I haven't done any writing lately, but at least I've made some headway on the photography front. I recently used three rolls of slide film in the panoramic camera, but I wasn't very happy with the results.
There are the pictures I took in Tucson with Fuji Velvia 100F. Most of the pictures I took were overexposed even though it wasn't that bright so it looks like I'll end up using that spare roll of Velvia in my SLR.
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The following were taken in Las Vegas with Kodak Elite Chrome 200. I think these turned out better than the Fuji.
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The following were panoramic shots, but there was too much dead space so I cropped it out.
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I've already shot a couple of rolls of print film since then, but I'll try one more roll of slide film (Kodak Elite Chrome 100) in the panoramic to see how it turns out.
The new Amon Tobin album is coming out in March, and after listening to an edit of "Bloodstone (ft. Kronos Quartet)" (video) I'm impressed. The song has an epic cinematic quality. I can't wait for the album to come out.
I used to eat at Burger Factory quite often, but for some reason I forget they existed years ago (possibly seven) and hadn't been back since. Ken still eats at Burger Factory so I met him there for lunch yesterday.
Their best item was their carne asada burrito so that's what I chose to reacquaint myself with them. The burrito was significant making the supplied knife and fork a requirement instead of extraneous. There was plenty of meat prepared ranchero style (with tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers) with cheddar cheese, but unlike ranchero style I actually enjoyed the meat. There were a few pieces of gristle, but not that much relative to the quantity of meat. The burrito came with a thick green salsa that was surprisingly hot and a great compliment to the meat.
I don't know why I forgot Burger Factory (I suspect I got a burger and fries, both of which sucked), but I'm not going to be forgetting them anytime soon. Ken said their Philly cheese steaks are also pretty good so maybe next time?
This year has been tough trying to find a New Year's Eve dinner that actually sounds good to me. I think of New Year's Eve dinner as the first big event of the new year so I want it to be special. That being the case I like to feel like the restaurant is putting some effort into it. This year it seems like a lot of places have decided to either offer three course menus (too pedestrian for a special meal) or rehash items from their regular menu (not special because I could just as easily eat there any other day and get the same thing).
Atlas Bistro is actually offering an extensive interesting menu, but by the time I found out about it they were already booked. Figures. I've wanted to eat at Deseo for some time, and they're offering a five course menu, but it seems like a poor value to me. Quiessence is offering an eight course menu that sounded good to me, but given the choice between them and Mosaic Lynn chose Mosaic. They're only doing five courses, and I have no idea what kind of menu it's going to be, but judging from their menu it should be interesting.
One day I was at home and wanted a sandwich. The only problem was I didn't want the only decent sandwich I knew in the area. I drove around hoping to spot some random sandwich place, which I didn't actually expect to happen until I saw Alpine Bread Company, which I'd been meaning to try for years. They had a sandwich menu that consisted of about six basic sandwiches with choice of cheese and bread. I got a roast beef with Swiss, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and mustard on cheddar-jalapeno bread.
There was a generous amount of roast beef, and the sandwich was very good overall even if the bread was a little doughy. I'd get it again, but next time I'll try it with slices of avocado (available for an extra 50 cents).
The sandwich also came with a large oatmeal cookie that was unusually crispy. It was a pleasant bonus.
This week has been busy. We got back from Las Vegas Monday night, the same night Lynn's mom arrived in town. Lynn's mom has been here to take care of the baby this week while Lynn attends training during the day. I thought this week would be productive since I didn't have to watch the baby at night, but we've been going out to dinner all week, visiting friends, and getting home too late for me to do anything. Ironically I'm burnt out on restaurant food right now.
This weekend should be productive (housework and site wise), but next week Lynn's dad and grandmother will be staying with us so I probably won't update much next week either.
Three dinners and two lunches usually isn't enough for a Best and Worst, but this time is an exception. We didn't have any bad meals on this trip, but none were great either. Some of the worst items were just the worst of the best while others were outright bad so I've marked the relative ones with a plus sign (+).
Category |
Lynn's Pick(s) |
Mario's Pick(s) |
|---|---|---|
Best Appetizer |
Hash browns and bacon quesadilla - Mesa Grill |
Hash browns and bacon quesadilla - Mesa Grill |
Worst Appetizer |
Baked oysters - Gallagher's |
Baked oysters - Gallagher's |
Best Entree |
Rock shrimp risotto - 808 Lobster ravioli - Il Fornia |
New York strip steak - Gallagher's |
Worst Entree |
Spicy scrambled eggs - Mesa Grill |
+Seared scallops with lentils - Pinot Brasserie |
Best Dessert |
Sticky toffee pudding - Gallagher's |
Sticky toffee pudding - Gallagher's |
Worst Dessert |
Chocolate cake - Mesa Grill |
Chocolate cake - Mesa Grill |
Best Meal |
808 |
Gallagher's |
Worst Meal |
+Mesa Grill |
+Mesa Grill |
Best Atmosphere |
808 |
808 |
Worst Atmosphere |
n/a |
n/a |
Best Service |
Gallagher's |
Gallagher's |
Worst Service |
Pinot Brasserie |
+Pinot Brasserie |
We're going to Vegas so things will be quiet for a couple of days. What's funny is I had the meals all planned out, but overzealous Christmas spending has forced a change of plans. Somehow I don't think we'll eat any less well because of it.
Having my post office box in Phoenix is inconvenient, but it does give me an excuse for eating in Phoenix. My last excuse took me back to Welcome Diner for a cheeseburger with grilled onions and to try their deep fried hotdog. For the record I don't like hotdogs, almost never have. When I was a kid I ignored the hotdogs at barbecues for the far tastier hamburgers. The only time I can remember liking a hotdog was when it was cut up in an "Indian" okonomiyaki (a curry and "sausage" okonomiyaki [Japanese savory pancake]). Deep frying makes everything better so I figured that a deep fried hotdog might be such a sublime experience that a near lifetime of hotdog bias would melt away in sheer hoof and snout joy. To my amazement the deep fried hotdog was only slightly better than your average hotdog, but not by enough for me to get one again. I should've realized that there's nothing, like skin or a casing, on a hotdog to get crispy. I guess that's why corndogs were invented (and guess who just got hungry for a corndog).
The cheeseburger was juicy, tasty, and great. It's a good thing I already knew their burgers were great otherwise I'd suspect that any burger following a hotdog might've ranked at least three times higher than normal.
My hotdog experiment was a bust, but I was still happy with lunch because it had been a few weeks since I had a great burger. I'll try a double cheeseburger next time even though I think the extra patty will throw the balance off just because I'm tired of buying two burgers every time I visit Welcome Diner. Now if I could only find a restaurant that makes corndogs or "Indian" okonomiyaki by lunch tomorrow I'd be a happy camper.
[Previous time I wrote about Welcome Diner.]
The last couple of weeks the baby has developed enough to know when he's bored, and how to make his displeasure with it known. He's no longer the good restaurant kid he once was although he's still controllable in restaurants. I wonder how long this is going to last.
Daniel's "barbecue ham" incident at Harlow's Cafe got me wondering about what real barbecue ham would taste like. I'd seen pit ham on the menu at Joe's Real Barbecue, but never bothered with it seeing that the only ham I usually like is homemade. Curiosity got the better of me though and the last time Lynn and I were at Joe's I got it along with the sliced brisket.
The brisket was just as good as always, but that was my safe choice. The ham was several slices of brown flesh that I found repulsive. It's amazing that the sight of rare steaks and raw beef hasn't had the same impact, but there was something about the ham that just didn't look good. Naturally I tried it anyway. The flavor was not quite what I expected; it was salty and sort of tasted like smoked ham, but there was a peculiar flavor that I found gross. Lynn's reaction was "Eww" so it wasn't just me. That should keep me from trying pit ham for a while.
Normally I go for the lemon cake at Joe's because it really is just like my mom used to make, but this time I noticed their root beer cake for the first time. I'd only had root beer cake once before and didn't even remember if I liked it so I gave this one a try. It wasn't a good cake because it was dense and gummy without any flavor (root beer or otherwise). The frosting didn't help because it was hard as a rock so I ended up chipping it off.
I was 0-2 trying new things at Joe's, but that's why I always order the pulled pork-sliced brisket combination with the occasional slice of lemon cake.
[Previous time I wrote about Joe's Real Barbecue.]
I took a few shots with the digital camera when we were in Tucson, but these are the only two I like. Hopefully I'll be happier with the panoramics whenever I finish off the roll.
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I couldn't stop thinking about what the "BLT Deluxe" (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and Swiss on toasted wheat) at Harlow's Cafe would taste like so it wasn't long before I returned. Daniel came with me, and he'd been to Harlow's Cafe once before for breakfast, but never for lunch so it was new to him too.
My sandwich arrived and it looked great with large slices of avocado, but they forgot the bacon. That was rectified after a couple of minutes, and I was actually able to try my sandwich. The sandwich was well made, but the bacon wasn't exactly satisfying; thin sweet bacon might be fine for breakfast, but doesn't work for me in a sandwich. The additional sandwich items were good, but they all had a heavy palate coating flavor that really needed something to cut right through them to perk everything up. I think some thick cut pepper bacon would've improved it a lot.
The sandwich came with a choice of side, of which the side salad or onion rings sounded best. I went with the onion rings because it had been forever since I had good onion rings. The rings were crispy, only slightly greasy, and the onions tasted like onions, but the batter didn't have much flavor so I thought they were only decent.
Daniel ordered the barbecue ham sandwich, which surprised me because it sounded like ham with barbecue sauce on it. Daniel thought what they really meant was that it was barbecue pulled pork. It turned out to be a few thin slices of ham smothered in barbecue sauce. Daniel thought it was a complete rip off.
I didn't see anything on the menu that I wanted to try so it'll probably be a while before I return to Harlow's Cafe.
[Previous visit to Harlow's Cafe.]
[Addendum: 12/05 - I remember something about bacon waffles on Harlow's menu. It looks like I have a reason to go back after all.]
I was in the mood for some fiction so I picked up John Scalzi's "The Android's Dream" because any book with a title that's a Philip K. Dick reference had to either be terrible or a lot of fun. The sheep hunting aspect of the plot reminded me of "A Wild Sheep Chase", but on a macro level with galactic consequences. It was good solid sci fi action with all the humor of "Snow Crash", but better written. I found the book highly addictive and read it in record time. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the ending felt like the author didn't know what to do with it, but I'm glad I read it.
Normally one good book would be enough to satisify my reading craving, but I still wanted to read something. When I spotted Sergei Lukyanenko's "Night Watch" I knew I had to read it. I'd wanted to see the movie "Night Watch" for years (still haven't), but I didn't know it was based on a book. When I've seen movies based on books I usually like the book better so the "Night Watch" book sounded perfect. So far I've read through a quarter of it, and like it even better than "The Android's Dream", but anytime somenoe can pull off a good story with vampires you have to be impressed.
Weeks ago I was with Daniel when he picked up his dry cleaning at the strip mall at Mill and Broadway. While we were there we spotted El Penasco and figured we should hit the place sometime. I forgot about El Penasco, but luckily Daniel's memory is better than mine so he tried the place not too long afterward. Since he liked the place he took me and a couple of coworkers there.
The restaurant was a good size, and felt like a mom and pop joint. We were given chips and two types of salsa (red and green), and I loved the chips because they were fresh, light, and crispy. Both the salsas were worthwhile with the red being smokey and hot and the green having more flavor than most tomatillo salsas. My only complaint was that there obviously wasn't enough chips in the bowl for four people.
I got a horchata and the carne asada del Penasco (skirt steak, a cheese enchilada, Spanish rice, and refried beans). Daniel was impressed with his horchata, and the cinnamon in the horchata was pretty well balanced, but I wanted it creamier. The carne asada was tender and moderately seasoned. I thought it was good until I had it with the enchilada sauce and cheese, then it was quite tasty. The sauce wasn't the only thing going for the enchilada because the tortilla and cheese were very good, and there was just enough white onion to make it interesting. The refried beans were typical, but even the Spanish rice was above average because of the kernels of corn and occasional bit of white onion.
A couple of people had tacos, and I was surprised to see that one person's taco shell looked premade while the others were fresh. I'd never seen that before, and it made me wonder which shells I'd get if I ordered tacos.
I liked my lunch, and there were plenty of items on the menu that I'd like to try so El Penasco will be getting at least a couple of return visits from me.
Lynn and I were spending enough time in Tucson to eat at our favorite restaurants and still fit in an additional lunch on Sunday. I'd heard that carne seca [dry beef] seems to be a specialty of Tucson Mexican restaurants so I wanted to give it a try at one of the restaurants known for it, El Charro Cafe.
El Charro Cafe was fairly empty when we arrived so we were seated immediately, but the place got pretty busy before we left. We were brought chips and salsa in a syrup jug (which is now the second time I've seen that). The chips tasted fresh and the salsa was hot and reasonably flavorful so I was happy. We also got an order of guacamole which was as notable for what was in it as what wasn't; it didn't have cilantro or white onion in it, both of which it could've used, and it did have cojito(?) cheese and those roots that form under the avocado's skin. The cheese was bland so it didn't add a thing to the guacamole, and the roots were just sloppy and gross.
I wanted a horchata, but they didn't offer it, so I went with the only drink that wasn't available at every other restaurant, the "Mexican" hot chocolate. My hot chocolate arrived with fried flour strips dusted with cinnamon and sugar, which I thought was a nice touch. Unfortunately that appeared to be what made the hot chocolate Mexican because the hot chocolate itself was completely unremarkable in every way. A hint of cinnamon would've done wonders for it.
I got the carne seca [dry meat] plate which came with forgettable rice and beans. The carne seca was supposed to be marinated in garlic, lime juice, and "special seasonings" so it should've been distinctive, but it tasted like any other beef hash. So much for their house specialty. There was a side of pico de gallo that had tomatoes that looked like they were a little old. It only took one taste to confirm it. There also wasn't any cilantro in the pico de gallo making me wonder if the restaurant owners had something against cilantro.
When I had looked at the menu I was impressed with their selection of soups (including one made with calabacitas!). Lynn wasn't feeling very hungry so she was going to get a bowl of the caldo de queso [cheese soup], but when I pointed out the tortilla soup (her favorite) she decided to get a cup of each instead. The tortilla soup was chunky vegetables in water. It was possibly one of the worst soups I've ever had. The caldo de queso was much better even though the cheese in it was barely melted and nowhere near incorporated into the soup! Lynn said it was milk soup with cheese, but at least it tasted good.
The salsa was the best thing I had at El Charro Cafe so I don't feel like I'm missing anything if I never return there. Next time I have a free meal in Tucson I'll do better research.
It's that time of year again, time to figure out where Lynn and I are going to eat New Year's Eve dinner. I know we could eat well at places we've been before, but I think I'd rather visit someplace new this year. I'd like to go someplace that has a special New Year's Eve menu or at least a tasting menu for less than $100 per person. Anyone have any recommendations or even just information on places serving a special menu?
Since Monday night is the only weeknight Lynn has off it's become one our favorite nights to eat out. Of course finding an open restaurant is a challenge. I'd been wanting to return to Tomaso's for quite some time, but they've always been too busy until we tried them last night. The restaurant was fairly empty so we were seated immediately. Looking at their menu I was happy because I felt like it was seasonal with a lot of dishes being hearty winter fare. It made me wonder about their summer menu.
There were several appetizers that sounded good, but the risotto with broccoli rabe and white beans easily sounded the best. I wasn't sure risotto would make a good appetizer, and I wasn't even sure this one would taste good because of the bitter broccoli rabe, but it was worth a try. I'm glad I did because I could smell the risotto as it was placed on the table. It had a fragrant, light olive oil scent that was warm, inviting, and promised very good eating. The rice had a great light flavor complimented by the mild bitterness from the broccoli rabe and spiciness from the large chunks of garlic (which were milder than I expected). The only issue either of us had with the dish was that the white beans were too large; the beans didn't absorb the flavor of the sauce so large beans overpowered the risotto with too much bland starch. It was only a minor issue for me. I don't even know if I'd call the dish risotto because the sauce didn't seem to be made from the rice starch, but I loved the dish.
We both wanted a salad, and the warm artichoke and spinach salad sounded perfect on a cool night. Lynn and I were going to split the salad so our waiter asked if wanted them split for us. I have no problem eating off the same plate, but I do appreciate the neater presentation of individual plates. The salad also came with potatoes, bacon, and sliced almonds so I expected it to be like a German potato salad, but it was a spinach salad with rather large chunks of potato and split artichokes. The dressing was a little on the plain side, but some fresh cracked black pepper was enough to elevate it from decent to very good. It was a good salad, but nothing special.
A couple of the entrees sounded good to me, but the truffled linguini with roast chicken, wild mushrooms, and peas won. The roast chicken was grilled instead of roasted, and something about it didn't taste right. I set all the pieces of chicken to the side and enjoyed the rest of my pasta. The linguini was thin, and the mushrooms and peas were both tasty, but the truffle wasn't as good in the dish as I thought it was going to be. It was a good entree, but nothing I'd enthusiastically recommend.
The other dish that looked to me was the "Kobe" ribeye with mushrooms. Luckily it sounded good to Lynn too so I still got to try it. It was a huge slab of meat that covered half the plate topped with mushrooms and served with vegetables. It was probably one of the beefiest steaks I've ever had. The seasoning was simple, or at tasted like it was, and it did a stupendous job complimenting the beef. I'm not a fan of ribeyes, but this ranked as one of the best steaks I've had. The mushrooms were great too. It was a pricey entree, but more reasonable than other "Kobe" dishes I've seen, and well worth the money.
After all that hearty food we decided to end the meal with a light dessert, a hazelnut(?) panna cotta. The panna cotta was denser and the flavor was heavier than typical so I thought it was only decent. At least Lynn liked it.
When the waiter boxed our food I told him to leave the chicken. He said he wished I told him sooner. I told him that I didn't think the chicken was bad, I just didn't like it. He decided to charge me for a less expensive pasta dish instead. That was nice of him. Regardless of the chicken we both enjoyed dinner so I could see returning to Tomaso's even if it's not a Monday night.
[Previous visit to the Camelback location of Tomaso's.]
Before Thanksgiving I stopped at Karl's Quality Bakery and picked up a carrot cupcake, cherry strudel, and some chocolate frosted pumpkin donuts. I couldn't remember trying pumpkin donuts before so I looked forward to them. The flavor had potential, but there wasn't enough pumpking and too much allspice in it for me. At least the chocolate frosting was good. The carrot cupcake had a good carrot cake flavor with more fruits in it than normal. There was very little sweetness to the cake, but the cream cheese frosting provided just the right amount in addition to complimenting the cake. I'd get the cupcake again. The cherry strudel used to be one of our favorite items at Karl's, but there was some sort of orange dough in it that added an odd flavor. It made Lynn and I wondered why they would change something that didn't need it. Hopefully it'll be better next time.
[Previous time I wrote about Karl's Quality Bakery.]
Right now the baby is especially needy, I'm suffering from allergies, and my mind is elsewhere (work, reading "The Android's Dream", exploring flickr, and eventually processing my pictures from last weekend) so this will be an extremely slow week on my site. Things should return to normal next week.
Lynn and my trip to Tucson for our anniversary was great. We left Phoenix later than we planned to, but still arrived in Tucson in time for a late lunch at Cafe Poca Cosa. The food was excellent as usual, but we would find out later that we also got a mild case of food poisoning (which did not contribute to the great part of our trip).
After lunch we checked into our room at the Omni National Tucson Golf Resort & Spa (the Omni isn't my favorite hotel because it's frayed at the edges, but it is in north Tucson, and I can get it for a decent price at Priceline). They gave us double beds so I called the front desk to get a king and they wanted me to pay $20 for an "upgrade". I don't see how a single bed is an upgrade, but before I turned them down on principle they changed our room for free.
Later we had an excellent dinner at Janos. Now I have my ordering strategy straight so all of our future meals there should be worthwhile. Afterwards I tried to take pictures of meteors, but I didn't see any. I did take some night pictures around the resort that hopefully look good (I'll find out when I get them on my computer).
Sunday Lynn and I had a mediocre lunch at the downtown location of El Charro Cafe. There was some sort of art festival going on downtown that I wanted to check out, and I wanted to take pictures of some of the historic houses, but we had to get to Callaghan Vineyards to taste their new releases before they closed.
On our way to Callaghan we saw a signs for Dos Cabezas and an unnamed winery, which were both new since the last time we were in Sonoita. Our favorite of Callaghan's new wines was the "Z5 2005" (56% Zinfandel, 22% Mourvedre, and 22% Cabernet Sauvignon) which had a complex flavor with a wild Zinfandel finish. Lynn really liked "Caitlin's 2004", but I didn't taste it. We both agreed that the California "Zinfandel 2004" was ok. To me it sort of tasted like grape juice. They had a fortified dessert "Cabernet Sauvignon 2004" that I didn't expect to like because Cabernet Sauvignon usually makes terrible dessert wines, but Callaghan's was very good. I like their previous two fortified wines better, but this one was still worth drinking.
The two wines I retasted were disappointing; the "Buena Suerte Cuvee 2004" tasted a little thin and the "Petite Verdot 2003" had a great body, but there was an overpowering tar flavor. The wines were very good and great when I first tasted them so I hope they're in an awkward phase in their development, and not heading downhill.
After Callaghan we visited Rancho Rossa, the winery with the "Winery open" sign, who were selling their first vintage. Most of their wines (whites and reds) had great noses. The whites smelled like vanilla whether they were highly acidic (the "Sauvignon Blanc 2004") or oaky (the barrel fermented "Sauvignon Blanc 2004"). Our favorite wine was the "Syrah 2004" which started a little sweet, had some pleasant fruity flavors, and finished tannic. Lynn really liked their "Grenache 2004" which was so ripe that it started very similar to port, but finished with an odd bite I didn't like (which Lynn didn't taste).
The last place we visited was the new Dos Cabezas tasting room. Lynn was the only one tasting because my tolerance was shot. She enjoyed a couple of their whites and reds enough to buy eight bottles.
We left Sonoita and headed back to downtown Tucson. The art festival was in the process of packing up when we got there so we didn't stay long. I took some pictures of houses, but the sun disappeared behind a mountain making it too dark to take pictures in a matter of minutes. Before we left Tucson we picked up baked goods and some great sandwiches from Beyond Bread.
I can't wait until we can make another trip to Tucson so I can take more pictures of downtown.
There's nothing like a good $8 sandwich to put me in the mood for a great $2 sandwich so today I headed to Da Vang for lunch with a coworker. I went in thinking I'd get a barbecue pork bahn mi, but remembering the spicy lemongrass beef changed my mind. I got the usual "lemonade" (limeade) to go with it, and it was back to its perfectly refreshing balanced form.
My lemongrass beef didn't have sauce or lemongrass so it was easy to suspect that I got the wrong dish. I tasted it just to make sure, and it was barbecue beef. Great barbecue beef; tender, a little sweet, tasty, and even though it was thinly sliced it was still juicy. I enjoyed it so much I couldn't bring myself to send it back. I'll just have to get the lemongrass beef next time.
My coworker got the barbecue pork bahn mi, and loved it. He was also impressed that it was only $2.
Lunch didn't go exactly as I had planned, but I was happy with it, and now have another dish at Da Vang I really dig.
[Previous visit to Da Vang that I wrote about.]
It had been years since I had been to Park Central Deli so I thought it was time to try the "Straw" sandwich (hot pastrami, Swiss, and sauerkraut) again, which Long and Ken swear by. The sandwich, fries, and soda cost a little over $10, which felt pricey to me, but the sandwich was stacked with pastrami so it didn't feel like a rip off. The pastrami was juicy and tasty with the Swiss, but I think the sandwich would've been better without the sauerkraut. I was unimpressed with the fries because they didn't have much flavor even though they were medium thick and crispy. Lunch at Park Central Deli was good, but I still felt like they were a little overpriced when I was done.
[Previous visit to Park Central Deli.]
I'd passed Harlow's Cafe a million times and never noticed them until people started talking about the place. Once I found out where they were located I meant to try them, but kept forgetting. Today I remembered they existed and went there with Murray for lunch.
The parking lot was full, but there was plenty of seating available in the restaurant. The restaurant's interior reminded me of someone's rumpus room, but I loved the stylised artwork that was sprinkled throughout.
There were a couple of items on the menu that caught my attention, like the BLT with avocado, but I went with the chorizo and eggs because it had been forever since I've had chorizo, and it came with hash browns (one of the tastiest forms of potatoes). I was happy with the chorizo because it had a good flavor with a slow spicy kick, but it wasn't any better than chorizo I've made at home (when Smitty's used to exist they carried great chorizo). The hash browns were in small chunks instead of shredded like I prefer, but they were crispy with an excellent potato flavor. To make things better there was ketchup on the table and Tabasco on the table so I introduced Murray to the joys of Tabasco ketchup (mix Tabasco in ketchup to taste).
Murray got the green chile burrito, which also came with hash browns, and the green chile tasted like pot roast with green chiles in it. It was great if like your green chile to have a heavy beef flavor, but not so good if you want it to taste like green chile.
While we were eating we saw a club sandwich go by, and it looked great. I was happy with the chorizo, and even happier with the hash browns, but I have a feeling the BLT will be even better.
It's tough finding a good restaurant open on a Monday night, but at least you avoid crowds. Yesterday I was in the mood for something unusual so Lynn and I headed to downtown Scottsdale to Cowboy Ciao. When we got there the hostess said they didn't have any tables available for at least 20 minutes. I noticed she didn't mention the bar so I asked her about it. She said they didn't have three seats together. I understood their situation, but the attitude I was getting from the hostess was that she would rather see us leave so we obliged. I was ready to eat at home when Lynn suggested Efes Turkish Cuisine. There were a few things from our last visit I wanted try so they sounded perfect.
A couple of the items I wanted to try again were the falafel ([fried ground fava beans and chick peas] with hummus and tahini) and the ispanek borek (spinach and feta in phyllo dough). The ispanek borek looked burnt, but didn't taste burnt. It was brilliant the first time we had it, but this time it was merely good. I couldn't figure out what changed, but Lynn thought it was bigger. The falafel were crispy and kind of earthy with a pleasant spicy kick. The hummus had a good lemony flavor, but there was an undertone of burnt tires that I couldn't stand. The tahini had enough burnt rubber in the flavor to make you think you were eating a tire fire, but for some inexplicable reason it was very good with the falafel.
Normally salad at Efes means the excellent coban salatasi [diced tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell peppers, red onions, olive oil, and lemon juice] for us, but I was dieing to try the fattoush (same as the coban salatasi plus fried pita and romaine lettuce) so I got it with feta. When it was set down at the table the scent of lemon permeated the air making it the best smelling salad I've ever had. The fried pita were crispy and were great in combination with the feta. The rest of the salad was very good, but I would've preferred a few less pita chips. Lynn preferred the coban salatasi, but I couldn't say one was better than the other unless you just wanted straight vegetables.
I knew we had more than enough food without an entree, but Lynn had to have the iskender doner [ground beef-lamb (think gyro meat) with pitas, yogurt, garlic-butter, and tomato sauce] so we got an order with extra sauce (both the tomato and the garlic-butter). I've always liked the iskender doner, but the extra sauce actually made it a little better because it thoroughly soaked into the pita underneath.
Lynn wanted baklava, but they were out so we got the coconut baklava instead. It was a rolled baklava with the phyllo dough surrounding the coconut. It wasn't as sweet and a lot tastier than I expected, and Lynn really liked it too. I also decided to try the rice pudding even though Lynn hates rice pudding. The rice pudding had a mild flavor enhanced by just the right amount of cinnamon on top, but it was solid when I wanted it soupy. If it was the runny variety of rice pudding I would've loved it, but as it was I wouldn't get it again.
Dinner was great, and Lynn said we ate better than if we had eaten at Cowboy Ciao. She might be right, we'll never know now, but Cowboy Ciao's pot de creme outclasses both of Efes' desserts.
Normally I like to brag about our cooking, but I feel like bragging about the food Rob and his wife made for their party last Saturday night because Rob probably won't. Reading Rob's site it's easy to get the idea they know their way around a kitchen, but it's always nice to taste for yourself. They made a massive amount of food in quite a variety, and actually managed to make it great too. My favorites were the bacon wrapped pistachio stuffed dates, tahini chicken salad, shrimp cocktail pizza, and pumpkin hummus while Lynn's were the sausage cheese puffs, tahini chicken salad, and pumpkin hummus. It was a fun time in addition to good eating, and Lynn and I even got to meet the mysterious Seth Chadwick. Nice meeting you Seth, and thanks for the invite Rob.
The reason I've been quiet lately is flickr. I've known about flickr for a while, but I never had any reason to really mess with it. Then I found out about moo MiniCards, and thought they were cool enough to find pictures to make a set. It wasn't until the arrival of my Horizon Kompakt that I got sucked into flickr though. I picked up my three rolls of film Wednesday and posted them on flickr just for the hell of it (before putting them on my own site no less). Since then I've been looking for photos I like, cool groups, and groups that would be appropriate for my pictures. It's been fun, but has taken a lot of time from writing.
Here are the best shots from my three rolls.
This was a roll of Ilford FP4 Plus 125 that had expired over two years ago.
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The rest of the photos were taken with Fuji Superia 100.
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Pictures from the Arizona State Fair.
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I didn't upload these to flickr because I didn't think they were good enough to count against my monthly upload limit.
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You can look at my flickr photos, but while the site is convenient I think it lacks style. Be warned, my photos are work safe, but if you start snooping around my account you'll probably find yourself in not work safe territory pretty quick.
Yesterday Ken came over for a late lunch/early dinner at Taiko with Lynn and I. Unfortunately Taiko closes between their lunch and dinner service so we had to think of someplace else, which turned out to be Flancer's Cafe.
We got the "warm crustini roma" (tomatoes, bacon, gorgonzola, and balsamic vinegar on crostini) again, but it wasn't quite as tasty this time because there was a little too much gorgonzola on the crostini throwing off the balance of the toppings. It was still good though.
There was a pot roast sandwich daily special (pot roast, cabbage, carrots, and fried onions with horseradish-dijon mustard) that sounded good enough that Lynn and I both thought about getting it. When Lynn decided she'd get it I went with the "We must meat, I ain't lion" (filet mignon, gorgonzola, tomato, and caramelized onions with chipotle mayonnaise) instead. Ken went with lasagna.
I expected the steak in my sandwich to be extremely thin slices of steak like a Philly cheesesteak, but they were somewhat thin slices in silver dollar sized pieces. It was much more satisfying than Philly cheesesteak style meat. The seasoned meat with the tomato, gorgonzola, and the smokiness from the chipotle mayo made for a very good sandwich.
Lynn's sandwich was stuffed with tender pot roast that was mild, but very good. The horseradish-mustard in the finish was great because it was just the thing to punch up the flavor without overwhelming the pot roast. I liked it better than my sandwich, which figures since it's not a regular menu item. Ken's lasagna was only decent, but what do you expect from restaurant lasagna?
After wanting ebi fry and sushi nothing else would be as satisfying, but Flancer's came close. Of course we're going to Taiko today.
[Previous visit to Flancer's Cafe.]
I liked Lychee Inn so naturally I took Lynn there for lunch one day. I got an order of potstickers, but Lynn didn't like them because the filling tasted a little porky. I think there were little bits of pork fat in the filling that caused the porky flavor, but it didn't bother me as much.
I'd liked everything marked spicy on Lychee Inn's menu so far so I went with the uncharacteristic choice of chung king beef even though I don't normally like beef dishes at Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately the odd texture of the beef reminded me why I don't like their beef dishes; there was a kind of puffiness to the beef that I find completely unnatural. I really enjoyed the sauce though because there was a little sweetness, wok flavor, and some heat to it. It was good enough that I would've eaten the beef anyway, but the flavor was only in the sauce, not the beef.
Lynn couldn't get any of the spicy things I recommended so she chose the garlic chicken. It came with a good garlic sauce, but the chicken had a spongy texture. Lynn felt the same way about her dish as I did about mine. The next day I reheated the garlic chicken in the oven and it was much better.
This was my first disappointing lunch at Lychee Inn, but it wasn't without its positive aspects. As a side note, the baby broke his 10 week "best restaurant behaviour" streak and decided to be a baby in the restaurant. Oddly enough he's been well behaved ever since.
[Previous visit to Lychee Inn.]
Lately nothing sounds good around our house so I'm lucky that Lynn remembers the place I forget exist. Today she suggested Espo's Mexican Food, and one of their green chile quesadillas sounded great. For once I wanted what I thought would be good while Lynn was the one who wanted to try something different so I got a machaca tostada and a green chile quesadilla while Lynn tried the beef enchiladas for the first time.
The machaca was impressive the first time I had it, but not the second time. I wanted to give it one last chance to impress, but this time there was so much black pepper in it that I didn't even want to finish it. I'm done with Espo's machaca now. Lynn said her beef enchiladas were ok, and I had to agree. The enchilada sauce started with a flavor reminiscent of mole that I wasn't sure I liked then quickly returned to standard enchilada sauce. There wasn't any lack of beef, but there wasn't anything especially good about it either. The quesadilla was the highlight of the meal; the green chile had a good flavor with a healthy dose of heat, and it was very tasty with the slightly crisped tortilla and cheese.
I wasn't unsatisfied with lunch, but it looks like Espo's is heading to niche status for me.
Tomorrow is election day so tonight I was doing my citizenly duty by reading about the ballot propositions in the state produced publicity pamphlet. I was looking through the Prop 201 (one of the two proposed smoking bans) "for" arguments when I ran across this gem.
Ban, Baby, Ban!Attention Voters of Arizona:
What right does anyone have to pollute my air and make me smell stinky? If I don't like something, I am going to do everything within my power to get rid of it.
That's the power of a Government Ban.
I don't like the smell from smoke, except smoked salmon cooking on my barbecue. I should not have to smell smoke and that's why I am all for a government ban. In fact, I think it should be illegal for people to smoke in their cars. We should have the government issue "DWS" tickets and make people pay huge fines.
Publicity, and fighting for a person's right to smoke makes it harder for us who are trying to rid our society of other bad things such as alcohol, tobacco, and worse, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, and Hydrogenated oils.
I think this is the appropriate step in our march towards a cleaner, healthier society. Next stop, we can start targeting the other vendors and citizens using things that are bad for us:
- Caffeine
- Fast Food
- NutraSweet
America is made up of a bunch of addicted fatties. We need the government to step in and help us get back on the right track. Just like parents step in when their children are out of control, the government needs to slap America's hand out of the cookie jar.
Anyone who smokes should be ashamed of themselves. Your days are numbered. It is time to destinkify the air we breathe.
Join me in supporting a total Government Ban.
Bob Roberts, Scottsdale
I think it's a brilliant subversive "against" argument.
I finally got more pork green tamales from La Purisima (Glendale, AZ). There was more lard in the masa than I like, and a couple of the tamales were short on meat, but there was a pleasant spiciness to the tamales that was satisfying. I got a dozen, and I'll be lucky if they last a week.
The last time I went to Shangri-La de Old Cathay (Chandler, AZ) they had a dinner buffet. I wonder if their buffet food is any different. The lychee pork used to be one of my favorite dishes at Shangri-La, but this last time it was made with fatty, gristly pork. It was so terrible that I couldn't eat it. The sauce and the vegetables were great though. Lynn's volcano beef was uncharacteristically tasteless so maybe they had an off day?
Koo-ki Sushi has the most unique "sushi" I've ever seen.
My digital camera has made me lazy. I love the instant feedback of a digital camera, and it helps me take better pictures, but what I lose is the need to finish out a roll of film. It can be a pain being forced to take pictures or an opportunity to find more pictures to take. My panoramic film camera has snapped me out of my laziness. In the last two days I've done something I haven't done in possibly years; twice(!) I've gone on a photo expedition (basically went out for the purpose of taking pictures). Now I've got three rolls of film (two color, one black and white) that I should see the results from before the end of the week. I'll probably never match this level of productivity again, but it was fun while it lasted.
Saturday I was totally in the mood for Va Bene, but when Lynn and I went there for lunch they weren't open. We had to head towards west Phoenix so Barrio Cafe would've been great after our long absence from the place, but I still remembered their peculiar habit of not serving lunch Saturday. I checked anyway, and they were closed. I wanted to go to Va Bene because I was in the mood for lamb so I hoped to find a Middle Eastern restaurant to satisfy that craving. Just up 16th Street I saw Middle Eastern Bakery & Deli, which I'd been curious about as a middle eastern bakery, so that's where we had lunch.
Inside it was a typical Middle Eastern market, although not as fragrant as some, with shelves of food and tables set up in one corner for the restaurant. I looked at the baked goods, and was disappointed by the small selection. I expected more for a place that billed itself a bakery. The menus were by the register so I assumed (correctly) that's where you order. I got the lamb shish kabob plate with Greek salad and rice while Lynn got a gyro sandwich and a lemonade (I would've got one, but I usually find the lemonade at middle eastern restaurants too sweet).
My plate was half salad and half rice with about seven small pieces of meat and a dainty homemade pita. The meat was heavily seasoned with tasty bits of char on it. The meat was chewy, but not enough to bother me. The rice was mild with a good flavor that we both found addictive. The Greek salad consisted of romaine lettuce, tomato, red bell peppers, sliced pepperoncini, feta, and an olive. The dressing was oily, but overall it was very good. The only part of my lunch that I didn't care for was the pita because even though I enjoyed its buttery flavor I found it too chewy. Lynn liked it.
Lynn's lemonade wasn't too sweet, and the orange water in it added an interesting twist, but it was watery (which didn't bother Lynn as much as it bothered me). Lynn's sandwich looked very small because it was also in one of their small pitas, but it was stuffed with a decent amount of gyro meat. The meat was sickly looking stuff, but it was good in a mellow way with their above average tzatziki sauce. It was good, and Lynn liked it even more than I did. I was surprised she liked it at all because the gyro meat's lamb flavor was more assertive than most.
Jay's Gyros has me spoiled with fluffy pita crisped up on the griddle and copious amounts of gyro meat also crisped up on the griddle so Middle Eastern Bakery & Deli will not be my choice for gyros, but their lamb shish kabob is worth returning for. Lynn would return for a gyro sandwich or at least a gyro plate so she could get the Greek salad.
Today on our way back from Phoenix I noticed a ferris wheel at the fair grounds and wondered if the Arizona State Fair was in town. Lynn said this was their last weekend. It didn't take long for me realize that it would be the perfect place to take pictures with the panoramic camera. It would also be a good family outing and exercise if I needed any other excuses.
It had probably been a dozen years since the last time I'd been to the state fair, and I forgot how big a pain in the ass parking can be. We found a parking lot for $5 that wasn't as far as other lots going for $25. We walked around the fair, checked out some livestock, and I took pictures of the midway and rides. I hope the pictures turn out well. We also ate loads of fried food to make up for the walking. Fries with gravy, Indian fry bread with cheese and chili meat, and a funnel cake reminded me that fair food is usually better in memory than the actual eating. Too bad we didn't go for the turkey legs grilled over mesquite.
The fair was a fun time, but it's a good thing it only happens once a year.
Lynn and I spotted Dolce Luna Gelato when we tried to go to Va Bene for lunch. Always up for trying a new gelato place, and lately they seem to be popping up all over the place, we decided to give them a try.
Dolce Luna's interior is very smart with chocolate colored wood, glass countertops, and granite table tops. I sampled the kiwi gelato, and while I enjoyed the numerous kiwi seeds in it I couldn't get past the lack of kiwi sweetness. I got a small gelato (two scoops) with strawberry and blood orange. Lynn got a small hazelnut-chocolate gelato. The napkin, spoon, and gelato in a glass ice cream bowl were all served on a small platter that made for a classy presentation.
The strawberry gelato was mellow with a good strawberry flavor and a couple of seeds. I liked it, but it wasn't impressive. The blood orange was a mildly sweet blood orange. I was hoping for sour, but it wasn't bad. I actually liked Lynn's hazelnut-chocolate gelato best with its hazelnut flavor and chocolate finish. Lynn only liked her gelato. There were a couple of ice crystals in the gelato, but nothing too bad.
The gelatos weren't bad at Dolce Luna Gelato, but the house style seems very mellow and we both like more intensity in our gelatos.
Greg told me that Flancer's Cafe made the best Philly cheesesteaks in Phoenix so Lynn and I met him there to find out. I got a cheesesteak with fries while Lynn had cup of soup-1/2 sandwich combination with the soup of the day, navy bean, and Santa Fe BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato, and green chile mayonnaise). My cheesesteak was served on a toasted bun, which makes every sandwich at Flancer's better, but I thought the sandwich was too cheesy and occasionally the onions were burnt. It was a decent cheesesteak, but I still preferred The Original Hoagie Shop. Lynn, brought up 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia, liked Flancer's better. I love the fries at Flancer's, but this was the first time I noticed they're seasoned fries. Seasoned fries can be too seasoned, but Flancer's does an excellent job balancing everything out so they still retain their potato flavor.
Lynn liked her navy bean soup even though it was "unusually thin". The BLT was pretty good, and the green chile mayo made it a little more interesting than your average BLT, but it could've been much better if the bread was toasted. No need to remind me to order any of their cold sandwiches with toasted bread. Lynn liked her sandwich, but the green chile mayo got too spicy for her. Personally I love the green chile mayo enough that it'll probably be on the next sandwich I get at Flancer's (unless they have Reubens again).
[Previous visit to Flancer's Cafe.]
Janos is one of our favorite restaurants for special occasions so Lynn and I went there for our first Father's Day dinner. It almost ended up being our last visit to Janos too.
Our reservation was a little earlier than usual, and the restaurant was busier than we'd ever seen it. We were brought an amuse of potato, Spanish chorizo, and heirloom cherry tomato that was good, but not even close to the julienned apple, prosciutto, smoked gouda, and potato crisp amuse we had the visit before.
Our waitress didn't leave a wine list with us, but I wasn't planning on getting more than a glass anyway. She asked if we wanted to start with a glass of sparkling wine so I got a glass of Laurent Perrier. When the waitress saw Lynn's pregnant state she offered her sparkling cider. I was impressed. My Champagne was pale with mild fruit and some yeast to it that I liked.
Our waitress dropped off the menus and left without saying anything. We'd never been to Janos during the warmer months so this was our first opportunity to try their Ten Terrific Tastes tasting menu (a lot of tastes for a reasonable price that's sort of like a thank you for showing up during Tucson's off season). There was also a Spring Tasting menu that looked too good for us to pass up. The Ten Terrific Tastes showed four courses with three items per course, but I wondered if one of those courses was a choice between three items because it was "Ten Terrific Tastes", not "Twelve Terrific Tastes". I was going to ask our waitress about it, but she took so long to show up again that we had both already decided on the Spring Tasting menu.
The first course was a marinated baby artichoke stuffed with ratatouille with heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella. It sounded good, and was very nicely presented, but the only thing I liked on the plate was the ratatouille. The tomato and mozzarella were tasteless, and the artichoke would've been better if it wasn't marinated. At least Lynn liked it better than I did. Our waitress picked up our plates, and that was the last time we would see her until dessert.
The second course was a seared scallop with truffled fried potatoes and English peas. The scallop wasn't actually seared, which was extremely sloppy for a restaurant of Janos' caliber. The scallop was also chewy and tasted fishy. It wasn't a good match with the sauce, the English peas, or the truffled fried potatoes. The only thing it worked with was the morels, which I found ironic because I normally hate morels.
There was a couple next to us who got the Ten Terrific Tastes, and each plate came with three small items that all looked great. We noticed that our waitress checked on the table next to us through each course even though she skipped checking on us during the second course.
The third course was quail on top of Cabrales bread pudding. Normally the quail appetizer at Janos is great, but this time the quail was only good. I think the barbecue sauce they normally put on the quail made the difference. The bread pudding was very tasty though. I liked this course more than Lynn did, but Lynn doesn't like quail.
The fourth course was a filet mignon on foie gras buttered brioche with truffle sauce, port braised cipollini onion, fingerling potatoes, and mushrooms. The filet was good, as was the brioche, but nothing unexpected. It turned out to be the best course by default because there was nothing wrong with it.
Early in our meal Lynn and I thought our waitress was bad, but as the meal went on we noticed an inequality in the service we received. Our waitress gave us the bare minimum amount of service she could get away with, but we were the only table she treated that way. When she explained the menus, including the tasting menus, to a table by us we knew for sure, and it pissed us off. It's one thing to be a bad waitress, but it's a completely thing to be a selectively bad waitress. Janos was walking through the dining room, took one look at us, and headed straight to our table. He asked us if everything was ok, but our waitress was talking to the people at the table next to us so we didn't feel comfortable talking about her right then, so we told Janos we'd talk to him later.
Dessert was white chocolate and plum wine mousse with dried strawberry and candied mint leaves. The presentation was great, like a tree with strawberry blossoms, but the execution was terrible; the mousse had separated from the plum wine leaving a lumpy mess, and it was far too sweet without any chocolate flavor. We hardly touched our desserts and when the waitress actually made an appearance to take our dessert plates she us if it was delicious, and we said it wasn't. She just walked away.
Five or ten minutes later she came back and asked us if the dessert was ok. We said it wasn't so she asked if we wanted another dessert instead. At that point our dinner was already ruined so we declined wanting to get out of there quickly. Plus, given how she ignored us when she took the desserts away I suspected the only reason she was at our table was that Janos told her to check on us. Her feigned sincerity pissed me off even more.
The final issue for Lynn was that she told them that we were there for Father's Day when she made the reservation, but they didn't mention it once all night.
The food runners and bus people did a good job taking care of our table despite our waitress' absence so Lynn left a decent tip so they didn't get penalized because she was a terrible waitress. Lynn wrote a note about our experience in case we didn't see Janos on our way out, which we didn't so I passed our note to the hostess.
It was the worst meal we'd ever had at Janos, and it dominated our conversation back to Phoenix in a bad way. We wondered why our waitress chose to ignore us, but ultimately it doesn't matter because it shouldn't have happened. If someone didn't contact Lynn to try and make the meal better then it was going to be our last visit to Janos. Monday, the first day they were open again, Janos himself called Lynn and Lynn said he sounded concerned about what went wrong and making up for it. He apologized and sent us a gift certificate for the full price of dinner, including the tip, so we're all on good terms again.
My mom has tried Indian and Thai curries so I thought it was time she tasted good Japanese curry so I took her to Taiko.
The ebi fry with tartare sauce was my favorite appetizer from my first visit to Taiko so I had to get it again. There wasn't as much black pepper in the batter this time, but it was still quite tasty. I like spicy sushi rolls even though I suspect that's where all the scrap fish goes since it's minced and doctored with pepper, but that hasn't stopped me from ordering them because a well made spicy roll is worth the risk. Taiko's spicy tuna roll was a reverse roll with minced tuna and sliced avocado that started with a good tuna flavor and avocado creaminess that developed a pleasant heat. It was one of the better spicy rolls I've had, and I totally dug it.
I had tried to get the fried yellowtail collar on my first visit, but they were out. This time they had it available. The fish they took one of the collars from was large so the piece behind the gill and part of the belly filled a whole plate. It was fried, but it didn't taste salted, and the dipping sauce couldn't fix that. The meat behind the gill was decent, but the fatty belly meat, which is tasty raw was greasy fried. My mom liked the collar enough to eat it, but not enough to order it. I liked it even less than that.
They don't have ramen on the menu, but it is in their food display so I got a bowl of miso ramen. It was simply ramen, bean sprouts, and sliced green onion in a miso broth. The ramen was firm, which is how I like it, and the broth was mild. It was an enjoyable ramen, but it was definitely a comfort food, not a taste sensation.
My mom had the tonkatsu curry, and liked it. I didn't taste it, but it had the great spicy scent it was supposed to so I'm sure it was excellent.
I was once again very happy with my dinner at Taiko which should result in many more visits. I do wonder what else they don't make that's not on their menu though.
On the way out I noticed a table set up with a display of mixed fry (shrimp katsu, tonkatsu, and korokke) at the front of the restaurant. The chef made korokke and I missed it! I was disappointed that our waitress didn't mention it.
Yesterday Murray sent out a link to this Flash program to Carve Your Own Jack O'Lantern. Daniel emailed his Jack O'Lantern (a traditional one), and had the brilliant idea to have a department contest for best Jack O'Lantern. There were actually a lot of responses (except for Murray, slacker).
One of the people's favorites. Hopefully you recognize the "Ghost Busters" logo.
Long's cracks me up.
Our phone guy sent this one, and I was impressed with the design because it was obviously his.
This was my first submission taken directly from a design DJ drew for our real life Jack O'Lantern. Lynn didn't like it, but obviously I dug it.
I didn't like submitting an unoriginal design so I tried to come up with something unique.
No one got the second one though so I submitted a third one with an explanation for the second.
I never sent this one, but it owned all the traditional pumpkins.
I never submitted this sad Jack O'Lantern, but I like it.
Anyway, Happy Halloween and I hope I win, even if there isn't a prize.
[Addendum: later - They broke up the submissions into two categories, scary and creative, and I lost in both of them. I don't care about the scary one, but to lose to a logo in the creative category irritates me. Maybe next year I'll just put a Nike logo on the pumpkin with the slogan "Just Boo It".]
Lemon Grass has joined my regular lunch rotation so I've been there a few times since the last time I wrote about them, and if I put it off any longer then it would never get written.
One day I went to Lemon Grass with Murray, Gordon, and one of Gordon's friends. Thai cuisine has plenty of great salads so I wanted to try my most recent favorite Thai salad, the yum nau [beef salad]. The salad was spicy, and very good, but the beef needed more of a sear on it. Benjarong's yum nau is better.
The look of Murray's curry noodles from my second visit was still in my mind so I got it with chicken. When it arrived the curry was still runny, but it was red instead of yellow, and even though the flavor was good it wasn't quite as dynamic. It wasn't long before I ditched the fried noodles and the slices of red onion that came on the noodles.
Gordon got the panang curry, and it wasn't as good as the green or yellow curry because it had less flavor than either of them. Murray got the "silver noodle stir-fried", basically pad woon sen [thin cellophane noodles with egg, onion, and other stuff]. Pad woon sen is a mild dish, but Lemon Grass' was even milder so even though it had a good flavor I'm not sure I'd order it. Gordon's friend got the pad Thai, and I'm not sure what they put in it, but it was gross.
The next time I went to Lemon Grass was with my Mom and Long. The table placard had coconut shrimp on it, and remembering the tasty coconut shrimp at Bangkok Express I gave it a try. Six shrimp arrived covered in coconut and deep fried golden brown. The shrimp were perfectly fried resulting in crispy, tender grease free shrimp, and the coconut wasn't sweetened so the shrimp were great. They came with a thick spicy-sweet sauce that complimented the already great shrimp. We were all impressed so even though the shrimp were pricey at $10 for lunch they were worth it.
I was in the mood for eggplant so the "eggplant garlic" with pork sounded perfect. Chunks of eggplant were sauteed in a garlic sauce making for a tasty dish. The pork seemed like the perfect choice for it because it had synergy with the rest of the ingredients. My only gripe with the dish was that I would've liked smaller pieces of eggplant.
My mom got the curry noodles with beef curry, and it had a good curry flavor, but I got tired of those fried noodles on top of the curry. My mom liked the dish. Long got the pad prig king [green beans in a red chile sauce] (medium). It had the deep red color of serious red chiles, but there wasn't much heat to it. The sauce had a good flavor, but I would've liked it better hot. Long liked it, and would get it again if he was in the mood for it (which is always the I feel about pad prig king).
The weekend before this visit Lynn and I had an excellent custard and sticky rice dessert from Tara Thai in Sedona so I wanted to try Lemon Grass'. The custard was mild with a pleasant coconut flavor, but it wasn't a good match with the sticky rice. The dessert wasn't bad, but none of us would get it again.
The next time Murray and I took Daniel to Lemon Grass for the first time. I was so impressed with the coconut shrimp that I had to get them again. I was happy that Murray and Daniel were equally as impressed with the shrimp as I was.
I was in the mood for spicy so I tried the spicy fried rice. The spring roll that came with lunch tasted different so I looked at it and the filling was brown. Daniel's spring roll was the same way, but Murray's wasn't. I wondered if they gave us two day old spring rolls. Whatever the case I didn't eat it. The rice was only decently fried, but the spiciness helped make up for deficiencies in its execution. The cauliflower in the rice looked roasted (probably wok fried) and had an excellent meatiness to it. I think I'm starting to develop an appreciation for cauliflower. I prefer Benjarong's basil fried rice, but I'd get Lemon Grass' spicy fried rice again.
Daniel had the sweet and sour and really liked it while Murray returned to the curry noodles and was still very happy with them.
The last time I had lunch at Lemon Grass it was with Lynn, Daniel, and Murray. It was Lynn's first time so I couldn't wait to see what Lynn thought. We started with the coconut shrimp, and the three of us who've had it before loved it. Lynn thought it was good, which wasn't nearly as much as I thought she'd like it.
I finally got over wanting to try everything on the menu and actually reordered something I liked, the spicy noodles with pork. The spicy noodles were once again very good with some heat to it, but half the pork was a little porky. Normally the pork at Lemon Grass is very good so I was surprised this wasn't. To prevent further surprises like that I'll stick to the spicy noodles with beef (if I remember). I bit into my spring roll, and it was brown inside again. Everyone else's spring roll looked normal so I asked a waitress about it. The waitress replaced the spring roll and said someone deep fried it twice. At least twice deep fried sounded better than old food.
I thought Lynn would dig the yellow curry, and she did, but she didn't ask for any heat so even though she liked it she wanted some heat. The yellow curry was thinner than the one Gordon had with a balanced coconut milk sweetness and creamy potatoes. With some heat I could see it being great. Long highly recommended the pad see ew so Murray gave it a try. It was chow fun that looked exactly like the spicy noodles without the pepper. Murray said it was good, but it could've used some pepper. Daniel asked for a recommendation, but since he doesn't like noodles, curry, eggplant, or ginger the only dish left that I knew was good was the "Lemongrass Basil". He said he liked it.
Most things I've had at Lemon Grass are at least very good so it looks like they'll stay in my regular lunch rotation.
[Previous visit to Lemon Grass Thai Cafe]
Apparently our second visit to Zinc Bistro made an impression because it came to mind pretty quickly last night when Lynn, DJ, and I were thinking of a place for dinner.
The appetizers are what endear Zinc Bistro to me so did appetizers only (and one side): the ahi tuna tartare, fondue, dungeness crab and mushroom crepe, seared scallops with some sort of corn thing, and a side of Tennessee grits (grits with mascarpone, bacon, and chives). The ahi tuna was still the mild combination of minced tuna and egg white that somehow felt like comfort food. DJ was the only one not enthralled by it. The fondue had a little more spice in it, like nutmeg, so it wasn't quite great, and the additional spice made it so I liked the fondue better with the crackers it came with than the sourdough bread on the table. The slow roasted tomato in the fondue tasted like allspice so I didn't like it, but Lynn had the other one and said it tasted great. I got to try the prosciutto and sourdough combination with the fondue this time, but the prosciutto still didn't do anything for me. Lynn and DJ both liked the prosciutto with the fondue.
The crepe was my favorite thing from our first visit to Zinc Bistro, and it was even better this time because it wasn't salty. The flavors were mild, but when they're crab and butter do you really need anything else? The seared scallops were well seared, but salty. The corn thing that came with the scallops were also salty. Thankfully the chef that's heavy handed with the salt only affected that one dish. The grits were mild and creamy with a pleasant chive and bacon flavor. Sometimes the bacon was a bit much, but overall the grits were still very good even if DJ didn't care for them.
I wanted to try the butter warmed king crab with "romaine lettuce milk and bacon", but I didn't notice it on the menu when we ordered. After all the appetizers we were still a little hungry so I got the crab anyway. The plate arrived with a piece of sliced crab leg meat and three rolled up (poached?) lettuce leaves topped with crab. The crab by itself was good, but nothing special. Wilted lettuce is usually a bad idea, but I was surprised they still had some crunch to them, and impressed with their excellent flavor. Combined with the crab Lynn and I thought it all came together perfectly. DJ didn't care for the lettuce because there was a pronounced onion flavor to it, and he hates onions.
I asked our waiter for a dessert recommendation and he suggested the orange infused creme brulee. I was already in the mood for creme brulee so even though Lynn and I dislike orange flavor in our desserts I gave it a try along with the gianduja chocolate torte with banana ice cream and spiced bananas. The execution of the creme brulee was perfect; the custard was firm, but not solid and the sugar was uniformly caramelized without being burnt. It would've been great if not for the orange flavor, but it was subtle enough that it only dropped it to excellent instead of ruining it.
The chocolate torte was rich, creamy, and one of the better death by chocolate type desserts even though there wasn't any hazelnut flavor. The scoop of banana ice cream on top of the torte was good by itself, but I didn't care for it with the torte. Lynn thought they were great together. The seasoned bananas were sliced thin and coated on one side in caramelized sugar. The candy crust, spices, and banana were all very good together and would probably be excellent with a fruit dessert (like berries with sabayon).
Dinner was excellent with the exception of the scallops, which were salty. Zinc Bistro makes some tasty food, but they need to fix their oversalting problem because we've had at least one oversalted dish every visit.
Yesterday Lynn, DJ, the baby, and I went to Schnepf Farms for their Pumpkin & Chili Party. We picked up discount tickets at Fry's, and drove out to their farm in Queen Creek. We followed the directions on their web site, which were complicated by road closures, only to find road closures not accounted for in the directions. It would've been easier if we got directions from the 202 South, but we got to the farm eventually.
We checked out the corn maze, but it was too difficult with the stroller so we didn't go through it for very long. We played miniature golf, and I killed everyone (the hole in one down the water rapids helped seal the deal). There was a large pumpkin patch that was good to pick out a pumpkin to buy or take pictures with a panoramic camera so we did both (hopefully the photos will turn out well). Schnepf Farms does a great job providing things for older kids to do, but we couldn't do much with a baby (not that I didn't know that before we went, but it was Lynn who wanted to go). We didn't try the chili because we had already eaten lunch at Joe's Real BBQ so we left, but not without picking up a Dutch apple pie they were selling at the exit. [The Dutch apple pie had firm spiced of apple in a decent crust, but it had a little too much cinnamon for me.]
On our way out of the farm we found ourselves across the street from the Queen Creek Olive Mill. I've been wanted to visit there for a while, but it was after their closing time so we didn't get to try any local olive oil. Too bad.
Today Long, Daniel, and I went to 32nd St. Cafe for lunch. They had their sign up and a menu this time. If it weren't for the menu I wouldn't have known that they make American food and breakfast in addition to Mexican. It's weird seeing hot cakes next to sopes on a menu.
We sat ourselves and were brought a bowl of warm chips and salsa. The chips were thick and very crispy, which made them able to stand up to the spicy salsa. We ate through the first bowl salsa to have it replaced with a second bowl of salsa that was sort of bland.
I got the tostada plate with two shredded beef tostadas, Spanish rice, and refried beans. The sleep deprivation must be getting to me because I forgot that it was the hard tacos that I liked, not the tostadas. The tostadas were made a little different this time with some sort of cream sauce on top (sour cream?), a powdery white cheese, a slice of tomato, and two slices of avocado in addition to the beef, refried beans, and lettuce. The beef had a decent flavor that was well complimented by the sauce and slices of avocado. The tostada was much better than the one I had on my first visit to 32nd St. Cafe. The Spanish rice and refried beans were both tasteless.
Long also had the tostadas and liked them. Daniel got the carne asada torta, a shredded beef hard taco, and a chicken hard taco. He thought the beef taco was decent, but the chicken taco was his favorite. He didn't like the carne asada, and when I tasted it I could tell why; there was a weird griddle flavor to it that wasn't something good on beef. I found it disgusting.
Parts of lunch at 32nd St. Cafe were very good so I guess it was good I accidentally ordered the wrong thing. Next time I'll have to try the tacos again (including a chicken taco).
I'm too brief to be a writer, but the Wired article "Very Short Stories" gave me hope by challenging writers to come up with a story in six words. I thought the best was Joss Whedon's:
"Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so."
Wow, evil. I immediately pictured a detective at a crime scene scribbling that in his notepad when I read it. I didn't think the rest of them were nearly as good though because they were usually statements, not stories, or someone trying to be funny.
Six words isn't much to work with, even for me, but I like the challenge without being subjected to the tedious structure of a haiku. I think I'll give it a try every once in a while as a creative exercise so don't be surprised if you see them laying around. This is the best I could come up with at the time.
"Camera untouched, photo untaken: too embarrassed."
It's more like a story optional statement than a story, but it's a start.
[Today I was supposed to meet Ken at Lenny's Burger Shop for lunch, but he called me ten minutes after I got there to say he couldn't make it. I think he overslept, slack bastard.]
Long ago I used to eat at the Lenny's Burger Shop at 15th Ave. and Camelback, and then moved on to Tommy's Burger Place when that Lenny's closed. Tommy's used to make one of my favorite burgers, but they've been hit and miss since they changed ownership. The most recent Lenny's is supposed to be the best, or at least the best looking, so I wanted to give it a try.
The restaurant is located in a strip mall, and designed like a diner with all sorts of polished aluminum with a long, narrow layout and bar seating. Orders are taken and paid for at the register, and you pick up your food when they call your number.
I got a combination with a cheeseburger with ranch and bacon, fries, and a large soda for less than $6. The burger was good with only a couple rings of red onion that added just the right amount of piquancy, but the bacon overpowered the beef because there were three strips of bacon, which was at least one strip too many. I suspect I wouldn't be crazy about the beef if I could taste it though. The new Lenny's gave up the fried potatoes in favor of regular fries. At least the fried potatoes didn't have to be crispy to taste good, but sorta crispy fries just didn't do. In an odd turn they did keep using season salt (which I liked).
Lenny's was better than a drive thru while they still remained fast and cheap, but it wasn't worth the drive to eat there by myself. Even Tommy's has been better on some of their bad days (although I'm sure Ken would disagree since he has really bad luck there).
[I'd been putting writing about Flancer's off for a long time, but I wanted to get these first four visits done because Greg invited me to Flancer's for lunch next week because he says they make the best Philly cheesesteaks in Phoenix. I've suspected Greg is really a plant or a vampire because I've rarely seen him eat so those cheesesteaks must really be something to make him forsake photosynthesis or blood.]
Gilbert has always been my culinary black hole in the Phoenix metro area because there's hardly a restaurant worth mentioning. For the longest time Joe's Real BBQ was the only place worthwhile, and then Cafe ah PWAH quickly became our favorite restaurant, but they went out of business. It's partially my fault for not exploring the city more, but when there's so much good food between Dobson and Arizona Avenue it's easier for me to eat close to home than to head east to Gilbert. I'm sure there are a couple of gems hidden in Gilbert so I'm going to make an effort to find them.
Some time ago someone recommended Flancer's Cafe so Lynn and I went there for lunch one day. The place seems very well known locally because they were doing brisk business. We were seated and I found one of my favorite things on their menu, fresh lemonade. We both got a lemonade, and it came in a glass even though there were free refills! It was a nice touch even if it wasn't the best lemonade I've had. It wasn't overly sweet, like so many restaurants are apt to make their lemonade, but it was a little watery so it didn't have much tartness (which is how you know you're drinking lemonade and not soda right?). It was worth getting again though.
I was surprised to see some unique and interesting appetizers on their menu, but limited myself to only one. The green chile mushroom phyllos was the easy choice for me. They were three pieces of crispy phyllo dough with a thin cream cheese filling. The mushrooms were chewy, and there was a bit of heat to it from the chiles, but Lynn liked it more than I did.
Lynn had a cup of the soup of the day because it was roasted red pepper, her favorite. The soup had a good flavor, but it didn't taste like roasted red peppers. Lynn liked it, but it reminded me of Italian dressing.
The green chile turkey sandwich was recommended to me so I tried it with the additional bacon and avocado. The sandwich started well being made with real sliced turkey, and not pressed turkey luncheon meat, but the avocados were mashed, which I find unsatisfying compared to sliced avocados. The turkey needed salt, but that was provided by the bacon. The green chile mayonnaise on it was very tasty, and if the bread was toasted it would've been an excellent sandwich, but it was only good with the untoasted bread.
Lynn got a burger with green chiles and cheddar plus bacon. The patty wasn't salted before it was cooked, but had an excellent flavor despite that. It still needed salt though. The burger bun was toasted, and so good that when I had it with cheddar and bacon I thought it was good enough to make a tasty sandwich on its own. Lynn's burger came with blistered fries that were extremely crispy yet still retained their potato flavor. I thought they were absolutely great.
Flancer's was very good and I knew we'd definitely be back. Months later Lynn and I returned and the lemonade was still sweet and a little watery.
There were still a couple of appetizers that caught our eye, but we limited ourselves to one because Lynn wanted to try the Caesar salad. We got the "warm crustini roma" (tomatoes, bacon, gorgonzola, and balsamic vinegar on crostini), and found it quite good. The gorgonzola was in small enough quantity that it complimented the tomato without overpowering it, and combined with the meatiness of the bacon and sweetness of the vinegar it was pretty well balanced. Lynn doesn't like blue cheese so I was surprised she liked it enough to get it again.
There was a warning next to the Caesar salad, which could only mean homemade dressing with raw egg in it. Lynn loves traditional Caesar salads (shaved parmesan and the dressing made out of raw egg yolks) so she couldn't pass it up. It as a bad sign when there wasn't any discernible parmesan on the salad. The dressing seemed to be missing everything that makes Caesar dressing savory so it resulted in a very bland salad. At least the croutons were good.
Reubens (corned beef, Swiss, and some sort of dressing) were the daily special, and even though I've never been a fun of Reubens I thought it sounded like a good idea. The sandwich was full of a very good corned beef that was crisped up on the griddle making it one of the best corned beefs I've ever had. The toasted bread was the detail that made it a great sandwich overall. Too bad it's not on their menu because it was compelling enough that I'd return for it often. Lynn didn't like the Reuben because of the warm dressing.
Lynn got the "Roma on the Range" (roast beef, basil, basil and garlic marinated tomatoes, provolone, and basil mayonnaise), and was generally pleased with it, but she didn't like the marinated tomatoes on the sandwich. I didn't know it was possible, but there was too much basil flavor for me. I loved the basil mayonnaise though.
We both thought lunch was excellent ensuring a quicker return visit.
Labor Day we had some friends over to the house and Flancer's had a Labor Day special of free hot wings with two medium single item pizzas. I got a pepperoni pizza and a roasted red pepper pizza (for a vegetarian that was supposed to come, but didn't), but I wasn't sure two pizzas would be enough so I also got a "Bucking Bronco Bacon Burger Pie" (ground beef, bacon, onions, cheddar, and mozzarella). When I picked the food up the pizzas smelled absolutely great, and I couldn't wait to try them.
The crust was thin and crispy and the pizza sauce was pretty good, but the pepperoni pizza was mediocre. The roasted red pepper pizza was light and tasty, and was Ken's favorite. The combination of ingredients on the cheeseburger pizza made it hearty and satisfying, and it was Lynn's and my favorite. The hot wings were ok.
I liked Flancer's pizza, but at $13.25 for a one topping medium it felt expensive to me.
One Sunday night Lynn and I both wanted pizza, and not just any pizza, that cheeseburger pizza from Flancer's. I called the order in and the lady told me about their curb side pickup. The other lady never told me about their curb side pickup.
Lynn wanted the green chile mushroom phyllos, but I could've lived without them because I didn't remember them being that good. The crispy phyllo dough wrapped around mushrooms and cheese with a little heat thrilled Lynn, but it seemed like it was missing something to me.
There was some sort of herb (oregano?) on the pizza that wasn't there before that Lynn thought overpowered the bacon and the pizza sauce. I could taste both the bacon and pizza sauce, and thought the pizza sauce was very good, but I had to agree that the herb wasn't good on the pizza. The first cheeseburger pizza we had was better.
I've already experienced greatness at Flancer's so I hope it won't be long before I find it in a regular menu item. Maybe it'll be their cheesesteak? At least the extra trips into Gilbert should encourage me to find more restaurants worth eating at in their city.
O had recommended Tandoori Times stating they had the best naan in Phoenix. Since Lynn and I love naan we had to find out if it was better than the naan at Copper Kettle (our choice for best naan).
I wondered if an Indian restaurant near downtown Scottsdale would be different, featuring statues of gilded horses at the door or something, but it looked pretty much like any other Indian restaurant. There was a heavenly scent of food and incense in the air though. We were seated and looked at a menu that was fairly standard. The curry prawns and fish masala both looked good, but I'm all about the lamb so I got the lamb boti masala. Lynn went with the chicken tikka masala, and we wanted a vegetable so we got an order of saag paneer [spinach with cheese]. Of course we got a couple naan, and I got the feeling from talking to the waiter that the food didn't come with naan.
My lamb boti masala had tender pieces of lamb that had a great flavor of their own in a thick, complex sauce. I thought it was excellent. Lynn's chicken tikka masala was far more similar than I expected, but the chicken was less satisfying. We both liked Delhi Palace's better. The saag paneer was somewhat mildly spiced spinach with tasteless cheese. It was disappointing on a few levels.
So how was the naan? Large and dense with a good flavor, but there wasn't any fluffiness or crispy bits that make the difference between good and great naan. We both had to give the nod to the naan at Copper Kettle (sorry O).
Maybe the only real difference between a Scottsdale Indian restaurant and one anywhere else is that naan was not included with the meal. I hate feeling like I'm being nickeled and dimed, and that might keep me from returning for the lamb boti masala.
I'm excited: November Lynn and I will celebrate our anniversary in Tucson, and December we'll go to Las Vegas just for the hell of it. I seriously thought my first vacation was going to be December of next year (New Orleans) so Vegas is a pleasant surprise. I'm having a blast figuring out where to eat. Tucson isn't really a vacation because we're not going to be there long, but we will get to eat some excellent Mexican food so it's something to look forward to.
There's not much I like about Iguana Mack's (like the service, menu, or ambience), but their Ho-Chi Mack's Sweet and Spicy chicken wings have always been great. Last week when I picked up a dozen of them I also got a dozen of their Jack Daniel's Glaze wings too. The glaze had an unusual sweetness that was very good, but needed something to make them dynamic (like heat). If I just a sweet hot wing fan then I'd probably say they were great.
Yesterday I spotted La Flor at the corner of Dobson and Southern mistaking it for La Flor de Michoacan (a chain paleteria [frozen fruit bar shop]). They weren't, but they did have paletas, juices, aguas frescas, ice cream, corn, and other Mexican specialities. I got a strawberry paleta de crema [creamy strawberry fruit bar] that tasted more like strawberry ice cream than the chunky fruit bar with cream that I wanted. If I wanted an ice cream bar I could've got it at the supermarket. I'll have to try a regular paleta next time to see if it's any better.
Last night we grilled some steaks and Lynn wanted to make cauliflower. I hate cauliflower so I suggested she make mashed cauliflower since it sounded similar to the cauliflower cream this guy liked at Joel Robuchon at The Mansion. We've never made anything like that before, but it was simple; Lynn steamed the cauliflower, mashed it, and served it with plenty of butter, salt, and pepper. It was significantly better than whole cauliflower, and definitely something we'll make again.
When I read about the fictional Metaverse in "Snow Crash" I thought it would never happen in real life because a virtual world with no specific purpose that gave people the freedom to program whatever they wanted didn't sound feasible in the real world. Not unless some company could figure out how to make money from it. When I read article "A First Look at Second Life" I was surprised to see that someone did.
In Second Life people can join and participate for free, create things (which they own), and sell things to other users. There's money in the game, but it's not free so if you want game money you either have to pay for it with real money or find a way to earn it in the game. The company that created Second Life makes their money by selling game money, premium accounts that earn money on a weekly basis (like a paycheck), and selling and taxing land. I think it's ingenious.
In a world where anything is possible if you have the skills (or can gather the skills), and freed from travel and food constraints, I find it interesting that you end up with a world dedicated to socialization and consumption. Sounds like a good opportunity.
I've never bought into the "common knowledge" that cigars should be stored at 70% relative humidity because while that was worked for a couple of cigars most of my cigars have been better at lower relative humidities. The most recent cigar.com (a web site I don't buy from) newsletter had this to say about relative humidity.
Q: I keep my humidor around 70% humidity but I still have burning problems with some of my favorite sticks. Can you help?A: This is a great question. The answer lies in understanding the composition of the tobacco used in a particular cigar. Different primings on the tobacco plant not only produce different flavor profiles and body strengths, they produce different textures in the leaf. Leaves that are exposed to the sun longer (ligero and volado primings) will be thicker than those harvested earlier (seco primings). Cigars that use the upper primings and heartier leaves will have a better combustion if stored at a lower RH (relative humidity) level.
Most experts will tell you that cigars should be kept anywhere from 65-71% RH. These levels are used more as a guide and suggest a range based on the type of cigars being stored. Cigars such as Camacho Diploma and Opus X are very full flavored and have very thick wrapper leaves. If you keep these cigars at 71%, you will find that they will have more burn issues than other cigars that use thinner leaves. If you drop the humidity down to 60-64%, you will find that the thick leaves burn better. Less humidity equals better combustion, and better combustion equals a better burn (which is imperative to enjoying a cigar to its full potential).
However, if you were to take a cigar with shade grown tobacco from the volado or seco primings and keep them at lower RH levels, you may find that the combustion will be very high resulting in a cigar that could burn too fast or become hot as you smoke it. Higher RH levels will actually be better for those cigars which use thinner leaves from the lower primings of the tobacco plant.
I think their answer helps explain why some cigars are better at different relative humidities, but I don't think it accounts for all the things that affect the optimal humidity. For instance 60% relative humidity (which is what I normally keep my humidor at) works for the majority of sungrown wrapped cigars I have, but not all of them. I suppose if I were more disciplined I'd know the perfect relative humidity for my favorite cigars.
Ken once again wanted to eat at Cornish Pasty Co. and I was all to happy to join him. We got in there and I noticed a few changes since the last time I was there: there were new leather bound menus reminiscent of Delux, some new seating up front, they painted the floor, and there was at least one new pasty (the Royale with Cheese) and a new dessert (something with strawberries that sounded good). It took a few more minutes for me to notice the largest change though; they now served the pasties on plates! I liked eating them right out of the butcher paper and I thought it was one of the things that gave the place personality, but maybe they got complaints. I hoped I wasn't in store for any nasty surprises.
I've had most the beers at Cornish Pasty, but I'm always ready to try a new one so I got the Oak Creek "Nut Brown Ale". It had a little flavor, but not enough for me. As it warmed up there was a nice coffee flavor, but there are other beers with similar flavors that I like better.
I went into Cornish Pasty with my heart set on the Cajun (blackened chicken, bacon, ham, and Swiss), but when Ken reminded me about The Oggie (steak, potato, rutabaga, and onion) I almost went for it. That was before I saw the new pasty, the Royale with Cheese (ground beef, cheddar, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and bacon) with choice of ranch, thousand island, ketchup, or something else I couldn't remember. The Royale came with bacon and would feed my current burger kick so it sounded great, and with thousand island dressing might even resemble a Big Mac.
The ground beef in my pasty was in solid pieces like meatloaf, and the filling didn't taste like a burger, but it was excellent. It was funny though because the pasty with the thousand island really did remind me of a Big Mac. Ken liked his Oggie just fine, but he said he'd have to get it with HP Sauce instead of the wine sauce next time.
There weren't any nasty surprises so I was happy. After lunch I decided, and not for the first time, that I really need to eat at Cornish Pasty Co. more often. And next time I'll try the strawberry dessert.
[The last time I wrote about Cornish Pasty Company.]
[Phone call at 11:30 today.]
Me: Yo.
Ken (groggy): What's up?
Me: Want to get lunch on your side of town?
Ken: Sure, where? Da Vang?
Me: No, burgers.
Ken: Lenny's on Central?
Me: No, Welcome Diner.
Ken: Ok.
Me: You sound groggy.
Ken: I just woke up.
Me (hoped he was awake enough to remember directions): Figures.
The parking lot at Welcome Diner was full, but there were only a few people eating in the diner. I guess they all drove themselves (kind of like Ken and I were doing). I got there about ten minutes before Ken so I probably didn't give him enough time to wake up. I ordered a cheeseburger with grilled onions and a hamburger with red pepper relish for comparison, and drank water to avoid the $1.50 can of soda. Ken showed up and ordered a regular hamburger and a hot dog (the menu said it was deep fried and then grilled).
When the burgers arrived I thought they looked a little small so maybe they aren't the best value, but two of them cost the same as one large burger at Delux (a little more or less depending on your options) so they aren't outrageous.
I started on my cheeseburger, and it knocked my socks off; the burger was cooked a little crispy on one side and the cheese had overflowed the patty also getting crispy at the edges. That made all the difference between an excellent burger and a great one. The regular burger was less impressive because it didn't have the same crispiness and the sweetness from the red peppers didn't compliment the burger as well as the grilled onions. I might've also missed the cheese even though I don't really notice it on the cheeseburger.
Ken said his hot dog was interesting, and even though he's not a hot dog eater he enjoyed it. I forgot to ask him if he'd get it again though. He said his burger was better, but he'd have to try it with grilled onions next time. I think I got lucky the first time finding the combination that worked for me, but I'm really curious about that deep fried hot dog.
I'm still impressed with the burgers at Welcome Diner and Ken is thinking about taking his coworkers there so it's safe to say they're pretty good. Next week we'll hit the Lenny's Burger Shop on Central since I've never been there before.
As an aside, while we were eating Ken pointed out that the interior of Welcome Diner would be perfect for panoramic shots. He was right because it's colorful with personality, but long and narrow so a regular shot wouldn't do it justice. I should've thought of that myself, but I'm glad Ken noticed because it gives me yet another excuse to return.
[FYI, the reason Ken was asleep was because he works a late shift, not because he's a slacker. That doesn't mean he's not a slacker although he already wrote up his version of the visit. I swear the similarities between our two versions is purely coincidental.]
I wanted to take Lynn to Welcome Diner, but they were closed because their hours were a lot more limited than I would've guessed (11am - 2pm Tuesday - Saturday). Since we were only a block from Rito's we ate there instead. Rito's limited hours (10am - 4pm Monday - Friday) used to bother me, but they weren't so bad in comparison. We were eating on the patio so I decided to try the beef hard taco again and we both got a green chile chimichanga. The taco had too much cheese and occasionally the meat was too salty so I still didn't like it. The green chile was on the thin side, but it was flavorful and spicy, and their tasty guacamole made it even better. I was already in the mood for their green chile chimichanga, but even if I wasn't I would've been happy.
[Previous visit to Rito's Mexican Food.]
One day I went to La Brisa for a strawberry agua fresca, and it was terrible because the strawberries were tastelsss. I wondered how long the strawberries had been sitting in the cooler. Since they don't have any other flavors that really appeal to me that's the last time I go there. I'm sure it won't take much looking for find another place that sells juices.
[Previous visit to La Brisa.]
One day I wanted Indian for lunch so I went to Delhi Palace. When I asked for nimbu pani [lemonade] the guy said something like the pani is here [at the table] and the nimbu is at the salad bar, and eventually asked me if I wanted him to make it. I'm not sure if he was making a joke or being a smart ass, but I was completely baffled. Did I ask for the wrong thing or pronounce it funny? He got me my lemonade and it didn't even taste that good. I hit the buffest, and the chicken tikka marsala, palak [spinach], and mango custard were all very good, but I prefer Delhi Palace's dinner enough that I won't get the buffet there again.
[Previous visit Delhi Palace.]
By the way, that was the second time asking for nimbu pani has resulted in a strange reaction. Is there something I don't know?
[Addendum: 10/19 - Fujiya Market in Tempe is finally carrying my favorite Japanese chocolate, the Glico Chocolate Covered Fried Almonds. Unfortunately the ¥200 chocolate in Japan is $3 at Fujiya. It's still worth it, just not as often.]
Friday my car overheated for no reason I could figure out because there was enough coolant in the radiator. It got hot so quickly that I couldn't even get the car home. I would've got it taken care of Saturday, but Lynn had already decided to get a new car on Saturday because her sports coupe is not the ideal vehicle for a baby seat and it would need over $1,000 in repairs in the near future.
Lynn wanted a Saturn Vue because she loves Saturn and wanted a SUV. Saturn's haggle free policy takes all the guess work out of the price of the vehicle, but Saturn of Tempe had their own options they presented as preexisting. I think it's highly misleading. Lynn got her Vue and it wasn't until later that we noticed that two of the dealer options Lynn was charged for weren't on the vehicle. The best case was someone made a mistake that cost Lynn money and the worst case was that it was fraud. Either way I deplored the situation. Lynn called the dealership to get a new contract with the items removed, including the removal of another one to make up for the mistake, and they took care of it. The concession saved their sale, but it didn't make up for the stressfulness of the situation.
My Hyundai is still less than five years old so Hyundai's roadside assistance program would've towed my car to the nearest dealership if I couldn't get it there myself. I didn't need it and the dealership determined that the problem was caused by the thermostat, which was still covered by the 5 year/60,000 mile warranty. I think my gas milage could be better, but I'm happy with the warranty and the fact that this was the first time I've had a problem with the car.
One night I was in the mood for a restaurant with great appetizers and the only place I could think of was Zinc Bistro, but I didn't want to drive that far. I remembered reading a entry about Taiko Japanese Restaurant on Phoenix Metblogs that described Taiko as the Japanese restaurant I've been looking for, which sounded perfect because Japanese food is full of little noshes that qualify as great appetizers.
Lynn and I headed southeast to the restaurant, and easily found it in a strip mall because it was lit up. We were immediately seated after we walked in, but I stopped to look at their wax food display to see what they offered. The display reminded me of Japan.
We looked at the menu and there were enough appetizers to keep me happy. Our waitress told us about their drink special; if we got a large beer or sake we could get edamame [soy beans], seaweed salad, tempura fish, or agedashi dofu [tofu in ponzu] for 25 cents. That sounded good to me so I got a Kirin Ichiban and the agedashi dofu. I was in the mood for a light beer so the Kirin was perfect. I haven't had any beer or wine in quantity for a while now so a liter of beer was too ambitious. The agedashi dofu was three pieces of fried tofu topped with a little sliced green onion in a very good sauce. The tofu was a delivery system for the sauce, which was fine by me, but Lynn hates tofu so she didn't appreciate the dish.
I've wondered if it's possible for a Japanese restaurant in Phoenix not to serve sushi and Taiko doesn't seek to answer that because they serve it too. We found it impossible to resist so Lynn got a Philly roll (smoked salmon, avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese) and I got a piece of unagi [freshwater eel] (notice only one piece because their nigiri sushi is priced by the piece). I normally hate Philly rolls because I don't think cream cheese has any business in sushi, but smoked salmon changes that because the smokiness of the fish matches well with the cream cheese. This was one of the best Philly rolls I've had because they did a good job balancing everything. The unagi was firm and only decent so I wasn't heartbroken that I only got one piece.
I loaded up on the appetizers getting deep fried gyoza, tempura (shrimp, sweet potato, and broccoli), ebi fry [fried shrimp], and squid karaage [fried squid]. I also tried to get the fried yellow tail collar, but they were out. It was way too much fried food, but I didn't care. Lynn was disappointed because she didn't see curry on the menu, but I saw it in the display case so she got the chicken katsu [fried chicken breast] curry.
The gyoza were six small crispy pockets of ground pork and cabbage that made us say, "Eh"; they weren't bad and they weren't good, and the vinegary sauce couldn't help them either way. The ebi fry, three shrimp served straightened out and deep fried with tartare sauce, was much better. The batter was very crispy and even a little seasoned so the shrimp were good by themselves and even better with the distinctive tartare sauce that came with them. Lynn normally hates tartare sauce, but she said it tasted more like crab salad than tartare. The ebi fry also came with shredded cabbage which helped clear the oil from my mouth.
The tempura were very light and crispy, but the tempura shrimp were bland. The broccoli was semi-firm and mildly sweet, which is exactly the way I like it. Tempura sauce either compliments the meat or vegetables, but not both so it didn't help the shrimp even though it was very good with the broccoli. The sweet potato was ok, but it's my least favorite vegetable tempura. I'd get the tempura again, but I'd request broccoli instead of shrimp. The fried squid was very similar to calamari and came with a savory sauce that worked well with it. It was very good even though the squid was a little chewy and had more of a seafood flavor than most calamari.
Lynn's curry had rice and chicken katsu smothered in brown Japanese curry with a pile of red pickles on the side. Seeing the pickles I suspected the curry was hot because pickles help with the heat, and when I smelled the curry I knew it was hot. The curry was very good (not as good as Coco Ichi, but I'm not in Japan), and the heat ramped up on the second bite. Lynn liked it even though it was too hot for her, and I was happy to finally have a local source for Japanese curry. The chicken katsu wasn't crispy, but two minutes under the curry would wilt cardboard. The chicken was ok, and it didn't seem like the panko was as course as it should've been, but I'll reserve judgement for sometime the katsu isn't smothered.
We were both extremely happy with our dinner, and would order everything minus the gyoza and the unagi again. Our outright favorite item was the ebi fry, but the other dishes we liked were all closely ranked. Korokke [croquettes] were conspicuously absent from a menu full of Japanese favorites so I asked our waitress about it. The chef (and I'm sure owner) said that he doesn't sell them because they're time consuming and nobody orders them. I said he should offer them with the drink deal to introduce people to them because once they've tried them they'll order them again. I hope he starts making korokke, but I'll call before the next time I visit to see if he'll make a couple for me. A lunch of miso ramen and korokke sounds great...
[Addendum: 10/20 - I'm pretty sure that Toh Zan Nagasaki Grill doesn't sell sushi, and they've been around for years. Of course the place has been fairly empty every time I've been there so maybe there's a correlation?]
Sunday nights are a tough time to find dinner, but Lynn and I had a hard weekend (which I'll probably write about Monday) so we weren't up for cooking. Of the few options we had Floridino's sounded best.
Following the recommendation that Kathleen made on this site I started with the pizza muffins and a side of marinara sauce and ranch dressing. The pizza muffins were sausage, ham, and cheese wrapped in a thin pizza dough that got crispy when it was baked. They were pretty tasty one their own so I wondered if they'd actually get better with anything. The marinara sauce once again tasted like tomato sauce so I wasn't confident about the ranch-marinara combination, but it was great. I'd return to Floridino's for the pizza muffins alone.
I wanted a salad, but the only salad they made that wasn't primarily iceberg lettuce was the chicken Caesar salad so I got a small one even though I doubted their ability to make a decent one (most places don't). We also got a calzone with beef, bacon, and onion (recreating the cheeseburger pizza at Flancer's, which I'll try to write about soon). I liked our waitress because she brought out the calzone split on two plates and two bowls for the salad. The salad had chopped romaine lettuce with tomatoes, croutons, and diced breaded chicken. Despite not having parmesan cheese the salad was pretty decent.
The beef in the calzone was well seasoned and even though the onions were strong they worked well with the beef and bacon. It was an excellent combination that worked just as well for Floridino's as it did for Flancer's. I liked the calzone best with the marinara sauce while Lynn thought the ranch-marinara combination was best.
Lynn was in the mood for something sweet so she got the "Sicilian sundae" (fresh baked chocolate chip cookie dough or brownie with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce) with cookie dough. The cookie dough was soft, but fully cooked, and great. If the French vanilla ice cream was cheap this time I didn't notice because of the cookie. The ice cream was barely sweet, but that combined with the creaminess was exactly what was needed to balance the cookie. We both liked it better than the pizza cookie at Oregano's, and I think it was because the cookie dough was fully cooked.
I wasn't impressed the first time we ate at Floridino's, but this dinner gave us a couple of things to return for. Thanks for the recommendation Kathleen.
I noticed the sign for Jerk Shack Grill weeks ago, and looked forward to their opening because I expected them to be a Jamaican restaurant. I had a feeling they were finally open so I took my mom and Lynn there for lunch. They were open and when we walked in I looked at their specials. There was jerk chicken and jerk ribs, which was a good sign, but should've been regular menu items if it was a Jamaican restaurant. The interior looked like a tidy, family run place fairly bright colors that had an island feel. The lunch/dinner menu was focused on seafood, and didn't have one Jamaican item on it.
The only appetizer that sounded good to me was bacon wrapped scallops so we got an order. There were six medium sized scallops that were cooked rare even though they were wrapped in crispy bacon. I was impressed with the execution. The scallops were good, but they needed something to perk up the flavor. The scallops were served on top of a salad of chopped iceberg lettuce with some mango salsa on top, but the salsa was too mild to stand up to the bacon. The salad had a nice vinaigrette on it that made it worth eating. The appetizer was pretty good, and hopefully signaled a good meal.
Jerk ribs are my favorite Jamaican food so I had to try them while my mom went with the jerk chicken. Lynn wanted something Jamaican, but the two Jamaican specials didn't sound good to her so she went with the chipped beef on toast from the breakfast menu. My mom's lunch came with a choice of soup or salad so she chose their fish chowder. It was red, kind of thick, and full of chunks of fish and potatoes. I took a bite and was overwhelmed by a nasty fishiness. I had to eat some salad to get the taste out of my mouth. I took a second bite without any fish in it, but it wasn't any better. My mom complained that it didn't have any flavor other than fish.
The jerk ribs were a rack of baby back ribs with a sweet barbecue sauce on it!? Jerk is supposed to be complex and spicy, not regular barbecue. The ribs were fairly tender and pretty good although short of the ribs from El Paso Barbecue Company. I had a choice of side dish so I got the garlic mashed potatoes. I also couldn't taste any garlic in the potatoes, and I suspected that they put flour in their potatoes; they resembled rubber cement being so stiff that I could hold them upside down on my fork without any movement whatsoever. I hardly touched the potatoes fearing what they could do to my stomach.
Lynn's chipped beef was strips of steak in a cream sauce on French toast. Lynn felt mislead because it wasn't chipped beef and she doesn't like French toast so she wouldn't have ordered it if she knew it was. She thought the beef was ok, and tasted the French toast to verify that she still didn't like it. I thought the beef tasted like beef stroganoff and the French toast would've been good if it wasn't slightly burnt on one side. Lynn got fried plantains with her breakfast, and they were half ripe and salted. Plantains can be served either completely ripe or completely green depending on whether you want them sweet or savory, but not in between. And salting sweet plantain is especially grievous so I thought they expected the plantains to be green, but my mom pointed out that they cut most of the pieces too thick for green plantain. I would say whoever made it doesn't know a thing about plantains.
My mom's jerk chicken was half a chicken that wasn't well seasoned and had a half cooked thigh. She hardly touched it, but took it home in hopes of fixing it later. She also had a choice of sides so she got mashed sweet potatoes which she said only tasted like mashed sweet potatoes, but were good.
I hate to write highly negative things about what looked to be a family run place, but it was a very bad lunch on a number of levels. Normally I'd be inclined to avoid this place forever, but since they specialize in seafood, and they did a very good job with the scallops I'll give them another try in their speciality.
After all my recent visits to the inconveniently west side La Purisima I thought I should try El Sol Bakery again since they're only a few miles from my house. When I got there I immediately noticed that they got rid of one of their two baked goods cases, and moved the remaining one in front of what used to be the dining room. With only half the display space for baked goods I wondered how that affected their selection, and it did seem quite a bit smaller. It looked like the old dining room was now dedicated to packaging salsa for supermarket consumption. They still had the things I remembered liking, the apple empanada and pastry horn, and I also tried a piece of tres leches [three milk cake].
The pastry horn looked appetizingly golden brown with rock sugar on top, but it was so sweet I could hardly eat it. It never used to be that way. The apple empanada was better, but the crust didn't taste like it had any butter in it and the edges crumbled into a fine dust when I hate them. It was delicious, but as good as La Purisima. The tres leches was mildly sweet, but the bland whipped cream frosting didn't do anything for the cake, and there was only a little milk on the cake so it was fairly dry. I wouldn't get it again.
It seems to me that the redesign of El Sol was indicative of a change in focus, and not for the better. Maybe it was just an off day or maybe I should try their salsa.
)
One of the problems I have with being a photography enthusiast is every once in a while I get obsessed with a new photography toy, which can get expensive. My latest discovery/obsession/toy is the Lomography Horizon Kompakt panoramic camera. You primarily see the panoramic aspect ratio in landscape photography, which I generally dislike, but Horst Hamann's "Vertical View" opened my eyes to its usefullness for architecture photography (which I love). Ever since then I've considered experimenting with panoramic pictures.
The Horizon uses 35mm film and takes true panoramics so the pictures take two regular frames instead of cutting off the top and bottom of one frame to make it look panoramic like an APS camera. All the space on the negative allows for a 120 degrees view that will be great for architecture and those indoor shots I wish I had a wide angle lens for.
The Horizon also has an advantage that breaks one of the tenets of photography: a picture captures an instant in time. The Horizon has a swing lens so instead of the picture being taken all at once it gets exposed a little at a time as the lens swings 120 degrees so it's actually a progression of time. You can do cool stuff like move the camera in the middle of taking the picture so that part of it will be warped while the rest of the picture looks normal. It also does weird things to action when the lens can see it as it moves.
I've always been a film guy even though the only things I shoot with these days are digital. Instant gratification is good (I'm also eyeing the medium format Holga with a Polaroid back for that), but I haven't figured out how to reproduce a grainy black and white in Photoshop yet. I can always load up a fast black and white if I want to, or even better, since the camera is completely mechenical I can shoot with infrared film if I want to (and I do).
I tried to hold off on buying the camera, but it was only a matter of hours before I couldn't resist (damn galleries). I can't wait until it arrives to start experiementing, but it's coming by UPS ground so it'll probably take two weeks.
[Addendum: the estimated arrival date is 10/19 so I'll have to see if I can find a roll of film.]
It had been a while since Viva Maria went out of business so I thought it was time to check out their replacement so Gordon and I went there for lunch today. They didn't have a sign up with their name, but there was an open sign on the door so we walked in. The interior of the restaurant was modest, but better than Viva Maria's run-down interior. There were a couple of people working on the register, but the restaurant didn't look like it was quite ready for customers. We talked to the guys at the register to see if they were serving, and they were, but they didn't have a menu yet so the owner gave us an idea of what they make. Gordon got a green chile burrito and I got a shredded beef hard taco and a tostada.
The owner brought out a basket of chips and salsa while we waited for our food. The chips were too thick for my tastes, but they served as a decent salsa delivery system. There was a generous dose of diced jalapeno in the salsa so it got hot enough that I considered giving it up (even if I didn't).
My taco and tostada were made with long thin pieces of beef that weren't very flavorful, but large enough to be satisfying. The taco had shredded lettuce, cheese, a vinegary pico de gallo, and pieces of avocado that combined with the beef and some hot sauce made for a very good combination. The hard taco was completely different from Viva Maria's, but a worthy replacement. The tostada featured the same ingredients as the taco plus refried beans. The beef didn't have much flavor to begin with and the beans sucked the rest of the flavor from it. Looks like I'll be sticking to Restaurant Mexico for tostadas.
Gordon's burrito had the runny pork green chile in it that you only get at certain types of Mexican restaurants. It wasn't bad, but neither of us like pork green chile. Gordon also thought the burrito was small, but it looked typical to me.
After we finished eating the owner talked to us for a while. We had arrived on their opening day, and we were their first customers. That explained why they were still putting themselves together. There wasn't anything that indicated their name so I had to ask. I think the owner said "32 Cafe", but her accent was thick enough that I still didn't catch it after I asked her to repeat it. I'll find out for sure the next time I visit because the shredded beef hard taco was worth returning.
[Addendum: 10/27 - I corrected their name.]
My list of unforgivable restaurant offenses is short, and something I don't even know off the top of my head, but Taquitos Jalisco committed one the last time I ate there. Lynn and I went there for our usual assortment of carne asada dishes (a taco and tostada for Lynn and a tostada and torta for me), and the tostadas were their usual tastiness, but there was something amiss with my torta; half the meat was really hard and overly salty. I had to look at it to verify that it was carne asada and not old tires. I tried to slug my way through the torta, but once I realized that they were trying to pass off old meat on me I was too repulsed to eat any more. None of the other carne asada dishes had old meat in it, but I'll never trust them enough to order carne asada there ever again. And since the carne asada was the only thing I liked at Taquitos Jalisco I have no reason to return. Ever.
[Previous visit to Taquitos Jalisco.]
Last night the baby started babbling. I was happy about this new milestone in his development, but I wish it didn't start while we were watching a movie because he's fairly loud. It can very cute although he hasn't stopped since.
Revisiting restaurants immediately has become a bad habit lately, but at least I can blame returning to Lychee Inn with my mom on wanting Chinese food Sunday. Normally I try the potstickers on my first visit to any restaurant that has them on the menu, but I didn't notice them on the menu my first time at Lychee Inn. Noticing them this time I got an order. The crispy pan fried potstickers with their appropriately thin wonton wrappers were the building blocks of a great potsticker, but that was not to be because of the bland pork filling that occasionally tasted porky. The potstickers weren't brilliant, but they were good enough I'd get them again.
I was in the mood for fried chicken with sauce so I got the "Chicken Supreme", which was fried chicken in a spicy sauce. The batter on the chicken wasn't hard like the batter on the lemon chicken so it got soggy in the sauce, but the chicken tasted good and the sweet, garlicky, spicy sauce kept me happy.
My mom got pork chow fun, which had all sorts of broccoli and sugar snap peas(?) in it in addition to the usual rice noodles and barbecue pork. The white noodles looked completely untouched by heat so I didn't think they'd taste good, but there was some wok flavor in the oil used in the dish keeping the noodles respectable. The peas were just cooked enough to prevent them from tasting raw, but raw enough to retain their snap so they were tasty. The broccoli tasted good, but the barbecue pork alternated from tasting porky to ok which made me skip it altogether. My mom would get the chow fun again, but it was a little too unusual for me.
It looks like Lychee Inn is my Chinese restaurant of choice for spicy dishes since they always deliver the promised heat in addition to having excellent sauces.
Last weekend Lynn, the baby, and I went camping in Flagstaff. Believe it or not it was Lynn's idea.
We got up to Flagstaff later than normal so we only walked around downtown a little while before setting up camp. I had to upgrade to a "family size" tent because my old one was snug for two so it wouldn't work for two and a quarter. The new tent is 7' tall in the middle and 5'6" on the edges so I could actually walk around upright in it, and was over twice as large. It's the first time I can remember setting up a non-dome tent so it was an experience, but it wasn't difficult. Maybe I should've gotten a large tent earlier.
Once camp was set up we went to dinner because we were both starved. We had a decent meal at Jackson's Grill forcing my search for an excellent fine dining option in Flag to continue. When we got back to the campsite it was cold enough to see our breath inside the tent. My old tent was small enough that it would eventually warm up, but the new one had two large vents in the ceiling keeping it permanently cold. We packed for the weather so it wasn't a problem, but we both it's definitely a warm weather tent.
When I woke up there were ice crystals on my blanket where I pulled it over my head and the condensation froze. That's cold, but still not as cold as it was inside Steve's host family's house in Japan. Lynn wanted to get some sleep in the morning so I took the baby with me hiking. He slept the whole time in the baby sling, but I only hiked about half my normal circuit because having all of his weight on one shoulder got heavy after a while. It was a good hike and I got to see a hawk fly off clutching a small, furry animal. After my hike I smoked a cigar, and we soon broke camp because of incoming rain clouds. The moment we jumped into the car to leave it started raining. I was impressed with our good timing.
We took the scenic route home through Oak Creek and wanted to eat at Mandarin House in Sedona for their excellent hot and sour soup. Unfortunately they were out of business so we went to Tara Thai instead and had a good lunch.
Camping with the baby wasn't difficult; the only differences were that we had to bring more stuff with us and Lynn worried about how warm the baby was the entire night (even though I'm sure he was warmer than both of us). Too bad this was our first and last camping trip of the year, but we'll have more opportunities next year.
When Daniel told me about a tiny restaurant with excellent burgers I had to try it. He didn't know the name of the place or where it was located so he had to ask the person who took him there. The restaurant was Welcome Diner, right down the street from Rito's on 10th Street and Roosevelt. There were only three or four parking spots in the parking lot and they were all occupied when we got there. Daniel said the restaurant was probably full, which didn't seem possible, but there were only nine seats at the bar. And they were all taken.
I looked at the menu, and the only things I noticed were burgers, hot dogs, and fries. I got a cheeseburger with grilled onions and fries. They charged a $1.50 for a can of soda, which seems expensive to me. I wanted a soda so I got a Big Sky "Black Cherry" because if I had to pay $1.50 for a can of soda it might as well be something that I don't already have at home.
We sat outside and since the area was shaded and the weather was nice it was the best seat in the house (or out of the house as the case may be). The soda had a flat black cherry flavor that was only ok. The fries were very crispy and well seasoned, but they were skin on, which I didn't like because the skin got papery when it was fried. Initially I was disappointed by the small looking cheeseburger, but when I looked at the patty I found it reasonably thick. The burger bun was toasted, which is always a bonus. The juicy hamburger patty had a good flavor that was complimented by the sweet grilled onions and the flavorful tomato. It was an excellent burger and I immediately wanted another. Normally when I find something impressive the first time it tends to only be ok the second time, but the second burger was just as satisfying as the first.
The cheeseburger from Welcome Diner now ranks as my second favorite burger in Phoenix behind the Delux Burger with the standard bun at Delux, and they're almost half the price of Delux ($4.75 with grilled onions versus $9). Of course if I have to buy two of them they're more expensive, but maybe I'll find their doubles just as tasty.
[Addendum: 10/16 - Welcome Diner's hours are 11am to 2pm Tuesday through Saturday. A little unusual so I thought it was worth mentioning.]
Tonight I went to AZ Wine Company for their Hartford Court tasting. I was disappointed because the way they wrote up the tasting it sounded like it was focused on Pinot Noir, but there was only one Pinot to taste. I wasn't about to go home without tasting anything so I dove right in. The Hartford Court "Four Hearts Vineyard Chardonnay 2005" was medium to full bodied, slightly buttery, and pretty good. Much better in fact than the Hartford Court "Seascape Chardonnay 2004", which was light with so little flavor that it tasted more like a generic Pinot Grigio than a Chardonnay.
The only Pinot was the Hartford Court "Land's End Pinot Noir 2005". It had a light body with a flavor that was easy for me to ignore. I think it was good, but my memory of the flavor is a complete blank. I was really impressed with the Hartford "Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2003" we tried a while back so I was looking forward to their "Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2004". The 2004 was a completely different wine with a strong Zinfandel flavor followed by a light grape juice finish. It wasn't my sort of thing. The last wine of the night was the Hartford "Dina's Vineyard Zinfandel 2004", which was thinner than the Russian River, and contributed the grape juice flavor in the finish of the Russian River. I find the Hartford single vineyard Zinfandel wines interesting in an academic sense, it really illustrates the art of blending wines, but I don't like to drink them.
I would've blown through the tasting if a couple of friendly people didn't invite me to their table. It was fun chatting about food, wine, and it looks like I'll have to try Cafe Boa sometime. I didn't know you could order food from Atlas Bistro in AZ Wine, but there were several tables who had appetizers. We tried the beef tenderloin with guacamole. The tenderloin needed salt, but was good with the guacamole. It was good, but it made me long for their great calamari.
It was a fun night, and I'm glad my mom watched the baby so I could do it. It's nice to have help.
Chinese food has always been a tough find for me in Tempe, but it seems my ex-boss found the answer for me in Lychee Inn. Oddly enough I never went there before even though I used to live in the neighborhood.
The menu was small for a Chinese restaurant, and nothing jumped out at me so I just got the yui shan spicy pork lunch special. The lunch specials come with a cup of soup and it wasn't actually a waste. The broth was very mild, but the noodles, vegetables, and shrimp all contributed to a pleasant mellow soup. It wouldn't be something I'd order, but it made me suspect that soups that're typically mild (wor wonton and sizzling rice) would be worth ordering. Lunch also came with a crab puff and a spring roll. I haven't had great crab puffs in years so I hoped my wait was finally over, but there wasn't any crab flavor in the cream cheese filling and the wonton wrapper was soggy. The spring roll was at least crispy, but near tasteless.
The yui shan spicy pork had onions, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, watercress, and wood ear mushrooms in a spicy garlic sauce. I was impressed with the heat of the sauce and how good it was. It was easily the best version of yui shan anything I'd had ensuring a return visit. The person I was with got lemon chicken, which sounded downright boring. I got a taste of it, and while the lemon sauce was only ok the fried chicken was very good. The hard, crispy batter suited the chicken and made me wonder if they had a sauce that complimented the fried chicken. That would be something worth looking for.
I was happy with lunch at Lychee Inn, but I was disappointed with myself to discover that worthwhile Chinese food was only two miles down the street from where I used to live.
Some semblance of normal life is actually returning to my life. Friday night I'll be going to AZ Wine for their Hartford Court Pinot Noir tasting. Lynn and I liked Hartford when we visited their winery in Sonoma, but I don't remember tasting their Pinots so it should be interesting. This weekend Lynn, the baby, and I are going camping up in Flagstaff.
I love to read, but since the baby I have very little time to read. That hasn't stopped me from trying though. I started Mark Kurlansky's "Salt", but the book bored the hell out of me. I like some types of history, but food history might not be one of them. I started reading Anthony Bourdain's "The Nasty Bits" instead, and it's been pretty entertaining. I wonder how long it's going to take to finish the book.
Gordon is always taking me to good restaurants so I like to return the favor so Monday I took him to lunch at Lemon Grass. When we got there Gordon was impressed with the interior. He would notice the only thing out of place, the cooler in the dining room.
We both got a Thai iced tea and were both happy with it. The little salad they bring out before the food was once again decent. Gordon thought the dressing tasted kind of like French dressing so I'm not the only one. I was going to get an order of spring rolls, but the waiter told me that lunch comes with a spring roll. I like the spring rolls enough to eat two, but I thought I shouldn't get an order this time. I noticed a blurb on the table about chubby dumplings (potstickers), and since I like pot stickers I gave them a try. The only other place I'd ever seen with "chubby dumplings" was Mint Thai Cafe, and they shared more than just a unique name because they looked the exact same; they were made with thin pasta with very little filling which made them flat for a potsticker. They were somewhat plain by themselves, but they were good with the vinegary sauce. I may get them again someday, but Gordon didn't care for them.
I like Thai curry, but I tend to forgo it for other dishes, but Murray's beef curry was so interesting the last time we were at Lemon Grass that I had to try a curry. Up until then I had avoided the dishes I love at Benjarong because I figured Lemon Grass would compare unfavorably, but I already knew I liked Lemon Grass so I got the curry from Benjarong that I love, the green curry with beef (medium). Lemon Grass' was thick with coconut milk, spicy, and had enough Thai basil in it to keep my happy. It was very good, and worth ordering again, even if it wasn't as great as Benjarong's.
Gordon's favorite Thai dish is gang kari [yellow curry with chicken and potatoes] so he had to try it. It was thicker than the green curry, somewhat sweet, and milder than my curry even though Gordon ordered it medium. It was a little sweeter than I like, but the potatoes were perfectly creamy, which made me like it a lot more. Gordon wanted it spicier, but he was very happy with it.
I was once again impressed with the vegetables and how well they were seasoned in the spring roll, but Gordon tried to say the frozen spring rolls from Costco were just as good. Now I will admit they are good, but Lemon Grass' are excellent.
I saved a little room for the fried bananas with coconut ice cream dessert because I love it and rarely see it on menus. The bananas were wrapped in rice paper and hot out of the frier so the contrast of crispy rice paper with warm, squishy banana was a great one. The coconut ice cream (the cold and creamy component of the dessert) seemed a little off to me, like it was a little short on one ingredient, so the dessert wasn't quite great. It'll get more chances because I like fried bananas too much.
After reading Seth Chadwick's visit to Thai Basil I realized there are a lot of similarities between the menu at Lemon Grass and Thai Basil. There was also a strong similarity with some of the food at Mint Thai too so I had to ask our waiter about it. He said his mom started Mint Thai and Thai Basil and sold them both off. Well mom should be proud because I think her current restaurant is better than the two she's left. In fact I'd have to say Lemon Grass is now my second favorite Thai restaurant (behind Benjarong). Gordon liked Lemon Grass too because when I talked to him yesterday he asked when we were going to go back.
I liked the potatoes in the curry at Mint Thai Cafe so much that I had to take Lynn there. Unfortunately my notes were almost nonexistent and my memory after eight months is almost nonexistent too. I remembered the point though, which was we were both disappointed with the meal.
I got a Thai iced tea, and noticed that they sold cans of soda for $1.50. The high price for a can seemed like they were discouraging anyone from ordering soda. We got the larb and chubby dumplings, and the dumplings were mediocre enough that I never wanted to bother with them again. The larb was disappointing, but I don't remember why. We had the rama beef curry and the yellow curry with chicken, and neither of us were happy with them. Once again I don't remember why.
So why even bother writing about this visit when it's so vague? Partially because this was the visit that cooled me on Mint Thai Cafe enough that it'll be a very long time before I visit them again, but mainly because I wanted to have this done before I wrote about Lemon Grass Thai Cafe again. It'll make sense tomorrow.
[Previous visit to Mint Thai Cafe.]
Gourmet magazine recently released their list of America's Top 50 Restaurants 2006, and there isn't one Arizona restaurant on the list. Is anyone offended by that? I'm not: as well as I eat here there's only one restaurant I'd place in the top 50 for the entire country. The web page doesn't state their judging criteria, but I imagine that being consistently great would be the first prerequisite. Beyond that I'd think a top restaurant would be unique because it shouldn't be easily duplicatable. There aren't many places I eat here that I don't think also exist elsewhere, but there are a couple. Janos in Tucson is a fairly unique restaurant, but they've never been as consistently as great as the first time I ate there. The only place I know of in Arizona that fits those two criteria is Cafe Poca Cosa in Tucson. They don't serve appetizers, but the menu changes daily, tends to be things you don't get at other restaurants, and has been consistently great over the course of years. A trip to Tucson would almost feel like a waste if I didn't get one meal there.
So think Gourmet is smoking crack? Think I'm smoking crack? What are the Arizona restaurants you think are tops in the country? I'm dying to hear because it'll give me new places to try.
By the way, I was happy to see Restaurant August in New Orleans on the list because I've been lusting after them ever since I heard about their food (which was actually a couple of years after I heard about the restaurant). I shouldn't care because I haven't eaten there, but I guess it piques my curiosity even more. Kind of like If I return to Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia, or Carmel I know I'll at least be checking out the web sites for named restaurants.
It's rare for me to be in the mood for French food, but I was Saturday night. I went through my mental rolodex of French restaurants and the one that sounded best was Zinc Bistro. It's Scottsdale on a Saturday night so I was reluctant to go there since I expected at least an hour wait, but when Lynn called to make a reservation they said there wasn't a wait. (They also said they only reservations for groups of six or more.) That sounded good to me.
We made the drive to north Scottsdale and were seated as soon as we got there. As much as we liked the ambience of Zinc Bistro during the day on our first visit we liked it even more at night. The lighting was low and there was an eclectic mix of music playing. The restaurant was also loud, but not so loud we had to shout.
It was a warm night so we were both in the mood for a white wine. The wine by the glass is limited at Zinc Bistro, but they do offer a couple of nice French white wines. Lynn got a Domaine William Fevre "Chablis" while I got a Muscadet in the hopes of something fruity. Lynn thought her Chablis was ok, but it tasted dry with a little fruit like any other Chablis to me. My Muscadet was acidic with some citrus and a background of other fruit flavors. It was good, but I think I would've been better off with the Trimbach "Pinot Blanc".
The only appetizer that looked good to me was the crab stuffed crepe until I noticed the bar menu, then I had all sorts of options. We agreed on the ahi tuna tartare and the gruyere fondue. The tuna tartare was served in three quenelles with toast, finely chopped cornichons, black pepper, and mustard on the side. The tartare was mild and the chopped boiled egg whites in it were an excellent match for the tuna. I liked the tuna best with the black pepper and the mustard, and thought the chopped cornichon made it taste like tuna salad. Lynn was equally happy with the tartare preferring it with just mustard.
We both thought the fondue was indescribably excellent. It came with crackers topped with fresh chives and slices of prosciutto. The only thing the prosciutto provided was some saltiness in the finish so I didn't think it was great with the fondue, but Lynn loved it. When I could taste the chive through the cheese it was a great match. We ran out of crackers, but I didn't want to waste the fondue so I dug through the bread basket for something to dip. There was a sourdough with a medium thick crispy crust that was even better with the fondue than the crackers because the sour flavor of the bread added a great finish to the fondue. It made me sad that I didn't have any prosciutto left because I think the prosciutto would've been excellent with the sourdough and fondue. Neither appetizer was unique or creative, but they were both excellent and things that would probably draw us back to Zinc Bistro.
We must've been in a beef mood because Lynn had the flat iron steak au poivre while I had the hanger steak. My steak was highly seasoned and quite tasty with the bordelaise sauce that came with it although it was chewy. Eventually my jaw even got tired from chewing it reminding me why I don't hanger steak. The steak also came with fingerling potatoes, fried shallots, and a bone marrow cream. The fried shallots were excellent with the steak, but fried onions always are too. Occasionally the fried shallots were too salty though. The potatoes were fully cooked, but I would've liked them a little softer. The bone marrow cream was interesting because it tasted familiar but I would've never placed it if I didn't read it on the menu. It was good with the potatoes and not so good with the steak. I was happy with my entree, but I thought the appetizers were better.
Lynn's flat iron steak was highly seasoned with black pepper, rosemary, and salt. It would've been tasty if it wasn't over salted. Lynn sent it back after a couple of bites. She got the Tennessee grits (grits with mascarpone, bacon, and chives) instead of fries so we ate that while they were replacing her steak. The grits were mild, a little creamy, and very nice. The bacon in every second or third bite was especially good. When Lynn's steak came back it had fries and was missing the black pepper crust. The fries were crispy, occasionally salty, and tossed with some herb that wasn't exactly pleasant. Lynn was a little pissed about the lack of black pepper on her steak au poivre. The steak was good, but it needed the black pepper. When the waitress came by to check on things Lynn let her know that the steak was only too salty and it still should've had black pepper on it. The waitress said the crust was a premade mix. Um, ok, no one in the kitchen good enough to crack some black pepper without throwing too much salt in it?
There was a dessert special of chocolate souffle so I asked our waitress if it was eggy. She said it was cakey so we got one. The souffle came with chocolate sauce that was poured into it when it was served. It was indeed cakey, but it didn't have enough chocolate flavor for either of us. Lynn got a glass of Dow's "Vintage Port 2000" out of curiosity since we have a couple bottles of 2000 port (not Dow's). The wine had a lot of berry flavor along with the occasional super shot of sugar. It should be an interesting wine in about 15 years, but I think I'll stick to tawny ports in the meantime.
I hadn't thought about Zinc Bistro since our first visit there, but I was happy enough with our dinner that there'll probably be less time before our next visit. Lynn thought it bad customer service not to apologize for the salty steak and at least take the dessert off the bill. I'm not as ticked off about it, but I wasn't the one who had to send a steak back only to get one in return with only a quarter of the seasoning. Someone in the kitchen really is heavy handed with the salt though.
One day Long, Daniel, and I went out to lunch at Moe's Southwest Grill because Daniel said the place was good, and no one was in the mood for anything specific. If I knew it was a burrito franchise I would've passed. There was the usual menu on the wall with a line to order a burrito with rice and beans in it (Moe's also sells tacos, quesadillas, and fajitas though). I got a "Triple Lindy" (a burrito with rice, beans, choice of protein, shredded cheese, salsa, and guacamole) with steak and black beans. It also came with chips that were ok. To my surprise my burrito was actually good; the steak was flavorful and tender if a little skimpy and the salsa in the burrito had a good fresh flavor. It wasn't great, but it was definitely better than Taco Bell. I'm not a fan of burrito franchises, but if you're in the mood for a quick hearty meal then Moe's is a good option.
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