Sakura

I despair. Will I ever find a great sushi bar?

Make friends with Sushi

Got it?

Here's your first friend, he's difficult to like but once you do you'll just love him. Forget all about the gonad thing.

The name is Uni and it's sea urchin roe that is prepared gunkan style.

Chimayo

Okay, so I’ve done some traveling for the store lately and I’ve been able to eat hither and yon. I skipped writing about both of the restaurants in Reno because they were not very special. Why be negative? I wrote about the place in Houston because it was cool.

Now I'm in Utah looking for a good meal and I go to Chimayo in Park City. It was indeed a good meal, but oh my god, do they ever fleece the tourists in Utah. This post is going to be pay attention to cost.

Okay, so I sit down and order a glass of wine while we wait for the rest of our party to arrive. It was $8.75 for a glass of an average Rioja, a bit expensive but not so bad compared to other hotels and restaurants.

Instead of an appetizer I order the pumpkin bisque soup, $9. This was actually very good and an unusual taste. It starts out kind of pumpkin pie-ish, but later on the flavors blend with the dried fruit in the soup and it ends very well. The salads and appetizers were in the $15 range.

Entrée. I go with the London broil of elk, medium rare per the waiter’s recommendation, $39.

Good presentation, but a bit skimpy on the food. The dish appears to have been waiting under the heat lamp longer than it should have, and I believe this is a fairly common problem for large parties, especially with inexperienced chefs. I suppose I expected more meat when I ordered this, but then again I may have been thinking steak house portions. The elk has a slight liver flavor to the meat and is prepared well. This is the first time I’ve ever eaten elk and I’m not sure I’d list it as a favorite, but I’m willing to try it again. The sauce and salsa that accompanies the meal is a nice accent.

Another glass of wine, $8.75.

I skip dessert. The waiter was okay, efficient, if a bit slow and not friendly.

Let’s see that’s 9 and 9 and 39 and then 9 again which equals $66. Then add a 20% auto-gratuity for parties of six or more and you get $77.

$77.

You’d think you were at French Laundry or something.

Restaurants the 3rd week of April

What's on the list this week?

Chimayo, Happa Grill, Burger King, Kazoo, Sbarro, Todai, and Top Dog. Also catering at Park City's Canyon Resort and a nice dinner at the U of U football stadium.

What do I remember? Soft shell crab sandwich and London broil of elk.

Got Hunger?

I say a burger and fries is as good as it gets.

Whiskies of the World 2006

Okay, apparently my dick head pool friend calls me about going to curling but forgets to mention Whiskies of the World 2006.

No soup for him.

OJ

Original Joe's

I love the place because of the large Italians working the door and the bar. It makes you think this is the day job for wiseguys.

The food? Pretty good, but not great. I think they do a very good prime rib. The pastas are normal. The menu is very old school. I think the menu was written back in the late fifties and has never changed. The portions are large and it is always busy and open late.

A lot of my friends seem to love the place, but me? Not so much. I don't mind going, especially when someone else is picking up the tab, but it would be very unlikely that I would go on my own.

Dim Sum My Way Part 2

Now you are ready to eat.

Here's how we got to this point: Dim Sum My Way Part 1.

On my first visit to a dim sum place with my father and brother, we sat for about 20 minutes in a restaurant in Chinatown not knowing what to do. We had our tea and our water and sat staring at each other wondering, WTF. We did notice the old ladies pushing carts about and began to formulate a hypothesis when... A busy looking Chinese business man enters the restaurant, sit s down and starts yelling. The old ladies came a running and soon he had a bunch of food. He was soon a happy man, and we were happy that he was happy, and we were happy that we now knew what to do. The man soon buried himself in his newspaper and we soon began to eat.

There you have it, the secret to dim sum is to order food from the carts that go round and round. In some places the carts are supplemented or replaced by trays and in others there are no carts. In those places you order from a piece of paper. You just need to figure out what kind of a dim sum place you've stumbled into.

When ordering off of the carts the little old ladies will make a mark on your check which represents the item that you ordered. As you'd imagine some items are more expensive than others, just be sure you watch the little old ladies as they stamp your check, sometimes they will double stamp.

When eating some people will take the small saucer and fill it with hot chili paste and then add a little bit of soyu to the dish. Then they will mix it up and use it as a dip for some of the dishes, ususally dumplings. Dim sum is for the most part small bite sized portions and to a large extent a mixture of meat and vegetables wrapped in a flour pancake and formed into dumplings. But, dim sum can also be stuffed vegetables and chicken feet and sticky rice and just about anything small and tasty.

So, now you know what to do and how to do it, but what should you order?

Here's my list of dim sum staples that are always good.

• Siu mai -pork and shrimp in flour wrapping

• Har gow -shrimp dumpling
  

• Cha su bao -barbequed pork in flour dumpling this one is baked
  

• Cha su bao -barbequed pork in flour dumpling this one is steamed
  

• Foong jow

• Cheong fun -flour wrapping with various meats inside, when served they pour a sauce over the top
  

To be continued....

I suck at blogging.

I am a lazy bastard. This blogging this is hard to do. I find that I am a lousy first draft writer, so whenever I do these things I tend to re-write everything, a bunch of times. Over and over. Then, I go back and edit stuff. Like most beginning writers I also tend to be over critical, it is easier to be negative than positive. Hopefully, this will help me develop a clearer voice and some kind of writing style.

Roast duck soup with vermicelli noodles at Joy Luck Place Cafe. I've been going there since they opened in the mid-nineties. The Ranch 99 used to be a gourmet supermarket and the whole complex was a dying strip mall.

The menu at this place keeps getting worse. They seem to take off the stuff that I want and replace it with other stuff, that I don't want. I used to order Wonton Noodle Soup with Roast Duck and a side of Chinese broccoli in Hoisin Sauce. It was cheap and good. Now, I just get the noodles and duck which is half the soup and it costs more. It also doesn't seem to taste as good, but maybe I now have a little more knowledge about Asian foods. The place is still packed and I eat quickly as I sit between an old man and three old ladies. It's early on a Sunday night.

I really wanted to try HC Dumpling that just opened, but it is very busy. It has a waiting list at 6pm on Sunday. I also don't really know what to order. I need an expert, I'll have to find one or go there with the ex on a "how's it been going since we broke up" dinner.

I am a bit disappointed with the food this evening. I want more, but don't know what I want.

Karen Mok

Karen Mok
likes to eat
apples.

The Strip House

Can I get a "Yee Haw!"?

Okay, The Strip House was definitely not what I expected and another pleasant surprise in Houston. I might have been too harsh in my judgment, maybe Houston is a real city.

Here's the restaurant's nearly impossible to find website: Strip House. I believe they are part of a mini chain of fine restaurants. I will forgive them the chain thing as it is getting harder and harder to find truly independent restaurants.

Anyway....

The walls were red and the porn was vintage. Nothing hardcore, but old black and whites of burlesque dancers from the old days. I know, you'd think it would be tacky, but the way it was done, well, worked. I, of course, am always a fan of creative use of porn. I think our society could do with more porn and less repression.

I was there at the invitation of one of our larger business partners, a good bunch of people. They invited about 40 or 50 clients in several seatings. I arrived at the restaurant with a co-worker and because we were there before the host we naturally hit the bar.

My friend and co-worker had a drink. I don't remember what, but a classic mix of alcohol with one other liquid. I asked for an Oban which is a not so common single malt scotch. Your better restaurants are now carrying it, but I was thinking no way in Houston. I don't know who was more surprised, the waiter or me. He was surprised that I'd order such a thing and I was surprised that they had it. On the other hand, the bottle was unopened, which is probably because nobody drinks good scotch in Houston.

Twelve bucks for a scotch; BevMo will sell you the bottle for $40. It was twenty bucks for two drinks. I guess Houston doesn't know they're supposed to be charging less because they're a second rate city.

The vendor reps showed up and we were escorted into a back dining room. The tables were large banquet round tops and set for 10. We had 2 and a half tables in the early group. The tables were already pre-appetizered with several seafood platters. I was at the half table. I love seafood. Lots of people do not love seafood, this was turning out to be a good evening. The appetizer consisted of a bunch of oysters, yum, and a bunch of other seafood delicacies. These included crab legs, very large prawns, a tuna sashimi poki mixture, and a scallop ceviche salad. It was me and some lady from Maine who battled over the oysters. And as to the rest, I seemed to be doing most of the eating. I love seafood and this stuff was pretty darn good, not great, but fairly fresh. The oysters did not come with names, and they were fresh, but I didn't get any "wows" while eating them.

I did in fact eat too much of the appetizer and didn't have enough room left for the steak, which was a new york strip, rare. The steak was very good and cooked just right. I always order rare and usually live with medium rare or rare, as most restaurants just don't know how to cook steak, but not in Texas. The steak was rare and tasty, but again there was no "wow". Unfortunately, I was still pretty full from the appetizers and was unable to try the sides. I didn't see the point in eating creamed spinach and sacrificing steak space in my stomach. I finished the steak, and was wiped out.

I didn't do too much dessert, either, for the same reasons, but the place had a truly decadent twelve layer cake.

So, The Strip House was definitely a plus. I am writing this way to far after the fact to do justice to the food, or the blog, but trust me despite this boring post it was a good experience. It raised my appreciation for Houston and I would go back in a minute.

BBQ and Tunnels

Spending some time in Houston.

Can't swing a dead cat without hitting a BBQ place. There's good brisket in Texas and most BBQ places do good meat but lousy side dishes.

I had some BBQ at 2 or 3 places and it has all been pretty good, but not good enough to write about. Well, not write more about.

"What can I git yuh?"

"BBQ-ed ubiquitous with a side of slaw."

Houston is apparently a city of mole people because they have this incredibly vast underground network of tunnels that connects most of the downtown buildings. The tunnels are full of business people going to and fro. There are also a good number of restaurants down there, but most seem to be cafeteria style for a quick lunch. I thought Houston really sucked, but when I saw and walked through the tunnel system I changed my mind a bit. I tell you the tunnel system seems to be the best part of Houston and one of its few redeeming features.

Lucy Liu

Do you think Lucy likes foong jow?

Dim sum at Dynasty Seafood on Story Rd.

I went to Dynasty Seafood on Story Rd for dim sum and was very disappointed with what I found. The place has continued to slide downhill. I had been going to the other Dynasty Seafood in Cupertino and found it better overall, but not really that good. So, I was not sure what I would find when I returned to the Story Rd location.

What I found was not to my liking. Here's my story of tea and woe. They let a very few Mexican guys act as almost waiters ie bring tea. The nice Mexican waiter asked me which tea would I like to drink. I asked for Pu erh which is Po lay in Cantonese. My bad, I ordered using a Mandarin word in a Cantonese restaurant. I did so because that's what most people call it. Pu erh just happens to be po lay also. The Mexican waiter and the Mexican busboy had no idea what I was talking about so I had a Chinese waiter intercede, and she explained the difference. The Mexican waiter got it, he seemed like a sharp guy. He then told the Mexican bus boy to get the tea, and this guy didn't seem as bright and he promptly brought me a steaming pot of...Jasmine tea. Now, I don't mind Jasmine for sipping, but when I'm eating I find it too floral and prefer Oolong or Pu erh with my dim sum. Fine. Me being the non-confrontational guy that I am just went with the flow and did not complain. Later I had a mini conversation with the Mexican waiter and he asked about the tea and the differences in the name, I explained and mentioned that this was really Jasmine, but that Pu erh was a fine tea. He then opened the pot and confirmed that despite our opening conversation the other guy had brought Jasmine tea, and offered to replace the tea. I declined, while a bit irked, didn't mind too much. He then spoke to the busboy in Spanish and asked about the tea and the guy just gave a sheepish shrug.

Oh, what about the dim sum? Well, it sucked. To be fair I came late, about 1:30pm, so the fresh stuff was gone. Still, it sucked even for dim sum that had been in the cart for a while. The flavors were not that great and all of the dim sum was just the regular stuff you always see. The restaurant really should rotate out the stuff that gets soggy and bring in fresh food. Despite the late hour the place had a large crowd, well worth the money to maintain some level of quality. Right? I mean, I'm not going back and I eat dim sum all of the time.

Water? Yes and this place generally has decent service, but I didn't get a refill. No water refills. Actually, I am always shocked when I get a waiter who conscientiously refills my water. It's worth a big tip from me.

So what's the verdict? Dynasty Seafood on Story is bad and getting worse. I would avoid the place unless you are in the area and are really Jonesing for some dim sum and you don't have a car that will take you across town to a much better place.

Dim Sum My Way--A glossary of terms and standards Part 1

Okay. I go to dim sum or yum cha quite a bit, and those terms are synonymous. Allow me to explain, and in fact this entire series of posts will be an explanation of dim sum as I know it in the SF bar area of California. This will also be an early look at my criteria for dim sum and perhaps an early look at some of my rating scales for restaurants in general.

Dim sum is food and the term is cantonese for "pieces of the heart" or something similar, you can generally translate things loosely or more literally. And you can't get the same answer twice from two different people. And yum cha means "drink tea". And so, people go to yum cha and when they do, they eat dim sum while drinking their cha(tea).

K. Don't care? Well stop reading cause this post is all about this kind of shit.

I use dim sum because that is what most people know. My X who is Mandarin Chinese always used the term yum cha, but what the hell does she know? In any case, dim sum is Cantonese and I think they also use that term, but all of your American types say dim sum and so do the Chinese when talking to Americans. So here, it will be dim sum.

Dim sum is generally a lunch time food and is rarely found on a dinner menu. It can also be found in some Asian supermarkets and take-out markets, but is usually offered at large Cantonese style Chinese restaurants. It is served during the brunch hours with most places opening at 10am or so, and shutting down at about 2pm. By shutdown I mean they start setting up the dining room for dinner, so those who don't like eating while waiters wheel huge round tables around soon get the hint and depart, or if you don't care, the carts will eventually disappear at about 2pm and certainly well before then the food quality will go down as the kitchen has stopped cooking.

You can recognize the better places (and the once greats) because they have a waiting list going around noon, so plan accordingly and be prepared to wait up to an hour. Koi Palace up the peninsula has a huge wait. And it goes without mentioning that all good Asian restaurants should be full of Asians, if the round eye ratio is high, then the food is probably not so good. That is why that Zing's Asian Bistro in downtown San Jose went belly up. They had a bad round eye ratio. Too many white people means bad Asian food. White waiters at Asian restaurants means bad food. Think I'm racist? Yup. Get over it.

On the other hand, your Asians are just as susceptible to being tricked by a crafty restaurant as anyone and some once great restaurants are still quite busy despite a deplorable lack of quality. That is to say, they were once good, but something happened and they now suck. This is generally caused by new owners who just want money but are unwilling to do the hard work that great food requires of them. The departure of a great chef is also a factor in a restaurants slide down the food quality scale.

When you enter a restaurant for dim sum you tell the hostesses the size of your party and are escorted to a table. The hostesses are generally young Chinese girls wearing all black, either a dress or a business suit. I like to rank the hottie factor of the hostesses, but that is because I am a pig. On the other hand, I have never seen a male host, or an old female hostess for that matter. The old ladies push the carts and the men are cooks or waiters. So, I feel my hotness scale is appropriate given the sexism of the restaurant business. I guess I am a bit of a racist and sexist pig.

The hostess will take you to your table which is generally round and drop the blank check with an annotation for party size. Chinese restaurants and Chinese family's like to eat around round tables and even though some restaurants will have square tables, these are generally just for parties of one or two. Yum cha is a social event and you don't see too many small parties of Chinese. The small parties in a dim sum place are generally your other Asians and of course me. I dine alone. I draw some quizzical looks at times, but I don't care. I dine alone. I am alone, it is me against the world. World v. Me.

Apparently, for dim sum it is okay to arrive early and sit at a huge table waiting for the rest of your party to arrive. I have seen a single person at a table for 10 camp out for up to 30 minutes waiting for the rest to arrive. I wonder why this is allowed? Must be a cultural thing.

Once seated a waiter will appear and ask you for your choice of tea. You can tell a waiter because he is wearing a colored jacket and a bow tie. Tea in China is like soda pop in America, there are plenty of flavors. If you look very foreign--foreign to dim sum that is, the presumptive waiter will probably not bother asking and will bring you Jasmine tea. Jasmine is just fine.

Here's my list of teas that I generally drink:

• Jasmine, most common tea served in Chinese restaurants it is very floral and I believe it is made by mixing tea and flower petals together. This is what you'll get if you say, "bring me anything". Not a bad choice for dim sum, but I prefer this one for other tea times.
  
• Oolong, sort of like Jasmine but not as floral, this is one of my favorites for dim sum. It is also supposed to be very good at cutting grease and aiding in digestion. So, drink Oolong and load up on the deep fried dim sum.
  
• Pu erh or Po lay, the first is the Mandarin term and the second Cantonese. This tea is also very good for digestion and has a nice earthy taste and a darker color. It takes a little bit of getting used to.
  
• Dandelion, has a Cantonese name of course, but I don't order it. I've had it once and didn't appreciate it, perhaps I will try it again and see if I was wrong.
• Green tea, more grassy taste, not a big fan yet, but starting to like it more and more.
• Higher quality versions of the above teas exist as well as some other versions of your Black, Green, and White teas. I would really like to try the one picked by monkeys, I just wonder if they're really monkeys or just stupid guys.
  

So, order your tea and ask for a glass of water and a soda or a beer or some wine. I've seen it all, drink what you'd like. You are allowed to deviate and do what you like. Though, traditionally, it is just tea. I always add ice water. I need a lot of liquid, I think I'm pre-diabetic, and I need lots of fluid.

End of Part 1

Join us in our next installment of Dim Sum My Way.

Maggiano's

Went to Maggiano's with a big group of people from work. We did the family style menu in which we chose two of everything. We got food a plenty. We had food coming out of our ears and noses. The service was very good considering how crowded the restaurant was at the time. The waiter was very nice.

What about the food? Well, it was good. Did I say there was a lot of food? Yes, plenty of food. The appetizers were nice and crisp. We had calimari and zucchini, both fried with a coating of panko or something similar. We also ordered fettucini alfredo, spaghetti bolognese, salmon, and chicken piccata. We added sides of broccoli and asparagus, to help out the vegetarians among us. But, we really didn't have to, you know, because there was a lot of food. Yes, even giant clusters of broccoli.

In case you are wondering, Maggiano's provides good sized portions.

There was, you see, a bunch of food. It is family style so for 10 people we would get a giant platter and one large plate of whatever we ordered in two's. Two pastas, each on two different plates. Two entrees, each on a large platter and a big plate. So, if you're scoring at home that would be two huge platters of entree and two large plates of, well, entrees. That's four holding vessels containing appetizers, four plates of pastas, four plates of entrees, but only two large bowls of salad and it would seem two plates for dessert as well. Two huge wedges of chocolate cake on a large platter and a big wedge on a large plate. We did, however, get four bowls of spumanti for our second dessert.


I don't know how you can make great food with such large crowds and gigantic portions. I don't even think you should expect great food, so I was impressed with the quality of the meal. I was honestly expecting the food in a chain, family style Italian restaurant to suck. It didn't suck and I was pleased to find that the flavors were nice and that in general the food was of good quality. The vegetable could have been a bit fresher. The asparagus not so mushy. The salmon not so cooked. The menu a bit more creative, but these are things you can forgive in a restaurant with such enormous portions.

I did long at times for smaller plates and cleaner tastes and fresher vegetables and unique menu items and innovative cuisine. I didn't get any of these things at Maggiano's, but I did get a bunch of food.

I have a big wedge of chocolate cake in my fridge, want some?

Zhang Ziyi

I wonder if Ziyi likes food. Does Ziyi dream of xiao long bao? If Zhang Ziyi is a foodie, it would make her the perfect human specimen. She would be the goddess of food and beauty.

What the Pho?

There's a new Vietnamese restaurant down 10th street on Keyes. It's called Pho Tau Bay Noodle House. I was really impressed with the Pho and the service. Now let's not go crazy, this is a family run Asian restaurant, so good service means most of the people smiled and were not surly. Heck, here they were actually nice. No water refills, but nice and water in an Asian restaurant means cha-ching.

The pho was actually pretty good, the broth good but not exceptional, though I actually like it a bit bland. I don't know for sure, but I don't think they include MSG in their broth. MSG can give the broth a bit more flavor, but I generally have a reaction to MSG, something in the back of my throat that tells me it is present. That's why I usually avoid Hoisin sauce as most brand contain MSG. I didn't have that feeling here, and it was nice, and I hope that they do not use MSG.

The veggie tray was good with plenty of sprouts and both basil and dandelion greens--you don't always get dandelion greens. I ordered my Pho usual: Chin, Nam, Gau, Gun, Sach. That is basically three kinds of beef and tripe and tendon. I really like this place because the tendon is a huge hunk of gelatinous goodness, but on the other hand the tripe was a little under represented. I know, I know, tripe you're thinking tripe is just chewy and bland, but I disagree. Tripe has a wonderfully subtle flavor and texture which goes great in soups. As to the beef, it was good; I don't usually do rare steak, Tai, because I prefer the fatty content of brisket and its eventual effect on the broth, though one day I would like to get the plate of rare Tai on the side and then swish it into the broth before eating it super rare.

I also ordered spring rolls, goi cuon. The spring rolls were fairly fresh, not made on the spot, but I would say they were made in the last few hours, you can sometimes tell by the wrap. The large bowl was huge and I didn't finish all of the noodles, which I normally do, but I made sure I fished out all of the meat.

You know, I always seem to order the same things when I do Pho, I would really like to get some input on other things to try. I need to find a friend, maybe a hot friend with a smoking hot body, to guide me into new horizons with regards to Vietnamese cuisine. I did seafood Pho at another place once and was a bit disappointed, I should try it again, but I just don’t want to risk a bad experience. I did Bun Bo Hue once and didn’t dig it. I am always in the Vietnamese shopping mall on Story and see the huge plates of greens and other yummy looking stuff. I just need a guide to this type of food.

Anyway, I am happy to have found Pho Tau Bay and I now have a go to place for Pho, which was something that was missing from downtown San Jose. They say they’re open until midnight, so I’ll have to check it out on the way back from APA pool league night.

Oh, and sorry about the bad pun on top.

Henry's Hi Life

Went to dinner with some friends at Henry's Hi Life, the venerable steak and BBQ house near the Pavillion where the SJ Sharks play. I had heard that the place had gone a bit down hill recently, and yet, I was still looking forward to going. I had been there for lunch many years ago, but had never gone for dinner.

I arrived early and had a beer at the bar. Fat Tire. It was warm and had that odd keg taste. I guess not too many people at this joint, and it is a joint, were into Fat Tire. To bad, it's my favorite beer, currently and I was a bit sad as I felt this was an omen of things to come.

So, the friends show up and we get a get a table fairly quickly. They used to have a chalkboard signup system to get your table, but went to numbers. There is a hostess who controls things and takes your order before sitting down--to speed things up. Not a problem, we order standing in the bar having cocktails. I had switched to Glenlivit, neat.

We sit down and our salads are already at the table. The lady explains which one has which dressing and then quickly leaves. The salads are in those small wooden bowls that we've all seen. Not the type of thing you would expect in a real restaurant, but what you might expect to find in a pizza place. However, Henry's Hi Life has got the "joint" thing going, despite the $29 porterhouse. Fine. Average to poor salad, just lettuce and a few croutons.

The entrees arrive at the table. I had ordered a rare porterhouse. The porterhouse is on the plate with a baked potato. Sour cream in a paper mini-cup and garlic sauce and butter on the potato. It was a potato. My rare porterhouse was not so rare, more like medium except near the bone. This is a big time pet peeve with me. In non-steak restaurants I sometimes order blue rare because I know they don't know what they're doing, so blue rare shows up medium rare which I can live with, but in a steak place I expecting a little bit more. What the fuck, a rare steak shows up medium? I did not send it back because I'm always afraid of what someone will do to my food. So I suffer in silence with my way over cooked steak. Very disappointing.

I'm told the ribs that my friends ordered were okay but not exceptional. The NY strip another friend ordered was also just okay, she said the ribs were a bit better than the ribs. She had grabbed a few from her husband who had the babybacks. I was unable to steal a rib as the two guys with the babybacks were wide bodies and i was afraid to get between them and their kill.

Crapy wine list.

The waiter gave us the wrong check for like $50 less, but when we told him about his mistake he did not give us anything or really even say thank you. It would have killed them to give us some free desert after we saved them fifty bucks?

Henry's Hi Life. Skip it unless you're local and want to be able to say "I've been there". Instead, go to San Pedro Square and find a better steakhouse.

tourist

I just got back from Tahoe and a weekend party for KJ and his family. Hanging out with 4 Jarvises is quite an experience, my family is similarily close, but not that open. They would do a "poo" chant about, well, pooing.

Back to the action... I won about $200 playing craps. It is always a good feeling to win at craps and I had several runs where I was making money. The secret to craps is to recognize a streak and jump on it like stupid on Jessica Simpson. I was playing next to my friend Joe after I had pulledl my money off the table (another secret is to know when to walk) and I did miss a fairly good roll by the shooter. He was rolling numbers big time and Joe was smart enough to put out some bets and went from $50 down to up $50. So, Joe made about a $100, but the kid who was rolling was camped out on the pass line and didn't have any bets out. So, despite his rolling about 15 numbers he only made two points and about $10. If I had been down on the table I would have made about $300, but by the time I saw decided it was the real deal, I elected to stay out lest I ruin the table's mojo. So, in this case I was the stupid one, but it is so damn hard spotting a streak.

Tahoe has a Fatburger in the Hilton that serves a bacon and egg sandwich, one of my guilty pleasures. That would be a broken yolk egg fried overhard and bacon on a toasted hamburger bun with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo. One of the world's greatest sandwiches ever! I suggest doing the sandwich with sliced bread and no lettuce and tomatoes--be sure to cook the egg thoroughly as the running yolk changes the flavor of the sandwich. Or subbing ham for the bacon... Or fried baloney for the bacon... Or go with the runny yolk, it's not bad, just different. Some people like adding chesse, but I feel it gets gloopy and ruins the flavors of the sandwich. An excellent duo is the bacon and egg sandwich with a BLT sandwich. There are definitely synergies involved in these sandwiches.

When I got back to SJ I went to California Sushi in Santa Clara. The place was very busy and I was treated like a non-sushi eating white guy by the sushi chef. I am going to say that you might want to avoid that place on Sunday nights as they don't seem to staff the store. The whole experience gave me an upset stomach and soul and ruined what was up to that point a wonderful weekend. The sushi was okay, but the service sucked ass.

Golf

Went to the AT&T Pro-Am today with my friend Chas, had a great time. Unfortunately most of the better pros and interesting celebrities were playing Poppy Hill, so we made the decision to go there first and maybe get to Pebble later.

At PH I saw, Bill Murray, George Lopez, Andy Garcia, Donald Trump, Marky Mark, Rush Limbaugh, and Ray Romano. I actually like watching the celebrities play golf, but I got the impression that Chas was only interested in the real thing. So, we also followed Chuck Schwab around for a bit, he was playing near Phil Mikkelson. We then found Vijay Singh and followed him for the rest of his round, another 11 holes.

I tell you what, watching Vijay Singh and Chris Dimarco hit a golf ball is a thing of pure beauty--like a Yo Yo Ma performance, the smile of a woman, or a taste of fresh uni. When Vijay hit his ball it began to rise slowly and when it was tree top high and about 150 yards out it suddenly took off again and gained another 20 feet of altitude. The hit sounded like an exploding tank round. Wow.

I never made it to Pebble and I vow to return next time and take a tour of Pebble without regard to who's playing the course. It was a beautiful day and i really needed a break from that damn store.

Yikes

I am forced to eat cafeteria food constantly, it's cheap and there is nothing else close by. Today I had a corn fritter and I though I was going to die. It is the worst thing I've put in my mouth since I ate a worm when I was eight. That stupid kid with the hot older sister peered me into eating the damn worm. It tasted like dirt. And now looking back his sister must have been a super hot hottie, if I noticed when I was just eight years old. I don't recall thinking about those things back then. Anyway, the corn fritter think tasted like crumbly, mealy, soap. Yuck.

Babyback Ribs

For the first time since my 8 months in the dorms at UCD (Beckett Hall, RIP) back in '86 and '87, I am living without a BBQ and it is killing me. Even when I lived in crappy little apartments, I had the ability to place a BBQ outside the door or on a patio. I now live on the eighth floor of a large building. I have no balcony just a bunch of windows that open 6 inches each. I am BBQ-less.

On a recent trip to Safeway I picked up a rack of babybacks. They were on sale. The men in my family can't resist a food sale. I now must attempt to braise the ribs and then finish under a broiler. Not a bad way to make ribs, just not my way. A far cry from a deliciously slow smoke with a nice dry rub. The tantalizing aroma of apple wood chips smoldering on a bed of charcoal.

Can I add wood chips to the oven? Wouldn't it be funny if I set off the smoke alarm in the building and forced 8 floors of people out into the cold.

I'll give it a shot in a day or two.

Quest for food

I have my car back, I missed it very much.

You see, my car was undergoing repairs due to damages sustained while in the pursuit of food. I was driving back from a Chinese BBQ type place run by Vietnamese people. I had an entire BBQ duck and several pounds of char sui. I was struck by a lowered Civic. The food made it to the pot luck, but I didn't get to eat any because I had to do other work stuff and in the meantime, a ravenous horde of students made short work of everything. Kind of like when Jabba the Hut tossed his enemies into the monster pit--just bones everywhere. So, my car is fucked and I didn't even get any Vietnamese made Chinese duck. I love duck.

So what? Well, my refridgerator stock of food slowly dwindled away and I had to rely more and more on eating out. So, for the past 3 weeks I have been wandering the streets of San Jose on my quest for food. Some nights I walked for hours and hours.

While contemplating my situation, I came to realize that I've spent the majority of my adult life questing for food. I wander and wander, sometimes walking, but mostly driving until I finally pick a place to eat. And generally, I find that I'm mostly okay with my selection but there is always a part of me that is dissappointed. The event didn't live up to the hype. I have built up this great hunger, this great anticipation and the goods just aren't delivered by the restaurant.

When I am not looking for food, I seem to be thinking about food and wondering what I will eat next.

Good food is so hard to find. Great food nearly impossible, so I settle and regret and wish I'd made another choice.

Ah, the quest, the eternal quest.

The First Post

I have just eaten a ginger altoid, it was yummy.