I wonder if he's voluntarily writing it.
