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Our New Orleans trip was too short for me, but you take what you can get. This is the best and worst of the trip.
Category |
Lynn's Pick(s) |
Mario's Pick(s) |
|---|---|---|
Best Appetizer |
Gnocci with crab, parmasan, and truffle - Restaurant August Foie gras boudin with pickled cabbage and sauerkraut soup - Restaurant August |
Gnocci with crab, parmasan, and truffle - Restaurant August Fried green tomatoes with shrimp - K-Paul's Kitchen |
Worst Appetizer |
Noodles with crab - Restaurant August |
Chili prawns - Stella |
Best Entree |
Prime beef tenderloin with porcini and smoked bone marrow - Restaurant August |
Blackened chicken and jambalaya - K Paul's Kitchen |
Worst Entree |
"Surf and Turf" (filet mignon and shrimp) - Stella |
Seared scallops with andouille sausage hash - Stella |
Best Dessert |
Chocolate crunch bar - Restaurant August |
Bananas Foster - Brennan's Bananas Foster French toast - Stella |
Worst Dessert |
Bananas Foster - Brennan's |
N/A |
Best Lunch |
Bacco |
Bacco |
Worst Lunch |
Horinoya |
Horinoya |
Best Dinner |
Restaurant August |
Restaurant August K Paul's Kitchen |
Worst Dinner |
Stella |
Stella |
Best Service |
Fortuna's Dixie Gyro |
Stella |
Worst Service |
ACME Oyster House |
ACME Oyster House |
Best Trip Experience |
Smoking cigars at Pat O'Brien's |
N/A |
Worst Trip Experience |
Visiting Bourbon St. and feeling old |
Thinking I didn't take any good pictures |
Honorable Mention: seared foie gras with huckleberry at Stella; grilled oysters at ACME Oyster House; mixed greens with honey-truffle vinaigrette, fontina, and candied pistachios at Bacco; "Bacco Shrimp" at Bacco; bread pudding with buttered rum sauce at Bacco; scrambled eggs and truffles at Restaurant August; fried oysters with blue cheese and buttermilk ranch dressing at Restaurant August; and the hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's.
So I haven't written in ages because I'd been too busy obsessing over cameras I'm most likely never going to buy (e.g. the Canon "Powershot G9" and Ricoh "GR Digital II"), my usual flickr addiction, getting ready to go to New Orleans, being in New Orleans, sorting through pictures of New Orleans, eating well when I'm not in New Orleans, and suffering the most persistent case of writer's bleh that I've ever had. Merry Christmas and hopefully I'll return to a decent schedule soon (at least until my Nintendo Wii arrives).
Typically I hate restaurant guides because whatever their priorities are they usually seem different from mine (which is the food). I do have a certain respect for the Michelin Guide though; the starred restaurants I've eaten at have all been excellent (except for Le Meurice in Paris, which was maybe above average) even if I think their rating system is pointless. Recently Michelin released their first guide for Tokyo and they gave 150 restaurants one or more stars, which is the most of any city (e.g. 65 in Paris). I'm pretty surprised Michelin gave that much credit to Japanese restaurants, but I'm not surprised knowing the level of food available around Osaka/Kyoto. I do wonder if they starred any ramen places.
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The kid has been climbing onto the couch for a couple of weeks now, but only a few days ago he learned to climb on top of everything else. Now it's just a matter of time before he really starts falling off things. He's also found his groove lately so he's been dancing to everything. Not only is it cute, but I don't have to worry about him hurting himself while doing it.
Lynn and I were at Lee Lee the other day getting what we needed for a few dinners (Belizean rice and beans, stewed chicken, Puerto Rican rice and beans, and tonkatsu) when I noticed their sake selection was only half of what it used to be. Even worse, they no longer carry the Nanbu Bijin "Southern Beauty", my favorite sake. I may not drink sake often, but I'll certainly miss my favorite.
Due to Lynn's work schedule she didn't want to make Thanksgiving dinner, and I prefer not to cook, so we decided to try a pre-made Thanksgiving dinner. Flancer's Cafe has good food and we liked the sound of their menu (turkey, gravy, stuffing, green beans, baked tomatoes, twice baked potatoes, cranberry-orange relish, and ginger-pumpkin pie) so we ordered from them.
Wednesday when Lynn brought the food home in big tin pans I felt like I we were being treated to cafeteria food. Pre-sliced dead looking turkey breast, scoops of stuffing, and pumpkin pie cut from a sheet didn't have me convinced we were in for some good eating. It made me wish we just decided to go out for dinner instead and get something completely non-traditional like some great kalbi and various kim chis (assuming Takamatsu was open).
Thanksgiving Day arrived and we reheated everything. It smelled pretty good so maybe everything would be good. Dinner started well with a roasted red pepper and tomato soup from Pacific Natural Foods that we picked up from Costco. The soup was mild, creamy, and very delicious with a little fresh basil to set it off. Too bad the rest of the meal wasn't as good.
The turkey was a little chewy and tasted only vaguely like turkey so it disturbed me. The gravy did a good job covering up the flavor of the turkey. The cranberry-orange relish tasted a lot more like orange than cranberry, but it was also very good at keeping me from tasting the turkey. The stuffing was good where it got crispy from reheating in the oven, but the interior was mushy and grossed me out. I've never understood twice baked potatoes because it seems like a lot of effort to make something that's not nearly as good as baked or mashed potatoes. These actually were pretty good. The green beans were the best item because they were still crunchy and were topped with spicy sauteed onions which was the right mix of traditional, creative, and delicious.
I've never been a pumpkin pie fan so the ginger-pumpkin pie didn't sound like something I'd like, but it almost was. The pie filling was creamy and mildly spiced in a way that would've been enjoyable if the fresh ginger didn't completely overpower it. We also had an apple pie from Marie Callender's, which was a disappointment too because it was too sweet to taste the apples.
So that was my first Thanksgiving takeout experience. Never again.
Last weekend Lynn and I went to Tucson to celebrate our fourth anniversary. Lynn loved the Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast so much when we stayed there in September we had to stay there again this time.
We got to Tucson too late to eat lunch without risking our appetites for our 8 o'clock dinner reservation, but we were starving though so we walked around downtown looking for someplace for a little nosh. We stopped at Ascolese's Italian Ristorante and had the bacon wrapped scallops in tarragon cream sauce. We were both shocked that there was only four small scallops in the dish. For $9 I expected either more scallops or bigger scallops. At least the scallop nibblins were good as was the sauce. Lynn said she couldn't taste the scallops for the bacon, but she appreciated the sauce too. We ended up sopping up all the sauce with the bread, but I couldn't figure out if we thought the sauce was that good or if we felt like getting $9 worth of something. Obviously I'm avoiding Ascolese's from now on.
Our dinner was at Miguel's, a restaurant we'd never been to. Most of our food was very good, but our waiter brought out our appetizer, soups, and salad all at once. It didn't ruin the meal, but it kept it from being nearly as enjoyable as it should've been.
Breakfast at Royal Elizabeth was an amazing chile relleno casserole. We've got the recipe so maybe that'll make an appearance during one of our rare breakfasts.
Later we picked up some sandwiches from Beyond Bread and headed to Sonoita to do some wine tasting at Callaghan and Dos Cabezas. We tasted so many wines at Callaghan that I don't remember what I thought of all of them other than most of them were medium bodied with some fruit and fine tannins. My favorite of the bunch was the "Buena Suerte 2006" (37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Petite Verdot, and 31% Merlot), which tastes like it'll a killer wine with a couple more years of age on it. Callaghan always does a great job with their dessert wines so it was no surprise that we liked their "Spirited Red Dessert Wine 2006" (50% Tempranillo, 50% Petit Verdot). It wasn't as complex as some of them have been, but it was invitingly warm and velvety so equally hard to resist. At Dos Cabezas the star was the "La Montana 2005" (65% Petite Sirah, 35% Merlot). It was very tight, but when those tannins loosen up in a few years it should be great. Lynn and I still don't drink at the level we did before she got pregnant so we shouldn't have bought as much wine as we did.
The trip was fun, but the combination of wine and driving from Sonoita to Phoenix was exhausting. In the future I think we'll spend more than two days in Tucson.
La Purisima is my favorite bakery in Phoenix and probably the best place to spend $10 (you can't believe how much you can get) so I'm estatic now that I finally got to stop at La Purisima's new Phoenix location at 24th St. and Indian School. The new location is much smaller than the Glendale operation and only has a couple of display cases, but the selection is almost the same. All of my favorites were there such as conchas [those tasty pan dulce with sugar on top], ojos [round cake with puff pastry wrapped on the outside edge so they resemble eyes], strawberry empanadas, puff pastry stuffed with cheese, and green pork tamales. Everything tasted exactly the same too. I also tried an item that looked like a football shaped puff pastry. Unfortunately it was only puff pastry with a little syrup and sugar on top so it was too plain for me.
I hope the Phoenix location is as successful as the Glendale location and with food as good they make it would be a shame if they weren't.
Mrs. White's Golden Rule has been serving soul food for I don't know how long, but I'd never been there because I could never remember where they were located. When one of my coworkers wanted to give them a try, and offered to drive there, there wasn't any reason for me not to. Jefferson was torn up due to light rail construction so it probably would've been easier to take Washington to 8th St., and 8th St. down to Jefferson. Mrs. White's was pretty busy so more than a few people must've thought it was worth working around the construction to eat there.
The menu at Mrs. White's was interesting because all meals cost the same regardless of which entree and two side dishes you order. Between the eight or ten entrees only one caught my eye, the smothered pork chops, but they were out. Since the owner of Lo-Lo's Chicken and Waffles is Mrs. White's grandson the fried chicken sounded like a good bet. Cabbage and red beans rounded out the meal.
My three pieces of fried chicken were crispy and perfectly cooked, but bland. The chicken needed salt, which has never been a problem at Lolo's. There wasn't anything missing in the sides though. The cabbage was kind of sweet and delicious. The red beans tasted like barbecue beans without all the cloying sweetness.
My coworker, who got the smothered chicken, said it was good, but not $13 good. That summed up how I felt too, but the right smothered pork chops would change that.
Long ago I was told about Baiz Market, but I could never remember its location so I never stopped there until I committed it to memory. Baiz Market is a large middle eastern market with a deli in one corner where they even bake their own bread. I picked up a Coke from the cooler across from the register and ordered a beef shawarma (which was recommended to me) and a zatar bread ("thyme pie" on the menu) because it was fresh and looked good.
The zatar bread was ready first so I found a table so I could sample it while waiting for the shawarma. The bread was like a thick pita coated with sesame seeds, thyme, and who knows what else. The bread itself was good, and the zatar seasoning was good too, but it needed something else to round out the flavor. Maybe the version with tomatoes would be better? The shawarma had the beef, onions, and tomatoes wrapped in a thin pita like a burrito, which made sense since the pita was very similar to a tortilla, and the entire thing was pressed like a panini. Definitely the most unique shawarma I've ever had. I didn't care for the sandwich though; the marinade sometimes made the meat taste like it was off and there were too many raw onions and too much parsley for my tastes.
I found lunch very disappointing, but I also noticed a roast chicken on the menu, along with cheese/meat pies, so I'll be returning to try a few more things.
Southwest Airlines processed my free ticket Wednesday, but I couldn't use it for the flight to New Orleans that I wanted. It seems like these capacity controlled free tickets are almost as bad as free tickets from other airlines. I say almost because I was able to book Lynn's ticket to New Orleans a month ago using her free ticket, but Lynn and I were never able to use those free tickets from US Air.
What I find insulting though is this week Southwest changed their frequent flier program so you can trade two free tickets for one "Freedom Award", which works the way the free tickets used to work before they started screwing them up two years ago.
I still believe our free Southwest tickets will be useful so we're flying to New Orleans on Continental so we don't use Lynn's free ticket. Part of the reason was that I didn't want to spend more money with Southwest, I'm vindictive, but Continental's price was better than Southwest's and their arrival schedule was better for us. I had to spend extra money to do it, but so long as can use our free Southwest tickets for a flight that's at least $200 (shouldn't be difficult) then we'll save a good amount of money. I'm hoping to go to Philadelphia next year.
One of the ironies of having a site and only a little time to write for it is the situation I'm in now where I haven't written about some of the places I've eaten at the most like Hana Japanese Eatery, Taggia, and La Stalla. I get started on writing about them, but seem to eat there again before I ever finish what I started. Between the three restaurants I probably have about a dozen visits to write about. I hope to finish writing about at least one of those restaurants before I hit a full dozen visits per restaurant.
Another irony is that I don't write about the places I eat at the most because once I know what I like on the menu and I've written about it there usually isn't much value to repeating it. For example, I doubt anyone needs to hear how often the baby lamb chops at Va Bene are great once it becomes obvious that they're consistently great. Occasionally there's something new or inconsistent worth mentioning in a quick blurb though so that's why I write Quick Bites (in case I never mentioned it before).
For some reason the lamb and beef shawarma at Cafe Istanbul has me hooked. It's not great, but it's quite good and with a mango juice and a cup of lentil soup makes for an excellent meal. The mango juice always tastes like fresh, ripe mangos making it significantly better than the strawberry juice, which just tastes like frozen strawberries. The lentil soup has always been subtle instead of outstanding, but its resemblance to chicken noodle soup is comforting. At least until the last time I had it when they substituted turmeric for the chicken. There was never much chicken in the soup to begin with, but it did round out the flavor of the soup in a way that turmeric couldn't.
I may not have had any entrees other than the shawarma at Cafe Istanbul, but I do get to try appetizers on occasion. The mjadara [lentils with rice and onions] tasted like nothing but cold, plain lentils. It was very disappointing especially considering that Lynn makes better lentils. The soujuk [spicy Armenian beef sausage], on the other hand, was great. The sausage was served sliced and pan fried with garlic dip and pita, and the unique sweet flavor was tasty. It's too bad they don't put the soujuk in the lentils.
I don't write much about Cyclo these days because I figured out what I like there a long time ago and there isn't much of the menu I haven't tried. I did miss one appetizer though, the banh xeo [crepe with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts], so I tried it the last time I was at Cyclo. The crepe was light and the pork was tasty as hell. The flavor is a little plain for me, even garnished with lettuce, cilantro, mint, and fish sauce, but it was worth trying.
I think the desserts are the weak portion of the menu at Cyclo, but when Justina said they had green mango and rice I had to try it. It was my first time eating green mango so I was surprised it was crisp and tasted like apple. The rice was purple(?) rice so it was chewy, not sticky, but creamy enough to be good with the mango. I'm not sure I'd get it again, but it was fun to try.
I normally love the fries at Delux, but the last couple of times I've been there the fries have been undercooked. That last time was especially odd because some of the fries were raw potato crunchy even though they looked cooked.
I'm an extremely happy camper since Seth Chadwick mentioned that my favorite bakery, La Purisima, is opening another branch on the east side of the Valley at 24th St. and Indian School. That means I don't have to drive quite so far out of my way for pan dulce, empanadas, other assorted tasty baked items, and green pork tamales.
Creole and Cajun restaurants are few and far in between in Phoenix, much less good ones. When Lynn noticed Cajun Seafood Corner on one our rare times heading up Dobson I had to try them. Eventually. I forgot they existed a couple of times before they popped into my head as a dinner option one night.
From the outside Cajun Seafood Corner had the windowless look of a bar so I hoped they had a real menu. When Lynn, my mom, and I entered the first thing I saw was the bar, but a quick look left revealed the restaurant tables. With cajun in the name I hoped the menu would be distinctly cajun instead of creole, but most of the dishes would be available at any creole restaurant. Lynn homed in on the crawfish boil (distinctly cajun), but when our waiter told her crawfish were out of season so they'd have to use frozen for the boil she opted for something else. I wondered how they would handle the whole seasonal crawfish thing so I was impressed that he mentioned it up front.
I wasn't going to drink anything, but when I saw that they had Abita Turbodog I couldn't help getting one for old times sake. The cold filtering makes for a smooth beer so the ultra dark Turbodog had the usual dark, caramelized flavors without any bitterness. Lynn got a Long Island ice tea that she said was ok. She then got a 2 Degrees Below Winter Ale from New Belgium Brewing that I thought was going to be similar to the Turbodog, but it tasted like a bright, hoppy Indian Pale Ale to me. It was citrusy so I liked it, but Lynn didn't.
Lynn has an unhealthy attraction to cheesy dips so she had to try the crab and spinach dip with pita chips. Lynn's first bite was cold even though mine was hot so it was sent back to be returned fully heated. It tasted like the standard spinach-artichoke type dip, but the occasional bits of crab tasted crabby (which is bad). At least the pita chips, crunchy and seasoned, were excellent. Lynn liked the dip more than I did, but she wouldn't order it again.
There were loads of fried items on the menu, none of which appealed to me at the time so I got the fried cod because it came with cajun fries, which the menu claimed were addictive. The fries were battered, lightly seasoned, and very crispy with a molten, creamy potato center. They actually were kind of addictive. Two large pieces of cod came coated in a hard batter. The fish was good, but the fries were better. The dish also came with corn which tasted canned and dead.
Lynn and my mom both spotted the seafood gumbo on the menu and got samples. It was a thin file gumbo that wasn't as good as Baby Kay's, but still good. My mom got a bowl, but Lynn didn't care for it so she got the jambalaya instead. I've only ever liked one jambalaya (from K Paul's Kitchen in New Orleans) so I was surprised that I liked Cajun Seafood Corners'. It was hearty, a little spicy, and there was a harmony to most of the ingredients. The only thing I didn't like in the dish were the clams, which were overpowering. Lynn was happy with her jambalaya too, but she would've kept the clams and chicken out of it. My mom liked the gumbo, but said she would've been happier with the jambalaya.
I couldn't pass up beignets for dessert, but I should've. The beignets were served with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce(!?) and one look revealed two major problems: first, the beignets were overcooked, and second, they were thinner than they should've been. I didn't want to send them back because I knew it would only fix the first problem and the second was just as serious. The beignets were so overcooked that I had a difficult time swallowing the least overcooked part I could find so sent them back anyway. The second batch wasn't burnt, but still too thin making the beignets dense and not at all enjoyable. Call me a traditionalist, but I don't think they should've been served with chocolate sauce either.
Lynn was a little irked because nothing was taken off the bill even tbough we had to send back two dishes. I wasn't surprised because they didn't seem like the type of restaurant that would. The jambalaya was the only thing that stood out, but it's enough for Lynn and I to return. We'd also like to try the crawfish boil, when in season.
When I saw the title of the photo essay/book "My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals" I was curious. Not curious enough to buy the book, but to at least check out the dozen or so chefs featured in this preview. Many of the chefs chose comfort food, but a fare number of them chose some sort of special meal. I find their comfort food choises more interesting, but I did look up the kaiseki restaurant Ferran Adria mentioned.
My final meal came to mind immediatly: rice and beans, stewed chicken, and stewed pork. Basically, my favorite Belizean dinner that I've eaten for as long as I can remember. It's great food and possibly the first great food I'd ever eaten. Lynn's answer was a mishmash of her favorite dishes like the fondue from Zinc Bistro and the foie gras and lentils from Vincent's on Camelback.
So what would your last meal be?
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Yesterday I flew to Nashville, Tennessee because I was one long distance flight away from a free ticket on Southwest Airlines and $200 to Nashville was cheaper than $400 to New Orleans. Free tickets are now capacity controlled on Southwest so there's no guarantee that I'll be able to use the free ticket to go to New Orleans once I get it and it cost me the better part of a day in unnecessary travel so I'm not exactly sure it was worth it.
Since I had three hours in Nashville before I returned to Phoenix I wanted to get something halfway decent for lunch. With that in mind I should've left the airport, but it would've required effort that I didn't want to expend. The only place I found that looked halfway decent in the airport was Capital Hill Grill. That was until I looked at the limited menu that was almost completely devoid of local color. The only promising dish was a pulled pork sandwich from Whitt's Barbecue and fries. The pork was moist, but the smoke flavor that defines barbecue was completely missing. The tangy tomato and vinegar barbecue sauce didn't do anything for me either because there wasn't anything to it other than tanginess. The fries were thin and crispy so there wasn't anything to complain about there. At least the food was reasonably priced at $7, unlike most other airports.
So I didn't see Nashville, except from the airplane. I could see hills and lots of trees, some of which had changed color so it looks like it would be a beautiful place when the trees are further along.
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One night when I didn't know what to eat for dinner I went through cuisines continent by continent until something sounded good. The only thing that did was Southern food, specifically shrimp and grits, but since I don't know of any restaurants that serve shrimp and grits in Phoenix Lynn, my mom, and I went to Baby Kay's Cajun Kitchen for barbecue shrimp instead. It was a nice enough night that we sat on their patio.
The barbecue shrimp were six plump shrimp with rice and a dark sauce that basically tasted like a spiced up Worcestershire sauce. Baby Kay's doesn't make the best barbecue shrimp I've ever had, but it's satisfying when the mood strikes.
Our entrees came with salads and I remembered to mix the horseradish dressing with the blue cheese dressing to create the ultimate tomato dressing. My mom and Lynn both got a sample of the seafood gumbo and enjoyed it enough to get a bowl. I had the gumbo years ago and it was a thin file gumbo that pretty much only tasted like salt. My how the gumbo had improved; the gumbo was still thin, but now it was dark with enough spice to make me happy with it too.
I got the deep fried game hen with dirty rice, the only entree I know I like at Baby Kay's. The hen was nicely seasoned, perfectly fried, and great as usual. The dirty rice was dry and pretty good. The dish also came with broccoli which was overcooked to mush. I would've liked more dirty rice instead.
The chocolate bourbon sundae (butter pecan ice cream with a bourbon chocolate sauce and pecans) was a big hit last time so we got it again. Once again the sundae was great and between the three of us we finished it off.
Dinner was excellent and had me satisfied in a way that usually only happens when I eat exactly what I'm in the mood for.
It's that time of year again so last weekend Lynn and I went to the Arizona State Fair. Naturally I went there to take pictures. I took a few pictures with my Ricoh GX100, but the panoramic Horizon S3 Pro was my weapon of choice. I ended up getting very frustrated because the S3 Pro occasionally didn't work resulting in wasted film. We actually did enjoy some of the rides and thanks to a tip on the Chowhound Southwest board, had a tasty Navajo taco at the northern most fry bread stand. I would've liked more meat in the beans and salsa instead of Tabasco sauce, but it was the best Navajo taco I've had in a long time.
Below are all the photos I liked from the GX100. I picked up the film from the S3 Pro today and I was surprised how many of the pictures I liked despite outright losing 10% of the photos I could've taken. It'll be a while before I get a chance to edit those pictures so I'm only posting them on flickr.
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The last few weeks the baby has been with Lynn's parents and we finally got him back this week. Less than 12 hours later I almost threw my back out picking him up out of the crib. Now it looks like the kid has his first cold. He's been having a difficult time sleeping because he's been congested which means we've been having a difficult time getting sleep. Good times. At least Lynn's parents taught him some new tricks.
There isn't much on tv that I go out of my way to watch, but I've been hooked on Top Chef since the first season. While I was watching the Season 3 finale Hung mentioned something Anthony Bourdain said in his blog. Bourdain is one of my favorite authors when he's writing about food so I had to find his blog. It turns out the blog was specifically about Top Chef. As a fan of the show I found his writing insightful and entertaining enough that I read the entire thing.
Bourdain wasn't the only person Bravo enlisted to write about Top Chef as there are plenty of other hosted Top Chef blogs. I looked at a few others to see if there was anything interesting and to my surprise Tom Colicchio's was very good. I think Colicchio is a huge asshole on the show, but he wrote some things that're worthwhile if you're an aspiring chef or just interested in cooking. Maybe Colicchio isn't so bad.
The other night I finally caught the first episode The Next Iron Chef. When I saw the commercials I recognized a few of the competing chefs, including my instant choice for favorite, John Besh. Ever since I read about his gnocchi with crab and truffles at Restaurant August I knew I'd have to eat there the next time I visited New Orleans. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, but seeing Besh's food when he competed on Iron Chef America strengthened my conviction that he's the type of chef I love. I'm sure he'll go far regardless of who his competition is.
The Next Iron Chef was fun, which it should be because Food TV shamelessly stole the formula from Top Chef.
I wasn't in the mood to eat anything in particular for dinner, but I refused to fall into the Taco Bell trap so I tried someplace new to me, Manna Cafe. They're a Korean restaurant in a neighborhood that probably has more Korean restaurants than anyplace else in the Valley (Takamatsu, Chodang, Korean Barbecue, and Hodori) so I was surprised when they opened. The restaurant is set back from the street, but their sign in Korean made their whereabouts obvious.
I conflicted between ordering something that I thought I'd like, spicy barbecue pork, and something completely new to me, monkfish stew. I went with the stew because the waitress said it was spicy. Before the stew arrived six side dishes were brought out: shredded cabbage, shredded pickled daikon, tofu, potatoes, fish cakes, and kimchi. The daikon (sweet) and fish cakes (very chewy) were decent. The shredded cabbage had some sort of creamy dressing on it that I didn't think went well with the cabbage. The tofu was seasoned in a way to make the tofu pretty good. The kimchi was unusual because it was still crunchy and lightly sweet instead of highly fermented or super spicy. The potatoes were my favorite item because they were creamy and a little sweet. Now that I think about it there were too many sweet items.
The monkfish stew arrived frothing and smelling kind of fishy. It's a good thing Lynn wasn't with me because I know the smell would've made her nauseous. It was the typical Korean stew I've had before with a red broth, greens, bean sprouts, onions, and some sort of tuber. The monk fish was in chunks, bones, skin and all. The bones didn't bother me much, but the skin made the monkfish taste earthy and fishy. I ate what I could strip off the bones with my chopsticks, but I didn't bother with the chunks with skin on it. The broth was pleasantly spicy and the vegetables were good so I'm sure their beef stew is worthwhile.
My first visit to Manna Cafe was good (excluding the monkfish), but there wasn't anything unique on their menu or that stood out enough for me to choose them instead of Takamatsu or Hodori. Knowing me I'll try them again anway.
Left again to my own devices I headed to El Tlacoyo for their amazing carne asada torta, but wouldn't you know it, they're closed Wednesdays. I didn't know what to eat so I just wandered east on University until something sounded good. I passed a dozen Mexican restaurants, but I wasn't in the mood to try something new so I went to Tacos el Caporal for some green chorizo.
I got a jamaica, four carne asada tacos, and one carnitas taco. To my dismay they don't make green chorizo anymore. The jamaica had a good flavor, but was almost Kool Aid sweet. The food came out hot in about five minutes, real fast food. The carne asada was a little salty on its own, and a squeeze of lime made it taste even saltier, but dressed with white onions, cilantro, and their medium red salsa it was excellent. Even after eating four of the tacos I was debating whether I could eat a couple more. The carnitas were similar to the carne asada in that they were a little salty and made saltier by a squeeze of lime. It was somewhat porky so even with the cabbage, white onions, cilantro, and green salsa it was only ok.
When I was finished I was horrified to discover that I only had $2 in cash on me. I was trying to figure out how I was going to pay for dinner when I noticed that Tacos el Caporal accepted credit cards. I'm not used to seeing taquerias that accept credit cards, but it saved me from an awkward situation.
Dinner was basic, but tasty and reminded me that despite my frustration with taquerias being almost the only choice available for authentic Mexican food in Phoenix they can still be highly enjoyable.
[My last visit to Tacos el Caporal.]
When Lynn leaves me to my own devices one of two things happens: I'm not in the mood to eat anything in particular, procrastinate eating until I'm starving, and then eat something crappy, or, I eat something good I rarely get to eat. The last time Lynn went out of town I went to try Dragonfly Vietnamese Kitchen (Lynn isn't a big fan of Vietnamese food that isn't from Da Vang), but they're closed on Mondays so I went for Best Hong Kong Dining, an old haunt.
I got the only two dishes I remembered liking at Best Hong Kong Dining, the roast duck and Shanghai style chow mein (thick noodles, pork, onions, cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms). The roast duck was tender and oily with just a bit of sweetness to it. The fat underneath the skin wasn't fully rendered, but it was tasty. The chow mein was slightly oily with a light, sweet wok flavor that was good in a comfort food sort of way. There was enough oil between the two dishes that if I didn't have a pot of hot tea to wash it down with it would've been a very quick meal.
It was a good meal, but one that I'm only suited to eat every once in a while. I'll have to go through my archives to see if I can find anything else I used to like at Best Hong Kong Dining.
[The last time I wrote about Best Hong Kong Dining.]
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Someone asked me how my Ricoh GX100 was working out for me so since I was going to write about it eventually I decided to write about it now. The short answer is I love my GX100. It's important to know that I'm a film guy who likes grain, but hates digital noise. The GX100 pictures can be classified as noisy, but to me it resembles film grain so it doesn't bother me at up to ISO 400 for color photos and up to ISO 800 for black and white. The AUTO ISO setting is cool because it maxs at ISO 154 and you can use the AUTO-HI ISO setting to set the maximum ISO even higher.
I never noticed before I got the GX100 and had the ability to switch between 3:2 (same as 35mm film) and 4:3 (almost every digital camera) aspect ratios, but seeing the two side by side I greatly prefer 3:2 because it looks more deliberate to me. Some people might be good enough to crop down to 3:2 or 1:1, but I've always needed visual aides for composure. I'm also lazy so I don't like cropping if I don't have to.
There have been some things written about the GX100 having less dynamic range than other digital point and shoot cameras, but (not that I've done any tests) I haven't noticed a difference between its dynamic range and my old Canon Powershot G5's; both cameras have the exact same issue of blowing the sky out when it's overcast.
.'))
The one feature I miss from my G5 is the flip out lcd panel, but I know it would make the GX100's body larger than I'd want it to be. Oddly there are features that both cameras share that I use regularly on the GX100, but never did on the G5. For example, I love the look of black and white photos from the GX100 so I use the custom settings to quickly switch into black and white mode and allow for higher ISOs, but I never found a use for the G5's custom settings.
As much as I love the GX100 it's not all perfect. I wish the aperture of the GX100 would remain constant when zooming (when possible) in aperture priority mode. It could be my imagination or that I didn't catch the aperture going far past the point of diffraction when zooming in aperture priority mode, but it seems the lens doesn't perform nearly as well at full zoom as it does towards the wide angle. It's a good decision on Ricoh's part because anyone attracted by the wide angle should care more about the wide angle, but I would prefer not to notice the difference. I also wish I could set a minimum and maximum ISO in the AUTO-HI ISO setting so my black and white photos could start at ISO 400 instead of 80 (which is too smooth for my tastes in black and white).
My old Canon Powershot G5 was a good tool for taking pictures. My GX100 is not only a great tool for taking the pictures I want to take, but because of its strengths it compels me to take pictures I otherwise wouldn't.
I think the best way to determine if a camera is going to work for you is to look at pictures from that camera. Look at my flickr account and other peoples to see if the camera can do what you want it to.
