The Guild

So since M$ released this on Xbox, I checked it out. Actually kind of funny.

All Day Thanksgiving 2008

This year we decided to deep-fry as much as we possibly could. However, after watching this:




We decided we shouldn’t just deep-fry a turkey, we should also deep-fry a duck, and three cornish game hens. Lets just say that turkey is definitely enough. We also came to the conclusion that people who burn their houses down by deep-frying turkeys are idiots. Seriously, with a thawed bird, and a bit of patience, it was the most uneventful part of the day.

NXE and me.

Ok, so I have been kind of absent from this online journalling thing for some time now. I think it might just be time to get back on that horse. In an effort to kick off that new effort, I present the world with a comical likeness of me.

LOST...the series that lost its way

 I have as of yet not finished the third season, but I am coming to the conclusion that instead of actually fabricating some sort of narrative, the writers just have a fishbowl of ideas that they pull from right before they start shooting.  Every single episode only confuses me more.  Now I know I am no super-genius, but man, you got to give me something.  All I have right now is confusion, and its leading me to very uncomfortable places right now.  I want some answers!

HOLY SHIT! I went skydiving!

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. For some reason it had become a certain mom's desire to go skydiving once, so as to cross it off her life list. Since she was here visiting, we decided to help her out and all go together up to Skydive Snohomish throw ourselves to the earth.

All I can say is that it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. I have never, ever, ever done something quite as exhilarating as jumping out of an airplane. The feeling of looking down 13,000 ft towards the ground, then suddenly not feeling the plane was so absolutely incredible that I am feeling myself limited to only a select few superlatives. When you jump, you suddenly have no physical reference whatsoever. That feeling of being supported by something physical is completely gone. There is no ground/floor/plane at all keeping you up. Then after what I was told was a minute, you get yanked up and are suddenly floating slowly down towards the ground. Breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking.

At this point, I am seriously thinking of getting licensed. Seriously.

Ratatat...

L and I went to the show at Neumo's last night. Awesome. I was sure that I liked Ratatat before I went to the show, but now I am even more impressed. Though I'm not sure of some of their fans. This one woman brought her clearly newborn baby to the show and just stuffed those yellow ear plugs in its ears. Those barely work on adults how the hell do you think those are going to work on a baby who can't tell you if its working? Bad form.

The opening band kind of sucked. 120 Days, this band from Norway clearly on a Cure kick but grew up listening to U2. They were kind of emo but way to melodramatic and annoying for my taste. I came to the conclusion midway through their set that they sounded like the opening synth music that plays at Marcus Cinemas (Ok, not exactly) informing you that you need to turn off your cell phone. But either way they sounded like they were heavily influenced by the Cure, U2 and maybe the wave of bands in the late 90's like Sparta and the Appleseed Cast. Very much riding a wave that has long since passed Seattle.

Ratatat kept us waiting for a while between 120 Days and their set, which I felt was kind of rude and annoying, since they only have about 4 items to set up for this entire show. I mean, a guitar, bass, one drum and two keyboards does not require a 45min break between bands. Come on. So finally they start it all up by apparently pressing play on a DVD player, which had great potential to suck, but ultimately really added to their show.

Then entire show was planned to correspond with the visualizations happening behind the band so it clipped along at a nice pace without the band feeling the need to yell, "Come on SEATTLE." They just kept on playing and the crowd just kept on getting into it. The keyboardist was dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld and trying to stand on his stool, but was clearly in a frame of mind that did not lend itself to balance. The other two guys just kept rocking out; super high energy.

If only UrbanSpoon had a "meh" rating...

I have to say that this Twenty-Five for $25 thing is pretty good. You get exposed to restaurants you wouldn't necessarily patronize. You are guaranteed good food; at the very least edible. And for a kicker, you don't lose your shirt.

With that in mind, off we went to Earth & Ocean. People were raving, chops were being licked, expectations were being established. We get there, and not being part of the effete bourgeois, were a bit taken aback by the desire to take out coats. I mean this is lunch right. This is where they plug our pie holes and get us out of there to get more people through the line. Well I guess that's what I'm used to. I'm a Bakeman's man. In and out, thats a good motto for the working man. Lunch is a meal that bridges the hunger pains between breakfast and dinner, not something that requires multiple forks. Ok, so clearly I was not in the right frame of mind. I reorient myself and hand my coat to the maitre d' and get geared up to be wowed.

We get seated, served water and bread, and handed menus. The Twenty-five for $25 is clipped to the front with its three choices for each course. As I scanned down the listing, I start munching on some of the affore mentioned bread. The first thing I notice is that this bread, though beautiful and dense, is old. It may not have been very old, but it was old none the less. the cut end of the bread had the characteristic dried out tough texture of stale bread. In my opinion, a big no-no for any restaurant, be it the Waldorf or Wendy's, but especially for a restaurant charging $14 for a grilled cheese sandwich. I'm sure this is not the standard for E&O but is kind of put us off on the wrong foot.

When the waiter came back, he informed us that the salmon cake, the entree two out of the four of us had originally wanted, had been substituted with striped sea-bass. Buzzkill. Ok, so we look at all the entrees again and make decisions. I, in a moment of panic, blurt out that I want the sea-bass with the pork rillette for an appetizer and the cheesecake for desert. I felt pretty safe, pork then fish then cheese. Good vibe coming from that lineup.

The meal was well paced with the appetizers coming out about 15 minutes after we ordered. The pork rillette was an interesting triangular piece of congealed pork and fat, served with endive and shallots with a balsamic dressing. The flavors mixed well together but there was just something so-so about the whole dish. Everything blended well but with no overarching punch that made me remember what it was I just ate.

The entrees followed shortly after we finished the appetizers with the woman uttering some slightly unintelligible words of description as she placed the plates in front of us. As a tip to all waitstaff, if you are going to take the time to tell me about the dish I am about to eat, address me, not the pepper mill.

The sea-bass came on a bed of cooked cabbage topped with endive and, drum-roll please, a balsamic reduction. So basically I had the exact same dish as the one right before it but substituted onions and pork for cabbage and fish. Great. Again, like the first course everything was well prepared and mingled well together but overall lacked any real flavor. It just didn't have anything that made me want to get the dish again. It wasn't bland, but it wasn't flavorful. Somewhere in the great grey middle of taste, lies this food and unless you are using the Magic Bullet, food should never be grey.

Since we had a deadline to reach that afternoon, we decided to get the desserts to go. Back at the office I confronted my Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake. Again, like the two dishes before them, it lacked real flavor. It was good, but it wasn't good enough to want to get another piece. And that is a travesty. Dessert from a top restaurant that does not make me want to get another serving is a sad sad thing.

All in all, I would have to say that the word of the day is mediocrity. From the first course the the last, everything seemed to be mediocre, nothing shined but it didn't flop either. Unfortunately if the idea behind having Twenty-five for $25 is to fill seats then I have to say this was kind of a flop. After having a $15 lunch from a top billed restaurant, I really have no desire to go back and spend $100 on a dinner.

A birthday, a frenchman, and 4 scallops vs. 5 scallops

For a birthday surprise, actually more of a treat/present since I told her about it, I decided to take the Lovely Lady out to Maximilien for a birthday dinner. I made reservations via their online form, which they confirmed via email a couple of hours later, for 7:30. I wish I had made them just a little earlier since the view is absolutely fantastic, and it being 7:30, we missed the sunset. You still get the ferries coming in and going out of port in the forefront and the larger ships out a bit farther, and of course the natural beauty of the sound, even without the sunset, the view is, how do they say it, incroyable!

The dining room is elegant without being pretentious, with soft lighting, and spacious tables. Mirrors hang over all the walls to give the appearance that the space is much more open that it probably is. Tables were covered with crisp white linens, and Jacques Brel was piped in over the sound system. All in all very comfortable.

It being the day after St Patty's, neither of us were really in the mood for wine, so we didn't really study the wine list, but it did look well rounded with wines ranging the gamut of price. Instead the Lovely Lady got a sparkling lemonade with "fraise" and I got a Pike Pale Ale.

The service seemed to be split between two men. One, an American, seemed to think that he should adopt a clearly snooty and kind of dour attitude with us, which was fine since he took our orders and then didn't come back for the duration of our stay. The other, a Frenchman, was a delight. He took the time to explain the specials, with a heavy accent and a smile no less, and was attentive and courteous the entire meal. Not oppressive but not absent either, really very good service.

After hearing the specials, one venison the other scallops, we both decided we would want one of them so we ordered them both. On Sunday's however they have a further special. Sunday Supper allows you to pick between oysters and french onion soup for an appetizer, any of the entrees, with exception of the specials, and a dessert, all for $30. Since the scallops were the "catch of the day," I took the deal.

Everything we ordered was excellent. The oysters were fresh, the bread crusty and delicious, the entrees divine. The venison was perfectly cooked, medium-rare, in a red wine sauce with carrots, zucchini, and potatoes au gratin. Excellent, each layer of potatoes was firmly entrenched in cheese, herbs and spices. Truly perfect. The scallops with green beans, mashed potatoes in a citrus cream sauce with shitaki mushrooms melted in my mouth. They were buttery and delicious and perfect too. In fact what I found out was that I essentially sacrificed one of my scallops for both an appetizer and a desert and then discounting the entree price by several dollars. So all in all a very good deal. Though halfway through the entree I really wished I had one more scallop. They were amazing.

Dessert was delicious, not as amazing as the entrees, but still very good. We shared the piece of cake that came with the Sunday Supper. It was a layered raspberry cake with fruit puree drizzled over the top. Light and flavorful it was an excellent end to the meal accompanied with some coffee with cream.

All in all it was an excellent place for a nice intimate dinner. And with the Sunday Supper it was actually kind of a bargain for the quality of the food and the level of the service. Somewhere on the internet it was voted the best place to kiss in Seattle and as of this writing, I really can't argue with it.

Thirtsy Thursdays: The Nite Lite

Ah, the Nite Lite. I love this place. Its a dive. A really really deep dive. A benchmark in dive bars. The dive bar all other dive bars should be measured against. Ok, so maybe its not that divey, but its got a certain je ne c'est quoix. As per usual we go in shortly after the work day has ended. The bar is not full but it is certainly not empty with most of the patrons being pretty well drunk. Thats pretty much a criteria in my book for a bar being a dive bar. Actually lets write some rules.

To be a dive bar you must:

1. Be dirty...check
2. All the furniture must be old, vinyl must be pealing, tables must be wobbly...check
3. Must have multiple patrons seated at the bar completely drunk while it is still light out...check
4. Drinks must be dirt cheap...check ($1 PBRs)
5. Drinks must be stiff and huge...check (though I did not have any hard liquor, I saw the shots being poured, they are nothing to sneeze about, that bartender meant business)
   
6. Food must be fried and questionable...check (four tacos and a PBR on styrafoam plate for $5)
7. There must be video game machines on the bar where you spot the difference between pictures of naked ladies...check

It looks like the Nite Lite lives up to all the criteria set forth. Ok so thats established, its a dive bar, but on the other hand there are some very un-dive bar attributes. They have really nice TVs above the bar for watching sports. They have a diarama of a bridge to nowhere. They have vinyl on the walls. Well I guess that makes it more of a dive bar. Whatever. Oh, they have a trough urinal in the bathroom. One of those really old ones where it looks pretty much like a sink that is really low to the ground. On second thought, that might have been a sink at one time. Who knows. All I know is that the Nite Lite is great. Its unpretentious and comfortable. All in all, a really good place to go get plastered.

Morning Musume vs. The Lizard

Last night I heard about this amazing spectacle. A combination of wack-a-mole and Godzilla movie, with steak attached to girl's forheads and a big hungry lizard. The Japanese have the best TV ever.

Fighting the man is hard work

I mean seriously, how long do I have to be a customer, paying my bills on time, to get a promotional rate from time to time? Seriously, why fight me so hard on this? I am actually kind of surprised. When I call a telecommunications company like, say a phone company, after a couple of bouts my call eventually gets routed up to a supervisor and things get patched up. Comcast is not that kind of beast. They just flat out refuse, calling my pseudo-bluff of termination. I say pseudo-bluff, because I will follow through with it, but ultimately I'll just get the service by having a certain someone sign up instead. See, working the system. Comcast you will fall, oh yes, you will fall.

A Valentines Account Ending with the worst cake ever.

So my lovely lady and I were trying desperately to figure out something to do on Valentine's Day. We had toyed around with getting reservations at Le Gourmand but they had a prix fix menu that day that would have put dinner for the two of us in the $300 range. Since we are in the throws of moving, we decided we should save our money and do something low key.

So of course we naturally decided on going to TGI Fridays. Yes, that's right, the kitchy commercial chain with bubbly little teenagers serving up some serious flare. We thought it was funny that we should do something so suburban, so banal as go to Fridays on a romantically special day. It was funny up until she picked me up from work and we looked at each other and wondered was it really as funny as we both thought it was, or was it really just kind of funny in a theoretical way. Ultimately it was the fact that the nearest Fridays is in Kirkland. And frankly neither of us wanted to deal with rush hour on 520 just for a giggle and some Jack Daniel's BBQ Chicken.

So instead we went to the International District to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants A&A Noodle Place. I have admit that I actually am not sure that that is the name, since all it says on the outside in English is "Noodle House." So I may be recommending the wrong place but am pretty sure the address Urbanspoon.com has on file is the correct one. I have eaten there several times now, and working your way through their extensive menu is proving challenging since everything I have tried has been truly exceptional.

We got a dish called "Singing Chicken and Chestnuts," one of their "Hot Pots." It comes in a sizzling hot earthenware bowl with bits of crackly chicken in a garlicky sauce with vegetables, bok choi, soft chestnuts. It does take a little talent to eat the chicken with chopsticks since it still has the bones in it, but ultimately it is incredibly rewarding. We also tried the Curry Beef. I have to admit we have had that several times now, but it is really tasty and always a good combination with other dishes.

At Noodle Place, always order to share. Not only is the eating experience always better when you share it with others, but they don't bring all the dishes out together anyway. Each dish comes out when its ready. So drink the tea, enjoy each other's company and eat everything as it rolls off the range.

After dinner we were feeling like a little bit of desert so we walked around the area searching for something interesting and sweet. A short distance from Noodle Place, we came across Cake House. Do not go to Cake House. From the outside it looks like a nice little cake shop. The cake looks good, the guy behind the counter was friendly. (He gave an extra piece of cake for free) Everything was a go until we got the cake home. It was horrible. We tried the Mango, which really was a gamble from the get go, and the Black Forest, which was, we thought, a sure thing. Wrong. Both cakes were dry, tasteless, and the fruit parts of them were jellied and gross. The best parts of the whole thing were the malted milk balls on the top of the Black Forest cake and the caramel ice cream we had bought a couple of days earlier.

I have tried quite a few things that people from other cultures eat as desert and find delicious, but to my western pallette seem unappealing. So I don't know if the cake experience was just a cultural misfire. Like jellied bean curd. Not a fan, but many many people seem to think its the cat's pajamas. Really when I was eating it, I was wondering how a business with such a terrible product was staying in business, so some people must really like it.

That said, we had a great Valentine's Day, but next time we're pulling out all the stops. Maybe we'll go to Applebees.

This is kind of rediculous.

I am an idiot.

Ok, so after I placed the order with Macy's for that little pot, at lunch, I decided to go into a Macy's. How fortuitous that I happened to be by a Macy's at that point. So I go to Housewares, browse through all the nifty gadgets, find my way to Cookware. There it is. For the exact same price. And of course, minus the shipping. So not only that, but there is the entire line of Belgique pots, including the size I actually wanted, the 6 quart variety, and it comes with the "strainer lid." Which, by the way seems really quite well designed. The lid locks in with these two notches and a quarter turn. The lid is then secured by the two, kind of burly, tabs. So you shouldn't have one of those classic infomercial moments when all the pasta falls into the sink because its so hard to strain pasta using such a confusing gadget as a strainer. I don't know, we'll see in the next couple of weeks how well it fares. Long story short, I buy that one.

Now the sad part of my story is that I called up Macy's and asked to cancel my order, since I now had a pot and no longer needed to pay for shipping for another, albeit different, one. Unfortunately for me, the order had already gone to the warehouse, and even though the projected shipping date is three days in the future, there is no possible way for Macy's to cancel the order.

The moral of the story, sometimes its better to let your legs do the walking instead of your fingers.

Copper-Bottom 3-Quart Soup Pot

Ok, so I just bought this pot online from Macy's for $15! Actually, I really have no idea if that is a really good deal, but I think that any pot that doesn't suck for 15 bucks is a pretty good deal.

I recently parted with my pasta-boiling pot and need a new one. So I started looking for a 5-8 quart stockpot. Something versatile, yet inexpensive. I wanted to avoid anything with aluminum, silicone, or a non-stick surface. Something with a solid, sturdy bottom for good heat conductivity. My search took me to several hundred different stockpots in that range. Even some in the $800 range, which is rediculous. So that pretty much leaves me with a small selection of medium to expensive pots.

So clearly I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but since I kind of need something smaller than a large stockpot as well, I figured it was a pretty good deal. However, I am wondering how the copper bottom is going to work with my electric stove. Is it going to be to sensitive with the cycling of the element? If only I could get the even heating of gas in my kitchen, my cooking experience might be almost perfect. If it ends up being a good pot I might think about buying the 8 quart version.